LSA News

No. 62, March, 2005

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

Michael Gorman visits UO Libraries

story by Harriett Smith with photos by Marion Obar

What is the current state of libraries and of education for librarianship? Where are we going, and what part will technology play in our future? Is literacy still important? American Library Association president-elect Michael Gorman's views on these questions are sometimes provocative but always insightful and interesting. The philosophy of this witty and articulate speaker, who is concerned with the meaning libraries carry and the part they play in the life of a society, has been shaped by a lifetime in the profession. On Friday, February 4, 2005, UO Libraries faculty and staff were joined by colleagues from such institutions as Central Oregon Community College, Oregon State University, and Portland State University to hear Gorman talk about "Libraries Today and Tomorrow." His appearance was sponsored by the UO Library Staff Development committee, and was videotaped; email Laine Stambaugh or phone her at 6-1895 to view the tape.

Deb Carver welcomes Michael Gorman to the UO Libraries.

Gorman planned to cover three main areas: the pressures currently felt by the profession and by libraries; our assets and what will sustain us; and predictions for the future. He ran over time on the first section, so that the last sections did not receive as much attention. If you've read his later books, such as Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness & Reality (Z678.9.A4 U624 1995), Our Enduring Values: Librarianship in the 21st Century, (Z716.4 .G67 2000), or his latest, The Enduring Library: Technology, Tradition, and the Quest for Balance, (Z716.4 .G665 2003) you'll know just how unfortunate this was.

Gorman linked some of the pressures currently facing libraries to events in society at large. He discussed how pressures on school libraries or public libraries can later show up as pressures on academic libraries as well, when students show up on campus lacking basic literacy or library skills. We see a lot of enthusiasm for getting very young children to read, he said, but little support or follow-through to keep them reading: when school budgets are cut, music and libraries are usually the first to go. Yet if one cannot read sustained complex texts one is barred from real learning and from interaction with the human record. The digital divide is real, but it is a part of a larger societal divide between the poor and the well-off. In The Enduring Library, Gorman writes:

Many of today's poor and otherwise disadvantaged do suffer from a lack of access to the kind of information that can be found readily on the Internet, but they also suffer from underfunded public education, economically straitened libraries, low levels of literacy, and a debased culture of lowbrow entertainment. How are people living in such a culture going to have their lives and mental landscapes changed by being given access to the Internet?

Gorman said that he had proposed that ALA's overall objective should be universal access to high-quality library service because it improves and changes people's lives, but the proposal was not accepted.

Gorman at the podium

He also discussed some of the negatives associated with current technological advances. Libraries have taken on funding for internet and electronic database access, including hardware, software, and systems departments, while still having to carry on and fund "traditional" library functions. The impermanence of digital records was touched on via the current discussion about making government documents only available digitally, and the abuses to which that could lead under an unscrupulous government. He pointed out that there is a huge difference between information and knowledge, and that the best means of conveying them may differ. He stressed that bibliographic instruction for undergraduates should include teaching them that electronic resources are not always preferable to print resources. Students need to know how to assess which is the best source and how to evaluate different information sources, be they books, journals, or web sites.

Along with the "graying" of our profession comes the problem of library education for those entering the field. There is no longer a common core curriculum that will prepare new librarians for library work, and trends like web design are displacing courses such as cataloging. Gorman believes that understanding the concepts and system behind cataloging rules is necessary for understanding the organization of knowledge in the library catalog. This understanding is essential for reference and systems work as well as "technical services" work. He maintains that at the moment one cannot hire a newly-graduated librarian and count on them having a basic grounding in the types of subjects they need to succeed on the job, and he strongly advocates that ALA should insist on a core group of subjects taught by core faculty members (not adjuncts) as a perquisite for ALA-accreditation so that all new librarians emerge from school with a solid background in the basics of their profession.

So, Gorman asks, what are some of the assets we bring with us when we face the many challenges ahead? Our values: we believe in the stewardship and preservation of the human record. We believe in service and are committed to literacy and learning. We believe in the right to intellectual freedom and to privacy. As well, our skills: expertise in information retrieval, reference work, and cataloging. And, our collections: they are of incalculable value, and the greater part of them will never be digitized. Lastly, librarians have a good public image, and have public esteem and trust, even if not funding.

	Michael Gorman and Catherine Flynn-Purvis

If you missed Michael Gorman's lecture, I recommend a viewing of the videotape. If his take on digitization, systems departments, and electronic resources disturbed, piqued, or interested you, I recommend a perusal of chapters 8 and 9 of The Enduring Library, where he gets more meatily into a discussion of electronic documents and resources in today's libraries. If you have time, read the whole book! I found Our Enduring Values and The Enduring Library to be books filled with enduring insight into the meaning of our work, the problems we face, and the possibilities ahead.

Behind the Scenes at the Schnitzer Museum

Special LSA tour gets inside the long-awaited art museum remodel

story and photos by Jennifer Rowan and Laura Damiani

Rendering of the renovation and expansion
Odessa Schneider, 2003

Even for those who wasted no time getting inside the Jordan Schnitzer Museum after its grand reopening at the end of January, the LSA museum tour on February 17th offered a look at some of the Museum’s less accessible spaces. Due to the generosity of Museum Registrar, Jean Nattinger, who suggested this unusual tour and conducted it herself, 16 Library staff had the opportunity to get behind the scenes for a look at the center of operations for Museum staff as well as a tantalizing glimpse of the Museum’s enormous reserve collection held in storage and out of public view.

The 70-year old structure was originally designed by Ellis Lawrence for the purpose of housing the Bass-Warner Collection of Asian art and artifacts. The recent $14.2 million renovation and expansion closed the museum for four years but added 38,000 square feet of space. When it reopened, it did so as the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, named for the Portland art collector whose multi-million dollar gift topped the fundraising that ensured the completion of the renovation project.

	Shipping boxes from the Warhol exhibit pieces

Our group met in the bustling museum foyer where we were met and checked in by Jean Nattinger before heading into the area she described as “where the mole people live.” Our first stop was the room that contains collection documentation. The museum uses an antiquated library-based system of card files and manila folders for maintaining donor records, tracking item location and cataloging the collection. It is in the process of converting to a collections database specially designed for museums. Jean ruefully remarked that the renovation necessitated a re-inventorying of the entire collection as it was being prepared for relocation to a temporary storage facility in West Eugene. It was a logistical nightmare, but the end result is that collection records are now complete, standardized and brought up to date, and they now know where every piece is!

Jean led us through the research area, prep areas, 3-D mount making studio, exhibit preparation area and construction shop. We met museum photographer Rick Gehrike who was working in the photo studio. Of general fascination was the huge freight elevator – the largest freight elevator in the northwest! Our entire group fit into it with plenty of room to spare. Even so, Jean told us, the elevator was still not large enough to carry one very large framed painting that had to be carried up the museum stairs manually (and then brought back down when it didn’t fit in the intended spot!).

Before the expansion, only about 7% of the museum holdings were on display at any given time. Right now, that number hovers at about 11% with exhibits rotated on schedules determined by the curators. Due to the inherent fragility or light sensitivity of some of the works, such as Japanese prints and other works on paper and Chinese costumes and other textiles, these pieces are switched out more frequently, even in the semi-permanent exhibits. With almost 90% of museum holdings in storage, storage facilities figured highly in the renovation plan. There are two enormous collection storage areas that have improved security features and climate control. Ideal temperature is 70 degrees, plus or minus 2 degrees, and 45-50% humidity. Compact shelving is being utilized as one storage strategy. Jean demonstrated the movable shelf units and we all waited eagerly for a view of the works in storage but alas, each object was still blanketed and obscured in its wrappings from the move.

The tour group gets a ride on the gigantic freight elevator!

The painting storage area was a different matter. Movable racks stretch from floor to ceiling on which hundreds of paintings are secured on hooks with rubberized tips. We were able to identify some of the artists represented here, including works by Maude Kerns and David McCosh. Finally, we were brought alongside the Chinese textile storage area where Jean unwrapped a package to reveal a sample piece: an embroidered sleeve band decorated with the popular Chinese theme of a hundred children at play.

The current visiting museum exhibit is the traveling “Andy Warhol’s Dream America” from the personal collection of Jordan Schnitzer. The exhibit will continue to May 1, 2005 and will be followed by the University of Oregon Master of Fine Arts exhibition in May and June. Summer will bring an exhibition of American photographers, and in October, “Inside the Floating World”, a visiting exhibit of Japanese prints from the Weatherspoon Art Museum of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. There is more in store from the museum’s own collection in the fall when the Chinese and Japanese Galleries finally open. For Asian art enthusiasts in the meantime, the Korean gallery is open and should not be missed.

A second behind-the-scenes museum tour is scheduled for March 17 and is fully booked with a waiting list. Many thanks are owed to Jean Nattinger for giving us an insider’s view of the spectacular new museum facility!

Click here for more photos from the tour

Museum Café offers elegant fare

A review by Jennifer Rowan

The reopening of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art reminded many just how much we've missed having an art museum at the University. In addition to welcoming back this marvelous asset to our campus, we have been delighted to discover the new jewel in the crown, Marché's Museum Café. It began operation a few weeks before the museum's actual opening, and now we know what we have been lacking in lunch options. As a result, the Museum Café is bustling with lunchtime business. In fact, its immediate success has revealed its primary shortcoming—the inadequate size of the place and limited seating (12 tables and a few seats at a small counter) that must somehow accommodate enthusiastic students, faculty and staff as well as numerous museum visitors. I enjoyed my lunch at the café yesterday, that is, after waiting in a long line to order and another 20 minutes to get my meal, and I heard lots of mild-mannered grumbling from those waiting behind me. Every table was filled by 11:45 (although five tables were occupied by students working on their laptops with a single beverage, another issue). During my meal, a large group of senior citizens came through from the museum, exclaimed with disappointment at the size of the crowd and reluctantly opted to leave unfed.

The café is an appealing, bright space with windows along the entrance wall and high ceilings with track lighting. Four huge photographs (of a surprisingly unappetizing vegetative theme) are mounted on the walls. The atmosphere is animated with lively clatter and chatter.

The menu is described as light lunchtime fare (a little too light for my father, it would seem, who ate at the café last week and was appalled at the size of his roasted turkey sandwich). Ingredients are organic and chemical-free whenever possible. There is a nice selection of salads, including the divine "Composed Salad" with carrots, beets and celery root remoulade, and a winter pear salad with Rogue River blue cheese and toasted hazelnuts. Need I say more? The soups are also universally spectacular and are served with lovely bread.

Quiche and a variety of sandwich forms make up the lunch offerings: cold and hot sandwiches include croque monsieur with ham and Gruyère cheese and croque bébé with Tillamook cheddar. There are also two hot panini sandwiches available, and as a non-vegan vegetarian, I can recommend the portobello mushroom version with sundried tomato relish and fontina. These are all served with a small green salad dressed with a light vinaigrette.

I really should experiment with more of the menu choices but discovered my personal favorite early on and, despite good intentions, can't resist ordering it again and again: the goat cheese tartine, served open-faced with a sundried tomato and olive tapenade and accompanied by a small mesclun salad. It is wonderful, as well as being a feast for the eyes!

Although planning a lunch at the Museum Café may require an act of faith that one will successfully find seating, the café is a wonderful place to meet friends and colleagues at other times of the day and weekends. I've attended a gallery talk on a Saturday afternoon with friends and then paid a visit to the café for coffee and desserts. The madeleine cookies and cone-shaped macaroons are particularly nice. Wine by the glass and bottled beers are also available, as well as handcrafted teas, café au lait (served a la francaise in a bowl) and other coffee drinks and sodas.

The Museum Café is open for business even on those days when the museum is closed (Mondays and Tuesdays). Café hours are: Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with extended hours on Wednesday (to 7:30 p.m.) to correspond with MusEvening events, and Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

A Visit with Elizabeth Orton Jones—Children's Book Writer and Illustrator

by Hannah Dillon and Linda Long

Elizabeth Orton Jones—"Twig" as she is affectionately known to friends and fans—walks with a shuffle that she calls her "Jemima Puddle-Duck" walk. But even her 94 years and her fall and broken hip that landed her in a nursing home for a year haven't slowed the spirit and lively mind of this children's literature writer and illustrator.

Elizabeth Orton Jones, a.k.a. Twig, in 1942 photo by John Mills Jr.

Last fall, Linda Long, Manuscripts Librarian, Duffy Knaus, former Manuscripts Assistant, and Hannah Dillon, Manuscripts Processor, traveled to New Hampshire to conduct an extensive oral history interview with Twig. After recovering from her fall, she is living again in her home in the quintessentially quaint New England town of Mason in southeast New Hampshire. A grant from the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) on campus funded our trip.

Our mission was to document and give witness to a remarkable artistic life. Elizabeth Orton Jones has become a vital and integral part of countless childhoods though her works Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins (1938), Maminka's Children (1940), Small Rain (1944), Prayer for a Child (1945, 1973, 2004), Big Susan (1947, 1960, 2001), Little Red Riding Hood (1948) and Twig (1943, 2001). Twig was productive during the "Golden Age" of children's literature in the late 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. The "Golden Age" saw technical advances in the processes for color printing that resulted in the production of high-quality books. Also, during this period many of the book illustrations were created by outstanding artists.

Twig is one of the few women artists and writers living today who produced award-winning children's books during this "Golden Age" of children's literature. She was awarded the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1945 for her illustrations for Prayer for a Child, which was recently re-issued by Simon and Schuster to celebrate the book's diamond anniversary. The library acquired Twig's papers starting in the mid-1960s, with many additions to the collection since then. The oral history interview will complement the collection of letters, literary manuscripts, and original drawings that constitute the Elizabeth Orton Jones Papers in Special Collections and University Archives.

We prepared for the interview by researching Twig's life, drawing up an extensive list of questions, and making sure we had good recording equipment. And of course we all speculated, with degrees of nervous anticipation, about what Twig herself would be like in person. None of us, however, had anticipated falling in love with her, being moved to tears by many of her stories, doubling up in laughter when she told a particularly funny story, or not wanting to leave her.

(story continued)

THE WORLD AROUND US:

South Africa

by Colleen Bell

In 1994, two extraordinary events shook Africa. In Rwanda, Hutus, armed with machetes and guns, slaughtered over 800,000 Tutsis. And in South Africa, the African National Congress, with Nelson Mandela as its leader, swept to victory in the country’s first democratic elections. As earth-shaking as they were for Africa, however, neither event garnered much notice here in the United States.

In the movie, Hotel Rwanda, there’s a scene between a photojournalist and Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who managed to save the lives of 1,200 Tutsis. The photojournalist has captured pictures of the slaughter taking place in the streets of Kigali, and has sent them via satellite to the outside world. Paul expresses hope that now that the horrors have been exposed, western governments will step in to stop the genocide. The journalist replies that he hopes so, but what will likely happen is that people will watch the news, express their horror, and return to their dinners.

What is it about Africa that invites this patent lack of interest in the trials and challenges of this particular continent? Genocide in eastern Europe invites condemnation and aid from the west. Conflicts in the Middle East bring the U.S. running to the aid of oil-rich countries like Kuwait. A natural disaster in southeast Asia brings immediate humanitarian aid from countries around the world. But on African conflicts and humanitarian disasters, such as those going on right now in the Congo and Sudan, the western world is either complicit in creating the conflict, or largely silent. The western world has spent much of modern history exploiting the resources – human, animal, mineral – of the African continent, while introducing a host of ecological and sociological problems.

Reading with students after school in the children's room
at Johannesburg's Central Library
Photo courtesy of John Cole

The problems faced by African nations are equally as great as those faced by countries in other regions of the world, if not greater. In a country like South Africa, which has the appearance of a developed nation but the challenges of a developing nation, the problems seem insurmountable: poverty, hunger, drought, AIDS, tuberculosis, crime, xenophobia, illiteracy, and a highly fractured social and economic infrastructure. South Africa is really a new nation, barely 10 years old, and its struggle to create the necessary support systems reflect its youth.

(story continued)

The View from Hidden Spring

by Pam DeLaittre

Mid-February, right on schedule, lambing began. My good old ewe "6" lambed on the morning of the 16th, the first of thirteen ewes to get with the season. Her sons, one black and one white, were both standing at her side when I got to the barn. The jugs weren't yet set up, though the large stall was all clean in preparation. We hurriedly set the stalls up. These panels, which we made, have eye bolts at each end and corresponding eye bolts on the stall walls. We line up the eye bolts and slip a piece of rebar through one eye bolt then the other, lining them up then push the end of the rebar into the stall floor to anchor it. This is fast and easy. Once the cozy (3 X 4 ft.) jug stall is up, I bed it with golden wheat straw for warmth.

"6" was impatiently waiting for the stall; she'd done this all before and knew what to expect. There would be fresh water (labor makes one thirsty) and some sweet feed to eat. I picked up the lambs, showing her I had both lambs, and led her into the jug.

Each lamb gets the same treatment right after birth. We call it snip, flip, strip and dip. I snip off the end of the umbilicus and dip it in strong (7%) iodine. I check and flip each eyelid to make sure they aren't entropic (inverted so that the eyelids would scratch the eye). Then I reach under the ewe and strip just a little milk from each side to make sure her nipples aren't clogged. Lambs also get two shots. One is tetanus antitoxin to protect immediately against tetanus, and the other is a tiny shot of vitamin E + selenium. Lastly they get a mouthful of "Survive", an oral vitamin and mineral booster. I usually also make certain they are nursing.

(story continued)

Stuck in the Void

Recounting a Harrowing Bunny Experience

by Liesl Vorderstrasse

It is a classic western Oregon November evening—foggy, cold, and lightly raining off and on. That Saturday evening, our one-year-old gray and black English angora bunny, Tweety, a.k.a. The Bird, has made it clear by patiently waiting by the backdoor that she wants to get some fresh air and stretch her legs in the yard.

Tweety

Typically, rabbits are kept outside in hutches and are isolated from the rest of the family for the vast majority of their lives. However, our fortunate bunnies are never in cages. Instead, they live in the house and use litter boxes. When rabbits live in an environment filled with freedom, stimulation, and affection, they are allowed to become who they are. Each one of our rabbits is unique and rather complex in their likes and dislikes, idiosyncrasies, moods, and habits. They are also lucky in that they have access to a fenced backyard, filled with trees, ferns and shrubs, to provide shelter from above (think birds of prey) and lots of hidey-holes for protection from terrestrial predators. Now, we don't have many of these except the occasional, essentially harmless cat on the prowl, but these safety zones are for bunny peace of mind. Moreover, I believe the dense landscaping creates a back-to-nature ambiance that seems to give rise to a wild rabbit sensation that makes them happy. Our male-female bonded pair, Maynie and Peanut, will stay out for entire afternoons, but Tweety is happy to just spend an hour bouncing around, eating the grass (and my primroses), marking territory by chin rubbing objects, and sniffing the air, then she is ready to come back in the house.

(story continued)

Tidbits

by Rosella Thomas

This month's article is a "stir-fry" of items, because things are really busy here in Serials. I've barely had time to string two thoughts together, so bon appétit!

• I was disappointed that the Oscar-nominated movie "Sideways" did not win bigger at this year's Academy Awards show. This highly acclaimed comedy, about two buddies on a road trip in California's wine country, took home the Oscar for best-adapted screenplay. I thought Virginia Madsen (Maya) deserved to win best supporting actress for her unbelievable performance and her inspired monologue about what she thinks about wine. And Jack (Thomas Hayden Church was nominated for best supporting actor) for being such a believable jerk. Haven't seen the movie yet? It's not too late to catch it this week at the Cinemark 17, Gateway Mall (rated R for language and some strong sexual content). Make sure to have a bottle of good wine on hand at home for after the movie. You'll definitely want a glass of Pinot Noir after seeing "Sideways".

• Stop in at the campus Starbucks® sale table and pick up a small box of Starbucks® Dessert Chocolates with your morning coffee or chai. Marked down to $2.99, this Valentine's Day sampler contains two milk chocolate and two dark chocolate bonbons in such enticing flavors as dulce de leche, vanilla crème brulée and, my favorite, chili lime. My friend and I sampled two each and we both felt pretty euphoric afterward.

• Mark Stern, the chef and owner of the sidewalk soup cart, Carte Blanche, has finally opened up his new restaurant venture, DISH Comfort Cuisine, at 959 Pearl Street. Those of us on Carte's email list recently got notification that the restaurant is open for lunch from Monday-Friday, 11am-3pm. In addition, they have a Bar menu that covers 3pm to closing at 2am. I spoke to Mark briefly last week and he says their dinner menu will be out in a few weeks. Send me an email and I'll forward their lunch menu to you, because DISH is so close to campus that a rib-sticking macaroni & cheese and/or meatloaf sandwich lunch, followed by a swift walk back to work, would definitely be a treat you wouldn't have to feel guilty about later.

  Mark also reports that the Carte Blanche soup cart is now serving an authentic Caesar salad that is no longer considered vegan. It is the same version served in his new restaurant. A true Caesar salad (I'm a Caesar snob) contains dairy (Parmesan cheese) and a hint of anchovies. He says the House Balsamic is still vegan though.

• Speaking of Caesar dressings: Newman's Own® makes both a great traditional Caesar and a creamy Caesar salad dressing. They've probably on the grocery shelf for a long time, but I just happened upon them at my neighborhood Safeway. My household zipped through a bottle of the creamy Caesar and several bag salads in no time and, since this company donates all profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes, I feel really good about eating light.

Finally, I've always checking out the new orders we're processing in our department for food related books. Two new receipts are:

Poet of the appetites : the lives and loves of M.F.K. Fisher by Joan Reardon. New York : North Point Press, 2004. TX649.F5 R43 2004

Spice : the history of a temptation. New York : Knopf, c2004. TX406 .T87 2004

SIGH. If only I had more time to eat (uh, I mean read!)

Remembering Hatoon

The community's reaction to Hatoon Victoria Adkins' death last Tuesday was extraordinary, but in many respects not surprising, given the number of people whose lives in one way or another intersected hers, even if only briefly.

Hatoon was a familiar figure at Knight Library, and nearly everyone who works in the building can recall conversations with her. Often she would tell you about a dozen or more things that had recently happened to her, including the disappearance of something valuable to her or essential to the security of our society, or she would give account of a handful of preternatural phenomena, whose relationship to one another the listener was expected to understand. She met the challenge of mental illness and homelessness with pluck and a good deal of charm. She thrived on contact with other people, and there are but few library employees who have not had exchanges with her.

From the Fact File

by TERRY McQUILKIN

March 17 is St. Patrick's Day, and for many folks it's a day for wearing green and heading out to an Irish pub for a pint of Guinness. But Ireland has given the world more than suds, shamrocks and shillelaghs, as this month's Fact File reminds us. Test your knowledge of the people, places and products of the Emerald Isle by finding the answers to the 10 clues below.

1. Born in New York but raised in Ireland, this retired schoolteacher's bestselling memoir was adapted into a successful Hollywood movie. "When I look back on my childhood," he begins in his book, " I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."
2. This novelist, poet and critic was the principal founder of the aesthetic movement, which was based on the idea of art for art's sake. At the height of his career, he became embroiled in a sensational trial and was convicted of homosexual offenses, and following two years of hard labor, emerged financially bankrupt and depressed.
3. Tradition holds that this city on the southeastern coast of Ireland was established by the Vikings in the year 853, though it may have been founded a half-century later. In any event, its location on Ireland's southeastern coast and its natural harbor have helped give it a rich history. Today most of us know it as the place where some of the world's finest glassware is produced.

4. Long a symbol of Ireland (an image of which appeared on Ireland's flag before it adopted the tricolor and today appears on the label of a popular lager beer), this musical instrument was played by the great blind musician Turlough O'Carlolan in the early eighteenth century and by the immensely talented Derek Bell in our own time.

5. This Dublin-born writer, winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in literature, though originally known laregly for his dramatic works, is admired today above all for his poetry. Among his memorable lines:

   I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
   And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
   Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
   And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

6. Even among those of us who've seen (on a public television pledge drive perhaps) a performance by the "Three Irish Tenors," most of us would be hard-pressed to come up with the name of a living Irish tenor. That wouldn't have been the case two generations ago, when every music lover would be familiar with the name of this Dublin-born singer who appeared in operatic roles every summer at London's Covent Garden between 1908 and 1914 and became an American citizen in 1917. His popularity was heightened by his practice of bringing to his concert programs sentimental songs and popular ballads, as well as Italian art songs and German Lieder.
7. This brand of whiskey, distilled in County Antrim at what is said to be the world's oldest distillery, received its license from King James I of England in 1608, although references to the region's distilling activity goes back to 1276. The brand is mentioned (along with Lucky Strike cigarettes) in a Tom Waits song.
8. This actor, born into a Northern Irish Catholic family, has played a wide variety of screen parts, including a major part in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and titles roles in Schindler's List, Michael Collins, Rob Roy, and more recently, Kinsey.

9. This river, the longest in Ireland, was mapped by the Roman cartographer Ptolemy in 300 B.C. It flows for over 160 miles to the south and divides the island nearly in two. Its ease of navigability has made it an important commercial resource for the island.

10. Born to a cattle farmer in County Derry, this poet won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. He has showed a profound interest in literature of the past, and has adapted plays by Sophocles and won international praise for his translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.

After you have completed this puzzle, submit your answers to Fact File. Answers must be received by March 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 purchases 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.

Brice Creek
photo by Laura Damiani

Marvels in Ice: Harbin's Winter Wonders

Last month's issue of the LSA News included an article by Kaiping Zhang on Chinese New Year traditions in her hometown of Harbin, China. In the article, Kaiping mentions the annual ice sculpture festivals for which Harbin is famous. Kaiping has since sent us several links to websites that dramatically portray the amazing spectacle of the Harbin ice crafters' work.

2003 Festival

2004 Festival

2005 Festival

Events of Interest

LSA EVENTS

No LSA events are scheduled for March.

NON-LSA EVENTS

Don't miss a Blues/Jazz Concert at Thurston High School featuring Paul Biondi and Friends, followed by the State Hogs! Show time is 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 10, 2005. Tickets are $10 adult/$7 students. Click here for a map. You can obtain tickets from Lonni Sexton at 346-1843 or 744-7052, or you can pick them up at the box office on the night of the show (arrive early!) This unique event is a fundraiser for a non-profit student drama group at Thurston. They are presenting an original play, "Sleepwalk", by Oregon playwright William Mastrosimone, at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland this summer. The play deals with the topic of teen suicide. For more information about "Sleepwalk", email or phone Lonni.

Been to an interesting conference?

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

Last updated: 041118
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