News from the Yale Library News from the Yale Library
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library recently acquired an extraordinary collection of 138 sixteenth-century books reflecting the status and role of women in European society. The collection was formed by Axel Erdmann, director of the antiquarian book firm Gilhofer & Ranschburg in Luzern, Switzerland. The books were about to be offered for sale individually when the collection was purchased in its entirety by the Beinecke Library.
In the sixteenth century the status of women began to change as writers began to challenge the Christian and Aristotelian views which identified women with sin and imperfection. These debates and their results were reflected in the contemporary printed record. While women in general were still relegated to silence and subservience, a few books by women were published. Many more books were written by men for and about women.
Most of the books by women published between 1500 and 1600 are devotional works such as prayers and meditations. When women ventured into the realm of belles-lettres, the genre was often poetry. Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), for example, chose the Petrarchan sonnet to mourn her husband, who died in battle in 1525. Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), on the other hand, wrote stories advocating better education for women. Her L'Heptameron des nouvelles is one of the first books to treat the social realities of the sixteenth century as they impinged on the lives of women. Altogether, the writings of more than forty sixteenth-century women are represented in the Erdmann collection.
The collection includes one book illustrated by a woman. Antonio Agustín's commentary on coins, Dialoghi alle madaglie inscrittioni (Rome 1592), contains woodcuts attributed to Geronima Parasole, one of the most famous lace designers of the sixteenth century.
Other books in the Erdmann collection were written by men, for or about women. These cover a broad range of topics, from medicine to marriage, from prostitution and adultery to etiquette. The collection includes several biographical dictionaries of notable women. The French doctor François Rousset writes on Caesarean section (1581), while the Italian doctor Giovanni Marinello provides recipes for cosmetics and weight-loss plans (1574). Witchcraft, weddings, love, education, pastimes, and misogyny are all represented in the collection. Erasmus offers views on women's education (1529), Torquato Tasso comes out in favor of marriage (1593), Pope Pius V decrees that all women religious should be cloistered (1569), while Martin Luther justifies his having arranged the escape of nine nuns (among them his future wife) from the convent of Nimbschen in Saxony (1523).
The collection has been fully described in an illustrated catalog by Axel Erdmann. In addition to detailed information about the 138 books present in the collection, the printed catalog contains exhaustive bibliographies that cover the field of sixteenth-century books for, by, and about women.
Selected books from the collection will be on display at the Beinecke Library through June. The exhibition opened with a lecture by Professor Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). Her talk was entitled "My Gracious Silence," an allusion to Coriolanus's greeting to his wife Virgilia in Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
Christa A. Sammons
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
Eight months after construction began on an empty lot in Hamden, the new Library Shelving Facility was completed and its operations began on November 30, 1998. Four months later, over 70,000 items have been cleaned, accessioned, and housed there; approximately 1,000 items have been retrieved for use by readers on campus. The facility is designed to shelve less frequently used research materials in environmental conditions ideal for long-term preservation and security of the collection. Its high-efficiency operations maintain and access these materials at costs lower than operating a full-service library on campus.
The LSF comprises two areas. A 13,800 square foot shelving module is the first of several expected to be built over the coming years. State-of-the-art technology provides a constant 50 degree Farenheit, 30% relative humidity, and dust-free atmosphere, designed to prolong the life of print materials by over 250 years. This module can house approximately 2.1 million volume equivalents on 30 foot high shelving arranged in six aisles. In the 8,000 square foot processing area staff clean entering materials, sort them by size, enter their identifying barcodes into an automated inventory system, and arrange them in trays for shelving.
Using procedures modeled after those at the Harvard Library Depository, the newly hired staff has rapidly and accurately transferred library materials that had to be moved because of construction projects at the Beinecke, Arts, and Divinity Libraries. Transfers to LSF include approximately 27,000 boxes of archives and manuscript materials and 12,500 video testimonies from the SML-Beinecke Annex; 16,315 books and 1,650 boxes of archives from the Divinity Library; and 1,600 archival boxes from the Music Library.
By early summer, selection and transfer of materials to the LSF from the overcrowded stacks in the Sterling Memorial Library will begin (see related article below). Already crowded before the renovation, SML lost the equivalent of nearly one floor of shelving space to air conditioning ductwork.
Access to materials shelved at the LSF is simple and convenient for readers. Every item has an adequate catalog record in Yale's online catalog and bears a location code including "LSF". Yale faculty, students, staff, and other authorized researchers may request LSF items using Eli Express forms at any circulation desk or an online form at: http://www.library.yale.edu/circ/eliexprs.htm. Requested items are retrieved twice daily and will be delivered to a library campus location for pick-up within one working day.
Details about selection policies for transfers to the LSF, retrieval services, and the building's construction can be found at: http://www.library.yale.edu/Administration/Shelving/ocs.html.
For more information about the services and operations of the LSF, please contact Danuta Nitecki, Associate University Librarian [danuta.nitecki@yale.edu or 432-1818].
Danuta A. Nitecki
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
Selection of the materials for the Library Shelving Facility in Hamden is a collaborative, consultative effort between subject librarians and their interested constituents. Over the past academic year, Yale's subject librarians and curators have sought advice from faculty members through meetings with their departments, programs, or councils. Some departments have set up advisory committees to work with librarians; others have suggested materials to be moved or approved librarians' recommendations.
Materials proposed for housing in the LSF vary by discipline, but certain criteria are common to many. Candidates for LSF must have Orbis records; serials can only be considered for LSF if Orbis contains information about their holdings. Other criteria include age, condition, use, and currency. Likely to be sent, for example, are works published before 1850 or 1900, little-used local and regional serials, official foreign government publications, superseded reference materials, periodical indexes available electronically, outdated surveys and editions, and books whose fragile condition will benefit from an improved environment.
Use as a criterion is based on circulation records in the Orbis database, which go back nearly twenty years. The Library Systems Office is generating reports by subject for all books which have Orbis records but which have not circulated. These reports form the basis for more refined selection using criteria developed in consultation with faculty and departments.
When the selection procedures are fully developed, the libraries will be sending about 250,000 volumes per year to the LSF. With an annual acquisitions rate of about 160,000 volumes per year, it may be two or three years before there is adequate room in stack areas. Eventually, a steady state growth will be achieved in which the outflow to LSF generally matches the intake of materials into the library system.
For specific information about their disciplines, faculty should contact their liaison librarian. A list of contacts, published in the Fall issue of Nota Bene, is provided at: http://www.library.yale.edu/NotaBene/selector.htm. For concerns about overall selection policy, please contact Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian/Collections Development (ann.okerson@yale.edu).
Susanne F. Roberts
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
The first step in preparing for the move was to consult with the Divinity School and Department of Religious Studies faculties about what material should define the "core" of the Divinity Library's working collection. The next step was to identify which materials would be moved to the Mudd Library and which to the Library Shelving Facility (LSF).
Materials that receive relatively low use, but that benefit from being browsable, will be housed in the Mudd Library in call-number order. In November 1998 an initial group of 26,000 volumes was transferred to Mudd. These included periodicals and other serial volumes best characterized as "primary research material" -- for example, annual reports of missionary agencies, missions-related periodicals, denominational periodicals no longer actively published, and the like. Mudd will also be the future home for lesser-used titles in a superseded classification system. The material transferred to Mudd will be in proximity to Yale's historic collections on religion that were transferred to Mudd from Sterling Memorial Library in 1982. Having those two collections housed in the same building will facilitate research, as the two collections have similar patterns of use.
Candidates for transfer to the LSF include several collections that are currently not browsable, as well as lesser-used volumes from the LC collection. In addition to lesser-used monographic microfilms, pamphlets, and a collection of unclassified monographs, most of Divinity's non-circulating special collections will be relocated. The first volumes were sent to the LSF on February 15, 1999.
Thus, even before the first shovel-full of dirt is turned or first brick is laid, the moves now under way mark the beginning of the renovation of the Yale Divinity Library.
Paul F. Stuehrenberg
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
These authority records are one of the chief pillars of the intellectual integrity and utility of the catalog. Previously, our authority records numbered only about 400,000 and were not systematically kept up to date. The new authority records were loaded into Orbis in late March. All new cataloging will benefit from these records. By the end of August, the library will have completed the steps necessary to apply the new authority records to all previously created online bibliographic records -- the catalog records that readers actually consult when they use the library.
These two signal events enable the library to start the 1999-2000 academic year with the intellectual integrity of the online catalog much strengthened and with at least 60% of the library's collections represented in it. Librarians expect that the conversion of all remaining card catalog records using roman script will be done in 2002, with the final quality control work being done in 2003. They hope to complete the conversion of records using non-roman scripts in 2004.
Bennett recognized the excellent work and leadership of Joan Swanekamp, Martha Conway, and Fred Martz, and their colleagues in the Catalog Department, the Catalog Maintenance Unit, and the Library Systems Office respectively. He also thanked the Advisory Committee on Library Policy for their strong advocacy on behalf of the conversion project, and Alison Richard and Lloyd Suttle for their early and unwavering support of this effort.
Scott Bennett
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
Digital services are fundamental to the design of Yale's new Arts Library. Currently in the planning stages, the Arts Library expects to migrate its image-based services from analog to digital formats over the coming decade. To demonstrate the viability of digital services to the arts, the library will create in the next three years a database of about 25,000 digital images to support teaching, learning, and research in American Studies. Called "Imaging America," this project will prepare for the creation over the next decade of a comprehensive database of ca. 250,000 images to replace the University's existing slide and photograph collection. The database will embrace the following media: architecture, painting, sculpture, the decorative arts, vernacular imagery, and material and visual culture.
A major goal of Imaging America is exploring the potential of digital technologies to enhance teaching and scholarship in art history and related disciplines. The benefits should be evident in course preparation, classroom presentations, and individual study sessions. The image database and software will provide faculty and students with a body of available images, a set of teaching and learning tools, and a degree of spontaneity in designing and executing courses, assignments, and review sessions which picture studies and traditional slide technology cannot begin to rival. Above all, Imaging America will foster pedagogical innovation previously constrained by the limitations of technology.
These aims will be accomplished through collaboration with selected museums, historical societies, and industry partners. The Imaging America database will be heterogeneous. Some objects will come from Yale's own library and museum collections and those of partner institutions; others will be licensed from institutions and consortia or acquired through digital image exchange services; and some will be in the public domain or will be employed under the educational fair use provisions of existing copyright legislation.
The creation and use of this database will force rigorous attention to copyright matters. A basic goal of Imaging America is to develop a new copyright matrix that will facilitate teaching and learning with digital images.
Imaging America embodies an active collaboration between Yale University Library and several other units of the University including the Americana collection of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. For further information, please contact Arts Library Director Max Marmor at max.marmor@yale.edu or 432-2641. Visit the project web site at http://www.library.yale.edu/art/Imaging_America.html.
Max Marmor
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
Deborah Rose's 1994 gift enabled the library to purchase a dedicated server on which to mount its Web sites. Building on Ms. Rose's gift, the library provides a wealth of information on library collections and services through the Web. A portion of her 1994 gift was also used for the matching requirement of a foundation gift made in support of the library's flourishing Electronic Text Center.
With her second gift in 1997, Ms. Rose once again supported an initiative that will transform the way researchers gain access to and manipulate electronic information. This gift -- made together with her father, Frederick P. Rose '44 -- responds to the ever-increasing availability of journals in electronic form and researchers' corresponding demand for this information. Installation of the twelve new high-performance workstations with large monitors to make on-screen reading easier was undertaken as part of the renovation of the Franke Periodical Reading Room this past year.
The library gratefully acknowledges the support of Deborah Rose for our efforts to improve service to all readers through the application of technology.
Carolyn V. Claflin
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
The Yale University Library now provides access to approximately 2,600 electronic journals and more than 175 bibliographic databases. This is a significant and growing aspect of library collections, and librarians are interested in observing patterns in use of these digital resources. Measures of use for networked resources may never be completely comparable either with each other or with usage statistics for print collections. Nevertheless, a few strong trends are emerging which indicate that the Yale University community is eagerly embracing new digital materials.
JSTOR is a collection of almost one hundred journals made available digitally back to their first volumes. Over 2 million pages are currently accessible. JSTOR provides use statistics since 1997. In that year, Yale users viewed almost 5,000 articles in JSTOR; in 1998, they looked at over 13,750 articles. Slightly over a quarter of the way through 1999, they have consulted over 7,500 articles.
Not only is the Yale community's use of this resource expanding exponentially, but also its use is heavy compared to other large research institutions. Other sites have viewed an average of 13,666 JSTOR articles since 1997 compared with Yale's total of 26,432, nearly double the average usage for peer institutions.
Another window on the Yale community's use of electronic resources is the use made of Eureka, which contains both the shared bibliographic catalogs of numerous research libraries and article indexes such as Anthropological Literature and the History of Science and Technology. In 1996, the Yale community conducted almost 11,000 searches of the Eureka system; in 1997, they made 49,000 searches, and in 1998 just over 57,800. One quarter of the way through 1999, more than 16,000 searches have been done, continuing the trend toward growing numbers of searches each year.
Some of the usage increase of any of our electronic materials can be attributed to a growing number of databases, journals, and articles available in any given resource. Still, the Yale community is finding and using ever increasing numbers of electronic resources.
Kimberly J. Parker
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
Suzanne K. Lorimer
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
The Collections Care Program in Sterling Memorial Library's Preservation Department completed a four-month stacks cleaning pilot project in February 1999. During that time, three staff members cleaned 174,040 octavo books and 3,298 folio shelves. They vacuumed and wiped the books and vacuumed and scrubbed the shelves. Over three pounds of dust were removed from the stacks.
With the exception of some folio cases in the fourth floor wing, all the folios in the stacks were cleaned. Most of the seventh floor mezzanine was cleaned as were the shelving area for Maps on the fourth floor and the Slavic Reading Room; these areas had suffered greatly from the renovation efforts.
This pilot project verified the feasibility of the cleaning method and accuracy of the initially estimated cleaning rate. It also explored and resolved ergonomic, health, and safety issues, and it confirmed initial cost projections. Using these results, Collections Care Librarian Erika Heinen is designing a large-scale project that will complete the task of cleaning all the circulating collections in the Sterling stacks.
Erika Heinen
Nota Bene Vol XIII, No. 2 (Spring 1999)
[ Nota Bene XIII Menu | Nota Bene Home Page ]
Copyright © 1999 Yale University Library
Last Revision: January 17, 2003