University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 33, May 29

                            In the library
          Albert Neal coordinates electronic reserve service
     
     This semester, students in 25 classes had Albert Neal
to thank when they found themselves in desperate need of
reserved course materials at 3 a.m. Thanks to Neal, even
when the library is closed, reserved course material for
some classes is available.
     As coordinator of circulation and reserves, Neal is in
charge of the Electronic Library Course Reserves system, the
Morris Library's project that makes digitally scanned copies
of articles available to students via the World Wide Web.
     Any student with a UD internet account and Adobe
Acrobat software can access the reserves.
     During its pilot phase last year, reserved materials
for seven classes were available on the web, Neal said. The
program is growing increasingly popular and, this semester,
materials for 25 classes were available electronically, he
explained. Many more are anticipated in the fall.
     "The numbers are increasing substantially," Neal said.
"The Department of Communication, and the colleges of
Education and Nursing are leading the way."
     Professors who decide to take advantage of the service,
must provide Neal with the cleanest copies of material
available. He scans materials, creates html documents, puts
them into a server and voila!- the material is ready for
view.
     No more having to wait until the library is open or
walking over and keeping your fingers crossed that no one
else from the class is already using material on reserve.
     Currently, with copyright laws still what Neal calls
"foggy" in the area of electronic media, the course material
that can be found on the web is pretty
straightforward-copies of articles, book chapters, etc. Once
copyright laws are more defined, Neal said he sees all sorts
of possibilities for multimedia presentations and animation.
     And, while you won't find Neal singing in the stacks,
he says his job keeps him happy enough to sing. A former
regional finalist in a competition sponsored by the
Metropolitan Opera and a participant in voice competitions
in Geneva, the tenor jumped right into the local performing
scene appearing as King Caspar in the Newark Methodist
Church's January performance of Amal and the Night Visitors.
He also appeared this spring in recital with Marie Robinson,
associate professor of music.
     Music, music libraries and eventually university
libraries have always been intertwined in Neal's life. He
holds a bachelor's degree in music and theatre and a
master's degree in vocal performance, both from Indiana
University. His most recent degree is a second master's,
this one in library studies, from Rutgers University.
     "When I was working on my first master's degree, I went
from student employee to assistant supervisor to supervisor
of the record library at Indiana University," he said.
     After graduation, he moved to New York City and began
pounding the pavement looking for singing jobs.
     "Although I did concerts around the country, it wasn't
very lucrative, and I ended up working as a library
specialist in music at Columbia University to support
myself," Neal said. "In 1994, I decided I had been working
in libraries long enough and that the time had come to get a
professional degree. I got a fellowship to Rutgers."
     The job at UD followed.
     Although Neal had never worked in electronic reserves,
he said he always knew his library career would be a
visible, meet-the-public one. "It's part of the performer in
me. I enjoy people."
     One reason his current position intrigued him is that
he has "no fear of computers," he said. "I'm one of those
people who's not afraid to sit and pick."
     Neal will be presenting a workshop on the electronic
reserves system for the Teaching, Learning and Technology
Summer Institute sponsored by the Center for Teaching
Effectiveness in June.
     He's also currently rehearsing for a Handel oratoria to
be performed in New York City.
                                                -Beth Thomas