February 2012

Unit in the Spotlight: Fine Arts Library
From Sibley to Rand, finally!
Green Card Stories
People News
The Lighthearted Library

Kaleidoscope is the internal newsletter of CUL. We publish every two months during the academic year, and appear mid month in August, October, December, February, and April. Submissions are due the penultimate (next-to-last) week of the month preceding publication. If you wish to receive a reminder you should contact et14. Please help us to celebrate our resources and ourselves while preserving some of our history.

Unit in the Spotlight: Fine Arts Library


Fine Arts staff from left: Marsha Taichman, Jen Gioffre, Bonna Boettcher, Ann Beyer, Sheri D’Elia, Lenora Schneller, Brennen Feint, Carla Bahn, Martha Walker.  The table and chairs were a gift to the FAL from AAP Dean Kent Kleinman. (Photograph by Carla DeMello)

Meet the staff:

In the ever-changing world of the Fine Arts Library, we do have several constants: Carla Bahn continues as the Circulation and Reserves Supervisor; Ann Beyer continues working with Reference and Serials; and Brennen Feint continues as the Evening/Weekend Supervisor and Equipment Cage Coordinator. Sheri D’Elia and Jen Gioffre also are part of the FAL-Access Services team, with both working part-time as Equipment Cage Supervisors. 

In addition to changes in physical location, described below, changes in staffing were put into place during Summer 2011. In addressing concerns identified in the Design Library Task Force Report (December 20, 2010), and working closely with Janet McCue and CUL Human Resources staff, we were able to move forward in strengthening library support for the AAP community. Bonna Boettcher assumed administrative responsibility for the FAL, and now is the Director of the Music and Fine Arts Libraries. Martha Walker refocused her energies as Architecture Librarian and Coordinator of Collections; we held a successful search, resulting in hiring Marsha Taichman as the first Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian; and Lenora Schneller was promoted to Administrative Supervisor for both the Music and Fine Arts Libraries. In a late-breaking development, Boris Michev will be adding liaison responsibilities for City and Regional Planning to his portfolio, beginning to work with CRP during Spring 2012.

From Sibley to Rand, finally!

 

 

Sibley to Rand

 

 

 

 

 

Bonna J. Boettcher, with assistance from Martha Walker

“Our fourth major problem is, of course, space. In terms of space planning 1972/73 was a bad year. After gaining total consensus early in the year that the Fine Arts Library should be removed to Rand Hall, and after conceptualizing a general program for outfitting the new quarters, the whole project was suddenly suspended for want of planning funds. I can only believe that the urgency of this need has not been fully appreciated, or this delay would not have occurred. It requires only a five-minute visit to the Fine Arts Library’s present wretched quarters to see that this project must be reopened immediately; library service to architecture, planning, the history of art and related disciplines is severely impaired.” – David Kaser, Director of Libraries, Report of the Director of University Libraries 1972/1973, p. 22 (with thanks to Joanne Leary for uncovering this report!)

Nearly forty years later, the Fine Arts Library has started its relocation to Rand Hall. The FAL occupied the second and third floors of Sibley East, as well as the Sibley Dome for decades. When faced with structural issues, specifically the load-bearing capacity of some areas of the building, portions of the collections needed to be relocated to the Annex to ensure safety. And Architecture, Art, and Planning has been on the move:  the Career Services Office was moved into Sibley East in 2006; a faculty office was added in 2009; during spring and summer 2010 we learned that in order to proceed with Milstein Hall construction, we needed to clear the third floor of Sibley East and that plans were underway to add ten faculty offices to Sibley East and the Dome. (Bonna Boettcher left; photograph by Carla DeMello)


Summer 2010:  shelving in the Dome; faculty office construction begins (Photograph by Brennen Feint)

Summer 2010 saw some 78,000 volumes transferred to the Annex, leaving some 63,000 volumes on-site and some 130,000 at the Annex. As all of the moves continued, planning began to address the need for a different space for the FAL. With the completion of Milstein Hall in Summer 2011, the need to move the library became a high priority, as Sibley East accounted for several access points to Milstein Hall. During the 2011 Fall Break, the move happened in record time.  Closed to the public on the Friday before break, the staff made the move on Friday, and had Monday and Tuesday to unpack boxes and settle in. Working with William B. Meyer, collections were moved in three days, and enough systems were in place for the FAL to reopen on Tuesday evening, before classes resumed on Wednesday morning. Even though the move can be summarized in a short paragraph, it really did take a village to move the library.  Anne Kenney acknowledged the many villagers involved in the move in her 17 October 2011 Take One.


Summer 2011: Holt Architects' drawing for the FAL in Rand III

October 2011: packing up the staff space in Sibley (Photograph by Jill Ulbricht)

October 2011: cage construction in Rand III (Photograph by Jill Ulbricht)

October 2011: shelving construction in Rand III (Photograph by Jill Ulbricht)

October 2011: we made it! (Photograph by Jill Ulbricht)

October 2011: FAL's new security guard (Photograph by Jill Ulbricht)

What’s next? 

Although the October 2011 move will not be the final move nor the final change for the FAL, as can be seen from the smiling faces it has been a positive change. Planning is underway to raise the funds necessary to completely renovate both the second and third floors of Rand Hall, resulting in an expanded FAL. Stay tuned!

Finally, we leave you with an image – a favorite of FAL staff. This is a statement of Guarantee that can be found on one of the camera cases in FAL’s equipment cage. Please note in particular the final sentence of the Guarantee. In general, we recommend maintaining a sense of humor at times of significant workplace change, along with many doses of laughter. (Martha Walker at right; photograph by Carla DeMello)

 


Warranty on camera case in FAL's equipment cage (Photograph by Brennen Feint)

Panoramic view of the new Fine Arts Library (photograph by Pete Magnus)

Green Card Stories

Green Card Stories (Brooklyn, N.Y., Umbrage, 2011) is a book about 50 people who came to this country with a dream and made that dream reality. The authors of the Introduction, Laura Danielson and Stephen Yale-Loehr—both attorneys and professors of law, the latter at Cornell—hope these stories “add context to the growing national debate about immigration and remind us that we are predominantly a nation of immigrants.” Most immediately, however, they “put a human face on immigration, moving the immigration debate beyond the political arena and into the landscape of every-day America.”

The authors continue: “If our subjects share a common trait, it’s a mixture of dedication, talent, and steely determination. Each of them fought hard for the right to stay in the United States.

They include Angela Andrade, who initially became a domestic worker in New Jersey after an earthquake destroyed her family’s glass business in Columbia; David Day, who waited years to leave his native England to live out the American dream as a carpenter near Atlanta; Saah Quigee, who escaped from Liberia after being seriously wounded and persecuted to raise his family in safety as a law school librarian in New York; Rino Nakasone, who spent her childhood in Japan dreaming about the day when she would come to the United States to dance for Michael Jackson; and Sudanese “Lost Boy” Peter Ajak, who escaped from unspeakable horror only to end up detained and imprisoned in a U.S. jail as the result of a misunderstanding.”


Saah Nue Quigee in the Law Library Reading Room (Photograph by Ariana Lindquist)

Saah Nue Quigee first came to Cornell in 2001 and soon after began working part-time at the Law Library. With the help of many and a community of caring people, including the Lutheran Church in Collegetown and Law Librarian Charlotte Bynum, Law staff member Brian Eden, then Director Claire Germain, and Professor Muna Ndulo, Saah arranged for his family to join him. The family was reunited in 2004. Now Saah works at the Africana Library as Evening Supervisor. You can read his inspiring story on p. 29.


Saah and his newly-arrived family at a gathering held for him at the Law Library in October 2004.

People News

Welcome

Aliqae Geraci is the new ILR Research Librarian. Aliqae has an MA in Labor Studies from CUNY's Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and a Master's in Library and Information Science from Long Island University. Her research interests include corporate campaign research, comparative labor and employment law, libraries and labor relations, critical pedagogy/critical librarianship, and information literacy and access. Most recently she has been a research analyst for AFSCME's District Council 37 and she also worked for the Queens public library system and NYU's Tamiment Library. Aliqae will work closely with staff from the consolidated Catherwood, Management and Nestlé libraries to provide research services in Catherwood Library, working directly with students, faculty, extension associates, and external researchers in workplace and labor studies.

The Library welcomes Stephen Salino, student intern in Digital Scholarship and Preservation Services. Among the projects he is working on is a proposal for an ARL SPEC kit on the management of electronic theses and dissertations. Stephen is in his last semester at SUNY Albany, where he is working on an MS in Information Science and an MA in History. He is a Trumansburg native and an avid runner. Stephen is also a cyclist, and rode solo from Guatemala City to Laredo, TX. Welcome to the Library, Stephen!

Marsha Taichman is our first Visual Resources and Public Services Librarian in the Fine Arts Library. Marsha holds the BA in English Literature and Literary Non-Fiction from Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts; the MA in Art History from Concordia University, Montreal; and the MLIS from McGill University, also in Montreal. She has worked in several libraries while earning her degrees, most recently at Westmount Public Library and McGill University, both in Montreal Quebec. (Marsha Taichman at left; photograph by Carla DeMello)

Promotions, Transfers, & Reassignments

Cynthia Lange has transferred from ILS to the Law Library where she is dividing her time between Access Services and Information Management.

Melissa Wallace has transferred from Mann Library to Digital Scholarship and Preservation Services where she is a Web programmer.

Out & About

Barbara Berger Eden was appointed to the position of the Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Lecturer in Library and Archives Preservation at Buffalo State. She will be conducting a two day lecture/workshop series that will focus on enhancing the experience of art conservation students by increasing their knowledge of the issues associated with the conservation and preservation of library materials. 

On Tuesday, January 3, 2012, Lance Heidig, Outreach and Learning Services Librarian for Olin/Uris and Rare and Manuscript Collections, gave a talk about Mark Twain at the Susquehanna River Archaeological Center (SRAC) in Waverly, NY. Since curating the Library’s Mark Twain exhibition in Spring 2010, Lance has been speaking about the author and his Cornell and regional connections for a variety of audiences—Cornell alumni groups, regional libraries and museums, and the Cornell American Studies program. Promotion for this recent event featured live television and radio interviews and plenty of local press. As Twain said: “It is noble to teach oneself, but still nobler to teach others--and less trouble.”

In mid-December 2011, Peter Hirtle was a consultant to a meeting held at IMLS to discuss legal issues associated with federated searching. The immediate context was the development of Omeka Commons, the latest project from the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

At the ALA Midwinter Conference in Dallas last month, Jason Kovari, Humanities & Special Collection Metadata Librarian in LTS, participated in a panel on video metadata for the ALCTS Metadata Interest Group.  His presentation focused on CUL’s preparations for the deployment of Kaltura, an open source video streaming platform, and in particular on the development of field-set and controlled vocabulary and CUL’s advanced structural and descriptive metadata needs.

Oya Rieger attended the CNI Fall 2011 Membership Meeting in Arlington, VA, on December 12-13, 2011.  She co-presented with Bob Wolven of Columbia to discuss the findings of a 2CUL ejournals digital preservation study, Final Report of the 2CUL LOCKSS Assessment Team. Oya also gave a presentation at the Modern Languages Association Convention in Seattle, WA on January 5-7, 2012. She presented and participated in a round table discussion to reflect on the first twenty years of the humanities digital archives, especially as it relates to American materials.

Announcements

From: Jim LeBlanc
To: CU-LIB
Sent: Tue 12/13/2011
Subject: Glen Wiley's Newest New Role

It is my pleasure to announce that Glen Wiley has been appointed Director of LTS Cataloging & Metadata Services. As I remarked when he assumed this position on an interim basis several weeks ago, Glen’s experience as Assistant Director of CMS in 2010/11 has prepared him well for the job. Moreover, the energy, intelligence, dedication, and informed judgment that Glen has demonstrated in his brief tenure as Interim Director of CMS are the very traits required for a successful director of a large cataloging and metadata services operation such as ours. Please join me in congratulating Glen on his new status.

***

From: Oya Yildirim Rieger
To: CU-LIB
Sent: Wed 12/7/2011
Subject: Barbara Berger Eden -- Director of Preservation & Conservation and CUL Grants Officer

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Barbara Berger Eden, as Director of Preservation & Conservation and the CUL Grants Officer.

As Director of Preservation & Conservation, Barbara is responsible for planning, managing and implementing the preservation program for Cornell University Library. This is a position she has held since 2005. As a result of the most recent library reorganization, the program is now part of the newly renamed Digital Scholarship and Preservation Services (DSPS) unit. As the first Grants Officer for CUL, Barbara will be responsible for researching state, federal, and private foundation grant possibilities for CUL. She plans to regularly meet with all library stakeholders to understand their areas of interest and promote possibilities.

As a member of the DSPS management team, she aims to establish channels for effective  communication in regard to all digitization projects within the library, and assist in the planning and implementation of special projects with a focus on the lifecycle management of digital collections. (Photograph of Barbara Eden by Gwen Glazer)

***

From: Steven Rockey
To: CU-LIB
Sent: Tue 1/31/2012
Subject: Introducing the New Engineering Website!

This morning, the Engineering Library is unveiling its new website for users.

This dynamic new website features the implementation of CuLLR (Curated List of Library Resources), ensuring users receive the most relevant Engineering library resources from their searches. Other features include searching e-books, course information and reserves, browsing by subject and easy access to top databases and links to our newly redesigned blog, problemsolved.

Many thanks are in order to the team who developed this site: Jenn Colt-Demaree, Jeremy Cusker, Mary Beth Martini-Lyons, Holly Mistlebauer, Jill Powell, Jim Reidy, Steve Rockey, Adam Smith, Rick Silterra, and Jill Wilson. And many other especially in LTS and CUL-IT who contributed.

***

From: Janet A. McCue
To: CU-LIB
Sent: Fri 2/3/2012
Subject: New Student Reading Project

Dear Colleagues,

You may have heard that Cornell selected Romain Gary’s The Life Before Us for its 2012 New Student Reading project. Published in Paris in 1975, The Life Before Us tells the story of the relationship between Momo, an illiterate Arab boy, and Madame Rosa, the Jewish ex-prostitute and Auschwitz survivor who raised him, and of the last months of their life together in the immigrant Parisian slum of Belleville.

What you might not know yet is that Eric Acree will add a new responsibility to his portfolio and become the library’s liaison to the New Student Reading project. From the inception of the New Student Reading project til now, we have been lucky to have Lance Heidig’s leadership in the library. Lance worked on everything from the website to the discussion themes. With his new position in RMC & RLS, though, Lance’s responsibilities have changed and he is no longer able to do the reading project. I am really pleased that Eric Acree has agreed to become the liaison to the Provost’s office. Eric is eager to extend his responsibilities as the Africana Library Director and work with the Provost’s office for this campus-wide project. Over the next few months, I’m sure you’ll be hearing more details from him. Eric’s in a unique position to support this initiative since he is a founding member of the MLK Community Build Project in Ithaca and he was instrumental in engaging Ithacans in a community read of King’s last book, Where Do We Go From Here.

Please join me in thanking Lance for all of his work on the New Student Reading project; Lance had quite a journey from Frankenstein to Guns, Germs, and Steel to Homer & Langley. And, please join me in welcoming Eric on his new journey which will begin with The Life Before Us.

***

From: Edward Weissman
To: CU-LIB
Sent: Wed 2/8/2012
Subject: Priority Objective Teams' First Quarterly Status Reports

The first quarterly status reports of the priority objective teams are now available on the Library’s Ten Priority Objectives for 2011-12 page of the Staff Web. Links to the reports and to the team wikis are listed next to each of the objectives.

You may submit comments or questions about any of the objectives or the progress being made in the Comments box at the bottom of the page, but only if you log into Staff Web.(This limits the ability to make and to view comments to Library Staff only. There is a “Staff Login” link in the footer of the page.) You may also direct questions and comments to the team leads and team members directly. Their names are on the page as well.

Finally, if you have suggestions on how best to disseminate information about the work of the priority objective teams, please contact me.

Good-bye

Good-bye and good luck to Stefan Kramer, CISER; Maaike Oldemans, Fine Arts Library; Stephen Rokitka, Digital Scholarship Services; Thorsten Schwander, Digital Scholarship Services; and Kate Wilkinson, Music Library; who recently left the Library.

The Lighthearted Library: Cartoons by Betsy Elswit

Below is the cartoon we left you with in December and the captions sent in by your co-workers. After them you will find another new cartoon waiting for your inspired captions. (Photograph of Betsy Elswit by Shirley Cowles)

 

 

This volume was published in 1898. Well done, just as you requested. (Jill Wilson)
Would you like it medium-rare? (Barbara B. Eden)
May I tempt you with a small incunabula from France? Aged in vellum, it is reported to be delectable. (Elizabeth Teskey)
Found item! (Michelle Nair)
I requested rare not medium rare. (Anne Kenney)

HERE'S A NEW ONE TO MULL OVER FOR THE NEXT ISSUE

Suggestion Box
Your ideas, questions, concerns, and comments are welcome. Please send them to et14 at cornell.edu.

Credits: Kaleidoscope is published bi-monthly except June and July by Cornell University Library. Editor: Elizabeth Teskey, Layout: Carla DeMello and Jenn Colt-Demaree
https://www.library.cornell.edu/staffweb/kaleidoscope/volume20/february2012.html
www.library.cornell.edu
crawl=CC-MAIN-2016-40
33645
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:TIHVQYNWTUAWRP2BEQFNPP4PBKKOK2LS
<urn:uuid:af60513c-dc20-47a5-9b71-446f960d0fc9>
2016-09-25T05:26:09Z
132.236.27.168
sha1:KRT65OA7H3DRIHACJAVQT5WFT7PEEI2L
<urn:uuid:62d7f24a-2d68-4dc0-9026-4011dc3533d3>
https://www.library.cornell.edu/staffweb/kaleidoscope/volume20/february2012.html
response
<urn:uuid:8aad2df3-22b2-4168-a307-f02d3a9136cb>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-143-35-109.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2016-40
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for September 2016
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf