A New Way to Stay Current on Scholarship: Email or RSS Journal Alerts

When new issues of your favorite journals are published, would you like to receive the tables of contents automatically by e-mail or RSS? Now you can! To subscribe to e-mail or RSS alerts, search for your favorite journals in the Grinnell Journal Finder, then click on the "Subscribe to Alerts" link. This is a beta service, so we'd appreciate your feedback!

Grinnell College Libraries Self Study, 2008-2010

In 2008 the Libraries started a self study to identify our strengths, our weaknesses, and our key directions for the next several years. We were assisted by many faculty, students, and staff across campus. In April 2009, the Dean's Office hosted a pair of external reviewers who met with students, faculty, and staff to prepare their own report of assessment and recommendations. The Libraries submitted a formal response to the External Reviewer's report in April 2010.

We welcome responses to our original self-study located at http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/SelfStudy/index.html. Ongoing assessment of our services in light of changes at the College and in the larger higher-education, information services, and technology communities--and continuing conversation with students, faculty and staff--are fundamental to our becoming and remaining the library that Grinnell College deserves.

Update on Library Subscription Review (lists updated May 10)

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

We are nearing the end of our year-long review of the journals, magazines, newspapers, and databases to which the Libraries subscribe.

Periodic reviews are extremely useful to ensure that we are spending our money in a way that makes the greatest impact. In addition, the recent economic downturn that has caused reductions in the College budget gives this review even greater significance.

Over the past several months, your consulting librarian has worked with you and your colleagues to review the journal and database subscriptions associated with your department. Most departments have now recommended a list of journal and/or database subscriptions that could be canceled. In addition, departments have recommended journal titles that could move from print format to online-only. These savings will be used to initiate some new subscriptions (based on the recommendations you have made) and/or address a budget reduction for FY2010-2011, if there is one.

Departmental recommendations have been collated into two lists:

* Recommended journal and database subscription cancellations: http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/services/2010JournalandDatabaseCancellationsupdateMay10.pdf.

* Recommended changes to online-only: http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/services/2010journalsmovingonlineonlyupdateMay10.pdf. These titles would remain available as online subscriptions or through a pay-per-view service with the publisher (Elsevier or Wiley). Only the print portion of the subscription would end.

Please review these lists. We understand that many journals and databases are used by multiple departments, and we may have missed a key constituency for one of the titles proposed for cancellation. If you believe, based on your use of a journal or database, that a title should be removed from one of the lists, please send a note to your department's consulting librarian (http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/research/consultinglibs/). You may contact me or your consulting librarian with any questions about the process.

As feedback comes in, we will post updated lists on approximately a weekly basis.

The deadline for your recommendations is Wednesday, May 5.

I want to thank you for your patience, care, and hard work during this process. Our goal is to create a collection of subscriptions that uses our budget to best match your interests and your students’.

-- Richard Fyffe

Spring 2010 Events Hosted by the Libraries

Come join us for Wednesday Nights @ Burling, a series of events that showcase the talents of local writers, singers, and musicians!

February 24, 4:30 p.m.
Open Information Culture and Its Limits: A Faculty-Student Panel

Featuring: Matt Horowitz ‘10, Matthew Kluber, Associate Professor of Art, John Stone, Lecturer in Computer Science, Gregg Whitworth, Assistant Professor of Biology, Richard Fyffe, Rosenthal Librarian of the College.

Exploring questions like: Do operating systems have politics? If knowledge, information, and culture can be freely distributed, should they be? What good does copyright do? If it’s all free on the Web, why should anyone pay?

Sponsored by the Rosenfield Program Working Group on Information & Society

Location: Burling Northwest Corner, First Floor

February 24, 7:45 p.m.
Will Freeman reads from his memoir, "Great Thunder's Lessons"
Location: Burling Northwest Corner, First Floor

March 3, 7:45 p.m.
Open Mic: Poetry, Music, Prose
Location: Faulconer Gallery

March 10, 7:45 p.m.
Harley McIlrath reads from his short story, "Memo from the Director of the Center for Prairie Studies"
Location: Burling Northwest Corner, First Floor

April 21, 7:45 p.m.
Molly Rideout, Lawrence Sumalong, Paul Bellora, and Lucy Schiller read from their poetry and fiction
Location: Burling Northwest Corner, First Floor

April 28, 7:45 p.m.
Open Mic: Poetry, Music, Prose
Location: Faulconer Gallery

April 29, ALL DAY
National Poem in Your Pocket Day!
Pick up, carry around, share poetry
Poems available at Burling, Kistle, and JRC