LSA News

No. 90, June 2008

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

Index Cupcakes and Compliments at the May Tea Personality by Julia Simic Clutch Cargo: BYO Trail Provisions by Cathy Flynn Student Employee Appreciation Lunch Random Question Events of Interest

Cupcakes galore at the LSA May Tea photo by Terry McQuilkin

Cupcakes and Compliments at the May Tea
photos by Terry McQuilkin

The colorful buffet was enjoyed by all

A colorful cornucopia of cupcakes greeted those who came to the Knight Library Browsing Room on Thursday, May 22, where the Library Staff Association held its annual May Tea. With its flowery color scheme, and gorgeous bouquets provided by Victoria Mitchell and Marilyn Mohr, the Tea provided a lovely setting for folks to have a chance to socialize and to recognize and thank staff members who have retired or left within the past year, or who will soon move on to a job outside the Libraries and a different stage in their careers.

This year's Tea, beautifully organized and set up by the Social Committee, was a cupcake potluck, and the many varieties of these little treats proved a feast for the eyes as well as the tongue. Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, lemon-poppy seed cupcakes, green tea cupcakes, and strawberry cupcakes were just a few of the treats that disappeared quickly! LSA also provided punch and fruit, so the buffet tables were awash in color. A number of people commented on the piano music played so beautifully by Elena Chertok of the Law Library .

A message of gratitude to those departing us

Honorees recognized at the event included Donna Pellinger, Assistant Director of Development, who is moving back east; Mischa Buczkowski, retired Slavic Cataloger from MSDP (busy travelling the world and collecting shoes, we hear); Faye Chadwell, former head of Collection Development and Acquisitions, and now with OSU; Michelle Page, student coordinator in Access Services (Circulation and Reserves/Video unit); and Eliz Breakstone, Law Collections Librarian at the Law Library. Michelle and Eliz will both be attending law school in the fall.

Each departing staff member was offered an eloquent tribute by a colleague or supervisor. Lisa Manotti recognized Donna's accomplishments, Paul Harvey told a few stories about Mischa, Mark Watson waxed lyrical about Faye, Laura Willey spoke movingly about Michelle, and Mary Ann Hyatt offered some poetry about Eliz. LSA chair Harriett Smith emceed the event, and presented each individual with cards and certificates of merit on behalf of LSA.

The LSA Social Committee is currently recruiting for new members for the 2008-2009 year (which runs September to August). If you'd like to help throw the two best parties of the year, email Lisa Sieracki or phone her at 6-1834.

(click here for more photos from the May Tea)

The World Around Us
Personality
by Julia Simic

Joseph and Mary Simic, 1936

My grandmother, Mary Simic (originally pronounced Shee-meech), was a very smart woman despite finishing only one semester of high school. She was the third child, and the first to survive, of Anton and Domina Umek (that would be Ooo-meck). They were from Croatia.

Anton came from the northern part of the country, a town called Komen, and emigrated in 1906 on a ship from Trieste. He'd served in the Austrian army as an orderly to Emperor Franz Joseph. The records from Ellis Island indicate he spoke Friulian, a northern Italian dialect from the area around Venice. He had a trade too: he was a cobbler, and that was why Domina's parents arranged for their marriage. Domina's family owned a hotel in the town of Komiza on the island of Vis off the Dalmatian coast. They must have been fairly well-to-do, because each of Domina's nine great-granddaughters inherited a piece of jewelry. (I, predictably, chose the most unusual piece, an amulet meant to protect the wearer from the evil eye, which I'm convinced will work when I replace the missing coral fang). Her marriage to Anton, however was somewhat less pleasant. The story goes that she wanted to marry someone else, someone a little closer to her own age (Anton was 12 years her senior). She never sat with Anton at church and never walked out with him. But given her proclivity for whacking her grand- and great-grandchildren with her cane later in life, she didn't strike me as a particularly warm person overall. So, after the death of two children, "because the milk was bad" in the old country, Anton determined to start again in America. My grandmother was born shortly after Domina's arrival in Chicago two years later.

(story continued)

Food
Clutch Cargo: BYO Trail Provisions
by Cathy Flynn

Vacation season is here, and whether you’re heading out into the wilderness or undertaking an odyssey on your favorite airline, you may want to pack some sustenance. Personally, I don’t like to leave the city limits without some fortification at hand. I am often mocked for my preparedness in this regard, but I feel that travel presents enough challenges without adding the consequences of the blood sugar fluctuations of one’s nearest and dearest. I come by this tendency honestly; my mother will not go from the south side of Chicago to the north side without a picnic. After all, you never know what might happen. And if kids are involved, as she puts it, you’ll need something to throw at them. (Yes, well, quite so.)

Story continued

Album
Student Employee Appreciation Lunch
photos by Terry McQuilkin

On June 4, UO Libraries said thank you to our student assistants with its annual student employee appreciation lunch. Students and their supervisors enjoyed pizza, salad and a variety of beverages, and several supervisors brought in cookies and other desserts (anything with chocolate proved very popular). Many thanks to Shelia Gray for organizing the event, to Laura Willey and Risa Bear for serving up the pizza, and to all of the staff members who brought sweets. And — pass this on to any students you supervise — a big thank you to all of the students who help keep UO Libraries running!

Random Question

Upper Fourth at Malory Towers by Enid Blyton (one in a comfy-cozy British boarding school series) and A Short History of Film by Wheeler Winston Dixon & Gwendolyn Audrey Foster

—Elizabeth Peterson, Reference and Research Services

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Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor (recently finished). Still to read: What It Is by Lynda Barry, Still Life with Chickens by Catherine Goldhammer, Are You Somebody by Nuala O'Faolain, The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon or Henry's Amazing Machine by Dayle Ann Dodds. I've decided to read How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, a burlesque by Irving D. Tressler, Persona Non Grata, President of the Irving D. Tressler Institute of Human Relations Up To a Certain Point And How To Keep Them At That Point

—Stephen Isaac, Access Services

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Tango: The Art History of Love, by Robert Farris Thompson; Helen: The Life and Times of an H-bomb by Jerry Pinto (a biography of a famous Bollywood dancer and vamp), and the July 2008 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction.

—David Landazuri, MSDP

(story continues)

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

No LSA events are currently scheduled for June or July, however there is the chance of another LSA Night at the Ems. Watch your email for updates.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008: Start planning your act now for the Gonzo Revue, which will be held as always in the Knight Library Browsing Room, at a time yet to be revealed. The theme of this year's Gonzo will be Library Olympics. Non-athletes also welcomed. To schedule your act email Dave Baker or phone him at 346-1957. Former faculty and staff who need a ride to the Gonzo Revue should email Stephanie Midkiff or phone her at 346-1661.

NON-LSA EVENTS

Saturday, July 12, 2008: Come join David Landazuri, Jean Murphy, Harriett Smith, and the Eugene Sacred Harp Singers from 11:15 to noon at the Shady Grove stage at the Oregon Country Fair.