Inside the UConn Libraries - Winter 2015

Inside the

UConn Libraries News from the University of Connecticut Libraries

winter 2015

Photo credit: Gina Randazzo

Ed Young Internationally Recognized Children’s Book Illustrator Donates Personal Papers to UConn’s Archives & Special Collections

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d Young has illustrated more than 90 books for children, 23 of which he has also written, bringing to each - whether a time-honored tale or an original story - a fresh and enduring vision through the deft use of gouache, pastel, and collage. donor Young’s artistic abilities were recognized spotlight early on and have continued to draw accolades for more than half a century. He was twice nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, the highest international recognition given to a living writer and illustrator of children’s books for making a lasting contribution to children’s literature. In 1989, Lon Po Po: a Red-Riding Hood Story from China won a Randolph Caldecott Medal, which is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished picture book. He has also received two Caldecott Honors for The Emperor and the Kite in 1967 and Seven Blind Mice in 1992.

He has donated his extensive collection of artwork, sketches, scrolls, storyboards, color studies, and other archival materials to UConn’s Northeast Children’s Literature Collection (NCLC) in the UConn Libraries’ Archives & Special Collections.

“We are honored to be entrusted with such a rich collection that has brought such pleasure to generations of readers,” said the Libraries’ Vice Provost Martha Bedard. “We expect those interested in fine art, literature, and history will gain a new appreciation for one of the preeminent working illustrators of our time.”

Born in Tientsin, China, Young moved to the United States in 1951 when he was 20 to study architecture, but quickly changed course and focused on art. He graduated from the former Art Center School in Los Angeles, now the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, began his career as a commercial artist in advertising, but soon sought something more expansive, expressive, and timeless. continued on page 8

Len Morris Noted Independent Producer/Director Donates U. Roberto Romano’s Human Rights Media Archive to UConn Libraries

donor spotlight

Len Morris, left, and Robin Romano filming in a school outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photo credit: Pharis Harvey.

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n a sweltering summer day more than 30 years ago, Len Morris was standing on the street in New York City directing a music video with dancers from Jacques d’Amboise’s National Dance Institute, surrounded by dozens of crew members, police, and supporting players, when he first laid eyes on U. Roberto “Robin” Romano.

Even amidst the chaos of the shoot, Romano made an impression on him, the noted independent film producer/director recalls, if only because of his distinctive hairstyle and appearance. An aspiring photographer at the time, Romano would go on to distinguish himself as a filmmaker and human rights advocate, and become a good friend and collaborator with Morris, before passing away in 2013.

Romano traveled the world amassing images that testified to the challenging lives many children faced.

In 2006, a collection of his still images was exhibited at the William Benton Museum of Fine Art in a show entitled, Stolen Childhoods: the Global Plague of Child Labor.

More than 100 of those images are available online at http://s.uconn.edu/romanopapers.

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Now, due to Morris’s generosity, Romano’s total body of work, including video tape masters and digital video files, hundreds of interviews, thousands of digital photos and prints, plus his research files will now be available to researchers in UConn’s Archives & Special Collections.

“As the result of Robin’s life’s work, 80 million fewer children are working in child labor, 40 million children who were forced to work like animals are now in schools, and international laws have been passed to protect children,” Morris asserts. “In short, Robin’s images changed minds, hearts, and fueled the debate.”

Romano first became attuned to children and their human rights when he served as a segment producer on the independent film Globalization and Human Rights that was broadcast nationally on PBS in 1998. For the film, Romano traveled to Indonesia, where he filmed Nike and Reebok’s factory plants and met, among others, Pharis Harvey, cofounder of the International Labor Rights Fund.

Romano’s interest in the human rights of children deepened when he went with Harvey to film the 1998 Global March Against Child Labour, an undertaking led by Kailash Satyarthi, recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. continued on page 3

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continued from page 2 The march, which has taken place in 80 countries throughout the world, has been instrumental in shaping the ethical trade mechanism on child labor free goods particularly in the sporting goods industry and cocoa farms.

The son of the artist and Works Progress Administration (WPA) muralist Umberto Romano, Robin began his career in documentaries as a producer and cameraman for Les Productions de Sagittaire in Montreal, where he worked on several series including 5 Defis and L’Oeil de L’Aigle.

Romano’s documentaries have been widely recognized. The film The Harvest/La Cosecha received a Special Achievement Award from American Latino Media Arts/ National Council of La Raza in 2011, an honor he treasured, Morris says, because it came from the entire Latino community.

Among the organizations that have used Romano’s work are the Council on Foreign Relations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Free the Slaves, The International Labor Organization, Stop the Traffik, The Hunger Project, International Labor Rights Forum, The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, GoodWeave, The Global March to End Child Labor, and Antislavery International. Organizations who sponsored or funded Romano’s work will have the ability to use the images he created for them to continue their work and advocacy.

Especially noteworthy in his body of work is a film trilogy focused on children’s human rights that he did with Morris: Stolen Childhoods (2005), Rescuing Emmanuel (2009) and the just completed, The Same Heart, in which Romano was the Director of Photography.

The two men were clearly united in their passionate advocacy on behalf of children. Morris began his career producing public radio, and became a film editor and producer at ABC News, 20/20, before serving as an independent producer and director of documentary films, videos, and oral histories. An advocate for children before Congress, in 2012, he received the U.S. Department of Labor’s, Iqbal Masih Award for his efforts to end child labor. In 2011, he received the Walter Cronkite Award for “his integrity, courage, commitment, leadership and vision for using the power of media to awaken the world to the causes and best practice solutions to child labor, children INSIDE THE UCONN LIBRARIES

on the streets and chronic poverty.” In 2010, he received the Images and Voices of Hope Award for his work on behalf of children’s rights.

“I describe Robin as my partner in anger,” Morris said of their work in bringing to light the horrendous conditions in which children are forced to work in the world. “What we saw was outrageous. Anger motivated us while we were filming, and anger enabled us to keep filming and keep pressing. When we returned home with the images, we would take that anger and those images to people with political power and confront them.”

“The first takeaway from Robin’s life’s work, whether at the macro level as seen in child labor, or something specific like children in rug manufacturing: Change is possible,” Morris asserts. “Their basic human rights, their lives, and their childhoods have value. You can’t look at a 5-year-old and say, sorry you’re hungry, go get a job. It’s our responsibility to protect them. ” More than 130,000 of Romano’s still images will be available online for research and educational use once his collection is processed. Archives & Special Collections will digitize the entire collection of analog still images, negatives, and research files creating an unprecedented online resource relating to documentary journalism, child labor and human rights, and other social issues that Romano documented in his lifetime.

“This gift makes us stewards of Robin’s legacy and dream,” said Martha Bedard, Vice Provost of the UConn Libraries. “We are honored to make his work available to faculty and students studying human rights, and to draw attention to the issues he championed to those around the world.”

Says Morris of his friend: “He was always conscious of the future. And he knew, as I know, that unfortunately the work that we do is not going to become irrelevant anytime soon, I’m sorry to say. There are 168 million child laborers today. Of these, 85 million do hazardous work. 5.5 million children are enslaved and 1.2 million are trafficked annually. These numbers don’t include the estimated 100 million children living on the streets or the tens of millions of young girls and boys working in domestic labor. So you could easily make the argument that we have close to 300 million children fending for themselves in this very unequal world.” 

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“We welcome you to become partners in our future.”

Message from the Vice Provost Martha Bedard

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t is said that balance is not something you find, it’s something you create.

For the UConn Libraries, creating a balance between the traditional library services our users expect and the desire to transform ourselves to inspire new ways of learning has been an integral part of our success this year. In this issue of our newsletter you will see how we have recognized and embraced our historical strengths while charting new and important paths.

We continue to be entrusted with works that are irreplaceable in our Archives & Special Collections. Their creators know we will preserve them with care while allowing scholars access to them. We were recently given the collection of internationally recognized children’s books creator Ed Young, and the media archive of human rights activist and photographer Robin Romano, which underscores our status as a respected archive. As an active proponent of open educational resources, we are pleased to assume an emerging role by helping graduate students use our digital repository to host the University’s first born digital publication.

This balance of transformation and tradition is further strengthened through our work in updating our mission and vision, a process which has reaffirmed our role as the academic hub of UConn. Beyond just words on our website, this new vision to be the “Knowledge and Inspiration Hub” is reinforced by our Purposeful Path Forward. More than a strategic plan, the Purposeful Path Forward is a roadmap outlining the priorities that build on the inherent strength and centrality of the UConn Libraries.

The Purposeful Path Forward is made up of five priorities – Inspiration Hub, Scholarly Engine, Collective & Selective Collections, Operational Excellence, and Innovative Spaces. These priorities are essential in today’s academic library. They focus on areas such as reimagining our research tools and building on our organizational capacity to foster new models of research, teaching, and learning. We will continue to collaborate with other great institutions. For example, we will expand our reach within the state through the Connecticut Digital Archive (CTDA) and continue our engagement with

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Volume 2, Number 1

Inside the UConn Libraries is published throughout the academic year. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter, please contact Jean Nelson at jean.nelson@uconn.edu or (860) 486-6346.

Editor: Suzanne Zack

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spaces particularly as we begin the work of collaborating UConn’s Digital Media & Design Program on an exciting with UConn’s master planners to give the Homer new grant to fund a scholarly design studio. And stay Babbidge Library a look that tuned for our unique partnership will carry it into the future. with the Hartford Public Library Our Mission: As we continue to focus on as the UConn Hartford campus The UConn Libraries is a our priorities and balance the moves downtown. transformative partner in inspiring varied expectations of what we As the cost of collections groundbreaking research and do, I hope that you will consider continues to rise, it will become advancing learning, teaching, showing your support for our increasingly important to and entrepreneurial thinking. Our future. Support from our donors ensure that we are developing outstanding resources, expert staff, is part of the foundation that is our resources wisely. One way key in providing the financial we will achieve this is to work and collaborative environments means for these initiatives, regionally with other institutions empower our communities to allowing us to be successful on to share materials without explore new fields of inquiry and our Path and provide critical adversely affecting scholarly seek revolutionary solutions. resources for UConn and our needs. We will also continue valued partnerships. to steward our purchased It is only with your support we will find success. collections to ensure maximum reach and value.

Success along the Path is only possible if we can With appreciation, ensure a solid foundation that not only supports but energizes our initiatives. This foundation will be achieved by building a structure that is both constant and flexible.

Martha Bedard That includes our internal processes but also our physical

giving Your support of our Purposeful Path Forward is vital to our success. We are committed to shifting resources, and, as a result, this will be the final print version of the Libraries’ newsletter for some time.

We do hope you will keep up to date on our latest news and participate in our events by sharing your email addresses with us at: homer@uconn.edu.

We also greatly appreciate your willingness to provide financial support. We have provided an easy-to-use envelope in this newsletter, or you can make a secure donation online with your credit card at: http://s.uconn.edu/librarygiving For more information about making a gift, please contact: Lauren Prause (860) 486-1949.

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Thank you!

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Samuel Charters

a remembrance

(1929 – 2015) Samuel Charters was a poet, novelist, biographer, but is perhaps best remembered as an historian of American blues, jazz, and the music of the African diaspora.

“For me, the writing about black music was my way of fighting racism,” Charters said in an interview with Matthew Ismail, author of Blues Discovery. “That’s why my work is not academic, that is why it is absolutely nothing but popularization: I wanted people to hear black music.”

Charters went out into the field and compiled years of recordings and studies, writing The Country Blues at the end of the 1950s, which helped to ignite the folk music revival of the 60s and 70s.

He died on March 18 at the age of 85 at his home in Årsta, Sweden.

Charters had often collaborated with his wife, Ann, herself a writer, literary scholar, photographer, and pianist, traveling throughout this country and beyond to record music they believed would be lost. The results of their efforts resulted in a working archive, the Samuel and

Ann Charters Archives of Blues and Vernacular African American Musical Culture, preserved and used by students and scholars in our Archives & Special Collections.

Almost a half century ago, Charters began as a field recorder for Folkways Records, and went on to serve as recording director for Prestige and Vanguard Records before publishing many books about the blues and musicians who played the blues.

A prolific writer, his productivity continued throughout his life. Published earlier this year were Songs of Sorrow, a biography of Lucy McKim Garrison, who in the 19th century compiled the first book of American slave songs, and The Harry Bright Dances: a Fable, a novel about roots music set in Oklahoma. His latest book of poetry, What Paths, What Journeys: New & Selected Poems, draws from earlier work, “hymning nature, family, friendship, travel and the stuff of life.”

To learn more about his life and work, please visit: http://s.uconn.edu/2uh. 

Samuel Charters and his wife Ann in Sweden. Photo credit: Martin Colyer.

The Quiet Corner Journal Marks First Born Digital Publication in UConn’s Digital Repository

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ords are powerful, perhaps never more so than when you’re a graduate student looking to get your work published. Three graduate students from UConn’s Literatures, Cultures, and Languages department looking to do just that, utilized our Digital Commons platform to create The Quiet Corner Interdisciplinary Journal (TQC), marking a first for the service. user Says founding journal member spotlight and Co-Editor-in-Chief Charles LeBel, “We wanted to deliver a

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creative space for graduate students to publish, be as low cost as possible, and be visible. I had no idea about the freely available strength of design, housing, and archiving.

Digital Commons is the way to go. ” UConn began the digital repository of the intellectual output of the entire University, or Digital Commons @ UConn, as a pilot in 2005. It was intended to provide a way for the UConn community to organize, store, and preserve its research in a single unified location.

Accommodating virtually any publication, presentation, or production in electronic format, it currently houses more than 11,000 individual items.

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UColor: Jonathan on Parade Gallery on the Plaza

winter exhibits Nov. 2, 2015- Feb. 19, 2016 Homer Babbidge Library

Members of the campus community expressed their inner Husky in this exhibit of painted fiber glass Husky dog statues sponsored by the student group, the Bean Team. The Bean Team solicited ideas from the community, then selected 24 winning entrants, who were given statues and paint to create their personal visions of UConn’s mascot, Jonathan. The Bean Team works with the William Benton Museum of Art to bring art to the UConn campus. 

Shadow Castings: A Study of Geometry in Paper and Light Norman Stevens Gallery

Photographer Christine Dalenta and paper sculptor Benjamin Parker collaborate and practice a unique combination of paper folding and photographic techniques. Their process results in camera-less images, created through the action of light on folded light-sensitive paper.

Since the very beginning of photography, artists have placed three-dimensional objects onto light-sensitive paper to form a representation in two dimensions. This technique and its resulting images, known as photograms, are currently enjoying a resurgence in contemporary photography. Dalenta and Parker’s images are similar to photograms, but employ an original method, where not only is there no camera, there is no object. The paper itself both modulates and records the light simultaneously.  continued on page 7 continued from page 6 Applauding the students and the undertaking, Vice Provost Martha Bedard said it was just one of many ways in which the Library is partnering with the campus community to support scholarship at UConn. “We are delighted graduate students are finding a way to use this resource to advance their scholarship and academic careers.”

To learn more, please visit: http:// digitalcommons.uconn.edu/tqc.  TQC Co-Editors-in-Chief, Charles Lebel, left, and Carlos Gardeazabal Bravo celebrate the journal with Vice Provost Martha Bedard.

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continued from page 1 He found this in children’s books.

“I came to this country as a student; this study-mode has remained with me as if I had just graduated from academic training,” he says.

Young’s interest in learning and growing is also evident in his life. He has shared what he has learned by teaching at the Pratt Institute, Yale University, the Naropa Institute, and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

“I feel that all art forms from early cave paintings to the most recent graffiti art lend power to storytelling. An artist’s responsibility as a visual storyteller is to transmit stories most effectively within any means available to him.”

Since 1962, Young has written and illustrated numerous picture books, many of which are folk tales derived from Chinese, Native American, Indian, and other traditions.

Aside from the celebrated Lon Po Po and Emperor and the Kite, his other well-known and most-loved books, which also draw from Chinese folktales, include The Sons of the Dragon King (2004); Monkey King (2001); The Lost Horse (1998); Mouse Match (1997); Night Visitors (1997); Little Plum (1994); Red Thread (1993); Seven Blind Mice (1992); The Voice of the Great Bell (1989); The Eyes of the Dragon (1986); Yeh Shen (1982); White Wave (1979); Cricket Boy (1977); and 8000 Stones (1971).

Folk tales stand the test of time due to their ability to both entertain and instruct, he contends. “Truth is timeless and it cuts through boundaries of diverse cultures, while an everyday story falls short of that,” he asserts.

“Comparatively speaking, I like a story with substance.”

Aside from finding substance in folk tales, he has found it in diverse subjects that resonate with him. For example, he recently lent his talents to the recently published book Bird & Diz, a tribute to two friends and jazz greats: Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

“My main interest is growth, both as an artist and as a human being; I wish the same for my readers,” he says.

A longtime practitioner of Tai Chi, he recognizes the interconnectedness of all things in life and brings that philosophy to the success his work has found.

“A successful book is the combined love of author, editor, illustrator, designer, printer, binder, marketer, seller, librarian, teacher, parent, and child. It’s a good story well told through love, not gimmicks, which brings the book to life.”

Young recently toured UConn’s Archives & Special Collections with a group led by NCLC curator Kristin Eshelman during which he revisited some of his artwork – work that has been a lifelong labor of love, resulting in close to 100 books.

When asked why he selected UConn to serve as the permanent home for his life’s work, he said: “It is a place which honors the heart of good books and respects its users.”

To learn more about Young’s collection, please visit: http://s.uconn.edu/2ui. 