FAB Collection celebrates TAMIU anniversary

By Christine Rojas

On March 10, 2010

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As Texas A&M International University celebrates its 40 year anniversary, the Sue and Radcliffe Killam library commemorates this anniversary by organizing a compiled collection of books written by the university's faculty.

The Faculty Authored Book Collection (FAB) spans the university's lifetime as a testament to the intellectual history which stems from the wide array of publications produced by current and past professors at TAMIU. Also included are editors and translators of publications.

On Feb. 18, from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Student Center Rotunda, a reception was held to honor current professors who authored books during the academic year through 2008-2009.

Opening remarks were made by Dr. Ray Keck, university president. Honorees were presented by Dr. Pablo Arenaz, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, they included Dr. Stephen Duffy, Dr. Ned Kock, Dr. Paul Madlock, Dr. Kamal Parhizgar, Dr. Tagi Sagafi-nejad, Dr. Jerry Thompson, and Dr. Judith Warner. Library Director, Mr. Rodney Webb, unveiled the FAB web site during the program. The event was free and open to the public, allowing the community to have an opportunity to speak to the authors and enjoy great food.

The collection is accessible through the Special Collections, an on-line FAB catalogue, with some publications available for checkout via General Collection. FAB's website is reached through the Find Books tab of the library's main website.

The site contains links to the library's Rio Catalogue, Google Books, and Amazon. This allows viewers the option of purchasing the work, in addition to reading and adding reviews. Google Books also gives readers the opportunity to view a limited preview in certain instances and an overview of the book.

The success of this collection was due to the enormous amount of research accomplished by various departments of the library, including the Special Collections department and Technical Services and Automated Services. An amazing aspect found within the FAB collection is the immense range of books published by professors, as described by Webb.

Dr. Kock, a business professor, includes books which are edited works where he invites specialists in the field to discuss topics or a theme of business, Webb continued. "There's a wide range of topics that our faculty published on, and it was really nice getting the faculty authors out, giving the university community an opportunity to talk with them, and bringing in some of the members from the community to meet our authors and see what the scholarship of the university."

TAMIU's bookstore provided copies of the various publications for sale during the event and maintains a section within the store dedicated to the faculty books.

FAB continues to grow as further research conducted and faculty members continue to publish, edit, and translate publications.

"The website will continue to grow retrospectively looking back to the last 40 years and as new books are published by the current faculty, we'll be adding new books as well," added Webb.

For more information, contact the Sue and Radcliffe Killam Library at 326-2400.

(Christine Rojas may be reached at christine_r7@dusty.tamiu.edu)