CUL NEWSLETTER

February 2003

Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University

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CALENDAR | OPPORTUNITIES | DIVISION NEWS | STAFF NEWS

EXHIBITS & PROGRAMS | LIGHTER SIDE


CALENDAR

DIRECTOR'S TEA/ Thursday, February 6; 3:00pm; DeGolyer Library Texana Room
DeGolyer Cookbook Collection Presentation/ Tuesday February 18, 2003, 2:00pm  DeGolyer Library Texana Room

Cammie Vitale Shuman will do a short slide presentation.  Refreshments will be provided

BOOK CLUB/ Thursday February 20; 7:00pm, Meadows Museum

Co-Sponsored by the SMU Friends of The Library and the Meadows Museum

Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto

Cost: $5 per book club meeting; $2.50 each for Friends and museum members

Info: Call Judy at 214-768-3225 or Lisa at 214-768-2516.

OPPORTUNITIES

FUTURE DIRECTOR'S TEAS
  • Friday March 21, 10:00am Bonnelli Conference Room; Meadows School
    • Staff Service Awards will be presented.
  • May (TBA)
    • SMU Library Staff Recognition Awards will be presented. 
SAVE THE DATE FOR TABLES OF CONTENT

Saturday, April 5, 2003

Invitational brochures will be sent in March.

Table Hosts for 2003 are:

Anne and Alan Bromberg

Lee Cullum

Ron Davis

John Gage

Richard Haddaway

Elizabeth Forsyth Hailey

Bonnie and Lou Jacobs

Cal Jillson

Dian Malouf

Judy Mohraz

Jasper Neel

Douglas Newby

Rose Mary Rumbley

Laurie Shulman

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

The Friends of the SMU Libraries is joining with the Meadows Museum to co-sponsor a book club that will explore literary works connected to the museum’s renowned collection of Spanish art. The group will meet once a month on a Thursday evening at 7 p.m.

Dates:

  • Feb. 20 (Book: Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi by Donald Spoto)
  • Mar. 20 (Book: Collected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca)
  • Apr. 24 (Book: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton De Trevino)
  • May 8 (Book: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges)

Where: Meadows Museum, 5900 Bishop Blvd. on the SMU campus

Cost: $5 per book club meeting; $2.50 each for Friends and museum members

Info: Call Judy at 214-768-3225 or Lisa at 214-768-2516.

DIVISION NEWS

OFFICE APPLICATIONS IN FLC REFERENCE 

Microsoft Office Applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) are now loaded on all public PCs on the first floor FLC Reference Room for the start of the Spring 2003 semester. The FLC Reference User Services Team has worked hard to provide SMU students, staff, and faculty with the computer lab tools and printing to complete their research and coursework within the library. Expertise on these applications still lies with ACS and what we have placed on the reference room computers in no way substitutes for that expertise. It is a convenience for users already in the library.

Erika Ripley, Sandra Setnick, Amy Turner and Beth Walker (members of the RUST Team) planned and implemented this new service while working double shifts at reference and managing all their other responsibilities. Amy Turner, Coordinator of the RUST Team, has done an exemplary job organizing the PC loads in a short period of time while keeping the library users and other stakeholders informed as to the progress of the project. Brad Wehring and Andy Maupin of CULISS have been invaluable in testing and loading the applications. Mary Queyrouze and the Systems Office lent their support throughout the semester for the project so that it could be accomplished in record time. Credit also goes to Geailya Armour who went "above and beyond" by entering the orders for the Microsoft Office application user manuals and personally going to the bookstore when the shipment was delayed to insure that the printed materials were cataloged and available to users.

Thanks to all involved and congratulations on a job well done.

CHANGES IN PONI

Some changes have been made today to the PONI user interface to improve consistency and the quality of results.

1) Keyword/Relevance is no longer the default search. While it is still available as an option on the Basic Search screen, title searching has returned as the default search. Keyword/Relevance was originally made the default search in the hopes that it would reduce the frequency of users getting "No Records Found" as a search result and provide a familiar search engine for web-savvy users of our library catalog; however, the current keyword relevance search tends to produce unacceptably unfocused results.

2) The summary field (520) has been added to the Brief Record display.

3) For consistency, the display label for LC Subjects reads "Subject Headings" to match the name of the Subject Heading Search.

4) The name of the subject search has been changed to "Subject Heading" for consistency and to make it clearer to the user that the Subject search is not a subject keyword search.

STAFF NEWS

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Friday, February 7--Carol Baker FLC Public Services
Saturday, February 8-- Kris Reed CIP
Thursday, February 13-- Carrie Esch FLC Reference Services
Thursday, February 20-- Ruthann Swanson CIP

January 19th, Tim Esch, Carrie's husband, received the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his service in the army this past year.
Brad Wehring will be having a Qualifying MFA Exhibition at the Cora Stafford Gallery at the University of North Texas. The exhibit is from February 17th - 21st.
NEW ARRIVALS!

Jan Buford is proud to announce the arrival of her new twin grandchildren.  Arden Carlyle Alice Eiland (5 lbs. 2 oz. 19" long) and Race Aston Eiland (5 lbs. 12 oz.  19 1/4" long) were born on January 28th, 2003 in Newport Beach, California.  

Beth Farmer, CIP, has taken disability leave from the University due to health reasons. She is recuperating at home at this time.
CONGRATS! 

Joseph Milazzo has been hired as the new Government Information Resources and Maps Librarian. Joseph is a recent MLS graduate of the University of North Texas and an alumni of SMU. He began his tenure here in CUL in June 1990 as the Courier. He has also worked in the Center for Information Processing as an Library Specialist III where he first contributed to the creation of a World Wide Web-based exhibition of historic documents from World War II. Since March 2000, Joseph has assisted patrons and processed materials in the Fondren GIRM department as an Library Specialist IV while also being a freelance contributor to the "Books Page" of the Dallas Morning News.

Missy Collins, the Dean's office, was a winner in a national juried photography competition sponsored by the Washington National Cathedral. Her photograph won in the "Peace and Contemplation" category. Her work will be on display in the exhibit "Seeing the Light: reflections of the spiritual" at the National Cathedral from February 9 through June 2003.
AS PROMISED

Here are the photos of Skye Marie Leamy.

    

EXHIBITS & PROGRAMS

An exhibit for the Shuler Museum will be put up in the display cases in the Fondren Library Center Lobby, in late through Mid March. It will highlight the fine Paleontology program we have at SMU. Included in the display will be information on the development of the paleontology program, and current research and information on the scholars and graduate students associated with the program.

LIGHTER SIDE

According to the 2003 Chase's Calendar of Events February is:

 

American Heart Month

Bake for Family Fun Month

National Bird Feeding Month

National Caffeine Addiction Awareness Month

National Cherry Month

2nd-8th Get Paid to Shop Week

6th  Pay a Compliment Day

9th-15th International Flirting Week

15th National Sea Monkey Day

17th My Way Day

24th-28th Read Me Week

Who reads the Dallas Morning News (contributed by CUL employees)
  •  Those [few] people who DO run the country because of their close association with certain people in Washington.
  • Masochistic football fans.

Can you imagine working for a company that has more than 500 employees and has the following statistics?

·  29 have been accused of spousal abuse

·  7 have been arrested for fraud

·  19 have been accused of writing bad checks

·  117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

·  3 have done time for assault

·  71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

·  14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

·  8 have been arrested for shoplifting

·  21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

·  84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

 

Can you guess which organization this is?

 

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

 

The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.  

VALENTINE'S DAY LINKS

http://www.techdirect.com/valentine/origin.html 
http://grove.ufl.edu/~leo/val.html   
http://www.soundvision.com/Info/valentine/history.asp 
http://www.ubalt.edu/compsoc/love.html 

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING FUN TO DO ON VALENTINE'S DAY?

http://www.guidelive.com/feature/146/

 

Central University Libraries, Southern Methodist University

Page author: Theresa Van Goethem Meyers