RBMS Newsletter - No. 36 / Spring 2002

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. Co-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. Asst. Ed.: Jeffrey Makala, Olin Library, Wesleyan University, 860-685-3863, jmakala@wesleyan.edu. Typesetting and layout done by Daren Callahan. The type is True Type® Times New Roman and Shelley-Allegro Script. Manufactured in the USA. RBMS Chair: Suzy Taraba, Olin Library, Wesleyan University, 860-685-3375, staraba@wesleyan.edu

©American Library Association, 2002
ISSN 0743-1481 (paper)
ISSN 1098-4291 (electronic)

CONTENTS

From the Chair

As I look forward to the Atlanta Preconference with its theme of change in our profession, I'm also looking back over the more than twenty years that I've been a special collections librarian. Those of you who have been around as long as I have, or longer, will laugh knowingly when I reveal that a key factor in my move from Columbia to Duke in the mid-1980s was the promise of a self-correcting IBM selectric typewriter. At the time, it seemed an almost unobtainable luxury. Technology, of course, is far from the only area that has changed dramatically in that time period. It's just the easiest to describe. I'm excited about the discussions of change that we will have at the Preconference. I welcome the opportunity to refect on where we've been and where we're going, and how we can turn the unsettling aspects of change into dynamic moves forward. Our Annual Conference program will build on this theme of change, offering a fascinating look at the challenges of digital collections that span institutional, professional, and other boundaries.

One thing that has not changed is the high level of activity in RBMS. While some of our focuses have shifted considerably over the years, the amount that the section is accomplishing never ceases to amaze me. New initiatives are being started and ongoing projects are being sustained or completed.

The Bibliographic Standards Committee is nearing the end of revisions to the new edition of DCRB and is about to publish the new codes for cataloging medieval and renaissance manuscripts and rare serials. In addition to offering the popular "buddy" program and new member orientation at Preconferences, the Membership and Professional Development Committee is addressing issues of diversity in our section and our profession.

I'm pleased that we are co-sponsoring Annual Conference programs with two other ACRL sections, AFAS and ARTS. While it will be impossible for all of us to be in three places at once, I urge you to support these efforts of our section to reach out and work with other groups that share common interests. Another way RBMS is reaching out to others is through participation in the 2003 ACRL National Conference, to be held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Conference Development Committee is working on formal RBMS participation, but there is also opportunity for individual involvement.

Finally, I'd like to call to your attention a forum, at the Annual Conference in Atlanta, for discussion of the effects of 9/11 on special collections. Jean Ashton will convene an open discussion on how our professional lives have changed since the terrorist attacks, and how we can plan for the future.

I look forward to seeing you in Atlanta.

-- Suzy Taraba

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2002 RBMS Preconference

The 43rd annual RBMS Preconference will be held from Tuesday, June 11, through Friday, June 14, 2002, in Atlanta, Georgia. Entitled "New Occasions, New Duties: Changing Roles and Expectations in Special Collections," the Preconference will focus on the changing world of librarianship and its impact on rare books and manuscripts librarianship.

How does change affect and influence collection development, programming, public services, cataloging, teaching, recruitment, and scholarly research in rare books and manuscripts? The program will examine different aspects and implications of change and ways in which special collections librarians can take advantage of change for their own use and development. Speakers will include Carla J. Stoffle, James V. Carmichael, Jr., Robert L. Byrd, Michael Lomax, Deborah Lipstadt, and members of the ARL Task Force on Special Collections. Seminar topics will include K-12 use of digital collections, outreach in special collections, building Emory's digital collection, off-site storage facilities, and collecting rare Afro-Americana. Two workshops, "ABCs of Fundraising" and "Disaster Recovery," will also be offered on Tuesday, June 11.

The Georgian Terrace Hotel will be the site of the Preconference. Rates for single rooms will be $149 per night; luxury suites will be available for $169 per night. Budget accommodations will be available at the Woodruff Residential Center on the Emory University campus. Receptions and tours will be offered, including a bus trip to the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia, Athens, on June 11 and tours at Emory University.

The registration fee of $195 for members, or $250 for non-members, includes entry to all Preconference receptions, plenary sessions, and seminars, and transportation to and from Emory University on Thursday. A special student registration fee of $75 is available for all currently enrolled, full-time students. One day, on-site only registration will be available at $100 a day. Questions about registration may be directed to the ACRL Program Officer, Margot Sutton (msutton@ala.org). A link to the Preconference website will be available on the RBMS website. Please join us in Atlanta!

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RBMS Annual Conference Schedule

Atlanta, June 14-17, 2002

Be sure to check the conference program for room locations and changes.

FRIDAY, June 14

2:00-5:30pBibliographic Standards, Thesaurus Subcommittee

SATURDAY, June 15

8:30-11:00a2003 Preconference Program Planning
Membership and Professional Development
Security
8:30a-12:30pBibliographic Standards I
Exhibition Awards
9:30a-11:00aManuscripts and Other Formats
10:30a-12:00p2004 Preconference Program Planning
11:30a-12:30p2002 Conference Program Planning
Discussion: "Effects of 9/11 on Special Collections"
2:00-4:00pBudget and Development
Publications
Seminars
4:00-5:30pNominating (Closed)

SUNDAY, June 16

8:30-11:00aBibliographic Standards II
Conference Development
Curators and Conservators Discussion
9:30a-11:00a2003 Conference Program Planning
Public Services Discussion
9:30a-12:30pRBM Editorial Board
11:30a-12:30pMARC for Special Collections Discussion
2002 Preconference Program Planning
Hearing on revision of Standards for Ethical Conduct
1:30-4:30pExhibition Awards presentation
RBMS Annual Program: "The Emergence of Digital Scholarship:
New Models for Librarians, Archivists, and Humanists"
4:30-5:30pInformation Exchange

MONDAY, June 17

8:30a-12:30pExecutive

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ARL Task Force Launched

A new Association of Research Libraries Special Collections Task Force was formed in late 2001 and charged to engage the agenda that emerged from the ARL symposium, "Building on Strength: Developing an ARL Agenda for Special Collections," that was held last June at Brown University. Chaired by Joe Hewitt, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, this task force brings together directors and special collections librarians. The group will report later this year on the status of their work and recommend further actions to be pursued by ARL and by other agencies. The task force's charge and a roster of its members is available on the ARL website (http://www.arl.org/collect/spcoll/). Judith Panitch, Research and Special Projects Librarian, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serves as ARL Visiting Program Officer to the task force. For more information, you may contact Judy at panitch@email.unc.edu.

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Assistant Editor Sought

The incoming editor of the RBMS Newsletter is currently seeking candidates for the position of assistant editor. Primary responsibilities of this position include soliciting articles, editing text, and proofreading. Experience with desktop publishing software is desirable. Particularly busy periods of activity include the months of March/April and September/October, when the newsletter's spring and fall issues are in production.

Candidates should be willing to begin serving a two-year term immediately following this summer's ALA Annual Conference. Candidates should also be willing to serve an additional two-year term as editor. This is an excellent opportunity for newcomers to RBMS to become involved in the section. Interested parties should contact Jeffrey Makala at jmakala@wesleyan.edu or Daniel Slive at djslive@library.ucla.edu to learn more about this position.

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2002 RBMS Annual and Co-sponsored Programs

"The Emergence of Digital Scholarship: New Models for Librarians, Archivists, and Humanists"

Humanities scholars are increasingly building thematically-based digital research collections comprising primary resources as well as critical secondary resources. Building these internationally accessible collections requires close collaboration among humanists, librarians, and archivists at repositories holding dispersed and related materials. These new collections call into question the nature of the interrelated professions of archivist, librarian, and scholar, forcing us to look at our roles in a new light. Many of our most basic practices are turned on their heads in the digital environment.

This program will feature a panel discussion focusing on the emergence of thematic research collections using two humanities projects as examples. Panelists will discuss the use of primary resources by humanists and the emergence of humanities computing and then describe current projects and the elements of an ideal thematic research collection. The William Blake Archive (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/blake/) and the Dickinson Electronic Archives (http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/dickinson/) are examples of projects attempting to combine manuscripts, images, printed works, bibliographies, interpretations, curricula for various educational levels, and discussion groups into a cohesive site. The goal will be to envision a model for creating a virtual global community and intellectual place. Issues involving access, ownership, collaboration, rights, user expectations, and non-traditional user populations will be discussed while presenting the background and future directions of this new genre of humanities publishing.

Participants in the program will include: Daniel V. Pitti, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia; Morris Eaves, Professor and Editor, William Blake Archive, University of Rochester; Martha Nell Smith, Professor and Editor, Dickinson Electronic Archive, University of Maryland; John Unsworth, Director, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia; E. Rutherford Witthus, University of Connecticut (moderator). Join us on Sunday, June 16, from 1:30-4:30 p.m.

"Artists' Books: Creating, Publishing, Collecting"

The first portion of this program, co-sponsored with the ARTS section, will be a panel discussion of the evolution of artists' books from creation to production and acquisition. Panelists will include: Brad Freeman, director of the Nexus Press in Atlanta; a book artist; a private collector; and representatives of an academic library and a public library. Following the panel discussion will be a tour of the artists' books collection at the Atlanta College of Art Library, and an optional tour of Nexus Press. This program is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 15, from 1:30-5:30 p.m.

"When Old Is New: The Art of Creating New African American Special Collections"

African American special collections had their roots in historically black colleges and in the research departments of large public libraries. The Civil Rights Movement and the 1960s renewed interest in African American Studies as a discipline and brought about a growth of African American collections in historical societies and other select institutions throughout the United States. After many years of status quo, the last few years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in African American special collections. New freestanding research libraries and centers have been created and well-established libraries have begun to develop research collections in this area.

This program, co-sponsored with AFAS (African American Studies Librarians Section), will focus on these new collections and examine ways in which they have acquired their materials, developed their donor bases, conducted outreach to their local communities, and collaborated with older, established library collections. Panelists will include: Randall K. Burkett, Emory University; Lucelia Flood-Partridge, Atlanta-Fulton (GA) Public Library System; Pearl Woolridge, Broward County (FL) Board of Commissions Libraries; Karen L. Jefferson, Atlanta University Center (moderator). This program will take place on Saturday, June 15, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

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Exlibris 11th Anniversary

On 30 April 2002 the Exlibris electronic discussion list celebrated its 11th anniversary. That day eleven years ago former moderator and list founder Peter Graham sent a test message to the list. That message was soon followed by the first substantive posting by the late Kathryn Wright. When the list finally opened officially on 26 September 1991, it had 48 members. It now numbers about 1800.

Originally based at Rutgers, the list was moved in 1995 to the library at the University of California at Berkeley. Since then, Berkeley has provided all the technical support necessary to ensure that the list runs smoothly. According to current list moderator, Everett Wilkie, "The staff there have consistently provided a high level of professional services to the list's members and have ensured that this unique, important list has functioned smoothly and efficiently."

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Committee News

Bibliographic Standards

The Bibliographic Standards Committee continues its revision of Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books (DCRB), which, in its new incarnation, will be known as Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Materials (Books) or DCRM(B). Other manuals for cataloging rare materials are in various stages of preparation. Gregory Pass, author of Descriptive Cataloging of Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Early Modern Manuscripts (AMREMM), is adding the final touches to his manuscript, and we expect ACRL to have it published by the Annual Conference. Jane Gillis and Juliet McLaren are guiding DCRM(S) (the rare serials rules) into the final editing stages. Manuals for cataloging rare music and rare maps are also in preparation by affiliated groups. Anyone wishing to be kept informed or directly involved with DCRM preparation is invited to inform the committee chair, Deborah J. Leslie (djleslie@folger.edu).

The committee's thesaurus editorial team, headed by Bruce Tabb, continues to explore possibilities for web-based electronic publication of the six RBMS thesauri. The thesauri are used in special collections cataloging to provide access to intellectual and physical forms of materials and have long been available in printed form only.

The committee will offer a seminar on "Changes Second-Generation Library Management Systems Have Made in Cataloging" at the 2002 RBMS Preconference in Atlanta, which will feature the opportunity for break-out discussions on products offered by Voyager, ExLibris, Innovative Interfaces, and Sirsi. On the MARC21 front, Bibliographic Standards is sponsoring a proposal to add a source code to the heading field in the authority format, which Robert Maxwell is preparing.

Budget and Development

The committee sent forward a recommendation that RBMS's portion of the section revenue-sharing plan be expended on three full and six partial scholarships for first-time attendees to the RBMS Preconference. The committee is also investigating ways in which funding for this program can be put on a more permanent basis.

Conference Development

At the Midwinter Meeting, the committee heard reports on upcoming Preconferences in Atlanta (2002), Toronto (2003), and New Haven (2004), as well as the Annual Conference programs for 2002 and 2003. The committee discussed actions it could take to encourage RBMS participation at the ACRL National Conference, which will be held April 10-13 in Charlotte. In particular, committee members noted that this conference is an opportunity for RBMS to attract new members in the region.

Reviewing its charge and membership, the committee agreed that the charge should be revised and membership needs to be expanded. Discussion of the charge centered on the need to clarify the committee's role and responsibilities in developing conferences, since the current charge is rather vague with regard to specific administrative duties. The charge was last revised a decade ago, and in the interim, the committee has taken on more responsibility for site selection in order to accommodate ALA requirements for advanced planning. In addition, Local Arrangements Committee chairs need to be added to the list of ex officio members, since their participation is crucial to the success of Preconference planning. Co-chairs Elaine Smyth and Eric Holzenberg agreed to submit a revised charge to the Executive Committee by May 1, 2002, so that it could be considered and voted on at the Annual Conference in June.

Currently, the committee consists almost exclusively of people who are serving ex-officio because of their service on a Preconference planning committee. Those serving in this capacity already have a full slate of responsibilities and are generally unable to extend their efforts to development of other programming, such as ACRL participation. This spring, the committee will seek to add new members who can focus their efforts on new programming venues.

Curators and Conservators

The discussion at Midwinter focused primarily on possible seminar topics for the 2003 RBMS Preconference in Toronto: "Facsimiles, Fakes, and Forgeries." We discussed the impact of the ACRL Standards for Ethical Conduct for Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Librarians, with Guidelines for Institutional Practice in Support of the Standards (2nd ed., 1992), available at http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/rarethic.html, with regard to the identification and evaluation of forgeries. Specifically, we discussed the limitations implicit on our ability to advise researchers that their copy is, or is not, an original document (printed or manuscript) based on a physical examination of the object. Several speakers with conservation backgrounds and experience treating forged documents were suggested by discussion group participants.

The Digital Library Federation's standards and guidelines for libraries creating digital master reproductions are currently under development (Registry of Digital Reproductions of Paper-based Books and Serials and Draft Benchmark for Digital Reproductions of Printed Books and Serial Publications, at http://www.diglib.org/standards.htm). Applications for NEH and IMLS grant funds to digitize library collections will probably be evaluated against the criteria eventually set forth in these documents. Preservation administrators are currently working together to develop technical specifications, metadata requirements, and procedures for queuing and reporting digitized material to shared bibliographic utilities. The group agreed that a presentation focusing on guidelines for the creation of digital facsimiles from existing print resources might also be appropriate for the 2003 Preconference.

Also discussed was the possibility of producing an American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) roadshow presentation to cover topics such as: evaluating and choosing conservation services; selecting a conservator; health and safety issues; disaster recovery programs; pest control; storage and exhibition design; and publications and programs of the AIC. Several participants knew that staff at AIC take their program on the road and agreed to obtain more information. The group thought that this kind of presentation was important for staff at institutions large and small. The program would help build constituencies at smaller institutions that may not have a professional conservator on staff, and also at large institutions where the conservation staff rely on a larger community for implementation of programs that are already in place.

Exhibition Awards

The committee met in closed session during the Midwinter Meeting to select the 2002 Katharine Kyes Leab & Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Award winners. There were 56 entries in the four categories of printed materials and 24 entries in the electronic exhibitions category. Following are the entries selected for awards.

Printed exhibition catalogs and brochures:

Winner, Division 1 (Expensive catalogs): The Great Wide Open: Panoramic Photographs of the American West / Jennifer A. Watts and Claudia Bohn-Spector, Huntington Library.

Honorable Mention, Division 1 (Expensive catalogs): Writing on Hands: Memory and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe / edited by Claire Richter Sherman and Peter M. Lukehart, the Trout Gallery, Dickinson College.

Winner, Division 2 (Moderately expensive catalogs): The Ecstatic Journey: Athanasius Kircher in Baroque Rome / Ingrid D. Rowland, Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago.

Winner, Division 3 (Inexpensive catalogs): Cut and Paste -- California Scrapbooks / Patricia Keats, The California Historical Society, North Baker Research Library.

Winner, Division 4 (Brochures): Ruskin's Italy, Ruskin's England / Robert Parks, Pierpont Morgan Library Publications.

Electronic exhibitions recognized for Special Commendation:

1. Heading West / Touring West (http://www.nypl.org/west/), submitted by The New York Public Library. The committee chose to commend this site for its good navigation and high-quality imaging (particularly its use of multiresolution seamless image database software to show oversize maps in detail), as well as its attention to bibliographic description. It was also admired for bringing two separate but related exhibitions together.

2. From Domesticity to Modernity: What Was Home Economics? (http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/default.html), submitted by Cornell University Library, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections. The committee commended this site for its fascinating reexamination of an often disparaged discipline and its smart graphic good looks. It was also valued as a successful collaboration between a special collections department and university students.

This is the second year of the three-year pilot project to evaluate electronic exhibitions, and the committee chose to continue to use the phrase "Special Commendation" instead of "Winner" in the electronic exhibitions category. The committee wished to recognize some of the best examples in this wide-ranging genre. The committee is in the process of formulating a list of evaluation criteria for electronic exhibitions, similar to the lists of evaluation criteria for printed catalogs and brochures. This will be available on the RBMS website by the end of the three-year period.

Manuscripts and Other Formats

The Manuscripts and Other Formats Discussion Group opened its Midwinter meeting with a report from Tim Murray and Lois Fischer Black on the Association of Research Libraries conference, "Building on Strength: Developing an ARL Agenda for Special Collections," which was held in Providence, Rhode Island, in June 2001. Both thought the conference was a successful one. It brought special collections administrators together with directors and provided an opportunity for the two groups to communicate with each other and identify needs, concerns, and priorities.

Following news from individual repositories, the group explored the possibility of putting together a seminar topic for the RBMS Preconference that would focus on developing internship programs within special collections. Discussion then shifted to the topic of offsite storage of special collections materials. Several members reported that special collections staff had little input into the design and planning of offsite storage facilities but were subsequently required to store materials within these new facilities as a means of resolving space problems, even though the facilities were not designed to house rare books and archival materials. The group hopes to return to this topic at a future meeting.

The primary discussion topic was collection development issues in manuscript repositories, archives, and special collections. Charlotte Brown opened the discussion with a short presentation on her efforts to document the decision-making process for acquiring manuscript and archival materials at her institution. The group also addressed such topics as fund raising, working with donors and dealers, cooperation and competition among institutions, documentation strategies, collection development policies, regional collecting, pricing and appraisal, ethical and legal issues, and other curatorial considerations. Participants expressed great interest in developing donor agreement forms and memoranda of agreement that clearly and unambiguously document ownership of physical and intellectual property rights. Other topics included determining the value -- both research and fair market -- of collections, dealing with split and partial collections, curatorial responsibilities relating to collection development, and handling appraisals.

MARC for Special Collections

The group opened its Midwinter meeting with a discussion on the practice of recording book dedications in catalog records, a topic that had recently been raised on the Exlibris electronic discussion list. Most participants reported that they do not regularly transcribe dedications in note fields, but they do attempt to note dedications that are relevant to their library's collections. Participants also said they rarely make tracings for the names of dedicators and dedicatees, despite the availability of appropriate relator terms, because the authority work needed to properly construct the headings tends to be time-consuming and thus costly.

Discussion then shifted to the general topic of "value-added cataloging" and the extent to which institutions routinely record information not required by AACR2 and DCRB. Most participants said they regularly make notes to describe copy-level imperfections and provenance evidence. However, policies for making special tracings seemed to vary considerably among the libraries represented. The types of tracings being made included printers, publishers, illustrators, translators, engravers, place of imprint, provenance, and special subjects. The most commonly added tracings were headings for printers and publishers. Some institutions include printer and publisher tracings in all catalog records; others add them only to select groups of material, such as early printed works or private press material.

If you are interested in special collections cataloging, please join us in Atlanta where we plan to discuss the education and training of new rare book catalogers. Topics will include: who does the training, what documentation is provided, what sort of mentoring is available, and which works are considered "required" reading. If you have additional topics for discussion, please contact the chair, E.C. Schroeder, at edwin.schroeder@yale.edu or 203-432-7485.

Membership and Professional Development

The committee will coordinate an orientation session at the upcoming RBMS Preconference in Atlanta on Tuesday, June 11. The orientation will provide a general overview of RBMS and an opportunity for new and more experienced members of the section to get to know one another. Committee chairs and section officers will introduce themselves, speak about their committees and projects, and explain how members can become involved in the section's activities. New members, first-time attendees, and others who are interested in becoming more actively involved in the section are especially encouraged to attend.

New members of RBMS and first-time attendees at the Preconference or the Annual Conference may also be interested in the committee's buddy program. If you would like to be matched with a more experienced member of RBMS who can give you an overview of the section, help you plan your conference schedule, and introduce you to other RBMS members, please contact committee chair Henry Raine at henry.raine@nyu.edu or 212-595-3036.

The committee sponsors Educational Opportunities: A Directory, available on the RBMS website. Maintained by committee member Ellen Ellickson, this directory provides a listing of coursework related to rare books and special collections currently offered through ALA-accredited graduate library programs. The committee has also begun a project to initiate discussion on the issue of diversity in the section and in our profession. Diversity is one of ALA's five key action areas, as defined in the ALAction 2005 planning document, and diversity is one of the core values identified in ACRL's Strategic Plan 2005. The committee will sponsor a seminar entitled "A Dialogue on Diversity: Issues Raised by the RBMS Non-Member Survey" at the RBMS Preconference in Atlanta. The seminar will be moderated by committee member Julie Grob who will present initial results of the committee's survey of librarians and archivists at institutions with largely minority enrollment, followed by a round table discussion on the issue of diversity in the section.

Nominating

The Nominating Committee is pleased to report that the following individuals have agreed to stand for office in the section's 2002 election: for Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Margaret Nichols (Cornell University) and Marvin Taylor (New York University); for Member-at-Large: Isaac Gewirtz (New York Public Library) and Gerald Wager (Library of Congress).

Public Services

The committee focused on two topics at the Midwinter Meeting: staff training and digital reproduction services. Staff training issues identified by participants included the training of new staff and students, as well as the challenge of providing ongoing training for long-term staff, both paraprofessional and professional. For new staff, several attendees emphasized the importance of maintaining an up-to-date departmental manual; others recommended thorough orientation checklists. For ongoing staff, representatives of several repositories discussed cross-training with other departments or other libraries as ways of keeping staff engaged and learning; others told of monthly meetings devoted to training, with topics generated by staff themselves during brainstorming sessions. Some discussed the possibility of mentoring programs for new and ongoing staff.

Policies regarding digital reproduction services varied widely across the group. Some pioneers were allowing readers to bring in digital cameras (with no flash) to take pictures of materials; others still restricted all digitization of materials, in the vague hope that readers ordering photographs would not make their own scans. Some mentioned that they were meeting with attorneys to consider what should be done, while others had gone ahead and begun scanning on demand and even cataloging the resulting scans into digital repositories. Many fascinating policies were shared, but no consensus, not even a majority opinion, emerged.

Possible topics for future meetings include: automated circulation; classes and teaching; tracking use statistics versus talking with (or surveying) patrons; the impact of off-site storage on public services; and the limits of email -- what works and what does not.

Publications

Copies of the new RBMS brochure greeted attendees at Information Exchange and the Executive Committee meeting at ALA Midwinter in New Orleans. Copies are still available on request. The Publications Committee also settled on a possible logo for RBMS at the Midwinter Meeting. The Executive Committee approved the logo pending the creation of a version which includes the names of ACRL and ALA, and of a version which can be used for letterhead. The designer has been asked to develop these new versions before Annual.

"Your Old Books" remains a popular item on the RBMS website, but now that a number of websites offer price information on rare books, it may need to be updated to reflect this new development. The Publications Committee has formed a subcommittee to look over the document and see what revisions may be needed.

Security

The Security Committee held a public hearing at the Midwinter Meeting on the "ACRL Guidelines Regarding Thefts in Libraries." Co-chair Anne Marie Lane moderated the session at which both committee members and visitors discussed ways to improve the document. Co-chair Isaac Gewirtz will incorporate the revisions into a final version that will be published in an upcoming issue of C&RL News.

At the committee's regularly scheduled meeting, the hearing and guidelines continued as a main topic of discussion. In addition, Everett Wilkie reported on the progress of the project to compile state laws regarding theft of library materials. He hopes to have all the states completed for the Annual Conference in June. Wilkie also talked about production of a security video with potential for educational purposes. Susan Allen reported on the Library Security Officers list. Alvan Bregman discussed updates to the annual "Incidents of Thefts" report which is available on the RBMS website.

Co-chair Lane gave a presentation on selected aspects of the security and theft guidelines to the PARS (Preservation & Reformatting Section) discussion group of ALCTS. They were a receptive audience and proposed the idea of a joint program at a future ALA conference. Charlotte Brown, RBMS liaison to the PARS group, agreed to work with them on a future workshop topic of common interest: the marking of special collections materials.

Seminars

The Seminars Committee invites you to submit seminar proposals for the 2003 RBMS Preconference in Toronto. The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2002. Proposals will be reviewed for approval at the committee's meeting during the ALA Annual Conference in Atlanta. This is your opportunity to address important professional issues, bring special projects or areas of endeavor to the attention of your colleagues, or provide a forum for experts to discuss significant technical topics in depth.

For information about what to include in a proposal, please see the electronic form available on the RBMS website at http://www.rbms.info/committees/seminars/index.shtml. You may also contact the chair, James Fox, at jdfox@oregon.uoregon.edu or 541-346-1904. It is not necessary that you be a member of the Seminars Committee to make a proposal.

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Transitions

Jonathan Bengtson has been appointed the executive director of the Providence Athenaeum. Tim Blevis has been named special collections section manager for the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs. Randal Brandt has been appointed principal cataloger in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. The new university archivist at the University of Oregon is Heather Briston. Jennifer A. Bryan has been appointed head of special collections and archives at the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy. V. Chapman-Smith is now director of the mid-Atlantic office of the National Archives in Philadelphia. After 28 years of service, Dorothy Christiansen has retired as head of special collections and archives at SUNY Albany. Melissa Conway is the new head of special collections at UC Riverside. Ann Copeland has been appointed special collections cataloging librarian at Pennsylvania State University. Juliet Demeter has joined the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley as an archivist. David Faulds has been named special collections cataloger at Emory University. Having recently completed the NHPRC Fellowship in Archival Administration at the University of Virginia, Jennifer Gunter has been appointed Virginia Tech's coordinator of special collections. Lia Hillman is now an archivist in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. At the Akron-Summit County Public Library in Ohio, Judy James has been named division manager of special collections. Brian Keough has been appointed head of special collections and archives at SUNY Albany. James Kominowski is the new Slavic librarian/archivist in the archives and special collections department at the University of Manitoba. Nancy Kuhl has been appointed assistant curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Library. Morgan MacIntosh has joined DePaul University as an archivist librarian in the special collections and archives department. Mary Morganti is now the director of research collections at the California Historical Society. Peter Nelson has been appointed assistant archivist at Amherst College. The new special collections librarian at Wake Forest University is Lisa Persinger. At Princeton University, Ben Primer has been appointed as the permanent associate university librarian for rare books and special collections after serving in an acting capacity for two years. Former director of research and access at the Chicago Historical Society, Bernard F. Reilly Jr., has been named president of the Center for Research Libraries. Nancy R. Robertson has been permanently appointed, after several years as curator and a year as interim director, as the curator/rare book librarian and director of technical services at the Library of Michigan. Eileen Smith is now a rare book cataloger at the Huntington Library. Megan Smith has been named exhibitions coordinator at the Grolier Club. Janet Stuckey is now interim special collections librarian at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The new manuscripts/archives librarian at the University of Nevada, Reno, is Jacquelyn Sundstrand. After 35 years of service as a cataloger, serials cataloger, and special collections cataloger, Linda Visk has retired from Emory University. Michelle Visser is now a special collections instruction librarian at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Penny Welbourne has been appointed a catalog librarian on the rare book team at Yale University Library.

We note with regret the recent deaths of: Hugh Amory, rare book cataloger in the Houghton Library at Harvard University; Geoffrey Bill, librarian and archivist at the Lambeth Palace Library; Dorothy Teeple Hanks, librarian in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine; John Harthan, librarian at the Victoria and Albert Museum; Ernest A. Lindner, collector of old presses and other printing equipment currently housed at the International Printing Museum; Louis Martz, professor emeritus at Yale University and acting director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library from 1972-1978; James Robertson, co-proprietor of the Yolla Bolly Press.