TCL Goes to Washington

Alexander Street’s Customer Appreciation breakfast featuring Dr. James McPherson Sunday June 24

This is a rather large event.  An estimated 400 librarians were there.  By my estimation, at least 250 were interested in more than just the food.  A surprising number left before Dr. McPherson’s comments, which was my main interest (although the fruit selection was pretty good.)

Alexander Street used the occasion to talk about some of their forthcoming products, including a Civil War suite of products which looked interesting.

McPherson is a noted Civil War historian. His book Battle Cry of Freedom is part of the The Oxford history of the United States and is available through the ALCS Humanities E-Book project (connect through the catalog.)  He described the Civil War as competing views of freedom as seen through two different social structures.  

Both presentations are available to view (but not eat) at:

http://alexanderstreet.com/events/ala07.htm

Portico enlists publishers to agree to provide continued access to ejournals even if the publisher goes out of business. (http://www.portico.org/) USC-Columbia is a participating library. In all, 362 libraries participate.  Our annual cost to participate is $8050.00/yr.

This was Portico’s 2^nd all participants meeting. 

Presenters were: Anne Kenney, Interim University Librarian, Cornell University Library and Richard Fyffe, Librarian of the College, Grinnell College.

After the presentations we got an update from Eileen Fenton, Portico’s Executive Director.  (more…)