Ellen McGrath of the Charles P.Sears Law Library at the University of Buffalo has forwarded the following announcement from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). We are posting it here in recognition and appreciation of the importance of NISO’s ongoing work to the library community:
David Badertscher
Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:24:09 -0400 From: Cynthia Hodgson
Jaclyn McKewan, Virtual Services and Training Librarian at the Western New York Library Resources Council in Buffalo writes:”People not picking up instant messages is continuing to be a problem, so I created a 7-minute Camtasia video that shows people what to do when they get that message on the screen saying “New IM has arrived.” It covers receiving the message, sending, and a bit of info on transferring patrons. I originally created it for our Ask Us 24/7 librarians, but figured that everyone else may find it useful as well”
Actually Jaclyn is being very modest regarding her efforts. As important as the Instant Messaging component is it is only a small part of this fine resource that she has created. Areas covered include receiving and sending instant messages (IM), finding articles online, finding books online, reference sources, and search techniques. It is a multi-featured resource, useful to all librarians (both experienced and inexperienced) involved in any type of virtual reference and research. After reviewing her material I contacted Jaclyn and am posting it here with her permission.
David Badertscher
Many of us just learned the sad news that Nylink, which has served New York State Libraries for 37 years, is phasing out its operations and will be closing in one year. We understand that Nylink will be closing its operations primarily due to a steep decline in its revenue stream which has seriously degrated Nylink’s ability to remain fully self supporting and continue delivering an acceptable level of service to its members beyond this period. Throughout the years many of us have come to rely on Nylink for its sustained high level of dedicated, personalized service. Nylink will be missed. We wish the employees a good 12 months and every success in the future
David Badertscher
For additional details see:
Sarah J. Rhodes, Digital Collections Librarian at the Georgetown University Law Center writes: “The Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive, now in its third year, is pleased to welcome a new law library partner. See the announcement below.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: HARVARD LAW SCHOOL LIBRARY JOINS THE CHESAPEAKE PROJECT LEGAL INFORMATION ARCHIVE.
Cambridge, Mass. (May 9, 2010)–As the first annual National Preservation Week begins, the Chesapeake Project Legal Information Archive is pleased to announce that its digital preservation efforts are expanding with the addition of a new partner library, the Harvard Law
The following is being posted as an urgent message at the request of a law librarian colleague :
As I am sure you know this year is on track to produce a budget disaster for libraries in New York City. The cuts currently proposed will result in massive layoffs and cuts in public service. A small group of library workers and concerned citizens has started a postcard campaign to highlight support for public libraries and ask the City Council to restore as much funding to library budgets as possible.
The idea is that we are going back to an old fashioned postcard writing campaign. Individuals are encouraged to write postcards in support of libraries and mail them to the offices of City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer. His office will collect the postcards and present them to the City Council, en masse as a sort of Miracle on 34th Street statement. Any postcards will do. We suggest being creative, but inexpensive postcards, ten for a dollar in Time Square, work great too.
Jonathan Stock who along with others has been working tirelessly to save six threatened law libraries in Connecticut from closure due to financial constraints. Here is Jonathan’s latest report, received as an e-mail on May 6, 2010.:
The Connecticut General Assembly closed down last night. We now know that the bill, its substance merged with the 2011 Budget, passed. You will find herein as an attachment [ see download link below] the latest bulletin from the Judicial Office of External Affairs. We have saved at least three of the six threatened law libraries: Bridgeport, Litchfield, and Hartford. Depending on the Branch’s negotiations with the Department of Public Works, we may also get back the Willimantic Law Library as well as the Willimantic Courthouse.
The good news Jonathan writes about would not have occurred without his continuing, tireless efforts along with those of many other people and organizations such as the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), Southern New England Law libraries Association (SNELLA).
By Joni L. Cassidy Cassidy Cataloging Services, Inc,
On March 17, 2010, my post about www.theSkyRiver.com and OCLC included the following statement:
“OCLC and Cassidy Cataloguing Services, Inc. may finally reach a compromise. OCLC may grant permission to allow a WorldCat Local institution that has purchased Cassidy MARC record sets to view the records as part of its WorldCat Local subscription.”
In March 2010 OCLC announced an important change to their FirstSearch content services. According to the announcement, OCLC is transitioning out of their role as reseller of vendor-owned content. Therefore they will transfer or discontinue sale of the vendor-owned databases on FirstSearch when subscriptions have ended. According to the announcement, they will instead increase their focus for both FirstSearch and WorldCat.org on providing libraries with access to a rich set of library-owned content and increasing visibility and access to the full scope of a library’s collection. They will work with libraries, publishers and other information providers to expand WorldCat.org as a comprehensive platform for eContent. As a part of this migration, EBSCO has acquired the rights to license a select number of vendor-owned databases that OCLC currently offers on FirstSearch. OCLC’s long-term relationship with H.W. Wilson is also changing as OCLC will work together to transition from reselling Wilson databases on FirstSearch to indexing Wilson databases in WorldCat Local over the coming months. According to OCLC there will be no interruption in service to libraries.
FirstSearch FAQ’s: http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/content/questions/
EBSCO News Release: http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/2010/201015.htm
The Alabama Supreme Court and State Law Library is pleased to announce the launch of its new website. Please check us out at http://judicial.alabama.gov/library.cfm. As part of our redesign, we are proud to present the full text of the Alabama Rules of Court-Civil, Criminal, Small Claims, Juvenile, Appellate, and Judicial Administration and the accompanying forms.
This morning I was one of many who received the following e-mail from Jessica Van Buren of the Utah State Law Library. :
A few weeks ago I asked if any of you had disaster plans to share. I offered to compile responses for a new Toolkit page on the SCCLL [ State Court and County Law Libries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) ] website if there was interest.
There was plenty of interest! Only two had plans to share, but it’s a start. The information I gathered is now on the new Disaster Planning page on the SCCLL website at http://www.aallnet.org/sis/sccll/toolkit/disaster-planning.htm.
Criminal Law Library Blog