BC Libraries join elite company

(10-30-2000) The Boston College Libraries have been invited to join the Association of Research Libraries, which represent more than 120 of the major research libraries in North America. Based in Washington, D.C., the association acts as an advocate for research libraries while supporting innovation and improvement in their operations.

Membership in the major university category is extended to libraries that support comprehensive research collections and contribute to scholarship beyond their own universities. BC becomes one of 111 academic libraries in the association.

"Membership is important not only for the national recognition it affords, but for the leadership the association exercises in shaping the future of research libraries," said University Librarian Jerome Yavarkovsky.

"Numerous forces are affecting the role of research libraries in scholarly communication," he said.

"Participation in ARL is an opportunity to provide advocacy and education within the research community and in legislative circles regarding copyright, information and telecommunications policy, intellectual property issues, and support for federal programs of importance to research libraries.

"For example, it is very important that fair-use and other copyright doctrine be extended into the digital era, and that education and research be protected from the loss of intellectual property rights as networked commerce develops.

ARL is working to achieve these goals." The Boston College Libraries house 1.8 million volumes, nearly a million of them in the central research library, named for late US House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" OšNeill š36.

The Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections and the Bapst art library are among the noteworthy smaller libraries in the University system.