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RICE UNIVERSITY FONDREN LIBRARY

Founded under the charter of the university dated May 18, 1891, the library was estab-
lished in 1913. Its present facility was dedicated November 4, 1949, and rededicated in
1969 after a substantial addition, both made possible by gifts of Ella F. Fondren, her
children, and the Fondren Foundation and Trust as a tribute to Walter William Fondren.
The library recorded its half-millionth volume in 1965; its one millionth volume was
celebrated April 22, 1979.

THE FRIENDS OF FONDREN LIBRARY

The Friends of Fondren Library was founded in 1950 as an association of library supporters
interested in increasing and making better known the resources of Fondren Library at Rice
University. The Friends, through members' contributions and sponsorship of a memorial
and honor gift program, secure gifts and bequests and provide funds for the purchase
of rare books, manuscripts, and other materials that could not otherwise be acquired by
the library.

THE FLYLEAF

Founded October 1950 and published quarterly by the Friends of Fondren Library, Rice
University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251, as a record of Fondren Library's and
Friends' activities, and of the generosity of the library's supporters.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 1989-90

OFFICERS

Mr. Edgar O. Lovett II, President

Mrs. Frank B. Davis, Vice-President, Membership

Mr. David S. Elder, Vice-President, Programs

Mr. J. Richard Luna, Treasurer

Mrs. Gus Schill, Jr., Secretary

Mr. David D. Itz, Immediate Past President

Dr. Samuel M. Carrington, Jr., University Librarian (ex-officio)

Dr. Neal F. Lane, Provost (ex-officio)

Chairman of the University Committee on the Library (ex-officio)

Mrs. Elizabeth D. Charles, Executive Director (ex-officio)

MEMBERS AT LARGE

Mrs. J.D. Allshouse
Mr. Ronald W. Blake
Mrs. Jack S. Blanton, Jr.
Mrs. John R. Hurd
Dr. Harold M. Hyman
Mr. Richard W. Lilliott III
Mr. John H. Matthews

Mr. Charles D. Maynard, Jr.
Mrs. William H. Merriman III
Dr. Harold E. Rorschach, Jr.
Mrs. George Rupp
Mr. Thomas D. Smith
Mr. Henry L. Walters, Jr.
Dr. John E. Wolf

A LETTER TO THE FRIENDS

CONTENTS

Dear Friends,

The Annual Meeting of the Friends of Fondren
Library was held on Wednesday, May 10, 1989,
at 7:30 p.m., in the Farnsworth Pavilion of the
Ley Student Center.

After calling the meeting to order, President
Edgar Lovett reported that the March special
event raised approximately $33,000 for the
Endowment Fund, an increase of 33 percent
over last year's event. It was emphasized by
David Elder that this figure does not include
membership contributions, which are 21 percent
higher than last year. The Friends has returned
27.55 percent of the membership contributions
to the university through its support of the Con-
temporary Literature Shelf, the Audio Visual
Grant, book purchases in honor of guest speak-
ers, and partial funding for the renovation of the
library's administrative corridor.

Mr. Lovett announced the 1989-90 board of
directors and then thanked the retiring officers,
Mary Lou Margrave (Mrs. John L. Margrave)
and Tommie Lu Maulsby, and the retiring direc-
tors, John B. Baird, Walter S. Baker, Jr., and
Elisabeth Laigle (Mrs. George A. Laigle).

David Elder, programs vice-president, noted
the donation of four books to the library in
honor of Linda Pringle, the evening's guest
speaker. He then introduced Mrs. Pringle, librar-
ian at Holy Spirit Episcopal School. In her talk
on children's literature, Mrs. Pringle described
ways to stimulate children's interest and skills in
reading and reviewed a variety of lovely, humor-
ous, and relevant children's books.

The meeting was adjourned and was followed
by a reception.

A Letter to the Friends

The Sackton Collection
Anthony P. Narkin

Pressing Ahead
Cory Masiak

Books and Bytes:

Merging Tradition and Technology

Martin Halbert

Fondren Forty

Opening of the

Student Art Exhibition

Ben Anderson Receives

TLA Philanthropic Award

The Friends of Fondren Library

Gifts to Fondren Library

Sincerely yours,
Tommie Lu Maulsby
Secretary

Managing Editor, Betty Charles; Editor,
Cory Masiak; Editorial Committee,
Samuel Carrington, Margaret Clegg,
Feme Hyman, Nancy Rupp; Computer
Consultant, Tim Freeland

Cover: "The Expulsion from Paradise,"
].B. de Medina's illustration for Book XII
of Milton's Paradise Lost, 1688.

Photos by Betty Charles

The Sackton Collection

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English books
are donated to the Woodson Research Center.

by Anthony P. Narkin

In the summer of 1988, sixty-one years after
his freshman registration in the Rice Institute,
Professor Alexander Sackton (class of 1931)
contacted University Librarian Samuel Car-
rington to offer a valuable gift in memory
of Harry Lee Bovven, instructor in history,
1927-30. The gift was a collection of English
books of the STC and Wing categories, En-
glish printing of the periods 1475-1640 and
1641-1700, respectively. Dr. Sackton, now
Emeritus Professor of English at the University
of Texas at Austin, had collected these choice
volumes as a natural extension of his academic
specialty. A few nineteenth-century scholarly
works in the same field were included, and
these have been cataloged for the open stacks.
The Woodson Research Center, appropriately,
houses the bulk of the collection, including
seventeenth-century editions of Milton, Jonson,
Camden, Hooker, Herbert, and Rowlands, along
with eighteenth-century editions of Pope,

Drummond, Beaumont and Fletcher, and yet
more Milton.

Milton, indeed, is the author of the single
most impressive item in the bequest — a beautiful
copy of the illustrated folio of 1688. It is not
surprising that the famous printer-publisher
Jacob Tonson, responsible for the production of
so many great books of the later seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries, regarded the
Milton folio as his claim to the reverence of
posterity; he even had his portrait painted hold-
ing a copy. This book presents in a single volume
for the first time all the major poetry of Milton.
The volume is further noteworthy in being the
first illustrated edition of Milton. Each of the
twelve books of Paradise Lost is preceded by a
full-page copper-plate engraving designed, and
in some instances engraved, by J.B. de Medina.
The influence of the illustrations upon subse-
quent Milton iconography and interpretation
proved considerable. Furthermore, this is a spe-

Paradife Loft.

P OE M

In Twelve Books.

I '. B 0 ft.

Portrait and title of
Paradise Lost in the
large-paper copy of the
1688 illustrated folio edition
of Milton's major poetry.

Page 2 The Flyleaf

The final stanza of the manuscript variant ofWotton's "To His Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia,'
copied in the early seventeenth century on a blank page in the 1616 folio of Ben Jonson 's Works.

cial copy of a special edition, for it is one of a
very small number printed on large paper, with
the result that the amplified margins enhance
the aesthetic impact of the stately typography
and the intriguing engravings. If any printed
book can aptly be described as "a monument,"
this one should be.

Shakespeare's younger and more academic
colleague, Ben Jonson, is even more fully repre-
sented in folio, for all three editions of the sev-
enteenth century are included— 1616, 1640, and
1692. Prior to this gift, Fondren Library held
only some extracts of the 1640 edition and a
defective copy of that of 1692. All of the Jonson
folios are important, for each is augmented by
the addition of previously unpublished material,
but the first is naturally the rarest and most
sought after. This 1616 volume — a fat folio in
the old-fashioned small-forme size — is a pleasure
to examine. So different from the spacious and
dignified edition of 1692 or the 1688 Milton,
this copy of the Jonson first folio is made even
more interesting by a unique addition. On the
verso of the separate title to Volpone, an early
seventeenth-century reader transcribed, perhaps
from memory, a version of the most famous of
the few poems written by that busy Stuart states-
man and philosopher, Sir Henry Wotton.'To His
Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia" is a lyric com-
pliment to Elizabeth, daughter of King James I.
The poem was first published in 1624 set to
music, and it occurs in a number of manuscript
versions with various alterations, most of which
could easily have been errors of recollection.
Still, this early copy, in the quaint and cramped
"secretary hand" of most Englishmen at the
start of that century, is a gratifying relic of that
poetic golden age. For illustration, here is a tran-
scription of the first stanza of the manuscript
variant followed by the same stanza of the "offi-

you meaner beauties of the night

that onely satesfye mens eyes

more by by [sic] your numbers then your light

like comon people of the skies

what are you when the moone doth rise

You meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfy our eyes

More by your number than your light,
You common people of the skies —
What are you when the sun shall rise?

Aside from unmodernized spelling and a total
absence of punctuation, the manuscript version
differs only modestly from the printed one. But
greater differences follow. Wotton's authorized
version consists of four five-line stanzas, where-
as the manuscript contains two extra stanzas,
making the poem a third again longer. Here is
the manuscript's final stanza, one which has
no counterpart in the published version.

the rose the violet and the springe
and all to her for sweetenesse runne
the diamond is darkened in the ring
when she neares the morninges gone
as doe the glory of the sunne

For many reasons — the early influence of
Professors Axson and McKillop, the devotion
of students and alumni, and the generosity of
patrons and friends — the Woodson Research
Center of Fondren Library houses a rich collec-
tion of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
literature of England. Even so, Professor Sack-
ton's gift constitutes an important expansion of
this legacy. ^

cial version.

Anthony P. Narkin is bibliographer in the Woodson
Research Center.

The Flyleaf Page 3

Pressing
Ahead

by Cory Masiak

Being on the "jock end" of campus hasn't
necessarily translated into muscle for Rice
University Press. However, its location since last
year behind campus police headquarters in the
administrative annex has given the seven-year-
old scholarly/regional book publisher more room
and a well-earned ego boost. Rice University
Press remains a fledgling among American uni-
versity presses in quantity of output (three or
four books a year), but the quality of those titles
has been high and the ambitions of its tiny staff
are even higher. Managing editor Susan Fernan-
dez and half-time staff editor Susan Bielstein
(the entire staff, with some student help) hope
to see the number of books published grow to
about twelve annually by 1994. That, at least, is
the five-year plan. Its realization depends on
several factors, only one of which truly counts:
financial support from the university
administration.

Rice University Press has had a number of
small but bolstering successes in the past couple
years. In 1987, the cloth edition of Chaucer's
Legend of Good Women, translated and with an
introduction by Ann McMillan, sold out a 600-
copy print run in six months, catching its pub-
lisher slightly off guard. "We didn't expect such
a demand for the cloth edition," notes Fernan-
dez, a former editor of women's studies books at
Indiana University Press. "We had underprinted,
so in that sense it came as a surprise." (The typi-
cal scholarly book sells from 800 to 1,200 hard-
cover copies in its lifetime, which is usually five
years or longer.) There followed a paperback
edition that is now enjoying a respectable mea-
sure of course adoption. Cary Wintz's Black
Culture and the Harlem Renaissance likewise sold
out its entire hardcover print run of 1,500 cop-
ies within two months of publication in Novem-
ber 1988; a second printing was ordered and a
paperback edition is in the works. Black Culture
also garnered a token of recognition for its pub-
lisher: Rice University Press was nominated by

the Cleveland Foundation for the Anisfield-Wolf
Award in race relations.

In 1987 Rice University Press was admitted
to affiliate membership in the Association of
American University Presses (AAUP), an orga-
nization whose purpose is to promote scholarly
publishing. Because of its size, Rice University
Press is not eligible for full membership, but even
affiliate status provides the small publisher tan-
gible benefits. In addition to the press being
listed in the AAUP catalog, its titles enjoy wider
exposure in academic circles. "We couldn't af-
ford to send books to all the major academic
meetings," says Fernandez, "but now we get our
books to those meetings through an omnibus
exhibit that the association sponsors."

After years of publishing a quarterly journal
called Rice University Studies, the press in 1982
switched to book publishing under the guidance
of faculty editor Fred von der Mehden. A pro-
fessor of political science, von der Mehden
views the press's brief history in books with
moderate satisfaction: "Given what [Rice Uni-
versity Press] was before, I think we've come a
fairly long way." Its first title, A History of Rice
University: The Institute Years, 1907-1963, by
Fredericka Meiners, is still published under the
Rice University Studies label. Though hardly a
runaway best-seller by commercial-press stan-
dards, the book remains a "bread-and-butter"
item for Rice University Press, with sales of
more than 2,250 copies to date.

As outlined in its five-year plan, Rice Univer-
sity Press intends to develop areas of concentra-
tion, a strategy employed by most presses, large
and small. The advantages of concentration, or
clustering, are manifold: a reputation is more
readily established in a given field, resources can
be consolidated, and marketing proves more
cost-effective. In addition, says Fernandez,
"We'll try to draw on the strengths of the uni-
versity. We'd like to publish in areas where Rice
has a national — even international — reputation.

Page 4 The Flyleaf

That's how we got into photography — because
of the Media Center." With three books of pho-
tography under its tightly cinched belt and an-
other two in progress, this is a logical choice for
concentration. But, explains the managing edi-
tor, "We're going to be very, very picky. We want
to do books that are on the cutting edge, that
are different. We're not just going to be another
publisher of photography books." Sharing the
top of the press's list of preferred subject areas
with photography are literary criticism and the-
ory, Southern history and culture, including

Fred von der Mchden, Susan Fernandez, and Susan Bielstein

that of Texas and Houston, and minority stud-
ies. Von der Mehden also hopes to develop
closer ties to the medical center, which could
prove fertile ground for manuscripts in medical
ethics and public health, for example.

At present, the Rice University Press list con-
sists of roughly fifty percent scholarly and fifty
percent regional books, a ratio likely to be main-
tained. "There's a real argument to be made for
university presses as regional publishers," says
Fernandez. Regional books tend to have trade
potential — in other words, they may make
money — and thus help to offset the expected
losses of purely academic texts. Von der Mehden
explains the balancing act thus: "It is necessary
for us to have a combination of books — some
which are relatively narrow in their academic
audience and which therefore are not going to
provide us much in terms of financial recom-
pense, and some which may have a wider range,
perhaps regional books, so that we have enough
money to support the others." Yet, as he is quick
to point out, it is difficult to achieve this kind

of balance, or for that matter to foster areas <
concentration, when one publishes so few be
annually. Fernandez echoes that sentiment:
"There is a school of thought in publishing, ;
I agree with it, that a university can't publish
fewer than twelve books a year and be legitima
do a good job for its parent institution and it
authors." She contends that the press's open
ing budget, approximately half of which com
from the university and half from sales incon
would have to triple in size for Rice Universii
Press to join the ranks of the serious contenc
Yet even such growth would not make the pr
self-supporting.

In this respect, Rice University Press is no
different from other scholarly publishers. On
rarely are university presses money-making o
erations; most fail to break even. Asserts vor
der Mehden, "You have to accept the fact th;
[publishing] is going to be a long-term drain
on [the university's] resources." Nonetheless
proponents of the academic press argue that
raison d'etre lies in a realm other than that o
mere profit and loss. According to them, its
chief purpose is to make a serious contributic
to scholarship. But in addition, maintains
Fernandez, "I think one of the mandates of a
university press really is to go where others fc-
to tread, not to stay with what's safe and whs
everybody else is doing. A university press, I
think, can take risks that commercial presses
either can't or won't take." In return, a reput
ble scholarly press provides certain unquantil
able benefits to the university of which it is z
part. The school's name is more widely disser
nated, and the attendant prestige can help to
attract superior faculty and graduate student

Von der Mehden concurs that an academic
press has a special mission, but as the one re-
sponsible for the budget, he is careful to qual:
his agreement by steering the discussion bacl<
the ledger book. "I think a university press 01
to be putting out books of academic importa:
which are not necessarily going to make a pre
and some things which are at the frontier of
fields and which commercial presses might nc
be interested in. At the same time, a universi
press is a business, and it has to do some thin,
which are going to provide it the financial
wherewithal to go ahead."

Nagging bottom-line considerations are an
ever-present hurdle to the press's plans for
growth and expansion. With its current oper
ing budget, Rice University Press can publish
most two relatively inexpensive books" a yea

The Flyleaf Pag

notes von der Mehden. So in order to produce
more books, the press is increasingly dependent
on both corporate and academic subsidies, even
at times for its less expensive titles. One such
example is Immaterialist Aesthetics, by William
Piper, a senior professor of English at Rice. On
the low end of the scale in terms of production
costs, the recently published text nonetheless
required a subsidy for a few color plates essential
to the author's argument. Only after a bit of
scrounging was the necessary $2,000 found. On
the opposite end of the luxury scale is a book
like Seasons of Light, a large-format work of color
photographs by Peter Brown of the art depart-
ment, which cost $25,000 to publish. Brown
personally raised most of that money from the
Houston arts community.

In the ongoing search for funds, much of the
staffs time is spent writing grant proposals and
ferreting out new sources of revenue. To date,
Rice University Press has received two modest
grants from the Cultural Arts Council of Hous-
ton (CACH) for specific titles, and it has several
more applications pending with that organiza-
tion. The state of publishing in Houston being
what it is, an argument could be made that some
monies now channeled into the performing arts
ought to be redirected into book publishing.
"The literary arts in Houston have been totally
neglected," laments Fernandez, "and that has to
change. We're in a position to help change it."

Of critical importance to any university press,
but particularly a small one, is its backlist. Since
publishing is a cash-intensive industry in which
all publication costs are paid up front — and in
which books earn back their costs only very
slowly — a university press relies on the income
generated by its backlist to weather immediate
financial shortfalls. "A university press lives
on its backlist," insists Fernandez. "That's the
backbone of the press." With a mere sixteen
titles to its name, Rice University Press still
lacks a substantial cushion to fall back on in
lean times.

A backlist with particular concentrations can
also be marketed more economically. "Every
time you can promote your backlist, you're sav-
ing marketing dollars," argues Fernandez. "It
costs us more per book to market than if we had
a cluster." Rice University Press depends on
direct mail as one of its chief marketing tools, as
do most university presses, because scholarly
books are often highly specialized and the pub-
lishers know by and large who the audience will

be. In its advertising campaign for The Legend of
Good Women, for instance, the press bought the
mailing list of the Women's Review of Books. In
addition, Rice University Press titles are adver-
tised in the two seasonal catalogs of Texas
A&M University Press, with whom it has a spe-
cial contractual arrangement. Since 1985, A&M
handles almost all of the press's order fulfillment
and warehousing, plus some promotion, in re-
turn for 25 percent of net receipts. Though the
fee sounds hefty, Fernandez finds the arrange-
ment more than satisfactory, for it frees the staff
to concentrate on its main task — publishing.

"Wed like to publish in areas

where Rice has a national —

even international — reputation."

Of course, a good book review is far and away
the most effective and cheapest marketing tool
available. While the local media have given Rice
University Press books less notice than the pub-
lisher would like, the larger picture may be
changing. After years of benign neglect, Fernan-
dez believes the scholarly publishing community
in general is finally getting the attention of the
national media, both because university presses
are more willing to take risks and because an
increasing number of scholarly books have com-
mercial appeal. Two of the most prestigious or-
gans of review in this country, the New York
Times Book Review and the New York Review of
Books, she says, are beginning to devote more
space to university press publications. The
press's own Black Culture received favorable
early reviews in Kirkus Reviews and Library Jour-
nal, which accounted in part for the healthy sales
of the initial print run. "It brought home to me,"
says Fernandez, "as nothing had before, how
important national reviews are."

In order to broaden its base of local support,
next year the press intends to open up member-
ship on the Press Advisory Board, which until
now has been made up solely of Rice faculty, to

Page 6 The Flyleaf

include people from other Houston universities
and from the arts community. The expertise of
these individuals should help to reinforce the
development of certain subject concentrations.
Also intent on drumming up support within the
hedges, Rice University Press is actively pursu-
ing manuscripts among Rice faculty and grad-
uate students. Almost every university press
labors under what Fernandez calls a "home press
disadvantage," and young faculty in particular
are encouraged to publish elsewhere. "It's made
very clear to them by their departments that
they'll have a better chance for tenure if they
publish with another press," she explains. What
the home press can offer, however, especially one
as small as Rice University Press, is a great deal
of personal attention, a rare commodity in an
era of corporate publishing. "There are people
who really want to be nurtured, who want the
editor to work with them every stage of the
way," maintains Fernandez. "If that's what they
want, we can supply it." To senior faculty mem-
bers, von der Mehden emphasizes the quality
and speed of publication at Rice University
Press, while reminding them that they, as estab-
lished scholars, are now in a position to do
something for Rice University. "That's the only
way we'll be able to build up a reputation, and in

turn impress upon the administration the kind
of quality work we do."

Both von der Mehden and Fernandez feel
Rice University Press has reached a plateau,
which could be easily transcended — say, to six
books a year — with only incremental increases
in its university subvention. Fernandez, at once
animated by her ambitions for the press and
frustrated by the lack of progress, makes a final
argument for additional support: "I feel we're in
a holding pattern. I get frustrated because I
would like to get going — we have the talent, we
have a skilled staff, we have experience. We've
got a good supporting scholarly community here,
and we have a crying need in Houston for a uni-
versity press. We could be serving not just Rice
but the other universities here — we've got a lot
of people to draw on. There's no reason that the
best works of scholarship ought to be leaving the
city. We ought to be drawing things in from other
cities; we ought to be raiding other universities.
To some extent we try to do that, but we can't
very effectively if we're not competitive — and
we can't be competitive unless we're doing, I
think, twelve to fifteen books a year. So we're
just sort of holding our place. I don't know when
or if the administration is going to decide that it
wants a university press. "^

The following questionnaire is being circulated with membership renewals. If you would like to re-
spond before your membership is up for renewal, please fill out this form, detach, and mail to:
Friends of Fondren Library, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892.

Name

Address

Daytime Telephone Number .

I am interested in working on one of the following committees:

Membership (helping in contacting nonrenewal members)

Editorial (researching and/or writing articles for The Flyleaf)

Reading Club

Special Event Subcommittees

Invitations/Reservations

Decorations

Auction

I am interested in hearing a lecture on

An interesting speaker from the Rice faculty would be

The Flyleaf Page 7

Books and Bytes

Merging Tradition and Technology

by Martin Halbert

The abundance of information available to-
day is phenomenal; yet that information is
of value only if we can access and manipulate it.
Words, images, sounds, and numbers, like any
raw resource, must be processed to be useful.
Computers can aid the task of manipulating
information: data once found only in printed
form, for example, can now be searched better
and faster with on-line databases. For many peo-
ple, however, the primary obstacles to exploiting
this network of information technology have
been finding the right computer system and
knowing how to use it. In order to assist users of
the new technology, libraries and computer cen-
ters have begun to offer computer-oriented in-
formation and multimedia services. In 1988, two
facilities were established on the Rice campus
for this purpose. Each has a slightly different
focus.

The Computing Reference Area (CRA), lo-
cated in Mudd Lab as part of ICSA's Computing
Reference Center and staffed by a full-time li-
brarian, contains a growing collection of current
literature on the rapidly changing world of mod-
ern computing. The CRA subscribes to some
190 computer-related magazines, and the library
also includes a wide assortment of manuals and
books. Whether the patron is a student learning
how to use a word-processing package for the
first time, or an experienced faculty member
looking for technical information on a campus
mainframe system, the CRA can provide docu-
mentation on the subject under investigation.
Moreover, most of the material is free to
circulate.

Popular recent additions to the CRA are sev-
eral noncirculating CD ROMs (Compact Disc —

Read-Only Memory). A single CD ROM, mea-
suring a mere five and a quarter inches in diame-
ter, has the capacity of 550 megabytes, or the
equivalent of the amount of data in the Oxford
English Dictionary. Now available to CRA pa-
trons in this format are abstracts of thousands

Martin Halbert is computer resource librarian in the
CRA.

Martin Halbert (right foreground) and staff in the CRA.

of recent magazine articles on computing, com-
prehensive databases of software reviews, vari-
ous reference tools, and a large collection of
public-domain (i.e., free or low-cost) software.
A beginning student of CD ROMs, for exam-
ple, can look into the Apple CD ROM Explorer,
which includes a graphic introduction to the
solar system with animation and pictures from
space shots. For the stout of heart there is the
Electric Cadaver, described as "a dynamic image-
oriented textbook for anatomy classes." To date,

Page 8 The Flyleaf

David Kilgore displays a videotape from the CSl's extensive
collection.

primary patrons of the CRA have been under-
graduates in computer science and electrical
engineering, but humanities and social science
students also use the library.

The Center for Scholarship and Information
(CSI), a multimedia facility located in the base-
ment of Fondren Library, provides patrons the
use of computer and audiovisual equipment.
Staffed by two full-time employees, the center
has twelve Apple Macintoshes (all connected to
shared printers) and three IBM-compatible ma-
chines. (Funding for the latter was generously
provided by the Friends of Fondren.) Software
includes word processors (Microsoft Word and
Macwrite for the Mac; Wordperfect for DOS),
spreadsheets (Excel for the Mac; Lotus 1-2-3 for
DOS), style checkers, and "courseware" —
software written specifically to assist in course
instruction.

Besides helping people get started with the
basics, the CSI is commonly asked to assist with
the removal of viruses from students' discs. Vi-
ruses are generally transmitted from program to
program, reports CSI manager David Kilgore,
whose background is in communications. He
therefore encourages patrons to bring in only
data discs. Says Kilgore, "If you don't have pro-

grams on your disc, chances are you can't infect
us. Conversely, if a virus happened to be on one
of our programs, it couldn't infect your disc. In
the CSI, we try to practice safe computing."
After individual users, the primary patrons of
the facility thus far have been English classes for
writing instruction; however, plans for the fall
semester include use by the statistics department
as well.

In addition to the microcomputer labs, the
CSI possesses an audiovisual center with four
individual viewing carrels, and one of the ser-
vices it provides is to help departments with
complex A/V setups. A videotape collection of
more than 400 titles is available to faculty for
class use and to students for viewing in the li-
brary. With money from the Friends of Fondren,
the CSI was able to purchase educational series
like Bill Moyers' Walk Through the 20th Century,
Bill Moyers' World of Ideas, and The Constitution:
That Delicate Balance, as well as how-to items
like The Successful fob Hunter. Sharing space on
the shelf with the instructive is less serious fare,
such as the popular favorites Gone With the Wind
and To Kill a Mockingbird.

In the past, libraries and computer centers
have often been perceived as aloof and forbid-
ding institutions. Today, as they become linked
conceptually and functionally, that attitude is
changing. Both kinds of facilities are becoming
more service-oriented, and more attention is
being paid to their patrons. New centers like the
CRA and the CSI will help people learn about
and gain access to the new information technol-
ogies that have come to be an integral part of
intellectual endeavor. ^

Staff member and patron at Mac terminals in the CSI.

The Flyleaf Page '

Fondren Forty

March 18, 1989

Mary Lou Margrave, Fondren Forty chairman.

Where under a single roof can one purchase
such exotica as a guided alligator hunt or a
Turkish handmade kilim? A performance by the
Pipes & Drums of St. Thomas Episcopal School or

a Seventy-first Texas Legislature gavel? No, not
even at that local shrine to consumerism, the Gal-
leria. These were just a few of the live-auction items

available at the ninth annual Fondren Saturday
Night, which this year celebrated the fortieth anni-
versary of Fondren Library. In honor of the occa-
sion, Drs. George Rupp and Samuel Carrington cut
two large birthday cakes, and guests were led in En-
glish and French renditions of "Happy Birthday."
Besides the live auction, the party once again in-
cluded a silent auction, a casino, dancing to Bob
KuldelPs five-piece combo, and a cocktail buffet.
As in the past, proceeds from the event will benefit
the Fondren Library Endowment Fund.

Pam Lovett displays sign for an unusual live-auction item.

George Rupp does the honors. Cakes were
donated by the French Gourmet Bakery
and Allegro.

Page 10 The Flyleaf

Clockwise from upper left:

Fur jackets are modeled for guests.

Guests survey silent- auction items.

Auctioneer Bucky Allshouse conducts the lively bidding.

Members of the Pipes & Drums of St. Thomas Episcopal
School demonstrate their talents.

Fondren staff members Rita Marsales and Janet Thompson
review silent-auction items.

Photos by Gina Walters

The Flyleaf Page 11

Opening

of the

Student Art

Exhibition

April 25, 1989

Dear Friends of Fondren Library,

You were extremely generous to help fund the Twenty-Sixth
Annual Rice Student Exhibition. The response by the commu-
nity at the progressive opening was overwhelming. I was told
that we have never before had such a good turnout at the stu-
dent show. The art students were so elated and appreciative that
people made the effort to see their work and that they responded
to it in such a positive way. Your participation in this event fos-
ters and encourages a creative atmosphere for Rice art students.
Many thanks!

Sincerely,

Stella Dobbins, Director

Sewall Art Gallery

Page 12 The Flyleaf

Take 'Em Up to 80, 1 989, acrylic on canvas, by Karl B. Jensen, winner of the Mavis C. Pitman Memorial Prize.

Student Prizewinner

Karl B. Jensen was awarded the 1989 Mavis C. Pitman Memorial Prize for two paintings, Take
'Em Up to 80 and Untitled (both 1989, acrylic on canvas), which appeared in the Twenty-Sixth
Annual Rice Student Exhibition. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Fondren Library and
the Arts Committee of the Association of Alumni. A native of Lake Forest, Illinois, Jensen grad-
uated this spring with a bachelor's degree in architecture. He plans to spend the summer paint-
ing in Greece, after which he hopes to work in Chicago as an architect. He feels strongly about
wanting to continue to paint.

Rice art professor Basilios Poulos included the following statement about Jensen: "Every few
semesters a student with energy, single-mindedness, and serious intent comes along and produces
paintings that go beyond the expectations of student work. Karl Jensen has done so in my ad-
vanced painting classes of fall 1988 and spring 1989. He has produced an astonishing body of
work, consisting so far of ten paintings ranging in size from four by six feet to eight by twelve feet.
The paintings explore a number of issues dealing with the language of the mark (the artist's hand
at work) and the space it occupies. The paintings are full of marvelous invention and wonderful
color. Karl has created a world of his own with these very sophisticated paintings. There is no
question in my mind of his high achievement."

The Flyleaf Page 13

Ben Anderson
Receives TLA
Philanthropic
Award

April 12, 1989

Mary D. Lankford, chairman of the Awards Committee,
presents the TLA Philanthropic Award to Ben Anderson.

The Texas Library Association at its convention in
the George R. Brown Convention Center presentee
Mr. Ben Anderson with the Philanthropic Award for
the donation of his collection, the Benjamin Monroe
Anderson Collection on the History of Aeronautics, to
Fondren Library. The most prestigious award given by
the TLA, the Philanthropic Award is presented to thosf
who through their support of libraries encourage the
same action from others.

In his letter of nomination, Dr. Samuel M. Carring-
ton, university librarian at Fondren Library, stated that
Mr. Anderson has long been an active and generous sup
porter of Rice University, its Fondren Library, and the
library's Friends-of Fondren. He also serves as a membe
of the advisory council of the Jesse Jones Library of the
Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center.

An engineer by profession and a cofounder of Ander-
son, Greenwood & Company, Mr. Anderson began de-
signing and constructing airplanes early in his career.
This professional orientation led him to begin assem-
bling what several scholars have described as one of the
most comprehensive and erudite collections on the his-
tory of aeronautics in the United States. The focus is 01
the evolution of the science of aeronautics (nonmili-
tary) before the Space Age.

Mr. Anderson's primary requirements in the disposi-
tion of the collection were that it be readily available to
the public in support of studies on the history of aero-
nautics, that it be securely maintained as a separate,
distinct collection and not interfiled in the general col-
lection, and that there be an institutional commitment
to sustain its subject growth in the general collection.
Rice's Fondren Library agreed to these stipulations and
the collection was received in 1987.

We congratulate Mr. Anderson and thank him for his
continued support of and interest in Fondren Library.

Ben Anderson surveys the portion of his collection on
exhibit at the TLA convention.

Page 14 The Flyleaf

THE FRIENDS OF .^^
FONDREN LIBRARY ^»^

March 1, 1989 -May 31, 1989

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