[Report]
[1. Acquire materials, provide services]
[2. Manage Overseas Acquisitions plans]
[3. Tibetan mateirals]
[4. Electronic iniatives]
[5. Professional and new skills]
[6. Updates and search engine]
[7. Additional]
[Goals]
Report of the Librarian for Anthropology and Religious Studies
June 1999 - May 31, 2000
Philip McEldowney [
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Email]
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1. Continue to develop, strengthen and evaluate service (collections,
bibliographic instruction, reference and information) to University
customers, as the Librarian to the Anthropology Department and
Co-Librarian to the Religious Studies Department and as Selector for the
South Asian history program, and the Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, and
Sanskrit language programs, in order to meet their teaching and research
needs. Specifically, 1) ensure that materials needed for teaching and
research are acquired in a timely fashion; 2) faculty and students are kept
informed of new Library initiatives via individual contact, email
announcements, and updated Web pages of selective scholarly resources, 3)
bibliographic instruction is offered and provided when requested, and 4) my
two coordinators are regularly informed of issues concerning my departments
and programs, materials budgets and stewarded funds, and review of serials
subscriptions.
Report. **Responded quickly to requests for new print, film, or
CD-ROM titles, whether from email, checked catalogs lists, or personal
contact; ordered additional copies of titles when more than 2 or 3 holds
were placed on them, so as to ensure needed teaching and research
materials were acquired in a timely fashion. These requests came from
graduate students and faculty in the Anthropology, Religious Studies,
History, and Asian and Middle East Languages and Cultures (AMELC)
departments. One film was acquired for a summer Anthropology class. A
microfilm is being acquired for Religious Studies graduate students. As
requested by faculty, updated CD-ROMs of the Asian Input Project of Buddhist
texts were acquired for the Religious Studies and language research.
From visiting history professor Mushirul Hasan’s requests, several
titles on South Asia history, its partition, and its constitution were
acquired for Spring history classes. Joined with George Crafts and Ming
Lung in order to purchase several costly Japanese Buddhism titles which
Paul Groner requested for his and his students’ research. Anthropology
professor H. L. Seneviratne, thanks me for my bibliographic assistance to
him for his book, The Work of
Kings, The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka (1999).
**Informed students and faculty of new library resources,
databases, and services through email to departments or on updated
Web pages. Joined with Linda Lester to evaluate, discuss, and
eventually acquire the Web
version of the Human Resources Area Files (HRAF). Notified the
Anthropology researchers and others that this requested resource was now
available. In addition, with Anne Benham in the Periodicals Room, drafted
and rewrote and developed indexes in a Guide
for the Microfilm content of the HRAF, and made that guide and those
indexes available on the web. With Melinda Baumann, helped Anthropology
professor Charles Kaut configure his computer with a proxy server so that
he could take advantage to dial-in for this HRAF resource.
** Met individually with students and faculty to discuss their
interests, class, and research needs; and develop strategies to find
and write up bibliographies of specific topics; held individual
mini-sessions on how best to search the Web and access and use the library
resources. Met with new AMEL Hindi instructor, Chriti Merrill, to discover
her interests and give her a tour of the library and introduce her to
online library resources. Assisted Anthropology professor Handler in
searching the web and in using HRAF in a one-on-one session. Helped
Anthropology professor Damon develop a bibliography and discover titles
about Catholic missions in the Pacific area. Met especially with history
professor Mushirul Hasan and political science professor Zoya Hasan, as
well as holding a mini-session with professor Harold Gould in finding and
looking at data on India’s recent elections. Besides rush ordering a
book for M. Hasan’s classes, placed the full-text
of his introductory essay on the web for his student’s access.
**Provided electronic and bibliographic instruction. During the
Fall semester, instructed new Anthropology graduate students in a
bibliographic session; assisted George Crafts in 2 sessions for new
Religious Studies graduate students, as well as sessions on introducing the
library to Anthropology
undergraduates; and gave sessions for two specific Anthropology
classes, one on science
and technology and the other on Native
American women. In the Spring, helped Scott Silet and Melinda Baumann
give 3 sessions for an Anthropology class on race.
** Met with my two coordinators and with other librarians as
needed to discuss and inform them about issues concerning my departments,
programs, material budgets, and library services and priorities.
**Discussed a separate reading room area for Asian researchers
when meeting with faculty who proposed a need for such an reading room,
especially in connection with the anticipated donation of the Buddhist
library of a retiring Harvard professor. With other librarians proposed to
plan that a portion of the present Special Collections reading areas be
used for the "Asian reading room" within Alderman Library, after
the Special Collections move to a newly constructed location in a few
years.
**Began to review serials subscriptions for possible serials
cancellations, but became unnecessary this year.
**Updated web pages for my departments and
programs, and added web pages when providing electronic instruction for
Anthropology classes and groups. Updated library-wide
web pages listing subject selectors, interdisciplinary librarians, and
selectors’ tools and links.
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2. Manage the Library of Congress Overseas
Acquisitions plans so that: 1) relevant selectors will review materials and
select titles, as well as make suggestions of profile revision; and that
Library of Congress bills are paid by the end of October, 2) my staff will
receive training and develop the skills to process these materials and
serve library customers; 3) materials will be reviewed and re-located or
deselected to improve access and the quality of the collection.
Report. **Continued the review of Cairo titles for
selection with Middle East studies faculty and other librarians, as Library
Assistant N. Mahmud listed selected titles in VIRGO for customers'
information. Met with Gary Treadway and Karen Marshall to decide how to
pay for the Cairo monographs, in combination of reducing the number of
titles selected and to unsubscribe to some serials titles which were
determined for cancellation after a review process by faculty and
selectors. Other Library of Congress bills were paid by October.
Review and selection of South Asia materials continued as a regular
process; after revision and reduction of the South Asia profile two years
ago, almost 90% of these titles are now appropriate for adding to the
library as they match teaching programs and research interests.
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3. Help coordinate the move
of Tibetan materials from the basement to stacks and other locations,
to improve access to these materials. Compete the working with Tibetan
library staff to review and inventory materials in the Tibetan Room, so
that reference and other Tibetan materials will be properly catalogued and
shelved, making items easy to locate for Tibetan researchers.
Report. **Helped establish shelving, the enclosure, and its security for
a first floor cage, and supervised the move of Tibetan materials
from the basement. Faculty and students have expressed great satisfaction
with the new location and arrangement.
**Middle East and Tibetan staff received further training with new
computers and a completely reconfigured work area. During the year,
worked with C. Frieden to re-arrange the space, set up shelves and desk
space, so that now this work area provides for shelving of Tibetan
reference and high-use resources, as well as new work areas for each
library assistant.
**Tibetan library staff reviewed, inventoried, and properly cataloged
and shelved materials for the easy access of researchers. Circulation
polices were revised and developed so as to provide researchers greatest
access to the Tibetan collection. From the inventory, a list of probable
missing titles, though still listed in VIRGO, was developed for future
reference.
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4.Become more involvement with electronic
initiatives, so that 1) the library's goal to digitize and add materials to
the collection are furthered, and 2) electronics resources and services for
customers are publicized and improved. Work with the IndiaMap database to
learn its capabilities and be able to instruct others in its use. Discuss
with other librarians involved with digital services the issues, processes,
and how to establish and promote an Alter Service, so that library
customers may be notified when materials of their subject interests are
added to the library.
Report. **Became more involved with electronic initiatives
by proposing and discussing several programs, such as an Alert service
which may become part of a "My Library" customer virtual area,
scholarly online pre-print and print self-archiving of articles, and the
digitization of the "Essays in History" journal. International
digital organizations (such as the Digital Library Federation) are
providing tools for self-archiving of scholarly materials. The Mellon
grant may provide funds for the "Essays in History" journal
online.
**Worked with our IndiaMap database, and investigated other
similar products, with the possibility of eventually establishing a
nationally shared set of databases. At the library openhouse, with my
encouragement, one attendee had Mike Furlough show him the IndiaMap
database.
**Two digital library groups selected me to join their
discussions in April 2000; my participation will continue into the next
year: 1) the library group to oversee faculty online and digital projects
under the Mellon grant (the group Supporting Digital Scholarship); and 2)
the policy group to discuss and determine policies for the digital library
(Digital Content Task Force).
**Participated in several digital programs. Attended two 3-day
international conferences on Tibetan digital
initiates concerned with establishing Tibetan as one of the "information
communities" under the University of Virginia digital library, with
sessions about online bibliographies, an open-ended Tibetan encyclopedia
, language
instruction with audio and video clips, and full-text
Tibetan-language materials. Discussed with a national library group an
online journal, and set up two issues on the web for South Asia Library
Notes and Queries (SALNAQ).
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5. Identify and pursue appropriate professional
development opportunities so that new skills can be developed or present
skills can be improved that will better serve library customers.
Report. ** Developed new skills, mainly by attending a
variety of training sessions on digital audio files, Access, Excel, Office
2000, Flash, XLM, frames, Tool-kits, and scanning. Experimented and
learned how to develop and use tables and frames in web pages. Also
attended short-courses on searching in VIRGO, use of Sirsi work-flow, and
Lexis/Nexus, so I could pass some of those skills on to my library
customers.
**Traveled to and attended three conferences, participating in
library organizations, attending meetings and sessions, and learning more
about librarianship. At ALA (in New Orleans in June 1999), attended
several sessions dealing with online initiatives. At the two Asia
conferences (Madison, Wisconsin in October 1999 and San Diego in March
2000), participated as the recorder of minutes,
placing them online and revising them as necessary. Continue to maintain
and add to the Committee on South Asia Libraries and Documentation (CONSALD)
web site as its webmaster. Co-editor of the online newsletter, South Asia
News and Queries (SALNAQ).
Elected to the national executive committee of CONSALD for the next 2
years.
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6. Update the "Women in
Cinema" web guide, adding publications and web sites from the last 4
years. Learn about search engines and add one for weekly DAWN
(electronic newspaper from Pakistan) web pages, so as to increase the
capabilities of that popular web resource (which gets a large number of
hits per month).
Report. **Updated some of the "Women in Cinema" web
guide. Learned that the Digital Library will make a search-engine
tool available under its integrated system, which can be used for
searching the DAWN (weekly electronic newspaper from Pakistan) web pages.
The new online international monthly magazine Seminar (New Delhi) links to
and uses the 1990s
Table of Contents lists for the Seminar which I continue to develop and
list. Continue to add Table of Contents information for the quarterly Indian
Economic and Social History Review, the bi-monthlies Biblio
and Social
Scientist, and the quarterly Tibet
Journal, which feedback from scholars around the world report they
find useful.
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7. Additional.
Gifts. **Worked throughout the year to facilitate and ensure the
donation of a valued Persian
library collection to the University of Virginia. Assisted Jeanne
Hammer, Chris Larson, and Melissa Norris to publicize this donation in the
"Library Development" newsletter, "Inside UVA," and
ACRL. Consulted with Jared Loewenstein on how to arrange for donation
forms for tax purposes. Consulted with C. Frieden about arranging shipping
of the materials from California to Virginia and with Milly Crickenberger
on payments for the shipping. Helped draft letters to Professor Milani,
the Chubak son, and the Chubak widow for Dianne Walker and Karin
Wittenborg. Traveled to the donor library location and stayed there four
days negotiating and arranging for shipment of the collection, saving the
library about 2/3rds of the original estimated $9,000 shipping expenses.
Supervised the arrival of these materials, and unpacked and temporarily
shelved the materials. Continue to work with Beth Camden in cataloging to
make these items available to researchers.
**Center for South Asian Studies. Attended weekly seminars and
special programs of the Center in order to keep abreast of scholarly
activities among those customers. Contributed with N. Thokmey to two
newsletter issues, informing about library initiatives, services, and
resources. Helped the Center acquire a 13 video set on South Asia
history; and managed their library fund to acquire their materials which
faculty and students requested.
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--Philip McEldowney, May 2000.
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