Professor Emeritus Frank S. Cater has generously established a Portland State University Library endowment to purchase journals and mathematics materials for the Library collection. Dr. Cater is the first retired Portland State professor to establish a Library collection endowment to support the programs in the department to which he dedicated his career. A growing investment, the Frank S. Cater Endowment will be a living legacy that will enrich the work of future mathematics students and faculty in perpetuity.

Dr. Cater has a lifelong commitment to mathematics research, in which he is still an active and prolific contributor of articles to important academic journals. Throughout his academic career, he has regularly contributed important research to the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, Real Analysis Exchange, International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Science, American Mathematics Monthly, and the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications. He also is an accomplished artist.

After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, Professor Cater held his academic post with the Portland State University Department of Mathematics and Statistics from 1965 until he retired and was awarded the Emeritus title in 1992. Since then, he has continued to be an active scholar and a generous contributor to the University, including sponsoring student awards and supporting the Library’s Adopt-A-Journal Program.

"Libraries and Graduate Students: Building Connections," a special thematic edition of Public Services Quarterly, guest edited by PSU Science Librarian, Gretta Siegel, gathers together a variety of perspectives and approaches toward building relationships between academic libraries and a unique scholarly population with specific needs—graduate students.

This valuable resource shares efforts about specific programs and strategies to enhance and enrich the graduate student experience. Contributions to this volume include a wide variety of approaches including case studies, an extensive literature review on academic integrity, an initiative for program development in the context of a broader education initiative, and a chapter on graduate fellowships for manuscripts and special collections.

The PSU Library has purchased an additional 10-year backfile for Web of Science, taking our range of access back to 1977. In spite of its name, the purchase includes the backfiles for Social Sciences Citation Index and for the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, as well as the Science Citation Index. This resource is a particularly powerful tool for cited reference searching - - searching forward in time from a specific scholarly work, to citations of that work. Web of Science can be accessed through the library's directory of databases. (See related post.)

Did you know that PSU Library has launched an improved faculty-focused Scholarly Communication website to support your work? The site aims to keep faculty from all disciplines informed about publishing issues, challenges and trends. By understanding the current scholarly communication environment, scholars, the Library, and the University can move together toward a more sustainable system. Check out the resources section, which includes author's rights tools, copyright basics, publishing outlets and journal evaluation tools. From Library Home, under Services, click For Faculty for a list of services that we offer, and explore the Scholarly Communication website:
http://www.lib.pdx.edu/services/scholarlycomm/scholcomm.htm

Kenneth W. and Elsie W. Butler Award for Library Faculty Service 2008
Linda Absher

Linda Absher, assistant professor, Humanities Reference Librarian, and Interim Public Access Services Librarian, has served the University for six years. The nomination portfolio for the Butler Award is a testament to her outstanding performance as a member of the Library faculty. She has a commitment to collaboration and service which is evident in her interactions with colleagues as well as in her engagement with library users.

Professor Absher is responsible for collection development, library instruction, and faculty liaison in the departments of foreign languages and literature, communication studies, applied linguistics, English as a Second Language, and related subjects. During the last year she also has served as Interim Public Access Services Librarian, managing Millar Library hours, and the Circulation, Shelving, and Interlibrary Loan units in the Library. She supervises ten full-time employees and sixty student assistants in this position.

In the Library and on campus, Professor Absher contributes as a member on a variety of committees. Active in the Special Libraries Association, she has served as Secretary and President of the Oregon Chapter. She is a member of the statewide Oregon Reads program planning committee. “The Lipstick Librarian!” is a web site she created as a lighthearted tool to promote awareness about librarians and librarianship, and it has become a focal point in library research articles that document the social commentary of the profession. Her more traditional scholarship focuses on technology and diversity, and has been presented at national and regional academic conferences.

Professor Absher earned her A.B. in English literature from the University of California, Davis, and her masters in library and information science from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Kenneth W. and Elsie W. Butler Award for Library Faculty Service is given annually to recognize excellence of library service to students, faculty, and other patrons of the Portland State Library. The award was established through and endowment by Professor Emeritus Kenneth W. Butler and his wife, Elsie W. Butler.

What do the 2008 books Google Web Toolkit Applications and How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work & Everything: 44 1/2 Steps to Lasting Underachievement! have in common? They are both part of the Library's new Safari books ebook collection. The Library has just gained access to 629 ebooks on the Safari platform. The books are on engineering, computers science, and a wide range of business topics. To review the list of Safari books, search the Library Catalog, Vikat, using 'Safari' as a keyword.