trico libraries news and notes » Bryn Mawr

Canaday Library will be open the following hours for Graduation weekend:

Friday 8am - 5pm

Saturday 10am - 2pm

Sunday 4pm - 10pm

If you have books to return and miss our open hours, NEVER FEAR!  Just use your OneCard to access the Lusty Cup, and return your books to the designated box inside the door of the cafe.

Please do not leave any library materials on the steps of the library!!!  You are responsible for everything that is checked out to you until you place it in a designated return bin INSIDE the library. 

Our summer hours begin on Monday, May 19th.

Congratulations to the Class of 2008!! 

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Tell us what you think! We are conducting a trial for a service to provide book reviews from Booklist, Choice, Publisher’s Weekly, and Library Journal. These reviews are available in the Tripod Catalog for titles reviewed by those sources. Most of the reviews are for titles published within the last 10 years, though a few go back as far as the mid 1980’s.

Some examples include:

The Paradox of Choice : Why More is Less / Barry Schwartz

http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b2654429

In Defense of Food : an Eater's Manifesto / Michael Pollan
http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b3298770

http://tripod.brynmawr.edu/record=b2974723


Are reviews helpful to you as a student, faculty member, or researcher?

Let us know. We’d love to hear from you!

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Canaday Library will stay open until 2:00 A.M. from Monday, May 5th through Thursday, May 8th and Monday, May 12th through Thursday May 15th.

Please see http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/Summer2008.shtml for our Summer hours. 

Thanks so much to our faithful Circulation Desk students who are putting in extra hours to keep the library open for students!

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Working on your final papers?  Need help with finding the proper citation format for a source?  The library can help!

• Check out our guide page for citations and style guides -- we provide links for APA, MLA, Chicago, and more!

• Try the Citation Builder -- a great quick tool from the NCSU libraries
  

• We have print copies of all of the major citation guides behind the Reference Desk in Canaday -- just ask! 

• If you need help creating or interpreting a citation, ask the Reference Librarian for a second opinion!  We're here to help.

Good luck!

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The Tri-College Libraries are participating in a pilot program to offer online access to materials from our music collections. In addition to some classes and ensembles that are trying out this service, it is available to other users in the Tri-Co who want to give it a whirl.  The software, called Variations, allows users to listen to streaming audio files, as well as to create bookmarks, playlists, and listening drills.  Scanned scores will be a feature to come at a later date.

The Variations software can be downloaded here.  And a list of available recordings may be found in Tripod by searching for “Variations Digital Music Library.” 

Please contact librarians Michelle Oswell, Donna Fournier, or John Anderies if you have any difficulties getting set up or have any questions about the service.

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the most obvious improvement is linking in the bibliographies to records in Tripod.  read on...

1. What is Oxford Art Online?

The access-point for new and forthcoming Oxford art reference subscriptions and products, Oxford Art Online is a single gateway that offers users the ability, for the first time ever, to access and cross-search Grove and Oxford reference content in one location.
2. We already subscribe to Grove Art Online. What has changed?

Your subscription to Grove Art Online now includes additional Oxford art reference titles, including the Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Grove Art Online also includes image partnerships with ARTstor, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Images for College Teaching, Art Resource, Artists Rights Society and numerous international art galleries and artists.

3. How often is the content updated?

Each of the subscription products available through Oxford Art Online will have its own editorial update schedule. Grove Art Online is updated and revised quarterly with updates to life dates, bibliography, and at least one major new content release each year.

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Math and Voting is the theme of Math Awareness Month (April 2008)

Vote for your favorite candidate and see how voting methods influence election outcomes.

Find out more about the mathematics of voting. 

or check out the following books in tripod:

Chaotic elections! A mathematician looks at voting

The mathematics of voting and elections: a hands-on approach

 

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As part of an ongoing efforts to improve their website to better meet the needs of students, researchers, and librarians, JSTOR is developing a new platform which will enhance navigation and ease of use, as well as provide more tools and capabilities for users.   The new system will also allow the organization to more easily add new features and a greater array of scholarly content.

We anticipate the new platform will replace the current JSTOR site today, April 4.  With new features such as:

• Search within results
• Run recent searches
• Improved image searching
• MyJSTOR allows saving citations over multiple sessions
• Thumbnails of pages
• Simplified printing and improved accessibility for PDFs
• More robust browsing
• Improved navigation

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Do you have an interest in working in Canaday Library Circulation next year?  We are now welcoming applications from current students who have what it takes to thrive in a busy, invigorating atmosphere. 

Available positions:

• Desk Assistant
• Shelver
• E-Reserves

2008-09 Application

 
Questions?  Contact Melissa Kramer (x5287) or Sarah Yerger (x5648) 

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The Trico libraries are testing out several online resources, and we need your opinion!  Please check out the list, try any that strike your interest, and submit your comments.  Your feedback is invaluable as we decide whether to subscribe to these resources.

The trial databases include:

• Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, a database of images and information
  
• The FIAF Index to Film Periodicals and info on film archives
• Oxford Islamic Studies Online, a rich and diverse resource
  
• Several sources for 17th, 18th, and 19th century newspapers from the UK
• Several sources for information on countries of the world
  

Access these resources at the Trial Databases page.  Thanks for your help!  And act fast: most trials end in early April.

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Interested in Islam or the Qur'an?  The Tri-College Libraries now subscribe to two great resources for your research pleasure.

The Encyclopaedia of the Qur'an (edited by BMC's President-Elect, Jane Dammen McAuliffe!) is an "encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'anic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'anic studies."

The Encyclopaedia of Islam is a comprehensive work with entries on the religion itself, the Muslim people, and the ethnography and geography of the countries in which the religion is practiced.  This online subscription provides access to the entire second edition, and to the currently-in-development third edition.

Act now, temporary trial access!  While you're at it, please check out Oxford Islamic Studies Online, to which we have access until April 11.  This is a comprehensive resource comprising a number of different reference works and information sources.  If you like it, please make a comment on the Trials page.  We need your input so that we can make an informed decision about subscribing.

Salaam alaikum!

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It happens to the best of us:  you swear up and down that you returned that book to the Bryn Mawr library, only to find it tucked away in your office/under the bed/on your bookshelf making itself at home with your files/dustbunnies/personal library. 

 
What do you do when it happens to you 44 years later? 

 
You send it back to the Bryn Mawr College Library with a nice note, of course.*
 

I don't exactly know what the lesson learned here is, or who precisely is doing the learning - all I know is that receiving this long overdue book, and in particular the nice note accompanying it, made this librarian's day.

    *You may recognize this phrase from the wonderful New Yorker cartoon by Charles Saxon, which appears on page 34 of the January 5th, 1981 issue.  You can view this and other Bryn Mawr cartoons in The Complete New Yorker DVD Collection, available at the Canaday Library Reference Desk.

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Author Olga Grushin, who was chosen as one of Granta magazine’s "21 Best American Fiction Writers Under 35" last year and received the 2007 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, will give a reading at Bryn Mawr College on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ely Room of the Wyndham Alumnae House.

The reading, part of the College's Creative Writing Reading Series, is free and open to the public.

Grushin’s first novel, The Dream Life of Sukhanov, was among the most well reviewed books of 2006.  It was named one of the year’s best books by The New York Times, Washington Post, and many others. Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post Book World described it as "sophisticated, ironic and witty, multilayered, intricately constructed, deeply informed, elegantly written—the work, one would think, of someone who has been writing and publishing fiction for years."

 Visit the author's homepage

Find Grushin's works in Literature Online

Read an interview with Grushin from Library Journal 

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The spring exhibition in Canaday Library, Intimate Devotion: The Book of Hours in Medieval Religious Practice, will feature some of Bryn Mawr's most gorgeous medieval manuscripts and printed books and an extraordinary group of novice curators.

 
The exhibition is the work of the students in Professor Martha Easton's undergraduate seminar last fall, "The Book of Hours and the Art of Devotion." It will open on Thursday, January 31, with a panel discussion featuring the student curators. The program will begin at 5 p.m. in Carpenter 21, and will be followed by a reception and viewing of the exhibition in the Rare Book Room of Canaday Library.

 
Martha Easton, lecturer in History of Art, said she developed the course so that students could work with original objects, but also have to think about how to present the subject to a wider public.

 
"From the beginning this has been their show," she said. "Collectively they came up with the theme, decided what aspects of the book of hours they wanted to highlight, and chose the objects and images they wanted to display. I have been very impressed with the way they collaborated together in a professional way, listening to divergent points of view but finding the common ground between them, meeting deadlines and commenting on each other's work. The end result has been a cohesive and thoughtful examination of the book of hours in medieval religious life."

 
Thirteen students participated in the class, including eight from Bryn Mawr, four from Haverford, and one from Swarthmore. The students are Bianca Bromberger '08 (HC), Jacob Carroll '09 (HC), Jenny Castle '09, Erina Donnelly '08, Brittaney Golden '08, Talia Greenwald '08, Kira Grennan '08 (SC),  Lavanya Jayakar '09, Margaret Livingston '08 (HC), Lindsey Merikas '08 (HC), Annie Morse '09, Alex Solomon '08, and Arianae Tsavaris '09. Special Collections Librarian Marianne Hansen helped the class with expertise on the physical production of medieval manuscripts and also served as the exhibition coordinator. 

 
The exhibition will be open from January 31 through May 30. The exhibition hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. For additional information, contact the Special Collections Department at 610-526-6576. 

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Whitney Ale, teaching assistant for Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil, spent the tail end of fall semester restoring a 150-year old plaster- cast bust of the goddess Diana that once sat atop the shelves of the old Haverford Library.  As reported in a previous blog posting, busts of Diana and Aristotle were recently identified and discovered on campus.

Ale, a senior anthropology major from Bryn Mawr, has put in over 20 hours of work cleaning and repairing the sculpture and predicts just as many hours before she finishes.  The first step in Ale’s restoration process is to sand the entire bust by hand with a fine grit sandpaper.  This step removes small nicks and gives the bust an even and clean appearance.

“When I first saw Diana she looked tortured,” reports Ale.  “She had been colored on with marker, given eyeballs with pen.  It looks as though at one point her head had fallen off and was glued back on.”

Following the initial sanding, Ale will soak the bust in water to open its pores in preparation for the final steps, patching large cracks with new plaster and giving the work a final sanding to make the repairs flush with the rest of the piece.

Having worked extensively in bronze, wax, steel and clay, this is the first time Ale has worked with plaster and she is really enjoying it: “I feel that I am forming a real connection with the piece.  It is very exciting at this point to see her becoming beautiful again.”

Once completed, Diana will make a triumphant return to Magill Library where she will be offered pride of place in Haverford Special Collections.

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Need to find a book review?  You're in luck!  The Tri-College Libraries offer a multitude of resources to help you find what you need.

Consult this page: Finding Book Reviews.  It provides links to databases like Book Review Index, Book Review Digest, and the Times Literary Supplement, as well as instructions for using full-text resources and subject-specific tools that offer power tools for honing in on book review articles.

And when all else fails... ask a Reference Librarian! 

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Want the scoop on the seediest scandals in history?  Need to find old advertisements or movie reviews?  Just want to see the front page from the day you were born?  You're in luck!

 
The Tri-College Libraries have subscriptions that provide you with full text of hundreds of historical newspapers and periodicals.  Check out America's Historical Newspapers, The Nation Digital Archive, or the New York Times from the 1800s through today!  This Subject Portal page is your gateway to the past.

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Celebrated poet Lucille Clifton, 2007 recipient of the Poetry Foundation's highest honor, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, will give a reading at Bryn Mawr College on Thursday, Dec. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ely Room of the Wyndham Alumnae House.

Check out Clifton's works in Tripod.

Read more about Clifton in Literature Resource Center.

Clifton reading her poem "Turning" at WGBH's Open Vault.

Clifton reading her poem "September's Song: A Poem in Seven Days" at Online News Hour.

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Last week we posted about the re-discovery and ensuing restoration of two 150-year-old Greek plaster-cast busts that had once graced the shelves of the Haverford College Library.  Through careful examination of photographs from the College Archives library staff have identified a total of eleven busts that were once on display in the library from at least 1865 to 1895 and perhaps beyond.  As we would be pleased to see the identification and return of more of these wayward characters, we provide below—in the form of an old FBI wanted poster—a line-up of this motley gang of Ancient Greeks, Quakers, and a few unknowns.  If you’ve seen any of these fugitives lurking around campus please don’t hesitate to be in touch with Special Collections staff!

1. Apollo Wanted for employing biological weapons in the Trojan War. Also for defiling numerous nymphs. 2. Aristotle Wanted for not holding the Gods in honor. And for inspiring Friedrich Nietzsche centuries later. 3. Athena Wanted for aiding Hermes in the beheading of the Gorgon Medussa. May be armed with a thunderbolt and aegis. 4. Cicero Wanted for teaching Greek Philosophy to the Romans. And for Betraying the Regime of Mark Antony. 5. Diana Wanted for transforming Acteon into a stag and for turning his own hunting dogs on him. 6. Fothergill Wanted for urging revolution and liberal polices in the American Colonies. 7. Socrates Wanted for corrupting the minds of Athens’ youth, a crime punishable by death by hemlock. 8. Unknown Do you recognize this man? If you can identify him please contact Haverford Special Collections! 9. Whittier Wanted for doing little else besides dreaming and writing poetry for good causes. 10. Unknown Minor Accomplices

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When the organizers of “A Few Well Selected Books,” the current exhibition in Magill Library, chose an 1865 photograph of the library to use in the promotion of the exhibit, they had no idea it would lead to the rediscovery of two very old plaster-cast Greek busts.  This iconic photograph of the library in Alumni Hall features (from left to right) professors Thomas Chase and Paul Swift, superintendent William Wetherald, seniors James A. Chase and Allen C. Thomas, assistant professor and librarian Clement L. Smith, sophomore Samuel Collins, and president Samuel J. Gummere.  Peering down from high atop the wooden bookcases are several Ancient Greek busts, including (from left to right) Socrates, Aristotle, Diana, and Cicero.

After our exhibit announcements went out, we were informed by Haverford professor Darin Hayton that the bust of Diana could be found in the faculty lounge of Hall Building.  Scuffed up, embellished with magic marker, and appearing to have suffered a neck fracture, Diana has clearly been through some rough patches over the past century and a half!

A few weeks after the discovery of Diana, as librarians Christa Williford and David Conners were preparing to record an exhibit narrative with Classics professors Deborah Roberts and Bret Mulligan, Roberts revealed that she and husband professor emeritus Aryeh Kosman had another of the busts—that of Aristotle—in their home on College Avenue.  Kosman reports having rescued Aristotle from a trash pile in the 1970s.

Archival photographs from 1865 to 1895 reveal an array of Ancient Greek mythological and philosophical characters to have been part of the collection, as well as a couple of Quaker luminaries and some mystery busts yet to be identified.  Librarians have long wondered what had become of these venerable figures as they are not part of the extensive online inventory of college-owned art maintained by College Archivist Diana Franzusoff Peterson.

Both busts have been returned to Special Collections and now they will be undergoing restoration and repair courtesy of Haverford sculpture professor Marianne Weil and her teaching assistant Whitney Ale BMC '08.  Over the course of the next few weeks, we will provide updates on their progress and will also report on more of the missing busts which have been identified in photographs from the College Archives.

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The Lost-Wax Initiative, is a collaborative project between Swarthmore College art history students and sculpture students from Haverford College. For a limited number of studio/foundry sessions, students from Associate Professor Patricia Reilly's Ancient Greek and Roman Art class met with sculpture students from Visiting Associate Professor Marianne Weil's class at Haverford's Foundry.  Under Prof. Weil’s guidance, students explored the lost-wax casting process through "hands-on" preparation of their wax sculptures, investment molds and the finishing “chasing” of the bronzes at our College Foundry.  

This project was a unique opportunity for students in both departments to share an in-depth collaborative research experience in a workshop setting and provides the premise for an ongoing dialogue between our departments.  It was generously funded by a Mellon Tri-Co Seed Grant.

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Since the beginning of October, computing equipment and library materials valued at over $4000 have been stolen from Canaday Library.

« Continue reading "Thefts in Canaday Library" »

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Modern Musings: Treasures from the Lieberman Collection

McCabe Library lobby, October 24-December 23

Talk by Professor Graham Bader, Tuesday, October 30, 4:15 p.m. 

This exhibit, curated by Sarah Burford '08, showcases some of our favorite items from the Lieberman collection. This generous gift from William S. Lieberman '43, prominent curator at the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, comprises thousands of volumes on art, history, literature, and a myriad of other subjects. Lieberman graduated Swarthmore in 1943 with a B.A. in English, and almost immediately embarked on a six-decade career in the art world. The exhibition includes books, catalogs, original prints, and lithographs created or signed by figures such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, W.H. Auden, and Andy Warhol. Lieberman knew many of these artists personally, and the exhibition offers an exciting look at works representative of some of the most important developments in modern artistic culture.

Please join us at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30th, for a talk on the exhibit by visiting Art History Professor Graham Bader. We hope to see you there!

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Help us control pests, keep the library clean, and keep library materials and computing equipment free from moisture, crumbs and stickiness by following the BMC Libraries' Food & Drink Policy!

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Did you know that Canaday student workers have been taking an inventory of all BMC library books?  Well they have, and it might even be a little bit fun! 

They're checking to see that the books are on the shelves where they're supposed to be, and that there aren't any problems with a book's catalog record that would make it difficult to find. 

It's a big job, and nearly 350,000 books have been inventoried so far!  Great job guys!!

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Poet and playwright Derek Walcott, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Literature, will give a reading at Bryn Mawr College on Thursday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Thomas Great Hall.

Search for Walcott's books in Tripod. 

 Read more about Walcott in Literature Resource Center.

 Hear a reading and interview with Walcott at Lannan.org.

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