Friends of the Library
Minutes of the Spring Meeting
March 31, 2006
The Spring Friends of the Library Meeting activities began on 31 March 2006 at 3 PM in the Browsing Room of the Library. Joe Malloy presented the Nicole Basbanes '04 Book Collecting Contest winners. Third place ($100) was presented to Katie Vaughan '06 on her collection of Etiquette, second place ($200) was presented to Kerry Buxton '06 on her collection of Feminism and first place ($300) was presented to Cara Cherry '06 for her collection of 19th Century British Literature.
Chairman, Ann Reams '42 convened the Spring Business Meeting of the Friends of the Library in the Browsing Room of the Library on 31 March 2006 at 4 PM. Those present were: Greg & Edna Armstrong, Nancy Baldwin '57, Mary Brugh '57, Bettye '62 & Al Çhambers, Rosco & Brenda Fitts, Connor Forren, Dorothea Fuller '53, John Goulde, Adelaide Hapala, Karen Hyde '54, Allen Huszti, Lisa Johnston, John Jaffe, Liz Kent, Joyce Kramar, Lloyd & Elizabeth Lipscomb `59, Anne Richards '84, Joe & Martha Malloy, John & Bonnie Marsh, Stephen & Sigrid Mirabella, Jessicca & Alex Newmark, Peggy Anne Rogers, Ro Putz `87, Karliana Sakas '06, Margaret Stanton and Dick Wills.
John Jaffe introduced Karliana Sakas '06 a McVea Scholar. The McVea scholars are the top students at the college and are also members of the Friends of Library.
Minutes
The minutes of the Fall Meeting (2005) of the Friends of the Library were approved as submitted.
Membership Committee Report
Connor Forren, Director of Development Communications gave the membership report. Ms. Forren reported that as of March 30, 2006 the Friends had 112 members with a total dollar amount of $7,688.00. Joyce Kramar reported that, today-the 31st, we have added two new members and can increase the amount by $150. Last year at this time we only had 96 members and a total dollar amount of $5,755.00. This represents a 17% increase of membership so far this year and an increase of 34% in revenue for the Friends of the Library. Another solicitation is planned and it will appeal to past members to renew their membership and also to increase their level of support.
Needs Committee Report
Lisa Johnston, Chairman of the Needs Committee, gave the Needs Committee Report. $7,764.31 was approved from the different faculty requests. The departments that received funds included English, Engineering, Biology, Environmental Studies, Classical Studies, the German Department, the Italian Department, Philosophy, Religion, Sociology and Studio Arts. Two DVDs were added for the German Department. The DVDS are Volumes 1 & 2 of Heimat a very famous German film that other departments will be also interested in.
Dr. Goulde asked if we had more requests this year than normal. Ms. Johnston reported that we did not necessarily have more requests, but that the requests were more expensive.
Mrs. Reams wanted to know if there were more requests for media than before. Ms. Johnston replied that there were not that many. After reviewing the Needs Requests the Friends approved the purchase of these items.
Finance Committee Report
Dr. John Goulde, Chairman of the Finance Committee gave the finance report. He proposed that we keep the same budget this year that we had for the last fiscal year. Dr. Goulde also mentioned that the last page of the financial report contains information on the Friends of Library Endowment Funds.
Mrs. Reams responded with a question to Mr. Jaffe in regards to the endowment. He stated that there are about eight endowments that yield money every year that help build a base for the book budget and the Friends Endowment is one of the larger ones. He also stated that books costs have increased dramatically which also decreases the purchasing power of the library's budget. Mr. Jaffe stated that academic journal costs have risen over 300% in the last eleven and half years.
Mr. Jaffe remarked that the library is now purchasing online reference books like ones published by the Oxford University Press. He stated that we pay a small fee each year to have them available to everybody on and off campus. We are also able to get the electronic Oxford University Press journals for 95% less than what the print journals would cost. That saves us shelf space and makes them accessible to many more people.
Events Committee Report
Joe Malloy of the Events Committee, reported that the fall meeting of the Friends would be Oct. 27, 2006. The Friends of Art will determine Spring 2007 meeting date and program.
Mr. Jaffe gave brief biographical details on Dean James our speaker for the evening.
He also commented that retiring Professor, Allen Huszti, was interviewed by the Sweet Briar News. Mr. Huszti was asked what he would like to say to his students on his departure from active teaching at the college and he said, “I think you should all join the Friends of the Library”. The Friends were in complete agreement of Professor Huszti's comment.
Old Business
There was no old business.
New Business
Mrs. Reams reminded the Friends to please let Mr. Malloy know if we had any ideas on speakers for future meetings. He would be delighted to receive suggestions.
Mr. Jaffe gave a report on the library. Following are some of the highlights:
The National Endowment for the Arts was closing its library and Kelli Rogowski '99 who works for the NEA contacted Sweet Briar about the collection. We received 4800 volumes from the NEA including some marvelous art history books. The books are in storage and are being processed. The NEA is in the process of writing up the publicity for the gift.
The library has instituted a couple of systems this year: One is a new automated Interlibrary Loan System - ILLIAD - that will make it easier for students and faculty, community members to request materials that are not in our collections; and the other will allow students, faculty, community members to access the electronic resources of the college, from a remote location with a SBC password.
Miss Reams was interested to know if a database could be opened for Friends or Alumnae and Mr. Jaffe replied that it could be done but the cost is pretty substantial. There are some discussions going on with the state and the consortiums to see what that might cost. The state of Virginia actually pays for every citizen to get access to many of these databases through their public libraries.
Staff Reports
Associate Professor Liz Kent has created, developed and maintains a database “Gifts of Speech” which is a database of speeches by women. Ms. Kent was interviewed on Voice of America about the site. Ms. Kent said that Voice of America had picked us as one of the women's history sites that they wanted to highlight for Women's History Month (March, 2006).
Professor Lisa Johnston has been appointed to the Sophie Brodie Medal Award Committee of the American Library Association. Started in 2006, the Sophie Brodie Medal Award is for new Jewish literature.
Associate Professor Joe Malloy reported that the VIVA-ILL forum, in which he is a committee member, would return to SBC for its annual conference in July. VIVA stands for the Virtual Library of Virginia and it is the statewide consortium of public and private Academic libraries. About 110 Interlibrary Loan librarians will attend the forum.
Mr. John Jaffe recognized the following staff members:
Shirley Reid was written up in the Daily Advance in the newspaper's Central Virginia's People series.
Ms. Anne Richards was also interviewed in the Sweet Briar News and made a presentation to the local Rotary Club on her work with miniatures.
Mr. Jaffe reported on the renovations and expansions to the library. He hopes that work will begin in the fall.
Mrs. Reams requested that Mr. Jaffe give some details on the possible expansion or renovations. Mr. Jaffe responded that at this time we are not sure just what will be done. The college will not move forward until there is at least 80% of the money needed is in hand. We have significant funds pledged but we need monies in hand that will enable us to do the renovation and restoration. He remarked that they will start discussions in late May and bring some architects in to deal with those issues.
Mr. Jaffe gave a brief summary of the history of Sweet Briar College Libraries.
The small frame building across the street was actually the first library. Before that, the library was in a room next door then up until the 1920s it was in the small frame structure. In the 1920s they planned a campaign and in 1927 this library was opened. Designed by Ralph Adams Cram this was the last major work on the library until the 1960's. In 1962 the library was totally out of space and they were doing expansions around campus. Two new buildings were being built - The Mary Reynolds Babcock Fine Arts Center and the Connie M. Guion Science Center. It was determined that we could move things out of the main library and create branch libraries in each building. So an art history library, music library, studio art library and a science library were created in those facilities. The Dana Wing was also added to the Mary Helen Cochran Library in 1967. The two art branches existed until late 1970s when the fine arts and studio arts library were merged together. In recent years we have closed all but the music library and merged those collections into the main library. All of the bound journals, microforms and old sets of books were moved to the Wick storage building which increases our capacity by about 200,000 volumes. In the old art history library, we created a new rare books and archives library which is much more environmentally controlled.
The meeting was adjourned. |
