San Diego State University Library and Information Access     

A Message from the Dean

Over the past few years, the Library and Information Access has made progress in many areas. We have added to our electronic resources with funding from the university and acquired an impressive list of gifts from donors to our Special Collections. Our students have funded additional hours and access to the electronic materials they need for their coursework with a new fee. We have been able to make the library's environment more comfortable and more intellectually stimulating with exhibits, readings, lectures and photographs of authors. Our Student Computer Center has almost doubled in size, offering around 400 workstations. Recently, we completed the reorganization of the periodical collection and merged our reference points into one desk on the first floor. Our efforts resulted in reference librarians from all subject areas being available near the Reference Desk and much improved access to resources.

The faculty and staff of the library want to provide the best possible services and collections for our students, faculty and visitors from the San Diego community. We want to offer an even more welcoming, intellectual and accessible environment for every user of the SDSU Library; however, our state's unprecedented budget deficit and the worsening economy will make our goals more challenging as we move into the next academic year. This year, we lost more than $100,000 from our budget. In addition, for the first time in a decade, no additional funding for inflation was available to cover the 9 percent annual increase in our subscription costs. This added up to a decrease of more than $300,000 in our purchasing ability.

This year's budget problems seem modest compared to next year's early projections. Although we are doing everything possible to stretch the use of our resources, we anticipate several detrimental effects from the budget cuts this year and fear that the deep cuts next year will severely reduce our ability to support the teaching, research and service functions of the university.

In these difficult times, I appreciate our outstanding staff and faculty who are dedicated to providing excellent service to our academic and neighboring communities. They are committed to doing everything possible to support our students and faculty. On behalf of the entire library, I am extremely grateful to our donors and friends who have been even more generous this year. We appreciate your continued encouragement and support as we navigate these challenges in the future.

Connie Vinita Dowell
Dean, Library and Information Access

Library Happenings

True to Type: A Selection of Fine Printing from Special Collections
Many of the recently acquired articles donated by former printer/publisher Richard B. (Dick) Yale will be featured in this exhibit, which will be on display in the donor hall from March 3 to May 4. Yale's decades of collecting have led to an accumulation of rare books on the printing process and the life histories of its artisans. Although the exhibit will emphasize California materials, it will also include examples of fine printing: from some of the oldest books in Special Collections to the newest artists books to commercial printing.

Poetic and Poisoned: The World of Edward Gorey
Books and illustrations by writer/illustrator Edward Gorey will be on exhibit in Special Collections from March 7 through May 31. Featured will be works housed in Special Collections that were donated by SDSU alumnus and Gotham Book Mart owner Andreas Brown, who was a good friend of Gorey's. Some of the works included in the exhibit are The Glorious Nosebleed, The Sopping Thursday, L'heure Bleue, The Awdrey-Gore Legacy, and Edward Gorey's Dracula, a model theatre kit of his hit Broadway production. Gorey is perhaps best known as the creator of the cartoon sequence that opens and closes the PBS "Mystery!" series.

From Cuscatlan to Aztlan
Prominent scholars from El Salvador and the United States will take part in a symposium titled "From Cuscatlan to Aztlan: Salvadoran Literature and Culture During Times of Struggle." The symposium will be held in Room 2203 of the SDSU Library on Monday, April 28, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The symposium participants include Dr. Rafael Lara Martinez, New Mexico Tech; Dr. Janet N. Gold, University of New Hampshire; Ricardo Aguilar, Fundación la Casa de Salarrué, El Salvador; and Dr. Carlos Guillermo Wilson, San Diego State University. For more information, please contact Martha McPhail at (619) 594-6736.

Picturing Knowledge: The Art of Scientific Illustration
Illustrations from our many science collections and extremely rare books will be included in this exhibit, which will be held in the donor hall and in Special Collections from May 5 through September 7. The exhibit will cover a variety of science topics, from astronomy to zoology.

Movie Notes: Composing Music for Hollywood
Sheet music and books about composers from the Vince Meades Collection will be exhibited in the library's browsing area from May 19 through September 6. This exhibit also will contain movie posters printed between 1930 and 1981, including The Maltese Falcon (1942), Apocalypse Now (1979), and King Kong (1933).

(above) Edward Gorey's The Awdrey-Gore Legacy will be on display in Special Collections from March 7, 2003 to May 31, 2003.