april05b.indd


conference circuit 

University Libraries Section at Midwinter 
A
wrap-up
of
activities



Executive Committee 
The University Libraries Section (ULS) 
Executive Committee, chaired by Carol 
Hughes, met twice during the ALA Mid­
winter Meeting. A large portion of the ini­
tial meeting focused on a discussion led 
by Lori Goetsch, chair of the ULS Stan­
dards and Guidelines Review Committee, 
and Linda TerHaar of the Undergraduate 
Librarians Discussion Group (UGLDG). 
In the past, ULS has been responsible for 
both the “Guidelines for Branch Librar­
ies in Colleges and Universities,” and the 
“Guidelines for Undergraduate Libraries.” 
Since the “Guidelines for University Librar­
ies” have been folded into the new “Stan­
dards for Libraries in Higher Education,” 
the “Guidelines for Branch Libraries” are 
now obsolete. On the recommendation 
of the ULS Standards and Guidelines Re­
view Committee, the Executive Commit­
tee voted during the meeting to rescind 
the “Guidelines for Branch Libraries,” last 
revised in 1990. 

To determine interest in and use of the 
guidelines, a call for feedback was pub­
lished in C&RL News in 2002, but little com­
mentary was received. Before a fi nal recom­
mendation can be forwarded to the ACRL 
Standards and Accreditation Committee, 
and ultimately to the ACRL Board, a fi nal 
call for comments is required. If you have 
any concerns about the rescission of these 
guidelines, please contact Lori Goetsch at 
lgoetsch@ksu.edu by May 1, 2005. 

Linda TerHaar reported that librarians 
focused on services to undergraduates 

believe that separate guidelines are still 
important for them. UGLDG has proposed 
a new set of guidelines focused less on 
stand­alone undergraduate libraries and 
more on services to undergraduates in 
university libraries as a whole. The guide­
lines follow the structure of the “Standards 
for Libraries in Higher Education” and 
focus on assessment and outcomes. For 
more information about these guidelines, 
please contact Linda TerHaar at e­mail: 
terhaar@umich.edu. 

Additional reports to the committee 
included information about the 2005 con­
ference program, “Pay to Play—Debating 
Models for Scholarly Publishing.” The 
program will be cosponsored by the ACRL 
Scholarly Communication Committee, 
and speakers include Marianne Gaunt of 
Rutgers University, Daniel Greenstein of 
the California Digital Library, and Heather 
Joseph of BioOne. 

Discussion groups 
ULS Discussion Groups were active and 
well attended at the Midwinter Meeting. 
The Current Topics Discussion Group 
presented “Institutional repositories: Their 
place in the evolution of scholarly commu­
nication” and featured a panel of speakers 
on various aspects of the issue. Michael 
Keller of Stanford University discussed is­

Leslie Madden is reference librarian at Georgia Institute of 
Technology and a member of the ULS communications 
committee, e-mail: leslie.madden@library.gatech.edu 

© 2005 Leslie Madden 

306C&RL News April 2005

mailto:leslie.madden@library.gatech.edu
mailto:terhaar@umich.edu
mailto:lgoetsch@ksu.edu


New from ACRL! 

sues related to creating Stanford’s reposi­
tory, including getting faculty to deposit 
materials, providing access, preserving 
materials, and hurdles to creating and 
maintaining the depository. Shane Nack­
erud of the University of Minnesota de­
scribed UThink, the largest academic blog­
ging site in America, and explained how 
the site was created and is being used. 
Margaret Branchofsky of Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT) presented 
information about DSpace, software cre­
ated by MIT libraries in conjunction with 
Hewlett Packard, and explained how MIT 
is using DSpace for its repository. 

The Public Services Directors of Large 
Research Libraries Discussion Group 
presented several topics for discussion. A 
primary topic focused on integrating library 
materials in course management Web tools. 
Several members discussed the “home­
grown” systems used by their institutions, 
a representative of the University of Penn­
sylvania library discussed the pros and 
cons of maintaining a Web tools system 
(Blackboard), and a representative of Yale 
University led a discussion on “Sakai”—a 
new open source tool being developed 
by Indiana University, MIT, University of 
Washington, University of Michigan, and 
Stanford University. 

The second topic of discussion related 
to marketing, public relations, and com­
munications in libraries. Members from 
Harvard, Stanford, and Cornell universi­
ties discussed the creation of positions at 
their institutions to facilitate “branding” of 
library services, to serve as media contacts 
for the libraries, and to externally market 
the library. 

A final discussion topic featured the 
Google Digitization Project. Much of the 
information about the project is still a 
closely held secret, but representatives 
from Harvard, University of Michigan, Uni­
versity of Virginia, and Stanford discussed 
how their faculty and institutions feel about 
the project and agreed that it is good for 
preservation. 

CLIP Note #35 
Special Collections 
in College and 
University Libraries 

ISBN 0-8389-8314-6 

Order online at 
www.acrl.org/publications 

or order direct 
866-746-7252 (toll free) 

April 2005  307 C&RL News 

www.acrl.org/publications