May 2004, Issue 25

In This Issue:

Changing Landscape, Changing Libraries
National Library Week, April 18-24
Government Depository Program Undergoing Change
Betterment in the Browsing Room
Spotlight on Reference
Staff Highlights

Changing Landscape, Changing Libraries

Patrick Wilkinson
wilkinso@uwosh.edu

Everyone is aware that the information landscape changes quickly. Within the past decade in the hyper-developed world, how people find information, communicate, shop, and bank has been fundamentally changed by the Internet and information technology. This obviously will continue to impact libraries and library services in many ways.

The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) recently issued a report (http://www.oclc.org/membership/escan/) which scanned the worldwide information landscape and highlighted trends that will impact libraries. They are:

• Staffing. During the next decade, large numbers of librarians and library staff will be retiring. Accredited, graduate library programs are not educating the same number of librarians to replace those retiring. This will provide libraries with a challenge to think creatively about organizational structure and essential services.
• New roles. Libraries will continue to move aggressively beyond a traditional role of “warehouses of content” to more active roles in the educational process. Libraries will have a real opportunity to become learning centers for students and faculty with buildings that facilitate group research and learning, services that are available 24 X 7, and staff who can help patrons become information fluent.
• Accommodating users. Libraries will be less concerned about whether patrons know the library and how it works, but instead be more concerned about knowing its users and how they work.
• Traditional versus nontraditional content. Library users want and libraries will “collect” many different forms of content: print, electronic, audio, video, etc.
• Preservation. With content in myriad forms, libraries locally and on a national level will be hard pressed to preserve digital information in useable forms for the future.
• Funding and accountability. Most institutions that serve the “public good”, including libraries, will likely face flat or declining budgets in the foreseeable future. This will require libraries to make it clear to their funding sources that they are effective stewards of funds and really serve their patrons with needed collections and services.
• Collaboration. Libraries have a tradition and a professional ethic of collaboration, and they will continue to expand the boundaries of collaboration for the benefit of their users.

Readers of Polk Library News have read how Polk Library and UW System Libraries have worked to constructively address many of these trends. In the future, you will see further evidence of how Polk Library, working within the “One System, One Library” vision, will continue to take actions to successfully meet the challenges of the constantly changing information landscape.

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National Library Week, April 18-24 Renee Sengele sengele@uwosh.edu

In celebration of National Library Week 2004, Polk Library organized a number of special events:

• A trivia contest was held all week to encourage students, faculty, and staff to come in the library and learn more about it. All entrants with the correct answers were entered into a drawing for one of two $10 gift certificates donated by University Books and More. Congratulations to our winners: Mary Chapin and Nathan Kragh!

• Donations of used books of all sorts were collected from April 18 until April 30 and sent to the libraries at Taycheedah Correctional Institution and Oshkosh Correctional Institution. Many boxes of books, ranging from romance to textbooks to children's books, were brought in by the campus community.

• In celebration of National Poetry Month, Polk Library hosted “Poetry at Polk”, an open poetry reading, on Thursday, April 22. The event, co-sponsored by the UW Oshkosh English Department, filled the Putney Room of the library and provided an enjoyable evening as about 30 students shared their original poetry.

• An information table was available on Monday and Tuesday during the noon hour, where students could enter the trivia contest, get their very own Polk Library pencil, and learn about library collections such as the recreational reading collection, genealogy resources, and “AFI’s 100 Best Films” collection.

• Displays in the lobby of the building highlighted “mystery readers” from the UW Oshkosh community (see example, below); poetry collections at Polk; works by the week’s most famous literary birthday boy, William Shakespeare (said to have been born on April 23, 1564); and more.

• Radio spots on the local student-run radio station, 90.3 WRST, promoted awareness of National Library Week and featured “fun facts” about the library and its services.

Do you recognize this "Mystery Reader"?

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Government Depository Program Undergoing Change Mike Watkins watkins@uwosh.edu

The Federal Depository Library program, which provides government information to Polk Library, has seen significant changes in the past few years. The program has come to the point where decisions are being made that might affect the continuation of the long-running program.

The depository program, which is overseen by the Government Printing Office (GPO), has been making the transition to an “all electronic program” - a direction mandated by legislation passed by Congress in 1995. It is estimated that by 2005, 95 % of documents distributed will be available on the web. This transition has had a devastating effect on the operation of the GPO. With free access to web documents, GPO sales of documents dropped precipitously. GPO has closed most of their bookstores, including one located in Milwaukee.

In the past GPO had tried to operate on a cost recovery basis. Most of its revenue-generating activity came from sales through its physical and web-based bookstores. The new Public Printer, Bruce James, who is in charge of the GPO, wants to rejuvenate the revenue-generating activity of the agency. He has proposed that GPO should charge for online access to government information. However, depository libraries would have free access to information, a measure that might rejuvenate declining interest and use of depository library collections.

One of the major criticisms to his approach is that requiring taxpayers to pay for access to electronic government information would essentially make them pay for the information twice. An additional argument is that free access to electronic government information has set a standard that other nations have emulated, and to begin charging for it would be a step backward. A program like this might also be unworkable under current law unless legislation was passed to corral the operation of the hundreds of independent government agencies who are offering free access to publications and information on their web sites.

The Depository Library Council, an advisory body of librarians and government information specialists, will be meeting in St. Louis at the semi-annual Depository Library Conference with Bruce James and Federal Depository Library Program managers for further discussion on these proposals and the future of the Federal Depository Library program.

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Betterment in the Browsing Room Amanda Swaw Student Coordinator of the Browsing Room

As the weather warms and we shake off the winter blah’s, spring cleaning begins. Cleaning doesn’t end with your house. Here are a few books that can help you “clean up” your image, your psyche, and your soul. Enjoy!

• Queer Eye for the Straight Guy: the Fab Five’s Guide to Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better
• Secrets of Style: The Complete Guide to Dressing Your Best Every Day, from the editors of In Style
• The South Beach Diet: the Delicious Doctor Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss, by Dr. Arthur Agatston
• Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, by Twyla Tharp
• Loving Yourself: Four Steps to a Happier You, by Daphne Rose Kingma
• Secrets You Keep from Yourself: How to Stop Sabotaging Your Happiness, by Dan Neuharth

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Spotlight on Reference Renee Sengele sengele@uwosh.edu

Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World
Ref. E 54.5 .K46 2002

This reference work contains short entries describing inventions and contributions made by American Indians. For example, precursors to modern hair conditioner, containing now familiar ingredients such as balsam, mint, or jojoba, were used by many different tribes in the Americas (p. 125). Chocolate is another creation which owes its discovery to the Mayan people, who developed the chocolate processing technique around 200 A.D. (p. 58). Each entry gives references for further reading about the particular contribution, and at the back of the book, the entries are also indexed by tribe, geographical area, and subject.

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Staff Highlights

Patrick Wilkinson, Polk Library Director, and Nolan Pope, Head of the UW Digital Collections Center, gave a presentation on the “University of Wisconsin Digital Collections: Creating a Digital Future Through Cooperation” at The Wisconsin Digital Library Conference in Madison on March 24, 2004. Wilkinson and Pope also presented on the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections at the EDUCAUSE Midwest Regional Conference in Chicago on April 22.

Patrick Wilkinson was recently elected to the Online Computer Library Center’s (OCLC) Members Council for a three year term beginning in October. OCLC’s Members Council has 66 delegates and represents OCLC members from over 45,000 libraries in 84 countries and territories. OCLC is a non-profit, library cooperative that provides services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve information worldwide.

Karen Reiter, Acquisitions, was recently elected to the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Classified Staff Advisory Council (CSAC). The charge of CSAC is to promote a positive professional environment for all classified employees (represented, non-represented, limited term and project appointment), support professional development activities, encourage informed communication among classified staff and with the broader University community, and to serve as advisors to the Chancellor and other University administrators.

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Polk Library News is a publication of Forrest R. Polk Library, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Renee Sengele, editor (sengele@uwosh.edu) 920-424-7331

Patrick Wilkinson, Director, Polk Library (wilkinso@uwosh.edu) 920-424-2147

Polk Library Home Page * UW Oshkosh Home Page