Micro-cards have long defied attempts to make them easily accessible to scholars, but new technology makes it possible to download and print from these opaque cards for the first time. Media-Microtext Services, on the lower level of Green Library East, now has this machinery - a joint project of Indus Industries and Screen Scan systems. (For more see http://www.indususa.com/opaque.shtml) It employs two technologies: a lens light machine which enlarges the micro image for viewing on a screen, and a scanner interface that captures whatever is presented on the screen by saving the image as a Tiff file.

The Humanities Resource Group is changing several key assignments effective 1 January 2002. Bill McPheron, William Saroyan Curator for British & American Literature, will take over from Henry Lowood as Head of the department. Henry is stepping down after five years as Head to focus on a dual curatorial role for both Germanic Collections and for History of Science & Technology Collections. This assignment revises the decision to split these curatorships into two positions, a significant fiscal savings in light of the University's current budget situation. These savings will result from termination of the current search for a new Curator for Germanic Collections and elimination of this billet. Considering Henry's experience in both curatorial areas and Bill's as prior head of the department, this reduction utilizes existing staff expertise in a way that minimizes the negative impact of this reduction.

In keeping with this spirit of applying the talents of current staff, Sharon Propas, Head of the Monographic Ordering Department, has agreed to assume some of Bill's curatorial duties. Sharon, who holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA, will be responsible for most current imprints in English-language literature worldwide, both managing the approval plans and acquiring other new publications. Bill will continue the program for American and British literature in Special Collections, focusing on acquisitions and exhibits for manuscript collections and antiquarian books. Bill and Sharon will work together to cover electronic resources and to provide library instruction.

Finally, Adan Griego will continue as assistant head of the Humanities Resource Group. His key responsibilities, in addition to his curatorial duties, include public service programs within the Department and supervision of the collections and staff of the Lane Reading Room.

At the start of the new year, Malgorzata Schaefer will take over the leadership of the Web Advisory Committee. She brings a wide range of experience to this position. Before coming to Stanford, Malgorzata managed projects in the fast-paced world of advertising. She has worked for SUL/AIR since 1989, first as a bibliographic assistant, then as a senior reference specialist. Now as the Information Center's Coordinator for Instructional Services, she is leading an effort to develop a Web-based tutorial on library research. Feel free to contact her at mschaefe@leland with ideas or suggestions.

After a long search, SUL was pleased to offer the position of Middle East Curator to John Eilts who began work for us on December 17th. We are extremely happy to have John join the Area Studies Resource Group because in him we have found a terrific person and a curator who has an extensive background in Middle East studies.

John originally comes from Oregon where he obtained his undergraduate degree in political science with a specialization in Middle East studies. He subsequently studied Arabic at Harvard and the American University in Cairo and obtained both his M.L.S. and M.A. (in Near Eastern languages and Literature - Turkish) at the University of Michigan.

John began his career as Head of the Near Eastern Division of the University of Michigan Libraries. At Michigan he not only had responsibility for collecting in Arabic, Persian and Turkish, but just as he will here at Stanford, he supervised the Middle East staff in acquisitions and cataloging. After Michigan, John came to RLG as Program Officer for Middle Eastern Studies where, among many things, he was involved in the development of Arabic script capabilities for the RLIN database and for coordinating the activities of RLG member institutions that have Middle East collections. Most recently at RLG, John was officially Product Manager, Resource Sharing, and Program Officer for Middle East Studies. In that position he continued to shepherd software development from the concept stage through development and production and on to marketing and sales.

John has also been active professionally in ALA, where he is currently a member of the Subcommittee on the Near East of the International Relations Committee, and in the Middle East Studies Association where he is currently a member of the Electronic Publications Committee. Even more importantly, he has been extremely active in the Middle East Librarians Association (MELA) where he has served as president and editor of MELA Notes. He is currently working with Jonathan Rogers of Michigan on digitizing MELA Notes for web publication. John has also made various workshop presentations and has had several articles published.

The variety and depth of experience that John brings with him bodes well for the future of Middle East Studies at SUL and for its growth and development. You may find him in the SSRC suite, room 123L. Soon he will also be working in the Meyer Library with the Middle East technical services staff.

We feel extremely fortunate to have found someone so well qualified for this position right here in our backyard (John lives in Cupertino). Please welcome John to SUL and congratulate him for wanting to return to our lovely academic environment.

SUL/AIR has no new positions this week.

For a complete description of other open positions within SUL/AIR, visit the Human Resources Web site at:

Human Resources Web site.