I am a faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the rank of Associate Professor. My Curriculum Vitae is available online.  

I work as a reference librarian in Love Library.    I provide reference assistance to individuals at the Reference Desk and orientation and library instruction for classes and other groups. 

As the business librarian, I am the library's liaison with the College of Business Administration. I help faculty, staff, and students of the college use library resources effectively. I also select business related books and other materials for the Libraries.

I am also the library's liaison with the ROTC programs on the UNL campus. I select military related books and other materials for the Libraries.

In addition to my other duties, I am working with the teaching faculty to help them make effective use of the electronic resources available from the University Libraries. The widespread use of the Blackboard course management software on the UNL campus, facilitates the use of electronic resources.

Scholarly Interests

• Early PB-Number Documents

  The modern American technical repors system began in 1946 with the creation of the Office of the Public Board and the Publication of the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports (BSIR). Those early PB-Number are effectively lost since they have been deposited in the Library of Congress and they are not listed in the NTIS online database. Those lost technical reports are described in detail in my article:

  The “Lost” U.S. Technical Reports: Obtaining Reports from the 1940s and ‘50s

  I made an early effort to make some of the lost documents more accessible with an online index:
  

  Army Manuals Listed in the Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports, 1946-1949
  

  I concluded that what is required is to create an online versin of BSIR available. With the help of the E- text Center at the University of Nebraska-Libraries, I have begun making it available. See:

  Bibliography of Scientific and Industrial Reports, an Online Resource

• Computing and Scholarship

    One purpose of my research efforts is to see how I can use computer applications.

  An article on "Using Sorted Lists for Error Checking" was published in the journal Library Philosophy and Practice at:

  http://www.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/bbolin.htm
   

• The History of US Army Technical Intelligence Organizations
  I am working on an article on the origins and evolution of Army technical intelligence organizations. In order to organize the material I have gathered, I am preparing a hypertext chronology. An early version is available at:

  Army Technical Intelligence Chronology

• The Mechanical Pencil Industry in Chicago

   I am particularly interested in the histories of the Autopoint and Dur-O-Lite companies and in the career of C.R. Keeran.  I have made some material related to Autopoint and Dur-O-Lite on this Web site:

  Pencil Research Page
  

• Computing and Scholarship

   One purpose of my research efforts is to see how I can use computer applications.

  An article on "Using Sorted Lists for Error Checking" was published in the journal Library Philosophy and Practice at:

  http://www.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/bbolin.htm
   

• The Organization of Knowledge 

  In Fall 2003, I taught an American Studies class, AMST 301, Studies in American Culture, at the University of Idaho. The theme of the class was "the Organization of Knowledge in Modern America." Thirty juniors and seniors took the class.

Personal

I am a bike commuter. Most mornings for several years, I rode my bicycle the seven miles to Pullman, Washington, and back before work. In August 2003, I made my 1000th trip.    Exercise was my excuse, but my real reason for going is to meet with a group of "boon companions" at Starbucks.  Here are a couple of  pictures of me at Starbucks on the Moscow Highway in Pullman in June 2003. Note that it is not surprising to have frost on the bridges in June in Northern Idaho.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-4100
© 2004 by Robert L. Bolin.  All rights reserved

URL: http://www.unl.edu/Bolin_resources/
Version 5.01, 16 January 2007