September 2011 Archives

September 2, 2011

The Book as Memorial:Book Artists Respond to & Remember 9/11

Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library

Ten years have passed since the tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001, in several locations on the East Coast of the United States. People in all parts of the country were affected and many of them looked for ways to respond. This exhibition shows art work created by book artists in response to the events of that fateful day. Specifically, this exhibition focuses on works that memorialize the people lost and the indescribable sense that we, as a people, also lost something more intangible. Some might call it a sense of innocence, others might call it a sense of safety, but few Americans would deny that the world felt changed after that day. Using the book format, these artists have given form to these difficult thoughts and emotions to share with a wider audience and to help us remember.

The exhibition includes work by: Art of the Book program (Art School, Pratt Institute), Maureen Cummins, Mimi Gross & Charles Bernstein (Granary Books), Kate Ferrucci (People to People Press), Emily Martin (Naughty Dog Press), Mac McGill (Booklyn Artists Alliance), Sara Parkel (Filter Press), Werner Pfeiffer (Pear Whistle Press), Maria G. Pisano (Memory Press), Otis Rubottom, Sibyl Rubottom & Jim Machacek (Bay Park Press), Rocco Scary, Gaylord Schanilec & Richard Goodman (Midnight Paper Sales), Robbin Ami Silverberg (Dobbin Books), Patricia M. Smith (P.S. Press), Gail Watson (Zuni Press), Marshall Weber (Booklyn Artists Alliance), Pamela S. Wood (Rarehare Creations), J. Meejin Yoon (Printed Matter & Whitney Museum of American Art).

This exhibit is free and open to the public. Non-Yale community members must check in with the security guard in the lobby of the Loria Center, 190 York Street, to gain access to the Haas Family Arts Library. Photo ID required to enter library.

For more information please contact the Curator at jae.rossman@yale.edu.

Posted by Yale University Library on September 2, 2011 4:39 PM

September 13, 2011

The Yale Library’s 2009-2010 annual report now available on line

The Yale Library’s annual report from 2009-2010 is now available online at: http://www.library.yale.edu/notabene/

Posted by Yale University Library on September 13, 2011 3:10 PM

Yale Digitizes Historic Correspondence of Author Horace Walpole

Yale’s Lewis Walpole Library has digitized the complete 48 volumes of “The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence” (Yale University Press, 1937-1983). This new digital resource provides free online access to the complete correspondence of Horace Walpole (1717-1797). An author and collector, Walpole is well known for his Gothic villa called Strawberry Hill, which was built along the Thames River and attracted so much attention that it was considered a "treasure house." Walpole was the youngest son of Sir Robert Walpole, England's first prime minister. The digitization of this scholarly work coincides with the 294th anniversary of Walpole’s birthday in September.

Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis ’18 B.A. dedicated nearly half a century to producing the “Yale Edition,” which set a new standard for scholarly editing by providing an authoritative text, extensive and informative annotations as well as a comprehensive index. The appendices include a wealth of supplementary texts, including writings by Walpole and several of his correspondents.

The “Edition” is considered a major contribution to the political and cultural history of Britain and remains an important resource for 18th-century studies. At the time of its publication, The New York Times praised the project for “transport[ing] us in time and space to Walpole’s England, with its politics, its literature, its society, and its gossip.” According to Lewis’ preface of the first volume, the “primary intention” of the “Edition” is “to facilitate the studies of scholars in the 18th century. Sooner or later, the 18th-century scholar, be his subject what it may, must consult Walpole's correspondence.”

To create the digital version of “The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence,” each page of the printed volumes was scanned and run through optical character recognition (OCR) processing to allow scholars to browse pages as well as search the text for keywords. In addition, users can browse indexes created from the OCR text, including indexes by date of correspondence and by name of correspondent as well as indexes to the illustrations and appendices.

The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of the Yale University Library since 1980, is an internationally recognized research collection in the field of British 18th-century studies. Located in Farmington, Connecticut, the library runs an active fellowship program and sponsors conferences, lectures, classes and exhibitions in cooperation with other Yale libraries and departments.

Links:

The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence: http://images.library.yale.edu/hwcorrespondence/

The Lewis Walpole Library: http://www.library.yale.edu/walpole

Yale University Library: http://www.library.yale.edu/

Posted by Yale University Library on September 13, 2011 3:16 PM

September 22, 2011

New Exhibit on view at the Yale Law Library

The Remarkable Run of a Political Icon: Justice as a Sign of the Law

Sept. 19 - Dec. 16, 2011
Rare Book Exhibition Gallery
Level L2, Lillian Goldman Law Library
Yale Law School
127 Wall Street, New Haven CT

How is it that the figure of a woman, draped, holding scales and sword, has been so widely recognized as a symbol of the law for more than 500 years?

This question is at the heart of the latest exhibit from the Yale Law Library's Rare Book Collection: "The Remarkable Run of a Political Icon: Justice as a Sign of the Law." Using images from books printed between 1497 and 1788, the exhibit traces the roots of the iconography of Justice, a remnant of the Renaissance, that remains legible today. The exhibit features eleven volumes from the Law Library's Rare Book Collection, along with four emblem books on loan from Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The shifting attributes of Justice, displayed in the exhibit, reflect the complex relationships between judgment, sight, knowledge, and wisdom. In the 1400s and 1500s, a blindfold on Justice signified her disability; today the blindfold is commonly understood as a sign of justice's impartiality.

The exhibit is curated by Judith Resnik (Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School), Dennis Curtis (Clinical Professor of Law Emeritus, Yale Law School), Allison Tait (Gender Equity & Policy Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Women Faculty Forum), and Mike Widener (Rare Book Librarian, Yale Law Library). The exhibit draws heavily on Resnik's & Curtis' new book, “Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms” (Yale University Press, 2011).

The exhibit is on display through December 16, 2011 in the Rare Book Exhibition Gallery, located on Level L2 of the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, 127 Wall Street. The exhibit is open to the public, 9am-10pm daily. The exhibit will also go online via the Yale Law Library Rare Books Blog, at http://blogs.law.yale.edu/blogs/rarebooks/

For more information, contact Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian, at (203) 432-4494 or mike.widener@yale.edu

Posted by Yale University Library on September 22, 2011 12:51 PM

September 27, 2011

Harvard begins lending in Borrow Direct

Three libraries at Harvard University - Widener Library, Countway Library of Medicine, and Andover-Harvard Theological Library - began lending materials in the Borrow Direct program on September 26, 2011. In addition, the Harvard Depository will also be lending materials that were placed there by these three libraries. Harvard joined Borrow Direct as a borrower in the summer of 2011, but adjustments to their library IT systems and related testing delayed their ability to lend until the fall. Borrow Direct now includes all eight of the libraries in the Ivy League; the first non-Ivy member of Borrow Direct, MIT, anticipates joining the program before the end of October. For more information about Borrow Direct, please see: http://www.library.yale.edu/ill/borrowdirect.html

Posted by Yale University Library on September 27, 2011 3:02 PM

September 28, 2011

Book Discussion with Law Professor Jack Balkin

Sponsored by the Lillian Goldman Law Library and The American Constitution Society

Book Discussion with Jack Balkin Wednesday, October 5, 2011
6:10 p.m.
Room 122
Yale Law School

Please join Jack Balkin and Visiting Professor Sanford Levinson as they discuss Professor Balkin's newest work: Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World.

During this book talk, Balkin will argue that the American constitutional project is based in faith, hope, and a narrative of shared redemption. Our belief that the Constitution will deliver us from evil shows in the stories we tell one another about where our country came from and where it is headed, and in the way we use these historical touchstones to justify our fervent (and opposed) political creeds. What will such a Constitution become? We cannot know. But Balkin believes that our belief in the legitimacy of the Constitution requires a leap of faith—a gamble on the ultimate vindication of a political project that has already survived many follies and near-catastrophes, and whose destiny is still over the horizon.

Posted by Yale University Library on September 28, 2011 2:40 PM