October 2003
Message from the Interim Director
Anyone who has entered the Library over the last several semesters knows that it is one of the busiest places on campus. During certain times of the day, there is not a seat to be found on the second floor, and the quiet areas on the first and third floors are full, too. Fortunately, the long-awaited addition to the building should be started by January 2004, adding approximately 80,000 square feet to the existing space. This means much more seating for individual study, for computer work stations, for group study, and for graduate carrels. Three seminar rooms are planned, as well as a doctoral defense conference room. The architectural firm of Rink Reynolds Diamond Fisher Wilson is working with the librarians and campus planners to design both a useful and at the same time stunning library facility to serve the campus for many years to come.
The library resources budget is facing some challenging times. Since a high of $1.9 million in 2000/01, this year’s budget is down to $1.23 million. The practical result is a freeze on ordering new journal titles, and very few book titles will be purchased. Where is the money spent? Over $1 million pays the journal renewals, both print and electronic, and the rest will go to postage, cataloging utility charges, binding, media, and other infrastructure costs. Library staff are exploring ways to mitigate the impact of this decrease, such as switching print subscriptions to electronic only and partnering with our sister institutions for consortial purchasing, but the long term effects are troubling: inability to support new faculty book and journal requests, to support faculty research, to supply resources for new degree programs and new courses, and to fulfill the library portion of accreditation requirements. Hopefully, this is a temporary situation that will be reversed in the new budget year.
For those of you who were gone during the spring and summer semesters, you will see a new face in the Access Services Department (formerly Circulation). Long time faculty member Geraldine Collins moved to Florida Gulf Coast University in February, and we hired Robb Waltner from the University of Colorado at Denver to head the department.
Finally, the Library’s first and only director, Andrew Farkas, retired in June, and I took on the responsibility of interim director. Please stop by to see me if I can be of assistance to you—while many of you are old friends, there are many new faculty. I would love to meet you all.
-- Kathleen Cohen, Interim Director of Libraries
Library Director Closes Book
Andrew Farkas
Photo courtesy of University Archives
Andrew Farkas, long-time Director of Libraries at the Thomas G. Carpenter Library, closed the book on his 33 year stewardship of the library when he retired in June this year. Mr. Farkas was originally hired with the dual appointment of Director of Libraries and Professor of Library Science in May 1970. As Director, Mr. Farkas was charged with assembling a library collection of 100,000 volumes by the university's inaugural term. The goal was met and the library opened its doors in October 1972.
As Professor of Library Science, Mr. Farkas designed and implemented the curriculum for a School Media Specialist Certificate program. His participation in the program included teaching 3 of the program's courses and a number of directed independent studies. The program lasted from 1972 until 1992. For his contributions to teaching and scholarship, Mr. Farkas received the Distinguished Professor Award in 1990 and the Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2000.
Mr. Farkas guided the library through building its initial collection and its first building and through building one library expansion and a new, four-story building. During this time, the library's collection has grown into a burgeoning collection of over three quarters of a million volumes, more than a million microforms, more than 80,000 audiovisual materials, 13,000 electronic journals, and over 30,000 electronic books. Mr. Farkas will be sorely missed by his staff and by the entire university.
To celebrate Mr. Farkas' tenure at UNF and to wish him well in his retirement,
nearly the entire library staff gathered at the home of Reference Librarian
Barbara Tuck for a night of food, drink, music, and toasts. Former library
staff joined with the current staff in celebrating 33 years of achievement,
collegiality, and cooperation. At the conclusion of the festivities, all
wished Director Emeritus Andrew Farkas the best that retirement can offer.
Although this book may be closed, new chapters for a new book are being written as this publication hits the Internet. Don't be surprised to see Mr. Farkas on campus as he continues to pursue his scholarly activities in his retirement office on the third floor of the library. An accomplished writer, Mr. Farkas has made it his life's work to research opera and to publish numerous authoritative treatises on famous singers. He has published 5 books, including the definitive biographies of Enrico Caruso and Jussi Bjoerling. He has also published many articles, book reviews, and CD and record reviews, and has been featured guest on numerous radio and television programs in both the United States and Europe. Everyone who knows Mr. Farkas expects that his devotion to music and contributions to music scholarship will continue into his retirement.
Au revoir, Andrew. We'll be seeing you again and again.
--Jim Alderman, Reference Librarian
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SFX at UNF! |
SFX is an exciting new research tool that provides direct links from a database citation to the full text of the article if it is available in another database. If the full text is not available, SFX provides you with a menu of options, including the UNF library catalog, that helps you determine where you can get the article. If it isn't available in either full text or in print at UNF, SFX provides a direct link to ILLiad so you can order the article through Interlibrary Loan. Contact the Reference Department at x2616 if you would like more information.
RefWorks at UNF
Interlibrary Loan Now Delivers Electronically!
Dr. Wallace McAlpine Donates CDs and LPs to UNF
This June the Library's Media Department was the recipient of a major gift from Dr. Wallace McAlpine. Dr. McAlpine, a retired thoracic surgeon, has donated more than 3,000 CDs, 5,000 LPs, 100 laser discs and many books and videos to the Library. His recent donation includes 443 CDs and 509 LPs. The recordings include a variety of classical composers and encompass a wide range of genres such as opera, songs, orchestral music and symphonies. Dr. McAlpine's generosity will benefit many students and faculty.
SPECIAL COLLECTIONS EXHIBITS
Come visit two new exhibits in the Library Atrium (1st floor) featuring UNF President John Delaney and the Florida Heritage Collection.
The first, Meet UNF President John Delaney, provides biographical and career highlights, photographs, magazine articles, and other information relating to the appointment of UNF's fifth permanent President.
President John Delaney
This online collection provides web access to rare and unique materials
representing Florida's history, culture, arts, literature, and sciences.
Over two hundred titles from our Special
Collections have been digitized and include significant items
from our local history and Personal
Papers collections. Formats vary, ranging from print and
textual materials to photographs and maps. Our Eartha
M. M. White Collection is particularly well represented with
numerous photographs and printed materials.
Eartha M. M. White
Collection
University Archives
Eartha M. M. White
Collection
University Archives
Staff News
Verna Urbanski, Head of Copy Cataloging and Chief Media Cataloger, was recently interviewed along with Jean Weihs, Seneca Community College (Canada) retired, and Nancy Olson (Mankato State University, Minn.) retired, for a profile of their professional careers which appeared in vol.36, no. 1, 2003, issue of Cataloging and Classification Quarterly. The three librarians are internationally recognized as leaders in the field of multimedia cataloging and have been responsible for focusing attention on the importance of these materials in library collections.
The library welcomes several new faces and bids farewell to others.
Robb Waltner is the new Head of Access Services. Robb was formerly head of Access Services at Auraria Library, University of Colorado, Denver. His MLS is from the University of South Florida in Library, Media and Information Science. Robb's main interests include creative writing, cooking and riding the bus to work everyday!
Dave Green retired this summer after almost 30 years in the library. He came in for a short visit in September showing off a wonderful tan. He's just fishing and chilling.
Gretchen Shimpeno fills the accounts receivable position left vacant by Dave Green. Gretchen is no stranger to the library. She has worked here as a student for several years.
Shannon Baker takes over stack maintenance and student supervising duties. She also worked in the library while a UNF student.
Christine Banning accepted an exciting offer from the Jacksonville Public Library. She is in a program where she will get her Masters in Library Science through FSU's distance learning program and in turn will be guaranteed a professional position at JPL.
