Digital publishing, especially in the academic arena, has opened the door for some collaborative efforts that have increased the reach and productivity of many of the tools that schools and libraries consistently use. Bowker and ebrary, both ProQuest companies or affiliates, have teamed up with the ALA’s academic library review Choice in order to improve the accessibility and capability of RCL.
The Resources for College Libraries, or RCL, was first developed in 2006 as a collection of titles based off the American Library Association’s classic reference work, Books for College Libraries (BCL), which features over 85,000 titles across 117 subject areas.
“The combination of Choice’s content and Bowker’s technological expertise have made RCL an essential and easy-to-use tool for academic collection development,” said Kevin Sayar, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, ProQuest Workflow Solutions. “Via the ebrary platform, we’re enabling RCL to directly enhance the research environment by streamlining access to essential titles.”
According to a press release on the collaboration this week, “Via Bowker, the RCL interface has been updated with a simpler browse function, faster search results and improved mobile access through Bowker’s BookWire app, which enables subscribers to login to access book details and add titles to selected lists from any location. RCL also includes RSS feeds for new titles, dynamic facets to help refine search. Content includes the full text of Choice reviews and easy identifiers for Choice Outstanding Academic Titles.”
The free Bookwire mobile device app lets users search for vital book information by scanning the book’s barcode or by searching by book data, then saving the information or completing the book purchase.
Under the Bowker subscription option, libraries have three choices on content from the RCL. The traditional RCL contains its standard and well-recognized number and quality of content, the RCL: Career Resources subscription–which features nearly five thousand titles in vocational, technical, and career programs for two-year and four-year colleges–and a combination of both the RCL and the RCL:CR.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.