This month kept all of us very busy in the Libraries providing services to our many library users while finalizing our Unit Plan and budget needs for the 1998-99 academic year. This process comes to closure next month. The Unit Plan (now available on the Libraries’ Intranet) is due to the Provost April 3 and will be followed by budget discussions. Again, much appreciation goes to Mark Paul for setting up the intranet documents for all of us.

We have sent a memo outlining recommendations (25%) from the Security Audit which need to be addressed by Physical Plant. Meanwhile, we are assessing how to address the other 75% of the recommendations.

The SAALCK (State Assisted Academic Library Council of Kentucky) continues to work intensively on the proposals for the Virtual Library. The Council on Post-Secondary Education (CPE) will bring in a consultant, William Potter from the University of Georgia, to assess the libraries’ proposal for possible funding in the next fiscal year. CPE is appointing a new advisory group on the Commonwealth Virtual Library, chaired by Jim Nelson, State Librarian and Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives. Miko Pattie from the University of Kentucky is now under contract to work for CPE as project manager for the Virtual Library. Although we are hoping to receive f unding for this project, we must all realize that this is a highly competitive environment.

We are working with Endeavor Information Systems, Inc and have sent them a Letter of Intent so we can get in the queue for implementation. We are still hard at work with our very supportive administration to secure funding for the new system.

I would like to again express appreciation to all of you for the excellent work you are doing to move the Libraries forward. It seems that we are on the right track with our fine Information Literacy Program, the Library Liaison Program and our move toward integrating electronic information into the libraries and the curriculum. It was my privilege recently to work with librarians from the Appalachian College Association who, with the support of the Mellon Foundation, are integrating the JSTOR database into their libraries and striving to become leaders in their new learning communities on campus. That experience proved to me that many academic librarians are working on goals similar to ours and are beginning to look at us for guidance and help.

--Hannelore Rader, University Librarian