Friday, March 14, 2008

ACRL launches Chat Series

Contact: David FreeACRL(312) 280-2517dfree@ala.org
Press Release
March 10, 2008

ACRL launches chat series

CHICAGO - The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is pleased to announce ACRL OnPoint, a new live chat series. Each informal monthly chat session provides the opportunity to connect with colleagues and experts to discuss an issue of the day in academic and research librarianship.

All ACRL OnPoint chats are free and open to the public. Sessions are unmoderated, 30-45 minutes in length and take place in a Meebo chat room. All chat sessions begin at 1 p.m. CDT. While no registration is necessary to participate, ACRL recommends creating a quick and easy Meebo account for the best experience while participating in ACRL OnPoint discussions.

Join us on March 27 for the inaugural ACRL OnPoint chat on the newly mandatory NIH Public Access Policy. Further reading about this available on the ACRL OnPoint page.

The discussion of how libraries are leveraging this new policy on campus will be convened by ACRL Scholarly Communication Committee member Karen Williams and Linda Watson, president of the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries. Discuss actions your library is taking or could take, such as educating authors, offering deposit services and partnering with your office of sponsored research.

This first chat session is co-sponsored by the Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, the Greater Western Library Alliance and the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

Future ACRL OnPoint chats include:

April 2008: Section 108 Study Group Report -Discuss the implications of the recommendations and findings of this forthcoming report (expected in mid-March) for academic libraries.
May 2008: Green Libraries - Share ideas about what libraries are, or could be, doing to meet the growing “greening” of college and university campuses.
June 2008: ACRL 101 - Find your path to participation to get the most out of your ACRL membership and discuss ACRL activities at the 2008 ALA Annual Conference with Associate Director Mary Jane Petrowski.

Send ideas for future ACRL OnPoint chat topics to acrl@ala.org with the subject heading ACRL OnPoint.

ACRL is a division of the American Library Association (ALA), representing more than 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. ACRL is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments.

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What can Search Engine Designers Learn from the Reference Interview?

Brought to you by SJSU SLIS

Query specifications by typical users are notoriously imprecise. And for many searches it is impossible to expect the user to fully and accurately specify what they are interested in. Because they do not know what is available for the asking, users cannot be expected to specify exactly what they want. Reference librarians have been developing a craft that, among other things, deals with this incomplete specification of desired results. What can search engine designers learn from prior art to improve query results? John Dove, CEO of Credo Reference, will contrast Google's vision of the future with one where reference librarians may be called upon to expertly modify online query systems in order to significantly improve query results for their users.

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