News from the Director

Google and more Google. It's everywhere.

There is just no escaping the ubiquity of this search engine, which has entered our everyday speech as a proper name, a verb, and an adjective, attempting to fulfill its company’s lofty ambition “to make all the world's information accessible.”

So, you might wonder, has this ability to retrieve information at the command of a keystroke made libraries obsolete and archaic? Well, have you been in the UWM Libraries recently? If so, I'm sure you noticed that we are busier than ever.

Now, this won't come as news to our hardworking staff, but the numbers in the accompanying chart will tell you that indeed we have more users coming into the building, more students participating in our instruction sessions, greater use of e-reserve, and more interlibrary loans. In other words, even as we expand our online resources and services available anytime, anywhere, the library as a physical place continues to be a hub of learning, a place to reflect, read or even enjoy some coffee.

I recently attended a symposium at the University of Michigan on mass digitization projects converting millions of books and, yes, you guessed it, funded through Google. Eventually, the books that are beyond copyright will be available to all scholars but no library is planning to discard these old books that will be available electronically; researchers will still need to consult paper books and libraries will continue to preserve them long into the future.

Recent surveys indicate that over 80% of people seeking information first go to the Internet to search, and most often they use Google (see OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, OCLC Online Computer Center, Dublin, Ohio, 2005). However, half of the Internet searches subsequently link to library resources and databases. So we are striving to meet our users where they are searching by making our holdings visible through search engines.

Since students prefer the simple searching that the Internet provides, we introduced Find It! and Meta Search to our catalog as part of our collaborative initiatives with the UW System Libraries to promote “one system, one library.” Our goal is to make it easier for our users to find results quickly while still retaining the more in-depth interface search of individual databases.

To return to my original point: why are so many patrons arriving through the turnstiles at the Library or logging in to our resources remotely these days? I'm sure that higher enrollment at UWM, combined with the Libraries’ emphasis on creating a welcoming environment and better integration of new technologies, have contributed to our increased use.

The planned remodeling which will begin later this year is a necessary step to improve our student-focused learning space and provide us with some room for collection growth. I invite you to stop in the Libraries and let me know how we are doing at meeting your research and teaching needs.

Ewa Barczyk
Interim Director

UWM Libraries Usage Statistics
	July-Dec. 2004	July-Dec. 2005	% Change
Door count, east and west wings	460,159	539,231	+17%
Reserve Desk transactions	10,359	11,418	+10%
Courses offering Electronic Reserve readings	478	556	+16%
Interlibrary Loan requests	13,091	14,394	+10%
General circulation	136,614	141,288	+3%

Libraries Receive Ettinger Family Foundation Grant

In December, the Ettinger Family Foundation of Milwaukee awarded a $25,000 grant to Special Collections, UWM Libraries, to be used for acquisitions and programming in the UWM Book Arts Collection.

The grant will help provide consistent collection development, active programming (including the Ettinger Book Artist Speaker Series) and outreach, and increased mentoring of UWM and local book artists. The award will be distributed $5000 per year over five years.

“We are grateful for this generous gift which will support significant growth in an important collection,” said Max Yela, Head of Special Collections. “The UWM Book Arts Collection not only holds importance for our immediate communities, but also has a strong regional, national, and even international reputation. The Ettinger Foundation award will help us maintain this profile, and assist us in producing programs associated with it.”

Among the first works to be acquired through the fund are Martyr, Mercury, Rooster, a three-volume collaborative, letterpress artists' book by Stevens Point artists Caren Heft and Jeffrey Morin, and Behind the Veil, an artist's book by California book artist Mary Shihabuddin Laird.

Buff Chosen as 2006 Fromkin Recipient

UWM Interim Director of Libraries Ewa Barczyk and the members of the Morris Fromkin Memorial Research Grant Committee are pleased to announce that Rachel Ida Buff, associate professor in UWM’s History Department and director of the Ethnic Studies Program, is the recipient of the 2006 Fromkin Research Grant and Lectureship.

Buff’s proposal focuses on the legal and social discourses that have historically surrounded denizens of the United States who do not possess full access to the rights of citizens. Her research will also connect contemporary struggles at the U.S.-Mexican border with the issue of undocumented student access to the UW System, and the history of this issue in the broader context of UWM's unique urban mission.

To celebrate UWM’s 50th anniversary in 2006, the Fromkin Committee had invited scholars to submit proposals that center on UWM and social justice. However, all submissions relevant to the issue of social justice were considered. This year’s committee members were Diane Amour, Ewa Barczyk, Enrique Figueroa, John Friedman, David Fromkin (Boston University), Nik Heynen, Anthony Lemelle, Merry Wiesner-Hanks, and Max Yela. Buff’s lecture, to be delivered at the Golda Meir Library in the fall, will be the 37th in the Fromkin lecture series. For more information about the Fromkin Research Grant, please visit the Archives Web site at http://www.uwm.edu/Libraries/special/fromkin/grant.htm.

Friends’ Vice-President Donates Rare Book Collection

Friends of the Golda Meir Library Vice-President and local historian E.J. Brumder, a descendent of prominent Milwaukee German-language publisher George Brumder, recently donated his personal collection of more than sixty publications from George Brumder’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century publishing house. At the turn of the century, Brumder was the largest publisher of German-language materials in the United States. Because of his prominence, the Milwaukee German-language publishing collection in Special Collections is named after him. E.J. Brumder’s donation represents the largest single addition to the Brumder Collection since that collection was established in the late 1980s. The Brumder Collection currently holds close to 300 titles.

Max Yela

UWM Libraries to Assist Implementation of Important Diversity Grant

The UWM School of Information Studies (SOIS) has been awarded a grant of nearly $1 million from the Institute for Museum and Library Services to educate students of diverse backgrounds in the fields of cataloging, indexing and metadata. UWM Libraries, along with Marquette University Library and Milwaukee Public Library, will partner with SOIS on the "Diversity in the Organization of Information and Its Technology" grant. UWM Libraries staff Steve Miller and Michelle Harrell, who worked with SOIS as advisors to the grant, will serve on the Steering Committee for this grant. The funding will provide students from underrepresented groups tuition scholarships and funded internships, and will enable the Libraries to train several additional SOIS students as interns in the Monographs Department. Libraries staff will also mentor students in the program.

Slovenian Consul General Visits Libraries

The Consul General for the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Zvone Zigon, visited the UWM Libraries on February 10. The UWM Music Library holds the largest collection of Slovenian music in North America, acquired through the Libraries’ Frank and Mary Ermenc Fund.

From left, Virginia Struckel, Immediate Past President, Slovenian Arts Council; Rebecca Littman, Head, Music Library; Consul General Zigon and his wife Irena Zigon; and Ewa Barczyk, Interim Director of Libraries (photo by Carrie Leatherman)

New Gateway for Off-Campus Access to Libraries Catalog

To better serve the increasing number of UWM distance education students and off-campus staff and faculty users, UWM Libraries is providing a new off-campus catalog access gateway page. This page offers simple instructions for accessing the library catalog (PantherCat) from outside the UWM campus network. With a Panther ID, users may gain access to the same resources available on campus in the online catalog, such as article databases, E-Books, electronic journals (including full-text when available), and Electronic Reserve readings.

Wireless Laptop Computers Available for Student Checkout

Thanks to funding from UWM student Educational Technology fees, thirty wireless laptop computers are now available for free checkout by current UWM students with active UWM IDs. The loan period is four hours, with five laptops reserved for 48-hour checkout. Loaded software includes Microsoft Office XP/2003, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and a CD writing program. The laptops are available from the Multimedia Library, located on the first floor, East Wing. For more information, please visit http://www.uwm.edu/Library/media/laptop_checkout.html.

2006 Holzheimer “Maps and America” Lecture

The 2006 Holzheimer “Maps and America” Lecture was presented by Joel L. Morrison, Past President of the International Cartographic Association, on March 8 in the American Geographical Society Library. Over 100 people attended the presentation, entitled “Mapping the American Landscape.” The lecture series, initiated in 1990, is supported by Arthur and Janet Holzheimer and co-sponsored by the Friends of the Golda Meir Library. In conjunction with the talk, an exhibit of North American maps from the 16th century to the present continues in AGSL through the Spring semester.

Outstanding Staff Awards

UWM Provost Rita Cheng presented the UWM Libraries 2005 Outstanding Staff Achievement awards at a ceremony in the Libraries’ Conference Center on January 11. The awards were sponsored by the Janet and Carl Moebius endowment and the Friends of the Golda Meir Library.

 

Pictured, from left, are Janet Moebius; Michelle Washington, academic staff awardee; Pat Van Alyea, Friends President; Ewa Barczyk, Interim Director of Libraries; Provost Cheng; E.J. Brumder, Friends Vice-President; Donn Haglund, Friends Board member; and Lynnette Ponton, classified staff awardee. Wendy Kamps (not pictured) won the award for outstanding student employee. (photo by Steven Burnham)