Library News for the Faculty

Winter 2004

In This Issue:

• Scholarly Communications Update: Problems and Solutions
• From University Librarian Gary E. Strong
• ORION2 Replacement Update
• JSTOR Adds Music Journals
• Staff News
• Information Literacy Instruction in Action
• Library Acquires Design Archive
• "... the great good that is in us": A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche

Scholarly Communications Update: Problems and Solutions

With journal prices rising dramatically and collections budgets static or decreasing, the UCLA Library has joined with academic libraries throughout the UC system to develop solutions that manage costs and maintain access to essential materials in support of faculty research and instruction.

Collection Management Initiative
The process of developing solutions that meet users' needs and budget constraints begins with research. The Collection Management Initiative, a UC-wide research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, recently studied user behavior with regard to electronic and print versions of journal titles.

Usage data was gathered by removing from libraries print journals for which electronic access is provided. The number of user requests for the print versions was recorded, and each user requesting a print version was asked to complete a brief questionnaire recording demographic data and the reason for the request. A follow-up survey distributed broadly to UC faculty and staff examined possible barriers to using electronic journals, types of use suitable for electronic journals, elements in the user's environment that might promote or discourage use of electronic, and characteristics of journal presentation and content that might be important to electronic or print use and preference.

The final report is still being drafted. However, preliminary analysis of the survey responses indicates that, although there are some differences across disciplines and between faculty and staff, electronic journals are generally popular, frequently used, and preferred for a number of tasks. Further information is available on the Web.

Alternate Models
With those results in mind, the Library is supporting a number of alternate models of scholarly communication involving electronic access.

One is UC's eScholarship Repository. This initiative of the California Digital Library offers campus research units, centers, and departments direct control over creation and dissemination of the full range of scholarly output, from pre-publication materials through peer-reviewed journals and series. All content is freely available to users anywhere with no access restrictions.

Open-access publishers such as BioMed Central (BMC) provide another model. The UC system is an institutional member of BMC, which allows UCLA users to publish in one of its more than sixty online peer-reviewed journals in biology and medicine. The content of the journals is available to users without charge or other access restrictions. Visit the Web site for further information.

A third model is to support competitors of commercial publishers such as non-profit professional societies and university presses. Initiatives such as the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, an alliance of universities, research libraries, and organizations, are developing and promoting competitive alternatives.

Elsevier Negotiations
Although the Library is actively pursuing and promoting alternatives, we will continue to provide access to essential journals from commercial publishers. Negotiations between the UC libraries and the publisher Reed Elsevier have been successfully concluded with the signing of a five-year contract that provides access to a selected list of approximately 1,100 journals in science, technology, medicine, and the social sciences.

The current agreement, which expired at the end of 2003, cost the UC libraries $8 million, which represented 50% of the UC libraries' budget for online journals, while the journals made up only a third of the online journal collection and received just 25% of the use. The negotiated price was not announced, but it arrested for now the price inflation common in this market.

Visit the UCLA Library collections Web site for additional information on all issues related to UCLA Library collections.

From University Librarian Gary E. Strong

As with schools and departments across campus, the major issue the Library faces currently concerns the budget. The governor's recently released budget proposal reflects the substantial financial problems still facing the state that will in all likelihood continue to affect allocations to the UC system for the foreseeable future.

In December the Library's budget task force completed the draft budget for 2004-05. This budget plan adheres to a set of guiding principles derived from those developed during budget planning early in 2003: build on the Library's unique strengths and capitalize on its potential for innovation to enhance the competitiveness of UCLA as a world-class research institution; initiate, promote, and improve services with the greatest importance and impact on primary users; provide resources and services to users at all times and in all places; adopt a macro perspective to think strategically and systematically when allocating human and financial resources and to seek efficiencies by consolidation and collaboration; and retain and recruit excellence in Library staff.

Although this plan reflects a 5% reduction in spending in accordance with instructions from university administration, I'm pleased to note that it also addresses several strategic initiatives we must develop if we are to move forward in support of UCLA's teaching and research mission.

These include the Information Literacy Initiative, which partners with faculty to enhance students' abilities to find, evaluate, and utilize information efficiently. In a related story in this issue you'll see the just-launched plagiarism tutorial, an entertaining, interactive, instructional activity that helps students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.

We also continue to build toward a future in which users expect resources to be available anywhere and any-time. This includes more aggressive approaches to providing access to resources and services and developing easy-to-use tools that help users navigate among options more efficiently.

The budget crisis has made my first few months at UCLA challenging, but I am energized by the strengths I see throughout the Library, both in its world-class collections and in its dedicated staff. My primary concern is to secure and enhance those vital resources, material as well as human, for future generations of users.

I will continue to communicate with faculty as the budgetary situation becomes clearer and the Library's budget plan is approved. But if you have questions or suggestions at any time, I encourage you to email or call me directly at extension 51201.

ORION2 Replacement Update

Activities related to the implementation of Voyager, the library information system that will replace the ORION2 online catalog, are proceeding in several different areas.

One of the first major tasks in the implementation is "migration." This involves transferring data including catalog, circulation, and acquisition records from the current system to the new system. The Library has planned two test migrations, which will allow library staff members and Voyager employees to identify and resolve any data transfer problems before the final data migration takes place.

Plans are also being developed for gathering user input with regard to the graphic design and functionality of the Web-based public access catalog. Several methods are being considered including surveys, focus groups, and usability testing on prototype search screens, and further details and feedback opportunities will be announced during the Winter Quarter 2004.

The Library's goal is to launch the new Voyager system to users in Fall 2004. Updates on the implementation process will be posted on the Web. Please send an email if you have questions about the implementation or want to participate in the user-input process.

JSTOR Adds Music Journals

UCLA faculty and students now have access to the JSTOR Music Collection, which contains complete back runs of thirty-two journals dedicated to scholarly research and theory in the field of music. The collection has an international selection of titles, including journals published in Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, and the Netherlands.

The journals are 19th-Century Music, Acta Musicologica, American Music, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, Asian Music, Black Music Research Journal, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Cambridge Opera Journal, Early Music History, Ethnomusicology, The Galpin Society Journal, International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, The Journal of Music Theory, The Journal of Musicology, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, Lied und populäre Kultur (formerly Jahrbuch für Volksliedforschung), Music Analysis, Music & Letters, Music Theory Spectrum, The Musical Quarterly, The Musical Times, Notes, Perspectives of New Music, Popular Music, Revue de Musicologie, Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tempo, Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, and Yearbook for Traditional Music; Early Music will be released at a later date.

JSTOR, short for journal storage, began as a project of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with the goal of producing a digital archive of the twentieth-century¹s most important social sciences journal article literature to help solve the storage crisis in academic libraries created by diminishing shelf space. Now an independent, not-for-profit organization, JSTOR provides access to image files of original article pages, which are fully searchable, from some 360 journals stretching back to the nineteenth century. In most cases there is a moving wall of three to five years between the most recently published issue of any journal and the most recent issue available through JSTOR.

UCLA Library Staff News

Deputy University Librarian Retires.
Deputy University Librarian Janice T. Koyama, who served as interim university librarian from January 1 through August 31, 2003, has retired. Prior to her appointment as interim university librarian, Koyama had served as associate university librarian for public services since 1991.

She came to UCLA from UC Berkeley, where she was head librarian of the Moffitt Undergraduate Library; campus Management Fellow with the vice chancellor for undergraduate affairs; acting assistant provost in the College of Letters and Science; and co-chair, with Nobel Prize-winning professor Yuan T. Lee, of the Chancellor's Committee on Asian Americans Affairs, established by then-Chancellor Ira Heyman in 1987 following a controversy involving admissions of the Asian Americans.

Koyama is active in state and national professional organizations and has chaired the board of the community-based organization Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics.

New Head of Biomedical Library Named.
Judy Consales has been named as director of the Louise Darling Biomedical Library. She has served as interim director since July 1, 2002, when the previous director, Alison Bunting, was named interim university librarian.

Consales served as deputy director of the Biomedical Library from 1999 to 2002. She also worked in several capacities for the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library (PSRML), a program funded by the National Library of Medicine and housed in the Biomedical Library; as director of the Biomedical Library, she is now also the PSRML's director and principal investigator.

Consales was one of five people selected for the prestigious National Library of Medicine/American Association of Health Sciences Libraries Leadership Fellows Program in 2003, and she is an active member of the Medical Library Association. She has twenty-seven years of experience in medical libraries, including as a hospital medical librarian, trainer and account representative for information providers, and head of reference at the New York Academy of Medicine Library.

Collections Conservator Appointed.
Kristen St. John has been selected to manage the Library's recently completed Conservation Lab. In the facility St. John will repair irreplaceable materials that have become damaged, have begun to show wear, or are in a state of deterioration. The lab is located in the Southern Regional Library Facility.

St. John most recently worked for the Rutgers University Libraries as a conservator for Special Collections and University Archives. She also worked in conservation and preservation at the University of Texas at Austin and the Library of Congress. St. John earned her bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and her master's degree in information science from the University of Texas at Austin.

The creation of the lab and the hiring of a conservation specialist have been made possible by a challenge grant awarded to the Library by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2002. The grant provided an initial gift of $340,000, with an additional $750,000 to be given if a matching amount was contributed by Library donors within three years. The resulting $1.5 million fund will create an endowment to fund essential conservation and preservation activities on an ongoing basis.

Librarian Promotions.
Two UCLA librarians were recently promoted in rank, and six achieved career status during the 2002-03 peer review cycle. Those promoted in rank were Alice Kawakami, College Library; and Jennifer Lentz, Hugh and Hazel Darling Law Library.

Achieving career status were Cheri Folkner and John Riemer, Cataloging Center; Alice Kawakami, College Library; Cynthia Lewis and George Wrenn, Law Library; and Toshie Marra, Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library.

As academic appointees in the UC system, librarians undergo periodic academic reviews and receive merit increases, promotions, and career status. A total of forty-eight librarians were reviewed during the most recent cycle.

Information Literacy Instruction in Action

"Carlos and Eddie's Guide to Bruin Success with Less Stress"

Need a simple but effective way to alert your students to what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, along with much more useful information? The Library has the answer! Send them to the engaging, effective, interactive tutorial developed by the Library¹s Information Literacy Initiative.

The tutorial has five sections on intellectual property, file sharing, citing and documenting sources, time and project management, and academic dishonesty.

Visit the Web page for more information on the Information Literacy Initiative. If you would like to discuss how information literacy can enhance your courses, contact Eleanor Mitchell, director of the initiative and head of the College Library, by phone at extension 63593 or by email.

Library Acquires Design Archive

The Library has acquired the archive of fashion designer Bonnie Cashin (1908-2000), one of America's foremost designers from the second half of the 20th century. This comprehensive archive encompasses complete documentation of her fashion and costume designs, including sketches, photographs, and slides. It also contains her writings on fashion and other design-related subjects; notebooks, sketchbooks, travel books, and idea books; audio- and videotapes of interviews with her; and business correspondence, contracts, and other documents from and to the companies that produced her designs.

It is accompanied by a gift of $1.5 million, which will be used to enhance its accessibility. More than $1 million will support the archive itself, including processing and digital projects. The balance of $500,000 has been used to establish the Bonnie Cashin Endowed Lecture Series, which will showcase the work of those who, like Cashin, push the boundaries of creative expression in all fields of endeavor. The archive is a gift of the Bonnie Cashin Estate.

"... the great good that is in us": A Centenary Celebration of Ralph J. Bunche

One of UCLA's most distinguished alumni, Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-71) fought poverty and racism on his way to becoming one of the twentieth century's leading peacemakers. The world honored him in 1950 with the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to reach a settlement between the Arabs and Israelis in the Middle East, but this was only one exceptional accomplishment in an extraordinary life dedicated to achieving harmony and equality among all people.

Bunche's remarkable story began right here at UCLA, as he himself acknowledged. The Library celebrates Bunche's enduring legacy by focusing on his accomplishments in three main areas: as a student, a scholar, and a diplomat. A physical exhibit drawn from the Ralph J. Bunche Papers and related collections in the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections is on view in the lobby of the Research Library through March 31, and an online component is available.