April 2021 Archives

April 30, 2021

black and white photo of Satyajit Ray standing next to a movie camera

In celebration of the centenary of Satyajit Ray's birth, we're highlighting five of his finest films, available online to Yale students, faculty, and staff throughout the month of May as part of Yale University Library's streaming video collections.

Born in Calcutta into a family of prominent intellectuals on May 2, 1921, Ray was influenced by a broad range of Bengali art and literature, as well as by the international films he saw as co-founder of the Calcutta Film Society. His languid and humanist films focus on intimate stories, and combine the poetry of Jean Renoir (for whom he scouted locations for The River) with the sometimes brutal realism of Vittorio De Sica (whose Bicycle Thieves solidified Ray's choice to become a filmmaker). He once remarked, "Somehow I feel that an ordinary person—the man on the street if you like—is a more challenging subject for exploration than people in the heroic mold. It is the half shades, the hardly audible notes, that I want to capture and explore." Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever lived, Ray received the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor, as well as an Academy Honorary Award which commended his "indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world." In the words of Akira Kurosawa, "Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or moon."

Before you begin, a Yale NetID is required. If you encounter problems with the videos, try using a different web browser.

Pather Panchali / Song of the Little Road (1955)
Ray's debut film and the first film in his acclaimed Apu Trilogy is a lyrical and heartbreaking rural family portrait.

Aparajito / The Unvanquished (1956)
In this coming-of-age tale, Apu's education coincides with his mother's sacrifices and his family's decline.

Apur Sansar / The World of Apu (1959)
Loves and losses mark Apu's adult life, in the debut for actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore.

Jalsaghar / The Music Room (1958)
A fallen aristocrat and this upstart neighbor compete for prominence by hosting dueling musical showcases.

Ghare Baire / The Home and the World (1984)
A love triangle links a woman's independence with the independence of India in this adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's novel.

What is Treasures from the Yale Film Archive?
Treasures from the Yale Film Archive is a series of classic and contemporary films presented in 35mm. Treasures will resume in-person public screenings in the upcoming academic year.

Post on April 30, 2021 - 7:24am |

April 28, 2021

A pile of CD-Rom facing up

Yale University Library has launched a new online tool which enables users to access outdated CD-ROMs on current computer systems. Using the Yale Library Emulation Viewer, library users no longer need to check out a physical item and track down the required—and now obsolete—hardware to view it. Instead, they can click and view the contents of the disc from a link in the item’s catalog record.

The Emulation Viewer is the latest offering of  the library’s digital preservation team and its Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundations. Emulation refers to the process of recreating obsolete computer hardware with software. Emulation allows users to run old operating systems and applications that would otherwise be incompatible with modern computers--and it is one of the key emerging technologies for long-term preservation of born-digital and digitized collections.

Now, students and other researchers at Yale can travel back to a world of interfaces such as Microsoft Windows ’98, seeing content exactly as they would have in the ’80s and ’90s when CD-ROMs were routinely used for conference proceeding, datasets, image collections, and textbook supplements. In the Emulation Viewer, users can navigate the information on the disc, and even enable secondary software, such as PowerPoint or Quicktime, to access the contents of the CD-ROM.

So far, about 150 of the library’s more than 5,000 CD-ROMs have been uploaded to the viewer and the work is ongoing. A list of At current funding and staffing levels, setting up all the discs in the system will take about three years.

Learn more about the Yale Library Emulation Viewer, and view a list of CD-ROMs now available in the viewer.

Read more about digital preservation at Yale Library.

Post on April 28, 2021 - 12:27pm |

April 23, 2021

Each year, the American Library Association (ALA) celebrates Preservation Week, a time to share events, activities, and resources that highlight the importance of preserving personal and shared collections. As part of this year’s Preservation Week (April 25-May 1), staff from Yale Library's preservation and conservation services are offering a series of talks and demonstrations that spotlight many important aspects of the library’s work. Most are open to the public. Please register at the links below if you’re interested in joining any of the events.

Introduction to Preservation and Conservation Services

Wednesday, April 28, 9:00 am

Join Christine McCarthy, director of Preservation and Conservation Services for a virtual tour of the department’s facilities at 344 Winchester Avenue, New Haven, and an introduction to the department's work and areas of responsibility. Open to the Yale community. Register.

Introducing the Yale Library Emulation Viewer

Wednesday, April 28, 2:00 pm

Join Seth Anderson, Yale Library's software preservation program manager as he introduces the new emulation service for the Yale community. The Yale Library Emulation Viewer makes old CD-ROMs from the library's circulating collection available in recreated computing environments that users can access from their browsers. Open to the public. Register.

The Ongoing Story of the Vinland Map and Related Manuscripts: New Analyses, New Evidence

Thursday, April 29, 11:00 am

The speakers for this panel include Richard Hark, conservation scientist at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage at Yale; Marie-France Lemay, paper conservator and Paula Zyats, assistant chief conservator from Yale Library's Conservation & Exhibition Services.

The Vinland Map was introduced to the world in 1965, as a newly discovered mid-15th century map of the world, purportedly showing both Greenland and a part of the northeastern coast of the North American continent known as ‘Vinland’. Some viewed this as an exciting revelation that proved the Vikings were the first to reach America at least 50 years before Columbus. Others remained skeptical. Doubt over the map’s authenticity fueled decades of cartographical, historical and scientific research. This presentation will trace the known history of the Vinland Map and its relationship with its seldom mentioned companions, a 15th century copy of a portion of Beauvais’ Speculum Historiale, and a rare copy of a 13th century travelogue, the Hystoria Tartarorum. Multiple analytical and imaging tools were utilized to study the paper, parchment and ink of all three manuscripts allowing new discoveries to be made about the mysterious Vinland Map. Open to the public. Register.

Integrity of Digital Objects: An overview of methods throughout the data life-cycle

Thursday, April 29, 3:00pm

This talk by David Cirella, digital preservation librarian, will provide an overview of digital object fundamentals, failure modes and vulnerabilities in storage and transfer technologies, and the methods implemented to ensure integrity at various points in the data life-cycle. Open to the public. Register.

Box it! Housing Options for Collections

Friday, April 30, 10:00 am

In this presentation, Werner Haun, assistant chief conservator at Yale Library, will highlight the use of the Kasmake (aka Kasey) automated box cutting machine to create custom housings for a wide variety of collection materials. He will also discuss off the shelf products and standard housings employed by Collections Conservation and Housing unit. Open to the Yale community. Register.

 

Post on April 23, 2021 - 3:43pm |

April 19, 2021

On Thursday, April 22 at 11 am EDT, Yale Library, Yale’s SEICHE Center for Health & Justice, and Yale’s Department of African American Studies are co-sponsoring an important event that shines a spotlight on key challenges in America’s prison system. "In Our Backyard: How the Prison Boom Transformed America" will be presented by Dr. John Eason, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Director of the UW Justice Lab, as part of the SEICHE Center’s Spring Seminar Series. Dr. Eason’s research challenges existing models—and develops new theories—of community, health, race, punishment, and rural/urban processes.

This seminar builds upon the library’s already well-established partnership with the SEICHE Center. Following the call from Yale’s leadership for researchers and teams to step up to address challenges arising from the pandemic, the Yale COVID Mapping team was established. Born out of this initiative, the SEICHE Center and the library began to explore the spatial relationship between correctional facilities and the community spread of COVID-19 using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. The Yale COVID Mapping team, led by Dr. Jill Kelly, lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, advised and conducted geospatial analyses to process and visualize datasets on correctional facility locations, populations, and COVID-19 rates with members of the SEICHE team. The results in the form of visual StoryMaps, offered the compelling conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic has unmasked the long-standing health inequalities in America’s correctional system.

Dr. Eason’s talk will be moderated by Callie Ginapp, a third-year medical student at Yale School of Medicine. It will be live via Zoom at 11 am  on Thursday, April 22.  All are welcome! Register online here.

Dr. John Eason

Professor Eason is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a member of UB's inaugural Center for Diversity Innovation's Distinguished Visiting Scholar cohort for 2020-21. His research interest challenges existing models and develops new theories of community, health, race, punishment, and rural/urban processes in several ways. By tracing the emergence of the rural ghetto he establishes a new conceptual model of rural neighborhoods. These relationships are explored through his book, Big House on the Prairie: Rise of the Rural Ghetto and Prison Proliferation, at the University of Chicago Press. As the Founder and Director of the UW Justice Lab, we focus on reducing/ending racial, economic, and health disparities across the rural-urban interface by critically examining the causes of spatial inequality and offering creative solutions to address these issues.

The SEICHE Center for Health and Justice’s work focuses on the health-harming impacts of mass incarceration. It identifies and applies strategies to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities impacted by mass incarceration both locally in Connecticut and globally. Named after a seiche wave, or an oscillating wave that erupts from stagnant water to cause huge disruptions in the status quo, the Center aims to bring about massive, structural changes to systems built upon and maintained by racism and other forms of oppression

Post on April 19, 2021 - 6:30pm |

April 6, 2021

Three new online exhibitions curated by Yale students in English, environmental science, and architecture feature a wide range of primary sources and other resources from Yale University Library.

Publication and Prejudice

Curated by Emma Brodey ’21, this exhibit brings together more than twenty versions of Pride and Prejudice, based in the Yale collections. It opens with early editions that might be thought of as “original,” and goes on to include everything from magazines to murder mysteries. Every one of these books tells more or less the same story, but they encompass a plethora of formats, editions, and re-imaginings. Even when they contain exactly the same words, the many small choices by publishers combine to create a completely different reading experience. Watch a video interview with Emma Brodey to learn more about her course paper that inspired this exhibit, her curation process, and the versions of Pride and Prejudice that she included from the Yale collections. View the Publication and Prejudice exhibit.

"Jappalachia": Connections Between the Appalachian Trail and Japan’s Shinetsu Trail

Exploring the relationship between Japan’s Shinetsu Trail and the United States’ Appalachian Trail, this exhibit curated by Sarah Adams '20 studies two nationally funded long-distance trails established during times of increasing industrialization as relationships to the environment shifted. It delves into how the two trails reveal the many unique purposes of the places they serve and reflect the power of transnational connections, largely made by the lead founder of the Shinetsu Trail, nature writer and backpacker Katō Noriyoshi (1949–2013). In this video about Jappalachia, Sarah talks about her collaboration with Haruko Nakamura, librarian for Japanese Studies, to discover a range of historical materials from the library’s collections, including maps of Japan’s National Parks. She also discusses how she was inspired by her own experiences on the Appalachian Trail and her family’s personal connection to one of the Shinetsu Trail's founders. View the Jappalachia exhibit.

Yale-Aided Design: The Work of Female Architecture Graduates

This exhibit curated by Mariana Melin-Corcoran ’20 explores the original contributions and experiences of some of the female pioneers of the architecture program at Yale from 1879 to the present. Under the guidance of Jessica Quagliaroli, the library’s architecture records archivist, Mariana draws on photographs, historical materials, and architectural resources from Manuscripts and Archives. The exhibit was originally displayed in the Sterling Exhibits Corridor in 2019 during the celebration of 50WomenAtYale150 commemorating the 50th anniversary of coeducation in Yale College and the 150th anniversary of women students at the university. View the Yale-Aided Design exhibit.

Each year, library conservation and exhibition staff provide instruction and assistance to assist selected students to transform research papers and projects into the unique narrative form of an exhibition, to be displayed in the Exhibition Corridor of Sterling Memorial Library. This year, due to pandemic restrictions on access to library buildings, the exhibitions have been produced online.
Learn more about Yale Library's student-curated exhibit opportunities.

Image, left to right: Jane Austen; View of the Shinetsu Trail from the curator's thru-hike by Sarah Adams; Yale School of Architecture class of 1985 by Marc Luttrell.

Post on April 5, 2021 - 10:19pm |