Editor: Michael Adams
Mina Rees Library

City University of New York Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016-4309

Assistant Editor: Julie Still
Paul Robeson
Library
Rutgers University
300 N. 4th St. / P.O. Box 93990
Camden,
NJ 08101-3990
856-225-6035

Chair, 2001-2002: Kristine Anderson

Purdue University Libraries
1530 Stewart Center

West Lafayette, IN 47907-1530
765-494-7340

Vice Chair, 2001-2002: Michaelyn
Burnette
390 Library Annex
University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, CA 94720
510-643-1586

Contents

• News from the Chair
• Literary E-zines
• Early English Books Summer Camp
• A Shorter but Sweeter (Virtual) Midwinter Meeting?
• Personal News
• SF Program
• LES Web Editor
• Editor's Note
• LES and Related 91´«Ã½ Resources

News from the Chair

As I sit here writing this column and as the nation struggles to its feet and tries to
get back to business as usual after the events of September 11, I am in a different
world than I was last week at this time. Last Monday, I was still innocent of the fact
that the stuff of nightmares and bad movies could really break through into everyday
life. We have, of course, been repeatedly told that we are in a new environment. I don't
think, however, that any of us really understood what that could mean.

The new environment of instantaneous communication means that we all have burnt into our
minds the image of the twin towers hit by airplanes and their sudden collapse. How did
we get this image? Cams are everywhere, making movies all the time. Whenever I choose, I
can peek into the drawing room of Purdue’s Krannert building or view the highway
conditions at Santiam Pass, Oregon, from my office computer in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Another ambiguous gift of technology is the cellphone. These were used by the airline
passengers to speak to loved ones in their last moments. By means of these very same
cellphones, some passengers learned of the World Trade Center disaster, challenged the
hijackers, and crashed their plane in a remote part of Pennsylvania. Thus a bit of
information received just in time enabled some individuals to avert an even worse
disaster.

The diabolical genius who devised the plan to commandeer passenger planes and use them
as bombs was not a military genius in the traditional sense nor a technological one. The
only technology he needed to understand was that a passenger jet loaded with fuel is the
equivalent of a bomb. The rest was all sociology and psychology: an understanding that
our nation's very strengths are also weaknesses that can be exploited. Perhaps he also
understood enough of mass psychology to know the effect that turning our peaceful
devices of mass transportation into weapons of mass destruction would have on already
nervous airline customers. Perhaps he also had learned enough about economics to
formulate a hypothesis about what such an attack on the airline industry could do to the
nation's economy. Whoever has done this has given the phrase "thinking out of the box" a
new and sinister meaning. Dealing with such individuals and such dangers will, in turn,
require much more of us than mere technology and military intelligence.

Yet, in some of my darker moments, I wonder what relevance our specialized interests in
English literature librarianship can possibly have in this new environment. In an e-mail
to the ACRLEADS discussion list, 91´«Ã½ councilor Don Sager offers an answer to the
librarianship part of the equation, proposing a new strategic plan re-emphasizing the
importance of removing barriers to information access, resisting the demands to restrict
First Amendment rights that are likely to come, collaborating with libraries in other
countries to build an information and library infrastructure accessible to all, creating
respect and understanding between the diverse cultures of the world, and reaching out to
those individuals in our communities who may not be aware of our resources.

While I agree with Mr. Sager that this is a good strategy for us in our role as
librarians, I would also add that our specialized subjects in the humanities and
literatures in English in particular also have a crucial role to play. When I hear
people demanding swift revenge for the attack on America, I am reminded of the
depictions in the Norse sagas of cycles of revenge spiraling ever and ever out of
control. When I contemplate the roles of national leaders and how the media have made
them all actors, I am reminded of Malli in Isak Dinesen's story "Tempests." Malli
becomes a heroine when she takes charge during a shipwreck that occurs in the middle of
a rehearsal of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Not until her friend Ferdinand, a
sailor, dies of injuries received during the shipwreck is Malli shocked into the
realization that she has been acting in more than a play. While older narratives can
give us a context for thinking about present situations, newer narratives also
proliferate and compete. These must be collected, understood, and critiqued.

A couple of years ago, we had quite a lively discussion on the then EALS-L list about
the much exaggerated death of the English research methods course. Several of the
speakers at our upcoming 2002 Program, "Teaching Literary Research: Challenges in a
Changing Environment," actually teach such a class. In other universities, including my
own, this required course has transmuted into something completely different that
includes only a very small library research component.

Our concern with the decline if not demise of this essential course of study dovetails
with concerns in the larger library world with information literacy. For the past year
or so, Heather Martin has headed our section’s Research Competencies Ad-Hoc Task
Force. A draft document of the group's findings will be posted on the LES Web site.
Please give us your feedback about this important matter through the LES-L list. The
Task Force itself has decided to disband or, possibly, join with the Reference
Discussion Group to form a new Reference and Instruction Discussion Group. Meanwhile,
the instruction discussion also continues on a new front: Kathy Johnson is leading a
Publications subcommittee devoted to planning and executing a new book centered around
the issues that will be presented at our upcoming program in Atlanta.

Kristine J. Anderson
Chair, ACRL-LES

Literary E-zines

Small-scale literary magazines have long been important for library collections. Often
labors of love, these magazines come in a variety of formats. Some have glossy
full-color covers, while others are stapled mimeographed sheets put together at the
local English Department office. These magazines are important because they provide an
opportunity for new and/or experimental writers to be heard that is often unavailable
from major publishing houses. However, they can also be very difficult to collect
because of their small publication runs and limited availability.

Since the
early 1990’s, however, a growing number of so-called e-zines have been appearing
on the Web and in e-mail. The development of these e-zines is partly the result of the
growth of print zine culture in the past ten-to-fifteen years. With the rise of
photocopying technology and desktop publishing, growing numbers of individuals have
started producing independent publications or "zines." There are zines about almost any
topic, including literature and writing. In turn, many of these authors and editors have
turned to the Internet to publish their zines. Although it is notoriously difficult to
charge readership for Web-and-e-mail-based publications, they are also generally far
less expensive to produce and distribute than their print counterparts.

Some
literary e-zines are electronic versions of the original print magazines, while some
were begun as purely Web publications. Their formats vary: some are text only or text
with pictures, while still others actively use the Web to go beyond the limitations of
print with hypertext, interactive graphics, and other innovations. Some are run by
individuals who love literature; others are sponsored by universities and other
organizations. What all share is the ability to reach readers all over the world.
Literary e-zines provide a wonderful opportunity for literature librarians. Not only are
they free, but they represent another venue for new writers. Rather than having a work
published in a source that sells only a few hundred copies, a new writer’s work
can be read by anyone with Web access.

While most literary e-zines still keep to
semi-regular publication schedules, with distinct issues, others maintain sites
undergoing continuous change and revision. Technically, such sites are literary Web
sites rather than e-zines, though many refer to themselves as e-zines. E-zines may also
experiment with online chapbooks published separately from regular issues. Some even
produce annual print "best of" anthologies compiled from their online production.

Because of their often experimental and individual nature, e-zines may have
sporadic publication schedules, just as their print cousins sometimes do. As a result,
you may want to track a given e-zine for a couple of issues prior to including it in a
recommended list or online library catalog. An e-zine may even change its address
without warning. Library catalog records and/or recommended lists should be checked
periodically to ensure that the links are still active. Archival issues should also be
considered. As with Web sites generally, e-zines affiliated with a university are more
likely to have long-term archival storage than those produced by individuals.

Once you find one e-zine you like, it will often include links to other good ones.
Another place to look is online directories:

• , a list of e-zines in a
  variety of subjects;
  
• , a site that includes links to lists and reviews of e-zines;
  
  
• ,
  which includes online poetry archives and links to e-zines;
  
• , an online archive of e-zines
  and other electronic texts.

Following are examples of literary e-zines that may be of interest to librarians and
literary scholars:

• 
  
  
  The Blue Moon Review continuously updates its site with poetry, fiction,
  and nonfiction. The Review also features audio files of writers performing their
  works.
• 
  
  Sponsored by Big Bridge Press, Big Bridge publishes poetry, fiction,
  non-fiction, and art.
• CrossCurrent
  
  Published in association with the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly
  Writer’s House, CrossConnect includes poetry, fiction, non-fiction,
  and art. There is also a print annual.
• 
  
  
  The Drunken Boat includes original poetry and reviews and essays on poetry.
  
• 
  
  Edited by Andrei Codrescu, Exquisite Corpse includes poetry, short
  stories, essays, art, and photography. Most of the previous issues are archived;
  copies ofits previous print incarnation are also available for sale through the
  site.
• How2
  
  Based at Bucknell University, How2 features original poetry and
  scholarship focusing on contemporary women’s issues. Previous issues
  (including ones from How(ever), its previous print incarnation) are
  archived at Rutgers University and available through the site.
• 
  
  On the Web since 1991, Intertext is one of the oldest and most
  established e-zines. Specializing in short fiction, it is available in a variety of
  formats, including html, plain text, and Palm. Past issues are available through . Readers may also request free
  e-mail subscriptions.
• 
  
  
  Riding the MeridianM focuses on poetry, much of which is in hypertext
  and/or multimedia forms, as well as interviews, critical essays, and reviews. Back
  issues are available through .

Jen Stevens
Humanities Reference Librarian
Washington State University

stevensj@wsu.edu

Early English Books Summer Camp

What would you need to know to do a successful keyword search through 25,000 early modern
texts? How much should you have to know? These questions guided the
conversation at the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP)
Interface Taskforce meeting this past July 16 -17 at Northwestern University.
Affectionately termed "summer camp," the two-day session blended casual conversation
with intense examination of the EEBO-TCP prototype interface. By the end of the meeting,
interface designers and future users had a much greater sense of the research
possibilities these encoded texts could support, as well as the sorts of design
modifications that would open up the collections to a wider audience.

"Sometimes it was fun just to sit back and listen," said Jeff Garrett, Western Language
and Literatures Bibliographer at Northwestern University, commenting on the great
variety of viewpoints circulating in the computer lab. Considering that the meeting
participants hold research interests ranging from historical linguistics to political
pamphlets of the English civil war to medieval medical treatises, it came as no surprise
that group discussions provoked a tremendous array of questions. The Task Force chiefly
consisted of five librarian-faculty member pairs from EEBO-TCP member institutions,
which ensured a lively conversation that helped interface designers better understand
the concerns and expectations of a diverse pool of users.

The array of discussion points itself brought the central challenge of constructing the
EEBO-TCP interface into focus. How can the interface for a collection of texts like
those in EEBO--which contains works that often blend together topics we now separate
into categories like history, geography, poetry, politics, and science--be approachable
and logical for current users accustomed to the terminology of a particular discipline?
Since these disciplines evolved, in many cases, from the thoughts reflected in EEBO-TCP
texts, the ability to search these works through a straightforward interface would
unearth influential ideas otherwise buried in unexpected places.

Throughout the meeting, task-force members used a prototype interface constructed by the
University of Michigan Digital Library Services to compare their expectations for the
EEBO-TCP interface, brainstorming about the sorts of searching that will be useful in
conjunction with the encoded texts. The group then devoted discussions to outlining what
capabilities an interface would need to meet the expectations of students, as well as
other teachers and researchers.

For almost a year, the EEBO-TCP has been producing encoded text versions of works
available as page images through EEBO, an online corpus marketed by ProQuest. The early
modern works collected in EEBO date from 1473 to 1700, encompassing the earliest days of
printing and continuing into years when plentiful ballads and pamphlets helped shape
popular culture. This broad span of time and materials makes EEBO-TCP texts potentially
helpful to a variety of users. At the same time, though, the collection's scope
encompasses a number of changes in printing, writing, and spelling habits that present a
number of challenges for potential users who have never before encountered early modern
works.

Without question, the task-force members agreed that early modern spelling remains the
biggest and most persistent obstacle to easy access. The EEBO-TCP texts, after all, find
their roots in a world where vv functioned as today's w, where authors
commonly varied the spelling of their own names, and where printers freely abbreviated
words to fit them on a line. And because the encoded texts strive to reflect what
appears on the originals' pages rather than modernize it for today's users, searching
can pose quite a challenge to anyone approaching these works for the first time (and
often for veterans as well). The current demonstration database offers a word index that
displays all spellings that appear in the encoded works, yet task-force members agree
that the ideal interface should offer simpler ways to search for variant spellings. Many
advocated the addition of a front-end normalizer, which would automatically look for
spelling variants of submitted search terms. In the meantime, others suggested the
interface could expand truncation options and allow users to create lists of alternative
spellings that would always be invoked during particular searches.

Extensive, active online help features also proved a necessity in the minds of many
task-force members, who suggested that interactive notations should appear from the
first screen to offer hints for successful searching. In addition, task-force members
felt that dividing the help menu into two levels would allow users to find the
assistance they need with less frustration. One level would address navigation of the
database itself, explaining how to use the interface's features while also telling users
what has been tagged and therefore what can be searched. A second help menu would then
provide a guide to reading and citing early modern texts, offering guidelines to
different early modern fonts and instructing users on how to deal with the
bibliographical challenges that early modern books present, like citing pages without
numbers.

The librarian/faculty pairs that formed the Task Force were Agnes Widder and Teresa
Tavormina, Michigan State University; Jeffrey Garrett and Martin Mueller, Northwestern
University; Laura Fuderer and Jess Lander, University of Notre Dame; Mark Sandler and
Richard W. Bailey, University of Michigan; and Barbara Walden and David Santschi,
University of Wisconsin. Harriet Lightman from Northwestern and Perry Willett from
Indiana University also attended, as did Matt Stoeffler and Hillary Nunn, members of the
EEBO-TCP production team at Michigan, and Laura Janover and Austin McLean from ProQuest.

The prototype interface is currently available for viewing online through the EEBO-TCP Web site. If you have comments
about the interface or any other questions, please feel free to e-mail hnunn@umich.edu.

Hillary Nunn
Early English Books Online Project Development Liaison
University
Library
University of Michigan
hnunn@umich.edu

A Shorter but Sweeter (Virtual) Midwinter Meeting?

At the last Annual Meeting, Bill Brown, the ACRL liaison to LES, reported that a group in
91´«Ã½ is looking into shortening midwinter. An interesting discussion ensued, both during
the Executive Committee meeting and the General Membership meeting about the pros and
cons. The major argument in favor of shortening (or, indeed, eliminating altogether) the
Midwinter 91´«Ã½ meeting is the expense, especially to many 91´«Ã½ members who are reimbursed
poorly if at all for professional meetings. Some felt that requiring two meetings a year
was a major discouragement to potential participants. Others felt that a lot happens at
midwinter meetings, like discussion groups and meetings with vendors that require the
physical presence of the members.

It has been suggested that an alternative to meeting twice a year would be meeting
virtually. A number of 91´«Ã½ groups have launched pilot projects in which at least some
members are considered "virtual members." If anyone is interested in exploring the
guidelines for virtual membership, look at these Web sites:
and
for LAMA;
for LITA; and
for YALSA.

It must be admitted, however, that LES is already informally doing many of the things
these groups recommend as "virtual work." LES committees already contact speakers for
programs as well as candidates to run for office via e-mail. William Wortman has kindly
set up an Exec-L list at his university for those of us on the Executive Committee to
use. We have had the LES-L list for some time, on which the general membership discusses
professional topics of interest to us and individual members contact each other for
advice on thorny collection or reference problems. For an always available permanent
record of our activities, we have the LES web page, now ably edited by Jen Stevens. In
fact, one LES member pointed out that virtual meetings might actually create more work
for the committees! The LES Membership Committee, however, has decided formally to try
virtual membership for one position.

When I received the forms for scheduling our Midwinter meetings, they came accompanied
with a letter that reminded me that Midwinter is supposed to be primarily for business,
as approved in a 1966 recommendation:

"For Council action, we recommend that 91´«Ã½ Policy III-F-5 be amended to read: That the
91´«Ã½ midwinter meeting be primarily devoted to carrying out the business of the
Association through meetings of the Council, board and committees, and that there be no
programs, general business or membership meetings of the divisions, sections, or round
tables, except as a limited number of program meetings, institutes, conferences or
workshops may be specifically authorized by the Executive Board."

When I read this, I blithely ignored the date, and in the context of the shorter
meetings dialogue, I jumped to the conclusion that this was a directive to shorten
Midwinter by eliminating some meetings that were not strictly business, such as general
membership and discussion sections. After consulting with our ACRL contact, Margot
Sutton, I learned that ACRL considers all our meetings business meetings, so I went
ahead and scheduled them. If 91´«Ã½ is serious about shortening midwinter, one way to do so
would be to designate some meetings to take place only at annual.

How do you feel about shortening the Midwinter 91´«Ã½ meeting and resorting to virtual
committee meetings and membership? Are there those out there who receive this newsletter
and might become more active in the section if they could do so virtually only? Please
feel free to post your opinions to LES-L (les-l@ala.org).

Kristine J. Anderson
Chair ACRL-LES

Personal News

Madeline Copp is the new Resources Services Librarian for English, Film,
and Media Studies for the Humanities Center and the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins
University. Madeline had been instructional services coordinator at the United States
Naval Academy Library. She replaces John Tofanelli, a former LES chair, who became
Anglo-American Bibliographer at Columbia University’s Butler Library last fall.

Vince Graziano, Literatures in English Librarian, Webster Library, Concordia University,
Montreal, wrote "Humanities" for the third edition of the three-volume Manual of
Online Search Strategies, edited by C. J. Armstrong and Andrew Large (London:
Gower, 2001). Vince’s chapter includes sections on the nature of humanities
searching as well as sections on such specific databases as Humanities Abstracts and
MLA.

Perry Willett, after twelve years as humanities bibliographer at Indiana University, has
been named assistant director for projects and services for the university’s
digital library program. Perry is a former chair of LES.

San Francisco Program

An account of "The Beat Generation: Collaboration and Community," LES’s program at
the 91´«Ã½ Annual Conference, appears in the September 2001 issue of College &
Research Library News. The article by Martha Lawler of Louisiana State
University at Shreveport and Dena Thomas of the University of New Mexico is also
available online.

LES Web Editor

Jen Stevens has been selected as the new editor of the LES Web site. Jen is a humanities
reference librarian at Washington State University where she specializes in English and
American Literature and German. She received her MLIS from the University of Texas at
Austin and her MA in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Jen also
maintains a site devoted to an early 20th century juvenile series published by Altemus, a small (and now
deceased) publishing company.

Editor's Note

I encourage Biblio-Notes readers to submit items about their careers as
humanities librarians, comments about their favorite reference tools, reviews of
electronic databases and recent print resources, and news about their achievements, new
jobs, or interesting institutional endeavors.

LES and Related 91´«Ã½ Resources

LES-L (section list):

To subscribe, send message to:
listproc@ala1.ala.org;
In message field, type: subscribe les-l [your
name]
Example: subscribe les-l linda miller

LES Web Site:
http://www.ala.org/acrl/les/

Studies of Interest to English and
American Literature Librarians (LES Bibliography):

MLA International Bibliography in
Academic Libraries Discussion Group List:
To subscribe, send message to:
listserv@postoffice.cso.uiuc.edu


In message field, type: subscribe mlaib-l [your
name]

Example: subscribe mlaib-l linda
miller

MLA International Bibliography in
Academic Libraries Web Site:

Studies of Interest to English and American Literature Librarians: