| October 17, 2007 | Vol 9. No. 5 |
Canisius is Newest Member of the Center for Research Libraries
Effective October 1, the Canisius College library became a member of the Center for Research Libraries. Access to the CRL collections will enhance research opportunities for faculty and students.
CRL makes more than 4.5 million publications, archives, and collections as well as one million digital resources available to its member’s libraries to supplement their own humanities, science, and social science holdings. Center materials can be obtained for extended loan periods and at no cost to users affiliated with member libraries. Last year, 92 percent of the center’s interlibrary loan requests were sent by two-day express within one business day, and 90 percent of copies were delivered within one business day. The center’s resources include:
- 6,500 international newspapers, many which date back to the 1700s--the largest collection of circulating newspapers in North America
- 4,500 U.S. newspapers, many which date back to the colonial era, including 2,000 ethnic titles
- Foreign journals that are rarely held in U.S. libraries
- More than 800,000 foreign dissertations
- Area Studies - major microform and paper collections from Africa, Latin America, Middle East, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia and more.
Canisius Archives Participates in AJCU CONTENTdm Project
The Canisius College Archives and Special Collections, along with their counterparts at the other 25 Jesuit institutions, have created a digital collection which showcases historic institutional images.
The AJCU Photos Pilot Project began in late 2006. A metadata and technical committee collaborated to develop a template and unified interface design, with the project progressing through listserv discussions to determine criteria for image selection. The following thematic approach is the basis for the digital collection:
- Jesuit heritage of each institution
- Jesuit involvement in the community
- Jesuit pedagogy – unique instruction/artifacts of classroom discussion, and
- Social responsibility.
The AJCU Photos Pilot Project can be viewed at http://contentdm.lndlibrary.org. From there, click “Browse” and use the drop down button to select Canisius College Contributions. These photos and other digital collections can be viewed at the Canisius College Archives and Special Collections site at /archives/digital/
Media Center Upgrades LY 303
During the recent holiday break, the Media Center upgraded the instructional technology in Lyons Hall 303. The prior Crestron control system, which had been offline since the beginning of the semester, has been replaced with a new color Crestron Touch Panel and control system. The Touch Panel uses the same access code as the rest of the Touch Panels on campus. To access the code, contact the ITS Help Desk at Ext. 2299.
The TV in the front of the room, which was used for critical viewing of art work, has been removed along with the ceiling-mounted NEC LCD projector. A new Mitsubishi High-Definition DLP (Digital Light Processing) projector replaces both units. Please note, however, that the DVD player, VCR, laptop connection and Macintosh computer in the room are still set to display on the projector in the 4:3 aspect ratio. In the near future, the Macintosh resolution will be adjusted to take advantage of the 16:9 (widescreen) capabilities of the new Mitsubishi projector. When this change is implemented, the necessary documentation will be updated, and the faculty who teach in LY 303 will be notified of the change via E-mail.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns about instructional technology in the classroom or would like to schedule training, please feel free to contact the Media Center office at Ext. 2950. For more information on classrooms, please check out the Media Center’s Web site at www.canisius.edu/mediacenter and click the What’s In My Classroom link.
WWII and The Niland Brothers
Ken Burns’ seven-part PBS television series and companion book, The War : An Intimate History 1941-1945, features the story of Canisius College’s heroic Niland Brothers. You can read about them on the Archives and Special Collections WWII Web site.
Kathy Liebner ’07 researched the family while she was a student assistant in the Archives. From August 1942 to April 1946, Rev. J. Clayton Murray, S.J., former Canisius archivist and philosophy professor compiled a scrapbook of local newspaper articles that mentioned Canisius’ “boys at arms.” The Niland family was only one of many families in which several children simultaneously served their country.
The Archives Web site lists articles pulled from Canisius’ WWII Scrapbook that recount other local Canisius families and their stories. Click here to read more.
Do you have questions, comments, or suggestions for articles you would like to see published in the LIS News? Please let us know:
lis_comments@canisius.edu