ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ April 2001 / 437

book-length study, “Collecting the Nineteenth 
Century: The Book, the Specimen, the Photo­
graph as Archive.” The study will investigate 
19th-century theories of collecting and collec­
tions through examination of four members 
of the prominent Selys Longchamps family. 
Waterman has been working on the project 
since 1993 and will visit archives in Belgian 
institutions to complete her research.

John Cullars, chair of the Martinus Nijhoff 
Grant committee, said, “This is an unusual 
project that will add to the store of knowledge 
in a variety of disciplines. [Waterman] has 
thought out and planned her project… in an 
admirably thorough and realistic manner.”

Waterman presented a lecture on her project 
at the University of Edinburgh in July 2000, 
and authored “Archive of French and Belgian 
Publishing Prospectuses,” a finding aid pub­
lished by the Library of Congress.

The award will be presented at the WESS 
Membership Meeting on Monday, June 18 
at the ALA Annual Conference in San Fran­
cisco.

Oberly Award goes to Smith
Charles H. Smith, science librarian and associ­
ate professor of Library Public Services at 
Western Kentucky University, has been 
awarded the 2001ACRL Oberly Award for Bib­
liography in the Agricultural or Natural Sci­
ences for his book Biodiversity Studies (Scare­

Letter to the editor
More than cut and paste
I am writing in response to the C&RL News 
“In the News” column for January 2001.

You talk about the way students do re­
search today, just cutting and pasting materi­
als. You then mention Questia’s new initia­
tive with the goal of 250,000 electronic books 
and wondered whether students would use 
sources only in Questia.

It is going to be up to the teacher as­
signing the paper to demand more than a 
mere cut and paste job. Teachers could re­
quire that students provide an annotated bib­
liography, comment on various chapters that 
contain information in the book, analyze the 
book in question, etc. And as you suggest, 
teachers will have to insist that their stu­
dents not just rely on Questia, but look else­
where.

crow Press, 2000). The award, given in odd- 
numbered years, is funded by the Eunice 
Rockwood Oberly Endowment and adminis­
tered by the ACRL Science and Technology 
Section (STS).

“Biodiversity Studies 
is the first comprehen­
sive reference work pub­
lished on the extremely 
important and timely 
topic of biodiversity,” 
Jeannie Miller, chair of 
the Oberly Award selec­
tion committee, said, 
“Smith’s academic back­
ground in biogeography 

Charles H. Smithand evolutionary studies,
in combination with skilled bibliographic tech­
nique, has resulted in a superior scholarly 
work.”

Smith received his Ph.D. in geography from 
the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana 
and his MLS from the University of Pittsburgh. 
He has published articles in the fields of bio­
geography, history of science, systems theory, 
bibliography and collection development, and 
a monographic anthology of the shorter writ­
ings of Alfred Russel Wallace.

The award, $350 and a plaque, will be pre­
sented at the ALA Annual Conference in San 
Francisco, during the STS 2001 Program on 
Monday, June 18 at 8:30 a.m. ■

The student is short-changed by doing 
so little. Students who merely cut and paste 
are not really thinking about their project. 
They are missing out on the wealth of in­
formation that might be available if they 
read a little further or dug a little deeper.

Librarians may be happy that their pa­
trons have found what they seemingly want, 
but the librarians will have to demand more 
of themselves and their patrons, too. Librar­
ians should try to find several types of sources 
for their patrons, not just something in Questia 
or NetLibrary or EBSCO or PROQUEST alone, 
but in a variety of sources. The librarian will 
have to be more demanding in the sense 
that the sources should be substantial and 
lend themselves to more than cutting and 
pasting.—Scott Cohn, Jackson State Commu­
nity College, scohen@jscc.cc.tn.us