Volume XVIII, Number 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

Symposium Celebrates Opening of Woodward Papers

On October 1, the Yale University Library hosted a symposium honoring C. Vann Woodward (1908-1999), the influential historian who revolutionized scholarly study of the history of the American South. Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Yale University, and the library's Manuscripts and Archives Department, the symposium commemorated the opening of the C. Vann Woodward papers in Manuscripts and archives. It focused on Woodward as a subject of biography and his influence as a mentor for other history scholars.

The panelists at the symposium were historians and Woodward's former students, including Barbara J. Fields, professor of history at Columbia University; Sheldon Hackney, professor of United States History at the University of Pennsylvania; and William S. McFeely, Abraham Baldwin Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, at the University of Georgia, and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for his 1981 biography of Grant.

Glenda Gilmore, Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History at Yale, noted that "since scholars will use the collection to understand Vann Woodward as an historian and as a teacher, the symposium speakers include Woodward biographers and students. Because of Woodward's long and illustrious career, his papers will also provide a window on historical practice in the twentieth century, the struggle for black civil rights, and the passing of the first New South. The symposium marks Yale's decades-long commitment to teaching southern history, and it brings home to Yale many of those who learned their craft under Vann Woodward."

Woodward received undergraduate and graduate degrees at Emory and Columbia Universities and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His Origins of the New South: 1877-1913, a volume in the History of the South Series, was published in 1951 and won the prestigious Bancroft Prize. In 1961, Woodward joined the faculty of Yale University as the Sterling Professor of History. In 1974, he headed a panel that produced the Woodward Report, which to this day defines Yale's position on the right to free speech on campus. He retired from Yale in 1977, and in 1982 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Mary Chesnut's Civil War. Woodward died in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1999 at the age of 91.

Christine Weideman
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004) 

France at War: Additions to the War Poster Collection

In the summer of 2004, the library acquired a collection of eighty-five French posters from the First and Second World Wars. These add to Yale's extensive War Poster Collection, which has over 500 French posters from World War I but very few from World War II. The newly acquired posters were collected and kept in the region of Anjou; some of them bear indications of this local context.

Of the twenty-five new World War I posters, ten bring new material from artists such as Victor ProuvE who is already well-represented Yale's collection. The fifty-eight World War II posters significantly expand Yale's holdings beyond the fourteen French posters previously in the collection.

Twenty-eight of the posters are currently on display in the Memorabilia Room in Sterling Library. They represent the principal themes in the new collection. Posters from the Great War era show efforts to raise funds for war, to recruit troops, and to mobilize support for them. Appeals to familial, rural, and community values are common as are reminders of German aggression. The posters from the Second World War document the mobilization and recruitment activities, the fall of France and the establishment of the Vichy state, and themes of Vichy ideology and propaganda. These include the cult of the patriarchal chief of state; a strong emphasis on Family, Work and Patrie; the creation of a "new Europe" and opposition to its enemies: the British and the Americans, the Communists and the Bolsheviks, the Jews and the Free Masons.

As contemporary historians explore the realities of life in occupied France and look beyond the myths towards a more accurate view of the period, these posters offer a rich visual resource for research into the period.

Susanne F. Roberts
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004) 

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First North American Contributor to the Hand Press Book Database

Earlier this year Yale University Library added significantly to the Hand Press Book Database, which contains over one million records for European printing of the hand-press period (c. 1455-1830). The contributed file of over 270,000 records represented Yale's holdings of works printed in Europe and the Americas before 1831. These are works printed in a variety of formats, including books, maps and atlases, pamphlets, music, broadsides, and serials. Libraries and collections from across the university are represented, including the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Lewis Walpole Library (specializing in 18th-century English studies), the Latin American Collection, the Map Collection, the Judaica Collection, the Divinity Library, the Medical Historical Library, and the Center for British Art.

The file contains works from a variety of periods and countries, including over 4,000 incunabula. The collections are strong in English and Continental history and literature - especially German literature - humanism, Americana, music, travel and exploration, theater, art and architecture, and theology.

The records reflect both recent cataloging and records that were retrospectively converted from the library's card catalog. Current material is cataloged using either the Descriptive Cataloging of Rare Books standard or the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition. Records include Library of Congress subject headings; access points for editors, illustrators, and selected printers; bibliographic citations, and notes concerning provenance.

Yale's contribution to the Hand Press Book database achieves two firsts: it is the first contribution from a North American institution, and it is the first contribution to focus primarily on material printed in the Americas before 1831.

Edwin C. Schroeder
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004) 

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The Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collection, available at http://lwlimages.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb, presents images of some of the graphic materials for which the Library is best known. The online collection contains approximately 11,000 British caricatures and satirical prints from the eighteenth century and a growing representation of the prints, drawings, and paintings referring to Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's house outside London on the Thames.

The Lewis Walpole Library embarked on the digitization program in 2001 as a way to increase access to the Library's important collection of visual satires and the extensive card catalog of these materials. The satirical prints were a natural starting point for digitization because of the significance of the collection, the high level of cataloging information already extant, and their extraordinary visual appeal.

The Strawberry Hill prints, drawings, and paintings are of tremendous interest to scholars of Horace Walpole and the gothic revival; the World Monuments Fund's designation of the house as one of the world's 100 most endangered sites has already increased demand for this material. Digitization of these images, many of which are unique, also enhances preservation of the originals by enabling users to browse the surrogates.

The project is fortunate to benefit from the resources of the Beinecke Library's Digital Studio for image capture, Luna Imaging for image processing, and Beinecke-developed software for an image delivery system.

In the Lewis Walpole Library Digital Collection, images are presented online with simple metadata that allow keyword searching by title. The call number searching, when truncated, effectively enables users to browse by year. Full-level catalog records are being created in Orbis, with plans to map the catalog information to an image delivery system in the future. The Digital Collection continues to expand and make the riches of the Library's holdings accessible, unlimited by time or distance.

Susan O. Walker
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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Media Now Circulating

Starting on Friday, October 8, 2004, media such as cd-roms and videotapes from the Sterling Memorial Library (SML) and Cross Campus Library (CCL) collections began to circulate to members of the Yale community for use outside the building. The loan period for media materials is one week for all borrowers. Media that accompany other formats, usually books or journals, have the same loan period as the book or journal. The Social Science Library and Divinity Library are also circulating media materials out of the building according to similar guidelines.

Initially, the media materials already owned by SML and CCL will continue to circulate from the lower-level Closed Reserve room in CCL. Eventually, the materials in Closed Reserve will be shelved side by side with print materials in the SML or CCL stacks or at the Library Shelving Facility (LSF), as will selected cds now located in the CD-ROM Reference Center. New material will go to the appropriate collection and not to Closed Reserve.

Tobin Nellhaus
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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The Library and YaleInfo

The library is using new technologies to provide Yale students, faculty, and staff with access to important online library resources. Three members of the Library Systems Office have formed a library portal team to explore new ways to push information from library systems to portals, web sites, and other resources frequently used by members of the Yale community. They have created three new portal channels that allow users fast access to library information within YaleInfo, the official Yale University portal.

"Orbis Search and Library Links" integrates searching for materials in Orbis (the Yale University Library online catalog) with popular online journals, newspapers, and citation databases.

"Library Books Out" displays up-to-date information on materials a user has checked out, including upcoming due dates, information about fines owed, and notification of requested items that are available.

"Library News" dynamically displays the latest news about events in the library. To access these services, login to the YaleInfo portal at http://portal.yale.edu using your Yale NetID. Click on the 'Library' link at the top of the page to view the library's three channels.

Future development efforts include incorporating Course Reserve information with the Classes course management system. Anyone with a suggestion for including Library information in Yale web sites or portals is invited to contact Karen Reardon, Kalee Sprague, or Roy Lechich in the library Systems Office.

KLS
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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The Getty Grant has awarded the Yale University Library $177,702 for the cataloging and preservation of the Manuscripts and Archives Department's extensive collection of drawings, specifications, photographs, and other materials by Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), considered one of the 20th century's most influential architects.

Since its arrival, the Saarinen collection has become one of the most heavily used collections in Manuscripts and Archives, supporting a number of Yale courses as well as numerous scholarly and engineering research projects.

"The Getty has given us the resources needed to ensure long-term preservation and access to the collection for the many students, architectural historians, preservationists, and architects who are interested in understanding the design approach and techniques that Saarinen pioneered," noted Richard Szary, the Carrie S. Beinecke Director of Manuscripts and Archives.

Saarinen, who immigrated to the United States from Finland in 1923, studied architecture at Yale, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1934 and joining his father's practice. After his father's death in 1950, Saarinen started his own firm. During his short tenure as an independent architect, he designed a remarkable array of prominent buildings, including several which have become cultural as well as architectural icons.

Best known for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) in St. Louis, Saarinen also designed the twa Terminal at Kennedy International Airport in New York City; the Terminal Building at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.; and Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, N.J. He also designed several prominent buildings for Yale, including the wavelike David S. Ingalls hockey rink and the complex that houses Morse and Ezra Stiles colleges.

Russel Shaddox
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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Thanks to a Keggi Internship, Signe Kant from the National Library of Estonia in Tallinn, Estonia, is working with the Slavic and East European Collection at Yale and visiting several major American research institutions. The internship, also known as the Slavic and East European Fellowship, has been funded since 2000 by Kristaps Keggi, M.D., a Yale alumnus and Connecticut orthopedic surgeon whose family has roots in the Baltic region.

Ms. Kant is a senior acquisitions librarian who coordinates exchange efforts between the National Library of Estonia and various partners in the United States and Western Europe. At Yale, Ms. Kant does professional acquisitions work and helps catalog Estonian books in the Slavic and East European Collection, where she will also have the opportunity to meet the scholars and researchers who visit the collection. During her internship, she will also spend time in other library departments to learn how they build and maintain their collections.

The National Library of Estonia has enjoyed a longtime book exchange program with Yale, and Ms. Kant is gratified to see the Yale collection that she has helped build. "We want Estonian books to be abroad, and for foreign libraries to have our best books," she said. Tatjana Lorkovic, curator of the library's Slavic and East European Collection, noted that even during the more intellectually restrictive environment of the Soviet Union, librarians in the United States and Eastern Europe enjoyed open lines of communication.

Ms. Kant will also visit several other major American research libraries, including the Library of Congress, Harvard and Columbia University libraries, and the Slavic and Baltic Division of the New York Public Library.

Russel Shaddox
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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The Yale University Library welcomed students and faculty this fall with a joint exhibit celebrating the joys of reading through a display of favorite books as well as highlights from Yale's extensive collections of primary sources from the library's Manuscripts and Archives Department.

Readers' Welcome to Campus in the nave of Sterling Memorial Library displayed testimonials by Yale faculty, administrators, staff, and students, describing books that have made lasting impressions on them. The exhibit, whose featured books ranged from the Bible to poetry of Wallace Stevens, introduced newcomers to some key figures on campus and in the library, highlighting selections from books of all types and celebrating the universal joy of reading.

For an exhibit in the library's Memorabilia Room, staff members in Manuscripts and Archives had selected some of their favorite collections. On display were letters, postcards, photgraphs, posters, and one-of-a-kind, hand-bound diaries. Highlights included logo and publication work by renowned graphic designer Paul Rand and excerpts from the papers of Stanley Milgram's seminal and controversial 1960s experiments on obedience to authority.

Russel Shaddox
Nota Bene Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2004)

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