Visions 6, Spring 1999

Now You Can Search Major Newspapers Online!

Using the improved version of ProQuest Direct electronic full-text database, you can now search the full text of nine important newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and USA Today. ProQuest Direct can be used in the Library, or it can be accessed currently in residence halls and other network locations through the Library web page at http://depts.drew.edu/lib/ejrnls.html. In the future we expect that these resources will be accessible to Drew community users in their homes via their information providers.

ProQuest Direct is just one of our many electronic subscriptions to the full text of journals, newspapers, reference tools, and government publications. Among them are the following which are explained more fully on the Library's Research Resources page.

• Britannica Online
• CenStats [U.S. Census statistics]
• Congressional Universe
• Dictionary of Old English Corpus
• IDEAL Academic Press Journals Online
• Institute of Physics [journals]
• JSTOR [50 major academic journals in full runs from beginning issues]
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
• Project Muse [Johns Hopkins University Press journals]
• STAT-USA

Additionally, you can use numerous electronic CD-ROM resources in the Library itself. Among them are full-text resources devoted to cross-cultural issues and anthropology, and several bibliographical resources addressing the areas of psychology, religion, language, ethics, and American history.

Some of these CD-ROMs are on the network, but some are not and must be requested for individual use. All resources are described in hand-outs available beside the reference desk. Because our many electronic resources are accessed in several different ways, it is difficult for any reader to be sure that she or he has found all that are pertinent. The soundest strategy is to consult the reference staff.

Do We Still Have Books?

The answer is a resounding "yes." The enthusiasm for information in electronic form has not diminished the demand for books. In fact, most libraries are finding that enhanced bibliographic access via computers has increased demand.

Far from simplifying our task, the new technologies add a layer of complexity to traditional Library services. The magnitude of our collections and the levels of activity are indicated in statistics that we have collected for the Oberlin Group over the past several years. Note particularly that interlibrary loan transactions received by Drew patrons have steadily increased over the past five years, reflecting very probably the increased access via online bibliographic tools. Not only do we acquire and keep track of a steadily increasing stock of materials in print and microform, but we are also open longer hours in recent years. This has been achieved with a staff that is smaller than existed in 1992. We have been busy!

Our faithful readers will recall that we announced our move to a team-based organizational structure and modus operandi in our last issue of Visions. We made the move to create closer connections among library functions, a situation made essential by developments in technology that have had an integrating effect on library operations.

With our new structure in place, and new communication skills developing rapidly, we are now turning our attention to the articulation of service levels for library functions. These levels will provide us with benchmarks for internal assessment of our performance, and will enable us to make decisions about redeployment of resources with better data in hand. Consistent with the "bottom-up" approach of team management, the development of service levels will be done by the teams, with harmonization worked out by the management team in the later stages.

Our move to a team-based organization has been assisted significantly by consultants from the Association for Research Libraries, a group representing the ca. 100 top-ranked libraries in North America.

-- DEIRDRE C. STAM

Recent Gifts to the Library

A kind donation through the family of the late Martyvonne Dehoney includes books that were owned by Professor Dehoney.

Adding to the University's substantial collection of historic Methodist material was a significant gift of hymnals and other material from Gillian Woodward in memory of her husband, Barry. Among the materials are 65 early Wesley imprints, 44 British Methodist hymnals, and 28 American hymnals.

A generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. Frederick E. Maser enabled the Library to purchase a 1782 Wesley autographed letter, supporting the outstanding collection of Wesley letters, unmatched outside of the United Kingdom.

Dennis Sullivan kindly contributed a substantial collection of German language materials to the Library. The collection of about 700 books includes important holdings in literature, philosophy, and art history.

Emily LaFalce and Jayne LaFalce continued their kind support of the Library in 1998.

Alan S. Foster, whose family donated fascinating Tibetan and trans-Himalayan material to the Library in recent years, renewed his support in 1998.

Dr. Beverly Lanty donated a collection of books in psychotherapy and related fields.

James Logerfo made a much appreciated donation of equipment.

Huff Gift Marked

New to the Library is a bronze plaque in the atrium celebrating the generous gift of William R. Huff and his family, who have made possible significant purchases, over a five-year period, of books in mathematics and computer science, psychology, biology, and economics.

Mr. Huff is the parent of Jennifer, class of 1998.

Kornitzer Prize Awarded to Janet Handler Burstein

On November 9, the Library was pleased to award to Professor Janet Handler Burstein the second Bela Kornitzer award which honors a Drew faculty or alumnus/a who has published an outstanding work of non-fiction within the past two years. The prize-winning book was Writing Mothers, Writing Daughters: Tracing the Maternal in Stories by American Jewish Women (Urbana: U. of Illinois Pr., 1996).

The endowment supporting the award was established by Alicia Kornitzer Karpati and her late husband, George Karpati, to honor Mr. Karpati's brother, Bela Kornitzer, and to recognize his achievements as a journalist and author in Hungary and the United States. The award committee consisted of Associate Director of the University Library Jean Schoenthaler, Professor Emeritus Robert Chapman, Professor Charles Courtney, Professor Herbert Huffmon, and Adjunct Professor Ashley Carter.

1998-99 Book History Lecture Series

In cooperation with Drew's new Book History program, the Library is sponsoring the following lectures in 1998-99:

• Lisa Gitelman and Terry Collins, "Reading as Invention: Thomas Edison and His Books"
• E. Jennifer Monaghan, "Reading for the Enslaved, Writing for the Free: Reflections on Liberty and Literacy"
• William Joyce, "Smoking Guns and Roosting Chickens: The Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board"
• Joan Shelley Rubin, "Sites, Practices, Values: Exploring Poetry Reading in American Culture"

Upcoming lectures include:

• David Scott Kastan, "The Mechanics of Culture: Editing Shakespeare Today," Monday, March 29, 8:00 p.m., in the Founders' Room of Mead Hall.
• Wayne Wiegand, "Collecting Contested Titles: Controversial Books in Rural Midwest Libraries, 1893-1956," Thursday, April 8, 5:30 p.m. in the Drew University Library, Learning Center Room 28.

Members of the public are welcome at these evening lectures which are followed by receptions. Members of the Drew University Friends organization receive invitations to these and other events. For more information about the Friends, call Eleanor Rawitz at (973) 408-3471. To learn about the Master's program in Book History, contact Jonathan E. Rose (jerose@drew.edu; tel. (973) 408-3545), or call the Graduate School at (973) 408-3110.

These lectures are made possible by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.

Ariel System Speeds ILL Journal Articles

A new service of the Interlibrary Loan Department at Drew is a document transmission system called Ariel. Developed by the Research Libraries Group, Inc., Ariel provides fast, high quality delivery of documents over the Internet, greatly reducing the amount of time it takes for articles requested on interlibrary loan to arrive at the Drew Library. Members of the Drew community no longer have to rely solely on the in-state delivery system or the U.S. Mail for delivery of journal articles. Ariel also enables ILL to provide journal articles to other libraries in a timely fashion by scanning and sending documents over the Internet. As more and more institutions install the Ariel system in their libraries, the benefit will be even greater for Drew's interlibrary loan patrons.

Looking for Primary Research Materials at Drew?

Thanks to its long history and acquisitive forebears, Drew University has an array of primary research materials that can support advanced research in many areas of the humanities and social sciences. Among its special collections are mysteries by Georges Simenon, 19th century pamphlets dealing with everything from abolition to women's rights, prayer books of exquisite design and distinguished provenance, hymnals from several centuries in many languages, the works of Eliot Porter, fiction and humor by people known for other accomplishments, photographs of distinguished 20th century political figures, 50 incunabula, and the largest collection of letters outside Great Britain of Methodist John Wesley and his family. This material nicely complements the holdings of the General Commission on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church, housed with Library materials in the Methodist Center. The Commission's materials include a quarter of a million photographs from all parts of the world, and diaries and reports from Methodist missionaries and others that can yield information on such varied topics as ethnic studies, printing history, women's history, and imperialism. For access to these and additional materials, contact the reference staff of the library.

Welcome to New Library Staff

Earlier in the year, Beth Leiser was appointed Conservation Assistant. Beth had worked with us previously for ten months as a volunteer in the University Archives and also done volunteer work for the Smithsonian Institution.

Aaron Levine joined us in February as Library Technology Coordinator. Aaron received his B.S. in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin, and has been working as a consultant for a school district in New Jersey since receiving his degree in the spring of 1998.

Network Jacks in Library for Notebook Computers

Newly added to the Library's electronic resources are jacks which will enable those Drew users with network cards installed in their notebook computers to access all network resources while working in the building. A map of these jacks can be found just inside the Library entrance, posted on the pillar beside the staircase.

Exhibitors Invited

The Library has maintained an active exhibitions program over the last few months featuring faculty publications, Caribbeana and multi-cultural awareness material, photographs by alumnus Horst Staudner, a CLA student-curated show from University collections, and photographs by Morristown dentist R. Merritt Brown. We are grateful to Suzanne Selinger for organizing these shows.

We invite exhibitors for the future. Material can be mounted on panels in the lobby, or placed in flat cases in the microform room. If you would like to exhibit materials that are related to our mission, please let us know at (973) 408-3661. We welcome exhibitors from both the campus and the community. 

Mystery Lady

Moving about our building over the years is this lovely lady with a white marble complexion and a suit of iron. We would like to know more about her. Do you know her? We would be pleased to award a Library mug

to the person who can tell us the most about our silent friend. Please email or call E. Rawitz at (973) 408-3471 with information

About Visions

VISIONS
NEWSLETTER OF THE DREW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Deirdre C. Stam, Director
Drew University Library, Madison, NJ 07940
(973) 408-3322 ascrimge@drew.edu

EDITOR: Anna S. Magnell

PHOTOGRAPHS: Chris Pedota, Virginia Debbink
THIS ON-LINE EDITION: Anne L. Noss

A complete online archive of past issues of Visions
can be viewed at:https://uknow.drew.edu/confluence/display/Library/Visions+Library+Newsletter+Archive

VISIONS is a semi-annual publication.
© Drew University Library