* Update on Library Building Expansion Project

* GALILEO Launches New Georgia Encyclopedia

* Oral History Transcripts Donated to Effingham Historical Society

* Portrait of a Board Member: Dr. Kemp Mabry

* Recent Additions to ICPSR Database

Update on Library Building Expansion Project

The next most immediate effect of the project on the campus and community will be the installation of the construction fence around the Library. Drawings of these plans are available in the Library.

Questions about the building project should be sent to Ann Hamilton, Associate Dean of the Library, at ahamilton@georgiasouthern.edu or 912 681-5115. She is also available to discuss the project with any interested group or class.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia has been completed. The NGE provides articles and multimedia content related to all aspects of Georgia's past and present, and it is one of the first state encyclopedias in the nation to be conceived as a full-featured Internet resource. The NGE is available through GALILEO (Click on "News/Facts Reference," then "Dictionaries and Encyclopedias") or its own URL, http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia is a project of the Georgia Humanities Council in partnership with the Office of the Governor, the University of Georgia Press, and the University System of Georgia/GALILEO. Distinguished writers and scholars have contributed several hundred articles to the encyclopedia already, and many others will be added in the near future. As an online encyclopedia, the NGE escapes the limitations of the print medium by providing content that will be updated and expanded continuously; and in addition to the text and static images common to printed encyclopedias, the NGE provides audio, video, galleries, and links to other online resources. The wide range of content available in the NGE makes it a valuable reference for students, general readers, and researchers alike.

Please note that the NGE requires two common browser plug-ins for its multimedia content: QuickTime, which is required for audio and video clips, and Flash, which is required for the NGE's animated introduction. Both of these plug-ins are free and easy to download. For more information, please read the Frequently Asked Questions at the NGE web page.

GALILEO's roles in the development of the New Georgia Encyclopedia have been to host the NGE site, to provide technical support to its creators and editors, and to assist with testing and promotion. The GALILEO Support Services staff will provide the same customer service and support for the NGE that we provide for all GALILEO resources. If you have a question, comment, suggestion, or problem, please visit the NGE's Contact page to find the appropriate submission form.

- Story by Philip McArdle, Library and Customer Information Services, Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Ten oral histories done by Georgia Southern's History Department have been copied, transcribed and donated to the Effingham County Historical Society by Henderson Library. The interviews were recorded at the request of the ECHS and conducted by Sue Hanson and Esther Mallard. Interviewees were lifelong Effingham County residents whose families had also lived there for generations, in some cases since Colonial days. Most recall work, games, customs and education in a predominantly rural county before electrification. The local historical society recognized that the nature of the county is changing rapidly and wanted to record bygone days while memories of them still exist.

It would have been unthinkable not to invite Dr. Kemp Mabry to join the Friends of the Library Board at its inception. Dr. Mabry has been a friend, not only to this library, but to libraries, throughout his life. He has donated more than five thousand books and has been available for duty on various committees over the years. He became the first Lifetime Member of Henderson Library's Friends last year.

Dr. Mabry's gifts to the Library reveal the breadth of his activities and interests. Since he was a Signal Company radioman in France during World War II, his papers here contain items on ham radio in which he maintained an interest, including transmission cards. Having studied French in high school, he was able to communicate - and after the War, correspond - with French people whom he met; the Library has, in French and English translation, the 44 letters written to him by a French lady from her teen years during the War until her death in 1992. His Army service resulted in active participation in veterans' affairs, and he has given items covering that front, including audio and video interviews with other veterans. Back in the States, Dr. Mabry acquired a degree in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Tech, which produced one of his several careers. As district secretary of the State YMCA, he had a weekly radio program and wrote a weekly column about their activities -- The Y's Way. He directed the Youth Assembly at the State Capitol for five years. He later went into education, serving as a high school teacher of French and math in Macon and as Director of Guidance for Bibb County schools. After earning further degrees from Mercer and Georgia Southern, he completed his doctorate at Florida State University in 1966. For the next 22 years, until retirement in 1988, Dr. Mabry was Professor of Educational Psychology and Counseling here. The 19 volumes of his research and writing in that field, which he donated to Special Collections, attest to a very productive academic career. Meanwhile, during the same years, he became more and more prominent as a speaker for a bewildering array of clubs and societies; the original copies of his speeches that we have sometimes consist of the index cards he used at the podium.

Dr. Mabry's stream of donations to Henderson Library has if anything increased in recent years. Lately, since he is a member of the Board of GSU's Center for Irish Studies, he has given a large amount of Irish material, some of it rare. But his interests remain hard to pin down: he has also donated cassettes of a translation and lectures on Dante. Not only do his own donations continue, but he has been the agent and inspirer of many gifts by others.

His vast experience and contacts help to make Dr. Mabry a most valuable member of the Friends Board. And he has retained throughout his life a joy in books and learning. "At age eight, the story of Doctor Doolittle hooked me on books!" Dr. Mabry told us. Later, he expressed it inadvertently in a Spoonerism, "If I had my 'druthers,' I would be sitting in a book reading a corner!"

Henderson Library pays for a membership in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, allowing Georgia Southern faculty and students to access ICPSR's enormous archive of social science data. Below is a list of new data collection additions to the ICPSR data archive along with a list of released data collections that have been updated:

New Additions: