January 2009 Archives

January 8, 2009

January 15: Sugar: A Bittersweet History

Elizabeth Abbott
Research Associate in the Arts
Trinity College, University of Toronto

Thursday, January 15, 4:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall, 128 Wall Street
Free and open to the public

Elizabeth Abbott, author of Sugar: A Bittersweet History (Penguin, 2008 and just shortlisted for the 2009 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction), will discuss how sugar and its seductive sweetness and energy changed the face of the New World during the early decades of colonization, uprooting millions of Africans to produce it and creating the world’s most brutal version of slavery, later exported to the American Colonies. At the same time, European and later North American dependence on sugar grew steadily as it ceased to be a culinary extravagance and was deemed a necessity by European leaders from Napoleon to Hitler. Sugarcane production is now known to be an environmental catastrophe that has caused greater loss of biodiversity on the planet than any other single crop. Today’s sugar industry lobby is also a powerful political force that strongly influences consumer behavior and food guides like the World Health Organization’s Food Guide.

Elizabeth Abbott is a writer and historian with a doctorate from McGill University. She is Research Associate in the Arts at Trinity College, University of Toronto and was the College’s Dean of Women from 1991 to 2004. She is the author of several books, including A History of Celibacy, which have been translated into sixteen languages.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 8, 2009 9:23 AM

January 16, 2009

Library Closed on January 19

The Library will be closed on January 19 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 16, 2009 4:39 PM

Live Coverage of the Presidential Inauguration

Live internet coverage of the inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States will be broadcast from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall (128 Wall Street). All are welcome. The official swearing-in ceremony will take place at 12 noon.

Coverage may also be seen at the following Library locations:

Beinecke Library Mezzanine
Haas Family Arts Library (no food or drink allowed)
Kline Science Library (no food or drink allowed)
Social Science Library Reading Room

Posted by Yale University Library on January 16, 2009 4:41 PM

January 20, 2009

The Splendor of Hangul: The Korean Script in Calligraphy and Print

Sterling Memorial Library
120 High Street, New Haven
Free and open to the public

Sponsored by Yale’s East Asia Library, this exhibit celebrates hangul, the alphabet developed in the fifteenth-century by the Korean King Sejong and a group of scholars he convened for this purpose. Featuring print and manuscript books from the Yale Library’s collections, as well as calligraphy by the distinguished artist Dr. Yoo Sung Lee, the exhibit traces the development of hangul styles over time, ranging from early geometric forms through gothic styles and finally to pure abstraction in art.

Until the promulgation of hangul by King Sejong in 1446, Chinese was used to represent the Korean language in print. Chinese characters were ill-suited for this purpose due to major differences between the two languages. Reliance on Chinese was also considered an impediment to the spread of literacy. Even after the systematization of hangul, Chinese continued to be used by elites during the remainder of the Choson dynasty (1392-1910). Even today, Korean can still be written with a mixture of Chinese characters and hangul. This gradual transition is illustrated through the works selected for exhibit.

Dr. Yoo Sung Lee is a professional calligrapher in practice for over thirty years. The pieces on display were chosen to show the development of hangul forms over time and in varying contexts. Some of the works on display were created especially for the exhibit. A native of Seoul, Korea, Dr. Lee has taught, lectured, and demonstrated the art of calligraphy widely. He has exhibited in the United States, France, China, and Korea. He is a member of the Korean American Calligraphy Association and the Art of Ink in American Society and also serves as President the Aram Calligraphy Group. Dr. Lee is the author of the chapter on Korean calligraphy in the World Encyclopedia of Calligraphy (forthcoming, 2009). He currently teaches at the Art Students League of New York.

The books on display are drawn from a number of collections at Yale, including East Asia Library works in Sterling Memorial Library, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Haas Family Arts Library Special Collections. The exhibit will run through March 31 and is free and open to the public. Sterling Memorial Library is located at 120 High Street and open Monday through Thursday 8:30 a.m.-5:45 p.m. and Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Saturday 10:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Sunday 12 noon-5:45 p.m. The exhibit runs until March 31, 2009.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 20, 2009 9:45 AM

January 22, 2009

Music Library Launches New Web Site

The Gilmore Music Library has launched a new web site. You can access it here or at www.library.yale.edu/musiclib/muslib.htm.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 22, 2009 8:43 PM

January 26, 2009

Your sincere and heteredox friend: Letters from Charles Darwin to James Dwight Dana, 1849-1863

Sterling Memorial Library
Free and open to the public

"Your sincere and heteredox friend": Charles Darwin's Letters to James Dwight Dana,
1849-1863 celebrates both the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the warm corresponding relationship between these giants of 19th century science and discovery. Darwin and Dana, Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology in Yale College from 1850 to 1892, never met, but their association as explorers, scholars, and pioneering scientists fostered a rich correspondence between 1849 and 1863. The exhibition features 13 of the 23 letters written by Darwin to Dana and held by Manuscripts and Archives.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 26, 2009 12:59 PM

February 2: Sheree Carter-Galvan on Copyright and the Academy

February 2, 2009, 3:00 p.m.
Sterling Memorial Library Lecture Hall
128 Wall Street
Free & open to the public

The Library's copyright lecture series continues with Sheree Carter-Galvan, Copyright Counsel at Yale University. Carter-Galvan speak on what it's like to be a copyright attorney at a major university. Her talk will offer insights into life in the Office of General Counsel, where she deals with numerous campus rights issues, not just those affecting the University Library.

Over the course of the semester, the Library will host two more speakers:

Kenny Crews, Director of the Copyright Advisory Office, Columbia University, will speak on March 5 at 3:00 p.m. about his recently completed landmark study for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in which he compares fair use and other copyright exceptions across some 150 countries. Professor Crews gave a fascinating sneak preview of the findings of this study at the IFLA Congess this past August in Quebec City.

On April 29 at 3:00 p.m., Bill Carney, OCLC Content Manager, will make a presentation about OCLC's copyright registry evidence project, particularly aimed at addressing the so-called "Orphan Works" problem. An Orphan Work is defined as "a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder." Orphan works are the bane of many of current library digitzing projects and the OCLC initiative should, over time, provide a way forward.

The lecture series is co-sponsored by the Yale Law School's Information Society Project.

Posted by Yale University Library on January 26, 2009 3:53 PM

January 29, 2009

Black History Month at Yale University Library

Yale University Library is pleased to present three engaging speakers in celebration of Black History Month.

‘Adam is come’: The Life and Work of an Eighteenth-Century Connecticut Slave
Allegra di Bonaventura
Mellon Special Collections Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University
Tuesday, February 10, 4:00 p.m.

The Nazis and Dixie: African Americans and Germany in the 1930s
Glenda Gilmore
Peter V. and C. Vann Woodward Professor of History, Yale University
Wednesday, February 18, 4:00 p.m.

African American Food Culture
Frank Mitchell
Consulting Historian and Curator, Amistad Center for Art & Culture and the Wadsworth Atheneum
Monday, February 23, 4:00 p.m.

All lectures are free and open to the public and will take place in the Sterling Memorial Library lecture hall, 128 Wall Street.

Information: (203) 432-8061 | atYUL@yale.edu

Posted by Yale University Library on January 29, 2009 9:53 AM