For ten successful years, Nylink has partnered with SOLINET and other ICOLC (International Coalition of Library Consortia) members in the national aggregation of LexisNexis Academic, a partnership that has meant savings at times of almost 80% off the list price of that resource because of the 30 information networks that participate.

Nylink knows that your patrons and students rely on the timely and comprehensive newspaper and magazine full text and abstracting in LexisNexis Academic, and we would like to announce some good news about renewal pricing for the 2009-2010 subscription cycle.

Acting on behalf of the networks in the aggregation, SOLINET advised LexisNexis of the impact that the current financial crisis will have on libraries, shared the ICOLC Global Economic Crisis Statement , and asked them to waive their 2.5% annual increase on LexisNexis Academic his year. LexisNexis has agreed to waive that increase on all LexisNexis Web products available through SOLINET, and to use the same FTE as recorded for the 2008-2009 renewal year, (Fall 2007 FTE,which we have on file).  (Please note that if your library’s Fall 2008 FTE is lower than your Fall 2007 FTE, the lower of the two figures will be used for your renewal price.)

Thanks to the efforts of  SOLINET, Nylink will be able to offer LexisNexis Academic to its members this year at $1.89/ FTE, which is $.01 less per FTE than last year’s renewal pricing. Pricing for all other LexisNexis databases, including Statistical, State Capital, and Congressional Universe, will remain at last year’s levels.

Q.   What is the ICOLC Global Economic Crisis Statement?

A.   The statement, which Nylink has endorsed, is intended to help publishers and other content providers from whom consortia license electronic information resources understand better how the current unique financial crisis affects the worldwide information community, and to suggest a range of approaches in the mutual best interest of libraries and the providers of information services. We encourage all information science professionals to read the statement.  

Q.   Does this mean that LexisNexis will not continue to add to and enhance its databases?

A.   Because LexisNexis understands that the purpose of the ICOLC Global Economic Crisis Statement is to reduce expenditures without disproportionate loss of content, they have also agreed to retain their commitment to enhancing LexisNexis Academic, as well as other popular legislative and statistical databases.  

Q.  How do I renew LexisNexis Academic, and my other LexisNexis subscriptions, through Nylink?

A.  If you’re a current subscriber, you’ll use MyNylink, our online portal, to renew this and your other electronic resources subscriptions from Nylink.  In the coming weeks, you’ll get follow-up emails to alert you that your renewals are ready to review in MyNylink.  Our deadline for receiving LexisNexis renewal instructions from you via MyNylink will be April 24.  

Q.  What if I don’t currently subscribe to LexisNexis through Nylink but I’d like to?

A.  Contact Ann Gunning, Reference Services Librarian (gunninga@nylink.org) or Donna Dixon, Director of Member Programs (dixond@nylink.org).

“Could you please send me a picture of Secretariat?” was the most common request fans had for Mrs. Penny Chenery (then Tweedy) the owner of Secretariat who won the Triple Crown in 1973. 

For 5 days I sifted through and scanned fan mail sent to Mrs. Chenery about her super horse Secretariat and some including his stable mate Riva Ridge.  The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs was loaned an old box of fan letters dated from the fall of 1973 through spring 1974 with the intent that they could scan them and then have full rights to those images.  While the letters themselves won’t be a part of the museum’s archives the digital images will be.

I was able to participate in the practical aspects of a scanning project including organizing the letters, scanning, and metadata creation.  It was a great opportunity to refresh my digitization skills and to be reminded just how long it takes to go through the process.  (Partly because I couldn’t resist reading many of the letters!)

Nylink is pleased to share the news that our partner, Atlas Systems, developers of the Ares e-reserve management system, have recently made it possible to automatically cross-check your permission requests that are stored in Ares with titles covered under Copyright Clearance Center’s Annual Copyright License. To celebrate this expanded copyright management functionality, Atlas has announced a special promotion.  Through August 1, 2009 receive the first year of your Ares software subscription and server hosting at no cost when you purchase or renew your Annual Copyright License. 

Visit www.atlas-sys.com to sign up for a web demonstration of Ares or contact ares@atlas-sys.com for more information.  If you are attending ACRL, you can stop by the Atlas Systems booth, # 435, to learn more about Ares and this new integration with the Annual Copyright License.   

CCC will also be exhibiting at ACRL in booth #519. If you are interested in more information on the Annual Copyright License contact Chuck Hemenway by email at chuck@copyright.com.

In response to requests from the cataloging community, OCLC is introducing the Expert Community Experiment which enables cataloging members to make more changes to WorldCat records.

During the Experiment, members with full level cataloging authorizations have the ability to improve and upgrade more WorldCat master records than has been previously possible.

OCLC expects the Experiment to begin in mid-February 2009, and to last six months.

More information can be found by visiting the Expert Community Experiment page at http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/catalog/quality/expert/default.htm

Introductory web information sessions will be held throughout February. Dates and registration information can be found on the Expert Community Experiment page (see above). OCLC encourages interested members attend one of the webinars, however it is not a requirement for participation in the Experiment. (You can also view the recorded version of the webinar when available.)

Credits

OCLC announces the following regarding credits for the Expert Community Experiment: participants will receive credits for those activities for which they currently receive credits. During the Experiment, OCLC will not give credits for the new activity. Instead, OCLC plans to review new activity for possible credit adjustment later in the Experiment.

The “Experiment” is in response to complaints such as “I discovered a problem in the new record I created last week … but other institutions have used the record so I can’t fix the problem”

The experiment will allow these and many other fixes to WorldCat Master records.