New Site from CIC

I'm pleased to announce an opportunity for faculty members and librarians at Council of Independent Colleges member institutions to participate in a new partnership between CIC and the Harvard University Library in relation to its Open Collections Program (OCP).

The OCP is an effort of the Harvard University Library (representing the largest
academic library system in the world with 15.39 million volumes, 8 million
photographs, and millions of manuscript pages). OCP is creating
subject-specific digital collections, drawn from Harvard libraries, archives,
and museums, and making them available freely on the Internet. The goals of the
Open Collections Program are to increase the availability and use of selected
materials from Harvard's historical resources for teaching, learning, and
research, and to facilitate multi-institutional sharing and use of high-quality
digital resources.

The inaugural OCP project, which is on "Women Working: 1800-1930," is now
available at http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww. This collection consists of 3,500
fully-digitized versions of books, pamphlets, and consumer trade catalogs;
7,500 pages of manuscripts, and 1,100 photographs from Harvard's libraries,
archives, and museums, focusing on women's roles in the U.S. economy between
the early 19th century and the Great Depression and selected by Harvard's
faculty, librarians, and bibliographers. Working conditions, statistics,
conditions in the home, costs of living, recreation, health and hygiene,
conduct of life, policies and regulations governing the workplace, and social
issues are all well-documented in the carefully selected materials.

Because these materials correspond to subjects that are commonly taught in
undergraduate colleges, across the country, and around the world, individual
faculty members can draw upon this material for course syllabi, as well as for
their own research and for student projects.

Digital collections on other topics are under development. The next collection,
focusing on immigration to the United States between the American Revolution
and the Great Depression, should be available in the coming year.

While any individual can access Harvard's OCP website, CIC's new partnership
with the University Library will permit faculty members and librarians at our
member colleges to join a special OCP-related listserv through which faculty
members can exchange views on their experiences in the use of the materials,
and consult with librarians and faculty members at a range of colleges and
universities. Harvard's OCP librarians will also participate in the listserv
and will welcome feedback from CIC members about the usefulness of materials
and suggestions for future OCP developments.

There is no fee or subscription charge for a CIC member to join the CIC/OCP
Partnership. Will you please forward this message to all faculty members and
librarians at your institution who are likely to be interested in the OCP? They
can subscribe directly from their office or home computers. For example, the
first project on "Women Working" will likely be of interest to faculty members
in such fields as history, sociology, economics, business, and women's studies.
Interested individuals should send an e-mail with "subscribe ocp-cic" in the
body of the message to majordomo@hulmail.harvard.edu by September 30, 2005.

At a time when library resources are stretched and no college can collect
everything, Harvard's OCP offers CIC member institutions a way to expand the
materials available to students, faculty members, and librarians. Through the
CIC/OCP Partnership, our members will also benefit from expert assistance in
making effective use of these materials.