The Map Department's new hours are: Monday to Friday, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. For more information, contact Abraham Parrish.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, the largest building in the world devoted exclusively to the preservation of rare books and literary manuscripts, is on Facebook and Twitter. Who knew?

Become our Facebook fan. And then subscribe to our Twitter feed.

Learn more about Beinecke collections, events, & exhibitions on our website.

Connecticut’s Marriage Equality Story to be Preserved at Yale University

Love Makes a Family, a coalition of individuals and organizations that has been the leading voice in the campaign for marriage equality in Connecticut since 2000, has donated its records to the Yale University Library. Having accomplished its core mission of winning the freedom to marry for same-sex couples in Connecticut, the group is ceasing operations on November 13, 2009.

The Love Makes a Family records include correspondence, planning and legal documents, photographs, minutes of meetings, reports, website content, publications, financial documents, press releases, and research and subject files. The materials will be available in Manuscripts and Archives in Sterling Memorial Library in New Haven, where they will be part of a growing collection of primary source material documenting gender and sexuality at the local, national, and international levels.

Carol Buckheit, Executive Director of Love Makes a Family, said, “Yale’s world class library system will allow generations of people to access and learn from Love Make’s a Family’s work to win marriage equality in Connecticut. We are extremely gratified that our civil rights legacy will be preserved for all time.”

“Love Makes a Family has been a key agent of change in local and national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights,” noted Christine Weideman, Director of Manuscripts and Archives. “Their records will provide valuable insight into the same-sex marriage movement and will be of essential value to scholars, students, and activists. We are honored to be entrusted with their preservation.”

Manuscripts and Archives, a department of Yale University Library, is a major center for historical inquiry and also serves as the documentary memory of Yale University. The Yale University Library supports all areas of current and historical lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender scholarship at Yale.

Records designated by Love Makes a Family as open to research will be available by spring, 2010.

For more information about the records, contact Mary Caldera in Manuscripts and Archives at (203) 432-8019 or mary.caldera@yale.edu.

Applications Invited for Lewis Walpole Library Fellowships and Travel Grants for Eighteenth-Century Studies

The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of Yale University Library, invites applications to its 2010 - 2011 fellowship program. Located in Farmington, Connecticut, the Library offers short-term residential fellowships and travel grants to support research in the Library’s rich collections of eighteenth century—mainly British—materials, including important holdings of prints, drawings, manuscripts, rare books, and paintings, as well as a growing collection of sources for the study of New England Native Americans. Scholars undertaking postdoctoral or equivalent research, and doctoral candidates at work on a dissertation, are encouraged to apply. Recipients are expected to be in residence at the Library, to be free of other significant professional obligations during their stay, and to focus their research on the Lewis Walpole Library’s collections. Fellows also have access to additional resources at Yale, including those in the Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Yale Center for British Art. Lewis Walpole Library fellowships, usually for one month, include the cost of travel to and from Farmington, accommodation in an eighteenth-century house on the Library's campus, and a living allowance stipend (now $2,000). The Library's travel grants typically cover transportation costs for research trips of shorter duration and also include accommodation on site.

To apply for a fellowship or travel grant, candidates should send a curriculum vitae, including educational background, professional experience and publications, and a brief outline of the research proposal (not to exceed three pages) to:

Margaret K. Powell
W.S. Lewis Librarian and Executive Director
The Lewis Walpole Library
P.O. Box 1408
Farmington, CT 06034
USA

Fax: 860-677-6369

While application materials may initially be submitted electronically to walpole@yale.edu, a hard copy is required for the application to be considered complete.

Two confidential letters of recommendation are also required by the application deadline. Letters of recommendation should specifically address the merits of the candidate's project and application for the Lewis Walpole Library fellowship. General letters of recommendation or dossier letters are not appropriate.

The application deadline is January 18, 2010. Awards will be announced in March and are expected to be taken up between July 2010 and June 2011.

Additional information about the Library, its collections, facilities, and programs, may be found at http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole.

The Handheld Librarian 2009: An Online Conference About Mobile Library Services

More people than ever are using mobile devices for a wide variety of purposes including communication, internet access, text messaging, research, and entertainment. It is important that libraries provide services on these devices as use increases.

Yale University Library hosted a local broadcast of the first ever Handheld Librarian Online Conference, on July 30, 2009. The program sponsored by the Alliance Library System, LearningTimes and Infoquest, featured a talk by Yale Science Librarian Joe Murphy, who along with other experts in the field, provided information on topics relating to the use of wireless and handheld devices in libraries. Due to the success of this initial broadcast, a second Handheld Librarian Online Conference is being planned for the February 2010 timeframe.

In anticipation of the handheld technology becoming part of business as usual in libraries, the Library will be hosting a series of lunch time re-broadcasts from the conference, featuring what we’ve determined to be the best and most applicable presentations. All sessions will be held in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall (128 Wall St) as brown-bag lunch presentations, from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. Moderators will be available to tee-up each session and conduct a facilitated discussion after each presentation. The dates of the lunch time series are as follows:

9/14: Keynote: Mobility and Singularity: People, Communication, Information, Information Objects, and Information Services in Motion

9/28: Sending out an SMS

10/12: Mobile Medical Information: View from the Medical Library

10/26: Everything We Know About Implementing a Kindle Loan Program

11/9: Altarama Infoquest, a Collaborative Text Messaging Reference Project

12/7: Twittering in Libraries

The sessions are free and open to the public. No advance registration is required. More information can be obtained at www.handheldlibrarian.org/ or www.facebook.com/yalehhlib.

A lecture on September 24 by Brad Gooch, Professor of English at William Paterson University and author of the best-selling Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor, will be the first in a series of public lectures and programs sponsored by Yale University Library during the 2009-10 academic year. Exhibits are also being held across the Library system and additional events will be announced over the course of the year.

The schedule of lectures and exhibits in Sterling Memorial Library follows below. Updates to the schedule will be posted at www.library.yale.edu/librarynews/.

LECTURES
All lectures are free and open to the public and will be held
in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall, 128 Wall Street.

September
Brad Gooch, William Paterson University, author of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (Little Brown, 2009)
September 24, 4:00 p.m.

October
Vivian Perlis & Libby Van Cleve, Oral History American Music, Yale University,
authors of Composers' Voices from Ives to Ellington (Yale, 2005)
Wednesday, October 28, 4:00 p.m.

November
Beverly Gage, Department of History, Yale University, author of
The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror (Oxford, 2009)
Date and time TBA

December
Christopher T. Buckley, author of Losing Mum and Pup (Twelve, 2009)
Date and time TBA

January
Molly Haskell, author of Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited (Yale, 2009)
Date and time TBA

February (Black History Month)
Hazel V. Carby, African American & American Studies, Yale University,
author of Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America (Verso, 1999)
Date and time TBA

March
James J. O'Donnell, Provost & Professor of Classics, Georgetown University,
author of The Ruin of the Roman Empire (Ecco, 2008)
Date and time TBA

April (Yale Pride)
Graeme Reid, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Studies, Yale University,
author of Above the Skyline (forthcoming)
Date and time TBA

May
Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Once Again to Zelda (Perigee, 2008)
Date and time TBA

EXHIBITS IN STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Information on exhibits across the Library system can be found on
individual library and department web sites.

July-September: Islamic Art and Architecture

July-October: Whiffenpoof Centennial Exhibits

September-November: Benny Goodman: A Century of Swing (Gilmore Music Library)

November-January: From Nineveh to New Haven

November-December: Treasures of the Babylonian Collection

December-February: Centennial of Tel Aviv

December-February: Stover at Yale

March-May: Architecture, Utopia, and Empire

March-May: Medieval Studies at Yale

Tours of Sterling Memorial and Bass Libraries will begin on Tuesday, September 8 and continue to Friday, September 18. The dates and times are:

Tuesday, September 8, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, September 9, 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Friday, September 11, 2:00-3:00 p.m
Friday, September 18, 2:00-3:00 p.m.

These tours are open to anyone in the Yale community. No sign-up is necessary, but a valid Yale ID is required. Tours will begin at the Information Desk in the Sterling Memorial Library nave.

Please note that tours for freshmen will begin the week of September 14; freshmen should contact their Personal Librarian for a schedule.

For more information, contact Emily Horning.

Individual library hours vary on Labor Day (Monday, September 7). To see which libraries will be open, visit www.library.yale.edu/hours/.

Benny Goodman: A Century of Swing
Gilmore Music Library
Fall 2009

This fall the Gilmore Music Library marks the centenary of the King of Swing, Benny Goodman (1909-1986), with an exhibit featuring big band arrangements, clarinet concertos by Paul Hindemith and Aaron Copland, photographs, and a wide variety of other materials, such as Goodman's honorary doctorate from Yale, a program and ticket from his famous Carnegie Hall concert in 1938, and a letter from fellow clarinetist Woody Allen.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. For more information and opening hours, visit the Music Library's web site.

The Social Science Library after hours book drop has been moved from the porch of 124 Prospect Street (Brewster Hall) to the front of the Social Science Library at 140 Prospect Street. It is now located along the sidewalk towards the handicap ramp, a few yards from the street.

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/

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.

Starting Monday, June 29, the Sterling Memorial Library Information Desk will be changing its service hours to 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Saturday during the summer. Readers needing research assistance can contact staff through multiple avenues such as chat, text, e-mail, telephone or in person. Please visit www.library.yale.edu/reference/asklive/ for more information.

The Lewis Walpole Library Fellowship and Travel Grant Recipients for 2009-2010 are:

Post-doctoral Fellows

Roger W. Eddy Fellow
Timothy P. Campbell
University of Chicago
Historical Fashion: Commercial Temporality and Modern Historicism in Britain, 1745-1819

Nancy W. Collins
Columbia University
W.S. Lewis and the Anglo-American Relationship: A Study in the Rise of European Studies in Postwar America

Jonathan Gross
DePaul University
Anne Damer's "Belmour"

Charles J. Cole Fellow

R. A. Houston
University of St. Andrews
Relationships between Landlords and Tenants on Estates in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, 1600-1850

Matthew M. Reeve
Queen’s University, Ontario
Walpole’s Two Gothic Narratives: "The Castle of Otranto" and Strawberry Hill

Fiona Ritchie
McGill University
Women’s Responses to Shakespeare in the Eighteenth-Century Theatre: The Cases of Frances and Charlotte Hanbury Williams

Pre-doctoral Fellows

Gail Aw
University of Virginia
Empire and Empiricism: Enlarging Mental Space in the Long Eighteenth Century

George B. Cooper Fellow

Emrys Daniel Jones
Peterhouse, University of Cambridge
Friendship and Politics in Sir Robert Walpole’s England

LWL-ASECS Fellow

Amanda Lahikainen
Brown University
Anglicizing the French Revolution: The Politics of Humor in Late Eighteenth-Century English Political Graphic Satire

Colleen M. Terry
University of Delaware
Presence in Print: William Hogarth in British North America

Jonathan Alexander Yarker
Trinity College, University of Cambridge
Copies and Copying: Attitudes towards Reproduction in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Travel Grant

Lisa L. Moore
University of Texas at Austin
Sister Arts: Lesbian Genres and Eighteenth-Century Landscapes

Fellow Deferred from 2007-2008
LWL-ASECS Fellow

Mark Phillips
Carleton University, Ottawa
Then and Now: Historical Distance and Visualization, 1740-1850

For more information about the Library's Fellowship and Travel Grant program, see http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole/html/information/fellowships.html.

The Lewis Walpole Library and Centerbrook Architects have been recognized by Environmental Design + Construction magazine's 2009 Excellence in Design Awards. The awards honor "commercial, government, institutional and educational projects as well as single-family residences that demonstrate a clear commitment to green building and sustainable design."

The library was a finalist in the education category and will be featured in the magainze's September issue.

More information on Environmental Design + Construction and their awards program is available here.

Yale President Richard C. Levin today announced that University Librarian Alice Prochaska has been appointed Principal of Somerville College, Oxford effective September 2010.

"This is a tremendous honor for Alice, and although we will miss her at Yale, her new position provides her with a remarkable opportunity for leadership at her alma mater," said Levin. "During her eight years as our University Librarian, Alice has provided conspicuous leadership in advancing Yale’s library system—although she would be the first to say that it is not her work, but that of the Library staff that should be credited."

Among a number of achievements during her tenure at Yale, Prochaska has overseen improvements in the physical fabric of the library system, from the renovated Lewis Walpole Library to the expanded Library Shelving Facility, the Haas Family Arts Library, and the Bass Library. She has provided leadership in local outreach programs, building up a network of relationships with schools, colleges and public libraries in Connecticut and the New Haven area. She has also demonstrated a commitment to improving diversity and collaboration in the workplace and it has given her particular pride to see the Yale University Library develop as the leading international research library of North America, with its growing strengths in nearly all parts of the world, and its extraordinary collections of special, rare and unique materials.

“I am honored and delighted to have been chosen as the next Principal of Somerville College,” Prochaska said. “I am sad about leaving Yale University Library, where I will have worked for nine years with a wonderfully talented and dedicated group of staff, but I know my colleagues will understand the tug of affection and loyalty that I feel in returning to Oxford.”

Prochaska studied at Somerville and received her undergraduate degree and doctorate in Modern History from Oxford University. Prior to her appointment at Yale in 2001 she was Director of Special Collections at the British Library and has previously held positions at the Institute for Historical Research at London University and the National Archives in the United Kingdom. She has served as Chair of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Standing Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), chair of the National Council on Archives, a university governor and a Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research and of Royal Holloway, University of London. Prochaska has just completed a term as Chair of the Board of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) and she currently chairs the Special Collections Task Force of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL).

Prochaska will embark on research leave beginning in January 2010, during which she will develop research on the restitution of cultural materials and related questions concerning international cultural heritage, a topic that she has dealt with over the course of her professional career.

The Library is providing campus-wide access to STRATFOR, a resource for geopolitical intelligence on worldwide political, economic, and military developments. STRATFOR provides exclusively published breaking news and an ongoing series of monographs and assessments that offer rigorous forecasts from its experts throughout the world.

Questions and comments can be directed to Julie Linden, Librarian for Political Science, International Affairs, and Government Information.

The Thain Family Café is open for the summer Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Café is offering freshly made sandwiches and salads, along with daily baked goods and pastries from Milanis Bakery and Judies European Bakery. The Café also has a great selection of all natural and organic snacks, yogurts, and beverages, as well as organic, fair trade, shade grown coffee. Smoothies are now also on the menu.

The University Library has purchased two new literature databases:

Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 and Victorian Literary Manuscripts from the Berg Collection of NYPL

They will soon be in Orbis ,both the collection level record and individual titles contained in each, and the list of databases from the Library's home page.

Yale University Library is now on Twitter! To quote from Wikipedia,

"Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers)."

Like Facebook status updates, tweets are often responses to the question: "what are you doing?" Institutions on campus utilizing Twitter include the Yale Science and Divinity Libraries, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale University Press, the Yale Law School Library, and the Schools of Music and Management. By following the Library you can keep up with news about services, resources, events, classes, and other learning opportunities across the Yale Library system.

For more information on Twitter visit:
http://twitter.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter.

The architectural model of Yale's two new residential colleges will be on display in the Sterling Memorial Library Memorabilia Room (128 Wall Street) for portions of this week and next. The impressive scale model is approximately 12 x 8 feet and places the new colleges in the context of the entire central Yale campus.

The model will be installed on May 28 and will be on view until Friday, May 29, when it will be moved to the rotunda of Woolsey Hall for the course of the upcoming reunion weekend. It will come back to Sterling on Monday, June 1 and will remain there until Friday, June 5, when it will again find itself in Woolsey Hall for the second reunion weekend.

Dean Robert A.M. Stern, the architect of the two colleges, will give a presentation to members of the Yale community on May 28 at 1:00 p.m. in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall. Dean Stern's presentation will also be recorded and will be made available via the University's channel on YouTube.

Saturday May 30, 11:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High Street
Free and open to the public | Fun for the whole family

Events in the Nave

Welcome and Information Table: Library brochures, information, and publications

History and Treasures of the East Asia Library: Meet library staff as they display highlights from Yale's East Asian studies collections. Materials on display will include some older and unusual books in Chinese and Japanese, some of them donations from distinguished Yale alumni, as well as some illustrated books from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in European languages.

Documents to the People: The Government Documents & Information Center at Yale: The Government Documents & Information Center is a depository for documents from the U.S. federal government, Canadian federal government, United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization, and the European Union. Its rich collections support research in a wide range of subjects, including international relations, public policy, economics, trade, agriculture, environmental studies, public health, and much more. Depository collections – whether print volumes in Yale’s stacks or digital information online -- are available for use by both Yale affiliates and the public.

The Ministry Resource Center, Yale Divinity Library: Explore resources (print, DVD, CD, etc.) for leading congregations and agencies on social justice, worship, all age groups, learning and carrying out projects on "everything congregations/agencies care about."

Historical Sound Recordings Collection: The purpose of the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings (HSR) is to collect, preserve, and make available for study historical recordings of performers important in the fields of Western classical music, jazz, American musical theater, drama, literature, and history (including oratory). A member of the library staff will have examples of several formats of sound recordings from the collection for viewing, as well as some audio for listening.

Lillian Goldman Law Library: Learn about the Law Library's resources, including one of the world's finest collections of print and online legal materials, and the various services offered to the Yale community. Take part in a library tour and discover the treasures hidden in this magnificent library, located within the heart of the Yale Law School complex.

In the Exhibits Corridor

Children’s Treasure Hunt (with prizes!): Introduce your children to the gargoyles, stained-glass windows and other wonders of Sterling Memorial Library. This activity is available from 11am-1 pm. The treasure hunt table will be in the exhibition corridor of SML.

Library Merchandise & Gift Table: Stop by and pick up some terrific Yale University Library merchandise, including tote bags, T-shirts, gift cards, and travel mugs. The merchandise table will be in the exhibition corridor of SML.

Exhibit: The Art of the Ketubah: A Study in Jewish Diversity: Celebrating the ketubah (plural ketubot), the marriage contract that Jewish law requires a groom to provide for his bride on their wedding day. The ketubot on display in the exhibit are from the Yale University Library’s Sholem Asch Collection and span from four centuries and many countries. This exhibit is in the display cases along the exhibition corridor.

Tours

Glass, Stone, Iron and Wood: The Architectural Decorations of Sterling Memorial Library led by International Program Support Librarian, Graziano Krätli. This tour focuses on the glass windows, stone carvings, ironwork and woodwork of one of the most remarkable and artistically relevant buildings on the Yale campus. The physical library as an encyclopedic compendium of signs, symbols, stories and legends. This tour will meet at 12 noon at the Circulation Desk.

Treasures of the Yale Library: Led by Geoffrey Little, YUL Communications Coordinator. This is a wonderful opportunity to see remarkable treasures that make up one of the world’s leading research libraries. The tour will begin at 11:15 a.m. at the Circulation Desk of the Sterling Memorial Library. Space is limited and participants will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library: The Library contains the principal rare books and literary manuscripts of Yale University and serves as a center for research by students, faculty, and other scholars, whether affiliated with Yale or not. Beinecke is one of the largest buildings in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts. Please come for a tour and hear about the myths and legends of a great research library. Oh, and the Gutenberg Bible and Audubon’s, Birds of America, are always on display. Meet on the Beinecke plaza at 1:00 PM.

Self-Guided tours of the architecture, stained glass, and reading rooms are also available at the Library’s High Street entrance.

Additional guided tours of the Sterling Memorial Library may be offered according to demand.

Events in the Memorabilia Room & Lecture Hall

Revisiting Old Yale: Judith Schiff, Chief Research Archivist and author of the Yale Alumni Magazine column, “Old Yale,” will draw from the vast archives for a look into Yale’s past. Presentations begin at 10 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. in the Lecture Hall

Events in Manuscripts and Archives

Manuscripts & Archives Open House: A rare chance to view close-up some of the treasures of this rich and diverse collection.

University Library Awards Prizes for Senior Essays

Yale University Library has awarded several prizes to exceptional senior essays that were written based on research in its collections.

Lauren Sonderegger, a History and Biology major, won this year's Beinecke Library Prize in Early Modern European Studies for her essay, "War and Bureaucracy in the Seventeenth-Century Mediterranean: Evidence from the Correspondence of a Papal Official." Sonderegger’s research drew on the Beinecke’s Spinelli Family Papers and in particular on the correspondence of the seventeenth-century Florentine official Giovanni Baldocci.

Manuscripts and Archives awarded prizes to Jennifer K. Lin and Kevin Michel. Lin was honored for her essay on Yale history, "From Chemical Terror to Clinical Trial: The Development of Chemotherapy at Yale in World War II." Michel’s essay “A Struggle Between Brothers: A Reexamination of the Idea of a Cohesive Conservative Movement Through the Intellectual Life and Personal Conflict Surrounding L. Brent Bozell," was based on research in the department’s manuscript collections. Prizes were generously underwritten by Donald F. Melhorn, Jr., class of 1957.

The Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award went to Lauren Harrison for her International Studies senior essay “Of Rice and Riots: The Effect of Food Price Increases on Political Stability in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Data from the Government Documents and Information Center’s Food and Agriculture Organization collection were critical to Harrison’s analysis. The Applebaum Award was established by the family of Harvey M. Applebaum, class of 1959, and first awarded in 2008.

This year’s Map Prize was awarded to Christopher Lewine for “Parental Valuation of School Quality in Connecticut.” Levine made extensive use of the resources of the Map Department and Geographic Information Systems Support Services to analyze the relationship between school quality and housing prices. The prize was established in 1949 with an endowment from Mrs. Arthur W. Butler.

For information on opening and closing hours across the Library system over the Memorial Day weekend, visit www.library.yale.edu/hours.

Sterling Memorial Library will be open on Saturday, May 23 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. and Sunday, May 24 from 12 noon to 2:45 p.m. (Baccalaureate Day). The Library will be closed on Monday, May 25 in observance of Memorial Day.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library recently published a new blog, General Modern at Beinecke. This new blog highlights the Beinecke Library's European collections with particular attention to avant-garde movements of the twentieth century.

Explore this new blog and others at the Beinecke's Blogs & Podcasts page.

The Yale University Librarian's annual report for 2007-2008 is now available and can be accessed here.

In support of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Library's Web, Workstation and Digital Consulting Services department has developed a tagging application for the Library's digital collections. To add tags or annotations, visit: http://images.library.yale.edu/digitalcollectionsajax/StartTagging.aspx.

Feature list:
* Tag or annotate an object. (You can remove your tags or annotations later if you want.)
* View all tags in a tag cloud.
* View just your own tags.
* Search using tags or terms in annotations.
* View the number of times a tag occurs with another tag.
* View objects by tag(s).

If you are new to tagging, you may find the following resources useful:
www.loc.gov/rr/print/flickr_pilot.html
www.steve.museum/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata)

The tagging application is intended for use by the Yale community and requires CAS authentication. Tags and annotations are stored separately from metadata created by library staff.

This is very much a work in progress and the Library welcomes feedback. Please send comments, questions, and suggestions regarding the tagging application to Mike Friscia.

In response to requests for extended study hours, Bass Library will be open from 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 2 through 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5.

Valid Yale ID will be required to enter the building between 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. Food is only permitted in the Thain Family Cafe and non-alcoholic beverages may only be brought into the Library in sealed travel mugs.

For more information on Library hours across the system, visit: www.library.yale.edu/hours/.

Approximately 200 reformatted books from the University Library's collections are now available online. These books were originally scanned as part of the Preservation Department’s reformatting process. The process created print facsimiles (available in the stacks) and the scans are now available online. Sixty-five books are restricted to the Yale community because of copyright dates or other intellectual property issues.

The books are in a variety of languages and subjects. Some have images and others are simply black and white text. Each book is full text searchable within the system, so readers can search across all the reformatted books or within a specific book.

Links to these books will be available in Orbis once permanent links become available for them. They will also soon be available when searching the digital collections cross search from the Digital Collections page on the Library's homepage, www.library.yale.edu.

Reformatted books that have no access restrictions are available here.

Reformatted books available to the Yale community only are available here.

For more information, contact the Library's Digital Production and Integration Program (DPIP).

April 9, 2009

Yale University Library joined with UNESCO, the Library of Congress and 30 international institutions in Paris today to launch the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives around the world.

The site, located at www.wdl.org, provides free, unrestricted public access to manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs.

Yale has contributed a number of important works in the pilot phase, including 22 pencil drawings of the Amistad slave ship prisoners, ca. 1839-40; William Clark's 1810 map of North America; an Arabic calligraphy primer, ca. 1852-53; and one of three manuscript copies of Ferdinand Magellan's journal from his voyage around the world in 1522. As the project expands, more content will be added from digital collections across the University, reflecting the international strength of Yale's holdings.

Yale University Librarian Alice Prochaska said, “The Library is proud to be part of this robust digital partnership and looks forward to making many of our rich and unusual collections available to researchers and students around the world. The World Digital Library also supports the Library’s and Yale’s mission to promote education, research and the dissemination of knowledge while preserving our cultural heritage for future generations.”

The launch took place during an event at UNESCO headquarters co-hosted by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. Leaders from the partner institutions were on hand to present the project to ambassadors, ministers, delegates and special guests attending the semi-annual meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board.

Associate University Librarian Ann Okerson represented Yale at the launch and said, "One of the Library’s highest priorities is to support and promote Yale as a truly global university. The World Digital Library will not only open many of our collections to the world, but will also support teaching and scholarship at Yale in area studies, languages and world cultures.”

The World Digital Library functions in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and includes content in more than 40 languages. Browse and search features facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site. Descriptions and videos, some with expert curators speaking about selected items, provide context intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), founded in 1945, functions as a laboratory of ideas to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues. UNESCO serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of information while helping member states to build their human and institutional capacities in diverse fields.

Image: page from an Arabic calligraphy primer, ca. 1852-53.

Each year Yale seniors embark on a research process in preparing to write their senior essays. Over the course of many weeks and months they work closely with faculty, librarians, writing tutors, and others on campus. This year the Library is sponsoring two forums, structured as panel discussions, that will feature several senior essay writers who will talk about their research methods and processes.

Wednesday, April 22
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
(Students in History, Political Science, Women's Studies and Physics)

Thursday, April 23
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
(Students in History and Political Science)

The discussions will be in held in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street.

More Information:

The goal of these forums is to give juniors, faculty, and others on campus who support student research and writing a chance to hear how senior essay writers do the following: 1) formulate their research interest and questions; 2) seek help from the library, museums and special collections, faculty and other support units on campus; 3) find resources to support their argument; and 4) carry out the research process to complete the senior essay. These forums will offer insights for improving services and support for student research. Additionally, they will give seniors their first opportunity to enter the scholarly communication cycle through sharing their research and engaging in dialog about their projects.

Each year, the Library gives out several prizes to senior essay writers. The Applebaum Award is conferred on a Yale College senior for an outstanding essay based on research done in the collections of the University Library's Government Documents & Information Center. Manuscripts and Archives offers two student prizes each year: one is awarded for an outstanding senior essay on Yale; and the second is awarded for an outstanding senior essay based on research done in Manuscripts and Archives. To learn more about these prizes please visit, www.library.yale.edu/prizes/.

The University's Collaborative Learning Center is hosting a panel on digital humanities moderated by Joe Gordon, Dean of Undergraduate Education in Yale College. While not new, digital humanities are an emerging practice involving the use of information technology-based resources and methods in the scholarly activities of the humanist. The panel will explore the implications of digital humanities at Yale.

Tuesday, April 7
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall

Panel participants are Pericles Lewis, Professor of English and Comparative Literature; Matthew Jacobson, Chair and Professor of American Studies; George Miles, Curator, Western Americana Collection; and Edward Kairiss, Director of ITS Educational Technologies.

The event is free and open to the public.

Two Yale librarians have recently been honored by their peers by election to office in an international professional organization and inclusion in a list of innovative librarians.

Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian for Collections and International Programs, has been elected Chair of Division II (Library Collections) of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), the leading international body representing the interests of library and information services and their users. Division II focuses on specific types of information and materials such as rare books, serials, newspapers, and government publications, as well as services such as reference and interlibrary loan. IFLA'S five division chairs also serve as members of the Governing Board, the elected body responsible for the Association’s managerial and professional direction. Founded in 1927, IFLA is the global voice of the library and information profession. Okerson came to Yale in 1996 following a career in academic library management, the commercial sector, and as Senior Program Officer at the Association of Research Libraries.

Joe Murphy, Science Librarian and Coordinator of Instruction & Technology at the Kline Science Library has been named one of Library Journal’s 2009 Movers and Shakers. Movers and Shakers is an annual Library Journal feature that identifies “librarians, vendors, and others who are shaping the future of libraries.” A self-identifying “Millennial and digital native who lives in online social networks,” Murphy was identified as a trend spotter who has developed and promoted Web 2.0 services and technologies in Yale’s Science Libraries, including an iPhone-based text messaging reference service. This is the first time that a Yale librarian has been included in the Movers and Shakers feature. Murphy has been at the University since 2007 and completed his master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Manuscripts and Archives offers two student prizes each year. One is awarded for an outstanding senior essay on Yale. The second is awarded for an outstanding senior essay based on research done in Manuscripts and Archives. Each student will receive a $500 cash prize, which will be presented at commencement. As in years past, prizes in 2008-09 are funded through a generous gift from Donald F. Melhorn, Jr., Yale class of 1957. Mr. Melhorn is Counsel at Marshall & Melhorn, LLC in Toledo, Ohio, and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law.

Essays from any department are eligible for consideration and students are invited nominate themselves for these prizes. Entry forms are available in Manuscripts and Archives or by contacting Diane E. Kaplan, Head of Public Services, Manuscripts and Archives. The entry form indicates a student's intention to submit an essay for consideration. These should be returned by March 30. Students must deliver a copy of their completed essay to Manuscripts and Archives no later than two days after the actual departmental submission date.

The Harvey M. Applebaum '59 Award will be conferred on a Yale College senior for an outstanding essay based on research done in the collections of the Yale University Library's Government Documents & Information Center.

The prize is an award of $500. Nominations will be accepted from faculty advisors. Students may also nominate themselves.

Each academic department or program's senior essay deadline will serve as the Applebaum Award submission deadline for essays from that department or program.

See the Applebaum Award web site for application instructions and additional information.

What sorts of research materials qualify an essay for this award? Any documents, records, statistics, or other information that are in the scope of the Center's collections: U.S. federal government; United Nations; Food & Agriculture Organization; Canadian federal government; European Union (note: this does not include government documents or information from individual member countries of the European Union).

Examples of eligible material include but are not limited to: digitized Congressional hearings on LexisNexis, Foreign Relations of the United States (online or in print), census data, State Department records on microfilm in Sterling Memorial Library.

The prize was established by the daughters of Harvey M. Applebaum, class of 1959, in honor of his 70th birthday. Mr. Applebaum is a senior counsel, specializing in international trade and antitrust law, with the Washington firm of Covington & Burling LLP and a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a past Chairman of the Association of Yale Alumni and the Yale Alumni Magazine board. He is also a sitting member of the Alumni Magazine board.

The Government Documents & Information Center is a depository library for materials from the United States and Canadian federal governments, the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the European Union. Its rich collections support research in a wide range of subjects, including international relations, public policy, economics, trade, agriculture, environmental studies, public health, and much more.

Questions may be directed to Julie Linden, Librarian for Political Science, International Affairs, and Government Information, at julie.linden@yale.edu or (203) 432-3310.

The Law Library is happy to announce that Library readers may now request to have Law Library books delivered to Eli Express libraries.

Requests for delivery should be made through Morris, the Law Library's online catalog.

Visit the Eli Express web site for more information.

Yale University recently launched its own channel on YouTube and two Library videos are now available through the site.

The Librarians' Parade is a engaging black-and-white silent film from July 1930 showing Yale's librarians ceremonially moving the 1742 Collection from the old library (Dwight Chapel and Linsley-Chittenden Hall) to the recently completed Sterling Memorial Library. Additional footage reveals fascinating glimpses of Sterling as it appeared when it first opened.

Reading History and Writing Fiction, a lecture by David McCullough and Penelope Lively, was recorded in May 2008 and is also available as a netcast via iTunes U.

We look forward to adding more Library content soon.

Winners of the Adrian Van Sinderen Book Collecting Prizes in the 2009 competition have been announced.

The late Adrian Van Sinderen, class of 1910, established these prizes in 1957 in order to encourage undergraduates to collect books, build their own libraries, and read for pleasure and education.

For her collections on Kara Walker and typography and graphic design, Jessica Svendsen of Morse College won the Senior prize. A Senior second prize was awarded to Rebecca Dinerstein of Berkeley College for her collection titled “Irish Poetry: Rare, Local, and Autographed.” Jongwook “Wookie” Kim of Ezra Stiles College won a Senior Honorable Mention for his collection of books on tea and coffee.

George Bogden of Silliman College won the Sophomore prize for his collection titled “Visions of Statehood: The Poetry of Modern Kurdistan.” A Sophomore Honorable Mention prize was awarded to Elizabeth Palazzolo of Saybrook College for her collection on classical history, civilization, and literature.

Judges for this year's competition were Stephen Parks (Chairman), Sylvia Van Sinderen Abbate, Joseph Agostini, Elisabeth Fairman, Spencer Gray ’09, Rebecca Martz, William Reese, and E.C. Schroeder.

A three-judge panel has named Allen Grossman the 2009 winner of Yale University’s Bollingen Prize in American Poetry.

The Bollingen Prize in American Poetry, established by Paul Mellon in 1949, is awarded biennially by the Yale University Library to an American poet for the best book published during the previous two years or for lifetime achievement in poetry. Previous winners include Wallace Stevens, Marianne Moore, W. H. Auden, E. E. Cummings, Louise Glűck, Adrienne Rich and Jay Wright. The prize includes a cash award of $100,000.

The judges described Grossman as “a profoundly original American poet whose work embraces the co-existence of comedy and tragedy, exploring the intersection of high poetic style and an often startling vernacular. His most recent book, ‘Descartes’ Loneliness,’ is a bold and haunting late meditation, comparable to Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece, ‘Winter Words.’”

Grossman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1932, and educated at Harvard University, where he received an MA, and at Brandeis University, where he earned a PhD in 1960. Grossman remained at Brandeis as a professor until 1991, when he was named the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. He retired from teaching in 2005. His many collections of poetry include: “A Harlot's Hire” (1959), “The Woman on the Bridge over the Chicago River” (1979), “The Bright Nails Scattered on the Ground” (1986), “The Ether Dome and Other Poems, New and Selected 1979-1991” (1991), “How to Do Things with Tears” (2001), “Sweet Youth” (2002) and “Descartes’ Loneliness” (2007).

“A distinguished teacher of poetics and literature, Grossman has influenced three generations of American writers,” the judges said. “He has characterized the lyric poet as an individual who, ‘by means of this art, seeks to speak with the utmost seriousness about the totality of what he experiences,’ and Grossman himself has been refreshingly restless in that pursuit. In ‘Descartes’ Loneliness,’ he achieves a precarious balance between an aspirational vision and close attention to the world at hand. The poems progress with comic flair, dramatic inquiry and, at times, rage, through remembrance toward understanding. The figure they make is large and difficult, and the results are wholly singular. Carrying a weight that is rare in contemporary poetry, their music provides a deep-seated solace to their stark sentence.”

This year’s judges were Frank Bidart, poet and winner of the 2007 Bollingen Prize in American Poetry, Peter Cole, poet and visiting professor at Yale University, and Susan Stewart, poet and professor of English at Princeton University.

For further information, please contact Nancy Kuhl, Curator of Poetry, Yale Collection of American Literature: nancy.kuhl@yale.edu.

Three poems by Allen Grossman, from “Descartes’ Loneliness,” reprinted with permission of New Directions, 2007.

AT SUNSET

Now the sun sets and all the ways grow dark.
Persistent warble of a bird at my window,
in the dark. March 18, 2001—
my conviction of my own death. (“Get Ready!”)

Beginning with someone else’s death, a word,
and ending with the other death, my own,
the first word of the next life is “death,”
and the last word of this one is not yet

thought upon. But elegy is the song.
Teacher, do not set enigmatic tasks.

THE CAEDMON ROOM

Upstairs, one floor below the Opera House
(top floor of the building), is the Caedmon
room—a library of sorts. The Caedmon room
was empty of readers most of the time.
When the last reader left and closed the door,
I locked it and moved in for life. Right now,
I am writing this in the Caedmon room.
Caedmon was an illiterate, seventh-century
British peasant to whom one night a lady
appeared in a dream. She said to him, speaking
in her own language, “Caedmon! Sing me something!”
And he did just that. What he sang, in his
own language, was consequential—because
he did not learn the art of poetry
from men, but from God. For that reason,
he could not compose a trivial poem,
but what is right and fitting for a lady
who wants a song. These are the words he sang:
“Now praise the empty sky where no words are.”
This was Caedmon’s song. Caedmon’s voice is sweet.
In the Caedmon room shelves groan under the
weight of eloquent blank pages, histories
of a sweet world in which we are not found.
Caedmon turned each page, page after page
until the last page—on which was written:
“To the one who conquers, I give the morning star.”

A GUST OF WIND

A gust of wind has blown the window open.
Where in the world is the scene of instruction?
Is it a mountain top? Is it a bed?
Or this long road down which we walk together,
the two of us—well acquainted. But also

strange to one another who, nonetheless,
are going the same way for a few miles
with the expectation of parting soon
without disappointment at a place we both
know of. (You! Look there!” “And you also! There!”

We two?”—More than two? Perhaps. But not fewer.
Two at Least. Each one correcting the direction
of attention of the other: “Look there.”
“There?” “Yes! Yes! Yes!—Nothing is known to one.
That mountain not. That bed not. This long road not.”

A gust of wind has blown the window open.
Look! Out there the apple tree is barren now.
The season has changed. Soon something will happen.
But where are you? Missing. Oh. When last seen?
—Now, cold rain. After that, silent in darkness, snow:

Where in the world is the scene of instruction?
In the Roman army, a soldier who has served
his time becomes a veteran, exempt,
and goes to fight afar. Before, there was
little time. And now there’s no time at all.

New Haven, Conn. — Yale University Library has received a $5 million dollar gift from Arcadia, a United Kingdom-based grant-making fund established in 2001, to make the library’s important collections of international materials more available through cataloguing and digitization.

Yale University Librarian Alice Prochaska said “This important gift will allow us to make our rare non-English-language materials better known and available through cataloguing, description, and digitization. It will also allow us to continue other important work building and disseminating access to international collections. We are proud of our achievements in supporting the growth of knowledge on international affairs, and deeply grateful for the support and recognition that Arcadia has given us.”

The Yale Library supports teaching and learning in all academic disciplines, with a strong emphasis on area studies including Africa; East Asia; Judaica; Latin America; the Near East; Russia and Eastern Europe; and South and Southeast Asia. It actively collects material from around the world and has one of the largest collections of unique non-English-language materials available anywhere. The Library also supports the work of a number of projects documenting human rights tragedies, most notably the Fortunoff Video Archives for Holocaust Testimonies and the Cambodian genocide collection.

About Arcadia
Arcadia is a charitable foundation established in 2001. Since its inception, Arcadia has committed more than $181 million in funding to works that protect endangered treasures of culture and nature. These include international projects to digitize endangered languages, archives and artifacts, as well as the protection of ecosystems and environments threatened with extinction. Arcadia seeks to ensure that the scholarly resources created are widely available, both to researchers and more generally. For more information, visit www.arcadiafund.org.uk.

About Yale University Library
One of the world’s leading research libraries, Yale University Library is a full partner in teaching, research, and learning at Yale and is visited by scholars from around the world. A distinctive strength is its rich spectrum of resources, including approximately 13 million volumes and information in all media, ranging from ancient papyri to early printed books to electronic databases. The Library is engaging in numerous projects to expand access to its physical and digital collections and employs a dynamic staff of nearly 600 who offer innovative and flexible services to library readers. To learn more about Yale University Library and its collections and services, visit www.library.yale.edu.

Information:
Geoffrey Little
Yale University Library

One Hour to a Better Research Paper
Wednesday, February 18, 4:00 p.m.
LC 101

Worried about an upcoming spring research paper? Overwhelmed by “the stacks?” Wondering how to find the sources to back up your argument?

Yale Librarian Emily Horning’s presentation will introduce students to library services and highlight some valuable research strategies. Her talk will touch on:

• Navigating the Yale Library homepage
• Understanding library research tools and databases
• Using the collections effectively
• Getting to know your personal librarian and other resources

This talk is co-sponsored by the Yale College Dean’s Office and the Old Campus Fellows program.

The University Library is celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12, 1809, and the 150th anniversary year of his publication of On the Origin of Species with a series of exhibits.

Darwin presented a masterful argument for evolution, synthesizing a wealth of information in a variety of scientific fields including animal husbandry, horticulture, taxonomy, biogeography, geology, paleontology, comparative anatomy and morphology, and embryology. His mechanism for evolutionary change challenged a worldview in Britain and America dominated by natural theology -- the belief that adaptation in the natural world manifested the wisdom and providence of the Creator.

The exhibits, which are free and open to the public, are on display across the library system and examine Darwin's influence on a variety of subjects including music and theology.

Books Written by Charles Darwin and Their Recent Impact
Kline Science Library Lobby, Kline Biology Tower Lower Level
February 1 – April 30

Charles Robert Darwin: February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882
Kline Science Library Reading Room, Kline Biology Tower Lower Level
February 1 – April 30

Christian Responses to Darwin
Divinity Library Rotunda
February 1 – April 30

From Natural Theology to Natural Selection: Celebrating the Darwin Bicentenary
Medical Library Rotunda
February 1 – April 17

The Nightingale and the Crow: Darwin and Music
Gilmore Music Library
March – April

“Your sincere and heteredox friend” :Charles Darwin’s Letters to James Dwight Dana
Sterling Memorial Library Nave
January 19 – March 27

Fore more information, visit the Library's Darwin website: http://www.med.yale.edu/library/exhibits/darwin/other.html.

The Gilmore Music Library has launched a new web site. You can access it here or at www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/muslib.htm.

Live internet coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States will be broadcast from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall (128 Wall Street). All are welcome. The official swearing-in ceremony will take place at 12 noon.

Coverage may also be seen at the following Library locations:

Beinecke Library Mezzanine
Haas Family Arts Library (no food or drink allowed)
Kline Science Library (no food or drink allowed)
Social Science Library Reading Room

The Library will be closed on January 19 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Due to a system upgrade, a search-only version of Orbis, the Library’s online catalog, will be in temporary use from December 28, 2008 through January 2, 2009. Readers will not be able to access saved searches, place requests, or view account information during this short period.

Access to Borrow Direct (BD) for searching and requesting will also be limited because of several system upgrades. BD will be unavailable on: Tuesday, December 23 from 2:00 p.m. until later that evening; the morning of Friday, December 26 until the morning of Sunday, December 28; and Monday, December 29 through Thursday, January 1, 2009.

BD will be available on Wednesday, December 24, Thursday, December 25, and Friday, January 2, 2009.

Borrow Direct books on the Bass Library hold shelf by Tuesday, December 23, can be picked up on recess days when Bass is open. Pickup at the other Borrow Direct locations will be available only if the location is open during the holiday recess.

InterLibrary Loan (ILL) services will be closed from Wednesday, December 24 through Thursday, January 1, 2009. During that time, readers may continue to submit requests, but they will not be processed until staff return to work on January 2. Incoming shipments of previously requested book also will resume on January 2.

ILL books on the Bass Library hold shelf by Tuesday, December 23, can be picked up on recess days when Bass is open. Pickup at other ILL locations will be available only if the location is open during the holiday break. Please consult location-specific web pages for detailed schedule information.

The Library apologies for any inconvenience.

For information about Library hours over the Holiday and Recess period, visit www.library.yale.edu/hours/.

Best wishes from the University Library for a happy and relaxing Holiday.

The Gilmore Music Library is celebrating the centennial of Olivier Messiaen's brith with a display of two recently acquired items in the composer’s own hand (on exhibit in the Reference Room, Music Library ML 101M). In 1960 Messiaen completed Chronochromie, a large orchestral work based on bird songs, and it was first performed that year at the Donaueschingen festival under the direction of Hans Rosbaud.

In September 1961, shortly after the initial French performance in Besançon, Messiaen sent some corrections to a Monsieur Brück, along with a letter discussing the matter. Chronochromie proved to be one of Messiaen’s most controversial works, and it met with a stormy reception at each of its early performances. The two manuscripts were purchased with income from the Margaret Deakers Waith Fund.

The Yale School of Music is also marking the Messiaen anniversary with a series of concerts and a symposium from December 8 to 14. For more information, see http://www.yale.edu/music/Messiaen.

The Bass Library will be open for study continuously from 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 10 through 11:45 p.m. on Friday, December 12.

Valid Yale ID is required to enter the Library between 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 a.m., and readers are asked to restrict consumption of food to the Thain Family Cafe.

See www.library.yale.edu/hours/ for a full schedule of all library openings during Reading Period.

James Neal
Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian, Columbia University
"Copyright Still Matters: Preparing the Academy for the Attack on Balance and Fair Use"
Tuesday, December 2, 3:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

This presentation will highlight key legislative and legal developments related to copyright of concern to the research university community, and will call for understanding, commitment and action for the advancement of academic interests. Mr. Neal will also speak about the Section 108 study, which focused on updating proposals for the new digital environment. The talk will be a fascinating insight into the workings of such a group and the various positions and tensions experienced therein. In turn, these lead to inconclusive and sometimes vexed outcomes.

James Neal has been involved over the past twenty years in a variety of initiatives at the national and global levels in the areas of copyright and scholarly communication. He participated in the recently concluded Section 108 (of the US Copyright Act) expert study. Section 108 addresses exceptions to copyright law, in particular how libraries and archives deal with copyrighted materials in fulfilling their scholarly missions.

Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings Staff Concert
Wednesday, December 3, 12:00 noon
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

Staff from the Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings and the Gilmore Music Library, along with a guest performer from the Neighborhood Music School, will present a lunchtime concert in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall at 12 noon on Wednesday, December 3. The performance is free and open to all and will feature works by Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Schubert, Charles Ives, and Cole Porter.

The Yale Collection of Historical Sound Recordings collects, preserves, and makes available recordings of performers important in the fields of Western classical music, jazz, American musical theater, drama, literature, and history, including oratory.

Dale Martin
Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University
Thursday, December 4, 4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

Dale Martin specializes in New Testament and Christian origins, including attention to social and cultural history of the Greco-Roman world. Before joining the Yale faculty in 1999, he taught at Rhodes College and Duke University. His books include: Slavery as Salvation: The Metaphor of Slavery in Pauline Christianity; The Corinthian Body; Inventing Superstition: from the Hippocratics to the Christians; Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation; and Pedagogy of the Bible: an Analysis and Proposal.

Professor Martin will speak about his recent book Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation, including explaining his own movement from a childhood in fundamentalist Christianity to his current position as a spokesperson for something approaching a "postmodern Christianity."

On Tuesday, November 25, the Library made a significant upgrade to Yufind. Readers will notice much faster system response times and much more accurate faceting by subject, author, language, and more. Readers will also notice more options for redirecting searches from Yufind to other indexes and search engines. The Library hopes to have a tagging and annotation tool in place within the next week. We hope you enjoy the improvements and we look forward to receiving your questions or comments.

Recent feedback has revealed that some readers do not like the name "Yufind" (Yale University Find), based on software originally developed at Villanova University (i.e., VU-FIND). The Library is considering alternate names, but feel free to submit your own suggestions to the Yufind Project Team.

This session will focus on the use of RSS feeds for pedagogical purposes. RSS stands for “Real Simple Syndication.” RSS is a protocol that lets users subscribe to online content using an RSS “reader” or “aggregator”. Rather than checking 20 or 50 or 100 blogs every day, subscribing to RSS feeds using an aggregator allows you to receive regular updates from your favorite information sources on the web. Aggregating and culling information from the web in this manner is pedagogically relevant for a wide range of courses and disciplines. RSS provides an efficient way for students to keep in touch with faculty, stay informed about coursework and other academic activities, and follow developments in their fields of study.

Robin Ladouceur will introduce RSS feeds and give an overview of RSS feed readers and aggregators. Barbara Stuart will present her use of RSS Feeds in her English 114 course this fall on the Election.

When?
Tuesday from 1:00-2:00 p.m.

Where?
Bass Library room L01 (lower level of the Bass Library)

Who?
Barbara Stuart, English Lecturer
Robin Ladouceur, Instructional Design Specialist, Instructional Technology Group

The University Library has launched a blog to document the actions and activities of the Library Green Team, a group of staff from across the Library system working to make Yale University Library a greener and more sustainable workplace. Visit the blog to find out what we're doing to reduce energy consumption, increase recycling, and promote environmentally sustainable work practices to support of Yale's wider goal of reducing its carbon footprint.

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library also has a blog, 'The Greening of the Beinecke', that describes their green goals and actions.

New features and a bold new design are now available for Yale University Library's Visual Resources Collection (VRC). The VRC contains over 250,000 images of art, architecture, and art objects used by students and faculty in teaching and learning.

The new design, released now in its initial beta phase, is called Metagallery and allows users to login and create groups, browse groups created by others, and even add their own items to groups. Metagallery is available to anyone on the Yale campus at http://images.library.yale.edu/metagallery.

Graduate students in the social sciences are invited to attend focus groups to discuss future plans for the Social Science Library and StatLab in light of Yale's plans to build two new residential colleges in the Prospect-Sachem triangle. For more information and to register, click here.

Ben Kiernan
A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History & Director, Genocide Studies Program
Yale University

Wednesday, October 29, 4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Reception to follow | Free and open to the public

For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge and his writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia, but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide.

Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations and twentieth-century case studies including the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin’s mass murders, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides. He identifies connections, patterns, and features that in nearly every case gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism.

Please stop by an Open House in the Thain Family Café on Friday, October 17 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. to celebrate the Bass Library's first birthday. Just one year ago, the Library opened at midnight to an estimated crowd of 1,500 who gathered on the Cross Campus. To mark the success of the Bass Library and the way in which it has become a center for collaboration between students, faculty, and library staff, coffee, cookies, and cider will be served in the Thain Family Café. Take a break from studying (or Facebook) and stop by this Friday afternoon.

A gentle reminder that beyond the Café in the Bass Library, food cannot be consumed and liquids are only allowed in approved spill-proof containers.

Yale University will mark the 250th birthday of alumnus Noah Webster with a series of events on October 16-17 that range from special exhibits, lectures, and tour to birthday cupcakes inscribed with words that first appeared in Webster’s landmark 1828 dictionary. The Library's department of Manuscripts and Archives is a major sponsor of Noah Webster 250 and many of the lectures and events will take place in the Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall (128 Wall Street). A detailed schedule of events can found here.

Spend twenty minutes filling out an online survey on the Library's beta Yufind catalog interface and you could win an iPod Touch. A valid Yale University e-mail account is required and Library staff are not eligible to participate. The lucky winner's name will be drawn on October 17, 2008 and readers can access the survey here.

Yufind has been available since August 22 as an alternate interface for Orbis, the Library's current catalog. In order to improve and enchance Yufind and to measure reader satisfaction, the Library welcomes feedback and comments.

Twofortyfive is a new blog brought to you by the Library's Usability and Assessment department.

Traditionally, librarians have been dedicated to making their collections easier to discover, access, and use. Readers once had to physically come into the library and it was easy to get to know them and understand how they worked and what they needed. In the digital world, however, there is less opportunity for patron and librarian to talk to each other, because it is less common for them to interact in real time or in the same physical space. More and more collections are online, scholars are online, librarians are online too, but meaningful interactions are less frequent.

The Usability and Assessment team spend alot of time examining and evaluating the reader experience on the web and this blog is designed to improve two way communication between library staff and its users.

Beginning on September 29 and for the remainder of the fall term, Manuscripts and Archives will remain open for research until 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. Hours of operation are also extended to Sunday afternoons from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Readers may use previously paged collection material, but there is no additional reference or paging service available during these times.

The Yale Map Department is offering a number of GIS workshops throughout the term. All workshops will be held in the Bass Library Electronic Classroom L06 (Lower Level) from 1:00-4:00 p.m. For more information, contact Stacey Maples.

Register for the workshops here.
(Please note that the registration page currently only works with Internet Explorer with pop-ups enabled.)

Introduction to GIS Mapping and ESRI’s ArcGIS Software

An introduction to the basic concepts of creating, managing and analyzing explicitly spatial data within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework. Included is a step-by-step, "hands on" introduction to using spatial data within ESRI's ArcGIS software. Topics will include: Spatial Data Models, Spatial Relationships, The ArcMap User Interface, Thematic Mapping Using Symbology, and Simple Analysis Using Complex Selection Methods.

Dates:

Wednesday, September 24
Friday, October 17
Wednesday, November
Thursday, December 3

Finding GIS and Census Data & Preparing It for Use

Geographic data can come from a variety of sources, including your own database files and spreadsheets, federal, state and local governmental agencies and commercial vendors. This workshop will focus upon dependable sources of commonly used GIS data, common data file formats, projections & coordinate systems, scale, aggregation, metadata, and issues of sources and citation. Special Attention will be given to downloading and preparing Census data for use in GIS software.

Date:

Wednesday, October 1

From Non-Spatial Data to Spatial Data: Geocoding & Georeferencing in ArcGIS

This workshop provides the skills necessary for turning non-spatial data, such as street addresses and scanned maps, into explicitly spatial data for use in GIS analysis. Topics include: The TIGER Data Model, Collecting Useable Address Data, The Geocoding Process, Troubleshooting Problem Addresses, Using Offsets, Scanning and Georeferencing of Paper Maps, and Display of XY Data.

Date:

Wednesday, October 8

Raster: The ‘Other’ GIS Data

The Raster Data Model provided an effective means of characterizing spatially continuous phenomena, such as elevation, temperature, precipitation and other environmental and climatic characteristics. This workshop provides a targeted introduction to the tools available in ArcGIS for creating, managing and analyzing data in raster form. Topics include: Introduction to Spatial Analyst, Map Algebra and the Raster Calculator, Surface Analysis, and Combining Vector & Raster Data in Analysis.

Date:

Wednesday, October 15

GPS & GIS: Collecting Spatial Coordinates and Using them in ArcGIS

A workshop designed to introduce the participant to the use of consumer-grade GPS equipment for the collection of explicitly spatial data for analysis within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework. Topics include: The Global Positioning Satellite System, Coordinate Systems, Minimizing Measurement Error, and Converting Tabular Data to ESRI Shapefiles.

Date:

Wednesday, October 22

Editing in ArcGIS: Creating and Altering Spatial Data

The objective of this workshop is to provide participants with hands on experience with editing in ArcGIS (or doing "heads-up" digitizing), to provide an appreciation of the issues involved in editing to maintain topological consistency and to demonstrate the steps which may be involved in creating a new, spatially accurate coverage.

Date:

Wednesday, October 29

Creating Map Layouts in ArcGIS

This workshop will introduce the ArcGIS tools available for creating effective map layouts that are capable of clearly conveying the results of GIS analysis to an audience. Topics include: Symbolization, Advanced Labeling, Annotation, Using Graphics in Layouts, Cartographic Elements, and Grids & Graticules.

Date:

Wednesday, November 5

Classic Cartographic Techniques in ArcGIS

One of the drawbacks of the computer revolution in mapping is the decline in attention to cartography as a graphic art. Working in the Yale Map Collection exposes one to the most beautiful cartography ever produced. This workshop is intended to provide the participant with an appreciation of the graphic and cartographic techniques used in classic cartography and the tools to reproduce some of these elements in their own cartographic work. Topics will include: Coastal & Lacustrine Vignettes, Depiction of Topography and Use of Color in Thematic Mapping, Decorative Typography and Creating Custom Cartographic Elements. This workshop is being presented as part of the activities celebrating GIS Day 2008.

Date:

Wednesday, November 19

The University Library has launched a beta version of Yufind, an experimental alternative interface to its catalog. Yufind is not a replacement for Orbis, the Library’s current catalog, but it provides a new kind of discovery experience for users, one that better fits current search expectations and incorporates a variety of Web 2.0 tools.

Orbis transaction logs show that searches often fail because of misspelled words, use of natural language (versus controlled vocabularies like Library of Congress Subject Headings), or information entered into the wrong search fields. Users also expect a Google-like interface that suggests alternate spellings and employs sophisticated relevancy ranking and faceted navigation to help display and narrow search results.

Yufind offers a powerful keyword relevancy ranking algorithm, RSS feeds, formatted export of bibliographic citations, integration of cover art, book reviews, sample book chapters, tables of contents, and real-time circulation status. Future enhancements will include the ability to bookmark and annotate records and send them to an e-mail address, cell phone, or PDA, while longer-term goals aim to integrate archival finding aids, visual image records, and new facets that will allow results to be narrowed by item availability and location.

The Library invites user feedback to help improve Yufind, and questions and comments can be sent to Daniel Lovins. For detailed information about Yufind and to contact members of the project team visit About Yufind.

Tours of Sterling Memorial and Bass Libraries begin today, September 2nd. Additional tours are scheduled for Thursday, September 4th, Friday, September 5th, Thursday, September 11th, Friday, September 12th, Friday, September 19th, Friday September 26th, Thursday, October 2nd, and Friday October 3rd. Tours begin in the Sterling Memorial Library nave at 3:30 p.m. and are open to any member of the Yale community. No sign-up or advance registration is required. Please bring your Yale ID.

The University Library is in the process of designing a new and reconceived social science library which will include classrooms, an information commons with full suites of digital services, social and study spaces, collections, and a café. As part of the University’s overall plans for the Sachem-Prospect triangle and the construction of two new residential colleges, the Seeley G. Mudd and Social Science Libraries will be reconfigured to support learning and research in the social sciences campus-wide as well as the community of students who will be housed in the new colleges.

To create this new library, the Mudd Library and Government Documents and Information Center (GDIC) will be closed to readers as of September 15, 2008. To keep disruption to a minimum, services and collections will continue to be available during the closure in the following ways:

Mudd Library Collections

•Items in the Mudd Library can be requested for delivery through Orbis and delivered to any library on campus
•Yale faculty and graduate students can request articles from Mudd Library journals or selections from other Mudd Library holdings; material will be delivered electronically
•David McCaslin can be contacted with special requests

Government Documents and Information Center (GDIC) Collections

•A non-circulating GDIC reference collection will be relocated to the Social Science Library
•Government documents will circulate during the closure and can be requested for delivery via Orbis to any library on campus
•Readers who cannot find items in Orbis can use an online form or an e-mail to request a search of the collections. If an item is found but not catalogued, it will be processed first before it is allowed to circulate
•GDIC microform materials can be requested for delivery via Orbis. Microform reading, printing, and scanning services will be available in the Social Science Library, Sterling Memorial Library, and Divinity School Library
•GDIC research assistance will be available in the Social Science Library
•Julie Linden can be contacted with special requests

Members of the Yale community are invited to contact Jill Parchuck, Director of Social Science Libraries and Information Services, or Kendall Crilly, Associate University Librarian for Program Development and Research, with questions or concerns.

Beginning Tuesday, September 2, Information Services, located in the Sterling Memorial Library nave, will provide information about the University Library’s collections and services, directional assistance, referrals to subject specialists, and reference assistance, as well as information about reader access to the libraries including privileges cards for visiting researchers, study carrels, fines, and circulation. This new service will integrate Privileges Office operations and reference desk services.

The service also represents increased hours in which staff will be available to assist readers in the Sterling nave, as well as enhanced support for readers who have questions about accessing the Library and its resources.

Information Services will be available Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m.- 6:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.; Sunday, 1:00- 5:00 p.m.

Questions and comments about this new service can be sent to Danuta Nitecki, Associate University Librarian for Public Services and Library Teaching and Learning.

The new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library in the Rudolph Building and Loria Center at 180 York Street is now open! Fall semester hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-11:00 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.; Saturday, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; and Sunday, 2:00-11:00 p.m.

The opening of the Arts Library Special Collections, located on the lower level of the Haas Family Arts Library, will be delayed until September 8. For more information, visit the Arts Library's web site.

The Yale University Library now has a profile on Facebook, the popular social networking web site. The Library's profile includes news and information, research tools, images, and blog posts from across the Library system. You can access the Library's profile here or by searching for 'Yale University Library' in the Facebook search box. Show your support by becoming a fan and use the site to access the Library's resources, services, and collections.

Beginning July 30, the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library collections began moving into the Rudolph Building and the Jeffrey Loria Center for the History of Art at 180 Crown Street. Arts of the Book, located in Sterling Memorial Library, was the first collection to move. Beginning August 4, the Drama collections will be moved into these spaces. The move of the Art & Architecture collections have now been postponed to an as yet unknown date. Library personnel from all Arts units (including Drama, Arts Special Collections, VRC) will continue to work from their current office locations. Access to Drama and Arts Special Collections will be limited until further notice. Please continue to check the Arts Library web site for updates.

Questions and concerns regarding the Arts Library closure can be directed to Allen Townsend. We look forward to serving the Yale Community in the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library.

Each year, the Library Staff Association (LiSA) holds a food drive to benefit the Connecticut Food Bank, a local organization that works with corporations, community organizations, and individuals to solicit, transport, warehouse and distribute donated food. This year's drive will begin Monday, July 14th and end on Friday, August 1st. The "Virtual Food Drive" website created for the Yale University Library makes it even easier to donate "food" or funds to the Connecticut Food Bank. Last year, Library staff donated a total of 1,060 pounds of food, the equivalent of 815 meals.

The Annual Report of the University Librarian 2006-2007 has been released and is available online in pdf format.

For Immediate Release
June 26, 2008

New Haven, Conn.—Yale University Library today announced that it is has received a grant of $294,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support Yale’s Oral History American Music project (OHAM). The grant will help OHAM transition into a sustained program within the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library.

OHAM is the only ongoing project in the field of music dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral and video memoirs in the voices of musicians and composers. The project’s origins can be traced back to 1968 when Vivian Perlis, then a reference librarian at Yale’s Music Library, began to conduct interviews with individuals who had known and worked with the composer Charles Ives. Her award-winning book, Charles Ives Remembered, was published in 1974 by Yale University Press, and was quickly hailed as a model of how oral history could illuminate the activities of musicians and their place in society.

Over a decade in the planning, the new Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library in the Paul Rudolph Building reflects and meets the changing needs of teaching, research, and learning in the arts at Yale. Arts Library collections and staff, currently housed in a number of buildings across campus including the swing space at 270 Crown Street, will move into the Haas Family Arts Library later this summer in time for the fall semester. The Library will house the collections of the Art + Architecture Library, the Drama Library, and the Arts of the Book Collection, as well as staff and services for the Visual Resources Collection, and will become the physical and intellectual center for the pursuit of research, teaching, learning, and practice of the arts at Yale.

The Haas Family Arts Library will feature a variety of spaces for individual study, group study spaces, a large teaching space, and secure reading and teaching spaces for Arts Library special collections. The Special Collections Reading Room, a dramatic feature of the central two-story atrium, enhances interdisciplinary studies by realizing the long-planned consolidation of the many important special collections of the Arts Library, including the Arts of the Book Collection, one of the largest special collections at Yale and one of the most important book arts collections in North America. The Special Collections Exhibit area, which will continuously showcase exhibitions of the Library’s treasures, will feature a plaque recognizing a significant gift from William H. Wright, ’82.

More information on Arts Library services during the planned move period will be made available over the coming weeks on the Library's web site: www.library.yale.edu/art/.

As of Monday, June 30, 2008, all Blackwell Synergy journal content, including all full-text HTML and PDF versions of articles from current issues, backfiles, and issues published online before print, will be incorporated into Wiley InterScience.

On Friday, June 27 at 9:00 pm Blackwell Synergy will close down. On Saturday, June 28 at 5:00 am Wiley InterScience will go offline temporarily due to the migration of the content. On Sunday, June 29 at 9:00 pm Wiley InterScience will come back online with the Blackwell Synergy journals incorporated. Over the weekend there will be a period when both Blackwell Synergy and Wiley InterScience will be unavailable while they transition and re-index data.

For more information, visit Wiley-Blackwell's Online Content Transition News.

During the summer months, the Thain Family Café at the Bass Library is open Monday to Friday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. It is closed on weekends and holidays.

Yale alumni, spouses, friends, family, and guests are warmly invited to Reunion Weekend events at Sterling Memorial Library on June 6 and 7. June 7 coincides with the Library's Open House Day and all are welcome. Detailed information and a schedule of tours and events can be found in the "read more" section of this entry.

The Lewis Walpole Library is delighted to announce the recipients of Fellowships for the 2008-2009 academic year. A complete list of Fellows follows in the extended entry.

The Library offers visiting fellowships, normally for four weeks, as well as travel grants of lesser duration, to scholars engaged in post-doctoral or equivalent research and to doctoral candidates at the dissertation stage. Fellows in residence also have access to additional materials at Yale. Summer fellowships for graduate students at Yale are also offered.

The Lewis Walpole Library is a research library for eighteenth-century studies and the prime source for the study of Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill. Its collections include significant holdings of eighteenth-century British books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as important examples of the decorative arts.

Students from New Haven’s Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School and archivists from Yale University Library will celebrate their collaboration on the Family and Community Archives Project (FCAP) with an event on Wednesday, May 28 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Sterling Memorial Library’s lecture hall (128 Wall Street). The media is welcome to attend.

In response to the Society of American Archivists call for action in developing a more diverse archival workforce, twenty-one Yale University Library archivists conceived the Family and Community Archives Project to introduce New Haven high school students to the archival profession and the work of professional archivists. Over nine weeks, 113 juniors and their teachers in “United States History II” learned how to find and care for photographs, documents, and artifacts and learned how to do research using primary sources.

The University Library moved to its summer schedule on May 13, 2008. For detailed information on opening and closing times for all libraries, visit: www.library.yale.edu/hours.

For release May 6, 2008

New Haven, Conn.--Important periods in the history of Yale will now be more accessible to scholars and students through the Yale University Library’s Yale Daily News Historical Archive.

The Yale Daily News (YDN) is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States, and has been covering student life at Yale and in New Haven for 130 years. The Library has now digitized key periods from the YDN including January 1878 to June 1879, the first year of the YDN’s publication; the period covering the two World Wars; the era of civil unrest, coeducation, and the Black Panther trials from 1967 to 1970; and the early years of President A. Bartlett Giamatti’s administration from 1978 to 1981. The Library is working with a number of partners to digitize the entire run of the YDN from 1878 to 2000, and content from January 2001 to the present is already available online at the YDN web site.