National Library Week 2013: Communities Matter @ Your Library
The New Mexico State University Library joins libraries nationwide in celebrating National Library Week, April 14 through 20. The week’s theme for 2013 is “Communities matter @ your library.” National Library Week is an annual celebration of the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.
American Library Association officials said that National Library Week is a time to highlight the value of libraries, librarians and library workers. Libraries today are more than repositories for books and other resources. Often the heart of their communities, campuses or schools, libraries are deeply committed to the places where their patrons live, work and study. Libraries are trusted places where everyone in the community can gather to reconnect and reengage with each other to enrich and shape the community and address local issues.
The NMSU Library is asking you to choose National Library Week as the occasion to make your next gift to the Library. Libraries play important and diverse roles in the lives of students, faculty and the broader community. Today the NMSU Library is more relevant than ever to the needs of our users. Your contributions truly help the Library provide world-class resources for students
Library Development Officer April Anaya invites you to visit the NMSU Library at any time. Let her know in advance that you are coming and she will gladly provide a personal tour. Anaya can be contacted at (575) 646-3642 or aanaya@nmsu.edu.
Winners of Sunshine Week Essay Contest Announced
To celebrate Sunshine Week (March 10-16), the New Mexico State University Library held a student essay contest and hosted a reception, co-sponsored with NMSU alumnus Tim Parker and NMSU’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
NMSU students were invited to submit an essay of 600 to 800 words explaining how New Mexico’s Sunshine laws encourage citizen participation in state government. 
After reviewing all of the entries, a panel of judges awarded 1st prize to NMSU Journalism student Phil Davies and 2nd prize to NMSU Journalism student Dana Beasley. Davies received a $200 gift certificate from the Barnes & Noble at NMSU Bookstore, while Beasley received a $100 Barnes & Noble gift certificate.
The March 13 reception featured keynote speaker Walt Rubel, Managing Editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News, who shared with the NMSU and Las Cruces community his own experience in news media fighting for open government.
“There are no special privileges for newspapers, radio or TV stations,” Rubel later wrote in a column for the Sun-News. “Everyone has the same right to inspect public records and attend public meetings.”
Sunshine Week is an annual national celebration of open government, transparency and freedom of information. The aim of the local event was to raise awareness of New Mexico’s Open Meetings Act and the Inspection of Public Records Act.
For more information, contact Library Specialist Jonathan Butz at butz@nmsu.edu or Government Documents & Maps Librarian Josefine Smith at jmasmith@nmsu.edu.
Bill Boehm Authors Book on Historical Residence
Historian Bill Boehm, a former New Mexico State University Library staff member, is the author of a new book, Quarters One: The Story of a Historic Home and Its Residents (Arlington, VA: National Guard Bureau, Directorate of Public Affairs & Strategic Communication, Historical Services Division, 2012).
This volume details the history of Quarters One, the official residence of the Chief of the National Guard Bureau from 1978 to 2012. It was constructed and made ready for residence in 1905 as part of the famed Army War College complex. The commission to design the buildings was undertaken by McKim, Mead and White, a famed New York architecture firm. Fifteen officers’ homes and fifteen non-commissioned officers’ homes were constructed at opposite axes across the length of a parade field which lay north of the Army War College building, at the tip of Greenleaf Point.
Quarters One is the northernmost residence, located along the eastern bank of the Potomac River. The linear design of the larger complex was inspired by the “City Beautiful” movement which transformed the appearance of Washington, D.C. (as well as other American cities at the start of the 20th century) into grander public spaces and emphasized more spacious accommodations.
Quarters One also contains a brief history of the Army post on which the residence is located, Ft. McNair, in Washington, D.C. Previously known as Washington Arsenal and Washington Barracks, the garrison is the third-oldest installation in the U.S. Army behind West Point, NY, and Carlisle Barracks, PA. It too has a rich and interesting history among the annals of the nation’s capital.
Boehm now works as an historian in the Public Affairs Office of the National Guard Bureau in Arlington, Virginia. He donated copies of Quarters One to the Library with his compliments. For more information on the book, contact Boehm at wbboehm@gmail.com.
McKee Foundation Gives $11,500 to NMSU Library
The New Mexico State University Library has been awarded an $11,500 gift from the Robert E. and Evelyn McKee Foundation of El Paso, Texas. The gift will be used for the purchase of current engineering reference materials which will build the collection to better serve the needs of not only New Mexico State University’s engineering students, but also faculty and researchers within our region and the state.
Engineering Librarian Paula Johnson said that the gift will enable the Library to offer electronic engineering resources which are critically needed in this field. With the rapid advancements in engineering, the acquisition of current resources is critical to students and researchers alike. The Morgan & Claypool Synthesis Collection 3 & 4 will add 125 titles and provide not only a valuable source of information but also an ideal introduction to new fields. With these acquisitions being electronic in nature, more students, faculty and researchers will have increased access to these resources and be able to download PDF versions of the titles.
The McKee Foundation has supported the Library since 1995. Robert E. McKee is remembered as the “master builder” whose construction company, McKee Construction, built seven buildings on the NMSU campus.
For more information, please contact Johnson at paulacj@lib.nmsu.edu or (575) 646-7251.
Library Hosts Sunshine Week Reception to Promote Open Government
The New Mexico State University Library will host its first annual Sunshine Week reception on Wednesday, March 13, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m., on the third floor of Zuhl Library. The free public event is being held in conjunction with National Sunshine Week, running March 10 to 16. 
Sunshine Week is a national event that coincides with James Madison’s birthday, aiming to promote and educate about the importance of open government, transparency and freedom of information. Madison was a strong proponent of open government.
1st and 2nd place winners of the Library’s Sunshine Week essay contest will be honored, followed by featured speaker Walter Rubel, Managing Editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News. Rubel will share his own experiences fighting for open government and discuss the important role Sunshine Laws play in modern democracy.
Walter Rubel first came to Las Cruces to work at the Las Cruces Sun-News in 2002 as a news editor. In 2004 he was appointed the newspaper’s bureau chief in Santa Fe and covered the state government. He returned to Las Cruces in 2007 and has been managing editor of the paper since that time. He is primarily responsible for the editorial page, but is also involved in the planning and editing of the news section. Rubel is a native of Denver and a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. A seasoned newsman, he has been a journalist since 1982, working with newspapers in Kansas, California, Wyoming and Colorado before coming to New Mexico.
The Sunshine Week Essay Contest and reception are sponsored by NMSU alumnus Tim Parker, the NMSU Library and the NMSU Department of Journalism & Mass Communications. For more information visit http://nmsu.libguides.com/sun or contact Library Specialist Jonathan Butz at butz@nmsu.edu or Government Documents & Maps Librarian Josefine Smith at jmasmith@nmsu.edu.
NMSU Library Hosts Business Database Trials
The New Mexico State University Library invites the campus community to participate in trials of three new electronic business databases beginning immediately and ending in April.
PrivCo: Consists of detailed profiles for over 160,000 privately-held companies such as Twitter, In-N-Out Burgers, and Trader Joe’s (ends April 26).
IBISWorld: Provides a comprehensive industry reports on over 1,100 U.S. industries, along with Risk Rating Reports providing a single, comparable risk score for every industry (ends April 12).
Euromonitor’s Passport: This is a market information database and analysis tool covering 28 major consumer industries across 80 countries (ends April 12).
To access these resources and learn more about them, please visit http://lib.nmsu.edu/resources/dbtrials.shtml.
Please contact Business Librarian Felipe Castillo at fcastil@nmsu.edu with your questions and comments.
Tenenbaum to Share Stories and Images of Mexican Revolution
Historian/librarian Barbara Tenenbaum will share stories and images of the Mexican Revolution on Thursday February 21, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Zuhl Library Conference Room. 
Tenenbaum is Mexican Culture Specialist at the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and Curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division. Her talk, “Vámonos: The Mexican Revolution in Sights and Sound at the Library of Congress,” will feature illustrations from original materials on the Mexican Revolution from the Library of Congress collections.
In her talk, Tenenbaum will answer such intriguing questions as why Pancho Villa didn’t fight at night, how Tex-Mex food got started and why Mexican soldiers understood fighting better than U.S. forces.
The free public presentation, co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Border Studies and the NMSU Library, will be followed by a reception. For more information, contact Molloy, NMSU Library, (575) 646-6931, mmolloy@nmsu.edu or Seth Wilson, NMSU Center for Latin American and Border Studies at (575) 646-6814, sewilson@nmsu.edu.
Historian, Librarian Barbara Tenenbaum to Speak at NMSU Library
Come and meet historian and librarian Barbara Tenenbaum for stories and images of the Mexican Revolution on Thursday February 21, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in NMSU’s Zuhl Library Conference Room. The free public presentation, co-sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Border Studies and the NMSU Library, will be followed by a reception.
Tenenbaum is Mexican Culture Specialist at the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and Curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division. Her talk, “Vámonos: The Mexican Revolution in Sights and Sound at the Library of Congress,” will feature illustrations from original materials on the Mexican Revolution from the Library of Congress collections. The presentation will feature the Library of Congress website Distant Neighbors: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, available at http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/mexico/intro_a.html.
In her talk, Tenenbaum will answer such intriguing questions as why Pancho Villa didn’t fight at night, how Tex-Mex food got started and why Mexican soldiers understood fighting better than U.S. forces.
Tenenbaum taught Latin American history at Vassar College, the University of South Carolina, Catholic University and Howard University before joining the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress in 1992.
A specialist in Mexican culture, Tenenbaum is the author/editor of many books and articles about Mexico and the Library of Congress Hispanic collections. The NMSU Library is honoring Tenenbaum at the reception to thank her for her recent donations to the Library from her personal collections of research materials on Mexican and Latin American history, economics and culture. The Library received her generous donation at the beginning of 2012, and more than 150 books not previously owned by NMSU have been added to the library catalog.
The Library’s Latin America & Border Studies Librarian, Molly Molloy, first met Tenenbaum at a meeting of the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials in the early 1990s and got to know her better through her entertaining and scholarly presentations at conferences, as well as during winter trips to the Mesilla Valley to visit family and get some respite from the snow and slush of Washington, D.C. Tenenbaum has presented several times at the Center for Latin American and Border Studies, always highlighting special collections at the Library of Congress that provide new insights into Mexican history and culture.
Mexican history was Tenenbaum’s passion long before she became a librarian. She studied at Harvard University under John Womack and published her dissertation as The Politics of Penury: Debts and Taxes in Mexico, 1821-1856 (University of New Mexico Press, 1986). In addition to many other monographs and articles, Tenenbaum is editor-in-chief of the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture (Scribners, 1996), a masterful, award-winning and comprehensive reference work on the region.
In a recent conversation with Molloy, Tenenbaum said that her training as an academic historian was great preparation for what she calls “the perfect job for me” at the Library of Congress, where she is responsible for all Mexican acquisitions. She reviews hundreds of books that come to the Library each year through blanket orders from several Mexican book sellers. The Library of Congress makes a great effort to acquire all of the original materials published in the region that would be of use now and in the future to readers and researchers.
Tenenbaum’s work encompasses much more than books and ranges from the modern to the ancient. She recently located a Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648 or 1651-1695) manuscript that was purchased by the Library of Congress. She was also recently consulted by staff from another division of the library when they found an original drawing by Martin Ramirez (1895-1963). An immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, Ramirez spent much of his later life in a mental asylum in California where he created many drawings that have become iconic in what is sometimes called “outsider art.” Tenenbaum worked with the Ramirez family to arrange for the work to be exhibited at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit http://www.folkartmuseum.org/ramirez.
Molloy recently asked Tenenbaum if she had a favorite book or story about the Mexican Revolution. She did not hesitate for a second, and replied, “The Wind that Swept Mexico. It makes you feel it. It makes you feel what the Revolution was to people.” The WindThatSweptMexico: The History of the Mexican Revolution, 1910-1942, text by Anita Brenner, is available at Zuhl Library, F1234 .B83 1943.
As for her favorite story, she said, “My father didn’t know anything about Mexico or the revolution, but he always loved that photograph (by Casasola) of the guy smoking a cigarette while he was being shot. I remember when my mother saw the film Like Water for Chocolate, and she would always ask me, ‘Why didn’t Tita marry the nice doctor?’ I later wrote a whole paper based on that and used the title: ‘Why Tita Didn’t Marry the Doctor.’” Like Water for Chocolate is available on DVD at Branson Library, DVD PQ7298.15.S638 C6613 2000, and the novel by Laura Esquivel is available at Zuhl Library, PQ7298.15.S638 C6613 1992.
Tenenbaum also said that she was fascinated by Pancho Villa, and especially recommends the biography by Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa (Stanford University Press, 1998), Zuhl Library, F1234.V63 K38 1998.
For more information, contact Molloy, NMSU Library, (575) 646-6931, mmolloy@nmsu.edu or Seth Wilson, NMSU Center for Latin American and Border Studies at (575) 646-6814, sewilson@nmsu.edu.
Southwest Book Awards Announced
The Border Regional Library Association is pleased to announce the 42nd Annual Southwest Book Awards. Since 1971, the awards have been presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year in any genre (e.g. fiction, nonfiction, reference) and directed toward any audience (scholarly, popular, children). Original video and audio materials are also considered.
The 2013 winners are:
• Amadito and the Hero Children / Amadito y los Niños Heroes, by Enrique R. Lamadrid, illustrations by Amy Cordova (University of New Mexico Press)
• Border Junkies, by Scott Comar (University of Texas Press)
• En el Puente con la Migra, edited by Hector Antonio Padilla Delgado (Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez)
• From this Wicked Patch of Dust, by Sergio Troncoso (University of Arizona Press)
• Grandpa Lolo’s Navajo Saddle Blanket / La Tilma de Abuelito Lolo, by Nasario Garcia (University of New Mexico Press)
• Hard to Have Heroes, by Buddy Mays (University of New Mexico Press)
• The Plazas of New Mexico, edited by Chris Wilson and Stefanos Polyzoides (Trinity University Press)
• Santa Rita del Cobre: A Copper Mining Community in New Mexico, by Christopher J. Huggard and Terrence M. Humble (University Press of Colorado)
Award eligibility is based on five criteria: Materials must be about the Southwest, defined as West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico; appearing in book or nonprint format for the first time; published between August 1, 2011, and July 31, 2012; of high quality, both in the context of the current year’s entries and in the existing body of Southwestern literature; and books which reflect and interpret the Southwest.
A scholarly work must make a well documented contribution to scholarship in some aspect of Southwestern history or culture. Other nonfiction works should make reliable information accessible to the general reader. Poetry and fiction must reflect Southwestern culture and/or be set in the Southwest.
For more information please contact John Sandstrom, Acquisitions Librarian, NMSU Library, (575) 646-8093 or jsand713@nmsu.edu.
Border Regional Library Association Announces Awards Banquet
The Border Regional Library Association cordially invites book and library lovers to attend the 42nd BRLA Awards Banquet. The banquet will be held at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing on Saturday, February 23, at 6:00 p. m. The event will feature the presentation of the 42nd Southwest Books Awards as well as Librarian and Library Staff Member of the Year awards.
The cost is $30 per person, and reservations can be made until February 15. Reservation forms and additional information is available at http://brla.info/banquetreg.htm.
The Border Regional Library Association (BRLA) is an organization founded in 1966 for the promotion of library service and librarianship in the El Paso/Las Cruces/Juárez metroplex. Current membership includes over one hundred librarians, paraprofessionals, media specialists and library friends and trustees from all types of libraries in the tri-state area of Trans-Pecos Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua.
As librarians and information specialists, BRLA members find that the organization provides a forum for local issues, which impact the future of all types of libraries in the region. BRLA also serves as a support group to promote libraries as important educational and cultural institutions, which have a direct impact on communities and democratic action. Annual dues are low in cost but high in rewarding returns. BRLA welcomes and encourages your membership and involvement.
For more information please contact John Sandstrom, Acquisitions Librarian, New Mexico State University Library, (575) 646-8093 or jsand713@nmsu.edu.