The New ORCID US Community: Working Together for Robust Integration

In January 2018, a unique partnership launched amongst four United States (US) consortia -- the Big Ten Academic Alliance, Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), NorthEast Research Libraries (NERL), and LYRASIS -- to form a national-level ORCID community. Any US research organization can now join as an institutional member at the premium consortium level for the lowest possible cost. Additionally, participating institutions will fund a dedicated staff position, the ORCID Community Specialist, housed at LYRASIS, to support and build a robust, sustainable, national community. This talk will highlight the new partnership, the benefits of premium consortium membership, and particular ORCID integration features for institutional repositories

Consortia: An Evolving Landscape

Consortia remain a critical part of how academic libraries in the United States (US) collaborate and achieve scale to maximize influence for resource and content acquisition. The US consortia landscape is a complex and vibrant one with increasing levels of intra- and inter-consortia engagement. Evolving licensing and negotiation practices as well as emerging trends in scholarly communication and Open Access all affect how these groups work together. The authors interviewed consortia leaders about changes in library needs occurring over the past several years as well as needs that have emerged since the pandemic

Linking to Full Text in Scholarly Journals: Here a Link, There a Link, Everywhere a Link

Ovid [http://www.ovid.com] offers another example of internal linking with links between its bibliographic databases and the full text of articles available via Journals)Ovid, Ovid\u27s aggregated fully SGML database of hundreds of scientific, technical, and medical journals. Again, depending on license agreements with Ovid, the searcher seamlessly moves from a link on a bibliographic record to the full text, never leaving the Ovid service

May the Bun Be With You: An Annotated Bibliography of Librarians and Their Image

A very real tension exists between librarians’ attempts to alter their image(s) and the popular press’ and the public’s lingering preference for Marian the Librarian similes. As the Hot Picks @ Your Library calendar indicates, librarians take creative opportunities to dissuade the public of the “image of a dourfaced matron behind a forbidding desk” (Gillespie 2003, A01). But how do librarians attempt to frame their own discussion of the classic caricature? The authors wanted to know how librarians themselves have considered and researched the impact of the stereotype on the profession. What follows is a literature review of materials published over the past 20 years. These materials span the gamut of libraries and librarians, from the real to the imagined, including materials such as students’ perceptions of academic librarians, the public’s misconceptions of librarians in Canadian public libraries, and portrayals of librarians in fiction. By reviewing materials published over a 20-year time period, the authors have captured a microcosmic glimpse of the changing image(s) of librarians

Feast and famine: more and better choices, but belt-tightening forces libraries to cut subscriptions

With fancy new software developments and growth in both the richness of content and delivery options for information resources, the Database Marketplace 2010 is a feast for buyers. Unfortunately, institutional budget cuts may force more of a famine mentality--with belt-tightening for most, and only purchases that are life-sustaining being served in many libraries

Not your family farm: the information industry added value with unique content and custom tools as large search engines entered the market

The information industry continues to consolidate, just as agribusiness has consolidated and now dominates farming. Both the family farm and the small information company still exist but are becoming rarer in an age of mergers, acquisitions, and increased economies of scale. Small companies distinguish themselves by high quality, special themes, or useful tools to keep and build their customer base. The database marketplace this year was dominated by the news of several large acquisitions. Wiley\u27s purchase of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. drew concerns from members of the Information Access Alliance (IAA), made up of representatives from SLA, the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, and other library groups. The IAA is particularly concerned with continued market consolidation among commercial scholarly publishers. Other acquisitions occurred in the database and secondary publisher fields. In March 2007, Elsevier, a publisher that has raised IAA\u27s concerns in the past, announced its acquisition of the Beilstein Database, the well-known organic chemistry fact book and database. Elsevier had been involved with the Beilstein-Institut in the database\u27s production and marketing since 1998 before acquiring it outright in 2007. Cambridge Information Group (CIG) acquired ProQuest and formed ProQuest CSA, which extended both its indexing and abstracting services and full-text articles. OCLC purchased RLG to create a single mega-shared cataloging company in a world that once had several competitors (remember WLN?). OCLC\u27s new WorldCat.org service included several features from RLG\u27s discontinued RedLightGreen union catalog

Information with a twist: vendors keep the party going with Web 2.0

Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies led the social whirl of the information industry. Publishers and librarians tried to keep their products and services relevant by mixing authoritative content with user involvement, but that wasn\u27t enough. Enhancing interfaces, adding new forms of content, and making strategic acquisitions--all are necessary to ensure that the information industry party continues

Back to the scriptorium: amid budget woes, vendors and librarians find a common purpose

Picture medieval monks hunched over their desks in the scriptorium as they labor to copy manuscripts. A 21st-century version of this activity is being repeated daily in the world\u27s libraries and publishing houses as major digitization projects seek to preserve millions of printed books and documents. The work of medieval scribes ensured that the classics were available when the invention of movable type and the printing press made books accessible to the masses, transforming the world. Today\u27s laborers are hunched over digitization equipment, but their goal is the same: copying and preserving resources so they are available now and into the future

Renovating this old house

When we turn on the faucet we expect water to flow. When we flip the power switch, we expect light. We want a house to work and to look good. This old house of online databases is getting a new look and, in some cases, a new foundation to make it more attractive and robust for 2006. Much of the value of a renovation lies in respecting history while reinforcing the foundation to keep the house intact. Information providers are using state-of-the-art technologies to create digital historical back files and collections