Library News

REGISTER NOW: IOWA RIVER BUS TOUR ON OCTOBER 19
     Register at cory-sanderson@uiowa.edu or 319 353-1021

Friday, October 19, is the first of three events focused on the Iowa River, declared endangered by the organization American Rivers.  Each event is a guided bus tour of the river with site visits along the way, followed by a reading/lecture. 

On the 19th, the bus leaves the south side of the UI Main Library at 3pm headed towards the Clear Creek Project of IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering at South Amana.  With the help of docent Wayne Petersen of the US Conservation Service, those on the tour will follow the course of the river upstream to the Greenbelt and then to the operable hydropower dam at Iowa Falls (est. 1925).  A box supper will be served along the way.

Ted Steinberg, Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University, reads at 7pm in the Iowa Falls Public Library.  Steinberg is author of Nature Incorporated:  Industrialization and the Waters of New England, Acts of God:  The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster, and Down to Earth:  Nature’s Role in American History.  You can learn more about him at  http://www.case.edu/artsci/hsty/steinberg.html

All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required for the bus tour and box supper. Please RSVP by noon on Friday, October 19th. We welcome everyone at these events.  People with disabilities needing special accommodation should contact Barbara Eckstein Barbara-eckstein@uiowa.edu; 319 335-0449.

This event is sponsored by the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Perry A. and Helen Judy Bond Fund for Interdisciplinary Interaction, the Departments of English and History, and the Program in American Studies.

The lyrics of “Give Peace a Chance” express former Beatle, John Lennon’s (1940-1980) antiwar philosophy.  In commemoration of his birthday on October 9th, the Libraries’ is highlighting resources that provide a documentary history of governments’ attempts to establish peace though negotiations, armistice agreements, and treaties.  Supplementary documents related to peace talks, declassified diplomatic correspondence provide further accounts of diplomatic successes and failures.

The text of treaties from the earliest formation of the U.S. government to contemporary times are available in print or in digital format within the Government Publications Collection including Indian Treaties, treaties with foreign governments from the Revolutionary War, both World Wars, and the Korean and Viet Nam Wars eras. In addition, the United Nations Treaty Collection subscription resource includes multilateral treaties, many of which seek to promote peaceful relationships among countries.

Background information critical for better understanding of issues involved in negotiations, includes foreign policy statements, reprints of speeches, congressional testimony, position papers, and country geopolitical profiles. 

The destruction resulting from World War II brought nations together to work on peace and security issues through the United Nations. The United Nations has worked on these issues since it was founded in 1945.  As a collector of United Nations publications, the University of Iowa Libraries has an extensive collection of materials that describe and detail international efforts to maintain and promote peace in the world.  A research guide for the United Nations collection is available online at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/govpubs/intl/un.html.

Researchers may begin their search in InfoHawk Catalog or contact Marianne Mason for help with U.S. government information and Brett Cloyd for assistance with the United Nations and international government information.

As part of the 40th Anniversary of the International Writing Program, several noted IWP alumni have returned to Iowa City. A special reading of Chinese writers is planned to celebrate. The reading will take place in the Adler Journalism Building room E105 on Thursday, October 11 from 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.

Li Rui (2002), Xi Chuan (2002), Ya Hsien (1967), and Cheng Wen-tao (1968-71), as well as IWP 2007 residents Lo Yi-chin (Taiwan), Lawrence Pun (Hong Kong) and special guest Yun He (China/The Philippines) will discuss Chinese writing and literature. Poets Xi, Ya, Cheng, and Yun will also read from their work.

The writers will also visit the Main Library to see the current exhibit “East Asia in the Midwest.”

The final lap has now begun, and we are closing in on the checkered flag. The top spots are still hotly contested. We could have a photo finish!

Follow this link to Clue #7, which begins the final lap of the race!

Race On!

The more than four million volumes that the UI Libraries owns are just the tip of the iceberg of knowlege that UI faculty, students and staff have access to. Our Interlibrary Loan department is your connection to a world of libraries. Every year the Interlibrary Loan department fills requests for more than 20,000 items!

You can request a book, thesis, video, journal article, book chapter or other research material online. This free service is available to all University of Iowa faculty, students, and staff and is done online through the Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery website.

Generally journal articles, book chapters and other short materials that are scannable are delivered to your desktop within 2 days. Books, videos or theses can be delivered, on average in 4-10 days.

The first time you login with your HawkID and password to our online Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery system, you will have to complete a one time registration form. Here is where you choose your Home Library (Hardin or Main) and your Pick-up Library (Hardin, Main or any of the branch libraries). So for example, if you are faculty, student or staff member in the health sciences, Hardin Library is the best choice for Home Library. All other departments should choose the Main Library. The Pick-up Library is where books will be sent for you to pick up – if your office is in Seashore Hall, you can choose the Psychology Library and have your books sent there for you to check out.

Once you are registered, your Interlibrary Loan account will be the place to go to do everything – submit your requests, view scanned material that has been posted, renew your books, and track the status of your outstanding requests.

Beginning this fall, UI Libraries users can search smarter. The new and improved Smart Search on the UI Libraries website provides a single search box that searches the InfoHawk Catalog, the Iowa Digital Library, E-resources, E-books, E-journals and even journal articles.

During this early release period, we want to hear about your experience using Smart Search (http://smartsearch.uiowa.edu). We will compile these responses to continue improving functionality for our library users.

As the green flag flies over the Amazing Library Racing field, we have a pretty tight race at the front. The top five spots are separated by less than one hour!

Today’s lap may prove to be the fastest yet!

Follow this link to find your next clue.

Race on!

One of the clues in the Amazing Library Race asks racers to create an avatar. Here is a sampling of submissions.

You’ve heard of the TV show “The Amazing Race,” now you can participate right here on campus. Instead of teams racing around the world, teams (of one or two UI students) in the Amazing Library Race will “race” around the UI Libraries - solving clues and completing tasks.

At the end the three fastest teams will choose between top-level prizes like a pair of Iowa Football tickets, a pair of Hancher tickets to DBR and the Mission or a $100 Community Gift Certificate.

Everyone is a winner in the Amazing Library Race, thanks to a Coca-Cola grant and donations from area businesses more than $600 worth of prizes will be awarded.

There will be three laps of racing, each with three tasks to complete. The first lap starts today at 12 p.m.; the second lap starts Friday, September 28 at 8 a.m.; and the third lap starts on Tuesday, October 2 at 8 a.m.

Follow this link to the first clue and start the Amazing Library Race today!

Members of the Grayhawks (UI Retirees Association) and other retired community members will be visiting the Main Library today for “Preserving Family Photographs, Part 1″ in the Conservation Lab from 2 - 3:30 p.m.

This hands-on session will be led by Nancy E. Kraft, Head of the Preservation Department and Gary Frost, University Libraries Conservator. The session will cover the various film and photo types with suggestions for handling, storage and extending the life of the image; photo album and scrapbook problems and possible solutions; how to determine the acidity or color fastness of paper; how to perform light cleaning of photos and how to display photos safely.

Future retirees sessions include “Preserving Family Photographs, Part 2″ in the Information Arcade on Tuesday, October 16 from 10 - 11:30 a.m. Mark Anderson and Jennifer Wolfe from Digital Library Services department will demonstrate best practices in digitizing photos. You’ll learn the technical requirements that will make your photos usable, and you’ll add descriptors to your photos that will help you organize them.

For more information about Back to the Libraries sessions for retirees, contact Kristi Bontrager (kristi-r-bontrager@uiowa.edu or 319-335-5960).

Join Journalism students as they read excerpts from a selection of banned or challenged books from the list of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century compiled by the Radcliffe Publishing Course.  

Tuesday, September 25
2:30 – 4:15 p.m.
First Floor Rotunda
Adler Journalism Building 

1. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

 2. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

 4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

 9. 1984 by George Orwell

 12. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

 11. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov

 15. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

 18. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 

 21. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

 24. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

 28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

 29. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

 49. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

 53. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

 97. Rabbit Run by John Updike

 And Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

The numbers represent the book’s ranking on the top novels list. 

Readers are students in Law, Media and Current Issues, a course taught by Carolyn Stewart Dyer, professor of journalism and mass communication.  Banned Books Week is the American Library Association’s celebration of the freedom to read.

Iowan Mildred Armstrong Kalish will read from Little Heathens, her memoir about growing up during the Great Depression, at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 17, in Shambaugh Auditorium of the University of Iowa Main Library.

The reading is free and open to the public. A crew from University of Iowa public radio station WSUI AM910 will be on hand to record the readings for future broadcasts. Live broadcasts will be available on The University’s Writing University web site.

Kalish, who grew up in Garrison, taught English at several colleges, including The University of Iowa. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser says of Kalish’s memoir, “This lovely book, so unaffected and so generous, opens the door to a past I knew as a child in Iowa, and I wept with joy and recognition as I read it.”

September 2007
Issue 3.07

Welcome to the September issue of Transitions.

The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments affecting the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new products and programs, the open access movement and other alternative publishing models. Scholarly communication refers to the full range of formal and informal means by which scholars and researchers communicate, from email discussion lists to peer-reviewed publication. In general authors are seeking to document and share new discoveries with their colleagues, while readers–researchers, students, librarians and others–want access to all the literature relevant to their work.

While the system of scholarly communication exists for the benefit of the world’s research and educational community and the public at large, it faces a multitude of challenges and is undergoing rapid change brought on by technology. To help interested members of the UI community keep up on these challenges and changes we plan to put out 4-6 issues per year of this newsletter.

This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu. Also, read the health sciences counterpart to Transitions: Hardin Scholarly Communication News.

Table of Contents:

Campaign against Open Access and Public Access to Federally Funded Research
Scholarly Publishing Out of Step with the Academy
Scholarly Publishers Issue Position Paper on Author/Publisher Rights
U.S College Book Price Study
Economic Stability of Open Access
Faculty Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Scholarly Communication
Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Joins Google’s Library Project
Do Open Access Articles Have Greater Citation Impact?
Flattening of the U.S. Output of Scientific Articles: 1988–2003
Amazon Will Digitize Universities’ Books and Sell Print-on-Demand Copies
L.A. Times Editorial: Accessing NIH research
Yale Libraries Pull Out of BioMed Central Over Cost of Publication

Last spring the UI Center for Human Rights named Timothy Tyson’s Blood Done Sign My Name as this year’s selection for the One Community, One Book project.

As an on-campus sponsor of the project, the UI Libraries is hosting a discussion of this fascinating memoir on Wednesday, September 19th at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Library Second Floor Study Lounge, located directly above the North entrance of the library.

Blood Done Sign My Name, which won the Southern Book Award for Nonfiction and published by Random House in 2004, is the true story of 23-year-old Henry Marrow, who was murdered in 1970.  In the wake of the killing, young African-Americans took to the streets.  The author’s father, the pastor of Oxford’s all-white Methodist church, urged the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history.  In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away.  Tyson returns to Oxford 30 years later to make sense of what happened and how the events changed his life.  As he weaves together childhood memories with the realities of present-day Oxford, he sheds new light on America’s struggle for racial justice.

The author, Timothy B. Tyson, a North Carolina native, is a senior research scholar of documentary studies at the History Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; visiting professor of American Christianity and southern culture at Duke Divinity School; adjunct professor of history and adjunct professor of American studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The UI Museum of Art and the UI Libraries will continue the lecture series being held in conjunction with an exhibition, From Monks to Masters: The Medieval Manuscript and the Early Printed Book, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 30, in the museum’s Carver Gallery.

Sara Sauers, adjunct assistant professor in the University of Iowa Center for the Book, will discuss early modern typography. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In the fall of 1967 a handful of writers from around the world came to Iowa City to participate in a unique writing experience: The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. From those very early days through this year’s 40 plus invited participants, writers from East Asia have been an integral part of the program which aims to promote world literatures as well as international understanding.

To celebrate IWP’s anniversary, the UI Libraries presents “East Asia in the Midwest: 40 Years of East Asian Writers at the International Writing Program” in the North Exhibition Hall of the Main Library. This exhibit highlights prominent authors from China, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan who participated in the program.

Of the over 1100 IWP novelists, poets and essayists, nearly 150 writers have come from these three East Asian countries. Until a diplomatic relationship resumed, Iowa City was one of a very few places where an encounter between Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese writers and intellectuals could occur, after thirty years of mutual isolation. And this inspiration is felt by all the writers in the program. Much literary collaboration continues long after IWP writers leave Iowa City and return to their home countries.

“The IWP brings the world to Iowa, and there is no more important part of the world to learn about than East Asia,” says Christopher Merrill, Director of the International Writing Program. “The writers featured in this exhibit give us the inside stories about places crucial to our understanding of what it means to be alive today.”

A reception and reading by distinguished visiting Chinese-language IWP alumni is scheduled for Thursday, October 11 from 5:00-6:30 p.m., in the Main Library. Information about other anniversary events can be found on the International Writing Program website.

The exhibit, held through October 2007 in the Main Library’s North Exhibition Hall, will be open during regular library hours. Admission is free.

For more information about the exhibit, please visit the UI Libraries website .

The University of Iowa Libraries will offer a number of workshops about library services in September. There are two opportunities to learn about the UI Libraries’ Interlibrary Loan program and two to learn about RefWorks, citation management software that is available campuswide. Dates and times for the workshops (all held in the Information Arcade at Main Library) are:

• Introduction to Interlibrary Loan, Sept. 5, 9:30-11:00 am Information Arcade Classroom 2
• Introduction to Interlibrary Loan, Sept. 13, 2:30-4:00 pm Information Arcade Classroom 1
• Introduction to RefWorks, Sept. 14, 3:00-4:30 pm Information Arcade Classroom 1
• Introduction to RefWorks, Sept. 19, 3:00-4:30 pm Information Arcade Classroom 1

Introduction to Interlibrary Loan

If you need books and journal articles; we can provide them. The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) staff can help you find materials outside of the UI Libraries’ collections. You can make these requests online and this session will teach you how.

* How to submit online requests
* How to track the status of the request
* How to view articles that have been posted on the web (link will be e-mailed to you)

Introduction to RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based service that enables you to save bibliographic citations from the library catalog and other library databases. In this workshop you will learn to:

* Create a RefWorks account and access it from on- and off-campus
* Create, edit, and delete citations in RefWorks
* Organize your citations and share them with colleagues at UIowa and beyond
* Use RefWorks to easily create and format bibliographies

Librarians will show you how to use RefWorks, and then give you the opportunity to practice with it at the end of the workshop. Because there are a limited number of computers available, registration is required to attend.

Registration

Registration is required to attend the workshops. To register, click on the link for your preferred workshop and date below. You may register for either session of each workshop. Please note that the Sept. 14 RefWorks workshop is restricted to fifteen participants, while there are twenty-five spots for the others. If you receive a notice that registration is closed when you click on a link below, then our maximum registration has been reached. You may try the other date if you wish.

Register for Introduction to Interlibrary Loan, Sept. 5

Register for Introduction to Interlibrary Loan, Sept. 13

Register for Introduction to RefWorks, Sept. 14

Register for Introduction to RefWorks, Sept. 19

As classes begin at the University of Iowa, the Libraries resume the regular semester schedule.

Open on weekdays until 2 a.m., the Main Library is one of the few places on campus students can go to study late.

The ITC (Instructional Technology Center) on the second floor of the Main Library is the largest on campus. It is open and staffed all the hours that the building is open.

The Food for Thought Library Cafe stays open until 11 p.m. most evenings to satisfy those late night study break munchies.

The University of Iowa Libraries and Museum of Art will continue the lecture series being held in conjunction with an exhibition, From Monks to Masters: The Medieval Manuscript and the Early Printed Book, at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 23, in the museum’s Carver Gallery.

Timothy Barrett, research scientist and adjunct professor in the University’s Center for the Book, will discuss papermaking in Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Tune into “Know the Score” on KSUI FM 91.7 on Friday, August 24 from 5-7 p.m. when all the speakers from the lecture series will be on the radio.

Imagine a smoky bar and people dancing to the beat of soulful music - that’s the backdrop of photographer Sandra Dyas’ new book Down to the River, published by UI Press.

The Rita Benton Music Library welcomes Dyas to an exhibit opening reception and book signing on Thursday, August 23 from 3 - 4 p.m.

In 1987, Dyas moved to Iowa City and began documenting the area’s vibrant live music scene. The sixty photos in Down to the River capture her twenty years in and around the city. They present both the gritty intensity of live performances and the contemplative moments of individual portraits.

During the reception we’ll be playing the companion CD, which has eighteen tracks by Iowa’s finest singer/songwriters, including Dave Moore, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey and David Zollo.

Down to the River will be available for sale at the book signing. It is also available at bookstores or directly from the University of Iowa Press at www.uiowapress.org.

The Iowa Women’s Archives oral history project, Mujeres Latinas has been recognized with the UI President’s Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement.

The annual award honors those who demonstrate exemplary outreach to the State of Iowa and the public in general. The $1,000 awards are given in four categories: faculty, staff, student and group/organization.

“Giving back and providing valuable service to our community, state, nation and world are central to our mission and important responsibilities to Iowa’s citizens who have invested their resources and their trust in the University of Iowa for 160 years,” UI Interim President Gary Fethke said. “These awardees represent the remarkable outreach that the UI community performs, and I commend them on the talent and generosity with which they have engaged themselves with the public.”

The Mujeres Latinas Project (a group/organization recipient) has achieved notable success in documenting the largely unknown stories of Latina women in Iowa through oral histories and other collections. The Iowa Women’s Archives established the project, under the oversight of IWA Curator Kären Mason, to collect and preserve information that documents the lives of Latinas and their families and their contributions to Iowa history. Between 2005 and 2007, the project has conducted 91 oral history interviews throughout Iowa and has collected letters, photographs, family records, organizational records, and newspaper articles that have been organized, cataloged, preserved, and made available to students, scholars and the public.

Pictured above is the Iowa Women’s Archives staff for the Mujeres Latinas project, Rachel Garza Carreon, Janet Weaver and Kären Mason.

University of Iowa Libraries and the University of Iowa Museum of Art (UIMA) will present a series of free public lectures to be held in the museum in conjunction with “From Monks to Masters: The Medieval Manuscript and the Early Printed Book,” an exhibition that will be on display at the museum through Oct. 7.

The exhibition of more than 50 objects explores the transition from a time when books were hand copied by a select group of literate and often religious scribes to the era of mass-produced books created by master printers using the latest 15th-century technology — the hand-operated wooden printing press.

The lectures, presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday evenings in the UIMA Carver Gallery, will provide insight into the medieval world in which the books and manuscripts were created. Subjects range from techniques of bookbinding, to religious and musical practice, to the knowledge of anatomy and medicine in the middle ages.

UI faculty and staff will present the lectures. The dates, topics and speakers are listed below.

– July 26: Gary Frost, “Medieval Bookbinding”

– Aug.  2: Raymond A. Mentzer, “Medieval Religious Texts”

– Aug.  9: Edwin A. Holtum, “Breaking With Galen: Anatomy and Medicine in the Early Days of Printing”

– Aug.  16: Cheryl D. Jacobsen, “They Did That All by Hand? The Dedicated Task of the Medieval Scribe”

– Aug.  23: Timothy D. Barrett, “On the Invention of Imitation Parchment: Papermaking in Europe 1300-1500″

– Aug.  30: Sara T. Sauers, “Early Modern Typography”

– Sept. 6: Elizabeth Aubrey, “From Singer’s Lips to Scribe’s Pen: Music in Medieval Manuscripts”

– Sept. 13: Denise Filios, “Constructing Power: Illuminated Manuscripts in Medieval and Golden Age Spain”

– Sept. 20: Jonathan Wilcox, “Questions of Authenticity: Medieval Charters, Medieval Manuscripts, and Modern Facsimiles”

– Sept. 27: Glenn Ehrstine, “Medieval Studies in Iowa”

– Oct. 4: Matthew P. Brown, “The Persistence of the Medieval in Early American Book Culture”

The exhibition is a collaboration of UI Libraries Special Collections, the Hardin Library’s Martin Rare Book Room and the UIMA. It was organized by David Schoonover and Gregory Prickman of Special Collections & University Archives at the UI Libraries, and Kathleen Kamerick of the UI Department of History.

This exhibition is open to the public free of charge.

The UI Museum of Art, located on North Riverside Drive in Iowa City, is open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Admission is free.

For more information on the UI Museum of Art visit http://www.uiowa.edu/uima. Learn more about UI Libraries Special Collections at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has announced that the University of Iowa School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) has received $881,692 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to recruit and educate librarians.

The SLIS will use these funds to recruit two groups of 20 students who already have teaching certificates for its master’s degree program in library and information science. They will receive fellowships to fund their master’s degrees. Iowa Area Education Agencies, the State Library of Iowa and the Iowa Association of School Librarians will assist in the recruitment process. These funds will also help SLIS revise and refine its curriculum and delivery systems.

“I hope that with these funds, the University of Iowa will be able to make its excellent School of Library and Information Science even stronger,” Harkin said. “Libraries play a crucial role in both preserving past discoveries and facilitating future scholarship. With decreasing numbers of librarians across the country, it is important to draw new professionals to this field and give them opportunities to excel.”

An independent grant-making agency of the federal government, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has a defined, focused mission: to lead the effort to create and sustain a “nation of learners.” Harkin is the chairman of the Senate Appropriations panel that funds library and education initiatives.

James Elmborg, director of the UI SLIS program, said the grant was written in response to recent state legislation requiring all Iowa school districts to have a licensed teacher librarian on staff.  He estimates that there could be up to 75 to 100 openings for school librarians in Iowa in the next two to three years.

“While we feel we’re already very effective at educating information professionals, this grant will give us a chance to focus on our curriculum for teacher librarians in ways appropriate for the Internet age.  This means more and better use of information technology and more focus on helping students to be more effective users of information resources,” Elmborg said. “Even very young students are often very technically savvy, but they really don’t understand how information is produced or how to evaluate its usefulness in practical contexts.  We hope to educate librarians to be effective teachers of these skills.”

The grant relies heavily on partnerships with the Iowa Area Education Agencies who will help the UI manage distance education resources for delivery of the degree across the state of Iowa, he added.

A collection of rare books and manuscripts from UI Libraries will go on public display for the first time at the UI Museum of Art (UIMA) in the exhibition “From Monks to Masters: The Medieval Manuscript and the Early Printed Book,” June 23-Oct. 7.The exhibition is a collaboration of UI Libraries Special Collections, the Hardin Library’s Martin Rare Book Room and the UIMA. It was organized by David Schoonover and Gregory Prickman of Special Collections & University Archives at the UI Libraries, and Kathleen Kamerick of the UI Department of History.

The exhibition of more than 50 objects explores the transition from a time when books were hand copied by a select group of literate and often religious scribes to the era of mass-produced books created by master printers using the latest 15th-century technology — the hand-operated wooden printing press.

“The university has a very good sampling of the kinds of books that were printed during this early period and we wanted to give the public a chance to see them,” Prickman said.

Among the books and manuscripts to be put on display are beautiful and intriguing illuminated manuscripts and fine examples of incunabula (books printed before 1500). Together, these books illustrate a pivotal moment in history and demonstrate the relevance of historical materials to modern times.

Individual objects in the exhibition include a 15th-century “Book of Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” a homily of Pope Gregory the Great from around 1450 and two copies of the “Nuremberg Chronicle.”

“We would like to emphasize the teaching function of these collections,” said Schoonover, who is curator of rare books at the UI libraries. “Instructors at this university across the humanities have used these books in the classrooms, from medieval history and art history to the language arts, religious studies and music.”

This exhibition is open to the public free of charge.

The UI Museum of Art, located on North Riverside Drive in Iowa City, is open noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and noon to 9 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Admission is free. Public metered parking is available in UI parking lots west and north of the museum.

Members of the Sudanese Community Center will visit the Main Library, Information Arcade on Wednesday, June 27 at 7 p.m. for a special presentation of Arabic language materials by UI Libraries staff members.

Over the last decade, the UI Libraries’ collection of Arabic materials has been growing to support the teaching and research on North Africa and the Middle East. Today this collection includes books, journals, maps, films and online resources.

When Libraries’ International Studies Bibliographer Edward Miner became the director of the African Studies Program in 2006, he sought opportunities to engage local African communities in activities in the Libraries. Around that same time Rebecca Routh, Cataloging Librarian and Khalda Mohieldin, library assistant joined the UI Libraries staff. Both Rebecca and Khalda specialize in Arabic materials.

Together they will present an overview of library resources of particular interest to members of the Sudanese community, offer tips to searching the InfoHawk Catalog for Arabic materials and take participants on tour of the Main Library.

For more information, you may contact Edward Miner at 319-335-5883.

Today’s university library is not what most people remember from their undergraduate experience. But then neither are most campuses. Like every other aspect of campus life, libraries have evolved over the last decades. Together we’ll explore the 21st century environment of the UI Libraries and learn how to utilize the Libraries resources for your own work and play today.

Historical Perspectives to Genealogical Research

Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 2 – 3 p.m.

Information Arcade, Main Library

Janalyn Moss, Reference & Instruction Librarian

What was happening in the world when your relatives came to the U.S.? Using library resources can add another dimension to your family research. Janalyn Moss specializes in American History and will lead this hands-on session. Bring some family names, dates and places with you and use them as a starting point to search UI Libraries resources.

Space is limited to 25 participants. To sign up for this session, please send request to Kristi Bontrager or call 319-335-5960. Map to the Main Library and public parking.

 Audio Slideshow: View a Quicktime movie narrated by Jen Wolfe, metadata librarian for Digital Library Services,  and showing items from the University of Iowa Libraries’ collection memorabilia from Mildred Wirt Benson, who penned many of the “Nancy Drew” mystery novels.

Small movie (42MB):
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/june/images/ui-nancy-drew-collection-small.mov

Large movie (97MB):
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/june/images/ui-nancy-drew-collection.mov 

Since its debut in 1930, the Nancy Drew series penned by University of Iowa alumna Mildred Wirt Benson has inspiring numerous movie and television adaptations, including the latest version, “Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills,” which brings the timeless heroine to Los Angeles, where she is faced with a new trendy school and a new mystery.

The University of Iowa Libraries are marking the June 15 opening of the movie by gathering the scrapbooks, correspondence, rare photographs and early writings of Mildred Wirt Benson in a single digitized collection at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/mwb.

Benson, a UI Distinguished Alumna and Journalism Hall of Fame inductee, donated her personal papers to the Iowa Women’s Archives in 1992 and subsequent years until her death in 2002. These materials, along with artifacts from the Special Collections Department and the University Archives, form the bulk of the online collection, created by the Digital Library Services department for the Iowa Digital Library web site.

“The Mildred Wirt Benson Papers were among the first collections donated to the Iowa Women’s Archives when it opened, and they’ve been a favorite of school girls and grown up Nancy Drew fans ever since,” says Kären Mason, curator of the Iowa Women’s Archives. “Benson’s University of Iowa memory book is especially charming, but it’s great that the online collection also illuminates her lifelong career as a journalist, and lets fans around the world glimpse the spunky Iowan who wrote the early Nancy Drew novels.”

Benson wrote the first Nancy Drew novel in 1930 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. She went on to complete nearly two dozen more titles in what has become one of the most successful children’s book series ever. Her books have sold over 200 million copies, receiving translation into 25 languages.

With Nancy Drew’s status as an iconic figure in American popular culture, Benson has been the subject of research by scholars of women’s history, children’s literature, and American studies. The UI Libraries’ archives have been consulted for numerous publications, most recently Melanie Rehak’s Edgar-award-winning biography “Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her” (Harcourt Press, 2005).

The UI’s rare and unique materials on Benson are physically scattered throughout the Libraries’ holdings. In the past, researchers have had to consult separate catalogs, inventories and indexes in several different library departments.

“By gathering these materials together and making them available online, the Libraries is performing a valuable service not only for scholars, but also for millions of Nancy Drew fans worldwide,” says Jen Wolfe, metadata librarian for Digital Library Services.

To view more digital collections created from the UI Libraries’ archives, visit the Iowa Digital Library web site at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu.

This summer ITS is planning a few maintenance projects around campus. For one of these projects, scheduled for Saturday, June 9 from 6 a.m. - 12 p.m., InfoHawk will be unavailable to library users.

For more information about on-campus service outages, check the ITS website.

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)–a consortium of 12 research universities, including The University of Iowa–is announcing that its members have entered into an agreement with Google to become partners in the Google Book Search project. This means that Google will work with the libraries at all of the CIC institutions to digitize distinctive portions of their collections, making those works searchable and easier to access, and preserving many materials that are fragile or deteriorating.

Over the next several years, Google will scan up to 10 million volumes from the CIC libraries, including public domain and in-copyright works, within the guidelines of copyright law. Public domain materials will be viewable, searchable, and downloadable in their entirety. For materials under copyright protection, a search will result in basic information (such as book title and author’s name), plus a snippet of text surrounding the search term. Users seeking further information from the text will be directed to avenues for library access or purchase.

This agreement anticipates the CIC’s intention to create a shared digital repository, so that each university can “deposit” its digitized public domain files into a commonly funded and managed data storage system. Eventually, this will give students and faculty convenient, desktop access to a vast array of public domain materials from across our 12 institutions.

Access to information and research materials is crucial to the teaching and research missions of a public research university like The University of Iowa, and making those materials available to the public is a very important part of our service mission. This partnership with Google and with our fellow CIC institutions represents an exciting opportunity to take a giant step forward in all of those areas.

We encourage you to learn more about the CIC and about today’s announcement by visiting the CIC web site at http://www.cic.uiuc.edu/digitalbooks.

Starting July 1st, UI students, faculty and staff will be able to login to the Libraries’ online Interlibrary Loan system to request articles and book chapters that the Libraries’ holds only in hard copy. In addition to making their requests online, they will also be able to track their requests online.

This isn’t a new service; students, faculty and staff have been able to request delivery of articles and book chapters from the UI Libraries for years via the Article Delivery Services (the new service will also include the former Pagerunner service), but now they can do it completely online.

Any article from a journal held by the UI Libraries (excluding the Law Library and the Curriculum Lab) can be photocopied and delivered to a home address or delivered electronically through email. Photocopies will be mailed or delivered electronically via email within 24-48 hours.

Contact the Main Library Interlibrary Loan via e-mail (lib-ill@uiowa.edu) or phone 319-335-5917 or the Hardin Library for the Health Science Interlibrary Loan via email (lib-hardin-ill@uiowa.edu) or phone 319-335-9874 for more information.

New alarms on the east-side emergency doors will be tested Thursday, May 31 in the morning. The alarm will be noticeable at the North Desk as well as in areas near the east stairwell. 

Also, on Monday, June 4 the fire alarms in the Main Library will be tested. Testing could last up to 8 hours, and will involve the flashing of strobes and sounding of speakers.  Air handlers will also need to be shut down briefly.

Questions should be directed to the UI fire prevention at 335-5125 or the Work Control Center at 335-5071.

With Paul Wolfowitz’s resignation as President of the World Bank, the Bank has lately received widespread media attention. It is a good time to note that The University of Iowa Libraries has collected World Bank publications for many years, and also subscribes to a number of databases from the World Bank Group. Among those titles widely used by researchers are the World Development Indicators (a collection of statistical data sets measuring economic and social  activity in countries around the globe) and the World Bank E-Library (a collection of electronic books, reports and studies).

The Libraries’ World Bank Research Guide provides an overview of the World Bank and its information sources. Requests for assistance can be directed to Brett Cloyd (brett-cloyd@uiowa.edu) – Reference and Government Information Librarian.

Carol Johnk a member of the Acquistions staff in the UI Libraries has been appointed to a three-year term on the Council for the Status of Women. Carol believes that “diversity and women’s issues are critically important to the quality of education and the richness of life in a community.”

When Carol isn’t working, one of passions is Arts a la Carte, a non-profit movement organization in which she serves as Executive Director. Arts a la Carte works to bring diversity to the Iowa City community by providing African dance workshops, Salsa classes and queer ballroom dancing. You may have seen her on stage with the Iowa City Community Theatre recently in My Fair Lady and Seussical the Musical.

While students are in classes this summer, the UI Libraries’ staff is ready to help with research and other projects. The Main Library is open Monday - Thursday from 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m., Fridays 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. and on the weekends. Library hours are posted at the doors of the Main Library and on the website.

Hardin Library for the Health Sciences is open Monday - Thursday from 7:30 a.m. - 9 p.m., Fridays 7:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. and on the weekends.

Branch libraries are open during the summer, please check the website for specifics.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to someone at the UI Libraries, just Ask a Librarian.

Again this semester, as classes are winding down and finals are around the corner, the UI Libraries is sponsoring Study Buzz @ your library.

You need a little break from the studying or a little caffeine boost? Come to the library for FREE coffee at night or FREE pop during the day.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights at 11 p.m. a self-service FREE coffee station will be set up in the Main Library’s North Exhibition Hall. It will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that free coffee is NOT available through the Food for Thought cafe in the Main Library.

Monday and Tuesday afternoons at 2 p.m. self-service FREE pop stations will be set up in branch libraries. For a complete schedule, check the Libraries’ Events.

This program is sponsored by the UI Libraries and brought to you in part by a Coca-Cola grant and donations from the IMU Food for Thought, House of Aromas, New-Pioneer Co-op and the Hamburg Inn, No. 2.

UI Libraries Conservator Gary Frost has been working with product developer Nicholas Yeager at Artifex Equipment to test a new super-absorbent paper product in disaster recovery. This paper is infused with corn-starch based powder which quickly wicks water out of damaged books and magazines.

Recently, Frost had an opportunity to put this paper to the test, when a roof leak at the Hardin Library damaged some journals. Many of those journals are printed on glossy, coated paper stock, which is generally not recoverable from water damage. Using this special paper, the Libraries conservation and preservation staff were able to save these journals.

In a May 1 article in the USDA News the Agricultural Research Service noted Frost’s amazement at Zorbix’s ability to absorb and release water, a feature he says makes the sheets easier to reuse than the aqueous poultices and blotters he has worked with. “The sheets play the same role more efficiently,” he says. Frost foresees uses for Zorbix beyond those pertaining solely to library-disaster scenarios, like flooding. “I’m confident there’s a wider market for it associated with the routine restoration of documents of all kinds.” New applications are likely to arise, he adds, as conservators become even more familiar with the product’s properties.

In an effort to provide faculty and students access to the latest resources in their disciplines, the UI Libraries periodically enrolls in trial subscriptions to online resources. During and after the trial, library staff encourages feedback from faculty and students about particular resources. Literature Resource Center will be under consideration until May 30.

The Literature Resource Center allows researchers to find up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on nearly 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.

The easy-to-use single search box is designed to work the way people do research. Searchers can look up authors by name and link to a wealth of information about the author, works and criticism of those works. Additionally the Literature Resource Center connects searchers to the MLA International Bibliography, the premier resource for literary research.

Take an online guided tour of the Literature Resource Center.

Please send any comments about this resource to Ed Shreeves, Associate University Librarian and Director of Collections & Content Development.

May 2007
Issue 2.07

Welcome to the May issue of Transitions.

The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments affecting the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new products and programs, the open access movement and other alternative publishing models. Scholarly communication refers to the full range of formal and informal means by which scholars and researchers communicate, from email discussion lists to peer-reviewed publication. In general authors are seeking to document and share new discoveries with their colleagues, while readers–researchers, students, librarians and others–want access to all the literature relevant to their work.

While the system of scholarly communication exists for the benefit of the world’s research and educational community and the public at large, it faces a multitude of challenges and is undergoing rapid change brought on by technology. To help interested members of the UI community keep up on these challenges and changes we plan to put out 6-8 issues per year of this newsletter.

This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu. Also, read the health sciences counterpart to Transitions: Hardin Scholarly Communication News.

Table of Contents:

U of Iowa Participates in Permanent Electronic Journal Archiving Service

Journal Pricing Reports Released: Shows Steep Increasing Costs for Social Science Journals and Merging Publishers

Nature: Agencies Join Forces to Share Data

Self-Archiving and Journal Subscriptions: Co-existence or Competition?

2006 BioOne Progress Report Now Available

Open Access and the Progress of Science

Eigenfactor Web Site Goes Live

University Presses Try to Straddle the Battle Lines in Open-Access Debate

Institutional Repositories: Evaluating the Reasons for Non-use of Cornell University’s Installation of DSpace

Study Shows that Scientists are Still Leary of Publishing in Open Access Journals

BioMed Central Brings Open Access Publishing to Physics and Math

Now that the end of the semester is drawing near and finals are just around the corner, you are probably looking for a quiet place to study. With 12 libraries on campus, you can find exactly the right space.

Quiet, Out of the Way Places

The Biological Sciences Library on Iowa Avenue between Phillips Hall and the Biology Building has three floors of student study space. The first floor has computers available for student use. The second and third floors have quiet study carrels, soft seating with tables and large work tables.

The Lichtenberger Engineering Library at 2001 Seamans Center has two floors with bean bags, study carrels and quiet tables. The Library is adjacent to the Engineering Student Commons.

The east side of campus is home to many of our small quiet libraries. The Psychology Library at W202 Seashore Hall ; the Physics Library at 350 Van Allen Hall ; or the Geoscience Library at 136 Trowbridge offer computer access, soft seating with tables and large work tables.

The arts campus is home to the new Art Library at 235 Art Building West which is filled with open spaces, graduate study carrels, group work tables and great views of the Hutchinson Quarry pond. The Rita Benton Music Library located at 2000 Voxman Music Building has a separate computer lab, listening room as well as study tables and soft seating.

Late Night Spaces

On the west side of campus on Newton Road, the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences offers a variety of study spaces for students including a 24-hour study room (the rest of the library is open Sunday until 11 p.m. and Monday - Thursday until Midnight). There are group study spaces on the first, third and fourth floors. Quiet individual carrels can be found in the Information Commons West ITC and the fourth floor.  Wireless Internet access is available throughout the building.

The Main Library is open Sunday - Thursday until 2 a.m. The second floor houses the largest ITC (with more than 130 computers) on campus. There are also large study tables on the second floor. For more quiet space in the Main Library, try the Government Documents reading room on the third floor, north end of the building. The Fourth and Fifth floors of the Main Library also have quiet tables tucked away at the ends of the bookstacks.

Quiet and Group Study Spaces have been designated throughout the Main Library. In any undesignated areas “The University of Iowa Libraries encourages scholarly research by maintaining an environment conducive to study in all units of the libraries system. Library users are expected to act responsibly, appropriately, and courteously to preserve the libraries’ facilities, environment, and collections.” (From Conduct In the University of Iowa Libraries: Basic Policy Governing Public Use)

Maps of the Main Library and more information for designated study spaces.

In 1883 with its first class, the College of Dentistry began a tradition of mounting individual portraits of graduates on photo boards. Over time these boards made their home in the basement of the College’s modern building where they were silently deteriorating until last year.

College of Dentistry librarian Chris White re-discovered the photos and contacted the UI Libraries head of preservation, Nancy E. Kraft, who assigned the photograph collection as a class preservation planning project to students Mary Francis, Stephanie Kruckeberg and Jill McCleary. With proposal in hand, Kraft enlisted the expertise of her staff and the Digital Library Services. After several consultations, it became clear that saving these photos was an important project for both the College of Dentistry and the UI Libraries.

Today, the Dentistry College Class Photos Collection is part of a project to preserve and make accessible a piece of the University’s heritage.

“This collection is a visual representation of the rich history of the College of Dentistry, and shows a diversity of students extending to the early part of last century,” says David Johnsen, Dean of the College of Dentistry. “The College faculty, staff, students and alumni are excited that these photographs will be available so that anyone online can view and appreciate this valuable collection.”

With literally thousands of photographs dating from the 1880s to 1960s, the process of making these photos accessible online to the public is a long-term commitment. After the boards were digitally photographed by the UI Creative Media Group, UI Libraries assistant conservator Kristin Baum and a team of technicians began work to restore the photos themselves. At the same time Digital Initiatives Librarian Mark L. Anderson was building the digital collection. In addition to the entire class photo boards, individual student and faculty photographs are viewable and fully searchable based on class lists, which adds to the ease of navigation and retrieval.

“I’ve already had people tell me that they found family members who graduated from the College by using this digital collection,” says Anderson. “Many Iowans have connections to the College of Dentistry, and this resource makes it easier for them to find those graduates.”

The Dentistry College Class Photos Collection is the latest in a series of projects coordinated by Digital Library Services for inclusion in the UI Libraries’ Iowa Digital Library web site, as well as the statewide Iowa Heritage Digital Collections consortium.

To view more digital collections created from the UI Libraries’ archives, visit the Iowa Digital Library web site at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu.