Last year we acquired on permanent loan 5000 books from the Australian Medical Association. Mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries, this collection includes valuable surgical atlases such as William Cowper's Anatomy (1737) and rare nineteenth century Australian material. Most used so far have been the early mothercraft and sexual hygiene books.
Another major collection comes to us from Dr. Richard Travers, a rheumatologist and a graduate of Monash, and one of the foremost collectors of medical books in Australia. He is donating his collection in stages, and so far we have received two large consignments, totalling about 1800 books mainly on the history of medicine and surgery, and on the neurosciences. Dr. Travers has also donated prescription books from a Melbourne pharmacist covering the period 1902 to 1990, and the papers of Dr. Michael Kelly, a Melbourne specialist known for his work on fibrositis.
Earlier this year the Library acquired from Fairfield Hospital the Goller Collection of AIDS material, consisting of about 900 items, including videos and slide sets for teaching. The strength of the collection lies in reports and pamphlets, including some from San Francisco dating from the 1980s.
In late 1994 on the advice of Professor Stephen Cordner, the Library purchased a collection of forensic medicine books from Professor A. K. Mant of Guys Hospital. The 1000 items, ranging from the 17th to the 20th centuries, includes numerous books on poisons, among the earliest of which is Richard Mead's A mechanical account of poisons: in several essays (1702). This book includes chapters on the poisons of the viper, of the tarantula and mad dog, of poisonous minerals and plants, of opium, of venomous exhalations from the earth, poisonous airs, and waters. There are also modern books on famous criminal cases and trials that involved forensic evidence.
Two other collections of material were acquired from book collectors, Dr. Leonard Murphy and Dr. Sir Sydney Sunderland. From Dr. Murphy, a urologist, we have about 350 books, mostly on the general history of medicine. The collection of Dr. Sunderland, a prominent Melbourne neurosurgeon, was acquired through the Monash Faculty of Medicine. This consists of about 2000 volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries, and includes a set of the journal, The Brain.
Among the rare books and serials on permanent loan from the Australian Medical Association are a number of pre-1800 books of interest to researchers in Visual Arts, and to cultural historians. William Cowper's Treatise on the Muscles (1724) and his Anatomy (1737), reprints of the1690s editions, are famous for their disturbing baroque illustrations.
Other books on the treatment of specific ailments will be of use to researchers into social, historical and political issues. For instance, the rise of Tropical Medicine or the treatment of war wounds are consequences of colonialism and imperialism.
In the Travers collection, of particular interest to sociologists and cultural historians will be the section devoted to the history of mental illness. It includes texts on sexual pathology, including Krafft-Ebing's Psycopathia Sexualis, and a number of books specific to women and mental illness.
Kate A. Cregan, Doctoral CandidateDept. of English
Recently produced by Monash Library staff, Asia Access is a two volume guide to English language sources of information on China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
The team responsible for Asia Access was led by Ho Chooi Hon (Associate University Librarian). Information resources were compiled by the staff of the Asian Studies Research Library: Helen Soemardjo (Senior Asian Studies Librarian), Dennis Kishere (Chinese Studies Librarian), Jung Sim Kim (Korean Studies Librarian), and Eiko Sakaguchi. (Japanese Studies Librarian). Leigh Oldmeadow, Manager of Moninfo, is the editor of Asia Access. The guide is available from Moninfo on x52690.
Internet access to the Encyclopedia Britannica is now available for all Berwick and Gippsland students and staff. This electronic edition is more up to date and extensive than the printed edition and offers a range of search strategies. It is also linked to thousands of other web sites through hypertext. No password is required as those coming through servers on the Berwick and Gippsland campuses will be recognised. The url is http://www.eb.com:180.
To use the Britannica Online via homenet, a small change needs to be made to the Netscape proxies. The box marked "No proxies for" needs to include: www.eb.com:180. (This should be on the same line as monash.edu.au with a comma in between.)For further assistance please contact Heather Marshall at Berwick on x47014, or Jacqui Conn at Gippsland on x26613.
Berwick library also has access to MacquarieNet, Australia's own online reference service. Berwick staff and students may ring Heather Marshall on x47014 to get a password for MacquarieNet.
With its extensive and broad-ranging monograph and journal collections in European politics, history, society and culture, economics, law and languages, the Library is well-equipped to support teaching and research in European Studies.
French language materials have been collected extensively since the early 1960s. The library's strengths are in 18th and 19th century literature and criticism, but our buying programme also ensures the ongoing purchase of modern titles. Among the Hispanic materials strong collections are held of the Spanish Civil War and of contemporary Latin American women's writing. Modern Italian writers, critical commentaries of their works, and Dante studies form the backbone of the relatively newly established Italian Studies collection.
Amongst the impressive holdings in the Rare Books Collection are: the Encylopedie of d'Alembert and Diderot in 35 volumes (1751-1777); 18th and 19th Century French cookery books; 19th Century French travel books; and 18th Century French literary texts. German Expressionist publications are held as well as a collection featuring "between the Wars" publishing. The current exhibition in Rare Books is "Censorship in the Enlightenment Period" and a detailed catalogue accompanies the books on display. Previous catalogues including "French Fiction", and "18th Century French Book Illustrations" are also available.
The Library's German studies collection is acknowledged as one of the most comprehensive in Australia. For over 30 years orders have been placed directly with Harrassowitz book suppliers. The Library's collection reflects the depth of research in linguistics and comparative literary theory. Holdings in Slavic Studies emphasise the teaching of Polish, Ukrainian, Russian and Slavic languages and literature. Holdings in Modern Greek are concentrated on 19th and 20th century language teaching and literary texts.
Major European Studies print serial bibliographies include: Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft, Bibliographie Linguistique, Germanistik, Bibliographie der Franzosischen Literaturwissenschaft, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index. Subscriptions are held for many journals especially to support French and German studies, these courses having been strongly established from Monash's early days.
CD-ROMs supporting European Studies include the MLA Bibliography, Humanities Index, British Humanities Index, PAIS, LLBA, Historical Abstracts, Film Index International, and Social Sciences Index and Periodical Contents Index. Hundreds of videos and CDs have been purchased recently at the request of teaching staff. They are housed in the Multimedia Services Section, Information Services Building, where staff will place items on Reserve. Videos and audiotapes are also available for loan.
A host of European newspapers in English, as well as Dutch, French, German, and Italian can be accessed in full-text in electronic form via the Nexis database. So too can European companies and European Community information. Enquire at any branch library for more details about Nexis. If it's just Le Monde you're interested in, why not try Le Monde sur CD-Rom, also available in the Multimedia Services Section.
For those with Internet access, the Library has subscribed to Analytica Moscow Weekly Press Summaries, which covers major political and economic events in the former Soviet Union. It can be accessed via the Monash Electronic Journals Index at URL: http//www.monash.edu.au/journals/
Internet links to other major European Studies resources on the World Wide Web can be accessed from the H&SS Library's home page by clicking on "Subject area", then on "European languages".Although our collections are good, no single library can hope to acquire more than a fraction of the many titles published in Europe each year. To examine opportunities for resource sharing, in November, Monash Library will be participating together with the Centre for European Studies in the Colloquium on Western European Studies in Australia.
For more information please contact Grace Giannini, Subject Librarian - European Studies x52659, and Marie Pernat, Subject Librarian - Romance languages x55472