Month: August 2010

2010-08-25

The University Library will celebrate the donation of more than 200 books from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Chicago.  A special book donation ceremony is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CST on Thursday, August 26, 2010 in the University’s International and Area Studies Library .

The TECO staff, including Huei-wen Hsu (Director, TECO Cultural Division), will meet with several University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign staff members during their visit.  They will discuss future collaborations with Poshek Fu (Director, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies), Brian Ruppert (Head, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures), Tom Teper (Associate Dean of Libraries and Associate University Librarian for Collections), and Karen Wei (Head, Asian Library).

The contents of the donated books include: Chinese studies and linguistics, Taiwanese literature, Taiwanese film studies, Buddhist studies, arts, and history, and East Asian studies.  In all, there are 213 volumes.  All of the books will be processed and housed in the Asian Library, located within the Main Library building.

The TECO staff will meet with Chancellor and Provost (Interim) Robert A. Easter following the book donation ceremony and a tour of the Library.

The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office works to enhance the academic cooperation between universities in the service area and those in Taiwan, to encourage American students to study in Taiwan, to offer assistance to representatives of educational and cultural organizations in Taiwan before and during their US visits, to liaise with students from Taiwan, and to collect and analyze the latest international education information to meet the needs of education reform and policy making.  For more information, visit www.edutw.org .

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2010-08-24

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) will temporarily relocate most of its collections to accommodate renovation and equipment installation of a new humidity and temperature control system.  From September 7 through October 15, 2010, books and manuscripts will be retrieved for patrons once a day.  In addition, RBML will be unable to host instructional or other class sessions during this time.

For more information and to find out how to request and retrieve materials from RBML during this period of dislocation, please visit www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/BooksInCulture.htm#move .

If you have any questions, please contact Valerie Hotchkiss , Head of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Professor of Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Library Science.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2010-08-20

The Main Library Reading Room (200 Library) is being reconfigured to create better study space as well as space for reference collections currently housed in other Library units. During Fall 2010, large bookshelves currently placed around 200 Library will be removed and lower-use reference materials will be relocated in order to provide more inviting, comfortable, and functional space for our users. With the integration of higher-use reference materials from around the Main Library into the Reading Room collection, 200 Library will now provide access to a broader array of reference materials in a central location accessible during all hours of Main Library service and an improved physical space for their use.

Many lower-use reference materials previously housed in the Reading Room and in other Library units have been moved to the Stacks Reference (STX REF) Collection , located near the entrance to the Main Stacks. Materials in STX REF are used less frequently, but have enduring value for scholars. By creating the STX REF space, the Library may ensure ongoing, on-site access for scholars to materials that might otherwise be transferred to high-density storage at the Oak Street Library Facility . These changes to our physical reference collections also reflect ongoing changes in reference publishing, which now allows us to provide access to an increasing number of core reference materials through our Online Reference Collection .

The reconfiguration of the Main Library reference collections is being pursued as part of the New Service Models program and will provide enhanced access to print reference materials from around the Library even as an increasing number of reference materials move online. If you have any questions about the changes to the Reading Room or the Stacks Reference collections, please contact Scott Walter , Associate University Librarian for Services and Associate Dean of Libraries.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2010-08-19

The University Library released the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP) on August 12, 2010. AvSAP is now a fully-realized project that began in May 2007. This assessment tool is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences , and is designed to address the needs of cultural heritage institutions by helping to preserve and maintain the functionality of their audiovisual materials.

AvSAP is free and accessible to the public, providing a series of questions designed to collect data about collections and assess the conditions of audiovisual items. Users may download AvSAP and host it on their own SQL server, or access it on the web. The goal of this assessment tool is to help collections managers develop a prioritized preservation plan for their audiovisual materials, including, but not limited to audio recordings, films, and videotapes, and to educate individuals on extending the lives of their collections with the resources at hand.

The outcome of using AvSAP includes a refined knowledge about developing an audiovisual preservation plan. This tool ranks audiovisual items in order of treatment need, providing users with a sense of what items need the most immediate care; AvSAP ultimately allows faculty and staff members to make more effective preservation decisions with regard to their audiovisual materials.

About the developers of AvSAP: The University of Illinois Library partnered with WILL AM-FM-TV , the Spurlock Museum , University departments such as the Department of Dance , the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts , and the Illinois Heritage Association. This amalgamation of groups served as test-beds and advisors for the AvSAP project. In conjunction, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) supports this project with a generous National Leadership Grant.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2010-08-04

The Slavic Reference Service will be moving in Fall 2010 to temporary quarters in 200 Library (the Main Library Reading Room) while its former home in 225 Library is renovated for the Spring 2011 launch of the new Literatures and Languages Library.

The Literatures and Languages Library will be the new home for Library services and collections supporting research, teaching, and learning in disciplines related to the study of English and Western European literatures and languages, comparative literature, cinema studies, linguistics, and translation studies, and will incorporate and build upon the traditions of service currently found in the English Library and the Modern Languages and Linguistics Library. The Slavic Reference Service will become part of the new International and Area Studies Library to be housed in 321 Library once that space has been renovated to suit its new use. All Library services will remain available to their users throughout this transition.

The Literatures and Languages Library is scheduled to open in 225 Library in Spring 2011, and the International and Area Studies Library is scheduled to open in Fall 2011. Details about both projects are available on the Library’s New Service Models website . If you have any questions about the Slavic Reference Service, please contact John Wagstaff , Interim Head, Slavic and East European Library. If you have any other questions about Library services, please contact Scott Walter , Associate University Librarian for Services and Associate Dean of Libraries.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2010-08-02

CARLI (the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois) has set a target date of August 4, 2010, for implementing changes in Voyager, an integrated library system, to standardize circulation policies that apply to I-Share Universal Borrowing (UB).  These changes are designed to provide patrons more consistent and predictable resource sharing services across the I-Share member libraries.

For UB patrons, policies covering loan periods, maximum number of renewals, and notice schedules will be consistent among all I-Share libraries.

NOTE: The UB policy changes do NOT affect circulation policies for University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign patrons borrowing items from the Urbana campus libraries.  Existing policies for local borrowing by local patrons will remain in effect.

Patrons with questions about the impact of these changes on their accounts may contact the Main Circulation Desk at 217-333-8400 or at circlib@library.illinois.edu .   As always, patrons with billing questions may contact the Library Billing Office at 217-333-8288 or at libbill@library.illinois.edu .

For more details, please refer to CARLI’s “I-Share Library Resource Sharing Code” available at https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/i-share/circ/UBStandardChart .  Specific details about standard UB borrowing policies is found in Appendix A.

At a future date, we expect CARLI to announce the implementation of further standardization policies with regard to billing and blocking patrons.  More information will be provided as this information becomes available.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).