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@library.edu The Newsletter of the Swarthmore College Libraries http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/newsletter/news.html

Vol. 3 no. 1 Fall 2000

McCabe main floor has new look, new carpet This summer saw major renovations on the main floor of Also modified into a periodicals lounge is the area behind the McCabe Library. Structural changes involved the removal of main stair that was a dark and poorly used sunken reading stone walls to create a more open and welcoming space and the lounge, known as ‘the Pit’. The floor has been raised to be level raising and opening up the “Pit” to integrate it into the main with the surrounding main floor and new openings in the stone floor. Other less dramatic changes included relocating reference walls bring light into the space. A concern of the architects was services and computers into a common space, relocating Honors “to allow circulation to flow more smoothly in and out while Reserve to the main level, enhancing the natural light by solving accessibility issues.” The new current periodicals lounge lowering book stacks, uplighting the central court, modernizing will also have a small coffee bar, which will help the library to furnishings and installing new carpet. transition from a building which houses books to a social and The architectural project team consisted of Kirby Mehrhof, information center where discourse among students can flourish.

AIA, Lawrence D. McEwen, AIA, and Elizabeth M. Mahon, The perimeter spaces on the main floor, although continuing AIA. Their goal was to find a way “to interact with the building to house the reference collection and reading spaces, will feel in such a way as to make it better for our more open and naturally lit through the having been there and also to enhance the replacement of some tall shelving with lower “If you have a garden connection between the interior spaces and shelving units. The Honors Reserve collection the library’s arboretum setting beyond.” has been relocated to the main floor making it and a library, you have At the Lobby, the removal of a long section more accessible. everything you need.” of stone and the installation of casework for According to the architects, ”Furniture - Cicero the display of important library materials, selection, a major project component, was enhance one’s sense of arrival. The diagonal based upon comfort, incorporation of technolextension of the Circulation Desk and its new wood-paneled ogy, and relationship to the scale and style of the building. fascia into the Lobby provide a continuity of surfaces that lead Fabrics, paint colors and carpet were selected from a palette of one to the library interior beyond. greens, purple and ochre colors and patterns that accentuate the The architects felt that “the Central Court is the grandest tonality of the stone, oak paneling and furniture, bringing new space in the library serving as its central meeting place and life to these basic building materials.” primary point of orientation.” They point out that the “new upThe renovation has incorporated programmatic and technical lighting expands this space as it enhances the natural beauty of requirements while enhancing the existing qualities of the spaces the field stone piers and the oak paneled walls and ceiling.” continued on page 3

New entranceway features beauty and easier access The design of the gracious, new terraced entrance to McCabe Library is intended both to create a shady gathering space similar in simplicity to the amphitheater and to make McCabe Library more accessible. According to Mara Lee Baird ‘79, RLA, with the firm of Gladnick Wright Salameda (GWS) of Chadds Ford, “A goal of the overall plan was to create accessible routes between main buildings on campus. As a landscape architect, I’m always concerned about how you go from place to place and with creating beautiful routes or journeys.”

The bluestone terrace is laid out in a labyrinth design using two shades of stone. The labyrinth is both an ancient form and a meditative form that is an appropriate concept at the intellectual core of the campus. Seating is provided by compositions of the plaza bluestone which rise out of the paving to seating height in sculptural forms. In addition to trees, the terrace is enhanced by several large stone planters, built with the stones left over from the demolition of an interior wall in the library.

The major challenge of the design was to accommodate the 40-foot grade change between the library terrace and Old Tarble (between McCabe and Mertz). Mara Baird used beautifully

curved paths to solve this problem. “It is exciting to take a problem and make it into an opportunity. I’ve had a great deal of fun with this project,” she said.

Mara Baird’s design work can be seen and appreciated throughout the Swarthmore campus. A former intern at the Scott Arboretum, Mara has worked on the North Campus masterplan including the Nason Garden behind Trotter, the Cosby Courtyard at Kohlberg, the Rose Garden Circle, and general roads and pathways throughout the upper campus. She is currently part of the design team for the Science Center; the team includes two architectural firms and GWS, which provides landscape architectural and civil engineering services for the project.

The masonry contractor for McCabe terrace is Davis Giovinazzo. Several members of John Giovinazzo’s crew have worked on various buildings at the College over the years, including Kohlberg. Scott Gilbert, foreman on the job, has had a particularly long association with Swarthmore College; his first job while in high school was repointing the masonry joints on Parrish.

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Electronic resources New: Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Most complete and authoritative dictionary of the English language. http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl/ Literature Online (LION) Searchable, full-text collection of over 250,000 works in English and American literature. http://lion.chadwyck.com Digital National Security Archive Contains over 35,000 recently declassified documents from 12 collections (such as Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis, Iran and Iraq) and growing. http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com Expanded Academic Index (EAI) Index to 2,300 magazines and academic journals back to 1980. Contains selected full text articles. http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/ swar94187 Historical Newspapers Online Palmer’s Index to the Times [of London]; The Official Index to the Times [of London]; and the Historical Index to the New York Times. http://historynews.chadwyck.com International Index to Performing Arts Indexes 200+performing arts periodicals.

Contains some full text. http://iipaft.chadwyck.com World News Connection CIA-sponsored English translations of local news sources from around the world. http://wncnet.fedworld.gov/ Poole’s Plus W.F. Poole’s “Index to Periodical Literature” (1802-1906) and other indexes to 19th century books and journals. http://www.poolesplus.net/index2.html Research Libraries Group Union Catalog (RLIN) A combined listing of over 30 million books, manuscripts, sound recordings, and other materials held by major research libraries in North America. http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/ swatonly/rlg.html SciFinder Scholar Chemical information: bibliographic, compound and reaction information.

Available on library and lab computers.

AccessScience Encyclopedia of science and technology. http://www.AccessScience.com/server-java/ Arknoid/science/AS

Updated: FirstSearch An interface for 40+ databases. Has a new look and new features. http://firstsearch.oclc.org/FSIP

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digital ruminations

Vol. 3, no. 1 Fall 2000

by Tammy Rabideau

In the face of the digital information explosion, there are a number of organizations that are attempting to serve as registries for digital initiatives, two of which will be detailed here. The ARL Digital Initiatives Database (http://www.arl.org/did), created by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the University of Illinois at Chicago, captures basic information for a wide range of digital initiatives in or involving libraries. The National Library of Canada has created the Inventory of Canadian Digital Initiatives (http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/initiatives/index.html) to store descriptive information about a variety of Canadian digital projects. Both of these databases are designed to make information about digitized projects more available, avoid duplication, and foster resource sharing.

The ARL Digital Initiatives Database provides links to and descriptive information for over 100 digital projects. It includes: • the British Women Romantic Poets Project which is producing an online scholarly archive of poetry written by British and Irish women between 1789 and 1832.

• the University of North Carolina’s Documenting the South Collection, which provides access to digitized primary materials that offer Southern perspectives on American history and culture.

• the University of California Santa Barbara’s Chicano Visual Arts Digital Image which seeks to make Chicano art more accessible to the general public.

• a link to the Library of Virginia’s Digital Library Program which contains a rich array of digital collections including a 1939 Worlds Fair Photograph Collection.

The National Library of Canada’s Inventory of Canadian Digital Initiatives contains links to and descriptive information for almost 100 digital projects including projects such as: • the Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings, a multimedia web site devoted to the first half-century of recorded sound in Canada.

• the Industrial Architecture of Montreal which contains images of industrial buildings built in Montreal between 1850-1945.

• Passages: A Treasure Trove of North American Exploration which provides examples of first-hand accounts of North American voyages and explorations.

• access to virtual exhibitions, for example, the Festivities of the Living and the Dead in the Americas.

Please send email to trabide1@swarthmore.edu for further information and/or to propose future topics for the Digital Ruminations column.

New ILL service Library users now have a direct way to borrow books from other libraries in Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI). In most cases this will be quicker than traditional interlibrary loan.

If a book you want is not in Tripod, go to the Direct Borrowing/PALCI choice on the library website, search for the title, and follow the instructions.

The system will simultaneously search the catalogs of other libraries; if any of these libraries can lend the book, you may request it yourself. The item will be sent to McCabe and Tripod will notify you when the book has arrived.

Libraries that you can borrow from include Lafayette, Lehigh, Indiana University of Penn., Penn State, University of Pittsburgh, St. Joseph’s University, and many of the state colleges. Other libraries that will be available soon are Dickinson, Drexel University, Bucknell, and Duquesne.

@library.edu is the newsletter of the Swarthmore College Libraries, published once a semester.

Editorial Staff: Terry Heinrichs, Amy Morrison, Ushi Tandon Technical Advisor: Tammy Rabideau Thank you to all who contributed to this issue, especially: Linda Hunt, Alison Masterpasqua, Barb Weir E-mail: <libnews@swarthmore.edu> Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081

Vol. 3, no. 1 Fall 2000

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page 3

Bridging the Digital Divide

by Peggy Seiden, College Librarian Former President of Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association schools and there is strong evidence that schools in poorer urban RUSA has recently reaffirmed the division’s commitment and rural districts have not only less hardware, but less ability to to advocate the information disenfranchised in its new train students. mission and goals. While technology has infinite potential as a Addressing the digital divide is not simply a matter of running tool to address the needs of the information disenfranchised, it wire and providing public computers – it is also a matter of often has the opposite effect of enlarging the gap between those ensuring that people have the requisite skills to use the technolwith access to information and those without. This gap has ogy and that they see relevance of the technology to their lives. become known as the “digital divide.”

This gap is not limited to socioeconomic or racial differences, There is some debate about the exact nature of the digital but includes gender and age differences, as well. What is clear is divide. It generally is thought to exist along socioeconomic and that the digital divide must be bridged on various fronts and racial lines, but the data is changing so quickly it is difficult to that the libraries in our schools, colleges, and communities are in pin down the current state of the divide. While a 1999 a position to make major inroads in addressing disparity of National Telecommunications and Information Administration opportunity and education, as well as access.

(NTIA) report cited a growing divide between the richest and There have been many projects throughout the country to poorest among us, the researchers were only looking at in-home bring technological and information literacy to disadvantaged use. Today 57% of U.S. households do not have computers and populations. Perhaps one of the best known is the InfoPeople while penetration of technology in middle class households has project in California, which, jumped an astounding within five years, connected 15% (up to 62%) in the What’s Swarthmore doing about this?

46% of the public libraries past year, the growth in in California to the Internet lower income households • Learning for Life Program and provided training to is negligible. However, the The Outreach, Instruction and Reference librarian is working with staff to take advantage of gap shrinks when one this program started by the Education department. It connects networked resources and looks at data on those who students with college employees who need help in acquiring specific services. In Chuck have access. The most skills; e.g. reading, computer use, and library understanding. The McClure’s evaluation report recent data from Forrester Learning for Life program has brought both educational and on the project he wrote: Research in Cambridge, economic opportunities to the participants.

“Without this project the Mass., does show a • Migrant Farm Workers Internet would not be as narrowing gap – 45% of The same librarian is working with children of migrant farm widely or as effectively used whites are online versus workers in Kennett Square. College students will collect oral in California public libraries 35% of African-Americans histories of the community and present them on the web. In this as it is today. The (a 50% increase from the way, the library is helping to preserve that community’s cultural InfoPeople project revitalprevious year). Furtherheritage and to teach about the Internet. ized the image the public more, a 1999 report from has of libraries…” the Pew Research Center Reference and user services staff can work to decrease the for People and the Press cited that 62% of workers go online disparity between the information “haves” and “have-nots” by through their jobs. Yet while that same report found 75% of developing new services and programs. We have the skills to students go online through their schools, there persists a create relevant content, to teach the intricacies of searching and disparity between educational institutions. The most recent evaluating information, and to provide an understanding haven annual UCLA survey of college freshman found that while 90% for those intimidated by the technology. of students at private universities reported using the Internet for schoolwork only 77.6% at black public colleges reported Originally published in “Reference & User Services Quarterly,” such use. The study links this disparity to access in the public v. 39 no. 4, 2000. Reprinted with permission of RUSA and ALA.

McCabe main floor

New services this fall

continued from page 1

* General reserve items may now be checked out overnight from 9:30 p.m. to 9:30 a.m., formerly 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. * Art books from the Rhys Carpenter Library at Bryn Mawr may now be checked out of the library. Some material will still be limited to use in the Carpenter library, such as archeology books, reference works, and material that is rare, very expensive, delicate, and oversize.

The loan period is one week with one renewal possible. * Reservations of McCabe general reserve books, binders, and videos may now be

and opening up the building to as much natural light as possible. The connection to the exterior arboretum surroundings has been improved, but is limited by the existing windows.

Perhaps, through future extension of the social program and the perimeter placement of study rooms commensurate in scale with this summer’s work, the Library can be expanded; then, building on Cicero’s quote, the College would have not just a library and a garden, but a library in the garden.

placed online through the booking feature in the reserve system on Tripod. Only two items may be booked for the same two-hour period and only up to one day in advance. Honors reserves cannot be booked on this system at the present time. Library staff hope that this new system will address long-standing problems and complications surrounding reservations of McCabe general reserve materials. * The redesigned library website features a completely new look and reorganization of content. Explore the site at http://www.swarthmore.edu/library.

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Vol. 3, no. 1 Fall 2000

Library welcomes new staff members

Staff Notes

Megan Adams has joined the library as the new Social Sciences Librarian. Megan recently left the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) where she acquired a wealth of experience as Reference Librarian and Bibliographer. Her primary responsibility at UNI involved serving over 1000 off-campus graduate students with library services such as document delivery, research assistance, and library instruction. She also served as a bibliographer for health, physical education, leisure services, dietetics, and anthropology, worked as general reference librarian, and was the library's webmaster.

Before working at UNI, she was the Social Sciences & Electronic Reference Services Librarian at Louisiana State University Libraries. Megan received her MLS from Syracuse University and her Bachelor’s degree from the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She is currently working on an MA in Women's Studies at UNI. The library welcomed Carmen Carter toward the end of the spring semester as its new Weekend Access and Lending Specialist in the circulation department. While continuing to work as a technical services specialist at the Wolfgram Memorial Library of Widener University, she welcomes the opportunity to work more closely with the public at Swarthmore.

• Mary Ellen Chijioke, curator of the Friends Historical Library, has accepted the position of Head Librarian at the Guilford College Library in Greensboro, North Carolina. During her eleven years as curator, she negotiated with the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends to deposit its records in the FHL at Swarthmore. She also played a major role in the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries.

Library, College working with U. of Ghana The Swarthmore College Library is trying to expand its connections with the University of Ghana, Legon. The College has had a relationship with the International Center for African Music and Dance (ICAMD) at the University of Ghana through its academic program in the Department of Music and Dance since 1995. Last summer, Sharon Friedler, professor of Dance, and Peggy Seiden, College Librarian, visited the University of Ghana. The ICAMD library at the University of Ghana possesses a wealth of material on African dance but lacks the funding to fully document the resources.

Since their return, Friedler and Seiden have collaborated on a proposal to fund a project on the documentation of ethnographic dance. They are focusing both on the development of complete documentary records of video or film currently housed by the ICAMD and the production of such material in the field.

Both Swarthmore and the ICAMD libraries could profit enormously from

Curator gets grant Wendy Chmielewski, curator in the Peace Collection, has been awarded a research grant from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research at Harvard to spend three weeks at the Schlesinger Library. Her project is titled, “Resisting Nuclear Madness: The Utopian Vision of the Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice.” It is part of her larger research project on women’s peace camps and the anti-nuclear movement of the 1980s. During the 2000-01 academic year, she will also have an opportunity to present her research as an Associate Fellow at the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

the success of such a program.The ICAMD would receive much needed assistance in documenting and preserving this valuable resource. The contribution of the ICAMD staff in interpreting the material (both in terms of language and context) for documentation will be critical. Both institutions would gain a great resource in this joint archive for further research, particularly in the area of links to African American dance. It would also enable each to incorporate the use of this material into the curriculum and promote and coordinate projects in music and dance. The archive would provide a much needed resource within the United States for scholars and artists wishing to research African dance materials.

Before she visited Ghana in July 1999, Seiden was intrigued by Sarah Long’s (President of the American Library Association) agenda on building community and reinvigorating the sister library project. Seiden thought there might be opportunities to establish a formal sister library relationship with the Balme Library, the main library of the University of Ghana. She visited with the staff there to find ways that Swarthmore could enhance both the reference collection of the Balme Library and accessibility of materials to its patrons. Swarthmore has already donated duplicate reference materials and is providing ongoing interlibrary loan support.

Swarthmore is also interested in seeking funding to bring staff members from the Balme Library to Swarthmore for technical training. Both libraries look forward to exploring the possibilities of a sister library relationship and the benefits that such a collaboration naturally brings to all involved and beyond.

• Pam Harris, who was the Acting Social Sciences Librarian for the ‘99-’00 academic year, is now the Outreach, Instruction and Reference Librarian. Pam has worked in McCabe for several years, starting as the Weekend Reference Librarian. She received her MLS from Drexel University’s College of Library and Information Science.

• Terry Heinrichs, previously Cornell Library’s Periodicals Specialist, is now Cornell’s Access and Lending Supervisor.

• Kerry Mashburn, previously an ILL Specialist in McCabe, has joined the Cornell staff as Periodicals Specialist • Julie Miran left her position as Access and Lending Services Supervisor in Cornell Library this June to join the staff of Haverford College as the new Science Librarian. Julie received her MSIS this spring from Drexel University’s College of Library and Information Science.

• Pat O’Donnell will serve as acting Curator of the Friends Historical Library.

LIBRARY HOURS McCabe Library (610) 328-8477 M-Th: 8:15 - 1:00 a.m.

F: 8:15 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Sat: 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Sun: Noon – 1:00 a.m.

Cornell Library (610) 328-8262 M-F: 8:15 a.m.– midnight Sat: 8:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Sun: Noon – midnight Underhill Library (610) 328-8232 M-Th.: 8:30 a.m.– 5:15 p.m.; 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

F: 8:30 a.m – 5:15 p.m.

Sat: 10:00 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Sun: 1:00 p.m.– 5:15 p.m.

7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

During breaks and summer: M-F: 8:30 – 4:30; closed weekends

Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries Volume 3, Number 1

Fall 2000

Studio Art 7: The Printed Page

by Jerome Bushnell ‘00

Students from Studio Art 7 are exhibiting their books October 4-25 in the McCabe lobby, with an opening reception at 4:15 on October 4.

T

his past spring semester, Randall Exon, art professor and landscape painter, offered a new and experimental course called “The Printed Page.” The intent of the course was to focus the artistic and creative talents of its ten students on the production of small-scale, limited-edition books.

Professor Exon structured the requirements and scope of the course loosely to allow his own fascination with book-arts to meet the varied interests of the students. This collective meeting of artistic minds allowed the students the artistic freedom to find personally meaningful modes of expression through the use of printed media.

Librarians Amy Morrison and Anne Garrison introduced students to the large selection of artists’ books from the library’s Treasure Room. The library’s collection of limited edition handcrafted works that integrated poetry and visual images opened the class to a new range of possibilities of working with the book form. Similarly, Gil Stott, Emeritus Associate Provost/ Associate Dean of Students presented his unique collection of material produced by the Roycrofters, an early twentiethcentury art colony which published beautiful one-of-a-kind illustrated books. In addition, each student was given a copy of a limited edition collection of essays written by Mary Roelofs Stott ‘40 and illustrated by Exon. Stott, Morrison, and Garrison showed the students that books are a powerful means of artistic expression, as well as being objects with their own physical artistic merit.

For the first large project of the class, on display in this

Library Associates’ Events - Fall 2000 September Patrick Dougherty: Artist & Sculptor Exhibit of photographs & sketches: Sept.10-30 Campus installation of site-specific sculpture sponsored by Scott Arboretum & Art Dept.

October “Ten Point”, Artists’ Books from Studio Art 7: The Printed Page Opening Reception: Oct.4, 4:15 p.m.

Exhibit: Oct. 4-25 November The Aralia Press and Literary Fine Printing Exhibit: Nov. 1-30 Exhibit Opening: Nov. 2, 6:15-7:00 Poetry Reading by Eamon Grennan and talk by Michael Peich: Scheuer Room, Nov. 2, 7:00 p.m.

Reception follows reading December 1999-2000 Newton Book Prize Winner: Catherine Osborne ‘01 Exhibit of book collection: Dec. 4-10 Talk & Reception: Dec.6, 4:15 p.m.

exhibit, each student illustrated a poem in the form of an accordion-style folded book. The individual artistic aesthetics of each student was allowed to shape the final product.

Taking all of these lessons to heart, the class engaged on a larger-scale, collective work. Each student chose a short poem and illustrated it with a small mezzotint. The poems and mezzotints were placed together and arranged into a collective book. The text was printed on the letter printing press and the final collection of pages hand-bound with ribbon (in a technique chosen after hours of sifting through various different binding styles seen in the artists’ books of the Treasure Room’s collection). The product, called “Ten Point,” in reference to the small font of the text and to the ten students, is a hand-printed, handcrafted book which demonstrates the efficacy of simplicity and smallness to integrate poetry and visual expression.

In the Printed Page class, distinctions of “student” and “professor” were suspended in favor of all participants being considered artists, equally and together. The semester was shaped by the individual artistic goals of each artist and all these various ideas were brought together by the final book project.

In the end, each student was left with a love of the book as an artistic object and as a medium for artistic expression. The collective efforts of the final project followed the traditions of the Roycrofters to produce a personal and powerful finished product, guided by the joined hands of the group. Enjoy the exhibit in October: it is about re-discovering the possibilities of the book.

Patrick Dougherty Site Sculpture

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atrick Dougherty, the creator of over 100 site-specific installations throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, will exhibit photographs and sketches of six of his installations from September 10-30 in McCabe Library. During a threeweek residency, Dougherty will create a large-scale, site-specific and temporary sculpture near the center of the Swarthmore campus. The artist weaves locally found saplings together to create massive and dynamic forms that animate and transform their surroundings. Evoking nests, cocoons, haystacks, and primitive dwellings, many of his works appear to be created by gigantic forces or beings. Dougherty’s awe-inspiring and subversive outdoor installations have earned him international acclaim.

Dougherty’s works are fully engaged with the evolving tradition of land-based works that use nature as both material and reference. He does not seek out remote sites, but works in parks, museum lobbies, and university campuses, places where nature and architecture are carefully constructed according to cultural values and ideals. Each sculpture begins with a response to specific architectural and natural features. Rather than working in isolation, Dougherty inspires teams of volunteers to help generate and build the sculptures, both aesthetically and practically. The installation at Swarthmore will result from an ongoing dialogue with students, volunteers and the entire Swarthmore community. Dougherty’s works are intended to be temporary. The Swarthmore installation will remain in place for approximately one year depending on how it weathers.

Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator at the American Craft Museum writes, “Dougherty’s provocative constructions draw from and interact with the site, providing new visual, emotional and intellectual perspectives. Thus altered, the sites become contemplative environments in which the viewer perceives man’s contrived world as part of an evolving, organic one. Through the immediacy of his vision and the boldness of his structures, Dougherty has established a deserved reputation as one of the most exciting and stimulating sculptors today.”

The Aralia Press and Literary Fine Printing

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he Aralia Press will display some of its books November 1-30 in the library lobby. Poet Eamon Grennan will give a reading at the opening on November 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall.

Michael Peich established Aralia Press in 1983 to promote the traditional craft of bookmaking and to publish contemporary poetry as part of the curriculum at West Chester University.

Since its inception, Aralia has issued titles by established poets Richard Wilbur, James Merrill, Rita Dove, Donald Justice, Wendy Cope, Philip Levine and others, as well as books/ broadsides by emerging poets such as Dana Gioia, Marilyn Nelson, R.S. Gwynn, Kay Ryan, Mark Jarman, Robert McDowell, and H.H. Hix. Peich also publishes first books, and his list includes work by David Mason, Diane Thiel, Bruce Bawer, Catherine Tufariello, David Yezzi, and Gabriella Mirollo.

Each title from the press is uniquely designed. As Peich has stated, “The text tells me how to design it. Just as the poet labors to reconstruct her thoughts into words, I take care to transform the text into a physical object.” Every title is composed from handset type, printed letterpress, and handbound: “The immediate, tactile nature of letterpress printing allows me to get to the core of what the poet had in mind when he created the words that I am now carefully reassembling for the reader.”

Aralia books are in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library, the Huntington Library, and over two dozen college/university libraries, including Swarthmore College. Peich has written and lectured extensively about modern fine printing and is an established authority on literary fine printing. He is the recipient of an AIGA Fifty Books of the Year designation (1996), and professor of English at West Chester University.

On the occasion of the Swarthmore exhibit of Aralia, the press will issue a chapbook of new poems by renowned Irish poet Eamon Grennan, who will also give a reading at the opening on November 2 at 7:00 p.m. in the Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall.

Copies of the book will be available at the reading.

Eamon Grennan, who last read at Swarthmore in 1998, is a poet of everyday experiences — walking to work, his son’s first day at school, a porridge breakfast, the laundromat, houseplants in winter. He writes of his parents and his children, of the kitchen and the bedroom, of birds and animals; his poems fill the corners of an ordinary, domestic, daily life with softness and

Gift No wind in the world, everything still as a mirror but facing away from you where you walk head down, following the tracks in the sand that are all that’s left of the nightstalkers, ghosts now gone underground with their hunger, hoping dusk comes soon. Nothing to be seen or heard, the sea not making the slightest ripple, vacant acres of glass paving a way to islands which are light blue chimera adrift on rafts of white mist—as if they were low clouds, things of light and air only. So it’s a gift to come in the middle of the dunes upon a dark pool with plant life thriving in it, and to find—to your tongue’s infinite surprise—sweet water under its skin of ice.

- Eamon Grennan Printed with permission of the author.

light. Grennan is known for his careful observations of the world’s particularity, the way that any moment has the potential to bring us to full attention and even to transcendence. The poem above has been selected from his series of Cape Cod poems.

Newton Prize Winner The A. Edward Newton Student Library Prize for 1999-2000 was awarded to Catherine Osborne ’01 for her collection of contemporary poetry books. Catherine Osborne will give a short talk in the new periodicals lounge of McCabe about her collection on December 6 at 4:15 p.m. (followed by a reception). Her collection of poetry books will be on display in the main lobby of the library from December 4-10. The Newton Book Prize is awarded annually for the best undergraduate book collection as judged by the Committee of Award.

Associates of the Libraries - Annual Membership Registration - 2001 For new members or members who have not yet sent in their membership fees. Annual memberships run from January to January.

Corporate Matching Gift Forms may be included with your check or mailed directly to the College’s Gift Records Office.

CIRCLE: Individual $20; Family $30; Patron $100; Benefactor $500; Life $2500; Student $2; Other $ ____ Enclosed is $ _________ for my/our annual membership payable to Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries.

Please charge my/our membership to: VISA MASTERCARD DISCOVER Account Number: ______________________________________________Expiry Date: _________________ Or CALL Swarthmore College Credit Card Hotline: 1-800-660-9714 Fund: Associates of College Library NAME: ADDRESS: EMAIL: TELEPHONE: Mail to: Associates of the Swarthmore College Libraries, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081