University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries Receives $5 Million Gift, Largest Gift Ever Made to UNC Libraries; *Full Text Books by Members of the Authors Alliance Now Easily Discoverable, Accessible via New Internet Archive Collection; *GO Bond B significant support for UNM Libraries *“University of Ottawa Puts Thousands of Journals On The Chopping Block”, Book Budget Also Reduced; *Murdoch University is first Australian library to use OCLC Sustainable Collection Services; *Promise of eTextbooks Being Realized, Albeit Unevenly at UK Universities; plus more library and publishing news from a variety of sources.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries Receives $5 Million Gift, Largest Gift Ever Made to UNC Libraries
According to infoDOCKET “University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumna Florence Fearrington has given $5 million to the University Library in support of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.
The gift is the largest ever made to Carolina’s libraries. In recognition, the grand reading room in Wilson Library will be renamed the Fearrington Reading Room…”
Full Text Books by Members of the Authors Alliance Now Easily Discoverable, Accessible via New Internet Archive Collection
infoDOCKET also reports that Michael Wolfe, Executive Director, Authors Alliance, blogs that while many of the Alliance’s authors “choose to make these recovered titles available commercially, a growing contingent has instead committed to ensuring their works endure in the public eye by making them available under Creative Commons licenses or dedicating them to the public domain. Many of our members’ titles are already discoverable through the HathiTrust digital library, and we are now partnering with the Internet Archive to make these works available in full on our new Authors Alliance Collection Page…”
GO Bond B significant support for UNM Libraries
According to Inside UNM “the General Obligation Bond B for libraries passed unanimously in both the House of Representatives and Senate during the 2016 New Mexico Legislative Session. Gov. Susana Martinez signed the bill and now, the Library GO Bond is on the Nov. 8 ballot. If passed in the upcoming election, it will allocate $3,250,000 to New Mexico academic libraries. University Libraries will receive $797,637 and the Health Sciences and Informatics Library Center will receive $33,438…”
“University of Ottawa Puts Thousands of Journals On The Chopping Block”, Book Budget Also Reduced
In addition, infoDOCKET notes that “the University of Ottawa’s library is moving to cancel subscriptions to thousands of academic journals to make up for a budget shortfall, but the academic community has started an online petition calling on the school to rethink the plan.
Administrators blame a weak Canadian dollar, a two-per-cent budget cut across the board at the university for the 2016-17 year and a failure to index the budget against inflation, which is estimated at six per cent per year on scholarly materials…”
Murdoch University is first Australian library to use OCLC Sustainable Collection Services
Library Technology Guides reports that “OCLC, … announced that Murdoch University Library, in Perth, Western Australia, has selected OCLC’s Sustainable Collection Services to analyse its print monograph collections. Murdoch will use the web-based SCS GreenGlass decision-support application to undertake a large-scale review of its print collections, seeking to integrate data on usage and holdings in other libraries into its decisions to retain, relocate or deselect resources…
Promise of eTextbooks Being Realized, Albeit Unevenly at UK Universities
According to DBW “Ingram’s VitalSource released the findings from a new study that shows positive, albeit uneven, results for students using digital offerings… Beneath students’ generally positive responses to their eTextbook experiences, the study found fundamental differences and key factors that influenced engagement levels and outcomes. Training, integration into curricula, and functionality strongly affected student satisfaction with eTextbooks and their universities’ programmes…”
More library and publishing news from a variety of sources
Open Music Library Combines Free and Subscription Databases
Archives of American Art and Terra Foundation Announce Partnership for Increased Digital Access to the Archives’ Extensive Collection
Swedish library consortium to unify e-resource and print collections with Ex Libris Alma and Primo;
Talis announce that UK universities can now deliver core eTextbooks directly into courses via Talis Aspire
Backstage completes extensive on-site digitization and transmissive digitization projects for Library of Congress
Elsevier selects four start-up companies for new incubator project for biotech and pharmaceutical start-up firms;