Fine Print Spring 2008 Murphy Library UW-La Crosse

E-Resource Update: Fewer Resources Despite Spending More

Recently, the Faculty Senate Library Committee presented a report to the Faculty Senate outlining the financial crisis faced by Murphy Library. This crisis affects many areas of the library including periodical subscriptions, interlibrary loan/document delivery, student employment, and physical collections such as books.

In addition, the library's electronic resources, which consist primarily of article databases, are severely affected. What follows are some examples that highlight how e-resources are affected by shrinking budgets and higher user expectations.

In the past 5 fiscal years, the number of locally-purchased article databases decreased by 30 titles from 80 to 50.
At the same time, Murphy Library’s expenditures for article databases increased by $20,000 or 12.5%.
Because the library’s total acquisitions budget has been flat since 2001, an increase in e-resource expenditures means a decrease in the book purchases.
The average price increase for subscriptions in 2006/2007 was 9.31%.

Since 2004/2005, Murphy Library has lost 30 e-resources: 26 local subscriptions and 4 UW System Shared Electronic Collection subscriptions were cancelled. (A list of canceled resources is available at: http://eresources.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/cancellation-budget-history/).

The decision to cancel a database subscription is never taken lightly and is usually considered for a combination of reasons that may include: budget shortfalls, changes in database pricing, duplication of resources, programmatic or curricular changes, low use statistics, interface problems, quality of vendor customer service, and more.

Fiscal Year	Resource Subscriptions	Expended
2003/2004	80	$160,857.48
2004/2005*	66	$155,081.26
2005/2006**	58	$145,839.50
2006/2007	52	$172,353.05
2007/2008+	50	$180,847.56

*2004/2005: Some of this year’s budget was used to pre-pay for subscriptions at a discounted rate so that there were no subscription payments for some resources in 2005/2006.

**2005/2006: This year’s expenditures were lower because some subscriptions were renewed in 2004/2005 at a reduced rate.

+2007/2008: Projected Budget

Galadriel Chilton, Electronic Resources Librarian

Inside this issue:	E-Resource Update Murphy Award Library Survey Upcoming Events Hiding in Plain Sight Steamboat Images go Live Self Publishing New Circulation Night Supervisor
Library Hours Telephone Directory Support Opportunities Past Issues

Murphy Award

Murphy Library is pleased to announce that Dr. Richard Gappa is this year’s Eugene W. Murphy Library Special Recognition Award recipient. The Murphy Library Award was established in 1986 by Murphy Library and the UW-L Foundation to recognize notable contributions to the library’s mission, program, and purposes.

Dr. Gappa is a Professor in the English Department and teaches the children’s and adolescent literature courses on campus. He has been the primary force behind the development of a first-rate juvenile collection, which is housed in the Alice Hagar Curriculum Resource Center. These books make up one of the most highly used collections, certainly within the Curriculum Center, and throughout the library.

We welcome you to join us as we recognize his accomplishments at the Murphy Library Award Ceremony on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 7 p.m. in the ARC/Special Collections, Room 156 Murphy Library Resource Center.

Michele Strange, Access Services Librarian

A Survey to Evaluate the Quality of Library Service

Murphy Library will be conducting a web-based survey this spring in conjunction with other UW libraries. The survey is called LibQUAL+™ and evaluates library user perceptions of library service and collection quality. LibQUAL+™ was developed and extensively tested by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and has been used by hundreds of libraries since 2000. The data gathered from this study will benefit the library, university community, and the UW System as we explore ways to improve library services and ensure that we are setting appropriate priorities in our ongoing activities. In addition to learning how well the library measures up to the expectations of faculty, staff, and students, we will also learn how Murphy Library compares with the libraries of other UW institutions in terms of user satisfaction.

libqual From March 31st until April 18th, we'll be asking faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students to complete the web-based questionnaire of 44 items; completing the questionnaire should take no more than 10 minutes. Invitations asking for your help have already been sent via e-mail. As incentives to increase participation, those who complete the questionnaire and submit their e-mail address will be entered into a drawing for iPods, certificates for iTunes, pizza, and more.

Survey responses are processed separately from e-mail addresses, ensuring survey anonymity. Likewise, the e-mail addresses entered for the drawing will be processed through an ARL partner institution and then deleted, so Murphy Library employees will never have access to the email address file.

Murphy Library participated in LibQUAL+™ in 2004 and implemented many improvements suggested by the results of the study. Results of the 2004 study can be found at http://www.uwlax.edu/murphylibrary/libqual/2004/.

Please contact John Jax (jax.john@uwlax.edu or 785-8567) if you have questions or comments.

John Jax, Collection and Resource Development Librarian

Upcoming Events at the Library

STEM Teacher Resource Day

STEM Resource Day

What: Classroom teachers, LMC staff, reading specialists, special education teachers, administrators, and any others interested in teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math (STEM) topics at the PK-8 level are encouraged to participate.

When: Monday April 21, 2008. Choose from either of two identical sessions: 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 or 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Where: Alice Hagar Curriculum Center, Murphy Library

Registration: Registration and campus parking, is free but spaces are limited. RSVP by phone 785-8509 or email Tim Gerber gerber.dani@uwlax.edu to reserve a spot.

Hmong Resources for PK-Middle School

International Resources 2007

When: Wednesday, April 23, 2008 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Murphy Library

Where: Alice Hagar Curriculum Center, Murphy Library

What: “Books—New Immigrants - Embedding Hmong Culture and Literature in Schools.” With Presentations by: Karen Nelson Hoyle, Curator, Children's Literature Research Collections, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Pangjua Xiong, Hmong Programs Manager, English Language Learner Department, St. Paul Public Schools; Bounthavy Kiatoukaysy Thao, Hmong Community Specialist, English Language Learner Department, St. Paul Public Schools. Sponsored by Murphy Library and School of Education at UW-La Crosse. With refreshments, door prizes, and resource materials.

Registration: RSVP to Michele Strange at 608-785-8943 or strange.mich@uwlax.edu by April 11th.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Government-produced inform First Gov ation is highly valuable for academic research across many disciplines, including the social sciences, natural sciences, and business. Today, most information produced by the federal government is published online. How effective are popular free web search engines like Google at providing access to online government publications? What about the federal government’s own free web search engine, USA.gov?

Researchers at two nonprofit government watchdog organizations, OMB Watch and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), set out to answer this important question. You might find the answers surprising.

According to their analysis, “many important information sources within the federal government are essentially hidden from the very search engines that the public is most likely to use.” Indexes like Google and even USA.gov “miss critical information simply because of the manner in which the government agency has published the information.” Google Gov

The full report, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Why Important Government Information Cannot Be Found through Commercial Search Engines,” was released on December 13, 2007, and is available here (requires Adobe Reader).

Such analysis highlights the continued importance of the Federal Depository Library program, the long-standing partnership between the Government Printing Office and depository libraries such as Murphy Library. Our mandate is to help make the full range of public U.S. government information available and accessible to our local community. We maintain specialized collections and finding tools catered for this purpose. Plus, we continue to maintain staff expertise dedicated to supporting your access to the vast wealth of information produced by our government!

Michael Current, Government Information Public Services Librarian

Steamboat Images Go Live

History buffs, researchers, students and educators who share a fascination with steamboats have their first opportunity to view a portion of Murphy Library’s nationally significant historic steamboat photograph collection online. The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center (UWDCC) in Madison has digitized the first batch of steamboat photographs. After quality review by Murphy Library and UWDCC staff, the site went live and is now open to the public. Over 400 images are now available for online viewing at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/LaCrosseSteamboat/ UW La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photographs

The Murphy Library steamboat collection contains over 50,000 steamboat related images so these first 400 images are just the first drops in the proverbial bucket. The entire collection includes photos of individual steamboats from the 1850s to the present; images of steamboat captains, engineers, pilots, passengers and crews; city and town waterfronts; levees; locks and dams; and river-related activities such as fishing and swimming. This massive and multi-year digitization project has started by digitizing images of individual steamboats in alphabetical order by name of steamboat. The first 400 images online, then, are mostly of steamboats beginning with the letter “A.” Murphy Library staff have already compiled metadata and cataloged an additional 2,000 steamboat images, however, and sent them to the UWDCC for scanning. These will be added to the site in the forthcoming weeks.

Images of the Queen City (pictured above), Natchez, Rob’t. E. Lee, War Eagle and thousands of other steamboats will eventually be available online from around the world. Be on the outlook. Check the UWDC site frequently. Your patience will be rewarded!

Paul Beck, Special Collections/Area Research Center Librarian

Next-Generation Self Publishing

Amazon Kindle By now many people have heard of Amazon’s new wireless book and magazine reader, Kindle. Kindle costs about $400, holds hundreds of books, magazines, and newspapers, and is said to read more like a real book than other such devices. Its pros and cons have been frequently discussed in mainstream media during recent weeks.

Less frequently mentioned, but perhaps more significant, is Amazon’s self-publishing model – developed for the Kindle – called Digital Text Platform (http://dtp.amazon.com/) or DTP. Amazon’s DTP allows anyone to publish a book and then sell it to Kindle users. The entire process, from uploading to Kindle and being available for sale at Amazon.com’s Kindle Store can be done in about a day. The only requirements are to have a title, an author’s name, and content. The author suggests the initial price for the book, and Amazon keeps 65% of the purchase price for each copy sold. Authors retain rights to publish the title again in print format.

Amazon’s self-publishing model highlights the booming personal book-publishing trend. While Amazon’s platform is 100% digital, other companies have focused on print publishing, where new technology has made it easier to publish commercial-quality books in very small quantities. One company, Lulu (http://www.lulu.com), provides both print and electronic self publishing. Lulu allows authors to print everything from a single paperback book to electronic books, CDs, and videos. The cost to print a single copy of a 200-page 6 x 9 inch paperback book is about $8.50, with discounts for larger volumes. In addition, Lulu sells these books online, printing them on demand and collecting commissions as they sell.

While Lulu provides a publishing platform for a wide variety of media, Blurb (http://www.blurb.com) sticks to physical books. Blurb focuses on low-volume, bookstore-quality printing of art books, cookbooks, photo books, and poetry books, in addition to more traditional books. Blurb is more expensive than Lulu, but it still possible to print a single professional-quality book for as little as $12.95, and their free bookmaking software gives authors more design and formatting options up front.

All three of these self-publishing platforms make it possible for just about anyone to publish a work. They do not offer the same customization features as commercial printers, and their distribution and marketing models are completely different from commercial publishers, but they are filling a market that is growing significantly. In some ways, these products bring to books the same self-publishing opportunities seen in other online venues such as blogging, social networking and independent sharing of videos and music.

Stefan Smith, Outreach Librarian

The Fine Print

Thank you for reading The Fine Print, Murphy Library's electronic newsletter.

Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions to help us improve The Fine Print.

The Fine Print is published fall and spring terms for UW-La Crosse faculty, staff, students, and friends of Murphy Library.

Stefan Smith
Editor

Paul Beck
Department Chair

Anita Evans
Library Director

Murphy Library
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
1631 Pine Street
La Crosse, WI 54601

Good-bye, Johanna; Hello, Dirck!

Dirk Nagy After twenty years working in Circulation Services as Evening Supervisor, Johanna Stephenson retired on January 2, 2008. We all wish Johanna the best - she will be missed.

Taking her place is Dirck Nagy, who transferred from Memorial Library, UW-Madison. He joined the staff in mid-January and brings his expertise as Memorial Stacks Manager to the position. One of his duties at Murphy Library is stacks maintenance.

Dirck comes from Colorado. He has a Master’s in Music Theory and Composition and has taught at the university level. His performance concentration is classical guitar. Dirck is also certified as a ski instructor with the Professional Ski Instructors of America. He has been a ski racing coach, instructor trainer and ski instructor.

And, yes, he likes moles!