@library.edu The newsletter of the Swarthmore College Libraries
Fall 2001 Vol. 4 #1
The impact of digital technology on libraries:
what’s new
From evolution to revolution? by Peggy Seiden, College Librarian
New copiers New look for Tripod New home page for public computers Borrow a laptop at McCabe …see page 3
in this issue Electronic resources More journals and databases are available to college community page 2 Making connections at the Friends Historical Library Opening gift boxes of papers and finding interesting links page 3 Staff notes New employees and other changes page 4 Book reviews on website …and more student reviewers are welcome page 6 Associates of the Libraries Fall calendar of events and membership information page 7-8
Librarians have been talking about the impact of the “digital revolution” on our core business for the past 20 years. While we tend to speak of this in hyperbolic terms, the changes wrought by computer technology have been more evolutionary than revolutionary in nature. Yet for the first time, digital technologies may indeed be pushing us to rethink the paradigm of librarianship, or at least to examine how we’ve been doing our work for the past many decades. The two key areas where the impact of digital technologies has been greatest are the automation of library work and the development of networked digital content. Library automation may have changed how we catalog and circulate library materials, but it hasn’t turned libraries on their heads. It has allowed libraries to share information and streamline much of the repetitive and record-
keeping functions. Libraries have dealt with technological change by tweaking existing organizational structures. We have been able to exploit technology’s promise up until now with modest changes in organizational structures: a position added here, a position subtracted there, a new committee formed, a new responsibility added onto an existing position. The nature of libraries and librarianship nevertheless remains essentially the same. But the second part of the “revolution,” the development of networked digital content, calls into question the efficacy of our traditional organizational structures. Some would argue that digital information is just another format of library materials – and we’ve always had lots of formats of materials – print, microforms, videos, and sound recordings of different types. continued on page 5
Compact shelving installed at Cornell Library Journals and books switch floors; temporary entrance is in back It’s not just the entrance to Cornell Library that has changed. Once you’re inside the building - using the door in the back - head upstairs for the books that used to be downstairs. And if you’re looking for the journals, walk down the steps to the lower level. The reason for the switch is the newly installed compact shelving on the lower level which was built to accommodate the evergrowing collection of journals. Compact shelving, shelves that fit closely together and roll apart electronically, require a solid structural foundation to bear the heavy weight, necessitating installation on the ground floor. Another big change is the arrangement of the journals on the shelves. Now they’re in call number order instead of alphabetically. Call number order brings journals of similar subject matter together on the shelves. It will require looking up the call number in Tripod - just like
looking for a book’s call number. Journals before 1996 are in compact shelving. Volumes from 1996 on are arranged on the open shelves. These projects were completed during the summer months. First, the book movers packed up about 1,150 boxes of books and stored them throughout the building. Shelves on one side of the lower level were dismantled. Open shelves on the other side were moved about 3 feet. Workers laid the rails for the compact shelves to move on; carpet was installed; lighting was redone; and the shelves were erected. After the journals were moved from their third floor location to the new shelves, the books were reshelved upstairs. Preparations for switching to call numbers on the journals began about a year and a half ago. Student assistants helped to count the volumes of each title so the right number of call number labels were ordered. They also helped to apply the labels and the clear label protectors. Thanks to all of them for their many hours of help!
page 2
@library.edu
Electronic resources continue to grow New: Access UN United Nations documents and publications. 1998-present. AP PhotoArchive Contains some 400,000 images, mostly contemporary photos. Historical photos date back to the 1840s. CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online Working papers, conference proceedings, journals, and more related to international affairs. Published by Columbia University Press. 1991-present. CogNet Library A growing collection of texts for the cognitive and brain sciences. Polling the Nations A database of polls taken on a variety of subjects all over the world. 1986-present.
Featured: Select list of electronic journal collections. Coverage dates vary. ACM Digital Library Association for Computing Machinery’s collection of over 69,000 full-text articles from journals and conference proceedings.
American Chemical Society 24 journals published by ACS. BioOne About 40 Biological Society journals. Academic IDEAL Online Library from Academic Press Over 170 journals, mostly in scientific fields. JSTOR A growing archive of backfiles of journals on history, economics, political science, mathematics, philosophy, etc. Generally, the files contain the first volume of the journal up to the last 3-5 years. Kluwer Selected scholarly journals. Project Muse Nearly 50 journals published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, most in the humanities and social sciences. Backfiles are at most two to three years. ScienceDirect About 1,200 scientific journals published by Elsevier Science. NOTE: Choose “group-wide login” button.
Vol. 4, no. 1 Fall 2001
Expanded Academic Index replaces most Wilson indexes The Library is continuing to provide access to Expanded Academic Index (EAI) for the college community. EAI provides indexing and abstracts to some 2,300 academic periodicals in astronomy, religion, law, history, psychology, humanities, current events, sociology, communications, and the general sciences from the early 1980’s to the present. About 1,300 of the journals indexed have links to full text articles from the early 1990’s to the present. See: http://infotrac. galegroup.com/itweb/swar94187 Expanded Academic Index has replaced the Wilson database because the tricollege libraries feel it is a superior product. There is more indexing and fulltext coverage in the EAI database and it is updated more frequently. Many of the Wilson indexes (Business Periodicals, Education Abstracts, General Science, Humanities Abstracts, Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, Social SciencesAbstracts) are still available through FirstSearch. Art Abstracts and the Essay and General Literature Index will also continue to be provided and can be accessed via the library database website.
Feminist journal donated LIBRARY HOURS McCabe Library (610) 328-8477 M-Th: 8:15 a.m. - 1:00 a.m. F: 8:15 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Sat: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Sun: Noon – 1:00 a.m. Cornell Library (610) 328-8262 M-F: 8:15 a.m.– midnight Sat: 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. Sun: Noon – midnight Underhill Library (610) 328-8232 M-Th.: 8:30 a.m.– 5:15 p.m. 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. F: 8:30 a.m .– 5:15 p.m. Sat: 10:00 a.m. - 5:15 p.m. Sun: 1:00 p.m.– 5:15 p.m. 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. During breaks and summer: M-F: 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Closed weekends
The journal Quest: A Feminist Quarterly was recently donated to Swarthmore College Library in memory of Mary-Helen Mautner. Quest was published from 1974-1982, during the height of the second wave of the feminist movement in the United States, and was co-founded by scholar and activist Charlotte Bunch. Individual issues of Quest focused on important feminist themes, with such titles as: International Feminism; Theories of Revolution; Communication and Control; Rape, Racism and Reality; Work, Work, Work; and Race, Class and Culture. Ms. Mautner had close connections to Swarthmore College; her father was a professor of German and her sister is an alumnus. We thank Susan Hester for this donation in Mary-Helen’s memory.
@library.edu is the newsletter of the Swarthmore College Libraries, published once a semester. Editorial Staff: Ushi Tandon, Terry Heinrichs Thank you to all who contributed to this issue, especially: Pam Harris, Peggy Seiden, Chris Densmore, Wendy Chmielewski, Megan Adams, Anne Garrison, Eric Pumroy, Amy McColl, Florence Goff, Tammy Rabideau, Linda Bills, Barb Weir, Meg Spencer, Donny Smith E-mail: <libnews@swarthmore.edu> Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081
Vol. 4, no. 1 Fall 2001
what’s new New copiers New Xerox copiers have been installed in McCabe, Cornell, and Underhill Libraries. Most of the new digital copiers have a document feeder, while some have a book edge feature that allows easier copying of the inside margins of books. New copy cards are available at the circulation desks for $1.00. Tripod interface redesigned Tripod, the combined library catalog for Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore College Libraries, has had a complete interface makeover. John Hubbard, a Mellon-funded instructional technology specialist for Haverford Library, is primarily responsible for the new interface design for Tripod. Please visit Tripod and send your comments to: librarian@swarthmore.edu. Public computer web browsers sport a new look In a joint effort, Information Technology Services and the Library have produced a new default home page for all the browsers on all public computers on campus. Laptop computers can be borrowed at McCabe Students can now borrow laptop computers in McCabe. They also can reserve them one day in advance. Library laptop usage is restricted to a few hours at a time and only within McCabe. The laptops can connect to the campus network/internet using wireless networking. People with laptops of their own can also use wireless network cards to connect to the internet in McCabe. The library has 3 iBooks and 2 Dell Latitudes.
Don’t forget the coffee bar! The Daily Grind, the coffee bar in McCabe, offers Fair Trade coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juice, water, bagels, and pastries for sale during the early morning, late afternoon, and evening hours.
@library.edu
Who is A. Preston? Making connections at the Friends Historical Library By Christopher Densmore, Curator FHL
T
his summer the Friends Historical Library received two cartons of papers belonging to the Jackson family of Chester County, Pennsylvania, documenting Quaker life in rural Pennsylvania from the 1770s to the 1870s. Unpacking a new manuscript collection is a bit like opening presents, presents from the past for the future. Will this present be interesting? Will it fit the needs of the Friends Historical Library and its researchers? The Friends Historical Library is not just about Quaker history. These particular papers document not only Quaker life, but also the anti-slavery movement, education, botany, and art. Included among the papers was a small pasteboard card, about the size of a modern business card, probably dating from the 1850s: “Lectures for Ladies, On the Laws of Health. Admit the Bearer. A. Preston.” In context, this becomes a very evocative piece of documentation on the experience of women at a time when women, many of them Quakers, were pushing the boundaries of gender role expectations. “A. Preston” is undoubtedly Ann Preston (1813-1872), a Quaker who had been an active abolitionist before becoming part of the first class at the Female Medical College in Philadelphia in 1850. She later served on the faculty of the college and was its Dean from 1866 until her death. In her early career as an active abolitionist—a concern that she continued after she became a physician and professor—she had written a small book titled Cousin Ann’s Stories for Children (1849) which included stories of the underground railroad and was one of the items exhibited this past Spring in McCabe Library as part of the FHL exhibit on Quakers and the Underground Railroad. By itself, the card is an interesting artifact. In the larger context of the papers and in Quaker history, it takes on increased meaning. Friends Historical Library has been extensively used by researchers interested in women’s history. Where would a person like Ann Preston find the will and the support to defy powerful social convention and pursue a career as a physician and an educator in 1850? A partial answer may be found in a small series of letters in the Jackson papers from one Hannah Monoghan of Chester County written to her uncle William Jackson in the 1830s. Unlike Preston, whose name is known to specialists in women’s history, Hannah Monoghan is one of those people who would be unknown as an individual but for the survival of a few letters—letters that reveal a keen interest in, and awareness of, political activity more than eighty years before women could vote. Friend Hannah obviously read the newspapers, had well-formed political ideas, and showed no reluctance in expressing them to her male relatives. A letter that would be unremarkable if written by a male becomes a document putting into context the demands of women for inclusion in the professions and politics. Hannah Monoghan in the 1830s helps explain Ann Preston in the 1850s. One final connection should be included—Swarthmore College was founded by Hicksite Quakers who knew and worked with Ann Preston. Swarthmore was co-educational in both student body and in faculty at a time when higher education for women was still controversial. Hannah Monoghan and Ann Preston are part of the context for understanding why the founders of Swarthmore could think that higher education for women was both possible and desirable.
page 3
page 4
@library.edu
Mellon Foundation grants aid tri-co libraries Professional development
The three colleges are attempting to promote “continual learning and professional development” for members of the three library staffs. As technology continues to push the edges of the profession, it is critical that library staff maintain an edge in areas that are now an integral part of librarianship. Building on conversations that began last spring with the visit of consultant Maureen Sullivan to the tri-colleges, a program using self-assessment surveys, focus groups, and personal development plans has been developed. Helping each staff member to recognize his/her own place in an organization and to formulate his/her own professional goals will be an important part of this approach. Video conferencing system
This summer, Swarthmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr installed a videoconferencing system at the three colleges, with one unit in each of the main library buildings. Mark Dumic, from Swarthmore ITS (Information Technology Services), helped choose the Polycom system, allowing three-way conferencing to travel over our existing TCP/IP network. So far, the libraries have been the chief users of the system, using it for tricollege meetings and for joint interviews of candidates for tri-college positions. The system is available to other campus departments as well for conferencing among the three campuses. Future plans include linking to video-conferencing installations outside the Consortium, making the system useful for teaching and research meetings. Selecting and cataloging internet resources
Tri-college bibliographers from virtually every subject specialty met for a oneday retreat last spring to explore the possibilities of including websites as resources in Tripod. Since much information is gathered and sifted by searching the internet, what better way to serve patrons than to help them discriminate the good websites from the bad ones. Selected websites that contain reliable and useful information could be catalogued in Tripod and retrieved through a typical Tripod search along with the usual library materials. The consortium next needs to formulate guidelines (e.g., criteria for website selection) and procedures for this service, and eliminate duplication of effort among the three libraries.
New Mellon planning grant focuses on collections The tri-college libraries have embarked on another cooperative project funded by the Mellon Foundation. As the three campus libraries exhaust available shelf space in the next five to ten years, the new planning project will examine how the libraries develop and maintain their collections. Planners will seek to make recommendations on ways in which increased collaboration can strengthen the ability to support the broad range of research and teaching that goes on at the three colleges in the context of limited physical space. Several areas of collection development will be examined: the overlap of collections among the libraries (and the corresponding rate of use of duplicated materials), individual collection strengths and weaknesses, ways in which each campus collection is used by students and faculty, and the impact of digital materials on collection development. One of the goals of the project is to develop a new predictive model for growth of physical collections of the college library. That model should take into consideration the impact of digital technologies and changes in the publishing industry, as well as the impact of collaborative collection development. Another key aspect of the project is to develop a collection development model that moves the tri-colleges towards research level collections. Finally, the findings of the project will be used to help with space planning and consideration of off-site storage for collections. The study is expected to provide the libraries with an important basis on which to plan for large and growing collections in a physical environment with little or no on-campus space for growth.
Vol. 4, no. 1 Fall 2001
staff notes Jon Mark Bolthouse is joining the tri-college library staff as systems coordinator. He was library systems coordinator at the University of Puget Sound, WA for over 2 years, after earning his MSLIS from the Univ. of Illinois. Margaret Brink became a technical services specialist in McCabe in March, dividing her time between Interlibrary Loan and monographs cataloging and acquisitions. Previously a technical services specialist in the Peace Collection for 2 years, she also worked for the Iowa City Public Library in Iowa for 6 years. Patrick Keenan is the new tri-college library van driver and a new Swarthmore College employee. He is responsible for transporting books, journals, and other material among the main libraries and branch libraries. Formerly employed as a driver for Clark’s Tire and Automotive and also for Community Transit, Patrick has also worked in tugboat and barge operation and even served as a library volunteer in Alaska. Andy Miller, new technical services specialist, is also a new college employee. His responsibilities include standing order receipt, mail delivery, and binding. He has worked in the library at Neumann College, where he currently teaches English and history, and is a freelance reporter for “Town Talk.” He has recently finished his first novel, The Winter Soldiers, which is historical fiction on the Civil War period. Donny Smith was awarded the $1,000 student stipend from the Delaware Valley chapter of the ACRL (Assoc. of College and Research Libraries). The chapter chooses only one recipient each year from applicants who are all currently enrolled in graduate library science courses. Electronic reserves coordinator and circulation assistant at McCabe Library, Donny attends Drexel University’s College of Information Science and Technology. Ushi Tandon has left her position as assistant to the director of the library to attend classes full-time toward a master’s degree in counseling education at Villanova University. She plans to work as a counselor in schools and in the community. Sandra Vermeychuk is the new head of the Interlibrary Loan department after working in the technical services department for 10 years as a monographs specialist. A Swarthmore graduate (’73), Sandra received an MA in Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania. She succeeds Minda Hart, who died in November.
Vol. 4, no. 1 Fall 2001
@library.edu
page 5
Will digital technologies reshape libraries? continued from page 1
to come to the library to study, to do research, and to do these activities in a Library organizations are designed to It’s not that libraries have ignored these social environment. select, acquire, process, and organize new patterns of information-seeking. We How, then, do we address this gap materials, and then provide access to and have invested large amounts of money in between where we are focusing our assistance in the use of those materials. purchasing or subscribing to digital current efforts and the services and Aren’t we still doing those things? Why resources. We have, as time allowed, functions needed to support how our users do we need to change our structure? created guides to resources on the are doing their research? One way has The difference is Internet, or added been through grant-supported projects that our users’ records describing those described elsewhere in this newsletter. information-seeking resources into our For example, the tri-colleges are working behavior has online catalogs. We Why do we need changed. Previously, have spent a good bit of towards shared collection development responsibility for identifying web-based students and faculty effort creating web to change our resources and cataloging them so that had to patronize pages. But despite this structure? users can retrieve them through Tripod physical libraries in major change in how and eventually through resource guides. order to retrieve our users search for ....our users’ We have invested in software materials. While information, our informationdevelopment that allows us to maintain catalogs and online organizations continue these guides easily. databases made it to reflect a much more seeking behavior But we need to do more. We need to fairly easy to identify traditional research has changed. give students a place to start their research materials without model. In fact, if one that they find as accessible as Google. We going into the library, were to look at the need a search interface that will get them if one wanted the efforts of bibliographers to articles or data on the “invisible web,” actual text, video, or and subject liaisons, while retrieving resources from the sound recording, one went to the library. one would find that 80% of their efforts “visible web.” But we can’t do this Our structures were designed to facilitate were still focused on traditional collection without rethinking our organizational access to those materials. Now, students development and traditional services like structure and focus of staff responsibility can find much authoritative as well as staffing a reference desk. For staff in so that the digital library has as much more specious information without Technical Services the amount of time priority as or more than the physical. We leaving their dorm rooms. They can spent on support of traditional services is should let our staff know that their work access books and journal articles, probably more like 99%. to develop digital collections, or to design government documents, and a good bit of In part, our staffing is heavily slanted and maintain our web, “gray literature”* without crossing the towards traditional is equal to or more threshold of their college library. In fact, services because we important than the information-seeking research has shown still need to support time spent selecting that convenience is one of the key this model. We still In one sense we books or waiting for determinants in how people look for need to build our need to turn our someone to come up to information, and desktop access is pretty physical collections, the reference desk with convenient. While it is estimated that and publishers have library a question. In one less than 1% of traditional library been slow to develop organizations on sense we need to turn resources are in digital form, much of digital products in our library what students think they want and need many disciplines, their heads and organizations on their may actually be in that 1%. particularly in the make the dessert heads and make the Most of our efforts to build the digital humanities. And it’s dessert the main dish. library focus on the “invisible web,” those difficult to move away the main dish. If our patrons are resources which are not indexed by the from what has always looking for major search engines. However, been one of our information in one anecdotal evidence and some research primary functions - the place and it’s not the library, it may be the indicate that our students are often collecting of books and journals - since library that is in the wrong place, not the limiting their research to the “visible libraries continue to be defined by the size patron. web” – that part of the online world which and quality of their print collections. The is indexed and searchable through the information-seeking behavior of many * Gray literature is information found outside various web search engines. Many faculty members has not changed. And that which is conventionally published. students begin and end their research with while many students may do research Examples: electronic bulletin boards, email, Yahoo! and Google. outside the library’s walls, many continue telephone conversations, personal websites.
page 6
@library.edu
Students help with information literacy project During the past academic year, three Swarthmore students participated in an information literacy project entitled, “Latino Students in America: A Collection of Oral Histories.” The objective of the project was to increase information literacy awareness and skills for 14 Kennett High School students of Latino descent in the English as a Second Language class. The program was originally conceived to meet the information literacy needs of at-risk students. According to the Association of College and Research Libraries, information literacy involves the ability to access information as well as the ability to evaluate and use it (http://www.ala.org/acrl/nili/ilit1st.html). Twice a week, Claudia Zambra ’01, Francisco Sersale ’02 and Alicia Muñoz ’03, assisted in the Kennett classroom, library and computer lab. The high school students were encouraged to collect oral histories from their family, friends and adult mentors. After converting these oral histories into a literary format, they published them, along with photographs, on the web. A strong bond of camaraderie grew between the Swarthmore and Kennett students. The Swarthmore students organized a field trip to the College so that ESL students could spend a day enjoying the college experience. Kennett sophomore Manual Ibarra, who came here with his family from Guanajuato in 1998, will be one of the first members of his family to graduate from high school. “My father didn’t go to school at all,” Ibarra said. “He worked on a ranch most of his life and he wants to see me have a better job and a better life.” One of the interviews reflected the difficulty of being a minority in the United States. “The biggest problems that I have had to face were racism and not knowing the language.” In interviewing his father, this student also learned that crossing the border was the most difficult part of his father’s experience. The project was created with a grant from the Swarthmore Foundation and was a collaborative effort among Pam Harris, Instruction & Outreach Librarian, Cecelia Buchanan, tri-college Instructional Technology Coordinator, and Lisa Teixeira, Kennett High School Librarian. Visit the site at http://www.kcsd.org/lmcswarthmore.
We can get (almost) anything! Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is a service that allows current students, staff, and faculty to request books and periodical articles from other libraries if the material is not available here. Three types of ILL services are available: Tri-College: To request items held in the Bryn Mawr and Haverford Libraries, click the “Request” button when viewing the record in Tripod, the online tricollege catalog (takes 1-2 days). PALCI: To request items directly from other Pennsylvania libraries, logon with your Swarthmore ID and search PALCI to locate and request your items (takes 1 week). National ILL: If the item you’re seeking cannot be found by the methods above, complete an online National ILL request form for books or journal articles (takes 1-2 weeks).
Most popular McCabe videos Vertigo The Big Lebowski The Princess Bride Blade Runner Pulp Fiction Clueless Say Anything When Harry Met Sally Annie Hall Breakfast at Tiffany’s City of Angels Wings of Desire Taxi Driver Wag the Dog Farewell, My Concubine Twelfth Night, or, What You Will (Trevor Nunn)
Rear Window Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Like Water for Chocolate A Room with a View Monty Python’s Life of Brian Dangerous Liaisons
Vol. 4, no. 1 Fall 2001
Website publishes student reviews of alumni books A website that showcases Swarthmore student reviews of alumni publications (called the Swarthmoreana Collection) can be viewed at: http://swarthmoreana. swarthmore.edu. Jonah Gold ‘04 created and maintains the site. The site also offers a searchable database of over 4,000 alumni publications that are part of the Swarthmore library collections. If you have questions or would like to comment on the Swarthmoreana web site, please contact Jonah Gold at or Tammy Rabideau, Digital Services Librarian.
Seeking students to review books by alumni The library is always looking for additional students to review books published by Swarthmore alumni. The library pays $25 per review, which will appear on the Swarthmoreana web pages. You will generally have one month to write a review. If you are interested in serving as a book reviewer, please send your name, class year, phone, email, and general subject areas in which you feel qualified to review books (i.e. literature, history, engineering, or literary genre) to Peggy Seiden, College Librarian.
Peace Collection gets grant to preserve historic film The Peace Collection is the recipient of a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. Funds from this grant will enable them to preserve their copy of Walk to Freedom, a film about the Montgomery bus boycott that catapulted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., into national prominence. Walk to Freedom was originally produced by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and is the only film remaining of this historical event. The NFPF is dedicated to preserving motion picture film as part of the nation’s cultural heritage.
Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries Volume 4, Number 1
Fall 2001
Barbara Brandon’s Comic Strip Art New York native Barbara Brandon knows exactly where she’s coming from. As the country’s only black female cartoonist to be nationally syndicated, Brandon is blazing the trail for a greater awareness of the mindset of black women and men—their beliefs, hopes, fears and everyday struggles—in her weekly strip, Where I’m Coming From, which began running in the lifestyle pages of the Detroit Free Press in June 1989. Brandon’s characters are opinionated black women who explore topics such as singleparenthood, careers, friendships, racism, women’s rights, AIDs and Reprinted with permission of Barbara Brandon-Croft male-female relationships. The Where I ‘m Coming From is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate strip brings a variety of viewpoints to light because of its wide range of characters—from social and political activist Lekesia to selfabsorbed, man-obsessed Nicole, to business owner and single mom Lydia. These characters are largely based on Brandon’s real-life friends, which makes it even more natural for readers to relate to them. Brandon is an alumna of Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. She has previously worked as a fashion and beauty writer for Essence magazine. Her illustrations have appeared in Essence, The Village Voice, The Crisis and MCA Records. She will be speaking in the lobby of McCabe Library on Oct. 2 at 4:15 p.m. A reception will follow. The exhibit of her works runs from September 3 to October 3.
Library Associates’ Events - Fall ‘01 September Where I’m Coming From: Barbara Brandon’s Comic Strip Art Talk & Reception: October 2, 4:15 pm Exhibit: September. 3 - October 3 McCabe Lobby October 100 Years of the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibit: October 7 - 30 McCabe Lobby November Pulp Fiction Exhibit: November 5 - 30 McCabe Lobby December Newton Student Library Prize Exhibit: December 2 - 9 McCabe Lobby Selected Student Works Exhibit: December 10 - 21 McCabe Lobby
100 years of Nobel Peace Prize Awards To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Swarthmore College Peace Collection will mount an exhibit in McCabe Library featuring materials from numerous award winners. Prize recipients whose commemoration will be celebrated are: Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Bertha von Suttner, Ludwig Quidde, Dr. Martin Luther King, the American Friends Service Committee, Mother Teresa, and Rigoberta Menchu Tum. The Peace Collection is the repository for the papers of Jane Addams, one of the recipients for 1931 and the first US woman to win the Peace Prize. Swarthmore College awarded her an honorary degree earlier the same year to acknowledge her outstanding contributions in social welfare. The Peace Collection is also the repository for the papers of Emily Greene Balch, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Balch won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for her work with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and with refugees during World War II. The exhibit will run from October 7-30 in the lobby of McCabe Library.
Cheap Paper and Cheaper Thrills: Pulp Fiction and Mass Market Paperbacks in the early 20 th century Today’s mass market paperbacks owe much to the popularity and proliferation of pulp fiction magazines and books from the 1920s-1950s. Pulp fiction stirs up images of purple prose printed on cheap paper, excesses of action and adventure, and most of all, extreme and often lurid cover art. This “low-brow” publishing was the mainstay of entertainment for masses of Americans before TV and the web. The format covered all genres: mysteries, hard boiled detective fiction, westerns, romances, and science fiction. This library exhibit will examine the growth of paperback publishing through the early popularity of pulp magazines in the 1920s to the mass market paperbacks of the 1950s. On display will be selections of mass market publishers Avon Books, Dell, Pocket Books and New American Library, as well as early issues of the pivotal science fiction magazines Amazing Stories and Weird Tales.
2000-01 Newton Winners
2001-02 Student Library Prize Competition
The Committee of Award for the A. Edward Newton Student Library Prize awarded one first prize, one second prize, and two third prizes for 2000-01. First prize was awarded to LiErin Probasco ’04 for her collection of books about fairy tales. Jill Bean ’02 won second prize for her collection of books illustrated by Trina Schart. Third prize was awarded jointly to Rashelle Isip ’03 for her collection of books on the subject of Dr. Who and to Kellam Conover ’03 for his collection of classical texts. Prize winning collections will be on display in McCabe library December 2 -9. Readings of fairy tales are also planned. The Newton Book Prize is awarded annually for the best undergraduate book collection as judged by the Committee of Award.
The A. Edward Newton Student Library Prizes of $300, $150, and $100 are awarded annually for the three best undergraduate book collections as judged by the Committee of the Award. Books must be owned and have been collected by the student. Each collection will be judged by the extent to which it represents a well-defined principle giving it unity and continuity; for example, an author, a subject, or a group of authors. Non-print material may be included in the collection. Textbooks should not be included. Entries should have a bibliography of at least 25 titles in the collection. Sample entries from previous years are available in the Librarian’s Office, McCabe Library. Please attach a brief (one page) commentary describing how, when, where, and why the books were acquired. Winners will be invited to display their collection in the library and to give a brief talk. Entries should be submitted to Pam Harris, McCabe Library. Last date for submission will be announced in January and is expected to be in mid-March.
Membership in the Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries SWARTHMORE IS KNOWN AS ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S OUTSTANDING LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES and its library is central to that reputation. The excellent quality of our library system may be attributed both to the strong support from the College and to the generosity of our many friends and benefactors. The Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries, an organization established in 1978 by Michael J. Durkan, the College Librarian from 1976-1996, is dedicated to continuing that tradition of support. The Associates provide a link between the campus and the community of book-lovers. The purpose of the Associates is: • To serve as a medium through which friends of the library may advance their own intellectual pursuits and share their enthusiasm for books, • To provide financial support that permits us to enrich the collections and the services beyond that which could be done otherwise, • To sponsor programs that enrich the cultural life of the community, such as poetry readings and our political cartoonist series, • To encourage a greater awareness of the book as artifact by sponsoring workshops, exhibits and lectures on topics in the book arts, and • To encourage an understanding and appreciation of the work of the College Libraries, which form a resource of immeasurable value in the intellectual life of the College. If you are already a member of the Associates, we thank you for your patronage and urge you to renew your membership; if you are not, we cordially invite you to join. Membership in the Associates bears the following practical rewards: Associates receive announcements and invitations to exhibitions, lectures and other library events, Associates receive @library.edu - The Newsletter of the Swarthmore College Libraries, Associates may obtain library borrowing privileges by bringing the acknowledgement receipt for their donation to the Circulation Desk, Associates’ memberships are fully tax-deductible, and Associates know that their contributions are going toward maintaining and strengthening the collections and services provided by the libraries at Swarthmore College. Please join the alumni, faculty, staff, students and community members whose generous contributions are insuring the success of the Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries. Board of Trustees 2000-2001 Nathalie Anderson Lester I. Conner James A. Hinz, Chair Daniel G. Hoffman William Huganir’42 J. William Frost Edward Fuller Kendall Landis’48 Amy Morrison, Programs/Membership/Treasurer William Robert Peter Schmidt Peggy Seiden Carol Shloss’68
Associates of the Libraries - Annual Membership Registration - 2001 For new members or members who have not yet sent in their membership fees. Annual memberships run from January to January. Corporate Matching Gift Forms may be included with your check or mailed directly to the College’s Gift Records Office.
CIRCLE: Individual $20; Family $30; Patron $100; Benefactor $500; Life $2500; Student $2; Other $ ____ Enclosed is $ _________ for my/our annual membership payable to Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries. Please charge my/our membership to: VISA MASTERCARD DISCOVER Account Number: ______________________________________________Expiry Date: _________________ Or CALL Swarthmore College Credit Card Hotline: 1-800-660-9714 Fund: Associates of College Library NAME: ADDRESS: EMAIL: TELEPHONE: Mail to: Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081