Library Highlights
The University of Maryland Libraries can point with pride to a significant number of major accomplishments or milestones during the 1998 fiscal year. The following are especially noteworthy:
-
For the second consecutive year the Libraries received a significant budget increase. The increase was designated primarily for the purchase of serials and other library materials.
- Work began on the transformation of McKeldin Library from a graduate library into a central campus library serving the needs of all researchers, undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. Service Plus, a new service model and philosophy for McKeldin Library, was set in place and remodeling of the first floor of the library commenced.
- A new organizational structure was established providing for three discipline-based teams (Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences and Allied Professions, and Science and Technology) that bring together collection management, reference services, and user education to better serve the teaching and research needs of the university community.
- In a project called MdUSA (Maryland University System Access), the Libraries, together with the other 12 libraries of the University System of Maryland, joined together as a consortium to provide access to a wide variety of bibliographic and full-text databases over the Internet.
- A pilot mass deacidification project, involving 703 deteriorating books, was successfully completed as the Libraries moved decisively to deal with the problem of acidic paper found in many older books.
- The 13/WNET Arthur Godfrey Collection, an enormous special collection detailing the 50-year career of the radio and television giant, was added to the Broadcast Pioneers Library of American Broadcasting as a result of a gift from WNET, Channel 13, in New York City.
- A highly successful second annual fundraising gala, featuring the popular TV newscaster Cokie Roberts as guest speaker, drew support from some 140 Friends of the Libraries who attended the exciting event.
- The National Trust for Historic Preservation Library, a major national resource center dedicated to historic preservation, established the Charles E. Peterson Archive and Library thanks to the generosity of the Philadelphia architectural historian, restorationist and planner who donated his historic books and papers.
- The prestigious Hebrew Books from the Harvard College Library collection, considered one of the most comprehensive collections of Judaica in the world, was obtained in microfiche format as a result of generous funding received from the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies.
- The Libraries, the College of Library and Information Services, and the Computer Science Department received a Shared University Resources (SUR) grant from IBM for a digital libraries project to study multimedia data acquisition, searching and representation. thereby positioning the University of Maryland in the forefront of digital library research.
- More than 500,000 pages were microfilmed during the year as efforts intensified to preserve and provide access to the vast newspaper holdings in the Gordon W. Prange Collection containing virtually everything published in postwar Japan from 1945-49 during the Allied Occupation.
- Dean of Libraries Charles B. Lowry visited Japan in June 1998 where he met with numerous corporate, foundation, and educational leaders to discuss and promote the Prange Collection.
- A strong commitment to diversity was underscored with the wide viewing on campus and elsewhere of the Libraries-produced video, Writer's Block: Disability on Campus.
- The Music Library was renamed the Performing Arts Library as work progressed on the new Maryland Performing Arts Center which will house the library when completed in the year 2000.
- The Libraries received a $158,413 NEH grant for microfilming the Katherine Anne Porter Papers; approximately 40% of the work has been completed.
- Reengineering the organization to provide better services, the Libraries established a Planning and Administrative Services Division to provide support in the areas of Facilities, Library Publications, Friends of the Libraries, Grants, Major Gifts, Management Information Systems, Personnel and Budget, and Staff Training and Development.
- The Libraries completed the retrospective conversion of the cataloged collection and "retired" the Union Shelflist.
|
|
|
|
© 1999 University of Maryland Libraries
Last Revised: 5/20/99
|