LSA News

No. 56, July 2004

If you have anything you want in the next newsletter, send it to lsaweb@lists.uoregon.edu .

Index The Adjudicator by Terry McQuilkin Gonzo Revue a Hit News from the Field by Barbara Butler, OIMB New Images, New Worlds by Carol Hixson Dreaming at My Desk by Harriett Smith Staff Development Committee...Rejuvenation! by Cathy Flynn-Purvis From the Fact File Truths and Lies Revealed! Events Of Interest Goodbyes

"Reflections." Photo by Cristian Boboia

The Adjudicator

By Terry McQuilkin

Every once in a while someone will ask me about where my wife works and I tell them the truth, that she teaches piano at home.

But Ellen is not just a piano teacher like the ancient Mrs. Radik I studied with when I was nine and ten years old. The one who kept saying "curve your fingers, curve your fingers!" No. Ellen is not only an independent piano teacher and member of Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA), but also an adjudicator. Of course when I say "adjudicator" to someone who's not a music teacher, I might as well say that she's a macrodecombobulator. So let me explain.

When Ellen does adjudication for a weekend, I call her "the piano inspector", but it would be more accurate to call her the piano studio inspector, because she travels to various parts of the state to listen to students in independent piano studios and evaluates each student's competence in performing repertoire, technique and music theory. Teachers have their students audition at one of ten levels, each level requiring a specific set of skills and difficulty of repertoire. A "Level I" student may have to demonstrate the "five finger pattern" and play a piece like "Black Key Bounce", whereas a "Level X" student will need to play the G-flat major scale in hemidemisemiquavers and play from memory a musical work called a "composition" such as Beethoven's Well-known Sonata, opus ten thousand, "The Difficult."

But my explanation probably gives you little idea of what it's actually like to work as an adjudicator. So, in the event that you have high school-age children who are thinking of becoming "music majors" in college (and want to know about "careers" in music), let me share with you a day in the life of an adjudicator.

5:15 am: The alarm goes off, and the Adjudicator eats a quick breakfast and puts on clothes that strike the right balance between authority (elementary school principal), poise (a PBS news anchor) and artistic flair (Cher), then drives to Grants Pass, where for the next three days the local chapter of OMTA will be holding Syllabus, an opportunity for 85 piano students to demonstrate their musical skills, advance to the next level of Syllabus, and lose 14 pounds, chiefly through perspiration.

Gonzo Revue Features Singing, Dancing, Comedy

More than twenty library staff members performed in the Library Staff Association's Gonzo Revue, held on Tuesday, June 15 in the Browsing Room. Serving as master of ceremonies was the charmingly self-effacing, ever gracious and witty Dennis Hyatt, outgoing director of the John E. Jacqua Law Library. This year's show, though shorter than some previous Gonzos, included a wealth of talent in dance, music and comedy.

As we've seen previous years, UO Libraries has several staff members with terpsichorean skill. Aimee Yogi and Erica Rivera gave beautiful performances of "Green Rose Hula" and "Nani Hula," after which they coaxed the entire audience into dancing the "Hukilau." (Dennis Hyatt, Michiyo Goble, Liesl Vorderstrasse, and Heather Ward served as spotters to help us remember the movements.) Following this, Heather Ward skillfully demonstrated both soft shoe and (later in the program) hard shoe Irish Dancing.

LSA members are no strangers to musical talent. Barbara and Tim Jenkins, known as "The Amazing Singing Duo-ites," sang three traditional songs, "Took My Gal a-Walkin," "Charlie," and the very humorous "Tessie's Wedding Gown." Strong in voice and nimble on the guitar, Will Harmon sang two well-known songs, "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Big Yellow Taxi." In honor of National Accordian Awareness Month, singer-accordianist El Invisiblé, whose sense of modesty compels him to cover his face in public, performed his own song, "I Love a Lesbian."

The show also featured a "commercial" message. The Library Staff Association disavows any knowledge of the "Men of the Library" calendar shamelessly promoted by Terry McQuilkin (in April of this year an insurgent group published a faux issue of LSA News in which Mr. April was featured). Terry, Jen Lindsey, Michelle Page, Chip Hixson, and Vonda Welty celebrated the joy of working in the library by reading a series of library affirmations, which elicited some noticeable laughter.

The final act of the afternoon, "Palindrome" was extremely funny. Set in the Wild West, Tom Stave played the role of a stranger who comes into town armed only with a straw hat and the ability to speak in palindromes. Paul Frantz (the barkeep) and Jen Lindsey (a cowgirl) delivered their lines with skill, and Will Harmon, Heather Ward and Leslie Bennett (who organized the act) sang at the beginning and end of the skit.

Gonzo was preceded by a surprise appearance by Annie, Seth and baby Boris Zeidman-Karpinski, who offered heartfelt appreciation to all of the staff members who sent gifts and words of support to them during the past several months.

Many thanks to the LSA Program Committee, who put in many hours organizing this revue. Special thanks to David McCallum who prepared the printed program, and David Peterson, who served as sound engineer for the event. Kudos also to Liesl Vorderstrasse, who sewed a curtain to serve as a backdrop.

To see more photos of this year's Gonzo, see the Gonzo 2004 photo gallery.

Note: Shirien Chappell has put on our web pages all of the programs Gonzo from 1986 to the present. Visit the Program Committee's Gonzo index.

News from the Field: a typical day in the life of OIMB

A dispatch from our "Foreign Correspondent", Barbara Butler

For those of you who have not visited Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, we are located in what people quaintly call the "fishing village" of Charleston, eight miles south of Coos Bay. Charleston boasts a population of roughly 1000, several fish processing plants, a field station of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, boat moorage facilities for commercial and leisure boats, and most importantly for this article, a marine laboratory.

Now that you have the setting, let me give you the answer to four of my most frequently asked questions:

1. Nope, there is no view of the ocean from my office. Okay, you CAN see a bit of the North Spit from the back of the Men's dormitory (a group of us watched the second attempt to burn the fuel out of the stranded marine vessel New Carissa from that vantage point*).
2. While it might be 90 degrees and sunny in Eugene the summer weather in Charleston is not ideal. A grand total of two warm inland days causes fog to settle over Charleston. Did I mention wind? That is another hallmark of our summer weather. September and February are good weather months on the coast. That said, the last few days have been windy but beautiful.
3. Summer term is our busiest time of the year at OIMB, so no; I won't be taking any vacation until the end of the term.
4. Yep, I am the only person working in the OIMB library (well, several months ago I did hire a student assistant to work a few hours per week).

The title of this article is a bit of a misnomer. Is there a typical day at OIMB? I think not. In addition to the regular old stuff (circulation, shelving, ILL, etc.) here are four selected interactions from yesterday:

1. A young girl and her grandmother come in to look for an invertebrate identification guide. The granddaughter is visiting her grandmother who lives aboard a sailboat in the boat basin. After an exciting round of "belly biology" (you lie on your belly on the docks to look at the communities of organisms that settle and grow on the docks and pilings) she needed to know the names of the critters. She is driven. She is going to be a scientist and maybe even a marine biologist. Well, all of the REALLY good field guides are on reserve during Summer Term and at OIMB that means they are housed in the teaching laboratories. There is nothing to be done except to take a walk over to the Invertebrate Zoology classroom, let the visitors look at all the organisms in the water tables (yep, running seawater in every classroom) and we start browsing through ID books. In no time at all she has identified the five or six organisms in question and we head back to the library to copy the pertinent pages so she has exact descriptions and scientific names.
   

2. Graduate student B.G. (name abbreviated to protect patron confidentiality) comes in to check out a book. I notice the splint on his finger and guess correctly that it was a basketball injury (B.G. can often be seen at the OIMB basketball hoop). He is unsure if it is best to keep the finger immobilized or to allow it some movement. I've watched my share of E.R. episodes and advise him that the most important thing is to ice it regularly, and to take an anti-inflammatory such as ibuprofen. The physician at the clinic has given him samples of Vioxx. Well, Doc Barb is concerned about potential stomach upset from Vioxx but because I'm not a real doctor and only watch them on TV, I leave the choice of drugs to the professionals. I tell him to keep the finger immobilized and check back with me in the morning.
   

3. OIMB has quite a few visiting scientists during summers. Scientists come from landlocked states to conduct research once their academic year has ended and there are visiting instructors to teach the summer term courses. Yesterday one of our visiting instructors (W.J.) stops by my office and asks, "What is upstairs?" Finishing the second story of the Loyd and Dorothy Rippey Library is a project that has been fraught with setbacks (we'll save that for a different column) so I take a deep breath and say "Nothing yet, but there will be soon". Putting my very best "reference interview" skills to work, I let the patron articulate his need. He tells me he isn't looking for a place to hide, but if there were a place to hide there it would be nice to know about it. Having just dispensed medical advice, I weight the idea of asking what he needs to hide from, but that isn't how the reference interview is supposed to work. I decide to ask what sort of features he might need in his hiding place and I take him upstairs to see the table and chairs that might be available to him. He is giddy with the prospect of the new hiding place. I put off my role as Barb-the-OIMB-counselor for a few days but given that we are only in the second week of our eight-week summer term I'll be watching the situation closely. If he "goes missing" for any length of time I will intervene.
   

4. I'm in the process of writing an article with the librarian from the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory (MLML) in California. She emailed me her most recent changes and while downloading and printing the document I notice two people walking through the library. Low and behold, I recognize one of them as a faculty member at MLML. I search the recesses of my brain…. What is his name? He's the whale guy isn't he? Or was it pinnipeds? I fall back and punt and say, hey there, you teach at Moss Landing! He's thrilled that I recognize him. By then, I know his name and say "Paul Harvey, right"? It turns out his name is Jim Harvey but I was close (apologies to Paul Harvey in CMET, I'll undoubtedly call you Jim next time I see you- I have limited RAM in my brain for names). Anyway, it has been several years since Jim visited OIMB and so I take the time to tour him around the library and mention that I was just in the process of emailing HIS librarian. It is a small world.

Meanwhile, it's back to the day-to-day operations of a one-person, open to students 24 hours per day library.

*There will be a prize awarded to the first library trivia buff to correctly identify the date of the New Carissa stranding. Please email your answers to Barbara Butler.

New Images, New Worlds

by Carol Hixson

For the past year and a half, since February of 2003, members of Metadata and Digital Library Services have been working on building new digital collections for the UO Libraries. In December of 2003, the name of the department was changed from Catalog Department to Metadata and Digital Library Services (MDLS) to reflect our new role and mission.

The collections that we are building are not the first digital collections for the Libraries, nor are they the only ones still being developed. But they are the first collections being developed using CONTENTdm and DSpace software, and working on them has changed our work lives forever.

When I talk to friends and colleagues about the work that we're doing, the first thing I tell them is that our work has become much more collaborative than it ever was in the past. Everything that we do depends on the expertise and assistance of dozens of other people: whether it's Bob Felsing's standard of 100% accuracy for optical character recognition (OCR) and full-text searching that he developed and employs in building e-Asia (and that we're following for our text-based collections); Lesli Larson's expertise as a photographer that guides our efforts in digitizing the remarkable images from Special Collections; James Fox's in-depth knowledge of the collections and the photographers who created them that informs so many of our projects; the traditions and insight of members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla or other user communities with whom we are working; the willingness of staff members in MDLS to embrace completely new technologies and approaches to their work; the expertise of subject specialists and faculty who are selecting materials for the Western Waters collection; or the feedback, inspiration, and guidance of colleagues on the Metadata Implementation Group or at sister institutions - every digital image reflects the work of many people.

The next thing I emphasize when talking with colleagues is that we are far more outward-looking than we used to be. As catalogers and preservation specialists, we had little say in how the collections were built and limited contact with the public. Now, we are actively engaged in creating content and in designing new ways of discovering, preserving, and using that content. Our mission has been greatly expanded and we routinely consult on campus and beyond, helping other groups and libraries to create and provide access to their own digital content.

The last thing I tell people is that we're having a lot of fun. Working with different people across campus and the region, learning new skills that expand our knowledge every day, challenging old assumptions, and making some remarkable collections available to the world is just plain fun.

So, as Harriett Smith encourages you in another article in this issue, come take a look at what we're up to by checking out the digital collections page. Much of the website design and the local enhancements to the software have been the work of Corey Harper, with feedback and assistance from WICHE, Special Collections, the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, and others. Everything you see is very much a work in progress, with new items being added daily and with revisions taking place as we learn more and as we get more direct feedback from the users of the collections. And the collections speak for themselves! In addition to the collections that are publicly accessible, we're working with the Museum of Natural History to build digital surrogates for their collections; with Heather Ward, Special Collections and the Wired Humanities Project to build a collection of Medieval Manuscripts; and much, much more. You can read a news article about the Picturing the Cayuse collection and its value to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla on the campus website at http://www.uoregon.edu/newscenter/moorhousewebsite.html. Check it out.

Dreaming at My Desk

by Harriett Smith

Victor Trevitt and Memaloose Island: Dreaming over Digital Images

This year some of us have been learning to catalog digital images. So far I have cataloged images from the UO Libraries' "Picturing the Cayuse" and "Western Waters" collections. These images fascinate and frustrate me. I feel my depth of knowledge falls so far short of what it should be, particularly with the Native American images. The tribal images are even more challenging because Major Lee Moorhouse had the annoying habit of occasionally using all sorts of props in his photos, even if they were from a completely different tribe or area of the world. But beyond that, each image stretches my knowledge of Pacific Northwest history, my vocabulary, and my understanding of what I see.

Fortunately, mine is not the only cataloging that will be applied to the images of Native Americans with which I work. A sort of parallel cataloging of each image is being done by staff from the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. And Carol Hixson, the coordinator of these digital projects, consults routinely with tribal members and other experts to get feedback and insight into the image descriptions.

All these images fascinate me and make me want to know more about the person, place, group, or objects depicted. As I catalog or browse the digital collections of these photographs, each seems to me imbued with a story waiting to be discovered. In fact, some of the images literally are stories -- a few weeks ago I worked on some articles about the Columbia River which originally appeared in Scientific American.

My curiousity was aroused most recently while working in the Western Waters collection by a photograph of Trevitt Monument, Memaloose Island, which immediately reminded me of the photo of Skulls on wooden burial structure at top of Memaloose Island, Columbia River. The big stone obelisk of the monument struck me as so incongrous in this setting that I was immediately curious to know who Victor Trevitt was, whether he was a Native American or not, and why he had a monument there.

I started my research with a Google search on the names "Victor Trevitt" and "Memaloose". I was a little surprised that Memaloose, now a state park, also has camping. I'm not so sure I would want to camp on an island Lewis and Clark called "the Sepulchar Island", with a name that is said to come from the Chinook Jargon "Memalust": "to die". The island was long used as a resting site for the dead, as stated in a short report on the repatriation of human remains from the area by the Smithsonian in the National Museum of Natural History:

The human remains from both Upper and Lower Memaloose Islands were recovered from mixed, multiple burial contexts. These mixed deposits can be ascribed to traditional mortuary practices in the region involving the use of above-ground charnel houses. Associated funerary objects from the ossuary on Lower Memaloose indicate that the island was in use as a mortuary facility from at least the late 18th century through the mid-19th century. The artifactual evidence is corroborated by early ethnohistoric accounts and oral tradition. Though lacking associated funerary offerings, the remains from Upper Memaloose Island are assumed to date to the same general proto-historic/early historic time period.

So who was Victor Trevitt, and why was a monument to him erected on the site of a traditional native burial ground? From Jan Leininger's History of Mosier website (see "Early Pioneers"), as well as from Howard McKinley Corning's Dictionary of Oregon History I learned that Victor Trevitt was a white man, born in 1827, and had come to Oregon in 1850. A printer, he moved to The Dalles in 1854 where he dabbled in real estate and operated a tavern. He was a member of the first state legislature (chosen as a representative in 1858), and was a state senator from Wasco County 1866-74. His first wife was said to be "the daughter of an Indian chief"; she was said to be buried on Memaloose Island. In any case, it was Trevitt's wish to also be buried among his "Indian friends" who "always kept their word".

Alfred Powers in his History of Oregon Literature quotes Trevitt as saying "I have but one desire after I die, to be laid away on Memaloose Island with the Indians. They are more honest than whites and live up to the light they have. In the resurrection I will take my chances with the Indians."

After he died in San Francisco in 1883, his friends carried out this wish. An article on the web purporting to be from the Oregonian for September 19, 1926 (section 5, page 11) and entitled "City of Dead" Located on Columbia Below Lyle Island Where Indians Buried Dead Described by Mrs. Lulu Crandall of The Dalles has an interesting description of Trevitt's burial. It also gives some examples of the disrespect shown by whites for the native burials -- a disrespect still seen all over the Americas today when it comes to grave looting and artifact plundering.

As an epilog to Victor's tale, Stephenie Flora writes on her oregonpioneers.com website:

While Bonneville Dam was being constructed, the remains of the Indians buried on Memaloose Island were removed to another burial ground. The only grave remaining on the island is that of a white man, whose burial there caused the tribes to stop using the island for their burials. The white man's grave marker was being used as a navigational signal in the 1960s.

A photo of Victor Trevitt has been digitized and can be seen at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center/Wasco County Historical Museum site. Their online photo archive is worth a browse, containing over 1100 images at the time I visited.

The Picturing the Cayuse digitization and cataloging work is coordinated by my department, Metadata and Digital Library Services, with the assistance of the Image Services Center and others in Special Collections & University Archives. We are working closely with the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. I urge any reader with the slightest interest in this work or the images to visit these websites and the others cited on the departmental pages; the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla site has an especially interesting section on History & Culture.

staff development committee - Rejuvenation!

By Cathy Flynn-Purvis

REJUVENATION is the word of the moment from your Library Staff Development Committee. Take advantage of the more languorous summer pace to think about opportunities to re-energize yourself with learning. Last fiscal year the SDC funded over $6600 in job-related staff training that ranged from UO language classes to national conferences and workshops. Need some ideas? Explore the links to professional associations, conferences and training opportunities on the SDC web page

All staff members should feel free to talk to any current or former committee members to express their interest, ideas or constructive criticism regarding the committee and its responsibilities. For mission statement, annual reports and other links please visit our Staff Development home page.

The committee welcomes new members Jeanette Lochbaum, David Peterson and Elena Chertok, who will be joining continuing members Blake Scott, Avis Thompson and Catherine Flynn-Purvis. Jennifer Rowan, Betsy Kelly and Dotti Clegg have completed their service on the committee and will be missed.

Oregon Waters

Susan Mincks latest Fact File Winner

In our June issue, we asked you to identify eight waterways and bodies of water in Oregon. This proved to be one of our toughest contests, and none of our readers correctly identified all eight. Given the difficulty, however, Susan Mincks, of the Document Center, performed swimmingly well, and surfaced as our winner. She'll be receiving a gift certificate with $5.00 toward purchases at the UO Bookstore.

You can revisit the clues in the June LSA News Fact File.

1. Waldo Lake
2. Deschutes River
3. Goose Lake
4. Illinois River
5. Lake Abert
6. John Day River
7. Cougar Reservoir
8. Malheur River, Malheur Lake

Two Truths and A Lie...Revealed!

We did our best to tantalize you but not even ONE person ventured to take a walk on the wild side and submit his/her suspicions of the darker nature and inscrutable pasts of our library colleagues. Not even for chocolate (and if it makes you feel any worse, it was DARK chocolate....so your intrepid LSA newsletter committee members have reluctantly agreed to divvy up the spoils, sad but TRUE!). You may be shocked or your suspicions confirmed when you view the answers below (or you may be simply sorry about the whole business!).

Stacy Marquardt

1. After graduating from college, she drove 3300 miles across country to look for a job in Atlanta, Georgia. TRUTH!
2. Celebrated the turn of the millennium by camping overnight on New Year's Eve in an alligator-infested swamp in the Everglades. TRUTH!
3. Originally hails from Kodiak, Alaska where her dad was stationed in the Navy. LIE!

Lori Robare

1. Played the role of Marian in her high school production of Music Man. LIE!
2. Practiced skydiving during her college years until stopped with a back injury. TRUTH!
3. Was an interpreter (French-English) for athletes at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. TRUTH!

Christy Carmichael

1. In a sleepwalking episode at age seven, she climbed down from the top bunk, went to the kitchen and ate a banana. LIE! (it happened to her sister)
2. Was attacked by a crow while riding her bike (it landed on her head and started pulling out hairs). TRUTH!
3. Her mom almost entered the convent as a Catholic nun. TRUTH!

Catherine Flynn-Purvis

1. Was the 5th grade Archidiocese of Chicago Spelling Bee Champion. TRUTH!
2. Was part of a team of women mountaineers who successfully climbed Mount Hood in 1991. LIE!
3. Taught skiing at a mountaintop resort in Galicia, Spain. TRUTH!

Aimee Yogi

1. Has summited Mount Hood, Mount Washington and Three-fingered Jack. TRUTH!
2. Cross-country skied the Cascade Marathon 30K race from Mt. Bachelor. TRUTH!
3. Rafted the Colorado River with the Outlaw River Rats in 1997. LIE!

Leslie Bennett

1. Sang backup for a Carpenters concert. TRUTH!
2. Danced the part of a mouse in a production of the Nutcracker. LIE! (can't dance!)
3. Was born in Germany. TRUTH!

Will Harmon

1. Lived in Pakistan at the entryway to the Khyber Pass. TRUTH!
2. Flew shotgun in an F4 across the Pacific. LIE!
3. His band was kicked off Sudanese TV because the dancers were considered overly lewd in an Islamic state. TRUTH!

Harriett Smith

1. Hopped a freight train with her boyfriend as a teen. TRUTH!
2. Is a secret Britney fan! (don't tell!). LIE! (whew!)
3. Has read Beowulf in the original more than once. TRUTH!

David Landazuri

1. Was chosen "All-American Boy" of his 8th grade class in Havana, Illinois. His family was the only Hispanic family in town. TRUTH!
2. Ginger Rogers once said "hello" to him on Montgomery Street in San Francisco. TRUTH!
3. Was arrested at an anti-war demonstration in Chicago in 1972. LIE!

Jennifer Rowan

1. Made a living singing in clubs in a major Canadian city in the 1970s. TRUTH!
2. Rode behind Monica Lewinsky and her entourage up an escalator in Macy's in New York City in November 2001. LIE!
3. Had her nose pierced when she turned 30. TRUTH!

Stacy DeHart

1. Has sky-dived (dove?) a total of ten times in Oregon and in New England. LIE!
2. Drove across the country five times in a Geo Metro. TRUTH!
3. Tracked down and shot an aggressive wild boar. TRUTH!

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

On Friday, July 16, 2004 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., LSA members can tour the new Lillis Business Complex. The LSA Program Committee has arranged for Frank Sharpy, the Building Manager, to show us some classrooms and conference rooms, and explain the solar arrays. (We are not allowed to go up on the roof, but there are some solar arrays in the windows which we can see). If you are curious about this new certified environmentally-friendly building, please join us. We'll assemble in the courtyard in front of the building by noon for this fun and educational tour.

NON-LSA EVENTS

The University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections and University Archives will be closed July 12 through September 12, 2004. The closure will help staff to accomplish some much-needed shifting and preservation work.

Goodbyes

Linda received her BS in elementary Education in 1963 from Lewis and Clark College and her MS Degree in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Oregon in 1980.

While working in the library Linda has experienced many changes from the renovation of the Knight library, in 1994, to learning Banner FIS purchasing system. Her knowledge and experience has helped to improve methods in her department. Linda has served on the Library Staff Association board, and is part of LSA's Welcome Committee, taking new library employees out for coffee so they will feel welcome. Along with doing this she volunteered for the library tours given to new students and was responsible for helping to make the first "Library Day" a success.

Her friendly voice is the one you hear when calling in building problems that need attention in the Knight library, or showing the Facilities service repair person where their assistance is needed. Her friendly spirit will be missed by those who work with her on a daily basis.

—Judi Byrum

Been to an interesting conference?

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

Last updated: 030902
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