Library, Department & Team News

Art Library
Much artwork was lost or damaged as a result of the attack on the World Trade Center. What follows are excerpts from the National Task Force on Emergency Response.

“For the most part, historic and art collections are basically sound. Most continuing problems relate to dust, ventilation systems, and interruptions to communications. For the some 245 pieces of outdoor sculpture in Lower Manhattan, however, there is no accurate report of damage as yet, except for excessive dust and soot. Battery Park appears most affected.

“It is still too early to determine exactly how much art was destroyed because much of it was owned by private companies and most of them have yet to detail their losses. Cantor Fitzgerald lost hundreds of staff and the world’s largest private collection of works by Rodin in the gallery known as the Museum in the Sky. The collection also included 19th Century American and European paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Moreover, works by Alexander Calder, Louise Nevelson, Joan Miró and Roy Lichtenstein have been damaged or totally destroyed. National Public Radio reports that a tapestry by Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, which was in the mezzanine of Tower Two, is presumed lost. Elyn Zimmerman’s memorial fountain to the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing was also lost.

“A valuable collection of artifacts related to the Five Points site and the African American Burial Ground was being maintained by the General Services Administration and was stored in the basement near 6 World Trade Center. The collection has yet to be located in the ruins.

“A consortium of five historic preservation organizations (the World Monuments Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation League of New York State, the Municipal Art Society and the New York Landmarks Conservancy) is creating the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund. It will make grants to help alleviate the impact of the disaster and to restore damaged historic sites in Lower Manhattan. A special Web site has been established: http://nycpreservation911.org/.”

Ekstrom Library
Media and Current Periodicals
With the ARL team visit now over, we have dismantled their special conference room, turning it back into our viewing room.

ISpecial thanks to Dave Loeffler and Adam Metzger for getting our microfilm cabinets shimmed. Now these potentially dangerous cabinets are safe for users!

Since the renovations to our department space, David Horvath’s desk is now in the main workroom. His former office is a small meeting room, which is available to library staff/faculty for small group meetings.

Office of the University Librarian
New Hires
Kristafer Abplanalp has been hired as Library Assistant, Grade 211, in Content Access effective November 12, 2001. Kris has been a student assistant in Media & Current Periodicals since August 1999.

Tim Bohannon has been hired as Library Assistant, Grade 211, at Kersey Library effective October 29, 2001. His primary focus will be supervising the computer lab.

Florence Merkel has been hired as Library Assistant, Grade 211, .80 FTE, in Ekstrom Reference effective November 5, 2001. She has over 20 years’ experience as supervisor of a corporate library.

John Spivey has been hired as Library Assistant, Grade 211, in Ekstrom Circulation effective October 8, 2001. He has been a student assistant there and also Stacks Maintenance for one year.

Carrie Turner has been hired as Library Assistant, Grade 211, in Ekstrom Circulation effective October 15, 2001. She has been a student assistant there for 2 ½ years.

Promotions
Karen Hild has been promoted to Library Assistant, Grade 211, in Content Access effective November 2, 2001. She has served as Library Technician in Stacks Maintenance since June 2000.

Joan Nailon has been promoted to Library Assistant, Grade 211, at Kornhauser Library effective November 2, 2001. She has worked at Kornhauser since 1985.

Sad News to Share
The University Libraries family has had a great loss with the death of Jeffery Drake on Wednesday evening. He had been undergoing cancer treatment since August and had recently turned 48.

The funeral was held on October 29, 2001 at the W. G. Hardy Valley Funeral Home, 10907 Dixie Highway, Valley Station, Kentucky with the burial in Bethany Memorial Cemetery.

Expressions of sympathy may be made to Stites Station Baptist Church, 237 Cupio Lodge Rd., West Point, Kentucky 40177 (502) 922-9222.

Stacks Maintenance
We are really proud of Byul “Stella” Kim. She is going to be taking part in the naturalization ceremony for American citizenship on Wednesday, November 7. Stella has been in the U.S. for seven years, coming here from Seoul, Korea. We asked her how she decided on her Americanized name. She said that in Korean her name, Byul, means star. We think it’s beautiful.

Also, with a great deal of regret, we say good-bye to Karen Hild, our assistant supervisor. She isn’t going very far, though. She has accepted a promotion in Content Access, so we will be able to say “Hi!” and talk — although as busy as they have been, probably not very often.

Other than that you will find us all busily working away at shelving and shifting and gearing up for finals. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Music Library
Don Dean paid a visit to the Music Library at the University of Illinois to see the facilities and get a first-hand look at the sound recording digitization project. Facilities Manager Dave Loeffler was along for the ride. The Krannert Performing Arts Center was the most impressive thing in town. It contains five different performance halls and also has an outdoor amphitheater on the grounds. Don and Dave were in town to see Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers (big band) in the Studio Hall of the Krannert Center and, as luck would have it, hung out with the band after the show at a local establishment dedicated to nightlife activities.

UARC
Bill Morison and Kathie Johnson attended the fall meeting of the Kentucky Council on Archives on October 12 at Georgetown College.

Mary Margaret Bell attended the Electronic College and University Records Conference in Mesa, Arizona, October 12 and 13. Among the interesting sessions at ECURE were updates on the National Archives’ collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center in developing an XML-based schema to identify and preserve basic elements of electronic records and phase II of Indiana University’s electronic record keeping project.