Message from the University Librarian:
Main Library Renamed Langson Library

The Langson Library, previously the Main Library, was dedicated in a joyous celebration on 16 October. The library was renamed in recognition of a generous gift from Jack Langson of Newport Beach, who believes strong libraries are critical to great universities. Mr. Langson sees his gift as extending support to the entire campus. “It seems to me that improving the library is strengthening the intellectual heart of the university,” he said. “A great university library provides the lifeblood to nourish the capabilities of its students and to support the advancement of knowledge by its researchers.”

We began using the new name, Langson Library, at the beginning of the fall quarter and have been changing to the new name whenever possible on the web and in print. However, it will take time before the change to Langson Library is complete.

The library is receiving significantly increased use from the campus and the community. Jack’s gift will greatly enhance the library’s ability to make substantial building improvements to provide better services and accommodate new technologies in a building that was not designed to anticipate our current needs.

The Langson Library was designed by William Pereira and was one of the original buildings completed for the opening of the campus in 1965. A major addition (nearly invisible to the observer) was made in 1970, and a seismic upgrade was completed in 1996. While the building has served the campus well, the gift comes at a time when the Libraries are beginning to plan extensive reconfiguration and renovation of the interior space to accommodate the growing numbers of students and faculty using the library.

One major improvement already completed is our Compact Shelving Project, which created an attractive, comfortable, and functional space that relieved overcrowded stacks and provides storage capacity for nearly 500,000 volumes in the Langson Library basement.

The Langson Library is the second of the UCI Libraries to be named in the last few years. In 2001, the library at the Medical Center in Orange was named in honor of Forrest J. Grunigen, MD.

We will keep you advised as we progress with our plans for Langson Library as part of the UCI Libraries Master Space Plan.

Gerald J. Munoff
University Librarian

Above left: Jack Langson
Above right: Langson Library

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Fall Exhibit Features Art Inspired by Poetry

Our fall exhibit explores artists’ interpretations of an influential poem by Stéphane Mallarmé. Titled A Throw of the Dice: Artists Inspired By a Visual Text, the exhibit opened in Langson Library on November 17th.

Mallarmé is considered one of France’s greatest writers, and by many sophisticated critics, the poet who comes closest to perfection. His influence on modern poetry is great, and his work foreshadowed the typographical experimentation of later poets. With publication of the experimental poem Un Coup de dés (translated as A Throw of the Dice) in 1897, he inaugurated a typography and page design capable of expressing movement in space and time. Un Coup de dés can be said to have led directly to the development of the 20th-century phenomenon known as the artists’ book.

This exhibit explores the visual and textual interpretations of Mallarmé’s poem that have been created from the 1960s to the present. Five types of editions are highlighted: limited edition artists’ books, early and scholarly editions, parodies, translations, and recent artists’ books influenced by Un Coup de dés. Taken as a whole, they illustrate the extraordinary life and influence of Mallarmé’s poetic and typographic masterpiece.

Artists’ books generally fall into two categories: limited edition livres de peintres illustrated by famous artists, and modest works that intertwine text and image. The limited editions are elaborate and expensive. The inexpensive variety depends on bookwork, including typography, conceived by a single artist. In ordinary illustrated books, the images convey the meaning of text without relating to the typography. In livres de peintres, however, while focusing mainly on the graphics, readers appreciate the beauty of the printing and the handmade paper. In contrast, the reader cannot separate image from text in contemporary artists’ books.

A Throw of the Dice was curated by UCI Professors Emeriti Renée Riese Hubert and Judd Hubert, who have published extensively on both artists’ books and Mallarmé. They co-authored The Cutting Edge of Reading: Artists’ Books, published by Granary Books (New York, 1999).

For more information about the exhibit, contact Jackie Dooley (jmdooley@uci.edu or x44935).

Above right: Exhibit poster

Langson Library Collections Capacity Increased

As part of our comprehensive space planning efforts, the UCI Libraries embarked in 2001 on a project to install moveable compact shelving in the basement of Langson Library in order to add shelf space needed for our growing collections. This project was just one aspect of the Libraries’ efforts to better maximize existing space, both to ensure that needed research collections are conveniently available and to provide more computer workstations and reader seats to meet the needs of our growing campus. We also took this opportunity to assess and rearrange the collections layout based on consultation with faculty.

The stacks had reached over 100% capacity, so this high-density shelving provides critically needed space for new materials. The project has increased the capacity of Langson by nearly 500,000 volumes. The new shelving also helps us house more materials on campus which would otherwise have been sent to off-campus storage in the Southern Regional Library Facility.

The electronic compact shelves are easy to use and have built-in sensor safety features. Library staff are eager to assist with any questions about operating the units.

Here are some of the benefits that we have gained in terms of services and collections:

• The basement level is now comfortable, attractive, and functional. It has been totally renovated with new carpet, paint, lighting, ventilation, furniture, and electronic compact shelving. It is now one of the floors most conducive for research and study.
  
  
• The book collection has been rearranged to create a linear call number flow from the 4th floor down to the basement.
  
  
• All bound serials are in compact shelving to enable centralized ease of use. In addition, the nature of serials use lends itself to compact shelving: with citations in hand, users can retrieve materials fairly quickly, whereas books demand browsing. Finally, online availability of an increasing number of journals is gradually leading to lower use of print versions.
  
  
• The government information and Langson Library reference collections have been consolidated.
  
  
• Publications of international governmental organizations have been integrated with the rest of the general collection.
  
  
• All other government information collections have been relocated to the basement to provide sufficient growth space and in recognition that an increasing percentage of federal and state documents are now being distributed online. As with serials, the need to access print collections will decrease over time.
  
  
• The East Asian Collection is located on the 1st floor for ease of browsing and to provide proximity to specialized reference assistance.
  
  
• The entire collection and shelves were dusted and cleaned.
  
  

We encourage you to visit Langson Library, and we appreciate your continued support as we explore other ways to maximize our existing space in order to provide a high level of service to the campus community. For more information, contact Lorelei Tanji, Assistant University Librarian for Collections (ltanji@uci.edu or x45216).

Libraries Acquire Rare Thomas Mann Edition

An exciting addition to Special Collections and Archives should prove of interest to scholars and students of German literature: a very early edition of Thomas Mann’s great novella Der Tod in Venedig (Death in Venice). UCI’s copy of the “Hundertdruck” edition was purchased at auction and is number 51 of 100 copies printed. It was published in Leipzig by Hans Walter von Weber and his firm, Hyperion Verlag.

Herbert Lehnert, Research Professor of German, explains the differences between this and the first edition. The “Hundertdruck” was intended to be the first edition, but the publisher’s work was proceeding slowly. After having given the manuscript to Weber, Mann became impatient and sent a copy with revisions to chapters 1-4 to his usual publisher, S. Fischer, who published it in 1912. The “Hundertdruck” also carries a publication date of 1912, but in fact did not appear until 1913. Thus it is the earliest published version of Mann’s text, yet is not the first edition, an anomaly in publishing history.

This acquisition is an important complement to the Hans Waldmueller Collection on Thomas Mann in Special Collections and Archives, which has been an important scholarly resource for the campus since its acquisition in 1987. The collection was amassed by Mann scholar Hans Waldmueller beginning in 1929 and grew to include over 9,000 volumes. The collection provides a comprehensive survey of Mann’s work. It includes most first editions of his books, many of his publications in the original literary journals, and some correspondence and family materials. Also included are essays, works edited by Mann, translations of his works, biographical and critical studies, and voluminous German-language periodicals and articles related to Mann and his work. Treasures include first and later editions of important books such as Buddenbrooks, Der Zauberberg, Joseph und seine Brueder, Tonio Kroeger, and Der Tod in Venedig.

All are welcome to visit Special Collections and Archives to use our new Der Tod in Venedig or the Waldmueller Collection. For more information, please contact the department at (spcoll@uci.edu or x47227).

Many thanks to Dr. Lehnert for his invaluable input and to the UCI German Department for encouraging this purchase.

Create Your Own Multimedia Works in Library Computer Labs

New multmedia workstations in the Langson Library Multimedia Resources Center (MRC) and the Science Library Interactive Learning Center (ILC) enable UCI students, faculty, and staff to create and edit digital files, incorporate them into presentations or web pages, or transfer them to CDs or DVDs. Assistance will be provided to both novice and skilled users who wish to use professional quality authoring/editing software on either PC or Macintosh computers for teaching and learning.

Why provide this service? Students and faculty are increasingly interested in moving scholarly communication and instruction beyond the limits of printed or digital text. Creation of Web pages for scholarly and instructional use has become routine. Use of personal digital cameras and camcorders is becoming pervasive. To provide necessary digital content, UC libraries are expanding online resources by licensing digital image collections and by digitizing selected rare and archival materials in their print collections. The UCI Libraries are eager to assist by making available these workstations with professional digitizing and editing tools, as well as any needed assistance in using the workstations.

The ILC and MRC provide access to specialized digital resources, whether bibliographic, textual, statistical, graphic, audio or video, in the Libraries’ collections, and assist users in digitizing resources from our rich print collections as needed. Some specific capabilities of the workstations include:

• Images can be transferred from digital cameras, most common disk formats, and online collections. Photographs and other printed images, including materials from the libraries’ collections, can be scanned. Users can manipulate these images or create original digital files and animations.
  
  
• Video files can be transferred from camcorders, VCRs, most common disk formats, and the Internet. Users can edit and enhance these video segments and create soundtracks by adding narration, music, or sounds from a variety of sources.
  
  
• Image, video, and sound files can be incorporated into Web pages or multimedia programs. Completed files can be transferred to Zip disks, burned onto CDs or DVDs, or moved over the Internet.
  
  
• The workstations also have enhanced text capabilities and standard productivity tools. Text from printed sources can be scanned and converted to editable text. The scanners have optional document feeders so that multiple loose pages can be scanned automatically.
  
  
• Library staff developed these workstations to meet existing and anticipated needs of our users. We are always interested in adapting and enhancing our services to meet creative and unanticipated needs, and we encourage your feedback.
  
  

For more information or to suggest enhancements, please contact Jeff Schneidewind in the Science Library (jhschei@uci.edu or x47099) or Collette Ford in Langson Library (ccford@uci.edu or x48929).

New Electronic Resources! Digital Image Collections

Digital images have become a valuable supplement to the use of analog images—such as slides, photographs, and film—in research, preparation of lectures, and development of instructional materials for students. The Libraries now offer two new collections of such images to the UCI community for educational use, adding significant content to our campus visual resources and greatly extending access.

• The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) Library is a digital resource of over 100,000 images, with supporting documentation and related multimedia contributed by North American and British art collections. AMICO images represent a broad range of cultures, time periods, and object types. Cultures represented include ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian; Native American and Inuit; Chinese and Japanese. Coverage of time periods is comprehensive, from prehistory to the present. Objects range from illuminated manuscripts to contemporary art installations.
  
  
• Saskia Ltd. Cultural Documentation’s entire collection of 26,000 professional quality digital reproductions covers the history of Western art from the Neolithic period to the 20th century. Many works are from major European museums such as the Louvre and the Prado. Holdings of painting and sculpture are particularly strong. Architectural views and drawings, urban views, minor arts, tapestries, and frescoes are also represented, as are Asiatic works of art.

Each individual work of art is described in a complete catalog record. To access either collection, perform a title search on “amico” or “saskia” in either ANTPAC or the Melvyl online catalog. Both collections can be searched using a web browser or the downloadable Insight® Java client marketed by Luna Imaging, both of which offer sophisticated searching features. After downloading Insight® users can develop cross-collection searches of Saskia, AMICO, and other image databases offered by Luna; view the digital images fully or zoom in on details; manipulate images in various ways; and create presentations and export them as either HTML or PowerPoint files.

Access to digital images for UCI users will continue to expand, such as with the expected future addition of 30,000 images from Hartill Art Associates. Contact Rina Vecchiola, Research Librarian for Art History and Studio Art (rvecchio@uci.edu or x49872), for more information.

Libraries Acquire Records of Schonfeld Deanship

By the time Willie Schonfeld retired as Dean of the School of Social Sciences in 2002, he had accumulated twenty years of significant documentation. Upon being contacted by University Archivist Jennifer Jacobs, he quickly assented to the transfer of these records to the University Archives for permanent preservation and availability for historical research and administrative use.

The School of Social Sciences Records are the first records of an academic Dean transferred to the Archives since UCI was founded. The University Archives seeks to similarly document all of UCI’s schools, as well as academic departments, major administrative offices, the Academic Senate and other important groups, and student life. All records of UCI’s former Chancellors and many other materials are already in the Archives.

The records had been kept in a small room near the Dean’s office in six file cabinets. With the help of executive assistant Carole Nightengale, they were boxed and moved to Langson Library, where they are stored in a secure, climate-controlled room. They document decision making, accomplishments, and events of the School during the past twenty years, and, in some cases, even earlier. Most materials are correspondence and topical files recording daily activities of the Dean and his staff. In the Archives, they are available for the benefit of the institutional memory of the whole of UCI, as well as for continued access by the School itself. Any materials containing confidential information will be restricted from use for an appropriate period of time.

Academic planning is an important topic covered in such records. For example, when Schonfeld became Dean, the School had no academic departments. This was workable while the School was small, but as enrollment increased, departmentalization was necessary. The records concerning each department speak to the energy Schonfeld and his colleagues put into this structural overhaul in the mid-1980s. The origination and development of research centers such as the Center for Global Peace and Conflict Studies and the Center for the Study of Democracy also are represented. Other topics covered include budget, faculty recruitment, student affairs, and the administration of two related campus units, the Department of Education and the former Program in Comparative Culture.

For more information, or to learn more about donating your program’s records, contact University Archivist Jennifer Jacobs (jljacobs@uci.edu or x47193).

Above left: Schonfeld in a 1982 photo

Libraries Assess Students' Information Literacy Skills

In our efforts to improve library instruction, the UCI Libraries will participate with forty other academic libraries in a standardized assessment of students' ability to find, evaluate, and use information effectively, i.e. information literacy skills. Such abilities are essential to the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge, critical thinking, and life-long learning skills.

In Spring 2004 the Libraries will participate in Project SAILS (Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills), a national effort to measure and document the relationship between the acquisition of information literacy skills and student acheivement. With such a tool, academic libraries will be able to measure skills, gather national data, provide norms, compare information literacy measures with other indicators of student achievement, and determine what role, if any, information literacy plays in student success and retention. As a bonus, participants will receive reports that document the level of information literacy skills in relation to student achievement levels at their institutions.

In recent years there has been an emphasis on assessment in higher education. Approaches range from familiar practices (test performance and external program reviews), to ambitious projects such as UC’s undergraduate academic experience survey, “Student Experiences in the Research University—21st Century” (SERU21) (ishi.lib.berkeley.edu/cshe/seru21/index.html).

Our goal in participating in SAILS is that the outcomes will help us meet the challenge that all academic libraries face in attempting to measure the value they add to a student's educational experience.

For more information on SAILS, go to (www.projectsails.org) or contact Cathy Palmer, Head of Education and Outreach (cpalmer@uci.edu or x44972).

Did You Know?

You can request checkout of new library materials that are on order or have not yet been cataloged and shelved. Simply click on Request uncataloged material at the bottom of the Antpac home page (antpac.lib.uci.edu) and complete the required form. You will need your library barcode and Antpac pin number. The library will "rush" catalog this item and notify you when it is ready for pickup.

Library Users "Grade" Our Services

The chief goal of the UCI Libraries is to provide excellent service to our primary clientele: UCI’s faculty, students, and staff. To help us evaluate our level of success, we are using a nationally-endorsed survey instrument to obtain direct feedback.

During April 2003 we conducted a web-based survey of 2,700 randomly selected faculty, students, and staff to evaluate perceptions of library service quality, as announced in the Winter 2003 issue of UCI Libraries Update. The survey instrument uses 25 core questions to measure library users’ minimum, perceived, and desired levels of service. We would like to thank all who took the time to participate in the survey; we value your input highly. The response average for such a survey is about 15%, and the respondents were well representative of the overall campus population, particularly for faculty and graduate students.

Overall, respondents greatly value and appreciate library services at UCI and the people who deliver those services. Preliminary findings highlighted several particular areas of strength. Timely and efficient document delivery and interlibrary loan services are appreciated. Librarians and career staff are highly regarded for their expertise and willingness to help users. Electronic and print information resources are highly valued. Library users, especially faculty and graduate students, clearly desire more of these resources, however.

Other desired improvements include easier access from home or office to electronic resources, better tools for finding resources independently, including improvements to the website, and enhancements to our buildings as a study environment, including longer hours.

We have almost completed our analysis of the data gathered and will share both the results and our response to the survey with the University community very soon.

For additional information, contact Steve MacLeod, the project manager (smacleod@uci.edu or x44967) or Carol Ann Hughes, Associate University Librarian for Public Services (hughes @uci.edu or x49753).