RBMS Newsletter - No. 32 / Spring 2000

NUMBER 32 - Spring 2000

RBMS Newsletter is a publication of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 (312-944-6780. Editor: Priscilla Thomas, pthomas2@ix.netcom.com. Asst. Editors: Daren Callahan, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 (618-453-7681, dcallaha@lib.siu.edu; Manon Théroux, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520-8240 (203-432-8376, manon.theroux@yale.edu. Typesetting and layout done by Daren Callahan and Priscilla Thomas. The type is True Type® Times New Roman and Shelley-Allegro Script. Manufactured in the USA. RBMS Chair: Eric Holzenberg, The Grolier Club, 47 E. 60th St., New York, NY 10022 (212-838-6690), ejh@grolierclub.org.

©American Library Association, 2000
ISSN 0743-1481 (paper)
ISSN 1098-4291 (electronic)

CONTENTS

From the Chair

At its Midwinter Meeting the RBMS Executive Committee tackled the issue of section restructuring. The debate was focused on various points in a discussion document prepared by Suzy Taraba, Peter Hanff, and Theresa Salazar, which covered duties of Section officers, committee viability or changes, discussion groups, committee liaisons, and the section's commitment to manuscripts and archives. Most changes proposed by the ad hoc committee were minor, and passed without much discussion; a few issues were tabled until the Annual Conference.

But, as might be expected, the thorny issue was whether to alter the current RBMS committee structure, and if so, how. RBMS is a busy section, and maintains a large number of committees, all competing for a limited (and shrinking) number of meeting slots at ALA conferences. An overcrowded schedule was not by any means the only issue driving this initiative, but still the question needed to be asked: is every committee currently on the roster necessary to the work of RBMS? I should say at the outset that the answer in almost every case was yes.

After much debate, alterations were proposed only in the case of the Education and Professional Development Committee. There is no question that continuing education of its members is a primary goal of RBMS, but it is a goal which ought to be first on the agenda of every RBMS committee, not just Education and Professional Development.

Given the historically close (and sometimes confusing) relationship between that committee and the Membership Committee, it was suggested that, rather than disband, the Education and Professional Development Committee merge with Membership to form a new Membership and Professional Development Committee. We hope that this will prove a benefit for the members of both committees, as well as to the section at large. A new charge for the combined committees will be proposed at the ALA Annual Conference in July.

On another note: RBMS has now run an information booth at two successive ABAA-sponsored antiquarian bookfairs. Both the mid-February Los Angeles fair and the mid-April New York fair were great successes-if the rapid disappearance of brochures from RBMS, APHA, and other bookish organizations is any yardstick-and thanks are due to past RBMS chair Laura Stalker, ABAA liaison Dan De Simone, ABAA president Priscilla Juvelis, and Los Angeles Antiquarian bookdealer Michael Thompson for their help in getting these first events off the ground. The next fair will be held in Boston in mid-October. If you'd like to volunteer (it's great fun, really, and it gets you into the fair for free!) please let me know.

-- Eric Holzenberg

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2000 RBMS Preconference

Chicago will be the site of the 41st annual Rare Books and Manuscripts Section Preconference, "Beyond Words: Visual Information in Special Collections." The Preconference will begin Wednesday, July 5, and run through Friday, July 7, immediately prior to the ALA Annual Conference, also in Chicago.

In a series of plenary session dialogues, scholars and librarians will explore scholarly trends in visual studies and discuss the challenges and opportunities offered by proliferating electronic tools and formats. Keynote speaker George H. Roeder, Jr., Professor of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will set the stage for plenaries on photography, film, and maps by reviewing the growth of scholarly interest in visual culture. Other speakers include David Woodward, Arthur H. Robinson Professor of Geography at the University of Wisconsin; Ron Grim, of the Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress; Peter Bacon Hales, Professor and University Scholar in the Department of Art History at the University of Illinois; Amy Rule, Archivist, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; Sid Huttner, head of Special Collections, University of Iowa; Helena Zinkham, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress; and Susan Allen, Librarian of the Getty Research Library. Complementing the plenaries will be six seminars and eleven short paper presentations.

The opening reception on Wednesday evening will be held in the Newberry Library, an architectural and intellectual landmark in Chicago. Thursday evening we will be hosted by the Chicago Historical Society at their lovely building in Lincoln Park. The Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts will be the site of a gala closing reception and book fair on Friday evening that will be complemented by demonstrations of hand bookbinding, papermaking, and printing. The bookfair will continue through Saturday.

Two full-day workshops will be presented on Wednesday: MARC Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts with instructor Gregory A. Pass; and Cataloging Rare Serials, with instructors Jane Gillis and Juliet McLaren. There is a separate charge for these workshops and pre-registration is required. On Wednesday afternoon, the Local Arrangements Committee has organized tours to some two dozen libraries, museums, gardens, and other sites of interest.

The Preconference hotel will be the InterContinental, a deluxe landmark hotel located on the Magnificent Mile. The hotel's historic South Tower, originally built in 1929 as the private, men-only Medinah Athletic Club, was commissioned by the Medinah Nobles, an affiliate of the Shriners with purported roots in the Middle East. Its exotic design reflects these presumed origins: a gold onion dome adorns the top and Assyrian and Egyptian figures carved by Leon Harmart (1866-1936) grace the facade. More information about the hotel and its amenities are available at http://chicago.interconti.com/index.html. Rates are $160 for single or double rooms (plus tax and service charge). Housing may be limited; early registration is advisable. The InterContinental is also an ALA Conference hotel and a block of rooms has been reserved for RBMS Preconference attendees who wish to remain throughout ALA.

Additional accommodations have been arranged in residence halls on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, which is only a short train, bus, or taxicab ride from downtown Chicago. The cost of a single room is $32 per night; double rooms are $22 per person per night.

Registration for the Preconference is $195 for RBMS members. The registration deadline is June 2. Attendance is limited to 300. For complete and up-to-date information and a registration form, visit the Preconference website at http://outreach.lib.uic.edu/rbms2000/.

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RBMS Annual Conference Schedule

Chicago, July 7-10, 2000

This is the schedule RBMS has requested. Check the final conference schedule for changes.

FRIDAY, July 7 

8:00-10:00p         Hearing on revision of ACRL/RBMS
                    Standards for Ethical Conduct ...

SATURDAY, July 8 

8:30-11:00a         2001 Preconference Program Planning
                    Exhibition Catalogue Awards
                    Manuscripts and Other Formats Disc.
                    RBM Editorial Board
    
8:30a-12:30p        Bibliographic Standards I

9:30-11:00a         Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials
                       for Exhibition (Ad hoc)
                    Membership
    
11:30a-12:30p       2001 Conference Program Planning
                    2002 Preconference Program Planning
                    Nominating (Closed)
        
2:00-4:00p          Budget and Development
                    Education and Professional Development
                    Publications
                    Seminars
                    Public Services Disc.

8:00-10:00p         Security

SUNDAY, July 9 

8:30-11:00a         Bibliographic Standards II
                    Conference Development
                    Curators and Conservators Disc.    
                    Licensing (Ad hoc)
        
11:30a-12:30p       MARC for Special Collections Disc.

2:00-4:30p          RBMS Program: "Artifacts in Libraries: The Intersection of Library
                       and Museum Practice"
                    RBMS Business Meeting and Awards
    
4:30-5:30p          Information Exchange

MONDAY, July 10 

8:30-11:00a	        Executive I and II

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Committee News

Bibliographic Standards

Details of the Midwinter Meeting of the Bibliographic Standards committee are available at http://www.library.yale. edu/bibstand/2000midwinter.html. The committee held a hearing on the new manuscript cataloging rules, Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Early-Modern Manuscripts (AMREMM), discussed final changes, and sent them to the ALCTS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access for comment. We hope to have these ready for final approval at the Annual Conference. Work on the revision of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books (DCRB) continued and the following actions were taken: the title will be Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (DCRM), and the final form is expected to be a series of manuals similar in format to the ISBDs, e.g., DCRM(B) for books, DCRM(S) for serials, etc. Progress is being tracked at the website: http://www.lib.byu.edu/~catalog/people/rlm/bsc/home.htm.

A new edition of Examples to Accompany DCRB has been published and was presented at the Midwinter Meeting. Richard Noble will be the new editor. As usual, changes to the RBMS thesauri were discussed and authorized. Two new web resources were proposed and approved (though not implemented yet). We will post the results of the rare materials recon survey that was completed a few years ago, and we intend to implement a page called "The Rare Book and Manuscript Cataloger's Helpline" which will contain the e-mail addresses of contacts willing to serve as volunteer experts on various aspects of rare materials cataloging. We are currently seeking volunteers, so if you are interested and have expertise in any area of rare materials cataloging, please contact E.C. Schroeder at e.schroeder@yale.edu or Robert Maxwell at robert_maxwell@byu.edu.

Budget and Development

At the Midwinter Meeting, the committee addressed the question of how revenue gained from the Montreal Preconference ought to be spent by the section. Through the ACRL revenue sharing plan, the section received $4,121 from ACRL to spend before the end of the fiscal year. This sum represents half the revenue generated by the 1999 Montreal Preconference. After a lengthy discussion, the committee developed a proposal for awarding scholarships to RBMS members who are first-time attendees to the Chicago 2000 Preconference. This proposal was approved by the Executive Committee and the scholarships made available.

Fundraising has begun for the Chicago 2000 Preconference and a budget has been developed for the San Francisco/Berkeley 2001 Preconference. The fundraising database developed by the committee continues to assist in these efforts.

Discussion Groups

The four RBMS discussion groups (Curators and Conservators, Manuscripts and Other Formats, MARC for Special Collections, and Public Services) met jointly at the Midwinter Meeting. The goal of the meeting was to inform RBMS members of the purposes of the different discussion groups and to solicit observations on the role of the groups within the section. Many of us enjoyed this opportunity to learn about the history and agendas of the discussion groups and to debate the benefits of the groups as forums for information exchange on special collections issues.

We agreed that it would be beneficial to pursue more joint meetings in the future as agenda items of mutual concern arise. The chairs invite questions and observations on the work of their respective groups. Please contact: Curators and Conservators: Virginia Bartow (vbartow@nypl.org), New York Public Library; Manuscripts and Other Formats: Rebecca Johnson Melvin (lrjm@udel.edu) and Tim Murray (tdm@udel.edu), University of Delaware; MARC for Special Collections: John B. Thomas (johnbarney@mail.utexas.edu), University of Texas; Public Services: Katherine Reagan, (kr33@cornell.edu), Cornell.

Exhibition Catalogue Awards

Thirty three catalogs were submitted for consideration for the 2000 Leab Awards, and the committee selected the following catalogs as award winners during the Midwinter Meeting.

The committee will launch its three-year pilot project to judge online exhibitions later this year. There is also a proposal in the works to create a fourth category of awards for free or inexpensive printed materials serving as informal guides to exhibitions.

In the coming year, it is likely that the committee will undergo a name change and a tweaking of its mission. There is consensus among the current members that the committee should do more to promote and encourage special collections exhibitions in general, both traditional and digital ones.

The committee will be seeking new members for terms beginning after the ALA Annual Conference in July. Persons with web skills or experience with online exhibitions are particularly needed. If interested, please contact the chair, Diane Shaw, at shawd@sil.si.edu or 202-357-3161.

Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials for Exhibition

The ad hoc committee charged to draft the revised ACRL Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials for Exhibition has finished its work and will hold a hearing on the new draft at the Annual Conference in Chicago. The new draft, with an appended model loan agreement form, is available on the RBMS website. Please join us at the hearing on Saturday, July 8, for a discussion with committee members Lisa Browar (Lilly Library, Indiana University), Timothy D. Murray (University of Delaware Library), Michael North (Grolier Club), and Jennifer B. Lee, Chair (Columbia University Libraries).

Membership

The committee will coordinate the orientation session at the upcoming RBMS Preconference. Scheduled from 4-5 p.m., Wednesday, July 5, at the InterContinental Hotel, the orientation will include a short program about RBMS and a reception. First-time Preconference attendees, or others who are interested in becoming more actively involved in section activities, are especially invited to join us for this event. First-time attendees will have the opportunity to wear a ribbon on their badges.

The committee will also sponsor a seminar on the membership survey at the Preconference. Join us for a discussion of who we are and where we're going. Other current committee projects include gathering feedback about the buddy program and how it might be improved, developing a handout for new members, and working with other committees to disseminate proceedings of the RBMS Preconferences.

The committee will continue its ongoing successful buddy program at the Preconference and at the Annual Conference. New members interested in participating should contact Suzy Taraba at staraba@wesleyan.edu or sign up by using the electronic form on the RBMS website.

Publications

Last fall the Publications Committee helped assemble display materials for the RBMS booth at the ABAA book fairs being held in Los Angeles, New York, and Boston this year. Together with Laura Stalker, we gathered appropriate handouts and brochures from RBMS, ACRL, APHA, SHARP, SAA, and Rare Book School. RBMS's participation in the Los Angeles fair, held in February, was a great success. The New York fair was held at the Park Avenue Armory on April 13-16; the Boston fair is coming up in October.

At ALA Midwinter, committee members compared samples of the work of three prospective designers for the RBMS logo and the revised RBMS brochure and chose the designer StudioGrafik, which is based in southern California. The committee also discussed design criteria and further revisions for the text of the brochure, which it had already revised significantly via e-mail during the fall. The designer will develop several different design concepts for the brochure and the logo. The Publications and Executive Committees will then review these designs and choose among them.

ACRL Director of Publications Hugh Thompson attended our meeting at Midwinter to explain the decline in paper and image quality in the fall RBMS Newsletter. For its fall newsletters ACRL had engaged a different printer who promised lower costs and faster delivery, but it found that the new printer's work was of poorer quality and delivery was no faster than before. ACRL will either return to its previous printer or try to work with the new one to get better results.

Because RBM, the new incarnation of RBML, publishes mainly solicited articles, the committee felt that it would no longer be appropriate for the RBML Award to continue in its former role as an award for the best article submitted to the journal over a two-year period. The Executive Committee has appointed a task force consisting of RBML Award Committee Chair Timothy Murray, Publications Committee Chair Margaret Nichols, and RBM co-editor Marvin Taylor to arrive at a recommendation as to how else the award might be used.

Lastly, RBMS has a new webmaster, Christian Dupont. Christian holds a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Notre Dame and an M.I.S. (Master of Information Science) from Indiana University. Currently the Curator for Special Collections at the University of Notre Dame, he has extensive web authoring and website managament experience. While he will not be official in his new post until after the ALA Annual Conference in July, Christian and Steve Ferguson, the former RBMS webmaster, completed the transfer of the website from Princeton to its new home at the University of Notre Dame in May. The new url is: http://www.rbms.info. If you would like to contact Christian with comments or requests for changes, you can send him a message at editor@rbms.info or cdupont@nd.edu or you can reach him by phone at 219-631-6489. Be sure to update any links you may have on your own websites that point to the RBMS homepage.

Seminars

The Seminars Committee invites you to propose a seminar for the 2001 RBMS Preconference in San Francisco. The deadline for submissions is 1 June 2000. Seminars that address the Preconference theme, The Twentieth Century, are sought, but unrelated topics are also encouraged. Seminars that address or incorporate manuscript and archival materials and themes are especially welcome. Proposals will be reviewed for approval at the committee's meeting during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

For information about what to include in a proposal, please see the electronic form available at http://www.rbms.info/preform0.html. Additional information about seminars is available on the RBMS website, http://www. rbms.info/. You may also contact Mary Lacy, Chair, at mlac@loc.gov or 202-707-8799. It is not necessary to be a member of the Seminars Committee to make a proposal.

RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage

RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage made its debut in May. Formerly Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship, RBM seeks to reach a broader constituency of people interested in materials in their original formats. Scholars, students, booksellers, archivists, collectors, artists, authors, curators, publishers, museum professionals, photographers, filmmakers, performance artists, and of course, librarians make up RBM's audience.

Sporting a new graphic design, volume one, number one, of RBM asks the question, "What's so special about special collections?" The RBM editorial board posed this question to a broad cross-section of people working in the field of cultural heritage. Provocative, thoughtful, wistful, earnest, and wise responses received from Christopher de Hamel, Leona Rostenberg, Madeleine Stern, Brian Boyd, Rich Oram, Rachel Howarth, and others represent the diversity of prevailing opinions. Framing this assortment are longer essays by Werner Gundersheimer and Dan Traister contemplating the future of special collections repositories.

Completing this issue is the first appearance of an occasional series entitled, "Exit Interview." Intended as a way to capture the thoughts, observations, and predictions of recently retired colleagues, the first "Exit Interview" asks Jake Chernofsky to look back on his twenty-seven year career as publisher of AB Bookman's Weekly.

RBM promises to be lively and thought-provoking. RBML subscribers will receive the first issue of RBM as part of their subscription. Those wishing to subscribe to RBM may do so by contacting Choice Subscriptions, Attn: Rachel Hanson, 100 Riverview Center, Middletown, CT 06457-3445.

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Annual Report from the Chair, 1999

In 1998-99 RBMS contributed to the ACRL Strategic Plan in the following ways:

GOAL 1: Provide development opportunities for academic and research librarians and other library personnel that enhance their ability to deliver superior services and resources.

Current Activities

Programs: RBMS sponsored three public programs in 1998-99:
(a) "Border Crossings: Exploring New Territories for Special Collections." The 40th RBMS Preconference took place June 21-24, 1999, in Montreal, Canada, and was the first one held outside the U.S. since 1989. The meeting was well attended, with 225 registrants, many of whom took advantage of four workshops offered the day before the conference began. The budget surplus was $8,242 (RBMS raised almost $9,000 in cash contributions), and under the terms of a new revenue sharing agreement with ACRL, RBMS will have half of this sum to spend on section activities during 1999-2000.
(b) "Where Cultures Connect: Making and Using Louisiana's Creole Collections," the RBMS Annual Conference program, on June 26, 1999, in New Orleans.
(c) RBMS members presented a program at ACRL-Detroit: "Developing Digital Products in Special Collections: Practices and Policies," with Alice Cornell, H. Thomas Hickerson, and Peggy Daub.
Publications: RBMS produces two periodicals:
(a) The RBMS Newsletter goes to the membership twice each year and appears on the RBMS website as well.
(b) Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarianship, recently retitled RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage, is published twice a year by ACRL. In 1997-98 there were approximately 550 subscribers. The section is grateful to Sidney Berger for his long service as editor and for putting the journal on a sound financial basis. In 1999-2000, the new editors will be Lisa Browar and Marvin Taylor, and the journal's focus will be modified.

The Section maintains a website and electronic discussion list. User statistics show that the number of hits has increased exponentially over the past four years and now averages about 400 hits per week. The web version of the brochure "Your Old Books" remains the most popular document on the site. RBMS-L has almost 500 subscribers.

The Bibliographic Standards Committee maintains the Resources for the Rare Materials Cataloger website and the web version of the authorized RBMS/BSC relator terms list. The committee continues to maintain the six RBMS thesauri and has just published a new edition of "Examples to Accompany Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books (DCRB)." BSC has also begun work on a revision of DCRB itself.

Awards: The Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Catalogue Awards were presented to the following libraries at the 1999 Annual Conference program: the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University; and the Thomas Fisher Library, University of Toronto. Several other libraries received honorable mentions.

Professional Education: The RBMS Education and Professional Development Committee maintains a Library Schools Directory, mounted on the RBMS website, of special collections-related courses offered by ALA-accredited library schools.

Standards and Guidelines: These RBMS guidelines are currently being revised:
Guidelines on the Selection of General Collection Materials for Transfer to Special Collections was revised and updated and is awaiting final approval by the ACRL Standards and Guidelines Committee.
The RBMS Security Committee has completed a final draft of ACRL Guidelines for the Security of Rare Book, Manuscript, and Other Special Collections and there was a hearing on the document during the Annual Conference.
The RBMS Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials for Exhibition Committee (Ad hoc) is in the final stages of revising Guidelines for Borrowing of Special Collections Materials for Exhibition.
The RBMS Executive Committee is continuing to review the ACRL Standards for Ethical Conduct for Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Libraries and Librarians, with Guidelines for Institutional Practice in Support of the Standards, 2nd edition, 1994.

Other Activities

The RBMS Membership Committee has released a complete tabulation of its survey of the section membership and is following up with a report that will assist the section in recruitment. This committee has also organized a successful "buddy system" for pairing new and experienced members at Preconferences and Annual Conferences.

The Exhibition Catalogue Awards Committee has scanned examples of award-winning exhibition catalogues from the past ten years and will soon mount an exhibition of these publications, supported by an ACRL Initiative grant, on the website. It will soon be presenting a new award for web-based library exhibitions.

GOAL 2: Collaborate with other professional organizations and associations of higher education in order to promote mutual interests.

The 1999 Preconference in Montreal was co-sponsored with the Bibliographical Society of Canada. The Preconference Program Planning Committee arranged for a special rate to encourage Canadian attendees to the conference (the registration fee will be payable in Canadian dollars, as with the ACRL Conference in Detroit). Announcements of the Preconference were posted to the electronic discussion lists of a wide variety of professional and scholarly groups. RBMS also worked closely with the Canadian antiquarian booksellers' organization, to plan a bookfair (which raised about $3,000 in support of the conference) during the opening reception.

The Executive Committee, following up on the activities of the former Outreach Initiatives Committee (Ad hoc), has begun discussions with the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America to develop joint projects to raise awareness of primary materials and collecting among the general public. During the past year, ABAA representatives consulted with RBMS leaders regarding intellectual freedom issues. ABAA has donated RBMS free booth space at its two largest book fairs (New York and Los Angeles) and has actively promoted the Preconference in the organization's newsletter. Other cooperative ventures are planned.

RBMS has contributed to the development of an ARL SPEC survey of special collections in research libraries and is receiving regular reports on the survey results.

GOAL 3: Maintain at the national level a prominent role in planning and decision making for influencing information policy.

RBMS has created a new Licensing Committee (Ad Hoc) charged with looking at issues involving licensing of special collections materials, fees, policies, and forms. This is an issue of concern to all special collections librarians, particularly those whose collections are heavily used by commercial ventures.

GOAL 4: Ensure that ACRL's operating environment provides efficiency in its use of resources and effectiveness in the delivery of services to its members and constituent units.

Current Activities

The Section's website and electronic discussion list are used to conduct Section business and distribute documents in the most timely, efficient, and cost-effective manner. In 1999, for the first time, no Preconference brochure was mailed out, and information about the conference was principally disseminated through the website, saving a substantial sum.

The Budget and Development Committee has created a donor database to track all of the Section's development activities. Information from fundraising activities of previous years has been compiled and greatly assisted the 1999 Preconference organizers.

Preconference planners and the Conference Development Committee work closely with ACRL staff, and the result has been more efficient conference planning. For example, the hotel contract for the 1999 Montreal Preconference was the first time a "standard" ALA contract had been implemented for a section event, and the negotiation process was a successful collaborative effort involving RBMS leadership and ACRL staff.

Planned Activities

RBMS is considering a streamlining of its committee meetings schedule, in keeping with the ALA goal of a more "membership friendly" conference. Some committees may be eliminated, and discussion groups are considering having joint meetings.

Activities in support of diversity: The Membership Committee is examining its membership survey data and intends to make recommendations to improve the section's diversity.

-- Richard W. Oram, Chair, 1998-99

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RBMS Program in Chicago

RBMS will sponsor a program at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago on Sunday, July 9, from 2:00-4:30 p.m. "Artifacts in Libraries: The Intersection of Library and Museum Practice" will examine the place of artifacts-printed books, manuscripts, art works, and other material formats-in research libraries. The program will ask questions about the evolution of rare book and manuscript repositories in the digital library environment. How are current trends and practices, such as new technologies and methodologies, influencing the place of physical collections in libraries? And how will curators and librarians navigate these trends to enhance the preservation of, and access to, our cultural heritage? Speakers will include author Nicholas A. Basbanes and Douglas Greenberg, President, Chicago Historical Society.

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From the Archivist

Nancy Romero extends her thanks to those members who have sent records for the Archives and would like to encourage all past chairs to send their committee records to her for processing. Her address is: 346 Main Library, 1408 W.Gregory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ur-bana, IL 61820; telephone: 217-333-3777; and, e-mail: n-romero@uiuc.edu.

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Transitions

Romaine Ahlstrom is now Head of Reader Services, Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Kathryn L. Beam, curator of the Humanities Collections at the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library, won the University's Press Book Award. Trevor Bond is now special collections librarian at Washington State University. Alice Browne was recently appointed rare book cataloger for the New York University Academy of Medicine Library. Bridget Burke has joined the staff at the Colorado Historical Society as Curator of Books and Manuscripts. Amy Cooper is now archivist/special collections librarian at the University of South Dakota. Richard W. Clement has been appointed to the position of Special Collections Librarian at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas. William J. Crowe, Spencer Librarian at the University of Kansas, has been elected chair of the OCLC Board of Trustees. James G. Davis, former Rare Books Librarian in the Department of Special Collections at UCLA, has died. An endowed fund for rare books acquisition has been established in his honor. Susan T. Dean is the new head of special collections at the U.S. Naval Academy's Nimitz Library in Annapolis, Maryland. Suzanne Dubeau has been named assistant head of archives and special collections at York University, Toronto. The University of Nebraska in Lincoln has named Mary Ellen Ducey Special Collections/Archives librarian. Christian Dupont is now curator for special collections at the Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame. Todd E. Fell has joined the Rare Book Team in the Yale University Library. Connell B. Gallagher, director for Research Collections at the University of Vermont, has been elected a fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. Gallagher's service to the archival and library communities was noted in the citation. David Gunto is the new cataloging/special collections librarian at Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Lynn Holdzkom has been named head of technical services for the Manuscripts Department at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill. The University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, Canada, has appointed Catherine Hoyt as curator of the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection. Milan R. Hughston is now chief of Library and Museum Archives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. William L. Joyce has been named Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair and head of the newly reorganized special collections library at Pennsylvania State University/University Park. Elisabeth Kaplan is the new archivist for the Charles Babbage Institute at the Center for the History of Information Processing at the University of Minnesota. Julie Kemper is now part of the Rare Book Team in the Yale University Library. Priscilla Lawrence is now the executive director of the Historic New Orleans Collection after having served twenty years as registrar, collections manager and acting director. Margaret D. Ludington, former Head of the Rare Book Division in the Yale University Library, has died. Bernard McTigue is now head of special collections at North Carolina State University. Avril J. Madison has been appointed assistant university archivist in the Special Collections, Manuscripts and University Archives at the University of Washington, Seattle. Marsha Maguire is now manuscripts and special collections cataloging librarian, Monographic Services Division, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Meg Moughan has been appointed assistant manuscripts librarian at the University of Southern California in Columbia. Adolph K. Placzek, Avery Librarian Emeritus, at Columbia University has died. The new curator of manuscripts and director of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is Tim Pyatt. James Quigel recently joined the Pennsylvania State University/University Park as head of the Historical Collections and Labor Archives. Nora Quinlan is now the assistant head of distance learning services at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Robert Ray was recently named special collections librarian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Lyman W. Riley, former rare books librarian at the University of Pennsylvania Library, died in February at age 82. Emily Robison is now the political papers archivist in Special Collections at Louisiana State University. Katherine Salzmann is the new archivist/manuscripts curator at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Diana L. Shenk has joined the staff of the university archives, manuscripts, and special collections, at the University of Washington. Former rare book librarian in charge of the Latin-American collection at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Miguel DeJesus Solis, died in January. Lisa C. Stark is now archivist/manuscript cataloger at Duke University. The new Head of the Department of Special Collections at UCLA is Victoria Steele. Charles Thomas is now special collections/archives technical services librarian at the University of Minnesota. Priscilla Thomas in now in management with Barnes and Noble, Dallas, Texas. Retired University of Chicago professor and librarian, Tsuen-Hsuin Tsein, was honored by the University of Chicago for rescuing some 30,000 volumes of rare books by secretly shipping the books to the Library of Congress while he was a young librarian in China. Alexander Wainwright, former assistant librarian for acquisitions at Princeton University who worked for over 50 years collecting, cataloging and caring for rare books, has died at the age of 82. Former director of the Illinois State Historical Society and director of the Illinois State Historical Library, Clyde C. Walton, has died. Edward Weber, after 47 years of service, has retired as head of the Labadie Collection in the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan.