LSA News

No. 70, December, 2005

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

Index Sugar-Plum Treats by Harriett Smith Homemade Gifts Keep on Giving...by Jennifer Rowan Bah Humbug! The Homemade Christmas by Liesl Vorderstrasse Sweet Memories by Rose Thomas Giants by Jennifer Rowan Weather Perfect for Tree Walk with Local Expert by David McCallum The World Around Us by Tracy Scharn Digitizing on Demand by Kate Ball Armitage Park and the Lower McKenzie River by Andrew Bonamici Fact File Winner Events of Interest People in the Library

Sugar-Plum Treats

by Harriett Smith

With the holiday season here again, many of us look for creative ways to produce festive gifts, decorations, and treats for home and work. December this year includes the holidays of Hanukkah, Yule or Winter Solstice, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. (This year there is no major Islamic holiday in December.) Even those of us who don't celebrate any religious tradition still tend to eat special foods, drink a little something special, party, or at least enjoy a few days off with family or friends.

Candles
In keeping with the fact that this is the darkest time of year and that the winter solstice marks the turning point of the year when the light begins to grow stronger again, all these festivals traditionally involve candles and candlelight. These are often represented now by the festive white or colored holiday lights we string about so abundantly, but candles and their warm light are still an integral part of the season.

Candles can be quite expensive when purchased at the store, but for those with a little time to spare, candle making is not that difficult, or necessarily that expensive. With plenty of adult supervision, it's a great creative craft for kids, but grown-ups too can take pleasure in a craft which can result in creations ranging from a simple square milk-carton candle, to hand-dipped candles, or even incredible multi-layered, multi-colored carved designs. There are plenty of books and websites out there to guide the novice, and if you have children it's easy to find projects geared to their level, yet guaranteed to provoke oohs and aahs from the recipients of their creativity.

Sugar Plums
Sugar Plums are a treat from my English heritage, associated with this winter holiday for some time. If you go out hunting on the web for a recipe, though, you'll find plenty of recipes that don't even include plums! Mistress Renata Kestryl of Highwynds (a.k.a.Sharon Cohen) has a great historical recipe for preparing Elizabethan sugared plums, which I found at florilegium.org. There is also great stuff at Gode Cookery, where you can find all sorts of medieval and Elizabethan recipes.This site is a lot of fun. You can find recipes adapted for the modern kitchen as well as rather scholarly treatments. Gentyll manly Cokere, for example, includes facsimiles of recipes from the original manuscript. This author, who plans to publish his work, says these are "Culinary recipes from Manuscript Pepys 1047 'Miscell. of Receipt's/M.S.S. Temp. R. Ed. 4', a late 15th century collection of recipes and remedies found in the library of Samuel Pepys."

(story continued)

Homemade Gifts Keep on Giving...

a collection of holiday memories compiled by Jennifer Rowan

Some of my most memorable Christmas presents, both given and received, were homemade, and what they may have lacked in sophistication or status, they made up for in imagination, cleverness and lasting memories. My very large Catholic family solved the too-many-kids and too-many-gifts-to-buy problem by drawing names to mitigate both expense and numbers. One year, I received my gift from Aunt Eleanor in Maine. It was a box labeled "Hat Shop." Inside, it was filled with craft supplies: feathers; beads, sequins and sparkly jewels, ribbons, bits of fur and a pre-cut array of fabric swatches, as well as glue and a small pair of scissors. Also provided were hat forms cut from cardboard egg cartons—the 12 "domes" that hold the eggs. Finished hats were the right size for my Tammy doll (my mother was anti-Barbie, even then). It was a homegrown craft kit and it was pure genius for an eight-year-old.

I also remember the toy kitchen set my dad made for us from recycled furniture he picked up at St. Vincent de Paul. He brought it down to child-size and painted it white, then added knobs, a facsimile sink and even an oven. It was just the right size for sisters of six, four and three, and we whipped up many imaginary gourmet feasts (probably exclusively desserts and nary a vegetable to be found on our menus).

And we always received a large parcel of used books, one for each of us, collected over the year at my dad's regular used-bookstore haunts. While they were generally not Newbery Medal winners and the stories could sometimes be a little lame, the books were always hardcover. We were always so impressed at these additions to our own fledgling libraries! I still have many of those books in my children's book collection and hope that I will someday have the delight of reading them aloud and passing them on to a grandchild…. fingers crossed!

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Bah Humbug! The Home-Made Christmas: Past, Present & Future

by Liesl Vorderstrasse

I find people tend to possess similar beliefs about homemade Christmas gifts and those who make them:

1. You avoid traffic, long lines, cranky sales staff, cranky shoppers (yourself included), and getting trampled at the Wal-Mart for the last three X Boxes. You don't need to worry about sold-out widgets, there is never any last minute shopping in the cold, rainy night and you can save a bundle. Plus, it is just so much more in the "spirit of Christmas" and non-commercial and all that crap.
   EVERYTHING IS UNDER YOUR CONTROL

   —And—

2. Creative inspiration is never in short supply, thinking of gift ideas is always effortless, there's never a lack of skill or talent, there's little or no stress, and everyone is always so appreciative and love everything you make them, not to mention, it always fits or works or whatever.
   EVERYTHING IS UNDER YOUR CONTROL

The items under number 1 are mostly true. It certainly does feel less commercial, however I'm not sure about the "spirit of Christmas" part. Most years, I feel like I missed Christmas completely because I spend every waking moment up to the 24th interacting with my spinning wheel, sewing machine, hot glue gun, and a pair of knitting needles, instead of interacting with friends and family, listening to Christmas music, attending Christmas parties and appreciating beautiful Christmas decorations. Then again, you do also avoid the hell of Eugene Christmas house lights, non-stop, in-your-face advertising, and the endless consumer "news" segments on local and national news, because you have no time to actually watch television or actually leave the house.

The items under number 2 are, unfortunately, mostly not true. The first list contains experiences of an external nature. Maybe they don't actually make the thing that would be perfect for Uncle George or, if they do, they are simply all out of them or your catalog order is three weeks late or the UPS truck is jackknifed on I-80. These things are clearly not under your control. The experiences in the second list, however, are most definitely under your control and yours alone. If things don't go as planned, well . . . it really is your fault.

(story continued)

Sweet Memories

by Rose Thomas

What I remember most was her homemade candies. She could make them all: silky-smooth fudge, crisp peanut brittle, light-as-a-feather divinity, rich pralines, fondant, penuche and caramels. She must have done all this after we'd all gone off to bed—I don't remember too much about the whole process. I just remember seeing (and tasting) all that she had created when the boxes were ready to be distributed.

If cooking is an art and baking is a science, then candy making is the alchemy of hot sugar and melted chocolate. Ingredients, primarily the sugar in candy making, are cooked to various temperatures that sound vaguely like a lively baseball game: "thread," "soft ball," "firm ball," "hard ball," "soft crack" and "hard crack." Molten sugar must be handled very carefully—it can cause a serious burn if handled carelessly without oven mitts. Some candies simply cannot be made on a rainy day; too much moisture in the air does not let the sugar melt properly. The candy thermometer must be watched constantly or, one degree high or low, a batch of candy will be ruined. Stir, stir, stir until you think your arm is going to fall off or a batch of candy will stick to the pot and burn. Measure carefully, watch constantly, wait for the magic minute and pour, smooth, spoon, spread and cool, and you will be very pleased with your results.

This year, as is my tradition every year, I will make food gifts for my family and friends. Candied and spiced nuts, baked cookies and breads are my usual gifts. This year I will have ample time on my hands to try some old-fashioned candy making, and I will also have my son to help me carry on the Thomas family tradition of giving food gifts to the ones we love.

(story continued)

Giants

story and photos by Jennifer Rowan

It is perhaps odd that the children of a professional forester should be born and raised in a major metropolis in the industrial Midwest. Certainly it was a surprise to my mother. Having met my dad when they were students at Michigan State University, she reasonably expected that she and her new forester husband would find employment and a life together in a log cabin somewhere in the forests of the west. He owed his college education to the GI bill, the greatest social and economic equalizer of the time, and when he graduated a year before my mother, he took a temporary job as a tree trimmer with the city of Detroit. His high placement on a series of civil service exams led to a long career in the Parks department (ironically, we were known for having the most neglected shrubberies on the street). It was more than thirty years before my parents finally left Detroit to live in a "cabin" under the Douglas firs in Oregon.

Despite our urban upbringing on the wrong side of the Mississippi, my family spent all of our vacations looking for remote and wooded places to camp, hike and canoe. However, trees of imposing stature were an elusive sight in Michigan by the time my parents started their family in the 1950s. When we thought of great trees, it was the deciduous maples, beech and tulip poplars whose vivid fall foliage lent ephemeral beauty to the flat Midwestern landscape or the majestic elm trees that lined the streets in our neighborhood before succumbing to the Dutch elm beetle blight in the 1960s.

Yet Michigan was once blanketed in timber; most notably white pine or Pinus strobus, the dominant species of the old growth forests of the northeast before the arrival of European colonialists. Michigan white pine commonly reached 150 feet in height with diameters of twenty to thirty feet. When the majestic forests were logged out by the end of the 19th century, logging companies moved westward, leaving only a few small, remote stands. One of these groves is the centerpiece of a state park near Grayling in Michigan's Lower Peninsula and includes trees that date back to the 1600s. The largest among them was documented at 155 feet in height before it was topped in a storm in 1992. It succumbed to insects and disease and last produced foliage in 1997.

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Weather Perfect for Tree Walk with Local Expert

by David McCallum, photos by Laura Damiani

The weather was perfect for a lunch-hour autumn walk—cold with a strong sun that one could sense just behind the fog cover—as local arborist Dennis "Whitey" Lueck led 16 or so library staff members and friends on a tree walk Wednesday, November 16. The event was sponsored by the Library Staff Association's Program Committee.

Whitey Lueck talks about the persimmon fruit

Whitey started our tour by handing out a program with a route map and the common and scientific names of the trees we'd be visiting at our stops. Passing around a few images, dating from early in the last century, of the lawn just north of Knight Library, we were able to appreciate immediately how much the trees and shrubs today contribute to the beauty of the University of Oregon campus. When the campus was founded in 1876, there were few trees but for two oaks near Franklin Boulevard. They came to be known as the "Condon oaks" and one remains there to this day. As anyone could guess from walking around campus, there are now over a thousand varieties of trees and shrubs and Whitey describes the campus as a "de facto arboretum."

The group gathers around a multi-colored sweetgum tree

The distinctive and popular European beech tree was an early stop on our tour. Located just south of the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum and east of Knight Library, the European beech is an elephantine tree, with large sagging branches that will need to be cut or propped up some year soon. One will often see tall students ducking to pass under the branch that hangs over the walkway. Popularly believed to be centuries old, the tree is in fact about 90 years old. Digging among the leaves around the base of the tree, we were able to find and examine the fruit of the tree—a beechnut, the source of the once popular gum. A California bay laurel (known here as the Oregon myrtle), with its aromatic leaves, is just across the walkway.

Walking by the persimmon tree currently bearing fruit outside Straub Hall, we visited an evergreen oak tree located east of the EMU. There are over 160 species of oak tree, both evergreen and deciduous.

Wrapping up the tour near the Science Library, Whitey showed us special dawn redwood grown from seeds brought here from south China. Until the 1940s, paleobotanists believed the tree to have passed into extinction with the dinosaurs. Fossils and petrified trunks are found across the United States and Canada (including the John Day area of Oregon), and date from a time when the climate here was much warmer. Then, on an expedition by Harvard scientists, the trees were discovered growing in a valley in China. The University of Oregon received one of the first seeds brought back. Today, the large distinctive trees grow throughout the United States but the UO's tree is one of the first grown outside that valley in China for thousands of years.

Whitey last took us on a tree walk in autumn 2003. He led us south of the library through the School of Education courtyard, past the stinky gingko there, around to the Douglas Fir of the cemetery and ended with the cedar behind Johnson Hall. Try to catch the entertaining tree walk next time Whitey offers it.

A reporter and photographer for the Eugene Register-Guard accompanied us on our tree walk. Their profile of Dennis "Whitey" Lueck appears in the City/Region section of the Nov. 28 edition.

On the subject of trees, you may recall that last month's "Fact File" contest was based on arboreal tales. You can the answers to the November puzzler below.

The World Around Us

Flexibility and Creativity: Essential Components for Accommodation

by Tracy Scharn

Chances are, when most people hear the word "disability" they think of people who use wheelchairs. When they hear about accessibility, most will think of ramps or designated parking spaces. After the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) passed, these were the issues that the public could most readily conceptualize. Putting in a ramp is pretty straightforward. Most people can understand how a ramp provides access for a person who can't navigate stairs.

But when you get into less tangible accommodations, it seems harder to determine what an appropriate accommodation is. When a patron doesn't interact the way I expect them to, are they just rude or do they have a hidden disability influencing our interaction? Do I take it on faith when someone says his or her dog is a service animal? When is it reasonable for someone to ask for an exception to a library policy because of a disability? These are the types of questions that are harder to navigate, because they often require us to deal with gray areas. It's not surprising that when the Library Diversity Committee asked staff what kind of disability-related information they needed to help them in their jobs, these are the types of questions staff had.

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Digitizing on Demand: Office of the President Digital Collection Update

by Kate Ball

I recall, as a child, hearing my parents remark at the closing of every year how time seemed to accelerate in its passing, so that every year went by more rapidly. Back then, I just thought it seemed silly. At Thanksgiving, Christmas was still endlessly far away. And then it was months until spring break, my birthday, or any other event of great import. In between all that was just the drudgery of school, where time seemed to stand still. Yet now as this year draws to a close, I find myself marveling over the passage of time too. How fast it's gone by! I can't believe we're starting another year so soon.

In 2005, my year has been capped at its start and finish by milestones in the Office of the President digitization project. I joined the project last January as an intern in my final semester of library school. Winter term '05 was the first term that the Metadata and Digital Library Services department collaborated with Special Collections and the Clark Honors College to digitize archival materials from the Office of the President collection on demand, to match the needs of student research. Joining the project at its onset, I had the rare opportunity to learn the digitization process from the ground up and to be involved in the development of work-flows and procedures for this project.

Now as fall term winds down, the flurry of scanning, OCR (optical character recognition) and cataloging required for the second term of on-demand digitization wanes as well. In the midst of the project, it certainly felt that time was flying far too quickly; yet, looking back in retrospect at all we have accomplished, I am amazed at what we have done in one short year.

(story continued)

Armitage Park and the Lower McKenzie River: so close and so far away

story and photos by Andrew Bonamici

Armitage used to be an Oregon State Park; it is now managed by Lane County.

Access to the outdoors is one of the great joys of living in Oregon. We have hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, rock climbing, backcountry skiing, and kayaking. We also have fishing. Trout fishing. Wild, native trout fishing. Year-round, and only minutes from town.

It is possible to catch wild trout and hatchery steelhead right in the middle of Eugene, but my favorite close-to-home fishing destination is the lower McKenzie River at Armitage Park, just north of town on Coburg Road.

Don't expect a wilderness experience. The traffic on Coburg Road and I-5 is often audible, and the Egge and Eugene Sand & Gravel operations are close by. Even so, a short walk downstream leads to a world of cobbled banks, alders, willows, twisted tree roots, beavers, songbirds, wildfowl, wildflowers, multiple insect hatches, and wild cutthroat and rainbow trout. The river and its banks are constantly changing, and a high water year seems to come along and rearrange the gravel bars and riffles just when you've gotten to know them.

View upstream toward I-5	Mystery tree root that looks like a dog

A few words of advice—this is a big river and the current is strong, so be careful wading. Also, once off the main paths, the blackberries can be formidable.
The most popular time to fish at Armitage is February-April, when the March Brown mayflies hatch. This is when you'll find out-of-state license plates in the parking lot, and literally dozens of anglers perched along the banks and below the riffles. Some nice fish come up for these flies.

Even if you don't fish, Armitage Park is a great place to explore a riverbank close to home. See you there!

Scott with "redside" rainbow during March Brown hatch	View downstream from the trail's end (Eugene Sand & Gravel)

If you enjoy the great outdoors and are willing to share your knowledge of the finer places in the Northwest with your co-workers, you are invited to submit an article to lsaweb@uoregon.edu.

Dvora Robinson latest Fact File winner

Congratulations to Dvora Robinson, coordinator of the Portland Architecture Library, who correctly identified all of the legendary trees described in last month's Fact File contest. Dvora will be sent a gift certificate worth $10.00 toward purchases at the UO Bookstore.

You can revisit the clues in the November issue of LSA News Fact File.

The Answers:

1. Apple
2. Olive
3. Beech
4. Aspen
5. Rowan (also called mountain ash)
6. Fig
7. Bodhi or Bo tree (Ficus religiosa)
8. Frankincense
9. Laurel
10. Juniper

Polar Bear at Oregon Zoo
by Laura Damiani

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.

This month we include events for both December and January, since the LSA News will not be published in January.

LSA EVENTS

The LSA Holiday Sale will be on Tuesday, December 6, 2005 from 11 a.m to 1:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. Once again there will be a dessert raffle. One thing the LSA survey found was that people want more variety at the Sale, so please don't be shy about participating as a vendor in the Sale—bring in your crafts, baked goods, and rummage sale items! If you have questions about the Sale please email Pam DeLaittre or phone her at at 6-1826. If you have rummage-sale related inquiries, please email Lisa Sieracki or phone her at 6-1834.

The LSA Holiday Potluck will be in the Knight Library Browsing Room on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. As always, there will be festive music, seasonal decorations and good cheer to go around. Please bring your favorite dish to share with your co-workers. Cards and pens will be available so you can list what's in your creation (e.g. "vegan" or "has peanuts"). All dishes should be table-ready with serving implements, and breads should be pre-sliced in a suitable bowl or basket. Microwaves will be available for heating your dishes. Family are welcome (please make sure to bring a little extra food if you bring guests). If you have questions, please email Raina Smith or phone her at 6-1837. Former employees who need transportation to the potluck should email Stephanie Midkiff or phone her at 541-346-1661.

NON-LSA EVENTS

Classical music will be served up on a platter—a vinyl platter, that is—at the UO Libraries Record Sale on Friday, December 2, 2005 from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. Connoisseurs and initiates alike can select from more than 3,000 mint-condition classical records for only $1 per disc. A small selection of CDs will also be available. Here's your chance to add class, variety, and quality to your record collection at a very low cost. All proceeds benefit the UO Libraries. For more information, email Leslie Bennett or phone her at 346-1930.

Retiree Jean Murphy sends word that Old Time News, who are Jean and Will Marcotte and UO English professor Dianne Dugaw , will perform Saturday, December 3, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. at the Holiday Market. Jean says "They sing wonderful old-time songs and they are great!!"

Andrew Huot and Marilyn Mohr are part of the Emerald Book Arts Group. Their group is participating in the 6th Annual Authors & Artists Fair at the Eugene Public Library on Saturday, December 3, 2005. This fundraiser for the EPL Foundation will take place from 7 to 10 p.m. and is free. The Emerald Book Arts group will be selling "coptic journal kits", which include all the supplies to make your own small (3" x 4.5") journal. Drop by the event to enjoy books, food, crafts, and more, and support our public library!

Also on December 3, 2005, Marilyn recommends the 4th Annual Eugene Benefit for Famine Relief in Africa. The concert will take place at Cozmic Pizza, 8th & Charnelton, starting at 7 p.m. Cover charge is $5 - $15 sliding scale. All proceeds will go to Mercy Corps, Tariro, and Nhimbe for Progress to support African AIDS and Famine Relief. African crafts and art work will be offered for sale, and performers include Kudana Marimba.

Don't miss the Eugene Symphony production of Handel's "Messiah" on Saturday, December 10, 2005 at 3 p.m. Choir member Harriett Smith says there will be some different choruses from last year's production, and the sound is awesome.

David Landazuri sends word that Accordions Anonymous will be playing at the Holiday Market on Saturday, December 17, 2005 at 12:30 p.m.

Then on Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 7 p.m., join Harriett, David Landazuri, and Jean Murphy for the Eugene Sacred Harp Singers Holiday Concert and Sing-Along. Held at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, we sing, you sing if inclined, and then we all feast on holiday treats. A donation is suggested, but we especially want your presence. The music is early American shape-note hymn music, but we are not a religious group. All are welcome.

After you've recovered from the New Year's festivites, join Accordions Anonymous for their 3rd Annual Polka Bowling Night on Saturday, January 21, 2006 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Southtown Lanes. Advance tickets only for this popular event! You can get your $15 tickets from David Landazuri, or at Tsunami Books or Backstage Dancewear.

Announcements:

Toys for Tots—The UO Libraries will again be collecting items for the Toys for Tots program this holiday season. If you would like to contribute, please bring a new, unwrapped toy or book (suitable for children up to the age of 14) to the barrel in Library Administration before noon on Friday, December 9, 2005.

Library Staff Association dues are still only $6—an unbelievable value! Your dues pay for the newspapers in the staff lounge, and help support a host of activities from the Holiday Potluck to the May Tea. If you enjoyed the Tree Walk, the evening at the Ems game, or any of the other great programs LSA has sponsored over the years, please show your support by paying your $6 dues. LSA treasurer Pam DeLaittre will be happy to accept your dues at any time. She's in Acquisitions and can be contacted at by phone at 6-1826 or via email.

People in the Library

Welcome to a new department:

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

Last updated: 1 December, 2005
lsaweb@lists.uoregon.edu