Osu Library Messenger Fall 2002

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

The Valley LibraryMain Campus, Corvallis

Marilyn Potts Guin LibraryHatfield Marine Science Center, Newport

THE MESSENGER

OSU LibrariesOregon State University121 The Valley LibraryCorvallis, OR 97331-4501(541) 737-4633http://osulibrary.orst.edu/messenger

Karyle S. ButcherDonald and Delpha Campbell UniversityLibrarian and Deputy Vice Provost forInformation Services

Editor: Kevin [email protected]

Assistant Editor: Faye [email protected]

Editorial Committee:Lorraine BorchersRichard BrumleyFaye HarkinsLarry LandisCliff MeadRuth Vondracek

Photos by:Kevin BokayOSU ArchivesStephen Meyer

The Messenger is published biannually.

IN THIS ISSUE:From the University Librarian 3Staff and Faculty News 4Bracero Photos Available Online from University ArchivesOregon State Extension Service documented WWII guest worker(Bracero) program in Oregon 5International ConnectionsChinese librarians visit OSU Libraries; The library service guideis translated into fourteen languages 6Government Information WebsiteGovStats: an interactive website providing access toU.S. government statistical data 7Linus Pauling and the Race for DNALinus Pauling’s connection to the most important scientific discoveryof the 20th century 8A Glance BackFrom 1920 to 1945—Librarian Lucy Lewis and the developmentof a modern academic library 10Donor ProfileDoug Reckmann, gardener, musician and library supporter 12Library NewsUniversity Archives Accessions; Orbis Regional Services Center;LibQual Statistics Academy 13Docent ToursWestland Middle School tours the Valley Library Northwest Art Collection 14Northwest Art CollectionMichele Russo, WPA artist and humanist 15

ON THE COVER:The Sara Hart and William R. KimballReading Room

2 T H E M E S S E N G E R , F A L L 2 0 0 2

Page 10Lucy Lewis

Page 15Orange Hat byMichele Russo

Page 5Bracero photographs

Page 8Linus Pauling

FROM THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN

T H E M E S S E N G E R , F A L L 2 0 0 2 3

Hello Library Supporters,

s we move into theholiday season, it isthe perfect time forme to thank each of

you for the support and en-couragement you give to all ofus at Oregon State UniversityLibraries. Your gifts have en-abled us to buy more books,subscribe to more journals,launch new projects, and sup-port the educational efforts offaculty and students. Truly, youhave made an enormous contri-bution to OSU Libraries and toall of the students and facultyat Oregon State. Thank youvery much!

One example of the power ofdonor support is OSU Librar-ies’ membership in the Orbisconsortium. Orbis is a consor-tium of 20 academic librarieslocated in Oregon and Wash-ington that share a single online

When the Orbis and Cascades mergeris complete, OSU students and faculty

will have available to them the collectionsat the University of Washington and

Washington State University as well asthe four other Washington campuses for a

total of over 22 million items!

library system and have a sharedcollection of over six millionitems. Because the Orbis librar-ies share their collections, stu-dents and faculty at any Orbislibrary may, without goingthrough interlibrary loan, di-rectly request a book from anyof the 20 libraries. In additionto shared collections, Orbislibraries work together on jointpurchases of electronic data-bases, thus making eachlibrary’s limited budget stretcheven further. Today, Orbis is inthe process of finalizing amerger with the Cascades con-sortia of Washington State toform the Orbis Cascades Alli-ance. When the Orbis andCascades merger is complete,OSU students and faculty willhave available to them the col-lections at the University ofWashington and WashingtonState University as well asthe four other Washington

campuses for a total of over 22million items!

The growth of the Orbisconsortia and the benefit mem-bership in the consortia be-stows upon OSU students andfaculty is amazing and wonder-ful and one of which I amextremely proud. However,none of this would have hap-pened without the support of amajor gift. It was the earningsgenerated from this gift thatenabled OSU Libraries to pur-chase our online catalog, whichis the cornerstone of Orbismembership.

So, let me extend from all ofus at Oregon State University abig and heartfelt thank you andthe very best wishes for a safeand wonderful holiday season!

Karyle Butcher


STAFF AND FACULTY NEWS

N ew Employees:Lori Hilterbrand is our

new circulation supervisor.She comes to the library after working

at the OSU Foun-dation and BusinessAffairs. Previously,she managed theAlbany Book Binand brings a love ofbooks, an apprecia-tion of the learningenvironment, andsupervisory and

management skills to her position.Valerie Sterling joins our staff as a

Library Technician 1 working half timein Access Servicescollection mainte-nance. Valerie hasbeen with us as astudent employeesince 1996 and alsoworked on a tem-porary appointmentearlier this year. Sheis working on adegree in botany and will continue totake classes on campus. �

Retirements:Doris Tilles retired this

summer from the InterlibraryLoan department in Access Services. Sheserved as the ILL librarian for OSU

libraries since 1976.Doris’ tenure at thelibrary spans thehistory of interli-brary loan at theOregon StateUniversity Librar-ies. She came toOregon State in1968 and watched

the library grow in both size and circu-lation, along with the technology thatmade sharing materials between institu-tions possible. She holds a large portionof the institutional memory of thelibrary and the campus especially inregard to the development of Interli-

Lori Hilterbrand

Valerie Sterling

brary Loan. Fortu-nately, she retiredwith the rank ofprofessor emeritaand we will con-tinue to call on herexpertise from timeto time.

David Johnsonalso joined theranks of retirees this fall. He served thecampus and the community at large asthe business librarian. David came tothe Valley Library in 1997 from NewYork City where he served as head ofreference services at Proskauer Rose.Both the campusand the local busi-ness communitywish David well inhis retirement. �

Congratulations toRichard

Sapon-White,Cataloging, andCheryl Middleton,Information Ser-vices, who wereboth granted tenurefor the scholasticyear 2001–2002.Cheryl was alsopromoted to associ-ate professor. �

Continuing Education:The following OSU Librar-

ies employees have recentlyfinished a masters program in library

science or arecurrently enrolledin a program:

Susan Goodson,Collection Devel-opment, receivedher master’s inInformation Re-sources and LibraryScience from Uni-

versity of Arizona in December of 2001.

Sue has worked in collection develop-ment for three years and is looking topursue a position as a professional-levellibrarian.

Melissa Hartley, Technical Services,graduated from the School of Libraryand InformationManagement atEmporia StateUniversity in May2002. She willpresent “The Mate-rial Culture ofSerials” at thePopular CultureAssociation/Ameri-can Culture Association joint confer-ence in New Orleans, in April of 2003.

Terry Reese, Cataloging, will gradu-ate this December from the School ofInformation Scienceat Florida StateUniversity. Hetailored the FloridaState program toemphasize thetechnical aspects ofinformation scienceand OSU Librarieshave already seenthe benefits of his work.

Faye Harkins, University Archives,has recently been accepted as a graduatestudent at the School of InformationStudies at the University of Wisconsin,

Milwaukee. Shecame to us inMarch of 2000from the ReynoldsHistorical Libraryat the University ofAlabama, Birming-ham and hasworked in SpecialCollections and

Library Administration. Her area ofstudy will be preservation and conserva-tion. �

Doris Tilles

Terry Reese

Susan Goodson

Melissa Hartley

David Johnson

Faye Harkins

Richard Sapon-White

Cheryl Middleton


BRACERO PHOTOS AVAILABLE ONLINE FROM UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

Braceros in OregonPhotographCollection NowAvailable On-lineby Larry Landis,University Archivist

A s a pilot project using therecently acquiredCONTENTdm image manage-

ment software, the Oregon State Uni-versity Libraries have digitized andcreated metadata for the UniversityArchives’ collection of 102 photographsdocumenting the Bracero program inOregon during World War II.

The Bracero program was a nation-wide guest worker program begun in1942 utilizing workers from Mexico.Most of the workers were utilized inagriculture. With the exception of a fewimages, the 102 Oregon Bracero photo-graphs were taken by Oregon StateExtension Service staff from 1942 to1947. They document the labor activi-ties, housing and daily life of the work-ers in various locations throughoutOregon, including Hood River County,Umatilla County, Klamath County,Malheur County, and the WillametteValley. The photographs came to the

University Archives in the 1960s and1970s as components of various photo-graphic collections.

Recent increases in Oregon’s Latinopopulation have sparked interest in itshistory and culture, particularly thatof Mexican-Americans. Consequently,the University Archives’ photographs ofBracero workers have seen considerableuse in recent years. In order to reducethe physical handling of the originalphotographs and at the same timeincrease access to them, the OSULibraries’ Digital Libraries SteeringCommittee approved the Bracerophotos digitization project as the pilotfor use of the CONTENTdm software.

A project group of library faculty andstaff from the University Archives,

Library Technology andTechnical Services depart-ments planned and imple-mented the project. Thephotographs were scannedat high resolution (600 or800 dpi) as TIFF imagesusing an Epson 1640XLscanner. The metadatainput for each imageconsists of fourteen fieldsusing the Dublin Coremetadata standard. WithinCONTENTdm, theimages are available aslow-resolution JPEG

thumbnail images and medium resolu-tion, full size JPEG images. There areseveral options for searching the collec-tion, including keyword and geographicsearches. A “browse the collection”option also is available.

The final piece of the project, yet tobe completed, will enable researchers torequest copies of collection images andpay for them on-line. The Braceros inOregon Photograph Collection projectis a model that will be used for subse-quent digitization projects, as part ofOSU Libraries’ commitment to makingits holdings more easily and widelyavailable through new technology. Thecollection is now available to the publicat http://bracero.library.oregonstate.edu/bracero/ �

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A worker relaxing in camp, Hood River,Oregon, ca. 1943

A group of workers pose for a photographer in their camp atHood River, Oregon, ca. 1942–47

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Mexican workers celebrate September 16, Mexican Independence Dayin Columbia County, ca 1942–47.

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for Mr. Zhongfang andMs. Xiaohui to familiarizethem with library opera-tions. Richard Sapon-White and Laurel Kristick(Information Services)served as coordinators.Several events wereplanned for their stay inCorvallis including a tourto the State Library inSalem, Portland StateUniversity’s library, thePortland Rose Test Gar-dens in Washington Parkand a trip to the OregonCoast. At the end of theirvisit, the librarians gave apresentation on the FujianProvincial Library to theOSU Libraries staff. �

INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS

The LibraryBrochure TranslationProject

In May of 2000, OSU Librariesrecognized a need to acquaintnewly arrived international stu-

dents and non-English speaking patronswith library services. One of the librar-ians, May Chau, spearheaded a collabo-rative project with the InternationalProgram. Working with the program,she identified the languages to have thelibrary guide translated into andidentified a source for translation ser-vices. Currently, all translations aredone by student ambassadors in theInternational Program under the super-vision of Susan Schwartz. Studentambassadors receive a tuition reimburse-ment in serving the community and

translation is one such function. As aresult of this highly successful collabora-tion, the OSU Libraries translateda library service guide fromEnglish into fourteen differentlanguages, including Arabic,Chinese, Croatian, French,German, Indonesian, Japanese,Korean, Kyrgyz, RomanianSerbian, Spanish, Thai, andTurkish. Since mid-2001, themost highly used guides areChinese, Japanese, Arabic,Spanish, and Korean. As ourinternational student demogra-phy changes or a request ismade, the library anticipatesadding additional languagetranslations of the library serviceguide. Currently, all translationsare posted on our website(http://osulibrary.orst.edu/research/srg/libserv.htm) for

easy access. Please feel free to visit thissite and do not hesitate to contact us ifyou have any questions. �

Pictured here from left to right are: Maja Graso,Vojislav Gajic, Kumiko Shirai, Lili Xu, Alexa Michel,and Henri Compaore. These were some of the more than16 OSU students who participated in the librarybrochure translation project.

Valley Library HostsLibrarians fromChina as Part of theHorner Exchange

OSU Libraries was again aparticipant in the HornerExchange program in 2002 by

hosting two librarians from the Fujianand Xiamen Province in China. Mr.Chen Zhongfang from the FujianProvincial Library and Ms. ZhangXiaohui from the Xiamen MunicipalLibrary arrived on June 19, 2002 for amonth long visit. The library arrangedfor interpreters and provided officespace for the visitors. All departmentswithin the library functioned as hosts

Librarians from the Fujian and Xiamen Provinces in Chinaspent ten days at the Valley Library in June, 2002. (from left)Chen Zhongfang, Sharon Gallant, Zhang Xiaohui, RichardSapon-White and Xiaoping Li.


GOVERNMENT INFORMATION WEBSITE

GovernmentInformation SharingProject WebsiteBecomes GovStatsValery King, Government Informationand Reference Librarian

The award-winning GovernmentInformation Sharing Projectwebsite at Oregon State Uni-

versity has been updated and reborn asGovStats. The look has been stream-lined and the number of databasesscaled down and reprogrammed toimprove functionality. GovStats “wentlive” at http://govinfo.library.orst.edu/ on October 4, 2002.

The original site debuted in 1995, ata time when the primary format forgovernment statistics was CD-ROM.Funded by a federal grant from the U.S.Department of Education, the websitewas developed to provide wider accessto government data in an easy-to-useformat. It has been very successful, usedby people across the U.S. and aroundthe world, and has earned significantrecognition and positive feedback fromsite users and from the library commu-

nity. The original website was “highlyrecommended” by the journal Choice in2001 and since its inception has loggedover 25 million visits.

But in 2002, government informa-tion is much more widely available onthe Internet than it was in 1995. Fed-eral agencies have developed their ownwebsites and online databases for dis-tributing information. Much of the data

originally included inthe GovernmentInformation SharingProject are now avail-able elsewhere. Notwanting to duplicatethe efforts of otheragencies, OSU scaleddown the project,retaining the fourmost-used databasesthat were unrepre-sented elsewhere onthe web. These popu-lar sources are USACounties, the 1997Census of Agriculturewhich also includesdata from 1987 and

1992, the U.S. Imports/Exports His-tory (1994-1998) and the 1992 Eco-nomic Census. Links to the websitescontaining the data in the databases thatwere taken down are provided.

As time and resources allow, OSUwould like to reprogram and once againprovide web access to some databasesthat were removed which are not avail-able online. Those include the 1990Equal Employment Opportunity File,the 1990 Earnings by Occupation andEducation and the 1990 School DistrictData Book Profiles. With the exceptionof the School District data, these areavailable on CD-ROM at federal deposi-tory libraries throughout the country,including OSU.

The project redesign team washeaded by OSU Libraries’ former Gov-ernment Publications librarian CarrieOttow, and consisted of library technol-ogy staff members John Abe, MaryCaughey, and Richard Griffin, alongwith librarians Valery King and CherylMiddleton. Also invaluable in thecompletion of the project were studentprogrammers Akiko Yoshida, MasonKoo and Nathan Bruner. �

Librarian Valery King and the award-winning Govstats website.

The Govstats webpage has logged over 25 million visits since it’sinception in 1995. The page was recently redone and given a“highly recommended” rating for educational audiences.


LINUS PAULING AND THE RACE FOR DNA

Linus Pauling andthe Race for DNAby Chris Petersen, Special CollectionsFaculty Research Assistant

The Valley Library Special Col-lections will mark Linus PaulingDay 2003 with a series of

events focusing on Pauling’s uniquerole in the discovery of DNA. LinusPauling — recipient of two unsharedNobel Prizes and pre-eminent chemistof the twentieth century — is variouslyknown in scientific and popular circlesfor his revolutionary work on the natureof the chemical bond, the structure ofproteins, and the health benefits ofvitamin C, as well as a wide swath ofpeace and civil liberties activism. It mayseem surprising then that Special Col-lections would choose to celebrate theupcoming Linus Pauling Day by focus-ing on what is commonly regarded tobe his biggest scientific blunder —Pauling’s “triple-helix” structure ofDNA was manifestly incorrect. How-ever, in examining the details of

Pauling’s blunder, a rich, com-plex and highly interesting taleemerges. It is the tale of anintriguing scientific race whichultimately led to one of thegreat intellectual achievementsin scientific history, the fiftiethanniversary of which is set to beobserved, world-wide, in thespring of 2003.

Linus Pauling’s role in thediscovery of the double-helixstructure of DNA was in manyways an important, if peculiar,one. By the time that theCavendish Research Laboratoryin Cambridge, England beganto seriously work on the struc-ture of DNA, Pauling withoutquestion had established himselfas the world’s foremost author-ity on molecular architecture —the man who had literally writ-ten the book on the chemicalmake-up of large molecules, such asproteins. So it stood to reason thatPauling would be the odds-on favoriteto determine the correct structure of thegenetic material, deoxyribonucleic acid.

Several factors were to keep this fromhappening. For one, though he hadbriefly looked into DNA as early as1937, Pauling did not enter the “race”until its latter stages, only beginning hisserious research in November 1952. (Bycomparison, James Watson and FrancisCrick, the young Cavendish researcherswho ultimately determined the correctstructure, had begun their model-building more than a year previous.)Indeed, in numerous interviews follow-ing Watson and Crick’s accomplish-ment, Pauling would claim to havenever thought of the scientific work as arace, but rather as a small part of hismuch larger program of protein struc-ture determinations. Nonetheless, byJanuary 1953 the pressure to uncoverthe mysteries of DNA was mounting,and the hurried nature of Pauling’stheorizing clearly contributed to theflaws in his model.

Second, Pauling based his researchon inaccurate x-ray crystallographicdata. At the time that Pauling had setabout working on the DNA structure,the only crystallographic photos avail-able to his laboratory were a set ofblurry prints taken in the 1930s. Thevisual quality of these pictures was poor,but more significantly, the Paulinglaboratory had not been apprized of akey piece of information: the photo-graphs were of DNA in its “wet” form,whereas Pauling assumed that theimages were “dry”. In contrast, theCavendish laboratory utilized muchmore contemporary, high-quality im-ages taken by the brilliant crystallogra-pher Rosalind Franklin; images thatthey deliberately neglected to share withPauling’s group. Further complicatingmatters, Watson and Crick were keptabreast of Linus Pauling’s research byhis own son, Peter, who shared officespace with the Cavendish group, andwho freely relayed the details of per-sonal correspondences with his father.

Third, Pauling’s peace activismsurely, to some degree, impeded his

Pictured here from left to right are Francis Crick,Alexander Rich, Lesley Orgel, and James Watson. ExceptOrgel, all are wearing matching RNA design ties.

Photograph of Linus Pauling with a molecularmodel taken around the time of the DNA“race”. The Pauling Collection houses manytypes of models that he constructed during hiscareer.


progress in the race. A long-time criticof U.S. Cold War policy, Pauling had,by 1952, butted heads with the U.S.Passport Office a number of times. InFebruary 1952 Pauling received noticefrom passport division head RuthShipley (in Pauling’s words “a scoundrelof the deepest dye”) that he would notbe allowed to travel to an importantRoyal Society protein conference inEngland, as his political beliefs hadraised suspicion within the State De-partment that he might be a Commu-nist, and therefore untrustworthy. Somehistorians believe that had Pauling beenallowed to travel, he likely would haveseen Franklin’s high-quality x-ray pho-tos and perhaps would have formulatedthe correct DNA structure.

Finally, it should be noted that by1953 Pauling was at the height of hispowers as a structural chemist —Maurice Wilkins of the Cavendish groupdescribed him as “godlike, superhu-man” — and as such had become, if notarrogant, then at least extremely self-assured. In Watson’s estimation,“Linus’ fame had gotten himself into aposition where everyone was afraid todisagree with him.” Pauling’s hubriswas reflected in the DNA structuremanuscript submitted by he and RobertCorey in late December 1952 — it wasa rush job; it forced atoms to fit into

unlikely spaces; and itultimately violated a fewimportant laws of chemis-try that, over the previoustwo decades, Paulinghimself had explicated inhis textbooks. As a result,the Pauling-Corey “triple-helix” hypothesis wasquickly proven to beincorrect. The accurateWatson-Crick modelwould follow shortlythereafter. Watson, intypically direct fashion,summed up Pauling’sefforts: “He seems toconsider that he shouldhave got the structurebecause he was so bright,but really he didn’t deserve it.”

The OSU Special Collections will tellthis story in much greater detailthrough the launching of a specialwebsite, available in the winter of 2003,entitled “Linus Pauling and the Racefor DNA: A Documentary History.”Utilizing over 300 scanned documents,photographs, audio-clips and videoexcerpts, the website narrates the, attimes, breathless details of the pursuit ofthe double helix. Scattered throughoutthe project will be images of a numberof very important and rare items, all of

which are held within theValley Library’s Ava Helenand Linus Pauling Papers,and many of which have notbeen previously displayed.Indeed, the website willfeature two original docu-ments hitherto unknown toscholars interested in thisperiod. It is expected thatthis website will be a primaryreference point for individu-als interested in the historyof DNA — both researchersand lay people alike.

In tandem with the con-struction of the commemo-rative website, Oregon State

University will also serve as host to twospecial lectures on the subject of DNA.The first will be presented by HoraceFreeland Judson, on January 15, 2003.Judson, the director of the Center forHistory of Recent Science at GeorgeWashington University and author ofThe Eighth Day of Creation: The Makersof the Revolution in Biology, will speakon the subject of “The ContinuingRevolution in Biology.” The lecture issponsored by the OSU Convocationsand Lectures Committee.

The second lecture, sponsored by theValley Library, will be delivered byRobert Olby, University of Pittsburghhistorian and author of The Path to theDouble Helix, which is commonlyregarded as the authoritative account ofthe race “won” by Watson and Crick.Olby, whose lecture is titled “WhyCelebrate the Discovery of the DoubleHelix?” will be speaking on a veryspecial day, February 28, 2003. Coinci-dentally, not only is this day the 102ndanniversary of Linus Pauling’s birth, butit also marks the fiftieth anniversary —to the day — of Watson’s completion ofthe first correct model of the double-helix. Both lectures will be delivered inthe LaSells Stewart Center, and are freeand open to the public. �

Rosalind Franklin’s x-ray crystallographic photographthat confirmed the double-helical structure of DNA.

The passport that was finally awarded to Linus Pauling and hiswife Ava Helen, though not until 1953—one year too late.

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A GLANCE BACK

History of theLibraryby Larry Landis, University Archivist

[The spring 2002 issue of The Messengerfeatured the beginnings of the OSULibraries in the 1860s through thetenure of Ida Kidder, OSU’s firstprofessionally trained librarian (1908–1920). This segment of the Libraries’history covers the Lucy Lewis years,1920-1945.]

When Ida Kidder died inFebruary 1920, she left theOregon Agricultural College

(OAC) Library with a professionallytrained staff. Kidder’s longtime assis-tant, Lucy Lewis, was appointed actinglibrarian after Kidder’s death, and inJuly 1920 filled the position perma-nently. Lewis came to OAC in 1911 asassistant librarian after serving as librar-ian of the New Mexico A&M Collegefrom 1906 to 1911. Lewis and Kidderhad been classmates at the University ofIllinois. Both earned bachelor of libraryscience degrees in 1906. As OACassistant librarian, Lewis was responsiblefor cataloging, and later she served asthe reference librarian.

Lewis took over alibrary housed in a build-ing that was less than twoyears old, had a collectionof 41,428 cataloged vol-umes and nearly 8,000documents, and a regularstaff of 11 people. Therewere five departments —cataloguing, circulation,continuations, referenceand technical periodical. In1920 the library offered aone-credit course, LibraryPractice, which was re-quired of most freshmen.

The growth of thelibrary collection throughthe 1920s and 1930scould be characterized asmodest and steady—as well as remark-able given the small book budget. By1932 the collection consisted of111,196 volumes, and increased tonearly 173,000 volumes by 1940.Conversely, the use of the library grewdramatically. During the 1918-20biennium, the library’s circulation was64,544. By the end of the 1930-32biennium it had increased nearly eight-fold to 492,000.

With the reorganization of highereducation and the establishment of theOregon State System of Higher Educa-

tion (OSSHE) in the early1930s, Lewis was appointeddirector of libraries forOSSHE in 1932. In thiscapacity she planned andsupervised the interlibraryservice among the system’ssix campuses. Many OSSHElibrary services were central-ized in Corvallis, includingthe ordering of all booksand journals. In her firstbiennial report as director ofOSSHE library services,Lewis estimated that theconsolidation of services hadsaved nearly $13,000; thetotal budget for the six

system libraries had only been $163,439for the 1932-33 academic year. Theorganization of a centralized librarysystem within higher education wassomewhat unique and sparked interestthroughout the country.

One of the most significant achieve-ments of the library during the Lewisyears was the establishment of theMcDonald Collection and Rare BookRoom, the genesis of today’s SpecialCollections. Mary McDonald, an ownerof vast timberlands in California andOregon and a longtime supporter of thecollege’s School of Forestry, first do-nated a set of rare books to the collegelibrary in May of 1932. Additionaldonations soon brought the collectionto more than one thousand volumes,and McDonald offered to “suitablyfurnish a room that might become ahaven and inspiration to booklovers.”The McDonald Rare Book Room wascompleted on the third floor of thelibrary during the summer of 1934, andopened in November of that year intime for Homecoming. The room’swalls were paneled in walnut, its lampshad shades with poetry printed onthem, the chairs were heavily uphol-stered, and the windows were leadedglass with the McDonald monogram.

The McDonald Rare Book Room in 1934. Mary McDonald,in addition to donating rare books, also provided thefurnishings for the room.

The new ornamental ironwork at the entrance of the libraryin 1936 and still in existence today in what is nowKidder Hall.

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McDonald’s other donations to thecollection included the 24 volumecomplete works of Abraham Lincoln,valued at $4,800 at the time it wasdonated; limited editions of works byRobert Lewis Stevenson, Henry James,Joseph Conrad, Theodore Rooseveltand John Greenleaf Whittier; ThomasTaylor’s 1793 translation of Plato; SirWalter Scott’s Life of NapoleonBonaparte (1827); and scientific worksincluding William Forsyth’s Treatise onthe Culture and Management of FruitTrees (first and fourth editions, 1802and 1806). In total, McDonald’s dona-tions came to around 3,000 volumes,including several rare editions andexamples of fine bindings.

Despite the construction of the newlibrary in 1918, Lewis began urging itsexpansion as early as 1928, and in late1929 she submitted expansion plans tothe college administration. By the late1930s, lack of space resulted in largenumbers of books being moved to off-site storage, including the basement ofShepard Hall. Lewis’ biennial report for1936–38 stated very clearly the gravesituation regarding space in the library:

“Before the end of the comingbiennium every available foot of shelfspace will have been utilized, and bookswhich should be accessible placed instorage. Inadequate building facilitiesimpede the work of an already over-loaded staff.”

A library addition wasauthorized by the StateBoard of Higher Educa-tion in March 1940.John Bennes, architect ofthe original 1918 build-ing, planned matchingeast and west wings aswell as a substantialremodeling of the origi-nal building. Only thewest wing was built,however. Constructionbegan in the summer of1940 and was completedthe following summer.The addition increasedthe size of the library by twenty percentat a cost of $106,000. Included were anew reserve reading room; an openstacks science reading room; additionalseating that brought the capacity up to900 seats; new administrative offices onthe second floor; and seminar rooms, afaculty study room, microfilm room,additional map room space and an openstacks engineering room. The openstacks concept was among the firstapplications of this idea in an academiclibrary in the United States.

Several other accomplishmentsduring Lewis’ tenure as college librarianand OSSHE library director are notable.In 1929 the library instituted a systemof dormitory library collections, andshortly thereafter model home libraries

were established in the Schoolof Home Economics’ homemanagement houses. Lewislaunched a project in 1930 toconvert the library’s holdingsfrom the Dewey Decimal tothe Library of Congress (LC)classification system. TheOregon State library was oneof a few academic libraries tomake the conversion at thattime. In January of 1940 thelibrary received a Carnegiegrant to explore themicrofilming of newspapersand rare books, a project that

was done jointly with the Departmentof Physics’ photography lab and thatcontinued through at least the 1940–42biennium. During the early stages ofWorld War II, many foreign publica-tions at risk because of the war, wereacquired through a $25,000 grant. In1943, the Friends of the Library and theMemorial Book Fund were established.

Lewis’ health began to deteriorate inthe early 1940s. In November 1944 sheinformed OSC president A. L. Strandthat she planned to retire on January 1,1945. During her twenty-five years aslibrarian, Lucy Lewis laid the ground-work for a modern college library. Thelibrary’s holdings increased five-fold,from 41,428 volumes in July 1920 to205,528 volumes in January 1945. Useof the library skyrocketed. The librarystaff increased from 11 to 30 employeesduring the same time period, plus nearly100 student assistants. Because of herskillful guidance of the OSC Libraryand the OSSHE library system throughthe Great Depression and World WarII, Oregon State College bestowed onLewis an honorary doctor of libraryscience degree at the June 1945 com-mencement exercises. �

[The next installment in this series willexplore the tenure of William H.Carlson, Oregon State’s librarian from1945 to 1965.]

The library (now Kidder Hall) in 1929. At the time thisphotograph was taken, the library was already planningfor expansion.

The library’s reference and study area located in the west wing ofthe library building, ca. 1943.

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DONOR PROFILE

Doug Reckmannby Kim Thompson, Director ofDevelopment, OSU Foundation

Doug Reckmann is a gardener, amusician, a genealogist, aworld traveler, an opera buff

and an all-around good guy. Why hashe chosen, at a young age, to supportthe OSU Libraries? In his words: “OSUchanged my life. It opened doors intoplaces I didn’t know existed. I want tohelp give others the opportunity to havetheir worlds altered also. I’m a strongsupporter of public education, and sincea library is the foundation of any univer-sity, giving to the library was an easyand obvious choice.”

Doug is an Oregonian. He was bornin Portland, raised in Boring, andgraduated from Sandy Union HighSchool. Deciding to attend OSU wasnot difficult. “I was always a goodstudent and I wanted to learn as muchas possible. I have a close relationshipwith my family and didn’t want to moveout-of-state. I didn’t have the time,money or inclination to go to school toparty, so ‘the-other-place-who’s-name-we-dare-not-mention’ was never evenan option. OSU was the obviouschoice.”

Doug had a great time at OregonState. He studied German and lovedplaying in the marching, pep, andconcert bands. He formed many of hisclosest friendships here and still plays in

a band with many of them once amonth. When he can, he joins theAlumni Marching Band at the firsthome football game of every season.

A recent visit to his home revealedDoug’s creative side. He has completelyremodeled his older SE Portland homeand you should see the garden! Thecompact backyard is filled with suchdelights as a goldfish pond, espalieredapple and pear trees, berries, flowers,kiwis, and herbs. This garden is an

Kim Thompson is the OSU Libraries Director of Development atthe Oregon State University Foundation. She welcomes your

inquiries about making gifts in support of thelibraries by phone, (541) 737-4044, or by email,[email protected]. Kim graduated fromOSU with a BS in home economics. She is theproud mother of two, and her eldest is a sopho-more at OSU this year, the fourth generation ofher family to attend Oregon State.

inspiration for his neighborhood andhas been a source of new friendshipsand acquaintances with his neighbors.He enjoys many happy hours with hishome improvement projects and help-ing others with theirs.

Doug’s approach to philanthropy isunusual for someone in his early fifties.What he decided to do was to make theOSU Libraries the beneficiaries of hisIRA accounts. Making OSU Librariesthe beneficiary of all or part of an IRAwas easy for Doug to do. A simple formprovided by his money manager com-pleted this gift and Doug very thought-fully forwarded a copy on to the Foun-dation. That way, we know about thegift and can talk to Doug ahead of timeabout the specific use of the money. Wehope we benefit from these gifts a longtime from now, but Doug already haspiece of mind about his legacy to OSU.

Thanks, Doug, for enriching ourlives with music, flowers, enthusiasm,and appreciation for a great experienceat Oregon State University. �

Doug Reckmann, OSU alumni, in his garden in southeast Portland.


LIBRARY NEWS

Several new collections have been addedto the University Archives’ holdingssince the spring 2002 issue of TheMessenger. Notable collections include:

Royal Jackson Papers, 1980–1992.The Royal Jackson Papers consists ofJackson’s final manuscript draft of apublication on the history and use ofthe College of Forestry’s McDonald-Dunn Research Forests as well as photo-graphs (such as shown below) featuredin the publication. Also included are105 sound recordings on cassette tapesof oral interviews conducted by Jacksonof various people involved in the envi-ronmental movement and eco-tourismin Costa Rica. Unedited transcripts for11 of the 60 taped interviews are avail-able as well as a list of those inter-viewed. The tapes are labeled with thename of the interview subject and thedate. Royal G. Jackson is a facultymember in the College of Forestry’sForest Resources Department.

The Oregon IndianLanguage Oral HistoryCollectionThe Oregon Indian Language OralHistory Collection consists of interviewswith members of the Coquille-Siletztribe conducted by Portland StateUniversity Anthropology Professor JoeE. Pierce. Specializing in the study ofNative American and Turkish lan-guages, Pierce documented Tututni andTolowa languages in these interviewsthrough stories, songs and wordphrases. Originally recorded on reel-to-reel tapes from 1962 to 1964, theinterviews were dubbed onto 57 cas-sette tapes in 1988 by OSU Anthropol-ogy Professor Tom Grigsby. A set ofthese tapes was found in the Anthropol-ogy Department and subsequentlytransferred to the Archives last year. Thewhereabouts of the original reel-to-reelrecordings is unknown. The tapes arecurrently being transcribed by Anthro-pology students. According to a recentarticle in The Oregonian, only threepeople are thought to be conversant inTututni. Given its value in documentinga vanishing language and culture, theOSU Archives is honored to house thisimportant collection.

New Orbis RegionalServices CenterOrbis, a consortium of 20 public andprivate academic libraries in Oregon andWashington, is actively planning tocreate a regional library services center.OSU is a strong supporter of the projectand a potential site for the center. Thefirst phase of the project will focus onthe construction of a high-densityshelving facility for collections ownedby the members. A second phase will bedevoted to creating preservation anddigital library development services. Theproject task force, chaired by CatherineMurray-Rust from OSU, recently re-ceived confirmation of grant fundingfrom the Library Services and Technol-ogy Act administered by the OregonState Library to proceed with site selec-tion, construction requirements, andbusiness model planning. Modeled aftersuccessful facilities at Harvard Univer-sity, the University of California, andAmherst College, the Orbis RegionalLibrary Services Center will provide aneconomical means for member librariesto accommodate growth in collectionsand make the best use of scarce space incampus libraries.

LibQual StatisticsAcademyBonnie Allen, Associate UniversityLibrarian for Technical Services andCollection Development, was selectedto attend a week long seminar for statisti-cal analysis in assessment, sponsored bythe Association of Research Libraries.The seminar supports the ARL LibQualproject, which is a research project toestablish a survey instrument to be usedto assess service quality in academiclibraries. The seminar focused on theuse of software packages such as SPSSto statistically validate and analyze data.Bonnie leads OSU Libraries’ participa-tion in ARL’s assessment project and iscurrently working with campus commit-tees on curricular assessment. �College of Forestry students, ca. 1922.

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DOCENT TOURS

Middle SchoolStudents Tour theValley Library ArtCollectionby Nancy Wortman, Docent

On Thursday, May 23, 2002eighteen students and their artteacher, Joel Weinstein, from

Western View Middle School (nownamed Westland with the closing ofHighland Middle School) came for anhour long tour of the Valley Library Art

Collection. The tour was led by docentprogram member, Nancy Wortman.

Joel Weinstein first introduced hisstudents to the art collection via theweb where they could view the variousart pieces from their computer screen.The teacher then compiled a list of artpieces based on the students’ interestsfor the docent to focus on for the tour.This student’s quote seemed to be theconsensus of most of the students: “Iloved the pictures that had tons of colorand action in them.”

Their most favorite art work and theone that they described as most “cool”was George Green’s acrylic on wood,three dimensional art piece entitled,Spell of the Magic Play. This can befound on the 4th floor. Other piecesthat students liked were the black andwhite photographs on the 2nd floor byThomas Miller, the various sculptureson the west side of the building on eachfloor, the mixed media on paper piecesby David Nez and Katherine Ace’s oilpainting entitled, September, The Call.One student stated, “My favorite pieceof art was the pencil drawing. I neverknew you could make such a detailedpicture like that with a pencil.” This islocated on the lst floor and is entitled,Still Water by Richard Laycock.

Another student liked Carl Morris’Silver Creek 584. He went on to say, “Ilike how he used different shapes andblues and red to create a really cooldesign.” He added that he hopes toreturn to view the paintings again. Youtoo, can take a virtual tour of theNorthwest Art Collection of the ValleyLibrary by going to OSU’s home page,clicking on “library,” then click onNorthwest Art under NoteworthyCollections and you will see virtual tourof the Northwest Art Collection. Thiswill whet your appetite to come in andsee the wonderful and magnificent(terms used by the middle school stu-dents) artwork yourself! �

Pictured here is Corvallis Ruminant byProfessor Yuji Hiratsuka of the Art Depart-ment at OSU. The “Kow” was designed byHiratsuka for a charity fundraiser in Portland,Oregon, Kows for Kids. The exhibit featured108 unique life-sized bovine works of art,and could be seen in different downtownPortland establishments from April to Junethis year. The artworks were auctioned off toraise money for the Trillium Family Services,(www.trilliumfamily.org), and New Avenuesfor Youth (www.newavenues.org).Hiratsuka’s Kow was purchased by a Collegeof Liberal Arts supporter, Joyce Dickerson,who requested that it be displayed in thelibrary. The Kow can be found on the secondfloor, near the circulation desk.

Joel Weinstein and his Western View MiddleSchool class learn about the Northwest ArtCollection.

Docent Nancy Wortman captivates a group ofmiddle school students describing the varioustypes of art located in the Valley LibraryNorthwest Art Collection.


NORTHWEST ART COLLECTION

Michele Russoby Judy Rudolph, Docent

When I was a child bicycling inmy hometown, I oftenpassed a stone retaining wall

on which was a stone inset saying “WPA— 1939”. Many years elapsed before Idiscovered that the Works ProjectAdministration of the New Deal didmore than build bridges and walls. Ilearned that artists, part of the WPA inits Federal Art Program, had beenrecruited to create murals in thoseDepression years—artists like AaronDouglas and Thomas Hart Benton andMichele Russo. Their work, oftenglorifying the “common man,” can stillbe seen in schools, YMCAs, and librar-ies in the country.

My interest in the movement wasrekindled when I toured the art collec-tion in the Valley Library, for therebefore me was a painting by MicheleRusso. His life story is as interesting tome as his artistic journey. Russo wasborn in 1909 in Connecticut. As achild, he spent five years in Italy with hisfamily. There he was introduced notonly to the art of the nation but tohumanistic values that would motivate

his art and his life through the years.After graduating from Yale in 1934, hewas awarded a WPA mural project inConnecticut schools. For ten yearsduring the Depression, he worked as alabor organizer and political activist.

In 1947 he moved toPortland and began a 26-year teaching career atPortland’s Museum School,an important advocate ofmodern art at that time. InPortland his activism con-tinued, focused now onartists and the arts. Hehelped to found ArtistsEquity, a co-op for profes-sional artists, and the Port-land Center for the VisualArts. In 1975 he becamechair of the Oregon Com-mittee for the Arts in PublicPlaces and in 1977 wasappointed to the Metropoli-tan Arts Commission, thefirst artist to be so honored.

When looking at his work, we areaware that after Yale, he worked toestablish a style of his own. Abandoningexperiments with cubism and abstractexpressionism as author Lois Allen tellsus, he adopted the innovations ofModernism—flatness, altered perspec-tive, and expressionistic color—and inthe 1960s found a balance betweennaturalism and abstraction. One can seethese features in his work in the ValleyLibrary. Go to the third floor and turnleft upon leaving the elevator. You willsee Russo’s Orange Hat. There it is—muted colors, flat image, minimalbackground divided into geometricspaces, flattened perspective. The viewercan see Russo’s use of line, shape, andcolor to structure the composition.

However we view his work, werecognize it as that of an artist who haslabored throughout his adult life forthose humanistic values acquired as achild and worked to make art a morevisible part of the culture and life herein the Northwest. �

Untitled (acrylic on canvas) by Sally Haley, the wife ofartist Michele Russo, is located on the fifth floor of the ValleyLibrary.

Michele Russo’s Orange Hat (acrylic on canvas) is located on the Valley Library’s third floor.

Printed on recycled and recyclable paper. Oregon State University is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Employer.

Friends of theOSU Libraries121 The Valley LibraryOregon State UniversityCorvallis, OR 97331-4501

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Osu Library Messenger Fall 2002

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Transcript of Osu Library Messenger Fall 2002