Gale databases – as of July 1, there will no longer be access to Student Resources in Context, RDS Business Suite, General Reference Center Gold (content is available in General OneFile), InfoTrac Student Edition, and LitFinder.  This isn’t as bad as it sounds. As we retain Academic OneFile, Expanded Academic ASAP, Kids InfoBits and InfoTrac K-12 Junior edition, there should be no loss in access to individual journal titles. With the exception of RDS Business Suite, content you might expect to find in one of these ‘lost’ databases will likely be found in a similar Gale database.  For advanced business topics and titles, we encourage use the the Boston Public Library’s remote access databases, including Mergent Online, Business & Industry and TableBase. We are pleased to point out that a new bundle has been added, the Nursing Resource Center.

ProQuest Newspapers – as of July 1, subscription to Massachusetts Newstand will cease. The MBLC and MLS have contracted with ProQuest to continue to provide access to the Boston Globe, as the newspaper of record for the Commonwealth. No agreements have been reached with localized newspapers.

Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online – as of July 1 access to Brittanica Online will begin. Though in print this is an advanced source, in its online persona the Brittanica is accessible and understandable to a wide market. It includes a Spanish language interface, as well.

New York Times access is still available through the Gale databases.

MLS and MBLC recognize that the loss of localized titles is a disappointment to many people. This contracting of state-wide database access must focus on titles of state-wide interest or applicability. Past use statistics show that local papers have been accessed locally, for the most part. We need to find new ways of facilitating access to content of local import for our special, academic, school and public libraries in a way that is affordable and sustainable.

The Massachusetts Library System (www.masslibsystem.org) is a state-supported collaborative, fostering cooperation, communication, innovation, and sharing among member libraries of all types. With offices in Marlborough and Whately, MLS promotes equitable access to excellent library services and resources for all who live, work, or study in Massachusetts.

MHEC is a New England-wide purchasing consortium based at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst Campus and is open to all public and private institution of higher education, municipalities, schools and educational organizations throughout Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. MHEC uses its large member base and procurement expertise to negotiate high costsavings for members. MLS will be working closely with MHEC to ensure the same materials and supplies will be available, but at better price points. With this new partnership, MLS member libraries will join MHEC as members in order to take advantage of the new discounts. As with the current MLS Materials and Supplies Coop, membership will be at no cost.

For additional information on MHEC’s current member benefits, contracts, and participating vendors, please go to the following webpage: http://www.mhec.net/

Over the next several months, MLS will be working with MHEC to create, analyze and award bids for more competitive materials and supplies contracts. We anticipate new contracts will be in place for September 1. Wewill be working with our vendors to extend our current contracts so there is no gap in discounts being offered. In order to ensure the contracts meet the ongoing needs of MLS Libraries, we ask you to fill out the following 5-minute survey.

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5v91w0vh1j9le2o/start

In addition to the survey, we are looking for individuals that would be willing to participate in portions of the process should the opportunity arise. If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please email Catherine Utt at Catherine@masslibsystem.org or call 508-357-2121 / 866-627-7228. Or you may contact either Paul Coute (pcoute@mhec.net) or Stacey Wikar (staceywikar@mhec.net) at MHEC for additional information.

A big thank you to all library staffs that participated in the process (see more about this in the press release). MLS member libraries will be receiving a letter at the end of this month with more details about the products and access.

The full list of titles that all residents and MLS member libraries will have access to is as follows:

Gale Cengage
Academic OneFile
Biography In Context
Books and Authors
Business and Company Resource Center
Contemporary Literary Criticism Select
Educator’s Reference Complete
Expanded Academic
Gale Powerpacks in assorted subject areas
General BusinessFile
General OneFile
Global Issues In Context
Health and Wellness Resource Center with Alternative Health
Health Reference Center Academic
InfoTrac Junior
The New York Times
Kids InfoBits
Literature Resource Center
Massachusetts History Online
Nursing Resource Center (new to Massachusetts libraries)
Opposing Viewpoints In Context
Science in Context
U. S. History In Context
World History In Context
50 Selected Gale Virtual Reference Library titles (titles forthcoming)

ProQuest, Inc.
The Boston Globe

Encyclopaedia Britannica
Britannica Online School Edition, PLUS read-aloud at all levels and translation for over 50 languages
Britannica Learning Zone (early childhood interactive learning resource)
Britannica Online Public Library, Edition PLUS read-aloud at all levels and translation for over 50 languages
Britannica Spanish Reference Center (Includes Enciclopedia Moderna, a reference collection for the high school and college ages and Escolar Online, geared to ages 6-12)
World Data Analyst (current and historical statistics on the countries of the world)
Annals of America (online Access to Original Source Documents From U.S. History)
Britannica Online Mobile Edition

The Mass. Library System partnered with the New England News Forum and Journalism That Matters for a one day event on Friday April 27, 2012. Librarians and journalists gathered for a discussion on forming partnerships and sharing information between the two fields.

Journalists and librarians share common goals and technology helps to form tools that can be used in both professions to ensure public literacy, government transparency, free speech, and citizen participation. Both professions provide their local communities with informational services and librarians are nurturing those goals by making that information easily accessible to the public.

“Common Goals,” is an outgrowth of a 2011 event held in April at the MIT Center for Civic Media. That event was, “Beyond Books: News, Literacy and Democracy for America’s Libraries.” See: http://www.biblionews.org

Hogan Center, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester

Electronic resources provide an opportunity and a challenge for libraries of all types.  Massachusetts residents have traditionally enjoyed a vigorous sharing environment.  Today’s structure for the licensing and delivery of e-content are challenges to sharing.  How will we proactively address the challenges posed by e-content?

Our keynote presentations will be recorded and archived on the MLS website following the event.

About our speakers

Agenda

9:00     Continental breakfast available; registration opens

9:30     Welcome:  Rob Maier, Director of the Massachusetts Board of Library         Commissioners

10:00   James G. Neal, Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian,             Columbia University on Sometimes a Scream…Is Better Than a Thesis

Link: 

• Sometimes a Scream is Better Than a Thesis (.ppt)
  

11:00  Jamie LaRue, Director, Douglas County (Colorado) Libraries on Emerging    Pathways for Resource Sharing

Links:

• MassMovement (.pptx)
• The Path Forward: A Mass Movement (.pdf)
• eDiscover the Classics  
• Mary Minow’s suggestion for a legal framework for a relationship with publishers
• Mary Minow’s idea of an author addendum to a publishing contract
• Our letter to publishers that lays out the terms in a less formal way
• Video that introduces the platform to our public
• Colorado State Library-sponsored site (see “How to Do It”)

12:00   Lunch

12:45  Reconvene: Greg Pronevitz, Executive Director, MA Library System

Panel Discussion: Towards Solutions

• Anita Cellucci, Westborough High School
• Esmé Green, Goodnow Library, Sudbury
• Jay Schafer, Director of Libraries, University of Massachusetts
• Evan Simpson, Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative Steering Committee member and librarian,  Tufts University

2:00     Small group discussions using SOAR (strengths, opportunities, aspirations and             results)

• Statewide library cards
• Small lenders
• Virtual catalog
• Resource sharing roles for automated networks
• Streaming media
• eBooks and eJournals
• Textbooks

2:45     Report out: what is the most important resource sharing question from your table  needing further attention?

3:00     Wrap up

About our speakers

Please evaluate Resource Sharing Unbound and share your suggestions for future speakers and topics.

Jim Neal is the Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia University, where he has since 2001, provided leadership for university academic technologies and a system of twenty-two libraries.  Previously, he served as the Dean of University Libraries at Indiana and Johns Hopkins, and held administrative positions in the libraries at Penn State, Notre Dame and CUNY. He is a member of the OCLC Board of Trustees.  He is the Treasurer and on the Executive Board of the American Library Association. He has served as President of the Association of Research Libraries, Chair of the Research Libraries Group Board, Chair of the National Information Standards Organization Board, Chair of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, and is on the Board of the Freedom to Read Foundation. His areas of professional focus are scholarly communication, copyright, and digital library development.

Jamie LaRue has been the director of the Douglas County Libraries, headquartered in Castle Rock, CO, since 1990. He is the author of The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges, and wrote a weekly newspaper column for over 25 years. He was the Colorado Librarian of the Year in 1998, the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce’s 2003 Business Person of the Year, and in 2007 won the Julie J. Boucher Award for Intellectual Freedom.

Jamie is a frequent keynote speaker for library associations. He has been a featured presenter for regional workshops, facilitator and presenter for staff days, a last-minute panelist, and a moderator and master of ceremonies for everything from debates to awards dinners. Lately, he has also been running hiring processes for non-profit and municipal CEOs. He particularly enjoys facilitating highly focused planning sessions for organizations that want to know what they do right, and what they need to do next.

Anita Cellucci is currently the School Librarian at Westborough High School where she has spent the last 2 years updating the library to a 21st century learning space. She currently is an advisor to the joint public and school Teen Advisory Board and also is the Co-facilitator of the first community read in Westborough. Previous to working in a high school library, she spent 8 years as a middle school librarian, 2 years as an elementary school librarian and 5 years working at the Framingham Public Library.

Esmé  Green  is the director of the Goodnow Library in Sudbury, MA.

 Jay Schafer has been a member of the UMass Amherst community for the past ten years and has been Director of Libraries since 2004. Initially appointed as Coordinator of Collection Development, he later served as Associate Director for Content Acquisition and Access.  Prior to joining UMass, Jay was affiliated with a number of organizations in the Denver, Colorado area including the University of Colorado at Denver and the Denver Public Library.

 Jay was recently elected to the Executive Board of the Association of Research Libraries and the Board of Trustees of LYRASIS.  He is a member of the Five College Librarians Council, the Board of Directors of the Boston Library Consortium and has served as BLC President.  He previously served on the Executive Board of BioOne Online Journal.

Jay earned his degree in librarianship from the University of Denver and a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Evan Simpson is the Head of Research and Instruction at Tisch Library, Tufts University.  Evan has been involved in resource sharing for many years, first at the New York State Library and then at Brandeis University.  He has continued involvement in national and international resource sharing initiatives while at Tufts, serving on the editorial board for the Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, and Electronic Reserve and as a member of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative Steering Committee.  As Chair of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee, he helped spearhead development of the Rethinking Resource Sharing STAR Checklist, a tool used by libraries worldwide to gauge how they are providing resource sharing services to the research community.

Back to conference main page

To kickstart our relaunch, we’ve scheduled a number of interview days throughout the state for BiblioTemps® applicants. Please register online using the links below. (BiblioTemps® sends a huge thank you to Simmons College, Topsfield Town Library, Cambridge Public Library, Cape Cod Community College Library, and the MLA Conference Career Center for generously providing interview space!)

If you are unable to attend any of these dates, or if all available slots for your location are already taken, just contact BiblioTemps® manager Kelly Jo Woodside at kelly@masslibsystem.org to arrange another time individually. We will also consider addition additional Interview Days and locations in the future, depending on interest.

If your library anticipates upcoming short-term staffing needs, such as vacation substitutes, interim positions, or project work, please feel free to get in touch for more information about how BiblioTemps®, can help! We hope to be ready to begin making placements sometime in May, and we will post more information then.

For more information about BiblioTemps®, visit our website at www.bibliotemps.com.

Saturday, April 28, 10:30am-3:30pm
Simmons GSLIS West, South Hadley, MA
(for Simmons students and alumni)
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703219

Monday, April 30, 10:00am-2:00pm
Topsfield Town Library, Topsfield, MA
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2701770

Tuesday, May 1, 10:00am – 3:0opm
MLS Whately Office, Whately, MA
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703222

Wednesday, May 2, 10:00am  – 4:00pm
MLS Marlborough, MA
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703232

Thursday, May 3, 10:00am – 3:00pm
Simmons College, Boston, MA
(for Simmons students and alumni)
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703246

Friday, May 4, 10:00am – 3:00pm
Cambridge Public Library Main Branch, Cambridge, MA
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703277

Tuesday, May 8, 10:00am – 3:00pm
Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, MA
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703289

Wednesday, May 9, 3:30 – 5:30pm
MLA Conference Career Center, DCU Center, Worcester, MA
Note: You must register separately for the MLA Conference to attend this session.
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703317

Thursday, May 10, 9:30am – 12:00pm and 1:30 – 2:30pm
MLA Conference Career Center, DCU Center, Worcester, MA
Note: You must register separately for the MLA Conference to attend this session.
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/events.cfm?curOrg=MLS#2703331

The winning video was created by teens at the Pembroke Public Library.

Please use this video to promote your teen library program, Own the Night. You can embed the video into your webpage, Facebook page, blog, or other online tool. Click here for the press release.