News from the Director

As you may have heard, the UWM Libraries received one-time investment funds from the campus, in order to strengthen the research collections. We are very excited to have been awarded this funding which will have an impact in helping the University to enhance its stature among peer research institutions.

We invite you to work with your faculty liaisons and submit suggestions for materials to be purchased that will support new and growing programs and degrees, collaborative program initiatives, and new areas of faculty research.

While we recognize that the needs will be greater than the available funds, we would like to gather your suggestions and identify areas that you deem important, keeping those not filled on file for future purchase, should additional funds become available. Since this is a one-time allocation, we will not be able to address the ongoing serials situation.

Janet Padway, Assistant Director for Collections and Technical Services, who recently took on added responsibilities for the collection, will work directly with the departmental liaisons. Purchase recommendations should be sent to Janet at jgpadway@uwm.edu or by completing a form on our web page at http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/forms/purch2f.html She may also be contacted by phone at 229-6458. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to campus administration for providing funding to support collection growth. We look forward to working with you to determine additional resources that are critical for teaching and research, and support the University's mission.

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We've invited over 3600 UWM community members to tell us what you think about the quality of services at the UWM Libraries. We are joining most of the UW libraries as well as 208 libraries around the world in asking our users for their assessment of the quality of services by collecting data on user's opinions through the LibQUAL+ survey. As we plan for the future of UWM Libraries, it is important that we understand our users' perceptions and expectations so that we can provide the services you need.

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) created this research instrument, which has already been tested by hundreds of major research libraries. ARL will compile the data and send us a detailed analysis with no link back to the user providing the input. The data we receive from this web-based survey will provide us with comparisons with our peer institutions as well as all other participating libraries.

We intend to share our findings later this year. We expect that we will learn a lot from this survey. There is quite an array of participants this spring ranging from major research institutions such as University of Chicago and UW-Madison to international libraries such as McGill University.

If you are one of the randomly selected users invited to participate, please complete the survey. Your participation will help us improve our services.

Ewa Barczyk
Interim Director of Libraries

2004 Fromkin Grant Awarded

The Fromkin Research Grant Committee has selected Jasmine Alinder and Aims McGuinness, assistant professors in UWM's History Department, as the 2004 Morris Fromkin Research Grant and Lectureship winners. The title of their proposal is "Socialism in America: Frank Zeidler and Milwaukee's Socialist Experiment."

McGuinness and Alinder's lecture, to be given at the Libraries in the early fall, will be the 35th in the Fromkin lecture series. Their research will include extensive use of the Morris Fromkin materials on social justice located in Special Collections as well as the WTMJ News Film archives, and the final product will be a documentary on Frank Zeidler.

More information on the Morris Fromkin Memorial Collection and Research Grant is available at http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/fromkin/index.htm

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A videotape of the 2001 Morris Fromkin lecture is being broadcast during April on Channel 96 in Milwaukee. The lecture, entitled "Social Justice in a Global Environment" and presented by UWM Professor of Economics Markos Mamalakis, will air Sundays at 6 p.m. and Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

Quick Response, Freeze-Drying Saves Library Books

Quick action by UWM Libraries staff and a sophisticated freeze-drying process limited damage to books caused by a recent water leak in the Golda Meir Library building.

On January 13, a water leak, caused by a burst hot water pipe gasket, was discovered in the East Wing basement's compact shelving. Staff members immediately put into action the Libraries' disaster plan, rapidly removing over 1000 books, triaging the variously affected volumes, and beginning the drying-out process.

About 850 books were wet enough to need freeze-drying to save them. The books were tightly packed spine-down to reduce warping and picked up six hours later by a refrigerated truck from DRYCO Drying Services, which transported them to the company's facilities in North Lake, Illinois.

At DRYCO the frozen books were placed in a specially built drying chamber and kept at a temperature below 32 degrees F for four weeks as the physical process of sublimation-ice crystals vaporizing without melting-dried them out.

The books were also treated with ozone to eliminate odors, and a biocide to kill mold. No additional swelling or distortion occurred beyond that caused by the initial soaking. Only 4% of the extensively soaked books were irreparably damaged.

A second leak on January 21-this time a frozen hot water pipe on the West Wing's second floor-again necessitated implementing the disaster plan. Water damage was minimal and no books needed to be freeze-dried.

Janet Padway, Assistant Director of the Libraries for Technical Services and Collections, said, "For both leaks, speed was of the essence. There was no panic, and before we knew it, we had more bodies and book carts than we needed. Staff response was tremendous."

Steven Burnham

Libraries Acquire Rare First Edition with Generous Donation

The UWM Libraries' acquisition of a rare copy of Edmund Spenser's 1633 Dublin publication A View of the State of Ireland has been made possible with a $3,500 donation by Mary Donald.

Spenser's only work of non-fiction, View is a significant addition to the seventeenth-century holdings in the Libraries' Special Collections. The work offers a unique perspective on late sixteenth-century Ireland from someone who was not only a famous English poet, but also a controversial British administrator in Ireland for 18 years. His View of the State of Ireland outlines his imperialist opinions about Ireland.

The volume acquired is the first state of the first edition, and is especially valuable because of extensive marginalia that demonstrates its active use in seventeenth-century hands. The book will have useful teaching and research applications for several programs at UWM, including Celtic Studies, English, History, and Information Studies.

Max Yela

Recent Donations

We wish to thank all of our generous donors who help sustain our tradition of excellence in library services and resources. Donations of books, maps, videos and other materials enhance our collections and support the research needs of our users. Financial gifts underwrite acquisitions, programs about the Libraries' collections and special projects.

If you wish to donate books or related materials, please contact Janet Padway, Collections Manager, at 414-229-6458. Please note that the Libraries reserve the right to decline donations that do not fall within our collecting scope or that duplicate existing holdings. If you are considering a financial gift to the Libraries, please contact Susan Modder, Development Director, at 414-229-2811.

Welcome Desk

The Welcome Desk is back by popular demand with a reduced schedule. In order to continue the Libraries' efforts to create a welcoming and inviting environment for all users, the Desk will be staffed again May 10-13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Located in the East Wing's lobby, the Welcome Desk will also operate the first two weeks of the Fall 2004 semester and the week before Fall finals.

Creator of Digitized Map Site Gives Holzheimer Lecture

David Rumsey, president of Cartography Associates, director of Luna Imaging Incorporated, and avid map collector, gave the 15th annual Maps & America lecture Tuesday, March 30 in the AGSL.

Over 150 members of the UWM community and the general public attended Rumsey's lecture about his project digitizing a portion of his extensive private map collection and the resulting web site. The site, David Rumsey Historical Map Collection at http://www.davidrumsey.com, has over 10,000 high-resolution images of maps from his collection. Rumsey's collection, with more than 150,000 maps, is one of the largest private map collections in the United States.

His web site is free to the public and has received numerous Web awards, and in June 2002, he received an Honors Award from the Special Libraries Association for making his private map collection available to the public via the Internet.

The lecture was sponsored by Arthur and Janet Holzheimer and co-sponsored by the Friends of the Golda Meir Library.

Before the lecture, UWM Provost John Wanat, Ewa Barczyk, and Chris Baruth presented a gift to the Holzheimers, thanking them for 15 years of sponsoring the lecture series. A reception preceded the lecture. Rumsey also spoke informally to a group of UWM students in the afternoon. He also very kindly donated his honorarium to the AGS Library.

Friends' Drawing Winner Announced

Michael Cleary, a new Friend of the Golda Meir Library, has won the drawing for a New York Theater package, offered by the Friends in conjunction with the Libraries' Golda Meir 25th anniversary commemorative event.

The package--donated by Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C., Attorneys at Law, Smith Travel Services, and Ziegler Consulting Services--includes two tickets to the acclaimed Broadway production of Golda's Balcony and a back stage visit with its star, Tovah Feldshuh; round-trip airline tickets to New York City; and overnight accommodations.

The December 10th commemoration, co-sponsored by the Friends, included a keynote address by the Director of the Golda Meir Memorial Association in Israel, Meron Medzini, as well as an introduction from Israeli Consul General Moshe Ram and a video created by UWM lecturer Linda Mistele. An exhibit Behold Golda!, curated by Mistele, accompanied the event. Dr. Medzini's keynote address may be accessed at http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/arch/digital/uwmmss21/index.htm

Fellowship Awarded to Archives Department

The UWM Archives Department has been awarded a $50,000 grant by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to host a Fellow in Advanced Archival Administration. This prestigious award-the NHPRC makes one such grant each year-is designed to give the NHPRC fellow an opportunity to develop skills in archives administration and management.

Lisa Janssen, who holds an MLIS with a concentration in archives from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been selected for the year-long fellowship. Janssen will be developing and implementing an outreach plan to promote the use of the WTMJ-TV News Film Collection among UWM students and public school students involved the 2004-2005 National History Day competition.

Journal Broadcast Group, Inc. donated the news film collection to the Wisconsin Historical Society in October 2001 with the provision that it remain in Milwaukee where it may be readily accessed by WTMJ-TV staff. The collection consists of an estimated 1.5 million feet of 16mm film stored in approximately 9,750 canisters, and is the original footage used to illustrate stories broadcast by the WTMJ-TV News from 1950 to 1980.

AGSL Awarded NEH Preservation Grant

A National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant has been awarded to the American Geographical Society Library (AGSL). The grant will support a preservation assessment of the AGSL's rare materials collections, as a preliminary step in the building of an endowment to maintain an ongoing preservation program.

This endowment, to be created with funds from national, state, and local sources, would provide an annual restoration budget allowing the library to rebind and de-acidify books and atlases, mend and encapsulate maps, treat photographs and films, and scan documents, all on a continuing basis. Among AGSL's rare materials are 5,500 maps and charts ranging in date from 1452 to 1870, and 2,200 atlases printed before 1900, including twenty-five editions of Ptolemy's Geography, from 1478.

UW System Borrowing News

A recent change in UW System Borrowing extends the loan period for items borrowed from UW-Madison libraries. All UW System faculty and staff will receive semester-long book loans (with renewals) from selected UW-Madison libraries including Memorial, Business, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Music, Physics, Social Science Reference, and Wendt Engineering. There may be some problems as users attempt to renew items originally charged to a 28-day loan. Questions may be directed to the UWM Libraries Main Circulation Desk at 229-4132.

Staff Updates

R. James Tobin Retires
R. James Tobin retired on Dec. 23, 2003 after seventeen years of service to the Libraries. During his tenure, he worked in a variety of roles: first as a member of the Reference Department (now the department of Research and Instructional Support), where he coordinated instruction and provided excellent reference service. In 1994, he became the head of Acquisitions and later was asked to take on the duties of Collection Management Librarian.

We will miss Jim's enthusiasm and dedication for managing the Libraries' collection and his commitment to making this a great library. We wish him the very best of health and happiness as he enters the next phase of his life.

New Collections Manager Familiar with Role
Janet Padway, Assistant Director for Collections and Technical Services, has taken on the additional role of managing collections as of January 2. She has had extensive experience with the task and its responsibilities. She has also worked with the acquisitions budget and the Libraries' vendors. Padway will be the main contact with UWM's faculty and staff concerning our collection policies and practices.

Archivist Wins AMIA Award
Archivist Mary Huelsbeck was the recipient of the Association of Moving Image Archivists' (AMIA) 2003 Maryann Gomes Award. This was the first time that the AMIA offered this award, which provides financial assistance with AMIA conference-related travel. The award was established in honor of Maryann Gomes, who was instrumental in the creation of AMIA's Regional Audio Visual Archives Interest Group and served as its first chairperson.

UWM Libraries Outstanding Staff Awards

The UWM Libraries Outstanding Staff Award winners for 2003 were honored on December 17 in the Libraries' Conference Center. UWM Provost John Wanat presented the awards to Kathy Bowes (Academic Staff), Brandon Stanley (Classified Staff), and Stacy Toonen (Student Staff). The Friends underwrote the 2003 awards.

Steve Miller Participates in ALA Workshop
Steve Miller, head of the Libraries' monographs department, was one of six faculty members for a one-day workshop titled "Preparing 21st Century Cataloging and Metadata Professionals: A Workshop for Educators and Trainers" held in conjunction with the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in San Diego on January 9., 2004. Miller spoke on the topic of "Models for Continuing Education in Digital Resource Description," and he focused on new possibilities for Web-based education for working librarians. The workshop was part of the Library of Congress' long-term Action Plan for Bibliographic Control of Web Resources.

UWM Archives Reaches Out to the Community
Staff members of the UWM Archives Department don't wait for researchers to come to them. They actively reach out to the community and often make visits to schools and organizations that want to preserve and promote the value of historical records.

In January, UWM Records Manager Robert Carter visited the McKinley Elementary School in Wauwatosa to offer advice about the preservation of the school's historic records. School librarian Carol Surges is leading a student effort to compile and preserve the history of the school, which was founded in the 1930s.

In February, UWM Archivist Michael Doylen and School of Information Studies Professor Timothy L. Ericson gave a presentation on historical maps and property records to Professor John Shipley's "Real Estate Records" course at the Waukesha County Technical College. The presenters discussed Wisconsin maps from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as tax rolls, probate records, plat books, bird's eye views, and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps.

Additionally, the UWM Archives Department recently released an online curriculum kit of primary and secondary sources for use by students participating in the 2003-2004 National History Day competition. The theme of this year's competition is "Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange."

The online kit features images of more than 100 documents from over a dozen archival collections arranged in categories such as immigration, frontier settlement, and wartime. Currently, sixth and eighth grade West Milwaukee Middle School students are making use of the online resource. View it online at http://www.uwm.edu/Library/arch/nhd/nhd.htm