VALE Undergraduate Reciprocal Borrowing Pilot Project

As the beginning of the fall semester approaches, please remind your faculty, staff, and students about the Undergraduate Reciprocal Borrowing Pilot Project. Note that since the pilot project began on July 1^st, two more libraries have signed on to participate: Brookdale Community College and The College of New Jersey. Therefore, sixteen libraries have agreed to participate:

Brookdale Community College

Centenary College

Gloucester County College

Kean University

Monmouth University

Montclair State University

NJIT

Raritan Valley Community College

Richard Stockton College of NJ

Rider University

Rowan University

Rutgers University

Seton Hall University

Somerset Christian College

The College of New Jersey

William Paterson University

For complete details about the pilot project and the reciprocal borrowing program, visit: http://www.valenj.org/newvale/recbor/ .

Julie Maginn on behalf of the VALE Resource Sharing Committee

Call for Proposals — 10th Anniversary Conference

The planning committee for the 2009 VALE Users’/ACRL-NJ/NJLA-CUS Conference - marking the VALE consortium’s 10th Anniversary - is pleased to announce our initial call for breakout and poster session proposals. The Conference will be held on Friday, January 9, 2009, at the Busch Campus Center on the Piscataway Campus of Rutgers University.

This year’s theme is “Ten Years of Experience, A Future of Possibilities.” The Planning Committee welcomes proposals highlighting initiatives for the practice of academic librarianship informed by lessons learned from past experience, research, or the input of your user communities. Proposals that emphasize and illustrate meaningful continuities or contrasts between past and present/future practice are particularly encouraged.

Please find the details for both breakout and poster session proposals, including all requirements and contact information, here:

Call for Breakout Session Proposals:
http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/faculty/kearneyr/Call_for_Breakouts_2009.htm

Call for Poster Session Proposals:
http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/faculty/kearneyr/Call_for_Posters_2009.htm

Please note that proposals are due to the coordinators by October 1, 2008.

We look forward to your participation in what promises to be another successful conference.

Your Conference Co-Chairs
Richard Kearney and Jan Skica

July 2008 Update: New Jersey Knowledge Initative

From Norma Blake, NJ State Librarian, and Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, Associate State Librarian for Library Devlopment.

In the final state budget for FY2009 signed by Governor Corzine, the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative was kept at the FY2008 $2 million level. While this amount will not allow the State Library to replicate the original NJKI project, we will be able to continue our most used and valued databases (as indicated by usage statistics and customer testimonials). Effective July 15, 2008, the following databases will be resumed:

• Frost and Sullivan market research reports: This database will be available via the NJKI web site (www.njki.org) for our NJKI businesses only.
• RefUSA: This resource will be available statewide via the Jersey Clicks site (www.jerseyclicks.org) and will be expanded to include their New Business database, which offers information on companies that have just recently opened or are planning on opening, as well as the New Home Owner and New Mover database, providing information on people that have recently acquired a new home, and people or businesses that have recently moved. Promotional materials and training will be coordinated with RefUSA by Scherelene Schatz, Jersey Clicks program manager-details will be available later this summer. NOTE: N.J.A.C. 15:21-6 (b) 3 states libraries shall “provide a library webpage with links to databases offered by the State and regional library cooperative”. Those libraries that wish to breakout individual databases and not use the Jersey Click icon may do so; however, they are still required to acknowledge that the database(s) are provided through the State Library and, in this case, the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative.
• Academic Search Premier: This set of databases is set to be funded through NJKI for VALE libraries only. However, due to the need for further conversations with this user group, access will be delayed past the planned July 15 go-live date.

In order to address the interests of our funders, the priorities for NJKI ’09 will be remote accessibility to databases most needed by small businesses. The State Library will be forming a new NJKI Task Force in the near future to assist the State Librarian and Library Development Bureau staff in determining databases that best meet these parameters.

 

VALE Undergraduate Reciprocal Borrowing Pilot Project

The VALE Resource Sharing Committee would like to announce that today, July 1^st, marks the beginning of the Undergraduate Reciprocal Borrowing Pilot Project. Fourteen libraries have agreed to participate:

• Centenary College
• Gloucester County College
• Kean University
• Monmouth University
• Montclair State University
• NJIT
• Raritan Valley Community College
• Richard Stockton College of NJ
• Rider University
• Rowan University
• Rutgers University
• Seton Hall University
• Somerset Christian College
• William Paterson University

For complete details about the pilot project and the reciprocal borrowing program, visit: http://www.valenj.org/newvale/recbor/ .

Sincerely,
Julie Maginn on behalf of the VALE Resource Sharing Committee

Status of the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative

Update on the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative: The New Jersey State Library has been closely following the progress of the FY09 State budget, as we are sure many of you have been as well. We were hopeful that a budget would be passed and signed by the Governor in mid-June. However, as of today (June 25) the Governor has not signed the budget, so our ability to proceed with NJKI vendor contracts for the budget year beginning July 1, 2008 is hampered.

State Library staff have received assurances from Ebsco and InfoUSA representatives that those libraries who subscribed to their products (Academic Search Premier and RefUSA) for the four month interim period of March 1-June 30 will have those subscription periods extended for an additional two weeks, ending now on July 15, 2008. We are hopeful that this will allow us the time that we need to negotiate new contracts and return to a more comprehensive access to the information available through these databases.

We look forward to resuming the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative program and working with our partners to make it as useful and valuable as possible to New Jersey businesses.

Norma Blake, State Librarian
Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, Associate State Librarian for Library Development

Call for Volunteers: Help Plan Next Year’s Conference

Summer’s here, and the time is right to begin planning the 2009 VALE Users’ /ACRL-NJ/NJLA-CUS Conference. This year will be the 10th anniversary of the conference. We want to mark the occasion in festive fashion, and you are invited to be part of that, along with all the other things that have made the conference a successful and rewarding experience for participants.

In keeping with past practice, we will be holding a one-time in-person planning meeting, with subsequent general arrangements to be handled by email and telephone. If your schedule permits, please join us at 10:00 am on Wednesday, July 2, at the College of New Jersey Library in Ewing. We will need help with the following tasks:

* selecting a conference theme
* identifying a potential keynote speaker
* staffing subcommittees to solicit/organize proposals for breakout sessions, poster sessions, and roundtable discussion sessions
* designing and editing a printed program
* coordinating transportation
* coordinating student volunteers
* managing the conference blog

….and other ideas that you bring to the table.

If you have been thinking about getting involved with the conference on the planning side, this would be a great year to do it. Contact Richard Kearney (kearneyr@wpunj.edu or 973.720.2165) if you would like to be part of the conference planning team and let us know if you can join us on July 2. Even if you cannot attend the meeting on July 2, you can still be part of the planning team. We will send you the meeting minutes and contact you to get you involved.

Please contact Richard by Friday, June 27, to let us know about your interest in helping to plan the 2009 VALE Users’ /ACRL-NJ/NJLA-CUS Conference. Thank you!

Update: New Jersey Knowledge Initiative

To the New Jersey library community:

NOTE: You may have seen the email sent on Friday, May 2 to VALE libraries regarding NJKI. This email was based upon a meeting that Norma Blake and I had with Judy Cohn, Marianne Gaunt and Anne Ciliberti the prior day. VALE libraries urgently needed information on how to proceed for FY09 and, with the NJKI funding stream still being honed, we all decided that it would be best for these libraries to prepare for the worst case scenario in terms of Academic Search Premier.

That being said, the meeting held on April 22 and facilitated by the Governor’s Office did not yield any commitment of funding for the additional $1 million needed to return NJKI to its previous funding level. In addition, those present at the meeting from the Dept. of Labor, the Economic Development Authority and the Governor’s Office made two points very clear-first, getting continuing or additional economic development funding will be dependent upon NJKI resources being available remotely; and second, that databases of use to the general business community such as RefUSA and Academic Search Premier* would be considered more favorably than those directed toward niche markets.

At this time $2 million remains in the state budget for NJKI. We will not know for certain that we have those funds until the budget is approved. Angie Maguire of the Office of Economic Growth (OEG) has agreed to help us acquire US EDA federal funds or to arrange a demonstration for state agencies serving workforce development and small businesses. The Governor has told the State Librarian that along with OEG his office will reach out to Pharma to try to add funds to NJKI.

Two clarifications Norma and I would like to make regarding recent information being circulated regarding NJKI:

1. We did not knowingly contract for $3 million with a $2 million budget. We had to continue multiyear, existing contracts; and

2. We did not duplicate what higher education does. Higher Education took individual contracts for their target audiences when NJKI was shut off. We also contract with some of the same vendors, but for different products.

*Academic libraries, please note that Academic Search Premier may be offered remotely to everyone through Jersey Clicks, but that there is no money outside of NJKI to again purchase or contract specifically for academic institutions.

Norma E. Blake
New Jersey State Librarian

Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, MSLS
Associate State Librarian for Library Development
New Jersey State Library
Mail: P.O. Box 520 [Location: 185 West State Street]
Trenton NJ 08625-0520
Ph: (609) 278-2640 ext. 170; fax: (609) 278-2650
kpeiffer@njstatelib.org
IM: KatOcrck (AIM)

NJKI Resources - Urgent Notice

Dear Colleagues:

Effective July 1, 2008, academic libraries will no longer receive the subsidized databases from the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative (NJKI) funded by the New Jersey State Library (NJSL). Unfortunately, this also includes access to EBSCO’s Academic Search Premier, which has been funded until now by the NJSL. We understand the magnitude and impact this news has during what is already a fiscally difficult time. A process is underway to deliver a package to you as quickly as possible which will include FY 2009 pricing for the NJKI databases being lost.

NJKI resources affected include:

• Academic Search Premier
• Business Source Premier
• CINAHL
• Pre-CINAHL
• Medline
• Biomedical Reference Collection
• Nursing & Allied Health Collection
• Regional Business News

• Reference USA

• Wiley InterScience Journals
• OVID Selected Core Medical Journals
• Nature Online Journals

There is a possibility that funding will be forthcoming to subsidize costs for Academic Search Premier and Reference USA, but we need to prepare for the worst.

You will receive your standard annual renewal packet of VALE resources for FY2009 next week. Because subscriptions to VALE resources do not officially expire until August 31, 2008, the timeframe for your commitments to VALE resources will be delayed in order to provide time for local decision-making regarding the NJKI resources.

We will communicate additional information as it becomes available.

Judy Cohn, Anne Ciliberti, Marianne Gaunt, David Pinto, and Richard Sweeney

Judith S. Cohn
Assoc VP for Scholarly Info/University Librarian
UMDNJ - University Libraries
Voice: 973-972-4353
Fax: 973-972-7474
Email: cohn@umdnj.edu

Free Webinar on Koha Integrated Software

Posted by Anne Ciliberti at the request of Rob Karen, WALDO:

You and your staff are invited to attend a free WALDO/LibLime webinar featuring the Koha Integrated Library Software. As you heard at the Next Generation Academic Library System Symposium sponsored by IMLS, VALEnj and The College of New Jersey, WALDO is partnering with LibLime for its new ILS and is excited about the progress that has already been made.

The webinars are scheduled for:

• (1) Monday, April 21, 2008, 9:00 am EDT
• (2) Monday, May 19, 2008, 9:00 am EDT

If you want to attend either session, please contact Becky Bell to register for this event:

Becky Bell
Open Source ILS Consultant
Phone: (800) 326-6495 Ext. 6
beckybell@waldolib.org

This webinar is being presented using WebEx. If you have not used WebEx before, please point your browser to http://support.webex.com/support/support-overview.html so you can test your browser and operating system.

The playback of UCF (Universal Communications Format) rich media files requires appropriate players. To view this type of rich media files in the meeting, please check whether you have the players installed on your computer by going to https://liblime.webex.com/liblime/systemdiagnosis.php

Robert Karen
Director of Member Services
Phone: (800) 326-6495 Ext. 1
Fax: (914) 729-1985
rob@waldolib.org
http://www.waldolib.org

Video streaming, podcasts and PowerPoint presentations from the Next Generation Library System Symposium

Video streaming, audio podcasts and PowerPoint presentations from the VALE OLS Symposium are now available on the VALE website at: http://www.valenj.org/newvale/ols/symposium2008/program-schedule.shtml

And also flicker photos are also available for viewing.

Please enjoy and comment using VALE blog at http://valenews.wordpress.com/

Happy viewing, listening and streaming everyone!