Volumes & Issues is brought to you by me, Beth McMahon.
I work in both the PERS and RIS departments of the Library at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I aim to bring you news of ideas, events, and publications from our collections and relevant to the FIT community at large.
You might want to spell out what “PERS” and “RIS” mean. I have no idea what they are. I assume the former has something to do with periodicals.
Hmmm, the problem is that they are acronyms for really long department names. “RIS” is “Research & Instructional Services” and “PERS” is “Periodicals & Electronic Resources Services”. Please don’t make me type and retype that every time! But I’ll see about putting the acronyms with their full names somewhere in our descriptions. And hurrah that we have more readers than just the ones who know the FIT Library!
Actually, I’m a non-degree student who has taken evening classes at FIT for years and I even had a class that required significant library research. I use the library fairly often. But I’d never heard of those acronyms. I am certain the average FIT student does not know what they mean. I’ve met some students who didn’t even know their teachers’ names.
As a former journalist, I was always taught to spell out acronyms and initialisms on first reference for reader clarity. There are text-expansion apps and auto-correct functions that will do the heavy lifting. I like PhraseExpress. The Mac is supposed to have a good native text-expander app.
Thanks for the blog posts.
Hello, Beth and Denise,
WOW! I LOVE this blog! I was just made aware of it through the GBACG’s (Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild) list serve. Someone posted your “A Cinch to Stitch” on corsetry and I just ate it up. I teach corsetry in the SF Bay Area and work as a draper for SF Opera.
I’m wondering if y’all have holdings from the “Woman’s Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences.” My search on that came up empty (should I have used WIDAS?? LOL), but when I searched on “Mary Brooks Picken,” you review a couple of her post-Institute publications and just mention the work she did for ICS by the by. I’m a huge fan and avid collector. Just wondering if y’all have anything I don’t!
I shall follow your blog faithfully – what a wonderful resource!
Thank you,
Carol Wood
Hi, Carol! I know of the Bay Area costumers guild (don’t they have a Costume College every August?) but I am thrilled that someone out there is reading our book reviews. I’ve never been to the west coast costuming events, but I have heard it’s a pretty skilled group of people. I don’t know much about WIDAS, but I suspect that the part of the FIT Library that would have any holdings would likely be the Special Collections area. http://www.fitnyc.edu/library/sparc/index.php
If they don’t have anything, the next place to try is the New York Public Library’s Business and Industry special library, in the old B. Altman building on 34th and Madison. https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/sibl
I am so happy that our writing is of use to someone! Such good news to begin the new year with! Happy 2018!!
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