Sterling Memorial Library
120 High Street, New Haven
Until September 2009

This exhibition on Islamic art and architecture celebrates buildings and artwork commissioned by the rulers of the Islamic Empire and found in the Middle East and parts of Europe.

The books on display feature a variety of structures including mosques and minarets; madrasahs (schools); palaces and private homes; hospitals; hospices; castles and citadels; caravansaries; Sufi zawiyahs, khalwahs, tikiyahs and khaniqahs (religious centers); tombs and mausoleums; sabils (public drinking water fountains); public baths; covered bazaars; glass, ivory, silver gold, jewelry, brass and wood works; ceramics, textiles, embroideries and carpets. Taken together, they explore the important and lasting influence of Islam on European art and architecture.

A new Yale University Library podcast, The Art of the Ketubah: A Study in Jewish Diversity, is now available on Yale University on iTunes U. Narrated by Nanette Stahl, Curator of the Judaica Collection and featuring images taken from the recent exhibition in Sterling Memorial Library, the podcast explores the history and art of the ketubah, the marriage contract that Jewish law requires a groom to provide for his bride on their wedding day.

The Library now has online access to the Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications, 1895-1976.

For finding U.S. federal publications, the Monthly Catalog ("MoCat") is an invaluable complement to Orbis (in which the cataloging of the U.S. federal depository print collection is nearly complete) and WorldCat, not least because MoCat indexes publications that were not distributed through the depository program.

The resource is available in Orbis and through the A-Z list of databases.

"The Utopian Impulse: Constructing the Ideal in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America"

Wednesday, July 22, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

Please join us for a lecture given by the curator, Mia Reinoso Genoni, Mellon Special Collections Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow. A reception will follow in the Memorabilia Room.

The lecture complements The Utopian Impulse, an exhibition on view in the Sterling Memorial Library Memorabilia Room until August 21, 2009. The utopian impulse is the desire to imagine or create a perfect society. Focusing on examples from the 15th through 18th centuries, this exhibition examines the many ways that Early Modern Europeans at home and abroad expressed the utopian impulse, seeking to fashion and explore new or "discovered" ideal societies, paradises lost and found, and perfect, harmonious built environments. Objects on view include architectural treatises and plans, utopian tracts, travel narratives, and maps of real and imagined places.

The Utopian Impulse is a collaboration across the collections of the Yale University Libraries, featuring works from the Anne T. & Robert M. Bass Library, the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Manuscripts and Archives, the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library, the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, the Sterling Memorial Library general collections, and the Yale Map Department. The exhibition was generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Yale's Medical Historical Library houses one of the world’s finest historical medical collections. The collection contains over 130,000 books, bound manuscripts, journals, and pamphlets. This includes 325 incunabula (books printed between 1450 and 1500), a wonderful Renaissance, Arabic and Persian manuscript collection, and hundreds of bound manuscripts from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

The Cushing/Whitney Historical Library also houses the Fry Collection of Prints and Drawings that spans five centuries, an additional 2,500 portrait engravings and over 2,000 original photographs. The Library also has an artifact collection that includes over 1,000 medical and scientific instruments and the Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures containing several thousands items.

The Preservation Librarian for the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library began working in August 2005 to establish a program that will preserve and conserve these collections. The exhibit, which will be on view until August 28, illustrates issues of preservation and solutions that can be achieved to safeguard this priceless collection. For more information, visit: http://elibrary.med.yale.edu/blog/?p=609.

Yale University is hosting the Eastern CONTENTdm Users Group 2009 Conference at the Whitney Humanities Center on August 6 and 7. Preconference workshops will be held on August 5. CONTENTdm is a single software solution that handles the storage, management, and delivery of library digital collections. CONTENTdm provides the interface for the Library's Yale Daily News Historical Archive. For more information, visit the conference's web site.

A series of exhibits in Sterling Memorial Library are helping to mark the Yale Whiffenpoofs 100th birthday. Founded in 1909 at beer-fed Monday night songfests at the old Mory’s Bar on Temple Street, the Whiffenpoofs remain a signature part of “Old Yale.” Today, members of the nation’s oldest collegiate a capella group serve as Yale's musical ambassadors in performances all over the United States, on national television, and in dozens of countries.

Items on display in the exhibits, which are being held in a number of locations in Sterling Memorial Library throughout the summer and fall including the Gilmore Music Library, the Memorabilia Room, and the Sterling Nave, explore the history of the famous "Whiffenpoof Song” and feature historical memorabilia, souvenirs, and artifacts. The exhibits also pay tribute to the Whiffenpoofs’ rich history, their musical legacy, and honors noted alumni like Cole Porter, Senator Prescott Bush, and Fenno Heath.

The founding of the Whiffenpoofs in 1909 also marks the beginning of the American tradition of collegiate, close-harmony a cappella singing groups. The exhibits will cover a timeline from the beginning of the Whiffenpoofs as an extension of the Yale Glee Club, through their role in inspiring college singing groups among Yale underclassmen and throughout the Ivy League, and culminating in the current extracurricular phenomenon of over one thousand a cappella groups in colleges and secondary schools around the country.

The exhibits in Sterling Memorial Library run until late fall 2009. The Gilmore Music Library exhibit will close in September. All exhibits are free and open to the public. Sterling Memorial Library is located at 120 High Street.

A read-only version of the Library’s Databases & Article Searching page will be available for a short period during the week of August 3 due to a software upgrade. Once upgraded with the latest release, Databases & Article Searching will feature Full-Text and Peer Reviewed indicators, as well as the ability to limit search results by a number of criteria listed in a new left-hand menu. This represents a significant improvement in the ability to search and access electronic information. The Library apologizes for any inconvenience.

For more information, contact Kalee Sprague in the Library's Information Technology Office.

The Yale University Library has updated its Strategic Plan, first completed in 2003. The July 2009 Update to the Strategic and Operational Plans, just released, reflects the progress made since 2003. It also focuses on how the Library should invest its valuable resources in meeting its mission in the future. The Update features three new goal areas that identify where the Library will direct its energy in the next five years in addition to existing priorities: Library Engagement with Teaching and Learning, Enhanced Emphasis on Special Collections and Unique Materials, and Environments to Inspire Research and Learning. The update also reaffirms the importance of the original strategic priorities. For a copy of the July 2009 Update, please see http://www.library.yale.edu/strategicplanning/