Greetings from snowy Central New York! I don't think that any part of the ENY/ACRL region has escaped this January's winter wonderland. But we can all look forward to better things ahead, particularly the ENY/ACRL Spring 2004 Conference, which will be held at Skidmore College in beautiful Saratoga on May 17. Program Chair Inga Barnello and her Committee are busy finalizing plans for what promises to be an outstanding conference.
The ENY/ACRL Board of Directors met at Hamilton College on January 22. The entire Board was able to be present, and each officer and committee chair presented a report. The Chapter is in very sound financial shape, which will enable us to continue sponsoring outstanding conferences at reasonable cost. Vice-President Inga Barnello gave a report on the Chapters Council meeting at ALA Midwinter at which she represented our Council.
I know you have been asking yourself, "How can I become more involved in ENY/ACRL? I just love that organization!" Well, there are many answers to that question. Among them are: put your name forward to serve as a Chapter Officer or Committee Chair. Volunteer to serve on a Chapter Committee. Apply for a Janice Newkirk Research Award. Nominate someone for the Librarian of the Year award. Information on all these possibilities can be found on the Chapter web site at enyacrl.org, or you can contact me (mclane@clrc.org) or Past President Kristin Strohmeyer (kstrohme@hamilton.edu). The Chapter thrives on member input and participation.
Finally, I want to remind you that the 12th ACRL National Conference will be held April 7-10, 2005 in Minneapolis. We have been asked by ACRL to encourage our members to submit proposals for presentations, panel sessions, poster sessions, etc. for the Conference in one of seven conference tracks. Among them are Teaching and Learning, Changing Environments and Cultures, and Managing Electronic and Digital Information. Additional information and proposal forms can be found on the ACRL website at www.acrl.org. Best wishes for an enjoyable and productive semester. I hope to see you all at Skidmore on May 17th!
The Executive Council voted at its January meeting to lower the registration fee for members from $35.00 to $30.00. Treasurer Sheldon Wein reported on the Chapter's finances and urged consideration of using its resources to better fund conferences. In keeping with the Chapter's main objective of offering affordable conferences, the officers believe that support for the professional development of its members should benefit from the Chapter's excellent financial condition.
Controlling Chaos: Harnessing Digital Collections Monday, May 17, 2004 at Skidmore College. Save the date! James Neal (Columbia University) will be the keynote speaker at the spring conference in beautiful Saratoga County New York. There will be a dinner on Sunday evening for those arriving the day before the conference. Details soon via the web page.
Professional Development Offered by ACRL ACRL's professional development programs help you keep up with the changing nature of higher education and academic and research librarianship. Complete details are online at www.ala.org/acrl/events .
12th National Conference Call for Papers Share your ideas with a national audience! ACRL's National Conference Executive Committee invites you to submit a proposal for the 12th National Conference, "Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change," to be held in Minneapolis, April 7-10, 2005. The conference will focus on the increased emphasis on interdisciplinary research and technology, which has librarians constantly "Navigating the Rivers of Change" to provide information access that connects people and resources in new ways.
ACRL seeks the best ideas in our profession and invites proposal submissions for contributed papers, panel sessions, workshops, poster sessions, pre-conferences, and roundtable discussions. Full text of the Call for Participation is available at the ACRL National Conference Web site at www.acrl.org/minneapolis. The Call also appears as an insert in the November 2003 issue of C&RL News.
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ENY-ACRL Member Running for ACRL Board Member at Large Past President and recent ENY-ACRL Librarian of the Year Award recipient Lynne King is running for election to the position of Member At Large on the ACRL Executive Board. Please watch for your American Library Association annual ballot and don't forget the ACRL elections as well. Lynne, formerly of Sage Colleges, was recently appointed director of Schenectady County Community College. Congratulations, Lynne!
Online Balloting in 2004 In the 2004 elections, ALA will introduce online voting. Electronic ballot information will be transmitted to all ALA members with valid email addresses in March 2004. As with the paper ballot, members will be able to vote for ALA officers, councilors, and division and roundtable officers via the election web site. ALA members without valid email addresses on file and members who prefer to vote via paper ballot will receive materials by mail.
NOMINATION DEADLINE, March 15, 2004
Help us honor a deserving colleague. Do you know someone who is an outstanding member of the chapter and whose contributions have benefited the chapter and our profession? We are currently seeking nominations for the annual ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year Award. The Librarian of the Year Award is in recognition of an ENY/ACRL member who has exhibited a dedication to fulfilling the ACRL mission and furthering the goals and objectives of ACRL and ENY/ACRL in particular. The award includes a plaque and a $250 honorarium, which will be presented to this year's winner at ENY/ACRL's spring conference in May of 2004.
Previous ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year Award recipients are:
ENY/ACRL covers a wide geographic region and the Nominations Committee relies on suggestions from members for this important award. Please take a few moments to consider nominating a colleague. The nomination form is available on the ENY/ACRL website at www.enyacrl.org/loy.html .
Completed Nomination forms should be sent to:
Wanted: Board of Directors Candidates Looking for a few good people who are willing to work for free, want to work with talented and dedicated librarians from throughout the region, enjoy a good meal at the pre-conference dinner, and are willing to run for one of the following ENY/ACRL Board of Directors positions:
§ Vice-President/Program Chair/President Elect (3yr. Term) Year One - Oversees the planning process for the fall and spring conferences, locates host institutions, contacts speakers, prepares publicity, and prepares conference budget. Convenes meetings of the program committee as necessary (generally 3 times per year) to develop conference themes. May represent chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council Meeting at ALA (midwinter and summer). Year Two - Serves as official spokesperson for the chapter and as chair of the Board of Directors. Represents (or designates someone to represent) chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council meetings at ALA midwinter and annual conferences. Year Three - Solicits nominations and conducts elections for chapter Board of Directors, and serves as Chair of the Librarian of the Year Award Selection Committee. May represent chapter at the ACRL Chapters Council Meeting at ALA (midwinter and summer).
§ Government Relations Chair (2yr. Term) Monitors legislative and other governmental activities of importance to academic libraries; coordinates activities with the legislative and governmental affairs committees of other library organizations; serves as liaison to the ACRL Government Relations Committee.
§ Membership Chair (2yr. Term) Solicits memberships for chapter, maintains membership database, supplys mailing labels as needed, publishes the annual chapter directory, and interacts with campus liaisons. Knowledge of Filemaker Pro software helpful. Chapter will purchase the program if necessary.
§ Treasurer (2yr. Term) Handles the financial matters of the chapter including maintenance of the chapter checking account, paying chapter expenses, providing receipts for members attending conferences, and prepares an annual report for inclusion in the Chapter records. Also, serves on the Janice Newkirk award committee.
The Board of Directors generally meets three times per year. Board members also play important roles at the fall and spring conferences.
All candidates will be asked to submit a brief Candidate's statement, which will be sent to chapter members, along with the ballots, in February of 2004. Terms of office will commence after the spring ENY/ACRL conference in May 2004.
If you are interested in serving on the Board, or if you know someone who might, please contact:
Editor's note: Special thanks to Barbara Via for gathering the following reports and sending them along to the Communications Chair.
We would like to thank the committee again for the award funds we received and provide you with an update on our research project.
We are doing a comparative study of online and pc-based software programs that create bibliographies. We purchased one pc-based product, EndNote, and subscribed to 2 online services, Noodletools and Easybib. We also purchased a copy of the Publication Manual of the APA.
Student bibliographies from information literacy classes at the University at Albany were used to generate 100 random sources. We created citations for these sources in each of the 3 programs. We are in the process of analyzing the results to determine the accuracy of the citations and to document differences among the programs. To date, we have observed substantial differences among the citations generated from the programs as well as some discrepancies with APA guidelines. We made notes on the usability and features of the programs. We have also completed a survey of ARL member web sites to determine if, and how, these institutions are supporting bibliography-generating software.
The next phase of our project is to write an article discussing our findings, which we plan to submit to Research Strategies. We also plan to prepare a tip sheet for students detailing resources to help with creating bibliographies. We hope to give a presentation about our project at an appropriate conference. We have also discussed creating a demonstration workshop for students.
I collected my first student papers last spring, their bibliographies were copied and the data was collated late in the summer, and I am now looking at the results. The award allowed me to hire a student assistant, Marie Laude, a senior from Brooklyn, majoring in social work. Marie learned a lot about research design and research paper bibliographies during her work! She entered data into an Excel spreadsheet that I created. The sample size of 41 is very small. While the data shows apparent differences between on and off-campus students use of published literature, there is no statistically significant difference when the two-tailed T-test is used. For example, while on-campus students as a group cited 13% more journal articles than off-campus students did, the difference would have to be over 26% to be significant with this small sample size. My plan is to complete the analysis for the spring data and collect more data this fall and next spring. If there are no significant differences between groups in the different semesters I will aggregate the data set and complete the analysis. I look forward to sending the committee another preliminary report by December, and a final report in the fall of 2000. I sincerely appreciate the support of the committee, ENY/ACRL, and the Newkirk family for the opportunity to begin this research.
Colgate University faculty members, Vicky McMillan, Interdisciplinary Writing, and Debbie Huerta, Science Librarian, have been invited to discuss their 10-year collaboration teaching two levels of science research and writing at the ACRL/STS 2004 program in Orlando on June 28th, 2004.
Ellie Bolland, as a member of the NYLINK Resource Sharing Advisory Group, participated in the planning for the first NYLINK resource sharing conference entitled "Blueprints for Success: Practical Strategies for Effective Resource Sharing". It was held at Hudson Valley Community College in Poughkeepsie, NY on October 14th, 2003. Ellie and Cindy Dubinski from Vassar did a joint presentation on ConnectNY and the different models Vassar and Colgate have used to implement it.
Barbara Burd, Head of Information Literacy, team taught the ACRL online course "Assessing Student Learning Outcomes" in October 2003. The course will be offered again in March 2004. For more information see: http://www.acrl.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ACRL/Professional_Tools2/Assessing_Student_Learning_Outcomes.htm
Kate Moss received tenure and the rank of Associate Professor. Jean Root-Mahalov and Steve Black attained the rank of Associate Professor.
Amy Sisson left for warmer pastures, and is now a cataloging librarian at the Pasadena Public Library in Pasadena, TX.
Mary Lindner is the new part-time cataloger for our Curriculum Library.
Steve Black and Amy Sisson published "Bradford's Distribution, the 80/20 Rule, and Patterns of Full-Text Database Use" in Against the Grain, v.15 no.6, Dec.2003/Jan. 2004, p. 20-24.
Evelyn Rosenthal celebrated her 25th anniversary at the Ritz Library.
On January 12, 2004, Library Liaisons hosted a meeting for Faculty Liaisons. The agenda included overviews of our LibQUAL+ results and the liaison program, a review of the workflow of our technical processing department, and the importance of submitting book orders early and frequently. Next was an explanation of acquisition tools including Choice cards, publishers' catalogs, etc. and an introduction to our new project using Choice Outstanding Academic Titles. Library liaisons highlight titles that our pertinent to our level of instruction and curriculum and distribute the relevant titles to faculty liaisons as recommendations for inclusion into the collection. Faculty liaisons then choose the titles they want ordered. The following section of the program consisted mainly of a review of our reserve and electronic reserve policies. The last part of the program was a discussion session for faculty liaisons to tell us what works for them and to answer their questions. Coffee and homemade cookies were served. The feedback we have received so far is positive and we have already received an order from our suggested titles from Choice Outstanding Academic Ttitles.
The President of DCC, D. David Conklin, in his weekly column for a local newspaper wrote about the importance of information literacy for today's students and citizens. The article highlighted the collaboration of the faculty and librarians at the college and the outstanding job our two fulltime reference librarians, Ron Crovisier and Tom Trinchera, are doing.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the New York State Library a grant for $680,866 from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2006 to continue the New York State Newspaper Project. The Project began in March 1987 and is expected to be completed in June 2006. The New York State Newspaper Project identifies, describes, preserves, and makes available to researchers the significant newspapers in all communities in New York since the first publication of the "New-York Gazette" in 1725. More information on the Project is available at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/nysnp/
Two new librarians have joined the State Library's Public Services staff: Valerie Jablonksi and Regina Vertone.
Congratulations to Liza Duncan, Principal Librarian for Collection Acquisition and Processing at the State Library, who has been appointed to fill a vacant position in the "other" category on the Nylink Council.
Carol Reid, Senior Librarian, Cataloging, curated a one-month exhibit of Louis Slobodkin books and sketches at the Albany Public Library. Slobodkin was a well known children's book author/illustrator/scuptor who was born and raised in Albany. The exhibit consisted of books from Carol's personal collection as well as State Library materials.
Janny Venema of the State Library's New Netherland Project is the author of the book "Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664" (published by SUNY Press, 2003). The book is based on her doctoral dissertation at the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Gretchen Roberts retires from Coulter Library in May 2004, having worked at the library since 1984 as Head of Periodicals/Reference and serving as Chairperson for the past three years.
Jeff Harr, Technical Services Librarian, was granted tenure this year and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. He was also the co-recipient of a President's Incentive Grant (along with Pauline Lynch-Shostack, Electronic Resources Librarian, and two English professors). The project will be to develop an online tutorial for literary research.
Frank Doble, Periodicals Librarian, rejoined us after being on sabbatical leave last fall. Frank's sabbatical project was entitled "Information Literacy; a critique of an accrediation mandate together with a proposal for an alternative approach." During his sabbatical Frank wrote a long essay, "100 Great Quotes; on libraries, language, literacy and learning". If you would like to read the introduction to that essay email him at doblef@sunyocc.edu , and he'd be very pleased to respond.
Judith Frangos has been hired as the new Media Librarian. Judith is currently the Director of the Erol Ucer Music Library, at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) in Istanbul, Turkey. There, she built a state-of-the-art library and engineering studio in support of Master and Doctoral Degree programs in Musicology, Ethnomusicology, Theory, Composition, Sound Engineering and Design and Music Administration. Prior to her position at ITU, she was Librarian for Recorded Sound and Image at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Fran Scott, Architecture and Fine Arts Librarian, was elected Vice-President/President-Elect of ARLIS/WNY (Art Libraries Society of Western NY).
The Roebling Collection in the Institute Archives was recently utilized by a BBC director and scriptwriter during the production of the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World" feature on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Lynne King, formerly Associate Director of Libraries, has accepted the directorship of the library at the Schenectady County Community College. Lynne held increasingly responsible positions at The Sage College's libraries over a period of 15 years. Her friends and colleagues at Sage miss her continuously, but wish her well among her new (lucky) associates at SCCC.
For the remainder of this academic year, Margaret Lanoue will serve as acting Associate Director; Interlibrary Loan Librarian, Andy Krzystyniak will add Access Services to his responsibilites, and adjunct librarian, Kirsten Kite, is working full-time during this interim period.
Director Kingsley Greene, Terry Wasieliewski and Margaret Lanoue are attending the "Continuous Assessment and Continuous Improvement" workshops sponsored by the NY3Rs Association, hosted by the Capital District Library Council over the course of this Spring.
Terry Wasieliewski, head of Technical Services, attended a Middle States workshop on assessment in Philadelphia, December 7, 2003
Sheldon Wein, Instruction Librarian, received a 'Froman' award (recognizing innovative use of technology in pedagogy) from the Sage College's administration for his work developing the libraries' Information Literacy course. All of the librarians assist in team teaching this credit bearing course which is being taught on both campuses and is being developed as an online course.
Margaret Lanoue, who serves as advisor to the campus chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for two-year degree students, recently hosted the New York State Regional Honors Institute at the Sage College of Albany. The participants heard presentations by Sage faculty and a NYS Assistant Attorney General, and were treated to a tour of the new Center for Medical Science on the adjoining University Heights campus.
Barbara Norelli, past-chair of the Law & Political Science Section (LPSS) of ACRL, (happily) attended the ALA Midwinter meeting in San Diego, CA, January 9-12, 2004. She is currently chairing the LPSS Review & Planning Committee and the LPSS Education Task Force. The Education Task Force is developing discipline specific information literacy standards for political science.
Susan Zappen moderated "Totally Virtual: Libraries, Librarians, and Information from a Distance," a program sponsored by the Capital District Library Council's Continuing Education and Coordinated Collection Development Committees on October 20, 2003. On November 5 she presented a paper, "Deja Vu: Inflated Prices and Deflated Budgets," at the 23rd Annual Charleston Conference pre-conference, Serials Management. She presented a workshop, Copyright Issues for Students and Educators, twice for school administrators on November 14 at the WSWHE BOCES Model Schools Program, "Technology --- A Tool for Learning."
Penfield library is pleased to welcome Barbara Uchtorff as our new Associate Director. Barbara is well known throughout the region and was most recently Systems Librarian at Ithaca College. Welcome Barbara!
Special Collections is excited about its new project using PastPerfect's Digital Imaging Module, which works with its collection management software. We're using it to enter archival images--photographs, at this point-- via a scanner and attach each image to a photo-archive catalog record. This will make browsing and identifying photographs much easier for both researchers and, and it's an important preservation step.
Tom Larson, Coordinator of Reference & Database Services, has been granted a sabbatical from July 1 - December 31, 2004. Tom has also developed and is teaching Global Studies 100, "London: A Global City." This 3 credit quarter course (with 37 students) is a collaborative effort between Oswego's Office of International Education & Programs and Global Studies Program. The course is a pilot, with plans to offer additional "global cities" sections in 2005. Classes meet for seven weeks on the Oswego campus and continue daily in London during Oswego's spring break.
New Adjunct Librarians: Claire Stern, who recently retired from the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. She is working on a Ph.D. and continues to work on special projects for the Jewish Public Library. Renee Gangwer is a school media specialist at Beekmantown Middle/High school.
Carla Hendrix, Associate Librarian, and Debra Kimok, Interim Special Collections Librarian, presented at the GEAR conference: "Computers Too? Developing an Information Management Assessment Instrument in an Information Literacy-Rich Environment." Putting Down Roots: Best Practices in Campus-Based Assessment of General Education, SUNY General Education Assessment Conference, November 13-14, 2003. The PowerPoint that accompanied the presentation is on GEAR's Web site at http://www.cortland.edu/gear/conferencepresentationlinks.html
Carla Hendrix, Associate Librarian was also part of a panel presentation sponsored by NYLINK called "Navigating The Maze of Electronic Resources," September 26, 2003.
Debra Kimok, formerly Visiting Assistant Librarian, was appointed Interim Special Collections Librarian.
Nancy Hoshlyk, Associate Librarian, was named to the self-study team for the Canadian Studies Department.
Nancy Hoshlyk and Carla Hendrix presented a workshop entitled "Share the Magic" to the staff of Library & Information Services. Topics included the visible and invisible web, introduction of Journals A to Z, and maximizing retrieval of journal articles via databases and the Library Catalog.
Nancy Alzo and Rebecca Thompson are participating in the Continuous Improvement for Libraries "mini-course" sponsored by NY3Rs.
Jenica Rogers has been appointed as Coordinator of Collection Development.
Jane Subramanian recently published an article titled "The Enduring and Strong Beat of the Norwood Brass Firemen" in the St. Lawrence County Historical Association Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 4 Fall 2003 issue. She also gave a presentation of a talk already presented at an earlier conference titled "Milestones in the History of the Crane School of Music: Julia Crane, Helen Hosmer, and Beyond" for the St. Lawrence County Historical Association in Canton, NY.
Rebecca Thompson, Director of Libraries, is chairing a college-wide strategic planning task force.
The Library is pleased to welcome the following new staff members: Greg Griffin as Senior Director of Development, effective September 2, 2003. William La Moy as Curator of rare books and printed materials in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), effective December 1, 2003. Suzanne Warren as Reference Librarian and Subject Specialist for Business/Management, effective February 16, 2004.
On October 24th, Library staff held a reception for University Librarian, Peter Graham on his fifth year anniversary at Syracuse University Library.
As of November 1, 2003, Bonnie Ryan and Kelly Hovendick will serve as Co-Interim Department Heads of the Reference Department for the next year, as Elaine Coppola will be joining the ranks of the Reference Librarians in the E.S. Bird Library Reference Department.
Donia Conn, Assistant Conservator in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC), has been awarded the status of Professional Associate by the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC).
Randy Bond, Librarian and member of the Syracuse University Library's Fine Arts Department retired effective January 7, 2004.
Nancy Pitre, Business/Management Librarian, left SUL to return to her native Canada at the end of August 2003.
Ken Lavender's last day in the Special Collections Research Center was November 26.
After 28 years at the Syracuse University Library, Antonio Bell (Reference Department) retired on July 15, 2003.
Denise Stephens, AUL for Public Services, has been appointed Chair of the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Task Force on Access Guidelines. The group's charge is to revise the 1992 ACRL Guidelines for Preparation of Policies on Library Access.
Pamela McLaughlin has been appointed to the Nylink Council as a representative in the private higher education category. Pamela attended the Council's fall retreat held on September 23 through 25 at the Rensselaerville Institute Conference Center.
Carole Vidali, Music Librarian, has been elected to chair the New York State/Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association and will take over the leadership of this chapter at the October 2003 meeting.
Peter Verheyen and Donia Conn of the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) presented a two-day workshop to the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers on May 3 and 4, 2003. Peter and Donia (SCRC) prepared a poster on historic headbands which Peter presented recently at this year's Guild of Book Workers Conference in Denver, CO. Attendees at the poster session were also able to try their hand at creating these headbands on an oversized demonstrator developed by Peter. Headbands and how to teach them were one of the foci of this year's conference which tackled advanced binding and conservation topics.
Bill Garrison, Associate University Librarian for Information Management Services and George Abbott, Librarian and Head of Media Services, attended IFLA, The International Federation of Library Associations in Berlin, Germany this past August.
Sue Miller, Slide Collection Supervisor and president of the Western New York Chapter of ARLIS, attended the joint New England and WNY chapter meeting at the opening of the new Smith Art Building in Northampton, MA and the annual meeting of ARLIS/NA in Baltimore.
In March 2003, Barbara Opar, vice-president/president-elect of the Association of Architectural School Librarians coordinated the annual meeting of the group held in Louisville, Kentucky from March 13-16, 2003. She planned and executed the program, including organization sessions, tours, and local arrangements. Barbara also attended the ARLIS/NA conference in Baltimore, MD where she gave a poster presentation on visual images for architecture; in April she participated in the fifth annual French Graduate Symposium presenting a paper on French arts periodicals and attended the annual meeting for the Society of Architectural Historians in Denver, Colorado. Lastly she contributed to an essay to Language & Literature, volume 3, The Best Books for Academic Libraries.
John Olson, Maps/GIS Librarian, attended the 23rd Annual ESRI International Users Conference and the 3rd Annual ESRI Education Users Conference in San Diego, California on July 6-11.
Music Librarian Carole Vidali attended the New York State/Ontario Chapter Music Library Association meeting at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY on October 24-25, 2003.
In March, Harriet Sonne de Torrens attended the annual conference of ARLIS/NA (Art Libraries Society of North America) in Baltimore and the annual VRA (Visual Resources Association conference in Houston. In August she defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Copenhagen and began a collaborative project with the National Museum and Danmarks Kirker in Copenhagen to digitize their photograph collection of fonts for the Baptisteria Sacra Project. Also her publication "De fontibus salvatoris: A Survey of Twelfth and Thirteenth Century Baptismal Fonts Ornamented with Events from the Childhood of Christ" in Objects, Images and the World: Art in the Service of Liturgy (Princeton, 2003) has been released for distribution.
Bill Garrison, Administration, had an article published entitled, "The Program for Cooperative Cataloging and Training for Catalogers" by Carol G. Hixson and William A. Garrison, Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, v. 34, no. 3, 2002 (published May 2003), pp. 355-65, with special issue title: Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum, Part II. Bill has also been elected and appointed to the IFLA Section on Cataloging as one of the official ALA representatives to IFLA. He also has been appointed as chair of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC), Standing Committee on Training, Task Group on the PCC Role in Metadata Training.
Mathematics librarian Mary DeCarlo had an article published in the Summer 2003 issue of the refereed electronic journal Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship. The article, titled "Mathematics Education Resources on the Internet," can be accessed at: http://www.istl.org/03-summer/internet.html
Electronic Resources Librarian Nancy Turner's review of Measures for Electronic Resources (E-Metrics), sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries, appeared in the July 2003 issue of Portal: Libraries and the Academy. She reviewed Public Places, Private Journeys: Ethnography, Entertainment and the Tourist Gaze by Ellen Strain for Library Journal (July 2003) and in press are reviews of the website Musee-Online (for Choice) and Ruth Landes: A Life in Anthropology by Sally Cole (for Library Journal).
During the spring 2003 semester, Randy Bond shuttled intellectually between 19th -century America and World War II in the Pacific. On February 7, he presented a paper entitled Bell(e)-Time On the Sawkill: Winslow Homer's The Mill (1871) and The Fishing Party (1869) for the Gilded Age America Symposium put together by Architecture Librarian, Barbara Opar, and held in E.S. Bird Library's Hillyer Room. The talk was an outgrowth of a five-week course that Randy taught in the fall for SU's Humanistic Studies Center entitled Winslow Homer and Gilded Age America. In April, Randy gave a presentation for Professor Alan Braddock's class on American Orientalism. Randy's topic was Rodger's and Hammerstein's South Pacific and the representation of Asians in the 1958 film version of the musical.
George Abbott, Head of Media Services, gave a presentation on "Copyright in the Digital Environment" at the annual CLRC ILL workshop on June 6, 2003 at the SUNY Morrisville campus.
Robert Cleary, Acquisitions Librarian, reports that his master's thesis in history was discussed in the Kansas City Star on August 31, 2003. The reporter cited it as useful for an activist in the Mexican-American community in her efforts to gain greater recognition for Saturnino Alvarado. The article can be found on a new website dedicated to Saturnino Alvarado. Excerpts from Robert's thesis are available there as well: http://www.kckps.org/disthistory/dist-history/bios/arg-salvarado.html
Vassar College Libraries Acquire a Rare Collection of Einstein Papers (press release)
An alumna has donated to Vassar College a rare collection of over 150 of Albert Einstein's papers, inscribed books, photographs, and ephemera, many of which reflect on the physicists social and cultural concerns. The collection is comprised mainly of correspondence with economist Otto Nathan, Einstein's close friend and estate executor who taught at Vassar and Princeton University. It also includes correspondence with such luminaries as Sigmund Freud, Louis Brandeis, and Felix Frankfurter, as well as an anti-nuclear war petition signed by both Einstein and Henry Wallace.
This is a rich resource for both teaching and research. The many letters between Einstein and Nathan are especially significant in documenting the views of one of the twentieth century's most important thinkers,said Ron Patkus, head of Archives and Special Collections at Vassar College.
Most of Einstein's personal effects were donated to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem upon his death in 1955. Vassar's new collection is the gift of Mrs. Adele Gabel Bergreen and her husband Morris Bergreen, who were left the rare items when Otto Nathan died in 1982. Nathan had taught Mrs. Bergreen at Vassar, and they later became friends.
Both Einstein and Nathan fled Nazi Germany, and the most powerful letters in the collection reflect Einstein's concerns with the rise of fascism and the fate of Jews in Europe.
For example, in a letter to Nathan on July 14, 1936, Einstein wrote, "The developments in Europe are unspeakably horrible. The Lord God appears to have appointed the devil to be the chief clerk of it. The fascist danger here also seems to be on the move." On September 15 of the same year he continued, "The only good thing appears to be that Hitler in the awareness of his power will commit enough stupidities to bring the whole world against him."
According to physicist James Challey, director of Vassars multidisciplinary program in Science, Technology, and Society, These papers will make it possible to study in detail the interaction of science and society in the crucial period around World War II.
Einstein came to believe that nuclear weapons were a profound risk to civilization, and on November 12, 1945, he wrote to Nathan that, The physicists have figured things out well in that they are all against the secret armament and for the prevention of war on an international basis but they are hesitant to draw the last consequences, a world government which alone rules over military power.
Public access to the Morris and Adele Bergreen Albert Einstein Collection will begin in the Archives and Special Collections department of Vassar Colleges main library in 2004, and the library will mount a formal public exhibition in late 2004 or early 2005.
Other Vassar news
Ron Patkus, Head of Archives and Special Collections, was selected as one of ten American librarians who visited key German libraries and sites from September 28-October 12, 2003. The tour was organized by Initiative Fortbildung fur wissenshaftliche Spezialbibliotheken und verwandte Einrichtungen e. V. and sponsored by Checkpoint Charlie Stiftung. Shortly after his return, he gave an illustrated talk to library staff on his fall trip to German Libraries, http://mcfinland.vassar.edu:8080/cloisters/Members/patkus/LibrariesinGermany
Betty Oktay, Head Acquisitions and Collection Development Librarian, interviewed Victor Navasky, Publisher and Editorial Director, The Nation in April 2003 and the interview was published in Against the Grain in November 2003. The citation is Oktay, Elizabeth J. ATG Interviews Victor Navasky. Against the Grain 15 no.5, (November 2003): 46-54.
Newsletter compiled from member contributions February 10, 2004 by Steve Black, Communications Chair, blacks@strose.edu.
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