News by Swarthmore College Libraries

Fall 2013 - Volume 16 #1

PACKET NEWS

SLETTER OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE LIBRARIES

Check out our fall workshops! Organizing your Library

Tuesday, September 3 – 7 pm McCabe Library Computer Classroom Sarah Elichko, Kim Gormley “Don’t I have that one already?” Learn about tools to keep track of stuff in your personal collections. We’ll help you set up your own library catalog and citation tracking system.

Accessible Course Materials

Wednesday, September 25 – 3 pm Thursday, September 26 – 3pm McCabe Library Computer Classroom Donna Fournier Learn how to make your word files, pdfs, presentations, webpages, and media more accessible to students with disabilities.

Behind the Gates: Conscientious Objectors serving the Mentally Ill during World War II

Friday, October 4 – 2:30 pm McCabe Library Newspaper Lounge Wendy Chmielewski Swarthmore’s Peace Collection has the largest collection in the country on the history of conscientious objection. Learn from its curator how the COs were directly responsible for exposing to the public the shameful conditions, changing forever how patients were treated.

Keeping Current: Tips & Tools

Wednesday, October 16 – 11 am McCabe Library Video Classroom Meg Spencer There are some great new ways to learn about the latest publications in your fields. Find out about what’s out there and how to set up access on your computer and devices.

Maps, Charts, and Tables

Wednesday, October 23 – 6:30 pm McCabe Library Video Classroom Laurie Allen Make simple tables, charts, and maps with Excel, Google Fusion Tables, and Tableau Public.

Expert Searching

Friday, October 25 – 2:30 pm McCabe Library Video Classroom Donna Fournier Learn, strategies, techniques, and tips to save time and produce great search results. We’ll work with Tripod and resources in your areas of research.

Bibliographies: Eat What You Cite

Wednesday, November 20 – 4 pm McCabe Library Atrium Pam Harris Which bibliography tool meets your needs? EasyBib, Zotero, EndNote Web, Word? We’ll practice creating bibliographies by citing sources of delicious recipes AND we’ll have edible samples from those recipes. Featured: mulled cider and gingerbread made from recipes in a 19th century diary.

Friends Historical Library on Television: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Friday, December 6 – 2:30 pm McCabe Library Newspaper Lounge Chris Densmore In recent years, Friends Historical Library has appeared in History Detectives, Finding Our Roots and Who Do You Think You Are. This presentation will include the realities of working with television researchers, producers and film crews, and the potential benefits of so doing to Friends Historical Library and to Swarthmore College.

Fall 2013

Shirley Jones and the Red Hen Press

“Paint me a thousand poppies and two moons...”

Exhibit: September 2 – October 13 McCabe Library Lobby Artist Talk: Monday, September 16, 4:30 pm; Reception follows

Thirty Years of Shirley Jones & the Red Hen Press

Internationally acclaimed Welsh artist, writer, and printer Shirley Jones speaks about her work at 4:30 pm on Monday, September 16. For 30 years, her Red Hen Press, located in Powys, Wales, has been creating limited edition letterpress books that present poetry and prose in concert with etchings and mezzotints. After studying English literature at the University of Wales, Cardiff, Shirley Jones took courses in printmaking at Croydon Art College in Surrey, England, and began producing her own books in 1977. Her books, virtually all her own work, are printed on handmade or mould-made paper; some are housed in boxes created by wellknown binders. The particular attraction of her books is the illustrations, which are aquatints, etchings, or mezzotints.

September 2 – October 13, 2013 McCabe Library Atrium Curated by Anne Garrison and Susan Dreher

Image: Terra Contigua, 2006

Murals, Memory, and Transformations: Mural Art of David “Dee” Craig Exhibit: October 21 – December 1 McCabe Library Lobby Artist Talk: Thursday, October 24, 4:15 pm; Reception follows

Murals and other forms of public art around the world have served as vehicles of conflict, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding. David “Dee” Craig has painted murals across Northern Ireland and internationally. His work represents the ongoing transformation of conflict in Northern Ireland, in which images and symbols continue to represent contested histories and memories of conflict. Murals are part of a shifting symbolic landscape that includes new narratives, re-articulated collective identities, and a struggle to replace the martial symbols that figured so prominently during thirty years of political conflict. This exhibit is a photographic and ethnographic exploration of Craig’s work and various dimensions of the mural arts scene in Northern Ireland.

Tales of American Royalty on exhibit in November by Pam Harris

A thousand days, the Emerald Kings and the American Queen, the Last Lion and Camelot could refer to epic tales or Arthurian Romance, yet actually describe recent history. Paul Cato ’14 brings the saga of an American royal family to life with his comprehensive book collection Tales of American Royalty: an exercise of American History for which he won second place in the A. Edward Newton Book Collection Competition. Imagine eight-year old Cato receiving John F. Kennedy and PT 109, a book that retells the heroic story of JFK rescuing his men from the flames of a destroyed ship, swimming miles in shark infested water, and surviving on coconuts for six days. Since the receipt of that memorable gift, Cato has amassed a collection that encompasses the myth, memory, narrative, and artifact

of the Kennedy clan. The collection will be on exhibition in McCabe Library, Cratsley Lounge, for the month of November. The A. Edward Newton Student Book Collection Competition is the longest-running collegiate book collecting competition in the nation, and encourages reading and collecting in an age of declining readership. Started in the 1930s by a renowned Philadelphia book collector, A. Edward Newton, the competition annually awards cash prizes to the three Swarthmore College students who submit the best essays and annotated bibliographies of their book collections. The 2014 A. Edward Newton Student Book Collection Competition application deadline is Friday, February 14.

Fall 2013

Faculty survey examines research and teaching by Peggy Seiden

This past spring, approximately 30% of Swarthmore faculty participated in a survey on their research and teaching in an increasingly digital environment. Survey designer Ithaka S&R, the research arm of the parent non-profit of JStor, has conducted this survey nationally with some modifications every three years for the past decade. For the first time, Ithaka offered institutions the opportunity to use this instrument at a local level. The opportunity to better understand our faculty’s research, particularly in comparison to national data, was very appealing. Below are some of the more interesting data points from the survey. Print to Electronic Transition Fifty-eight percent of respondents indicated that electronic versions of scholarly monographs play an important role in their research and teaching; only 12% disagreed with that statement. The responses on the use of ebooks tracked almost exactly with the national data, with 71% reporting that they often or occasionally use ebooks; though at Swarthmore, only 26% said that they used ebooks often, compared with 36% nationally. Not surprisingly, 72% of faculty noted that they did not expect the use of ebooks to become so prevalent in the next five years that we would not need to maintain a collection of print books. Nearly 90% of respondents said that for the purposes of reading in depth, cover to cover, print is easier. A majority said that digital was the preferred format when searching for a particular topic or exploring references. Only 15% agreed with the statement that we would always need to maintain hard-copy collections of journals (nationally the numbers were 31%). Nearly 50% said that they would be completely comfortable with publishers ceasing print publication of journals entirely. Those in the Humanities disagreed with this statement slightly more than those in the social sciences and sciences.

Research Topics and Practices The survey included a number of questions on research topics and practices. Over 90% of respondents said that their own interests helped define research areas to pursue; other important factors were their perception of gaps in the existing research and practicality of the project. Nearly 70% indicated that they pursue their research alone; an analysis by division reveals that in the social sciences and sciences, nearly 50% reported collaboration with other scholars and 70% with undergraduates. More than half our faculty start their academic research

with a specific scholarly database, while about 30% start with the library website or catalog. Only 7% said that they start in the library building. Nevertheless, 100% of respondents noted that our local collections are extremely or very important to their research and teaching. Only a third noted that their personal collections or those of other institutions were similarly important. In fact, later in the survey, faculty noted that the most important function of the library is to acquire resources they need. Our faculty would still seem to favor more traditional forms of scholarly communication. While nearly all faculty use peer reviewed journals and scholarly monographs in their research (depending on their discipline), only 12% indicated that blogs were important, (nationally this number was only 7%). Fewer (8%) use blogs or social media as a current awareness tool. Most say they keep current by attending conferences, following the work of key scholars, looking at the table of contents of key journals, or reading materials suggested by other scholars. While 60% of faculty read scholarship in formats other than the final published version (on author’s web sites or repositories) at least occasionally, far fewer cite these versions. Only one-quarter think that scholar publishers are increasingly less important to scholarly communication, given the faculty’s own ability to share their work directly with peers online. Nearly 50% indicated that it was not important to share their articles or monograph texts through a webpage or institutional or disciplinary repository even when published in a traditional journal or monograph. The most popular means of disseminating research results are peer-reviewed journals, scholarly monographs, and conference proceedings. In selecting which journal to publish in, most important factors are the journal’s impact factor, reputation, range of circulation, and the relationship of its coverage to the immediate area of research. Faculty noted that the lack of page or article charges for the author is only slightly less important. This factor’s importance may reflect a humanities bias of the respondents. Student Research Skills About one quarter of respondents noted that they thought their students had poor skills related to locating and evaluating scholarly information. While 20% disagreed, most were neutral, non-committal, or unsure.

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Eighty-six percent did not think it was principally their responsibility to develop those skills, and a slightly smaller number did not place that responsibility on the librarians’ shoulders either. The question remains: who does bear that responsibility? In a seemingly contradictory set of answers, the majority did note that librarians “contribute significantly to my students’ learning” by helping them develop these skills and helping them make use of a range of primary and secondary resources in their work. And 75% noted that it is very important that the library helps undergraduates develop research, critical analysis, and information literacy skills.

Summary It’s clear that the faculty highly value the library, particularly with respect to its traditional functions of developing student research skills, as a starting point for research, and for purchasing and preserving materials. It is also apparent that the majority of faculty continue to favor traditional modes of scholarly communication. Given that there are a growing number of faculty and librarians worldwide who think that the current system of scholarly communication is unsustainable, this finding is troubling. A more complete report of the findings, particularly with respect to pedagogical practices and the use of digital technologies in teaching, will be made available on the libraries’ website.

Assessing Student Research: Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges

by Peggy Seiden and Pam Harris

Even though late April can be the busiest time of year as we cram final projects and events into the waning days of the semester, a group of eight faculty and librarians from Swarthmore travelled to Amherst College to devote two days to developing an understanding of student research behavior. Colleagues from Haverford, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith Colleges also attended the conference, which was funded through a grant from the Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC). The core planning group included Peggy Seiden, college librarian, and Pam Harris, head of research and instruction, from Swarthmore; Bryn Geffert, librarian of the college, and Missy Roser, head of research and instruction, from Amherst; Andrew Asher, assessment librarian at Indiana University’s libraries; and Megan Oakleaf, associate professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. While faculty have varying definitions of what they mean by the term “research,” even within the same discipline, attendees agreed that any model of the research process must emphasize research’s inherent iterative quality, which leads both to a refinement of the topic and the generation of new questions. Andrew Asher’s presentation of findings on student research behaviors from numerous studies was followed by a discussion by participants of their understanding of students’ research and the challenges the students face in the process. Professors brought examples of “good” research and considered the hallmarks of excellent research. What research behaviors/processes should one see in the student who is ready to graduate? At the end of the first day, attendees worked on the initial stages of creating a rubric

to be used to measure good research. As initially conceived, this workshop was to serve as the first step in the development of a longitudinal, multi-institution research project to study student research behavior over the course of four years to learn whether there were particular factors or experiences that improved the quality in that time span. The conference not only provided a valuable foundation for development of the grant proposal for the larger study, but also confirmed the importance of such a study. One key objective for the workshop planners from Swarthmore and Amherst was to begin the process of the development of rubrics that might be used as the tool to assess students’ research during the larger project. Of course, faculty came with their own goals: to gain greater awareness of students’ experience of doing research; to develop teaching strategies to effectively guide students through the process; to hear ideas about teaching research from their colleagues; to learn how to improve assessment of the process, not just the product; to think about the role of research in student’s learning and development; and to understand the role of librarians. Even though the faculty had differing goals, most felt that the workshop met these goals and was very valuable. Many particularly noted the value of the interaction among the faculty and librarians and the need for ongoing dialog between these two groups. Other Swarthmore participants were: Farid Azfar, history; Rachel Buurma, English literature; Sarah Elichko, social sciences librarian; Farha Ghannam, sociology/anthropology; Sara Hiebert Burch, biology; and Barbara Milewski, music and dance.

Fall 2013

New Library Resources and Tools by Amy McColl

British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries Includes the immediate experiences of approximately 500 women, as revealed in over 90,000 pages of diaries and letters. The collection now includes primary materials spanning more than 300 years. Each source has been carefully chosen using leading bibliographies. The collection also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography of the sources in the database. Browzine Want to easily browse and read thousands of the Libraries’ scholarly journals? Try BrowZine! This iPad app lets you save articles to your favorite apps, can alert you to new issues of journals, and works well off campus. Watch this two minute video for more information, or download BrowZine from the App Store to get started! Daily Express Online Access to the UK’s Daily Express newspaper from 1900 to current, and the Sunday Express from 2000 to current. EasyBib Pro Swarthmore now subscribes to the premium edition of the popular free citation tool EasyBib. EasyBib allows you to generate citations (automatically or manually) and gather, organize and re-use them. EasyBib also allows you to share your bibliographies on the web. Elsevier backfile titles: Cognition Cognitive Psychology Trends in Ecology & Evolution Encyclopedia of Sleep The 4-volume Encyclopedia of Sleep is the largest reference, either online or in print, on the subject of sleep. Written to be useful for the novice and the established researcher and clinician, topic areas will include sleep across the life cycle and in other species, sleep and women, sleep and the elderly, pediatric sleep, sleep deprivation and loss, sleep mechanisms, sleep physiology and pathophysiology, sleep disorders, neurobiology, chronobiology, pharmacology, and impact of other discord. Filmaker’s Library Vol. 2 Swarthmore already had volume 1; volume 2 will bring 100 of the most influential issue-based documentaries of 2009

through 2013 to libraries worldwide. Volume 2 features timely films relevant to students and scholars whether their discipline is education or international relations, politics or psychology, criminal justice or the arts, history or gender studies. Gale Nineteenth Century Collections Online, Collections 5-8 Collections 5-8 include Europe and Africa: Commerce, Christianity, Civilization and Conquest; Photography: The World Through the Lens; Science, Technology and Medicine, 1780-1925; and Women: Transnational Networks. IMF Direction of Trade Statistics The Direction of trade statistics (DOTS) database provides figures on the value of merchandise exports and imports by trade partners as well as area and world aggregates showing trade flows between major areas of the world. DOTS provides access to monthly, quarterly and annual trade data from 1948 to 1999 for about 180 countries and geographic areas. JSTOR Arts & Sciences XII Arts & Sciences XII expands coverage of the social sciences, and comprises disciplines with high usage and broad appeal. Law, political science, and education content anchors the collection, and other titles in criminology and criminal justice, history, social work, psychology, and sociology complement JSTOR’s offerings in the social sciences. Additional titles span African studies, Asian studies, language and literature, and Middle East studies. The collection will feature a minimum of 125 titles at completion, and appeals to both the academic and practitioner audiences. New World Cinema: Independent Features and Shorts, 1990-Present The collection includes approximately 200 full-length feature films from leading independent distributors such as Kino Lorber, First Run Features, Film Movement, MK2, and the Global Films Initiative. All films were presented at major film festivals, many were nominated for awards, and many have major awards. Collectively the films in the database have won more than 1,000 awards. continued on next page

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Oxford Handbooks Online New additions include Economics and Finance, 2012; Political Science, 2012 supplement; and Psychology 2012. Individual titles are loaded into Tripod. Oxford Reference Online, selected titles Many new titles have been added, each of which are accessible via Tripod. Or use the link above to search the entire collection of titles. Silent Films Online Silent Films Online brings together films which together represent the basis of modern cinematic technique and film theory. Carefully curated with ASP’s Video Advisory Board, the database covers silent features, serials, and shorts from the 1890s to the 1930s. Springer Behavioral Sciences 2012 collection A collection of over 60 ebook titles, accessible in Tripod from the Books and More tab. Vanderbilt Television Archive The Vanderbilt Television News Archive is the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television news. They have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968. Streamed content includes broadcasts from NBC and CNN. WISERTrade Statistical databases for United States, U.S. states, and Japan are searchable by multiple product code systems: HS, SIC, NAICS, SITC. Retrieval may be formatted as lists, tables, maps, or graphs. KOMPASS directory database searchable by location, product, product codes, company and executive names.

Seamus Heaney, revered Irish poet and Nobel Laureate who died on August 30, was a good friend of former College Librarian and Irish scholar Michael J. Durkan. Inscribed on a bench in front of McCabe Library is his tribute to Durkan, who died in 1996: “Now he is at rest. Say of Michael Durkan: A friend of poets is gone and the wall of learning broken.” Michael Durkan was working on “Seamus Heaney: A Bibliography, 1959-2003” (co-editor: Rand Brandes; published 2008) at the time of his death.

Staff help with SEED projects

Three library staff members assisted this summer with SEED projects. Sarah Elichko helped Krista Thomason (Philosophy) with the “Human rights and atrocities library guide.” Donna Fournier and Terry Heinrichs, along with Corrine Schoeb and Doug Willen of ITS, worked with Leslie Hempling (Student Disabilities Office) on her project, “Creating accessible course materials for students with disabilities and learning differences.” The libraries and ITS selected eight projects from proposals submitted by faculty and staff. The Summer Education eProject Development (SEED) process supports a short-term project that enhances teaching or undergraduate learning. Teams of software developers, librarians, academic technologists, and student interns assisted with project development during June and July. Other SEED projects this summer were: * Collaborative web repository for video clip collections (Erik Cheever, Ben Berger, Sunka Simon) * E-Latin Texts (William Turpin) * Online chemistry readiness exam for first year students (Kathleen Howard, Josh Newby) * Reading involves shared experience (RISE): eBooks and literacy for the deaf child (Donna Jo Napoli) * Web based access, entry, and analysis of long-term ecological datasets from the Crum Woods (Jose-Luis Machado) * Zadachi (tasks): a supplemental video course for elementary Russian (Brian Johnson)

Fall 2013

Current Art Exhibitions: A Research Guide

by James Gulick Haverford College One of the advantages that Swarthmore has over many elite liberal arts colleges is its location. Close to Philadelphia and within a few hours of New York, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, the Swarthmore community has access to world-class art museums and galleries. This is not to mention the many fine regional museums in this area. To facilitate knowledge and use of these great resources, we have created the research guide Current Art Exhibitions. The guide is intended for a broad audience ranging from the student visiting Washington, D.C., and interested in catching an exhibition while there, to the fine arts professor who needs to be aware of every photography show currently on view. The structure of Current Art Exhibitions follows that of the Librariesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research guides prepared for individual classes. We selected this format as many of the potential users of this resource are students and faculty who are familiar with the general structure of these guides. Current Art Exhibitions has the following sections: The Tri-Co section allows the patron to become aware of not only the fine arts events at Swarthmore, but also at nearby Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. Selected Exhibitions lists some of the major current exhibitions, as well as a few interesting, but less high-pro-

file shows. Exhibitions that will be of interest to current courses are also featured. Sites Listing Exhibitions provides links to aggregators of exhibition listings. This section is useful to the person who wants to know about the full range of shows currently being held in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Some of these sites allow for highly flexible searches. For instance, after accessing NY Art Beat, you can search to find exhibitions that feature a particular art medium (e.g. photography) that are being held in a particular section (e.g. Chelsea) of the city. Auctions has a list of upcoming fine arts auctions at the major New York houses, as well as links to the houses themselves on which the online versions of the sales catalogs may be found. Many people do not know that before an auction the artworks are on display for three-to-five days prior to the sale and there is no charge for viewing. Often for photography auctions there are up to 500 prints on view. The Daily Alerts/Blog section of the guide serves the person who takes an active interest in the current fine arts scene, and provides ready access to the blogs and art news sources that provide constantly updated information. Regardless of your level of interest, Current Art Exhibitions will keep you informed of the many fine arts opportunities available to you.

Fall 2013

Discovering

Jessie Wallace Hughan

through her papers by Anne M. Yoder My work as archivist in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection was enlivened by the recent donation of a collection of papers by and about Jessie Wallace Hughan, an American educator, social activist, and radical pacifist. My heart rate always elevates when I open a new box and find diaries and letters that provide windows into the personal lives of peace leaders, and this collection of material had all of this in abundance. One never knows whether these windows will offer deep insight into the motivations and efforts of the individual writers, or whether they will be more about the minutiae of their lives, but that is part of the thrill of discovery as each item is viewed. In the case of the Hughan papers, most of the scores of letters were written weekly between Jessie and her two sisters, though there are many to/from others as well. If nothing else, this gives us a picture of their devotion to each other; Jessie and her sister, Evelyn, shared a home for many years. There are diaries of Jessie and of family members that contain a wealth of information. Mixed in with all of this personal material are glimpses of Jessie

Hughanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interests and abilities. Hughan lived from 1875 to 1955. During her college days she was one of four co-founders of Alpha Omicron Pi, a national sorority for university women. When World War I began in 1914, she helped lead the Anti-Enlistment League. She also was a founder and the first Secretary of the War Resisters League, established in 1923 and still in existence today. For over two decades, Hughan was a perennial candidate for political office on the Socialist Party of America ticket in her home state of New York. Jessie Wallace Hughan exemplifies a woman clear-sighted enough to evaluate the causes and effects of war and to speak out for peace no matter what the cost. She exemplifies a woman persistent enough to work for unpopular causes for over 40 years. She was a brave and strong leader, someone from whom we can still learn. Students, faculty and others are welcome to view the Hughan papers at the Peace Collection (see the Finding Aid), along with related archival collections.

Fall 2013

Peace Collection Digitizes Correspondence of Elihu Burritt

by Barbara Addison ELIHU BURRITT (1810-1879), known to his contemporaries as the “Learned Blacksmith,” was a self-taught Connecticut scholar and linguist who educated himself out of poverty and hard labor. He earned a reputation first as a lecturer and linguist and later as an absolute pacifist, anti-slavery abolitionist, and advocate for the working-class. Burritt formed close ties with like-minded reformers in Great Britain, where, as a proponent of free association among the races, he founded the League of Universal Brotherhood in 1846. In 1847, Burritt took up two additional causes: while visiting Ireland for four months he observed the ravages of the potato famine; appalled at the conditions, he wrote a pamphlet which made Americans aware of the plight of the Irish poor. Another project was his promotion of decreased trans-Atlantic postal rates, called Ocean Penny Postage, as an inexpensive way to increase correspondence, and thus harmony, within and among nations. A prolific author, he wrote and edited books and periodicals promoting peace and brotherhood that were aimed at families, children, and people of the middle and working classes. In the 1850s and 1860s, the international peace movement was shattered by the Crimean War in Europe and the American Civil War. Although Burritt had been an early and passionate advocate of the abolition of slavery, he was horrified by a civil war in his native land. Before the war, Burritt had enthusiastically promoted a plan of “compensated emancipation” to pay slave owners to free their slaves, using the proceeds from the sale of public lands in the western United States. Appalled by the human cost of the war and convinced that the North had erred in not recognizing the independence of the Southern Confederacy, Burritt eventually returned to England to lecture and write. He served as the American consular agent there from 1865 to 1869. In 1870, Burritt retired to his birthplace of New Britain, Connecticut, where he passed his remaining years. The Peace Collection holds 65 letters written by Elihu Burritt to leading American and British reformers between 1841 and 1878 as part of its Elihu Burritt Collection. The letters have been transcribed and digitized and may be accessed within the finding aid to the Collection. For more information about Burritt, and to view the transcriptions and original images of the letters, see the Finding Aid to the Papers of Elihu Burritt.

Fall 2013

Is It a Book? Is It an Artwork? Yes! It’s Book Art McCabe Library’s Rare Book Room harbors a trove of whimsical artists’ books By Carol Brévart-Demm

Swarthmore’s Rare Book Room exudes all the mystery or retrieving a page or note from a paper pocket. Someof a treasure chamber. It’s really difficult to find,undetimes, a text might be camouflaged by its intermingling fined behind a locked wooden door at the end of a short, with a completely different text. dark hallway on the top floor of McCabe Library. You need According to Garrison, the best form of book art is when permission to enter. Anne Garrison, the humanities and “form and content are completely cohesive and present book-arts librarian and curator one beautiful object.” Artists’ of the book-arts collection books are recognized as a form since 2004, is the genie who of art. They are typically hand lets you in. Dimly lit, with few bound or handmade, with an windows—to protect the fragile edition ranging from a few to just works from light damage— one. Reflecting solely the vision and smelling pleasantly of old of their creators, they are unadulpaper, the Rare Book Room terated by either publishers or is a magical place filled with editors. spellbinding books. Some are In her cozy office in a back centuries old, others not so old. corner of McCabe’s first floor, Some are in disguise or even Garrison points to a potential shape-shifters. new acquisition on her desk: A book titled Garden Library Fresh Apple: Garden of Eden, a lies on a small, cluttered table. perfectly formed apple, crafted It has a bright cover onto which from pages of text pulped into botanical illustrations and text papier-mâché, lies on torn-up on gardens and books have paper strips in a small, wooden been pasted. It’s lovely to look crate. The temptation to touch at, but it’s when you open the the silky-smooth surface of the book that the magic happens: apple, which is covered with Photo by Laurence Kesterson A fountain of decorative paper printed text, is irresistible. Curator of the book arts collection Anne Garrison enjoys showing visitors artists’ books, such as Maustrips—mostly white, some col“This is called an altered book, reen Cummins’ Femmes Fatales, a series of photoored—containing lines of garand it is actually made from a graphs of seductive yet dangerous women whose den-related text, bursts out at book,” says Garrison. names, like “Dame Guillotine” and “The Bride of you. Garden Library, published The collection, containing Nuremberg,” describe instruments of torture. in 1996 in an edition of 10, is items predominantly from bea mixed-media sculptural book by calligrapher and book fore the beginning of the 20th century, began its growth artist Jan Owen. Swarthmore’s Book Arts and Private Press under the directorship of Charles Shaw, College librarian Collection currently comprises more than 6,000 items from from 1927 to 1962, who started a collection of fine-press almost 1,000 presses. editions—books printed on a letterpress, with a focus on The task of defining book art or artists’ books is tricky, typography, using raised, inked, metal type. because their individual forms are each the product of The letterpress—invented in the mid-15th century by the creator’s whimsy. Book artist Angela Lorenz describes Johannes Gutenberg, a German printer and publisher— them as works of contemporary art whose creation inwas widely used for printing books until the second half of volves a number of processes. In its final form, each work the 20th century, when offset printing largely supplanted usually presents a multilevel, multimedia object, access it. The role of the letterpress evolved toward serving the to which often requires a certain amount of effort from more handcrafted nature of artists’ books. The items in the “reader”—such as opening a box, undoing a fastener, continued on next page

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Shaw’s collection exemplify the long, rich history of private and fine presses. As curator of the collection, whose reputation is widespread, Garrison enjoys interaction with researchers, teachers, and students from other Philadelphia-area colleges as well as with Swarthmore students. Faculty members and students from both the University of the Arts, which offers a master’s program in book arts, and the University of Pennsylvania, which offers a bookarts class, visit the McCabe collection. “Even though they teach it, our collection is much stronger than theirs,” Garrison says. “I select material to show them, and they use it as inspiration or to get ideas, to study bindings, or obtain answers to graphics or typography questions.” Swarthmore students can enjoy the collection by signing up for an annual spring-semester book-arts course offered

by the College’s art department. Taught by Mary Phelan, an associate professor at the University of the Arts, the course includes a visit to the Rare Book Room to see examples of works by famous book artists. Garrison is pleased that the collection draws art aficionados from outside the College and that it is becoming increasingly well-known further afield. “Our book-arts collection has quite a reputation nationally,” she says, mentioning several positive comments she received from participants at a San Francisco conference she attended in February, “and my goal is to make it much more visible. Swarthmore is getting a name in the field of book arts. It’s awesome. How could you not love it?” For more information on the College’s artists’ book collection, contact Anne Garrison at agarris1@swarthmore.edu or search the collection on Tripod, the library’s database. Reprinted with permission from the Swarthmore College Bulletin (July 2013).

Conferences, webinars attended by library staff Jessica Brangiel Seminar: National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) - Andrew Asher and Lynda Duke on the Changing Role of Libraries Kate Carter PhillyDH@Penn: a Digital Humanities Unconference Susan Dreher Webinar: Lyrasis - Photo Preservation

Sarah Elichko Conferences: Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) presentation: Have You Thought About Your Thesis Lately? Cognitive Bottlenecks at the Intersection of Research and Writing (Presenters: Sarah Elichko, Pamela Harris, Margaret Schaus, Peggy Seiden, Terry Snyder); Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) Anne Garrison Conferences: Codex; College Book Arts Association; Oak Knoll Book Arts

Anna Goslen Conferences: CONTENTdm Eastern User Group Meeting; Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC); Tri State College Library Cooperative (TCLC) Spring Program (Digital Matters: National, Regional, and Local Treasures). Webinars: RDA; audio visual digitization; metadata

Pamela Harris Conferences: Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) presentation: Have You Thought About Your Thesis Lately? Cognitive Bottlenecks at the Intersection of Research and Writing (Presenters: Sarah Elichko, Pamela Harris, Margaret Schaus, Peggy Seiden, Terry Snyder);

PhillyDH@Penn: a Digital Humanities Unconference; Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC)

Melinda Kleppinger Conferences: Northeast Document Conservation Center: Digital Creation, Curation; Tri State College Library Cooperative (TCLC) Spring Program (Digital Matters: How Museums and Libraries are Transforming the Digital Experience) Chelsea Lobdell Conference: Code4Lib

Peggy Seiden Conferences: Ithaka Sustainable Scholarship; MOOCs and Libraries (OCLC Research and University of Pennsylvania,); Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) presentation: Have You Thought About Your Thesis Lately? Cognitive Bottlenecks at the Intersection of Research and Writing (Presenters: Sarah Elichko, Pamela Harris, Margaret Schaus, Peggy Seiden, Terry Snyder); Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) Meg Spencer Webinars: National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - Research Data Curation; Libraries and Big Data

Barbara Weir Conferences: Library Assessment Conference; Electronic Resources and Libraries

Library Staff Swarthmore Libraries Workshop: Deliver Great Customer Service (Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University); Active Learning Workshop with Barbara Hall, Haverford Departments of Anthropology/English

Fall 2013

staff news

Danielle Peters began working in McCabe Library in the spring as the technology specialist in the Access and Lending Services department. She previously worked as an information specialist and supervisor/ coordinator at the University of Michigan Language Resource Center and helped in implementing Kaltura Video Management Console. She has a masters degree in information systems and science from Eastern Michigan University.

Elizabeth Salmon is the new weekend supervisor at McCabe Library. She has worked at Drexel University and the Haverford College Science Library and now works part-time at the Academy of Natural Sciences as the reference desk manager. She has a masters degree in library and information science from Drexel University. Elizabeth replaces Catherine Wimberley, who is now working at a public library in Dover, DE.

Wendy Chmielewski, curator of the Peace Collection, has been awarded a fellowship from the Gilder Lehrman Institute on American History to conduct research at the New York Public Library for her on-going project â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her Hat was in the Ring: U.S. Women elected to political office before 1920.â&#x20AC;? The website gives detailed information on women candidates for political office in the late 19th and early 20th centuries prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Currently, there are biographical records for nearly 2,600 women, including Belva Lockwood, the first woman to run a full national campaign for the presidency, in 1884 and again in 1888; Marietta Stow, who campaigned to be the governor of California in 1882 and U.S. Vice President in 1884; and Mary E. Mumford, who was elected to the local school board in a section of Philadelphia in 1882.

Susan Dreher and Terry Heinrichs earned the Certificate in Communication Design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia after completing courses in Adobe Creative Suite Overview, Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Typography. Susan is the visual resources and initiatives librarian and Terry is access and lending services supervisor at Cornell Science Library.

Spencer Lamm accepted the position as manager of discovery services at Drexel University Libraries in July. As Swarthmore digital initiatives librarian and tri-college library technology coordinator since 2007, he helped develop and implement the discovery layer in Tripod, the tri-college library catalog.

Editors

Pam Harris Annette Newman Terry Heinrichs Thank you to all who contributed to this issue. Swarthmore College Libraries 500 College Avenue Swarthmore PA 19081