The Fate of Artifacts: CLIR Task Force Invites Comment
A task force of scholars and librarians sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources has been investigating the crucial preservation and access issues that face artifactual collections—the information that is recorded on physical media and that forms the bedrock of evidence upon which scholarship and teaching have been built for centuries.
The task force has produced a draft report, The Evidence in Hand: Report of the Task Force on the Artifact in Library Collections, and is inviting interested members of the research community to comment and help shape the recommendations and outcomes of its work. The report is designed to advise academic officers, funders, library administrators, government funding bodies, and scholars on what is at stake as library and archival collections age and as demands to build digital services and collections threaten to eclipse the continued need for core preservation investments. The report can be found at https://www.clir.org, and the review period runs until June 10, 2001.
Campus Equity Week to Be Launched
Campus Equity Week is an international week of coordinated actions focused on the issues of part-time and contract faculty. The week, planned for October 28–November 3, 2001, is designed to educate, stimulate local organizing, and raise the issue nationally and locally in media and policy circles. Much of what actually takes place will be up to the local area. On most campuses, administrations are expected to be addressed, and in a few places legislatures; but faculty and students will be the primary audience. Equity Week was initiated at the COCAL IV conference in San Jose during January 2001. A provisional steering committee is in formation and funding is being sought. A packet of materials for the week will be produced by the committee and distributed by a network of regional coordinators. At present the steering committee has both individual faculty and members representing local chapters of the American Association of University Professors, American Federation of Teachers, CAUT, California Part-Time Faculty Association (CPFA), Concordia University Part-Time Faculty Association (CUPFA), CWA and the National Educational Association.
The Equity Week has been endorsed by the following organizations: AAUP National Committee on Part-time and Nontenure-Track Appointments, CPFA, National Alliance for Fair Employment, University of California Council of the AFT Coalition of Contingent Academic Labor (COCAL) Conference on College Composition and Communication (4C’s), and CUPFA.
