Center for International Collections and Microforms, Maps and Non-Print staff, Ohio University's Alden Library, 1999

Center for International Collections and Microforms, Maps and Non-Print staff, Ohio University's Alden Library, 1999

Image by Ohio University Libraries
Staff for the Center for International Collections and Microforms, Maps and Non-Print located on the first floor of Alden Library. L to R, front row: Lucy Conn, Judy Connick, Lian The-Mulliner, Edie Luce; back row: Liren Zheng, Jeff Ferrier, Ted Foster.

Part of 1999 project to document the various library departments for Alden Library's 30th anniversary. Each department had a group photo and description in the library newsletter.

Below is from the library's newsletter, Intercom:

Microforms, Maps and Non-Print
When Alden Library first opened in 1969 the Microforms collection was moved from the basement Reserve Room of Chubb Library to the 6th and 7th floors of Alden, in the middle where the computers are currently. It was difficult to maintain the collection in such a setting and thus in the Spring of 1970 Microforms was moved down to the 2nd floor and staffed. In August of 1970 Ted Foster became the Head of Microforms having previously been in the Reference Department. At this time the Copy Service* became part of the Microforms collection.

In 1972 the Microform Collection and the Copy Service moved to the more central Fifth floor (now Documents service area). To make room for the Documents Department in 1978 the Copy Service moved to what is now the Ryan Room and the microtext portion of collection moved to the first floor incorporating the Map collection and video discs and cassettes and other media. The Map Collection moved to the 1st floor of Alden from the direction of Gertrude Linnenbruegge and then Mary Stahl until her retirement. Beyond the many able graduate assistants for maps and area studies, associates to work with Ted Foster at some point have included Stan Shaw, Mike Holkum, Mike Benz, Gyneth Thompson (Karen's mother), Alice Weaver, Cheng See Dale, Dorothy Scarmack, and currently Edie Luce, who moved from the Cataloging Department 1992. Chau Hoang filled in while Edie was on leave in Indonesia.

The first few years were devoted to the creation of a classification system, a card catalog and assorted printed guides to the larger sets. Advances in technology have enabled more of the collection to be incorporated into the Alice system and allowed the Microforms, Maps and Non-Print collection to supplement Alice with its own Web Pages. The department is more service oriented and less format oriented today than in previous years. The ultimate goal is to seamlessly convert from one format to another suiting particular user needs at the moment. With the rapid expansion of digital applications the Department is now undergoing fundamental changes and is looking forward to what potential the new millenium holds.

*If anyone is counting, the Copy Service has occupied the following areas: fourth floor in an alcove behind the former office of Bill Betcher, "machine room" on Second Floor-now P-Circ; fifth floor (now Documents offices); the now Ryan Room; Third floor 318 now classroom; Fourth floor 412b now David Dudding's area; and Second floor 253 formerly Preservation.

Southeast Asia Collections next edition.

[List of employees, at that time, and start year]
Theodore Foster (1968)
Edith Luce (1988)
(Southeast Asia staff included)


Southeast Asia Collection
In 1967, Northern Illinois University invited a cataloger from Cornell's premier Southeast Asia Collection to interview for the curatorship of its Southeast Asia Collection (the occupant had taken a comparable job at Yale). Two professors offered to drive her back from the home of barbed wire and winged corn to O'Hare airport. They informed her that they had been hired to start a Southeast Asia program at OU. After interviewing her at the airport, they recommended her, and invited her to campus, meeting her in Columbus with the OU plane. So in September 1967 Lian The (Now Lian The-Mulliner) began her long journey with the "Southeast Asia Collection." Quotes are appropriate because although Professor John Cady, one of the pioneers in Southeast Asia Studies in the U.S., had been at OU for a number of years, few books in the library focused on Southeast Asia. By this time, Chubb Library was so crowded that she (and her counterpart in African Studies) actually had their main offices in the Center for International Studies. Housed on University Terrace (beside Scott Quad), the move to the new Alden Library (initially to the 3rd floor, in the offices now housing Anne Goss and the OhioLearn room) prompted Joni Mitchell to pen, "they've paved paradise and put in a parking lot."

From the modest beginning arose OU's foremost research collection. In 1970, the collection became a participant in the Library of Congress cooperative acquisitions program (then called PL480) for Southeast Asia (inheriting serials from Indiana University, which OU replaced as a participant). In the 1970s the Southeast Asia Program won federal funding as a national center under the National Defense Education Act. Recognizing that the collection would be the one enduring legacy of the funding, tens of thousands of dollars were devoted to acquisitions. The result was a massive growth in resources, but much of it uncataloged. With federal grants under Title II-C of the Higher Education Act, Swee-Lan Quah was hired in 1981 (from the National Library of Singapore) to lead a decade-long effort to reduce the backlog and catalog the specialized materials. In the late 1980s, funding from the Henry Luce Foundation provided seed-money for a Southeast Asia Reference position (originally held by Lindsey Reber and currently by Jeff Ferrier). In seeking the Luce funding, the Library also identified resources on the Overseas Chinese as a vital resource being neglected nationally. At other libraries with substantial East Asian Collections all materials in the Chinese language would be sent to East Asian Collections where materials focusing on Southeast Asia received the lowest priority. In identifying and addressing this national need, the Collection was building on its earlier identification of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei as being inadequately collected. The earlier focus led to the incorporation of library funding into the endowment for the Tun Abdul Razak Chair with the Malaysian Government. Unfortunately, the Razak Chair endowment remains the only academic endowment with a substantial library component. In the 1990s, the Dr. You-Bao Shao Overseas Chinese Documentation and Research Center offered a counterpoint as it was supported by a library endowment with support for research. Initially headed by Lian with the assistance of a graduate student in history, Hong Liu (now a lecturer at the National University of Singapore), Liren Zheng was hired in April 1998 as the first full-time curator.

With grant funding and normal turnover, many current staff have contributed to the success of the Southeast Asia Collection, including: Lucy Conn, Judy Connick, Doreen Hockenberry, David Miller, Suzi Mingus, and Annette Talbert. Working in the Collection has encouraged a good number of graduate and undergraduate students to pursue library degrees. As a research collection, it is an exciting nexus of librarianship and scholarship. Today, its bibliography of resources on Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, has been published for nearly twenty years and is currently distributed on CD-ROM and over the Internet by RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) Publishing. Currently in total disarray, staff are looking forward to new offices and a new service point when renovation is complete this summer.

[List of employees,at that time, and start year]
Lian The-Mulliner (1967)
Lucy Conn (1985)
Jeffrey Ferrier (1990)
Liren Zheng (1998)
(Microforms, Maps, & Non-Print included)

Alden Library site: www.library.ohiou.edu/.
See more historic images of Alden Library: media.library.ohiou.edu/

September tango - Sep 2012 - 14b

Image by Ed Yourdon
(more details later, as time permits)

***************************************
Nearly three months elapsed after I photographed the tango dancers at the 10th anniversary of the VolvoTango gathering on Pier 45 (where Christopher Street runs into the Hudson River in New York City's West Village), before I finally came back in mid-September 2012. I had been preoccupied with other duties, and I was away from the city for most of August, finally returning to the Big Apple just before the Labor Day holiday weekend …

I returned to Pier 45 on a Sunday afternoon in mid-September, and then again a few days later, on a Wednesday afternoon. I chose the dates primarily because a glance at the sky in mid-afternoon told me that the "golden hour" before sunset would almost certainly provide me with the kind of light that I love to see on the dancers' faces.

As I've mentioned in other Flickr sets, I have now met a few of the dancers at previous tango events, and I made a point of introducing myself to several others, handing out business cards with my Flickr address so that people would be able to find these pictures without too much difficulty. But the dancers have good reason to be more interested in the music, and the movement of their partners, than a guy on the sideline with a camera -- so most of them simply ignore me...

As I've also pointed out in some previous Flickr albums (here, for example), I do not dance the tango; and even after watching the dancers for nearly three years, I know almost nothing about the history, the folklore, or even the steps and rhythms of the tango. But after accidentally stumbling upon a local gathering of tango aficionados on a business trip to Washington in August 2009 (see my Flickr set Last tango in Washington), I discovered that there were similar informal events throughout New York City. When I got home, I searched on the Internet and found a schedule of upcoming tango events at several different NYC locations -- including Pier 45, where I made my first visit in mid-April of 2010, which led to this set of photos.

Altogether, I've now taken a dozen sets of tango-related photos, and you can see a thumbnail overview of them in this Flickr collection. And if you'd like to watch some other examples NYC tango dancing, check out Richard Lipkin's Guide to Argentine Tango in New York City.

Birch Tree Pair

Image by jocelynsart
a pair of birch trees, my favourite tree, taken in Collingwood Ontario.

this photo I have created into an anniversary card, available via Zazzle.
I felt the image symbolizes a young married couple and inside the card I have two older tree trunks laying on a beach together which symbolizes growing old together in love.

www.zazzle.com/couples_anniversary_card-137069558949708693

Get a 20th Birthday T-Shirt for Completing Coaster Challenge

Image by seaworldSA
SeaWorld San Antonio Coaster Challenge participants can win this 20th Anniversary t-shirt by completing the coaster challenge in the month of November 2008.

RULES

1. Coaster enthusiasts who visit the park between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30 can participate in the 20th Birthday Coaster Challenge.
2. Participants can pick up a Challenge card at Guest Services, and each time they ride one of the qualifying coasters, get their card punched.
3. When participants have completed 20 rides, they can redeem their Challenge card for a 20th BirthdayT-shirt. Participants can also vote for the SeaWorld Ride Operations Team with the most spirit.
4. Participants can then share their ride stories and photos by visiting SeaWorld’s Coaster Connection. Weekly spirit results will also be posted on the site.
5. Participants can ride a maximum of twice back to back, if no other guests are in line for the ride.
6. Participants must follow all ride safety rules for each coaster, including meeting the minimum height requirement.
7. The Coaster Challenge will launch at the park and on the Web November 1.

Visit www.seaworldcoasters.com for more info