Bibliocycle

What happens when a student doing a research project needs to use fragile, rare, and valuable materials from our special collections?  Thanks to the magic of digitization, we can provide them with access to these materials without harm to the originals.   Sometimes we need to scan the item ourselves, but frequently Google Books or the Internet Archive has already digitized the book.  In this case, all we need to do is add a link from our online library catalog to the full-text version of the book.   For example, a senior recently requested the use of James Pike’s “The Prostrate State: South Carolina under Negro Government”. When the book was retrieved from the special collections, we noticed that the first twenty or so pages had broken off from the text block. The student looked through the book very carefully, but it became apparent that the book was too fragile for use.  Fortunately, Tim Sprattler, who is in charge of the special collections, was able to find a link at Internet Archive and has added it to the library catalog record.  The result was a happy student, and a book that did not sustain further damage. Here is what the record looks like:

Some of the smallest items in the Archive are currently on display in the lobby of the library.  One of these is a clay tablet with miniature writing dating from 2000 BCE, which was donated in 1930 by Benjamin F. Schlesinger, P. A. Class of 1892.   Also on display is the smallest book printed using moveable type.  The book reproduces a letter from Galileo to a lady friend, and was by C. W. Cannon, P. A. Class of 1904 .  Photos displayed with the book reveal the text inside, because the book is very fragile and cannot be shown open.    Also on display is our copy of one of five in a series of “the world’s smallest book.”  An accompanying photo reveals the text of the book, which is The Lord’s Prayer. The book was donated by Dudley L. Vaill, P. A. Class of 1927.  Another version of the Lord’s Prayer was found in the cubby holes of Bertha Bailey’s desk.  The prayer is inscribed within a small circle, in this case a three-cent piece, with the prayer repeated to fill the circle.   Finally, the display features a sermon book belonging to the eldest of the five Samuel Phillips which came to the Archive with the Phillips family papers. He wrote all his sermons in very small handwriting to save paper, and must have had excellent eyesight to be able to read them in the dim light of his church.

What better way to wrap up an extensive orientation to the culture and expectations of the Phillips Academy Community than with a party! The Instructional Librarians at the OWHL recently welcomed new faculty to the campus with a dessert reception and tour of the Archives.

Each librarian is affiliated with one or more academic departments, and they gave personalized tours to new faculty members from “their” departments. Displays of new materials were available for perusing by the guests, and the circulation desk was busy as the new teachers discovered the OWHL’s DVD collection. Elisabeth Tully, library director, spoke briefly about copyright issues, and each teacher was given a copy of the brochure “Know Your Copy Rights.”

Tim Sprattler, Interim Archivist, entertained the group with a presentation on “Student Life at Andover through the Ages.”

It can be difficult to start a new school year when your school is located half a world away from your family.  It helps to have a “welcoming committee.”  Sixty-two new international students arrived on campus on recently, and were greeted by Andover student “World Partners” and the coordinator of international students, Ms. Suzanne Torabi.  They represent 43 countries by residence and 38 different citizenships outside the United States.

To ease their transition, the new students participated in an extensive, multi-day orientation held in the Freeman Room of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library.   The students played games, received important information, and had an opportunity to talk about their hopes and their fears in fishbowl exercises with Andover faculty.

Program “graduates” are now fully integrated members of the community.  We enjoyed having them with us during their first days at Andover, and hope that they will come back to the OWHL soon.

My position as Library Director has recently taken on a new dimension.  Because of budget rollbacks, when our Archivist retired this year, another staff member assumed the responsibilities of the position, resulting in the need for him to give up some of the things he was already doing.  One of the things that he gave up was “Facilities Management.”  I had managed to avoid that aspect of my job for eight years.  Now was the time to step up to the plate.

During my first week as facilities manager, I quickly got on a first-name basis with Nancy, who answers the phone and triages problems at the Office of Physical Plant.  I acquired all of the building keys, and my own set of allen wrenches.  I developed a tracking system so I could keep up with the reporting and completion of work orders.

But yesterday I really came into my own as facilities manager.  A plug broke, leaving a metal piece stuck in an outlet.  I called it in, but also decided that I should cover the outlet pending the repair.  Voila, duct tape!  I can do this job.

The Phillips Academy Archives contains countless treasures.  The OWHL’s summer student workers, Cassie and Ashley, have spent time exploring those treasures while helping Interim Archivist Tim Sprattler work on projects this summer.

In response to an inquiry from an Andover alumnus who was part of the Academy’s Jazz Band “The Aces” during the 1950’s, the girls found and scanned pictures of the band.

They were surprised to learn that the Academy also had a marching band during the fifties.

Arranging itself into the letter “A” was the band’s signature move.  Another request (for information on Andover’s “Secret Societies” led the students to discover that not too long ago, Andover had what ammounted to residential fraternity houses.  This is the house inhabited by the members of PBX.

Many of these old houses still exist around campus.  It would be fun to do a scavenger hunt to see how many could be identified.  Cassie and Ashley enthusiastically agreed that it is great to have a summer job where you can learn interesting things while you are working.  The entire staff of the OWHL is in complete agreement.

Tim’s shirt says it all:

As recently as a generation ago, primary source research in American history required a great deal of patience and persistence.  Some of the best resources for contemporaneous accounts of historical events–newspapers–were available, if at all, on microfilm.  Few high school collections had the budgets necessary to offer users access to  the micro forms or the equipment needed to view them.  Fast forward to 2009.  Phillips Academy students  are indeed fortunate in being able to draw from a vast trove of digitized primary source material, including full-text access to important historical newspapers licensed by the OWHL.  The librarians are very proud of the resources that we offer, and frequently remind students that they can’t get to this excellent content using Google, because the materials are proprietary and hence not available on the free Internet.

While this remains true, the list of excellent free resources sponsored by universities and government agencies continues to grow.  A case in point is a rich site offered by  the Library of Congress.  The LC  has created Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers as part of  the National Digital Newspaper Program.  This site provides  digital access to historically significant  United States newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, and is freely available on the Internet.  The site is searchable and browsable, and the full-text page views are in PDF format and have durable URLs.  The site will continue to grow as additional states receive grants to digitize local papers.

Students of history have a much easier time these days finding primary source materials, so that they can devote their efforts to the hard work of interpreting and using them.  Come to think of it, that will still require patience and persistence.

It is impossible not to have an opinion about YouTube.  Based on an unscientific survey of my colleagues, many intelligent, thoughtful educators have little regard for the enormously popular video-sharing site.  But if you haven’t looked at YouTube lately, you might want to revise your judgement.  Many top colleges and universities–including UCLA, Stanford, Dartmouth and many more–have created excellent educational videos and uploaded them to YouTube’s educational site–http://www.youtube.com/edu.

YouTube EDU functions as an aggregator of the YouTube channels of the participating institutions.  Content includes lectures on hundreds of topics, as well as speeches and special presentations.  For example, commencement addresses (including the one at Notre Dame by President Obama, and the one at Duke by Oprah Winfrey) are archived for free viewing.  If you haven’t been to YouTube lately, you are in for a pleasant surprise.  What began as a fairly frivolous vehicle for self-promotion has morphed into an important educational resource.

Librarians have known for some time that this day was coming, but still, the announcement last week by the American Chemical Society that it is ceasing the distribution of the print editions of  all but three of its academic journals, and will offer the journals only online, was sobering.  It is hard to argue with the rationale for this decision, that “printing and distribution costs now exceed revenues from print journals.”  But are we really ready to give up, cold turkey, access to print-based publications? [Read more →]

Twitter (a free social messaging service “for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” has finally gained “academic respectability.”  According to a recent article in the British online journal the Telegraph,  “The social networking tool, which has 1.8 million users, will be listed in the 30th anniversary edition (of the Collins English Dictionary) to be published later this year.  The website, which allows users to send brief online updates to their friends and family, will appears as both a noun and a verb.”

Remarkably, after being a staunch Twitter-resister for more than a year, I recently took the plunge and created an account.  I did so because Elizabeth Thomsen, whom I highly respect, has encouraged me to do so, and Marci Silverman, with whom I rode my bike cross-country, twittered the whole trip.  In addition, at the recent National Educational Computing Conference, it would have been totally uncool to admit to being Twitter-less.  I began by “following” a few interesting people.  During NECC, I decided that it was time to “tweet.”

I sent one, very banal post.  Following the rules, I tagged it so that it would become part of the pool of NECC tweets by using the #NECC09 tag.  It was, I am confident, completely within the guidelines.

Imagine my shock and dismay when I attempted to log in to Twitter a couple of days later only to find this very harsh message.

I have again followed the instructions and appealed my suspension, but haven’t heard back from the Twitter police.  If you know me, you know that I am a dedicated rule-follower.  I was a girl scout and girl scout leader!  I am a librarian!  If you have a Twitter account, please tweet them on my behalf (@Twitter)  Please help free my account!