Library Staff News

Library Unit Heads and Supervisors are encouraged to submit short introductions of newly appointed personnel so that Library staff can get to know them.  Announcements of staff promotions, reclassifications, awards/publications, transfers, departures and other staff news are also welcomed by the CU NEWS editor.

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New Members of PSAG-TS

The Public Services Advisory Group-Technical Services (PSAG-TS) welcomes its new member Kate Fletcher from the Anthropology Library and two new ex-officio members, Judith Walker and Margaret McCormick, from Technical Services.

The complete roster for 1997 is:

Chair: Jeanne Fong, Physical Sciences Libraries (97)

Barbara Glendenning, Education-Psychology, Social Welfare, GSSI (97)
Kate Fletcher, Business, Anthropology, Environmental Design (99)
AnnMarie Mitchell, Humanities/Area Studies, Music (98)
Virginia Moon, NRLF (97)
Gulia Sacco-Trujillo, Doe/Moffitt Circulation Services (97)
Michael Shepler, Engineering (98)
Randy Wilson, BioSciences, Earth Sciences/Maps (97)

Ex-officio members:

Debbie Jan, Past chair, Public Health, HSIS, Optometry (97)
Margaret McCormick, Technical Services/Copy Cataloging (98)
Judith Walker, Technical Services/Serials/Documents (97)
Lee Leighton, AUL Technical Services
Lorelie Manseur, Library Systems Office Liaison

- Lee Leighton
- AUL Technical Services

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A Blast from the Past

Alice Kawakami, visiting librarian in The Chemistry Library in 1994-95 academic year, was a speaker at the Joint Meeting of the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona (MLGSCA) and the Northern California and Nevada Medical Libraries Group (NCNMLG) which met at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley this past weekend.

The title of Alice's presentation was "Do They Get It?: Assessing the Effectiveness of MEDLINE Instruction." Alice described a study she did using immediate, objective feedback after instructional sessions. This was only part of a broader based study which she will be submitting for publication.

Many of you will remember Alice as one of the four visiting librarians in the Sciences who spent nine months increasing their academic librarian skills at UCB. She can be reached at the Norris Medical Library, University of Southern California, or email akawakam@hsc.usc.edu.

- Janice Dost
- Library Human Resources Department

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CU News 1950

From the bound copy of the CU News from 1950 (Vol. 5, no. 40, 11 October 1950): "The high cost of living, 1850 vs. 1950," by Helen Bretnor, Bancroft Library.

Remember when bread was a nickel a loaf and a seven-course French dinner could be had for six bits - or fifty cents if you did without the candlelight and wine? Have you tried to console yourself with the thought that present high prices could be higher, that at least we aren’t as badly off as Californians of a hundred years ago?

It’s true that the Argonauts made mighty complaint about the high cost of living in California. Bancroft Library has many letters and diaries full of their moans that the gold was washed from the earth to their poles and right on out to the hands of the storekeepers. By Eastern standards of the time, prices were high - but how do they look to us now?

H.B. Pomroy left Ohio for California in April, 1850. His "outfit" included the following items: 40 lbs Venison & Pork Hams - 2.80; 40 lbs Sea bread - 2.00; Buffalo Robe - 2.50; 30 lbs coffee - 4.65; 3 qts Whiskey - .30. In St. Joseph he added, among other things, 5 dozen eggs - .50; 226 lbs bacon - 11.30; 38 lb ham - 1.90. An expense eloquent of the difficulty in crossing the continent is "Qt water on desert - .25; Horse hire on desert - 2.00."

N.H. Stockton, in camp on the Kings River, wrote on September 10, 1850, "Flower here is worth 25 cts a pound... coffee & sugar $1.00 a pound each... Salt 37 1/2, Salaratus $15.00 per lb, Tin pans $4.00 apiece shovels doll, Picks - & washers 25 dollars apiece." On the ninth of November he made this entry: "Flour is 25 cts, Portk 45 cts, coffee 75 cts, sugar 62 1/2, molasses $4.50 per gallon or $1.25 a bottle. Other things in proportion."

The Reverend Timothy Dwight Hunt was very conscious of the high cost of living in San Francisco. On February 19, 1849 he put an exclamation point after an item of $45.00 for filling three teeth, at an ounce of gold dust per filling. On October 6 he paid his servant a month's wages of $15.00, which made him unhappy, too. Laundry was even more of a problem then than now; an entry on November 15, 1849 reads "2 weeks washing _without ironing_ 12.00." The underlining is his. He had a bad day on November 18, with "4 lbs of potatoes 1.50!" but worse was to come. During the rest of the year were expenses such as these: "1 squash 1.50! 1 Beef’s liver 1.50! 1 lb of sausage 1.00 & 2 lbs steak .37; 1/2 cord of wood 20.00! Beef (roast & steak) 2.18; 2 sweet potatoes (4lbs) 2.00! 1 beet (2 1/2 lbs) 2.50!! 1 lb of sausages 1.00! 1 squash 1.63!" and on January 26, 1850 he had to pay one dollar for 4 lbs of beef. For a man who complained on November 7, 1848 at having to pay fifty cents for "cutting hair," this was bad.

"1 beet (2 1/2 lbs)" seems unbelievable, but on October 21, 1850, William P. Daingerfield wrote home from Sacramento: "This is the most productive country you ever saw and I have seen larger vegetables here than I ever saw in the States. Think of a head of cabbage weighing 30 pounds."

The Reverend Mr. Hunt spent much too much in San Francisco. On February 26, 1850 he totaled his expenditures since November 1, 1848 and found that they came to $5129.18. This included the purchase of one lot in San Francisco and two in Benicia, but did not include "the expenses of the house & its erection & completion as it stands- 2100.00." He concluded, "I can hardly believe these figures & yet they tell the truth - At the same time I have been my own hewer of wood & drawer of water - living most of the time without a servant & having received as presents in various ways about $2400 - And yet I have not today enough money to pay my last week's wash bill between 40 and 50 dollars. But I am not poor, nor in want - & will soon I doubt not be free from debt & ‘owe no man anything - but love.’"

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