Gazette Flashback
(Nov. 14, 1996, Gazette)
Remembrances of Memorial past...
25 years ago: ISER begins publishing program
November 1971 -- The first books in the Institute of Social and Economic Research's (ISER)
publications program are now in print. The hard-cover volumes in anthropology are on aspects of
ISER research in the province. The first to be published are Louis Chiaramonte's
Craftsman-Client Contracts, a study of relations between boat-builders and fishermen in an
isolated Newfoundland fishing village, and Robert Paine's edited collection Patrons and Brokers
in the East Arctic, a study of the power relationships between Euro-Canadians and the Inuit and
Innu in Labrador.
In other news, Memorial receives its ninth giant squid for study. It was found off Frenchman's
Island and weighed over 300 pounds, and was 26 feet, four inches long. Dr. F. A. Aldrich, leader
of the squid group, describes the female squid as being "in the best possible condition that could
be expected of a squid washed ashore."
20 years ago: Overcrowded library stores books
November 1976 -- The library at Memorial continues to experience a shortage of space, and
200,000 volumes are put into storage. The main library building was originally designed for
107,000 volumes and with the collection now in excess of 600,000 volumes the only answer is
temporary storage. The answer to the space shortage will be the new library building, but it is still
unknown when construction will start.
In other news, the Newfoundland Association of Public Employees, which represents a unit of
maintenance personnel at Memorial, signs a one-year collective agreement calling for a basic
salary increase of eight per cent or $600 per annum, whichever is the greater. The increase is
retroactive to April 1, 1976.