Solicitation of Entries for the 1988 EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL Higher Education Software Awards Program

Awards and recognition will be presented for outstanding software developed for undergraduate liberal arts instruction and for the innovative use of existing computer software to solve important instructional problems. In 1987 Carolyn Lougee and Tom Maliska of Stanford University won the Best Humanities Software category for The Would-be Gentleman, a historically based game on life in seventeenth-century France. Entries are due March 30, 1988. For additional information or application materials, write to Dr. Robert Kozma, National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning (NCRIPTAL), 2610 School of Education Building, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Ml 48109-1259.

Call for Donation of Books on American Women’s History for Beijing University

The American History Teaching and Research Group of the History Department, Beijing University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, has established a program for the study of the history of American women. This program will be based in the Yenching Center for American Studies at Beijing University, and the Vice Chair of the Yenching Center, Professor Qi Wen Ying, is in charge of the program. Mary Beth Norton of Cornell University is going to Beijing in May 1988 as a visiting lecturer in connection with this new program.

The Yenching Center has been having great difficulty acquiring books on women’s history, especially collections of primary sources. The Foundation for Books to China, based in San Francisco has agreed to serve as a transshipment agent for books donated to the program in Beijing. If every person who has written a book or articles on the history of American women (works in European, Asian, or African women would also be welcome of course) could donate a copy of his or her own publication(s), it would be of enormous assistance to the program. Also, extra copies of textbooks, monographs, and documentary collections on all aspects of American history would be extremely useful to the Yenching Center.

To participate in this worthwhile endeavor to promote the serious study of women’s history in China, please do the following. If possible (preferred but not essential) pack books in 1 1/2 cubic foot boxes (18" x 12" x 12"). Cartons should be fully but not overly packed. Tape them with 3M light brown plastic tape—they will receive rough handling! Address them to Foundation for Books to China, c/o Cargo Services Inc., Pier 19, San Francisco, CA 94111. Label the outside of the box thus: Mary Beth Norton, c/o Qi Wen Ying, History Dept., Beijing University.

The books will be shipped in the spring, so all contributions should be mailed to San Francisco as soon as possible.

If you are donating books or articles, please drop a line to Mary Beth Norton, History Department, Cornell University, McGraw Hall, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-4601, so that she will have a record of what has been sent.

COSSA Board Member

Darlene Clark Hine, John A. Hannah Professor of History at Michigan State University, and author of an article appearing on page 20 of this issue, has been elected to the Consortium of Social Science Associations’ (COSSA) Board of Directors at their December 2, 1987 meeting. Professor Hine will be a COSSA board member at-large.

Reagan Library Update

The Ronald Reagan Library may finally become a reality in Thousand Oaks, California, a growing suburb northwest of downtown Los Angeles. If the project continues, ground will be broken late next year on the five-acre library and public affairs center, which will be situated on a 100- acre bluff near this community. Last April plans to locate the 115,000- square-foot library and adjoining conference center at Stanford University were scuttled after faculty and Palo Alto residents objected.

CASE Professor of the Year

Ralph Ketcham of Syracuse University’s department of history has been named the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Professor of the Year. Professor Ketcham received his bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College and his master’s from Colgate University and earned his Ph.D. from Syracuse in 1956. He has held appointments in the American studies, history, political science, and public affairs departments.

He has written such books as Individualism and Public Life: A Modern Dilemma and President Above Party: The First American Presidency, 1789–1928. The teaching honor brought Professor Ketcham $5,000 and a chance to lecture at the Smithsonian Institution.