A Newsletter Fall 2001 ✦ Issue No. 25 of the Oberlin College Library Library Perspectives ILLiad Improves Nicholson Baker to Speak at Friends Dinner Interlibrary Loan Novelist, essayist, and library activist Over the summer the Oberlin Nicholson Baker will be the featured College Library implemented a new speaker at the Friends of the Library an- interlibrary loan (ILL) processing nual dinner on Saturday, November 10. system that promises to be substan- Baker’s most recent book, Double Fold: Li- tially more efficient and convenient braries and the Assault on Paper, is an im- for both patrons and library staff. passioned critique of the collection pres- The new system, called ILLiad, al- ervation programs of our nation’s research lows users to create personal ac- libraries, particularly the Library of Con- counts, and once logged on, they gress. can make new interlibrary loan re- Double Fold, which has received sub- quests as well as track, modify, or stantial media attention, focuses on the cancel requests that are already in practice of microfilming newspapers and progress. ILLiad replaces the paper brittle books and discarding the original and Web forms that were previously paper copies. Princeton historian Robert used for placing requests. Darnton (who will deliver the Jantz Lec- Nicholson Baker ILLiad, which stands for ture at Oberlin this fall – see related ar- InterLibrary Loan internet acces- ticle below) reviewed the book positively in the April 26 New York Review of Books and sible database, was developed by the it was featured on the cover of the April 15 New York Times Book Review. interlibrary loan staff at Virginia continued on page 7 Polytechnic Institute in 1996. It dramatically speeds processing and Robert Darnton to Deliver Jantz Lecture response time because staff mem- Robert Darnton, Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History at Princeton bers no longer have to decipher University, will deliver the eleventh Harold Jantz Memorial Lecture on Thursday, Octo- handwritten forms, nor do they ber 11, at 4:30 p.m. have to re-key information into One of America’s most prominent historians, OCLC, the bibliographic utility that Darnton is the author of twelve full-length most libraries use for interlibrary books, three edited volumes, and over 150 ar- loan. ticles that focus primarily on French social, cul- Users will appreciate ILLiad be- tural, and intellectual history of the eighteenth cause they no longer have to write century. Among other topics, his scholarship or type their personal information explores the role of printing and other forms of (name, address, phone number, information transmission in cultural and politi- barcode number, etc.) every time cal change. they place a request. Darnton’s books include The Business of En- Later in the fall the ILL staff lightenment: A Publishing History of the hopes to deliver articles electroni- Encyclopédie, 1775-1800, an account of the re- cally, making them available as files vision and publication in popular editions of on the Web, thereby eliminating the Diderot’s encyclopedia under Charles Joseph waiting time caused by sending pa- Panckoucke; The Literary Underground of the Robert Darnton continued on page 3 continued on page 7 Page 2 Recent Gifts The Library has received a ma- Friends of the Oberlin College Library jor gift from the estate of Mary Fall 2001 Programs Persinger Ross ’22 to establish an endowed library acquisitions fund. Thursday, September 13, 4:30 p.m., Moffett Auditorium Mimi Halpern ’60 and Rich- “Academic Libraries in China and the U.S.,” panel discussion with library staff ard and Geraldine Meyer ’45 have made major gifts to the librarian’s who attended the June 2001 international conference on academic libraries in discretionary fund to support the Kunming, China, sponsored by Oberlin and Yunnan University. Library’s highest priority needs. Robert M. Campbell ’34 and Friday, September 28, 10 a.m. – noon, Mudd A Level Arthur and Bess Friedman ’46 Library Book Sale: Friends Pre-sale and ’49 have made major contribu- Book sale runs from noon – 7 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.- noon Saturday. tions to the Library’s collection preservation fund. Thursday, October 11, 4:30 p.m., King 106 Over four hundred individuals Harold Jantz Memorial Lecture, “Poetry and the Police in Eighteenth-Century donated more than 8,000 items to Paris,” Robert Darnton, Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of European History, the Library during the 2000-2001 academic year. These gifts-in-kind Princeton University. included the following significant donations: Saturday, November 10 Marjorie Perloff ‘53 funded a 1:30 p.m. Friends Council and Membership Meeting purchase of new books from the Goodrich Room, Mudd Dalkey Press. Stephen Roundtree, 4:00 p.m. Nicholson Baker Book Signing Executive Vice President of the J. Oberlin Bookstore Paul Getty Trust and member of the 4:30 p.m. Tour of Oberlin’s New Science Library Oberlin College Board of Trustees 5:45 p.m. Friends Annual Reception and Dinner donated new publications of the Root Room, Carnegie Getty Foundation to the Art Library. 8:00 p.m. Featured Speaker, Nicholson Baker, author of The Dramatists Play Service sup- Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper plied a copy of each of their plays upon publication. This will be an ongoing gift. Professor Ann Sherif gave the Library fifty-five new books in her capacity as an editor Friends of the Library Update of the Journal of Asian Studies. More than $42,000 was contributed to the Friends of the Library during the 2000 – Retired staff member Dean 2001 academic year, the highest level of giving since the organization’s founding. That Kelly donated his extensive library, very generous support enabled the Friends to sponsor a series of fine programs and containing over 2,600 items. Pro- make many worthwhile purchases for the collections. fessor Terry Carlton donated over Programs sponsored by the Friends included Taylor Branch’s address at the annual 200 issues of science fiction paper- dinner; historian James Oliver Horton’s lectures on slavery and abolition; a talk by backs dating as far back as 1950. medieval manuscript collector John Lawrence; a campus visit by Yongyi Song, the Professor of Sociology William Dickinson College librarian who was arrested and held as a political prisoner in China; Norris donated more than two hun- and a Commencement Weekend open house in Special Collections. dred books. Visiting instructor of Friends purchases for the Library included several major reference works; primary aural skills, Peter Silberman, gen- source materials to support courses in history, literature, women’s studies, architectural erously gave more than 100 scores. history, and opera; video recordings and DVDs; materials for new and existing curricular Michael Durgin ‘78 presented areas (Japanese art, Islam and South Asia, Latino American history, film studies); and Special Collections with a publica- rare books. tion from his company, Hand Pa- The Friends had a total of 660 current members in 2000-2001, including 506 regular permaking, Inc.: Hand Made Paper members who contributed directly to the Friends organization, 74 who donated to other in Nepal, Tradition and Change. Library funds or gave gifts-in-kind, 39 student members, 30 life members, and three continued on page 7 honorary members. ✦ Page 3 Increased New Science Library Opens Electronic Access Through Ingenta Last spring the UnCover data- base was purchased by a British company and combined with the Ingenta database, which bills itself as “the world’s largest Website for the search and delivery of research articles.” This merger is a boon for library users, who will not only be able to search and browse the tables of contents of more than 20,000 journals but will also have access to the fulltext of a substantial num- ber of journal articles. Access to fulltext of articles is permitted if an electronic version exists, and if Oberlin subscribes to North View of the Science Library the journal. If Oberlin does not sub- scribe to the journal and an elec- Oberlin’s new Science Library is now open for the use of the College community. tronic copy of the article exists, us- Located in the heart of the College’s new science complex, the 12,580 square foot library ers can elect to “pay-per-view.” offers greatly expanded space for the collections and more than triples the number of Articles can be delivered by fax or reader spaces that were available in previous science library facilities. The library fea- as electronic files, such as PDF for- tures an electronic classroom with 15 workstations and seating for 30 students, two mat. group study rooms, and a variety of seating and work areas. Over 100 study spaces, The Library maintains a deposit including carrels that will be assigned to science majors, have direct connections to the account to which faculty can charge campus network. the cost of articles from journals to The increased space in the library, which provides for approximately seventeen which Oberlin does not have sub- years of collection growth, has made it possible to bring more science materials together scriptions and in cases when tradi- under one roof, including the entire collection of the former Physics reading room, all tional interlibrary loan service is not books from the main fast enough. library in the subject Ingenta allows users to save and areas of astronomy, re-run particular searches, and it physics, chemistry, ge- offers a table of contents service, ology, and the life sci- which enables users to create per- ences, as well as a num- sonal profiles specifying journals for ber of biopsychology which they would like to receive the and neuroscience jour- tables of contents via email.