ODY Space Planning Report Completed: By the end of the fall semester, the ODY space plan was completed and submitted to the Buildings and Grounds Committee. Recommendations focused on the following areas:

• Provide an electronic media center that would allow the Library to fulfill its teaching mission by making sure that an electronic classroom is available in ODY to teach students not only how to access, but also how to evaluate, the many resources now available to them on the net;

• Unify and integrate reference, access services, and special collections;

• Provide for additional collection growth space by utilizing new technological solutions and deal with the logical articulation of collections between ODY and LSL.

A copy of the report will soon be available on the Library’s homepage. All material relating to this process of space planning at ODY is on Reserve at ODY. Special thanks once again to the planning group involved in this process, and to all library and community members who took the time to comment upon it. Members of the Space Planning Steering Committee included: Michael Alzo, ODY Library; Lew Barrows, Physical Plant; Guy Berard, Fine Arts; Bart Harloe, ODY Library; Melissa Jadlos, ODY Library; Karen Johnson, Physics Department; Collen Knickerbocker, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs; and Theresa Stark, ODY Library.

Dewey Project: Progress has been great on the Dewey Conversion Project! The collection review process has been completed, with approximately 7,500 volumes identified for withdrawal. Faculty from all the departments have been actively involved in this review. On March 13, there will be an "Up for Grabs" day so that members of the SLU community will have access to those books that have been identified for withdrawal. As of the end of January, 1997, over 4,000 titles have been cataloged so that they can be made bibliographically accessible via ODYsseus. The entire project will take two to three years to complete, but library patrons will begin to see increased access to our collections this summer when approximately 6,000 titles are relabeled and books shifted in both ODY and LSL to accommodate the Dewey Collection as it is integrated into our Library of Congress classification system.

Acquisitions Budget Update: As our fall Library newsletter made clear, we were able to increase our serials budget for 1996/97, but only at a cost to our book budget. The Library has been working closely with the University Library Committee to develop a proposal for next year that reflects the impact of double-digit price increases on our serials budget, while at the same time taking into account continuing library needs for both new books and new electronic resources. As background for these conversations, the Library recently participated in an acquisitions budget survey conducted by the Oberlin Group of 76 liberal arts college libraries. In 1996/97, this group reported an average increase in acquisitions budgets of 6.0%. St. Lawrence received a 2.4% increase in 1996/97. The average acquisition budget reported by the Oberlin Group in 1996/97 was $752,895. St. Lawrence reported an acquisitions budget of $865,631 (which included a document delivery budget line). We hope that beginning this year, we can begin to move the SLU Libraries toward the average percentage increase received by other quality liberal arts colleges, so that we can better cope with the pressure of increased prices and more important, effectively meet the new needs of the academic programs at SLU!

New CPU for ODYsseus: As described more fully elsewhere in this newsletter, the Library recently installed a new Dec Alpha machine to serve as a host for our online catalog. This new machine will allow us to handle new software upgrades, and it should also be quicker in terms of response time. As part of this new hardware/software upgrade, the Library also purchased from our vendor a new software module called a WebPac. This new front-end to our online catalog is scheduled for implementation in the fall of ‘97 and should allow for a direct interface to the World Wide Web and its many networked electronic resources. Stay tuned for more information!

Launders Shift: As part of the Dewey Conversion Project and our space planning effort, the Library will begin this spring to shift core science books from ODY to LSL. The first phase of this process, which will continue over the summer, will focus on the psychology books currently classified in the BF’s in the Yellow Pipe Room of ODY. The relocation of these books will provide psychology students with better access to the core collections that should be available in LSL while at the same time freeing up space in ODY that can be used effectively to organize the Dewey Conversion Project.

Thanks to Mark McMurray and Michael Alzo for information contained in this report from the University Librarian. - BH

MARCH 7, FRIDAY - 4:00 PM - YOUNG ROOM
Dr. Bernard Lammers - Professor - Government Department
Fragmented Government
JK 271 .L265 1997

MARCH 12, WEDNESDAY - 4:00 PM - YOUNG ROOM
Joe David Bellamy - Professor - English Department
Literary Luxuries: American Writing at the End of the Millennium
PS 379 .B424 1995

APRIL 11, FRIDAY - 4:00 P.M. - HERRING COLE
JESUIT RELATIONS RECEPTION (see related article)
Guest Speaker - Dr. Robert Thacker - Professor/ Director
Canadian Studies Program & FYP Campbell College Chair
Voyaging Into Substance Through the Jesuit Relations
F 1030.7 Z6 1896

MAY 2, FRIDAY - 4:00 P.M. - YOUNG ROOM
Dr. Richard Jenseth - Associate Professor - English Department
& Director Writing Program
Constructing Nature: Readings From the American Experience
PE 1417 .C6519 1996

FUTURE:

SEPTEMBER 1997
Dr. Kenneth Gould - Associate Professor - Sociology Department
Local Environmental Struggles: Citizen Activism in the Treadmill of Production
GE 197 .G68 1996

OCTOBER 1997
Dr. Richard J. Perry - Professor - Anthropology Department
....From Time Immemorial: Indigenous Peoples and State Systems
GN 380 .P48 1996

NOVEMBER 1997
Dr. Robert N. Wells, Jr. - Munsil Professor - Government Department
Law, Values, and the Environment: A Reader and Selective Bibliography
K 3585.6 .L39 1996

NOTE: All of the books mentioned above are available in ODY.

It isn’t too late for you to become a member of the Friends - please call 5956 and request a membership form. Various levels of membership are available. - DL

Relations des Jésuites was the annual report of the Mission of New France, compiled by the superior at Quebec from the reports of his various missionaries and sent to the provincial at Paris for public distribution. The descriptions of the fertile soil and rich resources of New France found in these reports played a large role in attracting the immigrants who settled the continent.

Equally important today, the Relations are an excellent source of information for scholars on the religion, government and military tactics of the native Americans with whom the missionaries came in contact in the 17th century. They also detail the successes and frequent martyrdoms of the missionaries themselves and describe the struggles of European colonists settling into a new land. Historian E. B. O’Callaghan said of the Relations. "No historian can do a complete research job on the first settlements of this country without being acquainted with them..."

If you are interested in learning more about the contents of this set and its historical importance, we invite you to the dedication of the collection on April 11 (see the calendar of upcoming Friends events elsewhere in this newsletter.) - LE

One of the other requests was that we provide the option of getting a new form without having to retype all of the standard information: name, address, etc. It is possible to get to your latest form by using the back button from the screen where you are notified that your request has been accepted. Just click on the "back" button and you will see your last request; please be sure that you type over ALL old information.

The web address for ILL requests is:
http://www.stlawu.edu/library:http/ill/ill.htm
- MJ

A new software release was concurrently installed; among the new or improved searching and display features are the following:

• Call numbers are now displayed with capitalization, spacing, and punctuation, so they should be easier to read and interpret.

• When you retrieve a set of records with a search, you can ask that they be sorted and displayed in reverse chronological order (latest years first).

  The option is labeled: X> sort by year

  Choosing X again will return you to the original sort order.

• Newly added See Also subject heading references will indicate if the term referred to is a broader or narrower term.

The new, more powerful CPU will also support a World Wide Web (WWW) version of ODYsseus. This will be brought up over the coming summer and will be in operation by the 1997-98 academic year. ODYsseus will then be available in two formats: the one you currently use (a character-based interface) and a new WWW interface.

The WWW Version of ODYsseus enables the Library to develop new and more powerful features based on INTERNET and WWW resources. Some of these new features are:

• providing a graphical user interface to searching ODYsseus

• making access to the catalog possible via multiple hardware platforms (DOS workstations, MACs, UNIX machines) without requiring additional software tinkering

• exploiting the hypertext link capability of WWW browser software to create 'hot links' to WWW resources that have catalog entries on ODYsseus. - MA

Owen D. Young Library (Main Library) Launders Science Library (Madill Hall)
Sunday	10:00 am - 12:30 am
Monday - Thursday	8:30 am - 12:30 am
Friday	8:30 am - 10:00 pm
Saturday	10:00 am - 10:00 pm

The ODY After Hours Study Area will be open until 2:00 am, Sunday-Saturday. Variations will be posted.

Archives/Special Collections/Rare Book Room
Monday - Friday	8:30 am - 4:30 pm

Music Library (Griffiths Arts Center, Rm. 43)

Monday - Thursday	3:30 pm - 11:00 pm
Sunday	6:00 pm - 11:00 pm

NOTE: Hours vary during vacation, study and exam periods.

SPECIAL LIBRARY HOURS

SPRING BREAK
March 14	8:30 am - 4:30 pm
March 15-19	CLOSED
March 17-21	8:30 am - 4:30 pm
March 22	CLOSED
March 23	2:00 pm - 12:30 am

The ODY After Hours Study Area will be open during regular library hours from March 14-22

FINALS
May 9-17	8:30 am - 2:00 am
May 18	8:30 am - 4:30 pm

During Finals, the ODY After Hours Study Area will be open as follows:

April 28 - May 1	24 Hours
May 2-3	Closes at 2:00 am
May 4-8	24 Hours
May 9-10	closes at 2:00 am
May 11-15	24 Hours
May 16-17	Closes at 2:00 am
May 18	Closes at 4:30 pm

SUMMER HOURS
May 19-23	8:30 am - 4:30 pm
May 24-26	CLOSED
May 27 - August 8
Monday - Friday	8:30 am - 8:30 pm
Saturday	10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Sunday	2:30 pm - 8:30 pm
July 4	CLOSED
August 9-1	CLOSED
August 11-15	8:30 am - 4:30 pm
August 16-17	CLOSED
August 18-22	8:30 am - 4:30 pm
August 23-24	CLOSED
August 25-27	8:30 am - 6:30 pm

>

SPECIAL DATES TO NOTE
May 26	Memorial Day Observance
May 27	Undergraduate Session I Begins
	Undergraduate Session I Ends
June 30	Undergraduate Session II Begins
June 30	Graduate Session I Begins
July 4	Fourth of July Observance
July 8	Graduate Session I Ends
July 21	Graduate Session II Begins
August 1	Undergraduate II Ends
August 8	Graduate Session II Ends

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

Return to SLU Libraries homepage