ILLUMINATION KNOWLEDGE for the 2Ist CENTURY at the UNIVERSITY of MARYLAND LIBRARIES Summer 2015
IN THIS ISSUE
Reimagining the Library
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Student Spotlight
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The Legacy of Dean Patricia A. Steele
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International Piano Archives at Maryland Turns 50
outside the box, Dean Patricia Steele envisioned a bold new direction for the University Libraries. Propelled by her big ideas, unmatched energy, and unflagging dedication to students, she has realized that vision. Moreover, by establishing meaningful partnerships, she has positioned the University Libraries for future growth and success—and has won countless admirers on campus and far beyond. continues on page 4
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Digitizing the Diamondback
Dean Steele enlisted anthropology and architecture students in a major re-envisioning of McKeldin Library, encouraging them to reimagine what a library might be.
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Winning the War of Ideas
PHOTO: MIKE MORGAN
2015 ALWAYS ONE to think
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S T U D E N T
S P O T L I G H T
Dear Friends, As the clock ticks away and my time at the University of Maryland Libraries comes to a close, I cannot help feeling a mix of sadness in leaving this wonderful place, but also a nostalgia for my home of many decades in Bloomington, Indiana. This time at Maryland has been the highlight of my career and it has been a career delightfully varied. I have had the opportunity to work in almost every kind of library – academic, public, school and special. And, I had the distinct honor of serving as dean in two wonderful places – Indiana University and the University of Maryland. The Maryland experience was the highlight for so many reasons. We have a University in its ascendancy, redefining the academic experience in the 21st century while creating a model college town. We have wonderful library staff engaged in change that took us farther in these few years than anyone predicted. Our students are extraordinary – bright, ambitious, confident, and programmed to “do good.” Finally, there are friends such as you, who joined us as agents of change. With your donations and your moral support, we began to see ourselves differently and to present a new vision of the academic library. I have never met a more engaged and welcoming group. Thank you. Please stay with us as we continue to soar. You are essential!
AUDREY LENGEL is busy these days. While earning her MLS with a specialization in Information and Diverse Populations at the iSchool, she’s making an impact at UMD Libraries. Audrey works as the graduate assistant for the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM) and the Collection Development departments, as well as a digitization assistant in the Digital Conversion
Labor history collections inform local Wikipedia editors
Sincerely,
Patricia A. Steele Dean of the Libraries
Editor’s note: Dean Steele retired on June 30, 2015. 2
and Media Reformatting department. An internship at D.C. Public Libraries’ Special Collections also allows her to pursue her interest in outreach. “Libraries provide services that empower people to access, navigate, and understand the flood of information before them,” she says. With her array of skills and experience, Audrey will be a reliable guide. — Eric Cartier, Digital Librarian
American Federation of Labor (AFL) founder Samuel Gompers.
ON MAY 1, the day many countries of the world celebrate International Workers Day, or Labor Day, local volunteers interested in promoting labor history gathered to edit the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Part celebration and part workshop, Edita-Thons are organized around a single topic as a means to build awareness and community. Labor-related collections at the University of Maryland, including the AFL-CIO Archives, provided context and content. As part of a nationwide effort, other libraries with significant labor collections hosted similar editing workshops. Participants also viewed the George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archive, a prestigious archive recently added to Special Collections in Labor History & Workplace studies at the University of Maryland Libraries. —Jen Eidson, Labor Collections Archivist
PHOTO: ALISON HARBAUGH
Celebrating Fifty Years of the International Piano Archives at Maryland by Steve Henry, Head, Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library
CALENDAR YEAR 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM). Housed within the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, IPAM’s collections comprise the world’s most extensive concentration of piano recordings, books, scores, programs and related materials, including the archival papers of many great keyboard artists. The University of Maryland Libraries, in collaboration with UMD’s School of Music and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, will celebrate IPAM’s first fifty years and look forward to the next fifty during the 2015-2016 academic year. Audiences, students, and artists will engage with the archives in ways that demonstrate IPAM’s continuing efforts to document and inform the evolution of pianistic performance tradition. A new exhibition in the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library gallery, Archiving Historic Pianism: International Piano Archives at Maryland Beyond 50, displays unique and rare materials from IPAM’s extensive archives.
A four-part recital series featuring visiting pianists launches in October with Marc-André Hamelin. It culminates with Margaret Leng Tan’s forward-looking exploration of novel uses of the conventional piano as well as the musical potential of toy pianos. Digitization projects will make collections available to a wider audience by offering them online. Among them: the William Kapell Collection of correspondence, diaries, programs, and photographs of the brilliant American pianist whose life was tragically cut short in a plane crash in 1953. “Perspectives on Pianism,” a course in the School of Music to be taught by IPAM Curator Donald Manildi in spring 2016, will give students a chance to work with the archive’s rich collection of primary sources. For more information please visit theclarice.umd.edu or follow IPAM on Facebook at facebook.com/ipamUMD
Please join us for the
IPAM RECITAL SERIES Marc-André Hamelin October 4, 2015
Orion Weiss
December 2015
Ursula Oppens February 2016
Margaret Leng Tan April 2016
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SELECTED ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF DEAN TEACHING AND LEARNING
Introduced services such as
l Terrapin Learning Commons
video streaming and multimedia production to support new models of teaching. Expanded technological infrastructure that supports more than 600 computer workstations throughout libraries (now with common software) and launched a popular equipment loan program.
l John & Stella Graves MakerSpace
Strengthened partnerships
Renovated spaces to support
changing models of learning. The most visible of these are located in McKeldin Library, where the turnstile count has increased 21 percent since 2010:
l Instruction classrooms, Special Events Room, study lounges and portico
Undertook ethnographic and
architectural studies to redesign McKeldin Library and to provide inspiration to create environments that support the ways students and faculty now work.
Established Undergraduate Library
research award; pro足vided targeted research and instruction assistance to support programs such as Gemstone, Honors and FIRE.
RESEARCH Reallocated collections budget to better reflect the diversity of resources students and faculty now expect. More than 75 percent is earmarked for electronic resources.
and provided space and expertise to campus units such as the 足Teaching and Learning Transformation Center; Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and the Division of Information Technology.
Created capacity and infrastructure to sustain ongoing digitization efforts to make special collections broadly available.
Below, top: Google Glass and 3D printing are among the technologies available for campuswide use in the John & Stella Graves Makerspace. Bottom: High-density shelving in the Severn Library will free up library space.
PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
PHOTO: MIKE MORGAN
PHOTO: MIKE MORGAN
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PAT R I C I A A. S T E E L E Established expertise in emerg-
ing areas such as data management, statistics and GIS. As a result, launched IT programs and infrastructure to support faculty in areas such as research data management, digital scholarship, and publishing.
Leveraged the purchasing power
to the university, which established Maryland as a center for labor history.
Took a leadership role in national initiatives such as HathiTrust shared digital repository and Academic Preservation Trust to leverage the collective resources of other academic research libraries.
of the CIC to acquire new e-resources, including many related to the STEM disciplines worth nearly $2 million if purchased independently. Implemented the CIC-based interlibrary loan service, providing quick access to more than 110 million print volumes.
Championed broad and free ac-
Acquired the historical archive
View a brief farewell video:
of the AFL-CIO, the largest such gift
cess to information by growing the university’s digital repository, providing expertise in digital publishing, incentivizing faculty to publish their research in open-access journals, and working with University Senate to heighten awareness. go.umd.edu/farewell
Below, top: Architecture students present a new vision of McKeldin Library. Bottom: Undergraduate researchers receive awards for exemplary use of library materials.
Dr. Babak Hamidzadeh appointed Interim Dean THE UNIVERSITY of Maryland has appointed Dr. Babak Hamidzadeh as Interim Dean of Libraries. In this role, Dr. Hamidzadeh will work to advance the UMD Libraries’ reputation on the regional, national and international stage. “His more than 20 years of experience and exceptional track record here at UMD make him the perfect candidate for this role,” says Mary Ann Rankin, UMD’s senior vice president and provost. “I am certain that he will be an outstanding interim dean.” Since 2011, Dr. Hamidzadeh has served as Associate Dean for Digital Systems and Stewardship at the UMD Libraries. He is also an affiliate associate professor with the Department of Computer Science and with the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Prior to joining UMD, Dr. Hamidzadeh served as Director of the Repository Development Center at the Library of Congress where for nearly seven years he led a team and a data center that developed and deployed large-scale digital archives and libraries. He has also served in a senior management position with The Boeing Company, and held several faculty positions at the University of British Columbia and University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. 5
IN SIDE T H E VAU LT
Helping history come alive Successful fundraising campaign jumpstarts efforts to make historical issues of the student newspaper available online By Anne Turkos, University Archivist WE DID IT! We set a new, all-time fundraising record for Launch UMD, the university’s crowd-funding platform that supports projects that advance innovation, teaching, and learning at UMD. This spring, the UMD Libraries collaborated with staff from the College of Journalism and several undergraduate students to form Team DigiDBK and raise almost $33,000 to digitize and make accessible all issues of The Diamondback, UMD’s primary student newspaper, from 1910 to the present. Team DigiDBK had 30 days to raise their original goal of $10,000, which the UMD Friends of the Libraries promised to match, dollar for dollar. They met this initial target within the first 10 days, and raised an additional $10,550 by project’s end. The $30,550 total set a new fundraising record for Launch UMD, and Team DigiDBK is very grateful to the 226 donors who chose to support this initiative. With additional contributions that arrived after Launch ended and a recent grant award of $2,000 from the Anacostia Trails Heritage Association, the team has accumulated nearly 50 percent of the funds needed to complete the digitization portion of the project.
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Work on creating the digital files and creating online access to the paper will begin in summer 2015, as the team continues to raise funds to help make UMD history alive through the pages of The Diamondback. For more information about this project or to make a donation to this effort, contact University Archivist Anne Turkos: 301-405-9060 or aturkos@umd.edu
The Diamondback provides a vivid glimpse of student life in bygone eras, chronicling cultural changes on campus and in the larger world.
From left: Vox Pop host Parks Johnson interviews a wounded soldier at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; ad for “Meet Your Navy,” a popular weekly show hosted by Raytheon. Below: “Free Speech Mike” quotes Pres. Andrew Jackson on the importance of a free press in a democracy in this ad for a group of radio stations.
Winning the War of Ideas By Doug McElrath, Acting Head, Special Collections and University Archives THIS YEAR’S REMEMBRANCE
of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II has emphasized the dwindling number of veterans whom we rightly honor for their sacrifices preserving freedom. However, we sometimes forget how the United States and its allies won the other front in the war, the battle for hearts and minds. The holdings of Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) in the University of Maryland Libraries are a rich source for better understanding how Americans were mobilized to support the war effort. In many ways, World War II was the first war to be fought both on the battlefield and over the air waves. Nazi Germany, in particular, created an effective propaganda machine aimed at both domestic and foreign targets. Broadcasters in the United States responded with their own mass appeals to patriotism and sacrifice. A good example are materials in SCUA from Vox Pop, a popular radio show that aired during the war years. Its creator, Parks Johnson, used a traveling format with interviews of ordinary Americans, hence its name meaning “voice of the people.” Broadcast from military bases, factories and communities across the country, the scripts from Vox Pop featured home front themes such as “Lumber at War”
and “Dogs for Defense.” Complementing these materials are the papers of important figures in broadcasting, including Helen Sioussat who oversaw public affairs programming on CBS between 1937 and 1958. Compelling images were key to shaping information during wartime, and SCUA features several rich photographic collections from the World War II era. These include the photo archives of the Baltimore News American, a daily newspaper. In addition, women’s role on the home front are well represented through the papers of local chapters of the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters. No discussion of SCUA’s World War II holdings would be complete without mentioning Gordon W. Prange. A beloved, longtime professor at the University, Prange served on McArthur’s staff during the war and was responsible for the collection that bears his name. The Prange Collection is the legacy of the military censorship program during the American occupation of Japan 19451949. It is comprehensive with a copy of nearly everything printed in Japan during the occupation. Peace came in 1945, but for some, the war of ideas continued long after the guns stopped firing.
Below: A publication from the Gordon W. Prange Collection portrays the US forces occupying Japan as friendly and helpful.
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N ON PR OFIT OR G . U.S. POSTAG E
PA ID
PE RMIT N O. 1 0 COL L E G E PARK , MD
www.lib.umd.edu Dean of Libraries 6131 McKeldin Library College Park, Maryland 20742-7011
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F A L L —
Alice 150 Years and Counting . . .
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The Legacy of Lewis Carroll: Selections from the Collection of August and Clare Imholtz
n celebration
of the 150th anniversary of the publication of lice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Special Collections and University A Archives presents an exhibition exploring Lewis Carroll’s creative genius. Beginning with early editions of his famous Alice books, the exhibition includes Carroll’s other fictional, poetic, photographic, and mathematical works. Artwork by artists and illustrators worldwide shows Alice’s timeless appeal as a beloved literary character.
October 2015–July 2016 Maryland Room Gallery, Hornbake Library University of Maryland. College Park, MD www.lib.umd.edu/alice150
For more information, or to be placed on the mailing list for exhibition news, email askhornbake@umd.edu.