ScholarWorks at Central Washington University

This article discusses the transition back to in-person library services after a year or more of remote services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the article argues the necessity for libraries to reinvest in their print collections

Lubas, Rebecca

Central Washington University 
ScholarWorks@CWU 
Library Scholarship James E. Brooks Library 
1-2022 
Print Collections Reconsidered 
Rebecca Lubas 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/libraryfac 
 Part of the Collection Development and Management Commons 
ISSN 0272–0884
TechnicalitiesTM
Information Forum for the Technical Services Professional
Over the past few months, many of us gradually restored or fully returned 
in-person services in our libraries. 
We began working in our library 
buildings more hours a week after 
a year and a half of concentrating 
on providing print alternatives to 
our students and faculty. Reaching 
remote users and reaching users 
with remote library staff was an all-
consuming challenge. Of necessity, 
we had to put aside thinking about 
physical spaces and tangible collec-
Hello again, Technicalities readers. It has been a while. This column addresses the 
winding road that led me to my current 
position and how I came to write for 
Technicalities again.
In summer 2012, I left my job as 
assistant library director at OSU-OKC, 
Oklahoma State University’s Okla-
homa City satellite campus. That fall I 
tried to write about my new position as 
technical services librarian at Cape Cod 
Community College, but found that I 
had nothing more to say, and I sadly 
quit my column, “Good Things Come 
In Small Libraries.”
In the nine years since then, I have 
changed positions twice more, with 
each move taking me to a different 
state. The job transitions have had 
me working in a variety of integrated 
library systems (ILS) platforms, too: 
Ex Libris Voyager, III Millennium, 
Voyager again, OCLC WorldShare, 
and now Ex Libris Alma. I have 
performed an ILS migration as project 
leader from the library side, coordi-
nating with vendor-side counterparts 
on the implementation. This included 
a change of platforms for interlibrary 
loan and course reserves, necessitating 
reconstruction of the library’s reserves 
collection. As a bonus, the new ILS 
(continued on page 6)
Continuities 
See page 9
Inordinate Maps of Knowledge  
from the Bibliographers’ Guild 
See page 12
Making and Managing Metadata
See page 16
Book Reviews
See page 19
News From the Field
See page 23
January/February 2022
Volume 42 No. 1
Metadata A La Cart
A Winding Road: Becoming a 
Semi-Feral Map Cataloger
By Laura Kane McElfresh
Laura K. McElfresh
(continued on page 4)
Reality 
Check
Print 
Collections 
Reconsidered
By Rebecca Lubas
Rebecca Lubas
4
Technicalities • Volume 42 No. 1 • January/February 2022
tions while meeting user needs during 
a time of remote teaching, learning, 
and research. Interaction with print 
usually meant some scanning—or a 
lot of scanning. Electronic delivery 
was paramount. 
It is time to start thinking about 
print again. As we have been returning 
to our offices and reopening our 
library doors, we have had the chance 
to look at our stacks with fresh eyes. 
We may have noticed the congestion 
that we stopped seeing because it was 
a lower priority than other issues. 
We may have noticed the shabbiness 
(or as I like to say instead, the “well-
loved-ness”) of the volumes lining 
the shelves. We may have wondered, 
“Why did we not weed that Apple II+ 
manual from 1981 before now?” as 
we walked by that shelf on the way to 
our offices. 
There are a few big projects that 
one can engage with for your print 
collections, all of which often get 
pushed down the priority list because 
they are too big to think about tackling, 
require too many library staff hours, 
or require an outlay of funds, like a 
membership commitment. It is hard 
to break inertia. Let us look at a few 
ways to set the momentum in motion. 
A Well-Tended Collection: 
Weeding and Pruning
The idea of trimming books from 
the collection is usually one that is 
blocked by obstacles of what really 
needs immediate attention. Unless 
you have a true space crisis where you 
cannot add a book without taking one 
away, it is difficult to justify starting.
Think about “pruning” in addi-
tion to “weeding”—it is more than a 
nearly all libraries. In fact, card cata-
logs and catalog cards have, for the 
most part, passed into history and 
craft projects. If you are interested in 
exploring the topic further, I recom-
mend a lovely and delightful book, 
The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and 
Literary Treasures, compiled by the 
Library of Congress with a foreword 
by Carla Hayden (San Francisco: 
Chronicle Books, 2017). 
Changes with 2022
I welcome a new regular contrib-
utor, Laura Kane McElfresh. Laura is 
a former columnist who is returning 
to Technicalities after a hiatus. She 
replaces Sheila S. Intner, whose last 
column appeared in the December 
2021 issue. 
We have decided to provide Digital 
Object Identifies (DOI) where we can. 
A DOI is a string of numbers, letters, 
and symbols that uniquely identify an 
article, book, etc.—and provide it with 
a permanent URL. 
Kudos
I congratulate our regular contrib-
utor, Dr. Gregory Leazer, who has 
been awarded the Association for 
Library Service to Children (ALSC) 
Research Agenda Pilot Grant. Dr. 
Leazer’s project will address the 
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with 
Children and Families section of the 
ALSC Research Agenda and seek to 
answer the following questions: What 
are the barriers to library patronage 
and participation for underrepre-
sented children and families? How are 
libraries bridging these barriers? The 
project will aim to understand the rela-
tionship between the lack of library 
services and how that contributes 
to the lack of literacy, and to social 
and civil isolation. The research will 
be conducted in consultation with 
Candice Wing-yee Mack, Los Angeles 
Public Library, and Robert Montoya, 
Assistant Professor of the Department 
of Information Studies, University of 
California Los Angeles.
References
1. Kelly Jensen, “A History of Library 
Hand,” Book Riot (Sept. 13, 2021), 
https://bookriot.com/library-hand 
(accessed Nov. 20, 2021).
2. Melville Dewey, “Library Hand-
writing,” reproduced from Library 
Notes (March 1887): 273-82; 11.
3. Jensen, “A History of Library 
Hand.”
4. New York State Library, Bulletin 
66; Handbook of New York State 
Library School (Oct. 1901): 422.
5. Ibid., 426.
6. Dorcas Fellows, Cataloging Rules 
with Explanations and Illustra-
tions, 2nd ed., revised and enlarged 
(New York: H.W. Wilson, 1922). 
From the Editor’s Desk
Library Hand: A Forgotten Requirement
(continued from page 3)
Reality Check
Print Collections 
Reconsidered
(continued from page 1)
5
Technicalities • Volume 42 No. 1 • January/February 2022
euphemism. Pruning is a more subtle 
art. Weeding is something you do 
because you no longer have a choice, 
the garden is overrun, and it will be 
suffocated without drastic action. 
Pruning is what you do to a tree to 
encourage growth, and it even makes 
it aesthetically pleasing. In reality, you 
may need to do a bit of both, depending 
on the condition of your collection. 
While there are those of us who 
have the space, mission, and resources 
to have a comprehensive collection 
of record, most of us need to be more 
targeted with our collections. Whether 
your collection is a mighty oak or a 
bonsai tree, the core idea is the same. 
Grow and shape the kind of collection 
your institution needs. If you need to 
recover space quickly, you might need 
to figure out the low hanging fruit of 
outdated works in areas of study where 
information does not age well and 
where you can use basic reports in your 
library system showing straightforward 
data such as publication date or number 
of checkouts. Reviewing your institu-
tion’s curriculum can provide much 
clarity; when programs have been elim-
inated there may be areas with some 
easy maintenance decisions. 
After picking out some of the easier 
projects, the sense of accomplishment 
will help propel the more difficult deci-
sions requiring more time and multiple 
data points. Trends in academic fields, 
popularity of courses, and the research 
interests of recent faculty hires can and 
should all be considered. 
Sharing the Work
The start of the 21st century saw 
the rise of collective print collec-
tion efforts. These projects sought to 
leverage shared catalogs and systems 
linked to consortia and existing inter-
library networks to provide more 
powerful borrowing and lending 
amongst institutions. The growth of 
cooperation in these projects reached a 
critical mass, and usually (with notable 
exceptions like HathiTrust) center on 
regional hubs. Participation in a shared 
print program can provide a way to 
address many collection dilemmas 
at once. It can help identify what to 
keep and what can be let go, and it can 
help focus purchase plans. It also can 
strengthen existing cooperative rela-
tionships and expand new ones.
A foundational activity upon 
entering a shared print cooperation 
initiative is to do a collection analysis, 
comparing your institution to the 
others in the program. The Partnership 
for Shared Book Collections (https://
sharedprint.org) has created an info-
graphic defining shared print and its 
advantages.1 The Partnership offers 
a number of tools to explore when 
considering starting this process.2 A 
shared print program usually has a 
preferred tool for consistency. Joining 
a project also may give advanta-
geous pricing for new members. This 
process highlights a library’s collec-
tion strengths and may uncover areas 
that you did not realize you had. The 
process allows you to mark what titles 
you wish to “contribute” to the collec-
tive. While the blunt approach to shared 
print is “we do not have to keep this 
title because 20 other libraries have it,” 
undergoing this process can help focus 
and narrow down areas for weeding 
and pruning. If your library has an area 
of strength, you can preserve and even 
enhance it.
There is much discussion in the 
shared print world about return on 
investment. Shared print does cost 
resources at the outset. The collection 
analysis tool may have a one-time or 
ongoing cost and serious staff time is 
involved in reading the analysis and 
drawing conclusions and actions from 
the data. However, if a shared print 
project can be viewed as means to 
multiple ends, it can be just the thing to 
break inertia in collection tending. The 
analysis can provide targeted areas for 
weeding and identify major contribu-
tions to a bigger network.
Sometimes Less Is More, 
Sometimes More Is More
Over the past decades, libraries have 
gotten very good at being frugal and 
have carefully tried to not have redun-
dancies in their collections to their 
networks. The downside of non-dupli-
cation is that this has sometimes been 
at the expense of not purchasing a core 
title in an area and making a faculty 
member or student borrow something 
that would be good to have on the local 
shelves. Focusing the collections on 
the strength of the institution can help 
inform these decisions, even if it feels 
counterintuitive to purchase copies of a 
commonly held title. 
Elevating and Celebrating 
Print
Collection analysis also can help 
with diversity and inclusivity work, 
uncovering where collections may 
most need diversification. Results of 
collection analysis can create great 
opportunities for discussion with 
academic departments from fresh and 
engaging angles.
Through a collections analysis, the 
strengths of the collection also can 
(continued on page 6)
Technicalities • Volume 42 No. 1 • January/February 2022
6
be uncovered, creating opportunities 
for virtual and physical exhibits and 
opportunities to celebrate the history of 
the institution in an interactive manner. 
Exhibitions can draw community 
interest and contribute to reestablishing 
the library as a physical intellectual 
hub as we return to in-person activities. 
Print collections can invite users back 
into the library, reminding them of the 
scope of resources the library provides, 
resources that they may have done 
without for a year or more.
Revisiting the Value 
of Print to the Library 
Program
Investing resources in a collection 
analysis can yield a better under-
standing of the state of the collection, 
strengthen networks, and point to clear 
pathways for growth. It can be the 
foundation for a more relevant print 
collection.
Emerging from the pandemic with a 
fresh look at the print collection is more 
than an opportunity to revitalize print. It 
is an opportunity to reconnect the needs 
of the institution and its community 
with all aspects of library resources 
and services. After more than a year of 
being reactionary out of necessity, we 
can look at services holistically and 
proactively again. Engaging with print 
through analysis, maintenance, and 
programming is one way to reestablish 
relationships with our library users. 
References
1. Partnership for Shared Book Collec-
tions, “What is Shared Print?” [v.2], 
https://sharedprint.org/wp-content/
uploads/What_Is_Shared_Print_
Infographic.pdf (accessed Nov. 22, 
2021).
2. Partnership for Shared Book Collec-
tions, “Tools,” https://sharedprint.
org/resources/tools (accessed Nov. 
22, 2021).
Rebecca Lubas is Dean of Libraries 
at Central Washington University, 
Ellensburg, WA, and can be reached at 
Rebecca.Lubas@cwu.edu.
included an electronic resource 
management (ERM) system, which I 
got to implement! While I did mostly 
finish populating our knowledge base 
and got COUNTER harvesting started, 
I was not there quite long enough 
to finish fine-tuning the harvester—
or to manage the transition from 
COUNTER 4 to COUNTER 5.1
Outside of systems-type work, 
I have acted as project leader on a 
comprehensive, urgent, and drastic 
print collections weeding project. 
Perhaps this should have happened 
before the ILS migration, but there 
was not time for it back then. This 
was followed by a shelf reading, 
shelf listing, and inventory project. 
One might think the inventory 
project should have come before 
weeding; I certainly did! But it actu-
ally worked out fine that way and, 
in this case, it turned out even better 
than a “sensible” order of operations 
probably would have. Additionally, 
my responsibilities included several 
phases of print serials inventory, 
weeding, and conversion to e-only, 
which took place before, during, and 
after the larger weeding project.
It Has Been  
Quite a Journey
I do expect to write more about 
my adventures (and misadventures) 
along the way, especially in weeding 
and ILS implementation. For now, 
though, I would like to start at the 
last part—at the intersection of my 
latest job transition and the start of the 
COVID-19 pandemic. As I mentioned, 
(continued from page 5)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons  
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 
Metadata A La 
Cart
A Winding Road: 
Becoming a Semi-
Feral Map Cataloger
Reality Check
Print Collections Reconsidered
(continued from page 1)


Print Collections Reconsidered

Friends of the Brooks Library

Central Washington University 
ScholarWorks@CWU 
Friends of the Brooks Library University Archives and Special Collections 
2-2022 
Notes from the Stacks, Winter 2022 
Friends of the Brooks Library 
Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/cwu_fobl 
 Part of the Library and Information Science Commons 
CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
NOTES STACKSFROM THE
WINTER 2022 Vol .  8   I ssue 2
 
CWU Wins Washington Library Association Service Awards
 The Washington Library Association 
(WLA) has awarded the Central 
Washington University Libraries Access 
Services Team and Associate Professor 
Maureen Rust with 2021 Outstanding 
Service Awards. 
 Rust and the Access Services  Team 
were honored for their work bridging the 
gap between CWU and the Ellensburg 
community. They were also praised for 
providing dependable library services 
despite the significant challenges 
presented by the pandemic.
“I was really surprised,” said Rust when 
asked how she felt when she received 
the news. “I didn’t realize I had been 
nominated.” 
 Rust is also the Student Engagement 
and Community Outreach Librarian—a 
role that she agrees fits her perfectly. 
“I love my job. I love developing 
programming specific to the students 
on campus, but also we develop a lot of 
community events and partner with a lot 
of community entities,” she said.
 Hosting Cultural Conversations 
is only one way CWU Libraries 
actively engages with the Ellensburg 
community. Now in its third year, Cultural 
Conversations takes place with the 
library, inviting individuals from different 
backgrounds and identities to tell stories 
of their culture and talk about things 
they’ve faced integrating into Kittitas 
County and the U.S. 
 Partnering with the Ellensburg 
Public Library and the CWU’s Office of 
International Studies, CWU Libraries 
started these conversations at the 
Ellensburg Community Center and later 
transitioned to virtual conversations 
during the pandemic, continuing to 
garner engagement online. 
 The WLA 2021 Outstanding 
Service Award recognizes outstanding 
contributions made by an individual 
or group involved in improvement to 
library services, advancements in the 
profession, advocacy for libraries, service 
to colleagues, or other outstanding work 
on behalf of libraries.
Wildcat Food Pantry Opens at Brooks Library
 CWU students now have one more 
reason to visit Brooks Library. In an effort 
to ensure that no student goes hungry, 
the campus chapter of PUSH (Presidents 
United to Solve Hunger) opened the 
Wildcat Pantry on the first floor of the 
library during the fall quarter. Staffed by 
volunteers, the Pantry aims to support 
the basic needs of CWU students by 
offering free food and personal hygiene 
products in a stigma-free environment. 
Students are invited to visit as often as 
necessary and to take whatever they 
need. 
 The Wildcat Pantry is stocked with 
a variety of nonperishable food, a 
limited amount of perishable food, and 
toiletries, including soaps, shampoos, 
and menstrual products. Pantry items 
come from campus partnerships with 
CWU Dining Services and the Wildcat 
Neighborhood Farm, and many are 
donated by members of the university 
and local communities. The Pantry 
accepts donations of unopened, 
unexpired, nonperishable food, as well as 
unopened personal hygiene products. 
 In addition to running the Wildcat 
Pantry, PUSH partners with various 
campus departments, offices, and clubs 
to bring needed resources to students. 
CWU SLICE (Student Leadership, 
Involvement, & Community Engagement) 
has organized food drives for the Pantry, 
and the Diversity and Equity Center has 
hosted pop-up pantries and events. 
CWU Dining Services helped set up the 
Emergency Meal fund, which allows 
students in need to request extra money 
to be added to their meal plan balance.
 The Ellensburg campus joins several 
CWU centers in this effort to bolster 
academic achievement by supporting 
basic student needs.  All centers run food 
pantries in partnership with their host 
campuses. 
 The Wildcat Pantry in Brooks Library 
is open Monday through Friday 11:00 
a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information, 
email wildcatpantry@cwu.edu
CWU Libraries Access Services staff.
 Winter Greetings!
 Winter Quarter opened with much 
of Washington under a blanket of snow.  
The beginning of a new year combined 
with the colder months keeping us 
indoors a bit more provides a good time 
to reflect on health, especially mental 
health.  In January we began a series 
of events funded by the Institute of 
Museum and Library Services to promote 
community mental health including 
panels, book discussions, and creative 
exercises.  I hope you can join us.
 One of the challenges of pandemic 
conditions has been delivery of our core 
information literacy instruction.  Our 
librarians have created the “Research 
Smartz” series to deliver the important 
lessons of being a good information 
consumer to our students online.
 I’m thrilled to announce we received 
a generous grant from Pendleton 
& Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable 
Foundation for the second year in a 
row!  This grant enabled us to add the 
electronic archives of  The Olympian, 
growing our collection of online historic 
news coverage.  This collection now 
spans the state, the world, and different 
cultures – try The Times of India, the 
archives of the Los Angeles Sentinel, 
Hispanic American Newspapers, or the 
Tri-City Herald Collection with Historical 
Archives.
The Dean’s Corner
 Thanks to direct book donations 
and funding sources such as the Friends 
of Brooks Library endowment, our new 
books list grows regularly.  This year we 
continue to work on diversifying the 
collection, and deepening our holdings 
of Pacific Northwest topics.  Check it 
monthly for new titles. 
 Be well, and I hope to see you in 
person, or online!
-Rebecca L. Lubas
Dean of Libraries
Notes  From The Stacks
 `CWU Libraries, in partnership with 
Ellensburg Public Library and the Office 
of International Studies and Programs, 
launched their quarterly Cultural 
Conversations program in winter 2019. 
Since then, the community series has 
featured storytellers from Mexico, Central 
and South America, Eastern Europe, Asia, 
and Africa.
 With the help of an American Library 
Association Libraries Transforming 
Communities grant, we are taking the 
program one step further by offering 
a monthly facilitated book discussion.  
Upcoming Events
February
15 Research Smartz: Making OneSearch 
Work for YOU
4:00PM-5:00PM
Online
17 Research Smartz: Getting the Most Out 
of Databases
12:00PM-1:00PM
Online
23 Community Resilience in Times of 
Change Book Discussion: The Body Keeps the 
Score
04:00PM-5:00PM
Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons
March
02 Community Resilience in Times of 
Change: Processing Traumatic Events Panel 
Discussion
12:00PM-1:30PM
Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons
14 Jazz and Crafts
6:00PM-7:30PM
Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Student Commons
15 Pizza and Popcorn
6:30PM-7:30PM
Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Fishbowl
16 Friends of the Brooks Library Pizza 
Giveaway
6:00PM -7:30PM
Brooks Library, 2nd Floor Fishbowl
17 Grab-and-Go Kit
1:00PM-5:00PM (while supplies last)
Brooks Library Lobby
For more information visit:
 cwu.libcal.com/calendar/events 
Cultural Conversations and Book 
Discussion Series
Titles are selected for their relevance to 
the immigration experience, specifically 
to the United States. The kick-off title is 
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect 
on America. The first discussion will take 
place virtually from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. on 
Thursday, March 31. Registration includes 
a free copy of the book and is available at 
the calendar listing. Space is limited. 
 For more information visit our events 
calendar or contact Maureen Rust  at 
Maureen.Rust@cwu.edu.
Notes  From The Stacks
 The nation’s mental health crisis 
among children, adolescents, and young 
adults is real and widespread because 
of the COVID-19 pandemic, according 
to the U.S. Surgeon General. Hoping to 
shed more light on these issues, Central 
Washington University will host a series 
of monthly “Community Resilience in 
Times of Change” events through May 
2022.
 The series will focus on exploring 
the effects that COVID-19 has had on 
our communities and our collective 
mental health. Additionally, the series 
will explore ways to mitigate them and 
strengthen the community as a whole.
 Dean of Libraries Rebecca Lubas says 
the event series will seek to address the 
immense additional stress COVID-19 has 
put students under, as well as ways to 
heal traumas.
 “It’s very important because when 
you’re a student, you’re dealing with 
all the things life throws at you, as you 
Resilience Series Looks at Mental Health and Trauma
normally would,” Lubas said. “When you 
have a traumatic event with as much 
global impact as COVID, that just makes 
dealing with a complicated student 
schedule, juggling family, work, and 
studies that much harder.”
 The content of the events has been 
developed in cooperation with the 
community, along with local health care 
officials and authors, to ensure relevancy 
for all interested parties.
 The first installment was a 
community panel discussion titled 
“Mental Health and Growth Mindset,” 
held at the Hal Holmes Community 
Center in the Ellensburg Public Library. 
It featured local practitioners Kimberly 
Finger, Jackie Moore, and Auren 
O’Connell, with CWU School Psychology 
graduate student Juan Serrano 
moderating.
 The next event is a book discussion 
about The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. 
Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s 
Second Consecutive Grant Funds Olympian Collection
leading experts on trauma. The book 
focuses on the physical ramifications of 
trauma in the brain as well as the body, 
and the myriad ways in which one can 
work toward healing these invisible 
wounds. The discussion will be held 
February 23 at 4:00 p.m. in Brooks Library 
room 288. Registration is available at the 
calendar listing, as well as the option to 
order a free copy of the book. 
 The final winter quarter event 
will center more directly around the 
processing of traumatic events and will 
feature members of the Active Minds 
student club, plus CWU staff from the 
Mental Health Counseling Program and 
Wellness Center. It will be held March 2 
at noon in the Brooks Library Student 
Commons.
 These events are made possible 
in part by a grant from the Institute of 
Museum and Library Services. More 
information about the series and the 
spring events can be found on the CWU 
Libraries event calendar.
 
 CWU Libraries is the recent recipient 
of a grant awarded by the Pendleton 
& Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable 
Foundation. The Millers, longtime 
Seattle-area residents and alumni of the 
University of Washington, supported 
many charitable organizations and 
activities during their lifetime. The 
Foundation, established in 1994, focuses 
on the Pacific Northwest and continues 
the Millers’ philanthropic legacy. 
Additional information about the Millers 
and the grant process and recipients is 
available at Miller Charitable Foundation.
 With this award, the libraries has 
purchased the online Olympian (WA) 
Collection with Historical Archives. The 
collection contains articles from the Text 
Archives—The Olympian (2001-Current), 
The Olympian: Blogs (2006-2017), 
The Olympian: Video (2019-Current), 
The Olympian: Video Transcripts 
(2019-Current), The Olympian: Web 
Edition Articles (2009-Current); Historical 
Page Images--Morning Olympian 
(1923-1982), Olympian (1982-2000), 
and the Olympian (2018-Current). 
This new collection complements the 
ever-growing list of online Washington 
newspaper collections the libraries have 
purchased and made accessible to the 
university and local communities in the 
last few years. Other online newspaper 
collections acquired by the libraries 
include the Tri-City Herald Collection 
with Historical Archives, the Seattle Times 
Collection with Historical Archives, and 
the Washington State News.
 The libraries’ inaugural Miller 
Charitable Foundation grant award 
last year funded two online collections 
that have received tremendous usage 
since their acquisition. The first, North 
American Indian Thought and Culture, 
contains more than 100,000 pages 
from autobiographies, biographies, 
Indian publications, oral histories, 
personal writings, photographs, 
drawings, and audio files. The collection 
is a comprehensive representation 
of historical events as told by the 
individuals who lived through them. 
The second collection acquired, Early 
Encounters in North America: Peoples, 
Cultures, and the Environment, 
contains materials documenting the 
relationships among peoples in North 
America from 1534 to 1850 and contains 
published and unpublished accounts, 
including narratives, diaries, journals, 
and letters. The collection focuses on 
personal accounts and provides unique 
perspectives from traders, enslaved 
people, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, 
native peoples, and officials. 
 The online collections made possible 
by grants from the Miller Charitable 
Foundation are available at libguides.lib.
cwu.edu
CWU is an EEO/AA/Title IX Institution. For accommodation e-mail DS@cwu.edu.
 
  Arooj Altaf (M.S. Law and Justice ’22) 
works hard as a GA, where she spends 
several hours each week at the service 
desk. In addition to checking out books 
to patrons, she helps researchers find 
what they need via reference interviews. 
She also designs instructional materials 
on how to use software and databases 
made available by the library. Arooj also 
works in the archives, where her favorite 
project so far is processing the faculty 
papers of Dr. Karen J. Blair, who retired 
from the history department in 2014. As 
Arooj familiarizes herself with Dr. Blair’s 
body of scholarly work,  she also gains 
knowledge of the fascinating history of 
CWU and Ellensburg. 
 
Meet Our Graduate Assistants
 Mara Gans (M.S. Cultural and 
Environmental Resource Management 
’22) works with the Peer Accountabily 
and Connections (PAC) program, where 
she helps transfer students network and 
find resources in the CWU community. 
She is also a teaching assistant for LIS 
245, Research Methods in the Digital 
Age. When not also working at the 
service desk, Mara helps out by assisting 
library faculty and staff with many 
other projects and workshops around 
the library. Her favorite perk of this 
assistantship is being able to interact 
and work with students to help them 
learn about all the ways the library can 
support them. 
 Juan Serrano (Ed.S. in School 
Psychology ’24) also works with the 
PAC program to help acclimate transfer 
students to life on campus. Juan works 
closely with the library’s community 
outreach team on projects, such as 
setting up displays, putting posters 
up across campus and downtown 
Ellensburg, running outreach booths 
during campus events, and helping 
moderate presentations in the library.  
 He really enjoys getting to work 
with all of the staff and faculty here in 
the library because they never miss 
an opportunity to help him grow as a 
student and to feel appreciated.
Notes  From The Stacks
 Friends of the Brooks Library
       The Friends of the Library had 
an eventful fall that saw us return 
to “normalcy” (a word that, alas, the 
illustrious U.S. President Warren Harding 
did NOT invent in 1920, contrary 
to popular wisdom). First and most 
importantly, we held our annual book 
sale in early November after skipping last 
year’s sale due to Covid. We expected 
the event to be successful, but we were 
taken aback at just how successful it 
was.  We set a record for revenue, taking 
in $2274.50, much of it coming from 
sales of books on complex topics like 
philosophy and science.  Yes, people 
are interested in that stuff.  Second, on 
December 8, we held one of our regular 
pizza feeds in the library, wherein we 
hand out free pizza to anyone who 
seems to be studying diligently (and 
those who aren’t).  We gave away more 
than 30 pizzas!  Third, we held our first 
annual Jolabokaflod (an Icelandic word 
meaning “Christmas book flood”) at 
Pretty Fair Beer on the winter solstice. In 
our version of Jolabokaflod, participants 
bring two books to give away and take 
one book from among the pile brought 
by others. They also drink beer and eat 
chocolate.  We had about 15 attendees 
this year. We’re hoping to build on that 
good start.  
      We also wish to thank Bob and Marie 
Jones for another generous $3500 
donation to the Friends of the Library 
endowment. 
      Finally, we offer congratulations to our 
own Maureen Rust for being accepted for 
the Fulbright Specialist Program Roster 
(meaning she’ll soon be travelling abroad 
for a few weeks to lend her expertise to 
a foreign library) and our own Rebecca 
Lubas for being named Interim Dean of 
the School of Graduate Studies.
Dan Herman
-Friends of the Brooks Library Secretary
Contributors: Andreina Delgado, Brenda Gardner, Dan Herman, Elizabeth Kuykendall, Daniel Levy, Rebecca Lubas, 
Maureen Rust, Julia Stringfellow, Rune Torgersen (Public Affairs), Lauren Wittek
Print and online subscriptions to the newsletter are available by registering at lib.cwu.edu/newsletter. 
Juan SerranoMara GansArooj Altaf.


Notes from the Stacks, Winter 2022

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Hogue, H. Glenn

Football

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Selden F. Smyser, Professor of Social Science, Vernon Carstensen, Associate Professor of History, Otis Halbert Holmes, Jr., Professor of Social Science, Margaret Coffin Holmes, Assistant Professor of Social Science, Harold Barto, Associate Professor of Historyhttps://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/glenn_hogue_photos/1161/thumbnail.jp

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Foster, John

Library Interior

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Professor with a student

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Notes from the Stacks, Winter 2022

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