Library, Department & Team News

Art Library
The Art Library’s original Christmas card collection was the source of a number of images chosen by Ralph Merkel from IT for the holiday production, Star of Bethlehem, to be shown at the Rauch Planetarium. Nelle Peterson, artist, teacher and director of the Art Center Association School from 1959 to 1966 began the Christmas card collection. When Peterson died, Margaret Bridwell bought the collection from the estate. The collection has more than 500 cards, most by Kentucky artists, with more being added each year.

Ekstrom Library
Content Access
Welcome
We would like to welcome two new members to our Content Access family. Karen Hild, who formerly held a position in Stacks Maintenance, has moved over into the cataloging section of Content Access. Kris Abplanalp, formerly of Media & Current Periodicals, has joined us most recently and is now working in Serials Acquisitions. Welcome, Karen and Kris!

KDLA Gift
If you have visited us in Content Access lately you may have noticed that we have boxes of books in every nook and cranny in our area. Yes, more books than usual! This is a very LARGE and wonderful donation from KDLA (Kentucky Department for Libraries & Archives). Recently KDLA was looking for a new home for 9,091 books that had to be weeded from their collection. Allen Ashman heard about this, and checked to see if Ekstrom Library was interested in acquiring them. Diane Nichols coordinated the effort to get the many boxes of books to Ekstrom. All the boxes haven’t been opened yet but it looks like the books are a mix of subjects. Some really great additions in philosophy and religion have been processed, and they fill in “holes” in our collection of older materials that were not purchased years ago, probably in lean budget years. While we expected many duplicates to our holdings, we have been very pleased to see that there are many new titles. Special thanks to Allen, Diane, David Loeffler and his helpers, as well as to everyone who is assisting with adding these to the collection.

Media and Current Periodicals
On the morning of November 8, excitement ensued when a patron from the Government Documents section came over to our department to report that someone was throwing books out of the building. Our student Katie McWhorter went over to look out the window and spotted the thief heading for the dropped books. Like a lightning bolt, Trish Blair ran full-speed downstairs and out of the building and around to the back, confronting the thief and demanding the books. “I’ll take those,” she said. He handed them over and started to move off, when the campus police arrived with the handcuffs. Trish carried the books to safety.

David Horvath recently spent a few days in Los Angeles visiting with his son Jason, who is attending the Otis School of Art and Design for a semester. Other than the feeling of being strapped permanently in the driver’s seat of a rental car and trapped in an endless loop of freeways, a good time was had by all. He was amazed that the locals refer to their highways with the article “the.” “Take the 405 to the 115 and then take the 225 until you run into the ocean...” He and the family also attended the annual West Hollywood Halloween Parade. They were astounded that there are so many six-foot and taller cross-dressers in the world. His son seems to enjoy the West Coast and the proximity to surfing beaches, so there may be more visits in the future. If this happens, David may enroll in a NASCAR driving school in preparation.

One of our veteran student workers, Kris Abplanap, has been promoted to work as full-time staff in Content Access and although we feel this is a great thing for him, we miss him very much and the many hours of desk duty that he worked for us. We have been struggling to survive without him since November 12. Congratulations, Kris!

Office of the University Librarian
Retirement
After 34 years in the University Libraries, Ruth Holman has announced her intention to retire from her position as Library Specialist in Content Access. Her last day of work will be January 2, 2002.

Reference
New Home
As of Friday, November 2, Sarah Jent and her husband Steven are the proud owners their first house. It’s a ten-year-old ranch with a finished walkout basement located on a .42 acre wooded lot “way out there” (as many of her co-workers like to describe the east end of Jefferson County near the Ford Plant and Tinseltown). Sarah and Steven are planning on moving to their new residence in December or January.

Special Collections
Barbara’s Photographs
Barbara Crawford currently has work in the following two exhibitions:
Holiday Show - 11/16/01 to 1/12/02
Cerlan Gallery, 522 W. Short Street, Lexington, Kentucky

Winter Art Garden Exhibit - December, 2001
Edenside Church, 1415 Bardstown Road, Louisville

Hot Off the Presses!
Louisville by Andy Anderson and Donna Neary, a Louisville historian with several other titles on Louisville and Jefferson County history and landmarks, was released on December 4. Louisville is part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. Included in the book are an historical introduction and chapter texts with illustrations consisting of 215 photographs from UofL’s Photographic Archives. The book is available at local bookstores and online booksellers. There are copies in the University Libraries and in University Archives. Andy and Ms. Neary will sign copies at Hawley-Cooke Booksellers sometime after the holidays.

Kersey Library
New Employees
The newest employee at Kersey is Tim Bohannon. He is our new Computer Lab Supervisor. He hails from New Albany, Indiana, where he has lived most of his life except when he attended IU in Bloomington. Tim has made his living as a computer technician for about 15 years. Beyond the “tech world” is a very accomplished family. He and his wife are professional musicians and actively play all around this area. His instrument is the trumpet and his wife plays the violin and sings. They have two children who are both musicians as well. His son is 14 and is a pianist and his daughter is 13 and plays the violin, harp and sings. Tim and his family were going to grace us with their talents at this year’s Christmas Party but could not because of a former engagement. Hopefully we’ll hear them at another special gathering of the libraries.

We would also like to take this opportunity to introduce our newest student assistant. His name is Olutola Iyun, and he comes to us from Nigeria. Tola is a Computer Science major. He also speaks French, Hausa, and Yoruba. We look forward to working with Tola.

The Kersey Lab Anew
By Catherine Lavallée-Welch
In operation since February 2000, the Kersey Lab closed this past summer for a complete makeover. At its reopening, the Kersey users found a brand new lab: new configuration, new furniture, new chairs, new lighting and new blinds. It took us several months of planning, including a survey of both Speed School students and faculty, to come up with the new design. The objective for this new lab is to create a space conducive to both teaching and individual work.

Room 203 has now been divided in two. At its entrance is the Uniprint station and what will become a small A/V room. At the back is the lab itself with 25 workstations configured in rows and in clusters. The room can contain up to 35 users.

The installation of the new instructional equipment in October marked the completion of the project. The room is now equipped with a screen, a ceiling-mounted projector, an electronic tablet, a VCR and a speaker system. A nifty gadget in itself, the tablet permits the instructor to annotate whatever image appears on the screen or to use the screen as a whiteboard.

The students as always appreciate having the lab to study and work on their projects. They keep the room busy at all hours. Engineering and Physical Sciences faculty already teach in the lab and will no doubt enjoy using the facility more than ever now that the instructor’s station is in place. But the Kersey Lab is open to all of the UofL community. So spread the word… and come visit us.

Kornhauser Library
Our resident virtuoso, Betsy Osoffsky, will be performing in the Broadway Series of “Fiddler on the Roof” in December. Lo, has she been putting in the practice hours for this score — no fiddling around for this performance. Judging by her perfume of rosin and blistered fingers, it appears that she’s been stringing her practice along from sunrise to sunset.

In October, Nancy Utterback, Michel Atlas, Elizabeth Smigielski and Judy Wulff attended the Midwest Chapter Medical Library Association Conference in hopping Milwaukee. Michel and Nancy each presented a robust poster, while Elizabeth and Judy smoothly presented a hearty paper. They had been brewing up these presentations for some time. The weekend came to a head when Judy ran into her stout-hearted shirttail cousin who she hadn’t seen in five years. Why, she beerly recognized him! They bumped into each other while buzzing their way up to the hotel bar. Of Coorse, they had a lager catching up to do and spent the evening bubbling away at the bar.

After being closed for eight weeks during renovation, Jane Bottoms is now beginning to move back into the University of Louisville Hospital library. Unfortunately, some space was taken to create an office for hospital employees. Jane will benefit, however, from a facelift for the remaining space, and the renovation offers an excuse to have an open house and grand re-opening event.

UARC
Ron and Kathie Johnson had a wonderful week in California in early October. They flew into San Diego, drove up to Malibu, Santa Barbara, Solvang, and arrived in Cambria, where they spent three days. Cambria is an artists’ colony, with charming shops, galleries, and restaurants. Right on the edge of town is Moonstone Beach, where the gray seals come and sun upon the rocks.

Just north of Cambria a few miles is San Simeon and Hearst Castle, the home of publisher William Randolph Hearst. Several different tours of the castle are offered, and each requires a five-mile bus ride from the visitor’s center down near Highway 1 up to the castle itself. They took Tour #1, which is recommended for first time visitors. The tour included one of the three guest houses, some of the gardens, the outdoor and indoor pools, and the great hall and dining room of the main building. The most interesting thing to Kathie was that architect Julia Morgan, one of the first licensed female architects in the United States, designed all the building and grounds.

The trip ended with a day in Pasadena visiting a dear friend, and then two days back in San Diego to attend a wedding that took place on the yacht “Just Dreamin” in the San Diego Harbor.

If it weren’t for the traffic and the smog, Kathie would be ready to move to southern California. The weather was great, the flowers were blooming, and the Pacific Ocean was magnificent. But the traffic was no fun and Ron and Kathie returned home to appreciate the ease with which we travel around Jefferson County.

New Video
St. James Court and Environs, the latest Tom Owen walking tour video, was released in October. The fifty-nine minute presentation highlights the colorful, dedicated historical characters that gave that neighborhood its particular “umph.” Tom also shows how the economic and architectural diversity of the area—when combined with elegantly manicured public spaces—makes it so special. The “walk” ends in the Black Hill section, a short two blocks west of St. James Court, where over 500 African Americans once lived.

Tom used photos and other historical images from Ekstrom’s special collections, UofL’s Fine Arts Library, and other repositories around town. St. James Court and Environs is both entertaining and informative.

The new release is third in the series “Tom Owen’s Louisville.” This title and earlier video walks, Historic West Main Street and City Center Walk, can be viewed in Media & Current Periodicals, Ekstrom (or checked out for three days by UofL faculty, staff and graduate students) and are available at Hawley-Cooke Booksellers, Carmichael’s Bookstore, and other local outlets.