On Monday, September 24th from 9:30am - 10:30am there will be a "Fall Cider and Donut Party" to welcome the Hoover Library staff who have recently joined SUL/AIR. Please come to Koret Park (next to the red hoop fountain between Green Library and Meyer Library), have some donuts, and help us welcome our new colleagues.

In a world that knows no geographic boundaries, SUL/AIR has decided to join the NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium (NERL) as full member. NERL counts among its full members some of the largest and oldest U.S. academic and research libraries, including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and about 14 other, as listed below. In addition, there are some twenty-eight affiliate members.

The consortium objectives are to address questions of access and cost containment through joint licensing and possible joint deployment of electronic resources. The consortium has licensed dozens of products, many of which SUL/AIR has also been licensing as a single institution. NERL members have the option to choose which products they wish to license through the consortium, which products they prefer to license on their own, and which products they do not want at all. SUL/AIR will consider which products it wishes to license through NERL and will be added to the various deals it chooses at the point of license renewal and renegotiation. There are a few NERL licenses in place, however, which do not permit the inclusion of new members even through the license renewal and renegotiation process. These are few in number.

We have considered over the past years a few consortial relationships, but for most the total cost of membership exceeded the benefits. NERL is unique in providing the possibility of benefits in multiples of the costs of membership. Stanford's decision to join NERL does foreclose other possibilities, but does set the bar rather high. And Stanford's decision to join NERL also extends the boundaries of the U.S. Northeast rather considerably.

Assunta Pisani is the SUL/AIR designated representative to NERL, with Paul Zarins as her alternate. You are welcome to direct questions related to NERL. They will convey NERL proposals and possibilities as appropriate throughout the organization.

As Fall Quarter begins, we will be upgrading and standardizing the security logon protocols on our computers in public services areas throughout the Libraries. The computer cluster machines in Meyer, Tresidder and all of the dorms already require PC-Leland login at the time each new session is begun. We have devised a plan that will allow both our Stanford and non-Stanford readers continued access to online resources, but with more strict security protocols. Olivia Williamson and members of her staff will be working with each unit to implement the following changes during the next several weeks:

- All but a few public Kiosks in the Libraries will be set up to require PC-Leland at the beginning of each user session.

- In each service area (within Green Library and in the Branch Libraries) one or more Kiosks will be designated as "Public" Kiosks. On these machines, a) the Mail function in Netscape will be disabled, and b) individual collection resources requiring PC-Leland access now will continue that requirement. As we begin to implement online networked print accounting in the Libraries later in the Quarter, these same "Public" Kiosks will be the ones established as "Public" print stations, with Diebold card swipes attached for printing rather than networked printing which requires a SUNet ID.

- Olivia and her staff will also work with the program manager in each service area to determine how we can best provide the maximum security on each "special purpose" public computer (e.g. Social Sciences Data Service, Humanities Digital Information Service, special Chemistry workstations, GIS, etc.) Because of their varying configurations, some will likely need to be set up in each mode described above.

As the Campus brings up the Registry to manage secure online access to University resources, we will explore with them ways that we can use it to better manage online access for our non-SU readers. It seems likely however that this will not be available for several months to as much as a year due to both technology and policy issues that still need resolution.

Two publications produced by the Research and Instructional Technologies Support group within SUL/AIR are being distributed for the beginning of Fall Quarter.

About Computing is a yearly brochure that provides an overview of the computing facilities, resources, and services available at Stanford. References are supplied throughout so that you can obtain more detailed information when you need it.

Speaking of Computers is a quarterly newsletter that provides information about campus computing and technological activities and resources.

You can access both About Computing and Speaking of Computers on the Web at:

Sean Quimby will be joining the Special Collections staff on Monday, September 17, 2001. Sean comes to us from the Hagley Museum and Library in Delaware, where, as one of their processing archivists, he has been processing the records of the Pew Charitable Trust. He has a bachelors degree in American Literature, and graduated with honors from his undergraduate institution. He obtained his Master's Degree in History of Business and Technology, with an emphasis on Labor History from the University of Delaware, and subsequently completed a Certificate Program at the same institution in Museum Studies. Sean also has a great interest in the several of the main collecting areas of SUL/AIR, namely American and British Literature, the History of Science and Technology, American History and labor movements, as well as the Mexican American experience in the United States, and we eagerly look forward to his expertise and abilities and hope that many of you will get to meet and work with him soon.

Michael Olson will be joining the Special Collections staff on Thursday, November 1, 2001. Michael completed a Bachelors of Arts degree in Medieval Studies from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, in 1997, and then proceeded to complete a Masters of Philosophy degree in History and Computing from the University of Glasgow in 2000. Importantly, both in his formal coursework and his subsequent employment, he has utilized computers to provide access to historical resources. Much of this work has centered on analyzing the funding, costing, quality control, and delivery of digital resources. Throughout these efforts, he has encountered issues of long-term access, the use of standards for both delivery and preservation of digital media, as well as the ramifications of providing access to digital surrogates for original materials. Michael will be working with numerous colleagues throughout SUL/AIR to ensure that records of long-term historic value which exist in electronic form are preserved, described, and made accessible to researchers.

Please join us in welcoming Sean and Michael as members of the SUL/AIR team once they have arrived. Both Sean and Michael will have office just outside the Manuscripts Processing Area in Green East; Sean will be in rm. 351G and Michael will be in rm.351H.

I am delighted to introduce two original catalogers joining the MARC Unit of the Cataloging Services Department in September.

SUL/AIR has the following new open positions this week:

Journal Manager (9/17/01); REQ# J012521
Res Comp Program & Ops Coord (9/17/01); REQ# J012538
User Services Technology Specialist (9/17/01)

For a complete description of these job and a list of all current SUL/AIR jobs, visit the Human Resources Web site at: