Oct. 16, 2001
Books-A-Millions
The George Washington University Library System Adds
Its 2-Millionth Book to Collection
By Greg
Licamele
In 1838, Foggy Bottom was nothing but a swamp. Pierre L’Enfant’s
original streetscape was forming elsewhere in the District. The state
of Texas was an independent land.
The Gelman Library will now have a rare atlas from that era to prove
those facts and display maps of the US, Canada, and the West Indies.
As part of the GW library system’s acquisition of its 2-millionth
book, James C. King, professor emeritus of German, will donate the 1838
first edition atlas by Thomas Gamaliel Bradford during a special ceremony
Oct. 19. Purchased from a dealer in New Haven, CT, the 170-page book
(plus 40 colored maps) boasts a title page with engravings of George
Washington. The DC map is of particular interest to the library and
the community, says University Librarian Jack Siggins.
“It’s a snapshot of time and you get to see what the city
looked like and get an idea of how the city was organized,” Siggins
says, noting the maps contain information about population, rivers,
railroads, minerals, and government structures.
The festivities will celebrate history with the atlas and a look to
the future with the 2,000,001st book, “The Web of Science,”
funded by an anonymous donor.
“In contrast, this is going to be an electronic resource,”
Siggins says. “It’s a one-stop place for a student or faculty
member to go and find whatever they need about a particular subject
online.”
Caroline Long, associate librarian for collections services, likens
the database to following a paper trail.
“It takes a known article from the past and looks to see which
articles cited it after it was published,” says Long, adding that
depending on arrangements with vendors, users will be able to link to
the articles.
“Now, we have long runs of paper indexes and CD-roms,” Long
says. “This will be Web-based and people will not have to visit
the library to use it.”
Long cautions the “science” part of the name does not reflect
its true scope because the index contains information about the social
sciences and humanities.
The 2-millionth book celebration also will honor the major donors of
the Gelman and Mount Vernon’s Eckles libraries with a “Wall
of Honor.” As the first event of the celebrations beginning at
12:15 pm, Siggins says donors, University Trustees, University officers,
and key student leaders will unveil the wall in the lobby of Gelman
Library.
The 2-millionth mark includes books at the five GW libraries: Gelman,
Eckles, Burns (Law), Himmelfarb (Health Sciences), and the Virginia
Campus. One way Gelman helped achieve this notch results from a $1 million
budget increase this fiscal year. Siggins says in the past, the cost
of serial subscriptions increased at a high rate, preventing the purchase
of new monographs. Now, in consultation with schools and departments,
Gelman Library will purchase new books, fill in the collection gaps,
and buy more subscriptions and journals.
“We know we have some gaps in the book collection in some subjects
and some time periods,” says Long, who is coordinating the book
purchasing with library specialists and faculty members. “To the
extent that we can find those materials, we’ll be trying to fill
those in.”
Siggins says the acquisition of two million books and the impact of
the additional $1 million “will put us up into a higher level.
This acknowledges GW is an important research institution.”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
