The Art Library has received the papers of the Kentucky Watercolor Society covering the period from 1978 through 1994. Included are not only the newsletters, board minutes, membership directories and various catalogues, but also almost 1000 slides of the artwork accepted for the annual exhibition. The Society will continue to add materials to our holdings each year.
The Art Library recently acquired the Grove Dictionary of Art, an $8,000, 34-volume comprehensive art reference work covering prehistory to the l990’s in over 41,000 articles. However, we were very surprised to find out that the 720,000-entry index volume is arranged not by our familiar AACR2 format, but by a system that ignores spaces and continues to alphabetize letter by letter until the first mark of punctuation. Therefore, "Indiana, Robert" is after "India, Republic" but before "India Subcontinent" and "Modernity" is before "Modern Line"!
Theft of pages from library materials is one of our biggest, and usually most undetectable, fears. Imagine, then, that your collection consists of rare manuscripts. The November, 1997, issue of Art and Antiques contains an article by Benjamin Ivry, "The Paper Chase," that describes efforts to recover, and even prevent, manuscript thefts. For instance, the British Library (London), has a unique preservation method -- each manuscript is precisely weighed both before and after its use!
Ekstrom Library
Media and Current Periodicals
The betes noires -- our pet peeves and black beasts -- of the department, the audio carrels expelled from the
old Arts and Sciences Language Lab, have finally bitten the dust. They lost their will to live after being disinherited
by their original parental units, and their decline was a sorry sight to see (especially for David, who had to look
directly at them from his office). Many thanks for the cooperation from Reference, who loaned us six Walkmen
that had been used for library tours. Patrons can now check out Walkmen at the M&CP desk and use them for
their language tapes anywhere they choose. The old carrels will be taken to surplus (or, more appropriately, to
the garbage dump) unless we can make a Walpurgis Night pyre on the quad with them.
Special Services is working to put additional software in public workstations to help patrons with visual impairments. As our old terminals are replaced, new technology and software can help with image magnification and speech synthesis. Plans are to put public workstations with ADA compliant software on every floor. (Helpful hint: If your vision is just a wee bit less clear than in the olden days, there are some nice enlargement features in Windows 95 and Netscape. In Netscape, go to Options, General Preferences, and Fonts. It can make a big difference for tired eyes and also can be more aesthetically pleasing than the usual default fonts.)
Office of Information Literacy
New Information Literacy Program Assistant
April Robertson joined the University Libraries on October 7 as a Program Assistant II in the Office of
Information Literacy. April was previously employed at the School of Education as a Secretary II. April
enjoys playtime with her ferrets, hiking, cooking and computers. She recently began her own small business,
Web Weavers, which provides services such as Web Page design, desktop publishing and computer consulting.
Visit her site at http://www.webcom.com/weaver1.
Compliments from South Africa
On March 10, Marieta De Villiers, a Librarian at the University of South Africa, visited the University Libraries
during her brief stay in the U.S. While here she learned about our information literacy activities and distance
education. Rae recently received a copy of her trip report and wanted to share her positive remarks about her Louisville visit:
- "What I saw of Louisville and the campus of the U of L, (too limited time to really explore) was absolutely beautiful,
but I was really most struck with the team at the library and the members of the School of Education that I met. The
enthusiasm with which projects are discussed and tackled was most inspiring."
On Friday afternoon, October 24, a reception was held at Ekstrom Library to celebrate the African American Collection. The free public event featured an exhibit of historical photographs depicting local African American life, refreshments and a jazz ensemble. Local and campus authors were on hand to sign their books. The reception was held to increase awareness of the collection on campus and to follow through on recommendations made by Dr. Joyce Taylor, a consultant who assessed the collection. A highlight of the event were remarks made by Dr. Blaine Hudson, a professor in the Pan-African Studies department. Here is what Dr. Hudson had to say about the significance of the collection: "If the campus is a place where African American, whites and all people of color had to have equal status, everyone had to be represented. The library is central to academic life, where the body of knowledge resides. African American information had to be in the library and easy to access. There had to be an identifiable African American collection to support student and faculty research."
Reference
The Reference Department would like to welcome new student assistant, Sean Bareis. We are very happy to have a new addition
to our team.
Glenda Neely attended the Fall Meeting of the SLA Kentucky Chapter and SLA Cincinnati Chapter in Ft. Mitchell, KY on November
13. The program, "Reach Across Boundaries: Make Your International Connections," included speakers on business, education and
job exchanges on the international level.
Congratulations to student assistant John Breitzman on his excellent performances at U of L’s Thrust Theatre. John was in "Rave On,
Raven," October 2-5 and "Road Kill," November 13-16. On January 22-25, the Thrust Theatre will be putting on "Reminisce," a play
written by John. He doesn’t know yet if he will be acting in this play. Way to go, John!
Special Collections
Amy Purcell attended the School for Scanning in New York City from November 1-3. The "School for Scanning" is looking at how
digitization can enhance the educational experience. The conference was attended by people from as close as the New York City
Public Library to as far away as India. The faculty were many of the cutting edge people who are writing all the articles that everyone
is quoting. Andy Anderson, Delinda Buie, Bill Carner, Susi Knoer and Amy Purcell all attended the Solinet Workshop, "Digital Imaging:
Preservation Issues."
Delinda Buie attended "Women’s Leadership: Changing Concepts of Power," sponsored by the American Association of Colleges
and Universities. The conference was in Washington D.C., November 13-15. Judi Jennings represented the University of Louisville’s
Women’s Center and Delinda attended for the Commission on the Status of Women. In addition to meeting some neat women whose
work Delinda had read, it was a good opportunity to reflect on the importance of helping women develop as "leaders in place" who
provide strong positive leadership regardless of their positions in the organization.
Kersey Library
Happy Holidays
Ming Ni, one of our student assistants, will be heading out for New York to visit her family over the holidays. Syed Nasseeruddin,
another student assistant, will be going home to India in December to visit his family. It has been four years since he has seen any
of them, so this will, indeed, be a very special reunion! Jay Smith, student assistant, is going to Colorado to ski over the holidays.
He hopes to come back in one piece! Doug Southerland, student assistant, will be going home for the holidays to visit his mother
in Nashville, Tennessee. And...Jeff and John Shelton, two other student assistants, will be visiting family over the holidays in
Russell, Kentucky. Steve Whiteside will be leaving Christmas Eve to visit family in Indianapolis.
TLC
Kersey Library is all set for "finals" with a TLC Exam Post. We have taken part in this program for over five years and have
always received grateful comments from the students. I am so glad we can help them in some small way through the...dreaded finals!
December Birthdays
Jan Kulkarni and Jay Smith celebrate their birthdays this month. Would you believe that Jan’s birthday falls on the 25th! Kersey
Library would like to extend to everyone else who is celebrating this month a very Happy Birthday!
Holiday Greetings
Kersey Library would like to extend Best Wishes for the Holidays and a very . . . Happy New Year . . ."Merry Christmas to all
and to all a goodnight!"
Kornhauser Library
The week of November 17 was Diane Nichol’s last week at the Kornhauser Library. She has been here since the library opened in
1970. Before that she was at the Dental School library at 129 East Broadway. And before that she was a children’s librarian at the
Portland branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. Diane’s departure and devotion to the library and the health sciences
community were marked by three events that week. On Tuesday the librarians took her out to dinner at the Oak Room at the
Seelbach Hotel and presented her with a silk flower arrangement. On Wednesday there was a reception in Abell Administration
Building "in recognition of her 29 years of service to the students and faculty of the UofL Health Sciences Center." And on
Friday the Kornhauser Library held a high tea in her honor. We will miss her warmth and caring and wish her the best in her
new position.
The annual campaign for the Friends of the Kornhauser Library is underway with the folding, stuffing and labeling of envelopes proceeding at a heady pace. This is a major effort that involves everyone in the library. This fund raiser adds important sums of money to the funds f the Friends who have bought some lovely things for the library. This year’s big gift was an 1844 book about the Santa Fe trail and trade by Josiah Gregg, who attended and received an honorary degree from the Louisville Medical Institute. The book was purchased in honor of the University’s Bicentennial. Look for more information about the book and its formal presentation to the library during the Bicentennial Celebration.
As of Monday, November 24, Kornhauser Library will take over the management of University Hospital library. Longtime hospital librarian Jody Bramson moved to Texas early in November. Contract negotiations between the hospital and University Libraries have been proceeding slowly since shortly before Jody’s departure. Operations will proceed under an interim contract until a final contract is worked out.
Mike Purcell has been extremely busy installing new and upgrading old computers for the library staff. All staff members now have Ethernet connections and are off the controller! The process has been extremely time-consuming and sometimes extremely frustrating.
Thanks and kudos to Carol, Janet, Maura, Neal, and Karen on the completion of the addition of the local holdings of all University Libraries to the Ovid Medline and CINAHL databases. This was a very big project that adds significant value to these databases for our patrons.
As a resources library for the western portion of the state of Kentucky, Kornhauser Library, in a joint venture with the UK Medical Library, will now enter the serial holdings of the medical libraries in that area into Serhold for Docline, the medical interlibrary loan system.
Join us in wishing Nancy Utterback a happy significant birthday this month!
Mary Kay took a fall vacation break and visited some of Kentucky’s state parks, including Pine Mountain, Red River Gorge, Cumberland Falls, and Natural Bridge.
Law Library
The Brandeis School of Law blood drive on November 19, co-organized by Law Library student worker Jonathan Ricketts,
resulted in the Red Cross’ collecting 36 pints of blood. Quite a few donations came from the library. This exceeded the
amount collected by the Red Cross on its last campus drive, and it even beat the drive at UK’s law school by one pint
(not that we were being competitive!)
Following their successful hosting of the Classical Mandolin Society of America Convention November 5-9 (the highlight of which was the sold-out Lonesome Pine Specials concert on November 7), the Louisville Mandolin Orchestra has released its first compact disc. Entitled FolkWorks, the CD features folk suites from Russia, Hungary, Ireland and America. It is the first in a series of CDs the group plans to release within the next year.
FolkWorks will be available soon at local bookstores. Copies are available now through the LMO. Anyone interested in a copy of FolkWorks may contact Robin Harris at the Law Library (x6083).
Music Library
Steve Noble presented "Information Literacy in the Blindness Community: Texts, Technology and Access" at the Getting in
Touch with Literacy Third Biennial Conference in Minneapolis, September 25 - 27.
University Archives and Records Center
Tom Owen presented a look at the history of the University of Louisville compared with that of the City of Louisville
in a talk entitled "Growing Up Together." He gave the lecture October 9 at the College of Business and Public Administration
as part of the University’s Bicentennial Celebration.
Mary Margaret Bell and Margaret Merrick went with a group to Las Vegas in October. The group stayed at the New York New York hotel and traveled the famous Las Vegas Strip several times. Unfortunately no one in their group broke the bank with their quarter bets. Highlights of the trip included watching the pirate ship battle at Treasure Island, the volcano at the Mirage and a day trip to explore and hike in Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Preserve.