One of the most important purposes of the Yale Library's Preservation Department is
keeping books in the hands of the readers. Despite increasing use of electronic information for
teaching and learning, books and periodicals remain essential for scholars at Yale. And a stroll
through the stacks of Sterling Memorial Library yields ample evidence of the continuing need for
preservation treatment.
This fall marks the third anniversary of the Collection Care Program. Under the direction of a skilled collections conservator, the program is responsible for the maintenance and repair of books and periodicals that circulate to readers. Five conservation technicians in the highly efficient program repair bindings that have become unstable, replace torn spine cloths, and mend torn or detached pages. They make enclosures for newly cataloged pamphlets that cannot be shelved without a binding. They make simple boxes for fragile or broken books that still have value as books in spite of their damaged condition. In all, the program handled over 16,000 volumes last year.
Paul Conway, Head of the Preservation Department, formed the Collection Care Program to establish a balance between the conservation of extraordinarily rare and beautiful books--ably handled for the past twenty-five years by the department's Conservation Program--and the care of books that circulate to readers. The Collection Care Program is filling an important and nearly limitless need in the library. In coming years, the program will expand to encompass the entire library system, and the Collection Care Program may serve to train conservation technicians for work in other libraries on campus.
University Librarian Scott Bennett has set the building of an endowment to support this endeavor as the library's highest programmatic priority for external funding. Alumni and friends have already established named funds for this purpose. The first donors to support the effort were Thomas H. O'Flaherty '56, '60 JD and Ellen J. O'Flaherty '60 MS, '64 PhD. Their generosity was followed by contributions from Anthony T. Dean '67, David Laventhol '57, and John B. Ogilvie '31, '34 MD. Existing preservation funds established by Charles B. Benenson '33, the late Thomas Brush '44, the A-P-A Transport Corporation/Arthur Imperatore, and Jonas Zdanys '72 also help fund Collection Care. Individuals interested in supporting this effort may call Carolyn V. Claflin, Director of Library Development at (203) 432-1818.
Paul L. Conway
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
From fifteen proposals received, a review panel of faculty and library and ITS staff selected the following six for support:
"We are gratified by the thoughtful preparation of all the proposals received," commented Scott Bennett. "We look forward to working with the recipients and to learning with them about how to enhance instruction through integrative use of information service and technology." Additional information is available at: http://www.yale.edu/fis/.
Danuta A. Nitecki
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
Divinity Library staff are collaborating with faculty in one of the six Faculty Support
projects described above. The Ad Hoc Digital Library is a structured, searchable database of
digital images, maps, and texts for use in teaching the history of Christianity. Faculty members
at Yale are encouraged to create course Web sites, yet many are daunted by the tasks of first
identifying or producing digital images and texts appropriate to a particular course, and then
creating a Web site. Through the Ad Hoc Digital Library, faculty members can search for
electronic resources related to individuals, geographical areas, events, time periods, and subjects.
The resulting images, maps, and texts are available for linking from course Web sites and syllabi
and for utilization in class presentations. The searchable digital library
is available to the entire Yale community and non-copyrighted portions of it are available to the general public over the
Web (http://matrix.divinity.yale.edu/adhoclibrary.html).
Another Web site, Ad Hoc--Teaching and Research Resources for the History of Christianity, has been under development at the Divinity School for the past two years; it gave rise to the digital library. The site (http://www.yale.edu/adhoc) has included course Web sites containing links to images and electronic texts, as well as a compilation of Internet links related to the history of Christianity. As the Ad Hoc site grew, the need for an overall structure and searching capability for collected images and texts became apparent: images, maps, and texts gathered for one course might well be useful for another. The searching capability of the Ad Hoc Digital Library will eventually facilitate the identification and use of these images and texts.
The Ad Hoc Digital Library, based on a server in the Divinity Library, has technical features that enhance its use. Texts can be displayed in a book-like graphical format that improves their readability. Images appear with identifying information and can be displayed in a standard size or in their original size. Faculty members can add commentary to images and texts directly from their home or office.
The first course Web site created using images and texts from the Ad Hoc Digital Library is Professor Carlos Eire's Reformation Europe: 1450-1650. This term students in the course are helping to develop commentary on images at the site (http://www.yale.edu/adhoc/teaching_resources/283a97/eirehome.htm).
Martha L. Smalley
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
Not all of the improvements are immediately visible. During the summer of 1997 twenty-four networked docking stations (twelve for Ethernet, twelve for modem connections) were installed in the bases of reading lamps on the west side of the room. These ports will allow those with registered Yale network IDs to access the Yale Campus Network, including all of the library's electronic resources, and the Internet.
In addition, what was once a three-part reference collection dispersed among various rooms on the first floor of Sterling (Reference; Subject Bibliography, shelved in the Linonia & Brothers Room; and Bibliography, near the former Interlibrary Loan office) is now one consolidated collection in the Main Reference Room and its adjoining Annex behind the Circulation Department. Some of the collection's most heavily used titles, for example, periodical indexes and the Oxford English Dictionary, are located in index cases in the center of the room.
A formal dedication will take place in January 1998, at which time the room will be named the Starr Reference Room in honor of the Starr Foundation whose generous support has made these renovations possible.
Emily J. Horning
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
The Manuscripts and Archives Department has made available on the Internet "Using Manuscripts & Archives: A Tutorial," an innovative approach to its traditional fall orientation. The tutorial is designed to teach researchers methods for locating primary source material and to answer frequently asked questions about doing research in Manuscripts and Archives. With initial financial support from the library's Standing Committee on Professional Awareness, Manuscripts and Archives can now offer an online version of the orientation at the readers' convenience.
Employing generic search questions, the tutorial demonstrates how various bibliographic resources such as Orbis and RLIN may be used to identify collections of interest. Readers will also learn how to use specialized tools available only from Manuscripts and Archives. The tutorial is richly illustrated with photographs of the reference center; examples of finding aids and call slips; and images of collection material including a letter from Theodore Roosevelt, a drawing by John Trumbull, a photograph of Acheson and Harry Truman, and a printed petition from the Yale College Bread and Butter Rebellion of 1828.
The tutorial is available at http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/tutorial/index.html.
William R. Massa and Diane E. Kaplan
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
Women's Resources International unites nine databases not previously available in electronic form and contains over 127,000 records, dating from 1972 to the present. The complete database provides information about books, articles, films, and other audiovisual sources covering a wide range of topics related to women. Contemporary Women's Issues contains over 14,000 full-text documents covering health and reproductive rights, economic development, human rights, legal and workplace issues, lesbian concerns, violence, and feminism. The records are drawn from journals, newsletters, directories, guides, fact sheets, pamphlets, and proceedings. The interfaces to the two databases are the same, and both provide an index to search terms.
The Index translationum is the first place to search for contemporary translations of books. This cumulative index of books translated since 1979 and registered by UNESCO continues the print index of the same name. 815,000 books from about 100 countries are currently cited, with emphasis on literary works but including all fields. A cross-referencing feature allows verification of author names.
Another addition is Film Index International, produced by the British Film Institute. This database covers some 90,000 films and 30,000 persons from 1930 to the present. It includes cast lists, summaries, and citations to articles.
Search guides for all of the CD-Rom databases are available beside each workstation. Many databases also provide online help screens.
Marianna McKim
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
The Historical Library of the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library has recently received
from historian of psychiatry George Mora, M.D. a major donation of 200 rare books. These
include numerous works in Italian or by Italians on psychiatry, magic and demonology, and
general medicine. Among the earliest books in the gift are two works of natural history and
magic: Giovanni Camillo Maffei, Scala naturale overo fantasia dolcissima (1600), and
Giambattista della Porta, De I miracoli et maravigliosi effeti dalla natura prodotti (1611).
Seventeenth and eighteenth-century Italian writers represented include Giorgio Baglivi,
Vincenzo Chiarugi, Scipione Maffei, Giambattista Morgagni, Lodovico Antonio Muratori,
Gioseffo Maria Platina, and Antonio Sementini. The donation also contains writings of
nineteenth-century superintendents of mental hospitals and many works of the influential Italian
school of criminal anthropology led by Cesare Lombroso.
Born in Italy, Dr. Mora received his early medical training in Genoa, Zurich, Paris, London, and Boston. His interest in medical history brought him to the Historical Library to use its fine collections. In 1958 he was appointed research associate of the Section of History of Medicine at Yale, and he has maintained a connection with Yale ever since. He has written scores of articles on the history of psychiatry and has edited and written introductions for several translations of key texts in that field. A special interest has been the historiography of his field. Now retired, he is writing a general history of psychiatry from antiquity to the present.
Toby A. Appel
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
The Lewis Walpole Library is an international center for the study of Horace Walpole and other aspects of eighteenth-century life in Britain. It houses the world's largest concentration of material from Walpole's collections. It also features a research collection covering all aspects of British life during the 1700s, as well as the largest collection of British eighteenth-century satirical prints, engraved portraits, and topographical studies outside the British Museum. Most of the materials in the library were collected by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis (1895-1979), editor of the Yale edition of Horace Walpole's correspondence. The library itself was formerly the home of Mr. Lewis, who bequeathed the surrounding property and its collections to Yale in 1979.
Susanne F. Roberts
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
The West has long been fascinated with Africa. This fall, several libraries on campus and in
New Haven exhibited materials documenting Western views of Africa in conjunction with the
Yale University Art Gallery's exhibition Baule: African Art/Western Eyes. The series of
displays, "The Eye of the Beholder," was coordinated by Kelly Nuxoll 98.
Two exhibits in Sterling Memorial Library display some of these Western presentations of Africa. The first, assembled by Fred Musto, Curator of the Map Collection, and Becky Slitt 97, exhibits Western maps of Africa from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. As one can observe in many of the maps, accuracy of information often gave way to popular Western conceptions about Africa: its shape adheres to Ptolemy's second-century world view, its interior is decorated with drawings of imaginary creatures and geography, and detailed diagrams of port cities are juxtaposed with wide gaps of uncharted space. The exhibit explores the themes of trade and exploration, the fantastical, names, and boundaries, as demonstrated in the drawings and cartography displayed on the maps.
Similarly, a postcard display recorded African images captured by a Western lens. An assortment of postcards, selected with the help of Roger Levine 95, GRD 03 and John Bennett in Sterling's African Collection, demonstrated some Western travelers' views and souvenirs of Africa. The exhibit also displayed journals written by Western tourists in Africa around the turn of the century, including a hunting diary by Theodore Roosevelt on loan from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Other displays in "The Eye of the Beholder" series include missionaries' books and drawings at the Divinity School Library, museum catalogs of African art exhibitions at the Art and Architecture Library, and cloths and clothes from West Africa at the New Haven Free Public Library.
Kelly Nuxoll
Nota Bene Vol XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997)
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