Southwest and Border Cultures Institute Funds Library Projects
Four projects conducted by New Mexico State University Library faculty members were awarded funding through the mini-grant program of NMSU’s Southwest and Border Cultures Institute.
Molly Molloy was awarded $2,199.80 for expanding access to cartoneras in the U.S.-Mexico Border region and the American Southwest. Cartoneras are unique books made of recycled materials, resulting from an independent publishing movement that began in Latin America.
Mardi Mahaffy and Sarah Baker received $1,704.65 for the April 2013 Dia de los Ninos program. The Dia celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Cindy Watkins was awarded $2,000 for digitizing NMSU’s historical Cooperative Extension Service/Agricultural Experiment Station publications. These materials document the rich history of agriculture in New Mexico.
Ellen Bosman received $2,000 for creating an online map of New Mexico’s literary heritage. The searchable map brings together bio-bibliographical and geographic information on New Mexican authors. Bosman was awarded an additional $1,000 from the New Mexico Library Foundation for the project.
The Southwest and Border Cultures Institute (SBCI) resulted from a successful challenge grant awarded to NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Library and the University Museum by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1998. The SBCI promotes humanities research, education and outreach, with special emphasis on understanding and maintaining the unique multicultural heritage of this region.
For more information, contact Jeanette Smith at (575) 646-7492.
GO Bond B! You Need Libraries and Libraries Need You!
Date: September 25, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kristina Martinez, NMSU Library, (575) 646-3642, krismart@lib.nmsu.edu
Publicly funded libraries throughout New Mexico, including the New Mexico State University Library, will benefit from passage of a bond issue that will appear on the ballot in New Mexico’s November General Election.
GO Bond B is one of three bond issues in Senate Bill SB 66, the General Obligation Bond Bill, signed March 7, 2012, by Governor Susana Martinez.
If passed, GO Bond B will provide $9,700,000 for New Mexico Libraries, $3 million each to public, academic and school libraries statewide for the purchase of library materials and $700,000 to tribal libraries for the purchase of library materials and construction.
GO Bonds provide up to 25% of New Mexico academic library materials. Libraries at the NMSU Las Cruces campus, Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Grants and Dona Ana Community College will all benefit from this bond. If approved, the $9.7 million bond issue will cost taxpayers 56 cents per $100,000 of their assessed property value and NMSU Libraries would receive the following estimated amounts:
- NMSU Las Cruces Library – $386,090
- Doña Ana Community College Library – $83,349
- NMSU Alamogordo Library – $26,442
- NMSU Carlsbad Library – $13,539
- NMSU Grants Library – $10,461
The cumulative total for the NMSU Library system will be $519,881.
“The NMSU Library relies on bond funds in order to maintain its collection. We encourage New Mexicans to get out and vote on November 6th or to vote early,” said Dr. Elizabeth A. Titus, Dean of NMSU Library.
The statewide Bonds for Libraries Special Interest Group of the New Mexico Library Association is conducting an informational campaign to assist library supporters in providing voter information about GO Bond B. For more information, visit the group’s website at http://www.bondsforlibraries.org/.
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Library GO Bond B to be on General Election Ballot
Date: October 11, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library will benefit from passage of a bond issue that will appear on the ballot in New Mexico’s November General Election.
GO Bond B is one of three bond issues in Senate Bill SB 66, the General Obligation Bond Bill, signed March 7 by Governor Susana Martinez.
If passed, GO Bond B will provide $9 million ($3 million each to public, academic and school libraries statewide) for the acquisition of library materials, and $700,000 to tribal libraries for the purchase of library materials and construction.
“The NMSU Library relies on bond funds in order to maintain its collection. We encourage New Mexicans to get out and vote on November 6,” said NMSU Library Dean Elizabeth A. Titus.
Governor Martinez also signed the Severance Tax Bond Project bill. Among the five projects funded by this bill are $5 million dollars to support NMSU’s College of Business Institute for Public Policy and the Library’s Domenici Archives building project, which includes renovation and new construction.
Severance tax bonds do not require voter approval, and these bonds will go up for sale shortly.
The statewide Bonds for Libraries Special Interest Group of the New Mexico Library Association is conducting an informational campaign to assist library supporters in providing voter information about GO Bond B. For more information, visit the group’s Web site at http://www.bondsforlibraries.org/.
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NMSU Library Announces Open Access Week Activities
The NMSU Library is sponsoring four programs from October 22 t
o 25 to mark Open Access Week (October 22-28.) This celebration of new models of scholarly communication and faculty publication offers an opportunity for the academic and research community to learn more about what Open Access (OA) means and its potential benefits.
All presentations are free, and open to the public. All events will be held in the Library Conference Room, Zuhl Library Room 225. Light refreshments will be served.
Last year’s Open Access Week featured events in more than 130 countries. This is the first time the NMSU Library is celebrating this informative week. View a video by Engineering and Mathematics Librarian Paula Johnson at http://www.youtube.com/embed/SeMDOSx7J9k?autoplay=1. Open Access Week is a time to share experiences with colleagues and to encourage wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarly communication. This year’s theme, “Set the Default to Open Access,” aspires to advance the global conversation and showcase a variety of OA initiatives.
- Monday, October 22, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Open Access Week 2012 Kickoff Webcast – “Perspectives on Open Access: Practice, Progress and Pitfalls.” Co-sponsored by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition and the World Bank.
The 90-minute panel will be moderated by Heather Joseph, Executive Director, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, and speakers include: Michael Carroll, Professor of Law, American University and founding Board Member, Creative Commons; Matt Cooper, President, The National Association of Graduate-Professional Students; Maricel Kann, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland and member, PubMed Central National Advisory Committee, National Institutes of Health (NIH); Carlos Rossel, Publisher, the World Bank; and Neil Thakur, Special Assistant to the Deputy Director, Extramural Research, NIH. Questions may be submitted by the viewing audience.
- Tuesday, October 23, 10:30 a.m. – Noon. “NMSU Library U Presents Scholarly Communications 101.”
Paula Johnson, Engineering and Mathematics Librarian, will provide a brief history of scholarly communications and then trace the rise of the Open Access movement. Peter Suber, one of OA’s founders, stated that “The question is not whether scholarly literature can be made costless, but whether there are better ways to pay the bills than by charging readers and creating access barriers.” These “better ways” will be explored.
- Wednesday, October 24, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. “Introduction to University Scholarly Communication Programs.”
Ingrid Schneider, Metadata & Authority Control Librarian, will examine some scholarly communications programs, and discuss the place of institutional digital repositories as part of these programs. Science Librarian Nirmala Gunapala will discuss eScience, or what some call “distributed collaboration. “ Hear about some of the exciting opportunities and the challenges with data curation and sharing. Libraries have often led the way in establishing University Scholarly Communication Programs, which are intended to facilitate the increase in accessibility, usability and impact of faculty research.
- Thursday, October 25, 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. “Faculty Forum on Editing and/or Publishing – Open Access and Otherwise”
In the academic world, one hears “publish or perish.” Sharing one’s research and expanding the body of knowledge are the ultimate goals. Some faculty members publish and/or edit in traditional toll access model journals, and some do this in Open Access publications. There will be a brief presentation on citation and journal impact factors as well as authors’ rights for OA and traditional journals. This will be followed by an open discussion led by a panel of NMSU faculty members who will talk about publishing in and editing scholarly journals. Come to hear Jennifer Curtiss, Immo Hansen, Bruce Olberding, Barry Thatcher and Stefan Zollner share their perspectives and experiences, and join in the discussion.
Event organizer Paula Johnson said that faculty, students and the community at large who want to learn what Open Access is should try to attend at least one of the first three events. People for whom Open Access is a force of good, a problematic movement or a mixed bag (and those who, for now, have no opinion) should plan to come to the final event of Open Access Week.
For more information, contact Johnson at (575) 646-7251 or paulacj@lib.nmsu.edu.
NMSU Library and NMSU Teaching Academy Announce Self-Publishing Workshop
Date: September 25, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kristina Martinez, NMSU Library, (575) 646-3642, krismart@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library and NMSU Teaching Academy are co-sponsoring a free self-publishing workshop to be held, October 25th 9:00am – 4:30pm. This one-day class will demonstrate how to prepare your book for publication using Microsoft Publisher® and Adobe Photoshop Elements®. Once you have it prepared, you can upload it to CreateSpace.com and get it published without spending a dime.
Topics will include:
- How to organize your book (title page, table of contents, etc.)
- How to design a page. (Look closely at several books and notice that pages are carefully designed.)
- How to use fonts and dingbats effectively. (Don’t know what a “dingbat” is? Come to the seminar and find out.)
- What decisions you have to make. (What size font? What size margins? Etc.)
- How to use Microsoft Publisher®.
- How to prepare photographs for your book using Adobe Photoshop Elements®.
- How to design an effective cover.
- How to prepare your cover using Adobe Photoshop Elements®.
- How to submit your book to CreateSpace.com.*The workshop will not cover: e-book publishing (Kindle, Nook, etc.)
The workshop will be taught by Dr. Richard Davies, NMSU alumni and author of four self-published books. Dr. Davies teaches self-publishing skills in the Continuing Education Division of Clayton State University, Morrow, Georgia.
To register, please visit http://teaching.nmsu.edu/ or call 575-646-2204.
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NMSU Library Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Freedom to Read
Date: September 28, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Norice Lee, NMSU Library, (575) 646-1508, nlee@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library joins libraries nationwide in a celebration of the 30th annual Banned Books Week, September 30th through October 6th. Since 1982, Banned Books Week has been both a celebration of intellectual freedom and a campaign to raise awareness about continuing attempts at censorship. It is an annual national event sponsored by the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, celebrating the freedom to read, the importance of the First Amendment, and highlighting the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to censorship. Banned Books Week stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.
For information on banned books and censorship, access the Library’s guide at http://nmsu.libguides.com/censorship. It lists books that have been censored, notes books that have been banned locally, and provides links to more information about censorship and intellectual freedom. For more information contact Susan Beck, Collection Development Coordinator at 646-6171 or susabeck@nmsu.edu.
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NMSU Library Promotes Collections Through Publications
Date: September 28, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kristina Martinez, NMSU Library, (575) 646-3642, krismart@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library announces the publication of two new books, The Casads: A Pioneer Family of the Mesilla Valley by Rick Hendricks and Out of the Shadows: The Women of Southern New Mexico edited by Martha Shipman Andrews. Both publications feature collections held within the NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections Department.
The Casads: A Pioneer Family of the Mesilla Valley is a history of the Casad family that traces its movement from Ohio to New Mexico by way of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and California. The principal family members are Thomas Casad and his second wife, Sarah Van Winkle Casad, along with their numerous children. The book relates one family’s experience with agriculture, coal mining, and milling on the Illinois prairie, where Thomas founded the town of Summerfield in St. Clair County, and its migration west as far as Kansas. Thomas Casad was recognized as one of the leading agriculturalists in southern New Mexico. Casad is credited with the introduction of large-scale production of alfalfa in the region and improving local livestock. He was a newspaper editor and columnist specializing in spreading innovative agricultural techniques. He also was a noted miller in Doña Ana and Chamberino. His purchase of almost 10,000 acres of the Brazito made him one of the largest landowners in the Mesilla Valley. The Casads: A Pioneer Family of the Mesilla Valley was written by State Historian and former NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections Department employee, Dr. Rick Hendricks. The NMSU Library holds three branches of the Casad family papers and many of the photographs used in the book came from these three collections. Barnes & Noble at NMSU is hosting Dr. Hendricks for a reading and book signing on October 6, 2012 at 2 p.m.
Out of the Shadows: The Women of Southern New Mexico is a compilation of photographs and essays examining the roles of women in 
Southern New Mexico between 1880-1920. Visual images provide a particularly evocative means of examining the dark spaces behind the overshadowing Western myths so dominated by the concerns and exploits of men. The extensive photograph collections of the Rio Grande Historical Collections and the Hobson-Huntsinger University Archives of the New Mexico State University Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department give witness to the experiences of women as they helped to settle the mountains and deserts of New Mexico between 1880 and 1920. The accompanying essays by noted scholars and archivists have found the lives of women in southern New Mexico not full of endless toil and deprivation but rather, in the words of young Mildred Barnes from the mining community of Lake Valley, “delightful, exciting, and filled with a sense of abundance.” NMSU University Archivist and Associate Professor Martha Shipman Andrews will be promoting Out of the Shadows: The Women of Southern New Mexico at COAS Bookstore at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29th and at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20th at Barnes and Noble NMSU. Andrews has won two 2009 NM Books Awards and the Centennial Award for one of the “100 Best Books of NM.”
In collaboration with LPD Press/Rio Grande Books, NMSU Library has published these two titles as well as the award winning, The Whole Damned World: New Mexico Aggies at War: 1941-1945 edited by Martha Shipman Andrews.
For more information on these publications, please contact Kristina Martinez, 575-646-3642 or krismart@nmsu.edu. To order a copy of any of the NMSU Library/ LPD Press Publications, please visit http://nmsantos.com/Mercado/Current-Books/Current-Books.html.
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NMSU Library 2013 Calendar Now Available
Date: September 28, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kristina Martinez, NMSU Library, (575) 646-3642, krismart@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library announces the release of its 2013 calendar, Life in New Mexico Through the Eyes of the Cooperative Extension Service 1900’s – 1970’s:
Cooking, Gardening, Home Living, Sewing, Youth. Each month features a Cooperative Extension Service Circular along with a photograph from NMSU Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department that matches the subject area of the featured circular. The focus of the calendar is on how the Cooperative Extension Service enhanced the lives of New Mexicans in the areas of Cooking, Gardening, Home Living, Sewing and Youth, through its publications.
Calendars can be purchased for only $8 each and the proceeds support the NMSU Library. Supplies are limited. The calendars are available at the Library’s Administration Office, Room 224, Zuhl Library and at the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department, Branson Library, 4th floor.
For more information or to place an order, call the Library Administration Office at (575) 646-1508.
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NMSU Library announces expanded access to SciFinder database
Date: September 24, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Samuel Horstman, (575) 646-7565, shorstma@nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library has announced that access to SciFinder, a database produced by the Chemical Abstracts Services, will no longer be limited to two concurrent seats. With unlimited access, SciFinder will be available to researchers in chemistry as well as those in other science departments throughout the university.
“These improvements are wonderful and will be extremely helpful for our research and teaching,” said Regents Professor Jeff Arterburn, in the Department Chemistry and Biochemistry.
The SciFinder database will now include the Substructure Module. The SciFinder Substructure Module was an optional feature that was only available as a separate subscription to the original SciFinder database product. SSM users will have the ability to search a chemical structure as well as a substructure of a more complex structure, which is an essential function in current chemistry research. The module also includes drawing tools that are specifically used for drawing substructure queries, along with many other features that support research.
SciFinder access will continue to be subject to the terms and conditions of the SciFinder license.
The NMSU Library will offer information and training materials for the use of the SciFinder database and the Substructure Module. For any questions or assistance with this database contact Nirmala Gunapala at 575-646-5551 or nirmalag@nmsu.edu.
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NMSU Library Announces FY13 Materials Budget Reductions
Date: September 4, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Norice Lee, NMSU Library, (575) 646-1508, nlee@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library is pleased to announce that it has received assistance in the form of one time funds from the University Administration to provide much-needed relief to the Library’s diminishing materials budget. Specifically, contributions of $150,000 from the President’s Office and $50,000 from the Provost’s Office will reduce the number of serial titles slated for cancellation this December and will also allow the Library to continue purchasing requested books throughout the coming year.
In May 2012 the Library announced that it would be cancelling 276 journal titles to meet its target amount of $200,000. University faculty contested the cancellation of 14 of the 276 titles, noting the high research value of each. Due to the generosity of the University Administration, the Library has reduced its cancellation list to 261 titles for a total cancellation amount of $167,935. These 261 journal titles show low use (10 or fewer uses), or no use, or cost $100 or more per use. In these times of budgetary austerity the Library must make difficult choices and must limit its subscriptions to publications of high use and/or low cost. A complete list of all titles slated for cancellation can be found at http://nmsu.libguides.com/BudgetCuts.
Other library materials budgets were negatively impacted this year, including the book budget that experienced a 64% reduction. Given current funding realities, the NMSU Library will continue to face reductions every year, as its budget remains static, its external revenue streams decline and serials subscription prices continue to increase annually by 4% or more.
This fall New Mexico voters will have the opportunity to support libraries through the successful passage of GO Bond B. This bond initiative will provide $9 million ($3 million each to public, academic and school libraries statewide) for the acquisition of library materials, and $700,000 to tribal libraries for the purchase of library materials and construction. NMSU Library is projected to receive approximately $386,090 from GO Bond B which will help support library collections.
The Library wants to thank the NMSU community for its participation in this year’s materials budget reduction process. We value the time and energy this community contributed to the project. The Library strives to fulfill its mission of supporting and enhancing the teaching, research and outreach missions of the University. For more information contact Susan Beck, Collection Development Coordinator, at (575) 646-6171 or email susabeck@nmsu.edu.
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