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October 30, 2004


President Dina Schoonmaker convened the Annual Meeting of the Council of the Friends of the Oberlin College Library at 1:33 p.m. in the Goodrich Room at Mudd Center. Those in attendance were Vice President Gordon (Barry) Neavill, Secretary Nathan (Mike) Haverstock, Scott Bennett, Eric Carpenter, Carol Ganzel, Ray English, Daniel Goulding, Grace Hammond, Lucy Marks, Richard Rubin, Scott Smith, Ed Vermue, Wendy Wasman, and Janice Zinser.

Highlights of the meeting.

This year the Council approved:

Minutes of the last meeting approved.

Three corrections and several clarifications, as follows, were made to the minutes of the last meeting prior to their approval.

On page 1, the date was corrected to read September 28 and the phrase “to broaden Friends support of the library’s special collections” was changed to read “to consider broadening Friends support for the library’s special collections.” Under highlights the phrase “the setting aside of $3,000 annually for a period of three years for the enhancement of the library’s special collections” was changed to read “the setting aside of $3,000 annually for a period of three years for the library’s special collections.”

On page 4, the date at the end of the first paragraph was corrected to read October 2004 and the phrase “should earmark $3,000 per year over the next three years to enhance support for special collections” was changed to “should consider earmarking $3,000 over the next three years for support to enhance its special collections.”

Finally, on page 5 the phrase “Lucy Marks, class of 1976” was corrected to read “Lucy Marks, class of 1973.”

Student Research Awards.

Janice Zinser, committee chair, reported that this year six papers were nominated by faculty members for consideration by the committee – the same number as last year. “They were a delight to read,” said Zinser, in announcing that the two winners, who will each receive a $500 cash award from the Friends for excellence in using the library’s collections, were: “Geographical Illustrations: The Popular Atlas and the Internationalization of Walt Whitman” by Joel Heller and “The Pulverized Poetic: A Literary Exploration of Spices in Colonial America” by Caitlin Cardina.

In answer to a question she emphasized that the “scientific” correctness of papers was the responsibility of faculty submitting the papers for consideration. This left to herself and the reference librarians, who acted as judges, the task of ranking the “creativity” of students in their use of library facilities and collections. Finally, Zinser noted that Jessica Grim has removed herself from evaluating submissions to carry out administrative functions within the committee.

Friends scholarship.

This year Jesse Lanz was awarded the third annual Friends of the library scholarship, which has a value of $2,500. Lanz, who graduated with high honors from Oberlin with a double major in history and psychology in 2000, began his graduate studies in the fall of 2004 at Kent State University. While at Oberlin he worked in preservation. At Kent he has set his sights on a career in academic libraries.

Mike Haverstock suggested that the Friends might title their scholarship to honor Oberlin librarians of the past, perhaps beginning with William A. Moffett or Azariah Root. There was a consensus that this would be a good idea, and as Haverstock suggested, might even encourage people to consider endowing additional Friends scholarships. Haverstock, Scott Bennett, and Ray English agreed to serve on a committee to explore this possibility, which will report at our next meeting.

Acquisition committee.

The acquisitions committee, chaired by Scott Smith, recommended to the Council the expenditure of $25,193 to purchase materials for the Oberlin College Library system. To stay within budgetary limits the committee had to pare some titles from a larger list, Smith noted, though the library picked up some of the slack by buying some of the eliminated titles out of its regular acquisitions funds.

There was an extraordinary range in the kinds of materials on this year’s acquisitions “shopping list.” To cite a few examples, Friends funds will be used to purchase an old style hand paper mold that will enable Special Collections “to demonstrate to classes very concretely how the shadows of chain lines, laid lines, watermarks and deckle edges made their way into old handmade paper.”

To support teaching and research in the College’s Anthropology Department, the library will acquire two “definitive facsimiles of the ancient accordion fold books created hundreds of years ago by Maya scribes.” The originals of these facsimiles, which also include a commentary in German, are housed in the Landesbibliothek in Dresden.

In response to the recommendation of a musicology professor at the Conservatory, the Friends are also acquiring a facsimile of the Arundel Choirbook, a work that will “serve as an excellent example to demonstrate notational configuration to those studying the performance practice of the period” of its compiler, 1464-1521.

In response to faculty suggestions, the Friends will pay slightly less than half the cost for a one-time permanent license fee to obtain access to an important electronic resource. This will enable students and faculty to search through early American newspapers (1690-1875) and peruse “cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images.”

Friends funds will also buy several major reference works. Among them are the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a 60-volume work published in 2004, and two works recommended by the Chemistry Department -- an encyclopedia of chemical technology, and a five-volume dictionary of inorganic compounds.

Richard Rubin suggested the library sponsor occasional exhibitions and talks, featuring items acquired with Friends funds.

Lucy Marks suggested that it might be useful to have a representative from the Conservatory on the acquisitions committee. Schoonmaker noted that as David Boe, Conservatory dean, will be joining the Council next year, perhaps he might be the ideal person to fill that role.

Marks also inquired as to whether facsimiles of musical scores were used by Conservatory people in actual performances. Eric Carpenter explained that while music facsimiles are “much used” in musicology classes and a valuable adjunct to such Oberlin programs as the summer Baroque Institute, his impression was that they are not used much in live performances.

The talk of music elicited several thoughts as to ways the Friends might draw on the talents of the Conservatory. Scott Bennett suggested that the Friends Council consider sponsoring a live musical performance at some future annual banquet instead of a talk. There was also discussion of several possible venues for Friends-sponsored performances during the academic year, featuring original works by Oberlin composers.

Program committee.

Carol Ganzel reviewed Friends-sponsored programs of the previous year. The suggestion was made that one of them, “A Walking Tour of Oberlin War Monuments” by Erik Inglis of the Art Department was of sufficient interest within the context of Oberlin’s local history that the Friends Council might consider publishing it in pamphlet form. Schoonmaker suggested looking into this possibility, perhaps jointly with the Oberlin Historical and Improvement Organization (OHIO), or, as Ganzel added, with the City of Oberlin’s own Committee on Historic Preservation.

There followed a discussion of possible speakers for Friends activities in the coming year and Friends-sponsored events. It was observed that while the reception for Oberlin authors of two years ago was lively and well attended, the reception last year was not. In light of this Dan Goulding suggested that such an affair might be held only biennially and that more precise criteria should be developed on eligibility for inclusion of works featured at the reception.

“The reception should probably be open only to authors of ‘major publications,’” he said, though he recognized the difficulty inherent in defining this phrase. Bennett suggested that thought be given to how the Friends might provide recognition to “scientific endeavors,” projects that might involve undergraduate research associates and employ the library’s collections, including those that result only in the publication of an article in a periodical.

There was a consensus that the reception should be limited to those who have produced printed materials that reflect those that are housed in the library. Those who produce works in other media, works of art, for example, should be encouraged to organize their own venues for their display.

For the guidance of the Council, Schoonmaker described the rationale that went into the planning of the first and very successful authors reception. The committee she headed for that event, she said, embraced “inclusiveness” in inviting people in the College community to submit their works. This meant that to a large extent, she continued, the authors who figured in that reception were “self-selecting,” people who had merely responded to the Friends invitation.

In some instances this resulted in the display of Oberlin-authored short stories, which figured in larger collections published in book form. It also resulted in the inclusion of some articles that had appeared only in periodicals.

She urged that while our discussion should be called to the attention of those on the program committee, who are charged with realizing the next authors reception, “we should leave it up to them to devise criteria,” rather than force the program committee to adopt criteria which might not prove either expedient or practical.

Finally as to programs, the poor attendance at the last Friends-sponsored event held on Commencement Weekend was duly noted. One reason for this was the preemption of the appointed hour and date -- after the Friends had worked out their own schedule -- by other events at a crowded moment in the academic calendar. The program committee was urged to take this into account in the future.

Membership committee.

Bennett delivered the report of the membership committee. The figures for recent years show that membership levels and the total amount contributed to the Friends have remained steady. The Friends had 708 members in 2003-04 and $40,655 was contributed, approximately the same as in the previous year. “Good news,” he observed, “for those who like steadiness, bad news for those who like growth.”

To spur growth he stressed the need “the better to inform ourselves about our members,” and based on a more precise membership profile the need to develop a marketing strategy, “once we know what attracts members.” As part of this process
Bennett also urged study of the newsletter, Library Perspectives, to see if it is an effective tool in promoting membership.

Other suggestions on building membership included making an effort to reach out for possible support from businesses in Oberlin, the creation of a special challenge fund, or an initiative aimed at garnering more support from residents of Kendal at Oberlin.

Schoonmaker noted that at past Council meetings there were discussions of the possibility of sponsoring Friends events outside of Oberlin, in New York or Washington, D.C., for example, to target large aggregations of alumni. Rubin noted that at Kent State University, the friends of the library “are focusing their efforts almost exclusively on developing external support.”

$3,000 committee.

Bennett presented the report of the $3,000 committee, which the Council formed last year to consider ways to enhance the involvement of students and faculty with special collections. The report of the committee, Bennett said, complimented the trend within the Friends Council in recent years to devote increasingly more support for the special collections and to come up with ways to deepen the interaction of faculty, students and the library – a process he called “triangulation.”

“Through its library, Oberlin College provides an extraordinarily information-rich environment for teaching and learning,” according to the committee report, which singled out “special collections as one aspect of that environment whose potential contribution to excellent teaching and learning may not yet be fully realized.”

To help rectify this, the Council approved the committee’s recommendation for “a three-year-trial program,” at a cost of $3,000 annually. These funds will “encourage Oberlin faculty to design new courses or recast existing courses to include a sustained use of special collections available in the Art and Conservatory libraries as well as in the Mudd Library.”

Special Collections committee.

In accord with the guidelines presented by the above-mentioned committee, the trial program will be overseen by a committee appointed by English. This Special Collections committee, which supersedes the $3,000 committee, will comprise two faculty members (one of whom will be a member of the Friends Council) and two
members of the library staff, who will administer the program.

Applications for grant support will be brief, approximately 600 words in length, and include reference to the special collection materials to be used and the instructional involvement of library staff. Successful applicants will be asked to submit 1,000 to 1,500 words upon completion of their projects, describing their experience with the program.

As Bennett noted, the $3,000 committee purposely did not stipulate a dollar sum for the amount of individual grants, nor the number of faculty to receive such grants, so as to allow the Special Collections committee maximum flexibility.

At the meeting Ed Vermue, “not surprisingly,” as he noted because the Special Collections department he heads will be one of its chief beneficiaries, was enthusiastic about the program. He cited several examples of ongoing Oberlin courses or research, which would have benefited from the program had it been in existence previously. Another Council member noted that in publicizing the new program, which will become operational in the 2005-2006 academic year, the Friends Council would help create more campus-wide awareness of underutilized collections and primary research materials.

Student Friends.

Grace Hammond, class of 2004, who was recently named a Mellon Library Associate at Oberlin, as part of a program to recruit people for careers in library work, delivered a report on efforts to interest students in becoming Friends. She said this year’s book sale was highly successful. Subsequent to the meeting, she announced that at 10 p.m. on December 16th student Friends would be invited to the Library for a study break and to partake of apple cider and ice cream.

At the meeting she described a strategy for recruiting additional student friends by working with existing student groups. The Multicultural Research Center (MRC), she said, was one such group. Within MRC an effort will be made to stimulate interest among African-American and Asian-American students, for example, to avail themselves of library resources. “There will be less emphasis on recruiting numbers of additional student Friends,” English added, “and more emphasis on raising the visibility of the library among students” in the hope that Friends membership will follow naturally.

World Library Partnership program.

Hammond participated as a volunteer in the January 2004 World Library Partnership program in South Africa, which, she said, proved a very worthwhile experience. English reported that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has made a grant to Oberlin to support the Winter Term project for two years. He also reported, however, that the World Library Partnership has encountered financial difficulties and has had to lay off staff. He noted that the Winter Term project will be suspended for one year, in the hope that the World Library Partnership will regain its financial footing. It’s anticipated that the next project will be carried out in January 2006. In view of the Mellon grant, it is not anticipated that any additional financial support from the Friends will be needed.

Life membership.

The Council approved by acclamation the award of a Life Membership to John Lawrence of Wooster, Ohio, a nationally-recognized expert on medieval manuscripts. His lecture on this subject in April 2001 was very well-received by Friends of the Library. In the fall of 2002 he lent over 80 manuscript leaves and complete manuscript books for an exhibition entitled “Pages from the Past: Illuminated Manuscripts ….” – the largest exhibition ever hosted at Mudd Center. Subsequently, Lawrence donated five valuable Islamic manuscript leaves to the library’s collections – two from a 19th century Koran and three from an 18th century manuscript by the Sufi master Al-Ghazali.

Financial report.

English reported that the finances of the Friends organization are in good shape. The available balance amounted to $34,032, which was enough to cover all foreseeable obligations in the coming year.

Annual Friends dinner.

Schoonmaker noted that the Council is “splurging” this year on the annual dinner, offering a baked salmon main entrée, instead of the customary chicken, as well as vegetarian fare. The decision to offer fish instead of fowl, she said, had raised the cost per dinner to a figure slightly in excess of that paid by Friends.

To offset the difference in the future, assuming attendees were pleased with the change, she suggested raising the price per dinner to $25 – which several Council members observed should be the absolute ceiling. Alternatively, Bennett proposed that “people might be asked to add a little extra, above the cost of dinner.” Rubin thought this suggestion might be incorporated in a line on the invitation form, as in “I’d like to make an extra contribution to the Friends.”

Election of Council members.

Those present at the meeting, acting on behalf of the Friends membership, approved by consensus the nominations to terms on the Council ending in 2007 of four new people, as follows: David Boe, William Bradford, Scott Fehlan, and Janice Zinser (who has been serving previously as a faculty representative), and one incumbent, Nathan Haverstock. The Council approved in similar fashion the following officers for 2004-2005: Scott Bennett, president; Daniel Goulding, vice president; and Nathan Haverstock, secretary.

Committee assignments.

The following committee assignments were finalized subsequent to the meeting:

Acquisitions committee – Scott Smith (chair), David Boe, Bob Jackson, Ruth Hughes, Lucy Marks, Janice Zinser, and Eric Carpenter and Ed Vermue (ex officio).
Membership committee – Scott Bennett (chair), Scott Fehlan, Mike Haverstock, Erik Inglis, Bill Roe, and Ray English (ex officio).
Nominating committee – Janice Zinser (chair), Scott Bennett, and Ray English (ex officio)
Program committee – Dan Goulding (chair), Bill Bradford, Carol Ganzel, Dina Schoonmaker, Anne Trubek, Wendy Wasman, and Ray English (ex officio).
Research Awards committee – Janice Zinser (chair), Kathy Abromeit, Haipeng Li, Megan Mitchell, and Jessica Grim.

Vote of thanks.

Schoonmaker announced that four Council members were completing their terms, including herself -- Gordon Neavill, Carol Ganzel, and Scott Smith. There followed a burst of hearty applause for services well-rendered, and the meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Nathan A. Haverstock, November 30, 2004



Last updated:
August 29, 2006
  
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