December 2004
The Global Resources Network (GRN) is a joint initiative of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The AAU/ARL Global Resources Network (GRN) has embraced two main goals. GRN will expand access to international resources not currently available to North American students and scholars, in the first instance through discrete projects that focus on significantly expanding the depth, breadth, quantity, range of formats, and variety of international information resources available to our students and scholars. A parallel effort will make our dispersed collections more interdependent and complementary through coordinated acquisitions that are combined with powerful systems for access, discovery, presentation, and delivery.
To advance these goals, ARL and a subset of member libraries provide the base budget for the Global Resources Network; AAU is building awareness and support for inter-institutional commitments to GRN from university leaders; and, together, AAU and ARL have entered into a strategic partnership with the Center for Research Libraries in order to ensure administrative support for those GRN projects that seek such assistance, and also to promote synergies across all GRN projects. Individual GRN projects are also pursuing the goals of GRN, supported by grants, fees, contributions, or a combination of funding strategies.
Based on discussions at the May ARL Membership Meeting, 2005 GRN activities will continue to be supported by modest ARL dues support, supplemented by voluntary contributions. As of December 1 st , 66 member representatives have agreed to make voluntary contributions to support GRN program activities in 2005. The amount of the contribution requested is $1,500. ARL will issue invoices in December.
Activities in 2004 are summarized below under each of the three short-term priority activities.
1. Coordinating international acquisitions and access to expand overall coverage and reduce unnecessary duplication.
Documenting the Need.
GRN is working with the OCLC Office of Research to develop GIS-based
maps that graphically represent collections overlap, by country and
region, within North American libraries. OCLC has produced a sample
of records from the WorldCat database. Preliminary analysis was undertaken
on the holdings of several of the regional areas. Records in the sample
are now being re-analyzed using the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic
Records (FRBR) to bring together similar works and minimize "duplicate"
records from the sample. OCLC is also developing prototype maps that
will highlight the holdings by research libraries as well as the countries
and regions whose information output is underrepresented in our library
holdings. The maps may highlight country and regional priorities for
targeted cooperative action. We expect this effort to be completed by
the end of the year.
Outreach to Faculty and Other Users.
Alice Prochaska and her colleagues at Yale's Center for International
and Area Studies are leading the GRN effort to develop a prototype for
an outreach summit on scholarly uses of international resources, how
these may be changing, the consequences in terms of collections gaps
and resource needs, and the ways in which GRN might respond. The forum
will be held on March 24-25, 2005 in conjunction with a meeting of the
AAU/ARL Global Resources Advisory Committee.
Modeling the Network.
Work on articulating requirements and launching prototypes for cooperative
international collection development using three models has not yet
begun. We plan to develop the discussion documents that detail the prerequisites,
procedures, and outcomes associated with the three models by the end
of 2004.
2. Enhancing the scale, scope, and effectiveness of GRN projects.
New Roles for the Center for Research Libraries (CRL).
In 2003, ARL members called for closer ties between the GRN and CRL
and in the spring of 2004, the Boards of ARL and CRL agreed on the terms
that CRL would assume administrative responsibility for GRN projects
that seek such support. The transfer of the administration of the German
Resources Project and the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project
from ARL to CRL is moving smoothly. Most of the electronic discussion
lists and project-specific web pages have migrated to CRL. The Center
expects to hire the part-time staff person shortly. The Center issued
the first GRN newsletter in October. The newsletter may be found at
http://www.crl.edu/PDF/GRN-fall-04.pdf/.
A Global Plenary.
The Center for Research Libraries hosted a meeting of leaders of GRN
and the six projects. The April 26, 2004 meeting identified areas of
interest and potential overlap in several areas. A summary of the meeting
may be found at http://www.arl.org/collect/grp/GRNmtg042604.html/.
Project Fees.
The GRN Advisory Committee and the ARL Board of Directors endorsed the
"AAU/ARL Global Resources Network and the Global Resources Projects:
Principles for Participation and Fees" in the spring of 2004. That
document permits individual projects to implement annual participant
fees of about $1,000. The Latin Americanist Project has delayed implementing
a project fee until after ARL's call for voluntary contributions for
GRN activities in 2005. CRL's administrative support of the German Project
has resulted in the leadership of the German Project to defer a decision
on project fees.
New Projects.
Given the current levels of contributions and reallocation of ARL dues
support, the GRN budget does not include any funds to support new projects.
Depending on the level of contributions for 2005 GRN activities and
the results of the mapping project, areas for new projects may be identified
and launched, if external funding is secured.
3. Managing and Growing the Global Resources Network.
Establishing a Steering Committee.
A GRN Steering Committee was formed to guide implementation of the GRN.
Members include Barbara Allen, CIC; Bernie Reilly, CRL; John Vaughn,
AAU; Duane Webster, ARL; and Eudora Loh, GRN Project Director.
Securing External Support.
GRN's 2004 activities are based on voluntary contributions from 75 ARL
member institutions and remaining funds from the transition funding
contributed by the nine ARL member institutions in 2003. GRN contributions
have supported the Global Plenary meeting for the six projects, support
for meetings and representation by the GRN Director, and the CRL administrative
expenses for two GRN projects. The ARL dues allocation supports the
Visiting Program Officer and logistical support at ARL. GRN remains
interested in exploring possibilities for external support, particularly
via foundation grants.
AAU/ARL Global Resources Network Advisory Committee Members
Barbara Allen, Committee on Institutional Cooperation,Chair Carolyn Brown, Library of Congress
Jean-Pierre Cóté, Université de Montréal
Bill Gosling, University of Michigan
Richard Herring, University of Pennsylvania
John Hudzik, Michigan State University
Stan Katz, Princeton University
Paula Kaufman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Peter Lange, Duke University
Jim Nye, University of Chicago
Louis Pitschmann, University of Alabama
Alice Prochaska, Yale University
Bernard Reilly, Center for Research Libraries
Betsy Wilson, University of Washington
Pauline Yu, American Council of Learned Societies
Liaisons:
Eudora Loh, GRN Director/UCLA [dora at arl.org]
Mary Jackson, Director of ARL Collections and Access Programs
John Vaughn, Association of American Universities
Duane Webster, Association of Research Libraries
Libraries Contributing Bridge Funding to the AAU/ARL Global Resources
Network in 2004 and 2005
As of December 1, 2004
Arizona State University #
Boston College #
Brigham Young University
Brown University #
Case Western University
Center for Research Libraries
Columbia University
Cornell University #
Duke University #
Emory University #
Florida State University
Georgetown University #
Georgia Tech University #
Harvard University #
Indiana University #
Laval University #
Library of Congress
McGill University #
Michigan State University #
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine
New York Public Library #
New York University #
Northwestern University #
Ohio State University #
Ohio University #
Pennsylvania State University #
Princeton University #
Rutgers University #
Texas A&M University #
Texas Tech University
Tulane University #
Université de Montréal #
University of Alabama #
University at Albany, SUNY #
University of Alberta #
University of Arizona *
University at Buffalo, SUNY #
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Irvine #
University of California, Los Angeles #
University of California, San Diego #
University of California, Santa Barbara #
University of Chicago
University of Cincinnati #
University of Colorado #
University of Connecticut #
University of Delaware #
University of Florida *
University of Guelph #
University of Hawaii at Manoa #
University of Illinois at Chicago *
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign #
University of Iowa #
University of Kansas #
University of Kentucky #
University of Louisville #
University of Massachusetts *
University of Michigan #
University of Minnesota #
University of Missouri-Columbia #
University of Nebraska-Lincoln #
University of New Mexico #
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill #
University of Notre Dame #
University of Oklahoma #
University of Pennsylvania #
University of Pittsburgh #
University of Southern California *
University of Tennessee #
University of Texas at Austin #
University of Toronto #
University of Utah
University of Washington #
University of Wisconsin
Vanderbilt University #
Washington State University
Washington University at St. Louis #
Yale University #
York University
# = 2004 & 2005 contribution
* = 2005 contribution
