April 2014 Archives

April 1, 2014

A 45 day trial access to Routledge’s South Asia Archive is now available to the Yale community

For the next 45 days (April 1, 2014 – May 15, 2014), all faculty, staff, and students on campus have free trial access to Routledge’s South Asia Archive. According to Routledge, content highlights include:

4.5 million pages of unique and rare primary and secondary source material; material dates ranging from 1700 through to 1953; 15% of documents are in vernacular languages (Bengali and Sanskrit only), the other 85% being in English; and there are over 1500 rare books. The digital collection contains 16 document types; government acts, books, calendars, catalogs, censuses, directories, gazette, journals, film pamphlets, legal documents, magazines, manuals, maps, proceedings, reports, and statistics.

Please note that document download is not possible on the free trial product, so you will need to use the Image Viewer to view the documents. Also you either need to be on campus or logged into the VPN to access this database.

Any questions or feedback about the resource can be directed to Sarah Calhoun, Librarian for South Asian Studies at: sarah.calhoun@yale.edu or (203) 432-7795.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 1, 2014 10:38 AM

April 2, 2014

"Streams of Sustainability at Yale" exhibit opening reception

Please join us for a reception to celebrate the new media wall exhibit “Streams of Sustainability at Yale.”

The exhibit emphasizes sustainability as it relates to energy, environment, food, education and materials management. Included are images of the online Yale Energy Usage Explorer tool, the West Campus Urban Farm, student volunteers from the service corps, the Yale Sustainable Food Project, LEED buildings on campus, alternative transportation options, a landscaped urban meadow and a rain garden. Yale’s Sustainability Strategic Plan, 2013-2016, is highlighted.

The exhibit was designed by Mark Saba, curated by Lori Bronars and Gwyneth Crowley, and is on view through October 2014.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 2, 2014 1:53 PM

Sterling Memorial Library expands carrel program to all Yale graduate students

Sterling Memorial Library is pleased to announce that it will expand its carrel program to include all Yale graduate students. This is in response to requests made to the Graduate School Dean and the Library. Students interested in securing a study carrel for the next academic year can contact: askyale@gmail.com or stop by the SML Service Desk, located in the Franke Periodical Reading Room. For more details: http://guides.library.yale.edu/studycarrels

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 2, 2014 3:50 PM

April 3, 2014

Spring issue of Nota Bene now online

The spring issue of Nota Bene: News from the Yale Library is now online, featuring news and resources from around the Yale Library system: http://web.library.yale.edu/yul-publications

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 3, 2014 4:42 PM

April 9, 2014

Bubbles in Living Cells: The 66th Annual Lecture of the Medical Library Associates

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

Dr. James E. Rothman is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, Chairman and Professor of Cell Biology, and Professor of Chemistry at Yale University. He is one of the world’s most distinguished biochemists and cell biologists, awarded the Nobel Prize last year in Physiology and Medicine for his work on how molecular messages are transmitted inside and outside of our cells. He provided the conceptual framework for understanding such diverse and important processes as the release of insulin into the blood, communication between nerve cells in the brain, and the entry of viruses to infect cells.

The lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in the Historical Library. A reception will follow in the Morse Reading Room.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 9, 2014 3:53 PM

April 11, 2014

Yale seniors invited to apply for the Applebaum Award for outstanding senior essay based on research in government documents

The Harvey M. Applebaum '59 Award will be conferred on a Yale College senior for an outstanding essay based on research that incorporates Yale University Library’s government documents collections.

The prize is an award of $500. Students may nominate themselves, or faculty advisors may nominate students' work.

The deadline to submit an essay for consideration is April 21, 2014 at 5 p.m. See the Applebaum Award website for application instructions and additional information.

What sorts of research materials qualify an essay for this award? Any documents, records, statistics, or other items that are in the scope of Yale’s government information collections:

U.S. federal government
United Nations
Food & Agriculture Organization
Canadian federal government
European Union (note: this does not include government documents or information from individual member countries of the European Union)

These materials may be held within Yale’s government information collections or may be available in digital format. Examples of eligible material include but are not limited to: digitized Congressional hearings on ProQuest Congressional, Foreign Relations of the United States (online or in print), State Department records on microfilm in the Sterling Memorial Library, data or statistics from UNdata or EU's Eurostat database.

The prize was established by the daughters of Harvey M. Applebaum, class of 1959, in honor of his 70th birthday. Mr. Applebaum is a senior counsel, specializing in international trade and antitrust law, with the Washington firm of Covington & Burling LLP and a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a past Chairman of the Association of Yale Alumni and the Yale Alumni Magazine board.

The Yale University Library is a depository for materials from the United States and Canadian federal governments, the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the European Union. These rich collections support research in a wide range of subjects, including international relations, public policy, economics, trade, agriculture, environmental studies, public health, and much more.

Questions may be directed to Melanie Maksin, Librarian for Political Science, International Affairs, Public Policy, and Government Information, at melanie.maksin@yale.edu or (203) 432-3310.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 11, 2014 2:41 PM

April 14, 2014

Yale University Library Celebrates Preservation Week, April 27-May 3

In support of American Library Association’s Preservation Week, Yale Library's Chief Conservator, Christine McCarthy, will present “Preserving Your Personal Treasures” at the Howland Public Library on April 29th and at the Ferguson Library on May 1st. These lectures are free and open to the general public. The lecture content and more can also be found in a new YUL Preservation Department Library Subject Guide, “Preserving Your Personal Collections.” The guide links to online resources, materials available in the YUL collections, and offers strategies for scrapbooks, photographs, books, and documents typically found in personal, family, and community-based collections. http://guides.library.yale.edu/preservepersonalcollections

Memories and treasures should last a lifetime and be passed on to future generations. Preservation Week is designed to highlight this need. Sponsored by the ALA’s Association of Library Collections and Services and partner organizations, Preservation Week inspires actions to preserve personal, family and community collections of all kinds, as well as library, museum and archive collections. It raises awareness of the role libraries and other cultural institutions can play in providing ongoing preservation information. Local libraries, museums, and archives are asked to do one thing in their communities to celebrate Preservation Week, even if the action or activity is small. For more information, visit www.ala.org/preservationweek

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 14, 2014 9:48 AM

Bass Library expands hours for Reading Period and Finals

From Saturday, April 26, through Monday, May 5, Bass Library will remain open until 2:45 a.m. Sunday-Thursday, and until 11:45 pm on Friday and Saturday. Circulation Desk and Thain Family Café hours will remain unchanged. To access information about Bass Library hours, and as well as hours for other libraries and collections throughout the Yale University Library, visit http://web.library.yale.edu/buildings

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 14, 2014 2:07 PM

Visit the Divinity Library's Nouwen Chapel

The Yale Divinity Library is one of the few libraries in the world that contains a prayer chapel. When the Divinity School was renovated in 2001, the former Byzantine chapel was included within the the library. Since it was impractical to make this space into a seminar room, the chapel was refurbished from donations from the students of Henri Nouwen, who was a professor at Yale Divinity School in the 1970s. The triptych showing Nouwen and those who influenced him (on the outside panels) reverencing the risen Christ (in the center panel), were specially commissioned for the Nouwen Chapel and painted by John Giuliani, a Jesuit priest living in Connecticut who paints icons featuring Native American spirituality. The Nouwen Chapel was rededicated on March 2, 2007. It is now used for some homiletics sections, for regularly scheduled worship services (such as evening prayer), and for private devotion. Feel free to visit when you're next at the Divinity Library, located at 409 Prospect Street, New Haven.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 14, 2014 2:15 PM

April 15, 2014

Library's most recent Annual Report now online

The FY 2012-13 issue of the Annual Report of the University Librarian, is now available online at: http://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=yul_annual-reports#page=2

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 15, 2014 10:47 AM

A Collection's Progress: The Lewis Walpole Library, 2000-2014

When Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis left his library to Yale in 1979 Lewis thought of his gift not as a finished monument but as a living thing that required growth and change lest it become, in his words, “static and moldy.” This new exhibition, now on view at the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, CT, presents materials selected from the Library's collecting successes of the last fourteen years. Together the objects on display argue forcefully for the Library’s conquest of stasis and mold, and each speaks eloquently of another time, its politics and conflicts, its arts, fashions, and pastimes.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 15, 2014 11:28 AM

April 29, 2014

Lewis Walpole Library to offer two Master Classes this Summer

The Lewis Walpole Library will offer two master classes this summer, one in August and one in early September. Graduate students are invited to register for one or for both. As space is limited, early registration is encouraged. For questions or more information please write to Cynthia Roman cynthia.roman@yale.edu or Maggie Powell margaret.powell@yale.edu.

British History Painting in the Long Eighteenth Century
August 18-22, 2014

By Mark Salber Phillips, Professor of History at Carleton University, Ottawa and Cynthia Roman, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Paintings at the Lewis Walpole Library

This residential seminar is intended to give doctoral students in a number of disciplines the opportunity to consider issues of history painting using both visual material and textual resources from the Lewis Walpole Library's collections. This course explores the often-embattled efforts of artists (including William Hogarth, Gavin Hamilton, Benjamin West and John Trumbull among others) to construct new modes of visual representations of narrative history and national history in particular. A multidisciplinary approach provides the theoretical context of Enlightenment intellectual history, the more focused discourse of art treatises, and direct encounters with the formal and aesthetic qualities of works of art.

The class is taught as a combination of lecture presentations, discussions, and small-group activities and includes visits to the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Most of the teaching takes place in the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington and is led by Mark Salber Phillips, Professor of History at Carleton University, Ottawa, and Cynthia Roman, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Paintings at the Lewis Walpole Library

Caricature and the Comic Image, 1800-1850
September 4-6, 2014

By Brian Maidment, Professor of the History of Print, Liverpool John Moores University and Cynthia Roman, Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Paintings, The Lewis Walpole Library

This residential seminar is aimed at providing graduate students across a range of academic subjects with an introduction to some of the ways that graphic images might be used as an important element in research. Built around the magnificent holdings of British caricatures and satirical prints held in the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, the class will provide students with an introduction to the various methods through which graphic images are made and reproduced and will feature workshops organized around the interpretative and historiographical issues raised by the academic study of prints. The focus will be on the period between 1800 and 1850 when political caricature began to give way to various forms of humorous prints that offered a satirical socio-political perspective on society. In particular, humorous prints at this time engaged with issues concerning the social changes being brought about by urbanization, industrialization, and class formation.

This seminar will be taught through small group sessions that engage with primary material drawn from the Library’s collections, and there will be an opportunity for students to gain some sense of the extent and nature of the collections held in Farmington. No previous experience of working with prints or other graphic images is required.

The seminar will begin in the late afternoon on Thursday, September 4, with a visit to the Beinecke Library, which will suggest some of the ways in which graphic images begin to invade texts in the 1820s and 1830s. The seminar will move to the Lewis Walpole Library for September 5 and 6.

Both courses are intended primarily for Yale students, but a limited number of places will be available to graduate students from other universities.

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 29, 2014 10:27 AM

April 30, 2014

Exhibition opening at Yale’s Beinecke Library explores new, small collections

An exhibition opening Friday at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library presents 15 small, recently acquired collections that emphasize the richness and variety of the library’s holdings.

The exhibition, Encounters: New Small Collections at Beinecke Library, features materials covering an expansive range of history, art and culture. Thirteenth-century missals from a French cathedral are displayed alongside memorabilia from the Boy Scouts of America; correspondence documenting life in 1830s Texas is arranged beside advertisements from a New Haven-based toymaker; children’s photo books by famed photographer Edward Steichen are on view next to memorabilia from a Paris cabaret.

“Large, comprehensive archives and book collections tend to command the limelight, but curators are always on the hunt for interesting collections of any size or completeness,” says Timothy Young, the Beinecke’s curator of modern books and manuscripts, who organized the exhibition. “Many archives consist of just a single box – full of compelling evidence of a writer’s life or the history of a cultural moment. The collections displayed here, despite their modest size, offer exciting opportunities for research and learning.”

Exhibition highlights include:

· Four manuscript books of texts for celebrating daily masses that were used over several centuries at the Cathedral of Beauvais, France. The books date from the 12th and 13th centuries.

· A pair of children’s books produced by Edward Steichen, one of the early 20th century’s most influential photographers, in collaboration with his daughter, Mary. On display is a selection of his original photographic prints used in the two volumes, along with first editions of both books.

· Two scrapbooks maintained by the advertising firm that marketed products for the A.C. Gilbert Company in the 1920s and 1930s. The New Haven-based company produced toys, games, and household products. The Erector building set was its best-known product.

· Printed materials documenting the religious experience in Rome during the 15th and 16th centuries, including travel manuals that provided Catholic pilgrims directions to holy sites, along with procedures for obtaining official documentation of their visits.

· Photos and memorabilia of the Chez Moune, a cabaret in Paris that catered to a mainly lesbian clientele. Opened in 1936 in the Pigalle district, the nightclub was a destination for women for decades. The photos, custom-printed matchbooks, and printed sign are relics of an era when the club attracted crowds looking for music, champagne, and a safe space to relax with friends.

· A letter book containing Joseph Perkins Pulsifer’s manuscript copies of correspondence from 1831 to 1836 documenting his life as a merchant, his time in New Orleans, and the political and military activities of the Texas Revolution. The letter book is a miraculous survival, as all other volumes kept by Pulsifer were lost in the 1900 Galveston hurricane.

Other materials are drawn from: the Robert Giraud papers relating to French and Parisian slang; a collection of mother-of-pearl Chinese gaming counters, circa 1700-circa 1840; the papers of Ann Corios, one of the most famous striptease artistes of the burlesque era; the Jewel Welch photographs related to African American entertainers; the George W. Conover papers documenting the life of a rancher in the Indian Territory in the 19th century; the Bette Garber photographs of trucks and truckers; the papers of writer George W.S. Trow; African-American Eagle Scout Curtis Jackson’s memorabilia of the Boy Scouts of America; and the R.A. Harrison album containing early Victorian printing designs, 1842-1849.

The exhibition runs from May 2 through Aug. 16, 2014.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is one of the world’s largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts, and is Yale’s principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books. Researchers from around the world use the Beinecke’s extensive collections to create new scholarship.

To view the exhibition labels for each collection on display, please visit http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections-represented-encounters-new-small-collections-beinecke-library

Posted by Amanda Patrick on April 30, 2014 11:47 AM