San Diego State University Library and Information Access     

Special Collections' New Archivist "Loves" Her Work

"Love at first sight" is what drew Jennifer Martinez to become an archivist. "While I was an undergraduate working at the Huntington Library, I had the opportunity to work with the love letters Wallace Stevens wrote to the woman who would later become his wife," Martinez explained. "I fell in love with the collection of letters and with manuscripts. I love to read personal accounts of everyday people, and I'm interested in helping to share them with others."

Martinez is from the Pasadena, California, area and received her bachelor of arts degree at Scripps College in Claremont, California. After earning her MLS degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, Martinez returned to Southern California and went to work as an archivist and manuscripts cataloger in the Department of Special Collections at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1997. In 1998, she became the curator of western historical manuscripts at the Huntington Library and later an archivist in the Manuscripts Department. While at the Huntington, Martinez managed a two-year Mellon Foundation grant-sponsored retrospective conversion project for manuscript collections.

Martinez is working with Special Collections' many manuscripts, especially the Sierra Club records, the San Diego Chamber of Commerce papers, and an extensive collection of San Diego County legal briefs. In addition, she is involved with the rare book collection and catalogs many of the new acquisitions for Special Collections.

Martinez is enthusiastic about her new job at SDSU. "I love the potential that's here," Martinez said. "There are so many exciting things happening in Special Collections, and I wanted to be a part of it. I want to help to shape the collections and generate more use of them."

Jennifer Martinez can be reached by e-mail at jmartine@mail.sdsu.edu or by phone at (619) 594-7047.

Publications, Activities and Awards

Robert Fikes, Jr., Reference Librarian, published "Adventures in Exoticism: The 'Black Life' Novels of White Writers," in Western Journal of Black Studies (26), Spring 2002; "African American Fascination with Asia," in NOMMO (newsletter of the Association for Black Culture Centers) (10), Fall 2002; "Black Scholars Who Make a Specialty of Asian Studies," in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (36), Summer 2002; "It Was Never Greek to Them: African American Affinity for Ancient Greek and Roman Culture," The Negro Educational Review (53), January-April 2002; and a review of The Rescue of Jerusalem: The Alliance Between Hebrews and Africans in 701 B.C., by Henry T. Aubin, in Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (37), Autumn 2002.

Laura Hudson, Electronic Systems and Services Librarian, published "Review of American Council of Learned Societies History E-book Project," in Charleston Review (4)2, 2002.

Cecilia Puerto, Reference Librarian, recently was honored by the Los Aztecas Alumni Chapter as a Luminaria of SDSU. This was the first recognition ceremony by this organization of faculty and staff who have given dedicated support and guidance to Latino students through their academic careers.

Patrick Sullivan, Business Reference Librarian, in his role as chair of the Southern California Academic Business Librarian's Exchange, successfully coordinated a workshop on STAT-USA, which took place at the University of California, Riverside.

Markel Tumlin, Reference Librarian, published "Serials for Distance Education Research Projects: What Are We Missing?" in Serials Review (28)3, 2002, and a review of Super Searcher, Author Scribe, by Lorraine Page, in Serials Review (28)4, 2002.

Remembering Calvert Norland

Calvert E. Norland, who was a professor of zoology at SDSU from 1947 to 1976, passed away on September 20, 2002, in Arcadia, California. Dr. Norland was a generous supporter of the SDSU Library. His contribution of more than 3,000 volumes on the biological sciences, medicine, zoology, and natural history to Special Collections formed the Calvert Norland Collection. Dr. Norland was a graduate of Pomona College and the University of California, Berkeley.