All posts by Aaron Welborn

Student Research and Writing Prizes: Win $1,000 or More!

Each year, the Duke University Libraries offer four different prizes to reward excellence in student writing. If you’re a Duke student, consider submitting your work for one of these prizes. The awards carry a cash prize of $1,000 (Aptman, Holsti and Middlesworth) or $1,500 (Rosati).

All submissions must be received by June 15, 2021.

Aptman Prizes

  • The Aptman Prizes recognize undergraduates’ excellence in research, including their analysis, evaluation and synthesis of sources.
  • Any undergraduate student who uses library resources to complete a paper and project as part of his or her undergraduate coursework at Duke may be considered for an Aptman Prize.
  • See the Application Guidelines for more information about how to submit your research for consideration.

Middlesworth Awards

  • The Middlesworth Awards recognize excellence of analysis, research, and writing by Duke University students in the use of primary sources held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
  • All papers or projects from Duke undergraduate or graduate students that are based largely or wholly on sources in the Rubenstein Library are eligible.
  • Learn more about submitting your work.

Holsti Prize

  • The Holsti Prize recognizes excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.
  • Undergraduate papers that use primary sources and were written for a course, independent study, or thesis in the Political Science or Public Policy departments are eligible.
  • Learn more about submitting your work.

The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

A Few Words in Memory of Our Friend, Sam

Sam Hammond in the room where he played the Duke Chapel carillon, 2018. Photo by Les Todd.

On February 25, 2021, the Duke University Libraries lost a longtime friend and cherished colleague. For many years J. Samuel Hammond was perhaps best known (or best heard) as Duke’s official carillonneur. He began playing the carillon in 1965 while an undergraduate at Duke and was eventually promoted to perform in an official capacity when he graduated three years later. For fifty straight years—one for every bell that hangs in the Chapel tower—Sam was Duke’s ringer-in-chief. In honor of a long and literally resounding record of service, Duke’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution in 2018 naming the carillon in his honor.

Illustration from “De campanis commentarius” (1612), purchased in Hammond’s honor when he retired from the Libraries in 2012.

For those of us in the Libraries, Sam was also our co-worker—someone we saw, spoke to, and joked with almost every day. He worked here for close to four decades, starting out as Duke’s first music librarian in 1974, then becoming a rare book cataloger in 1986, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. To send him off with style, the Rubenstein Library purchased in his honor an extremely rare 1612 first edition of Angelo Rocca’s De campanis commentarius (A Commentary on Bells), one of the earliest studies of bells and bell ringing.

After he retired from the Libraries, Sam was given a carrel on the fourth floor of Bostock Library so that he could continue his personal research and a project editing the correspondence of Hugh James Rose, an Anglican clergyman of the early nineteenth century who was instrumental in initiating the Oxford Movement. Happily, that meant we had the pleasure of continuing to see Sam around the library on a regular basis. Until 2020, that is.

After he died last week, those of us in the Libraries began to share some of our fondest memories of Sam with each other. And since we are unable to gather and celebrate his life in person, we wanted to collect and share some of those reminiscences with you, the Duke community, virtually. Needless to say, he leaves behind many friends in Durham, at Duke, and around the country. If you’re reading this and you would like to contribute your own memory of Sam, please drop it in the comments section. We’ll be sure to include it.

Among his many endearing and old-fashioned characteristics, Sam was a great writer of short personal notes. He would always record the date in Roman numerals (even in emails!) and close with the Latin benediction “PAX.” The kiss of peace, which we now return to him. Rest now, Sam. The bells are ringing for you. PAX.


Tributes and Testimonials


I came to Duke in 1983 and Sam was my colleague from then on. He was so wise and well-read, but also possibly the most modest person I have known, also the most generous and thoughtful. Knowing how delighted they would be to see the world from the top of the Chapel, over the years he invited each of my then-young sons (who were practically raised at Duke) to take the thrilling ride up—and then gave them each (on their respective visits) the ultimate responsibility of marking 5 p.m. with the five “bongs” heard all over campus. Their memories of those special visits with Sam are still vivid. 

I will also remember Sam’s kindness—knowing of my interest in tango, he regularly kept me updated on the appearances of the Lorena Guillén Tango Ensemble, including her memorable concerts on Jewish tango and her project “The Other Side of my Heart,” the stories of Latina immigrants. And I will always fondly recall the image of my encounters with Sam in the Libraries or on the quad, when he would bow and doff his hat, with a smile and a pseudo-formal greeting of “Dr. Jakubs!”—followed by a much more chatty personal conversation about so many things. Thank you, Sam. PAX.

—Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs


Soon after I began working at Duke in 2010, Sam offered to make me a scarf. I had no idea how broad his talents were, and I was touched by this personal gesture as I was trying to find my footing in the library. A beautiful blue scarf soon appeared in my inbox with a handwritten note. It was one of many notes I found in my box in the years before Sam retired, often calling something to my attention and occasionally letting me know I’d done something well. I valued his opinion and sought to uphold his high standards for the Duke Libraries. I will greatly miss greeting Sam in the library or on the quad. And I will wear my scarf with gratitude and seek to be worthy of it. 

—Naomi L. Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library


My children knew Sam Hammond as “Mr. Sam.” Over the course of thirteen years, we passed Mr. Sam on 751 as he walked to campus wearing his black coat and his signature hat. On our daily commute to school, the kids and I looked expectantly for Mr. Sam just as Academy Road intersected with Wrightwood Ave. If we were on time, the kids would wave and Mr. Sam would tip his hat. 

Sam Hammond shared his musical gifts with our children. When my son was nine, Sam accompanied Micah as he learned the role of Amahl for Long Leaf Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. For many years, Sam and Marie attended the children’s concerts—piano recitals at Durham School of the Arts and the Yiddish Song Festival at Beth El Synagogue. Mira remembers Sam jotting down the date of her event in a small leather-bound black book. This book, the suspenders, and Sam’s hat were part of what made Mr. Sam so enchanting.

One memory that the children both recollect: we bumped into Mr. Sam on the quad a few Decembers ago when he was en route to play the carillon. We chatted, and as he turned to tip his hat, he wished us a Happy Chanukah. When he arrived at the carillon, he played his traditional 5 o’clock bells and then moved from a hymn to a melody which both children recognized—they smiled and sang along as Sam played “I have a little dreidel.” We will continue to treasure these memories of our beloved Mr. Sam.

— Trudi Abel, Research Services Archivist, Rubenstein Library


Something he gave us all, day after day, was the ringing of the carillon as we were released from work at the end of the day: the ringing out of bronze bells high in the chapel’s belfry, signifying completion and freedom to one and all, regardless of race, rank or creed. And yet, with such power at his fingertips, it seemed that he treasured library work equally, its quiet spaces and detailed endeavors, requiring the most sterling patience and devotion. Over the pressed black and white attire of a gentleman he often wore a dark green work smock, navigating the halls and vestibules where I might meet him and say hello. He brought a delightful and unique formality to the most mundane encounters, investing them with a subtle radiance. I will miss him. He was like an ambassador from a better world.

— Mary Yordy, Senior Library Assistant, Conservation Services


My story is about Sam’s care of new parents. When I became a parent in the early-mid 2000s, Sam would bestow gifts of crocheted or knitted items for our babies that he presented in his humble, loving way. My memory is that he waited to give the gifts until we’d come back to work to take the opportunity to offer a few carefully chosen sympathetic and supportive words about surviving the experience of new parenthood. I still have the blanket he made for us.

— Laura Micham, Merle Hoffman Director, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture


Before my retirement in 2010 from what is now the Rubenstein Library, I had an office on the second floor that looked right onto the quad in front of Duke Chapel. This gave me a front row seat to Sam’s daily recitals. I often stayed longer than I needed, just to be able to sit back and enjoy the bells.

More than that though, my responsibilities in the library put all of the rare book and manuscript technical service operations under my supervision. This meant that Sam, as a rare book cataloger, was technically under my supervision. This was laughable, since Sam had more knowledge about rare book cataloging tucked into the hardened and muscular folds of one hand than almost anyone in the state of North Carolina! It did, however, afford me the pleasant excuse to meet with him periodically.

Some memories that stand out include hearing about his annual trek to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where there was an annual gathering of carillon artists from around the country. Sam especially liked the atmosphere of Sewanee, which was a traditional old-style college, where upperclassmen were required to wear academic gowns to class. Given Sam’s singular (and easily recognizable from 100 yards away) style of dress, I often thought that he would have been more comfortable wearing his own academic gown.

After my own retirement, I was often on campus in the morning on my way to Wilson Gym and would run into Sam coming though the clock tower passage from Crowell Quad on his way to the library (where he kept a carrel after his retirement to volunteer his efforts to resolve lingering rare book cataloging issues). There was always a tip of the hat and a brief genial conversation on families, the weather and other pleasantries.

A couple of years ago I was at a retirement party at the Schwartz-Butters building for a Wilson/Card gym staff member. Somehow I ended up in conversation with David Cutcliffe, Duke’s football coach, and he asked me if I knew anything about a gentleman wearing a hat and usually carrying a bag that he would see walking along Academy Road as he would come into work in the morning. It didn’t take much elaboration to know he was talking about Sam Hammond. I spoke with him briefly about Sam and his work in the Chapel and the library. The very next time I encountered Sam, he told me that Coach Cutcliffe had pulled his car over to introduce himself and chat with Sam. I think this was the start of an interesting friendship. After Sam’s heart attack last summer, I managed indirectly to get word to the coach and I know that he immediately got in touch with Sam.

Steve Hensen (Retired), Rubenstein Library


Sam was always gracious. He shared the carillon with alumni and friends. Whenever I invited someone for a special experience, Sam always enthralled. I will miss him and his gentleness. And the elevator rides to the top of Duke and his world.

— Tom Hadzor, Associate University Librarian for Development


When I started the University Archives in 1972, I wondered who this person I kept seeing around the building wearing a three-quarter-length coat as sort of a working uniform was. Then I noticed the variety of work stations he occupied. I got to know him as the carillonneur through my association with the Friends of the Chapel. I quickly discovered that whatever he was doing it was with thoroughness, integrity, passion, and with wit and a twinkle in his eye. Over the years, decades really, Sam became a trusted friend and confident who shared a love for the university and its history. He was unique. His role and contribution to Duke was unique. Such people have made the university what it is. His presence will be missed and all who knew Sam will miss him greatly.  

—William E. King (Retired), University Archivist 1972-2002


Sam was always very kind to me. When I went to his office to review an item, we would have long chats, and he would show me all the wonderful things he was working on. Sam always took the time to say that he appreciated that I was here. That made me feel good. I appreciated his kindness, his sharp wit, and his willingness to help you with any question you had for him. Even after retirement he would make time to stop and chat if we ran into each other in the hallway. I will miss his presence greatly.

— Beth Doyle, Leona B. Carpenter Senior Conservator and Head, Conservation Services Department


I knew Sam primarily as a Rare Books Librarian when I worked in the library as staff member from 1993-2000. There was no one I’d rather give a curious old book to than Sam, just to see what he thought and how it connected to the thousands of others he had taken his glasses off to pore over; you can’t “Google” information like that. We had a special connection, as native Georgians and as musicians, and I learned a great deal about rare books and collegiality from him. PAX, SH, from GB 26 II.

— Gary R. Boye, Erneston Music Library, Appalachian State University


I worked and socialized with Sam Hammond throughout our long careers in the Duke University Libraries. He played the organ at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church for my marriage with Catherine Blue, a Duke graduate. He was a quintessential gentleman, highly cultured, and someone with whom one could discuss anything with ease, understanding, and mirth. When I had the privilege of hearing the first concert on the great Fisk organ at the new Catholic Cathedral in Raleigh, it was Sam who played the carillon afterwards. Sam was a monarchist, and we had reasons to explore that culture joyfully. He inserted a special piece of music for me on the  Duke Carillon after my retirement. He was always the same.

— William Rector Erwin, Jr.  (Retired), Manuscript Cataloger and Reference Librarian, Manuscript Department, 1960-1999


I’d just started at Duke in July 2018. I can’t remember when it was exactly but in my first few days but Sam came in and came to my station. He said, “You’re new here!” and I said “Yes sir, I just got here from Davidson College.” He said that he was sure I’d do a good job and that he was glad to have me as part of the Duke community. He didn’t know this but I was a total ball of anxiety. Davidson was a small liberal arts college and I’d come here to work for a behemoth of an institution. That simple act of kindness meant more to me than he knew, but that was just Sam, doing good deeds wherever he went.

— Jeremy Martin, Reserves Coordinator


Sam always had a smile on his face; his laughter was a happy chuckle.

— Catherine Leonardi (Retired), Music Cataloger


When I became a rare book cataloger, Sam Hammond became one of my mentors, always treating me with courtly kindness and giving sound advice. I especially enjoyed opportunities to share our mutual admiration of Queen Elizabeth II. I respected Sam’s firm dignity and appreciated his gentle courtesy toward all our Special Collections colleagues, as well as the library’s patrons and visitors.

—Nixie Miller (Retired), Rubenstein Library


Sam was a steady presence in the library. Walking through Perkins, I’d run into him several times a week. He’d tip his hat, smile and share a hello. Every. Single. Time. For a while, I didn’t know who he was or how he knew me. Was he an alum who loved the library? A professor that I had somehow forgotten I met or knew? Nope – just a gentle man who exuded the warmth of human kindness.

— Shawn J. Miller, Director, Duke Learning Innovation


Before he retired as carillonneur, I often encountered Sam on my after-work walk to my car as he was leaving the Chapel after playing the carillon that day. He would always smile and tip his hat to me. Occasionally, we would stop and chat for a few minutes if either of us had recently heard from a mutual friend who used to be a faculty member in the Divinity School. He will be sorely missed!

—Jim Coble (Retired), Information Technology Services, Duke Libraries


I succeeded Sam as Music Librarian, and I remember walking into his former office in the Biddle Building in early January of 1987, ready to start my new job. The office was left in immaculate order for the next person. I was so grateful for that, and it helped me to feel that I had come to the right place. Over the years until I retired in 2005, I conferred with Sam about a number of things, not the least of which was his invitation to my family and myself to visit him in the upper room of the carillon tower while he held forth at the special console. I’ll always associate Sam with the grand Chapel bells, spreading their wonderful tones and overtones over the university landscape and issuing an invitation to all to pause and listen.

— John Druesedow (Retired), Music Librarian, 1987–2005


I worked with Sam for many years and he was always the most pleasant person that you ever wanted to meet. Always willing to assist you with your needs and I loved to hear him laugh. My deepest condolences to his family.

— Beverly Mills (Retired), Perkins Library Serials Department


I had the pleasure of meeting Sam in the early days of my employment in the library (mid-1970s) and I have nothing but fond memories of him. Sam ALWAYS exhibited a pleasant disposition, cheerful attitude, and respectful demeanor to me, from day one until the last time I saw him just before I retired almost 3 years ago. I’ll always remember seeing him walking to campus from his home each morning, and upon arriving to campus, stopping to salute the James B. Duke statue in the middle of the quad in front of the Chapel before continuing his journey into the library. At precisely 5:00 p.m. each day, Sam would play the bells from the top of the Chapel, and I looked forward to listening to the tunes he played each day when I left work to return to my car to head home, sometimes humming along to the tunes I was familiar with. Years ago, Sam even gave myself and some other library employees a personal tour of the top of the Chapel where the bells are located and demonstrated to us how he played them. Finally, I will always remember Sam’s hearty and joyous laughter and his gentlemanly demeanor. I’m very honored to have known him and will always treasure these memories of him.

—Iris Turrentine (Retired), Library Human Resources


In 2000, when I moved from the Bingham Center to a generalist position in what is now the Rubenstein Library, Sam allowed me to sit in on his many library instruction classes so that I could become more familiar with our early manuscript and rare print collections. His deep knowledge of the history of religion and printing, along with his ability to communicate clearly made him extremely effective with undergraduate and graduate classes. Even more marvelous was his rapport with the many elementary, middle school and high school students who came to see our treasures on display in the Biddle Rare Book Room. Always dignified, but with an impish twinkle in his eye, Sam kept every one of those young people absolutely rapt as he explained how papyrus was made or how one might correct an error written on vellum. He addressed them with calm respect and they responded by listening intently, asking excellent questions, and behaving with impeccable manners. It strikes me now that Sam was the Mr. Rogers of the Rubenstein Library. He brought kindness and empathy to every encounter.

— Elizabeth Dunn, Research Services Librarian, Rubenstein Library


When I was in grad school in 1987, studying histories of Judaism and Christianity and art, I had a brief job working chiefly with Samuel Hammond. We selected, described, and presented Jewish art publications, including but not limited to Passover Haggadah books from “The Abram & Frances Pascher Kanof Collection of Jewish Art, Archaeology, and Symbolism” donations. It was a pleasure working with Sam, and if I may say so, the display was rather fine. In later years, it was always good to see him on campus and to hear his music. 

— Stephen Goranson, Stacks Maintenance Assistant


Before my retirement, I worked with Sam for several years in what is now the Rubenstein Library.

One day I was walking with Sam on the sidewalk toward the West Campus Union Building. About every third person we encountered knew Sam and they spoke warmly to each other. I did not recognize any of them. I realized then that he knew a broad swath of people outside the library.

Sam did not like what became the norm when we began to hold retirement receptions and other events in the Rare Book Room where food and drink were served. He absolutely would not attend any of these events, for he was concerned that damage would be done to the rare books. One of the reasons Linda McCurdy (whom Sam called Dr. Linda) and I had our joint retirement reception in Perkins Library rather than in the Rare Book Room was so Sam could attend. And he did. I have photographs!

One day Sam and I spoke about how much we admired former President Jimmy Carter. I learned that Sam grew up in Americus, Georgia, not far from Plains. Further, he said his mother used to cut Jimmy Carter’s hair! She knew the Carter family well and had eaten dinner in their home. Imagine my surprise at that.

Sam was a true original and unique individual. And modest to a fault.

When my mother died in 2002, Sam sent me a handwritten sympathy note. In it, he included the following anonymous poem that he said was read at the Queen Mother’s funeral. After Sam’s passing, I reread it and thought about Sam.

You can shed tears that she is gone
or you can smile because she has lived

You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back
or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left

Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her
or you can be full of the love you shared

You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday

You can remember her and only that she’s gone
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on

You can cry and close your mind be empty and turn your back
or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on

— Janie Morris (Retired), Rubenstein Library


I’m at a loss for words! Sam and I kept in touch even in his/my retirement! He brought peanuts from Georgia to me and Peach Pie. In return, she prepared chicken salad and deviled eggs for him (and Marie). We picked fresh strawberries for him, too! He will be missed. Of course Sam enjoyed Peach Pie’s infamous banana pudding! I enjoyed my many talks/walks with Sam. He gave me a personal tour of the “bells” as he did my granddaughter, Makenzie. She sat beside him while he played. Afterwards he took her to the roof of the chapel. Sheer excitement!

— Nelda Webb (Retired), Administrative Assistant to the Director, Rubenstein Library


I retired from the library 11 years ago but have fond memories of Sam. I can still hear his voice from his always friendly greetings. There was a time when my children were young and came to work with me. Sam didn’t usually take requests for “songs” but was pleasantly surprised when we left the office that afternoon and my daughter’s request was being played on the bells. Can’t recall what the song was, but felt very fortunate to have our request granted. 

— Rose Bornes (Retired), Accounting Office, Duke Libraries


I remember Sam as a kindly, gracious gentleman — emphasis on gentleman — with a fine ability to appreciate and laugh at the absurdities of life. He was an extremely talented musician whose daily playing of the carillon brought a certain stability and peace to the campus. It was a blessing to have had him as a colleague in Perkins Library. 

— Joline R. Perkins (Retired), Reference Department, Perkins Library


I so much enjoyed seeing Sam during the day. Always the wave and that nod, usually a chuckle—even if we just said “Hello” to each other. Gentle and generous. The evening after Dean Smith died, I choked up when I heard him play UNC’s fight song on the carillon. That wasn’t the only time his choice of music made me tear up.

I treasure my memory of going up into the tower of Duke Chapel to watch him play. Feet and fists striking keys, and Sam transported, it was a treat. Thank you, Sam. 

— Winston Atkins (Retired), Preservation Librarian


When I first started at Duke in Special Collections, I worked down the hall from Sam. Princess Diana had recently died, and Sam wore a black arm band for a month in honor of her. He did the same thing when the Queen Mother died. His portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth in his office brought a regal air to a regal man.

Sam was always saying dry comments as quiet asides in staff meetings, and making anyone laugh who could hear them. His eyes really twinkled, and his gentle laughter always brought us to a feeling of good humor no matter the topic.

I served many Saturday reference shifts with Sam. No matter the question, Sam was able to help the researcher in their work by highlighting new resources or redirecting their attention to a newly cataloged book (often still in his office, that he would bring down for them to review). In the seven dark and winding floors of the stacks at that time, I was always relieved to see Sam as my partner, for I knew that whatever was requested Sam would be able to find it, walking slowly and with purpose.

When Sam did instruction for visiting school students about the rare book collection, he would provide a follow up instruction session for interested staff members. He would go over some of the most interesting treasures, small and large, valuable and invaluable because of his interest. You always learned something new from Sam, no matter how long you’d been at the library.

Sam was so kind, and asked about your family, and how you were doing. He lived his faith, and led with love in his interactions with us in the library and the university community, writ large. One year I told him it was my Dad’s birthday and that he had been in the Navy, and that evening in the selection for the chimes he included the Navy Hymn – a subdued nod to our conversation and my dad. These unexpected and frequent kindnesses of Sam’s that stay with me, and underlie the deep feeling of grief and loss for his quiet compassion, tender wit, and patience.

—Lynn Eaton, Director, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University


I met Sam when he was the head of the Music Library.  I worked in Collection Development with Florence Blakely and was included in her meetings with Sam to discuss issues relating to acquisitions made possible via a Duke Endowment grant money and other issues relating to the Music Library. Florence had a high respect for Sam’s decisions. It was delightful to converse with Sam. The meetings continued when he became Rare Book Librarian. The topic most discussed related to acquisitions of often expensive titles or collections. 

It was always delightful to converse with Sam. I always enjoyed his playing the carillon every afternoon. Sam will be missed by many people. 

— Ginny Gilbert (Retired), Perkins Library


I retired in 2013 from interlibrary loan. Before that I had been in photo services for some number of years as head of that department. I had worked with Sam the entire time I was at the library. For me that was 33 years. Sam was a great friend to me. He was always coming in and telling me how things were going and telling me how good I looked, when I knew he was lying. We had an agreement. Each  year near graduation he would take my senior students up into the tower to chime the hour. This was a special thing for my students because when hired, they stayed with me all four years and it was something that Sam and I could give them no one else could. I really appreciated Sam doing that as a special gift for my student workers. Not only to my students, but one time he also took me up in the  tower to chime the hour. I will never forget how nervous I was and how calm he was. On many occasions Sam would come through the office and ask what I wished to hear played that day. A great friend, a devoted employee, a wonderful man—not enough words to describe Sam Hammond.

— Glenda Lacoste (Retired), Interlibrary Loan, Perkins Library


Sam Hammond was a beloved colleague and a Duke University institution. Although he retired from librarianship some years ago, he continued to come to campus each day to study in his carrel and play the carillon. I can’t count the number of times I passed Sam in the library or on the quad, with him offering a tip of his hat and a pithy bon mot. The five o’clock carillon is such a part of the fabric at Duke that many people don’t realize that there is a person high in the tower. Over the years, Sam gave the University Archives the logs of what songs were played each day, as well as other information he gathered about the Carillon. My colleagues and I in University Archives treasure these materials, which document each day at Duke going back decades. They have already been used by students in research.

Sam was unfailingly generous, and graciously welcomed guests to the Chapel tower to see the carillon itself. A couple of years ago, a group of students researched the laborers who built West Campus. Sam escorted the students and some University Archives staff up to the tower, so the students could see the details of the building close up. We looked out over Duke, and Durham beyond, seeing the stunning beauty–and terrifying height–that the workers who built the tower must have seen. He showed us his Carillon room, with its keyboard and its practice keyboard. A framed photograph of a young Queen Elizabeth was among the decor. At 5 o’clock, Sam began playing the carillon, and we stood beneath the 49 bells listening to him play. It gave us a rare opportunity to appreciate the beauty that surrounded us, and the majesty of the music that rang out from the tower.

I will miss Sam, his humor, his knowledge, his music, his friendship. Long may the carillon ring, reminding us each day of the many ways Sam enriched our lives.

—Valerie Gillispie, University Archivist

For Valentine’s Day, We Offer Some of Our Favorite Literary Crushes

Valentine Card. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime,
I fell in love in the library once upon a time.
— Jimmy Buffett, “Love in the Library”

Maybe it’s the intimacy of hushed voices, the privacy of so many nooks and crannies, or the feeling of mysterious possibility that comes from being surrounded by so many books and stories. Let’s face it—there’s something romantic about libraries.

That’s why this Valentine’s Day has hit us right in the feels. Normally, in pre-pandemic times, we would be encouraging you right now to go on a “Mystery Date with a Book,” wrapping up dozens of our favorite titles in pink and red paper with come-hither teasers designed to lure you in.

Alas, our innocent fun is another casualty of COVID. But we’re still hoping we can spice up your reading life. We revisited our mystery picks from years gone by and pulled together some of our all-time favorite literary crushes, personally recommended by our staff. All titles are available to check out through our Library Takeout Service.

So go ahead, treat your pretty little self to something different. Who knows? You might just fall in love with a new favorite writer!


Selected by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Head, Humanities Section and Librarian for Literature and Theater Studies:

  • Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things: “Seven year old twins are forever changed by one day in 1969.”
  • Naomi Novik, Uprooted: “The fairy tale you always wanted as a child…and finally got as an adult.”

Selected by Kim Duckett, Head of Research and Instructional Services:

  • Anthony Mara, The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories: “A collection of beautiful interlocking short stories dipping back and forth through 20th century Russia.”
  • Matthew Kneale, English Passengers: “Twenty narrators tell a fascinating story of Manx smugglers, seekers of the Garden of Eden, and the plight of Tasmanian Aborigines.”

Selected by Brittany Wofford, Librarian for the Nicholas School for the Environment:

Selected by Megan Crain, Annual Giving Coordinator:

  • Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: “We all know what it means to survive. But do we know what it means to live in the 21st century?”
  • Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time: “A childhood classic about family, bravery, and finding light through the darkness.”

Selected by Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications:

  • Richard Hughes, The Innocent Voyage (A High Wind in Jamaica): “One of the best novels you’ve never heard of. A combination of Peter Pan, Heart of Darkness, and Lord of the Flies, all rolled into one.”
  • J. L. Carr, A Month in the Country: “A gem of a book: a quaint English village, a WWI vet, and a shimmering summer of youth.”

Selected by Elena Feinstein, Head, Natural Sciences and Engineering Section and Librarian for Biological Sciences:

  • Monique Truong, The Book of Salt: “Flavors, seas, sweat, tears – weaves historical figures into a witty, original tale spanning 1930s Paris and French-colonized Vietnam.”
  • Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife: “According to the author, the themes of the novel are ‘mutants, love, death, amputation, sex, and time.’ Many readers would include loss, romance, and free will.”

Selected by Jodi Psoter, Librarian for Chemistry and Statistical Science:

  • Bill Bryson, In a Sunburned Country: “Travel without having to fly….”
  • Catherine Baily, Secret Rooms: “A haunted castle, a plotting duchess, and a family secret.”

Selected by Hannah Rozear, Librarian for Instructional Services and Global Health:

  • Mike Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts: “Zombie kiddo loves her teacher, and also spores!”
  • Stefan Fatsis, Word Freak: “Wonderful word weirdos. Glimpse inside the world of competitive Scrabble.”

Selected by Sarah Park, Librarian for Engineering and Computer Science:

Selected by Katie Henningsen, Head of Research Services, Rubenstein Library:

  • Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo: “Love, Revenge, and Money.”
  • Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows: “Ocean’s Eleven but make it 17th-century Amsterdam. Read it before the adaptation shows up on Netflix in April!”

Selected by Lee Sorensen, Librarian for Visual Studies and Dance, Lilly Library

  • Collin Thurbron, Night of Fire: “John Banville and I think this is the best book we’ve read in years. Zen meets Spoon River Anthology.”

Selected by Sara Seten Berghausen, Associate Curator of Collections, Rubenstein Library

Selected by Ciara Healy, Librarian for Psychology & Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Physics

  • Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House: A Memoir: “If you lived through some stuff, and survived… this book is for you. Exquisitely written, heart wrenching.” 
  • Edgar Cantero, Meddling Kids: “A Scooby Doo re-do; former kids detective club grows up, messes up and tries to solve a spooky mystery + actual dog as part of the Doo crew.”

Selected by Kelli Stephenson, Coordinator, Access and Library Services

  • Omar El Akkad, American War: “A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle.”
  • Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth: “Necromancers unraveling a mystery in a haunted space mansion, complete with epic sword fighting, deep world-building, and laugh-out-loud profane humor.”

Print, Fold, Ponder: A Mini-Zine for This Moment

Mozart once said, “Art lies in expressing everything, the sad as well as the gay, the horrible as well as the enchanting, in forms which remain beautiful.”

We love quotations like that—wise, witty, pithy, and stylish all at once. We love collecting great quotes, and as a library you could say we collect a great many of them. On our digital reference shelves, you can find hundreds of anthologies of quotations, aphorisms, proverbs, epigrams, bon mots, folk sayings, and old saws.

Quotations come in handy, whether you’re writing a paper, working on a presentation, struggling to craft a clever wedding toast—or a dignified obituary—or even just looking for inspiration.

Great quotations have the power to impose perspective and definition on lived experience—or, as the nineteenth-century novelist Samuel Butler put it even better, to “enclose a wilderness of idea within a wall of words.”

There are times when we stumble on a quotation that comes surprisingly close to home, like this verse from Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera The Mikado: “Though the night may come too soon, we have years and years of afternoon.”

It certainly feels that way to many of us right now, with so many monotonous days and weeks trapped at home, and goodness knows how many more stretching out ahead. But there’s something gratifying and almost consoling to see someone else put it so cleverly.

So this week, while our Duke students are busily working on final papers and filling them with illustrative quotations of their own (properly cited, we have no doubt), it seemed like a good time to offer some quotable words of our own.

We’ve put together a little zine anthology of quotations we’ve been thinking about during this difficult time. The title says it all: Print, Fold, Ponder: A Wee Zine of Wise Words We Need Now. It’s a little collection of quotes about optimism, hope, leisure—words that inspire us to look on the bright side of what we’re going through—but also about the seriousness of the situation we’re in. It’s like Mozart said—a little bit of the sad as well as the gay, the horrible as well as the enchanting.

Keep it for yourself, give it to a neighbor, or leave it for a delivery person as a little token to let them know someone’s thinking of them. Just as we’re thinking of you and looking forward to seeing you back in the library one day. You can quote us on that.

Instructions: How to Print, Fold, and Make This Zine

  1. You will need a printer. Or, you can hand-copy what you see on the screen on your own sheet of paper and make your own!
  2. Download and print the PDF.
  3. Follow the folding and cutting/tearing instructions in this video by writer and artist Austin Kleon.

If you’re interested in the book he mentions in the video (Watcha Mean, What’s a Zine?: The Art of Making Zines and Minicomics), we have a digital version you can check out through HathiTrust (Duke NetID required). Enjoy!

Student Research and Writing Prizes: Win $1,000+

Each year, the Duke University Libraries offer four different prizes to reward excellence in student writing. If you’re a Duke student, consider submitting your work for one of these prizes. The awards carry a cash prize of $1,000 (Aptman, Holsti and Middlesworth) or $1,500 (Rosati).

All submissions must be received by June 30, 2020.

Aptman Prizes

  • The Aptman Prizes recognize undergraduates’ excellence in research, including their analysis, evaluation and synthesis of sources.
  • Any undergraduate student who uses library resources to complete a paper and project as part of his or her undergraduate coursework at Duke may be considered for an Aptman Prize.
  • See the Application Guidelines for more information about how to submit your research for consideration.

Middlesworth Awards

  • The Middlesworth Awards recognize excellence of analysis, research, and writing by Duke University students in the use of primary sources held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
  • All papers or projects from Duke undergraduate or graduate students that are based largely or wholly on sources in the Rubenstein Library are eligible.
  • Learn more about submitting your work.

Holsti Prize

  • The Holsti Prize recognizes excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.
  • Undergraduate papers that use primary sources and were written for a course, independent study, or thesis in the Political Science or Public Policy departments are eligible.
  • Learn more about submitting your work.

The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

Got Library Fines? Give Food and We’ll Waive Them

Looking for an easy way to help people this holiday season?

From November 15 – December 15, you can exchange “Food for Fines” at the Duke library nearest you.

For every unopened, unexpired, non-perishable food item you donate, we will waive $1 of your library fines (up to $50 max).

All libraries on East and West Campus are participating except for the Duke Law Library, and it doesn’t matter which library you owe fines to. You can drop off your donation at the library of your choice, and we’ll apply it to any library fines at any Duke library.

Donations will be collected and distributed by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. The Food Bank serves a network of more than 800 agencies across 34 counties in Central and Eastern North Carolina, including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and programs for children and adults.

You can also donate non-food essentials for infants, kids, and seniors, such as diapers, wipes, cleaning products, and paper towels. The chart below lists the items currently needed most.

No library fines? No problem! You can still donate and help North Carolinians in need.


The fine print

  • Limit $50 in forgiven fines per person.
  • Any fines already paid or transferred to the bursar cannot be waived.
  • No expired food items or glass containers, please.
  • Waived fines only apply to late fees. Charges for damaged or lost books cannot be waived.
  • All Duke libraries will waive fines for other Duke libraries (except the Duke Law Library). For example, if you owe $5 to the Divinity Library, you are not required to drop off your donation at the Divinity Library. You can visit any library on East or West Campus and your Divinity Library fines will be waived.

 

Congratulations to Our 2019 Library Writing and Research Award Winners!

Gothic Reading Room

Every year the Duke University Libraries run a series of essay contests recognizing the original research of Duke students and encouraging the use of library resources. We are pleased to announce the winners of our 2018-2019 library writing and research awards.

Lowell Aptman Prize

Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using sources from the Libraries’ general collections.

  • First/Second-Year Prize: Veronica Niamba for “The Day Man Stood Still,” nominated by Gray Kidd
  • Third/Fourth-Year Prize: Jess Chen for “Post-Modern Folk Chronicler,” nominated by Dr. Paul Jaskot
  • Honor Thesis Prize: Jack Bradford for “Errand into the Water Closet,” nominated by Dr. Tom Ferraro

Chester P. Middlesworth Award

Recognizing excellence of analysis, research, and writing in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

  • Undergraduate Prize: Sierra Lorenzini for “Fair Haired: Considering Blonde Women in Film and Advertising,” nominated by Dr. Kristine Stiles
  • Graduate Prize: Michael Freeman for “P. Duke Inv. 664R: A Fragmentary Alchemical Handbook,” nominated by Dr. Jennifer Knust

Ole R. Holsti Prize

Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.

  • Amanda Sear for “To Smoke or to Vape? E-cigarette Regulation in the US, the UK, and Canada,” nominated by Dr. Ed Balleisen
  • Yue Zhou for “Learning Languages in Cyberspace: A Case Study of World Languages Courses in State Virtual Public Schools,” nominated by Dr. Leslie Babinski

Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

Recognizing outstanding undergraduate creative writing.

  • Valerie Muensterman for “Did You Forget Your Name?”
  • Caroline Waring for “The Roof”
  • Blaire Zhang for “Sapiens”

Join Us at the Awards Reception!

We will be celebrating our winners and their achievements at a special awards reception coinciding with Duke Family Weekend.  All are invited to join us for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.

Date: Friday, October 25
Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Location: Rubenstein Library 349 (Breedlove Conference Room)

Locus Collection Tracks the Stars and Universe of Sci-Fi

The Locus collection includes some 16,000 rare and noteworthy monuments of science fiction and fantasy, many in their original dust jackets.

The David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University has acquired the archives of the Locus Science Fiction Foundation, publisher of Locus, the preeminent trade magazine for the science fiction and fantasy publishing field.

The massive collection—which arrived in almost a thousand boxes—includes first editions of numerous landmarks of science fiction and fantasy, along with correspondence from some of the genre’s best-known practitioners, including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin, Harlan Ellison, Octavia E. Butler, James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice Sheldon), Dean Koontz, Robert A. Heinlein, and hundreds more.

Locus started out in 1968 as a one-sheet science fiction and fantasy fanzine. Since then, it has evolved into the most trusted news magazine in science fiction and fantasy publishing, with in-depth reviews, author interviews, forthcoming book announcements, convention coverage, and comprehensive listings of all science fiction books published in English. It also administers the prestigious annual Locus Awards, first presented in 1971, which recognize excellence in science fiction and fantasy.

Over the course of five decades in print, the magazine’s editors and staff have collected and saved correspondence, clippings, and books by and about science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers. What emerges from this trove of material is a tapestry of a diverse and thriving community of writers, publishers, and editors, all working to create new and modern genres of speculative literature.

This rare advanced reader’s copy of the first edition of Game of Thrones has a distinctly different look and feel from the popular HBO series.

Of the magazine’s original three co-founders—Charles N. Brown, Ed Meskys, and Dave Vanderwerf—only Brown remained after the magazine’s first year. He would continue to edit the publication until his death in 2009, earning the magazine some thirty Hugo Awards in the process and becoming a colorful and influential figure in the publishing world. A tireless advocate for speculative fiction, Brown was also a voluminous correspondent and friend to many of the writers featured in the magazine. Many of them wrote to him over the years to share personal and professional news, or to quibble about inaccuracies and suggest corrections. The letters are often friendly, personal, humorous, and occasionally sassy.

Reacting to a recent issue of Locus that featured one of her short stories, the science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler wrote, “I am Octavia E. Butler in all my stories, novels, and letters. How is it that I’ve lost my E in three places in Locus #292? Three places! You owe me three E’s. That’s a scream, isn’t it?”

One also finds frequent remembrances and retrospectives of departed members of the Locus community, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s poignant reflections on the passing of Philip K. Dick. After Brown’s own death, the magazine continued publication under the auspices of the Locus Science Fiction Foundation, a registered nonprofit. The magazine launched a digital edition in January 2011 and has published both in print and online ever since.

In addition to the correspondence, story drafts, and other manuscript material (which has now been processed), the collection includes some 16,000 rare and noteworthy monuments of science fiction and fantasy from Brown’s extensive personal library, such as first editions of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, J. R. R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and hundreds more.

“Historical literary treasures abound in the Locus collection, from full runs of the pulps to vintage first editions to contemporary works,” said Liza Groen Trombi, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Locus Magazine. “And its preservation is deeply important. It is the product of decades of collecting and curating, starting in the 1940s, the Golden Age of science fiction, when Locus’s founding publisher Charles N. Brown was an avid reader with a deep love of genre, through his time working within the science fiction field, and up to the present day under the current Locus staff. Housing those core works in an institution where they’ll be both accessible to scholars and researchers at the same time as they are carefully preserved is a goal that I and the Locus Science Fiction Foundation board of directors had long had. I am very happy to see them in the dedicated care of the curators and librarians at Duke.”

In its new home in the Rubenstein Library, the Locus collection complements existing collection strengths in the areas of science fiction and popular literature, including the Glenn R. Negley Collection of Utopian Literature, and the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Pulp Culture.

“The opportunity to acquire the Locus Foundation library is a tremendous one for Duke,” said Sara Seten Berghausen, Associate Curator of Collections in the Rubenstein Library. “Because it’s a carefully curated collection of the most important and influential works of science fiction of the last several decades—most in their original dust jackets, with fantastic artwork—it complements perfectly our existing collection of utopian literature from the early modern period through the mid-twentieth century.”

Locus started out as a one-sheet science fiction and fantasy fanzine and grew into the most trusted news magazine in science fiction and fantasy publishing.

Berghausen notes that Brown and Locus created not only this collection, but a community of writers, and those relationships are documented throughout the archival collection as well. “The research and teaching possibilities are almost unlimited,” she said. “From political theory to history, art, anthropology and gender studies, there are materials in the collection that could enrich the study of so many topics.”

The collection is already being used in courses at Duke. This semester, English professor Michael D’Alessandro brought his class on utopias and dystopias in American literature to the Rubenstein Library to examine some of the Locus materials first-hand.

“It’s a curious strength Duke has that I didn’t expect,” said D’Alessandro. “I taught this course previously at Harvard, and even the archives there didn’t have anything like this collection, which adds a whole new breadth and depth to the class.”

Richard Brodhead Returns to Duke with a “Whitman Sampler”


WHEN: Thursday, April 25, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
(Reception at 4:00, with program starting at 4:30 p.m.)

WHERE: Korman Assembly Room (Perkins Library Room 217), Perkins Library 2nd Floor, Duke West Campus (Click for map)


Walt Whitman, who was born 200 years ago this spring, once wrote:

Shut not your doors to me, proud libraries,
For that which was lacking among you all, yet needed most, I bring.

He was probably not talking about chocolate. But that won’t stop this proud library from bringing some to his birthday party!

Join us on April 25 as we celebrate Whitman’s bicentennial, with readings and remarks by Richard H. Brodhead, Duke’s ninth president, on why he loves the “Good Gray Poet” and you should, too. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about America’s most famous bard, now is your chance to take a short course (with no grades or quizzes!) from one of the foremost experts on the subject.

Guests will also be invited to view original Whitman manuscripts and materials from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, which holds one of the largest and most important Whitman collections in the world, right here at Duke.

Free and open to the public. And yes, there will be chocolate.


About Richard H. Brodhead

Richard H. Brodhead served as President of Duke University from 2004 to 2017. As President, he advanced an integrative, engaged model of undergraduate education and strengthened Duke’s commitment to access and opportunity, raising nearly $1 billion for financial aid endowment.  Under his leadership, Duke established many of its best-known international programs, including the Duke Global Health Institute, DukeEngage, and Duke Kunshan University. Closer to home, Duke completed major renovations to its historic campus and played a crucial role in the revitalization of downtown Durham.

Brodhead received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University, where he had a 32-year career as a faculty member before coming to Duke, including eleven years as Dean of Yale College. A scholar of American literature and culture, he has written and edited more than a dozen books, including on Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman.  He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004, and he was named the Co-Chair of its Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences and co-authored its 2013 report, “The Heart of the Matter.” He has been a trustee of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2013.

Brodhead’s writings about higher education have been collected in two books, The Good of this Place (2004) and Speaking of Duke (2017). For his national role in higher education, Brodhead was given the Academic Leadership Award by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is currently the William Preston Few Professor of English at Duke.

New Exhibit: Five Hundred Years of Women’s Work

On display February 28 – June 15, 2019

Mary Duke Biddle Room,
Stone Family Gallery, and Trent History of Medicine Room

Rubenstein Library, Duke West Campus
Get directions and parking info

Please check our website for current library hours.

Visit the exhibit website and explore the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection online.


About the Exhibit

Women’s work. The phrase usually conjures up domestic duties or occupations largely associated with women—such as teaching, nursing, or housekeeping. The Lisa Unger Baskin Collection upends those associations. By bringing together materials from across the centuries, Baskin reveals what has been hidden—that Western women have long pursued a startling range of careers and vocations and that through their work they have supported themselves, their families, and the causes they believed in.

In 2015, Lisa Unger Baskin placed her collection with Duke’s Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Comprising more than 10,000 rare books and thousands of manuscripts, journals, items of ephemera, and artifacts, it was the most significant collection on women’s history still in private hands—an enormous body of material focusing on women’s work in all its diversity.

This exhibition provides a first glimpse of the diversity and depth of the collection, revealing the lives of women both famous and forgotten and recognizing their accomplishments.

After its premiere at Duke, the exhibit will travel to New York City and be on display at the Grolier Club, America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles, December 11, 2019 – February 8, 2020.

To accompany the exhibition, the Rubenstein Library and the Grolier Club have co-published a 160-page full-color catalog, which will be available for sale at the opening reception on February 27, and at a related symposium on “Women Across the Disciplines,” scheduled for April 15-16, 2019, at the Rubenstein Library.

Free guided tours of the exhibition will be offered every Friday at 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., March 8 – June 14. Sign up for a tour online.

The exhibition catalog was co-published by the Rubenstein Library and the Grolier Club.

Exhibit Opening and Reception: Please Join Us!

Date: Wednesday, February 27
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Location: Gothic Reading Room and Ahmadieh Family Commons, Rubenstein Library 2nd Floor

Featuring collector and exhibit co-curator Lisa Unger Baskin in conversation with Naomi L. Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director, Rubenstein Library. Also featuring introductory remarks by Edward Balleisen, Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. Free and open to the public.

More details and R.S.V.P.


Learn More About the Baskin Collection

For more about the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, we encourage you to visit the exhibit website.

We have also pulled together a sampling of articles and stories about the collection’s significance as well as selected highlights found within it.

A Conversation with Legendary Editor Bob Loomis, Oct. 24

Many of the books Bob Loomis edited during his career at Random House continue to be read and discussed decades after their publication.

WHEN: Wednesday, October 24
TIME: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein Library 153)

Join the Duke University Libraries and Department of English for an informal conversation with Bob Loomis, the legendary Random House editor and Duke alumnus (T ’49), as he discusses the lively literary culture on campus during his post-war undergraduate years.

Loomis worked for Random House from 1957 to 2011, eventually rising to Vice President and Executive Editor. He holds a revered place in the publishing industry as an editor known for nurturing writers whose books went on to great success, including Maya Angelou, William Styron, Shelby Foote, Calvin Trillin, Edmund Morris, Daniel J. Boorstin, and many others.

Loomis’s fellow students at Duke included Styron, Guy Davenport, and New York Magazine founder Clay Felker. He was also a student of celebrated Duke English Professor William Blackburn.

Refreshments provided. Please register to help us estimate attendance.

Free and open to the public.

Co-sponsored by the Department of English.

More about Bob Loomis:

Register to attend this talk.

Got Library Fines? Give Food and We’ll Waive Them

Looking for an easy way to help people affected by Hurricane Florence?

From October 10-26, you can exchange “Food for Fines” at the Duke library nearest you.

For every unopened, unexpired, non-perishable food item you donate, we will waive $1 of your library fines (up to $25 max).

All libraries on East and West Campus are participating, and it doesn’t matter which library you owe fines to. You can drop off your donation at the library of your choice, and we’ll apply it to any library fines at any Duke library.

Donations will be collected and distributed by the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC. The Food Bank serves a network of more than 800 agencies across 34 counties in Central and Eastern North Carolina, including soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and programs for children and adults.

You can also donate non-food essentials for infants, kids, and seniors, such as diapers, wipes, cleaning products, and paper towels. The chart below lists the items currently needed most.

No library fines? No problem! You can still donate and help North Carolinians in need.


The fine print

  • Limit $25 in forgiven fines per person.
  • Any fines already paid or transferred to the bursar cannot be waived.
  • No expired food items or glass containers, please.
  • Waived fines only apply to late fees. Charges for damaged or lost books cannot be waived.
  • All Duke libraries will waive fines for other Duke libraries. For example, if you owe $5 to the Law Library, you are not required to drop off your donation at the Law Library. You can visit any library on East or West Campus and your Law Library fines will be waived.

 

Take Our Survey. You Could Win a Library Tote Bag and Journal!

Here in the library, we’re taking the summer months to evaluate some of our communications efforts.

In particular, we’re asking for your feedback on our email newsletter, which goes out every other week during the academic year. (What’s that? You don’t subscribe to our email newsletter? We can fix that right now!)

You know you want these!

Will you please take 3-5 minutes to complete this short anonymous survey?

Your responses will help us make sure we’re sending you the most interesting and relevant library news from Duke.

At the end of the survey, you’ll have the option to enter a drawing for this handsome Duke University Libraries tote bag and journal. Guaranteed to make you look even smarter!

Thank you for your time and valuable feedback. The survey will close on July 20, 2018.

Launching the Data Curation Network

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant will fund implementation of shared staffing model across 7 academic libraries and the Dryad Digital Repository.


The Duke University Libraries will greatly expand data curation services to the Duke community as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Data Curation Network (DCN).

Designed to support researchers seeking data curation assistance, the three-year DCN grant will establish a shared network of data curation staff across seven academic libraries and the Dryad Digital Repository that expands the curation capabilities of all the members.

Researchers at Duke will be able to draw on a wide range of data experience with the DCN, extending the data curation staff beyond those in the Duke Libraries as established from the recommendations of the Digital Research Data Services Faculty Working Group. As data curation becomes more discipline-specific, the DCN will allow a much more specialized level of curation than is possible at any one institution.

DCN members include the following partners: University of Minnesota Libraries, Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan Library, University Library at University of Illinois at Urbana­-Champaign, Cornell University Library, Penn State University Libraries, and the Dryad Digital Repository.

Currently, staff at each of these institutions provide their own data curation services. But because data curation requires a specialized skill set — spanning a wide variety of data types and discipline-specific data formats — institutions cannot reasonably expect to hire an expert in each area.

The intent of the DCN is to serve as a cross-institutional staffing model that seamlessly connects a network of expert data curators to local datasets and to supplement local curation expertise. Data curators bring the disciplinary knowledge and software expertise necessary for reviewing and curating data deposits to ensure that the data are reusable. The project aims to increase local capacity, strengthen collaboration between libraries and disciplinary projects, and ensure that researchers and institutions ethically and appropriately share data.

“The Data Curation Network allows Duke Libraries to expand its deep commitment to research data management through a partnership that will empower Duke researchers to share their data with the wider academic community,” said Joel Herndon, Head of Data and Visualization Services in the Duke Libraries.

Data curation is a relatively new service at universities as funders increasingly require that the raw data from sponsored research be preserved and shared. In addition, many publishers now either require or encourage that data sets accompanying articles be made available through a publicly accessible repository. Finally, many researchers wish to make their data available regardless of funder requirements both to enhance their impact and also to propel the concept of open science.

This project builds on previous work that includes the July 2017 report: “Data Curation Network: A Cross-Institutional Staffing Model for Curating Research Data,” which is available on the project website, datacurationnetwork.org.

For more information about the grant and/or data curation in Duke Libraries, please contact askdata@duke.edu.

 

Focus Group Participants Needed (Free Food!)


Your opinion counts! Share your thoughts about ways to improve and enhance library services, collections, and spaces in a one-hour moderated focus group. In return, we’ll feed you!

Here in the Libraries, we’re always trying to up our game. To help us serve our Duke students and faculty better, we conduct periodic focus groups with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members.

We want to know what you really think. Focus groups help us improve our existing services and develop new ones to meet emerging needs. Click on the links below to be part of a focus group session.

Focus Groups for Undergraduates

Wednesday, April 11
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Perkins 118
On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee
Register for this session

Thursday, April 12
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Perkins 118
On the Menu: Pre-dinner snacks
Register for this session

Focus Groups for Graduate Students

Friday, April 13
9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Perkins 118
On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee
Register for this session

Wednesday, April 18
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Perkins 118
On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee
Register for this session

Class of 1968 Books on Display for Reunions Weekend

A selection of books by authors in the Class of 1968 will be on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room during Reunions Weekend, April 13-14.

Duke alumni will be gathering on campus soon to celebrate their annual class reunions. One class in particular is marking a special milestone—members of the Class of 1968 will come together for their fiftieth reunion this spring.

To help them commemorate the half-century mark, the Duke University Libraries and the Duke Alumni Association are proud to present a display of books by authors from the Class of 1968.

The display includes some 67 titles written by 25 different alumni authors. The range of genres and subject matter is impressive, encompassing everything from novels to academic studies of French history and journalistic memoirs of covering the White House. It’s an inspiring reminder of the creativity, talent, and intelligence that each class of Duke graduates carries with it out into the world, and the many ways Duke alumni leave their mark.

The books will be on display April 13-14 in the Mary Duke Biddle Room galleries.

Visitors are encouraged to drop by any time during the Biddle Room’s hours of operation (Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.) and help us celebrate the achievements of the Class of 1968.

Special thanks to Bill Lawrence T’68 and Gary Nelson T’64 P’95, a member of the Duke Alumni Association Board of Directors, for coordinating the display.

Duke University Libraries Announces Leadership Team Changes

A number of senior leadership changes are under way at the Duke University Libraries, reflecting the emphases of our strategic plan—Engage, Discover, Transform—and aligning our operations with evolving developments and directions in academic libraries, scholarship, and publishing.

Dracine Hodges

In January 2018, Dracine Hodges, Assistant University Librarian for Technical Services, was promoted to Associate University Librarian for Technical Services, serving as a member of the Libraries’ Executive Group.

Hodges came to Duke in March 2016 as Head of Technical Services, a newly created position. In that role, she oversaw the broad structural reorganization of the Libraries’ Technical Services departments, working with staff to define challenges and identify ways to meet those challenges strategically. That work resulted in the restructuring of Technical Services into the new departments of Continuing Resource Acquisitions, Monograph Acquisitions, Metadata and Discovery Strategy, Serials and Retention Management, and Resource Description. The new structure is better able to meet the evolving demands of a modern research library. In her new role as AUL, Hodges also oversees the Libraries’ Conservation Services department. This recognizes the breadth of responsibility of Conservation Services, which like other Technical Services departments works with both general and special collections.

“We are very pleased that Dracine has agreed to join the Executive Group,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “This appointment is a recognition of the broad scope of responsibility she has in overseeing multiple departments as well as the complex and vital role that Technical Services plays in supporting the research enterprise.”

Prior to coming to Duke in 2016, Hodges was a tenured Associate Professor and Head of the Acquisitions Department at the Ohio State University Libraries. She has published several book chapters and well-cited peer-reviewed articles related to collection development models and diversity in libraries. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the IMLS-funded Institute for Research Design in Librarianship and an active member of the ALCTS division of the American Library Association. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Wesleyan College and an MLIS from Florida State University.


Hodges’s appointment comes just as another member of the Libraries’ Executive Group prepares to step down. In May 2018, Robert L. Byrd, Associate University Librarian for Collections and User Services, will retire after 40 years of service to the Duke University Libraries.

“An account of Bob’s professional contributions to the Duke University Libraries, and to the university, would go on for pages,” said Jakubs. “Perhaps most notably, he has been the force of quiet persistence behind our special collections. It was his vision, beginning decades ago, that ultimately led to the creation of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.”

Robert L. Byrd

Byrd was educated at Duke (BA, 1972), Yale (M.Phil., 1975), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MSLS, 1978). He first worked at Duke as a library clerk in the Manuscript Department. After receiving his MSLS degree, he was appointed Assistant Curator of Manuscripts for Reader Services, then Manuscripts Librarian, then Curator of Manuscripts. In 1989-90, Byrd spearheaded the union of the separate Rare Book and Manuscript departments, creating the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, which he continued to direct until 2010. In 2015, Duke formally dedicated the Rubenstein Library, bringing Duke into the company of its peers as the home of a named special collections library.

In the four decades he has worked at Duke, Byrd has negotiated the acquisition of some of the Libraries’ most noteworthy and distinctive collections. He has also contributed much beyond the Libraries, serving on numerous university committees and important initiatives, including the reaccreditation process, the launch of Duke Kunshan University, and the Perkins Project, a 15-year-long effort to renovate and re-imagine Duke’s West Campus library complex. A celebration of his career and many contributions to the University will be held on May 7 in the Gothic Reading Room at 4 p.m. His last day at Duke will be May 11.


When Byrd retires in May, he will be succeeded on the Libraries’ Executive Group by David Hansen, Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications. Hansen’s new title will be Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections and Scholarly Communication. This model highlights a focus on the research lifecycle, from research/instruction to publication and access to scholarship, and also reflects a major theme of the Libraries’ strategic plan, Engage, Discover, Transform.

David Hansen

“Although we will clearly miss Bob, I am excited at the prospect of Dave’s leadership in this expanded role, and his participation in the Executive Group,” said Jakubs. “As the head of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications, Dave has forged important relationships with faculty across campus and reinforced the broad and essential role of the Libraries in the research and publication process. We will have the benefit of a smooth transition over the coming months.”

Hansen is a widely-read and respected expert on copyright and libraries. He has worked at Duke since November 2016. Since that time, Hansen and his staff have led efforts to increase Duke’s open access footprint and expand the accessibility of Duke faculty publications through Duke’s open access repository. Working with partners across campus, he has also helped to expand financial support for Duke researchers who wish to publish their work in open access journals. And he has been deeply involved in efforts to include rightsstatements.org metadata into digitized library collections in order to more clearly communicate the copyright status of library holdings. “Dave is a thoughtful, experienced, and committed leader who recognizes the complexity of the Libraries’ relationship with the university and the broader academic community,” Jakubs said.

Finally, Hansen and his staff have strengthened the Libraries’ role in campus copyright issues by developing the Copyright Consultants Program. The program provides copyright training for front-line library staff to better assess and resolve copyright questions in their interactions with faculty, students, and other researchers.  His office also oversees the Triangle Scholarly Communications Institute (SCI).

Prior to coming to Duke, Hansen served as Clinical Assistant Professor and Faculty Research Librarian at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the University of North Carolina’s School of Law. He has also worked as a Digital Library Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law. A graduate of UNC-Charlotte’s Belk College of Business/Department of Economics, Hansen earned his JD and his MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Timothy M. McGeary

With the retirement of Robert Byrd and the promotion of Dracine Hodges and David Hansen to the Libraries’ Executive Group, one final leadership change will also take effect. Timothy M. McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology, will have a new title—Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology. Under McGeary’s leadership, the newly reorganized division of Digital Strategies and Technology will take on a broader engagement with Duke’s campus on digital strategies and the impact the Libraries have in areas such as user experience, research data and scholarship, digital preservation, open source library systems, strategic assessment of library data and services, and technology collaboration and governance.

The other members of the Libraries’ Executive Group include Ann Elsner, Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services; Tom Hadzor, Associate University Librarian for Development; and Naomi Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

 

Colson Whitehead, Author of “The Underground Railroad,” to Speak at Duke Feb. 7

Photo by Madeline Whitehead

The Duke University Libraries are pleased to present an evening with author Colson Whitehead at 6 p.m., Wednesday, February 7, in Page Auditorium.

The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for entry and available through the Duke University Box Office.

To reserve a ticket, visit the Duke Box Office in person in the Bryan Center, go to its website (tickets.duke.edu), or call (919) 684-4444. (Note: Ticket reservations made online or by phone carry a $1.50 per ticket service charge.)

Public parking ($5) will be available in Parking Garage IV (Bryan Center Parking Garage) at 125 Science Drive, with overflow parking in the Chemistry Lot at the intersection of Towerview Road and Circuit Drive. ADA parking will be available in the Bryan Center Surface Lot. (See directions and more information about parking for events at Page Auditorium.)

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, winner of the 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer Prize. In the novel’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is not a metaphor, but rather a secret network of tracks and tunnels that have been built beneath the Southern soil. It is through this web of stations that the novel’s heroine, an escaped slave named Cora, flees the unrelenting brutality of the Georgia plantation on which she was born.

Whitehead’s other books include The Noble Hustle, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, and The Colossus of New York, among others. Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harpers and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for John Henry Days. He lives in New York City.

Copies of Whitehead’s books will be available for sale at the event, and a booksigning with the author will follow his talk.

Whitehead’s talk on February 7 will be recorded and made available to subscribers to the Duke University Libraries newsletter. If you can’t make the live event, you may sign up for our newsletter and get notified when the recording is available to view.

Whitehead’s appearance at Duke is presented as the Weaver Memorial Lecture, a speaker series hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and founding member of the Library Advisory Board. Previous speakers have included Barbara Kingsolver, Oliver Sacks, Dave Eggers, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David Rubenstein, among others.

Special thanks to our co-sponsors for this event: The Office of the President, Office of the Provost, and Department of English.

 

Textbooks on Reserve in Perkins and Lilly

Left your textbook in your dorm room? Borrow our copy!

As the spring 2018 semester gets underway, we want to remind students that you can check out copies of textbooks for the largest courses on campus from the library.

The books include required texts for some of Duke’s most popular courses in Economics, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, Biology, Psychology, and other subjects. They can be checked out for three hours at a time and are available at the Perkins Library Service Desk. Some textbooks are also available at Lilly Library on East Campus.

Here’s a complete listing of courses that have textbooks on reserve in the library. (This list is also available on our website. More courses may be added as orders come in.) Courses listed in red also have copies available at Lilly Library.

COURSE NUMBER

COURSE TITLE

AAAS 335 HISTORY OF HIP-HOP
BIOCHEM 301 INTRO BIOCHEMISTRY I
BIOLOGY 223 CELL AND MOLEC NEUROBIO
BIOLOGY 201L MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
BIOLOGY 202L GENETICS AND EVOLUTION
CHEM 201DL ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I
CHEM 202L ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II
CHEM 210DL MOD APPS CHEM PRINCIPLES
CLST 262 ANCIENT ATHLETES
COMPSCI 330 DESIGN/ANALY ALGORITHMS
COMPSCI 250D COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
ECE 110L FUND OF ELEC AND COMP ENGR
ECON 208D INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS
EGR 244L DYNAMICS
EVANTH 260 HUMAN COGNITIVE EVOLUTION
GLHLTH 101 FUNDAMENTALS OF GLOBAL HEALTH
MATH 230 PROBABILITY
MATH 202D MULTIVAR CALCULUS FOR ECON
MATH 216 LINEAR ALGEBRA & DIFF EQUATION
MATH 353 ORD AND PRTL DIFF EQUATIONS
MATH 112L LABORATORY CALCULUS II
MATH 212 MULTIVARIABLE CALCULUS
NEUROSCI 101 BIO BASES OF BEHAVIOR
PHYSICS 142L GENERAL PHYSICS II
PSY 104 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY 105 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY 101 INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY
SPANISH 203 INTERMEDIATE SPANISH
STA 101 DATA ANALY/STAT INFER

Please note: Textbooks on reserve are not intended to take the place of students purchasing textbooks for their courses. Due to budget limitations, the Libraries are unable to purchase textbooks for every course at Duke.

For questions related to textbook reserves at Perkins Library, please contact: perkins-reserves@duke.edu.

For questions related to textbook reserves at Lilly Library, please contact: lilly-requests@duke.edu

New Service: Check Out Books with Your Phone

Duke Self-Checkout is a fast, easy way to check out books from the Duke University Libraries.

Starting this week, you can now use your smartphone to check out library books in Perkins and Bostock Libraries, without having to bring them to the desk on the main floor.

Yes, there’s an app for that. It’s called Duke Self-Checkout.

How Does It Work?

Visit the App Store (Apple devices) or Google Play (Android) and search for ‘Duke Self-Checkout’ to download the free app.

Make sure to let Duke Self-Checkout access your camera, send you notifications, and use your location.

Open the app and log in with your Duke NetID and password. Click the ‘+’ sign in the top right corner to activate your camera.

When you find a book you want to check out, use the app on your phone to scan the library barcode. The app will blink green when it recognizes the barcode and check the item out to you right there. That’s it!

Remember to demagnetize your book before you leave the building!

If you want leave the building with your book, make sure you stop at one of the Duke Self-Checkout stations to demagnetize your book so it doesn’t set off an alarm.

Don’t have a phone or don’t want to download the app? Use the iPad at the Duke Self-Checkout stations, located in Perkins near the Perkins / Bostock Lobby, and in Bostock at the Edge Service Desk.

Duke Self-Checkout is also available at the Marine Lab Library.

Visit our website to find out more.

 

Publishing as Conversation, Dec. 1

Image by Stefan Stefancik

Re:Publishing: Publishing as Conversation
Friday, December 1, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock 127)

Scholarly publishing is often treated as one-way communication: send some knowledge out into the world, then hope others learn from it and maybe cite it somewhere down the road. But how can we make publishing an opportunity to engage with others? How can it be a conversation while avoiding trolls, hecklers, and defeatists?

This event will feature a moderated discussion among members of the Duke community about these ideas and more, exploring what it means to approach scholarly publishing as a conversation and how to find, seed, and engage in broader discussion of your scholarly work.

Panelists include:

Registration is required for lunch. Please RSVP

This event is part of the Re:Publishing series co-sponsored by Duke University Libraries, Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), Digital Humanities Initiative, Digital Scholarship Services (Duke University Libraries), Forum for Scholars and Publics, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Office of Copyright & Scholarly Communication (Duke University Libraries), Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge,  Duke Initiative for Science & Society and Wired! Lab for Digital Art History and Visual Culture.

Get more information on this and other events in the Re:Publishing series.

Congratulations to Our 2017 Library Writing and Research Award Winners!

Every year the Duke University Libraries run a series of essay contests recognizing the original research of Duke students and encouraging the use of library resources. We are pleased to announce the winners of our 2016-2017 library writing and research awards.

Lowell Aptman Prize

Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using sources from the Libraries’ general collections.

  • Honor Thesis Prize: Anna Mukamal for “Creative Impulse in the Modern Age: The Embodiment of Anxiety in the Early Poetry of T. S. Eliot (1910-1917)”
  • Third/Fourth-Year Prize: Jack Harrington for “In The Empire’s Back Yard: The Radicalization of Public Opinion In Ireland and It’s Impact on the Anglo-Irish War (1913-1920)”
  • First/Second-Year Prize: McKenzie Cook for “World War I and The London Theatre”

Chester P. Middlesworth Award

Recognizing excellence of analysis, research, and writing in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

  • Maegan Stanley for “In Honest Affection and Friendlinesse”
  • Hannah Rogers for “Subversion as Service: The Life and Controversy of Jeanne Audrey Powers”

Ole R. Holsti Prize

Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.

  • Honors Thesis Prize: Tara Bansal for “Analyzing the Development of Social Capital in the Slums of Bangalore”
  • Semester Paper Prize: Kushal Kadakia for “Rethinking R&D: Partnerships as Drivers for Global Health Innovation”

Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award

Recognizing outstanding undergraduate creative writing.

  • Sabrina Hao for “My Name is Elizabeth”
  • Rajiv Golla for “From Graves to Gardens”
  • Valerie Muensterman for “Earth Once Removed”

Join Us at the Awards Reception!

We will be celebrating our winners and their achievements at a special awards reception coinciding with Duke Family Weekend.  All are invited to join us for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.

Date: Friday, October 20
Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Location: Rubenstein Library 249 (Carpenter Conference Room)

In-Depth Look at SNCC’s Past Offers Lessons for Activists Today

Man and woman looking over a brochure for a political candidate before election day in Lowndes County, Alabama, November, 1966, Photograph by Jim Peppler, Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

What can the immediate past teach us about voting rights, self-determination, and democracy today? A new website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University explores how the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—the only youth-led national civil rights group—organized a grassroots movement in the 1960s that empowered Black communities and transformed the nation.  Told from the perspectives of the activists themselves, the SNCC Digital Gateway: Learn from the Past, Organize for the Future, Make Democracy Work (snccdigital.org) highlights SNCC’s thinking and work building democracy from the ground up, making those experiences and strategies accessible to activists, educators, and engaged citizens today.

Generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the site uses documentary footage, audio recordings, photographs, and documents to chronicle how SNCC organizers, alongside thousands of local Black residents in the Deep South, worked to enable Black people to take control of their lives. The gateway unveils and examines the inner workings of SNCC over the course of its 12-year existence—its structure, how it coordinated sit-ins and other direct action protests, and how it organized voter registration efforts and economic cooperatives to effect social change. SNCC had more field staff than any civil rights organization and was considered the cutting edge of the civil rights movement.

The SNCC Digital Gateway also presents the voices of today’s young activists in the Movement for Black Lives, sharing their views on the impact of SNCC and the southern civil rights movement of the 1960s on their activities today. “Reading through the SNCC Digital Gateway website is like taking a masters class in community organizing,” explains Jennifer Bryant, a community organizer based in Washington, D.C. “The primary source documents provide a deeper understanding of how SNCC was structured, the day-to-day work of field organizers and how campaigns were shaped. The site serves as a reminder that the civil rights movement was fought by everyday people. It provides hope that in these perilous times, we too can fight and win.” Courtland Cox, chairman of the SNCC Legacy Project, who served as an organizer in Mississippi and Alabama in the 1960s, explains, “Our experiences have created a level of ‘informational wealth’ that we need to pass on to young people. This unprecedented collaboration with Duke University hopefully will pilot a way for other academic institutions to re-engage history and those who make it.”

The website is a product of a groundbreaking partnership among veteran civil rights activists of the SNCC Legacy Project, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, Duke University Libraries, and civil rights scholars. Wesley Hogan, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, who has written extensively about SNCC’s work and legacy explains, “The way we are working together—activists, archivists, and scholars—is a powerful new model. This project gives us a unique opportunity to understand the work of the local people who broke apart Jim Crow that would otherwise be lost to future generations.”


For more information, contact:

Wesley Hogan, Director, Center for Documentary Studies
(919) 660-3610
wesley.hogan@duke.edu

Courtland Cox, Chairman, SNCC Legacy Project
(220) 550-8455
courtlandc@starpower.net

John Gartrell, John Hope Franklin Research Center, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
(919) 660-5922
john.gartrell@duke.edu

New Exhibit: Incredible Insects!

A weevil (family Curculionidae), one of many insects on
display as part of the of the new Incredible Insects exhibit.

Incredible Insects: A Celebration of Insect Biology
On display June 13 – October 15, 2017
in the Chappell Family Gallery and Stone Family Gallery, Perkins and Rubenstein Libraries, Duke West Campus (Click for map)

Please check our website for current library hours.

About the Exhibit

Insects are the most numerous and diverse animals on earth. They can be found in almost every environment. Because of their tremendous diversity, they play many important roles in nature, as well as in human society—enchanting us with their beauty, unsettling us with their strangeness. Whether revered or reviled, these fascinating and ubiquitous organisms can truly be said to have conquered the planet.

A new library exhibit offers a glimpse into the multifaceted world of insects, including research on insects conducted here at Duke.

There are three times as many species of insects than all other animals (mammals, birds, fish reptiles, amphibians) combined. The number of individual insects is estimated to be in excess of a quintillion (that’s a 10 with 18 zeros behind it).

The exhibit is divided into several sections, including insect evolution and diversity, coloration and camouflage, types and stages of insect metamorphosis, the roles of insects in human history and culture, and a fascinating look at two of nature’s greatest mysteries: the migration of the monarch butterfly and the clockwork-like appearance of periodical cicadas.

Periodical cicadas are one of the most remarkable phenomena of nature. They suddenly appear in the millions every 13 or 17 years. Then they disappear as suddenly as they came,

Exhibit visitors can also hear sound recordings of insect calls at a nearby kiosk and see up-close images of insects taken with electron microscopes.

Around the corner from the Chappell Family Gallery, viewers can step inside the Rubenstein Library’s Stone Family Gallery and peruse several selections of rare books that complement the exhibit.  The exhibit curators selected these works because they represent some of the earliest scientific investigations to discover general aspects of biology and natural history through the study of insects.

Image of a fly drawn by Robert Hooke in his Micrographia (1667), one of several rare historical volumes on entomology on display in the Stone Family Gallery.

Incredible Insects was curated by a team of entymology students, faculty and staff from the Duke biology department.

For more information, visit the Incredible Insects exhibit website.

 

Haggadah Exhibit Opening Reception, Mar. 22

CAPTURING THE MOMENT: CENTURIES OF THE PASSOVER HAGGADAH

Opening Reception and Guest Speaker Professor Kalman Bland, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies

DATE: Wednesday, March 22
TIME: 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library

Join us to celebrate the opening of a new exhibit of the Passover Haggadah, a Jewish text written for the Passover Seder meal.  This exhibit explores the long and interesting history of the Haggadot (pl. of Haggadah) and how their illustrations and texts shed light on cultural, religious and political changes.

On display in the Jerry and Bruce Chappell Family Gallery (near the main entrance to Perkins Library) February 23 – June 11.

For more information contact Meg Brown, meg.brown@duke.edu.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Parking available at the Bryan Center Garage.

Promises and Pitfalls of Social Media as a Primary Source in Research

DATE: Wednesday, April 5
TIME: 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
LOCATION: The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock 127)
Register Now

From hashtag activism to public policy unfolding on Twitter, social media is trending as an important data source for our understanding of today’s socio-political atmosphere. In what ways can social media data provide researchers with a glimpse into social behaviors and human interactions? How are researchers harnessing, analyzing, and making sense of social media data? What are the ethical considerations of capturing and using this data?

Join us in the Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology and Collaboration (“The Edge”) as Dr. Negar Mottahedeh, Dr. Daniel Vallero, and Dr. Jennifer Ahern-Dodson discuss the role of social media as a source for their own research, as well as the limitations and ethical considerations at play.

Light refreshments will be served.

Duke’s Edible Book Festival Seeks Submissions of “Bookish Foods”

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, entry from the 2014 contest

 

WHAT: Edible Book Festival
WHEN: Friday, March 31, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Perkins Library, Room 217


Girl with a Pearl Onion, entry from the 2012 contest

Calling all bibliophiles, foodies, pun aficionados, and spectators: Duke’s Edible Book Festival is seeking submissions for its annual contest on March 31.

The Edible Book Festival is an international event started in 1999 that invites people to share “bookish foods” and to celebrate the literal and figurative ingestion of culture.

Duke’s festival is sponsored by Duke University Libraries and will take place on Friday, March 31, 1:00-3:00 p.m. in Perkins Library Room 217.

The event features a contest of edible books, voting for favorite entries, and prizes for winners. Contestants and attendees are also invited to to bring gently used books to donate to a drive for Book Harvest, a nonprofit organization that provides books to local children in need.

To Stir, with Love, entry from the 2014 contest

To participate, individuals are asked to submit edible art that has something to do with books as shapes or content. Prizes will be awarded for Most Edible, Least Edible, Punniest, and Best in Show.

The festival is open to all Duke faculty, staff, students and the general public. Entries should be delivered to Perkins 217 between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. the day of the event.

Need inspiration? See past submissions at Duke or visit the International Book Festival website.

This Valentine’s Day, Go on a Blind Date with a Book!

Love is in the air. (And under the covers.)

Are you stuck in a reading rut? Is your desire for abstraction not getting any action?

This Valentine’s Day, spice up your reading life and take home a one-night stand for your nightstand.

Check out our Blind Date with a Book display February 9-17 in Perkins Library next to the New and Noteworthy section.

Our librarians have hand-picked some of their all-time favorite literary crushes. Trust us. Librarians are the professional matchmakers of the book world. If these titles were on Tinder, we’d swipe right on every one. (Not that you should ever judge a book by its cover.)

Each book comes wrapped in brown paper with a come-hither teaser to pique your interest. Will you get fiction or nonfiction? Short stories or travelogue? Memoir or thriller? You won’t know until you “get between the covers,” if you know what we mean.

Not looking for commitment? No problem. Let us hook you up with a 100-page quickie.

Or maybe you’re the type who likes it long and intense? Here’s a little somethin-somethin that will keep you up all night for weeks. Aw, yeah.

Either way, be sure to let us know what you think. Each book comes with a “Rate Your Date” card. Use it as a bookmark. Then drop it in our Blind Date with a Book box when you return your book to Perkins. You’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card.

So treat your pretty little self to a mystery date. Who knows? You might just fall in love with a new favorite writer!

Mystery in the Stacks – A Library Party to Die For, Mar. 3

When: Friday, March 3, 2017
Time: 9:00 p.m. to Midnight
Where: Perkins and Bostock Libraries, 1st Floor
Admission: Free
Dress: Semi-Formal Attire, or Dress as Your Favorite Mystery Character

The Library Party is a unique Duke tradition. For one night only, Perkins and Bostock Libraries throw open their doors for a night of music, food, and un-shushed entertainment. The event is free and open to the entire Duke community.

After a couple of years on hiatus, the Library Party is back! Once again, the Libraries are partnering with the Duke Marketing Club to organize this year’s event. The theme—“Mystery in the Stacks”—is inspired by classic works of mystery and detective fiction.

The event will feature live music, costumes, decorations, food and beverages, and plenty of mystery!

Senior Toast at 10:30 p.m.
Join us in von der Heyden for a special champagne toast to the Duke Class of 2017, with remarks by Senior Class President Kavita Jain.

Never been to a Library Party?
Check out these images, videos, and recaps from our Life is a Cabaret Party in 2014, Heroes and Villains Party in 2012, and the Mad Men and Mad Women Party in 2011.

RSVP
On Facebook
, and share!

Keep the Mystery Going
The Library Party will be followed by a Freewater Presentations screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in Griffith Theater at 12:15 a.m.

Many thanks to our not-so-mysterious co-sponsors: the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Markets & Management Studies, Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and Duke Student Government.

 

Edge Lightning Talks: Research in Progress, Dec. 9

edge-lightning-talks-600x360


What: Research talks, coffee, and dessert
Where: The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock 127)
When: Friday, December 9, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

You’ve seen their projects around campus—come find out what these students are working on! Join us for a series of lightning talks given by students working on projects in the Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology and Collaboration (also known as “The Edge”) or with significant collaboration from Duke University Libraries. They will discuss their research and future plans.

The participating students are working on projects with:

Following the lightning talks and a panel Q&A, join presenters for a coffee and dessert reception to celebrate a successful semester.

Interested in project space in The Edge for the spring 2017 semester? We’re now accepting applications. Submit an application online or email us at edge@duke.edu for more information.

Sponsored by The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology and Collaboration

Duke Faculty: $250 to Consider Open Educational Resources

oer-logo-600x360

The Duke University Libraries are offering $250 to faculty who are interested in learning about open educational resources for the courses they teach. Details below.


What are open educational resources (OERs)?

Open educational resources are teaching and learning materials that are free. Unlike traditional textbooks or course packets that students must purchase every semester, OERs are released under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. OERs can include textbooks, full courses, lesson plans, videos, tests, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports free access to knowledge.

What is the Duke University Libraries OER Review Project?

The OER Review Project is a collaborative effort of the Duke Endowment Libraries, which includes all libraries at institutions supported by the Duke Endowment—Duke, Davidson College, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University. Faculty at all four schools are being offered $250 stipends to review OERs for potential use in their courses. (Limit 10 stipends per university.)

How does the program work?

  • Meet with a library staff member to learn more about OERs and select OERs to review.
  • Review each of your OERs by a determined date. We supply the review form.
  • Fill out a short survey about participating in the program.
  • 10 lucky faculty members will get $250!

Who can participate?

All Duke faculty members. We’re interested in working with faculty from a variety of schools and academic programs. To learn more, please contact:

Haley Walton
Outreach Coordinator for Open Access
haley.walton@duke.edu

Kim Duckett
Head of Research and Instructional Services
kim.duckett@duke.edu

 

Book Talk: Eric Fair, Author of “Consequence,” Oct. 13

eric-fair_credit-amy-cramerDate: Thursday, October 13
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library (map)

Eric Fair, an Army veteran, served as an interrogator in Iraq working as a military contractor. He was stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison and in Fallujah in 2004. In his new memoir, Consequence (Henry Holt & Co., 2016), Fair writes about feeling haunted by what he did, what he saw, and what he heard in Iraq, from the beating of prisoners to witnessing the use of sleep deprivation, stress positions, diet manipulation, isolation, and other so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

In this talk, Fair will discuss the fallout from that experience, from a war-strained marriage and a heart transplant to the moral struggle of speaking out publicly against his country’s use of torture on prisoners.

Free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Copies of the book will be for sale at the event.


More about Eric Fair:

Sponsored by the Duke University Libraries, Duke Human Rights Center@the Franklin Humanities Institute, Forum for Scholars and Publics, and Duke Chapel.

For more information, contact: Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications

Commencement Weekend Hours for Library Exhibits

The Trent History of Medicine Room (shown here), Mary Duke Biddle Room, and Stone Family Gallery in the Rubenstein Library will all be open on Saturday for Duke Commencement weekend.
Exhibits in the Trent History of Medicine Room (shown here), Mary Duke Biddle Room, and Stone Family Gallery in the Rubenstein Library will all be open on Saturday for Duke Commencement weekend.

The Rubenstein Library exhibit suite (Mary Duke Biddle Room, Stone Family Gallery, and Josiah C. Trent History of Medicine Room) will all be open on Saturday, May 14, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., for Duke Commencement weekend.

Library visitors can see Virginia Woolf’s writing desk, a copy of the Bay Psalm Book (first book printed in what is now the United States), our double-elephant folios of Audubon’s Birds of America, and many other treasures from the Rubenstein Library.

Exhibits currently on display include:

Visit our library exhibits website to find out more.

 

Charlie Hebdo Attack Survivor Philippe Lançon, Apr. 20

pl

WHAT: Talk and Q&A with French writer and journalist Philippe Lançon

WHEN: Wednesday, April 20, 5:00 p.m.

WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library Room 153

Reception to follow.


French writer and journalist, Philippe Lançon, will speak at Duke University on the vital force of reading and writing in the face of terror attacks.

His talk, “Comment lire et écrire après un attentat (How to read and write in the wake of an attack),” will be in French with an English synopsis provided. The Q&A will also be conducted in English.  A reception will follow.

Lançon will be speaking on a subject he knows all too well.  A contributor to the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, he was participating in the editorial meeting the morning of the terrorist attack on January 7, 2015. He came out, injured, and ready to write again a week later.

Parisians rally at the Place de la Republique in support of the victims of the January 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Photo by Olivier Ortelpa from Wikimedia Commons.
Parisians rally at the Place de la Republique in support of the victims of the January 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Photo by Olivier Ortelpa from Wikimedia Commons.

Lançon’s writing as a critic of literature and the arts is widely known and respected. For his work in Libération and XXI, he has won the Hennessy award as well as the Lagardère Journalist Award.  Lançon has a particular interest in the fiction of Spanish America, especially Cuba.

Lançon is also the author of several novels and short stories, including L’élan  (2011) and  Les îles (2013), publishing playfully under a pseudonym as well.

In 2010, Lançon taught two courses on French literature and politics at Duke in the Department of Romance Studies. He first came to Duke as a Media Fellow in the Sanford School for Public Policy, now part of the Franklin Humanities Institute.

His talk is co-sponsored by the Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Department of Romance Studies, Duke University Libraries, and the Franklin Humanities Institute.

Read more by Philippe Lançon:

 

International and Area Studies 25th Anniversary Celebration

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WHAT: International and Area Studies 25th Anniversary Celebration
WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 4:00 p.m.
WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library
RECEPTION: Featuring a selection of food and drink from around the world

Join us as we commemorate the founding of the International and Area Studies (IAS) department of the Duke University Libraries with a reception featuring food and drink from around the world.

Remarks by
Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs

Peter Lange, Thomas A. Langford University Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and former Duke University Provost

Faculty Roundtable
Our program will feature five Duke faculty members in area studies discussing their teaching and research and how they have worked with library.

  • Laurent Dubois (Professor of History and Romance Languages, Director of the Forum for Scholars and Publics) is currently teaching a class on the Modern Caribbean using materials about Haiti recently acquired by the Rubenstein Library.
  • Guo-Juin Hong (Associate Professor, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Program in Arts of the Moving Image) will talk about curating exhibits on the photography of Sidney D. Gamble and using video oral histories that are part of the Memory Project.
  • Timur Kuran (Professor of Economics and Political Science, Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies) will discuss how the social sciences are integrating area studies and facilitating interactions among scholars working on different parts of the world. His observations will focus on the benefits to the study of Islam and the Middle East.
  • Charmaine Royal (Associate Professor, African & African American Studies and Director, Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference) will talk about her research on the intersection of genetics/genomics and concepts of “race,” ancestry, ethnicity, and identity.
  • Sumathi Ramaswamy (Professor and Interim Chair, Department of History) will discuss using the tools of digital humanities to track the itineraries of the terrestrial globe in Mughal India.

Special Thanks to Our Co-Sponsors
Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Duke University Center for International Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Office of Global Affairs

It’s National Library Week, so #ThankALibrarian!

ThankALibrarian Sidewalk Sign

What have we done for you lately?

That’s the question we’re asking Duke students and faculty today—and every day this week.

It’s National Library Week (April 10-16), and we’re celebrating by asking people to #ThankALibrarian and tell us how a librarian has helped them.

Has a librarian helped you with a paper or research project recently?  Or maybe someone helped you check out a book or a DVD? Or maybe someone came to one of your classes and taught you about a new tool or database?

If so, now’s your chance to say thanks! (We’ll only blush a little).

Look for groups of librarians all around campus (East and West) this week. We’ll be taking pictures, posting them on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts using the hashtag #ThankALibrarian.

Buttons!
Buttons!

You can also send us your own photo by downloading and printing this handy template. Write a message, take a photo, and post your photo with the hashtag #ThankALibrarian on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and tag us (@dukelibraries).

We’ll be giving away fun library buttons (because everyone loves buttons, right?). Plus you can enter a drawing to win one of our sweet Perkins-Bostock-Rubenstein library T-shirts.

T-shirts!
You know you want one of these.

So if you see us out there, take a moment to stop and #ThankALibrarian!

See the Pinstripe Bowl Trophy in the Library!

Image by Duke Photography
Head coach David Cutcliffe holds up the New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy after Duke defeated Indiana. Image by Duke Photography.

On Tuesday, March 1, Duke fans will get a chance to see the university’s latest athletic accolade up-close and in-person in Perkins Library.

The New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy will be on public display across from the first floor service desk from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visitors are invited to stop by, take a photo with the trophy, and meet members of the Duke football team and Duke Athletics staff.

Historical Duke football memorabilia from the Duke University Archives will also be displayed, including game programs from the 1942 Rose Bowl, 1945 Sugar Bowl, 1955 Orange Bowl, and 1961 Cotton Bowl. Legendary coach Eddie Cameron’s own scrapbook from the 1945 Sugar Bowl will also be on display, containing photographs, clippings, letters, and souvenirs.

The New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy commemorates the Blue Devils’ historic win over Indiana University, 44-41, at Yankee Stadium, in one of the most dramatic games of the 2015 postseason.

The game gave Duke its first bowl victory since 1961.

So stop by the library, get a photo, and join us as we celebrate another historic Duke victory!

Related Pinstripe Bowl coverage from Duke Athletics

Virginia Woolf: Writing Surfaces and Writing Depths, Mar. 3

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Virginia Woolf’s custom-made writing desk, recently acquired as part of the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, is currently on display in the Rubenstein Library’s Michael and Karen Stone Family Gallery.

What: Virginia Woolf: Writing Surfaces and Writing Depths, with Dr. Leslie Kathleen Hankins
Date: Thursday, March 3
Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library

Dr. Leslie Kathleen Hankins
Dr. Leslie Kathleen Hankins

Dr. Leslie Kathleen Hankins is a professor in the department of English and Creative Writing at Cornell College and past president of the International Virginia Woolf Society. She will give a talk on the various writing surfaces used by Woolf throughout her life, including the desk now on display in the Rubenstein Library that was acquired as part of the Lisa Unger Baskin Collection. How did this desk shape the apprenticeship of Virginia Stephen into a writer? What did she write at this desk? How did it launch her career? In addition to the desk at Duke, Hankins will discuss Woolf’s decorated writing table in Cassis, as well as an overstuffed chair and lap board in a storage room at Hogarth Press and in Woolf’s writing shed. Along the way, she will consider how Woolf’s desk selections demonstrate a nuanced negotiation of gender performance and the writing profession as she crafted an innovative writing space through standing/walking/and shabby chic desk strategies.

Free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

 

New Prayer and Meditation Room in Perkins Library

Members of all faiths are welcome to use the new Prayer and Meditation Room in the library.
Members of all faiths are welcome to use the new Prayer and Meditation Room in the library.

 

In response to student requests, the Duke University Libraries are pleased to set aside a dedicated room on the second floor of Perkins Library for prayer and meditation.

Room 220 in Perkins Library is located near the open study area with wooden carrels on the library’s second floor. (See map below.) The room is a shared space open to all members of the Duke community to use either individually or in groups.

Anyone who wishes to use the space is asked to follow a few simple guidelines:

  • Prayer or meditation does not necessarily need to be silent, but it should be quiet enough not to disturb anyone studying in adjacent areas or rooms.
  • The Prayer and Meditation Room cannot be reserved and is not to be used for studying or for meetings.
  • If you use the room, please show respect toward others who use it.  Keep the room clean, take your personal belongings with you when you leave, and do not sleep or bring food into the space.

We hope the room will be of use to members of all faiths who study and work in the library.

The Prayer and Meditation Room is located in Room 220 on the 2nd Floor of Perkins Library.
The Prayer and Meditation Room is located in Room 220 on the 2nd Floor of Perkins Library.

 

Mellon Grant Continues Support of Open-Source Library System

Duke University has received a $1.165 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the continued development of an open-source integrated library system.

Known as Kuali OLE (pronounced oh-LAY), for Open Library Environment, it is the first system designed by and for academic and research libraries to manage and deliver scholarly information. Three OLE Partners—Lehigh University, the University of Chicago, and SOAS at the University of London—have already implemented Kuali OLE in their library operations. The grant will support the further development, refinement, and adoption of the system by a broader group of public and private institutions.

Large research library systems manage and provide access to millions of books, journals, online resources, special collections, and other media. To do so, they rely on various commercial software products to handle the everyday work of ordering and paying for materials, cataloging them, loaning them to library patrons, and making disparate computer systems work together. These routine business functions are mission-critical for libraries, but the proprietary software that manages them can cost colleges and universities thousands or millions of dollars to license and maintain.

The goal of Kuali OLE is to replace some of the costly, inflexible systems many libraries currently rely on with an open-source, enterprise-level system that is freely available to libraries worldwide and supported by members of the library profession itself.

“The information environment has changed rapidly over the last few decades, but the technology of library management systems has not kept pace,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke. “The development of OLE offers a welcome opportunity to design a system that is flexible, customizable, and nimble enough to meet the complex needs of today’s libraries and library users.”

The Open Library Environment has been in development, with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, since 2008. In that year, representatives from more than a dozen libraries convened at Duke to discuss a next-generation framework for managing library collections and resources—essentially a library system designed by and for librarians.

This grant from Mellon will support the next phase of OLE’s code development through December 2017 by strengthening the technical capacity of the Kuali OLE Core Team. This will enable OLE to respond and adapt to technical infrastructure changes. It will also allow for increased functionality and features for successful implementation at the other partner libraries, including Duke, Cornell, Indiana University, Texas A&M University, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University.

The hope is that Kuali OLE’s implementation at a range of private and public institutions will generate interest and participation among more academic institutions and partners worldwide.

“We envision this project as both a pivot for OLE that leads to a stronger, more effective and sustainable technology infrastructure, and an opportunity to renovate our organizational model to address code, community ownership, and the speed of development,” said Tim McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology Services at Duke. “We are grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for recognizing the promise of the Kuali OLE project.”

 

Library Receives Grant to Digitize Early Twentieth-Century Folk Music

Some 60 wax cylinders and 76 aluminum discs containing approximately 1,367 songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s will be digitized as part of the project.
Some 60 wax cylinders and 76 aluminum discs containing approximately 1,367 songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s will be digitized as part of the project.

Duke University Libraries has received a $74,595 grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize a large collection of North Carolina folk music that has never been widely heard.

The collection includes some 1,367 songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s on wax cylinders and aluminum discs. The recordings were made in the field by folklorist, professor of English, and Duke University administrator Frank Clyde Brown (1870-1943), who traveled across North Carolina collecting folk songs, sayings, stories, and other folklore between 1912 and his death in 1943. Brown collected songs from at least 52 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, representing all regions of the state.

“The recordings include music unique to North Carolina, as well as popular American folk songs, traditional British ballads, and a range of other tunes,” said Winston Atkins, Preservation Officer for Duke University Libraries and the principal investigator for the project. “Taken together, they represent an important and untapped primary source of American folk music in the early twentieth century.”

The songs have never been widely accessible due to the age and fragility of the recording technology Brown used, as well as the difficulty of transferring them to more modern media formats.

Wax Cylinder from the Frank C Brown Collection
Because they are too fragile to be played as intended, the cylinders and discs will be digitized using a non-contact visual scanning technology known as IRENE.

“Until recently, there has been no non-destructive way to recover audio on historical wax cylinders and aluminum discs, which require a mechanical stylus and can be damaged if played today,” said Craig Breaden, Audiovisual Archivist in Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The Duke recordings will be digitized using a new non-contact technology, known as IRENE, at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts. IRENE takes ultra-high resolution visual scans of the grooves imprinted on the cylinders and discs and mathematically translates those into digital sound files that are remarkably faithful to the original recordings. Because there is no actual contact with the recording, IRENE’s scans can also capture sounds from damaged media.

The method has been used successfully to digitize other historical audio collections, including some of the earliest examples of recorded sound made by Thomas Edison.

Digitization will begin in the summer of 2016 and take approximately one year. The recordings will then be described and processed, and the collection will be made freely and publicly available through the Duke University Libraries website in 2018.

Undated photograph of Frank C. Brown from the Duke University Archives.
Undated photograph of Frank C. Brown from the Duke University Archives.

Born in 1870, Frank Clyde Brown began his career as a professor of English at Trinity College in Durham (the forerunner of Duke University) in 1909 and later became chairman of the department. Between 1924 and 1930, as Trinity expanded into Duke University, Brown served as the institution’s first comptroller, overseeing the construction of West Campus and the renovation of East Campus. He also served as university marshal, entertaining distinguished visitors to the new university.

In 1913, at the urging of legendary folklorist and musicologist John A. Lomax, Brown founded the North Carolina Folklore Society and was elected its first president. He later served as its secretary-treasurer, program chairman, and primary collector until his death in 1943. His efforts to record the sounds and nuances of North Carolina’s “folk” were part of a national trend in the early twentieth century to preserve American folk culture, aided by new technologies that allowed folklorists to make recordings in the field. The 1,367 songs captured by Brown are a significant part of that legacy.

The seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, published posthumously by Duke University Press between 1952 and 1964, represents Brown’s lifetime of collecting. It is widely regarded as one of the premiere collections of American folklore ever published and is available online. Four of the seven volumes are dedicated to the music Brown recorded and include transcribed melodies and song lyrics. However, the editors of Brown’s work left out an estimated 400 songs he recorded. These “bonus tracks,” which are found on the wax cylinders and aluminum discs but not in the published collection, will be digitized as part of the project.

"All Day Singing." Woodcut by Clare Leighton, from Vol. 2 of the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, published by Duke University Press in 1952.
“All Day Singing.” Woodcut by Clare Leighton, from Vol. 2 of the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, published by Duke University Press in 1952.

Brown’s original manuscripts and notes, which were used to compile the collection, along with his original recordings, are housed in Duke’s Rubenstein Library.

In 2015, two Duke faculty members—Victoria Szabo and Trudi Abel—incorporated some of the Frank C. Brown recordings into NC Jukebox, an interdisciplinary Bass Connections course introducing undergraduate and graduate students to digital history. Students conducted original research on the history of the recordings and tracked down the descendants of some of the singers and musicians. The course will be offered again in Spring 2017.

The grant to digitize Brown’s recordings is part of CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program, a national competition that funds the digitization of rare and unique content held by libraries and cultural memory institutions that would otherwise be unavailable to the public.

 

Back in Construction Mode (But Only Briefly)

During the winter break, we're reconfiguring the Circulation and Reference Desks into a single combined library service point.
During the winter break, we’re reconfiguring the Circulation and Reference Desks into a single combined library service point.

With the fall semester now over, we are going back into construction mode to complete five small projects in Perkins and Bostock Libraries. The majority of the projects are expected to be wrapped up by the start of the semester in January 2016.

Here’s a summary of the projects and what you can expect if you visit the library over the winter break.

New Perkins Library Service Desk: On the main level of Perkins Library, the Circulation and Reference Desks are being completely reconfigured into a new single library service point. Demolition of the existing desk area started this week and is expected to take a week or so. A new desk, consultation spaces, shelving area and processing area will be created in the existing space. While the work is going on, library services will be available by the Perkins archway entrance.

Bostock Floor 2: The spaces formerly occupied by Library Development, Communications, the Duke Collaboratory for Classics Computing, and Business Services will be renovated. Temporary walls have already been removed and pre-construction work has been completed. Once finished, the Data and Visualization and Digital Scholarship department heads and staff will relocate to offices in the renovated space. There will also be a meeting room within their combined suite. The DC3 (temporarily located in the 1928 Rubenstein Library tower offices) will return to a new space just down the hall from their former location.

The former home of Data and Visualization Services on the 2nd floor of Perkins Library is being transformed into a dedicated Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab for Duke graduate students.
The former home of Data and Visualization Services on the 2nd floor of Perkins Library is being transformed into a dedicated Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab for Duke graduate students.

Bostock Floors 2/3: The spaces formerly occupied by the Library Administration Office, Business Services, and Library Human Resources will be touched up, painted, and furniture will be returned to those areas. The former office for Library Human Resources will revert to a reservable meeting room for library staff.

Perkins Floor 3: The temporary stack and reading room spaces created for Rubenstein Library staff and services during the renovation will be returned to student/public spaces. The temporary walls have already been removed and some furniture has been returned. The shelves are clear and some shelving is being removed or relocated. Books and other materials will return to the third floor later in Spring 2016.

New Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab, Perkins Floor 2: The former Data/Visualization Lab on the 2nd floor of Perkins will become a new Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab. The space will be emptied, new carpet will be installed, and a number of open carrels and portable storage units will be installed in late January for use by graduate students. This space is expected to open in February or March.

Pardon our progress while we continue to improve your library!

Edge Lightning Talks: A Series of Works in Progress

Edge Lightning Talks Photo
Ever wonder who those teams of people are and what they’re working on? Come find out December 4!

 

What: Research-in-progress, coffee and dessert
Where: The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock Library 127)
When: Friday, December 4, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

You’ve seen the project teams in The Edge—come find out what they’re working on! In between LDOC festivities, join us in The Edge for a series of lightning talks given by Bass Connections project team participants about their team’s research work in progress and future plans. The participating teams are:

Following the lightning talks and a panel Q&A, join the team members for a coffee and dessert reception to celebrate a successful semester.

Interested in project space in The Edge next semester? We’re accepting applications for the Spring 2016 semester. Submit an application online or email us at edge@duke.edu for more information.

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Mountain Music of North Carolina: Terry McKinney, Oct. 6

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Date: Tuesday, October 6
Time: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library

Join us for an evening of music and conversation in the Rubenstein Library as we explore the deep roots of the Mountain Music of North Carolina.

Terry McKinney–bluegrass, country, and gospel musician–will give a free performance as part of the Archives Alive course NC Jukebox, which explores the history of music making in early twentieth-century North Carolina.

This event is free and open to the public.

To learn more about the Archives Alive initiative, a joint venture of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, visit the website.

 

Presidential Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin to Speak at Duke, Nov. 5

UPDATE: Tickets for this event are now sold out! 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will discuss her books, the American presidency, and leadership lessons from the White House at 6 p.m. Thursday, November 5, in Duke University’s Reynolds Industries Theater. The event is free and open to the public.

Doris Kearns Goodwin will be joined onstage by David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees.
Doris Kearns Goodwin will be joined onstage by David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees.

Goodwin will be joined on stage in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees. The event is one of several programs this year celebrating the opening of the renovated the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She is the author of six critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling books. She appears regularly on network TV programs and was an on-air consultant for PBS documentaries on Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy Family, and Ken Burn’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.

Goodwin was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She received her B.A. from Colby College and her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. Goodwin served as an assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson in his last year in the White House. She later assisted Johnson in the preparation of his memoirs.

Goodwin’s monumental history of Abraham Lincoln, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book won the Lincoln Prize, the New York Historical Society Book Prize, the Richard Nelson Current Award, the New York State Archives History Makers Award, and was the basis of the 2012 feature film Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day Lewis.

Goodwin’s most recent book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (2013), is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Dreamworks Studios/Steven Spielberg have acquired the film rights to the book.

Goodwin lives in Concord, Massachusetts, with her husband Richard N. Goodwin, who worked in the White House under both Kennedy and Johnson. The Goodwins have three sons.

The evening with Goodwin and Rubenstein will be presented as the Weaver Memorial Lecture, hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and former member of the Library Advisory Board. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Sanford School of Public Policy, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and the Department of History. Copies of Goodwin’s books will be available for sale at the event.

Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available through the Duke Box Office. A small service charge may apply for tickets ordered by phone, online, or mail. Visit tickets.duke.edu for more information.

Recording during this event is not permitted. Questions? Contact Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, Duke University Libraries, at 919-660-5816 or aaron.welborn@duke.edu.

Duke Faculty: Seeking Your Input This Fall

Duke faculty can help us improve library services by participating in the Ithaka Faculty Survey!
Duke faculty can help us improve library services by participating in the Ithaka Faculty Survey!

 

This fall, the Duke University Libraries will be participating in the national Ithaka Faculty Survey.

On Wednesday, September 9, nearly 1,000 Duke faculty will receive an email invitation to participate. The survey will be open through Fall Break, and faculty will be encouraged to complete the online questionnaire throughout the month it is open.

We will use findings from the Ithaka survey to gain a better understanding of Duke faculty members’ research and teaching experiences, habits, and patterns. These findings will help us to direct resources and develop services to help meet their expressed needs.

Institutions that have participated in the past report that their findings were extremely useful for strategic planning and long-term goal setting, so we feel the timing of this survey is especially appropriate as the Provost’s Office embarks on a university-wide strategic planning process. Also, by participating in this national survey, we will have an opportunity to compare local findings with data from peer institutions.

If you are a Duke faculty member and receive a link to the survey, we hope you will participate. As a small incentive, all faculty who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for a $75 Amazon gift card.

If you have any questions about the Ithaka Faculty Survey, please contact Emily Daly, Head of the Assessment and User Experience Department in the Duke University Libraries.

You’re Invited! Rubenstein Library Open House, Sept. 10

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Thursday, September 10
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Rubenstein Library, Floors 1-3 

Remarks at 2:30 p.m. in the Gothic Reading Room
by Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian
and Vice Provost for Library Affairs

 

After almost three years under construction, the renovated David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is officially open.

Help us celebrate the transformation of a library that is truly one of the crown jewels of Duke by joining us for a special open house for the entire Duke and Triangle-area community on Thursday, September 10, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

  • Tour the new spaces and exhibits.
  • Meet and mingle with library staff.
  • Learn how the Rubenstein Library can support your research.
  • Free giveaways and light refreshments.
  • Free and open to the public.

Visitor Parking Information: Free parking will be available at Parking Garage IV (click for map), next to the Bryan Center, for visitors traveling to the open house from off-campus. Take a ticket when you enter the parking deck. When you exit, inform the parking booth attendant that you were visiting the Rubenstein Library Open House. The attendant will take your ticket and allow you to exit at no cost.

Additional visitor parking information is available on Duke’s Parking and Transportation website.

 Things to See

More Opening Events and Exhibits

We’re lining up a number of events and exhibits to celebrate the opening of the Rubenstein Library throughout the fall of 2015. Check out our opening events site for a complete listing and stay tuned for regular updates.

About the Rubenstein Library Renovation

The construction crane looms over a gutted Rubenstein Library stack core, December 2013.
The construction crane looms over a gutted Rubenstein Library stack core, December 2013. See our Flickr album of renovation images for more.

The renovation of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, housed in Duke’s original West Campus library building, is the final phase of the Perkins Project, a 15-year-long effort to renovate and re-imagine Duke’s West Campus library complex that started back in 2000. (Read more about the history of the Perkins Project on our renovation website.)

Construction work on the Rubenstein began in late 2012, and the building will officially open to the public on August 24, 2015.

The 1948 library tower under scaffolding, August 2014. See our Flickr gallery of renovation photos for more.
The 1948 library tower under scaffolding, August 2014.

The Rubenstein renovation has transformed one of the university’s oldest and most recognizable buildings into a state-of-the-art research facility where students, faculty, and visitors can engage with the Libraries’ collection of rare and unique scholarly materials.

The research, instruction, storage, and exhibition capabilities of the Rubenstein Library have all been greatly increased. The new library also features state-of-the-art closed stacks with high-tech security and a closely-monitored environment.

Workers re-hang portraits of historic Duke luminaries in the renovated Gothic Reading Room, July 2015.
Workers re-hang portraits of historic Duke luminaries in the renovated Gothic Reading Room, July 2015.

Updates have also extended to the Mary Duke Biddle Room and the Gothic Reading Room. The charm and character of these signature Duke spaces has been preserved, but their finishes, furnishings, lighting, technology infrastructure, and exhibition facilities have all been enhanced.

Finally, the library’s main entrance has been redesigned with new doors, windows, and lighting to give the entire library complex a more unified and welcoming presence on the historic West Quad.

Mark your calendars and join us 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. on September 10!

 

 

Comics Trivia Night at Fullsteam, July 23

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The Rubenstein Library at Duke holds one of the largest archival collections of comics in the world, including many rare and first issues.

 

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2015
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Where: Fullsteam Brewery, 726 Rigsbee Avenue, Durham, NC 27701

Join the Duke University Libraries for a night of comics-themed trivia at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham. Test your knowledge of superheroes, women in comics, comics and war, popular media depictions of comics, and more.

Duke’s Rubenstein Library is home to the Edwin and Terry Murray Comic Book Collection, which includes over 65,000 comics from the 1930s to the present, making it one of the largest archival comic collections in the world.

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Our comics trivia night will take place at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham on July 23.

 

Our comics trivia night will coincide with Durham Comics Fest on July 25, an annual, all-ages celebration of comics and graphic novels organized by the Durham County Library.

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This event is free and open to the public, ages 21 and up.

 

New Interface for Using WorldCat

If you regularly use WorldCat through the Duke University Libraries website, you might notice a small change soon.

Starting Tuesday, June 30, the Libraries will link to WorldCat through a new platform called WorldCat Discovery, instead of FirstSearch, the platform we’ve been using for some time. WorldCat Discovery is available online now at http://duke.on.worldcat.org/advancedsearch, and we invite you to take it for a test-drive!

You can find out more about WorldCat Discovery Services at https://www.oclc.org/worldcat-discovery/features.en.html, and send feedback about the new interface to Emily Daly, emily.daly@duke.edu.

EdgeFest: Draw on the Walls! April 2

EdgeFest Banner Image

Date: Thursday, April 2
5:00 – 8:00 p.m.: Food, Music, Art + More!
All Day: Writeable walls open for artstigating (markers provided)!
Location: The Edge, First Floor of Bostock Library
More Info: Search “EdgeFest Duke” on Facebook

Collaborators: #artstigators, Duke Spoon University, The Duke Bite, and Duke University Libraries

Free! Open to the entire Duke community!

Don’t miss delicious food from Durham’s hot spots, including Juju, Monuts, Pie Pushers, NOSH, Mad Hatter, Pompieri Pizza, Toast & Cupcake Bar!

Stop by for mocktails, music and live entertainment from Poetry Fox, Inside Joke, #BusStopGuy, and DUI!

What’s EdgeFest?
We provide the dry-erase markers. You provide the artstigatin’!

Starting at 9 a.m., the walls of The Edge are your canvas. By the end of the day, the walls will be covered with doodles, pictures, murals, and interactive displays by student groups, individuals, and fellow artstigators.

The creative fun starts at 9:00 a.m. and continues with a reception starting at 5:00 p.m.

Don’t miss EdgeFest on Thursday—the artstigatin’ will be wiped clean on Friday!

What If I’m No “Picasso”?
Everyone is an Artstigator! We have awesome projectors onsite that you can use to project and trace anything you can put on your laptop. Need some inspiration? We’ll have some amazing art books on hand from Lilly Library’s collection to get your creative juices flowing!

EdgeFest Blog Image
Look for these posters around campus. And come to EdgeFest, April 2!

 

Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities: New Models of Access, Governance, and Sustainability

Image by Nige Brown under a CC BY license.
Image by Nige Brown under a CC BY license.

Date: Tuesday, March 24
Time: 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Perkins Library, Room 217
Contact: Paolo Mangiafico, paolo.mangiafico@duke.edu
Register to attend (it’s free!):  http://bit.ly/humanities-publishing-march24

Please join us for a talk on changing models of scholarly publishing in the humanities, and how a transition to open access models might be funded and sustained.

Through the economic and structural reconfiguration made possible by the Internet, the potential for new modes of publishing scholarship have emerged. However, there has also been much alarm in the humanities disciplines, particularly at the proposed changes to economic models that could underwrite transitions to new models of publishing, such as open access.

In this talk, Dr. Martin Paul Eve, author of Open Access and the Humanities (Cambridge University Press, 2014) will explore the contexts, controversies and pragmatic paths for the future of open access and other potential transitions in scholarly publishing in the humanities.

The event is free and open to the public, but please register to attend.

For more information on the topics Dr. Eve will be discussing, please see:

This event is sponsored by the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications, Duke University Libraries.

Save the Date! Beer and Banjos, Feb. 10

beer and banjos 1 600x360
Learn about the history of the banjo, see historical and contemporary instrument designs, and enjoy the music!

Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Where: Fullsteam Brewery, 726 Rigsbee Avenue, Durham, NC 27701

Join the Duke University Libraries at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham for a toe-tapping discussion about the history of the banjo with Laurent Dubois, Marcello Lotti Professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke University.

Professor Dubois is currently writing a book about the banjo for Harvard University Press. He is the author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (2012), Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (2010), and a frequent contributor to such magazines as the New Republic, Sports Illustrated, and the New Yorker. He will discuss the African roots and Caribbean and North American plantation origins of this versatile instrument and how it has evolved into a multifaceted cultural symbol.

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“Beer and Banjos” will take place at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham on Feb. 10.

Plus live banjo picking!

Professor Dubois will be joined by musicians Zeke Graves, David Garner, and Jay Hammond, who will demonstrate various banjo playing styles and showcase historical and contemporary instrument designs from their own collections.

This event is part of the Engaging Faculty Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Duke University Libraries. Beer and other refreshments will be available for sale by Fullsteam, and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be provided by the Libraries.

Free and open to the public.

For more information, contact:
Aaron Welborn
Director of Communications, Duke University Libraries
919-660-5816
aaron.welborn@duke.edu

You’re Invited! Open House for The Edge, Jan. 14

You’re invited to a Duke University Libraries Open House!

Help us celebrate the completion of

The Edge Overlay Image

Wednesday, January 14, 2015
1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Bostock Library, First Floor

Remarks at 1:30 p.m. by Deborah Jakubs,
Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian
and Vice Provost for Library Affairs

  • Tour the new spaces, labs, and project rooms
  • Meet and mingle with library staff and The Edge support teams
  • Learn how The Edge can support your research and project work
  • Free giveaways
  • Enjoy refreshments by Parker and Otis
Floorplan of The Edge on the renovated first floor of Bostock Library
Floorplan of The Edge on the renovated first floor of Bostock Library

About The Edge
To meet the needs of interdisciplinary, team-based, data-driven, and digitally reliant research at Duke, the Duke University Libraries have transformed the first floor of Bostock Library into a new academic service hub. With digital tools and collaborative workspaces, reservable rooms for project teams, and expanded technology and training facilities, The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology, and Collaboration is an attractive new research community destination in the heart of campus.

For more information, visit library.duke.edu/edge.

Mark your calendar and join us 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. on January 14!

Rubenstein Library Test Kitchen Tasting Event, Dec. 3

testkitchn poster image
Something’s cooking in the Rubenstein Library Test Kitchen! Come experience the flavors of history on December 3 and take home a zine of our favorite recipes!

In case you still have room after Thanksgiving, here’s something to whet your appetite this week.

WHAT: Rubenstein Library Test Kitchen Tasting Event
WHEN: Wednesday, December 3
TIME: 3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
WHERE: Perkins Library Room 217

Perhaps you’ve been following along with the Rubenstein Library Test Kitchen blog posts lately. Every Friday in October and November, the Devil’s Tale blog has featured a recipe from our archival collections that a library staff member has found, prepared, and tasted. They have been a regular feature on our library website, featured on DukeToday, and covered by WUNC Public Radio.

To cap off this culinary experiment, the Test Kitchen crew will be hosting a “tasting event” where you can satisfy your hunger for history and sample all of the recipes we’ve prepared to date. Try dishes from the 18th to 20th centuries, learn about ingredients they don’t make any more (like “sack” and “oleo”), and take home a zine of our favorite recipes for your next dinner party.

Here’s what’s on the menu:

This event is free and open to all. Utensils not needed, but curiosity and hunger are recommended.

Bento Searching Is Here!

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The new “Bento Box” approach to displaying library search results on our website takes its name from the popular and often elaborately prepared Japanese lunches.

Starting today, if you search for a book, article, film, or other library resource on our website, you may notice something different.

We’ve changed the way search results appear in the library catalog, subdividing them into different groups according to the type of media (books, articles, images, etc.) and related tools and services (library research guides, library website links, and other resources). If you search for “Civil War women soldiers,” for example, you don’t just get results for books we have on that subject, but also links to related scholarly articles, images of women in the Civil War from databases and digitized archival collections, links to historical documents in the Rubenstein Library, helpful research guides, and more.

This unified approach to displaying and segmenting search results is commonly referred to as the “Bento Box” method, because of its resemblance to the popular and often elaborately prepared Japanese lunch boxes. It is designed to provide a quick, easy, and more intuitive way to find the information you need.

Bento searching was pioneered by our library colleagues down the road at NC State, and it has started catching on at other libraries around the country. It has the benefit of helping users gain quick access to a limited set of results across a variety of resources, services, and tools, while providing links to the full results.

We made an announcement about rolling out Bento over the summer. But in fact we’ve been developing, testing, and documenting our progress for over a year, and we greatly appreciate all the feedback our users have given us along the way. Your input has helped us design a better, simpler, more intuitively organized search interface for Duke students, faculty, and researchers.

Don’t like it? You also have the option of setting your default search options on our homepage if you find that Bento searching doesn’t meet your needs. Just click on the little gear icon on the bottom left corner of the search box on the library homepage. If you spend more time searching for journal articles rather than books, you can set “Articles” as your preferred search tab, and it will appear as the default every time you visit our site. You can change and customize your default search settings at any time.

Make My Default Search
Use the gear icon to change your default search to Articles, Books & Media, or All.

So give it a spin and let us know what you think! Use our feedback form to tell us how we’re doing or report a problem or issue.

New Research Commons Gets a Name: The Edge

Architectural rendering of the Research Commons on the first floor of Bostock Library. Renovations will take place May-November 2014.
Architectural rendering of the renovated first floor of Bostock Library. Renovations will take place May-November 2014.

If you have visited Duke’s West Campus lately, you might have noticed that the first floor of Bostock Library is currently closed for renovations. The entire floor is being reconfigured into a new space that will allow the Libraries to meet the growing needs of interdisciplinary, team-based, and data-driven research at Duke. There’s an article about it in the latest issue of our library magazine, and you can read more about the project on our library website.

Throughout the planning phase of the project, we’ve tentatively been calling this space the “Research Commons,” for lack of a better name. Today, we’re pleased to announce that a better name has emerged. Allow us to introduce…

The Edge Logo

Why “The Edge”?

The overall goal of this renovation project is to create a new space that will allow Duke researchers and project teams to experiment with new ideas and approaches with experts, technology, and training available in close proximity. It should be the kind of space that invites discovery, experimentation, and collaboration. We needed a name that captured all of that in a succinct and memorable way.

The word “edge” suggests standing on the brink of something, or of being on the fringes or boundaries. It’s a place where different points of view or disciplinary approaches meet.

From a physical building layout perspective, it also makes a certain amount of sense. Just as the Link is in the middle of the library complex, The Edge is on the side that is furthest from the main academic quad.

Finally, there’s the subtle hint of gaining an advantage: The Edge is a place that will help you with your research or collaborative project.

To bring The Edge to life, the Libraries have been working with the architectural firm Shepley Bulfinch, the same firm that designed and built Bostock Library and the von der Heyden Pavilion in 2005, renovated Perkins Library between 2006 and 2008 (including the creation of the Link), and is directing the current renovation of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Few parts of Duke have been transformed so completely in recent years as the Libraries, and The Edge is just the latest proof of that.

We are looking forward to unveiling this attractive and innovative new destination in the heart of campus, which should be completed later this year by November or December. In January 2015, we will formally celebrate with a grand opening event. We hope you will join us at The Edge!

Noise Advisory: Research Commons Construction

Architectural rendering of the Research Commons on the first floor of Bostock Library. Renovations will take place May-November 2014.
Architectural rendering of the Research Commons on the first floor of Bostock Library. Renovations will take place May-November 2014.

Fire Alarm Testing: June 16 – August 4

Duke’s Facilities Management Department be reworking the fire alarm systems in both Perkins and Bostock Libraries to synchronize the two facilities. A fire alarm test will be performed each day, June 16-August 4, at 5:30 p.m. to ensure the facilities are protected during off-hours. The test will be short and patrons will not have to leave the building.

 

Research Commons Construction

The first floor of Bostock Library is being renovated this summer to prepare for the new Research Commons. For the next few weeks, library users are advised that there will be some noise associated with the work, especially affecting the floors directly above and below Bostock Level 1. Most of the noise will be limited between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience.

Free earplugs are available at the Perkins Library Service Desk on the first floor for library users who are bothered by the renovation noise. 

Here is a list of the work being done in the next two weeks:

1) Workers will begin roughing in electrical and telecomm wiring. This will involve drilling anchors into the ceiling on the first floor of Bostock: June 16-20
2) Core drilling the first floor slab: June 16-20
3) Attachment of lower track of walls with shot pins: June 20 – July 4

 

In order to make all members of the Duke community aware of the major activities and potential noise issues associated with the library renovations, we will be posting regular announcements of upcoming work on this blog. If you have questions, please contact Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, at 919-660-5816, or aaron.welborn@duke.edu.

Springsteen’s “Born to Run” First Draft to Be Displayed in Perkins Library

Last December, a unique first-draft manuscript of the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s 1975 hit song “Born to Run” was placed up for auction at Sotheby’s. The seller of the document remained anonymous, but it was known that the manuscript once belonged to Mike Appel, Springsteen’s former manager. The bids poured in online, in person, and by phone, and one happy bidder went home with a piece of American music history.

That successful purchaser happened to be Floyd Bradley, a leadership donor to the Duke University Libraries and the Nasher Museum of Art, whose parents met in 1942 while students at Duke.

The Bradley and Springsteen families actually share a number of connections. Mr. Bradley’s mother Carol Lake Bradley (WC’43) and Mr. Springsteen’s mother were neighbors and friends in New Jersey. Mr. Bradley’s father, Floyd Henry “Pete” Bradley, Jr. (T’45), sold his house to Mr. Springsteen’s mother-in-law.

Mr. Bradley is also a proud Duke father whose daughter, Melissa, is a graduating senior this year. And so it came about, through special arrangement with Mr. Bradley and his wife Martha Hummer-Bradley, that the “Born to Run” manuscript will be on public display during Duke’s Commencement Weekend in honor of Melissa’s graduation.

The first draft manuscript of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" will be displayed in Perkins Library. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. Click for high-res version.
The first draft manuscript of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” will be displayed in Perkins Library. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s. Click for high-res version.

The document will be exhibited in front of the Circulation Desk on the Perkins Library main floor Thursday and Friday, May 8-9, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, May 10-11, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

After May 11, the manuscript will be moved to the third floor of Perkins, where it will remain on display in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library until June 27 and be available to view during normal library hours.

The “Born to Run” manuscript, written by Springsteen in 1974 in Long Branch, New Jersey, may look like nothing more than a piece of notebook paper scrawled with thirty lines of blue ink. But it offers a glimpse into the creative process of a musical icon. The draft contains a great deal of material that was never included in the final version. Yet the chorus is nearly identical to what we hear in the finished song. The margins and spaces are crowded with second thoughts and edits, illuminating the moments in which a rock and roll anthem was born.

“Born to Run” was the title track of Springsteen’s third album, released to great commercial and critical success in August 1975. Just a few months later, on March 28, 1976, Springsteen and his E Street Band performed in Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium to a packed house. According to a Rolling Stone reporter who was there, “The band played every song from Born to Run in one set, and at show’s end, ‘Raise Your Hand’ did its job: everybody stayed up through the three-song encore that ended with ‘Quarter to Three.’”

Visitors to campus are invited to stop by the library and view this special piece of music history.

Ticket stub from Springsteen's performance at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium in March 1976, just a few months after "Born to Run" was released. Image from Brucebase.
Ticket stub from Springsteen’s performance at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium in March 1976, just a few months after “Born to Run” was released. Image from Brucebase.

Viewing the “Born to Run” Manuscript

Please note: During the summer, all Duke University libraries are open on a more limited schedule than during the academic year. Please check our online schedule of library hours before visiting.

May 8 – 11
On exhibit in front of the Circulation Desk, 1st Floor of Perkins Library
Thursday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

May 12 – June 27
On exhibit in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 3rd Floor of Perkins Library
Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Closed May 24 for Memorial Day Weekend)
Closed Sundays

Focus Group Participants Needed (Free Food!)

Focus Groups
We’re looking for undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to participate in one-hour focus groups.

Your opinion counts! Share your thoughts about ways to improve and enhance library services, collections, and spaces in a one-hour moderated focus group. In return, we’ll feed you!

Here in the Libraries, we’re always trying to up our game. To help us serve our Duke students and faculty better, we conduct periodic focus groups with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members.

Your opinion counts! Share your input and make a difference. Focus groups help us improve our existing services and develop new ones to meet emerging needs. Click on the links below to be part of a focus group session.


Focus Groups for Undergraduates

 

Focus Groups for Graduate Students

 

Focus Group for Faculty

Coming to Bostock Library in January 2015: The Research Commons

 

Architectural rendering of a planned social lounge space in the Research Commons on the first floor of Bostock Library.
Architectural rendering of a planned social lounge space in the Research Commons on the first floor of Bostock Library. Renovations will take place May-November 2014.

To meet the growing needs of interdisciplinary, team-based, and data-driven research at Duke, the Duke University Libraries will transform the first floor of Bostock Library into a new academic service hub equipped with tools and workspaces for digital scholarship, reservable rooms for project teams, and expanded technology and training facilities.

The new space will be known as the “Research Commons” and will officially open in January 2015. The improvements will allow for more technology-focused library services, more spaces for collaborative work, and an attractive new destination for students and faculty in the heart of campus.

The main period of renovation activity will be May – November 2014, in order to minimize disruptions to students and faculty. The $3.5 million project was approved by the Board of Trustees at their October 2013 meeting.

Floor plan of the Research Commons, which will occupy the entire first floor of Bostock Library.
Floor plan of the Research Commons, which will occupy the entire first floor of Bostock Library. Click on the image to see a larger version.

The Research Commons will increase the Libraries’ ability to support interdisciplinary and team-based teaching and learning at Duke, such as the innovative projects emerging from the Bass Connections initiative. The space will bring together the Libraries’ Brandaleone Data and GIS Services Lab (relocated from the second floor of Perkins Library); workshop and presentation space for groups large (45-50) and small (6-8); reservable and drop-in project rooms; and expert library staff assistance, available on-site or by appointment.

“The goal of the Research Commons is to allow individual researchers and project teams to experiment with new ideas and approaches with experts, technology and training available in close proximity,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and the Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “It will be the kind of space that invites discovery, experimentation, and collaboration.”

Plans for the Research Commons came about through a multi-year planning process in which faculty, students, and library staff explored how Duke researchers are increasingly conducting their work in the context of interdisciplinary collaborations and digital production. Generous funding for the project was made possible through the Duke Forward Campaign.

In order to make room for the renovation, collection materials and furniture on the first floor of Bostock Library will be relocated to other library locations beginning in May. The Libraries will free up additional study space elsewhere in Perkins and Bostock to accommodate students temporarily displaced by the work. A complete list of which collections are moving is available on the Research Commons FAQ page.

Rendering of the Open Lab seating area of the Research Commons.
Rendering of the Open Lab seating area of the Research Commons.

Also in May, the front entrance of Perkins Library will close due to the Rubenstein Library renovation on May 12 and remain closed until summer 2015. Library users and visitors will enter the library through the side entrance beneath the Perkins/Bostock connector, or through the von der Heyden Pavilion, which will remain open throughout the renovations. To better accommodate patrons, a Library Service Desk will be placed near the side entrance of Perkins while the front entrance is closed.

More information on the Research Commons, including a renovation timeline and FAQ, can be found on the Libraries’ website at library.duke.edu/research/commons. More information about the Rubenstein Library renovation can be found at library.duke.edu/renovation.

Perkins/Bostock Service Points Close Early Feb. 21

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Please excuse our noise on Friday, February 21, as we set up for the Library Party! Click on the image for more details.

All public service points in Perkins and Bostock Libraries will close earlier than normal on Friday, February 21, in preparation for the “Life Is a Cabaret” Library Party. All service points in the two libraries will officially close at 5 p.m., including the Circulation Desk and Research Desk. Other campus library schedules will not be affected.

The von der Heyden Pavilion will also close at 5 p.m. for event setup.

In addition, workers will be setting up equipment on Perkins Levels 1, LL1, and Bostock LL 1, throughout the day. If you need a quiet place to study, please try Perkins Levels LL2, 2, and 4, or Bostock Levels 1-4. These floors will not be disturbed.

Normal operating hours and library services for Perkins and Bostock Libraries will resume Saturday morning at 9 a.m. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Duke to Host Scholarly Communication Institute

Scholarly Comm Institute
The Triangle Scholarly Communication Institute invites proposals from groups interested in participating in a series of seminars, discussions, presentations, and workshops, to be held over four days in Chapel Hill, NC, in November 2014.

DURHAM, N.C. – The Duke University Libraries have received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support an annual Scholarly Communication Institute with the goal of advancing scholarship, teaching, and publishing in the humanities through the application of digital technologies.

Over the last two decades, rapid technological changes have fundamentally altered the way in which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use. There has been lively debate among scholars, librarians, publishers, and technologists about the ways in which scholars share their research within the academic community and beyond. Duke has long been a vocal participant in these discussions and a strong advocate for the knowledge-sharing mission of research universities.

The Scholarly Communication Institute (SCI) began as a Mellon-funded initiative at the University of Virginia in 2003 and was based there for nine years. Duke will host the new SCI, working in close collaboration with partners at the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and the Triangle Research Libraries Network.

Like its predecessor program at UVA, the Triangle SCI will bring together a broad range of experts from inside and outside academia to discuss needs and opportunities in the domain of scholarly communications. The emphasis will be on productive dialogue across boundaries that often separate academic communities with an ultimate goal of fostering new types of collaboration and new models of scholarly dissemination.

“The goal of the SCI is not to schedule breakthroughs, but to create conditions that favor them,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke.

“It will bring diverse groups together and provide a combination of structured and unstructured time to brainstorm, organize, and jump-start ideas, to experiment and solve problems, and even begin to build,” she said. “This will be an opportunity both to talk and to do.”

Each annual institute will be organized under a broad theme. This year’s is “Scholarship and the Crowd.” It will be held November 9-13 at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Participants will be selected through a competitive proposal process. For the 2014 institute, applicants from the Triangle area are especially encouraged to submit. Proposals are being accepted through March 24. More information and application instructions are available at the institute’s website: trianglesci.org.

 

Save the Date! “Life Is a Cabaret” Library Party: Feb. 21

Library Party Logo for web

The Library Party is a unique Duke tradition. For one night only, Perkins and Bostock Libraries throw open their doors for a night of music, food, and un-shushed entertainment. The event is free and open to the entire Duke community.

After a year on hiatus as we prepared for the Rubenstein Library renovation, the Library Party is back! Once again, the Libraries are partnering with the Duke Marketing Club to organize this year’s event. The theme—“Life is a Cabaret”—is inspired by an upcoming exhibit on 19th- and early-20th-century Parisian cabarets that will be on display in the Perkins Gallery February–May, with a companion exhibit at the Nasher Museum’s Academic Focus Gallery.

Life Is a Cabaret will feature live music, costumes, decorations, food and beverages, and plenty of joie de vivre!

When: Friday, February 21
Time: 9 PM to Midnight
Where: Perkins Library
Admission: Free
Dress: Cocktail Attire, or Your Best Cabaret Costume

Students: Never been to a Library Party? Check out these images, videos, and recaps from our Heroes and Villains Library Party in 2012 and the Mad Men and Mad Women Library Party in 2011.

Many thanks to the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Duke Student Government/SOFC, George Grody, and the Markets and Management Studies Department for sponsoring this event.

Stay tuned for more updates!

 

Illustration of cabaret girls by Albert Guillaume from Gil Blas, a Parisian literary periodical published 1879-1914.
Illustration of cabaret girls by Albert Guillaume from Gil Blas, a Parisian literary periodical published 1879-1914.

About the Exhibit

Cheap Thrills: The Highs and Lows of Cabaret Culture in Paris, 1880-1939

On display in the Perkins Library Gallery, February 18 – May 12

This upcoming exhibit offers a whirlwind tour of Montmartre’s famed late-19th-century musical revues—the Chat Noir, Folies Bergère, and Moulin Rouge—which boasted such chanteuses as Yvette Guilbert and Josephine Baker. Cheap Thrills highlights the Libraries’ extensive collection of cabaret-related materials, including biographies, guidebooks, periodicals, and musical scores. The exhibit will be sonified, with recreated performances of the cabarets’ raucous ballads and rallying performances, all arranged and recorded by the Duke New Music Ensemble.

Companion Exhibit:
Night in the City of Light: Paris’s Cabarets, 1881-1914

On display in the Nasher Museum of Art’s Academic Focus Gallery, February 15 – June 29

Related Performances and Screenings

Saturday, March 22 (2-4:45 pm): Film Screenings and Discussion: “French Cabaret from Stage to Screen,” Nasher Museum of Art

Sunday, April 6 (5 pm): Duke New Music Ensemble [dnme] presents “Melodies and Cacophonies from Paris’s Cabarets,” Fullsteam Brewery, Durham

Sunday, April 13 (8 pm): Duke New Music Ensemble [dnme] Spring Concert with selections of cabaret melodies to coincide with the exhibitions “Night in the City of Light: Paris’s Cabarets, 1881-1914” and “Cheap Thrills: The Highs and Lows of Cabaret Culture in Paris, 1881-1939,” Baldwin Auditorium, Duke East Campus

Redesigned Library Website: A Brief Interlude

Our newly redesigned website will be right back after this short break!
Our newly redesigned website will be right back after this short break!

Good things come to those who wait. For those who appreciate a little delayed gratification, we’re pushing back the launch of our redesigned library website by a couple of weeks.

Here’s why. After soft-launching on October 14 during Duke’s Fall Break, we quickly discovered some unexpected problems with people accessing their library accounts through the new site. Rather than cause any undue delays or frustration for our patrons, we decided to leave the old site in place until we could do more extensive testing and resolve the technical issue. We will re-launch the new site by the end of this month, once the problem is fixed.

During this brief intermission, you can still explore the prototype of the redesigned library website on our development server and let us know what you think. We want to thank our library users again for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience to those who reported trouble accessing their library accounts yesterday. Everything should be working normally now.

For more about the library website redesign, check out some of our previous blog posts. And keep an eye out for the unveiling of our new and improved (and fully functioning) website later this month.

A Brief Excursion in the Wayback Machine

Here in the Duke University Libraries, we’re excited about unveiling our redesigned website next Monday, October 14. If you haven’t already tried out the prototype, you can give it test-drive on our development server.

But before we launch the new site, we thought it would be fun to take a little trip in the Wayback Machine and reminisce about just how far we’ve come. This isn’t our first redesign rodeo, after all.

So join us as we surf back in Internet Time and explore…

 

Our Library Website Through the Years
(with real archived links!)

 

1997
J. K. Rowling publishes first 
Harry Potter book, Titanic hits theaters, Hong Kong becomes part of China again, Princess Diana dies—and our website wins a “Best of the Web” award!

Click on the image to go straight back to 1997!
Click on the image to go straight back to 1997!

 

 

2001
Gladiator wins Best Picture, Ravens win Super Bowl, Duke Men’s Basketball wins NCAA Championship, 9/11 attacks, Enron files for bankruptcy—and we get Wifi in the library!

Click on the image to back to 2001!
Click on the image to go straight back to 2001!

 

 

2004
Facebook launches, Ronald Reagan dies, Lance Armstrong wins sixth Tour de France, Red Sox win World Series, Richard Brodhead becomes president of Duke—and we launch a redesigned library website!

Click on the image to go straight back to 2004!
Click on the image to go straight back to 2004!

 

 

2008
Large Hadron Collider begins operations, U.S. Stock Market plunges, Coach K leads U.S. men’s basketball to gold in Beijing Olympics, Barack Obama elected President—and we released the first mobile version of our website!

Click on the image to go straight back to 2008!
Click on the image to go straight back to 2008!

 

Stay tuned for the next chapter in our online history, going live October 14!

Congratulations to Our National Book Collecting Contest Winner!

Ashley Young (right) won second place in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest for her collection on 19th-century Creole cuisine and culture.
Ashley Young (right) won second place in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest for her collection on 19th-century Creole cuisine and culture. She is pictured here earlier this year at the Andrew T. Nadell Book Collecting Contest at Duke, where she won first place in the graduate category.

 

Congratulations to Ashley Young, Duke Ph.D. candidate in history, who just won second place in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest!

In recognition of her bibliophilic brio, she will receive a $1,000 cash prize (presumably to spend on more books!) and a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent Duke at a special awards ceremony on October 18 at the Library of Congress. As her home institution, the Duke University Libraries also receive $500!

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest is the “Super Bowl” of book collecting competitions, bringing together the winners of more than three dozen local competitions at colleges and universities across the United States, including Duke. It is sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Center for the Book, and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.

Earlier this year, Ashley took first place in the graduate category of the Andrew T. Nadell Book Collectors Contest, sponsored by the Friends of the Duke University Libraries, for her collection of historic cookbooks and literary sources that chronicle the history of Creole cuisine. That earned her a $750 cash prize and the eligibility to compete on the national level.

In her collection essay, Ashley says that her cookbook collection was inspired by an internship at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, which introduced her to nineteenth-century Creole culture. The books are also tied to her dissertation research on Southern foodways in the early years of American statehood.

“The creation of American culture is best understood not as a purely national phenomenon, but one that is intimately connected to the local and global dynamics at play in Southern port cities—dynamics that food vendors and urban residents interacted with and shaped on a daily basis,” she writes.

She acquired many of the works in her collection through creative searches online and by combing the shelves of Kitchen Witch Cookbooks in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Some of her historical cookbooks are even on display at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum or are housed in their library collection. “I have a strong belief that these cookbooks should be shared with the broader public so that individuals have the opportunity to hold in their hands historic cookbooks that shaped the lives and foodways of generations of Americans,” Ashley says.

Duke has been well represented in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Competition. In 2011, our last graduate-level winner, Mitch Fraas (also a Ph.D. candidate in history), took first place for his collection on Anglo-American legal printing from 1702 to the present.

Here’s a video we made of our own book collecting contest participants earlier this year. Look for Ashley around the 1:46 mark.

 

 

About the Book Collecting Contest at Duke

Since 1947, the Friends of the Duke University Libraries have organized a book collecting contest in alternate years to promote reading for enjoyment and the development of students’ personal libraries. The 2013 contest was named for Dr. Andrew T. Nadell M’74, an avid collector in the areas of Gothic Revival, Doctors of Medicine, and Learned Professions and Occupations. The contest includes an undergraduate and a graduate division. Cash prizes are offered in each division. Collections are judged on the extent to which books and materials represent a well-defined field of interest. The next contest will be held in 2015. See the contest website for more information.

New Exhibit: Recording the Anthropocene

anthropocene banner

On exhibit July 16 – October 13, 2013
Perkins Library Gallery, Duke West Campus (Click for map)
Public Hours: Monday-Friday, 8am–7pm; Saturday, 9am–7pm; Sunday, 10am–7pm
Hours may vary during the summer months. Please check our posted library hours for more information.

 

About the Exhibit 

In an instant of geologic time, human beings have exploded into a geologic force, altering the planet’s oceans and fresh waters, atmosphere, soils, plants, and animals.

Our effect on planetary conditions and processes has been so significant, in fact, that many people believe we have crossed the boundary into a distinctly new geologic epoch—from Holocene to Anthropocene—a period in Earth’s history primarily characterized by the growth and impact of the human species.

A new exhibit in Perkins Library considers the human record on planet Earth and asks visitors to consider the implications of labeling our geologic epoch the Anthropocene.

Illustration by Theodor de Bry (1591), showing indigenous Americans in Virginia hand-cultivating and planting fields with maize. One theory holds that the Anthropocene began with the rise of agriculture some 8,000 years ago.
Illustration by Theodor de Bry (1591), showing indigenous Americans in Virginia hand-cultivating and planting fields with maize. One theory holds that the Anthropocene began with the rise of agriculture some 8,000 years ago.

You may not have heard the term Anthropocene before, but you will. It has been taken up enthusiastically across a variety of academic and artistic disciplines. It has inspired major critical and artistic works as well as international museum exhibitions.

Originally coined by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, the term follows a relatively recent turn in society that has seen human beings increasingly acknowledged to be an integral part of nature.

A proposal to rename our geologic epoch is accordingly being considered by a working group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the scientific body that sets global standards for expressing the geologic history of the earth. The working group includes one of the curators of this exhibit (Professor Daniel Richter of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment) and represents the culmination of intense scientific debates in books, conferences, and exhibits such as this one. A decision on whether to adopt the term is expected in 2016.

black rhino
Skull of the near-extinct Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis). Another theory traces the origins of the Anthropocene to the Stone Age extinctions of large animals that began some 50,000 years ago and have continued ever since.

The widespread recognition that we have had a global-scale impact on the environment is relatively new, as is the idea that we have a special responsibility to the future and to other life forms. Recording the Anthropocene represents an attempt to acknowledge the scale of our impact on the planet and to face the implications of that realization. What difference do you think the adoption of the term Anthropocene would make to you, and to all forms of life on the planet?

The exhibit was curated by a broad interdisciplinary group of Duke faculty, graduate students, and staff from a variety of departments across campus who share an interest in this topic.

For more information, visit the exhibit in Perkins Library, or check out the exhibit website.

Student Workers Leave Their Mark on the Library

Graduating library student workers and their supervisors gather outside the Gothic Reading Room.
Graduating library student workers and their supervisors gather outside the Gothic Reading Room.

Every year, about 50 library student workers graduate from Duke. Many of them have worked for the Libraries their entire four years at Duke, and have made indispensable contributions to our mission. So this past Monday, April 22, University Librarian Deborah Jakubs thanked them by hosting a reception in their honor outside the Gothic Reading Room on the second floor of Rubenstein Library.

The Duke University Libraries employ more than 200 student workers. (That’s nearly as many people as our full-time staff!) Alumni who return for Reunion and Homecoming Weekends often tell us they worked in the Libraries as undergraduates and remember the experience fondly. Many even show their gratitude by contributing to the Libraries Annual Fund. As a token of her appreciation for their contributions to the Libraries’ success, Jakubs gave each student at the reception a lapel pin and writing pen, both featuring the Reading Blue Devil (the official Duke University Libraries mascot), and a complimentary one-year membership in the Friends of the Duke University Libraries. As Friends of the Libraries, they’ll receive our magazine twice a year, so they can keep up with our activities and achievements and the Rubenstein Library renovation project.

The students were invited to write on the wall outside the Gothic Reading Room and bid farewell to the Libraries.
The students were invited to write on the wall outside the Gothic Reading Room and bid farewell to the Libraries.

Because the Rubenstein Library will soon undergo a complete renovation, students were encouraged to write farewell messages on the wall outside the Gothic Reading Room. Many of them bid farewell to their department. Some wrote notes of appreciation for their supervisors. Throughout the end of the academic year, all interested students are welcome to contribute to this homage to their time at Duke by adding a comment on the wall outside the Gothic Reading Room. If the Libraries have left a mark on you during your time here at Duke, let us know by leaving your mark on the library!

A Conversation with Photographer Edward Ranney, May 7

Moray, 1975. Toned gelatin silver print by Edward Ranney.
Moray, 1975. Toned gelatin silver print by Edward Ranney.

Who: Edward Ranney
When: Tuesday, May 7, 1:00 p.m.
Where: Perkins Library, Room 217 (Click for map)
Contact: Kirston Johnson, 919-681-7963, kirston.johnson@duke.edu

Edward Ranney is an internationally recognized photographer who has photographed the natural and man-altered landscape for over forty years. His work of the 1970s in the southern Andes of Peru resulted in the book Monuments of the Incas (1982), which was reprinted in an expanded edition in 2010.

Since 1985, Ranney has dedicated himself to a comprehensive photographic survey of pre-Columbian sites along the Andean Desert Coast. His recent work with Lucy R. Lippard in the Galisteo Basin, near Sante Fe, was published in Down Country in 2010.

Edward Ranney has received numerous awards, including two Fulbright fellowships for his work in Peru, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellowship. His work has been presented in individual exhibitions at the Princeton University Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the University of New Mexico Art Museum, and the Centro Cultural of Miraflores in Lima, Peru. His other books include Stonework of the MayaPrairie Passage, and Pablo Neruda’s Heights of Macchu Picchu.

This event is free and open to the public.

A Conversation with David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, May 10

David S. Ferriero, Tenth Archivist of the United States
David S. Ferriero, Tenth Archivist of the United States

Who: David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States
When: Friday, May 10, 3:00 p.m.
Where: Gothic Reading Room, Rubenstein Library (Click for map)
Contact: Aaron Welborn, 919-660-5816, aaron.welborn@duke.edu

In 2009, David S. Ferriero was appointed by President Obama as the tenth Archivist of the United States. A former director of the New York Public Libraries, the largest public library system in the country, he is the first librarian to lead the National Archives and Records Administration. From 1996 to 2004, Ferriero served as Duke’s university librarian. In that role, he helped raise more than $50 million to expand and renovate the West Campus libraries, developed initiatives for instructional technology, and worked to increase public access to libraries and museums throughout North Carolina.

Ferriero will receive an honorary degree at Duke’s commencement on May 12. Deborah Jakubs, the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke, will lead this Q&A public conversation with him.

Reception to follow. This event is free and open to the public.

 

Parking Information

Starting Friday, May 10, all parking lots on campus will be open and available for parking without charge throughout commencement weekend. Parking is on a first-come basis, so please allow time to find a space. For more information, see the announcement on DukeToday about 2013 commencement parking, or contact Duke Parking and Transportation Services at (919) 684-7275 or tranpark@duke.edu.

 

Find Out More

Scaffolding Installation in Library Stairway: April 9-11

Rubenstein Stairway
April 9-11: Please excuse our scaffolding here, and use the other staircase!

On April 9-11, the staircase on the right side of the 1928 tower entrance of Rubenstein Library will be closed while workers remove a tapestry above the steps. This will require some temporary scaffolding to be installed for a few days, during which time the staircase will be inaccessible.

The staircase on the left side of the entrance will remain open for use.

The tapestry is being removed in preparation for the upcoming Rubenstein Library renovation. For more information about the renovation, including architectural renderings and an estimated timeline, please visit our Rubenstein Library renovation website.

Say goodbye to the old tapestry! We're removing it as part of the upcoming Rubenstein Library renovation. It will return to its proper home at the Nasher Museum.
Say goodbye to the old tapestry! We’re removing it as part of the upcoming Rubenstein Library renovation. It has been on loan to us since 1986 from the Nasher Museum and will return to its proper home.

Library to Close Early for Electrical Work, April 5

closed-sign.big_

Perkins and Bostock Libraries will close early at 10:45 p.m. on Friday, April 5, instead of the usual midnight closing.

The Duke Facilities Management Department will be replacing the high voltage switch for the library during this time, which will affect lighting and electrical power supply in several areas of the library building complex.

Notices will be posted about the early closing, and library patrons will be asked to leave by 10:45 p.m. so that the work may be completed. The Libraries will reopen at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 6, as normal.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Digital Forensics, Emulation, and the Art of Restoration: April 24

The Thing

Who: Ben Fino-Radin
When: Wednesday, April 24, 4:00 p.m.
Where: Perkins Library, Room 217 (Click for map)
Contact: Winston Atkins (winston.atkins@duke.edu)

In 1991, from a basement in lower Manhattan, contemporary artist Wolfgang Staehle founded The Thing, an electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) that served as a cyber-utopian hub for NYC-based artists integrating computers and into their creative practice.

The Thing emerged at a moment when contemporary artists were coming to grips with personal computers and the role they played in visual art. The BBS, which began as a temporary experiment, grew to become an international network of artists and ideas. Then the World Wide Web emerged and in 1995 Staehle abandoned the BBS for a web-based iteration of The Thing. The cultural record of these crucial early years, inscribed on the platters of the hard drive that hosted the BBS, was left to sit in a dusty basement.

The Thing 2

Fast forward to 2013. Digital conservator Ben Fino-Radin reached out to Staehle to investigate the state of the BBS. Did the machine that hosted The Thing still exist? Could the board be restored to working order?

For scholars interested in the intersection of art and technology, the ability to investigate the contents of the BBS and observe its original look and feel would help flesh out the history of the emergence of personal computers and visual art. Tragically, it was discovered that the computer that hosted The Thing BBS was at some point discarded.

Join Ben Fino-Radin on April 24 to discuss the process of digital forensics, investigation, and anthropology involved in the process of restoring The Thing BBS from the scattered bits and pieces of evidence that managed to survive, and how this story serves as a case-study in the need for a new model of digital preservation in archives.

This event is free and open to the public.

 

About the Speaker
fino-radinBen Fino-Radin is a New York based media archaeologist and conservator of born-digital and computer-based works of contemporary art. At Rhizome at the New Museum, he leads the preservation and curation of the ArtBase, one of the oldest and most comprehensive collections of born-digital works of art. He is also in practice in the conservation department of the Museum of Modern Art, managing the museum’s repository for digital assets in the collection, as well as contributing to media conservation projects. He is near completion of an MFA in digital arts and MS in Library and Information Science at Pratt Institute, with a BFA from Alfred University.

 

Find Out More

Ben Fino-Radin:

The Thing:

Rhizome:

  • Rhizome is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology.” (from the Rhizome mission statement)

 

Congratulations to Our Book Collectors Contest Winners!

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

– E.B. White

We just had to share this video with some of our fellow bibliophiles out there.

On February 21, 2013, Duke undergraduate and graduate students gathered in Perkins Library to show off their personal book collections for the Andrew T. Nadell Book Collectors Contest.

Since 1947, the Friends of the Duke University Libraries have organized the contest in alternate years to promote reading for enjoyment and the development of students’ personal libraries. Eighteen students participated in this year’s contest—a record turnout! Here’s what they had to say about the books they love best. Enjoy!

 

 

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 Andrew T. Nadell Book Collectors Contest!

Undergraduate 1st Prize
Kenny Gould

Undergraduate 2nd Prize
Laurel Burk

Graduate 1st Prize
Ashley Young

Graduate 2nd Prize (tie)
Adrienne Krone
Beth Sanchez

Cultural Anthropology Takes Open Access Publishing at Duke to Next Level

Cultural Anthropology Journal CoverThe announcement earlier this week that the journal Cultural Anthropology was going open access in 2014 has generated a lot of excitement in academic circles.

Cultural Anthropology is the journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association. It is one of 22 journals published by the AAA, and it is widely regarded as one of the flagship journals of its discipline. The journal is edited by Charles D. Piot and Anne Allison, both professors of cultural anthropology at Duke University.

Here in the Libraries, we’re especially excited about this development, not only because it’s a great step in promoting broader access to academic research, but because we will be supporting the back end of the publication process.

In fact, this is the fourth peer-reviewed, open-access scholarly journal the Libraries are helping to publish. As part of a series of efforts at Duke to promote open access as an institutional priority, the Libraries piloted an open-access publishing service in 2011, starting with three journals: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies (published in print since 1958); andererseits, a journal of Transatlantic German Studies; and Vivliofika, a journal of 18th-century Russian Studies.

The addition of Cultural Anthropology confirms the success of that pilot and takes the experiment to a new level. Cultural Anthropology is a major, high-impact journal read by scholars around the world. It is also one of the first flagship journals in the interpretive social sciences to transition to a fully open access model. (Although the push for open access has spread throughout medicine and the sciences, it has been slower to catch on in the humanities and social sciences.)

The Society for Cultural Anthropology recently redesigned the journal’s website, which will act as the front end of the online publication. (The new design nicely complements the print version distributed to subscribers.) But the back end of the editorial process will use a free, open-source platform known as Open Journal Systems that is hosted and managed by the Duke University Libraries.

open_access logoThe Open Journal Systems software was developed by the Public Knowledge Project, a partnership of Canadian and U.S. universities and libraries, specifically to manage the overhead of creating and sustaining academic journals. More than 11,500 scholarly journals currently use the software as their publishing platform.

Open Journal Systems is structured to help editors manage the publishing process, from receiving submissions to peer review, editing, layout, and publication. It allows both editors and contributors to track and manage articles as they move through the pipeline, so that the publication process is prompt, efficient, and transparent.

In recent years, as scholars have sought to increase the reach and impact of their work using new technologies, and universities and funding agencies have pushed for greater access to the research they support, open-access publishing has emerged as an alternative to the traditional fee- and subscription-based model of scholarly publishing, which limits access to those who can pay for it. “Libraries have always worked to increase access to information, and at Duke we’ve made a concerted effort to support emerging practices in scholarly communication,” said Paolo Mangiafico, Coordinator of Scholarly Communications Technology. “So we are glad to be able to partner with Duke scholars and their scholarly societies to experiment with new models to achieve these goals.”

For more information about open-access journal publishing at Duke, visit the Libraries’ website, or contact Paolo Mangiafico.

Further Reading:

New Exhibit: Comics and Propaganda: France 1939-1944

French Comics and Propaganda Exhibit

The new student exhibit in Bostock Library explores the juvenile press in France from 1939 to 1945. The exhibit was designed and curated by students in Professor Clare Tufts’s Fall 2012 course, Comics and Culture: Images of Modern France in the Making (French 414/Visual and Media Studies 312).

When Paris was liberated in the summer of 1944, a beautifully illustrated, 29-page hardback comic book appeared on the market seemingly overnight. This publication, La bête est morte! (The Beast is Dead!), presented a pictorial account of war among animals who symbolized all of the major players of World War II. Hitler was portrayed as the big bad wolf, Mussolini as a hyena, and the Japanese as yellow monkeys. Meanwhile, the occupied French were glowingly depicted as docile rabbits and industrious squirrels beset by barbarian hordes from other countries. Their savior, a great white stork wearing a Lorraine cross, clearly symbolized Charles De Gaulle and the Resistance. The story does not touch on the subject of French collaboration.

During this time, comics provided French children and adolescents a regular diet of fact, fiction, and outright propaganda about the Germans, the Vichy regime, the Allies, and eventually the Resistance. The exhibit highlights a selection of representative publications, focusing on the messages they conveyed to their youthful audience. As an art form and means of mass communication, the comic book medium was used to form a post-war generation of young adults primed to accept and support the prevailing political ideology.

In particular, the student exhibit traces the history of the following publications:

  • Three weeklies available in France on the eve of the war: Le Journal de Mickey, Jumbo, and Coeurs vaillants/Ames vaillantes (Stout-Hearted/Brave-Souled), which migrated south to unoccupied France and underwent significant changes in content and format.
  • The comic Le Téméraire (The Audacious), which started publication in Paris during the Occupation; and the weekly Vaillant (Valiant), born with the Liberation and filled with realistic images of fighting and resistance.
  • The exhibit also includes presentations on the Nazi Propaganda comic Vica and the comic book La Bête est morte! Annotations written by students are available in English and French.

The exhibit is located in the International and Area Studies exhibit cases on the 2nd floor of Bostock Library, across from the International and Area Studies Offices. (Map and directions available here.) It will be on display until March 15.

More information about the exhibit can be found on our library guide for French and Francophone Studies.  

Post contributed by Professor Clare Tufts and Heidi Madden, Librarian for Western European Studies

Book Talk: Selected Letters of William Styron: Feb. 13

Date: Wednesday, February 13
Time: 5:00 p.m. reception, 5:30 talk
Location: Gothic Reading Room, Rubenstein Library, Duke West Campus (Map)
Contact: Aaron Welborn, aaron.welborn@duke.edu, 919-660-5816

Join the Libraries for a public conversation with Rose Styron and R. Blakeslee Gilpin, editors of the recently published Selected Letters of William Styron (Random House, 2012) at 5 p.m. Wednesday, February 13, in the Rubenstein Library’s Gothic Reading Room. The event is free and open to the public.

Styron Letters Cover
Photo credit: Alison Shaw

Born in Virginia, William Styron (1925-2006) was a graduate of Duke University (1947), a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, and the author of numerous award-winning books. His first novel, Lie Down in Darkness, was published to critical acclaim when Styron was just twenty-six years old. His controversial The Confessions of Nat Turner won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize, while Sophie’s Choice was awarded the 1980 National Book Award. Darkness Visible, Styron’s groundbreaking recounting of his ordeal with depression, was not only a literary triumph but became a landmark in the field.

Styron’s letters contain some of his most memorable meditations on the craft of writing. They also open a window onto his friendships with Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, John and Jackie Kennedy, Arthur Miller, James Jones, Carlos Fuentes, Wallace Stegner, Robert Penn Warren, Philip Roth, C. Vann Woodward, and many of the other leading writers and intellectuals of the second half of the twentieth century. The book takes readers on a journey from FDR to George W. Bush through the trenchant observations of one of the country’s greatest writers.

Styron’s papers are held at Duke in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event.

 

New Exhibit: Caricature and the Dreyfus Affair

Detail from “Le Traître” (The Traitor), a lithograph depicting Alfred Dreyfus that is part of a new exhibit on caricature and the Dreyfus Affair in the Rubenstein Library.

Exhibit Reception—Please Join Us!
Date: Wednesday, January 30
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: Rubenstein Library Photography Gallery, Rubenstein Library, Duke West Campus (Map)
Contact: Meg Brown, meg.brown@duke.edu, 919-681-2071

Few legal cases in French history have been so decisive, and so divisive, as the twelve-year trial, re-trial and eventual acquittal of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer, was falsely accused in 1894 of selling military secrets to the German army. The trial sparked a flurry of anti-Semitism in the popular press and inspired Émile Zola’s famous open letter of outrage, “J’Accuse!”

A new exhibition in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke examines how the Dreyfus Affair was depicted in the French popular press, with a particular focus on visual illustrations in newspapers and periodicals that covered the trial. A Mockery of Justice: Caricature and the Dreyfus Affair encourages viewers to reconsider the significance of this historical episode that continues to resonate in the present day. As Zola pointed out, the Dreyfus Affair was about more than one man’s guilt or innocence. Also at stake were the very principles upon which the French Republic rested: liberté, égalité, fraternité. More than one hundred years later, the Dreyfus Affair offers a vivid lesson on the dangers of racial prejudice, blind loyalty to the military, and unthinking nationalism.

Cover illustration from “Le Petit Journal” (1895) showing Alfred Dreyfus being stripped of his military honors and titles.

Drawing on the Rubenstein Library’s extensive collection of  late-19th and early 20th-century French periodicals, the exhibit also features a rare series of colorful and attention-grabbing posters that were disseminated throughout Paris at the time. The posters, collectively known as the Musée des Horreurs, were published pseudo-anonymously and feature unflattering caricatures of prominent Jews, Dreyfus supporters, and other individuals involved in the Dreyfus Affair. Another set of posters, known as Musée des Patriotes, glorifies the so-called anti-Dreyfusards, who publicly condemned Dreyfus and sought to undermine his defense.

A complete original set of the Musée des Horreurs and the Musée des Patriotes was recently acquired by the Rubenstein Library and has been digitized in conjunction with the exhibit.

A Mockery of Justice: Caricature and the Dreyfus Affair was sponsored by the Duke Center for Jewish Studies and curated by Alexis Clark, Kathryn Desplanque, and Emilie Anne-Yvonne Luse, doctoral students in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.

For more information, visit the online exhibit website. To see the complete set of images from the Musée des Horreurs and Musée des Patriotes, visit our digital collections website.

 

Exhibit Details
A Mockery of Justice: Caricature and the Dreyfus Affair
December 12, 2012 – March 9, 2013
Rubenstein Library Photography Gallery
David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library (Click here for map)
Duke University West Campus
Public Hours: Monday-Friday, 8am–7pm; Saturday, 9am–7pm; Sunday, 10am–7pm
Hours may vary during the holidays. Please check our posted library hours for more information.

Interlibrary Loan Temporarily Unavailable During Winter Break

 

SERVICE INTERRUPTION NOTICE

 

During the upcoming academic winter break (December 17-January 8), Perkins, Law, and Ford libraries will be moving interlibrary loan operations from a locally hosted computer server to OCLC, a non-profit computer service and research organization.

As part of this transfer of service, all data associated with document delivery operations (ILLiad) will need to be transferred to OCLC. To prepare library files for this transfer, we will be shutting down access to our local interlibrary loan service on the morning of Friday, December 14. OCLC will begin building the interlibrary loan files on their computers on Monday, December 17, a process they expect to take a few days.

During this process, neither library staff nor library patrons will have access to their ILLiad accounts or files, and all system functionality will be inaccessible for transaction processing. Please plan ahead for requesting materials. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience as we work to update our system.

Lilly Library Gallery Talk: Interwoven Histories, Nov. 27

Ashanti Kente cloths, from the exhibit “Interwoven Histories: Luxury Cloths of Atlantic Africa” in Lilly Library

Date: Tuesday, November 27
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Thomas Room, Lilly Library (Map)
Contact:  Greta Boers, greta.boers@duke.edu

Please join the staff of Lilly Library on Tuesday, November 27, for a gallery talk about a new library exhibit on African weaving.

“Interwoven Histories: Luxury Cloths of Atlantic Africa” draws from the private collection of Professor J. Lorand Matory and Ms. Olubunmi Fatoye-Matory, celebrating the genius of West African weavers, dyers, printers, appliqué artists, and embroiderers who have employed a cosmopolitan array of techniques and materials to create wearable art. They draw their designs from ancient African sources and from as far afield as Indonesia to supply markets, museums, interior designers and couturiers in Africa, Europe and the Americas.

These cloths express not only dignity, heritage, and style but also the old reality of internationalism and changing fashion in Africa, a continent often falsely associated with cultural isolation and stasis.

Moreover, like African drumming, African cloth speaks. Many weaves and printed designs convey literal messages that swathe the body in counsel, consolation, prayer, and warning on the occasion of births, weddings, coronations, elections, diplomatic negotiations, and deaths.

These richest of textile arts from Ghana and Nigeria illustrate tradition and change from the period of independence until the present.

The Center for African and African American Research at Duke University and the Duke University Libraries invite you behind the veil of vivid texture and color and into the world of West African taste, class, and history.

Harvesting a Legacy of Action, Nov. 12

 

North Carolina has a long history of support and activism on behalf of immigrant communities. But only recently have immigrant activists begun to view their work from a human rights perspective.

That will be the topic of a community discussion on immigration and human rights at 5:30 p.m., November 12, in the Rare Book Room of Duke’s Perkins Library. “Harvesting a Legacy of Action: Immigration Activism and Human Rights” will feature a panel of experts discussing the challenges and possibilities of placing immigration activism within a human rights framework.

The panel will be moderated by Robin Kirk, co-director of the Duke Human Rights Center.  Panelists will include Guadalupe Gamboa, Senior Program Officer for Worker Rights at Oxfam America; Ramon Zepeda, Youth Organizer for Student Action with Farmworkers and labor activist and organizer; and Paul Ortiz, History Professor at the University of Florida.

The panel discussion is part of a larger series of events around the state celebrating the 20th anniversary of Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF), a nonprofit organization that brings together students, community members, and farmworkers in the Southeast to work for justice in the agricultural system. What began as a small group of Duke Public Policy students documenting farmworker conditions has since grown to an independent nonprofit with a national impact. The organization’s papers are held by Duke’s Human Rights Archive in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Three exhibitions currently on display at the library explore the human experience of farmworkers and the history of SAF. The exhibits reflect historical and contemporary concerns with student activism, access to safe and healthy food, organized labor, and immigration. The exhibits run through December 9, 2012.

The exhibits and panel discussion are sponsored by SAF, the Duke University Libraries, the Center for Documentary Studies, the Franklin Humanities Institute BorderWorks Lab, the Duke University Service Learning Program, and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Watch Election Returns and Get Day-After Analysis at Lilly Library

We have two great programs lined up for the election, both featuring expert commentary and analysis by Duke faculty experts.

November 6: Election Returns and Results

Returns, Reflections and Refreshments! We’ll be broadcasting the election returns live while Duke professors of political science and public policy help you understand the developments. Plus, you can sample some of President Obama’s and Governor Romney’s favorite snacks!

Date: Tuesday, November 6
Time: 8:00 p.m. – Until
Location: Lilly Library, Room 103 (map)
Contact: Dave Munden, dave.munden@duke.edu, 919-660 9465

Jerry Hough
James B. Duke Professor of Political Science

Professor Hough teaches courses on the U.S. Presidency. A well-known figure in comparative politics and especially the Soviet Union, his recent research centers on the American state and democracy. This semester, Professor Hough is teaching “The American Presidency.” His most recent book is Changing Party Coalitions:  The Strange Red-Blue State Alignment.
Appearing 8-9 pm

 

John Aldrich
Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science
Professor Aldrich specializes in American political behavior, and his current research focuses upon campaigns and elections. This semester, he is teaching “From Voting to Protests,” and his most recent book is Why Parties? A Second Look.
Appearing 9-10 pm

 

 

Nick Carnes
Assistant Professor of Public Policy
Faculty Affiliate, DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Duke Population Research Institute
Professor Carnes specializes in economic and social inequality in American Politics. This semester, he is teaching “The Politics of the Policy Process.” His most recent article accepted for publication is “Does the Numerical Underrepresentation of the Working Class in Congress Matter?”
Appearing 10pm-Midnight

 

November 7: Beyond the Election: The Day After

Duke faculty experts evaluate the election results. Light refreshments served.

Date: Wednesday, November 7
Time: Refreshments 3:30 p.m., Program 4:00-5:00
Location: Lilly Library, Thomas Room (map)
Contact: Dave Munden, dave.munden@duke.edu, 919-660 9465

Peter Feaver
Professor of Political Science
Professor Feaver specializes in international relations, security studies, and civil-military relations. He served on the National Security Council staff in the White Houses of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He’s currently Director of the Triangle Institute for Security Studies (TISS) and also directs the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy (AGS). He co-authored Paying the Human Costs of War and Armed Servants: Agency, Oversight, and Civil-Military Relations. This semester he is teaching “American Grand Strategy.”

Bruce Jentleson
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
Professor Jentleson specializes in U.S. foreign policy, global governance, and conflict prevention and peacekeeping. He has served as senior advisor to the U.S. State Department and as foreign policy advisor to several senate political campaigns. He currently serves as a member of the Responsibility to Protect Working Group co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and Rich Williamson, and as co-director of Amidst the Revolutions: U.S. Strategy in a Changing Middle East, a project of the Center for a New American Security. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including the upcoming fifth edition of American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (2013), The End of Arrogance: America in the Global Competition of Ideas, and Global Governance in a Copernican World. This semester, he is teaching “Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy.”

UPDATE: This discussion will also be webcast live on Ustream. If you are unable to join us in person, please tune in online and tweet your comments with the hashtag #dukelive.

Both events are part of a series—Election 2012: Debates, Results, and Beyond—focusing on the presidential debates and election. All events are free, open to the public, and held at Lilly Library on Duke’s East Campus.

Lilly Library gratefully acknowledges the support of the Sanford School of Public Policy and East Campus Residence Life.

For more information, visit Lilly Library’s Election 2012 website.

We Have a Winner!

Our fellow Americans…

Earlier this fall, we got into the election spirit and decided to host a little competition.

We invited Duke students to “be our Super PAC” and make a mock election video explaining why Duke University Libraries get their vote. We received a number of creative submissions. Eligible video entries were posted to this blog and the Libraries’ Facebook page, where we invited people to vote for their favorite. It was the very embodiment of the democratic process.

Now we are pleased to announce the winning video, produced and directed by Duke undergrads Jordan Thomas (’15) and Reem Alfahad (’15). For their creativity and filmmaking skills, Jordan and Reem won two student wristbands to the Duke vs. UNC men’s basketball game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, February 13, 2013.

Jordan’s and Reem’s video demonstrates not only their great imagination, terrific sense of humor, and talent, but also their superb appreciation for what we try to provide our students, faculty, and library users here at Duke. They also did a great job of making it look, feel, and sound like an actual campaign ad!

But don’t take our word for it. Watch the video, hit that like button, and remember to go vote!

Ring the Victory Bell in the Library!

The Victory Bell will be publicly displayed in Perkins Library on Friday, November 2, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Visitors will be invited to ring the bell themselves. Photo courtesy of Duke Athletics.

UPDATE: President Richard H. Brodhead and Coach David Cutcliffe will be on hand to ring the bell in Perkins Library on Friday at 1:15 p.m.

Duke’s dramatic victory on October 20 over the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill brought more than football bragging rights to the Blue Devils this year. It also brought the Victory Bell back home.

The Victory Bell is given to the winner of the annual Duke-UNC football game. The tradition goes back to 1948, when the idea was conceived by Duke head cheerleader Loring Jones, Jr., and UNC head cheerleader Norm Speer as a way to foster more friendly relations between the two campuses. (For more on the history of the Victory Bell, read this blog post by the Duke University Archives.)

This is the first time the bell has been in Duke’s possession since 2003. Now is your chance to see it up-close, give it a ring, and support Duke’s football team as they prepare to face Clemson this Saturday at 7 p.m. in Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium.

The Victory Bell will be on public display in the entrance lobby of Perkins Library this Friday, November 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Historical photographs and Duke football memorabilia from the Duke University Archives will also be displayed and University Archives staff will be on hand to answer questions.

Once an hour, on the hour, visitors will be able to ring the Victory Bell themselves. You can also ring it outside of the library when the bell first arrives at 10 a.m. and when it is leaving at 2 p.m.

So stop by the library this Friday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and join us as we celebrate another historic Duke victory!

Check out the video below to see the Victory Bell in action as Duke football players and fans react to the dramatic Oct. 20 win over UNC.

Chinese Documentary Filmmaker Wu Wenguang, Oct. 26

Date: Friday, October 26, 2012
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Thomas Room, Lilly Library, Duke East Campus (Map)
Contact: Danette Pachtner, danette.p@duke.edu, 919-660-5886

Documentary Filmmaker Wu Wenguang

Join us for conversation and light refreshments with celebrated documentary filmmaker Wu Wenguang, one of the founding figures in Chinese independent documentary film. His work includes Bumming in Beijing, At Home in the World and most recently Treatment.

The talk is part of a series of presentations at Duke this week on The Memory Project. Four visiting Chinese filmmakers, including Wu Wenguang, screen their work on memories of the Great Famine (1959-1961). The Memory Project is based at Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing. From the Chinese capital, young filmmakers fanned out to return to family villages and their own pasts, real and imagined, to inquire about the Great Famine—a disaster whose memories have been actively abandoned by the state. But the films reveal as much about the wish for memory as of memory itself, and of the interesting role of film in such projects of retrieval.

Click here for complete film descriptions and screening information.

This event is free and open to the public.

Author and Cancer Physician Siddhartha Mukherjee to Speak at Duke, Nov. 28

Author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee will discuss his book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer at 6 p.m. Wednesday, November 28, in Duke University’s Page Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Mukherjee is a leading cancer physician and researcher at Columbia University. Ten years in the writing, The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer—from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago to the epic battles of modern times to cure, control, and conquer it. Mukherjee examines this shape-shifting and formidable disease with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with—and perished from—for more than five thousand years. The book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2010 by the New York Times.

A Rhodes scholar, Siddhartha Mukherjee graduated from Stanford University, the University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in NatureThe New England Journal of MedicineThe New York Times, and The New Republic. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.

Mukherjee will be delivering the Weaver Memorial Lecture, hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and former member of the Library Advisory Board. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Office of the Chancellor for Health Affairs, the Duke Department of Medicine, and the Duke Cancer Institute.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event.

Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available through the Duke Box Office. Visit tickets.duke.edu for more information.

EVENT PARKING: A limited number of free parking spaces will be available on a first-come, first-served basis on the West Campus Quad in front of Duke Chapel starting at 5 p.m. (Click here for map to the West Campus Quad). Parking will also be available in the Bryan Center Parking Garage (Parking Garage IV) for a $5 charge. (Click here for map to Bryan Center Garage.)

Media are invited to attend the event, but recording is not permitted. Members of the media interested in covering the talk should contact Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, Duke University Libraries, at 919-660-5816 or aaron.welborn@duke.edu by November 26.

Extra Credit: Post-Soviet Art at the Nasher

Alexander Kosolapov, “Untitled from Gorby Series.” From the Subverted Icon exhibit at the Nasher.

A new exhibit of post-Soviet artwork is currently on display in the Nasher Museum of Art’s Education Gallery through December 23, and it’s well worth a visit.

The exhibit, The Subverted Icon: Images of Power in Soviet Art (1970-1995), explores the ways in which artists in late- and post-Soviet Russia represented, confronted, and challenged state-sponsored propaganda, Soviet architecture, and the populist art of earlier generations. It was curated by students in Professor Pamela Kachurin’s “Soviet Art After Stalin” seminar. There’s a good review in the October 18 issue of the Duke Chronicle.

For those interested in a little extra credit, Duke is home to one of the oldest and most extensive Slavic research collections in the southeastern United States. Here’s a taste of some additional readings and resources to whet the appetite of your inner Russophile:

Go check out the exhibit, and find more great resources on Russian art and politics at the library.

Fair Use Ascendant, Nov. 19

Date: Monday, November 19, 2012
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Perkins Library, Room 217, Duke West Campus (Map)
Contact: Kevin Smith, kevin.l.smith@duke.edu

Fair Use Ascendant:
Where Do We Stand After the Recent Copyright Victories for Higher Ed?

A presentation and discussion for librarians and faculty
Lead by Kevin Smith, Director of the Copyright and Scholarly Communications Office

In the past four months, we have seen positive rulings in two major copyright cases brought against universities and their libraries, and the dismissal of a third.  These ruling have confirmed the importance of fair use in higher education, and they suggest that libraries and faculty members should feel more confident embracing fair use for certain kinds of online activities.

Come learn about these decisions—we will review each briefly and also discuss the ARL Code of Best Practices in Fair Use—and join a discussion about the opportunities they create.

Strategic Scrapbooking: October 29

Date: Monday, October 29, 2012
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Location: Rare Book Room, Rubenstein Library, Duke West Campus (Map)
Contact: Aaron Welborn, aaron.welborn@duke.edu, 919-660-5816

Men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks — the ancestors of Google and blogging. From Mark Twain to Susan B. Anthony, abolitionists to Confederates, African American janitors to farmwomen, people cut out and pasted down their reading.

Ellen Gruber Garvey, author of Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance (Oxford, 2012) opens a new window into the feelings and thoughts of ordinary and extraordinary Americans. Her groundbreaking book reveals a previously unexplored layer of American popular culture. “Scrapbooks are a democratic archive,” says Garvey. “They tell us what the 99 percent of the past read and cared about.”

Garvey is Professor of English at New Jersey City University. Her talk is titled “Strategic Scrapbooks: Nineteenth-Century Activists Remake the Newspaper for African American History and Women’s Rights.” The talk will also include a display of historical scrapbooks from the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, which Garvey consulted in the writing of her book.

Free and open to the public. A reception with refreshments will follow the program.

Copies of the book will be available for sale.

Video Contest Submissions: Vote for Your Favorite!

The submissions are in! Last month, we challenged Duke students to “be our Super PAC” and make a short mock election video for the Duke University Libraries.

We want to thank everyone who participated. We received some great entries, each of which makes a compelling case for choosing the Duke University Libraries as your source for knowledge, inspiration, and fun.

Now it’s time to watch the democratic process in action.

Take a look at the three video entries below (each one is less than 90 seconds), and let us know which one is your favorite. You can vote here on our blog, or on our Facebook page by “liking” your favorite video.

Popular voting begins today (October 8) and ends October 22. The Library Administration and Library Advisory Board will tally the winning votes and announce the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place later this month.

What do our candidates stand to win? Here’s a look at the fabulous prizes…

1st Place: Two (2) student wristbands to the Duke vs. UNC men’s basketball game, February 13, 2013, at Cameron Indoor Stadium
2nd Place: $200 gift certificate to Sushi Love restaurant
3rd Place: $150 gift certificate to Cuban Revolution restaurant

So watch the videos, and help us pick a winner!


Video 1: Submitted by DeAnne Georges (Undergrad, Class of 2013)

Video 2: Submitted by Jordan Thomas (Undergrad, Class of 2015) and Reem Alfahad (Undergrad, Class of 2015)

Video 3: Submitted by Yi Zhu (Undergrad, Class of 2013)

http://vimeo.com/50867572


Libraries Dramatically Expand Ebook Offerings

Image by Maximilian Schönherr, Wikimedia Commons

Duke library users and Duke alumni will soon have a trove of new ebooks at their fingertips.

Approximately 1,500 scholarly monographs by Oxford University Press and its affiliates are now available as ebooks in the library catalog, with approximately 9,000 more to come later this year.

The development is part of an innovative deal brokered by Oxford University Press and the Triangle Research Libraries Network consortium (TRLN).

The ebooks are fully searchable and allow for unlimited user access, so that multiple people can read them at the same time. In addition, one shared print copy of each humanities and social science title will be held at Duke’s Library Service Center and be available for use by all TRLN institutions (Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, NCSU, NCCU).

“The partnership allows for expanded access to scholarly material, with less overlap, at a lower cost to each TRLN institution,” says Aisha Harvey, Head of Collection Development at Duke University Libraries. “It also gives researchers the option of using a print or digital copy, depending on their personal preference.”

This access agreement is one of the first of its kind to allow shared e-book access among cooperating libraries. Another noteworthy aspect is that the ebooks will be fully available to all Duke alumni. Most ebooks in the Libraries’ collection are not accessible to alumni, due to copyright and licensing restrictions. But the new arrangement expands the Libraries’ offerings to Duke graduates. (A variety of library services and resources are already available for free to all Duke alumni, including some of our most popular databases.)

“The Triangle Research Libraries Network has a very long history of successful collaboration in building print collections,” said Sarah Michalak, University Librarian and Associate Provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chair of the TRLN Executive Committee.

Last year, with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, TRLN sponsored a “Beyond Print” summit to explore opportunities and challenges associated with ebook acquisitions and shared institutional access. The ebook deal with Oxford University Press is one outcome of those discussions.

“The agreement with OUP offers a welcome opportunity to experiment with approaches discussed at the summit, provide high-quality content to our users, and learn more about how students and researchers want to access scholarly output in a dual electronic-plus-print environment,” said Michalak.

Ebook and ejournal usage continues to rise in academic libraries across the country. In 2011, the Duke Libraries adopted an ebook advocacy model in order to guide collection decisions and advocate to publishers on behalf of researchers’ needs.

Watch the Presidential Debates at Lilly Library

Framing the Debate: Professors Mac McCorkle and Don Taylor

Date: Wednesday, October 3
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Lilly Library, Room 103 (map)
Contact: Dave Munden, dave.munden@duke.edu, 919-660 9465

 

Mac McCorkle
Associate Professor of the Practice of Public Policy and Director of Graduate Studies, Master of Public Policy Program

 

 

 

Don Taylor
Associate Professor of Public Policy, Sanford School; and Associate Professor of Community and Family Medicine and Nursing, Duke Medical Center

 

 

Are you planning to watch the presidential debates? So are we! And we’re recruiting Duke’s own resident experts to help you understand the issues and deconstruct the sound-bites.

Mac McCorkle and Don Taylor of Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy will present “Framing the Debate,” a preview of the first Obama-Romney debate on domestic policy. Their talk begins at 8:00 p.m. in Lilly Library Room 103, followed by the live broadcast of the debate beginning at 9:00 p.m. Bring your friends, or meet some new ones!

The event is the first in a series—Election 2012: Debates, Results, and Beyond—focusing on the upcoming presidential debates and election. All events are free, open to the public, and held at Lilly Library on Duke’s East Campus.

For more information, visit Lilly Library’s Election 2012 website.

And if you just can’t get enough election fever, enter our “Vote for the Library” Video Contest. You could win two tickets to the Duke/UNC men’s basketball game! Deadline: October 5.

Open Access Week Talk: Altmetrics and the Decoupled Journal

Date: Monday, October 22
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Perkins Library, Room 217 (map)
Contact: Paolo Mangiafico, (919) 613-6317, paolo.mangiafico@duke.edu

To celebrate international Open Access Week this year (October 22-28), the Libraries have lined up an exciting talk and you’re invited to attend. Jason Priem (http://jasonpriem.org/), a doctoral student at UNC-SILS and pioneer of the idea of “altmetrics” (alternative ways of tracking the impact of scholarly work), will be speaking about how open access and new measuring and filtering tools are changing scholarly publishing. Here’s how Priem describes it:

As the movement toward universal open access (OA) gathers momentum, the most salient OA questions are changing from “if” and even “when,” to “what will an OA world look like?” Is open access an incremental improvement, or will it lead to fundamental shifts in the way scholarship is communicated, filtered, and disseminated? In this talk, I’ll argue that the latter is the case: new ways of measuring scholarly impact on the social Web — “altmetrics” — will allow real-time, crowdsourced filtering of diverse scholarly products, leading to a new landscape of interoperable services that replace traditional journals. I’ll also demonstrate ImpactStory, an open-source tool for gathering altmetrics, and show how it can be used to promote OA, open data, and open source to faculty.

This event is  open to the public. We hope you can join us!

“Vote for the Library” Video Contest

It’s election season, and there are a lot of hearts and minds to win out there. We want yours.

We’re asking Duke University students to make a short “election” video for the Duke University Libraries.

Is Perkins your ideal of hope and change? Does Lilly have the cure for the knowledge economy? Should librarians rule the world?

Be our Super PAC. Help us make the case for the Duke University Libraries with a mock political campaign ad. Need inspiration? Check out some of the latest commercials by both political parties.

The rules are simple. You must be a registered Duke student. Your video must be 90 seconds or less. It should look, feel, and sound like an actual political commercial. And it should make a compelling case for choosing the Duke University Libraries as your source for knowledge, inspiration, and fun. 

Parody, irreverence, swelling music, patriotism, fear mongering, and nostalgia are encouraged.

The Duke University Libraries will select the best videos and post them on our Facebook page, where you can vote for your favorite. The top three winners will be announced November 2, 2012.

 

Big prizes!

Skip K-Ville and go straight to the game!

GRAND PRIZE: Two (2) student wristbands to the Duke vs. UNC men’s basketball game, February 13, 2013, at Cameron Indoor Stadium

2nd Place: $200 gift certificate to Sushi Love restaurant
3rd Place: $150 gift certificate to Cuban Revolution restaurant

 

Never made a video?

No problem! You can check out video cameras from the Link in Perkins Library. And the Multimedia Project Studio has everything you need to edit and produce your own videos. The Multimedia Project Studio has two locations, one in Lilly Library and the newly opened West Campus location in the lower level of Bostock Library, near the Link.

The new Multimedia Project Studio location in Bostock Library

 

Contest rules

  • You must be a registered undergraduate or graduate student at Duke with a valid DukeCard in your name.
  • Videos will be judged according to the following criteria: creativity, persuasiveness, production qualities, and humor.
  • Your entry must obey all laws, including all applicable copyright and privacy laws. This also applies to any music samples used in your video.
  • You agree to let the Duke University Libraries place your entry on its website and use your video in its promotional and educational efforts.
  • If filming in a library, be courteous and respectful of people studying.
  • Your video should be no longer than 90 seconds, including credits. Videos longer than 90 seconds may be disqualified or returned for editing.
  • You are responsible for any tax implications if you win a gift card.
  • Students may work individually or in groups. Winning videos will receive only one prize. If you work in a group, you split the prize.
  • Entries must be submitted by midnight on Friday, October 5, 2012, to be eligible. No extensions. Anything submitted after this date will not be considered.
  • The Duke University Libraries reserves the right to reject or return for editing any video that doesn’t comply with these guidelines or violates the Duke University student code of conduct.

 

How to submit your video

You may submit your video one of two ways:

Online submissions
1. Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo
2. Send an email to Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, at aaron.welborn@duke.edu, including:

  • A link to your video
  • Your name and contact information (email and phone)
  • Your expected graduation date (indicate whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student)

3. We will send you a confirmation email that we received your video within 24 hours.

In-Person Submissions 
1. Save your video to a CD, DVD, or flash drive
2. Put it in an envelope addressed to: Vote for the Library Video Contest. Inside the envelope, please include:

  • Your name and contact information (email and phone)
  • Your expected graduation date (indicate whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student)

3. Deliver your entry to the Libraries Administration Office, Perkins Library Room 112, by 5:00 PM on October 5, 2012. (Note that in-person submissions must be dropped off earlier than online submissions.)

 

Contest Timeline

  • Deadline for Submitting Videos:  Midnight, Friday, October 5, 2012 (5:00 PM for in-person submissions)
  • Videos Posted on Libraries’ Facebook Page, Popular Voting Begins:  October 8
  • Library Administration and Library Advisory Board choose top three videos:  October 22
  • Winners Announced:  November 2

 

Questions?

For more information, contact:
Aaron Welborn
Director of Communications
Duke University Libraries
aaron.welborn@duke.edu
919-660-5816

Join Our Student Library Advisory Boards

The Duke University Libraries are now accepting applications for membership on the 2012-2013 Undergraduate Advisory BoardFirst-Year Advisory Board, and Graduate and Professional Advisory Board.  Members of these student advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.

All three boards are now taking applications or nominations. Deadlines for applying are:

  • Graduate and Professional Advisory Board: September 7
  • Undergraduate Board: September 9
  • First-Year Board: September 10

Members will be selected and notified by late September, and the groups will begin to meet by early October.  More information is available on the Libraries’ website, where you will also find links to the applications and nomination forms.

For more information for any questions about these opportunities, contact:

 

Graduate and Professional Advisory Board

Robert Byrd
Associate University Librarian for Collections and User Services
robert.byrd@duke.edu
919-660-5821

 

 

Undergraduate Advisory Board

Jean Ferguson
Head of Research Services
Librarian for Global Health
jean.ferguson@duke.edu
919-660-5928

 

 

First-Year Advisory Board

Greta Boers
Librarian for Classical Studies and Linguistics
greta.boers@duke.edu
919-660-5864

 

 

Dave Munden
Evening Reference Librarian and Supervisor
dave.munden@duke.edu
919-660-5998

 

 

Work Advisory: Rubenstein Library Stairway, Aug. 23-24

One side of the staircase will be closed for maintenance, and contractors will be using a strong-smelling solvent.

On Thursday and Friday, August 23 and 24, a contractor will be working on one side of the stairs in the Rubenstein Library entrance that lead from the first to second floor.  One side of the staircase will be closed but the other side will be open.

The contractor will be using a solvent/cleaner that will produce a strong odor in the immediate area.  It will be vented outside, but if you have any allergy or odor sensitivity issues you may want to utilize the main Perkins Library entrance to keep some distance from the area.

Fire Drill and Alarm Testing, Aug. 10

 

Duke Fire Safety will be testing the fire alarm system in Bostock, Perkins, and Rubenstein libraries on Friday, August 10, from 8:30 – 9:15 a.m.

The test will also be a fire drill. If you are in any of these buildings when the alarm sounds, you must evacuate the building. Fire Safety staff will be taking inventory of every alarm in Bostock, Perkins, and Rubenstein libraries to ensure that they are functioning during the test. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Duke Fire Safety conducts fire drills on a routine basis around campus in order to ensure that all Duke students, faculty, and staff know how to make an efficient and orderly escape from campus buildings in an emergency. For more information on campus fire safety, visit the Duke Fire Safety website.

 

Duke Acquires Papers of Rabbi Heschel, Influential Religious Leader

Note to editors: A high-resolution photo of images from the Heschel collection is available here: http://today.duke.edu/showcase/mmedia/hires/heschel.jpg.

DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University has acquired the papers of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a scholar, writer and theologian who is widely recognized as one of the most influential religious leaders of the 20th century, the school announced Monday.

Heschel was a highly visible and charismatic leader in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. He co-founded Clergy Concerned About Vietnam and served as a Jewish liaison with the Vatican during the Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II.

Rabbi Heschel marching with Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights activists in Selma. All images are from the Abraham Joshua Heschel Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

The collection, which has never before been available to scholars, consists of manuscripts, correspondence, publications, documents and photographs spanning five decades and at least four languages. Included among the papers are notes and drafts for nearly all of Heschel’s published works, as well as intimate and extensive correspondence with some of the leading religious figures of his time, including Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy and Reinhold Niebuhr.

The papers also contain extensive documentation on Heschel’s life-long commitment to social justice, including planning documents, correspondence with organizers, speeches and even hate mail.

“The presence of the Heschel archive is a significant opportunity to draw together Duke’s traditional strengths in Jewish studies, American history and human rights,” said Laurie Patton, dean of Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences. “One of Duke’s paramount values is ‘knowledge in the service of society,’ and Heschel embodied that value in every sphere of life. We are thrilled to be able to house his papers at our university, and hope to create numerous opportunities for ethical and historical reflection on this extraordinary man’s work and life.”

Photographs and other items from the Heschel archive, including a 1935 Nazi-issued work permit.

The archive will open for research after conservation review and archival processing are complete. The opening will be announced on the websites of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and the Center for Jewish Studies at Duke, which partnered to acquire the papers.

“The acquisition of the Heschel papers assures scholars that the legacy of social activism, human rights and the highest standards of Judaic scholarship will be central to the pursuit of Jewish studies at Duke and many other places,” said Eric Meyers, the Bernice & Morton Lerner professor of religion and director of the Duke Center for Jewish Studies.

“I am delighted that my father’s papers have found a good home at Duke, which has long had an important research program in the fields of Jewish studies and religious studies,” said Susannah Heschel, daughter of Abraham Heschel and the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College. “Duke’s strong commitment to archival holdings related to Judaica and to human rights places my father’s papers together with those of his beloved student, Rabbi Marshall Meyer, and I know that Duke’s magnificent Rubenstein Library will make the material easily accessible to scholars from around the world.”

Notes and related materials from Heschel’s audience with Pope Paul VI during the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II).

Rabbi Marshall Meyer, whose papers are already placed at the archive, was a student of Heschel’s and credited him with profoundly influencing his human rights work in Argentina.

“Together, these two collections represent almost a century of social justice thought and action and provide an important connection between the civil rights and human rights movements,” said Patrick Stawski, human rights archivist at the Rubenstein Library.

Born in 1907 in Poland, Heschel was descended from a long line of distinguished rabbis. Heschel believed that prayer and study could not be separated from public action. He famously marched side-by-side with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., and is credited with coining the civil rights slogan, “We pray with our legs.”

Heschel’s theological works include The Sabbath (1951), Man is Not Alone (1951) and God in Search of Man (1955). His writings continue to influence contemporary discussions of religion and social justice.

For more information, or for press inquiries, please contact: Patrick Stawski, Human Rights Archivist, (919) 660-5823, patrick.stawski@duke.edu 

Furniture Cleaning in Perkins/Bostock, Aug. 6-10

Pardon our dust-busting!

All library furniture in Perkins and Bostock libraries is scheduled to be cleaned during the week of August 6-10, 2012. 

Expect some vacuum noise and other minor disturbances while the work is being completed.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but we’re looking forward to offering everyone a clean, comfy place to sit when classes resume on August 27. (Only three more weeks of summer break? Say it ain’t so!)

Alerts & Outages: ILLiad Service Interuption July 21

Please bear with us with we upgrade ILLiad!
(Photo by channah via stock.xchng)

On Saturday morning, July 21, approximately between 8:00 and 11:00 a.m., the Duke University Libraries will be performing an upgrade to the server which hosts ILLiad, our interlibrary loan program.  The operation is planned to take two hours, and during this time users will not be able to access their interlibrary loan accounts.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we upgrade our system.
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