This is an advance notice of a new book scheduled for publication in early 2008:
=================
Papoutsy, Christos.
Ships of Mercy : The True Story of the Rescue of The Greeks, Smryna,
September 1922.
Enfield NH: Enfield Distribution, 2008. First Edition. Hard Cover. New
Book from Publisher
ISBN 979-1-931807-66-1 $35.00
"Ships of Mercy reveals the true heroes of Smyrna, forgotten by
history. It is based on more than 10 years of research
by the Papoutsy's who travelled around the globe to document the
rescue of hundreds of thousands of Greek refugees
on the Smyrna quay in September 1922. ....this book uncovers
surprising answers and displays previously unpublished
materials. Vintage photographs, naval war diaries and captain's logs
appear for the first time in the pages of this volume.
Ships of Mercy dispels common myths about the evacuation of the
refugees and documents clearly the real saviours in
this enormous tragedy."
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
Dear CoHSL members,
First let me thank all those who took the time to answer my query about the Greek character set in bib records. I can see that there are different practices out there and the Cataloging Working Group (which will be set up as soon as we get the MGRP formalized) will have its work cut out for it!
*MGRP UPDATE*
The MGRP Executive Committee will meet at the CRL on January 4th in Chicago (please no snow!). We intend to finalize the documentation to make this thing official. I expressed to James Simon the concern of many of you about how you will be able to sell this project to administrators without having something more concrete that has been accomplished. Unfortunately this is much like the chicken and the egg story. We can't really get anything done until we are official and we can't become official until we can cover at least the CRL administrative costs. James reassured me that we could start out with minimal institutional fees (as low as $250.00 per member)then we could try to raise funds for individual projects.
Special thanks to Gisela Kam, who followed up on getting Mihalis' and Yannis' paper posted to the list in a timely manner! Also, many thanks to Mihalis and Yannis for their excellent paper and enthusiasm and interest in the MGRP. Maria Georgopoulou will try to meet with them prior to coming to Chicago so we can further push the project forward.
The urgent decision that needs to be made is whether we should plan a working meeting in Crete, as so kindly offered by Mihalis and Yannis. The exchange rate is scaring many of us and recent economic news isn't helping any. I could pull some funding together, but am wondering if others could. Might it make more sense for the key Greek players to plan to come here since they are experiencing the positive side of the dollar's nosedive? I hate to even suggest this, since I am dreaming of exploring Crete after the meeting! Harry-do you think LC would be willing to sponsor a similar conference as they did in 1999?! (Yes, I know, DREAM ON!!)
*MGSA LIBRARY COMMITTEE UPDATE*
I have attached the committee's mandate and the minutes of the meeting that took place on Friday 10/19/2007 at the Beinecke Library at the MGSA Conference. George Paganelis and I have conferred regarding structure of the committee for the next term, which is the following:
Chair 2007-2009: George Paganelis, Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection, California State University at Sacramento
Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Harold Leich, Library of Congress
Ex-Officio: Rhea Lesage, Harvard University
Members (term=2 year staggered, with one member serving 3 years for the first cycle)
2007-2010: Karen Green, Columbia University
2007-2009: Jacqueline Riley, University of Cincinnati
2007-2009: Anthony Oddo, Yale University
Best wishes to all for a blessed holiday season.
???? ???????????? ??? ???? ??????,
Rhea
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Karen Emmerich <kre2001(a)columbia.edu>
Date: Dec 11, 2007 4:56 PM
Subject: [MGSA-L] Plea for help: Quarterly Review of Literature
To: mgsa-l(a)uci.edu
Dear friends and colleagues,
I hope you don't mind my using the MGSA list-serve for something that
is not entirely Greek-focused. I'm writing to ask if any of you would
be willing to do what I hope would be a small favor for the Quarterly
Review of Literature. For those of you who don't know, the QRL was a
very important "little magazine" founded in the 1940s by Ted and Renee
Weiss; it published an astonishing array of absolutely central voices
in international literature, including some of the earliest U.S.
appearances of Seferis and Cavafy. In the 1980s the QRL began its
Poetry Book Series, which published three or four full books under a
single cover, including the first appearance in English of Nobel
laureate Wislawa Szymborska, the first book of McArthur awardee Anne
Carson, and Stathis Gourgouris's translation of Yannis Patilis's Camel
of Darkness. (For more info you can visit
http://www.princeton.edu/~qrl/.)
The QRL stopped putting out issues after Ted's death in 2003. Renee is
now trying to make sure the back issues of the magazine and poetry
book series end up in university libraries, where they will be cared
for and used. She is even willing to send boxes of books free of
charge, but is encountering all kinds of unforeseen problems in
dealing with university library staff.
So the favor I'm asking is this: would any of you be willing to put in
requests with your library staff to place an order for the volumes it
is missing, or even the entire series if your library did not
previously subscribe? Again, the books will be provided to university
libraries free of charge, so no amount would be deducted from your
buying limit. Also, I would provide you with a list of the volume
numbers your particular library was missing, and whatever other
information your library acquisitions department would need. In short,
I would make this as easy and painless for you as possible.
If anyone can do this, please contact me directly at kre2001(a)columbia.edu.
Thanks so much,
Karen (Emmerich)
----- Τέλος προωθημένου μηνύματος -----
_______________________________________________
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
(or) kalamosbks(a)aol.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
Good Morning CoHSL, I repost the report presented at MGSA as some
recipients were unable to read the Greek text in the paper. The report
attached should solve the problem. eilikrina, gisela kam
I recently came across a few books in Greek published in the USA before 1920
Not in great physical condition, but not very commonly found, either.
As well as the pharmaceutical text I just posted, there was this popular novel :
==========================
Athēnaios, Aimilios (Alexandre Bisson)
Hē agnōstos : mega koinōnikon mythistorēma ek tou hopoiou exēchthē
to drama "Hē agnōstos," to epi duo etē thriamveutikōs paichthen eis hola
ta theatra tou kosmou
En Nea Hyorkē : Ekdotikos Oikos "Proskopos,", 1919.
165-171 East 72nd St . New York
608p. Illus. $80.00
Novel in Greek based on the play "La Femme X" by Alexandre Bisson
(The play was first produced in 1910, and has frequently been revived
since on stage, on screen or on TV - the latest time in Chicago in 2006!
see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Bisson)
This copy has shabby, worn red cloth covers, almost detached
at the rear. The statement "Bibliopoleion "Atlas" New York City"
is marked on the front cover.
The title page is missing, pages loose, and the last 2 pages are
detached, but all 608 text pages are present,with no marks or writing
to mar them. There are a number of rather melodramatic illustrations
throughout the text, not well reproduced ( but these may have been
reprinted, I suppose, from plates or stereotype sent from Greece.)
Not greatly significant, except as an example of the type of
popular culture available to American Greeks 1900-1920
in their own language.
Book is listed on OCLC : 39447231
with 2 copies listed - at Princeton and in NYPL
PS : There an entry in OCLC for a later version in 1935 :
Hē agnōstos : drama eis praxeis hex
by Stephanos Charalampidēs; Alexandre Bisson
Type: Book
Language: Greek, Modern [1453- ]
Publisher: Nea Yorkē : [s.n.], 1935.
OCLC: 40696074
===============================================
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
This book is one to have ready for after New Year ... recipes
to cure Dyspepsia and other ailments of over-indulgence (vbg)
on pages 60-62
(one includes Rhubarb, Soda ,Cascara and Elixir Lactopeptin
all to be taken 2 spoonfuls after each meal )
June S
=======================
G.D.Chaidopoulou
O Procheiros Iatros tou Ellinos en Ameriki ...
He "Aspis" apo G.D.Chaidopoulou kai Feely Bros
Typis "Chronou" San Francisco, California. 1915
170 p. illus index. $275.00
The binding is brown cloth, with scuffed, once gilded title on
spine and on front cover, which also has an embossed
portrait of Hygeia, now somewhat scuffed, stained and
worn with use. It is loose in binding, but the contents are
complete. Names on ffep and rear endpaper, and with
some fingermarks and other stains, but most text pages
are relatively clean.(Evidently once used as "working copy ")
There are some stamped marks of "Geo.D.Chaidopulo
P.O.Box 687 Chicago ILL" (done presumably by the author)
The Feely Brothers 'PHARMAKOPOII" operated the
"Pacific Drug Co." at 296 3rd.St San Francisco
(there are photographs of Georgios D Chaidopoulou and the
Feely Brothers on one of the introductory pages)
This is a fascinating collection of recipes/ formulae evidently
produced for the use of Greek speaking pharmacists in the USA.
This dates from the time when pharamacists compounded their
drugs from scratch, and it lists the ingredients and gram weights
of the components for various lotions, potions and cures.
There is an English-Greek glossary of materials (pp13-29)
Given that many of these ingredients were SERIOUSLY dangerous
(Strychnine, Arsenic, Belladonna, Opium etc.) it is as well that the
book includes a chapter of "Deletria kai Antidota" ! (p.130-144) )
=====================================================
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
Good afternoon CoHSL. At the Library Meeting of MGSA, this October, Rhea
Karabelas Lesage delivered the report written by Mihalis Tzekakes and
Giannes Kosmas. The Library group had hoped our colleagues from Crete
would be present to participate and guide us in discussion as we
establish a Modern Greek Resources Project; we were very disappointed
they were unable to attend. With Mihalis' permission this
afternoon, I post the report to the list on his behalf. I am certain
CoHSL list members will find the paper comprehensive and
instructive in a a very exciting way. Since his tenure as University
Librarian at the University of Crete, and now as the Voule Library
Consultant, Mihalis has been a lightning rod of innovation and
drive behind major cataloging and digitization projects underway at
national institutions in Greece. He continues to be a tireless champion
in the creation of a seamless, unified Greek catalog network. With
Mihalis and Giannes at our side, I believe our endeavor to
establish a Modern Greek Resources Project will not fail. After reading
the report below, I am sure you will agree as to its importance. Thank
you and eucharisto poly Mihali kai Gianne, opos panta, Gisela Kam
*************************************
*************************************
HELLENIC STUDIES PROJECT
This paper is the result of the discussions and exchanges we started
prompted by the Athens meeting last year. We do regret that we did not
manage to personally present this paper and we would like to express our
apologies for this.
The main goal of the proposed program is to create tools that respond
to the needs and expectations of the Libraries and the relevant
institutions that support departments of Greek studies. These tools will
be related to the following areas:
- Quick and reliable information about the new publications related to
the Greek Studies in Greece and abroad,
- Effort to improve and update the routines of acquisitions relevant
modern Greek Studies,
- Effort to improve and streamline the procedures for development of
collections in the libraries hosting Greek language material,
- Cooperative cataloguing and documentation of Greek language material,
- Effort to establish schemes of exchanges (books, periodicals,
electronic material etc.),
- Cooperation and coordination in the area of digitization of rare
material related to Greek Studies,
- Effort to build up digital collections based on material relevant to
Greek Studies,
- Effort to establish an ILL scheme among the participating in the
Project members.
The basic aim of the Project is to establish a PORTAL, a gateway whereby
the participating members will be able to detect their material as regards:
- Bibliographic awareness information,
- Access to full text format of the documents they are seeking.
Crucial keystone terms for the implementation of the Project are:
COMMUNICATION AND CONNECTION
An indicative table of the institutions, libraries and other
organizations that might be suitable members of the Network is the
following:
- Libraries in Greece and abroad,
- Institutions and Academic Departments in Greece hosting departments of
Greek Studies,
- Libraries and Institutions in Greece and abroad which possess reliable
electronic catalogues,
- Libraries and Institutions in Greece and abroad that build up digital
collections of Greek Studies material,
- Libraries and Institutions in Greece and abroad that share the need to
create and have access to indexes of important and valuable for the
researchers Greek periodicals.
- Publishers and non profit institutions that have WWW accessible
electronic catalogues of their publications,
- The VIVLIONET bibliographic data base, which is supposed to be the
Greek electronic version of Books in Print.
THE PRESENT SITUATION IN GREECE AND THE PROJECT SUCCESS CHANCES
Before we go further it is important to describe the situation in Greece
and explore the chances to succeed.
It has to be admitted that if this discussion took place a few years
earlier our effort would come up to formidable hurdles related to
weaknesses in infrastructure and the lack of human and economic
resources in the libraries, their patron institutions as well as the
agents involved in the sector of publishing and bookselling. Fortunately
things have changed significantly for the better the last few years. In
the area of libraries, the Academic Libraries in particular, given
funding unprecedented by Greek standards, managed to streamline their
infrastructure, reaching almost the level of research libraries abroad,
mutatis mutandis of course. In this way the Academic and Research
Libraries and quite a number of Public Libraries:
- Offer electronic catalogs accessible through the WWW,
- Use MARC standards for the documentation of their holdings,
- Possess integrated library systems for managing their library routines,
- Make extensive use of the WWW facilities,
- Have started to digitize their material and create full text digital
collections.
LIBRARY PROJECTS IN GREECE
The applications of the ICT have permitted the libraries to create a
number of brand new tools of advanced technology that enable the
libraries to have simultaneous federated searches in the catalogs of
unlimited number of libraries. This is the case of ZEPHYRUS
(http://zephyr.libh.uoc.gr/), a program that was created by the
Automation Team of the University of Crete Libraries on behalf of the
Consortium of Greek Academic and Research Libraries. This program based
on Z39.50 protocol allows simultaneous federated searches in 34
catalogues of Greek Academic and Research Libraries.
It is worth mentioning here the present trend in Greek Libraries to
digitize their rare and valuable material, create digital resources and
offer free access to the national and international community. We would
like to give some indicative but by no means exhaustive examples of this
case:
- The University of Crete Library has created a digital full text
database that includes about 14000 Greek monographs up to now. The
majority of them come from its rare book collections. It can be visited
at the address: http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/.
It is worth mentioning that this site is very popular among institutions
in Eastern European countries that host departments of Modern Greek
Studies. An exploding number of monographs are added every week.
- The University of Patras Library runs a similar project called
KOSMOPOLIS. The scope of this project is to create a full text data base
of old and rare Greek periodicals. The database is WWW accessible and up
to know hosts the following rare Greek periodical titles.
1. Ακρόπολις Φιλολογική
2. Αλεξανδρινή Τέχνη
3. Αποθήκη των Ωφελίμων Γνώσεων
4. Αποθήκη των Ωφελίμων και Τερπνών Γνώσεων
5. Απόλλων
6. Αργώ
7. Αττικόν Μουσείον
8. Γράμματα
9. Εδέμ
10. Η Ευτέρπη
11. Ημερολόγιο Σκόκου
12. Θελξινόη
13. Ιόνιος Ανθολογία
14. Ιωνική Μέλισσα
15. Μη Χάνεσαι
16. Νέα Ζωή
17. Ο Νουμάς
18. Ποικίλη Στοά
19. Χρυσαλλίς
- E.L.I.A. (http://eliaserver.elia.org.gr) has already started an
ambitious project that intends to create a full text digital database of
84.500 documents, which are related with:
o photos and cartes postale from ELIAS’ collections,
o Grey literature documents,
o Newspapers, periodicals and 19th c. Greek Almanacs,
o Documents of Greek artistic life (Theater, cinema, music etc.)
- The National Library of Greece has started a similar project
digitizing its old Greek Newspaper collection. So far the following
titles are in full text are available through the WWW:
(http://www.nlg.gr/dlefimerides.htm)
1. ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ
2. ΕΜΠΡΟΣ
3. ΡΙΖΟΣΠΑΣΤΗΣ
4. ΣΚΡΙΠ
5. ΤΑΧΥΔΡΟΜΟΣ (της Αιγύπτου)
- The library of the Hellenic Parliament has also started a similar
project that intends to transform its microfilm collection of old Greek
Newspapers in digital format. The microfilm collection of Greek
Newspapers amounts about 15000 microfilms corresponding to 9000.000 pages.
THE CONSORTIUM OF GREEK ACADEMIC LIBRARIES
The consortium of Greek Academic libraries started as a joint project of
the Greek Academic Libraries, sponsored by the European Union, in order
to jointly face the increasing problem of the scientific periodical
subscriptions. So far it has had an unparalleled success. It has managed
to set up a state funded platform, through which the subscriptions of
all the Greek higher education institutions are handled. This means that:
- All higher education Greek institution share a common subscription in
electronic format, and they all have access to the corresponding
electronic periodicals,
- This shared subscription is funded by the State,
- The subscription prices are the result of hard negotiations between
the Committee of Periodicals and individual publishers such as:
1. ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers)
2. ACM (Association of Computing Machinery)
3. ACS (American Chemical Society)
4. AIP (American Institute of Physics)
5. American Psychological Association (PsycARTICLES)
6. Blackwell Publishing
7. Cambridge University Press
8. Elsevier (ScienceDirect)
9. Emerald
10. IEEE
11. Institute of Physics (IOP)
12. Kluwer Law International (KLI)
13. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW)
14. Oxford University Press
15. Project MUSE
16. Sage
17. SpringerLink
18. Taylor & Francis
19. Wiley
- A huge national network of information resources has been created
including more than 15.000 titles of electronic periodicals and
electronic databases covering not only the current subscriptions, but
the contents of all back issues as well.
In general, we would not exaggerate if we concluded that the Consortium
of Greek Academic Libraries and in particular the Periodical
Subscription Program is the most outstanding achievement of the last 70
years in the area of Education and Culture.
PUBLISHING AND BOOKSELLING SECTOR
Progress is also detected in the area of the private sector related with
publishing, book production, circulation and bookselling. It is
indicative in this case the presence throughout the country of big
chains of franchising bookshops, such as ELEFTHEROUDAKIS, PAPASOTIRIOU,
IANOS etc.
On the other hand, we have the case of serious institutions which are
concerned with the production and commercial exploitation of quality
books. In this class we include cases like the Cultural Institution of
the Bank of Greece, the University of Crete Press and other relevant
examples that are the outcome of cultural activities of Banks or
Universities.
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION PROMOTING GREEK PUBLISHING AS PART OF GREEK
CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
Another characteristic of the positive changes that have taken place in
recent years are the government or private foundations that are
established in order to promote the Greek culture and civilization.
EKEVI the Greek National Book Center, The Foundation of Greek Culture
and Civilization and other similar organizations intend to promote and
support the production and circulation of Greek publishing products in
Greece and abroad. Famous private foundations like the Onassis
Foundation or the Niarchos Foundation have recently been interested in
contributing to the improvement of the infrastructure of Greek libraries.
SOME CONCLUSIONS
The above mentioned points lead us to some worth mentioning conclusions:
1. A tremendous progress has been noted in the area of libraries
regarding their infrastructure and in particular the ICT applications
2. The level of services offered by the book publishing and book selling
sector has been improved significantly. This means their services to
libraries in Greece and abroad apart from the accurate and well timed
information for their publishing products can be extended in the area of
cataloguing and bibliographic services, i.e. Marc records etc.
3. Public Utility Organizations of the private and the public sector
include in their programs activities of funding library projects and
projects aiming in the dissemination of the Greek book.
All the examples mentioned above indicate the trend of Greek libraries,
cultural organizations, publishing houses and booksellers to fill the
gap between the Modern Greek and the Western European and American
standards. There is only one aspect where our traditional Greek
mentality remains stable and compelling. It is our national weakness to
be united, coordinated joining our efforts in order to achieve better
exploitation of human and economic resources. The case of the joint
subscription program of the Academic Libraries is a significant and
unique exception. The idea of creating a joint project and a resource
platform for promoting Greek studies in Greece and abroad could become
another outstanding exception. It can be considered as a unique
challenge for all of us in order to increase the level of our
communication and cooperation in a crucial for the Greek Culture area.
THE IDEA OF A GREEK STUDIES PROJECT
Having described the positive factors in Greece that could support a
Greek Studies Project, we should start being concerned in defining the
needs we expect to address with this project. In an effort to start the
discussion we mention an indicative, not exhaustive, table of such
needs. Any idea or proposition completing and enriching the initial
draft is more than welcome:
- Identification of libraries in Greece and abroad which are suitable in
participating in the original stage of the project. It is taken for
granted that among these libraries there should be included the major
Greek libraries (such as National Library, Hellenic Parliament Library
etc), as well as those libraries outside the borders of Greece that
possess significant collections of documents interesting to Greek studies,
- Development of a tool that will enable participating libraries and
institutions to:
• Access the catalogues of all the participating parties.
• To have simultaneous federated searches in these catalogues.
• To have online communication so that they could be able to identify
material related to Greek studies in the Greek publishers’ catalogues.
• To be able to place orders online for the titles of interest through
the electronic catalogues of the publishers and book sellers.
• To be able to trace and download full text material in digital
databases in the WWW sites of libraries in Greece and abroad.
• To be able to have coordination in digitization projects in order to
avoid duplication and overlapping.
• To facilitate the effort to create authority forms for Greek names of
persons and of corporate bodies by agreeing to use common reliable
sources (dictionaries, reference works, and encyclopedias).
• In Subject cataloguing identify areas and find solutions in cases
where terms corresponding to the American or Western European usages do
not match the Greek usage.
• To participate in a cooperative cataloguing project specifically
designed for the needs of cataloguing Greek language material.
• To download records for Greek language material from the catalogues of
the participating libraries.
• To convert Unimarc records to Marc21 records.
• To transliterate records in Greek character set into records in Latin
character set using the transliteration standards and practices of the
participating libraries.
• To exchange their duplicate copies,
• To design ILL activities concerning Greek language material.
The above list could be extended further, but it does not mean that we
have to implement all these at once. We can start by rating them in an
order of precedence, giving top priority to those that are grated highly.
The LIVESEARCH Portal of the University of Crete
In support of the above mentioned propositions we draw an example from a
similar project which has been implemented recently at the University of
Crete Library. This software was designed and developed in an interface
platform which is a further development of the above mentioned
distributed search engine Zephyrus. It has reached already the last
stage of tests and it is expected that it will be available for the
public in the very near future.
The new distributed search engine was designed in such a way that it
could offer an attractive and friendly search environment for material
which derives from heterogeneous kinds of resources. The interface
shares similar characteristics with the popular search engines (such as
Google, Yahoo, AltaVista etc.) and offers the web user a familiar sense.
Nevertheless, the total amount of the resources to which access is
provided has been meticulously selected by the Information Department of
the University of Crete Library, so that the visitor can find reliable
and relevant information.
The information resources that have been selected are library catalogues
of Greek and foreign institutions, digital libraries as well as
databases with scientific and research material. The technology behind
the system has been designed in such a way that can easily respond to
further needs and can easily consolidate any new source of information
that could appear in the future.
The visitor finds himself in a simple, functional environment and can
search information he is interested in either in the local collection or
in preselected resources. The information resources and databases are
classified in groups according the subject area they cover, the
geographical area they come from, the form of the material they include
(printed material, maps, photographs, electronic resources etc.)
The platform offers the visitor auxiliary tools by which he is enabled
to approach and identify the information he is looking for. In the case
of a less sophisticated tool the user might not have reached in such an
easy and simple way the results of his search. Among these auxiliary
tools can be listed the subject areas, the dates, the author names etc,
that come out as facets of a search, as well as the browse review of LC
subjects headings, which can cross refer the user in broader or more
detailed subject areas.
The results of the searches are projected either in brief or in detailed
form and include information related to the availability of the relevant
items in individual catalogues or give the user direct access to the
digital material available. Access to the digital material is assisted
by the potential reference to context sensitive linking. Based on the
result of his search the user is guided to trace additional information
resources which offer information relevant to the outcome of his
previous search, enabling him to move from one search level to another
increasing the results of the original search.
The user can select from the total amount of his search result the one
or those that correspond to his needs and compile a bibliographic table
for a further use. The system is also equipped with a module that allows
the participating members for ILL transactions and exchanges.
The interface of the system was developed in close cooperation with
Indexdata, a pioneer international company in the area of information
search and retrieval. The system is an open source product which means
that it can be used freely in the future while further extensions and
applications are permitted. The University of Crete having acquired long
term experience and know-how in these matters can reliably ensure
successful extensions and further application of this product.
POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS
It has to be admitted that the system and the interface described
above is deliberately oriented to respond more to the needs of a
researcher than those of a librarian. But this does not mean at all that
it cannot be modified and be tailored in order to respond to the needs
of the librarians.
We can confirm that we can consolidate tools in the preprocessing of
submitted search commands as well as their results so that the sections
of the Greek language text in a record or elsewhere could be converted
to Latin script by applying the suitable transliteration scheme. Such a
tool could be applied only if the user wanted it, so that he would be
allowed to decide which form he prefers (the Latin or the Greek script
form).
Responding to the needs of cataloguing and documentation of the Greek
language material, the system could incorporate tools of projecting the
original record from which the information is derived. The system could
also automatically transform the documentation format of a record to
another MARC21, UNIMARC, DUBLIN CORE etc.
A PORTAL FOR THE GREEK STUDIES
We hope that it has become obvious so far that the creation of a portal
covering the subject area of Greek Studies is feasible. From a
technological point of view it can be taken for granted that such a
system can be implemented. We could base our effort by extending the
platform described above exploiting the experience acquired at the
University of Crete and tailoring it in such a way that could respond to
the special needs and requirements of Modern Greek Studies. This
initiative would spare considerable economic resources since we would
not have to create something from scratch. On the contrary, we shall use
extensively all the work that has already been carried out as well as
the accumulated experience as regards the consolidation of the
information resources of the new web database.
This new Portal should be hosted at the computer infrastructure of one
of the participating members. Its geographic placement does not pose any
problem since it has been designed to function as a web service. It
suffices that the hosting institution could guarantee its security and
the maintenance of the hardware parts of the system.
The University of Crete would respond positively to such a perspective
and it willingly offers its technological experience as well as the
considerable wealth of its information resources through this service.
CONCLUSION
We once more apologize for failing to present personally our paper, to
be able to attend the conference and participate in the discussions.
Coming to the end of this paper we believe that if the above proposals
for the creation of a Modern Greek Studies Portal seem to be useful and
relevant to the needs of the institutions you represent, the most
important step to be taken would be to set up a committee in order:
- To identify the participating libraries and organizations in the first
stage,
- To define the services that would be offered by the Portal,
- To calculate the initial budged required for such a Portal.
Our will to assist in any possible way the implementation of the project
should be taken for granted.
The effort for raising the required funds for the initial period will
follow and we really want to believe that this is not going to obstruct
us from launching our plan.
Giannis Kosmas Mihalis Tzekakis
Information Officer or Hellenic Parliament
Automation Team of the Library Consultant
University of Crete Library
Herakleion Athens
From: "Linda Oliveira" < loliveir(a)Princeton.EDU>
Each year, the Friends of the Princeton University Library offer
short-term Library Research Grants to promote scholarly use of the
research collections. The Program in Hellenic Studies also supports a
limited number of Library Research Grants in Hellenic studies, and the
Cotsen Children's Library supports research in its collection on aspects
of children's books. The Maxwell Fund supports research on materials
dealing with Portuguese-speaking cultures.
These Library Research Grants, which have a value of up to $2,500 each,
are meant to help defray expenses incurred in traveling to and residing in
Princeton during the tenure of the grant. The length of the grant will
depend on the applicant's research proposal, but is ordinarily one month.
Library Research Grants awarded in this academic year are tenable from May
2008 to April 2009, and the deadline for applications is 15 January 2008.
Applicants are asked to submit a completed application form
(http://www.princeton.edu/rbsc/fellowships/application.pdf), budget form
(http://www.princeton.edu/rbsc/fellowships/budget_rev08152006a.pdf) a
résumé, and a research proposal not exceeding three pages in length.
Applicants must also arrange for two confidential letters of
recommendation to be sent directly to the Library Research Grants
Committee at the address given below.
The proposal should address specifically the relevance to the proposed
research of unique resources found in the Princeton University Library
collections. Prospective grantees are urged to consult the Library's home
page at http://libweb.princeton.edu for detailed descriptions of the
collections, especially those in the Rare Books and Special Collections
Department, and for the names of curators and reference staff. Applicants
should have specific Princeton resources in mind—not simply a desire to
make use of a major research library—as they prepare their proposals.
A committee consisting of members of the faculty, the library staff, and
the Friends will award the grants on the basis of the relevance of the
proposal to unique holdings of the library, the merits and significance of
the project, and the applicant's scholarly qualifications. Awards will be
made before 1 April 2008.
Application materials and letters of recommendation are to be mailed to
Library Research Grant Committee, Princeton University Library, One
Washington Road , Princeton , NJ 08544 . Materials mailed to the committee
must be postmarked no later than 15 January 2008. Facsimile transmissions
may be sent to (609) 258-2324. Electronic communications to the committee
may be sent to loliveir(a)princeton.edu. Materials submitted by e-mail or
facsimile must be received no later than 15 January 2008. E-mail is the
preferred method of submission.
Linda Oliveira
Senior Library Secretary
Rare Books and Special Collections
Princeton University Library
1 Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544
loliveir(a)princeton.edu
(609) 258-3155
FAX - (609) 258-2324
_______________________________________________
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
(or) kalamosbks(a)aol.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
