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The newsletter of
Ellender Memorial Library
Nicholls State University
volume 2 issue 2
Library Hours
Monday
7:30 am – Midnight
Tuesday – Thursday
7:30 am – 11:00 pm
Friday
7:30 am – 4:30 pm
Saturday
12:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Sunday
4:00 pm – Midnight
Note: For changes to schedule
due to holidays or emergency
closures, please see the library
website. All patrons are asked to
leave the library 15 minutes prior
to closing. The phone number for
library hours is 985-448-4660.
Drop In Class Schedule
We now offer Drop-In
Classes in Research Methods, Computers and Technology Resources, Dietetics,
and Culinary Arts Resources! For current information on our drop-in class
schedule, visit the library
class website at:
www.nicholls.edu/library/
dropinclasses.htm
Pre-registration is not required for any drop-in
class.
Library Tip #1
One of the most fascinating
places many students miss is
the Ellender Library Archives,
located on the first floor. The
current exhibit is a minihistory of kitchen utensils, and
is free to the public. Archives
is also the place where you can
get information about your
ancestry, and it’s probably the
most comfortable room on the
entire NSU campus.
www.nicholls.edu/library
Spring 2006
Former Nicholls Professors Donate
Some 7,000 Books to Library
The first time the pickup truck with its bed filled with books pulled up to the receiving door of
the library, the five library staffers who were there to help unload it had mixed expressions of
awe, delight, and fear on their faces. One by one, the books were handed from Archivist Clifton
Theriot, who secured the donation, to library staff members Joey Hebert, Emilie Pitre, Jeremy
Landry, and Tony Fonseca, as they began making several stacks based on book size and content. Every now and then, they would stop and admire a volume for its age, rarity, or subject
matter. Then it dawned on them that this was just the first of many deliveries that would be
made, until a grand total of between 7,000 and 8,000 books would be brought into Ellender Memorial.
Invariably, the question “where are we going to put them?” was on everyone’s lips. But even
that concern was secondary to the admiration these library staff members, as well as other library staffers whose hands the books would eventually filter through, quickly developed for two
individuals—two ex-Nicholls professors—whom most of them would never meet.
This story, which began with Theriot’s telling fellow Archives staffer Pitre “you’re not gonna
believe this,” is the tale of an extremely generous donation—the culmination of recent events in
the lives of retired professors Dr. John E. and Dr. Helon B. Harwell, both of whom had resided
in Thibodaux much of their lives. Dr. John E. Harwell, a native of Bogalusa, taught in the Department of Psychology and Education from 1967 until his retirement in 1985. Dr. Helon B.
Harwell, a native of Center, Texas, began teaching in the Department of Special Education at
Nicholls in the fall of 1967. She later became the Head of the Department of Developmental
Programs and continued in that position until her retirement in 1990.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, the Harwells decided to move to Texas to be near relatives.
Moving would require downsizing their possessions, which they knew would mean giving up a
major portion of the personal library “Dr. John” had begun as a child. Their extensive collection of books, estimated at nearly 10,000 volumes, filled four rooms of their home. After removing titles they wanted to keep, the Harwells contacted the library as they had decided to donate
their collection to Nicholls.
During the fall semester, Theriot began the task of transferring the books from the Harwell
home to the library. This was accomplished as much as a labor of love as anything else, since
funding for such a transfer was virtually nonexistent due to the dire financial straits in which
Katrina and Rita had placed Nicholls and the state. The donation could not have come at a
better time, considering such issues. The 7,000 plus volumes will turn out to be a gold mine for
Ellender, as the collection touches on many different genres and disciplines, including art, history, literature, psychology, and education, to mention a few. The process of cataloging the immense collection began shortly before the Christmas holiday. We calculate that it will continue
for some time, as librarians continue to sift through (and fight very hard not to attempt to read)
multi-volume collections of classics such as the annotated version of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and Burton’s The Thousand Nights and a
Night.
Clifton Theriot, Archivist, with Tony Fonseca, Serials
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2
www.nicholls.edu/library
PAGE 2
A Database For When You Mean Business
With Internet sources that give company information, such as Yahoo Finance and Hoovers Online, and print
reference like Moody’s and Dunn and
Bradstreet, it is often easy to overlook
what is currently the best place to get
articles on business matters—as well as
company profiles. Ellender Library currently subscribes to Business Source
Premier, a quick and efficient tool for
gathering SEC filings, company profiles,
and the latest news on any business.
Like the databases we have featured
thus far in this column, BSP uses a simple interface that allows for an advanced
search on various fields: author, title,
subject terms, and keywords (referred to
as “default fields” in the database), and
like the others, it retrieves full-text articles.
What many students do not realize
about BSP, however, is that it is an
excellent source of company profile
information. To use this feature, all
one need do is click on “Company Profiles” in the green area above the
search interface. This will give an alphabetical list of companies whose
names begin with the letter A. Above
that list is an A to Z hyperlinked alphabet, which allows someone researching, for example, Cabot Corporation to get to that company’s Datamonitor Report (in pdf format) simply
by clicking on the letter C. If you were
researching Chevron, you might try
using the search box above the alphabet, and simply type in the search
term, “chevron.”
Once you retrieve a hit on the search, you
can click on the report, and it will open in
Adobe Acrobat Reader. Among the many
pieces of information you can get about a
company are the following: Company
Overview, Key Facts, Business Description, History, Key Employees, Major
Products, SWOT Analysis, Top Competitors, and Locations. Although the Library
does subscribe to various other databases
which give similar information—namely
Gale’s Business and Company Resource Center, D and B’ s Million Dollar Database (which allows for side-byside business comparisons), and LexisNexis Academic’s Business Research
(an excellent source of SEC Filings)—the
BSP interface is by far the most intuitive
and efficient for getting company profiles.
Departmental Spotlight: Roving Reference
Located on the second floor across from
the circulation desk, the Reference Desk
is THE place to go when you’re not sure
how, or where, to begin your research.
Our friendly and capable staff—Van
Viator, Tony Fonseca, Fran Middleton,
Jean-Mark Sens, Anke Tonn, and Jeremy Landry—will more than gladly assist you, even if you are not yet sure
what questions you should be asking.
And you can take advantage of their
abilities to ferret out the important components of your research needs, and
their expertise in finding the information you want, pretty much any time
during Library hours. If you cannot
make it to the library because of the
cold, the rain, the heat, or time restraints, you can call our information
number: (985) 448-4625. If you are
searching one of our online journal databases after hours, and you run into
problems, feel free to send us an email
reference question through the “Ask a
Librarian” link on the library webpage.
You will get a quick response, usually
early the next day.
Keep in mind as well that the Reference
Department is more than just the Desk.
We have at least 23 computer workstations on the second floor that you can
use for all of your research or word processing needs, and there is a qualified
staff person usually walking around
who can either assist you with problems or direct you to the proper experts. We have numerous dictionaries,
encyclopedias, atlases, and handbooks
in the Reference stacks—on a wide
variety of subjects. Titles like The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers and The
Baseball Encyclopedia can be found
alongside staples such as the World
Book and Encyclopedia Britannica.
If you’re looking up the history of a
major company, The International Directory of Company Histories is an excellent source. If you need a five page
biography on famous individuals from
the last century, Current Biography
will be helpful—it covers a wide variety
of fields like entertainment, medicine,
and politics. If you are searching for
information concerning an animal, try
Grzimek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia.
Art majors will find the 34 volume Dictionary of Art useful, while nursing
students and health majors will be using the Physician’s Desk Reference to
look up information on a specific drug,
or The Merck Manual, which gives
brief information such as symptoms
and treatments on a variety of diseases
(Merck is kept in Ready Reference,
the shelf in back of the reference desk).
These books can be supplemented with
information from the variety of journal
databases, which can be accessed from
the library page via the “Electronic Research Databases” link. Our Reference
staff can help you find current or historical journal articles through these. In
some cases, we can even save you a trip
to Serials and photocopy fees as many of
these online databases will give you access to printable, Full-Text articles. Our
Reference staff can help you navigate
databases such as Academic Search
Premiere if you’re not sure where to
begin searching, or if you need information from popular magazines as well as
academic journals.
Finally, the Reference staff can show
you how to set up an account to access
the 40,000 plus electronic books in our
collection. These can be read online—
even from home. If you find you need
the personal touch, you can also reserve
individual sessions with any of the Reference Librarians, or you can attend one
of the number of Drop In Classes (if
your professor does not schedule a class
or you just feel lost). These classes are
all taught by Reference Librarians—the
keepers of the secrets that make database and catalog searching fast and accurate.
Van Viator, Reference
VOLUME 2 ISSUE 2
www.nicholls.edu/library
PAGE 3
Student Workers, Our Invaluable Resource
As you walk through various departments of the library, you may see students, like yourself, shelving books,
checking in magazines and newspapers,
and even showing other students how to
search the library’s catalog and databases. You may ask yourself, “who are
those young people?” The library staff,
however, finds itself asking a different
question: what would we do without
them?
After all, they take on duties well beyond
what is expected of them, and they always seem to keep a positive outlook,
even when faced with the day-to-day
workload of the library, which is refreshing. Their knowledge of library resources—databases, the online catalog,
books, journals, even government documents—is commendable. So exactly who
are these young people who help run the
library? They are our student workers,
applying their talents in various departments throughout Ellender.
The Student Employment Program at
Nicholls State gives students like these
the opportunity to not only help finance
their education, but gain work experience
and acquire skills in different work fields.
Those that work in the library find that
such work may require skills and aptitude far different than those associated
with basic office / clerical skills. While
shelving books may not be hard once
one has mastered the Dewey system, the
day can get a little hectic when he/she is
on the front line for patron assistance.
Of course, by now students realize that
so much of the research they do is dependent on the latest technology; however, that same technology cannot possibly replace that “human touch.”
Pieces of equipment cannot reassure
those patrons with “deer in the headlights” expressions on their faces as they
wander helplessly around a department
that they won’t be blindsided the first
time they do research. In fact, it won’t
hurt a bit! Our student workers excel in
the “hands on,” “let me show you” categories. This is not to say that these potential librarians are infallible. There is
that occasional “crash” when a book
truck overturns, but they take even such
setbacks in stride, knowing that one
hasn’t been initiated into the brotherhood of the library until one has overturned a book truck! It’s all in a days
work; for some it’s the daily ritual.
In addition to their employment in the
library, and their busy academic schedules, many of our student workers are
involved in a number of university activities and organizations. They are
members of sororities, fraternities, the
S.G.A., or the S.P.A. They are members
of the athletic programs at Nicholls, or
are active in collegiate religious groups.
Their efforts to juggle such a busy
schedule at such a young age is applauded by those of us who have the
privilege of supervising them.
Most student workers begin in their
Freshman year and stay until
graduation. Such is the case in the
Serials department. I feel like an
empty nester when they leave, as we
develop much more than just a supervisor / employee relationship. It
does the heart good to have them
contact me after they leave
Nicholls—to share life experiences.
Some even return with their babies
(perhaps the next generation of library student workers). In Government Documents, the staff recently
attended the wedding of a student
employee, Satomi Hutchinson. In the
Director’s Office, a former culinary
student prepared the library staff
Christmas dinner. And we try to return the favor: Supervisors and staff
in the library show their appreciation with treats at Halloween, Valentines Day and Easter. We recognize
the fact that many are away from
home and treat them “like one of our
own.”
Sandi Chauvin, Serials
Your Two Cents: We Get Comments
Many of you have been placing comments in our physical Comment Box near
Reference and Circulation, or filling in
the online Comment Form. But you may
be wondering, “what happens to those
comments once I submit them?” We at
the Library want you to know that all
comments are read at Librarian meetings, and each is discussed and
(hopefully) addressed.
The bulk of your comments are laudatory
(our Government Documents Department
gets a lot of positive feedback), and we
appreciate the compliments. However,
every so often someone makes a complaint, and we try to make changes when
this occurs. For example, when we got
complaints about hours, we added two
midnight shifts to the Library’s open
times. We also get a few comments
about the noise near Reference. While
we could do nothing to stop this, as Reference is not a designated Quiet Area,
we tried to get the message out more
clearly that there were various quiet
areas in the Library, in places like Serials, Multimedia, and Archives.
We invite you to continue to voice your
concerns with the Library, about how
you like to use it, and how it can serve
you better. We will continue to make
changes to address your needs.
Pictured, right: Curtis Bashkiharatee, Ann Marie Gordon,
Brooke Rousse, and Ishauna Sanders read in front of the library.
Library Tip #2
The Library is one place where
you are asked to not pick up after
yourself. When you use a book in
Stacks or a journal in Serials, you
can simply leave it at the table or
desk where you used it, or look for
a book drop cart. Staffers take
statistics based on how often items
are used, so it’s actually more
helpful when you don’t pick up
books and journals.
VOUME 2 ISSUE 2
PAGE 4
www.nicholls.edu/library
Cajun Zydeco Exhibit and Festival
The Tenth Annual Cajun/Zydeco Music
and Dance Exhibit will be held at the
Ellender Memorial Library from March 6
to April 28, 2006. The Tenth Annual festival will follow. Included on this year’s
program are the following:
Festivities begin on Wednesday, March
29, 2006, in the Cotillion Ballroom, where
author Christopher L. Hallowell (People
of the Bayou: Cajun Life in Lost America)
will be speaking from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00
p.m. There will be music, provided by
Treater: Le Traiteur du Bayou, both before and after the lecture.
A reception with refreshments for participants and guests will run from 5:30-6:30
in Ellender Memorial Library. Speakers
Carol Mathias, Library Director, and
Anke Tonn, Program Director, will
unveil the event poster, designed by
Patrick Banks. The event theme will be
Musique del Bayou, and the event essay
will be delivered by Reuben Williams.
Afterwards, the Couche Couche Cajun
Band will perform in the Cotillion Ballroom.
From 7:00-8:00 pm there will be a Celebration of Bayou Musicians, including
Vin Bruce, LeRoy Martin, Harry
Anselmi and Ebdon Barrios. Williams
will serve as the moderator for this
event.
Treater will then play from 8:00-9:30,
followed by the Couche Couche Cajun
Band from 9:30-11:00. Students, faculty,
staff and community members are all
invited to attend and pass a good time.
Gino Delafose and The French Rockin’
Boogie will perform Saturday, March
25. For ticket information, call Anke
Tonn at 985-448-4633.
Librarian for Forty-Three Years, Now Retired
Alice Saltzman (pictured, right), head of the cataloging
department, retired in January after forty-three years of
dedicated service.
She earned a B.A. from Texas Christian University and her
M.L.S. from Louisiana State University. While at NSU she
served on a variety of committees, both in the Library and
across the broader campus community, and has been active
in state and national associations. She represented the Library on Faculty Senate and was the liaison between the
Library and the Art Department. She was also an avid fan
of children’s books and rare books, and she published articles on subjects such as art slide retrieval and Mother
Goose in MC Journal, Bookbird, and the LLA Bulletin.
It would be hard to find a book on any shelf at Ellender
Memorial Library that Alice has not touched. She leaves
having earned the utmost respect and love of her colleagues. Her professionalism and dedication have served as
a model for all of us. We salute her for a job well done and
wish her well in her retirement.
News and Upcoming Events
Linda Berry, who came to work in the
library in 1987, first in Serials and Documents and then Circulation / Reserves,
retired in January. We miss her and wish
her the best of luck.
Tony Fonseca, Jeremy Landry, Anke
Tonn, and Van Viator attended the
American College and Research Libraries—Louisiana Chapter meeting in
January, where the topic was the destruction of libraries and materials by
Katrina and Rita. The four also attended a meeting of the LALINC Information Literacy Committee. Fonseca
and Viator served as voting committee
Newsletter staff: Tony Fonseca, Francine Middleton, Jean-Mark Sens, and Jeremy Landry. Please e-mail comments and/or
suggestions to Tony Fonseca (tony.fonseca@nicholls.edu). The statements and opinions included in these pages are those of the
newsletter staff only. Any statements are not those of Nicholls State University or the University of Louisiana System.
members.
Tony Fonseca has helped ACRL put
together a website which lists all grant
information for libraries which need
funding to recover from the hurricanes.
Joey Hebert is accepting a job offer
with Records and Registration, and will
be leaving our Circulation Department.
The Night Shift won’t be the same without her.