Ramsey Library News

ABC Express & Interlibrary Loan

Several folks have asked about the less than clear reference in the last NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY to being able to continue ABC Express and Interlibrary Loan (ILL), at least for now. Please excuse the ambiguity.

The concern applies only to the remainder of this fiscal year. The money that supports the Western North Carolina Library Network (WNCLN) and, thus, ABC Express is handled by Financial Affairs at ASU. So far, their interpretation of the state’s spending ban is that we can continue to put gas in the ABC Express truck. As long as we can do that, ABC Express will continue to run. If the state or ASU determines that we can’t put gas in the truck, we stop. The same’s true for ILL. We can continue to mail materials under NC guidelines. If those change and paying for mailing is prohibited, we’ll have to stop. On the ILL side of things, another complicating factor is that we may be borrowing materials from libraries in states where mailing is no longer allowed.

Ramsey Library will not willingly let ABC Express or ILL go, nor would I expect that from our campus. State regulations are another matter.

Posted by Brandy at 5:37 PM | Permalink

Safari Tech Books Online

Search or browse 100 computing books from major publishers like O'Reilly. Topics include Web Design & Programming, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Networking, Graphics and Multimedia.
NOTE: We have a limited number of concurrent users, so log out when you're done in order to allow others immediate access. If you can't get through, we probably have too many people logging on, try again in a few minutes.

Check out these new online books:

Google Apps: The Missing Manual

Google™ Web Toolkit Applications

Google Hacks

Google Apps Hacks

Google Maps Hacks

Google™ Apps: Administrator Guide

Posted by Susan at 3:35 PM | Permalink

LIBRARY CANCELLATIONS

Like all campus units, Ramsey Library began this year with a significant cut to its operating budget and the attendant reduction in the information resources we could buy. The first law of library economics is that the cost of books, journals, and electronic subscriptions rise every year. In aggregate, this increase has averaged about 8% a year over several decades depending on many factors including the strength of the dollar. Journals, continuations, and electronic products tend to increase more rapidly and regularly averaging about 10%. Book prices increase at a much lower rate closer to the increase in the Consumer Price Index. Inevitably, a library’s tendency is to pay the increasing prices of the serials and continuations devoting whatever is left to the more discretionary book requests or perhaps new serial titles. It’s not difficult to envision what happens when the overall library materials budget fails to grow, much less the potentially dire consequences of materials budget reductions. Maintaining current serial subscriptions reduces funds available for books. And since the most costly serials, both paper and electronic, tend to be in the natural sciences there is a disproportionate effect on those disciplines that rely more heavily on books, particularly the humanities.

Given this year’s budget reduction, Ramsey Library sought to maintain as much of our book buying capability as possible. Late in the fall library bibliographers consulted with some faculty and made difficult decisions to cancel lesser used serials in both paper and electronic formats that were judged to have least impact on teaching and research. Obvious targets were subscriptions to the paper versions of journals where we already subscribed to an electronic version in a stable format. In such cases we lost no content while eliminating the cost for the paper subscription as well as an associated expenses for binding, staff processing, and library space. The canceled electronic products were judged to have high cost relative to benefit or that they duplicated information available in a less costly or free resource. For example, we canceled INFOTRAC ($5,115), a basic full-text periodical database we’ve long maintained, because we also receive Academic Search Premier, a very similar product, at no cost through NC LIVE. Please note also that one advantage of electronic products as compared with more traditional library serials subscriptions is that we can restart them when budgets permit and demand requires. You can find a listing of cancellations at http://facstaff.unca.edu/kuhlman/Ramsey_Library_Cancellations.pdf. Savings totaled just over $64,000.

Like the rest of campus and most of higher education, Ramsey Library anticipates at least as much financial difficulty over the next few years as we’ve already experienced. Accordingly, library bibliographers are working on initial prioritization of potential cancellations of additional electronic products, continuations, and journals, and will be working with available faculty and the Library, Information Resources & Technology Committee (LIRTC) over the summer and into the fall in order to exercise the greatest possible stewardship with the resources we have. This will require creativity and flexibility from us all. We appreciate your help and patience.

LIBRARY STAFFING

As you plan for the fall, please keep in mind that the library will be operating with fewer staff as will many areas on campus. You already know that Classroom Instruction & Technology Support (CITS) will not be able to fill Rudy Moorrees’ position and that we anticipate losing it permanently. In addition, we lost our User Instruction & Reference Librarian at the end of the fall semester and have not been able to fill that position. I anticipate that it will also be lost permanently. With the loss of two professional positions everyone in Ramsey Library and CITS is intensifying their efforts to continue to provide the very best information services possible, but there will be some diminishment. This will be particularly true when it comes to our ability to support information literacy efforts next fall since we have lost the primary professional position devoted to that effort.

REDUCED BOOK PURCHASES

As indicated above, fixed or reduced library materials budgets tend to reduce book purchases as a first casualty. This affected Ramsey Library purchasing from the beginning of the year and motivated the serials cancellations indicated above. Unfortunately, book ordering was halted with a bit more than $70,000 in book funds unencumbered more than eliminating book purchases we had planned to make with the $64,000 savings from serials cancellations noted above. The combined effect of the initial reduction and the early stoppage is represented in the following table:

Academic Year-----------------Book Volumes Added

2006-2007------------------------------7,079

2007-2008------------------------------6,258

2008-2009------------------------------3,269

We face great unknowns, but at this point Ramsey Library estimates that without cancelling additional electronic products and assuming a materials budget at least equaling this year’s expenditures (optimistic, perhaps) we may only be able to purchase 1,000 to 1,500 new books next year.

IMPACT

NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY reports these figures so that instructors realize that students are already encountering diminished resources in terms of books and a few electronic resources. Please anticipate greater impact as you plan for next year. While we are fortunate in being able to tap the collections at ASU and WCU through ABC Express (note: we’re not sure how long that service will be allowed), they anticipate significant cuts in funds as well. The library at ASU has begun a serials cancellation project of far greater scope than we anticipate. Many thanks in advance for your help and understanding.

Posted by Susan at 3:09 PM | Permalink

Exam hours are in effect. Check out the details here:
http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/cal/month.php

Posted by Brandy at 12:52 PM | Permalink

Ramsey Library Special Collections is pleased to announce a new series:

Brown Bag Book Talks
with UNC Asheville Faculty Authors

The Brown Bag Book Talk series wraps up with Dr. Mark Gibney, Professor of Political Science and Belk Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, who will discuss his latest book, International Human Rights Law: Returning to Universal Principles (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), on Tuesday, April 21 from 12:30-1:30.

All book talks will take place in Special Collections, upper level of D. H. Ramsey Library, on the UNC Asheville campus. Bring your lunch and join us for a stimulating book talk.

For more information about the Brown Bag Book Talks, visit our website.

Posted by Susan at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Now available for check out are recordings of many UNC Asheville events on DVD. These recordings were initially produced for broadcast on Asheville Educational Television and include a wide variety of events and lectures. The collection includes commencements, performances, lectures and speeches by UNC Asheville faculty as well as visitors and much more.

These DVDs are found in the back right-hand corner of the media room. Take a look at the catalog for a complete list of the materials available.

Posted by Susan at 3:58 PM | Permalink

Ramsey Library Special Collections is pleased to announce a new series:

Brown Bag Book Talks
with UNC Asheville Faculty Authors

The series continues on Thursday, April 9 from 12:30-1:30, with Dr. Don Diefenbach, Associate Professor of Mass Communication, who will discuss his latest book, Video Production Techniques: Theory and Practice from Concept to Screen (Routledge, 2007).

All book talks will take place in Special Collections, upper level of D. H. Ramsey Library, on the UNC Asheville campus. Bring your lunch and join us for a stimulating book talk.

For more information about the Brown Bag Book Talks, visit our website.

Posted by Susan at 12:48 PM | Permalink

NEW LEADERSHIP IN CITS

As most of you know, Ramsey Library, Classroom & Instructional Technology Support (CITS), and the entire UNC Asheville community has lost the long serving and loved Rudy Moorrees to the temptations of retirement and Hawaii. In addition to losing Rudy’s notable experience, expertise, and commitment to UNC Asheville and like many areas on campus, we have lost Rudy’s position apparently indefinitely. The silver lining in that very black cloud is the also talented and committed John Myers, our Moodle and course support expert, has agreed to assume Rudy’s management duties on an interim basis in addition to his own important work with Moodle much to my delight.

In spite of John’s commitment, expertise, and devotion to UNC Asheville, he will not be able to devote the time and energy to both Moodle and CITS leadership as had two experienced and consummately talented professionals have in the past. His teammates in CITS, as well as all the folks in Ramsey Library and ITS, will do all they can to help, and we’re looking for ways to increase support. Everyone on campus can help by being sure to direct questions and requests to the folks best equipped to respond. These include:

Leigh Svenson (Auditoriums (Lipinsky, HLH)), lsvenson@unca.edu, 251-6630

Greg Dillingham (Distance Learning Services), gregd@unca.edu, 251-6333

Emily Ellis (Distance Learning Services), eellis@unca.edu, 251-6333

Chris Asbill (Equipment setup & circulation, duplication), casbill@unca.edu, 251-6996

John Myers (Moodle, course improvement), jmyers@unca.edu, 250-3885

Kent Thompson (Television production), thompson@unca.edu, 251-6425

Many thanks for all your help, patience, and understanding.

RECENT NEWS OF NOTE YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

A Digital Window on the Medieval World

“Thousands of medieval manuscripts have been digitized by libraries around the world. The trick has been finding them. Matthew Fisher, an assistant professor of English at the University of California at Los Angeles, thought up a solution: the Catalogue of Digitized Medieval Manuscripts, a centralized online archive of holdings around the world.”

MIT's Management School Shares Teaching Materials Online

“Though some business schools charge for the “case studies” they develop as teaching aids, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced today that it is making a set of teaching materials available free online.”

U. of Manitoba Researchers Publish Open-Source Handbook on Educational Technology

“To help get colleges thinking about how they might adapt their teaching styles to the new ways students absorb and process information, Mr. Siemens and Peter Tittenberger, director of the center, have created a Web-based guide, called the Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning.”

MIT Professors Approve Campuswide Policy to Publish Their Scholarly Articles Free Online

“Last week MIT’s professors voted unanimously to adopt a policy stating that all faculty members will deposit their scholarly research papers in a free, online university repository (in addition to sending them to scholarly journals), in an effort to expand access to the university’s scholarship.”

Posted by Susan at 2:54 PM | Permalink