By Sherry F. Pruitt

JONESBORO -- Materials donated recently to the Dean B. Ellis Library at Arkansas State University are going to be helpful for at least one student's environmental health research.

ASU environmental sciences doctoral student Alejandra Ratti of Argentina is studying breast cancer in relation to the environment. On Wednesday, she found a news story published in 1993 in El Nacional, a Venezuela newspaper, that she is likely to use in her research.

Dr. Al Romero, chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences, donated his collection of 12,800 newspaper and magazine articles on environmental issues in Latin America to the university library. The archives also contain governmental reports, Romero said.

He said the collection is classified alphabetically by topics, including deforestation, indigenous people and water pollution. The biology professor accumulated the collection during the 10 years that he served as executive director and chief executive officer of the Venezuelan Foundation for the Conservation of Biological Diversity.

He used the materials for his work on the book, "Environmental Issues in Latin America," which is scheduled for publication next month.

"Now that the work is done, I'm donating to ASU the entire collection of articles," he said.

Most of the articles are from the 1980s and written in Spanish or Portuguese, but a few are written in English.

The materials are located in room 209 on the main floor of the library.

"The library is happy to be able to provide Dr. Romero with space for his collection and to provide general access to the articles," said Jeff Bailey, head of public services at the library. "Anyone who wishes to search and use the articles needs to stop by the circulation desk on the main floor of the library and sign out a key to the room."

Bailey said the collection is a unique resource that would otherwise be unavailable to the ASU community.

"Dr. Romero is a strong supporter and user of the library, and we are pleased that we can help give more people access to this collection of articles," Bailey said.

Romero noted that the collection is valuable "not only because of its contents, but also because it reflects the points of views of Latin American peoples regarding environmental issues, which is, in many ways, quite different to that of peoples from developed countries."

The professor said the collection is "priceless," explaining that he subscribed to the publications for more than 10 years, clipped and organized the articles and transported them to the United States.

The collection will be posted on the department's Web site by next week, he said, adding that students from other college campuses will be able to request the materials through interlibrary loan.

"These are difficult to find anywhere else in the world," Romero noted.

Romero said that he would like to see the materials scanned and digitized eventually.

sherry@jonesborosun.com