Janet Sanfilippo to head city, community relations

The university has named Janet Sanfilippo director of city and community relations. In her new post, Sanfilippo, who was assistant provost, will work actively to build and maintain relationships with a wide range of groups and individuals important to the university, including neighborhood groups, civic associations, area businesses, members of the Baltimore City Council and the mayor's office.

"Janet has built a variety of university-community relationships, both here and in Durham [N.C.], while she was at Duke University," said James McGill, senior vice president for administration. "Her strength in developing collaborative and cooperative partnerships convinced us that she was the right person to begin to focus and extend those activities for the university. We are delighted that she has agreed to take on this task."

Before coming to Hopkins in 1992, Sanfilippo worked for 17 years at Duke, serving in a variety of positions including coordinator for community relations, director of special events and director of the alumni association for the School of Medicine. She ended her tenure at Duke as associate dean for administration at the Fuqua School of Business.

PILAS coordinates Hopkins aid for victims of Mitch

The Program in Iberian and Latin American Studies is coordinating efforts within the Hopkins community to raise funds to help victims of hurricane Mitch. In Honduras and Nicaragua, deaths numbered in the thousands; whole villages and much of the infrastructure--roads, bridges, telephone, electricity--were destroyed; and over 600,000 people are homeless.

An international effort to assist these countries is under way, and PILAS is asking the Hopkins community for donations, which will be forwarded to the American Red Cross to purchase medical supplies, food, clothing, etc. Checks should be made payable to JHU Central America Relief Fund and sent to PILAS, Department of History, 312 Gilman Hall, Homewood campus. For more information, contact Eva Gonzalez at 410-516-5558.

McKey card system at MSEL to end in January

At the end of January 1999, the Eisenhower Library at Homewood will retire its aging McKey photocopy card system and rely solely on the J-card as the non-cash system for its photocopy machines.

Holders of the McKey card may either exhaust the balance on their card or have the balance transferred to their J-card before Jan. 31. Staff in the library's Support Services office on the A-Level will be able to assist card holders with transfers on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Academic departments and other offices that use the McKey card can also get a departmental J-card for photocopying in the library. For more information, call 410-516-8338.

MSEL receives Mellon grant for digital robotics project

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $376,000 grant to the Milton S. Eisenhower Library to support the Comprehensive Access to Print Materials Project. Using an innovative integration of digital and robotics technology, the CAPM system seeks to enhance access to analog materials held in off-site shelving facilities.

The CAPM initiative will be led by Sayeed Choudhury, director of the library's Digital Knowledge Center, in collaboration with faculty and graduate students in the School of Engineering and economics researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The CAPM Project will restore a user's ability to interact with print collections in remote storage. Through a connection to the library's online catalog, a user will identify a work held off-site and activate a robot to withdraw the item from the collection and transport it to a scanner that includes an automatic page turner, allowing browsing of the material online. After an integrated copyright management system confirms that digitization is not limited, a scanned image will be generated and delivered to the user's computer. The digital images can be deposited in an archive, the catalog record can be updated to show that a digital copy is available to future users, and metadata elements like the table of contents can be made available for future searching in the library's catalog.

James Neal (pictured at right), dean of university libraries, notes, " By enabling the virtual browsability and availability of these important historical collections, CAPM ensures that off-site print materials remain central to the work of students and researchers. Mellon's support of this project will also enable us to learn whether or not this approach is more cost effective than the traditional means of delivering library service."

CAPM is also supported by Minolta, which has provided scanning equipment, and IBM and Ameritech Library Services, which will provide engineering expertise. The project launch will be in January 1999.

HAC sets up Web site for Y2K computer problem

Homewood Academic Computing has established a new Web site dedicated to the Year 2000 computer problem. Located at http://www.jhu.edu/~hac_sys/y2k, the site contains a clear explanation of the potential problem, an extensive database of hardware and software items and their compliance with Year 2000 requirements, answers to frequently asked questions and ideas for quick fixes.

Evergreen House to host a museum-shop extravaganza

On Dec. 4, 5 and 6, holiday shoppers will be able to browse through their favorite museum shops, all at Evergreen's Carriage House.

The event, the first to bring together in one location offerings from Baltimore-area museums, will feature 14 shops including the American Visionary Arts Museum, Babe Ruth Museum, Baltimore Maritime Museum, Baltimore Zoo, B&O Railroad Museum, Calvert Marine Museum, Evergreen House, Hampton Mansion, Homewood House Museum, Maryland Historical Society, Montgomery County Historical Society, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, St. Mary's City Commission and the United States Capitol Historical Society. Proceeds will be divided among participating organizations.

A preview party kicks off the event on Friday, Dec. 4, from 6 to 9 p.m. Members of participating museums will receive a 10 percent discount on purchases with a museum identification card. Admission to the party is $10. The Museums Shop-Around takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6. Admission is $5 for adults.

Peabody jazz performers to entertain at coffeehouse

A Jazz Coffeehouse on Friday, Dec. 4, from 8 p.m. to midnight, will feature members of the Peabody Jazz Department. Enter at 1 Mt. Vernon Pl. Donations will go to the United Way.