November 1995

November 1995 Issue: 135

LAUNC-Chapel Hill Announces New President and Proposed Changes to the Bylaws

UNCLE Changes and Updates

Cyberspace Censorship: Do Librarians have a Role to Play?

Undergraduate Librarians Go West in Search of Ideas

Live From the Internet - Copyright and Censorship

National Library of Medicine Awards Grant to UNC

Mark Your Calendars!

LAUNC-Chapel Hill Announces New President and Proposed Changes to the Bylaws

The Executive Board of LAUNC-Chapel Hill met with members on October 26th to discuss the handling of the Presidency with the resignation of Laurie Weakley, and the proposed changes to the Association's Bylaws. The Executive Board had proposed that Linda Drake, current Past-President, would serve as President until January 1996 when Brenda Ambrose-Fortune would assume the Presidency. However, a quorum was not reached at the meeting, and Brenda assumed the Presidency effective October 28th. She will serve out the remainder of Laurie's term and then serve her own term. The position of President-Elect will remain vacant for the rest of the 1995/96 year. Anita Booth has been appointed Treasurer by the Board for the remainder of the 1995/96 year

The Executive Board is recommending that the position of Vice-President/Treasurer/President-Elect be split into two separate positions: Vice-President/President-Elect and Treasurer. If the membership approves this change, then the bylaws need to be changed to reflect this. The Board also felt that the duties of the different officers need to be clarified. The proposed changes to the bylaws appear below.

V. OFFICERS.

Designation:
a. President. This officer shall direct and coordinate all business and shall act as spokesperson for the Association. The President of the Association, in consultation with the elected officers and the immediate past-president, shall appoint the chairs of the standing committees and the editor(s) of the Newsletter. The President or Vice-President/President-Elect shall be an ex-officio member of each standing committee.
b. Vice-President/President-Elect. This officer shall serve as president in the absence of the President, and shall assist the treasurer in the collection and disbursement of association funds. The President or Vice-President/President-Elect shall be an ex-officio member of each standing committee. The Vice-President/President-Elect shall serve on the Conference Committee, shall chair that committee in the absence of the Conference Chairperson, and shall serve as liaison to the Treasurer. The Chair and members of the Conference Committee shall be appointed by the Vice-President/President-Elect in consultation with the elected officers immediately after the conclusion of the annual conference. Upon completion of his/her one year term as Vice-President/President-Elect, this officer shall automatically assume the office of President for the following year.
c. Secretary. This officer shall be responsible for maintaining the official membership roster, recording proceedings of meetings, and collecting and disseminating all information necessary to conduct the Association business.
d. Treasurer. This officer shall be responsible for the collection and disbursement of Association funds and for fiduciary record-keeping and reporting. In conjunction with the executive board, shall develop and monitor the Association's annual budget.
Terms of Office.
All officers of this Association shall be elected by the membership in May and shall serve for one year beginning at the adjournment of the June meeting. The Vice-President/President-Elect shall serve for one year after election in the capacity of Vice-President and shall automatically assume the office of President in the following year. EXCEPTION: The Vice-President/President-Elect may assume the office of President prior to completion of one-year term as Vice-President/President-Elect if the President cannot fulfill his/her year as President. See section V.3.
Unexpired Terms:
a. President. In the event the President cannot fulfill his/her year as President of the Association, the Vice-President/President-Elect shall assume the office of President and shall serve the remainder of the unexpired term as well as serve his/her elected one-year term as President
. b. Vice-President/President-Elect. In the event the Vice-President/President-Elect cannot complete his/her year as Vice-President/President-Elect of the Association, the President shall call a special election for the purpose of electing a new Vice-President/President-Elect. The President of the Association, in consultation with the Executive Board, shall name a three-person ad hoc committee to locate and nominate a candidate for the vacant position. If the Vice-President assumes the office of President, the office of Vice-President shall remain vacant.
c. Secretary. In the event the Secretary of the Association cannot complete his/her year as Secretary, the President shall name a replacement for the remainder of the year. The replacement shall be confirmed by the Executive Board.
d. Treasurer. In the event the Treasurer of the Association cannot complete his/her year as Treasurer, the President shall name a replacement for the remainder of the year. The replacement shall be confirmed by the Executive Board.
e. Past President. The unexpired term of the Past President of the Association on the Executive Board shall be filled at the discretion of the President. If the President chooses to fill this vacancy, he/she shall select the replacement from any of the Past Presidents of the Association who are currently eligible to be members of the Association.

The Executive Board is also recommending that the duties of the Nominating Committee be revised to say that:
This Committee is charged with two responsibilities: 1) selection of one (1) or two (2) candidates for each of the offices of Vice-President/President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Association.
The membership will vote on these recommendations soon. If you have questions or comments contact Linda Drake or Brenda Ambrose-Fortune.

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Undergraduate Librarians Go West in Search of Ideas for New Undergraduate Library Renovations

Two librarians, Diane Strauss and David Taylor, traveled to California and Texas in mid-October as part of a team to see the recently built Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Library at the University of Southern California, and the recently renovated Undergraduate Library at the University of Texas at Austin. Other members of the team were Anne Parker and Linwood Futrelle of the Office of Information Technology, and Reba Brennan-Wagner of the University Facilities Planning and Design Department. These two libraries represent models of libraries serving a predominantly undergraduate clientele with traditional library services and state-of-the-art computer facilities.
While in California, Diane also spent some time at the recently renovated UCLA Undergraduate Library, and David traveled to San Diego to visit the campuses of the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State University. At UCSD, he saw the renovation plans of the Undergraduate Library and the architecturally fascinating Giesel Library. At SDSU, he saw first hand the electronic reserve system developed there by Don Bosseau and Dick Goodram.
The team was sent by the University to learn how other libraries have incorporated computer services into libraries, in order to help plan the renovation of UNC's R.B. House Undergraduate Library. The renovated Library will include services of the Office of Information Technology. An architectural firm is expected to begin drawing up plans for this renovation in December.

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UNCLE Changes and Updates

UNCLE, the University of North Carolina Literature Exchange, has expanded to include five new databases and local holdings information. The five new databases, added in October, include:

AIDSLINE: 1980-
BioethicsLine: 1973-
Health Planning and Administration: 1975-
International Pharmaceutical Abstracts: 1970-
Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL): 1982-

The Health Sciences Library and the Office of Information Technology are hoping to add PsychLit and 14 more full text journals within the next month.
Along with these new databases, UNCLE now shows library-owned materials from within the MEDLINE database. The "Local Holdings" field indicates whether the title is held at HSL, owned elsewhere on campus, or if a title is not owned by UNC-Chapel Hill. Patrons may limit their search to only those titles housed at HSL.

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Cyberspace Censorship: Do Librarians have a Role to Play?

Battling censorship and preserving intellectual freedom has been an ongoing battle for librarians. Since the beginning of libraries, there have been challenges to print, image, and sound items housed in libraries. Now a new focus for censorship has arisen, the Internet. Since the Rimm study earlier this year and Time magazine's expose on Cyberporn, emphasis has been placed on protecting children from pornography on the Internet. While the Rimm study has been criticized, it has brought to the forefront concern about what is available on the Internet and how to protect children from going to the wrong sites. This concern has caught the attention of Congress. Both the House and Senate versions of a Telecommunications bill may have a significant impact on how libraries offer Internet services to patrons.
In the Senate, the Exon-Coats "Communications Decency Act" would set criminal sanctions for online obscenity and indecency. Penalties for transmitting sexually explicit materials over the Internet would include fines of up to $100,000 and possible prison time. For libraries, the underlying question from the Exon-Coats bill is who is liable? If a patron using a public access Internet terminal in the library finds something he/she deems indecent, is the library liable and open to prosecution under this bill? Senator Leahy has introduced an alternative that would have the Justice Department study ways of controlling indecent and obscene materials on the Internet.
The House bill is a more library-friendly bill. The "Internet Freedom and Family Empowerment" amendment to the House Telecommunications bill would forbid the US Government from censoring the Internet. While a separate amendment by Rep. Hyde would criminalize some forms of online speech, the "Good Samaritan" provision would protect providers (including libraries) from prosecution if they made a good-faith effort to prevent users from encountering indecent or obscene materials online. A showdown between these two bills is expected soon.
How can and should libraries deal with obscene materials on the Internet? Currently on the market are software programs, such as SurfWatch, which block users from accessing certain web sites deemed explicit. Is this software for libraries? Many in the library community feel libraries should not use such programs for fear of becoming censors. Currently the American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom is working on a draft concerning access to electronic information. Many feel libraries should offer access to the Internet in its entirety while providing a notice of the library's acceptable use policy. Others feel the library should make the effort to steer prospective users to useful and safe sites from the beginning.
The subject of censoring the Internet will continue and libraries must be prepared for what is to come. While public and school libraries are in the middle of the battle, academic libraries should also be concerned. The issue of censorship and intellectual freedom affects all libraries. In this battle, everyone (public, school and academic librarians) must stand together.

References:

Communications Decency Act http://www.pathfinder.com/pathfinder/politics/netpol/index.html
Elmer-Dewitt, Phillip. "On a Screen Near You: Cyberporn." Time 146(1): 38-45, 1995 July 3.
Flagg, Gordon. "Congress Is of Two Minds on Internet Censorship." American Libraries 26(8): 746, 1995 September.
Gerwig, Kate. "Senate Favors Fines, Prison Terms for Posting Online Pornography." Interactive Age Daily 1995 June 15 http://www.pathfinder.com/@@FROn81F11gEAWHBK/pathfinder/pulse/news/intact/special/senate.html
Polly, Jean Armour and Steve Cisler. "Is the Internet Too Much for Your Community?" Library Journal 120(7):24-25, 1995 April 15.
Rimm, Marty. "Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway." http://www.sics.se/~psm/kr9512-001.html
Schneider, Karen G. "Fears of Filth Foster Filtering Follies." American Libraries 26(8): 798, 1995 September.

--Lynn Eades

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National Library of Medicine Awards Grant to UNC

The School of Information and Library Science, the Health Sciences Library and the School of Medicine Medical Informatics Training Program are the recipients of a $65,600 grant. This is one of only seven awards given nationally and is a one year planning grant. The theme of the grants is "Preparing Tomorrow's Health Sciences Librarians." The purpose is to develop five different curriculum models for training entry level health sciences librarians and mid-career librarians, using input from a Delphi study; and then to do market testing to determine which of the models could be successfully implemented. The principal investigator is Dean Barbara Moran at SILS. The other investigators are Helen Tibbo, Claudia Gollop and Barbara Wildemuth at SILS, Carol Jenkins, Peggy Morrison, and Margaret Moore at HSL, and Chuck Friedman in the School of Medicine. Carolyn Lipscomb has been hired as the project coordinator.

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Member News/Library News

City and Regional Planning Library

Linda Drake attended the Fall Meeting of the Executive Board of the Council of Planning Librarians, October 13-15th in Knoxville, TN. Linda is Vice-President/President-elect of the CPL and is responsible for planning the annual conference. The annual conference is slated for April 1996 at DisneyWorld in Orlando, FL. Anyone interested in helping plan the conference is asked to call Linda.

Davis Library

Carol Pekar and Betty Waynick attended a Library of Congress workshop on constructing series authority records for the NACO project, of which the UNC-Chapel Hill Academic Affairs Library is a member. The workshop was held in Washington, DC from Oct. 25-27.

Health Sciences Library

Carol Jenkins announced her candidency for President-elect of the Medical Library Association. If elected, Carol would be President of MLA for 1997-98. Elections for office will be held in early 1996.

The Health Sciences Library was well represented at the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Medical Library Association annual meeting in Richmond, VA, October 16-18. Several librarians gave presentations at the meeting. Bridget Loven gave a session on "World Wide Web Basics," Julia Shaw-Kokot moderated a Roundtable Lunch on "Internet: Reference Sources," Jill Mayer moderated a Roundtable Lunch on "Community-Based Teaching," Denise Woetzel gave a poster session on "North Carolina AHEC Health Sciences Union Catalog," Phyllis Ruscella gave a poster session as a member of the Research Task Force, and Diana McDuffee, Julia Shaw-Kokot, and Jill Mayer gave a poster session on "Information Technology Support for Community Based Medical Education."

Phyllis Ruscella attended the North Carolina Library Association Biennial Conference in Greensboro, Oct. 4-6. She also completed the seven week University Management Development Program.

Institute for Academic Technology Library

Carolyn Kotlas gave a program on publishing electronic newsletters at the September meeting of the UNC-Chapel Hill Institute for Research in Social Science's Working Group on Scholarly Communication. Carolyn publishes IAT Infobits, an electronic newsletter covering educational technology.

Law Library

Carol Nicholson attended the Association of Women Faculty and Professionals Fall Reception with Chancellor and Mrs. Hooker; and she marched in the University Day Processional.

School of Information and Library Science

Sydney J. Pierce has been appointed chair of the ALA Library Research Round Table Doctoral Students Committee for the coming year.

Helen Tibbo attended the American Archivists' conference in Washington, DC, Aug 29-Sept 3. She received the 1994 Fellows' Ernst Posner Prize for the best article in volume 57 of American Archivist, published in 1994. Professor Tibbo also presented a session on using the Internet for Reference at the Friday Center in August as part of a SILS program for public librarians.

Jerry Saye chaired the Publications Board meeting at the American Archivists' conference in Washington, DC. He also moderated/commented on a session on distance education.

Barbara Wildemuth, Bruce Rollier, Patricia Fletcher and Ruth Small presented "Learning to Learn: The Information Systems Profession in the Information-Based Organization" at the annual meeting of the Association for Information Systems in Pittsburgh in August. Professor Wildemuth's paper, written with Ruth deBliek, Charles Friedman, and Dean File, titled. "Medical Students' Personal Knowledge, Searching Proficiency, and Database Use in Problem Solving," was published in the Journal of the American Society for Informaiton Science, 46 (September 1995): 590-607.

Wilson Library

Neil Fulghum, with the assistance of Clara Schaeffer a TGA and Library Sciences student, is researching and designing an exhibition which will provide an overview of the University Librariy's history. The exhibit is entitled "Beginning A Third Century: The History of the Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." The exhibit is to be installed in the east end of the main gallery in Davis Library and is scheduled to open February 2, 1996. Library staff are encouraged to inquire about this exhibition's development and offer suggestions about relevant content.

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Live From the Internet - Copyright and Censorship

Copyright Web Sites

U.S. Copyright Office
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

Legal Information Institute
http://www.law.cornell.edu

IFLA Copyright & Intellectual Property Resources
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ifla/services/cpyright.htm

Public Domain Information
http://www.netgate.net/~bmb/PubDomain.html

Censorship Web Sites

Banned Books Online
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/People/spok/banned-books.html

Project Censored
http://zippy.sonoma.edu/ProjectCensored

Lists in Copyright and Censorship

IFREEDOM (Censorship and Intellectual Freedom>
listserv@snoopy.ucis.dal.ca

CNI-COPYRIGHT (Center for Networked Information's Copyright and Intellectual Property Forum)
listproc@cni.org

CYBERIA-L
listserver@birds.wm.edu

To subscribe to any of these groups, send a message to the listserv (or listproc or listserver) address with the following message:
subscribe listname your name
eg: subscribe autocat Jane Doe

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Mark Your Calendars

It's never too early to think about Spring, and when you do you undoubtably think of the LAUNC-Chapel Hill Conference! This year, the chances of snow will be all but eliminated beacuse the Conference is being held later than usual, on Monday March 25, 1996 at the Friday Center. The Conference Committee is hard at work organizing activities around the general theme "Developing Collections for the 21st Century." Stay tuned for more information!

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Last updated: January 1996