LSA News

No. 67, August, 2005

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

Actions Spoke Louder than Words: The Courage of Zoia Horn

by Faye Chadwell, photo by Stacy DeHart

Zoia Horn

As the first librarian to actually be jailed because of her beliefs in intellectual freedom, Zoia Horn is in an elite group among library workers. Horn recalled the events culminating in her 20-day stint in the Dauphin County Jail during her presentation, “From the Harrisburg Seven to the PATRIOT Act,” held in the Knight Library Browsing Room on Thursday, June 30. According to Horn, the FBI contacted her in January 1971. They were seeking evidence of a plot allegedly conceived by Philip Berrigan. Berrigan, a Catholic priest and anti-war activist, was serving a sentence in a nearby federal prison for burning draft files at the time. According to prosecutors, Berrigan (from his jail cell) and six others, known as the Harrisburg Seven, were planning to blow up heating tunnels beneath Washington, D.C., and to kidnap Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's national security adviser.

When the FBI first contacted her, Horn was the head reference librarian at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She later moved to California and returned to Pennsylvania for the trial. The FBI's chief witness, Douglas Boyd, was an informant who had been employed as a student library worker in Bucknell's library. Boyd supposedly smuggled love letters between Berrigan and his future wife while on release to attend classes and work in the library.

Though Horn was not the only library employee that the FBI approached, she was the only one who refused to testify. Horn told the judge,

“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, made suspect. It stands on freedom of speech—yet general discussions have been interpreted by the government as advocacies of conspiracy. . . .”

Horn's refusal landed her in jail. She had expected to remain in jail for the trial's duration, but the prosecution's case fell apart after Douglas Boyd's testimony was found unreliable. Initially the American Library Association refused to provide legal assistance to Horn, but eventually the Leroy Merritt Humanitarian Fund, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and ALA's Social Responsibilities Round Table offered her support.

Horn's presentation drew attention to what are obvious parallels between the FBI's snooping in libraries during the Vietnam War era and their relatively new ability to invoke the power of the post-9/11 federal legislation known as the U. S.A. PATRIOT Act. As Horn pointed out, the act gives federal law enforcement even greater authority to investigate not only would-be terrorists, but also would-be dissenters. The FBI can use the Act's authority to seek a warrant from a secret court and obtain either library or bookstore records for anyone connected to an investigation of terrorism or spying.

Follow-up questions for Horn were surprisingly few. Many attendees went away without knowing what happened to Horn after the Harrisburg Seven trial. She continued to be an advocate for intellectual freedom. She even worked for a short time as a library director in Modesto, California. But following the Modesto job, Horn never held a full-time job as a librarian again.

THE WORLD AROUND US:

Film Series Complements New Exhibit on Oregon Workers

by Christine Carmichael

If you haven't checked out the new exhibit in the Knight Library—The Many Faces of Oregon's Workers, circa 1900-1940—come by some time and see a bit of Oregon's history. Soon that display will be joined by a related exhibit located in the display cases outside of the Browsing Room, as well as by a series of films that will be shown in the library during several noontime hours.

The exhibit outside the Browsing Room will feature some of the photographs and research of local historian Steve Williamson. Williamson is known for his research on Opal Whiteley, and has also collected and documented photographs and articles relating to Asian communities in Western Oregon during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Upon the close of the exhibition, these materials will be added to Special Collections & University Archives, where they will be available for research.

Some of the stories highlighted in Williamson's research include:

• A Japanese colony at Shotgun Creek in Mabel, Oregon. The 1920 census lists 30 Japanese residents, many of whom were employed by the Coast Range Lumber Company.

• The Ping Yang School bombings, 1895-1901. This school, located near Marcola, was bombed in 1901. Two previous attempts in 1895 and 1900 had failed.

• Sikhs from India working as loggers and mill workers at the Calapooya Lumber Company in Crawfordsville, near Marcola, around 1909.

In 1993 Williamson founded the Opal Whiteley Memorial in Cottage Grove, and in 2000 he assisted in publishing Whiteley's diary online. For more information about Williamson's research, visit his web site "Ping Yang on the Mohawk: The Forgotten Asians of Western Oregon".

The upcoming film series will feature videos from the Knight Library video collection that complement the current Knight Library exhibit:

Thursday August 4, noon, Studio A:
"Yours for Liberty: Abigail Scott Duniway" (6 min.)
"Hatiya (wind): Voices of the Umatilla Indian Reservation" (27 min.)

Thursday August 18, noon-1:30, Browsing Room (Potluck and film)
"American Cowboys" (47 min.).

Thursday September 1, noon, Studio A:
"The Oregon Story: Agricultural Workers" (57 min.)

Thursday September 15, noon, Studio A:
"Family Gathering" (30 min.)

The August 18th film is being shown in the Browsing Room as part of the 2nd annual "Food and a Film" event, co-sponsored by the Library Staff Association and the Library Diversity Committee. Please bring a contribution to the potluck and plan to enjoy good food, good company, and a very interesting look at the Pendleton Roundup and some Oregon cowboys! Jackson Sundown and George Fletcher are featured.

All of these films offer rich and interesting stories about Oregon's workers, and the Library Diversity Committee is thrilled to offer this film series as part of the current exhibit.

A brief description of each film is on the next page. Please feel free to bring your lunch to these brown-bag screenings.

(story continued)

Gonzo Exposes Staff Talent

Yogi and Bennett are stern taskmistresses!

Emcees Leslie Bennett and Aimee Yogi started off by "whipping" audience and performers into shape as they opened the 2005 Gonzo Revue. This year's Gonzo, put on by the Library Staff Association Program Committee, began with a 20-minute video highlight of Gonzos of the past. Bennett and Yogi showed clips from 1986 through to the new millennium. The video began with a rousing "Benvenuto al fabuloso Gonzo!" from mystery celebrity El Invisible. Especially poignant were the clips of Terry Smith in Civil War dress as she played the drum, and of Nancy Dahlberg's monologue which ended with a sort of tribute to Hatoon. Jo-Anne Flanders was shown giving one of her many, many twisted renditions of "Little Red Riding Hood".

El Invisible and La Invisible

This year El Invisible had a musical partner, "La" Invisible. Together, "Los" played a jig and a blues number. T.K. McDonald of the Philosophy department played the accordion and sang with feeling, while El Invisible surprised some of us with his talent on the trombone.

Erica Rivera and Aimee Yogi danced the Anapau Lau and Hukilau hulas. Afterward, brave Ben Farrell joined the ladies on stage as they taught him, and the audience, how to dance the Hukilau. (Danger was averted when Ben discovered just before beginning that his shoe was untied!) The audience participated enthusiastically...

The View from Hidden Spring

by Pam DeLaittre

A Different View

When I was in the first grade, I sat in the front of the room next to my friend Nan. My teacher, Mrs. Laing, considered me a "trouble maker" because I talked to Nan. She finally told my parents, who unlike the teacher, asked me why was I talking to Nan. I told them that I had to ask Nan to tell me what was on the blackboard that Mrs. Laing wanted us to pay attention to. I couldn't see it.

That was when my parents took me to the eye doctor for the first time. I'm a "high myope", as the ophthalmologists like to term us. We are the myopic (very near-sighted) people with the coke bottle lenses, the ones who get teased as "four-eyes" and have people borrowing their glasses to magnify something. Only—they didn't magnify for me. I have very long eyeballs; my lenses would try to focus far in front of my retinas. I am at high risk for retinal detachment. In December of 1999, I was able to see less than four inches in front of my nose.

(story continued)

Library Staff Welcomes Humphrey Scholars

photos by Stacy DeHart

On July 22, the Library Diversity Committee sponsored a casual reception for library staff and faculty to meet the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellows. These scholars are at the University of Oregon to improve their English skills, study, and gain professional experience and cultural understanding of the United States. Representing their home countries of Tanzania, Liberia, Haiti, Burma, Angola, Morocco, Turkey, and Korea among others, they will be visiting campus until mid-August, at which time most of them will move on to attend various universities and institutes around the country for the next year.

Manna from Heaven: it's Blackberry Season!

By Catherine Flynn-Purvis

During our first summer in Oregon, 15 years ago, I would drag my husband out night after hot August night to pick the fragrant, raven jewels. "Again?" he'd ask after a full day's work, scratching at the open sores from previous expeditions, glancing longingly at the couch. We had already filled half an upright freezer.

"But honey, they are falling on the ground and rotting!" I protested. It seemed egregiously profligate not to give them the veneration they merited by recovering as many as possible. Out we went, armed with baskets, ladders, and long sleeves.

One evening we were picking in an abandoned cherry orchard, the air drunk with humidity and ripe fruit. Reaching out for an enticing cluster, I took one very terrible tumble down a precipice disguising itself as a gentle slope-- into an abysmal and thorny thicket. I was rasped, head to toe, as if caught in a Microplane centrifuge. This was not the worst part. I lay, tale of Brer Rabbit swirling vaguely, terrified even to breathe, whimpering motionlessly. I knew that the inevitable extrication would prove far grimmer.

I still marvel that the deepest, darkest, most richly flavored berry of all is free for the picking! Indeed, everything comes at some price-- and if you are deterred by the thought of thousands of ragged lacerations on skin left unprotected by a coat of maille, maybe you will have to actually buy your blackberries. This approach may not elicit the same primeval post-hunt satisfaction, but, as an Oregonian, at least you will not need to remortgage.

Now you can make any number of pies, cobblers, grunts and slumps that will only heighten the berries' winey intensity in the baking. But I am lazy in the summer. And I will not turn on my oven when the temperature goes above 84 degrees.

My favorite thing to do with them after a steamy night of picking is to rinse a few cups, drain very very well, then dump in a ceramic or glass bowl. For each cup of berries, stir in about two tablespoons of sugar (demerara is nice) and two tablespoons of creme de cassis. (There is a decent, inexpensive French import of this blackcurrant liqueur available at local liquor shops.) Allow it to macerate for at least an hour, while you shower and apply antiseptic and calamine. Pile berries and syrupy liquid over best quality vanilla ice cream, and head for your hammock with a spoon.

Only slightly more effort is Blackberry Shrub. Again, no hot oven is involved and it hews nicely to my personal cooking paradigm of minimal effort with maximum flavor and enjoyment. The recipe is adapted from one for Raspberry Shrub in Fruit and Flower Mission Cookbook: Choice Recipes by Seattle Women, 1924, Seattle Fruit and Flower Mission.

Let 4 quarts berries and 1 quart cider or white wine vinegar stand together in a non-reactive container for 48 hours. Strain, pressing on the fruit, and add 12 ounces of sugar (or more to taste). Boil for about 10 minutes before bottling and refrigerating. Fabulously refreshing over ice with seltzer water and a slice of lemon. Addition of citrus flavored vodka purely optional.

From the Fact File

by Terry McQuilkin

Aunts and Uncles

1. In a late-1930's musical film, a natural catastrophe transports a farm girl into a world of fantasy. In her quest to return home, she is joined by three unconventional companions. In a scene where she is in great peril, she calls out to a relative whose visage briefly appears in an hourglass. Tell us the name of this relative, and of the movie in which these characters are seen.

2. This 1960's television sitcom character, played by Ray Walston, was a traveler from another planet who had the ability to levitate objects with the pointing of a finger and (after extending two antennae from his head) become invisible. To avoid unwanted publicity, his temporary roommate passed his visitor off as an another earthling and called him by this avuncular name.
3. When she discovers that her nephew has played hooky, this character in a classic American novel punishes her nephew by ordering him to whitewash a fence. But the clever, mischievous boy tricks other children into performing the work by convincing them that it is actually fun.
4. This main character in a beloved Dickens story was known as a dour, pessimistic miser, until visits from three ghosts one night opened his eyes and heart to goodness and generosity.
Tell us both the story and the character's name.
5. Played by Frances Bavier, this character in a 1960's TV sitcom lived with her nephew, the sheriff of a small town (whose lack of crime gave the title character time to calm his hyperactive deputy and offer sage advice to his family). She served as a housekeeper and substitute mother to the sheriff's son, played by the young Ron Howard.
6. This title character in a 1955 novel is an eccentric socialite who upon her brother's death is required to raise her nephew, with whom she shares a series of madcap adventures. The novel was adapted into a play, which in turn was adapted into a film. About a decade later, the story re-emerged as a musical and subsequently as a film version of the musical.
7. Played by Jackie Coogan, this member of an extremely eccentric family was one of the characters in a popular television series that ran from 1964 to 1966. The character's habits included illuminating light bulbs by placing them in his mouth and sleeping on a bed of nails.
8. This title character in a well-known play lives on an estate owned by a retired professor, related to this character by the professor's first marriage. During the course of the play, both this character and another fall in love with (and are rejected by) the professor's beautiful second wife, and the title character makes an attempt on the professor's life.
9. A television comedy that began its run in 1960 and featured an all-male household headed by Steve Douglas (played by Fred MacMurray) added in 1965 to its cast of characters a crusty ex-sailor played by William Demarest. Tell us the name by which this character was called, and the name of the show..
10. At the beginning a of musical play by a famous composer-lyricist team, the two lead characters are smitten by one another but too proud to admit to it. As a result, the young man, instead of escorting the young woman to the box social, takes her aunt, who is seen at the very beginning of the play churning butter. We're looking for the name of the aunt and the name of the musical.

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

All-staff Photos Now Available

Copies of several of the all-staff photos taken in June will soon be available! Images Services of MDLS is now taking orders, via this webform. Photos are available in 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" prints at $5 and $8 respectively. Turn-around time will be about two weeks depending on the number of prints requested.

Library staff gather for the all-staff photo after the Gonzo Review.

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

LSA and the Library Diversity Committee will once again present "Food and a Film" as part of the LDC's film series (see above). On August 18, 2005 the film "American Cowboys" will be shown as part of this potluck event, which will be from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in the Knight Library Browsing Room. Please bring a dish to share.

Do you consider yourself a party animal, or maybe a social butterfly? The LSA Social Committee is welcoming new recruits. We primarily host the Holiday Potluck in December and the Spring Tea in May, and are in search of anyone who would like to take part in planning/decorating/etc. for these functions. Please contact Raina Smith at 6-1837 or email her if you think you'd like to help out.

NON-LSA EVENTS

A queer ally training workshop has been scheduled for Wednesday, September 28, 2005 from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This "Allies 101" workshop is intended to give participants the opportunity to learn how to be supportive of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty and staff. For more information, check out the UO's "Queer Ally Coalition" web site. Please email or phone Christy Carmichael (6-1840) if you would like to sign up for this workshop or want more information. The location will be in the Knight Library, to be announced later.

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 "At $3 per person ($1 for those aged 6-11; age 5 and under free), it is a bargain. Please join us!"

We've Moved (Virtually)

The Library Staff Association has moved from the "libweb" server to a server of its own, called "lsa." The web addresses of LSA's pages now reflect that change. We recommend that you save the address of the newsletter (http://lsa.uoregon.edu/newsletter.html) and of LSA's main page (http://lsa.uoregon.edu/) among your bookmarked favorites. (Remember the URL for the current newsletter is always the same, so you don't need to update your favorites each time a new issue comes out.)

The transfer did cause a number of links within our web pages to become broken. The LSA's Web/Newsletter Committee will be repairing those links during the next few weeks. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience!

People in the Library

Welcome:

On August 3, 2005 Nargas Oskui-Tabrizi joined the Library staff as the new ITC/CET Coordinator. Prior to accepting the position, Nargas had worked the last two academic terms for the Center for Educational Technology (formerly FITT Center) as a GTF consultant. While pursuing her Master's degree in Educational Leadership here at the University, she has also worked in the ITC. She received her degree in June of this year. A native of Moscow, Idaho, Nargas enjoys sight seeing, walking and reading. She has recently returned from her eighth trip to Iran, where she enjoyed spending time with her family.

Announcements:

Goodbye:

In addition to librarianship and teaching Colleen very much enjoys web design, and has been an active participant in UO Libraries' efforts to increase the effectiveness of its website. She also has maintained the web site for the library's All-Instruction Group and hosts an excellent personal website.

Colleen is looking forward to spending much more time with her family in Canada. She can't wait to have several sewing machines whirring away at the same table while working on quilts with her aunt and cousin. She also anticipates the excitement that any new adventure inherently brings.

There will be a farewell reception for Colleen on Tuesday, August 16, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm in the Browsing Room.

Staff photos by Stacy DeHart unless otherwise indicated

Stacy DeHart joins Newsletter Team

Stacy DeHart, of Media Services, has joined the Library Staff Association's Web/Newsletter Committee, and will serve on the editorial team of LSA News. Stacy will compile announcements of staff news (such as arrivals and departures) take photographs of LSA events, and participate in the editing of LSA News.

Been to an interesting conference?

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

Last updated: 041118
lsaweb@lists.uoregon.edu