Fogler Library Friends - The OliveTree

VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1, SPRING 2010

Around the Library

New Cohen Archivist
Desirée Butterfield-Nagy has been a member of the staff for six years, but moved to the Special Collections Department to take on the role of Cohen Archivist on September 14, 2009. Her duties include preservation and management of the collection, providing reference service, planning outreach activities, displays, and a biennial forum to discuss topics related to the papers, including an event tentatively planned for this fall on the topic of transparency and open government.

Desirée’s background includes teaching at the secondary and college level, and experience in marketing and public relations. She completed her bachelor's degree at Utah State University, a master's degree at Northern Arizona University, and is working toward an M.L.S. degree through the University of South Carolina. She may be reached at desiree_butterfield@umit.maine.edu or at 581-2665.

Librarian Guests on Radio Show
Ask a Librarian took on a new meaning on February 4th when Fogler Business Librarian Stephen Fadel is one of the guests on "Doing Business", a radio show hosted by Associate Extension Professor, Jane Haskell on station WERU < http://weru.org/ >. The topic of the live call - in show will be market research. Fadel will be joined by other guests from the local business community.

Maine Town Reports Update
Whether you are interested in historical data on local budgets, infrastructure or education there is a wealth of full text searchable information to be mined from the Maine Town reports web site.
A recent update to the Town Highlights feature provides a quick look inside the history of Presque Isle, the largest city in Aroostook County. We learn that early settlers to the area included Dennis Fairbanks, who settled on the Aroostook River in 1828. However, because both the United States and Canada claimed ownership of the territory, it was not heavily settled until after the 1838-1839 “Aroostook War,” a bloodless confrontation which led to the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which formally set the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick.
Presque Isle takes its name from a French word meaning “peninsula,” referring to the peninsula created by the Aroostook River and the Presque Isle Stream. It was incorporated as a town in 1859, it annexed the town of Mayfield in 1883, and in 1940, it incorporated as Aroostook County’s first city.
Potato farming is a major industry in the area. The city is also home to the University of Maine at Presque Isle, which was established as the Aroostook State Normal School in 1901.
Currently holdings from 42 towns are available from the Town Reports web site, representing a range of geographic, cultural and business interests across the state. We invite you to visit the site at: http://library.umaine.edu/townreport

A Day at the Library
On September 30th, Fogler joined other libraries round the state in Maine Libraries Snapshot Day. The goal of the initiative was to capture a record of what happens on a typical day at a Maine Library. During the 16 hours Fogler Library was open on the 30th, we welcomed over 6,000 people into the building, answered over 200 reference questions, and circulated almost 800 books and electronic reserves. Statewide, Maine libraries welcomed 37,582 people and answered 3,513 questions. Not bad for a day’s work.
Totals and slide shows from the statewide snapshot are available on the Maine State Library web site:
http://www.maine.gov/msl/snapshot/results.htm

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