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November 1, 2003


President Dina Schoonmaker convened the Annual Meeting of the Council of the Friends of the Oberlin College Library at 1:30 p.m. in the Goodrich Room at Mudd Center. Those in attendance were Vice President Gordon (Barry) Neavill, Secretary Nathan (Mike) Haverstock, Scott Bennett, Terry Carlton, Eric Carpenter, Carol Ganzel, Ray English, Jessica Grim, Erik Inglis, Lucy Marks, Carl Peterson, Molly Raphael, Richard Rubin, Scott Smith, Anne Trubek, and Janice Zinser.

Highlights of the meeting.

This year the Council created an ad hoc committee to broaden Friends support for the library’s special collections, provided support for a library development program in South Africa, and reviewed the progress of ongoing programs. In support of its goals the Council approved the following expenditures and allocations:

Minutes of the last meeting approved.

Following deletion of the word “Honorary” before the phrase Life Membership on page six, the Council approved the minutes of the last annual meeting on September 28, 2002.

Friends awards.

The program to recognize student excellence in the use of the library’s collections seemed to be “gathering steam,” according to Grim, who chairs the library research awards committee, which comprises Kathy Abromeit, public services librarian at the conservatory library; Haipeng Li, reference librarian; Barbara Prior, art librarian; and Janice Zinser, professor of French.

The committee, Grim said, “grappled hard” in deciding on award winners from among an increased number of applicants. In line with her committee’s recommendation the Council approved three $500 awards this year rather than the two called for in the guidelines of the program. The winning papers (which were posted on the web) were
“New Weapons in an Ancient War: Fighting Malaria with Genomics,” by Shama Cash-Goldwasser; “The Unz Initiatives and the Dangers of Direct Democracy,” by Lauren Stensland; and “Watering With Words: Children & Nature in Puritan Educational Literature,” by Shoshana Friedman.

“These three were well above the others submitted [in quality],” according to Zinser who spoke of the special “pleasure” she had taken in screening all of the entries, and also noted that the Oberlin Shansi program is considering the establishment of a somewhat similar award program for students of Asian studies.

Clara Stemwedel, class of 1999, and Dolsy Smith, 2000, split the proceeds of the Friends annual $2,500 scholarship to help Oberlin graduates to pursue advanced degrees in library science, according to Grim. Stemwedel is currently enrolled in the master of library science program at Indiana University. Smith is enrolled in the University of Michigan’s School of Information, after earning his master’s degree in creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis.

Acquisition committee

This year the committee recommended approximately $24,885 in acquisitions for the library from Friends funds, according to Smith, who provided considerable detail as to the items to be purchased in response to questions. One of them, from Schoonmaker, dealt with the acquisition of printed reference works, which might well be soon “superseded” in other, cheaper electronic forms. There was little or no prospect of this happening with respect to items on this year’s acquisitions list, according to Carpenter, though he noted that some major reference works, the Oxford English Dictionary, for example, are indeed now on line.

There was a many-faceted discussion of the committee’s modus operandi, including how it might deal with possible opportunities to acquire materials of an unusual nature, like manuscript collections, whose price tags often exceed six figures. Smith noted that the committee would solicit the Council’s approval before taking action to commit funding in excess of the budgeted annual amount of approximately $30,000. At the same time members of the Council encouraged him and the members of his committee to act with maximum flexibility -- to seek out opportunities to leverage purchases of important items, or identify possible donors of materials too expensive for the Friends budget, like manuscript collections, for example, or to recommend, as appropriate, multi-year purchases of items of exceptional value.

Discussion of Friends support for special collections.

Shortly before the approval of the list of acquisitions Bennett introduced what turned out to be a wide-ranging discussion of “how the Council thinks about its support for the special collections.” This unit of the library was poorly supported when he had arrived on the campus in 1979, according to English, and had only gradually evolved under Schoonmaker – its first part-time and later full-time employee.

In encouraging debate on this increasingly important library department, Bennett noted that “over time we [the members of the Council] seem to be buying more and more electronic materials.” These, he noted, are “very important,” and he praised the state of Ohio as a leader in sharing these and other materials electronically.
“Everyone in Ohio should take pride in the success of OhioLink.” But still, as he continued, “going forward special collections will be what distinguishes one [library] institution from another.” Bennett urged the Council to keep this in mind and adopt “a forward-looking view” in supporting special collections.

According to his figures this past year the Friends supplied $6,000 for special collections or “more than half” of the $8,000 provided within the overall library budget for this department. Given the importance of the Friends contribution, Bennett suggested that the Council “try to identify a reasonable target for special collections [acquisitions],” that it use its funds as leverage to get there, and that the Council “shift from thinking about [acquiring] individual titles to working on the underlying financial viability of the whole [special collections] enterprise.”

Inglis noted that over the years there has been increased use of the special collections. Perhaps it was time for the Friends, he suggested, to consider using their support for a permanent endowment for this library activity, though, as English later pointed out, the college only initiates new endowments of $10,000 or more.

As the discussion of special collections developed, Neavill cautioned that the Council should not lose sight of its primary mission, which is providing support for college curriculum. Trubek said that faculty should be urged to revise their curricula to take into account the resources of the special collections. Zinser recalled how she had taken a class of 17 students to special collections, to find that not one of them had been there previously on their own. She mentioned that Ed Vermue, the head of this department, “is eager to do a course on special collections.”

Smith observed that the Council regularly sets aside $3,000 for special collections in advance of the coming year, enabling that department to make “a quick response” in acquiring new materials. Bennett suggested that the Council might grant this $3,000 directly to Vermue to stimulate faculty interest in the use of the collection he maintains. This suggestion generated discussion as to the possible modalities Vermue might employ for this purpose. Inglis suggested the allocation of $500 per year to two faculty members for some project integrating special collections and curriculum, with another $1,000 set aside for an acquisition related to each project.

Ad hoc committee on special collections.

Following lively discussion of several other alternatives there was a consensus that the Council should earmark $3,000 per year over the next three years to enhance its support for special collections. Drawing upon her powers as Council president, Schoonmaker appointed an ad hoc Council committee on special collections to delve further into the matter. The new group, tagged “the $3,000 committee,” will comprise Bennett, Inglis, Neavill, and Trubek, with English and Vermue serving in ex officio capacities. The committee is to report back with its recommendations at the next annual meeting in September 2004.
Program committee.

Trubek reported that it was “another successful year” for Friends programs. By and large they were well attended, especially one marking the installation of artwork by Nanette Carter, class of 1976, near the main entrance to the library. Several Friends programs, she noted, had represented collaborations between the college library and the Oberlin Public Library.

Membership committee.

Rubin noted that he had had no time, owing to his involvement as the interim director of the new Library and Information Sciences department at Kent State University, to devote to committee activities. The $10,000 the Council had earmarked at its last annual meeting for a promotional brochure thus remained unspent.

Carlton noted that efforts to recruit more members from Oberlin College active faculty had produced poor results, although, to accent the positive, many emeritus faculty are active in Friends activities. Zinser interjected that perhaps the timing was bad, as faculty was in the midst of budget cuts.

There was discussion of the possibility of using the reception for faculty authors, scheduled for December 6, 2003, as a tool in recruiting active faculty members. Inglis suggested the possibility of holding two such receptions annually, one honoring authors of books, the other all of the other sorts of materials produced by Oberlin faculty, which the library collects. Trubek added that the faculty-author receptions were “good for students, too,” enabling them to become acquainted with their professors scholarly work.

Carlton noted that due to a persistent flaw in the Friends database, it is difficult precisely to calculate the number of student members (whose dues are $2) and recent graduate members (whose dues are $5). Making comparisons from one year to the next was further handicapped by recent calendar variations in the dates of annual Council meetings.

Financial report.

English reported that the finances of the Friends organization were in good shape. Entering the coming year, the group had a healthy balance of approximately $37,000 – more than enough to cover all of its obligations. This includes the $10,000 in funds set aside for a promotional brochure, which remained unspent. By raising the cost of the annual dinner slightly (from $20 to $22), English also said he hoped the Friends outlay for this event would be in the black this year, by contrast with years past.

World Library Partnership.

During the year several Council members met for lunch with Laura Wendell of the World Library Partnership (WLP), a person-to-person program aimed at teaching schools and communities in poor neighborhoods of South Africa how to collect, create and use information in innovative ways that promote learning and development at all levels. Before and after the luncheon there was a considerable volume of exchanges via e-mail among Council members as to the pros and cons of becoming involved in supporting such a project.
At its meeting the Council discussed the possibility of earmarking Friends funds to pay for the winter-term participation of one deserving Oberlin student with the WLP program. In the end this suggestion, seen as possibly complicating the life of WLP administrators, gave way to the approval of a one-time Friends donation to the program in the amount of $3,000.

According to English, this raises the total of the money provided by Oberlin sources for the WLP program to $10,000. In view of this local involvement in the program Zinser expressed the hope that students participating in the program can be prevailed upon after their return to participate in a Friends-sponsored program to describe their experiences.

Life membership.

The Council approved by acclamation the award of a Life Membership to Lucy Marks, class of 1976. Marks, who is a rare book cataloguer at Drew University, has served for several years on the library’s visiting committee as well as on the Friends Council. She has made several generous gifts to the library, including a multi-year pledge to create an endowment for the purchase of materials for the special collections, English and Classics departments.
Election of Council members and officers.

Those present at the meeting, acting as the Friends membership, approved by consensus the nominations to terms on the Council ending in 2006 of four people, as follows: Anne Trubek, Daniel Goulding, William Roe, and Wendy Wasman. The Council approved in similar fashion the reelections of the following officers for 2003-2004: Dina Schoonmaker, president; Gordon (Barry) Neavill, vice president, and Nathan (Mike) Haverstock, secretary.

Committee members.

Schoonmaker announced that the composition of Friends committees for the coming year is as follows:

Acquisitions Committee – Scott Smith (chair). Carol Ganzel, Bob Jackson, Ruth Hughes, Lucy Marks, Dina Schoonmaker, Janice Zinser, Eric Carpenter (ex officio) and Ed Vermue (ex officio).

Membership Committee – Richard Rubin, Scott Bennett, Dan Goulding, Erik Inglis, Bill Roe, Dina Schoonmaker, and Ray English (ex officio).

Nominating Committee – Janice Zinser (chair), Dina Schoonmaker, and Ray English (ex officio).

Program Committee – Anne Trubek (chair), Carol Ganzel, Barry Neavill, Dina Schoonmaker, and Ray English (ex officio).

Vote of thanks.

Schoonmaker expressed the Council’s appreciation to the three members who are ending their service: Terry Carlton, Carl Peterson, and Molly Raphael, before adjourning the meeting amid a round of hearty applause.

Respectfully submitted by Nathan A. Haverstock, November 11, 2003



Last updated:
August 29, 2006
  
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