Odyssey Newsletter Fall, 1995

ODYSSEY: A NEWSLETTER OF THE SLU LIBRARIES

ODYSSEY: An intellectual or spiritual wandering or quest
Volume 2, No. 1
FALL 1995

FROM THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN

1) Eternal Vigilance: The Price of a Serials Collection!
What do Amherst, Bates, Colgate, Carleton, Middlebury, Kenyon, Swarthmore, Washington & Lee, Davidson, Reed, Skidmore, Oberlin, Wabash, Bucknell, and SLU all have in common? The fact that all these colleges have recently found it necessary to conduct a serials review. It is no secret that the serials crisis has escalated in recent years, forcing all academic libraries (large and small) to review their commitments to the traditional printed scholarly journal. With journal prices rising at a rate of 10-15% per year, and acquisitions budgets increasing at an average annual rate of 5-8%, most libraries have found it necessary to reduce their serials budgets.

The SLU Libraries are currently facing a potential shortfall of $90,000 in 1995/96. We have communicated this situation to all academic departments and have asked for your cooperation in the effort to meet this goal. As we work through the process this Fall, we will be asking all faculty to review the final master cancellation list. We hope that we can ameliorate the situation by also providing Table of Contents/Document Delivery services for titles canceled, as well as an array of other titles through our new Document Delivery program that will be initiated in the Spring. In the future, we will have to be ever vigilant of journal prices and journal use at SLU. We will also monitor ILL/Document Delivery in order to determine if there are titles that are frequently requested that may need to be considered for addition to our collections. In the latter instance, we will also consult with faculty from the appropriate disciplines in order to make sure that there is a real connection to the curriculum and to scholarship at SLU.

____________________________________________________
Note on Journal Price Increases for 1996:

Elsevier Science has just announced a 23.9% increase in price for all 1996 titles. Did you know that according to Publishers Weekly, Reed Elsevier reported that for the six months prior to June 1995, its pretax profit was up 18% to L370 million [that's pounds]. Source: Serials Pricing Newsletter.

2) Library Homepage: Elsewhere in this newsletter, you will find more information about the Library's new Homepage. Margaret Guccione and the other library staff involved in this effort need to be congratulated for a wonderful new form of access to Library information on campus.

3) Video Collection Bibliographic Access: By now we are in the very final stages of cataloging the video collection so that it will be available on ODYsseus this year. I am pleased to report that it looks like the video collection will go "online" within ODYsseus in January. Look for more detailed information in our next newsletter.

4) New Library Staff: As of September 26, 1995, the SLU libraries are fully staffed! Barbara Joyce, our new Science Librarian, arrived August 1 and has already met with many of the science faculty. Robin Hutchinson, our new Serials Control/Reference Librarian, began work September 26. For more detailed information, see the "Staff News" section at the end of the newsletter.

5) Circulation Policy for Faculty: Elsewhere in this newsletter you will find a description of the new circulation policy for faculty, which has already gone into effect this year. This policy is a direct result of your suggestions last year and has been approved by the Library Committee. We hope that you find that it is responsive to your needs.

ACCESS SERVICES NEWS

ILL MOVE: The Interlibrary Loan Office has moved downstairs to a larger, lighter, location. The new office is to the right of the ODY Computer Lab, off Room 040. The office hours and phone number are the same, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., 379-5485. Request forms and materials can be picked up and dropped off at the Circulation Desks in ODY or Launders.

ARIEL: The Interlibrary Loan staff is now using Ariel to send and receive documents via the Internet. You may notice that the quality and turnaround time of your article requests have improved; that is due to Ariel. Ariel is a software package which scans and sends high quality (300 x 300 dots per inch) documents over the Internet, where they are received and printed by a laser printer. We received the Ariel software, a scanner, a PC, and a laser printer through an Automation Program grant distributed by the North Country 3R's Council. SUNY Oswego, SUNY Plattsburgh, Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam also received the equipment and have pledged to use Ariel to provide better service to our patrons.

NEW DUE DATE: You may have noticed that all books checked out to faculty and staff have a new due date of June 1, 1996. In response to the survey we did in the Fall of 1994, we have instituted a new system of renewals. All books need to be renewed or returned between June 1, 1996 (or earlier) and the first day of classes for the Fall semester. You may renew books by bringing them to a Circulation desk and checking them in and out, or you can return a list on which you have noted the last four digits of the barcode number in the book. In April, you will receive a list of the books you have checked out and instructions for renewing books.

MONOGRAPHIC BINDING: Mary Austin in the Circulation Department is now in charge of monographic binding for the Library. Please send binding-ready copies of student theses to her. There is no charge to departments for this service as long as they are willing to deposit a copy of the thesis in the ODY archives.

LIBRARY MENU SERVICES NETWORK UPDATE

WINDOWS users will be pleased to know that all periodical databases and research and local library catalogs listed on the Library Services menu are now available from the WINDOWS version of the network menu. Until now, only a limited number of these connections could be made from the WINDOWS environment.

Also during the Summer, several new databases were added to the network menu. They are:

America:History & Life. This source indexes the world's scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. It provides coverage from more than 2,100 journals published in more than 40 languages.
America:History & Life is listed as AHL in the categories of Arts & Humanities and Social Science.

Historical Abstracts: This source indexes the world's scholarly literature on the history and culture of non-North American areas. It provides coverage from more than 2,100 journals published in more than 50 languages. Historical Abstracts is listed as Hist Abs in the categories of Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences.

Note: Since they are now accessible from any networked computer, AHL and Hist Abs are no longer available on the standalone workstation in the Index Area of ODY.

American Business Information: This database contains information about more than 10 million businesses in the United States, including company names and addresses, phone numbers, SIC codes, number of employees, and sales volume. American Business Information is listed as AmerBusInfo in the Government and Business Category.

UNCOVER: An index to the Tables of Contents of more than 17,000 journals in a wide variety of fields, UNCOVER is found in the General, News, & Table of Contents category.

And Coming Soon to the Network...

RILM: An international bibliography of scholarly writings on music and related disciplines in 202 languages, the RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is scheduled for release sometime this Fall. The database contains more than 200,000 citations, and includes original-language titles, title translations and abstracts in English, and author, title, journal, and subject indexes.

Books in Print: Expected early in 1996, Books in Print is an authoritative record of scholarly and popular books currently published or distributed in the U.S. The complete, publisher- verified information includes price, publication date, ISBN, and more. The database includes more than 1.3 million records, with 900,000 new releases and revisions each year.

GeoRef: This database includes nearly two million records from the disciplines of geology and earth sciences, and is updated bi-monthly. Coverage includes 1785-present (North American) and 1933-present (entire world).

REMOTE ACCESS TO ODYSSEUS, THE ONLINE CATALOG

ODYsseus, the online catalog of the SLU Libraries, is now available via the Internet.

The IP address is: ody.stlawu.edu

You can also dial into ODYsseus via a modem at speeds of up to 9,600 baud. (Formerly it had been up to 4,800 baud.) The telephone number is: 315 379 5541 Additional information about dialing into ODYsseus is available from the Library Services menu on the campus network, or from the ODYsseus Library Information Screen.

SLU LIBRARIES HOMEPAGE

The St. Lawrence University Libraries' World Wide Web homepage has made its debut on the Internet. On our page, you'll find information about the libraries' collections and services, a point-and-click link to ODYsseus, as well as links to the St. Lawrence University homepage and selected other Internet resources. Of particular interest to students and faculty -- both here at SLU and elsewhere -- are the Special Collections sections. These pages include, for example, descriptions of the manuscript collections, complete with finding aids for a number of them. More of these finding aids will be added as they are completed. Some of the most interesting photographs from the Special Collections can be seen as well.
Some of the future additions planned for the Libraries' homepage are:
-- electronic forms for ILL requests,
-- reference guides for library research, and
-- Odyssey, the Libraries' newsletter.

Here's how to visit the Libraries' homepage:

From NetScape, the campus network Wide Web browser, open the SLU homepage at http://www.stlawu.edu then click on the St. Lawrence University Libraries link.

To get into NetScape:
-- Select WINDOWS from the network Main Menu (the blue one).
-- Select #7 INTERNET and COMMUNICATION [Note: you must be in the WINDOWS main menu for this to work.]
-- Select NetScape..
-- Type the homepage address in the Netsite box.

THE JAMES A. STREET MAP ROOM

When the Launders Science Library opened in January 1994, the map room in that library was dedicated to the memory of James A. Street, a popular professor in the Geology Department who had recently passed away. Equipped with a light table, map storage drawers, and facilities for displaying and studying maps, the room has now become the home of a collection of 7.5-minute topographic maps covering nine eastern states. These maps, acquired through the Depository Library Program of the United States government, are for the following states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Topographic maps for the remaining 41 states are housed in the Document Room at the Owen D. Young Library

These maps are produced by the United States Geological Survey, an agency charged since its beginning in 1879 with conducting geological and topographical surveys of the U.S. The 7.5-minute maps are the best known of the USGS products and most hikers and campers will own one or more of them. Each map or quadrangle shows an area that spans 7.5 minutes of latitude and 7.5 minutes of longitude. The map is usually named for the most prominent feature in the quadrangle.

The maps in the Jim Street Room are arranged by state and, within each state, alphabetically by quadrangle name. There is an index map for each state that allows you to identify quadrangle names and thus locate the desired map. At the current time, the library does not own a complete set of topographic maps for each state. However, through the depository program and through individual purchases, we hope to fill the gaps.

FRIENDS OF THE ODY LIBRARY

This year the Friends of the ODY Library renamed their St. Lawrence and North Country Studies award in honor of Jo Mentley, former reference librarian, who dedicated 27 years to training St. Lawrence students for a lifetime of learning. The winner of this year's certificate and $150 check was John A. Cain, class of 1996, for his paper, "The Early Industrialization of Dexter, New York." The Friends also instituted a First-Year Program Merit Award category for the Mentley prize to recognize the effort of a first-year student - or in this case students - as the initial award was won by Gregory Acunto, Renee Catlin, David Crotty, Michael Estroff, Mary Kate Scanlon, and Susan Schlenker for their paper "Goliath Meet David: Local Farmer Aims Sling-Shot at Big Business, Big Government." The annual Samuel Johnson Bibliography Prizes of $75 each went to Anthony J. Davi for his class paper, "The Biochemistry of Metallothionein: A Review of the Structure and Function of this Metalloprotein" and to Jennifer L. Scott for her honors thesis, "Households of Their Own: The Interior of Slave Families."

1995 FALL AUTHORS PARTIES

September 22, 1995 Dr. Joan A. Dargan
Modern Languages and Literatures Department
Translator of The Religious Metaphysics of Simone Weil.

October 20, 1995 Dr. Albert G. Glover
English Department
Editor of Series called: Curriculum of the Soul.

November 10, 1995 Dr. Joseph T. Jockel
Canadian Studies Department
Author of Canada & International Peacekeeping

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE FRIENDS - PLEASE CALL 5956 AND REQUEST A MEMBERSHIP FORM.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE CIVIL WAR

The featured special collection for this issue is actually a series of collections, all related to the Civil War. The Friends of the Owen D. Young Library made two generous gifts this year to add to our small, but growing, group of materials relating to the Civil War as it was fought by men from the North Country. One of the new items is a diary written by Private William H. Carr of Rossie covering the period of January 1, 1865, to July 22, 1865. Carr tells interesting stories of relations between the Rebels and the Union soldiers and of dissension within the Union ranks. The other new donation is a collection of 54 letters, dating from 1861-1863, written by William H. Davis of Ogdensburg. The letters come mostly from Virginia, where Davis served as part of the Army of the Potomac.

These FODYL gifts join several other items already owned by St. Lawrence--a diary of an unknown soldier, papers relating to Colonel William Goodrich of Canton, for whom Goodrich Street was named; a fine series of letters by two brothers from Russell named Beach; the diary of Lewis Murray, an orderly to Major General Couch; and the letters of O. L. Reynolds to his wife in Bombay. Several of these collections have provided the basis for student papers, including one by a young woman who went to Virginia to visit the battlefields on which Alvah Beach fought. If you see a possibility for a project for your students in these collections, please call the Archives office (x5476) to discuss how we can help you.

STAFF NEWS: MOSTLY COMING (AND GOING)

For the first time in quite some time, the SLU Libraries are fully staffed! Barbara Joyce, our Science Librarian, began work August 1, 1995. Barbara recently received her M.L.S. from the School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies at the University of British Columbia. She has a B.A. in the Biological Sciences (with a minor in Political Science) from the College of Arts and Sciences, Cornell University. Barbara comes to SLU with a very strong teaching background in the sciences - she has taught at Earlham College and Dalhousie University, among other places.

Robin Hutchinson, our new Serials Control/Reference Librarian, comes to us from the Littauer Library, Harvard University. Robin recently received his M.L.S. from the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science; he received his undergraduate degree in History and Law from Jesus College, Cambridge University. Robin has also worked as a reference librarian at Northeastern University.

Walt Whitman's Notebook Used Along the New Jersey Coast, September and October 1883, published by librarian Mark McMurray at his Caliban Press, has been accepted by a national juried exhibition. The exhibition, sponsored by the Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, is entitled "Dressing the Text: the Fine Press Artists' Book."

Deborah Buchanan, a Building Supervisor, recently left the SLU Libraries to move to Portland, Oregon. She has been replaced, if that were possible, by Bill Bascom. Bill is a Canton resident, and you may recognize his name. Bill's mother works in the Upward Bound office.

Contributors to this issue: Lynn Ekfelt, Bart Harloe, Margaret Guccione, Melissa Jadlos, Joan Larsen, Darlene Leonard, and Mark McMurray.

ODYSSEY, a newsletter for faculty, administrators, and others who are interested in the SLU libraries, is issued twice a year.

Editors: Bart Harloe, Lynn Ekfelt, and Theresa Stark

Return to ODYssey index page
go up

Return to SLU Libraries homepage