Weekly Review

Presidential Investiture:

I want to thank all UK Libraries faculty and staff who participated in the investiture activities this week. Several faculty marched in academic regalia for the investiture and many other faculty and staff attended the event.

On Wednesday morning President Eli Capilouto and Dr. Mary Lynne Capilouto were joined by over fifty family members and close friends for a tour of the William T. Young Library. Several UK Libraries faculty and staff were present to greet the group. After a brief orientation near the tapestry which included a welcome by former President Charles Wethington, our guests were divided into two groups led by Stacey Greenwell and Shawn Livingston.


Map Cataloging Project Completed:

UK Libraries faculty and staff in Collections and Technical Services (CTS) work hard to provide access to our collections. These are often very large projects that require skill, creativity, and persistence.

October 6, 2011 saw the completion of a map cataloging project that started nine years ago. Beginning in 2002, Mary Spencer, Geological Sciences Academic Liaison, identified and sent over 15,000 shelf list cards for geology maps to OCLC for retrospective conversion. OCLC found records for nearly 12,500 of the maps. In 2004, Gwen Curtis, Maps Selector and Cataloger, took over the project. Gwen solved the problems that were left over from OCLC’s work and cataloged the remaining 3,272 maps. Records for UK Libraries’ state, national, and international geologic map resources are now available to researchers via WorldCat.


White House Calligrapher:

Rick Paulus, former chief calligrapher of the White House and protocol officer for the U.S. Department of State, spoke Friday on the role the beautifully designed, hand-created graphics played at America’s Executive Mansion. "From the White House to the Sea," was sponsored by the King Library Press and UK Libraries.

Paulus also conducted a workshop during his visit. The King Library Press is devoted to the tradition of fine printing and produces books and broadsides. Recent publications available from KLP include a portfolio of five poems by Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry Vance, Necia Harkless's "Heart to Heart" and Abraham Lincoln's "Second Inaugural Address."


Estate of Professor John Keller Donates Large Collection to UK Libraries:

UK Libraries received a major gift from the estate of Dr. John Esten Keller, professor emeritus in Hispanic Studies and medieval Spanish scholar. Professor Keller is credited with the establishment of UK’s Hispanic Studies Department in 1967 when he returned to UK from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill bringing six other professors and 25 graduate students with him. He became the Director of UK's College of Letters and Languages and chair of the Spanish and Italian Department. Over the years, this department has always been one of UK’s top programs and we are certainly fortunate to have had Professor Keller's leadership and now to have his important book collection as well.

Professor Keller was known as a medieval scholar and lectured in English and Spanish on the Canticles of Alfonso X, the Learned, a 13th century Spanish king at more than 60 institutions throughout the world. In 1985, King Juan Carlos conferred the Order of Alfonso X, one of Spain's oldest and prestigious awards, for his work on Spanish literature and culture. In addition, he served on the board of the Medieval Academy of America and served on the editorial board of its publication "Speculum." He served on the editorial board of the "Studies in Romance Languages", "Kentucky Romance Quarterly", and president of South Atlantic Modern Language Association.

The gift to UK Libraries exceeds 3,000 volumes and will contribute additional strength to the collections, particularly in the areas of history and Hispanic studies.


Information Literacy and QEP:

UK's Quality Enhancement Plan embraces the concepts of teaching information literacy skills and “interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning through collaboration.” Translated into a classroom experience, Instruction Librarians Debbie Sharp and Robert Shapiro recently developed and co-taught an information literacy instructional session for an undergraduate writing class.

In an excellent example of interdisciplinary collaboration, Robert, who normally teaches medical students, teamed with Debbie to teach research skills to students in English 205, Intermediate Writing: The Rhetoric(s) of Disease, in which students were asked to interpret, analyze, and evaluate the rhetorical strategies surrounding disease.

The cross-campus collaboration was a success on all accounts. Instructor Katherine Carpenter called the session "outstanding library instruction" and added, "The information and activities you provided were a tremendous help to my students and the reference guide is fantastic."

UK Libraries are committed to undergraduate education and look forward to more opportunities for successful collaborations.


East Meets West in The Hub:

This past Wednesday UK faculty, staff, and students along with UK’s Confucius Center staff and invited guests participated in the unveiling of the Chinese Cultural Exhibit located in Core 1 of The Hub in the William T. Young Library. The exhibit was made possible by a grant from Haban (The Office of the Chinese Language Council) in Beijing, China and is designed to introduce Chinese calligraphy, opera, music and other cultural arts from China to American students.

The exhibit contains two kiosks which provide interactive opportunities to be a Beijing Opera performer or to learn Chinese calligraphy as well as displays regarding Chinese cuisine and paper cutting along with a Chinese dynasty timeline. Following the dedication four Chinese visitors (three from University of Shanghai and one from the Haban Office in Detroit) toured Young Library.

Jen Bartlett, Head of Reference Services, worked with the Confucius Center in designing and installing the display. The exhibit will be in Core 1 for the remainder of the academic year. Special thanks to Jennifer Richmond for creating the Chinese Art Exhibit currently running on The Hub’s video windows.


Oral History Association Annual Meeting:

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History was well represented last week at the Oral History Association's annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. The conference theme was “Memories of Conflict and Disaster: Oral History and the Politics of Truth, Trauma, and Reconciliation." Dr. Doug Boyd served as the keynote speaker on Friday speaking about oral history in the digital age and the recent work of the Nunn Center. Doug and Sara Abdmishani Price taught a pre-conference workshop for 40 participants about digital preservation of oral history and they both served on the panel “From Combat to Kentucky: Student Veteran Oral History Project.” Sara also chaired the panel “Community, Conquest, and Childlessness: The Role of Oral History in Gambia's Past and Present” and served on the conference program committee as well.


Personnel Update:

Lyndsey Calico has been promoted from Library Technician to Library Technician Senior and starts her new position in Digital Scholarship, Collections and Technical Services, October 24. Lyndsey, who has a Master's in Library & Information Science from UK, has been with UK Libraries since 2006.

Jennifer Richmond has resigned her position in The Hub to accept the Library Technician position in Cataloging and Metadata, Collections and Technical Services Division. Jennifer has been with UK Libraries since 2007 and will begin her new position on November 7.


Open Access Week October 24 – 30, 2011:

• A global event, now in its 5th year, promoting Open Access as a new norm in scholarship and research. http://www.openaccessweek.org/


Thanks to Kerri Scannell Baunach, Lyndsey Calico, Gwen Curtis, Toni Greider, Judy Fugate, Judy Sackett, and Debbie Sharp for their contributions to the Weekly Review.



Terry Birdwhistell
Dean of Libraries