Archives Hours Announced
Date: March 29, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library officials have announced that beginning on Monday, April 2, the Caroline Stras Reading Room of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department will be open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Beginning on Monday, April 9, the reading room will be open by appointment only each Monday for the remainder of this Spring Semester. Researchers are requested to call (575) 646-3839 or email archives@lib.nmsu.edu to make an appointment one day in advance. Tuesday through Friday, the reading room will be open from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Beginning on Wednesday, May 6, and throughout the summer, the reading room will be open by appointment only.
Regular service from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, will resume during Fall Semester 2012.
For more information, call (575) 646-3839.
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Library Begins Journal Cancellations
Date: March 16, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library will need to conduct a journal cancellation project during Spring Semester 2012 due to the rising costs of journal subscriptions that continue to outpace the Library’s flat base budget. As purchasing power declines, the Library must balance its FY13 budget by reducing subscriptions.
Annual journal subscription cancellation projects are a reality that the Library will face on a continuing basis unless there are changes in the costs of scholarly publishing, the Library’s budget or both.
The estimated shortfall this year is $200,000, an amount based on inflation projection for serials (7%) and databases (5%), as well as cancellation penalties. Serials and databases account for 91% of the Library’s materials budget expenditures.
The NMSU Library is not alone in facing these difficulties. The cost of maintaining the current scholarly publishing system has challenged academic and research libraries across the country. For the NMSU Library, the system has become unsustainable without an increase to its base budget.
Professors Susan Beck, Collection Development Coordinator, and John Sandstrom, Acquisitions Librarian, will work with all Library subject specialists to develop a preliminary cancellation list by mid-March.
The criteria used to guide decision-making for this project are: high cost-low use titles, low or no use titles, and titles for which full text access has become available through other database subscriptions.
The preliminary cancellation list will be shared with the campus community so there is time for review and questions. Library staff members will also offer sessions at each NMSU college to explain the process used to build the preliminary list and to answer questions.
Above all, staff will work closely with the Library’s constituents to minimize consequences for teaching and research. All documents will be made available on the FY13 Library Cancellation Project Web site at http://nmsu.libguides.com/budgetcuts.
The process of identifying titles for cancellation will be completed by May 1, 2012, in order for licensing agreements, contracts and subscriptions to be cancelled for FY13. The Library will release the final cancellation list at that time.
The Library is working closely with the University Administration to identify options for strengthening the Library’s budget to better support NMSU’s growing research and teaching programs.
Thank you for your assistance with this challenging project.
For more information, contact Beck at susabeck@nmsu.edu.
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NMSU Library Announces Agriculture Publications Exhibit
Date: March 14, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library announces a new exhibit, “Digitizing New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Extension Service Publications.” The free public exhibit will run through August 15 in the lobby of NMSU’s Branson Library.
The exhibit, organized by Science Librarian Cynthia Watkins, depicts the rich history of agriculture in New Mexico documented in two extensive publication series, NMSU’s Cooperative Extension Service Publications and Agriculture Experiment Station Publications.
These unique materials have been produced for more than 100 years to provide research-based information about agriculture, health, economics, family life and natural resources. The collection consists of approximately 3,200 documents including Circulars, Guides, Handbooks, Annual Data Reports, Research Reports and Bulletins, Technical Reports and Task Force Reports written from 1890 to the present.
Many of these paper publications are in fragile condition, with permanent creases and tears, leading to the possibility of restricted access. The Library has embarked upon a project to digitize these documents to increase access and help preserve the collection. The publications will also be made keyword searchable.
The public is invited to enjoy this colorful and educational display of our state’s agricultural heritage. To complete the digitization project, the Library is asking for support from its many friends; alumni of NMSU’s College of Agriculture, Consumer & Environmental Sciences; and the state agricultural community. The goal is to raise $40,000 by May 1 for scanning of the original documents.
For more information, contact Watkins at cwatkins@lib.nmsu.edu or Library Development Officer Kristina Martinez at krismart@lib.nmsu.edu or (575) 646-3642.
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Cary Osborne: A Story Worth the Telling
Date: March 9, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Cary Osborne was already a published science fiction/fantasy author when she became the Political Papers Archivist at the New Mexico State University Library in 2008.
Cary Osborne
Described in one review as a “confident composer of space opera,” her novels include Iroshi (Ace, 1995), The Glaive (Ace, 1996), Persea (Ace, 1996), Deathweave (1998) and Darkloom (Ace, 1998). She also published The Winter Queen (Ace, 1999) under the pseudonym Devin Cary.
Osborne has also published more than sixteen short stories and several nonfiction articles on writing. Two of her stories were award-winners in the science fiction Writers of the Future contest.
She combined her passion for American history, which she lives every day as an archivist, with her knowledge of writing in a 2010 article in the Journal of Western Archives, “The Information-Seeking Behavior of Novelists in Archives.”
In her writings, Osborne has told the stories of hundreds of characters. She finally tells her own inspiring story in an essay in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Find Your Happiness (2011). In “When I Grow Up I Will be a Professor,” she details the journey she took from being a widow in rough financial circumstances to taking control of her life and attending library school in her sixties.
A graduate assistantship in the congressional archives at the University of Oklahoma provided the background that led to her current position as Political Papers Archivist at NMSU, working with the Pete Domenici Collection.
Osborne is now living her own fantasy of leading a secure life with meaningful work. She has truly found her happiness.
Contact Osborne at (575) 646-7711.
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Petes Pick Up is Here for You
Date: March 6, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Whether you’re studying late at the Library, had a late extracurricular meeting, or if you’re out late on the NMSU campus for any other reason, you can always call Pete’s Pick Up for a safe escort to your car or dorm.
Call (575) 646-1111 any time between 6:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. Pete’s Pick Up will take you safely to your campus destination.
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McKee Foundation Gives $6,000 to NMSU Library
Date: February 27, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library has received a gift of $6,000 from the Robert E. and Evelyn McKee Foundation of El Paso. The gift will be used for the purchase of current engineering reference materials for the Library’s collection.
Engineering Librarian Paula Johnson said that the gift will enable the Library to purchase titles including Bioelectronics, Biomedical, and Bioinspired Systems; Disorder and Strain-induced Complexity in Functional Materials; and Geotechnical and Geophysical Site Characterization.
Robert E. McKee is remembered as the “master builder” who built major structures in El Paso as well as Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and other cities.
The selection of the engineering resources will be conducted by Johnson. For more information, please contact her at paulacj@lib.nmsu.edu or (575) 646-7251.
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Library Announces Workshop Series
Date: February 15, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library is giving a series of helpful free workshops to be held this spring to acquaint Library users with resources and services available to them. While the workshops are targeted to graduate students, anyone may attend.
Theresa Westbrock
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Advanced Library Tools. Get acquainted with all of the Library tools you’ll want to use as a graduate student, including Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, librarian subject specialists, EndNote Web, Google Scholar customization, Dissertation Abstracts and more! Plus you’ll get acquainted with advanced database searching techniques, citation searching, setting up alerts and more.
Thursday, February 23, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Zuhl Library Classroom
Wednesday, February 29, noon to 1:00 p.m., Zuhl Library Classroom
- Citation Management: Mendeley. Mendeley is a free bibliographic management program that can index a collection of pdf documents, look up and import document details from PubMed, Web of Science, DOIs, and other online information sources, cite references from your collection in a paper you’re writing and construct the reference list for you. It integrates seamlessly with CiteULike, Zotero and BibTeX, and it features a built-in pdf viewer that allows you to highlight and annotate your pdf files.
Wednesday, March 7, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Zuhl Library Classroom
- Citation Management: EndNote Web. EndNote® Web is a Web-based program that is free (to university affiliates). It is used to collect and organize references, manage citations in papers and create bibliographies.
Tuesday, March 13, noon to 1:00 p.m., Branson Library Classroom
- Citation Management: Zotero. Zotero is an esay-to-use tool to collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself. Whether you’re searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a news story from the New York Times or a book from the NMSU Library catalog, Zotero has support for thousands of sites.
Thursday, March 15, noon to 1:00 p.m., Branson Library Classroom
Visit http://lib.nmsu.edu/workshops/ for the schedule of topics, dates, places and times. No registration is required. Workshops are open to the entire campus community.
For more information, please contact the Library’s Instruction Coordinator Theresa Westbrock at twestbro@lib.nmsu.edu.
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Photos Capture Beauty of Zuhl Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library Administration recently placed three framed photographs of Zuhl Library on the first floor of the library. The photographs capture the moods and architectural beauty of the library in different lighting.
Library Development Officer Kristina Martinez said, “We were looking for photos that were timeless. The theme is Zuhl Library: Morning, Noon and Night.”
The photos were all taken by NMSU’s University Communications in 1995, five years after what was then called “New Library” opened.
For more information, contact Martinez at (575) 646-3642.
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Library Partners with Las Cruces Bulletin on Book
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Take a trip back in time with the new book Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey. This impressive 288-page book full of photographs and history of the Mesilla Valley offers a tour of the first 100 years of New Mexico statehood through the eyes of Las Cruces and Doña Ana County.
Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey
The book was edited by the Las Cruces Bulletin, published by FIG Publications, LLC, and produced with the New Mexico State University Library Archives and Special Collections. Of the nearly 1,200 photos in the volume, more than 500 are from the archival photo collection of the Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department.
This unique pictorial history was published just in time for the holiday gift-giving season and for the celebration of New Mexico’s 100th birthday in 2012. It is certain to become a collector’s item and an heirloom for families throughout this area.
A special offer is being given to New Mexico State University faculty and staff. You may purchase Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey for $50 (a $10 discount off its list price of $60) until January 31, 2012. This offer includes as many copies of the book as you wish to purchase.
Call the Las Cruces Bulletin at (575) 524-8061 to pre-order over the phone. When you pick up the book(s) at the Bulletin office (840 N. Telshor Blvd.), you will be asked to present your NMSU ID.
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Library Implements Sustainable Lighting Solution
Date: November 15, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library is shedding some light on the problem of illuminating bookstacks efficiently and effectively. It has begun installing wireless light sensors above the shelving on the second and third floors of Zuhl Library that turn on automatically when someone is in the aisle and turn off when the aisle is unoccupied.
“We have wanted to do this green project for a long time,” said Library Dean Elizabeth A. Titus. “The energy cost savings for the University will be substantial.”
As the sustainable lighting project progresses, lights will be turned off in the Library one circuit at a time. Lights may also flicker from time to time. The Library staff will be happy to assist you in locating materials as the lights are being installed.
For more information, contact the Library Administration at (575) 646-1508.
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