John Lamborn is the new director of the Lilly Library at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN. He currently is assistant dean for public services at Ohio University Libraries, Athens. He replaces Larry Frye, who is retiring after 26 years of service.
Maxine Schmidt has been appointed to the position of Science and Engineering Reference Services Librarian in the Integrated Sciences and Engineering Library at UMass Amherst. Her research involves support and services related to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in libraries. Prior to receiving her master's degree, Schmidt had considerable public sector work experience in the field of environmental health.
Tonia Sutherland has been appointed to the position of Research Library Resident in the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst. She will work half-time in Research and Instructional Services and half-time in Special Collections and University Archives. Sutherland previously worked at the Margaret R. Grundy Memorial Library in Pennsylvania; the Bucks County Free Library in Pennsylvania; and at the Public Library for Union County in Pennsylvania, and had an internship in Special Collections & University Archives at UMass Amherst.
Cornell's Ross Atkinson Mourned
The Cornell University Library community and the profession at large are mourning the death of Ross Atkinson, Cornell's associate university librarian for collections. Atkinson, a highly respected figure and a guiding voice on scholarly communication issues, died at his home yesterday, with his family by his side, after a lengthy battle with cancer. "We have lost a great man," Cornell University Librarian Sarah Thomas told the LJ Academic Newswire. "I feel in many ways it is the end of an era. He was so brilliant and so passionate about bringing scholarship to scholars and about fairness and democratic access." Atkinson was 60.
Most recently Atkinson played a large role in the Cornell University Library's Janus Conference, a look backward and forward at collection development. Over the years, he was heavily involved with the American Library Association's Association for Library Collections & Technical Services, which commended Atkinson in 2001. Thomas says librarians will carry Atkinson's work forward. "It's a privilege to have known someone who has made such a difference in our profession." As per Atkinson's wishes, there will be no memorial service.
U. of Florida Facing Massive Serials Cuts
Faced with flat state funding and high inflation, the University of Florida's Smathers Libraries is beginning a massive serials cancellation project that would trim a hefty $750,000 worth of journals, both electronic and paper, for the 2007 fiscal year. The exercise, which will continue through this July unless additional funding comes through, would trim a significant chunk from the libraries' $7.5 million collections budget. By law, the library cannot exceed its allocated budget and, after years of stretching dollars to avoid costly cuts, the money is simply not there. "We've already cut monograph purchases by 30-40 percent across all disciplines," John Ingram, associate director of collections, told the LJ Academic Newswire. "We can't cut any more; there is simply no more flesh left to cut."
Ingram said selectors are now working with faculty members to assemble a list of cuts to be determined by the end of April, when Florida's academic year ends. Ingram said the library was facing over $600,000 in price increases alone simply to maintain current subscriptions. Meanwhile, since 2001, the library's budget has dropped in comparison to its peer institutions, now ranking 20th among large public universities, even though the university ranks fourth in total enrollment and offers a whopping 90 academic programs. UF's $10.7 million library budget is about half that of the University of Michigan, ranked first among public universities with a $20.4 million budget. Ingram said Florida's health sciences library and law library also face possible cuts. A legislative appropriation or a funding boost from the university could still mitigate the cuts, Ingram said, but time is running short.
With Cancellation Exercise Comes Opportunity at Florida
It's not all bad news at the University of Florida libraries. A three-year expansion and renovation of the Library West section of the main building is nearing completion, giving the university a new state-of-the-art library space. And with a new president, James Bernard (Bernie) Machen, former president at the University of Utah, and a former dean at Michigan—both schools with good library funding—there's even a chance that Florida could address funding issues more aggressively. "The president seems very determined to return Florida to the top ten," said John Ingram, associate director of collections at the Smathers Libraries. Ingram says that, while the message now is a serious one—cutting serials—he is "cautiously optimistic" that the underlying message of the cancellation exercise—that the library needs better funding—might resonate even louder.
Florida's faculty members have heard that message. In fact, Ingram notes, the administration is set to respond to a faculty resolution calling for increased support for the library as part of the university's overall strategic plan. The Faculty Senate resolution specifically supported director Dale Canelas's funding requests. "Be it Resolved, the Faculty Senate of the University of Florida supports the following budgetary measures," reads the resolution. "Over a period of 5 years, the library seeks budget increases of $2.2 million per year, for an $11 million budget increase. This sum includes $2.5 million over the next two years for the book budget and $5 million over the next five years for resources." Additional line items would raise salaries of mid-career and late-career staffers and allocate funds for student assistants and new staffers. The message, Ingram says, is that a leading university needs a strong library. "Dale Canelas has been making that point every year she's been here, and she's been here 21 years," Ingram said.
Johns Hopkins Lands NEH Grant to Enhance Library's Jewish Studies Collections
The Johns Hopkins University has been awarded a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to provide the Sheridan Libraries with an endowment for collections and a librarian to support the university's Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies program. The Stulman Jewish Studies Program, established in 2002, is dedicated to the study of Jewish history, literature, language, politics, and religion. "The addition of a librarian with specific linguistic skills and field knowledge will be a critical asset to the library, enabling it to provide the Stulman Program's faculty and students world-class library resources," University Librarian Winston Tabb said. Under the terms of the challenge, Johns Hopkins will receive $500,000 from the NEH if it can raise $2 million for the program from non-federal sources by July 2009. The libraries and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences will join fund-raising efforts to meet the challenge.
Blackwell Publishing Goes Green (as in Eco-Friendly)
Publish with Blackwell Publishing, save the world? Well, perhaps not quite, but officials at Blackwell must be reading some of their ecology journals, as the world's largest society publisher announced that it has become the first global publisher to become "CarbonNeutral." In so doing, the company has committed to mitigating its output of carbon dioxide emissions, the most common greenhouse gas, caused by its use of energy, shipment of its books and journals, and business travel. Blackwell's CarbonNeutral commitment involves measuring carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, reducing them where possible and then "offsetting the unavoidable emissions."
The company has reviewed current suppliers and is working with its new printing and distribution partners, Singapore Post and Spring Asia Pacific, to ensure that these operations "minimize adverse environmental impacts." To do so, Blackwell worked with the CarbonNeutral Company and the Edinburgh Center of Carbon Management to calculate its global "carbon footprint" with the goal of reducing its emissions to net zero. We believe that if more companies were as environmentally aware as Blackwell Publishing and were to follow their lead," notes Jonathan Shopley, CEO of the CarbonNeutral Company, "we could make a serious impact on the issues of climate change we face today."
Best Sellers in Mathematics, June 2005-present, as compiled by YBP Library Services
Equations: Icons of Knowledge
Bais, Sander
Harvard University Press
2005. ISBN 0674019679. $18.95
Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent
Martinez, Alberto A.
Princeton University Press
2006. ISBN 0691123098. $24.95
Tao of Statistics: A Path to Understanding (With No Math)
Keller, Dana K.
Sage Publications
2006. ISBN 1412924731. $49.95
Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
Livio, Mario
Simon & Schuster
2005. ISBN 0743258207. $26.95
Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, From Plato to String Theory and Beyond
Krauss, Lawrence
Viking
2005. ISBN 0670033952. $24.95
Evolutionary Game Theory, Natural Selection, and Darwinian Dynamics
Vincent, Thomas L.
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521841704. $100.00
Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in Mathematics
Kenschaft, Patricia Clark
American Mathematical Society
2005. ISBN 0821837486. $28.75
Spectra and Pseudospectra: The Behavior of Nonnormal Matrices and Operators
Trefethen, Lloyd
Princeton University Press
2005. ISBN 0691119465. $65.00
Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer
Leavitt, David
W.W. Norton
2006. ISBN 0393052362. $22.95
Coincidences, Chaos, and All That Math Jazz: Making Light of Weighty Ideas
Burger, Edward B.
W.W. Norton
2005. ISBN 0393059456. $24.95
Meta Math!: The Quest for Omega
Chaitin, Gregory J.
Pantheon
2005. ISBN 0375423133. $26.00
Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless
Barrow, John D.
Pantheon
2005. ISBN 0375422277. $26.00
Fixing Frege
Burgess, John P.
Princeton University Press
2005. ISBN 0691122318. $39.95
Inference in Hidden Markov Models
Cappe, Olivier
Springer
2005. ISBN 0387402640. $89.95
Tracking Reason: Proof, Consequence, and Truth
Azzouni, Jody
Oxford University Press
2006. ISBN 019518713x. $49.95
Infinite Ascent: A Short History of Mathematics
Berlinski, David
Modern Library
2005. ISBN 067964234x. $21.95
Applied Choice Analysis: A Primer
Hensher, David A.
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521844266. $120.00
Analyzing Complex Survey Data
Lee, Eun Sul
Sage Publications
2006. ISBN 0761930388. $16.95
Branching Processes: Variation, Growth, and Extinction of Populations
Haccou, Patsy
Cambridge University Press
2005. ISBN 0521832209. $95.00
Handbook of Elliptic and Hyperelliptic Curve Cryptography
Cohen, Henri
Chapman & Hall/CRC
2006. ISBN 1584885181. $99.95
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