The Record

Contents

Culture and Cinematography: The Leynse Collection

Probably none of those students really knew Leynse, the son of Presbyterian missionaries from Holland. Born in Peking, China, his first languages were Dutch and Mandarin Chinese. Later he learned to speak English in the Peking American School and, later still, he studied French and Indonesian. It wasn't until Leynse was 19 that he came to the United States where he studied at Pomona College.

World War II interrupted Leynse's studies. He was drafted into the Dutch Army, which had an outpost in Canada, but because of his language skills he was transferred to the U.S. Army. He spent three years as a special agent in the Counter-Intelligence Corps in the Philippines and New Guinea, duty for which he was awarded the Bronze Star.

After the war, Leynse finished his college education at Pomona and went on to Claremont Graduate School, receiving his M.A. in international relations in 1949. He then worked for the U.S. government in various foreign service jobs until 1957 when Leynse's film making career for the United States Information Service (USIS) began. Living first in Djakarta, Indonesia, and later in Seoul, Korea, Leynse made more than 50 documentary films depicting cultural life in Asia.

Despite his success with the United States Information Service, Leynse resigned his position in 1966 in order to fulfill his dream of producing an independent feature-length documentary film. This led him, his wife, and baby son to the remote island of Ullung-Do, Korea, 180 miles east of the mainland in the Sea of Japan. There, he recorded on film, over a span of two years, the grueling life of the fishermen and their families in this isolated part of the world. The final product, "Out There, a Lone Island," won Leynse several awards. It gained exposure with showings at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, American Film Festival, and the Ethnological Film Festival at the Museum of Natural History, all in New York City.

Leynse came to Washington State University in 1970 to join the Department of Communications faculty. He developed a program of cinema instruction at WSU, teaching courses on film criticism, scripting, and documentary film making. At the time of his illness, the course "Masters of the Cinema" boasted an enrollment of 700 students. In this course, students studied the genius of Frank Capra, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and many other cinematic greats. On Tuesdays, Leynse gave lectures; on Thursdays, students viewed a film. Leynse taught students to critically evaluate cinematic cornerstones such as "Lifeboat," "Citizen Kane," and "Birth of a Nation."

Leynse's "Out There, a Lone Island," along with 76 other films, his personal papers, audio tapes, and photographs are found today in the WSU Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections unit (MASC). Given its wealth of ethnological study of all parts of Asia, to say that this collection is one of the unsung prizes of WSU Libraries' MASC collection is an understatement. Some films are dramatizations, such as "The Great Wall," a 27-minute story of a young Chinese couple who fall in love, marry, and are then separated when the Emperor demands more workers on the Great Wall. Some are pure documentary, depicting such things as World War II events, native dance, sumo wrestling, cock fights, cattle races, firecracker packaging, opium smuggling, lighthouse living, and the Korean April Student Revolution of 1960 to name only a few subjects.

Students of both Asian Studies and Cinematography will want to to investigate this collection, thoughtfully bequeathed to the university by one of WSU's most popular professors.

WSU Libraries Gain New Source of Power and Energy

The WSU/Cooperative Extension Energy Program Library in Olympia is once again under WSU administration. Several years ago, this library linked itself to WSU through its Cooperative Extension arm, later it became a part of the state energy office from 1975-1996. Eliminated by a recent legislative decision, the Energy Program Library faced abolishment until the WSU Libraries and Cooperative Extension agreed to take it back under their wings, acknowledging the importance of continuing increased awareness and use of energy-efficient technologies.

The mission of this special library is to provide objective and up-to-date information in addition to research support related to energy conservation technologies. The library is accessible to the public, however, it mainly serves an audience composed of WSU Energy Extension Program employees, energy professionals, public and private utilities, government agencies, and WSU's faculty, staff, and students.

Ted Hamilton, Library Manager, describes the collection as "narrow and deep." There are 14,000 books and reports plus 300 periodical titles. The print collection includes annual reports from utilities in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest, case studies prepared by independent research groups, conference proceedings, maps, newsletters from government energy entities both national and international, and books about energy conservation, policy, renewable resources, and emerging technologies. A reference collection of energy-related technical information sources is also maintained, including a compact disk (CD-ROM) database collection. This CD-ROM collection includes Applied Science and Technology Index, NTIS, IHS Vendors, and Thomas Register on Disk. Dial-up access to DIALOG's 400+ on-line databases is also available.

During this time of transition, the WSU/CE Energy Program Library personnel are faced with thinking about their direction and are currently engaged in strategic planning. One thing they know for sure is that public service is at the top of their list. Hamilton is a self-described "dyed-in-the-wool public servant" and Martha Parsons, Library Specialist, received the Library Support Staff of the Year award given by Library Mosaics and the Council on Library/Media Technicians in 1996. Parsons has worked for the library for over 4 years and Hamilton has worked for the facility since 1995. Previous to the WSU/CE Library, Hamilton worked for the University of Washington library system. Reference librarian, Angela Santamaria, is a recent MLS graduate from the UW, who had many years of special library work experience prior to receiving her degree.

Santamaria's main focus is to provide energy information to commercial and industrial customers through the Energy Ideas Clearinghouse, a hotline and electronic bulletin board currently funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, Western Area Power Administration, and the US Department of Energy. Other constituents of these services include alternative service energy providers, architects, building designers, contractors, developers, educational institutions, engineers, industrial customers, marketing/consulting firms, and product/service vendors. The hotline features technical information and detailed, personalized responses within 8 working hours. The bulletin board offers national jobs and training events databases and over seventy discussion forums on energy, environment, and economic topics to name just a small portion of the entire scope of what is offered.

Poetry Thrives at WSU Tri-Cities Library

"The reading was held in a classroom in the back of the present WSU Tri-Cities library," said Orr. "I noticed that the room had an entire wall of empty bookshelves." Since the Tri-Cities branch library's humanities collections are not extensive, "I decided to see if I could start a center that would collect poetry and support activities in creative writing."

Today the Poetry Resource Center collects a variety of materials: volumes of poetry by individual poets, anthologies of poetry (including translations), books on poetic terms, techniques, and instruction in creative writing, books on marketing original writing, including directories of publishers, histories of poetry, poetry magazines, audiotapes of poets reading their works, and poetry videotapes. The center has also received a number of boxes of small-press material. The once-empty shelves now contain a growing collection of resources, each bookplated to acknowledge its donor.

Orr explains that the center has no University funding. "Everything we have acquired has come entirely through donations." This is a moving testimony to the enthusiasm and the generosity of the region's literary community. The center has now acquired about 500 books, audio cassettes of poets reading their works--including Eliot, Yeats, Auden, Sitwell, Thomas, Stevens, Frost, Stein, and others--and the full "Voices and Visions" videotape series--one-hour segments on Hart Crane, Whitman, Pound, Williams, Dickinson, Moore, Bishop, Plath, Eliot, Lowell, Hughes, Frost, and Stevens. Using funds donated to the center, Orr is about to purchase 10 more videotapes--these from the Lannan Literary Arts series.

The efforts of several individuals make the Poetry Resource Center collection available to users. Under the direction of WSU Tri-Cities librarian Harvey Gover, staff member Cressy Lambert has been handling the sorting and much cataloging of the gift materials. Occasionally, even catalogers at the Pullman campus are involved in making the materials accessible in Griffin, the Libraries' online catalog.

Anyone can view the videos or hear the tapes in the WSU Tri-Cities library. Materials may be borrowed by instructors for classes in the expanding English curriculum at the Tri-Cities branch campus. They are otherwise retained as a special collection for on-site use.

"When we had a poetry reading last year, . . . there was a great turnout," Orr said. "We expected 50 people, but we had between 115 and 120. We had to move out of the library and into the auditorium."

The center will hold one or two readings during spring 1997, and continued success is anticipated, with good reason. Poetry is alive and well-supported in the Tri-Cities.

In summer 1997 the WSU Tri-Cities library, and the Poetry Resource Center, will move to the new Consolidated Information Center, where poetry will no longer have "a room of its own." The donated material will, however, remain a separate collection. The establishment of the WSU Tri-Cities Poetry Resource Center honors the lively art of poetry. And it honors the devoted donors who make possible the active pursuit of poetry at the WSU Tri-Cities campus.

Donors interested in contributing material to this unusual collection may contact Cressy Lambert, Poetry Resource Center, Library, WSU Tri-Cities, 100 Sprount Rd., Richland, Washington 99352. Checks for the purchase of materials are payable to the WSU Foundation with a note designating the Tri-Cities Poetry Resource Center. Send checks to Development Office, WSU Tri-Cities, 100 Sprount Rd., Richland, Washington 99352. All donations are tax deductible.

From the Director

Much has happened in libraries during the last two decades. Most of our processing is automated. The card catalog has been replaced by an online public catalog that is internationally accessible over the Internet. We check books in and out through the use of a much more sophisticated computer system that generates overdue notices and calculates overdue fines. New books are cataloged and available to the public within days of receipt. Articles in periodicals that were once available only in printed volumes in library stacks are accessible electronically from desktop microcomputers. It is difficult for most of us to remember what it was like to file catalog cards or write check out slips.

As a library administrator, I am often asked by those who have embraced technology how soon everything, e.g., all of the books in the Library of Congress, will be readily available in electronic format. While I am always hesitant to say that something will never happen, I can say with complete confidence this will never happen in my lifetime. And I am planning to live for a long, long time. While I do believe that most new publications will be made available in electronic format, it will not be economically feasible to transform everything that has ever been published into computer accessible format. Publishing is, after all, a business. Whether or not a specific publication will be available in print or some alternative format will be decided from an economic perspective. Similarly, libraries will not be able to afford to convert much of the significant but rarely used published material currently stored on their shelves into electronic format. Nor can they afford to continue to convert this same material to newer electronic formats as technology continues to change.

So, for those of you who have always loved to browse in the traditional library, do not fear. It will be with us for a long, long time. You can expect to find printed manuscripts, printed books and journals, microfilm, and audio-visual materials side by side with banks of computers. Here at WSU, as we continue to develop our "electronic library," we will also be collecting, preserving, and making available many printed publications as well.

Nancy L. Baker
Director of Libraries

An Invitation

• Make an outright gift of cash or securities
• Establish a bequest or life-income program
• Create a named endowment fund
• Consider a gift of real or personal property
• Join the WSU President's Associates through an annual gift of $1,000 or more to the Libraries.