Library News

How do you go about writing the biography of one of the country’s most influential physicists of the 20th century? Where do you find primary source information and how do you write compelling prose based on scientific notes?

Abigail Foerstner, author of James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles, will visit the University of Iowa Libraries to discuss her approach to researching and writing this biography on Friday, February 1 at 10 a.m. in the Special Collections classroom on the third floor of the Main Library.

She spent seven years researching and writing James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles. Foerstner blends space science drama, military agendas, cold war politics, and the events of Van Allen’s lengthy career to create the first biography of this highly influential physicist. Drawing on Van Allen’s correspondence and publications, years of interviews with him as well as with more than a hundred other scientists, and declassified documents from such archives as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Kennedy Space Center, and the Applied Physics Laboratory, Foerstner describes Van Allen’s life from his Iowa childhood to his first experiments at White Sands to the years of Explorer I until his death in 2006.

In this hands-on discussion, Forestner will share some of the unique documents and interesting stories she found in the Van Allen papers located in the University Archives.

Foerstner teaches science writing and news writing in the graduate program at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism; she is the author of Picturing Utopia: Bertha Shambaugh and the Amana Photographers (Iowa, 2000) and of hundreds of articles on science, history, and the visual arts. As a staff reporter for the suburban sections of the Chicago Tribune, she covered science and the environment for nearly ten years.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Kristi Bontrager, UI Libraries Public Relations Coordinator at 335-5960 or Allison Thomas, University of Iowa Press at  319-335-2015.

Long before war engulfed Afghanistan, Rosanne Klass was there. The young teacher from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, viewed the country with fresh eyes and embraced its people with her friendship. In 1964, she described her experiences in this little-known land, making surprisingly prescient observations in her now-classic memoir, Land of the High Flags: Afghanistan When the Going Was Good.

Now this Iowa native is donating her manuscripts to the Iowa Authors Collection at the University of Iowa Libraries. She will sit down for an informal conversation about her experiences in Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 30 at 2:30 p.m. in the Second Floor Conference Room (rm 2032) in the Main Library. 

At a time when Afghan women were still subjected to purdah—hidden behind high walls and in shroud-like burqas—Rosanne Klass was the first woman to teach boys from Afghanistan’s remote villages. Her presence, both a shock and a risk, contributed to the ending of purdah.

Klass returned to Kabul as a journalist in 1965, reporting on the first Communist riots. After the Soviet invasion she had predicted, she founded the Afghanistan Relief Committee, which provided medical and other humanitarian aid to Afghan victims inside the war-torn country. She also directed the Afghanistan Information Center at Freedom House, a major source of information for the American and international press and media.

This event is free and open to the public. Please contact Kristi Bontrager, UI Libraries Public Relations Coordinator at 319-335-5960 for more information.

Before you get overwhelmed with assignments for the new semester, the Libraries wanted to welcome you back with a chance to win a pair of ticket to Hancher for dinner and a show on Tuesday, February 12th at 7:30 p.m. Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will be playing the Love Songs of Duke Ellington, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

To win, you need to write a short essay (250-500 words) comparing a scholarly work from your discipline to any part of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. You also are required to submit a complete citation of the scholarly work your are comparing. If you’re so inclined, you write a sonnet instead of the essay.

All entries are due on Monday, February 4th at 12 p.m. (noon) and must be submitted online through the web form. A panel of librarians will choose the winning entry. The winner will be announced on Friday, February 8th.

For complete rules, information and to submit your entry, check online at www.lib.uiowa.edu/events/withlove.

The Staff Council Diversity Committee proudly presents an original production by the Darwin Turner Action Theatre - A Look at the Presence of Justice on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 from 4-5pm in the Shambaugh Auditorium of the Main Library. Reception will follow in the North Exhibition Hall with music provided by NIC.3.

Darwin Turner Action Theatre, the social outreach component for The UI Theatre Arts Department, presents dynamic, thought-provoking pieces of theatre for social and cultural awareness. With offerings for all ages, DTAT’s performances and workshops are interactive and aimed to provoke awareness and discussion. The troupe will be joined by local musician, B.F. Burt.

This presentation is part of the University of Iowa’s Human Rights Week 2008.

For over 400 years, news was disseminated to the poor and uneducated masses in England, Ireland, and other European countries through street literature. Many forms eventually reached America and other parts of the world. Street literature was a mirror of society, with its half-truths, lies, folk poetry, romances, and all manner of other foibles. Every imaginable subject was covered: politics, church propaganda, birth, death, love, marriage, adultery, murders, executions (often including what was claimed to be a final letter/confession by the accused), other crimes, sea adventures, and wars. 

This exhibit concentrates on types of street literature in England in the 16th through 19th centuries: how it was produced; the subjects it embraced; two of the chief publishers of the 1800s; and samples and copies housed in the University of Iowa Libraries.

The exhibit in Special Collections on the third floor of the Main Library will be on display through March. It is FREE and open to the public during regular library hours.