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| April 2008 |
HAVERFORD COLLEGE |
No. 7 |
Table of Contents
From the Director
by Bob Kieft
The World Wide Web's effects
on the information economy since the mid-1990s are almost beyond
calculation. New kinds of publications (blogs, wikis, etc), new
forms of communication (Facebook, YouTube), new ways of locating
information, and new models for distributing text (open access
publishing of journals, databases like Margaret Schaus's Feminae,
Comment Press) have, it seems, sprung up almost overnight and
quickly come to dominate the way people think about information.
At Haverford, the most-used library materials
are electronic reference works and journals. Students and faculty
have voted with their keyboards, and well over half our subscriptions
for journals, journal indexes, and such reference works as the
Oxford English Dictionary are online. That number is growing annually
as online versions of these traditionally-printed sources become
the norm and as new online publications develop. For some, especially
students, works that are in print do not, for all practical purposes,
exist; granted in most cases even these resolutely e-based students
print out the sources and read them the traditional way on paper,
but they assume that online discovery and access are the way the
world works.
The most newsworthy aspect of a generalized
move to digital text for library collections has been the various
large-scale digitization initiatives (LSDIs) for monographs--Million
Books Project, Google Book Search Library, Microsoft Live Search,
and Open Content Alliance--which are bringing to the Web what
will in the next ten years become a universally searchable, if
not readable, library. Less massive but no less important for
libraries are the experiments by university presses and commercial
publishers to market new monographs in electronic form. Faculty
and students at Haverford, like their counterparts elsewhere,
have shown less enthusiasm for electronic monographs, aka "books,"
than for journal articles and reference works. In the case of
monographs, which depend on continuous reading of large amounts
of text, the difficulties of reading hundreds of pages on screen
and the inability to work readily with the text (highlight, underline,
comment, etc.) as well as the ease of reading on paper are often-cited
impediments to general acceptance.
Even though readers prefer print monographs,
they like the online versions for discovery and evaluation purposes.
We know from the searchable tables-of- contents and sample chapters
that we add to Tripod catalog records and from other experiences
with electronic monographs that readers use digitized text to
decide what they are going to retrieve from the stacks or request
from another library. We also know anecdotally that people go
to Amazon to perform research queries in sample text and that
readers look to Google texts and search engine queries for the
same purpose.
Although readers' willingness to read monographs
electronically will take some years to develop, and publishers
are still experimenting with business models for selling them,
Haverford, along with Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore, is offering electronic
monographs in the collection. In 2001, we joined an experiment
undertaken by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and Oxford
and Cambridge University Presses to test faculty and student use
and acceptance of digitized front-list history monographs (search
Tripod for author "Oxford University Press Digital Library
Collection University Of Pennsylvania" for catalog records
that link to the texts).
In the fall of 2007, the TriColleges agreed
to participate in an experiment with Duke University Press to
purchases their entire catalog of new publications in electronic
form (the TriColleges will also be buying print copies), and Tripod
will soon link to those titles. Tripod records are also linking
to small groups of digitized monographs from University of Pittsburgh
Press (author search "University of Pittsburgh Press Digital
Editions") and MIT Press (author search "John D and
Catherine T Macarthur Foundation Initiative on Digital Media and
Learning").
We at Haverford are watching eagerly as Swarthmore
experiments with a large body of academic monographs that are
licensed from publishers through an aggregator called “ebrary,”
which offers a publishing platform for locally-produced as well
for commercially-published texts. Over the next couple of years,
the TriColleges will be contributing texts from our collection
to the Open Content Alliance's mass digitization effort under
a grant from the Sloan Foundation to the Mid-Atlantic library
network, PALINET. After the grant runs its course in 2010, the
equipment will remain in the area for consortial use. Meanwhile,
Google's legions of scanners continue to digitize large segments
of libraries' collections in spite of concerns raised in many
quarters about the quality of the digitized text and the legality
of the digitization itself, and we have started linking to books
in the Google project though Tripod’s "find it"
service.
The day is not far away when the sheer massiveness
of the digitized monographic content available and the development
of an inexpensive portable reading technology will persuade most
readers to prefer the digitized copy of a text for most purposes
most of the time. In the TriColleges we are preparing for that
day by offering many e-monographs now. We are certainly interested
in hearing from students and faculty about how these texts work
for them and what needs to be done to improve their usefulness.
-Bob Kieft
is Director of College Information Resources
& Librarian of the College
Surveying the Unknown
by Diana Franzusoff Peterson
Haverford’s Special Collections
is participating in a project to survey its unprocessed or under-processed
manuscript collections, and is one of 22 institutions in the 33-member
group of libraries comprising PACSCL (Philadelphia Area Consortium
of Special Collections Libraries) to take part. In the case of
Haverford, the survey encompasses 60 collections, but across the
participating institutions, numbers range from 13 to 185 collections.
The project is supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation,
along with cost-sharing by participating institutions.
The PACSCL Survey Database
Preliminary information about the collections
was provided by Special Collections staff to the project team
who rated each collection for research value, intellectual access,
physical condition and quality of housing, as well as to provide
biographical and general scope of collection information. We were
able to help the team think about research value based on what
our researchers tell us about their areas of scholarly interest.
The surveyed collections at Haverford relate
primarily to Quaker families, individuals and organizations spanning
the 18th to the 21st centuries, including correspondence, diaries,
photographs, minutes and financial reports, and focused primarily
on the Northeast corridor of the U.S. The surveyors’ notes
reveal the creators’ emphases on improvement of society
as well as their personal lives and interests.
Haverford agreed to expose the survey results
on a searchable website <http://www.pacsclsurvey.org> released
in August 2007 because we believe there is valuable research material
within these collections. The survey has resulted in a very fine
outline of the collections and their creators; details of the
surveyed collections will follow.
-Diana Franzusoff Peterson is Manuscripts Librarian &
College Archivist
Cadbury Papers
by Cassie Boland and Dina Mazina
When you're majoring in subjects like English and
History, finding a paying summer job in your field becomes difficult.
Usually, the ability to do lots of dense reading and form thesis
statements isn't a marketable job skill, at least not for undergraduates.
The two of us were lucky enough to find ourselves in Special Collections,
working on an ongoing project organizing the William W. Cadbury
and Catherine J. Cadbury papers. Thanks to the donors, who employ
students through the College, the two of us, undergraduates at
Earlham and Bryn Mawr Colleges, were able to spend the summer
reading, organizing, and archiving this standout collection, which
traces the lives of two Quaker missionaries in China between 1909
and 1949.
We spent the first two weeks reading every
document that came from the Cadburys, acquainting ourselves with
William's hurried handwriting and Catherine's upbeat personality.
Our main focus was continuing work on the already existent inventory,
summarizing individual letters in terms that might prove useful
to future researchers.
William Warder Cadbury (1877-1959) began his career in 1909 as
both a medical missionary and a professor at Lingnan University
in Canton, China.
Although at times world affairs made it difficult for William
to continue in his work, he did not retire and leave China permanently
until 1949, when he and his wife were forced out by the Communist
party. William’s firm devotion to improving a community’s
health through medicine and
enriching its psyche through religion, as well as his complete
faith in this work as his life’s purpose, is clearly seen
in his letters. Through these letters we get a glimpse of the
daily business and responsibilities of an American doctor, professor,
and Quaker missionary in China. Catherine Jones Cadbury (1884-1970)
spent her first years in Asia as
a teacher in Japan, arriving in 1917. Her letters, spanning over
50 years, trace her career as a teacher, wife, and mother of three
girls. Her letters give us a view of the dedicated Christian missionary
community in Canton, China and the everyday life of an American
woman living in a culture much different from her own.
Reading these letters not only illuminate the lives of two American
Quaker missionaries in China, but offers a distinct perspective
on the world and the way in which an individual might experience
it. Hopefully, with a few more summers of student assistance,
this collection will be fully available for researchers.
-Cassie Boland
is a senior at Earlham College
-Dina Mazina is a senior at Bryn Mawr College
Hamadryad III
by John Anderies
Artist Hilarie Johnston’s
bronze sculpture Hamadryad III (2001), on loan from the artist
since 2006, was made a permanent presence in the Magill Library
lobby when it was purchased as a graduation gift by the Class
of 2007 and the Office of the President. Using a title from the
Greek “with tree,” the sculpture depicts a mythological
wood nymph whose life is lived in trees. Cast in bronze and incorporating
water elements from the lobby’s fountain, the work stems
from Johnston’s belief that trees are sacred in their beauty
and spiritual in their connection with humans.
-John Anderies
is Coordinator for Collections
& Head, Special Collections
Laptops, Liquid Spills, and the People Who Can Help
by Sarah Gray
In keeping with today's fast-paced and mobile lives,
laptops are immensely attractive for both faculty and students.
That fact, combined with the increasing popularity of Macs (over
90% of students have a laptop and, of these, over 40% are Mac),
keeps Networking and Systems’ hardware shop busy with laptop
repairs. Rafael Hinojosa and I annually certify as repair technicians
so that we can assist the College in maintaining and repairing
College-owned Macs, as well as Haverford community members' own
Apple computers. Though each day in the shop is varied, we can
always count on seeing one particular problem – an expensive
new Mac with liquid seeping out the bottom.
From a coffee-addled professor to a re-hydrating
athlete, it seems that no one is spared from accidental spills
on their laptop. Many sensitive and expensive components lie just
below the keyboard, so repairing a laptop after a spill is quite
costly. Moreover, Apple computers provide no warranty coverage
for accidental damage. There is good news though – a little
quick thinking and common sense might save you money and heartache.
If you should spill liquid on a laptop, do the following:
1. Unplug your computer from the wall and from any
other devices connected to it.
2. Turn off your computer and keep it off. Avoid
the temptation to check on your computer. You could cause further
damage.
3. Take out the battery.
4. Carefully wipe off any liquid on the outside
of the computer with a soft, dry cloth.
5. Allow your computer to dry for at least 48
hours before attempting to turn your computer on. If you turn
the computer on before it is completely dry, you could cause additional
damage to your system.
6. If you are a member of the Haverford community
and your computer does not boot or you notice a problem, bring
your computer to Helpdesk in Stokes 204 during Help Desk hours.
If you are away and cannot get to the Help Desk in person, call
us at x1480 for advice on your best option.
For more information about what to do after a liquid
spill, see http://www.haverford.edu/
acc/docs/general/ laptopspills.html.
And for us klutzes, there are always travel mugs.
-Sarah Gray
is Technical Support Liaison
Computer Kiosks Arrive in the Campus Center
by Craig Ross
In January 2008 Academic Computing
Services installed two computer kiosks in the Campus Center. Located
outside the bookstore, these kiosks can
be used to check email and browse the Web. They have been well
received and used heavily by students and campus center visitors
since their installation early this year.
- Craig Ross
is Windows Support Specialist
Staff News and Notes
Compiled by Mike Persick
John Anderies, Coordinator for Collections &
Head, Special Collections, presented a poster entitled “Creating
the Digital Dictionary of Quaker Biography: the Wikification of
a Hallowed Reference Source” at WikiSym: the International
Symposium on Wikis, in Montreal in October, 2007. He gave a presentation
of the same title with Bob Kieft, Director of College Information
Resources & Librarian of the College, at the National Institute
for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) conference on Scholarly
Collaboration and Small Colleges in the Digital Age in Claremont,
California, in January, 2008.
David Conners, Digital Collections Librarian, was
accepted into the American Library Association’s 2008 Emerging
Leaders Program. He will work with a team of four other librarians
from around the country as well as team mentor Christian Dupont
of the University of Virginia. Their project will be to improve
communication within the Joint Committee on Libraries, Archives,
and Museums, a group comprised of ALA, SAA (Society of American
Archivists), and AAM (American Association of Museums) members.
Norm Medeiros, Associate Librarian of the College,
and his wife Trisha celebrated the birth of their second child,
Mack Norman Medeiros. Mack was born October 25, 2007, weighing
in at 8 pounds, 15 ounces. Big sister Ava adores her new brother.
Norm and colleagues from Cornell University, UCLA, and the Library
of Congress recently released “White Paper on Interoperability
between Acquisitions Modules of Integrated Library Systems and
Electronic Resource Management Systems.” The work, which
investigates the feasibility of transmitting data across vendor
systems, was commissioned by the Electronic Resource Management
Initiative and sponsored by the Digital Library Federation. It
is available for download at <http://www.diglib.org>.
CIR welcomes the following new staff members:
Rachel Bennov has joined CIR as our Information
Resources Assistant. Rachel is based in the Science Library and
works with both the Library and the Computing Center staff. She
is a recent graduate of Muhlenberg College and comes to us most
recently from Temple University’s Computer Services Help
Desk.
Johanna Riordan is the new Bibliographic &
Digital Services Assistant in the Library, working chiefly in
Acquisitions and Serials. Johanna is currently finishing up her
Masters in Library Science at Drexel University.
-Mike Persick
is Acquisitions Librarian & Assistant Catalog Librarian
Library Hosts McNeil Center
Seminar
by Bob Kieft
On Friday afternoon, November 2, 2007, the Library
hosted the Seminar of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies
of the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with faculty
Laura McGrane (English), who welcomed seminar participants on
behalf of the College, and Bethel Saler (History). The Seminar
draws a cross-disciplinary group of participants from throughout
the region and meets at the Center on the Penn campus and at other
colleges in the Philadelphia region as occasion suggests. On this
occasion, the speaker was Kristen Block (Rutgers University),
whose topic was "Caribbean Crucible: A Seventeenth-Century
Quaker's Encounters with Profit, Slavery and American Success."
It was appropriate that Haverford host because,
in addition to trips to Spain and Colombia, Block's research included
a stint in the Quaker Collection. The librarians, and especially
the staff of Special Collections, were happy to attend Block's
talk and organize a reception following in order to hear how she
was using the materials and to speak with Haverford’s other
participants in the Seminar about research opportunities in Haverford's
collections.
Block's seminar paper derives from her dissertation
project, "Faith and Fortune: Religious Identity and the Politics
of Profit in the Seventeenth-Century West Indies.” Block
is one of the hundreds of researchers every year whom Special
Collections staff work with in person and by mail, and her dissertation
will join the impressive roster of books, articles, and conference
papers that signal Haverford's contribution to scholarship. Through
faculty and library contacts with McNeil, we are looking forward
to partnering with the Center and with Swarthmore's Friends Historical
Library in 2010 to host a three-day conference on the Quakers
and abolition.
-Bob Kieft is Director of College Information Resources
& Librarian of the College
PUBLISHED BY COLLEGE
INFORMATION RESOURCES
HAVERFORD COLLEGE
Haverford, PA 19041
610-896-1175
http://www.haverford.edu/
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