Renovated with students in mind, the Central Library earned top marks as a “best study spot” in a recent Vanderbilt Hustler article.

Student input was an essential component in developing future plans for the university’s library system, including Central Library’s major renovation in 2010. That input was reflected in a recent Vanderbilt Hustler article published just before final exams on the best study spots in the campus library system.

Central Library was rated No. 1 for its wide variety of spaces. The fourth, sixth and eighth floors offer large areas for studying, and alcoves tucked under stairwells offer quiet spaces. The new Food for Thought café is also popular, providing a boost of caffeine and sandwiches during study sessions.

“The libraries, particularly Central, are now viewed as destinations for studying, gathering and learning outside the classroom,” Student Body President Adam Myer says. “Every student, regardless of study habits and preferences, is able to find his or her ideal study spot. Whether students want to hide away in the stacks or have a group study in one of the rooms, these spaces assist us in more ways than words can describe.”

The Peabody Library, with its proximity to the first-year residence halls of The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt, is a popular spot for freshman. With open space on the first floor and the reading room in the basement, Peabody works well for studying with large groups or just in teams of two.

The Biomedical and Science and Engineering libraries were cited as great spaces to be productive. The article notes that the Biomedical library provides a good atmosphere to get down to work, while the 24/7 aspect of Science and Engineering appeals to late-night workers.

The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library at the Blair School of Music was noted for being quiet and comfortable. A bit off the beaten track, it offers solitude for students. Access to the library’s extensive CD collection was also noted as a plus.

A senior faculty member in the Divinity School who has spent a lifetime adding to the scholarly record has given his working collection to Vanderbilt University.

Jack M. Sasson, the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible, has donated a large part of his personal library to the Divinity Library. Sasson’s collection reflects more than 50 years of scholarship in Assyriology and Hebrew scripture, as well as his extensive editorial work on a number of scholarly journals and reference tools. Sasson was editor-in-chief of Scribner’s award-winning multivolume Civilizations of the Ancient Near East (1995) and authored commentaries on Ruth and Jonah, the latter for the Anchor Bible. The highly productive scholar is a frequent lecturer at conferences and museums.

Sasson’s collection includes more than 2,600 volumes with titles dating from as early as 1801 and as recently as 2011. Among the volumes are works such as C.H.W. Johns’ An Assyrian Doomsday Book, or Liber Censualis of the District Round Ḫarran, a 1901 publication found in only 15 libraries worldwide. “The collection represents significant resources in the areas of Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East that will be of interest to scholars around the country,” said James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of the Divinity School and Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History. “Vanderbilt scholars will be fortunate to have these materials at close hand.”

Hurst was the first full-time music writer for The Tennessean, the first Nashville contributing editor for Country Music Magazine and originated the country music beats at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Chicago Tribune. In 1981, the Maryville, Tenn., native was the first recipient of the Country Music Association media achievement award. In 2001, he won Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism in the category of lifetime achievement. His twice-weekly country music column was syndicated nationally for more than two decades, and he has written several books on country music.

At Vanderbilt Law School, Larry R. Reeves is now the associate dean and director of the Alyne Queener Massey Law Library and associate dean, law, of the Vanderbilt University Libraries. He was also appointed associate professor of law. Nancy Godleski is the new assistant dean for collections, responsible for coordinating collection development activities for eight campus libraries as well as directing activities for the library’s off-campus storage facility (annex) and interlibrary loan/document delivery service.

Reeves

“Larry Reeves brings an impressive amount of administrative and teaching experience to Vanderbilt,” said Chris Guthrie, dean of the Law School.

“I look forward to the contributions he will make to Vanderbilt’s Massey Law Library and to our J.D. and LL.M. programs.”

Reeves had been the associate director of the George Mason University Law Library in Arlington, Va. He earned his law degree at Temple University, his master’s at Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science and his bachelor’s from the University of Oklahoma.

Before joining George Mason’s law library, he was a reference librarian, coordinator of first-year legal research, and an adjunct associate professor of law at Fordham Law School in New York, where he developed and taught a required first-year course, Basic Legal Research, trained other librarians to teach the course, and taught Advanced Legal Research. He has also served as a reference librarian in the law libraries of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, N.Y. He served on an advisory board for the program in Law Librarianship at the Catholic University School of Library and Information Science.

“We are fortunate to attract leaders like Nancy and Larry, who bring such diverse and successful experience to our already strong leadership team.

I know that they will guide our libraries to new achievements,” Dowell said.

Godleski

Godleski began her library career at Vanderbilt in 1994, spending two years as a history bibliographer and reference librarian. Most recently, she was an account executive with ProQuest Government Information Services (formerly LexisNexis Library Research Solutions). Prior to that, Godleski was the Kaplanoff Librarian for American History and American Studies at the Yale University Library. She holds master’s degrees in library science and history from Indiana University-Bloomington and earned her bachelor’s from Hanover College.

Also, three leaders in the dean’s administrative group have assumed new responsibilities. Jody Combs, formerly assistant dean for information technology, has been promoted to associate dean of libraries. He manages the newly reorganized Library Digital Services group, including the Television News Archive and OAK. Combs is also involved in strategic initiatives.

Bill Hook, formerly assistant dean, is now associate dean. He is the interim director of Central Library and continues as the director of the Divinity Library. Six of the eight libraries in the Heard System—Central, Divinity, Management, Music, Peabody, and Science and Engineering—report through him.

Jean T. Klockenkemper has been named executive director of finance and administration for the libraries. She joined the library as director of financial affairs in 2010, and in her new role she will add oversight of human resources and physical facilities to her areas of responsibility.

Bill Christie, the Frances Hampton Currey Professor of Finance and professor of law, donated printing plates from The Wall Street Journal’s Sept. 12, 2001, edition to Special Collections.

It is amazing that The Wall Street Journal was published the day after 9/11 at all. Its newsroom and corporate headquarters were directly across the street from the devastated World Trade Center, and the newspaper’s staff was evacuated after the first plane crashed into the north tower on Sept. 11, 2001. They were left to improvise reporting on one of this country’s most tragic moments.

Christie

The incredible efforts of those reporters and editors are now part of Vanderbilt Special Collections with William Christie’s donation of printing plates from the Sept. 12, 2001, edition. They were on display at the Central Library during the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.

“These remarkable printing plates give us a firsthand look at how the country came to grips with the terrible tragedy of 9/11. Their value for the library’s Special Collections is significant as historical icons and as records of the related story of news reporting that is a strength of the collections,” said Connie Vinita Dowell, dean of libraries.

A sales representative from The Wall Street Journal gave the plates to Christie, who at the time was dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management. Christie, now the Frances Hampton Currey Professor of Finance and professor of law, had remarked how impressed he was that the Journal’s staff was able to publish the Sept. 12 edition despite great challenges.

“I was thrilled and amazed to see the actual plates that were used to roll the paper off the press. It was phenomenal and I was incredibly honored to receive them,” he said. “As the anniversary of 9/11 approached, I thought they probably could have a much higher value than sitting in my office, so I gave them to Vanderbilt Special Collections.”

Repurposed card catalog

Oudoor patio

Knowledge may be food for the soul, but a person still has to eat. Food for Thought, the new café at the Central Library, allows you to nurture both body and soul.

Located on the south end of the library’s fourth floor, the café was added during last year’s extensive renovation of the 70-year-old building.

Last spring, the Vanderbilt community was invited to submit names for the café. A campuswide survey resulted in more than 1,200 responses. The top three choices went to Richard McCarty, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, for the final decision. “Food for Thought” rose to the top.

The library’s wireless network extends out to the new terrace for outside dining. A key design element in the café is the repurposing of Vanderbilt’s original card catalog as a objet d’art dividing the serving and eating areas.

Leslie R. Boone, MA’76 (left), and Jim Harris, JD’67, the incoming Blair KeyBoard chairman, talk with Library Dean Connie Vinita Dowell at the Music Library’s anniversary party.

The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library at the Blair School of Music celebrated its 25th anniversary on the Vanderbilt campus with an afternoon reception this spring. Nearly 150 attendees enjoyed the event, which marked the rollout of the Blair Performance Archive (BPA).

“The Anne Potter Wilson Music Library has always been at the heart of the Blair School, both in a physical sense—it’s at the very center of our building—and, more importantly, in an intellectual and cultural sense,” Blair Dean Mark Wait said. “It has a superb collection of music in many formats and also reflects the global thrust of music today in its rich array of African and Latin American holdings.  It’s a jewel, a joy to visit and work in.”

Holling Smith-Borne, director of the Music Library, explains that the BPA documents the performance history of Blair. “It’s a digital library that allows the study of performances at Blair,” he said.

The BPA is a searchable database and includes scans of original programs and streaming audio files of the Blair and Peabody recording masters in the library’s archives. The Music Library also produces the Global Music Archive, a streaming audio database with nearly 2,000 recordings available.

Zome winners Ilham Eli and Hana Nasr work on their Eight-Stranded Beta-Barrel during the competition.

The fourth annual Zome Competition is in the books and Vanderbilt’s winner is—the Eight-Stranded Beta-Barrel. Say what? The Zome competition, sponsored by the Science and Engineering Library in conjunction with National Engineers Week, attracted 14 teams of students competing to create and explain a design created from Zometools.

The competition winners were Ilham Eli, who is working toward a bachelor’s degree in cellular and molecular biology, and Hana Nasr, who earned a bachelor’s in neuroscience in May.

Tracy Primich, director of the Science and Engineering Library, brought the competition to Vanderbilt. She wanted the library to be a part of the week’s activities at Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering.

She explains Zometools as elaborate Tinkertoys. “You can build things in a variety of ways with many more angles,” she added. The Zome system utilizes struts and connectors of various shapes to construct objects and is used to help teach algebra, scale, number sense, symmetry, proportion, geometry, DNA structure, trigonometry and more.

The teams used their combined engineering skills to create their design. The rules allowed “machines, molecules, organisms, devices or abstract concepts” as designs. Each team had four hours to build their design with a predetermined number of Zome sticks and connectors and deliver a written explanation for their creation. Entries were judged on creativity, originality, usefulness, and non-obviousness of the design created.

Library supporters celebrated the opening of the Central Library’s $6 million renovation at a May reception. (Left) Former Board of Trust Chairman Martha Rivers Ingram talks with Brigette and Dick Porter, BA’54, MA’58, professor, emeritus, of Slavic languages and literatures. (Right) State Historian Walter T. Durham, BA’48, MA’56, Provost Richard McCarty and Emeritus Board of Trust member Ridley Wills II, BA’56, enjoy a chat.

The recent $6 million renovation to Vanderbilt’s Central Library includes a new gallery (above) linking the original 1941 building and the Flowers Wing. Students flock to the new sunlit, open study space on the eighth floor (bottom left), while the refurbished fourth-floor lobby (bottom right) welcomes visitors to the new Sixties at 50 exhibit. The projection of words (cover and top), which changes from a Vanderbilt V to an oak leaf to the star when walked through, represents real-time searches of the library’s electronic catalogs.

Student works illustrated the concept of “what is a library?” in a photography class project, using the Peabody Library as the setting.

The resulting work, exhibited last spring in the Peabody Library, examined how students use and respond to library spaces, resources and each other. Pavlovic said while the students were developing their pieces they were also considering where they would be installed in the library.

“We were interested in analyzing the culture of the student group and ways of ‘using’ this material as well as the space,” she said, adding that she may create a library project each year to build an archive of images. “If each time we can address a different library on campus, over the years, this can become an interesting creative documentation of our campus.”

Student Ashley Carter played off Belgian surrealist René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) with a pair of photographs: “This is not a library” and “Neither is this (Still not a book).”

“This project changed my perception of a library,” Carter said. “I originally came in with the assumption that the library was solely a place of learning. However, after this project, I started walking into the library aware of very different aspects—the social, the mystery, the comfort and its unique aesthetic.”

This photo shows two WSM reporters working from a boat to cover the flood of 1937. That year, after a month of steady rain, sleet and snow, the Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi rivers overflowed their banks in Tennessee and 11 other states. The water took weeks to subside, and as a result of the disaster, Kentucky Dam and Lake were built as flood control measures.

A recent library survey showed that noise was a topic that needed further exploration—students were unsure where they could make noise and where they needed to be quiet. Ziegler, chair of the art department was asked if art might attract attention to the issue as a starting point for discussion. The exhibit was born.

The class toured five libraries on campus with librarians talking about the space when problems about noise arose before starting.

“This worked really well. The theme allowed the projects to hang together,” Ziegler said. “It’s a way to approach what can be a tense subject in a more playful way which also allows us to explore the issue.”

Notable projects included an installation at Blair, where a student hung clapperless bells in the trees. “I thought this was right on in terms of the project— playing with the concepts of silence and sound,” Ziegler said. “You were expecting the sound but not hearing it.”

A Peabody library project featured pipes that ran from the basement to the top floor with megaphones placed along the pipes. “You could hear someone three stories away,” Ziegler said. “It was a play on how the different layers of the library are connected.” Other projects featured ears hanging in the reading rooms and ear plugs adorned with faces.

Dean Connie Vinita Dowell awards a prize during the library’s first Student Library Worker Appreciation Day.

The nearly 170 student library employees who work at the nine libraries on campus were thanked by Dean Connie Vinita Dowell and leaders from undergraduate and graduate student government. Each student worker received a certificate of appreciation and a small gift. A lobby photo display honored the students’ efforts.

“It was a fun, festive event,” library worker and Divinity student Eric Burton-Krieger said. “There was a lot of staff there, so the students felt appreciated and recognized.”

Burton-Krieger, who has worked in the government information and media services section for more than two years, says the library job meshes well with his studies. “I work a lot of evening and weekend hours, and they’re flexible when a big project is due.”

The idea for the appreciation event bubbled up through the many focus groups initiated by the dean over the last year. “The libraries would not run without our student workers,” Dowell said. “They are key players on our team, and it’s important to me that they be recognized.”

Students were honored with bookplates (left) and an afternoon celebration with library employees (from left in right photo) Merry Balthrop, Larry Romans, Lori Murphy, Graduate Student Council President Jonathan Wellons and Dean Dowell.

“VURJ gives undergraduate students an opportunity to showcase the results of their research.” says Jody Combs, the library’s assistant dean for information technology. The library provides hosting, initial training and technical support to the journal.

VURJ was among the first comprehensive digital journals in the nation devoted to undergraduate scholarship.

The annual journal welcomes submissions from any undergraduate student or collaborative team. More information can be found at www.vurj.vanderbilt.edu.

“To me, education is a means to develop and express ideas,” he said. “We are glad that our donated materials are playing a role in the important area of music education at Vanderbilt.”

Eugène Atget. The wine seller 15 Rue Boyer, 1910-1911. Gelatin silver print.

W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies. The most notable loan is Pia’s copy of Nadja by Andre Breton, signed by the author, widely considered as the most important novel of the Surrealism movement.

Eugène Atget. Rue du Figuier, 1924. Albumen print, 9 in. x 7 in.

The New York curator of the exhibition, art historian Therese Lichtenstein, included the Pia collection works among items from important private and museum collections. The exhibition was at the International Center of Photography in New York City through May and then traveled to the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, Ga., from June through September.

More than 120 photographs by the artists Man Ray, Eugène Atget, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí and Brassaï and others make up the exhibition’s featured works, supported by select films, books, journals and period ephemera by Surrealist photographers, filmmakers and writers during the 1920s and 1930s.

Pascal Pia was a literary critic, poet, and editor who occupied a prominent place in 20th century French literary and intellectual circles. His collection of more than 20,000 volumes was acquired by Vanderbilt in 1981 and includes many historically significant writings about Surrealism.

“Reading Hebrew poetry with him was like the slow taking apart of
a Russian doll—layer after layer of meaning coming into view.”

Flo Wilson has left her mark on the Vanderbilt libraries.

Wilson is widely regarded as a model librarian, best known for her thoughtfulness and thoroughness and looking at all sides of an issue when making decisions.

“Flo is one of the most outstanding librarians that I have ever had an opportunity to know. Words are not adequate to describe her contributions to both our university and our profession,” Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell said. “She will be missed terribly by everyone in the Vanderbilt libraries and the many people who have come to know her across the campus.”

Wilson came to Vanderbilt in 1984 as assistant director of the library for automated systems. During her early years at the library she led the implementation of the first automation system and has been involved in every subsequent major automation effort. In her associate dean responsibilities, she has worked variously with the library’s technical services and with each of the libraries to ensure high quality services. During her tenure she has also served as acting director of several of the libraries including the Music Library, Peabody Library (where she oversaw major remodeling) and the Science Library, and served as acting director and director of the Management Library.

“She has an in-depth command of the overall library budget and brought her wisdom to bear on every major decision during my administration,” retired University Librarian Paul Gherman said. “Her thoughtfulness and counsel were invaluable to me.”

Following Gherman’s retirement in 2007, Wilson was named interim university librarian and co-chaired the search committee that brought Dowell to Vanderbilt.

Wilson says that her first position at Vanderbilt, bringing technology into the system, afforded her the opportunity to know every person in the library. “The ever-changing nature of my position and the excellent staff have kept me engaged and provided me with fresh perspectives on an ongoing basis,” she says. “It’s been a privilege to work here with all of these talented people.”

Wilson and her husband, also recently retired from Vanderbilt, are building a retirement home in Monteagle, Tenn.

Dean of Libraries Connie V. Dowell and her husband, Stephen Miller, hosted the San Diego alumni chapter at their home there in May. Chapter President Ted Wilson (BA’81) and Cecelia Tichi, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English, welcomed the crowd and introduced the newly appointed dean.

The Metro New York Vanderbilt Alumni Chapter hosted a reception in July at New York City’s Grolier Club. Guests enjoyed hearing from Dean Connie V. Dowell and touring the Grolier Club New Member Exhibit that included some of Dean Dowell’s rare books. Pictured are current parent Dr. Florence Milch, Harry Lewis (JD’77), Dean Dowell (MLS’79), Martin Valk (BA’85) and Chapter President Kendall Morrison (BA’04).

Joanne Fleming Hayes opens a carton of the Barry Moser collection at the box opening party hosted by Dean Dowell and Provost Richard McCarty. Funds from the Sam M. Fleming Southern Civilization Collection, a gift from Hayes’ father, were used to make the Moser purchase.

]]> http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/2010/01/library-events/feed/ 0 http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/2010/01/workman/ http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/2010/01/workman/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:10:14 +0000 admin http://www.vanderbilt.edu/magazines/acorn-chronicle/?p=183 Gail Ridgway Workman of Old Hickory, a much beloved library personnel officer for nearly three decades, passed away October 5. Mrs. Workman, who was 72, worked at the library from 1971 to 1999. “For 28 years, Gail Workman served the library through her work as personnel officer,” said Associate Dean Flo Wilson. “She knew everyone who worked in the library, back to when it was still the Joint University Library. Beyond that official role, she touched so many of our lives through her humor, enthusiasm, grace and thoughtful deeds.”

When Mrs. Workman retired in 1999, more than 130 library colleagues and friends joined her and her family at a celebration in her honor. University librarian Paul Gherman and former university librarians Malcolm Getz and Frank Grisham spoke about her outstanding service and wished her happiness during her retirement.

Workman is survived by her husband of 36 years, Wallace Workman; daughter, Beth Farmer; and numerous nephews, nieces and friends. Several library colleagues have made donations to the staff development library fund in her memory.

The flower images “Chrysanthemums” and “Iris Pseudacorus” by Barry Moser are from 50 Woodcut Engravings published in 1978 by Pennyroyal Press.

The partnership was announced July 15 at the annual meeting of Blackboard’s user and developer communities, in Washington, D.C.

iTunes U is an application that allows faculty and students to access specific audio, video and other multimedia presentations. The content can be downloaded to personal computers and iPhones, iPods and MP3 players.

“We found that an increasing number of faculty members wanted to use multimedia in their classes—everything from capturing lectures to developing and sharing multimedia presentations for students,” said Cindy Franco, manager of OAK (Online Access to Knowledge), Vanderbilt’s technology-related learning tools. “We looked at a number of solutions but they all had limitations. Working with iTunes U gave us an efficient way to share content within our existing system and to tie it to our courses so faculty and students can use it easily.”

Vanderbilt’s iTunes U presence can be accessed at http://itunesu.vanderbilt.edu or through the iTunes Music Store.

About 2,300 people completed the survey, with graduate students making up nearly a third of the respondents. The survey, used at libraries across the country, was also given in 2002 and 2006.

Early analysis of the results showed that the library’s customer service rated well. The library improved its ratings with expanded business hours and better electronic access to its holdings. The results also show that the libraries’ facilities are a concern to users, especially in the “comfortable and inviting location” category. Some improvements were noted due to completed renovation projects in the Divinity, Peabody, Management, and Science and Engineering libraries.

“These survey results are an important first step in planning a destination library,” Dean Connie V. Dowell said. “We know our students and faculty are looking for comfortable, inviting places to meet and study and that’s important to us, too. We’re committed to meeting the fast-changing needs and demands of our students and faculty and look forward to the next steps in our planning process.”

When Vanderbilt won the Music City Bowl on New Year’s Eve last year, it marked the university’s first bowl victory in 53 years. Special Collections yielded this photo from the Commodores’ 1955 Gator Bowl win over Auburn, showing Vanderbilt scoring a touchdown en route to its 25-13 victory. Special Collections is home to the university’s impressive collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs and memorabilia. The Photographic Archives has nearly 300,000 images dating back to Vanderbilt’s founding in 1875.

Flo Wilson, interim university librarian, served as the master of ceremonies and introduced Connie Vinita Dowell, the new dean of libraries at Vanderbilt University.

Librarian Yvonne Boyer (right) visits with Cindy Bandy O’Brien and her husband, Larry Harris, at the 40th anniversary celebration of the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies. O’Brien is W.T. Bandy’s daughter.

Another highlight of the November 18 celebration was the reading of one of Baudelaire’s poems, “Enivrez-vous (Be Drunk)”, by Vanderbilt graduate students Lucas Faugere and Daniel Ridge. Faugere recited the poem in French followed by Ridge’s translation in English.

Tracy Sharpley-Whiting, professor of French and director of the W.T. Bandy Center, closed the formal part of the program with a toast to Baudelaire and Dr. Bandy.

Cindy Bandy O’Brien and her husband, Larry Harris, traveled from their West Virginia home to attend the celebration in honor of the center named for her late father. After the program, O’Brien played her dulcimer as background music for the party and also visited with a number of former graduate students who had been mentored by her father.

Nashville native and astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard was known as one of the greatest observational astronomers of the 19th century. He was one of the first academic superstars to emerge from Vanderbilt, and is the only person to ever receive an honorary academic degree from Vanderbilt. In 1892, he used this 36-inch telescope at the Lick Observatory in California to discover Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter. He was the first to discover a new moon of Jupiter since Galileo discovered the first four in 1610.

An online exhibit titled “Edward Emerson Barnard: Star Gazer,” features photographs, letters, publications and ephemera from the Edward Emerson Barnard Papers manuscript collection. Barnard, who was born into extreme poverty before the Civil War, rose to prominence as an astronomer and was known as the world’s greatest observer of his time. Barnard began his career at the Vanderbilt observatory in 1883 before moving on to larger observatories at the University of California and the University of Chicago. Special Collections developed the exhibit, which can be accessed at http://snipurl.com/barnard.