John Sandstrom Elected ALA Councilor
Date: May 11, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Librarian John C. Sandstrom is one of thirty-three new councilors-at-large elected for three-year terms on the ALA (American Library Association) Council. His term will begin at the conclusion of the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, and extend through the end of the 2015 ALA Annual Conference in San Francisco.
John Sandstrom
Sandstrom joined the Library faculty as the Acquisitions Librarian in 2011. He received his master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Oklahoma in 1987 and his master’s degree in public administration from the University of Texas, El Paso, in 2010.
John is very active in regional and national library associations including the Border Regional Library Association and the American Library Association. He was named the Border Regional Library Association Librarian of the Year in 2007.
The ALA Council is the governing body of the American Library Association. It delegates to the divisions of the Association the authority to plan and carry out programs and activities with policy established by the Council. The Council includes one hundred members-at-large as well as Association officers and representatives of state, provincial and territorial ALA chapters, Association divisions, and larger Association round tables.
For more information, contact Sandstrom at (575) 646-8093 or jsand713@lib.nmsu.edu.
Jeanette Smith Authors New Book on Library Humor
Date: May 10, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kristina Martinez, NMSU Library, (575) 646-3642, krismart@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library faculty member Jeanette Smith is the author of a new book, “The Laughing Librarian: A History of American Library Humor.” The book was published by McFarland and C
ompany.
Smith’s examination of library humor between 1876, when the American Library Association was founded, and the year 2000, spans the continuum between light and broad to dark and edgy humor from inside and outside the profession. It covers a wide range of topics from library quiet to the sexy librarian, the library superhero, the fear of libraries and librarians, and librarian activism.
By highlighting humorous aspects of this seemingly serious occupation, this book provides insights into the library profession and encourages a better appreciation of libraries and librarians in society.
Smith has enjoyed reading and writing library humor since she became a librarian in 1973. She received the 1999 Edmund Lester Pearson Library Humor Award for an essay she wrote for the NMSU Library newsletter and in 2005, she was named a Fellow of the premier library humor organization, the Molesworth Institute.
Smith said, “Humor is an essential part of every occupation. In this book I am presenting the truths and the history of my profession as they were told to me in jest.”
“The Laughing Librarian” ($49.95) is available on the McFarland website at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com. It is also available on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites. For more information, contact Smith at jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu.
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NMSU Student Learns About Libraries
Date: May 9, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The online comic strip “On a Claire Day” follows the adventures of a young woman who has struck out on her own and works a variety of jobs, including employment in a library.
Claire Cortner
The New Mexico State University Library has its very own Claire—Claire Cortner. Cortner, a familiar face at the Zuhl Library checkout desk, is an NMSU student who will graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies.
After graduation Cortner plans to pursue her master’s degree in library science. In preparation for library school, Cortner is participating in the librarian-in training program with the GOAL (Grow Our Own Area Librarians) Project.
Besides her regular student job at the NMSU Library, she has spent one hundred hours visiting different departments in Zuhl and Branson libraries to receive hands-on training on all aspects of librarianship, both in the public eye and behind the scenes.
The GOAL Project, a partnership of a consortium of El Paso area libraries and the NMSU Library, is funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Cortner said, “This program is a positive and effective experience, and I have had an amazing time with it. The knowledge I have gained will help me tremendously in my future endeavors, and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making this opportunity possible.”
For more information, contact Interim Associate Dean Norice Lee at (575) 646-1508.
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Mary Covarrubias-Chavarria Receives Carl Faubion Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library employee Mary Covarrubias-Chavarria recently received the 2012 Carl Faubion Outstanding Library Staff Employee of the Year Award in a ceremony at Zuhl Library.
Mary Covarrubias-Chavarria
Covarrubias-Chavarria, the Circulation Coordinator in the Library’s Access Services Department, was commended for her leadership within Access Services and for her many contributions to the Library and its users. She serves as a positive role model among the staff for consistently going above and beyond her assigned duties.
Within Access Services, Covarrubias-Chavarria worked tirelessly on staff development and training activities. She played a key role in the successful implementation of a laptop and iPad loan program in partnership with NMSU’s Information and Communication Technologies Department’s Student Technology Advisory Committee, and participated in discussions to effectively address concerns regarding ICT cluster printing. She provided significant support for facility-related tasks, such as overseeing the disposition of large quantities of equipment and furniture and recycling of de-accessioned materials.
In the Library as a whole, she provided oversight of substantial Big Shift projects and managed a student labor team that worked on shelving reconfigurations in a year of unprecedented collection moves, facility issues, and other special projects.
The Carl Faubion Award is presented annually to an exempt or non-exempt NMSU Library employee who exemplifies excellence in customer service, exceptional contributions to the library, innovation and creative thinking in problem solving or contributions which have reduced operating costs or resulted in administrative efficiencies.
The award was made possible by former NMSU President James E. Halligan and Mrs. Ann E. Halligan, who established the Carl Faubion Memorial Endowment for the NMSU Library in 2007. The endowment was established in memory of the late Carl Faubion, Mesilla Valley farmer and former NMSU regent.
For more information, please contact the NMSU Library Administration at (575) 646-1508.
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Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey Book Receives State Preservation Award
Date: April 30, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The book Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey, a collaborative project of the Las Cruces Bulletin and the NMSU Library’s Archives and Special Collections Department, has been awarded the Heritage Preservation Award by the Cultural Properties Review Committee and the Historic Preservation Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Individual awards will be presented to Charles Stanford and Dean Wilkey of the Library and David and Jaki McCollum of the Las Cruces Bulletin at a May 18 ceremony in Santa Fe.
Las Cruces: A Photographic Journey
Dr. Rick Hendricks, Chair of the Cultural Properties Review Committee, said “many elements of lost Las Cruces history are now available to a wider audience because of the book.”
The pictorial history was published just in time for the celebration of New Mexico’s centennial, and it has become a collector’s item and heirloom for families throughout this area. The 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.
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.
To order the book, contact the Bulletin at (575) 524-8061. For more information on the award, contact Wilkey at (575) 646-4727.
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Zuhl Library Offers Extended End of Semester Hours
Date: April 26, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The NMSU Library announces extended end of semester hours at Zuhl Library only:
Monday, April 30 through Thursday, May 3, 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Friday, May 4, 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Saturday, May 5, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sunday, May 6 through Wednesday, May 9, 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.
Thursday, May 10, regular hours
Friday, May 11, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Branson Library will maintain regular hours during finals week. Both libraries are closed Saturday, May 12 through Sunday, May 13.
Coffee will be served during the evening hours at both Branson and Zuhl libraries starting Thursday, May 3 through Thursday, May 10.
The full schedule of Library hours is available at http://lib.nmsu.edu/aboutlib/libhours.shtml and on a voice recording at (575) 646-4749.
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Molly Molloy Receives New Mexico Library Leadership Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Molly Molloy
New Mexico State University Librarian Molly Molloy received the New Mexico Library Leadership Award from the New Mexico Library Association during the association’s annual conference in Las Cruces.
The conference was held April 11-13 at the Las Cruces Convention Center.
Since 1992, Molloy has served as the Latin American and Border Studies Librarian at the NMSU Library. She provides reference and instructional services, develops the Library’s collections in her assigned areas and works closely with faculty and students conducting research on border issues and/or Latin American studies.
Molloy’s advocacy of border issues has extended far beyond her professional job duties, while these professional duties have informed and have given shape to her activism. She has been tireless in her efforts to share information and to encourage critical thinking about the complex realities of border life and to seek fairness and justice for individuals whose voices are frequently missing from the larger national debate.
Before coming to NMSU, Molloy wrote and edited bilingual publications sharing news about Nicaragua, and learned about the complexities of immigration issues as a paralegal and document counselor in Louisiana and California. After beginning her career as a librarian, Molloy recognized the power of the Internet as a tool for sharing information and fostering what she deemed “communities of affinity” through which geographically dispersed people could come together around issues of common concern.
In the early 1990s, Molloy developed online guides for Latin American and Border Issues (http://nmsu.libguides.com/border), which became popular among scholars and community residents. Her Web guides receive 10,000 to 15,000 hits each month, receiving well deserved national and international acclaim.
A more recent effort to share information about social justice on the border is found in Molloy’s work on the Frontera email list, a border news service she created several years ago which has nearly eight hundred subscribers. Molloy’s work on the Frontera list is highly valued by her readers. University of Puerto Rico professor Victor Federico Torres applauds Molloy’s efforts, saying that the Frontera news list is “the most comprehensive, up- to-date source of narco-related violence on the U.S.-Mexico Border.”
Many articles are provided and/or translated by Molloy herself. She is unstinting in her efforts to provide journalists and other list subscribers with the best data sources available to help them understand and convey stories about current border events. Her work on the list has informed articles that have appeared in publications including the Houston Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal and In these Times.
Interviews with Molloy have appeared in the New York Times, the Nation, the Guardian and the Observer as well as the nationally-syndicated radio program, Democracy Now and National Public Radio’s Hearing Voices series on Ciudad Juárez. These articles and interviews have all highlighted the significance of Molloy’s work, and have clarified and provided context to the complex and bloody situation on the border that many in the United States do not understand.
Recently Molloy collaborated with journalist Charles Bowden and filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi on the award-winning documentary The Sicario—Room 164. This film, which premiered at the Venice Biennale in September 2011, continues to garner praise. The film provides a first-hand account of the life of a hit man for the Juárez cartel, and it was also the basis for the book, El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin (Nation Books, 2011), which Molloy translated and edited with Bowden.
Molloy inspires New Mexico librarians by example, going each day beyond her daily duties by tracking and document the daily murders in Ciudad Juárez. The list of the dead that Molloy keeps signifies that someone cares enough to make sure these victims have a voice and that their deaths will not go unnoticed. Molloy provides access to information from the borderland that would otherwise be lost because of its limited distribution outside of her Frontera list. She provides an invaluable service not only to today’s border researchers but to those of the future.
For more information, contact Molloy at (575) 646-6931 or mollymolloy@gmail.com. For more information on the conference, visit http://nmla.org/annual-conference/.
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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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