For the first time in my memory, Halloween occurred on an Indian summer’s day, and it felt like we had left Ithaca for Never, Never Land. It was only fitting, therefore, that the Olin/Kroch/Uris Acess Services staff dressed up as characters from Peter Pan—and won second place overall for Best Department/Group Costume at Cornell Recreation Connection’s Spooktacular Halloween Contest. The star cast consisted of

• Carmen Blankinship as the crocodile
• Carol Buckley as Wendy
• Emily Conway as Peter Pan
• Debbie Cook as Michael, Wendy’s younger brother
• Darla Critchfield as John, Wendy's other brother
• Sam Hultzman as Smee, Captian Hook's assistant
• Boris Michev as Captain Hook himself
• Marie Powers as the Indian Chief
• Sara Spoonhower as Tinkerbell
• Bethany Silfer as Hook’s parrot
• Summer Peck as the Indian Princess (Tiger Lily)

President Lehman’s Call to Engagement

CUL staff ready for the inaugural parade. More photos.

On Thursday, October 16, Jeffrey Lehman was inaugurated on the Ithaca campus as Cornell’s 11th president. For the first time ever, librarians and archivists participated in the inaugural parade and they came out in full force.

Lehman won our support during his address when he mentioned Cornell University Library and two key works held there: Copernicus’ 1534 masterwork, The Revolutions, (located in the Rare and Manuscript Collection in Kroch), and Toni Morrison’s 1998 monumental Beloved, held in Uris (and many other libraries on campus). His inaugural addresses in Doha and New York City are also worth the read.

These three addresses laid the groundwork for Lehman’s "Call to Engagement" in which he asks the Cornell community to reflect upon a set of eight important issues that will help shape the university’s development over the next decade. The IRIS Cabinet and Management Team will be discussing these in upcoming meetings, and I would urge you and your colleagues to do the same. We’d welcome your ideas, thoughts, and suggestions for addressing these issues.

Staff News: Comings, Goings, Kudos, and On the Move

Comings
Adnan Malik has joined the staff as South Asia Curator. Adnan comes to Cornell from the University of Chicago where he was a PhD candidate in Sociology. His recent experience includes processing and cataloging South Asian materials at the University of Chicago and the Center for Research Libraries and consulting for the Digital South Asia Library.

Fine Arts Library staff are happy to report that Peter Botticelli has accepted the position of evening supervisor. This is a two-semester term appointment, which began on September 15th. Peter's previous library experience includes: Digital Projects Researcher in IRIS, and Graduate Student Research Assistant at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he received an M.S. in Information Studies.

Scott Moran joined IRIS Access Services on October 20 as the newest Evening and Weekend Supervisor in the department. Scott studied at the University of Rochester and the Bank Street College of Education, earning a B.A. in Psychology and a M.S in Education. In addition to teaching, Scott has worked as a software trainer and benefits specialist.

Goings
Chris Hamilton has taken a fulltime, permanent job with CIT's Business Information Systems where he will continue as a Programmer/Analyst, still working for Cornell, but, alas, no longer for IRIS Research.

Kudos
Lenore Coral served as a contributing editor for the just released fourth edition of The Harvard Dictionary of Music, edited by Don Michael Randel (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003). Her specific responsibilities were for articles concerning bibliographic matters in music.

David Block was named to the University-wide International Studies Advisory Council. Convened by Vice Provost Walter Cohen, the Council draws from the faculty and "other areas of the University with a significant international stake..." and will try to develop an enhanced international profile for Cornell.

Connor Michael Spoonhower was born to Penny Lane Spoonhower and her husband, Bill on August 26th weighing 8lbs 8oz and measuring 21" long.

Carla Demello gave birth to Julian Gray DeMello on 9/20/2003, which also happens to be Carmen Blankinship's and Deb Lamb-Dean's birthday, at 7lbs 8 ounces. He is now at least 11 lbs and laughs and eats a lot.

On the move
Ira Revels has moved to her new office in the Department of Instruction and Learning, 310 Uris Library (255-1569). Chris Bucko has moved to 220 Olin (254-7275) and Linda Miller has moved to 215 Olin Library (255-7401).

Later this month, Sarah How will move from Collections Coordination and Support Services in 504 Olin to Reference Services in 106 Olin. While Sarah's selection responsibilities for Western European Social Sciences and British/Commonwealth History will remain a major part of her job, this move reflects Sarah's increased role in Information Services. Her telephone number will remain the same.

Collections Measuring Project
As reported in the September issue of IRIS News & Notes, the Library Annex feasibility study is underway. A collections measuring project has been organized as part of the feasibility study. The collection measuring is a follow up to the project completed about ten years ago in preparation for the 1998 construction of the second annex. This project, anticipated to be completed by the end of January 2004, will allow CUL to gather updated and new information about CUL collections for planning the next annex module. Information being gathered includes current size and projected growth of collections, and the mix of materials to go to the new Annex. This time, the team is using laptops and an Excel program to collect data. Olin, Kroch Asia, and Uris have been measured and the collections in Rare and Manuscripts are scheduled to be measured within the next two weeks.

A member of the Measuring Team (John Hoffmann, Susan Currie, Dave Davies, Barbara Berger Eden, Joel Copenhagen, Susann Argetsinger, Kelly Smallidge) will be contacting CUL units soon to plan and schedule collection measuring.

Facilities Update
Olin’s first floor refurbishing project is nearing completion. Check out the new reading tables that have been installed in the Reference alcoves on the north (Arts Quad) side of Tiger Alley, in three areas between low bookcases. New printer tables have also been installed in the southeast corner of the first floor. While you are at it, take a look at the new viewing carrels in the Media Center (B12 Olin), which were installed over the past several weeks. We anticipate receiving new tables soon for the Current Periodicals and Newspapers Reading Room as well as tables for the area outside Libe Café.

Finally, when you next visit the Libe Café, note the newly framed posters there as well as the ones that line the former coat racks on the corridor leading to the elevators.

Editor’s forum
The Library and the CU Press will be sponsoring an Editors Forum on 13 November. Ross Atkinson and Tom Hickerson have organized this event. Its purpose will be to bring together faculty on campus who serve as editors of important scholarly journals. Some of these journals are published here at Cornell, some are published by societies, and some by commercial publishers. Attendance will be by invitation only, and most of those attending will be faculty. There will be a keynote by James Neal (Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian at Columbia), a panel discussion by some Cornell editors, and then presentations by Sarah Thomas and John Ackerman (Director of the CU Press) about alternative publishing options. The Library and the CU Press will also announce their partnership in supporting the publication of electronic and print journals.

Day of Reference
As one portion of the internal grant "Analysis of Chat Reference," reference staff at Olin and Mann libraries participated in a "Day of Reference" on Tuesday, November 4. The grant team (Virginia Cole, Nan Hyland, Nancy Skipper, Kornelia Tancheva, and from the Communication Dept. Jeff Hancock and Bruce Hardy) received permission from the University Committee on Human Subjects to digitally record all phone and in-person interactions at Olin and Mann Library for a day. The transcripts of the recordings will be compared with chat and reference email questions from the same day. Communication theory will be used to analyze specific aspects of interactions (such as openings and politeness) so that we may better understand differences in user behavior and expectations in different modes (in person at the desk, chat, email, or phone). Our goal is to use theory to improve practice!

Events and Exhibits

	This past Fall as part of the Libe Café Speaker's Series in Olin Library, students, staff and faculty were able to listen to Bill Nye and Janet Reno describe their love of books, experiences in libraries, and their favorite titles.
Janet Reno speaking in Libe Café on November 3, 2003.		Bill Nye, October 20, 2003 speaking in Libe Café.

Second Annual Painting Exhibit at the Fine Arts Library
The Fine Arts Library is again hosting an exhibit of new work by the fourth-year painting students of Professor Carl Ostendarp. Spring 2003 marked the first occasion of this event, which was a great success from both the library's and the students' points of view. The exhibit corresponds to a class assignment, in which the students are asked to prepare a work to occupy a specific space within the library. This year's assignment has been broadened to include the creation of an exhibition catalog, plus the marketing of the exhibit. The first work was installed on October 30th. All works should be installed, and the catalog completed, by mid-November. Marketing plans include announcements in local papers plus coverage on appropriate web sites. Fine Arts Librarian, Martha Walker, has promised to post a message to CU-LIB once the installation is complete.

Sign Committee Update
The Sign Committee has been busy making new signs for Olin, Uris, and soon, the Music Library. Bill Nye so loved the signs Kim LaMorte designed for his visit that he took one home with him and then contacted her later for an electronic copy.

If you have sign needs or recommendations, please contact members of the committee: Craig Mains (Co-Chair), Kim LaMorte (Co-Chair), Ida Martinez, Sharon Wargo, and Bethany Silfer.

Well, that’s it for this time. Oh, I almost forgot. Opinion was evenly divided on the new action figure of the shushing librarian.

As always, please contact me with any questions or comments. And, if you have news to share with your IRIS colleagues, just drop me a line.
Anne