Chancellor’s Award Winners

Amy Lyons, Associate Director of the Health Sciences Library,and Ben Wagner, Chemistry and Physics Specialist, Arts & Sciences Libraries, are recipients of the 2006 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship. The award cites Amy’s leadership in the use of new technologies to provide innovative services to faculty, physicians, and students along with her role in integrating digital technologies in the library and classroom. She is also recognized for her contributions to the development of HUBNET, and her role as project director for the Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems (IAIMS) project which joins faculty, hospital administrators, and librarians in the development of information and document delivery systems.

Ben is cited for his remarkable collaboration with Chemistry and Physics faculty and students, his contributions in strengthening research excellence in these fields at UB, and his transformation of the Libraries’ collections in the sciences with a particular focus on facilitating use of electronic resources. Ben’s award also recognizes his exceptional generosity in sharing his expertise with students and faculty, his leadership roles in the Special Libraries Association, and his appointment to the National Science Digital Library Collection Development Advisory Council. Congratulations to both Amy and Ben on receiving this well-deserved award!

Amy Lyons

Ben Wagner

New Project Supports Open Access

A new online service called OpenDOAR (the Directory of Open Access Repositories) http://www.opendoar.org/ was launched recently in support of the rapidly emerging global movement designed to promote open access to research information. The goal of the OpenDOAR Project, a joint collaboration between the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and the University of Lund in Sweden, is to provide a comprehensive and authoritative list of research repositories holding academic materials that are freely available on the Internet. Anyone with an internet connection may search OpenDOAR to locate open access repositories which hold research papers, conference proceedings, theses and other academic materials.

Some of the archives listed in OpenDOAR hold material on a single subject; others are based in universities and hold information from different subject areas. Users of the service are able to analyze repositories by location, subject, the material they hold and other measures. Current plans call for the OpenDOAR listing to continue to grow as new repositories are added, providing additional support for the continued growth of open access in research and scholarly communication.

New Librarian Joins HSL Staff

The Reference & Education Services department of the Health Sciences Library welcomed Linda Hasman as Senior Assistant Librarian in January, 2006. Linda will serve as the HSL liaison to the UB School of Dental Medicine. A native of Oswego, New York, Linda holds B.A. degrees in Psychology and Sociology from SUNY Oswego. After graduation, Linda relocated to Washington, D.C. where she worked in the public relations field for several non-profit organizations before deciding to make a career change and enrolling in the library studies program at the Catholic University of America.

Linda received her M.S.L.S. degree from Catholic University in 2005, and served as a biomedical library intern and biomedical librarian at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Library in Bethesda, MD. Her primary focus at NIH was in the area of reference and instruction, and while there, she also had an opportunity to put her public relations skills to good use as a member of the library’s communications team.

An enthusiastic practitioner of the martial arts, Linda holds a black belt in Tai Kwan Do. She also enjoys yoga, is interested in alternative medicine, and mentions baking, cooking and reading as some of her other favorite activities. Linda’s reading interests are wide-ranging, and include the works of Jane Austen as well as the novels of Stephen King and other popular fiction writers. The years she spent in Washington also sparked an interest in current political non-fiction.

Currently a resident of Rochester, NY, Linda finds that her daily drive to Buffalo is actually less stressful than her previous commutes via Washington’s Metro system. She is busy settling into the western New York area, and looks forward to summer weather that is considerably less humid than what she has experienced in recent years. Linda describes herself as “very happy to be at HSL,” and is especially appreciative of the warm welcome she has received from her HSL colleagues.

HSL Speaker Discusses Health Care in Mozambique

Cristina Horta brought the world of Mozambique to Buffalo on February 28, 2006 during her presentation at the Health Sciences Library. A native of Mozambique and a proud alumna of UB (SILS 1991, now DLIS), Cristina’s 28-year career includes experience as a librarian and manager in Mozambique and Swaziland. She currently serves as a documentalist for the Ministry of Health’s Directorate for Planning and Cooperation in Mozambique, and is midway through her year as an International Fellow with the National Library of Medicine Associates program. An effervescent speaker, Cristina escribed the NLM program as “wondrous” and “spellbinding.”

In her talk, she outlined the health care system in Mozambique, a coastal country of 19 million in southeastern Africa where the health of its citizens is considered the responsibility of the state. Priorities include inoculations for all children under the age of five and free access to health care for pregnant women. The state is responsible for building and maintaining health centers, and for training at all levels for health professionals and administrators. Citizens usually access the health centers by walking and bicycling, and most health centers lack electricity and computers.

The number one health problem is malaria, which accounts for 40% of all medical appointments. As Cristina noted, malaria “kills every single day.” Leprosy is also a significant health problem in this Portuguese-speaking country where the adult life expectancy is 49 years of age. As AIDS spreads, this could be shortened to 42 years. Cristina noted that nearly 60% of Mozambique’s health budget comes from donors, or donor countries, and other forms of aid. Clearly, the health concerns and challenges are enormous.

Cristina enthusiastically detailed her government’s efforts in its quest for better health for all of its citizens. Her role as documentalist is to collect all of the documents used in public health administration and planning and health programs. She emphasized the vital advocacy role of librarians as change agents, believing that “health sciences can bring peace to the fear” that arises with threats to health of body and mind. Cristina lauded the work of the U.S. National Library of Medicine as providing important tools for “other worlds in absolute need of health information.”

Preceding her talk, Cristina spoke about the NLM Associate program http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/training/associate/index.html, providing an insightful glimpse into a fascinating and thorough postgraduate year offered at the National Library of Medicine. HSL Director Gary Byrd participated in this long-standing program in 1972-73, and the Health Sciences Library is proud that several of its reference students have been accepted into this prestigious program over the years and have gone on to exciting leadership roles. An excellent ambassador, Cristina guaranteed that through participation in the NLM program, “your mind will be awakened.”

Cristina dedicated her lecture to the memory of librarian Lisa Carbone. An inspirational and delightful friend and colleague, Cristina returns to Mozambique in September.

Contributed by Sharon Murphy, HSL

2006 Student Poetry Awards and Reading

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the UB Libraries hosted the annual Student Poetry Awards and Readings on April 19, 2006 in the Special Collections Research Room, 420 Capen Hall. Student awardees read selections of their poetry for an audience that included faculty, administrators, students, and parents. The award-winning poems will be posted on the Libraries’ website in the near future. All entries will be preserved in the University Archives.

Student winners of this year’s poetry contests are:

The Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize
Hugo Garcia Manriquez, Graduate Student, English

The Arthur Axlerod Memorial Award
Susan Hutton, Senior, English
David Tolkacz, Senior, English and Classics

The Friends of the University Libraries Undergraduate Poetry Prize
Alexander M. Tomljanovich, Senior, English

The Albert Cook, Mac Hammond, and John Logan Prizes (awarded by the UB English department for the best entries in poetry, fiction or drama by UB undergraduate and graduate students in Comparative Literature, Drama, and English)
Kristin Demaree, Sophomore, English
Jared Schickling, Senior, English and Anthropology
David Tolkacz, Senior, English and Classics

The Scribblers Prize (UB English department award for the best piece of creative writing by a UB undergraduate woman)
Jill Twist, Junior, English

The Joyce Carol Oates Fiction Prize (awarded by the English department for the best piece of fiction writing by a UB undergraduate or graduate student)
Mark Maglio, Senior, English

2006 FEC Elections Results

The FEC Elections Committee recently announced the results of the 2006 elections.

UB FACULTY SENATE
(2-year term, June 2006 – May 2008)
Judith Adams-Volpe
Laura Taddeo

FACULTY EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (FEC)
(2-year term, June 2006 – May 2008)
John Bewley
Ed Herman
A. Ben Wagner

COMMITTEE ON APPOINTMENT, PROMOTION AND TENURE (APT)
(2-year term, June 2006 – May 2008)
David Bertuca
Jean Dickson
Susan Dow

From Siberia with Love

Cindi Tysick’s new daughter, Mara, arrived home from Siberia on March 14, 2006. She’s now 20 months old, and is learning new English words every day. According to Cindi, Mara has a bubbly, silly personality, and already seems right at home. Everyone who meets her just falls in love. Mara enjoys watching the birds and squirrels eat every morning, petting and trying to kiss her three new kitties, getting tickled, and mac-n-cheese. Cindi describes the adoption process as “pure torture in terms of boredom and waiting for the usual bureaucratic red tape, but obviously well worth it in the end.”

Cheers

Congratulations to Susan Prefontaine, Instructional Support Associate in the CTS Electronic Periodicals Management Department, on receiving a Sage Support Staff Travel Grant to attend this summer’s annual American Library Association conference in New Orleans. Sue is one of six recipients of this nationally competitive grant sponsored by Sage Publications and administered through the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) division of ALA. The grant covers the expense of attending the conference, including airfare, three nights’ lodging, and conference registration, up to $1,000. Sue’s report describing her experiences at the ALA conference will be published in the postconference issue of the ALCTS Newsletter Online.

Judy Jungels has returned to the Libraries’ Preservation Department following an educational leave of absence from the University at Buffalo. During her leave, she completed a second master’s degree and certificate of advanced studies from the Art Conservation program at Buffalo State College. She worked in the conservation departments at the Worcester Art Museum and American Antiquarian Society with a focus on objects and book conservation. Judy also worked on conservation projects with researchers in Turkey, Italy, Greece and Honduras, and completed a post-graduate internship at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Since returning to UB, Judy has continued to collaborate with conservators and research scientists. She presented a conference poster: “A Study of the Technology and Conservation Treatment of Twelve Silvered Beads From Ancient Peru” at the conference, The Conservation of Archaeological Materials: Current Trends and Future Directions, held in Williamsburg, VA in November, 2005.

Kudos to librarians Cindi Tysick, Arts & Sciences Libraries, and Nancy Babb, Law Library, on the publication of their article describing the UB Libraries’ Academic Writing Group. “Writing Support for Junior Faculty Librarians: A Case Study” was published in the Journal of Academic Librarianship (v. 32, no. 1, January 2006, pp. 94-100) and is available online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00991333. Their article discusses how the UB Academic Writing Group was established, outlines the ways in which the group provides a supportive environment for junior library faculty confronting the challenges of research and publishing, and describes how the group functions as an effective mentoring system.

The UB Libraries Poetry and Rare Books Collections were highlighted in the Arts section of the April, 2006 issue of Buffalo Spree magazine in an article titled “Buffalo by the Book: Western New York’s Rare Books Collections” (pp. 48-51). The article notes that “when it comes to twentieth-century poetry in English, few libraries in the world can match the University at Buffalo’s Poetry/Rare Books Collection.” Curator Michael Basinski describes some of the literary treasures housed in the collection, and observes that the collection is particularly valuable for the “light it sheds on our imaginative process and what it elucidates for the intellect.”

Congratulations to Don Hartman and Charlie D’Aniello, Arts & Sciences Libraries, whose article, “Subscribe to an Online Directory Today, Frustrate a Researcher Tomorrow. Are Print Directories Dead?” was published in the April, 2006 issue of College & Research Libraries News 67 (4), 222-226. The article discusses the research value of superseded print directories, and describes the challenges that may confront future scholars and historians if publishers issue directories only in electronic format.

Susan Davis and Cindy Hepfer (co-heads, Electronic Periodicals Management Department) presented a workshop entitled “Exclusively Electronic: Redeploying Staff to Manage Electronic Journals” at the United Kingdom Serials Group’s annual meeting at the University of Warwick, England, April 3-5, 2006. Susan Davis also presented “Preparing to Implement an Electronic Resource Management System, or Getting Your Ducks in a Row Before You Dive In!” at the inaugural Electronic Resources & Libraries conference in Atlanta, March 23-25, 2006.

Cindy Hepfer is the co-editor of Managing Electronic Resources: Contemporary Problems and Emerging Issues, a book recently published by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services. The book is comprised of the best papers presented at two ALCTS preconferences organized by Cindy and her co-editor, Pamela M. Bluh, plus additional papers solicited especially for the monograph.

Congratulations to Dorothy Tao, Arts & Sciences Libraries, on the selection of her article, “Bibliographic Instruction for A Diverse Population: Understanding, Planning, and Teaching in the Twenty-First Century,” (Art Documentation 24 (1), Spring, 2005, 29-37) as one of the Top 20 Library Instruction articles of 2005 by the ALA Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT). A citation to Dorothy’s article will be included in LIRT’s annual “Top 20” list, an important resource for instruction librarians.

The History Channel recently aired “Murder at the Fair,” a documentary of the assassination of William McKinley, as part of the series, “Ten Days That Unexpectedly Changed America.” Much of the material presented in the program came from the collections of the UB Archives. Brenda Battleson, Central Technical Services, served as local researcher for the program producers.

Congratulations to Stewart Brower, Coordinator of Information Management Education at the Health Sciences Library, on his recent promotion to Associate Librarian with continuing appointment. In a message to the UB Libraries’ listserv, HSL Director Gary Byrd described Stew as “a key leader and innovator for the instructional programs offered to students and faculty in all five schools of the health sciences served by the HSL.”

Congratulations to Jennifer Dennis Potter, MLS candidate in the UB School of Informatics and the first recipient of the Daniel F. Kissane Memorial Scholarship, an award which provides financial assistance for a library school student to attend the annual SUNYLA conference. Jennifer’s winning essay, Strengthening Our Library Communities: Looking Forward, Reaching Out, addresses the ways in which libraries can respond to the needs of the populations that they serve in order to remain a vital part of those communities. Jennifer learned of the scholarship opportunity via a message posted to the UBMLS-L listserv, and she recognized that the essay topic addressed questions that LIS students, professors, and librarians are asking now. Jennifer considered the essay “a wonderful opportunity to organize my thoughts on the issues.” Another factor which motivated her to apply was that “I wanted to meet academic librarians and see what is going on in the field that is having a positive impact within our communities.” Jennifer plans to be a reference and instruction librarian “because I think that we can offer people tools that will serve them well throughout college and as lifelong learners.”