Library News

Syracuse University Library and the National Plastics Center in Leominster, Massachusetts have signed a memorandum of understanding transferring the Center’s collection to the SU Library. This action creates the “National Plastics Center at Syracuse University.”

Founded in 1982, the National Plastics Center and Museum has amassed one of the nation’s largest private collections of artifacts, books, and papers related to the history and use of plastics. The Center moved the collection to Syracuse University to increase its use. “We’re delighted to partner with Syracuse University Library to make our rich collections more accessible to students and scholars,” said G. Watts Humphrey, Jr., chairman of the National Plastics Center’s board of directors.

Syracuse University Dean of Libraries Suzanne Thorin commented, “When coupled with SU’s interdisciplinary curriculum, these resources will bring history to life by demonstrating how integral plastics are to modernity.”

As a result of this new partnership, SU Library will make available to faculty, students and researchers:
- Nearly 3,000 books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and industry publications
- Papers, business records, and manuscripts from plastics companies, plastics-industry entrepreneurs, and members of the Plastics Hall of Fame, including the records of Union Products, maker of the iconic pink flamingo lawn ornament
- Thousands of artifacts, including molds and machinery, fine art, toys, car parts, medical devices, housewares, and jewelry.

The artifacts in the collection include objects made of natural plastics such as horn, ivory, and tortoiseshell, semi-synthetic plastics including celluloid, and fully synthetic objects including those made of the first synthetic plastic, Bakelite®.

The collection has potential connections to the university’s curriculum in a number of areas, including chemistry, chemical engineering, industrial design, history, environmental science, and entrepreneurship. For example, a women’s studies class might consider the role of the Tupperware party in shaping postwar, American gender relations.

Scheduled to arrive in Syracuse in December 2008, the collection will be available for teaching and research in early 2009 through the Library’s Special Collections Research Center. Syracuse University welcomes additional contributions of rare or historically significant books, periodicals, and artifacts, as well as financial support to curate and promote this collection.

For more information, contact Sean Quimby, Director of the Library’s Special Collections Research Center, at (315) 443–9769 or smquimby@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 9:22 AM | Permalink

In partnership with ITS, the Library now provides information about the availability of public workstations on the Web. The URL to the system is http://surelock.syr.edu/LIB/. On the left of the page is a listing of the locations of library public workstations. Select a location to see which workstations are available in that area. To ensure up-to-date information, be sure to press the F5 key occasionally to refresh the display. A legend is provided.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 1:58 PM | Permalink

Effective January 1, 2009, the Syracuse University Library has added nearly 350 online journals to its already extensive holdings. The journals, which span numerous disciplines, are all published by Sage Publications, a respected publisher of academic titles. The library was already purchasing about 150 Sage journals and, with this addition, now makes available all of Sage’s titles. Access to the entire collection from 1999–present is provided through one easily searchable platform.

Especially important to Syracuse University librarians and researchers is the interdisciplinary nature of many of Sage’s titles. With the addition of these titles, the library has increased its support for emerging areas of excellence at SU, including materials science, health sciences, environmental sciences, air quality, hospitality and sports management, engineering and sustainability. A sampling of new titles includes: Journal of Bioactive and Compatible Polymers, Journal of Thermoplastic Composite Materials, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, Lighting Research & Technology, Environment and Urbanization, Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, Autism, Chronic Illness, Modern China, Simulation and Gaming, Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, and the Journal of Sports Economics.

The campus community is welcome to explore all of the new titles by discipline (http://www.sagepub.com/journals.nav, left side of page) or by title (http://www.sagepub.com/journalsIndex.nav).

Normally, adding 350 journal titles at one time at full market cost would be fiscally challenging, if not impossible, for most research libraries. However, this large increase was made possible by the library’s participation in the Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO). WALDO is a nonprofit library consortium that procures online content for its members at reasonable costs by leveraging their collective negotiating power. Currently, WALDO includes 450 academic libraries, 325 public libraries and 155 hospital libraries in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

As an example of the impact of group purchasing, annual subscriptions to the 19 materials science journals included in this package would have cost the SU Library about $33,000 per year. However, SU’s consortial price to add all 350 titles (in addition to the base cost for the current 150 titles) is about half that amount annually.

By pursuing innovative strategies like this to purchase or lease online content at substantial savings, the SU Library not only stretches its dollars, but reaffirms its commitment to simultaneously providing the maximum amount of scholarly material and the highest quality journals to SU students, faculty and researchers.

For more information or assistance with Sage e-journals, contact Scott Warren at 443-8339 or sawarr01@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 3:25 PM | Permalink

Syracuse University Library recently received the personal book collection of Khalil I. Semaan, professor emeritus of Arabic at Binghamton University. Semaan’s gift consists of about 3,000 items and constitutes his personal research library collected over a period of more than 40 years. The extensive collection provides a strong core of research support for SU’s developing Middle Eastern Studies Program.

The collection reflects Semaan’s particular interest in the study of the Middle East, Arabic and Islamic culture and history. Additional subject coverage includes the Crusades, medieval history (Middle East and Europe), linguistics, politics, economics, modern history and development. Consisting primarily of 20th-century items, the gift includes many seminal works in Arabic, English, French and German; significant runs of several periodical titles; and a number of items in Spanish, Persian and Hebrew. A particular strength of the collection is the number of works by modern and contemporary Arab literary writers.

“Professor Semaan’s gift represents the largest donation of books related to the Middle East in the University’s history and will help us improve our collection in the vernacular languages of this important region,” says Mehrzad Boroujerdi, founding director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at SU.

“Professor Semaan was particularly gratified for his collection to go to Syracuse University Library, in the knowledge that it would make a real contribution to the development of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies there,” says Ali Houissa, Middle East and Islamic studies librarian at Cornell University, who, along with Gurnek Singh, Asian studies librarian at SU Library (now retired), met with Semaan and conducted an on-site evaluation of the collection.

For more information on this collection, contact Martha Hanson, social sciences and area studies bibliographer, at 443-1947 or mjhanson@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 2:43 PM | Permalink