The University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center and Human Rights Institute is hosting a symposium entitled “Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Transforming Ideas into Practice,” March 3–4, 2008. Cosponsored by CRL’s Global Resources Network and Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research, the conference will bring together archivists, librarians, and human rights scholars together to address specific needs and unique issues in human rights documentation and to create strategies for the future.

Members of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP) now have the option of subscribing to the Americas Barometer Surveys, produced by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). LAPOP has developed a treasure trove of public opinion surveys about political attitudes and behaviors through years of polling in Latin America and the Caribbean. These surveys are of great interest to social scientists, Latin Americanists, government officials, civil society organizations, and interested citizens.

Videos of conference presentations are available on Columbia University’s web site.

Sponsored by CRL's Global Resources Network, Columbia University’s Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research, and the University of Texas Libraries, the conference  focused on "Human Rights Archives and Documentation: Meeting the Needs of Research, Teaching, Advocacy, and Justice," and was held at Columbia University’s Kellogg Conference Center in New York City.

The Center for Research Libraries has digitized the initial 10 years (1908-17) of Dziennik Zwiazkowy, a Polish-language newspaper published in Chicago, and is making it Internet-accessible to researchers at CRL member institutions and a number of Illinois public libraries as part of CRL’s growing corpus of electronic resources. See Digital Collections.

CRL's work with the Digital Curation Center (DCC), nestor, and Digital Preservation Europe has resulted in a joint nomination for an award by the UK's Institute of Conservation for extraordinary work in the field of conservation.

CRL has been awarded a $350,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation and Access grant to support the next phase of the International Coalition on Newspapers (ICON) project.

This issue highlights recent activities of the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP). Articles describe the portal that provides access to social science reports from Peru and other countries, and the advantages and examples of the distributed collecting efforts of LARRP.

A report analyzing Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member library cataloging data in the OCLC WorldCat database presents evidence of changing patterns of collecting books with foreign imprints. This analysis of book records and holdings in WorldCat finds that the overlap of global book collections among ARL libraries is not as extensive as expected. The analysis found that, on average: • For all countries combined, fewer than five ARL libraries own copies of any foreign-imprint book represented in WorldCat.

CRL is pleased to announce the results of this year's Shared Purchase Program.

During the next six months, CRL will upgrade its integrated library system (ILS) from a character-based legacy system to Innovative Interfaces’s Millennium. The upgrade will advance CRL’s digital delivery effort and the strategic directions adopted by the Board.

The Center for Research Libraries is pleased to announce the FY2007 Shared Purchase Program.

Mark your calendar: CRL's upcoming Annual Council of Voting Members is scheduled for April 19-20th in Chicago.

This issue highlights CRL resources and activities in support of scholarly research on Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The articles include a profile of the Slavic and East European Microform Project (SEEMP); human rights activities that document recent conflicts in the region; and highlights of CRL collections and resources that support research and teaching.

The Latin American Microform Project (LAMP) has acquired the microfilm of the oldest daily newspaper of Sao Paulo, for Jan 1, 1929–July 31, 1963.

Nominations are being accepted for next year’s Purchase Proposal Ballot via the online nomination page. The user name and password have been sent to each institution’s Purchase Proposal contact.

CRL contributed the 71 millionth record to the Online Computer Library Center’s WorldCat catalog and received a "Gold Record" plaque to mark the event.

The Center for Research Libraries announces the FY2007 Purchase Proposal Ballot. CRL is pleased to share a detailed list of items on this year's Purchase Proposal Ballot. Voting members have until November 17, 2006 to return their ballot. If you have questions about the Purchase Proposal Program, please contact Mary Wilke.

The Fall 2006 Focus newsletter highlights the International Coalition on Newspapers and marks the 50th Anniversary of the Foreign Newspaper Microfilm Project. Also: news aggregators, news archiving, and recent CRL acquisitions.

MARC 21 electronic records from CRL's catalog are now available for downloading. All of these records are free of charge to our members.