The Addlestone Report

The Friends of the Library Fall series is “Hard Luck, Good Times . The theme of the series is that despite (or perhaps because of) the ‘hard times’ of the 1930s, Charleston saw a flourishing of cultural, artistic and political activities. Dates have not been confirmed, but here’s the current plan

Porgy and Bess: “Plenty of Nuttin”
Speaker: Harlan Greene

Little known facts about the play which premiered on Oct 10, 1935

Dock St Theatre (A WPA project, now undergoing another major renovation)
Speakers: Christopher G. Parham, Theatre Manager

Jazz in the Lowcountry … and beyond
Location: Avery Research Center
Speaker: Karen Chandler

Heads Up Data: provided by Claire Fund

• August 18 New faculty reception @ Addlestone
• Sept 21 Women’s symposium – Based on the success of the Ashley Hall archive, Marie Ferrara and Sharon Bennett are reaching out to identify and collect other materials related to the women in the region.
• Sept 23 Eleanor Heldrick has donated a great collection of pop up books and will giving a talk about her collection at 6 pm. Bring the kids!
• October 2 Tim 0′Brien will on campus to talk about The Things They Carried. This will be the first Campus Reads event – lots of details to follow about this new event)
• Oct 12 – 13 The library is hosting the Southern regional Content DM conference @ Addlestone and Stern Center
• Oct 24 Jewish Studies Program will be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a tour of the Jewish Heritage Collection, a lunch and lecture.
• Nov 10 Winthrop Roundtable dinner with Richard Norton Smith
• Upcoming Exhibits in the Wachovia Gallery (second floor)
• Oct 1-31 Ingeborg Bachmann (Austrian author) – Morgan Koerner in German dept. is organizing the exhibit and public talk.
• Nov1-Dec 15 Photographs of Flannery O’Conner’s home

Heads Up Data from Claire Fund

Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday plans to unveil a new version of its Kindle e-book reader with a larger screen and other features designed to appeal to periodical and academic textbook publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Beginning this fall, some students at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland will be given large-screen Kindles with textbooks for chemistry, computer science and a freshman seminar already installed, said Lev Gonick, the school’s chief information officer. The university plans to compare the experiences of students who get the Kindles and those who use traditional textbooks, he said.

Link to rest of article at Wallstreet Journal

The WorldCat database has over 60 million listings of many types of material (books, journals, audiovisual, etc.) cataloged by libraries around the world and is updated daily.  Recently, WorldCat has announced a detailed record redesign.  “There’s a brand new detailed record design on the site to help users find location information more quickly. It also puts evaluative content directly into the page layout. The changes were made after months of rigorous usability testing with university students, public library users and general Web searchers. In addition, the redesign will make library results even more visible to major search engines.”

Quoted from WorldCat press release: April 29, 2009

The swine flu situation has exploded onto the scene with intense media and blogosphere interest and concern.  HHS has worked with CDC to create a small-footprint widget that get’s people to three primary categories of information (general, the investigation and what people can do).

The widget with code is available from
http://www.hhs.gov/web/library/index.html (scroll to the bottom of the page) .

This information was provided by:
Mary Lou Cumberpatch
Reference Librarian
NOAA Central Library

(From: Best of Reference 2008 in Library Journal)

“In better times the mall was the gathering spot. Now it’s the library.” This quote from the Raleigh News and Observer (1/24/09) is not unique in this respect. Many recent articles and reports tell of people turning to libraries during times of economic hardship. A Harris Poll revealed 75 percent of Americans have library cards, and libraries are reporting an increase in use of services, collections, and the Internet. This year’s list of best free web sites includes resources about the economy as well as sites that allow us to celebrate achievement.

Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project: Lincoln/Net lincoln.lib.niu.edu
With full-text access to over 3500 historical documents from Lincoln’s Illinois years (1830–61), including writings and speeches, this collaborative project based at Northern Illinois University is one of the richest online resources about our 16th President. Here you can read or listen to his biography and view vignettes of his life through text, images, and videos.

The Alfred Russel Wallace Page www.wku.edu/~smithch/index1.htm
The reading of Wallace’s paper “On the Tendency of Varieties To Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” along with unpublished fragments from the writings of Charles Darwin on July 1, 1858, before the Linnean Society of London gained Wallace lasting fame as the “co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection.” Librarian Charles Smith demonstrates through this site rich with full-text transcriptions of Wallace’s writings that he was so much more.

CareerOneStop www.careeronestop.org
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, “your pathway to career success” assists in exploring careers, writing résumés, interviewing, and locating jobs. Though brought to the web by the State of Minnesota, the site provides links to other states and to nearly 2000 OneStopCareer Centers nationwide.

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online darwin-online.org.uk
This site, directed by John van Wyhe at the University of Cambridge, began in 2002 to assemble all of Darwin’s published and unpublished writings. The result is the largest Darwin resource ever created, with 75,914 pages of searchable text and 184,561 images. With the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species in 2009, the 70 million users who already visit the site should swell drastically.

Documenting the American South docsouth.unc.edu
This collection of primary resources about the culture, literature, and history of the American South was created by and is primarily from the holdings of the University Libraries of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Read first-person narratives of women, slaves, and soldiers; discover Southern literary works dating from the Colonial period; and listen to interviews on topics such as civil rights and politics.

Earth Portal www.earthportal.org
Touted as an “accurate, authoritative, accessible” global resource for science-based information about the environment, Earth Portal is governed by the Environmental Information Coalition and consists of three components: The Encyclopedia of Earth (with over 3500 articles), Earth Forum (commentary and discussions with the public), and Earth News (news stories on environmental issues).

Economic Indicators www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm
Economic News Releases www.bls.gov/bls/newsrels.htm
Ever wonder where the news outlets get the monthly housing starts, or how they learn whether retail trade sales are up or down? These data are released like clockwork by the U.S. Census Bureau. The former site has info on current indicators and historic time series. The latter keeps employment and earnings data and price indexes.

Encyclopedia of Alabama www.encyclopediaofalabama.org
An excellent example of a well-designed site on the history, culture, and geography of a U.S. state. Developed by the Alabama Humanities Foundation and Auburn University, it includes enhanced multimedia content. Use the site to search for the “Selma to Montgomery March” of 1965, or look for information on To Kill a Mockingbird, set in fictional Maycomb between 1932 and 1935.

MAPLight.org; Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection maplight.org
This nonprofit site explores the connections between campaign donations and Congressional voting. This matching of interest groups with legislators will no doubt be explored in the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

MRQE: Movie Review Query Engine www.mrqe.com
MRQE is the ultimate place “where people talk about movies.” Relaunched with expanded content, it’s the largest online database of movie reviews, partnering with leading movie blogs to collect and make searchable their content. From Slumdog Millionaire to Sundance, it’s all here.

Poetry Foundation www.poetryfoundation.org
The publisher of Poetry magazine has developed a web site that exists to share the discovery and celebration of poetry. The full text of Poetry from 1998 is available, as is a historical index that dates to its 1912 origin. Use the Poetry Tool to search for information about poets or for poems by title, author, first line, or occasion.

UNdata data.un.org
“A world of information” is at your fingertips by browsing data series or searching by keyword more than 55 million records from the databases of the UN on employment, education, energy, environment, health, population, refugees, and much more.

From “Best of Reference 2008″ in Library Journal.  Authors: Cynthia Etkin is a librarian in Washington, DC, and Brian E. Coutts is a librarian in Bowling Green, KY.

URL: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6650277.html

Orignial Heads Up Data from Tom Gilson, Head of Reference, Addlestone Library

The Library of Congress, UNESCO and 32 partner institutions launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs – available unrestricted to the public and free of charge. The browseable, searchable site will function in seven languages and offer content in dozens of languages.

Beautifully organized! Find it at: http://www.wdl.org/en/

Heads Up Data received from Claire Fund

Head of Reference Librarian Tom Gilson and Interlibrary Loan Head Michael Phillips were honored yesterday at a College of Charleston Ceremony honoring distinguished faculty. Tom Gilson was named Librarian Emeritus,” and Michael Phillips received the College’s “Distinguished Service Award.”

“Not only is Michael (Phillips) thoroughly familiar with the library’s resources, he unfailingly offers students and faculty knowledgeable, courteous assistance at both the Research Information Desk and in the Interlibrary Loan Office. In fact, Michael always goes the extra mile to meet the needs of our patrons and does so with a genuine friendliness that immediately establishes a positive rapport. His “can do” attitude and his ever present laughter make people feel at ease, as well as confident that Michael will do his utmost to provide them with high quality service. I am pleased to note that year after year, Mr. Phillip’s efforts draw praise from highly satisfied faculty and students. In addition, through constant innovations he continually enhances services in the Interlibrary Loan office.

“In his 21 years at the College of Charleston Library, Tom Gilson has exemplified dedication, commitment and service to its students, faculty and administrators. He joined the library faculty in 1986 as a reference librarian and within three years was appointed as head of the department. Under his leadership, the department has grown to include six full-time librarians, a team of part-time librarians and three highly trained staff people for the burgeoning activities in both the Interlibrary Loan area and in the media services room. Tom has been an exceptional leader of the Reference Department – both as a manager of his staff and as a model practitioner. He sets the tone for service at the reference desk, always exemplifying best practices for the entire department. He has the comprehensive knowledge of the material that our students and faculty require to meet their information needs. His supervision is characterized by tact and consideration and an abiding concern for the quality of service for our students and faculty.”

It is an honor to serve with Tom and Michael. All of their colleagues here at the library join in wishing both Tom and Michael a well deserved congratulations.

Link here for complete descriptions both Tom and Michael’s acccomplishments

The staff at the Addlestone Library are building a digital collections website, featuring photographs, maps, letters, meeting notes and other materials from Special Collections. Each item includes descriptive information about the subject and the creator of the image. For some collections (John Henry Dick Galapagos photographs), viewers can zoom in/out and examine a small section of the image. Other collections (Friendly Moralist Collection) include an easy-to-read transcript in addition to the 19th century handwritten manuscript.

Here are two collections that are currently available. For the complete listing, go to http://lowcountrydigital.library.cofc.edu/cdm4/browse.php

John Henry Dick Galapagos Photograph Collection

John Henry Dick not only donated his remarkable natural history collection to the College, he was also a noted naturalist. Born in Islip, New York in 1919, Dick was attracted to nature at an early age. Dick was especially fascinated by birds and established his own wildfowl aviary at his family estate, with pheasants, quail, ducks, and geese. He attended Yale Art School. His first major work was four illustrations for Alexander Sprunt’s South Carolina Bird Life in 1949. Three years later he gained national recognition by winning the highly competitive annual Duck Stamp Contest sponsored by the Fish and Wildlife Service. He subsequently provided illustrations for twelve books on wildlife and wrote and illustrated his travel account Other Edens. Over the years he acquired a magnificent collection of bird illustrations. Among his rare titles were the complete elephant folio editions of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, Edward Lear’s Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, the complete works of John Gould, and beautiful, valuable titles by Buffon, Edwards, Manetti, Levaillant, Knip, Temminick, Frisch, Dresser, Elliott, Sharpe, and other prominent authors and illustrators. When John Henry Dick died in 1995 at the age of 76, he left his beloved Dixie Plantation, his magnificent collection of rare books and extensive collection of photographs to the College of Charleston.

The Galapagos photographs are the first of John Henry Dick’s photographs to be digitized. The library plans to digitize and upload more than 10,000 wildlife images from his extended trips to Africa, India, Antarctica, South America, and China.

The Friendly Moralist Society Collection

The Friendly Moralist Society was a benevolent society for free brown (mulatto or mixed race) men established in Charleston, S.C. in 1838. The group provided burial aid and purchased plots for those in need and provided charitable assistance to widows and orphans of deceased members. This Proceedings section consists of minutes taken at organizational meetings from 1841 to 1856. These minutes offer insight into the conflict between free black and brown individuals at this time. This is one of 398 pages from the collection.

The Albert Simons Sketchbook Collection

Albert Simons was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended the College of Charleston and received a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as an instructor in architecture at Clemson College in 1915 and 1916, and was a partner in the architectural firm of Todd, Simons & Todd in 1916 and 1917. After a period of military service during World War I, Simons returned to Charleston and with Samuel Lapham established the architectural firm of Simons & Lapham. Simons served as a lecturer on fine arts at the College of Charleston from 1924 to 1947. Ten sketchbooks (1915-ca. 1961) contain notes, watercolor paintings, and sketches in pencil and ink. Most of the sketches were made during Simons’ trips abroad and reflect his interests in the art and architecture of Italy, England, Greece, France, and elsewhere. A number of the finely detailed colored watercolors depict architectural elements, details, and ornaments such as columns and mosaics. In addition, there are many pencil sketches and studies of human figures and faces, including renderings of persons in ethnic costumes and uniforms.

For more information about the digital collections, please call Special Collections at Addlestone Library 3-8016.