LSA News

No. 53, April 2004

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Index Staff Cleans Up On Library Day The View from Hidden Spring by Pam DeLaittre Association for Recorded Sound Collections Conference Summary by Nathan Georgitis From the Fact File Events Of Interest Congratulations! Goodbyes

Evil Twin? Click if you dare!

Staff Cleans Up On Library Day

By Lonni Sexton

The first ever Library Day was held Friday, March 26. 80 volunteers in Knight Library washed, scraped, painted, vacuumed and scrubbed all day. The result was a renewed, fresh looking public area enhanced by new furniture and carpeting.

Several areas received special attention. John Helmer powerwashed the front of the library; Doug Hodson and Bryan Klinecht coordinated the window washers; Travis Honea scraped gum off the front steps and terrace. David Grange restored the wood on the Circulation desk (see his work here). Also, crews from Facilities Services did repairs, painted, spackled and replaced all the burned out lights in the library.

Dozens of people painted the hallways, the stairwells, the Documents area copier room, and the ITC.

The LSA provided drinks and Library Administration graciously treated everyone to pizza, salad and muffins. There were frequent prize drawings throughout the day, and thanks go to local merchants for donating some fabulous prizes.

Congratulations to the Library Day committee, Judi Byrum, Carol Goodyard, Susan Mincks, and Linda Zimmerman, for organizing a great event with a wonderful result. Also, congratulations to you for contributing your time and energy to make the library a comfortable place to work!

The View from Hidden Spring

by Pam DeLaittre

Spring has truly hit the farm hard, and the baaing and maaing of lambs and ewes is reasonably constant during parts of the day as the ewes go to pasture and the lambs go off to play with one another. This lambing season started in February. That's right, this year the ewes all decided to cooperate and wait until the month they were "supposed" to lamb -- not that I didn't start getting up in the middle of the night with them at the end of January....

Next month I will write a "lambing" journal, but for this month suffice it to say that we have 17 lambs born and lost not a one!

The Barnevelder Bantams have settled into "Chi'kens" and now call it home. Jethro continues to get more beautiful as he grows into a full fledged rooster. Chester (the Rhode island red rooster) and Jethro have gotten to know one another and have crowing battles since the chicken wire won't let them do anything else.

Around the 20th of March, Gertrude and Prissy decided we didn't have enough chickens and "went all broody". First Gertrude decided she wouldn't leave the nest, and about three days later Prissy joined her....This time we made sure they nested in separate nesting boxes...not the same one. By the time Prissy "went broody", Gertrude had nine eggs under her -- four of which are Barnevelders! Then when Prissy decided to join her we put Barnevelder eggs under her too. She is sitting on 10 eggs!! So on or about April 10th, we should be up to our arm pits in chicks. Fortunately our feed store will be happy to take some of the chicks to sell, and we will keep the Barnevelders -- if we can tell the difference.

This is the first year I have been able to work the garden early, so I have peas coming up and lettuce seeds in the ground. We'll see what the rest of spring brings water wise. If it doesn't rain a lot more then hay crops will suffer, making it harder to get and more expensive -- so, much as I hate to ask, please let it rain some more.

Happy spring to all, and that's no April Fool's joke!

Association for Recorded Sound Collections : a Summary of a Conference in Cleveland

by Nathan Georgitis

In March, I attended the 38th annual meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) in Cleveland (http://www.arsc-audio.org). The group promotes the preservation and study of sound recordings in all formats and fields of music and speech. Members include record collectors and dealers, archivists and librarians, historians and discographers, producers and sound engineers, and musicians and musicologists.

This year I helped Louis Spear of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and Sam Brylawski of the Library of Congress plan the meeting program. The highlight of the program was a panel discussion of music downloading and file sharing. The panel included a provost from the University of Rochester, Charles Phelps, who has published on the topic of technology and scholarly communication; a vice counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry and sues copyright infringers; and Marc Dicciani, of the National Advocacy Committee of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, a trade group of musicians, producers, and recording professionals.

The discussion ranged from the morality and legality of copyright infringement to the excesses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. All agreed that the phenomenon of file sharing and the electronic distribution of music pose significant challenges to the business model of the music industry. Panelists and audience members disagreed over the extent to which the music industry itself is responsible for its current predicament. Audience members cited the high cost of compact discs and the failure of the music industry to create a modern equivalent of the 45 rpm single as causes of illegal file sharing.

The vice counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America presented the organization's advertising campaign, What's The Download?. The campaign includes a television commercial that depicts a young woman downloading a song at home and inadvertently killing the music at a dance club nearby. The relationships between music as art, music as performance, and music as product were the subjects of subsequent discussions.

Other meeting highlights included a presentation by Tim Brooks on George W. Johnson, the first African American to record, and a technical session on magnetic tape restoration and transfer. This year, the annual meeting was held in conjunction with the Society for American Music (SAM), which presented interesting sessions on the record as ritual object in teen films and the evolution of swing dancing. SAM will hold its annual meeting in Eugene next spring (see http://www.american-music.org).

Another highlight of the week was a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, where I spent some moments in quiet reflection before Rosebud, a guitar built by Doug Irwin and played by Jerry Garcia for many years. I was impressed by the Museum's collections, but disappointed that they did not include more materials documenting the social spaces of rock and roll.

Libraries and archives face numerous challenges in the management of recorded sound collections, especially historical ones. Recordings are inherently instable and the technical demands of preserving and providing access to them are considerable. However, historical sound recordings often have great cultural significance and educational potential. They deserve a more prominent place in our cultural heritage institutions and our culture at large. The meeting of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections reminded me of this and the reasons I became a librarian.

FROM THE FACT FILE

After you have the names for the people who hail from these cities, submit your answers to Fact File. Answers must be received by April 25. The winner will be determined by the number of correct answers; in the event of a tie, a single winner will be selected by lot. The winner will receive a gift certificate worth $5.00 toward puchases at the U.O. Bookstore, courtesy of the Library Staff Association. All staff and faculty of the University of Oregon Libraries are invited to participate, although the winner of the most recent Fact File contest is ineligible to win this contest's prize.

EVENTS OF INTEREST

As well as featuring upcoming LSA events, we'd like to get the word out about events staff are involved in that might be of interest to co-workers. If you'd like the world, or at least your co-workers, to know about something cool coming up, please email Harriett Smith or lsaweb.

LSA EVENTS

The LSA Spring Sale will be held Tuesday, April 20, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. This year LSA will donate its usual 10% commission and money received from the Dessert Raffle to benefit Annie Zeidman-Karpinski and her family. Rose Thomas has graciously agreed to bake the wonderful confection to be raffled. The Sale will feature plants and seedlings, baked goods, art, pottery, textiles, and all sorts of other crafts. There will be a rummage table with "wonderful treasures" -- in fact, the Sale will feature "anything but books". Contact Pam DeLaittre (6-1826), or Susan Mincks (6-1937) for more information.

The date has been set for the May Retirement Tea. On Wednesday, May 19, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room we'll gather to fête our distinguished group of retirees: Sharla Davis, Dennis Hyatt, Duffy Knaus, Ann Muller, and Jean Murphy. We'll also honour some employees who are not retiring but are leaving nonetheless: Mandi Garcia of MDLS, who started as a student and ended as Beach Lab staff, and Ellen Klaastad, longtime Access Services worker and steadfast union organizer.

LSA will provide punch and a small sheet cake, but the event is planned to be a potluck affair as well. If you have a favourite dessert you'd like to share, or if you'd like to bring fruit, a veggie tray, or some other favourite snack, please feel free to bring it! Stephanie Midkiff will be providing transportation for former Library employees who need a lift to the Tea. She can be contacted at 541-346-1661. If you have questions or would like to help with the May Tea, please contact Susan Mincks at 6-1937.

NON-LSA EVENTS

Musical notes from David Landazuri: Opening day of the Eugene Saturday Market is April 3rd. Entertainment will include Accordions Anonymous, probably at 1 p.m. Then on Sunday, April 4th, at 7 p.m., Red Pajamas and Accordions Anonymous will be performing at Cozmic Pizza inside The Strand at 8th & Charnelton at Tara Kemp's 50th birthday Glam Bash. Trunk Full of Faces (and probably others) will be having a Drunk Puppet Night at Sam Bond's Garage on Friday, April 23rd at 8 p.m. The ever-busy David will be part of the band providing musical accompaniment.

The Exhibits Committee of the UO Libraries is soliciting proposals for exhibits to be displayed in the glass cases in the entrance corridors of Knight Library. Exhibits are sought for the following terms: Winter 2005, Spring 2005, and Summer 2005. Review of the proposals will begin on April 21, 2004. For more information about the library's exhibit policy, see Exhibits in the University of Oregon Libraries, where you can also find an Exhibit Request Form.

Congratulations!

Corey Harper, CMET team leader and Metadata Librarian in the Metadata and Digital Library Services department, was profiled as an up-and-coming young librarian in a recent issue of Library Journal. His co-workers have always known that about him -- but it's nice to see it in print. Way to go, Corey!

Goodbyes

Congratulations and farewell to Jean Murphy, AKA the Tomatriarch, AKA Bicycle Woman, longtime library staff member and the creative force behind the annual Zucchini Festival, the Clothesline Art Show, and many other artistic events. Jean has worked in the Catalog Department (MDLS) since November, 1984, but she's always found time for other endeavours. She sang for many years with the local women's group Sweetgrass, and sings with the Eugene Concert Choir and the Eugene Symphony, as well as the Eugene Sacred Harp Singers, of which she is a founding member. Her comic strip Bicycle Woman appeared in The Other Paper for quite some time, and she also created a few comic books for friends. For the last few years Jean has volunteered her time at a local kindergarten. She retires from the Library April 30, and her gracious ways, artistic sensibility, and lovely voice will be missed both in the department and at the yearly Gonzo Revue. Jean and her husband Bud are avid hikers and are planning a walk across England. She's also looking forward to having plenty of time to sing, to be politically active, and to play with the grandchildren.

Goodbye to li'l feisty ol' Ellen Klaastad, Library staff member since 1990.

Ellen was active in SEIU for many years, most recently on the statewide union's board of directors. Before that she held the position of chief steward, in which she mentored and trained stewards and represented numerous members across campus. She also served as local vice president and as delegate to CAPE, the union's political committee, which interviews and endorses candidates. She chaired the local's strike hardship committee, organizing bake sales, auctions and car washes, and raising thousands of dollars for the hardship fund. She was also active in the Democratic Party of Lane County, holding various positions while recruiting union members to participate in phone banks, canvasses and other events. Union members at the UO and throughout Oregon will sorely miss Ellen, the "woman of many hats" who seemed to know and do everything, and devoted so much of her talent and time to the community.

What will Ellen do next? "I'm leaving to help Rep. Paul R. Holvey win the Democratic primary for House District 8. I will also be helping Rep. Holvey with his legislative duties (legislative interim committee work) and responding to his constituent mail. Come June I haven't worked out which job but I'll probably be working on either Democratic party candidate campaigns or Sen. Kerry's campaign."

Been to an interesting conference?

Send us a brief report for publication in the next newsletter. Thanks!

Last updated: 040104
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