Spotlight

For any other story that doesn’t easily fit into the above categories but merits attention, e.g., BorrowDirect, UBorrow, Scan & Deliver, Platzman Fellowship, Brooker Prize, Science Writing Prize.

Throwback Thursday: The Law Library on the cusp of the Digital Age

There’s a hand-drawn map of the law library’s second-floor Reading Room that harkens back to a barely digital age—a time when card catalogs and bound volumes of Shepard’s Citations took center stage and the latest technology included a dedicated Lexis machine with a dialup modem and a clunky “comcat” terminal that couldn’t even search whole words. It appears to have been created some eight or nine years before the library was expanded, renovated, and renamed in honor of Dino D’Angelo, ’44, in 1987.

It’s a small piece of the library’s past—but one that serves as a visible reminder of how far technology, legal research, and the law library itself has come in the past three or four decades. The drawing, part of an old law library guide, was sent to the Law School late last year by a 2011 alumnus who works as an attorney with the US Railroad Retirement Board and found the map on a shelf in the RRB’s law library.Map of D'Angelo Law Library from the 1970s

“It’s interesting to look at this and see what was most prominent in the space,” D’Angelo Law Library Director Sheri Lewis said of the map, which appears to represent the Reading Room in the late 1970s. Back then, federal, state, and regional case reporters filled stacks along the north end of the room, and bound copies of state annotated codes, various indices, and the latest copies of Shepard’s ringed the center of the room.

“These were obviously a very important resource, so they had prime real estate,” Lewis said, remembering the days when a lawyer or law student needed to consult the bright red books to find tables of citations to see if a case had been overturned, reaffirmed, questioned, or cited by later cases. “But this was also a system that was just screaming for automation.” (LexisNexis released an online version of Shepard’s in 1999.)

The 1970s library also featured a built-in card catalog along the southwest wall, just past the circulation and reference desks. At the beginning of that decade, the library was already crowded, and books were being moved into Harper library for storage, said Judith Wright, who retired as the law library’s director in 2013 after more than four decades. “We sold the second copy of the English Reports to make space—very painful!” Wright said.

Online cataloguing was nascent; there was a single “dumb” terminal that hooked into the Library Data Management System mainframe. The comcat (computerized catalog) terminal didn’t have a search engine, and users could only type in portions of words, said Bill Schwesig, the D’Angelo’s Anglo-American and Historical Collections Librarian, who has worked in the law library since 1986. As the technology advanced, though, searching became easier—and the library eventually undertook a long project to digitize all of its catalog entries. When the library was renovated again in 2008, the printed card catalog was removed.

Photo of the D'Angelo Law Library Wilson Reading Room from the 1980sIt wasn’t always easy to accommodate emerging technology: when the building was built in the late 1950s, few could have anticipated how important wiring would become.

“There were few plugs, few telephone lines—it was a major problem,” Wright said. “It was hard to find a place to put anything.”

When the first Lexis terminal arrived in the late 1970s, it ended up in the Rare Book Room at the far west end of the library because there was a place to plug it in. The dedicated microfilm reader on which users could view an index of law reviews and other academic journals was installed nearby.

The 1970s library was smaller and darker. There was wasn’t yet a staircase in the center of the room—that came with the 2008 renovation—and there were three heavy wood tables surrounded by dark wood chairs with hunter green cushions, several of which can be found now in Lewis’s office. The latest law journals were kept in stacks in the room’s northwest corner, and Lewis said faculty would stroll through and browse the latest scholarship.

In those days, law library staff spent a lot more time handling print material—labeling, shelving, and routing material to faculty. A huge volume of mail came to the library each business day and on Saturday, including Shepard’s pamphlets and other updates, new materials, and more.

But as the computer age took hold, and resources and catalogs moved online, the work of the law librarians evolved, too.

Today, “their work is so much more complex and requires a vast knowledge ranging over incredible print and online resources along with sophisticated knowledge about ever-changing technology,” Wright said. “In addition, law seems to have become more complex, and scholarship and teaching reflect that complexity.”

One thing, however, has remained constant, Wright said.

“From my earliest days in 1970s to the day I retired, we always had committed faculty and students who were very serious about their work—and always trying to keep a step ahead of whatever (research tools) were available. It was amazing how quickly students and faculty adapted to each new thing.”

16 scholars awarded Platzman fellowships in Special Collections

Sixteen visiting scholars have been awarded Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships for 2017.  The Platzman Fellowships support visiting researchers whose work requires on-site consultation of Special Collections, with priority given to beginning scholars.

This year’s Platzman Fellowship winners are drawn from twelve American and international universities, including scholars from Brazil, Italy, Argentina, and Great Britain, and include a researcher from the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress as well as an independent scholar.

The Platzman Fellowship research projects represent the broad range of sources available in Special Collections.  Topics include women editors of Shakespeare; 18th-century keyboard music in the Americas; child migration and international law; 1960s student protests for racial equality; European émigré influences on consumerism; and medicine and culture among indigenous peoples of the Americas.

The Platzman Fellowships were established through a bequest of George W. Platzman (1920-2008), Professor in Geophysical Sciences.  They are named in memory of George’s brother Robert Platzman (1918-1973), Professor of Chemistry and Physics. Further information is available on the Special Collections website.


2017 Robert L. Platzman Fellows

Chris Babits (PhD Candidate, University of Texas-Austin) “To Cure a Sinful Nation: A Cultural History of Conversion Therapy and the Making of Modern America, 1930 to the Present Day”

Nicholas Barron (PhD Candidate, University of New Mexico) “Applying Anthropology, Assembling Indigenous Community: The Coproduction of Applied Anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Indian Tribe”

Joe Block (PhD Candidate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) “The Intellectual Origins of African American-Jewish Relations, 1825-1927”

Carlos Fabian Campos (PhD candidate, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina) “Eighteenth Century Keyboard Music in the Americas: Manuscript Sources from Joseph Regenstein Library (Chicago University)”

James Cetkovski (PhD candidate, New College, Oxford, England) “Literature and Social Thought”

Eddie Cole (Assistant Professor, College of William & Mary) “Careful Consideration: College Presidents and Student Protests for Racial Equality, 1960-1964”

Vicente Gil da Silva (PhD candidate, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) “Creating a New Model of Intellectual: The Role of Cadernos Brasileiros and the CCF in Brazil”

Eric Lindstrom (Independent scholar, Olympia, Washington) “The Constant Geologist: J Harlen Bretz”

Amy Lonetree (Associate Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz) “Visualizing Native American Survivance: A Photographic History of the Ho-Chunk Nation, 1879-1960”

Joseph Malherek (Jameson Fellow, Kluge Center, Library of Congress) “From Bauhaus to Maxwell House: Emigres and the Making of American Consumer Culture, 1933-1976”

Joshua Mentanko (PhD candidate, Yale University) “Traditional Medicine in Modern Mexico: Indigenous and Technopolitics since 1940”

Yukako Otori (PhD candidate, Harvard University) “Disposable Subjects: Child Migration, International Law, and US Immigration Policy

Angelica Vomera (PhD candidate, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy) “I-Tn MS T.III.2:  Fragments for a Cultural History between Italy and France in the age of the Great Schism

Mollie Yarn (PhD candidate, University of Cambridge, England) “Women Editors of Shakespeare and the Legacy of the Domestic Text”

Zar GIS & Story Maps Prize for College Students

The Kathleen A. Zar GIS & Story Maps Prize for College students is now accepting submissions. First prize is $1500. Second prize is $500. Third prize is $300.

The deadline for submission is April 20, 2017.The Kathleen A. Zar GIS & Story Maps Prize

The prize acknowledges the ability of a University of Chicago student in the College to utilize GIS and spatial thinking to develop a digital narrative using Esri’s Story Maps applications. The prize organizers welcome submissions that provide spatial insights or narratives from all subjects and perspectives.

Visit the Zar GIS & Story Maps page for more information about submitting an entry. For questions about getting started with GIS and Story Maps, e-mail Resident Librarian for GIS Taylor Hixson (taylorhixson@uchicago.edu).

New app lets users check out Library materials with their phones

The University of Chicago Library has launched a new mobile app, Checkout UChicago, that lets users check out Library materials using their phones or tablets.

Checkout UChicago allows students, faculty members, staff, and others with borrowing privileges at the University of Chicago Library to scan an item’s barcode with their phone and instantly check it out to their Library account.

Checkout UChicago app on a phone in the bookstacks

A phone displaying the Checkout UChicago start screen

D’Angelo Law Library users who want to leave the building with their items can bring items to Circulation Desk for deactivation. Books shelved in the Reserve Room cannot be checked out using Checkout UChicago.

Download the app

Checkout UChicago is available for download for both iOS and Android devices.

Gift for new users

The first 100 UChicago students and faculty members to check out a book with this app will receive a $3 credit to their UChicago Card in Maroon Dollars. They will receive an email notifying them when the credit has been applied.

Library staff, including student staff, are not eligible for this promotion.

New app lets users check out Library materials with their phones

The University of Chicago Library has launched a new mobile app, Checkout UChicago, that lets users check out Library materials using their phones or tablets.

Checkout UChicago allows students, faculty members, staff, and others with borrowing privileges at the University of Chicago Library to scan an item’s barcode with their phone and instantly check it out to their Library account.

Checkout UChicago app on a phone in the bookstacks

A phone displaying the Checkout UChicago start screen

Students with lockers and faculty members with studies in Regenstein will be able to check out materials and store them without having to bring them to Circulation.

Users who want to leave the Library with their items can use the self-service Deactivation Station at the Circulation desk in Regenstein. At other campus libraries, users can bring items to Circulation staff for deactivation.

Download the app

Checkout UChicago is available for download for both iOS and Android devices.

Gift for new users

The first 100 UChicago students and faculty members to check out a book with this app will receive a $3 credit to their UChicago Card in Maroon Dollars.  They will receive an email notifying them when the credit has been applied.

Library staff, including student staff, are not eligible for this promotion.

Science Writing Prize for College Students

science writing prizeThe Science Writing Prize for College Students is accepting submissions for 2017. First prize is $1500. Second prize is $500. Third prize is $300.

Deadline for submission is April 10, 2017.

This competitive award for excellence and clarity in science writing acknowledges the ability of a University of Chicago College student to produce a paper, on a scientific topic, which is thorough in its arguments but accessible to a broad readership.

For more information please visit: https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/crerar/about-crerar-library/crerar-prize/

Help the Library improve services for College students by taking survey

Update: March 3 is the final day to take this survey.Complete our undergraduate survey by March 3

The University of Chicago Library is conducting a survey of currently enrolled undergraduates. The survey explores many facets of students’ experience at the University, with specific focus on the ways the Library’s collections, services, spaces, and staff contribute to students’ higher education and career goals.

Previous surveys conducted by the Library resulted in the implementation of the Library’s Scan and Deliver service, as well as the creation of new group study spaces in Regenstein Library. Results gathered from the Library’s last survey of undergraduates, conducted in February 2011, are available online.

The survey was distributed by email on February 7. Undergraduates, please check your email for a message from the University of Chicago Library with your individualized link to the survey.

For more information or to report problems with the survey, please contact the project team by email at ithaka@lib.uchicago.edu.

Wright Fellowship for promising new academic law librarians

The D’Angelo Law Library at the University of Chicago is accepting applications through March 6 for the 2017 Judith M. Wright Fellowship.  Established on the occasion of Ms. Wright’s retirement as the director of the D’Angelo Law Library in 2013, the Fellowship recognizes her 40 years of service to the University of Chicago Law School and her legacy as a mentor to generations of law librarians.

Judith Wright

Judith Wright

The Wright Fellowship will develop promising new professionals in academic law librarianship by supporting a career training program at the D’Angelo Law Library. It provides $4,000 to a law school or library science student or recent graduate for a minimum of six consecutive weeks of temporary, full-time work to occur between June 12 and September 15, 2017.

The Fellowship is intended to give candidates interested in law librarianship as a career an opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge in an academic law library setting. Fellows will work in the D’Angelo Law Library under the guidance and supervision of the Law Library Director and other librarians and will learn about the overall functions, policies, and practices of the D’Angelo Law Library in both collection services and user services departments.

The primary focus of the Fellow’s work will be determined by the interests and prior experience of the Fellow and the needs of the D’Angelo Law Library. In addition to participating in the daily work of a premier academic law library, Fellows will undertake and complete a project based in the needs and capabilities of the D’Angelo Law Library.

The project for Summer 2017 will be one of the following:

  1. Support for Clinics. The University of Chicago Law School offers a number of clinical and experiential programs, in which students represent clients and engage in other lawyering roles under the supervision of full time clinical teachers, faculty, and practicing attorneys. The 2017 Wright Fellow will help develop methods and strategies to effectively promote library resources and services to clinical faculty, staff, and students, including creating online research guides, promotional materials, and other resources. The exact scope of the program will be determined by the Fellow and the designated Fellowship Coordinator. To undertake this project, the Fellow must have completed or be in the process of completing his/her J.D. degree, in addition to the other qualifications required by the Fellowship description.
  2. Digital Project on Law School Deans. Chicago Unbound, the University of Chicago Law School’s institutional repository, contains the scholarship of the Law School community, providing full-text access to decades of Chicago Law faculty scholarship and the archives of many Law School journals and publications. The 2017 Wright Fellow will help develop a new Chicago Unbound collection highlighting the scholarship and service of the Law School’s deans throughout its history. The Fellow will create a space for this historical collection in Chicago Unbound and complete materials for three to five former deans. Creating the new collection will involve reviewing and selecting materials (e.g. articles, speeches, manuscripts, photographs) as well as organizing and describing the selected materials in Chicago Unbound.
  3. Guide for Rare Book Collection. The D’Angelo Law Library has an impressive collection of rare and unique books both in dedicated special collections space and as part of other rich and extensive collections of U.S., foreign, and international law. Historically, these books have been acquired as part of the development of other collections, through individual purchases at the request of faculty or received as gifts. The 2017 Fellow will develop a descriptive guide for the Roman, civil, canon, and international law materials in the D’Angelo rare book collection, including the scope and strengths of the collection and a desiderata list in areas where these materials would be enhanced by future acquisitions. This project will build upon the work of the 2016 Wright Fellow who created a descriptive guide for Anglo-American titles in D’Angelo’s rare book collection.

For detailed information on eligibility, requirements, and how to apply, visit the Library website.

Win a Brooker Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting

Second- and fourth-year College students at the University of Chicago with a theme-focused book collection are invited to apply for the T. Kimball Brooker Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting.   The University of Chicago Library is pleased to sponsor this prize, which was established by Mr. Brooker, PhD’96, to foster a love of the book and to encourage book collecting among undergraduates.

A book from Mox Schults’s 2014 Brooker Prize-winning collection

A book from Mox Schults’s 2014 Brooker Prize-winning collection, A Library for Babel(ing): Books for Reading Aloud.

Prizes include $1,000 for a second-year student and $2,000 for a fourth-year student.

Applications and instructions for how to apply are available on the Library website. Evaluation of applications is based on the care and judgment by which the student has shaped the collection. Collections may encompass a specific subject matter or the work of a particular author, or they may relate to special interests within a field. Bibliographical and physical features such as editions, illustrations, or bindings may also be the basis upon which a collection is developed. Whatever its defining quality may be, the organizing principle should be apparent in every item of the collection.

Past winners have collections focusing on subjects ranging from Homer and His Students to The History of Mathematics to Zines, Punk Rock, and Empowerment.

Applications are due on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.  Learn more about the Prize and how to apply at www.lib.uchicago.edu/brooker .

Applications open for 2017 Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship Program

Robert Platzman

Robert Platzman in 1941

The University of Chicago Library invites applications for short-term research fellowships for the summer of 2017. Any visiting researcher, writer, or artist residing more than 100 miles from Chicago, and whose project requires on-site consultation of University of Chicago Library collections, primarily archives, manuscripts, rare books, or other materials in the Special Collections Research Center, is eligible. Support for beginning scholars is a priority of the program. Applications in the fields of late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century physics or physical chemistry, or nineteenth-century classical opera, will receive special consideration.

Awards will be made based on the applicant’s ability to complete the proposed on-site research successfully within the timeframe of the fellowship.  Applicants should explain why the project cannot be conducted without on-site access to the original materials and the extent to which University of Chicago Library collections are central to the research.  Up to $3,000 of support will be awarded to help cover estimated travel, living, and research expenses.  Applications from women, minorities, and persons with disabilities are encouraged.

The deadline for applications is February 17, 2017.  Notice of awards will be made by March 20, 2017, for use between June 1, 2017, and September 29, 2017.

Applicants must provide the following information:

  • A cover letter (not to exceed one page) including the project title; a brief summary; estimated dates of on-site research; and a budget for travel, living, and research expenses during the period of on-site research
  • A research proposal not to exceed three double-spaced pages. Applicants should include references to specific archival finding aids and catalog records of particular relevance to their proposed project whenever possible.
  • A curriculum vitae of no longer than two pages
  • Two letters of support from academic or other scholars. References may be sent with the application or separately.

Submit application in one electronic file to: scrcfellowship@lib.uchicago.edu

Letters of reference in electronic form are preferred; print letters of reference can be sent to:

Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowships
Special Collections Research Center
The University of Chicago Library
1100 E. 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

For additional information contact:
Daniel Meyer, Director, Special Collections Research Center

For additional background on the Platzman Fellowship, and to see a list of last year’s recipients please see our website: http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/about/platzmanfellowships.html
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