The Department of Special Collections is pleased to announce that the multi-year project of cataloging all of its incunabula fully to present standards is completed.  Begun by Rita Lunnon, when she was a cataloger in the Department, assisted by Judith Brody for the items in the Barchas Collection of the History of Science, the project was brought to its conclusion (after Rita's thorough training) by John Mustain and Barry Hinman, the current catalogers in the Department. 

Incunabula (one is an incunabulum) are books published in the infancy of publishing (the word, based on the Latin word for cradle, means infancy).  Specifically, they are books published between 1454 (the date now given to the first printed book, a Bible produced by Johann Gutenberg) and the end of the 15th century, the year 1500.  As the first and the rarest of all 
printed items, incunabula are the crown jewels of any library's collection.  Stanford University Libraries are fortunate to possess 182 of these earliest books, dating from 1454 (one leaf from the Gutenberg Bible) to 1518.  1518 is correct.  Six of our items bear dates later than 1500.  The explanation: at one time they were thought to be incunabula; they were so listed and described in standard sources; modern scholarship, however, has determined (for the moment) that their actual dates of production are later. 

The 182 books in the Department of Special Collections are all classed in a special scheme: KA + year of printing, ranging, therefore, from KA1454 for the Gutenberg leaf to KA1518 for a decree by the French king, Louis XI.  They can be browsed in Socrates by the search: b c KA1454. 
 

Effective January 1, 1998, California's law governing overtime has changed.  Employers are no longer required  to pay overtime for hour worked in excess of 8 in a work day.  However, Stanford University has not changed its policy and will continue to compensate non-exempt employees at a premium rate of one and one-half times the hourly rate of pay or by one and one-half hours of compensatory time off for each hour of overtime worked.  Overtime is time worked for Stanford in excess of 8 hours in one day or 40 hours in one week. 

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. 
 

Bob Mortezai, Operations Manager of the Stanford Auxiliary Library since 1993, now has a new set of responsibilities within Access Services.  On January 1st, Bob assumed the position as Head of the Green Library Stack Division.  Bob's office is in Room 33 on the Lower Level of Green Library.  Please join me in welcoming Bob back to Green after his four-year tour at SAL.