History and Archives

The library staff will wear "Ask Me" buttons during the month of August, emphasizing their hope that users will become more aware of the resources in the library by asking about materials they want to use.

The library staff is headed by Roger Thompson who has been Fermilab's head librarian since June, 1968. Before that, Roger was a librarian at the Argonne National Laboratory. His staff includes Mae West, a graduate of the Library Technology program at the College of DuPage, and Julie Kelley. During the summer, college students Joan Collins and Bruce Nicholls are helping with special projects.

The Library Committee -- Stan Ecklund, chairman; Dave Carey, Frank Cole, Steve Ellis, John O'Meara and Dick Carrigan, ex-officio -- also advises the library staff. They recommend book selections that would be helpful to current projects and interests of the Laboratory. They generally offer suggestions on ways to make the library more accessible and more convenient for Fermilab staff.

Both the library staff and the Library Committee feel that more people at Fermilab should be aware of the resources available in their library.

The Fermilab library is located on the south end of the third floor of the Central Laboratory. In the general layout, journals and preprints are housed on the east side; indexes, reference books and circulation desk in the center, and books on the west side of the library. The staff office is in the southwest corner.

Fermilab has a complete high euergy physics library. Preprints -- papers written by theorists and experimentalists and submitted for publication -- are available through a world-wide exchange with other high energy physics groups. About 3oo preprints are received each month. They are indexed by first author, placed on the shelves until notice of publication is received. All other journals of interest to the high energy physics community, including general scientific periodicals, are found in the Fermilab library.

If seeking journal articles, a stop in the index section will help a library user make the best and quickest use of the library. Here are indexes to all high energy physics publications, including High Energy Physics Indexes, Nuclear Science Abstracts, and also indexes to major engineering publications.

Among the reference books are the important handbooks, reports of major conferences, and the classic and standard references.

"We have tried to make our resources available on a self service basis," Roger Thompson advises, "but too many people seem reluctant to ask us for something they can't find. We want to emphasize that we're here to help and that there is an awful lot of good material here for Fermilab people to use."

The Library Committee meets once each month and is always looking for topics, books, and services that are of interest to Fermilab people. Recently, for example, a shelf has been devoted to "Energy and Environment." It carries current solar energy publications, reflecting the increasing interest in this field at Fermilab. "The library wants to provide educational and reference materials that will help the people who work at Fermilab," Stan Ecklund notes. "The Library Committee is always looking for ways to improve the library, and we welcome suggestions toward this end."

Other facets of the Fermilab library service include a transparency maker, a copier, a video cassette projector, and a collection of hundreds of slides from Fermilab's photo files. These services are all available to everyone at Fermilab. A stop at the library during August is certain to show you something you didn't know is there.