January 2005

Volume 34
Back Issues: Past Library Links Articles

In this Issue

New Library Employees

Graziano Krätli

Sterling Memorial Library / Collection Development
International and Collections Program Support Librarian
I began work on December 1, 2004 I am from Italy, and attended Academy of Fine Arts, Turin (Italy) and Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois. I enjoy mountain hiking and the outdoors in general

Paula Zyats
Preservation
Assistant Chief Conservator
1/2/2005

Nisa Bakkalbasi
Kline Science Library
General Science Librarian
1/3/2005

Transfers

Christopher Zollo
Arts Library
Library Service Assistant
1/3/2005

Jennifer Nolte
ILTS
C&IS Support Specialist
1/3/2005

Ivaylo Stefanov
Medical Library
Library Service Assistant
1/9/2005

Departing Staff

Neil Malangone
LSF
Library Service Assistant
1/7/2005

Stephen Parks
Beinecke Library
Curator of the Osborn Collection
12/31/2004

Rosemary Jones
Library Human Resources
Administrative Assistant
12/22/2004

2005 SCOPA Grant Recipients
SCOPA is pleased to announce the following Professional Development Grants awarded for 2005:

"Scanning Arabic Manuscripts and Modern Texts: Today and Beyond"
Elizabeth Beaudin

"Reference Service Statistics Pilot"
Reference Services Group, Service Quality Improvement Council.
Suzanne Lorimer, Chair
Katie Bauer
Lori Bronars
Charlie Greenberg
Suzanne Lovejoy
Scott Matheson
Sandy Peterson
Martha Smalley

"Providing Digital Access to the Doctor of Forestry Dissertations"
Carla Heister and Raman Prasad

Congratulations to the 2005 Grant Recipients!

Huei-Ju (Polly) Chang
Outgoing Chair, SCOPA Grants Subcommittee

Event Highlights

Holiday Raffle
Diana Quinones would like to thank all Yale Library staff, their families and friends for making last month's Holiday Party a great success. She would also like to thank everyone who contributed to helping those less fortunate by purchasing raffle tickets and/or donating gifts for the charity raffle. This year's raffle raised $1738 - all of which will go to the Columbus House. (www.columbushouse.org/).

A list of the raffle winners from the Holiday Party is now available at: http://www.library.yale.edu/lisa/raffle_04prizes.html

1 Water Buffalo $250.00
1 Goat 120.00
2 Flocks of Hope 120.00
2 Tree Seedlings 120.00
1 Trio of Rabbits 60.00
Where most needed 30.00

Last year, we contributed a Knitting Basket (2 llamas and 2 sheep), some honeybees, and had a few dollars to go to the general fund (where most needed).

This is the 2nd year we collected for Heifer International http://www.heifer.org/. A good organzation that tries to build sustainability. Judy Spak coordinated the donations.

Thanks, again, for opening your hearts and checkbooks for this worthy cause.

~ Judy Spak & Kenny Marone

Long Service Awardees

Staff Members in Focus

Amanda Patrick

Submitted by Claire Halloran

When a person has a strong feeling about someone or something, they may try to describe the passion by saying, "It's bigger than both of us." It implies a forceful directive, a journey beyond expectation.

Amanda Patrick, of Sterling Memorial Library's Access Services, was a very young girl when the Ethiopian famine in Africa caught her attention. Even then, she wanted to go there and offer help.

At the present time she has worked and lived in Africa for five years. She has a passion for Africa. Darfur and Sudan give her a deep feeling of burden.

Amanda was eighteen when she made her first trip to Africa. She flew from her native England to Kenya and met up with a team of volunteer workers from Germany. She spoke no German and only a little Swahili. She was in a remote area of Kenya where tea was the principal crop.

She lived in a mud hut. After about eleven days of sleeping on the floor of the hut, and
having sensed a bit of movement under the mat she slept on, she found out that she was sleeping on a snake's nest.

Along with the indigenous people, she ate a corn meal mixture called Ugali, three times a day. It fills you up, but is a tasteless, glutinous food. Being accustomed to English fare, this was something eye opening to the teenager.

Even though it was an isolating experience, she knew that serving in Africa was the meaningful work she sought. After this three-month stay, Amanda went back to England. Hoping to be able to serve better by obtaining an education, she entered Leeds University for three years for her bachelor's degree. Following that she completed graduate work at Cambridge University.

Finding her education theoretical, but not practical, she found a teaching position in East London. This is an area of London that was destroyed by bombs from the Blitz of World War II. As soon as peace was restored, tenement buildings were erected to provide "temporary" housing to displaced Londoners. They were never upgraded, and the area slid into urban poverty with its attendant problems including illegal drugs. Amanda taught Theology to high school children (ages 11-18 years) who lived in these disadvantaged, harsh conditions.

While she was in London, a ship called the Anastasis (which is a Greek word meaning, "Resurrection"), came into port. It is part of the organization called Mercy Ships.
The Anastasis is the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship. Amanda applied and obtained a position with Mercy Ships. Her five-year position with the organization was totally non-salaried. Everything donated to Mercy Ships goes directly to helping people. For example, Mercy Ships may be given a load of lumber. They would bring the lumber right to the site where it would be used. Mercy Ships is a Christian based organization that addresses both the spiritual and physical needs of people.

During her five years aboard the Anastasis, Amanda sailed to many African countries.
She has been to over 60 countries in total, about half of these within the African continent. They would stay from three to six months in a port city where Amanda would lead community development teams into villages. There they helped the villagers carry water, assist in daily work, cook over their fires and together, eat the same food.

Amanda was the Director of the International Training School on the ship. She had a staff of 15 people and they would teach 50 students during each quarter of the year. There was a lecture phase, to learn about the culture and various aspects of community development, health issues, cross-cultural communication, etc. Then they would go out to the villages to help, using the information they had learned about the culture and the people's needs. It would be a 9:00-5:00 day. The lectures were in the morning, given by experts who were flown in from all parts of the world. The afternoon work was devoted to keeping the huge ship clean and orderly, and to go to the town and to market. Three months of their stay in a port were to learn, then two months were spent going out to live in the villages.

For Amanda, it is her heart's work to help people. The Mercy Ship volunteers always team-up with a local organization or church that are already working toward a goal; it might be to put up a building or to teach health. Regarding AIDS, a common misconception in Africa is that additional sexual contact cures the disease. Their job was to help clear up that misunderstanding and inform the people of the health risks.

As a Connecticut resident for six years and as a Yale employee for two years, Amanda has begun to work on a Master's of Science degree, with help from Yale's tuition assistance program. She is studying at Central Connecticut State University. Two of her professors took note of her work in African Studies and recommended her for a Fulbright Scholarship to Ghana. Amanda was able to take six weeks unpaid leave of absence and she went to Africa with twelve other people from the U.S. During July and some of August 2004 they were based at the University of Ghana in Accra, the capital city. There were lectures during the day in various aspects of African Studies. They traveled all over the country.

Amanda's special research was in textiles, with the focus on Kente cloth. It is woven on a loom in a long strip, then cut and sewn together. Originally, royalty wore the garments made from this elegant cloth. It is worn more commonly now, but still carries a lot of cultural value, so it is known that the colors and weaves actually mean something.
Now, Amanda is preparing to work on a thesis about Kente cloth as well as a cloth from
Mali known as Bogolan cloth. Bogolan is a woven cloth that is dyed by various mud; it has subtle, earthy tones.

It is Amanda's feeling that if you ever have the opportunity to visit a developing nation,
you'll find yourself changed by the experience. She said, "It isn't the 'Third World' it is the 'two-thirds world' since two-thirds of the population of the world actually live in underdeveloped conditions. We are the exception, and it is so important to remember how fortunate we are."

By studying, she feels connected to Africa. She has a web site where she sells the artwork of her own creation. Some of the profits are given to an African orphanage that supports children who are born with AIDS and have been abandoned.
Amanda feels that God is present in the huts and villages. Life there is basic. One child she met in Madagascar was wearing a T-shirt that had holes. She gave him a new red T-shirt. It was so precious to him that after the initial try-on, he put it away for a special occasion. She met a woman who had only one dress in a better condition, which was used only for going to church, because she had so much reverence for her Creator.

These are among the concepts in life that are "bigger than both of us."

Accra, Ghana	Lesotho, 1997
Colors of Africa	Village Market, 1996
Ghana, summer 2004	Traditional Kente Weaver
Cape Coast Castle

Staff Submissions

Recipes

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Library in Focus

PRESERVATION versus THE ELEMENTS

Then	Now

A state of the art book return is in place at the Wall Street entrance to Sterling Memorial Library.

Joe Chadwick, an architect with Yale's Contract Administration Construction and Renovation Facilities
designed it. The design was then developed and commissioned from G. L. Gray Metal Fabricators Inc.
A metal fabricator bends and cuts the metal and forms the item. Our new box is stainless steel.

Descriptive graphics on the exterior surface are by Tom Strong of Strong Cohen Graphic Design.
Sign Light carried out the graphic design. All the companies are in New Haven.

Because form follows function, the upper part of the box is gracefully slanted. That is to discourage
objects, including discarded beverage containers, from being placed upon it.
In addition to its attractive qualities, the new design will allow the entrance door to open fully.

Library staff who worked toward this improvement are: Sue Crockford-Peters, Judy Parker,
and Anthony Riccio of Access Services, and Bobbie Pilette of the Preservation Department.
Funding came from the Library's equipment budget.

Bobbie Pilette shows off the new box	Good natured John Steeves waves goodbye

Jim O'Toole helps take away the old

I am pleased to inform you about several important organizational changes in the Catalog Department.

As of November 1 Dajin Sun and Patricia Thurston have become Assistant Department Heads for the Catalog Department. Another change is the reassignment of Matthew Beacom as Metadata Librarian. These changes are in response to the Library's changing priorities and new initiatives, and will better position the Catalog Department to provide support for the Library's integrated access initiatives, including metadata consulting services regarding content and structural standards, best practice guidelines, and training. We will also be seeking ways to work more closely and collaboratively with non-Library University units who have similar metadata issues.

Dajin's new responsibilities include oversight for the Arts and Science Team and the History and Social Science Team. In addition, with current YUL priorities on Collection Space Management and the ongoing need for the Catalog Department to support the record quality assurance for the Library Shelving Facility, Dajin will serve as the Catalog Department lead for LSF bibliographic and holdings policy and procedural issues. He will also continue as Team Leader for the Catalog Management Team.

Patricia will oversee the Hebraica Team, the Latin American Team as well as continuing her responsibilities for the Slavic and East European Team. She will also serve as the liaison with the curatorial area collections and the non-Library units who contribute cataloging to ORBIS.

Matthew's new responsibilities acknowledge the Catalog Department's growing responsibilities in the area of metadata creation and analysis for the Library's digital assets. He will also serve as the Assistant Chair of the newly formed Metadata Committee which is charged to evaluate and implement metadata standards, policies and practices for digital resources for which Yale Library has or may have management responsibility. We will be adding resources to backfill Matthew in a Digital Resources Catalog Librarian position, and will also actively develop these skills across the department.

With the support of all the staff, I will be taking a more active leadership role in helping YUL to address the Metadata needs of the Library and the University; the development of an expanded Finding Aids program; the Unlocking Collections initiative; and the identification of opportunities for the Catalog Department to support the Library in the 21st century. The Catalog Department will continue to make these kinds of positive changes as we respond to the increasing needs of our community for guidance and support. Please join me in congratulating and supporting Dajin, Patricia, and Matthew in their new roles.

Joan Swanekamp
Chief Catalog Librarian and Head of the Catalog Department

HR in Focus

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Upcoming Events

Yale Holiday Calendar

Learning Plan Highlights

If you have a Learning Plan success that you would like to share, contact Shaundolyn Slaughter at 432-1810.

For more information on the Learning Plan go to: http://www.library.yale.edu/training/stod/learningplan.html

Upcoming Training

Library: Searching and Exporting in RLIN21

This class demonstrates the functionality of searching in and exporting MARC records from the RLG Union Catalog with the web-based interface RLIN21. Acquisitions and Cataloging staff whose work is limited to roman-script records will benefit most from this session. Staff members who work with non-roman scripts may find it useful as well, with the awareness that some workflows may differ. Register Now

Library: Introducing MacroExpress

MacroExpress can make working with Voyager's technical services modules more efficient and less tedious. This presentation will announce the roll-out of MacroExpress, and will introduce and demonstrate a selection of macros designed for use with Voyager. Circulation Department supervisors are invited. [All Catalog Department and Acquisitions Department staff are strongly encouraged to attend.] Register Now

Wellness in Focus

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New Year's Resolutions

Are you already wishing you hadn't made so many New Year's resolutions? Or do you have the opposite problem-- you can't think of anything to make a resolution about? In either case, here are a couple of links to interesting ideas for resolutions and some good suggestions for how to
keep them!

From WebMD: Five suggested resolutions:

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/97/103973.htm

From Psychology Today and from the Texas Medical Association: suggestions on how to KEEP those darned good intentions:

http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=PTO-20030204-000005

http://www.texmed.org/has/pin/dan/kyr.asp

And, if you're just sick of the whole topic, here's a somewhat jaded take on the custom:

http://www.mariva.com/essays/self-help.html

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