ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication Provides Free Online Resources

The ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication has engaged hundreds
of librarians in developing campus outreach programs around scholarly
communication issues. To continue supporting this community and other
libraries planning outreach programs, ARL's newest study Scholarly
Communication Education Initiatives, SPEC Kit 299, is now freely
available online through the FAIR (Freely Accessible Institute
Resources) Web site at http://www.arl.org/sc/institute/instres.shtml.

In addition to a PDF of the complete report, the Web site offers a PDF
of the table of contents and executive summary, and a supplementary page
listing the Web-based resources included in the SPEC Kit with active
links. The SPEC Kit can also be purchased in print form; visit
http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/spec/ for information.

Written by alumni of the ARL/ACRL Institute on Scholarly Communication,
Kathleen A. Newman, Deborah D. Blecic, and Kimberly L. Armstrong, the
study provides a survey of outreach activities among ARL member
libraries and gathers examples of documentation from respondents in the
form of proposals for education initiatives, scholarly communication and
copyright Web pages, job descriptions, and education materials.

The FAIR Web site offers other valuable resources for those planning and
conducting scholarly communication outreach programs on their campuses,
such as two particularly popular tools created for the Institute for use
under a Creative Commons Share Alike License. The posted "Environmental
Scan Exercise" is used by participants in the three-day Institute events
to assess their campus' climate, past outreach activities, and readiness
for program development prior to their arrival at the meeting. Institute
faculty member Lee Van Orsdel has created an "Opportunity Assessment
Instrument" that provides a framework for collecting data on academic
departments. In addition to using the instrument to learn about
individual departments, some Institute alumni are using a customized
version of this tool for a cross-campus survey.

While the FAIR Web site does not publish all of the resources used
during the Institute's planning events, it provides a place for
Institute faculty and alumni to share selected outreach tools that they
develop.