SUL News Notes

Volume 5, Number 13
April 05, 1996


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COMMENDATION FOR GEOFFREY SKINNER

I am delighted to commend Geoffrey Skinner, Library Specialist in the Serials & Electronic Resources Cataloging Group, for his outstanding contributions in support of work restructuring, and for two special projects all happening over the past few months.

In September 1995, Serials Cataloging was restructured to include cataloging of audio-visual materials. Geoffrey agreed to increase his hours from three-quarter time (which he preferred) to full-time and to assume responsibility for copy cataloging of AV materials. He quickly demonstrated that he could handle the new combination of duties and that the newly structured position was viable.

During this same period, Geoff worked on a project to classify SUL's international documents collection. The record relationships were complex and the list of the 1,500 titles which was provided was full of problems. Geoffrey played an important role in designing a work procedure which used student assistants in part, and made innovative use of MSWord for generating much better work lists. By thinking creatively and maintaining a positive attitude, he helped move this project in the right direction when it was at risk of getting bogged down.

Geoffrey also has been providing document preparation support projects for HighWire Press, the electronic imprint of SUL/AIR. These projects involved tight time frames, lots of detailed instructions, and use of many different software packages. Geoffrey embraced the opportunity to participate in these projects which were very different from his regularly-assigned duties and worked very hard to achieve excellent results.

The flexibility and resourcefulness that Geoffrey has shown in the past few months truly is admirable. Please join me in congratulating Geoffrey on his fine contributions to SUL/AIR's success.

--Mike Keller, University Librarian

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"FREEDOM, ANXIETY, ENGAGEMENT: TEN YEARS OF JEWISH STUDIES AT STANFORD"

The Jewish Studies Program was formally inaugurated ten years ago--its current director, Koshland Professor of History Steven J. Zipperstein, recalls arriving at a secular university from a rabbinical seminary with an overwhelming sensation of freedom, anxiety, and gratitude.

Roger Kohn, the Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections, draws on the University Archives, personal faculty papers, and other material from the Department of Special Collections to tell the story of how Jewish students and faculty at Stanford moved from isolation and assimilation to engagement and affirmation. SUL's acquisition of the library of Columbia professor Salo W. Baron, now known as the Taube-Baron Collection, was a pivotal event in laying the foundations for research in the field, whose task, according to Zipperstein, is "to teach things Jewish in such a way that they become part and parcel of what an intelligent person needs to understand about the world."

The exhibition will be on display in the lobby of Green Library through May 16th. Becky Fischbach designed and installed the exhibit with her customary flair.

--David Sullivan, Special Collections

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NEWS FROM MATH/COMPUTER SCIENCES LIBRARY

Rebecca Lasher, Math and Computer Sciences Librarian, presented a paper, "Unique Permanent Identifiers for Management and Retrieval of Distributed Digital Documents" at the Finding Common Ground Conference sponsored by Harvard on Saturday, March 30th.

Rebecca then travelled to the UK for the second invitational metadata workshop. This was a continuation of the effort begun in March of 1995 at the OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop. The product of the first workshop was a set of metadata elements (The Dublin Core) which describe the essential features of electronic documents that support resource discovery. The second workshop explored deployment strategies that would improve prospects for semantic interoperability on a global basis and across discipline boundaries.

--Charlotte Derksen, SERG

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LASU ELECTION TO CHANGE BYLAWS

Please pay attention! A crucial election -- which may have a far-reaching impact on our lives -- is about to take place.

Please note that next Monday the 8th, or soon thereafter, ballots will be distributed to all LASU members concerning our proposed bylaws changes (C.f. SUL News Notes, v.5, no. 11, March 22, 1996). They will be distributed via e-mail and may be returned to the LASU Secretary, Paul Thomas, via e-mail at: thomas@hoover.stanford.edu or for maximum privacy you may wish to print the ballot out, mark your response and return it via i.d. mail to: Paul Thomas, Hoover Library, Catalog Dept. 6010. All ballots must be received by 5:00 p.m., Friday April 19th.

If you do not receive a ballot by early next week, please contact the LASU secretary (same e-mail address or phone 3-2054). If you know of colleagues who do not receive or read e-mail, please pass on a copy of the ballot to them. If you have any questions about the upcoming election, feel free to contact the LASU Secretary.

Don't forget to vote. The LASU Board is counting on you.

--Paul Thomas, LASU Secretary

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MATH/COMPUTER SCIENCES LIBRARY CLOSED SATURDAY, APRIL 13

The Mathematical and Computer Sciences Library will be closed on Saturday, April 13, 1996, due to an electrical outage.

--Penny Martell, Math/Computer Sciences Library

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WE'LL MISS YOU, EVELYN

The Law Library sends congratulations and best wishes to Evelyn McMillan, who has left a half-time position as Interlibrary Loan specialist at the Law Library to become the full-time librarian at Stanford's Environmental Health & Safety Office. Evelyn started at the Law Library 14 years ago and purchased its first fax machine. Evelyn has established and refined many networks -- local, national, global -- enabling law faculty, staff and students to receive an enormous quantity of borrowed material in all formats and in all disciplines.

--Paul Lomio, Law Library

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LESSONS OF A RECORDS DISASTER

BAPNet - Bay Area Preservation Network presents a symposium on Lessons of a Records Disaster: The 1995 Contra Costa Courthouse Fires.

In August and September of last year, three courthouses in Contra Costa County, California, were devastated by arson fires. Partly due to the lack of sprinkler systems, the disaster cost the County and its insurers millions of dollars in document recovery costs. Many permanently valuable files were lost forever.

This conference assembles experts in fire protection, disaster planning, materials conservation, records management, and archives to conduct a postmortem on this tragic experience.

We invite librarians, archivists, records managers, conservators, firefighters, related professionals and policy makers, and the public to attend this forum.

Speakers: Ronny J. Coleman, California State Fire Marshal, Judith Fortson, Hoover Institution Library Director, Nancy Zimmelman, California State Archives, Charles Sabah, C.A. Sabah & Co., Bob Westby, former Contra Costa County records manager, Susan Ping Wong, County of Santa Clara, Sheryl Davis, Inland Empire Libraries Disaster Response Network, and David Gaynon, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Where: Ed Roybal Auditorium, Oakland, Calif., Federal Building When: Friday June 7, 1996, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Registration: $25.00, $15.00 BAPNet members $25.00 registration fee includes one year's BAPNet membership dues; Box Lunch $6.00 (optional)

Current information on this event is available in electronic form on the BAPNet Homepage.

--Walter Henry, Preservation Department

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THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN COPYRIGHT: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE

Saturday, May 4, 1996
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Krutch Theater, The Clark Kerr Campus
University of California, Berkeley
To register please call: UC Berkeley Extension

(510) 642-4111
EDP 183020

$50.00 in advance: $65.00 at the door
$15.00 UC faculty, students and staff
Lunch is included

Join publishers, scholars, educators, librarians, legal practioners, historians, and creators of copyrightable works to help develop a vision of the public interest in copyright in a digital age. Conference participants will analyze copyright in historical, present and future contexts to determine how the public interest can become an integral part of the NII White Paper and recent copyright legislation debates. One of the major thrusts will be to emphasize the value of a utilitarian balance of private and public goods as the more productive area for discussion and resolution of copyright issues.

For further details, please visit the conference website

--Submitted by Joe Wible, Miller Marine Library

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EXHIBITS

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THE PAPERLESS SOCIETY: A POEM

In the paperless society
Books are on computer,
Magazines on the Internet,
And letters on email.
There is no paper
In the paperless society.

In the paperless society
Newspapers are online news services,
Bird cages are lined with mouse pads,
And there is nothing to wrap fish in.
(There is no paper
In the paperless society.)

In the paperless society
Hot air dryers supplant towels,
Bio-degradable plastic
Displaces toilet paper,
And Kleenex boxes dispense
Old five-inch floppy disks.

School papers are done on lap-tops,
Memos on pocket computers;
Etch-a-Sketches replace scratch pads,
And all drawings are done on Adobe
(Rather primitive sounding, that).
Posters are electronic billboards.

Bumper-stickers are refrigerator magnets.
Political placards are reduced to graffiti.
The Congressional Record is an LP
(Oops! CD ROM!). Paper hats,
Paper airplanes, and origami
Are all things of the past.

The libraries close
(You can buy one on CD).
The paper mills go out of business
(There is nothing to be milled).
The forests are saved
(Wood is going out of style as well).

There is no more need of paper,
Paper products, or wood,
And we're phasing out vegetables
In favor of protein tablets.
Animals next; People, down the road.
AI is in! Who needs organics?

In the electronic society
There is no need of plants,
No need of animals.
No need of people.
There are only electronics
In the electronic society.

--Anonymous

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Prepared by Geoffrey Skinner

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