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IRIS News & Notes February 2004
Second Annual Book Contest
Contents: Annex Construction
Project Approved by CF&PC I don't
know how many of you caught the NPR “All Things Considered”
commentary recently on Cornell’s Making of America (MOA) Project.
A fellow named Paul Ford spends a lot of time at our site reading through
old issues of 19th century popular journals, such as The Atlantic
and Harper’s. He was browsing a couple of Putnam's
Monthly from November 1853 when he found Herman Melville's Bartleby
the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, "his greatest short story,
just sitting there halfway down Page 546.” His commentary speaks
to the importance of coming across a great piece of literature in the
context of its day. I particularly liked his concluding remarks: “Browsing
those archives, I find I contacted Paul Ford to thank him for his commentary and to provide him with a little background on MOA. He replied almost immediately: "The Making of America is a gorgeous thing on the web…the material you selected is a nearly ideal sampling of American culture during that era. I wish more projects had followed your curatorial lead; I love how, as a collection, MOA feels both broad enough to carry a complete image of American culture during that era, but focused enough that one is not lost in a sea of redundant prose." How nice to receive such a love note to MOA and Cornell just before Valentine’s Day. For those interested in the full text of Paul Ford’s NPR transcript, click here. Here’s what’s new from the past month or so. Annex
Construction Project Approved by CF&PC Search
for New Home for Language Lab Underway Extended
Hours Update Library-to-Library
Book Delivery
Over time it will prove quite interesting to watch as patterns develop. One particular area I’m interested in is the relationship between libraries. For instance, Law is a net receiver, but which libraries are books being borrowed from? Do science libraries tend to borrow from other science libraries? What about the social sciences? A good picture should emerge this year about such things as the interdisciplinary nature of use. Joanne Leary has already used this data to assess routing frequency between libraries, which will be helpful in determining the shipping load. So far she’s noted that seven route combinations (between five libraries—Olin, Mann, Law, Uris, and Engineering) account for one-third of all books delivered. Echols
Curator Interviews Scheduled A second candidate, Rebecca Aiken, will be on campus March 8-9. Recently Dr. Aiken has been a bibliographer and faculty lecturer at the Center on Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, and before that Director of the Center on Southeast Asia at Indiana University. She, too, will be addressing the same topic on Monday, March 8, from 11:00-12:00 in the Kroch Lecture Room (2B48). I hope many of you will be able to attend these public presentations and provide input into the selection process for this important position. Staff News: IRIS IT Support Update, Staff Comings, Goings, and Kudos IRIS IT Support
Update Comings Susan Currie has assumed responsibility for the Library Annex as part of her new assignment to lead the planning effort for the expanded Annex and coordinate the transfer of materials there beginning in summer of 2005. Questions regarding use of the current Annex and the new Annex modules should be directed to her. The Music Library welcomed Andrew Justice as the new Evening Supervisor at the beginning of the semester. Andrew received his PhD in Musicology from the Eastman School of Music and most recently worked at the Ithaca branch of Barnes & Noble. Heidi Mallinson has been appointed into a new position, working in Preservation & Collections Maintenance as a stacks assistant and in Circulation in the late evening shift in Olin. A graduate of Cornell, Heidi worked in social services for many years before returning to Ithaca. I am pleased to announce that Martha Walker has agreed to continue as the Fine Arts Librarian after her two-year interim appointment ends. And, Paul McMillin, who was filling Martha’s line in Reference, will continue as Reference and Digital Services Librarian. Congratulations to both of them! Information Services is hosting two Syracuse University Interns this semester. Jenka Fyfe has been working in Interlibrary Services learning about interlibrary loan while designing a website for Olin Interlibrary Services. When she completes her work in ILS, she will move to Reference where she will work with Bob Kibbee on his internal grant to examine the feasibility of using volunteers from the MOA user base to correct the OCRed text. Angela Sorensen recently began working in Fine Arts twice a week. Angela hopes to investigate all aspects of working in a unit library and also contribute to a redesign of the Fine Arts Library website. Goings Technically Bill Kehoe isn’t going anywhere, but as of February 1, he will be working half-time as the project manager on a three-year research project supported by NSF in conjunction with DFG (the German Research Council). The project, entitled “Ensuring Access to Mathematics Over Time,” will explore the development of a distributed digital archive for math literature. D-LIT is coordinating this initiative with participation by IRIS (Nancy McGovern and Bill Kehoe), and CTS staff. Cornell is collaborating with the Göttingen State and University Library in Germany.
Exhibits
and Events On Tuesday
night, March 9 from 8:00pm-10:00pm, Libe Café will serve as the
venue for The Cornell Trivia Bowl. MC’d by Sarah E. Thomas,
this event for The Tower Café will soon be a place for displaying student, faculty, and staff artwork. Thanks to the support of Cornell Dining, molding will be hung on the walls of the Tower Café. The first exhibit, scheduled to go up in early March, will include fifteen student paintings from the Art Majors Organization. 2nd
Annual Book Collection Contest A panel of five judges, consisting of librarians, faculty, and members of the Library Advisory Council, will select six finalists from all entries. All finalists will receive a cash prize: First Prize $1,000; Second Prize $750; Third Prize $500; and three Honorable Mention awards of $100 each. Entries are due by Friday, April 16. Complete contest rules and entry forms are available online.
Well, that’s it for this time. Last time I signed off, I was preparing to go to Vietnam. Next week I’ll be in Cuba attending a meeting of the Social Sciences Research Council’s Standing Committee on Libraries and Archives. This is my fourth visit there, and I can tell you that Havana in February beats Ithaca in February hands down. As always, drop a line with questions and comments. Anne
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myself
in my own boat; breaking down time into vectors, trying to navigate through
human experience. Literature is more than the canon, just as the city
is more than its skyscrapers.”
and
Properties Committee (B&P) in March. As illustrated in the site plan,
the design calls for the construction of three storage modules with an
ultimate capacity of 4.8 million volume equivalents. The first module,
which will hold 1.6 million volumes will be fully constructed; the second
bay will not include shelves but will have HVAC; and the third bay will
have neither shelves nor HVAC. Construction could begin as early as June,
with site work possibly completed by May 2005. Sarah has asked Susan
Currie to lead the planning team for the expanded Library Annex.
(see Staff News, below).
On
Tuesday, February 3rd, nearly 100 people braved the winter elements to
hear Joan Jacobs Brumberg talk in the Libe Café on “Rethinking
the Juvenile Death Penalty: The Case of 'Kansas Charley.'" Dr. Brumberg’s
talk was as much about her research process and the hunt for sources as
it was about the treatment of juveniles in the 19th century justice system.
She also drew some comparisons to today’s treatment of minors. Professor
Brumberg’s latest book is Kansas Charley: The Story of a Nineteenth
Century Boy Murderer, published by Viking Press. 
students
is being held in celebration of the exhibition “Pastimes and Paradigms,”
at the Hirshland Exhibition Gallery in Kroch Library. Organizers of this
event are seeking library staff volunteers for tasks such as time keeper,
scorekeeper, general set up, and clean up. Contact 
One
more thing: the third issue of