And They Were There -- Reports of Meetings -- 27th Annual Charleston Conference
And The y Were The re -- Reports of Meetings -- 27th Annual Charleston Conference
Ramune K . Kubilius 0
0 Northwestern University
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Reports of Meetings — 27th Annual Charleston Conference
Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition, “What Tangled Webs We Weave,” Francis Marion Hotel,
Embassy Suites Historic District, and College of Charleston (Addlestone Library and Arnold Hall,
Jewish Studies Center), Charleston, SC, November 7-10, 2007
Charleston Conference Reports compiled by: Ramune K. Kubilius (Collection Development / Special Projects Librarian,
Northwestern University, Galter Health Sciences Library) <>
Column Editor’s Note: Thank you to all of the conference
attendees who volunteered to become reporters, providing highlights of so
many conference sessions. Check for more reports in upcoming ATG
issues. Also, visit the Charleston Conference Website for session
handouts and discussions. The entire 2007 Charleston Conference
Proceedings will be published by Libraries Unlimited / Greenwood
PublishingGroup , available in fall 2008. — RKK
Preconferences — Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
NavigatingtheeBookLandscape(Part1) — Presented by
Audrey Powers (Librarian/Research Services & Collections,
University of South Florida), Linda Gagnon (Sr. Vice President of eContent
Integration & Business, Yankee Book Publishing), Jay Henry
(Manager of Online Products & Director of Business Development,
Blackwell / ECHO), James Gray (CEO & President of Ingram
Digital Group, MyiLibrary), Danny Overstreet (Library Services
Consultant, Southeast Region, NetLibrary),
Kari Paulson (President, EBL, Ebook Library, EBL)
Reported by: J. Michael Lindsay (Biomedical Library, University
of South Alabama, Mobile, AL) <>
Given the multitude of pricing models, access models, and sources for
electronic books, there are many variables that librarians must consider
in selecting these resources. The morning session of this pre-conference
focused on providing fact based comparisons and demonstrations from
a variety of vendors of electronic books. New trends discussed included
From the University Presses
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ments on the report’s detailed recommendations, I don’t hold out great
hope for much progress to ensue from this initiative. (There are so far
on the wiki site accompanying the report just two pro forma comments,
which doesn’t augur well for a true engagement of many other parties
in this effort.)
There has got to be a better way to move forward in a truly
collaborative way. I keep thinking myself of how fruitful the two meetings
co-sponsored in the late 1990s by the ACLS, ARL, and AAUP were in
promoting discussion of the future of scholarly communication: “The
Specialized Scholarly Monograph in Crisis, Or How Can I Get
Tenure If You Won’t Publish My Book” (September 11-12, 1997) and
“New Challenges for Scholarly Communication in the Digital Era:
Changing Roles and Expectations in the Academic Community”
(March 26-27, 1999). The latter conference was also co-sponsored
by the other AAUP (University Professors) and CNI as well. The
effort was made in planning both these events to ensure that librarians
alone, or publishers alone, or administrators alone were not setting the
agenda with the faculty as silent partner on the sidelines. All of these
groups were well represented at these meetings. We need to revive that
approach if we are to have any chance of forging a consensus that will
enable the academic community to make real progress in meeting the
challenges that lie ahead.
perpetual access models. While these allow libraries to avoid annual
subscriptions to books, there is generally a maintenance fee involved.
File format is another important issue; some eBooks require reader
programs to function correctly. Other important considerations include
the inclusion of MARC records for electronic books and restrictions on
use of content: can users copy and paste content or download it? User
access can vary from username/password access, to access limited by
number of simultaneous users to full IP authentication. After
providing a basic map of the current eBook terrain, this session provided a
glimpse into the future. eBooks of the future can provide not only text
and images, but audio and video content, with interactive capabilities.
Print on demand features will allow users to request books be printed
when needed. Controversially, collection development in the future
will be pushed down to the user level; allowing library users to select
materials as needed.
SerialsResourceManagement — Presented by Buzzy Basch
(President, Basch Subscriptions)
Reported by: J. Michael Lindsay (Biomedical Library, University
of South Alabama, Mobile, AL) <>
Managing serials in the modern environment is complicated by
numerous factors. This afternoon session focused on describing this
environment from many perspectives, and detailing approaches for
managing serials in an environment of constant change. A problem
that libraries face is demand fr (...truncated)