LSA News

No. 91, August 2008

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

Index Fear and Loathing at Civic Stadium by Chris Tweeter Spring Roll by Eliz Breakstone Dreaming at My Desk: Studying Bookbindings by Harriett Smith Library Staff Selections Diversify Collection by Mark Watson From the Fact File by Terry McQuilkin Events of Interest Announcements People in the Library

Directional signs outside Hayward Field point to all cities where UO students have won Olympic medals photo by Laura Damiani

Fear and Loathing at Civic Stadium
story by Chris Tweeter, photos by Jen Lindsey

Library staffers enjoy a night at the Ems game

Ah yes. The sizzling grill. The sharp crack of the bat. The announcer's booming, Charlie Brown's teacher voice. The froth topped plastic cups of translucent deliciousness. All this and more awaited those who attended the LSA's annual Ems baseball and barbecue shindig extravaganza. A good time was had by all (an informed conjecture) and I daresay it was a success. The merrymaking and joyous revelry made for quite an intoxicating atmosphere, the lazy summer evening stretching overhead only adding to the ambiance of sublime grandeur which is Ems stadium. (Alas, my keyboard's hyperbole button can't be turned off.) The competition was fierce of course, as the Eugene Emeralds and Tri-City Dust Devils (just try and find the city, I guess) traded Titan-like blows well into extra-inning exhaustion, past the point of mortal exertion. And then with a frenzied rush it happened, as that one guy landed the killing blow in the bottom of the 10th inning, bringing the loyal spectators to their screaming feet. And then it was over — the epic evening's denouement having finally been reached — and as the exiting throng made their way into the night, echoes of the words "good nachos, dude" drifted along with them.

(click here for more photos from the event)

Spring Roll
story and photos by Eliz Breakstone

The library crowd

On May 31, 75 cyclists gathered at Red Barn Grocery to participate in the 1st annual Spring Roll ride, a bicycle scavenger hunt benefiting Food for Lane County. Eliz Breakstone and former UO Libraries employee Susan Stumpf organized the ride, inspired by a similarly structured Cranksgiving that occurs around Thanksgiving in several cities. The UO Libraries was well-represented: Andrew Bonamici, Karen Estlund, Rick Gersbach, Lesli Larson, Stephanie Midkiff, Erin O'Meara, Elizabeth Peterson and Annie Zeidman-Karpinski came out with friends, partners and kids.

Andrew Bonamici

Each rider received a shopping list of ten grocery items to purchase at ten different stores of their choice across Eugene. To be eligible for a post-ride raffle, riders had to bring back the ten items with receipts from ten stores. Cyclists spread across Eugene, visiting grocery and convenience stores near and far. Some riders, by staying in the Whittaker, completed their hunt in only 45 minutes; others took several hours and got as far south as the Albertsons on 30th. Folks got creative, limiting themselves to local businesses or purchasing only items with no high fructose corn syrup. Red Barn ran out of cornmeal and, apparently, the 7-Eleven down the street was completely emptied of its canned goods.

The ride ended at Sam Bond’s Garage, where cyclists turned in food and receipts, and relaxed with a hard-earned beer or soda. Live music was provided by Used Log Truck, with Dave Peterson, from Media Services, on lead vocals and guitar. Thanks to the generosity of several local businesses, we were able to raffle off some cool prizes: a magnum of merlot, a Timbuktu messenger bag, a $50 REI gift card, some bicycle kits (helmets, locks and water bottles), a pedi-cab gift card and a $100 Revolution Cycles gift card.

And thanks to the generosity of our riders, we had nineteen boxes of food to donate to Food for Lane County at the end of the ride. A definite success!

Dreaming at My Desk
by Harriett Smith
photos by Elizabeth Uhlig

Studying Bookbindings

Carolingian/Romanesque structure

Charlottesville, Virginia, is located in a region of rolling hills covered with verdant trees. The hills, the greenery, and the mountains in the distance reminded me very much of Oregon when I got my first glimpse of the area by daylight. But I was forcibly reminded of how far I had journeyed when my taxi passed a pickup hauling a flatbed trailer—with a cannon.

I was heading to Charlottesville to check into my hotel, get some lunch, and take the Rare Book School tour of the University of Virginia Grounds (or campus), including the Lawn and Rotunda area, designed by Thomas Jefferson. The Rare Book School, founded in 1983 by Terry Belanger, moved to UVa in 1992, and it's housed at Alderman, the "graduate student library" near the Rotunda. I was there to attend a week-long class called Introduction to the History of Bookbinding, hoping to complement what I'd learned in 2006 about cataloging the inside of a rare book with some extra information about how to describe the outside.

(story continued)

The World Around Us
Library Staff Selections Diversify Collection
by Mark Watson

At the University of Oregon Libraries, we are blessed with large collections that represent a very diverse perspective, ranging from medieval codices and rare books to literary and historical manuscripts, university archives, original art, photographs, architectural drawings, and ephemera. We proudly share these collections with all Oregon residents through the Oregon Card Program, with the other members of the Orbis Cascade Alliance and, via ILL, with other individuals and institutions across the globe.

As part of doing its part to improve the diversity of the campus climate, the UO Libraries has made a commitment to enhance the breadth and depth of its holdings. This past year, $5,000 of unrestricted gift funds was set aside to allow library staff to recommend materials for purchase that will enhance the diversity of the collections. Suggestions for non-English language and area studies materials are particularly welcome.

Over the course of this past fiscal year, it is a pleasure to report that library staff responded enthusiastically by making requests that totaled nearly $3,000. The following sampler provides a sense of the thoughtful choices made by our library colleagues:

• True to Our Native Land : an African American New Testament Commentary
• The Gendered Score : Music and Gender in 1940s Melodrama and the Woman's Film
• Hindi Film Songs and the Cinema
• America's Christian Heritage
• Protection des Cultures, Construction de la Nature : Agriculture, Foresterie et Entomologie au Canada, 1884-1959
• Eci Mikoian
• Two-Faced Racism : Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage
• Borderless [videorecording]
• Gender in the Music Industry : Rock, Discourse, and Girl Power

These, and many more interesting titles now enrich the collection. All library staff are welcome to submit recommendations and keep this vital diversity program going. The web form is available on the IRIS home page at: https://iris.uoregon.edu/groups/diversity/request.html.

From the Fact File
by Terry McQuilkin

A parade of champions

As millions of fans around the world have their attention focused on the Games of the Twenty-ninth Olympiad in Beijing, we thought this would be a perfect time to pay tribute to a few of the heroes of earlier summer games. Our ten clues describe some of the most astounding athletic performers of the modern Olympics. Give us the names of the medal-winners profiled below.

1. A victim of polio at a very young age, this Tennessee native resolved to overcome her adversity and played basketball for Burt High School, helping her team take the state championship. She competed in the 1956 Olympic games in Melbourne, and four years later in Rome she won golds for the 100 meter, 200 meter, and the 4 x 100 meter relay.


2. At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, this Native American athlete, who would eventually play major league baseball and football, won gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon, but the following year, press reports revealed that he had been paid to play baseball during his youth, and as a result he was stripped of his medals. Racism undoubtedly played a role in the hard line taken by the International Olympic Committee, given that many other Olympic athletes had played professionally. The IOC finally restored his medals in 1983 — thirty years after his death.


3. Making a splash in the 1972 summer games was a mustached swimmer from California who set new world records as he earned seven gold medals. The Munich games, however, were beset by tragedy when the lives of eleven Israeli athletes were lost following their kidnapping by a group of Palestinian guerrillas. Concerns for the safety of the American swimmer — who is Jewish — forced him to leave the games before the closing ceremony for fear that he would become another terrorist target.


4. This Los Angeles native, who captured the hearts of fans by her extraordinary athletic performances and with her extroverted personality, won three golds and a silver in the 1988 Olympics, and she was presented with the James E. Sullivan award as the top American amateur athlete of the year. Ten years later fans were shocked to learn of her sudden death that was attributed to a congenital vascular disorder.


5. In one of the most remarkable feats in Olympic history, this Queens, New York native set a new world record in the long jump at the 1968 games in Mexico City. His jump — 8.9 meters, or 29 feet 2 ½ inches — bested the previous record by more than 21 inches and remained unbroken until 1991.


6. You may not realize that tennis was an official Olympic event starting with the first modern Olympiad in 1896. The sport was dropped from the Olympics after the 1924 games, and reinstated only 1988. Even if you don't follow Olympic tennis, however, you've probably heard of these siblings, who have 24 grand slam tennis championships between them, and at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney won gold medals for women's doubles. For extra credit, tell us which one of them took the gold in women's singles in Sydney.


7. The official poster promoting the 1952 games in Helsinki featured the image of a distance runner who had competed in three separate Olympiads during the 1920's. Known as "The Flying Finn," this Turku-born runner earned a career total of 12 Olympic medals, including two golds in one day at the 1924 games in Paris.


8. Noted for his distinctive running style, with short steps and an upright stance, this graduate of Baylor University was the favorite to win the 200 meter in 1992. Unfortunately, he contracted food poisoning just a week and a half before the games began, and was unable to make it past the semifinals, though he did win a gold as a part of the 4 x 400 meter relay team. But four years later in Atlanta, the 28-year old runner performed brilliantly, and became the first man to win both the 200 meter and 400 meter. In 2004 in Sydney, he picked up his fourth and fifth career golds in the 400 meter and the 4 x 400 meter relay.


9. One of the brightest stars of the twenty-first Olympiad was a 14-year-old gymnast whose performance on the uneven bars earned her a 10.0 — the first time in Olympic history that a perfect score had been earned in gymnastics. She attracted a great deal of media attention, and was named 1976 Female Athlete of the Year of the Associated Press, and in her native Romania a "Hero of Socialist Labor."


10. This African American athlete from Alabama became the hero of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin by taking the gold in the 100 and 200 meters, in the long jump, and in the 4 x 100. Given that Hilter had been using the games for propaganda purposes, wanting to prove the superiority of the Aryan race, observers made note of the racism implied by German leader's refusal to congratulate any winners other than the German ones. But bigotry played a role even back in America, and the 32-year-old who had been cheered even by German fans found his skin color to be a barrier to any endorsement contracts. After years of financial difficulties, he became a goodwill ambassador and successful speaker. Forty years after he competed in Berlin, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Gerald Ford.

Readers may submit their answers to Fact File by August 29. The UO Libraries staff member whose submission contains highest number of correct answers will receive a gift certificate worth $10.00 toward purchases at the UO Bookstore, courtesy of the Library Staff Association. In the event of a tie, a single winner will be selected by lot. All staff and faculty of the University of Oregon Libraries are invited to participate.

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

Tuesday, August 19, 2008: It's a race to the finish at this year's Gonzo Revue. Line up at 1:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room, where this year's Gonzo will celebrate Information Athletics in the First, (and, perhaps, Last) Library Olympiad. Non-athletes also welcomed. The Gonzo usually takes entrants up to two hours to finish the course. 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

It seems people are too busy vacationing or working on library projects to be performing this summer...except, of course, in the Gonzo....

Announcements:

New LSA Chair Takes the Helm. As of August 1, 2008, Dave Baker of the Center for Media and Educational Technologies is the new Chair of the Library Staff Association. He'll be ably assisted by Jen Lindsey of Access Services. The various LSA committees also have new members as well. Find out who's who for 2008/2009 at the LSA Committees page.

People in the Library
edited by Jen Lindsey

Welcome:

On the Move:

Goodbye:

Staff announcements and photos by Jen Lindsey unless otherwise indicated