Ekstrom Library
Government Documents
Lisa Russell is working with the Government Information Access Work Group for SAALCK's Virtual Library Project. The Work Group has been preparing a plan to make federal data about Kentucky and information produced by the Commonwealth of Kentucky easily accessible to students in the virtual university and to citizens of the Commonwealth via the Internet. More information on the project is available on SAALCK's web page at http://www.uky.edu/OtherOrgs/SAALCK/.

On January 8, 1998, Lee Caruthers attended the Second Annual Conference on Race and Relations at the Commonwealth Convention Center. The conference, which was sponsored by the Louisville and Jefferson County Human Relations Commission, attracted over 700 people.

The morning speaker was Aminanta Njeri, Executive Director of Dynamics of Leadership, Inc., whose topic was self-esteem. The luncheon keynote address was given by Patricia Russell-McCloud. Her speech, "If Not You, Who? If Not Now, When?," was a rousing get-involved address. There were also addresses and presentation by the Mayor, County Judge-Executive and our own Tom Owen, among others.

The most interesting parts were the two-hour morning and afternoon break-out sessions. The morning sessions covered diversity in business, education, religion, housing, and study circles. Lee attended the session on study circles. Basically, the idea is to gather a racially mixed and gender-mixed group to share life experiences and attitudes about race. The circles usually meet over a period of time and aim to break down racial barriers by exchanging human experiences. Lee found it worthwhile and effective. The afternoon sessions were on leadership, discrimination, community relations, youth, and violence. Lee attended the session on violence, because of the increasing violence we have seen of late in our community. There were two judges, representatives from the police, a minister, and an activist on the panel. The most interesting part was a presentation by Kenneth Clay, from the Kentucky Center for the Arts, on a program he has begun in youth detention centers, and elsewhere, on using the arts to get young people to confront and resolve violence within themselves. For example, theatre can help people act out and release violence.

Lee has already begun to contact some people on campus to see how some of what he learned can be used at UofL. Feel free to contact him for further information about the Conference and its program.

Everyone's favorite time of the year is upon us. And once again Government Documents is making available Federal and Kentucky state tax forms and publications. (Tax publications are for reference only.) If you do not work in Ekstrom Library and need a specific form, Lee will be happy to send it to you. Forms and tax information for almost all states are now available on the Web and are linked of the following site: http://home1.gte.net/brcpa/statelink.htm. Like the IRS Web site, these sites can be slow to connect during tax season. If you need forms for other states, Lee suggests you print them off now before these sites become overloaded. Happy filing!

Media and Current Periodicals
We are happy to announce that one of our former students, Kelly Craig (now Kelly Kapusuzoglu!) is the proud mother of a baby girl, Pinar. Pinar was born on December 23 (at 7 pounds and 13 ounces, 22 inches long), and she is now residing happily with her parents in Istanbul!!!!!

We are also glad to announce that a new student is working with us this semester. Jennifer Dame is a ceramics major who will be helping out in Special Services as well as in Media and Current Periodicals. This makes Wendy very happy, as more than 30 students have already been in this term, many of them regulars and some of them new.

Wendy is also happy because she is reading a good novel (Elizabeth McCracken's The Giant's House) about, of all things, a librarian. Here is an excerpt which some of you might appreciate:

People think librarians are unromantic, unimaginative. This is not true. We are people whose dreams run in particular ways. Ask a mountain climber what he feels when he sees a mountain; a lion tamer what goes through his mind when he meets a new lion; a doctor confronted with a beautiful malfunctioning body. The idea of a library full of books, the books full of knowledge, fills me with fear and love and courage and endless wonder. I knew I would be a librarian in college as a student assistant at a reference desk, watching those lovely people at work. "I don't think there's such a book--" a patron would begin, and then the librarian would hand it to them, that very book.

Unromantic? This is a reference librarian's fantasy.

A patron arrives, says, Tell me something. You reach across the desk and pull him toward you, bear hug him a second and then take him into your lap, stroke his forehead, whisper facts in his ear. The climate of Chad is tropical in the south, desert in the north. Source: 1991 CIA World Factbook. Do you love me? Americans consumed 6.2 gallons of tea per capita in 1989. Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States. Synecdoche is a literary device meaning the part for the whole, as in, the crowned heads of Europe. I love you. I could find you British Parliamentary papers, I could track down a book you only barely remember reading. Do you love me now? We own that book, we subscribe to that journal, Elvis Presley's first movie was called Love Me Tender.

And then you lift the patron again, take him over the desk and set him down gently so he doesn't feel it, because there's someone else arriving, and she looks, oh, she looks uninformed.

Office of the University Librarian
Sally has become the proud person of KO KO, the wonder dawg, Fifty pounds at five months, she is a Chocolate Lab will be way over 100 pounds when full grown. Sally has also adopted another stray cat, Sammy, who is half bald at this time but is recuperating from being on the streets. He is going to be a beauty!

Reference
The Reference Department bids a fond farewell to Wanda Perkins who has resigned her position and moved to Egypt to be married. We sincerely wish her every happiness.

Glenda Neely attended the ALA Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans from January 9-13 in New Orleans. She attended meetings of the 1999 ACRL National Conference Planning Committee (Co-Chair of Poster Sessions); the Reference Division's BRASS Discussion Group ("The Larger View: International Financial and Investment Resources"); the BRASS Publishers' Forum ("Archiving Electronic Business Reference Sources" with speakers from Disclosure, Dun & Bradstreet and UMI); and chaired the BRASS Disclosure Student Travel Award Committee.

Glenda and Fran Davis (Owensboro Community College) and Joan Grant (NYU) found several wonderful places to eat in the Jackson Square and French Quarter areas. Everyone got walking shoes for rainy weather before heading home.

Anna Marie Johnson spent a wonderful two weeks with her husband touring Europe over the Christmas break. Typical Americans that they were, they tried to do too much, but enjoyed themselves nevertheless. "We spent the first week staying with friends in various parts of Germany which was a cheap, fun way to see things. Bret got to experience a true German Christmas with my adopted German family (the real candles on the tree made him a little nervous). We split our time the second week between Paris and London. Paris had wonderful things to see: Notre Dame, the Dali museum, the Catacombs, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and the Sacre Couer, but it was a bit disorganized after coming from Germany. After two days of struggling to ask for food (neither of us speaks French!), we were happy to head through the Chunnel to England. We spent New Year's Day with a friend in Oxford and got an extensive tour of Magdalen College where he studies although the famous Bodleian Library was unfortunately closed. In London we fought the crowds to visit the Tower, the Tate Gallery, Westminster Abbey, and the British Museum. It was a whirlwind trip which really whet our appetite for more traveling."

In November, Rebecca Maddox and her husband traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico. While there, they had a reunion with a few of Rebecca's old Girl Scout friends from an international Wider Opportunities trip to India. (Co-editors note: Wider opportunities are events with nationwide or international participation where registered Cadette and Senior Girl Scouts have the chance to travel and learn about different places and people.) They also visited several New Mexico sites of interest and enjoyed some great New Mexican food. Rebecca and John had lots of fun and recommend taking a trip to New Mexico, but they also suggest not to forget your TUMS.

Phil Sager cleaned his office! He comments, "It was a treacherous but thrilling adventure."

Special Collections
Bill Carner was elected to a third term as secretary of the Southern Indiana Draft Horse & Mule Association at the annual holiday dinner in December.

The Photographic Archives received one of the Louisville Historical League's annual awards. The awards go to individuals and institutions "for outstanding achievement in the preservation of community history." Andy Anderson accepted the award on behalf of Special Collections' Photographic Archives. The presentation ceremony took place during the monthly meeting of the League on Sunday, January 18 at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the J.B. Speed Art Museum.

Susi Knoer was the photo editor for one of the Libraries' latest acquisitions: Law At The Falls, by Vince Staten (KFK 1278 .S73 1997). Susi researched photo collections at the Filson Club, the Law Library and Special Collections. Part of her responsibility as photo editor was to obtain permissions to print the photos. This afforded Susi the opportunity to speak with many local judges and lawyers. "Selection and captioning the photos was interesting and rewarding," said Susi.

Emmy Award-winning actress Hattie Winston will visit U of L February 5-7 to donate the scripts of 75 plays and movies. The Hattie Winston Collection of screenplays will be housed in Rare Books, Ekstrom Library. Dedication of the collection will take place Friday, February 6, at 4:30 p.m. in Ekstrom's Ground Floor Lobby. Some of these screenplays will be displayed in the current exhibit. Kitizo Cookies has loaned African batiks and fabrics for the exhibit. (See Exhibits.)

Kersey Library
New Faces
Kersey is proud to announce the hiring of four new students. Wassile Ibrahim comes to us from Kornhauser Library. He is working in Circulation. Sakrai Khaisaeng also comes to us from Kornhauser and is working in the Binding Department. Another one of the new students is Wareerat Thangmanosodsikul (try to pronounce that!!) She comes to us from Thailand. She will be working in the Binding Department. Terry Trowell is not a new student. After a period of several semesters Terry has rejoined "our family" to work with us here at Kersey. We are glad to have him back.

New Orleans
Carol Brinkman attended the ALA Midwinter Meeting in New Orleans earlier this month. While there Carol and her mother enjoyed the sights and sounds of New Orleans! In October of last year Carol was elected Vice-Present/President-Elect of the Kentucky Library Association at the KLA/KSMA Joint Fall Conference. Her first duty is to plan the 1998 Fall Conference to be held October 21-24 in Louisville.

Birthdays
Since The Owl is not published in January, Kersey Library wishes a belated "Happy Birthday" to Phani Vurakarnam who celebrated his birthday in January. We have no February birthdays but, we would like to extend congratulations to all celebrating this month!

Kornhauser Library
The staff of Kornhauser is eagerly awaiting the completion of phase three of our never-ending shift project. We will be shifting periodicals and eventually the monographic collection of the second floor. Work began the week of January 26th.

The flu bug hit Public Services with a vengeance during the week of January 12th. Kudos to all who worked extra shifts to cover the circulation desk throughout that time period.

Kornhauser would like to welcome several new employees. Vladana Kafka- Jusufbegovic has joined Public Services as of Tuesday, January 20. She is a temporary full time employee from University Temporary Services. Vladan was a hospital librarian in Bosnia for 14 years and is familiar with both Technical Services and Public Services work. ILL has recently hired Will Olmstadt, a new student employee, who had previously worked in Kersey Library. Circulation has also recently hired two student employees: Elizabeth Alexander and Carol Kenner. Welcome!

Jane Bottoms has been working many hours each week at the University of Louisville Hospital Library. All Kornhauser faculty have contributed to the coverage of the hospital library's reference desk. Jan has been receiving positive feedback from hospital staff about the increased availability of library services.

Judy Wulff attended an SLA Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. from January 20-22.

Michel Atlas has recently finished her 31st marathon! She completed the New Orleans Marathon on January 17.

Leah Gadzikowski is hoping to find a new home for her dog, Felicia. Felicia is mostly Airedale, approximately one year old, and spayed. She is a big, friendly dog who needs a big yard to run in. She is good with older children and has been around cats. Leah isn't sure how Felicia would react to other dogs or small children. If you'd like to learn more, give Leah a call at x8530.

Law Library
Michael ben Avraham spent five (one rainy, two cloudy, and two sunny, all balmy warm) days in Tampa/St. Petersburg. He enjoyed a walking tour of the St. Pete beach and waterfront, as well as driving/walking tours of Ybor City, Highland Park, Davis Island and other places. He saw lots of gulls and pelicans, and two porpoises. He toured the Dali and Titanic museums, ate plenty of various kinds of Florida/Cuban food, and saw a Cuban movie (Guantanamera). He did not, however, see even one pink flamingo.

Our celebrity of the month is Melissa Long Shuter who won a $50 savings bond for her lay up shot during the Cardinals game with St. Louis. Now we know why so many vendors spell her name as Long Shooter.

Miriam Schusler Williams wants to remind everybody that Aerobics classes are once again available at the SAC. Anyone wanting more information can call Miriam at x0729 or contact the Intramural and Recreational Sports Center at x6707.

University Archives and Records Center
Tom Owen has taken a leave of absence from the University from January through May of this year to campaign for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Louisville. Tom officially kicked off his campaign the weekend of January 16th, with a "Weekend Walk For Louisville." He held a campaign rally in Fort Nelson Park, following his official filing for the race, and hosted a fund raising gathering at Masterson's to greet supporters associated with U of L. He also walked through many parts of the city, including the Highlands, downtown, West Louisville, South Louisville, Butchertown, and Hikes Point, meeting with citizens along the way. For more information on the campaign, see Tom's Web site, http://www.ntr.net/tomowen.

During Tom's leave of absence, Kathie Johnson is working full time in UARC.

Margaret Merrick and her husband Robbie enjoyed a ski trip to Utah during the holiday break. They stayed in Salt Lake City for a week. Although the weather was warmer than they expected, they had some good downhill ski days at Alta and Snowbird resorts as well as cross country skiing at Sundance. They also toured Salt Lake City, heard the Mormon Tabernacle sing, peeked into the Genealogical Library, and took a drive into the Wasatch mountains. One highlight was New Year's Eve at the Snowbird ski resort. When it became dark, skiers and snow boarders skied with lighted torches down the mountain in a torchlight parade. Fireworks ended the evening. Margaret and Robbie enjoyed their first trip to Utah so much, they plan to go back for a hiking and camping trip this summer.