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Citations
The Newsletter of the New Mexico State University
Library
Vol. 11, No. 3 October 1996
Journal Cancellation Begins
Donnelyn Curtis, Interim Head of Collection Management
dcurtis@lib.nmsu.edu
As the NMSU library continues to struggle with staggering
increases in journal costs, we have been forced to implement
journal cancellations (see list of cancelled journals, page
7). Unless more funding is received, this is only a prelude
to a larger cancellation next year. This year's
cancellation was limited to five departments (Physics,
Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Mathematical Sciences,
and Electrical and Computer Engineering) that accounted for
the highest journal expenditures in 1995. Each department
was asked to cancel approximately 10% of the journals
assigned to them. To help with the cancellations the
library provided some statistics based on its studies of the
use and citation of individual journals: the departments
identified a list of journals for cancellation that totaled
almost $70,000. It's not that these are insignificant
journals that can be easily cancelled; in some cases, their
selection was an agonizing and divisive process. The
librarians who were involved lament the loss of these
important research resources.
At a series of meetings with the departments heads, the
library liaisons, and, in some cases, most of the faculty of
these departments, librarians presented the cold, hard
facts: the average cost of science journals (already a
significant portion of the materials budget) has risen more
than 50% during the last five years, while the regular
library materials budget has remained static and has relied
on vanishing special funds (from bond issues and the
legislature) to cover journal inflation.
We were told that PhD programs that are operating in an
already-competetive academic marketplace will suffer
seriously if journals are cancelled. It wasn't easy for
any of the departments to arrive at a consensus on which
journals could be eliminated. For fiscal year 1997-98 the
situation will be much worse. Without new funds there will
be a $500,000 deficit in the materials budget. Therefore,
an even larger cancellation project must be undertaken.
New Services and Products Ease the Transition
In conjunction with the cancellation of journals, the
library is seeking cost-effective alternative methods of
delivering information. We received helpful feedback at
the meetings. We found that most faculty in the five
departments use e-mail regularly and have the necessary
equipment and network connections to access online indexes
and electronic journals. This opens up exciting
possibilities for new services. We gave the faculty our
assurance that the library will continue to provide the
popular Pegasus service, delivering articles from journals
the library does not own, as well as from those in our
collection, to all faculty offices. Contact Cindy Watkins
at 6-7676 for more information. It is more cost-effective
for the library to provide individual articles on demand
than to subscribe to expensive, lightly-used journals;
however, we do know that document delivery removes the
browsing factor. In order to partially compensate for the
loss of browsability, we have been encouraging science
faculty to take advantage of our current awareness service,
in which keywords that describe a person's research are
matched electronically against weekly compilations of
journal table of contents. Citations for articles are then
e-mailed to the researcher. Call Roger Steeb at 6-7484 or
Tim McKimmie at 6-7483 for more information about this
service. We can also e-mail the tables of contents for
specific journals when requested. We are beginning to test
other kinds of current awareness services that link directly
to article delivery.
To help users identify literature in their fields, the
library has purchased several new indexing tools. Biosis,
the CD-ROM equivalent of Biological Abstracts, was added
last year. This has greatly increased access to biology
literature. Campus users now have access to MathSciNet, the
electronic WWW equivalent of Math Reviews. After meeting
with Engineering faculty, we agreed to subscribe on a trial
basis to EI Village via the WWW, which includes the
Compendex database (electronic version of Engineering
Index). We are also investigating a product called
SciFinder, that provides greatly improved access to Chemical
Abstracts. MathSciNet and EI Village can be accessed at
http://lib.nmsu.edu/reference/eindex.html.
We have recently initiated subscriptions to several
electronic journals. Some of these electronic journals,
indexes, and databases are available through the library's
home page (http://lib.nmsu.edu/reference/epubs.html). These
are available to NMSU users, but in some cases there is an
individual registration process. Journals now available
through the web include:
Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of the American Mathematical Society
Journal of Physics
Nucleic Acids Research
Proc. of the Am. Mathematical Society
Reports on Progress in Physics
Trans. of the Am. Mathematical Society
The library is also participating in a cooperative
electronic journal project which will be of interest to
science and engineering faculty and students. The New
Mexico Library Alliance, consisting of NMSU and several
other science libraries (including the Los Alamos National
Laboratories Library and Centennial Library of UNM) is
negotiating a contract with Academic Press. All members
would have access to all Academic Press journals held by any
of the other participating members. A drawback to the
agreement is that none of the libraries would be allowed to
cancel any of the Academic Press journals for a three-year
period, which may prove to be a handicap as we try to
balance future budgets. However, it is an example of
cooperation between libraries to increase access to research
literature. NMSU subscribes to 71 Academic Press journals
but will now have access to an additional 97 titles.
The library will continue to customize and strengthen
services as we work with faculty to manage the journal cost
crisis. As we reduce subscriptions we will do our best to
provide convenient identification and delivery of articles.
As we brace ourselves for the deeper cuts to come in Spring
1997, we echo the feelings of faculty that the loss will be
felt throughout the research and instructional community at
NMSU.
The Bacharach Collection:
Profile of a Special Collection
by Cheryl Wilson, Head, Special Collections,
chwilson@lib.nmsu.edu
One of the special collections in the NMSU Libraries is a
group of illustrated children's books collected by Herman
Ilfeld Bacharach (1899-1976), a descendent of the
nineteenth-century New Mexico Ilfeld and Spiegelberg
mercantile families.
Herman Bacharach was an artist, illustrator and book
designer. As an artist he achieved no fame, although he
illustrated several books for Grossett and Dunlap and
Houghton Mifflin including The Adventures of Pinocchio
published in 1927 which is in the collection. Herman
Bacharach was a collector of illustrated books. He acquired
decorative bound and skillfully illustrated children's
books, a collection of 275 volumes in which almost every
major illustrator of the first half of the twentieth century
is represented. NMSU Library added this collection to its
holdings in 1979.
In addition to the many American and British printings,
there are a number of French, German, Swiss, and Italian
children's books. Several very lovely editions of
Anderson's and Grimms' fairy tales illustrated by Arthur
Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Gustaf Tenggren, Kay Nielsen, Harry
Clarke and W. Heath Robinson) are included. There are four
of L. Frank Baum's Oz books with illustrations by John R.
Neill, some early editions of A.A. Milne, and various
illustrated editions of the Arabian Nights, Aesop's Fables
and Mother Goose.
To search OLE for books in the collection type
t/Bacharach. The books may be used in the Special
Collections Research Room Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. -
12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Thursday 6:00
p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Special Collections is located on the 2nd
floor east in Branson Hall. For more information about the
Herman Ilfeld Bacharach Collection, please call 646-3238
Note: New Special Collections Hours
The NMSU Library Special Collections is now open
Thursday evenings 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. in addition to the
regular Monday through Friday hours of 9:00 a.m. - 12:00
noon and 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. The Thursday evening hours are
being added to better accommodate researchers using the
library's unique and valuable published materials. Special
Collections is located on the 2nd floor east in Branson
Hall. For more information call 646-3238.
Alamogordo Joins Dona Ana Records on NMSU's OLE
By Gwen Gregory, Head, Post Cataloging,
ggregory@lib.nmsu.edu
The staff of the NMSU Library and the NMSU-Alamogordo Branch
(NMSU-A) Library have begun the process of adding records
for all materials held at the NMSU-A Library to OLE, the
Library's online catalog. NMSU-A bought the equipment
necessary to access OLE from their library. NMSU-A
librarians Stan Ruckman and Melinda Bako Dermody worked with
NMSU Systems Librarian Valerie Horton, Head of Technical
Services Anne Morgan, Cataloging Specialist Sherry Ward,
Circulation Coordinator Holly Reynolds, and Head of Post-
Cataloging Gwen Gregory on this project. They have attached
their own holdings to records for items the NMSU Library
already owns, and loaded tapes from the OCLC bibliographic
database for other materials they own. NMSU-A has signed an
agreement with NMSU to provide support and consulting for
their online catalog and circulation functions, for which
they will pay the NMSU Library. The addition of these
records for NMSU-A materials will benefit students and staff
at both locations. Many items are owned by only one of the
three libraries participating in OLE. Users are now able to
search a larger database that contains a wider variety of
items. The NMSU-A collection includes many materials
related to their curriculum, including health professions,
vocational education, and the humanities and social
sciences. They also have a sizable collection of
audiovisual materials. Records for NMSU-A materials are
integrated into the OLE database along with all other
library materials, just as the materials from the Dona Ana
Branch Community College are.
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
Two New CD-ROM Newspaper
Products Available
by Lara Trujillo, ltrujill@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library has purchased two newspaper CD-ROM
products, Newsbank and Newspaper Abstracts. These products
will be replacing NEWS, which was a searchable index
available through the library's on-line catalog.
Newsbank supplies over 70,000 full-text articles from
approximately 500 selected newspapers from the U.S. and
Canada. It also includes articles from ten wire services.
There are two ways to search this database: by keywords; or
by selecting certain search fields (such as author, date, or
index terms) to customize the search. Coverage is from June
1995.
Newspaper Abstracts indexes four newspapers: the Christian
Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times
(which includes the Book Review and Magazine sections), and
the Washington Post. This database is available from 1988
to the present and is updated monthly. Each record provides
a title, a complete citation to the newspaper, names,
subjects, and a brief abstract. (Note: The Library carries
all four of these newspapers in print).
These two products are available on the Library CD-ROM
network. If you need search assistance, please call either
the Branson reference desk at 646-2932 or the New Library
reference desk at 646-6928.
Sculptor Exhibits
One of the most celebrated
living sculptors in Mexico, Sebastian (Enrique Carbahal)
will be exhibiting his works in the New Library November 1 -
29, 1996. He is the most important exhibitor of Mexican
geometrism and has had more than 120 shows around the world
with numerous awards.
New Preservation Efforts at the Library
by Gwen
Gregory, Head, Post Cataloging,
ggregory@lib.nmsu.edu
As library collections age, preservation of books and
journals become an important consideration. You have
probably seen older volumes with problems. Paper becomes
brittle with age and crumbles. Bindings wear out with use.
Pages are torn or cut out. In order to keep our research
materials available, the NMSU Library has begun several new
programs in the past year.
The Library has expanded its book repair program. In 1995,
we hosted a 2-day training session on book repair. We are
now doing many more sophisticated mending tasks and are
using repair materials such as acid-free page mending tape
and pH-neutral polyvinyl acetate glue. It is important to
use acid-free materials, because they will not decay with
time and inflict further damage. For books with paper which
is too brittle to be mended or rebound, we are now using
phase box enclosures. These specially constructed boxes are
individually made to fit for each volume. They are built
from acid-free gray book board and fastened on the edge with
strings. The phase box, with the damaged book inside, is
labeled and shelved with the circulating collection. Each
box has a label on the front with instructions for using the
materials inside. This keeps these items available for
researchers to use. We have also begun to use acid-free
pamphlet binders for preservation of our collections of
music scores and other pamphlet materials. These items are
especially prone to damage because they are thin and have
only lightweight cardboard covers. Scores or other items
are sewn into these binders using thick linen thread.
Scores with separate parts are accommodated using binders
with pockets.
Library users also have an important impact on our
collection. Many of the books we own are out-of-print and
cannot be replaced, so if they are damaged, this is not an
option. We ask patrons not to try to fix any library books
which may fall apart or be damaged while being used. Just
return them to us and we will handle all repairs with our
special equipment and supplies. Be gentle with volumes when
handling them. If a book resists being pressed flat to
photocopy pages, don't force it. Paper clips, post-it
notes, rubber bands, and other items left in books can cause
stains or damage the print or paper. Intense sunlight or
heat, dampness, food, chewing tobacco, and household pets
are other frequent sources of damage to our materials.
Please help us take care of our books so they will be here
for everyone to use in the future.
Reference Librarian Departs
Don Barclay
served as Reference Librarian and Bibliographic
Instruction Coordinator at NMSU Library from 1991 until
1996. He recently took a position at the University of
Houston. His efforts to improve library services at NMSU
were greatly appreciated.
Zia Docs: Searching New Mexico Online
by
Bonnie Wetzel, Technical Services, bwetzel@lib.nmsu.edu
Do you want information about a bill in the New Mexico
State Legislature? How about a New Mexico state map? Where
should I stay in Albuquerque? What about birth, death, and
health statistics? When is the Indian market in Santa Fe?
Where is that art exhibition in Las Cruces? What is the
outlook for employment? If you want to know the answers to
these questions and many more, search Zia Docs on the New
Mexico State University Library's web page
(http://lib.nmsu.edu/ziadocs.html).
Zia Docs is a guide to NMSU's New Mexico state
documents collection, one of the major collections in the
state. Documents from early territorial days to the present
published by New Mexico state agencies are represented.
NMSU has been a depository library for these materials since
1978. Over 500 titles and 1,000 volumes are added each
year. The collection is fully cataloged and added to the
library's online catalog. The documents are shelved on the
2nd floor of New Library under call numbers starting with
J87.N6. The number following the J87.N6 indicates the
issuing state agency. Zia Docs includes a detailed call
number schedule which gives the breakdown by state agency.
Check Zia Docs for more facts about the call numbers, the
collection, and for new collection additions.
In its Resources by Subject section, Zia Docs has a
section on Jobs and Career Information that lists employers,
positions, job training, and employment projections. There
are twelve other subjects, from Agriculture through Women's
Studies, which highlight some of the more important works in
NMSU's documents collection.
In addition to the NMSU document collection, Zia Docs
has links to the collections of other New Mexico academic
and public libraries, including the New Mexico State
Library. Also included are the NMSU Cooperative Extension
Service publications. A direct link to the New Mexico
Legislative Bill Finder allows the user to follow a bill
through the New Mexico State Legislature.
How about tourist information on New Mexico cities?
Where to stay? What to see, eat, and do? Zia Docs links
directly to 17 New Mexico cities that have created home
pages. Cultural events like the Santa Fe Indian Market and
art exhibitions can be found, as well as information about
motels, restaurants, and sight-seeing trips.
For more general information about New Mexico and the
Southwest in Zia Docs see: Viva New Mexico, Indian Ruins of
the Southwest, New Mexico Pueblos, New Mexico National
Forests, and New Mexico Wilderness Areas. A listing of New
Mexico WWW registered servers can be found under the
category Miscellaneous New Mexico.
We are adding more new sites and collection information
all the time so please visit us often!
Branigan Memorial Library Opens Again After Mold
Attack
M. Marlo Brown, Reference Librarian,
marlo@lib.nmsu.edu
The situation at the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library
looks much better than it did a few weeks ago. On August 29,
library staff noticed mold growing on some of the reference
collection. The mold, later identified as Eurotium
amstelodami, spread through approximately 7,000 volumes in
the collection, in spite of the efforts of staffers to fight
it. The mold first attacked older volumes with leather
bindings. Most of the damaged books are in the reference
collection and the 900 section (geography and history).
According to Molly Harris, Acting Assistant Director at
Branigan, the eurotium mold exists almost everywhere. In the
Branigan Library, however, humidity and temperatures caused
by the building's evaporative coolers and recent heat and
rain created a perfect environment for the
growth and spread of the mold. On September 23, the Las
Cruces City Council unanimously voted to hire Steamatic
Services, Inc., of El Paso to undertake the cleanup. They
are affiliated with BMS Catastrophe of Fort Worth, which
helped in the cleanup of the World Trade Center. Staff at
the Branigan Library have praised the professionalism and
speed of the crew working on the building. Harris stated:
"We're in excellent hands." They are also very pleased with
the support they have received from the public. The library
reopened October 8. The library is attempting to obtain
funding from the city to replace its aging evaporative
coolers with a refrigerated air system and to replace the
building's leaky roof. These changes should prevent the
problem from happening again in the future.
Connecting to the OLE Online Catalog via Netscape
by Don Barclay
Telnet software lets your computer "talk" to the OLE
computer. At this point in the progress of technology, it
is almost impossible to access any online library catalog
without Telnet. In the future, online library catalogs will
have interfaces that do not require Telnet, but for now
configuring your web browser to use Telnet is a must if you
want to access online library catalogs via the World Wide
Web. Because there are many versions of WWW browsers and
many kinds of Telnet software, there is no one-size-fits-all
solution to the Telnet problem. NMSU faculty, students, and
staff can contact the NMSU Computer Center help desk (646-
1840) for assistance, or you can try to configure your web
browser yourself.
Configuring Your Netscape Browser Yourself
The following instructions are for two widely used versions
of Netscape. The exact steps for configuring your browser
will vary depending on the version of Netscape you are
using. Since you can't configure your Netscape browser to
use Telnet if there is no Telnet software on your computer,
the first question to ask yourself is "Do I have Telnet
software?" Telnet software may go by the name of "Telnet,"
or it may be called "EWAN," or it may go by some other name.
If you got your Netscape software package from NMSU
Computing & Networking, it should have come with Telnet
software. Once you know that you have Telnet software, you
can configure your browser to use it.
Configuring Netscape 1.0
1. Go into Windows and start Netscape.
2. Click on Options at the top of you Netscape
screen.
3. A drop-down menu should appear. Click on
Preferences.
4. From Preferences choose Directories and
Applications.
5. Click on the word Browse that appears at the end
of the Telnet Application box.
Configuring Netscape 2.02
1. Go into Windows and start Netscape.
2. Click on Options at the top of you Netscape
screen.
3. Click on General Preferences.
4. Click on APPS.
5. Click on the word Browse that appears at the end
of the Telnet Application box.
The Tricky Part
You should now be looking at a box that allows you to
look at the various directories on your C: drive. Double
click on the C:/ at the top of the directories box. This
should allow you to see a list of all the top-level
directories on your C: drive. You need to scroll through
the list of directories looking for the directory that has
Telnet software in it. The directory you want may be called
Telnet or EWAN or possibly some other name. When you find
the directory that you think has the Telnet software in it,
double click on the name of that directory. This should
produce a list of the executable files that are in that
directory. When you find the Telnet executable file (which
might be called telnet.exe or ewan.exe), then you should
double click on the file name. The name of the file you
double click on will then appear in Netscape's Telnet
Application box and (if the file you chose is a Telnet
software file) you will be able to access OLE and many other
online library catalogs via Netscape.
Dialing Up OLE If you want to, you can skip the WWW
entirely and access the Cafe OLE menu by dialing it up with
your modem at 646-4942. Type guest [return] twice in order
to get to the NMSU-NET prompt. Then type the word library.
This will connect you to the Cafe OLE menu. Option #1 on
the menu connects you to the OLE Online Catalog.
Telnet to OLE Telnet is another way to access the Cafe OLE
Menu. The Telnet address for the Cafe OLE menu is
lib.nmsu.edu. If you have an NMSU DANTE account, you can
telnet from your DANTE prompt: DANTE% telnet
NMSU Library Journal Cancellations, 1997
Acta
Crystallographica Package
Section A: Foundations of Crystallography
Section B: Structural Science
Section C: Crystal Structure Communications
Section D: Biological Crystallography
Acta Phyica Hungarica
Advances in Quantum Chemistry
American Dyestuff Reporter
Annalen der Physik (Leipsig)
Annales de Chemie - Science Des Materiaux
Annual Report on NMR Spectroscopy
Applicable Analysis
Applied Psycholinguistics
Artibus et Historieae
Bulletin des Societes Chimiques
Bulletin of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
Canadian Modern Language Review
Cell and Tissue Research
Colorado School of Mines Quart. Rev. of Eng., Science,
Ed. & Res.
Comments on Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Complex Variables, Theory and Applications
Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry
Cryogenics
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry
Earth Sciences
Energy Resources Development Series
ETZ
Fusion
Gazzetta Chemica Italiana
Geologie en Mijnbouw
Hadronic Journal
Human Genetics
The Indian Concrete Journal
Indian Journal of Physics (Parts A & B)
Instruments and Experimental Techniques
Insurance, Mathematics and Economics
Interiors
International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation
Int. Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering
International Journal of Biometeorology
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry
International Journal of Radiation Biology
Interstate Oil & Gas Compact & Community Bulletin
Izvestiya, Acad. of Sci., USSR: Physics of the Solid Earth
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics
Journal of Communications Technology & Electronics
Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics
Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications
Journal of Engineering Physics and Thermophysics
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
Journal of Imaging Science and Technology
Journal of Marine Research
Journal of Official Statistics
Journal of Polymer Science Package
Part A, Polymer Chemistry
Part B, Polymer Physics
Part C, Polymer Letters
Polymer Symposia
Journal of Rheology
Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids
Journal of Wave-Material Interaction
Kerntechnik
Kunststoffe
Laser and Particle Beams
Le Vide, Science, Technique et Applications
Linear and Multilinear Algebra
Materials Research Bulletin
Measurement Science and Technology
Meteorologische Zeitschrift
Mineral Resources Development Series
Molecular Immunology
Nuclear Science and Engineering
OPTIK
Polymer
Problems of Information Transmission
Progress in Oceanography
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Russian Physics Journal
School Foodservice & Nutrition
School Foodservice Research Review
Southern Communication
Telecommunications & Radio Engineering
Textile Chemist and Colorist
Theoretica Chimica Acta
Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
Thermochimica Acta
Transactions of the American Nuclear Society
Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie
** Editor's Note. A total of 89 titles were cancelled.
Some were cancelled in order to add other titles. In
addition to the above cancelled journals, departments chose
to initiate new subscriptions to approximately 30 other
journals. Contact Donnie Curtis in the Library Collection
Management Office, 646-4228, for further information.
My Sabbatical Research: Luther's "Lord Katie"
by Jeanette C. Smith, Head, Government Documents/Codes
and Standards, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Katharina von Bora Luther (1499-1552), a partner in one
of history's most controversial marriages, is to historians
one of the most well-known and interesting women of the
sixteenth century. Nearly five hundred years worth of
sources on her life, consisting of accumulated layers of
fact, legend, fiction, and scholarship, demonstrate how
Katharina, like her famous husband, Martin Luther, was
satirized, vilified, and idealized by her contemporaries and
later commentators. Each century has seen Katharina through
the filter of its own values, right up to modern feminists,
who took her for their own. However, through it all,
Katie's own unique strong personality shines through.
My original sabbatical project, a biographical article
and annotated scholarly bibliography of sources on Katie,
quickly grew in length and changed in scope from a
bibliography to an historiography. This project has
resulted in a monograph-length manuscript which I have been
invited to submit for publication to the Lutheran
Brotherhood Foundation Reformation Research Library
monograph series.
Research for the project took me through many formats
of information, from electronic data files to microformats
to audiovisual materials to printed books from many eras.
It also took me from the U.S. to the former East Germany. A
fascinating intellectual as well as physical journey, it was
a real education for a librarian. Once my electronic
sources of information, particularly the Online Computer
Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) FirstSearch databases, which
yielded about one hundred international citations, were
exhausted, I visited a variety of university, special, and
other types of libraries in Chicago, St. Paul, St, Louis,
Berlin, Lutherstadt Wittenberg (where the Luthers lived in
the sixteenth century), and Leipzig to use their catalogs
and collections.
When the number of citations had grown to approximately
two hundred, I began to verify and compile the bibliography
and to write the historiographical essay. At the same time
I conducted an extensive correspondence with many librarians
and scholars in Germany and elsewhere, many of whom kindly
sent me books and photocopies of bibliographies or catalog
entries. I also began to try to track down manuscripts of
seven of Katie's letters. I located three in Denmark, one
in Germany, and one handwritten dedication in a book in
Poland.
By the time I arrived in Germany, my list of citations
needing verification was shrinking with each library I
visited, and despite much effort I added only a few very new
works. I visited components of the German national library
(there is no single German national library) in Berlin and
in Leipzig. Because so many German books were carried off
or were destroyed in WWII, historical German library
research is very difficult to conduct. Just because an item
is listed in a library's catalog does not mean that the
library owns it any more. Surviving collections were also
dispersed. The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (which has
buildings in former East and West Berlin with separate
microfiche catalogs) specializes in older materials dating
to 1945, and the Deutsche Bucherei in Leipzig is a
depository for materials published after 1945. In addition,
materials listed in bibliographies published in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries during the golden
age of Katharina scholarship, may not survive anywhere.
I was fortunate to find very reasonably priced lodgings
in seminaries in the U.S. and Germany. From my window at
the seminary dorm in Lutherstadt Wittenberg I was privileged
to have a view of the "Katharinenportal," a beautifully
carved stone door which Katharina had added to the Luther
home in 1540. The Luther home, like the seminary a
sixteenth century building, now houses Lutherhalle, the
world's premier Reformation museum. I saw Katie's wedding
ring, the only personal possession of hers to have survived,
in the City Museum of Leipzig. I also saw some Lucas
Cranach workshop portraits of her in various churches and
museums. The highlight of my time in Germany was a tour of
several sites where Katie had lived.
Fortunately, Wittenberg was not destroyed during WWII,
and both the seminary and Lutherhalle had excellent
collections of sixteenth century materials preserved with
ideal temperature and humidity conditions. It is wonderful
that transatlantic Luther scholarship, stifled during the
Communist regime in East Germany by censored correspondence
and travel restrictions, has resumed.
The combination of factors that enabled my project to
succeed, including, subject access to the OCLC database
through FirstSearch and freedom to conduct correspondence
and travel in former East Germany, prompted me to enter the
OCLC 25th Anniversary Essay Contest, "What the OCLC Online
Union Catalog Means to Me." The first day I returned to
work after my Sabbatical I was greeted with the news that I
was among five national winners in this contest and had been
awarded $500. The winning essays will be printed in the
OCLC Newsletter as well as in a forthcoming OCLC
monograph.
Restored Tom Lea Murals Dedicated in Branson October
25th
by Charles Townley, Dean, University
Library, ctownley@lib.nmsu.edu
Two restored murals by Tom Lea will be dedicated in the
Branson Hall Library during Homecoming at 10:30 a.m. on
Friday, October 25, 1996. Tom Lea is a distinguished El
Paso artist and author. These murals were originally
painted in 1934 for the Young Hall Library at New Mexico
State University. They were removed in 1951 when the
Branson Hall Library was completed and hung for a time in
Milton Hall. They were in storage for many years awaiting
repair and renovation.
At a recent workshop on the restoration, Mr. Lea provided
some background information on the murals. In 1934, Gustave
Bauman contacted Tom Lea regarding the possibility of a WPA
contract. The WPA administrator hired Lea to paint two
murals for "the A and M library in Mesilla". He received
$40.00 a week for his work and the paintings took three
months to complete. Mr. Lea brought the paintings to New
Mexico State University ". . . in an old Dodge sedan with
the windows broken out of it." The paintings themselves
were rolled around a cardboard tube originally used to roll
carpet. They were framed at the University and hung on
either side of the circulation desk on the second floor of
Young Hall.
Tom Lea painted "Conquistadors" first. It presents several
views of the first hundred years of New Mexico history,
emphasizing the colonizing efforts of DeVargas and Onate.
The Conquest, the Pueblo revolt of 1680, and the Reconquest
are all depicted. The second painting is "Old Mesilla".
This mural depicts historical events in and around the
Mesilla area in the 19th Century such as the Gadsden
Purchase and agricultural fields.
Tom Lea described some of the techniques that he used in the
painting. He began with number 12 cotton duck canvas which
he purchased in Santa Fe and primed and sized himself. The
canvas was wrapped around oversized plywood sheets which had
been previously primed and finished. Much of the color came
from pigments prepared by Raymond Johnson, another artist in
Santa Fe, who was willing to provide paints to Lea on
credit. To achieve the vibrant colors of the paintings, he
used the paint straight out of the tube with no medium. Lea
says that his brush work emulates Cezanne's method of
parallel brush strokes. John Norton, Lea's master at the
Art Institute of Chicago, did not believe in overpainting on
murals. Therefore, Lea painted a la prima, avoiding
overpainting to achieve a flat surface.
The paintings were restored with a grant from the Stockman
Family Foundation. Restoration work was undertaken by
Randall Ash of Denver, Colorado. New frames for the works
were prepared by Matt Lynch. Frank Rocha and his crew at
the Physical Plant Dept. assisted with the hanging. The
work was coordinated by Charles Lovell and Rosemary
McLoughlin from the NMSU Art Gallery. We hope that many
people will come and join us in the rededication of these
two important works during Homecoming festivities at 10:30
a.m. on Friday, October 25, 1996 in the Branson Hall
Library.
Documents Web Page
by Jeanette C. Smith Head,
Government Documents/Codes and Standards,
jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The World Wide Web home page for the library's U.S.
government documents unit is now online. You can find it
via the library's home page at http://lib.nmsu.edu. Click
on "The NMSU Library - Services - Library Collections - U.S.
Government Documents" or call up the documents page at
http://lib.nmsu.edu/aboutlib/detinfo/depts/infosvs/govdocs/d
occont.html. Now you can ask a documents reference question
via e-mail, schedule an individual or group tour, connect to
U.S. government information, or read some of our helpful
guides and brochures online. One unique guide included is a
list of current U.S. government publications in Spanish.
There is also information on patents, basic and advanced
guides to the GPO on SilverPlatter index, a list of Hot Docs
in English, and much more.
1,000,000th Volume
The NMSU Library will soon
acquire its one-millionth title. The library was begun in
approximately 1890. The following reminiscence by Hiram
Hadley, appeared in the March 20, 1917 issue of The Roundup.
"When I look through the main library at the
Agricultural College, ... and admire the great growth in the
library facilities at this institution, memory carries me
back to the beginnings of these, and I rejoice in what has
been done.
When Las Cruces College, the forerunner of the
Agricultural College, was in existence, one of the good
patrons of that school fell short of means with which to pay
tuition ... and he came to me and said he had a new set of
the Encyclopedia Britannica for which he had paid $112 and
he would like to exchange it for tuition for his children.
The deal was made, ... and so far as my memory serves me, it
was the beginning of the library. I will narrate another
step in the growth of the library... on June 15 (1890) or
thereabouts, I found on hand an unexpended $600... I wrote
to a bookseller in Columbus, Ohio, to make us the best list
of books, according to his own judjement... He did this and
I think this was the beginning of the present excellent ...
library."
.
Ed Mayfield Retires
by Jeanette C. Smith,
Head, Government Documents/Codes and Standards,
jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The retirement of R.E. "Ed" Mayfield, the
Coordinator of the Southwest Center for Codes and Standards,
was observed at an October 3rd reception at the New Library.
Ed has been with the library since 1991. A long-time
resident of Las Cruces, Ed plans to remain here and to
pursue his many other interests including writing. His
award-winning short story "One Hell of a Summer" was
published in The Storyteller by the Society of Southwest
Authors in 1994.
Ed is the first and only Coordinator of the
Southwest Center for Codes and Standards in its five-year
history. Established in 1991 by the New Mexico legislature,
the Center celebrated its Grand Opening in April 1992. Over
the years, Ed's assistants in the Center have included
staff members Julie Snellgrove, Tony Soliz, Binni Ortiz, and
Debi Estrada and student employees Theresa Puckett, Troy
Alvarez, Juan Tanabe, and Jorge Esparza. He has also had a
close working relationship with the Center's "sister" unit,
Government Documents.
The Center was established as a regional, national,
and international source for industrial standards, military
specifications and standards, and New Mexico state, county,
and local codes; all provided to clients on a cost-recovery
basis. Instruction for NMSU classes and mentoring for the
Advanced Manufacturing Center are also important activities
for the Center. In addition, special projects such as a
contract with the New Mexico State Highway Department to
assist in metrication activities, and a Mexican standards
initiative have been undertaken. Ed organized a state-wide
Metric Conversion Conference in 1994, and ongoing district
metric conferences.
An active member of the American Library
Association's Fee-Based Information Service Centers in
Academic Libraries (FISCAL) group and the perennial chair of
the Think Metric special interest group of the New Mexico
Library Association, Ed has been a visible and personable
representative of the library. He has also been a tireless
volunteer for many activities and committees within the
library. We wish him a happy and fulfilling
retirement!
RGHC Digitally Reformatted Photographs
by Tim
Blevins, Archives, tblevins@lib.nmsu.edu excerpted from the
Southwestern Archivist 19(3):28, 1996
The Rio Grande Historical Collections has completed a
digital reformatting pilot project, having scanned nearly
4000 photographs for electronic access. The Digital
Reformatting Lab, was designed to reformat selected
holdings which comprise the RGHC's collection of 500,000
photographs. Photograph collections targeted for digital
access are those which attract a high level of use, have
high intrinsic value, or are in need of cold-storage
preservation measures to thwart the inherent deterioration
common with nitrate and acetate base negatives.
Photographs of Dawson, New Mexico, in the 1920s
(donated by Carol and Dwight Myers) were the first images
scanned. The 395 nitrate base negatives provide a glimpse
of some of the coal mining town's 500 buildings, local
events and the Phelps Dodge Corporation's mining operations.
Today, not much more than the cemetery exists at the
location where Dawson once claimed to a population of 6,000.
Scanning continued with another collection of mining
related photographs recently donated by the Phelps Dodge
Corporation. This collection contains more than 2,100
black-and-white and color photographs showing the copper
extraction activities of Chino Mines Company at Hurley, New
Mexico.
One objective was to create a system which would be
highly productive and allow a single technician the
capability to carry out many activities at the same time.
The technician is surrounded with buzzing, humming and
screeching equipment including two locally-networked
computers with three monitors, two scanners, a densitometer,
CD-ROM recorder and a printer. The two computers perform
several activities simultaneously; one does the computer-
intensive activities of batch scanning, thumbnail image
creation, printing or writing CD-ROMs, while the other
assists the technician with the labor-intensive work of
quality control and image adjustments. Photographs ranging
in size from 35mm slides to 11 3/4" x 16 1/2" prints,
negatives or transparencies can be accomodated. A high
level of production is possible. The flatbed scanner
accommodates several photographs at once and can batch-scan
images during which time the technician is making
adjustments to the completed scans on the other computer
station. Another objective is to effectively satisfy
researcher's print requests without overwhelming our already
stressed conventional darkroom print-production resources.
A color thermal dye-sublimation printer provides research
and publication quality copies of the digital images at a
reasonable cost.
Edward Erazo Presides at the 1st REFORMA National
Conference
The first REFORMA National
Conference was held at the Austin Convention Center on
August 22-25, 1996. REFORMA is the
national association dedicated to the promotion of library
services to the Spanish speaking and an affiliate of the
American Library Association. REFORMA has 1,152 members.
The conference was dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez
and was a wonderful way to celebrate REFORMA's 25th
anniversary. More than 700 people registered from all over
the country—including Puerto Rico—and from Mexico as well.
There were 75 programs over a two-day period on topics of
interest to librarians serving Spanish-speaking populations
in public, school and academic libraries. The half-day
preconference workshop, "Latinos and the Information
Superhighway" attracted 139 people.
NMSU Education Librarian, Edward Erazo, is serving as
president for the 1996-97 term. Building on the momentum of
the conference, which has caused membership to jump 30%, Ed
has chosen strategic planning as the major focus of his
presidential term and "Creating REFORMA's Future" as its
theme.
Library Opens Electronic Classroom
by Edward
Erazo, Education Librarian ederazo@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Library opened its electronic classroom in time
for the start of the fall semester. It is equipped with 25
Pentium PCs and designed to encourage interactive, computer-
assisted learning. Students can access the OLE online
catalog and the CD-ROM Network as well as the Internet
through the Library Home Page http://lib.nmsu.edu. As a
result, there has been an immediate and dramatic difference
in our bibliographic instruction sessions.
Computers hold a magical attraction for most students.
Gone are the lectures and overhead presentations of library
databases on the one large screen and in their place are
multiple, hands-on sessions of the actual databases on each
computer workstation. The new electronic classroom has
changed not only what we teach, but how we teach it. Here
are some examples of the classes. Bibliographic instruction
for the 50+ English 111 classes now uses a new online
tutorial on the Library Home Page called "Shortcuts," which
lets students work on any computer to complete a four-part
worksheet on OLE and PAN basics for finding books and
periodicals, respectively. Most students can finish the
worksheet in 50 minutes. The instructor gives a 5 minute
overview and then the students spend the rest of the class
period working at their own pace. For University 150 and
University 110 classes, "The Freshman Year Experience", we
offer a two-session sequence that provides hands-on database
searching not only on OLE and PAN, but with the CD-ROM
Network and the World Wide Web as well. During the second
session, students work in small groups on a research topic
of their own choice and then report back after 30 minutes to
their classmates on their search statement, strategies and
choice of databases.
Library workshops, which had been originally developed
for ERIC and PsychLit CD-ROMs, have been expanded to include
both "Internet Basics" and "APA & MLA Style Manuals." The
workshops will be offered all semester long: ERIC/PsychLit
and Internet Basics on Friday afternoons and ALA/MLA Styles
on Thursday afternoons. The Internet workshop is especially
popular with graduate students and faculty. We will be
offering more workshops next semester and are looking for
suggestions. The workshops last 50 minutes and are limited
to 24 participants per session. Sign up at the New Library
Reference Desk in person, by phone (646-6928), or by e-mail
answers@lib.nmsu.edu.
What's next? The classroom in the Branson Library is
being enlarged and remodeled and will be completed later
this fall.
CITATIONS
The Newsletter of the New Mexico State University Library
Box 30006 Dept. 3475
Las Cruces, NM 88003-0006
Editors: Tim McKimmie (505) 646-7483
tmckimmi@lib.nmsu.edu
Ed Erazo (505) 646-6930
ederazo@lib.nmsu.edu
Editorial Board:
Gwen Gregory
Mike Mitchell
Noemy Melendez
Published January, April, and October
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