Category: Research

The augmented personnel committee of the school of Information Studies has voted in favor of Lankes’ tenure and promotion to associate professor!

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has announced an award of $994,369 to a team of researchers at University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, Syracuse University, SLA, ARL and ASIS&T for a national research study on the future of librarians in the workforce. The two-year study will identify the nature of anticipated labor shortages in the library and information science (LIS) field over the next decade; assess the number and types of library and information science jobs that will become available in the U.S. either through retirement or new job creation; determine the skills that will be required to fill such vacancies; and recommend effective approaches to recruiting and retaining workers to fill them.

The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science has invited Lankes to be a provisional member of a TRB study into transportation information infrastructure. The study will:

“…provide strategic advice to the federal government and the states regarding a sustainable administrative structure and funding mechanism for meeting the information services needs of the transportation sector. The committee will define the core services that need to be provided, identify how they should be provided, and suggest options for funding.”

There is a long tradition of scientists â??going to the benchâ?? to conduct hands on experiments to flesh out a theory and gain invaluable empirical evidence. In that light, Lankes launches a new feature on his website, the Research Workbench. This section of the site will provide access to ongoing experiments and ideas in their very earliest stages.

This area is part of Lankesâ?? â??open effortâ?? initiative. The workbench, in conjunction with â??Ideaâ?? postings to his blog are attempts to share ideas at their earliest stages of development with the research and practice communities. The hope is to spur ongoing conversations about digital library and digital reference research and development.

Currently â??on the benchâ?? are the Bibliomancer, a digital reference based search engine, and information on the Bibliocasting podcasting listserv.

All ERIC Clearinghouses are in the final year of their 5-year contracts. The U.S. Department of Education has released a draft RFP (request for proposals) that outlines the scope of work for the ERIC system beginning January 2004. According to the draft, all Clearinghouses will be eliminated, and their indexing and abstracting functions will be centralized.

This Clearinghouse’s website, publications program, and user-support services will cease to exist, and the new contractor will launch a new website with a bibliographic and full-text database search engine.

You may view the draft RFP during a public-comment period that ends May 9, 2003, at: http://www.eps.gov/spg/ED/OCFO/CPO/Reference%2DNumber%2DERIC2003/listing.html

You may address comments to:
Jeff Halsted, Contract Specialist
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: (202) 708-8283
Fax: (202) 708-9817
U.S. Mail: U.S. Department of Education
Contracts and Purchasing Operations
Regional Office Building, Room 3069
7th and D Streets, SW
Washington, DC, 20202

Also, please contact your congress person asking them to preserve ERIC.