What WAS New at OSU Libraries - 2003

Contents

What WAS New: January - December 2003

University Archives Move to Library

The University Archives staff and collections will be moved the Valley Library the first two weeks of August. The new location will be the 3rd floor of the Valley Library in the area formerly occupied by Government Documents and Maps. The Archives reference room in the current location will close on August 1. Beginning August 4, limited reference service will be offered via telephone, fax or email. Full reference service will resume September 2 in the Valley Library location. Read about the move in OSU This Week.
Reference service for Archives, Maps and Microforms will be provided from the former Government Documents and Maps reference desk. For questions or information about the relocation, please contact University Archivist Larry Landis at 541.737.0540 or Senior Staff Archivist Elizabeth Nielsen at 541.737.0543.

7/22/03

Historic Stream Survey Photo Collection Now Online

OSU Libraries is pleased to announce the online publication of The Willamette Basin Streams Survey Photo Collection. This collection comprises photographs taken by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Fisheries during a comprehensive fish habitat survey conducted between 1934 and 1945 in the Columbia River basin. The 300+ photos in this collection focus on the Willamette Basin segment of the survey. The images can be viewed at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/digitalcollections/

The complete study covered over 6200 kilometers and detailed conditions in the more than 390 streams that served as spawning and rearing habitat for spring Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus ssp). Researchers now note that the data from this survey offers us the earliest and most complete quantitative documentation of anadromous fish habitat in the Pacific Northwest.

Between 1948 and 1951 the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service published seven short reports that summarized this data. For the next forty years these summaries served as the only available record of this important undertaking. The original documents were located in 1987 by Dr. James R. Sedell and other researchers in the U. S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station. Since then they have made the original data available in digital form and used this data in conjunction with their own surveys to study historical changes in pool habitats in the Columbia River Basin over the past 60 years.

The Willamette Basin Streams Survey Photo Collection offers the researcher and non-researcher alike a glimpse of this significant body of work by a largely unrecognized group of researchers. Please take this opportunity to investigate the work of these individuals who worked long hours under difficult circumstances to complete the survey. In doing so, you will help insure that this work is valued for years to come.

To create the collection, the original photographs were scanned on an Epson 1640XL scanner. Minor adjustments to the images were made before they s were uploaded into digital asset management software. Several University Libraries staff members participated in this project, including Bonnie Avery, Nathan Bruner, Mary Caughey, Richard Griffin, Debbie Hackleman, Faye Harkins, Linda Kathman, Larry Landis, Shannon Lowers, Elizabeth Nielsen, Terry Reese, and Richard Sapon-White.

OSU Libraries Vision Statement: 2003-2006

Please see OSU Libraries Vision Statement

2/26/03

Library User Survey Underway

The Oregon State University Libraries are in interested in measuring the effectiveness of their services to library users. To do this, OSU is a participant in a national research project sponsored by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) to develop a survey instrument to measure user satisfaction of library services. The survey asks users their minimum and maximum service needs in a variety of areas and their perception of the level of service the Libraries provide. This survey is an important part of a variety of assessments conducted by the library as it gauges service quality from the user perspective. An invitation to a random sample has gone out to members of the OSU community.

Be assured that all information is held strictly confidential. The survey and the responses are stored on a server at the ARL in Washington D.C. The data will be tabulated at Texas A&M University and reported in aggregate to OSU Libraries by June, 2003. Your participation is completely voluntary; failure to participate carries no penalty.

Contact person for questions or concerns: Bonnie Allen, Associate University Librarian OSU Libraries, Bonnie.Allen@orst.edu.

To take the survey go to: http://survey.libqual.org/index.cfm?ID=790626

Additional information about the national project can be found at http://www.libqual.org/About/FAQ/index.cfm

Please complete the survey within the next few days and respond no later than May 2, 2003

4/23/03

Linus Pauling DNA Website Unveiled

Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections launched, on Thursday, February 20th a new website, "Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA: A Documentary History." The website, at http://osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/dna, explores one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th century - the discovery of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, the basic foundation of life.

More than 800 original letters, manuscripts, photographs, audio-clips and video excerpts - many never before available outside of archives - form the heart of the site. They include a number of important and unique items, such as:

  • An extremely rare prepublication typescript of James Watson and Francis Crick's groundbreaking DNA paper;
  • A one-of-a-kind prepublication typescript of Rosalind Franklin's DNA paper, published in the same issue of "Nature" as Watson and Crick's, with handwritten additions by Franklin;
  • Linus Pauling's contemporaneous laboratory notes outlining his DNA work, and a much-corrected manuscript of the paper relating his famously mistaken structure;
  • Scores of manuscript letters written at the time, including correspondence between all the major players in the race for DNA.

The original documents are tied together with a unique narrative of the discovery from the largely unknown viewpoint of the major "loser" in the race, Pauling. A comprehensive, day-by-day account of all of Pauling's personal and professional activities in the years 1952 and 1953 is also included as an adjunct to the main DNA narrative, with scanned images of documents and photographs accompanying the text.

"This site is for anyone interested in the DNA story," said Clifford Mead, head of Special Collections at OSU. "General users can benefit from an interesting site that shows history in the making, through the words of the participants. The site also offers a comprehensive set of links to other DNA sites, as well detailed information on all the major players."

"But it goes deeper," Mead added. "This site makes available for the first time the raw material of this important piece of history."

2/26/03

New Journals for 2003

Starting in 2003, the Library will have current subscriptions of the following print and electronic journal titles: http://osulibrary.orst.edu/collection_development/newjournals2003.html

2/17/03