Losing a Friend and Colleague

He was almost eighty years old, but the call on that Sunday afternoon informing me of his death was still a shock. Don had been on vacation for three weeks and was scheduled to return to work on Monday. I still remember the first day I met him because it was my first day at work at SFA. Even though I intended to arrive early, several librarians were ahead of me as I rushed to the university wide faculty meeting held at the beginning of each new academic year. "There's Bernice, there's the new librarian." I was greeted by Don, Elizabeth Wallace, and several other new colleagues. as we walked together to the meeting. That was 32 meetings ago, and I'm certainly not the new librarian any more.

Back then I worked in Technical Services, and I soon got to know Don well. No one was more persistent than Don in making sure that the materials needed by his faculty and students in the sciences were ordered, checked in, and processed as quickly as possible. Waiting for the invoice to arrive or setting aside a tough cataloging problem was not an option if one of Don's students needed the book, geological survey, or map that he was tracking down. Music collection responsibilities were added to Don's job description a few years later. For Don this was not a burden, it was a joy. The sciences were Don's job and he was very good at it, but music was his passion.

I joined Don, Marty Turnage, Carol Scamman, Kayce Halstead and others in the Reference Department in 1991. There were no online end-user databases in those days. Printed indexes for undergraduates and expensive Dialog database searches done by librarians for graduate students and faculty were the order of the day. I worked with Don on Tuesday nights. We were almost always busy, but there were short breaks between questions when I could ask Don to show me how to use one of the reference books or compare notes with him on vacations to Big Bend or Mesa Verde.

On Tuesdays, Don would come in at 7:30 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. He took off an hour for lunch , but often just ate a sandwich in his office for supper before joining me at the Reference Desk at 6 p.m. The rest of us took afternoons off when we were scheduled to work until 10 p.m., but Don didn't start taking the afternoons off until he was forced to. There was some newfangled rule about not earning more than 80 hours of comp time per year. Ten comp days for weekends plus a year's worth of Tuesday afternoons added up to considerably more than 80 hours! Don complained about his new schedule for weeks, but a few years later turned down the option of having no night duty every other semester. By this time, being free on Tuesday afternoons was essential!

Fifteen years past the age when most people retire, Don was still arriving at his office shortly after 7:30 each morning. Don enjoyed traveling and going to operas and other musical performances. He had plenty of vacation time to do that. He still loved his work and was not ready to retire. He wasn't up on all the newest technology. He couldn't name the newest pop stars. He didn't blog or twitter. But for some students and faculty in chemistry, geology, or music, he wasn't just the best person to ask, he was often the only person that could help them.

Don was a valued colleague and friend. I won't soon forget him, and neither will many others.

Bernice Wright bwright@sfasu.edu rm. 202j 936.468.1528 Subjects - Agriculture, Forestry, Human Sciences, Human Services, Speech/Communication

Would You Like to be an Award Winning Director or Have $1000?

Attention SFA students!! Submit a short video and be eligible to win a SPARKY Award and $1,000!!! This year’s contest theme is “MindMashup: The Value of Information Sharing.” You can work individually or as a team. Contest deadline is November 30, 2008. See contest Rules and Requirements under Details at http://www.sparkyawards.org/details/index.shtml

The SPARKY Awards are organized by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Many of SFA’s librarians belong to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). ACRL is co-sponsoring this video contest for college students with SPARC. Winning entries are screened at national conferences. For details about prizes and national exposure see http://www.sparkyawards.org/awards/index.shtml

The librarians in RIS (Research and Instructional Services) would love to see you win! We know you’re creative, and you have what it takes (especially if you managed to wade through all the previous acronyms). We also know you don’t need another assignment, but if you want to get some course credit, it’s within the contest rules for you to ask a professor to make it an assignment for a class where it would be appropriate. For more information go to http://www.sparkyawards.org/

Carol Scamman cscamman@sfasu.edu rm. 202e 936.468.1710 Subjects - Art, English, Modern Languages, Social Work, Sociology, Theatre

In Memory of Don Richter

In Memory of a

Colleague
Friend
Gentleman
Professional
And Scholar

Don Richter
1928 - 2008

Ransom Seaborn: Book Review

Singer/songwriter Bill Deasy http://www.billdeasy.com/, captures the essence of the freshman year in his award-winning first novel, Ransom Seaborn. Deasy recounts a college coming-of-age story with a troubadour’s love for the music of language.

Dan Finbar, aka Fin, struggles to find his place as a big-city Catholic freshman attending a rural, small-town, conservative Protestant college. From “meet the roommate” and parting with his parents to the stunning ending, this slim book recalls the new freedoms, turmoil, and longing to fit in common to the first-year college experience. Humor, poignancy, and mature themes abound as the author stirs memories of each readers’ college experience.

All references to persons living or dead are purely intentional. Deasy’s fictional Harrison College is Grove City College, in western Pennsylvania, where he graduated in ‘88. He dubs The Gedunk, Grove City’s popular student hangout and snack bar, the Podunk. Despite the name changes and decades since I graduated (‘75), his descriptions of the locale and Dr. Exley’s provocative classroom challenge ring true (flashback to the lone C in my major; Dr. Donnelly’s not-so-Romantic Lit at 8:00 A.M). For the source of the title character’s name plus campus references, read an article profiling Bill Deasy in The GēDUNK: Grove City College Alumni Magazine .(p.16, Fall 2007)

Ransom Seaborn won the former literary blog POD-dy Mouth’s 2006 Needle Award for Print-On-Demand books (out of a field of over 1,600 entrants).

At last count, 21 out of 23 customer reviews at amazon.com gave this book five stars with two four-star reviews.

Attention: once and future college English professors, if you teach a course on The Campus Novel, Creative Writing, or American Literature, this is one for the syllabus. To mashup lit crit speak, Ransom Seaborn is a timeless Bildungsroman á clef in the academic novel genre complete with road trip quest (via Greyhound), intertextuality, and a powerful denouement.

Warning—it will take willpower not to devour this book in one sitting.With its echoes of and critical comparisons to The Catcher in the Rye, Deasy’s work will whet your appetite to re-read J. D. Salinger’s novel and have a second helping of Ransom Seaborn.

Carol Scamman cscamman@sfasu.edu rm. 202e 936.468.1710 Subjects - Art, English, Modern Languages, Social Work, Sociology, Theatre

If a picture is worth a thousand words, can I turn one in for my English assignment?

What exactly is a word? The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, second Ed. (Unabridged of course) defines a word as follows. A word is “a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.”

It seems that with one sentence the dictionary has wiped out American Sign Language (ASL). The word on the left is neither written nor spoken but it acts as the principal carrier of meaning.

When does a symbol, icon, or gesture gain the status of a word? When does a picture of a fish become the word fish?

When do they cross over into a lexicon?

For instance if I write “I hate midterms. We get so much d@#% work I cannot think straight.” Did you understand all the words?” You are darn right you did. Everything in that sentence except the punctuation was a” written representation that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.”

So the next time I am in a club or crowded get together and an attractive lady gives me “the look” and then winks at me, I will not be wondering if that constituted a word, symbol, sign language or body language. I will just be trying to think of what words I can say to her and not sound like an idiot. Then when she tells me she was saying hi to the guy standing behind me I will go home thinking about how people should communicate more clearly and effectively. Then I will watch Bruce Willis in a Die Hard movie.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

We Can Do This The Easy Way Or The Hard Way

So you want to use RefWorks. Some would pay up to $300 for access to software that will keep track of all your sources and write them in any style (MLA, APA, Turabian) and then insert them in your paper your bibliography and footnotes for you. In this limited time offer you can use RefWorks not for$300 not $100 dollars, not for even three easy payments of $19.95 RefWorks is available free at Steen Library. Look at what else it can do.







Its 12:01 AM your paper is due in the Morning at 9:00 what do you do? What do you do?




Visit RefWorks Today.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

Kiss Bow or Shake Hands:

This may sound like the beginning of a sexual harassment lawsuit but actually, it is a handbook on polite behavior in over sixty countries. Whether you need to know business practices for International Marketing and Management or the customs and tastes for decorating an office in another country, you will find it in this book. Even if you have guests visit from another culture you can learn the customary way to welcome them and any gifts that may be appropriate to give or receive. This book can be the window looking out from Nacanowhere to Nacaeverywhere. Kiss, bow, or shake hands: how to do business in sixty countries, by Terri Morrison, Wayne A. Conaway & George A. Borden. Holbrook, Mass. : B. Adams, c1994.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

HUMINT, IMINT, MASINT, SIGINT, OSINT: Finding What Shouldn't be Found

The October - December 2005 issue of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, focused on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). It referred to finding valuable and sometimes secret information in the library and in public databases. The issue provides an amazing number of excellent internet sources for information on almost any topic. It is surprising how much is available, for anyone to use.

Some of the training and research for military intelligence occurs at Fort Leavenworth Kansas, home of the Combined Arms ResearchLibrary(CARL). Right from the home page you stumble into an amazing amount of authoritative information. The navigation button at the top Find Books & More leads to the library's catalog. On the catalog page is a link to the full texts of 185 books and monographs on Counterinsurgency. A literal goldmine of information of years of thought and research on a topic that is relevant right now.
If you select the Digital Library link, you are immediately taken to a collection of full text databases which cover topics on military history, or lead to obsolete field manuals , as well as the latest research publications from the Command and General Staff College or the School of Advanced Military Study Monographs.

There are other free sources for government data containing excellent information. One of my favorites is the Google Custom Search Engine(CSE) called Naval Open Source Intelligence
(NOSINT). This source provides information on supposed secrets, covering material that will never attract the attention of the news media. Much of this information would be difficult to locate using a refular Google search.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

From Librarian to Leader

This mild mannered turned radical librarian became a political leader whose status as a revolutionary in world history is matched by few others. He was highly literate and sensitive, and dedicated to a relentless struggle against inequality and injustice.

Born on Dec. 26, 1893, he did not venture outside his home province until he was 25. A visit to the capital city in 1918 broadened his view. Although his life there was miserable, he was working under the chief librarian of one of the countries largest Universities. Reportedly, the university passed him over for a promotion and he returned home following year.

In this stage of his life, this librarian started making a living as a primary schoolteacher. He also edited radical magazines, organized trade unions, and set up politically oriented schools of his own creating agitation among city workers and students.

After a long convalescence, he discovered the revolutionary potential of the peasants, who had in such great numbers been displaced and pauperized by the misrule of the warlords. From then on, he focused his attention to this vast underprivileged class of people. He studied them, tried to understand their grievances, and agitated among them.

Eventually a personality cult grew around our famous librarian. His ideas and philosophy became part of his party’s constitution. Finally, in 1949 he took power of his entire country. He would reassert is power over the military and with their help and the help of young students, he waged a fierce struggle against what he called the revisionists in power. In this struggle it was revealed how elitist, bureaucratic, and brittle the government had become since 1949.

After reaching his late 70s, his lifework was essentially done, although he retained power until the end. One of his final major acts was to reopen contact with the United States. In September of 1976, he died as undoubtedly 20th century's most important movers and reformers. This was the end of the life of the librarian known as; Mao, Tse-tung or (Mao Zedong).

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

You Can Run but You Can't Hide From an Overdue Fine

Seinfeld is tracked down by library cop Mr. Bookman, for a missing book he checked out over twenty years ago.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

Information R/evolution, by Mike Wesch

The following YouTube Video is part of an interesting and growing genre of animation / film projects centered on video anthropology. This particular short communicates a stinging commentary on libraries while extolling the virtues of the we.

While the "Hive Mind" and the intelligence of the "Group" are extolled there seems to be no counterpoint in his file of the "Ignorance of Mobs". In addition his entire search would have gone better if he would have asked a librarian. Enjoy the show.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology

Super Tuesday and What it Means to be a Citizen

Once again, several individuals in many states participated in an American ritual reaffirming for themselves their status as citizens. One thing they might ask something we all might ask; what does citizen mean? If you want to know what a word in English, you check a dictionary. The mother of all dictionaries is the OED, aka The Oxford English Dictionary. The OED does not just give you a current definition. It gives you every definition that the word has had since the first evidence of its use in text.

In 1314, a citizen inhabited a city or town and had certain civic rights or privileges. By 1514, a citizen was a townsman as opposed to someone living in the country, or a tradesman instead of a member of the aristocracy. In 1799, Webster Washington wrote of citizens as an enfranchised resident of a country either born there or naturalized this is close to what many consider the definition of citizen is today.

The French aristocrat Alexis De Tocqueville in the middle of the 19^th century wrote a classic two-volume study about America, its people, and politics. Its title is Democracy in America. He wrote that he saw the inevitability of political equality for all citizens. He thought that there could be “no middle course between the sovereignty of all and the absolute power of one,” and that any discussion of “political laws in the united States must always begin with the dogma of the sovereignty of the people.”

These definitions and descriptions of the word citizen are completely accurate. Despite this, they fail to convey the true, complete, or the marrow of the meaning of the word. These disembodied concepts fail to convey any knowledge or depth of understanding. As librarians move toward becoming curators of electronic databases and resources we run the risk of leaving behind the knowledge and understanding that comes from reading an entire narrative as contained in a book. If Gandhi or Martin Luther King had Googled the word citizen, would they have ever developed the beliefs and convictions necessary for them to accomplish their heroic achievements? I doubt it. Instead, they read monographs such as Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience. This was not a collection of sound bites strung together from several different sources and thoughts of others. It was a carefully crafted philosophical framework that Thoreau could use to guide or justify his actions and beliefs.

He did not believe that a citizen acted from dogma, to do so was to surrender one’s conscience or sovereignty to a tradition. A citizen also could not act just because the law said he must. A true citizen maintained their sovereignty above that of all other people or institutions. When a true citizen obeyed a law, it was because they chose to concede that part of their sovereignty to the lawmaker not because of any authority the lawmaker claimed but because they thought it was right or just. Ultimately, the authority to govern resides with the governed. This also meant the responsibility for the laws and actions of the government resides squarely on the shoulders of the governed. Therefore, if there was any law or any action taken by the government that ran contrary to the conscience or sovereignty of the individual it was their responsibility as a citizen to disobey that law.

Thoreau’s essay laid out this and other concepts in detail. Each part of his argument built upon the part written before. When summarized or chopped up into quotes that sound good, the essay loses its meaning. People may agree with or enjoy what they read or heard from these disembodied pieces, but are unlikely rededicate their lives to being better citizens. That type of change, requires an in depth connection and understanding of the thoughts and feelings of others. It does not come from chunks of electronic text, but from seriously reading the entire narrative of a great thinker and writer.

Once again, we find ourselves in an election year. This year half or more of America’s citizens will lose their rights and be disenfranchised. This will not be because of the actions of their Secretary Of State. It will not be from rigged, hacked, or faulty computer voting machines. It will not even be from U-haul trucks full of ballots being lost dumped or otherwise removed from the count. It will be because they will disenfranchise themselves by staying home instead of voting.

“Citizen” that is the word to learn this year. It can be Googled, plagiarized, described, and talked about, but ultimately to understand it, it must be experienced.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology