LSA News

No. 66, June, 2005

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

Books Undercover:
Sandra Kroupa lecture explores the intersection between books and art

Story and photos by Jennifer Rowan

Sandra Kroupa

The exhibition, "Pushing the Margins: an Exhibition of Northwest Book Arts" that opened on May 6 at the White Lotus Gallery in Eugene was the catalyst for a series of events designed to educate and draw attention to a frequently-overlooked and largely unfamiliar art form. "Book arts" tends to be used as an inclusive term that begins to describe myriad forms, embracing the artisan work of fine press production, zines and photocopied, small production works as well as the more unusual structures, diverse materials and personal content packaged as "artists' books". Although artists' books are a phenomenon that emerged in the early 1970s, attempts to establish categories and precise definitions have met with little consensus even as the art form continues to evolve and expand.

And that's just fine with Sandra Kroupa, who has been the curator of book arts in the University of Washington's Rare Books Collection for 37 years and can be credited with the acquisition of over 12,000 pieces of book art. In the well-attended lecture, "Books in the Middle; Books on the Margins", sponsored by Library Administration on May 26 in the Browsing Room, Ms. Kroupa presented a spirited discourse on what is clearly her favorite topic and career-long passion. Anticipating the inevitable question, she bluntly stated upfront her intention not to define or propose standards for artists' books, saying that she "could not have predicted three-quarters of the best stuff out there right now." She expressed impatience with zealots who persist in attempting to pin down what is elusive and disposed to change; instead, Kroupa advocates embracing the infinite variety and innovation that characterize artists' books.

(story continued)

Open Book, Open Mind: a medley of artists' books from the A&AA collection

story and photos by Laura Damiani

Cara List

A book by any other name is still a book. Or is it? On May 24, Cara List, Architecture & Allied Arts Library Reference Librarian, explored that thought when she gave a talk about artists’ books in which she highlighted pieces from the A&AA Library’s own collection. The Library Staff Association Program Committee sponsored the event, which took place in the Browsing Room. Cara began by discussing the concept of books as an artistic format. She then presented about thirty examples that she brought from the A&AA Library’s collection. The audience was quite entertained as Cara explained the concept of each piece by demonstrating the structural elements and materials, talking about the artists, their approach, and the work’s conceptual basis and reading passages from some. Following the colorful discussion, the audience was invited to take a closer look at the books, which were set out on two large tables.

Colleen Bell, David Landazuri and others peruse the artists' books

Cara’s definition of an artist's book is “a work of art in book form”, though she stressed both “work of art” and “book form” must be defined very broadly. She points out that what constitutes an artist’s book is not always simple to define as they encompass many different approaches, structures and styles. She went on to say that oftentimes, artists’ books are created by artists who specialize in other media such as photography, fibers, printmaking, and even sculpture, who have chosen the book format as the ideal way to present their idea. They may incorporate text and/or images in some combination in order to communicate their idea, which may or may not be in narrative form. Cara described artists’ books as an intimate art form because the viewer must interact in a personal way with the artwork. There is also the implication of time or passage in this art form as the viewer must progress from one page to the next. It was especially fulfilling to the senses of the audience that following the discussion, they were able to interact with the books.

(story continued)

Eugene Public Library Celebrates Book Arts

by Aimee Yogi, photos by Jennifer Rowan

Aimee Yogi demonstrates Japanese-style papermaking techniques

As another book arts-related event connected with the "Pushing the Margins" exhibit at the White Lotus Gallery, the Eugene Public Library sponsored an afternoon of demonstrations by local book and paper artisans called "Book Works, Book Arts, an Exploration of the Book". The May 21st event featured demonstrations of papermaking, construction of the codex form book and other binding methods, books made from recycled materials, altered books and conservation. Marilyn Mohr and Brenna Campbell from Knight's Beach Conservation Lab demonstrated book repair. Jennifer Rowan offered a hands-on workshop on Japanese side-bound books and Aimee Yogi demonstrated Japanese-style papermaking with common rush fibers. It was a low-key event but well-attended. Library staff counted over a hundred interested participants who took the opportunity to visit with craftspeople, watch demonstrations and make a simple book to take home. A few brought antique books and inquired about care and conservation.

click here for more photos from the event

Cake and Flowers for the May Tea

story by Harriett Smith, photos by Laura Damiani

Jo-Anne Flanders and Linda Zimmerman reminisce.

Judi Byrum was unable to be present, so retiree Jo-Anne Flanders, who hired her friend Linda Zimmerman for the Library more than thirteen years ago, gave a humorous and heart-felt laudatory speech. Almost immediately after Linda started her new job, she and Jo-Anne went on a weeks-long trip to England together, leading Alice Allen to issue the mandate "no two people on vacation from Admin. Services at the same time!" Linda, who retired last year and then worked part-time for the Library for a few more months, received a gift certificate to the UO Bookstore from LSA.

David Grange

Andrew Bonamici kids Andrew Howell.

Andrew Bonamici then told us he had some "prepared remarks" in honour of the fact that former employee Andrew Howell was always so well prepared. Andrew worked for the Library for eight years altogether, starting as a student in the I.T.C. and later becoming a staffperson and I.T.C. manager. He left the Library at the end of 2004 to join Lunar Logic, the educational software company. LSA presented him with a gift certificate to the UO Bookstore.

The festivities were rounded off by a tribute to former reference librarian Richard Heinzkill, who after his retirement volunteered for more than 800 hours over four years' time in Music Services on a complex sheet music project, now completed. Leslie Bennett, who thanked him on behalf of her department, told us he is planning to spend a great deal more time volunteering on another Music project. Richard received a gift certificate to the UO Bookstore as a thank-you from Music Services and the Library.

The LSA Social Committee is looking for new members. Email Raina Smith or phone her at 6-1837 if you would like to know more or are interested in joining Social Committee.

Grillin' and Chillin'

By Rose Thomas

By the time this article is published, May-National Barbecue Month-will have just ended. The official grilling season is getting started and people are getting geared up for Memorial Day weekend. The familiar fragrance of charcoal smoke wafts over from a nearby fraternity or sorority through the ventilation system into library cubicles. Or one can smell ones neighbor grilling something in the evening and weekend hours at home.

My own love of barbecue and grilled foods has overtaken me with the recent warmer weather and a trip back to Texas to visit family. Texas is a huge state, but Texas is also an interesting mixture of cultures and foods that are not so easy to categorize. Take the strong German and Czech culture-whose people immigrated to Texas for land in the 1880s-and add the strong Mexican and Spanish culture and the Southern dishes from the ancestors of slaves and you have an interesting mix of people and their foods.

What I've discovered, though, is the true common denominator of all people in Texas and what they like to talk about is their love of grilling and barbecue.

(story continued)

From the "Harrisburg Seven" to the PATRIOT Act

by Catherine Flynn

First Amendment issues are red-hot again these days, but the struggle to maintain our intellectual freedom is not a new one. Join the UO Library Staff Development Committee on Thursday, June 30, at 10:30 a.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room when we welcome Zoia Horn, librarian-activist, as she reflects on her lifetime role as an advocate for intellectual freedom. She'll be presenting what promises to be be a lively lecture and discussion, "From the 'Harrisburg Seven' to the PATRIOT Act".

Judith Krug, longtime director of the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom, has said that Ms. Horn was "the first librarian who spent time in jail for a value of our profession."

Thirty-four years ago Zoia Horn was subpoenaed to appear at the trial of the "Harrisburg Seven", a group of anti-Vietnam war activists, five of them current or former Catholic priests or nuns. She refused to testify, was found in contempt of court and jailed for three weeks. At the trial she asked to read a statement of explanation, but was led away in handcuffs before she had begun her third sentence:

"Your Honor—
It is because I respect the function of this court to protect the rights of the individual, that I must refuse to testify.
I cannot in my conscience lend myself to this black charade.
I love and respect this country too much to see a farce made of the tenets upon which it stands.
To me it stands on

freedom of thought—but government spying in homes, in libraries and universities inhibits and destroys this freedom.

It stands on freedom of association—yet in this case gatherings of friends, picnics, parties have been given sinister implications, and made suspect.

It stands on freedom of speech—yet general discussions have been interpreted by the government as advocacies of conspiracies...."

Zoia Horn, a native of Odessa, USSR, has continued her passionate promotion of those tenets as chair of the Intellectual Freedom Committees of ALA, the New Jersey Library Association, and the California Library Association, promoting resolutions asserting the confidentiality of the relationship between libraries and their patrons. Social justice and intellectual freedom were at the center of her work at the DataCenter in Oakland, California, where she developed the Right to Know project, which she later expanded to ALA along with a coalition of 50 other organizations concerned with public access to government information.

Ms. Horn is the recipient of multiple awards for her defense of intellectual freedom including the University of Illinois' Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award. The California Library Association has established the Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award to honor other champions of free speech for lifetime achievement in this arena. Ms. Horn is the author of several books and articles.

(For more details see ZOIA! Memoirs of Zoia Horn, Battler for the People's Right to Know, published by McFarland & Co., 1995)

The View from Hidden Spring

by Pam DeLaittre

Annie has Three MaaMaas

Liesl, Darcy's white ewe, was a surprise when she lambed on February 25. It's true she had been out with Lightning, my old Champion ram. But because she had been fighting a nasty ear infection that several different varieties of antibiotics hadn't cured, even when given over weeks, I had been sure she wouldn't conceive. By February her infection had become debilitating, and she walked with her ear down and her head canted. She had been slowly going down-hill, and, sadly, I knew we would eventually lose her. My vet was no help this time, telling me that ear infections were very stubborn in sheep, and I might as well shoot her. That wasn't an option!

Early in the morning she lambed a modest-sized, perfect, white ewe lamb. I brought her into the jug with her baby and she did everything right, just as she always had. I had retained her white ewe lamb from last year and added her (Samantha), to the flock, where she is growing up to be a beautiful ewe, like her mother.

Liesl mothered her lamb as best she could until March 15th, when she went down in the stall, unable to rise. Even then she mothered her lamb, moving her leg back so the lamb could nurse. March 16th I was unable to keep her sternal (lying on her tummy), and she reclined on her side, dying. She was quiet, not struggling in any way, talking weakly to her lamb, and becoming glassy-eyed.

When I went to the barn on the morning of March 17th, she was gone. Her lamb was snuggled up to her, obviously well fed until the end. I covered Liesl, but left her in the stall for the day so the lamb could accept the loss of her mother. I also moved my good ol' ewe "4" and her white ewe lamb into the stall directly next to the lamb. "4" looks like Liesl, and is an old hand at raising babies. This year she had a single, the first single lamb she had ever had. So "4" became the new lamb's surrogate mother, I was her bottle mama, and Liesl was her birth mother.

The little orphan lamb needed a name, so I asked Kirk what I should name her. He said "Annie" of course. Duh. So Annie became my orphan bottle baby. Three times a day I made up the lamb milk replacer bottle and fed her. Here's a picture of her very last bottle on weaning day, May 15th.

In the first week of May, a coyote killed one of the white ram lambs. This made me realize what had happened to Leia's other tiny ewe lamb that "went missing". When you raise prey, you always know there are predators out there looking for an easy meal. That same week, my feed store owner Gloria asked me if I had any interest in renting sixteen acres of pasture for my sheep.

Kirk and I discussed the pros and cons. We knew we had a coyote at our farm, but Gloria said that sheep had been out on this field before and had not been attacked. We opted to move the whole flock with the exception of the rams, "4", her lamb Amie (French for female friend), and Annie. They have been on this new field for two weeks without a problem; in fact I still have a hard time seeing them because the grass is over their heads. But I can always find them by looking for their guardian llama, Rush (Llamabah).

Now that Annie is weaned, "4" looks after her just as if she were her other lamb, and Amie (who is actually her half-sister as her dad is Lightning too) plays with her all day long. Here's a picture of the three eating. The cleanest one is Annie, but as you can see eating was the first priority over pictures!

I keep the three sheep in my horse barn at night, and in the spring pasture next to the house, to try to keep them safe. Annie will join my flock, she and her sister Samantha replacing Liesl in the herd, but never replacing Liesl in my heart. Once again a piece of my heart has died, and a new piece has grown with my new baby Annie.

THE WORLD AROUND US:

Diversity at the University of Oregon

by Elizabeth Breakstone

Diversity at the University of Oregon is a big topic these days. Last week, the release of a draft of the Diversity Plan, authored by a campus-wide Diversity Work Group (including librarian Karen Munro), was met with controversy. Students in the School of Education recently held protests regarding the school's failure to teach a multicultural perspective, respond to reports of racism, and recruit faculty and students of color. The University struggles to retain faculty campus-wide, and student organizations recently presented the "Zero Award" to five departments with no tenure-track faculty of color. These issues and events, focus mostly on diversity at an administrative level. How, amidst these struggles, do students experience diversity on campus on a daily basis?

Students' understanding of and feelings about diversity were recently examined by a Campus Climate Research Interest Team composed of two Sociology professors, a Psych professor and a Psych PhD candidate. The researchers brought together 150 UO students, in 5 person groups of either common or diverse identity. These students were filmed discussing concepts of race and ethnicity and the sense of diversity on campus.

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Pizza Party Honors Student Workers

photos by Jennifer Rowan

On Thursday May 26, a pizza lunch was served in the Browsing Room in honor of our many hardworking student employees. There was a good turnout and all 32 pizzas were eaten! Thank you to Administration for providing the pizza and to the supervisors who provided homemade cookies and bars, which were a big hit!

Here's what some of the students had to say:

"It was really nice to see that the library appreciates our work and it was a good break during a stressful time of the year." -Chris K.

"The pizza was great and I enjoyed meeting students from other departments in the libraries. I had no idea that there were that many student employees keeping this place running." -Will R.

"I loved the pizza but it's too bad that we all had to stop by for just a few minutes between classes. It would have been nice to spend more time with people away from the desk." -Erin S.

"Brownies and pizza should be eaten separately, NOT in the same bite!"
--Melissa S.

click here for more photos from the event

"Laughter is the Best Medicine…."

Gonzo Logo Selected
Stacy DeHart of the Informational and Audiovisual Services Team in Media Services designed the winning Gonzo logo, garnering a third of the votes cast by Library staff. Her design, depicting a jester's cap, won her a $30 gift certificate to the UO Bookstore. Library staff were asked to vote electronically for one of five proposed logo designs which were posted on the web during most of the month of May, and nearly 100 staff members participated in the voting.

The Gonzo Goes Public
Congratulations as well to Leslie Bennett and Aimee Yogi, whose article on "Gonzo at the UO Libraries" appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of OLA Quarterly. The issue was guest-edited by Barb Butler of OIMB, whose own article is entitled "Laughter: The Best Medicine?", and also features an article by Nancy Pearl, "My Life As An Action Figure" (complete with the cartoons Pearl drew about her experience). Library Administration will doubtless want to take a close look at the article about the "Cancellations Librarian", while Documents Center folks will appreciate the article by Jey Wann of the Oregon State Library. Kudos to Barb for putting together such a great issue!

Get Your Act Together
But enough resting on last year's laurels! The Gonzo Revue will be here again in just a few weeks, so all of you who are talented, think you are talented, or know you are not talented but have a deep-seated desire to torture your co-workers — now is the time to email Dave McCallum or phone him at 6-1456 to schedule a time for your act. Please remember to keep to a reasonable time and decibal limit, lest you make a sudden unscheduled exit.

An Extra Five Minutes of Fame
There will be an all-staff photograph taken outside after the Gonzo Revue. The last photo was taken five years ago, so please plan to take part in this one. Prints will be made available later, and will cost around $3. Burning question of the day: will El Invisible show up on film?

Jen Lindsey wins Fact File

Congratulations to Jen Lindsey of Access Services, who is the winner of last month's Fact File contest. She was actually one of two library staffers who correctly answered all ten of our "road trip" clues; her name was selected at random. Jen will be receiving a gift certificate worth $5.00 toward purchases at the UO Bookstore. The other road-wise staff member who sent us a perfect submission is Debi Baker, Administrative Program Assistant for Orbis Cascade Alliance.

You can learn more about some of America's unusual attractions and curiosities at roadsideamerica.com. And read about some of the country's unusual specialty museums in Hippocrene USA guide to uncommon and unheralded museums by Lincoln S. Bates and Beverly S. Narkiewicz (AM11 .B37 1991 )

Revisit the clues in the May issue of LSA News Fact File.

The Answers:

1. Abraham Lincoln
2. Teapot
3. Louisville, KY; Louisville Slugger
4. Butte, MT; Prostitution
5. Kentwood, LA
6. Audubon
7. Spam
8. Easton
9. Barbed wire
10. Watermelon

Events of Interest

LSA EVENTS

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.

Don't miss the Gonzo Revue, on Wednesday, June 15, 2005 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Browsing Room. This annual display of library talent (or not) is a great way to get ready for the lazy crazy days of summer. Contact David McCallum if you have questions or want to schedule your act. There will be an all-staff photograph taken after the Gonzo, so please don't rush off! It's been five years since the last all-staff photo was taken, so it would be great to get everyone together. Prints of the photo will be made available and will cost around $3.

NON-LSA EVENTS

The UO Library Staff Development Committee presents From the "Harrisburg Seven" to the PATRIOT Act, a lecture and discussion by librarian and activist Zoia Horn, Thursday, June 30, 2005, at 10:30 a.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. See above.

Debi Baker of the Orbis Cascade Alliance is on the board of the Springfield Filbert Festival, which will take place at Island Park in Springfield on August 5, 6, and 7. She writes "We are currently accepting vendor applications, non-profit booth applications, and would love to have more volunteers!" Contact Debi or visit the web site (currently under construction) for more information or to volunteer.

People in the Library

Welcome:

 

On May 2nd, Rick Gersbach was appointed to the Photographer 2 position in MDLS, Image Services Center. Rick worked in the Image Services Center as a temporary staff member while completing his degree in photography at the university. Rick will be responsible for a wide range of photographic production, from scanning and editing images in Photoshop to preparing traditional silver gelatin prints. Rick also will be tending to the vast majority of patron/faculty print and scan orders. Rick is a native of Minnesota, a long-time photo geek, and a rabid fly fisherman. Congratulations, Rick!

photo courtesy of Rick Gersbach

 

On May 31st, Timothy Boshart began working as an Information Technology Consultant in the Center for Educational Technologies. Tim’s primary responsibility will be managing the Blackboard system. Before coming to Oregon, Tim was LAN/System Analyst at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. Tim’s main interests are ferroequinology (or the study of trains), model railroads and photography. He has a large collection of photos of trains at his Web site.

Announcements:

Rose Thomas has been appointed Renewals Unit Supervisor in Collection Development and Acquisitions. Rose has worked for the Libraries since December 1986, when she began as a Search Clerk in Circulation. Since then, she has worked as a Serials Recording Clerk in the old Serials Department and a Collection Development Technician in Collection Development. Rose has worked in Collection Development/Acquisitions as Serials Specialist since July 1999. In her new position as Renewals Unit Supervisor, Rose will manage renewals of subscriptions, collaborate with other units on serials management, and supervise two library technicians. Congratulations, Rose!

Staff photos courtesy of Laine Stambaugh unless otherwise indicated

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Last updated: 041118
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