Gleeson Library, Cable Car[t] Wins 1st Prize!

December 6th, 2010 by Matthew Collins No comments »

I left my ‘cart’ in San Francisco

The “I left my ‘cart’ in San Francisco” Cable Car[t] created by the Student assistants (with a little help from their staff friends) in the Access Services Department of Gleeson Library won 1st prize in the 2010 “Unshelved: Pimp my Bookcart” contest.

The Judges commented:  “This year’s first prize was an easy choice for both judges. We passed on the opportunity for our yearly fistfight and settled on this fabulous cable car lookalike. The fit and finish on this one is spectacular, including the signage and the bronzed desk bell on top.”

Come in and view the “I left my ‘cart’ in San Francisco” Cable car[t] on display in the Gleeson lobby.


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FDLP Survey

December 6th, 2010 by Carol Spector No comments »

Have you ever used government information at USF? Did you know that USF’s Gleeson Library participates in the Federal Depository Library Program? Help us evaluate how useful these resources and services are to you by completing the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSLCRRB. Thanks in advance for your time!


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Gleeson’s Got Games!

December 3rd, 2010 by Matthew Collins No comments »

The Gleeson Library is now loaning Video Games for Play Station 3, Xbox 360 and Wii!  We currently have over 50 games and will be ordering more in the coming months.

Video games can be checked out at the Circulation Desk and are loaned for a period of 7 days with a potential for 3 renewals.

You can request a hold or recall of a video game via Ignacio, Gleeson library’s online catalog.

Take a look at all the awesome video games available at Gleeson:

Full list of video games

Video games for Play Station 3

Video games for Xbox 360

Video games for Wii

Or stop by the Circulation desk and request to browse the Video Games.

Some of our future releases will be:

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Final Fantasy XIV

Star Ocean: the force unleashed

Star Ocean: the force unleashed II

Ghost Recon

Medal of Honor

If you have ideas for what we should get next please let us know in the comments.


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Otis Hall Robinson (1835-1912), Rochester University Librarian

December 3rd, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
Happy birthday to the man who put the hole in library catalog cards. Today marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Otis Hall Robinson who served as Librarian of the University of Rochester Library from 1868 to 1889. Robinson is noted more for his advocacy for library instruction than for his idea for dealing with the annoying tendency of library users to remove catalog cards and put them back in the wrong order (or to keep them for later reference). But lets not underestimate the importance of that idea. How often has a single idea or practice been adopted by every library in America. Robinson's plan called for punching a hole in the lower left corner of each catalog card and running a rod through all the holes to prevent the removal of the cards. Later with the development of standard catalog cabinet drawers the hole was moved to the center of the catalog card. Although French librarian M. Pincon had similar thoughts, Robinson's holes (which were larger than the rod) were more effective. The catalog card above (a Harvard sized catalog card) started out with the hole to the left but was moved to the center later.

Robinson is listed in the Dictionary of American Library Biography (Libraries Unlimited, 1978) where there is an excellent article about him by Edward G. Holley. There is also actually some information on the University of Rochester Library website about Robinson (although it is easier to find through Google than their website). Both sources provide a good picture of the challenges and limitations of academic librarianship in the 19th century. Robinson was exceptional in his views on serving the library and information needs of students. Even so, the library was only open a few hours each day.

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New York Society Library Charging Ledger 1789-1792

December 2nd, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »

Earlier in the year there was a great deal of publicity about a couple of overdue books at the New York Society Library (NYSL) which had been borrowed by George Washington. I even did a blog post about it here. The NYSL has recently launched a new component on its website which makes available a digitized copy of its first charging ledger which covers the period 1789-1792. In addition to the digital images of the pages of the charging ledger, there is a link to each individual user in the ledger which takes you to more information about the individual including a listing of the books checked out by the individual. Users of the NYSL who are listed in the ledger include George Washington, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr. There is also a link to each book checked out by the user with information about the book and who else checked out the book. All in all, it is an extremely well done project. In September of this year, I attended Library History Seminar XII, a national meeting of library historians, and a thread which ran throughout the conference was the historical importance of preserving library circulation records. Noted library historian Wayne Wiegand promotes an approach to library history which emphasizes the library in the life of the user in contrast to the user in the life of the library. Historians are able to utilize charging ledgers such as the one at the NYSL to approach library history in this manner.  The online charging ledger of the NYSL can be utilized as a research tool and also as learning tool for library school students and those interested in library history. As is noted on their website, there are additional charging ledgers for later years that have also been preserved at the NYSL. When you visit the NYSL website take time to look around, it is an excellent website. Permission to use the image of the first page of the charging ledger shown above was granted by the NYSL.

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