Students experience art through book arts

 At the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library, students in Natasha Giles’ Art Studio 102 class were treated to a visit by photographer and book artist, Mary Rezny.  Students in sections of this UK Core class have an assignment every semester to create a book. 

After a presentation about artists’ books in the Little Library collection, Mary talked with students about her professional career and how she has branched into the book arts.  Recently, Head of Special Formats Cataloging Kerri Baunach completed the original cataloging of Mary’s 14 books for our collection. 

Previously, she had cataloged the two books by Mary Rezny that include photographs from the Horse Mania public art project, insuring access to this local author/artist’s titles.  One of Mary’s works, “Perpetual Amaryllis”, is pictured above.  We now have 126 records for artists’ books in InfoKat, and they are housed in the closed stacks area of the Little Library.

UK Libraries accepts Ron Eller Collection

UK Libraries Special Collections now holds the papers of Appalachia scholar and historian Ron Eller.  A standing room only crowd on November 8 heard Appalachian historian Chad Montrie review the significance of Professor Eller’s research, publications, and public service.  The Eller Collection is a major addition to UK Libraries’ unique holdings that support Appalachian Studies and research about the region.  

Associate Dean for Special Collections Deirdre Scaggs offers welcome

UK librarians receive 2013 SLA Kentucky Chapter Awards

Dr. Stacey Greenwell received the 2013 Larry Besant Professional Award in recognition for her contributions to the Kentucky Chapter, the Association and to the field of librarianship. Her notable accomplishments included creating the SLA Academic Division, chairing two of the largest SLA divisions, leading Association committees, and sharing her knowledge through scholarship and presentations for many professional organizations.

Alex Grigg received the 2013 SLA Kentucky Chapter Outstanding Member Award in recognition of his active support of the KLA/KYSLA Joint Spring Conference, his leadership roles in professional organizations and his support of fellow librarians. He has served as Joint Spring Conference Business Manager, chaired the SLA Information Technology Division, Treasurer for the SLA Kentucky Chapter.

Family Weekend

 UK Libraries welcomed visiting families at the Boone Center on Family Weekend last month.  Hosted by the UK Parent Association, Family Weekend is packed with activities on campus and around Lexington and grows bigger every year.

ExploreUK adds new collections

Sarah Dorpinghaus, Digital Projects Manager, announced this week new additions to ExploreUK including a microfilmed copy of William Walter Cleary’s Civil War diary and the Union Army commemorative photographic album (2008av023).

 “The diary dates from June 1862 to April 1864 and was kept by William Walter Cleary while employed as a clerk in the Second Auditor’s Office of the Confederate States Treasury Department. Entries in the diary discuss family news, Cleary’s journey through Kentucky and Tennessee in the fall of 1862, the Richmond Bread Riots in March 1863, local reaction to George Stoneman’s cavalry raid on Richmond in May 1863, Cleary’s brief service in Company D of the 3rd Infantry, Local Defense Troops, the arrival of Confederate wounded following the battle of Chancellorsville, and news of the Vicksburg and Gettysburg campaigns.”

General John Fulton Reynolds (1820-1863), Union General killed at Battle of Gettysburg June 30, 1863,

The photographic album (dated circa 1861-18640 includes 50 photographs in an album and 5 loose photographs. These prefabricated commemorative photograph albums were available for sale during the civil war and contained pictures of Union officers and soldiers.

Subjects of the photographs include Abraham Lincoln and many majors, generals, and soldiers in the Union Army.

Transitions

Elizabeth Laumas has been hired as a Library Technician in Acquisitions.  She has a M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky and previously worked at Transylvania University as a cataloging supervisor.  She will begin her new position December 9^th.

 Jacqueline Doucet has been hired as the Library Technician Senior in Interlibrary Loan, Lending Unit.  She has served as a Library Technician in Interlibrary Loan since August, 2008.  She began working in her new position as the ILL Lending Unit Manager on November 18^th.

Carolyn Sears announced her plans to retire from UK on January 2, 2014.  She has worked in UK Libraries as an Account Clerk III since February, 2003 processing library material invoices. We congratulate Carolyn wish her a very happy retirement.  

Upcoming Viva Mexico Events in UK Libraries

On November 8th, The King Library Press will present Taller Martín Pescador: A Private Press in Mexico, a lecture by Juan Pasco.  Mr. Pascoe's lecture will be delivered by Dr. Paul Holbrook, Director of The King Library Press and will be prefaced by remarks about the connection between the Taller Martín Pascador and The King Library Press.  On November 9th, a printing workshop will be held during which participants will print a folio of historic leaves from 16th century Mexican Presses.

·         lecture 7 p.m., Great Hall, Margaret I. King Building, free and open to the public

·         workshop, 8:30 a.m., The King Library Press, $35.00 (includes continental breakfast and lunch)

·         to register call 859-257-1742 or email PEHolbr@post.harvard.edu

On November 11th UK Libraries will host a showing of Blossoms of Fire, a film that celebrates the extraordinary lives of the Isthmus Zapotecs of southern Oaxaca, Mexico (the area of Mexico that produced the huipiles on display in the Young Library Atrium).  The video will be introduced by UK historian Dr. Francie Chassen-López. 

The program begins at 2 p.m. in B-108c , William T. Young Library and is free and open to the public.

Paul A. Willis Outstanding Faculty Award Winner Selected

At its recent fall meeting the UK Libraries National Advisory Board selected Tari Keller as the 2014 recipient of the Paul A. Willis Award.  Tari began her career at UK in 1977 as a cataloger.  When the transition to an electronic library catalog began in the early 1980’s, Tari became UK Libraries’ first Systems Librarian.

  

In his nomination letter UK Librarian Kelly Vickery noted:

“Tari’s acumen as a systems librarian is recognized throughout the state of Kentucky and nationally.    During her career she has given over fifty-six presentations on Integrated Library Systems at state, regional, national and international meetings.  For the past fourteen years Tari has been the chair of the CPE Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL) Voyager consortium which provides guidelines and oversight of the shared Voyager server for nineteen institutions in Kentucky. “

“Due to her extensive work and experience with KYVL, in 2004 she was invited by the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) consortium as an advisory to provide guidance on their migration to a shared ILS.  She is recognized as an expert in the running of the Voyager Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC),  WebVoyage’ (a.k.a. InfoKat) and, in 2011 she was invited by the Ex Libris Southwest Users’ Group to give a webinar on OPACs during their regional meeting in California. “

Tari will receive her award at the 2014 UK Libraries Annual dinner to be held in April.  Thank you, Tari, for your contributions to the profession and for your service to UK Libraries.

UK Libraries hosts Digital Forensics Workshop

  Sarah Dorpinghaus arranged and hosted a Society of American Archivists workshop at UK Libraries.  The workshop, Digital Forensics for Archivists, was attended by several UK Archivists and many other archivists from across the state. The course explained the roles and relationships between the main layers of technology required to read a string of bits off of a physical storage medium and treat it as a file.

Specifically, the workshop explored how to identify various forms of data that may be “hidden” on the physical storage medium; how to use write blockers and create disk images in order to prevent accidental manipulation of volatile data; how to identify and extract the data that a file system uses to manage files; how to apply digital forensics tools and methods to collections of records; and how to identify and compare alternative strategies for providing public access to data from disk images.

Outstanding Staff Award recipients recognized at Spindletop Hall

Last week 46 outstanding staff from across the campus gathered at Spindletop for lunch with President Eli Capilouto and other campus leaders.  UK Libraries three Outstanding Staff Award recipients were among the group along with Senior Associate Dean Mary Beth Thomson representing UK Libraries administration.

Congratulations again to our outstanding staff members Ed Brown, Eugenia Kempster, and Laura Hall; the three people in the front standing closest to President Capilouto!

Judy Sackett joins Nunn Center

Since its founding in 1973, use of oral histories in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has been exceptionally high.  During the last several years, digital access to the Nunn Center Collection has increased that use by researchers world-wide exponentially.

To meet the growing demand for access, senior UK librarian Judy Sackett is joining the Nunn Center to assume primary responsibility for reference and access to the collection of more than 9,000 oral history interviews.  Judy will also assist with accessioning and special projects.

Judy will continue her leadership in UK Libraries diversity initiatives including her coordination of the successful Association of Research Libraries Career Enhancement Program (CEP). The ARL CEP is a fellowship program that recruits library and information science (MLIS) students from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into careers in research and academic libraries.

Welcome!

Carrie Poll will begin working in the Office of the Dean on November 11 as a Staff Support Associate II.  She earned a B.A. degree in Art History from the University of Kentucky and has worked in the Circulation Department since June 2010.

 Sarah Olson began last week as Editorial Assistant at the University Press of Kentucky.  She earned a B.A. degree from the University of Illinois and previously worked as a publishing intern at Common Ground Publishing in Champaign, Illinois.

Lisa Beatty began work last week as a Library Technician in Serials.  She earned a B.A. degree in Arts, English Language and Literature from Chaminade University.  She previously worked as a Library Technician at and SGT Yano Library in Hawaii and the Aliamanu Military Reservation Library.

Observations and Reflections

I recently had the opportunity to speak at two very enjoyable events.  Members, friends, and supporters of UK’s Spindletop Hall gathered October 22 to celebrate its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.  Recognized during the program were UK’s College of Design students who conducted the research to make the nomination and selection possible.

Using archival material from Explore UK and oral history interviews from the Louie B. Nunn Center, I shared with the audience some of the lesser known stories about the grand residence.  For example, who knew that after purchasing the property UK explored the idea of moving the UK College of Law to Spindletop?  Best reason to move - parking!

Friday evening I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the Golden Wildcat dinner sponsored annually by the UK Alumni Association.  Gretchen Bower, Event Coordinator for the Alumni Association, arranged a wonderful dinner and program that included funny and poignant stories from members of the class of 1963.

During their four years at UK the class of ’63 witnessed the opening of the UK Chandler Medical Center, the doubling in size of the Margaret I. King Library, the first addition to the Student Center, and the construction of the Chemistry-Physics Building.