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May 19 2011

Stradivari Quartet recordings now available online

Forty-four years after its first public performance, the Stradivari String Quartet now has audio recordings from 1963-1996 publicly available in the Iowa Digital Library at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/strad.

The collection is part of the Iowa Sounds Digital Collection, a growing digital repository of audio recordings that documents the musical and cultural heritage of the University of Iowa community.

The quartet made its first public performance with the Stradivarius instruments on May 19, 1967 in Macbride Auditorium in Iowa City.  The Iowa Quartet informally announced its name change on July 21 1969 at the International Music Camp in North Dakota, beginning the concert as the Iowa String Quartet, and ending as the Stradivari String Quartet.

The Quartet takes its name from a set of instruments known as the “Paganini Strads,” which were on loan to them from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C beginning in April 1967. After five years of tours and performances with them, the instruments were returned in the summer of 1972. The Iowa/Stradivari String Quartet was the teaching quartet in residence at the University of Iowa until 1996 when the newly formed Maia Quartet became the new quartet in residence. 

Personnel for the Stradivari String Quartet included:  Violin I – Allen Ohmes; Violin II – John Ferrell, Don Haines; Viola – William Preucil; Cello – Joel Krosnick, Charles Wendt.  Joel Krosknick appears on the earliest recordings from 1964-1966, but was not a member of the quartet when they changed their name to Stradivari.

The online collection was created between October of 2009 and March of 2011 by the University of Iowa Libraries from digitized cassettes and reels from the Rita Benton Music Library collection.

This collection of recordings is the latest edition to the Iowa Digital Library, which features more than 400,000 digital objects created from the holdings of The University of Iowa Libraries and its campus partners. Included are illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, fine art, political cartoons, scholarly works, and more. The University of Iowa Libraries is a strong supporter of new forms of scholarly publishing, digital humanities, data curation, and open/linked data.

May 12 2011

Hardin Library closed this summer for renovations

The Hardin Library building will be closed this summer for renovations beginning Saturday, May 14, and reopening on Tuesday, August 17.  Staff have been busy planning how to provide service during this time.

  • Two temporary locations will be set up where library users can pick up materials and consult with staff.  One location will be in MERF (375 Newton Rd.) in the atrium, and will be open 7:30 am-6:00 pm Monday-Friday and 1:00-5:00 pm Sunday.  Simulation Center equipment will also be relocated to MERF and available Monday-Friday.  Much of the reserve book collection will be available at this location.  A few computers will be available, also.
  • A second library location will be situated in the Pharmacy Building Computer Lab (115 South Grand Ave.).  That location will be open 7:30 am-5:00 pm, Monday-Friday. Computers and printing will be available to all users.
  • Library patrons will be able to request books from the Hardin collection using InfoHawk’s Request feature.  Because staff will only be able to enter the building once per day, it may take as long as two days for materials to be pulled.  Requested material can be delivered to offices via campus mail or can be picked up at one of the temporary locations or at another UI library.
  • Books checked out to faculty, graduate/professional students, and undergraduate honors students which are currently due in June 2011 will be automatically renewed until June 2012.   An email will be sent to users whose books are automatically renewed.  Please be aware that this only applies to books checked out from Hardin Library on long-term loans (due annually in June).
  • If you have materials you need to return with the library is closed, you have several options.
    •  Return materials to any other University Library. 
    • Return materials to the Hardin Library summer locations at the MERF Atrium, or Pharmacy Building Computer Lab Room 129 when the locations are open.
    •  Return materials to the relocated book drop at the Newton Road Parking ramp. (Available beginning Friday, May 13).
    •  Return materials via Campus Mail.  Put them in envelopes, and address them:
      HLHS Returns
      HLHS
      HLHS

If you have questions about returns, please feel free to contact Sarah Andrews, Access Services Supervisor for Hardin Library.

We’ll post more details as they become available.  If you have questions, contact Hardin Reference staff at 319-335-9150 or lib-hardin@uiowa.edu.

May 5 2011

UI Libraries commemorates Civil War sesquicentennial with exhibition, digital collection

University of Iowa Libraries has launched a new exhibition and digital collection to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, and it’s enlisting the help of a few good men and women (well, lots, really) to help make the collection even more accessible and useful.

The exhibition, “‘Now Do Not Let Your Courage Fail’: Voices from the Civil War,” on display at the UI Main Library through July 30, includes letters and diaries from three manuscript collections held by Special Collections & University Archives that offer intriguing perspectives on the war. The experiences of Ferdinand Winslow, an officer in the Union army; Thomas Rescum Sterns, a soldier in the Union army; and Amanda and Mary Shelton, nurses who cared for soldiers through the Christian Commission, bring to life the everyday reality of the conflict.

Accompanying these manuscripts are artifacts from the war, including two Civil War-era quilts from a private collection and a dress worn to a wedding that is on loan from the Kalona Quilt and Textile Museum.

While viewing the exhibition in person, visitors can access digitized versions of the letters and diaries by scanning codes under each piece. This allows viewers to see pages from these collections that are not on display and follow the stories told through the letters.

The digital collection, which was scanned by UI Special Collections & University Archives, is also available online from any computer through the Iowa Digital Library at http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cwd.

But the 3,000-plus diaries and letters are digitized images — effectively photographs — that require viewers who want to read them to interpret the handwriting of hundreds of different writers. It also means users cannot search the text for particular words or phrases.

To transcribe that much documentation could take decades and thousands of dollars. But UI Libraries is experimenting with “crowdsourcing,” or collaborative transcription of manuscript materials, in which members of the general public with time and interest conduct the transcription and check one another for accuracy in much the same way contributors to Wikipedia help create a collection of data, information and knowledge.

“Crowdsourcing is revolutionizing the study of the humanities by making available to the public and scholars miles of documents that were previously off-limits, difficult to read or unsearchable,” said Nicole Saylor, head of Digital Library Services.

UI Libraries is inviting volunteers to take a few minutes, hours or days to read and help transcribe some of the pages of a Civil War-era diary, which will not only benefit the library and patrons, but give crowdsourcing participants a glimpse into a more personal side of one of American history’s most significant events. To learn more about this opportunity, visit http://digital.lib.uiowa.edu/cwd/transcripts.html.

Apr 12 2011

It’s Snapshot Day at the UI Libraries, April 12

To celebrate National Library Week, the UI Libraries are taking a “snapshot” of activities in the library today. We need your help.

  • Check our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/UofIowaLibraries) and tell us what you’re doing in the library today.
  • Visit the library and check out our physical Facebook page and “Like” the reason you’re at the library
  • Take a picture of yourself in the library, outside the library, using the Libraries website, reading an article you downloaded from a library database – then post that picture on our Facebook page.

We can’t wait to see what you’re doing in the library.

Apr 11 2011

Share Your Library Story in 17 Syllables and 140 Characters

Love your library/Write a twaiku today/You could win fifty

Share your love of libraries with the world by composing a library themed twaiku for National Library Week! You might win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.

What’s a twaiku, you ask? Simply put, a twaiku is haiku sent via Twitter. Twaiku use the same basic structure of 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllables respectively. Unlike a true haiku, a twaiku can only be 140 characters, or 130 with our #nlwtwaiku tag.

The National Library Week twaiku contest ends Wednesday April 13. All submissions must be tagged #nlwtwaiku.

The staff of atyourlibrary.org will post a selection of the best twaiku on www.atyourlibrary.org, where everyone will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite through the end of National Library Week (Saturday, April 16).

The most highly rated twaiku will receive an Amazon gift certificate!

To learn more about twaiku visit Twitter Fan Wiki.

Mar 28 2011

Elizabeth Berg to headline the Iowa City Book Festival, July 15-17

Novelists Elizabeth Berg and Jane Hamilton, journalist and historian Adam Goodheart, and poets Camille Dungy and Robyn Schiff are among a rich lineup of writers who will take part in the Iowa City Book Festival (ICBF) this summer, the University of Iowa Libraries announced today.

The ICBF is a three-day celebration of books, reading and writing presented by UI Libraries Friday, July 15 through Sunday, July 17. The book festival will begin on Friday with an author dinner in the Main Library. Saturday is festival day in Gibson Square with booksellers, music, children’s activities, food vendors, book arts demonstrations and readings and panel discussions. Sunday will be “A Day in the City of Literature.” Local businesses of all kinds throughout Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty will participate with readings and special activities all day.

Berg will be the keynote speaker for the ICBF Author Dinner on Friday; she will also present a public program on Saturday as part of the Shambaugh Auditorium Author Series. Berg is the author of many bestselling novels, two collections of short stories and two works of nonfiction. “Open House” was an Oprah’s Book Club selection, “Durable Goods” and “Joy School” were selected as American Library Association Best Books of the Year, and “Talk Before Sleep” was short-listed for an American Booksellers Book of the Year Award. Her writing has been translated into 27 languages and she adapted her novel “Pull of the Moon” into a play that has been successfully performed on two stages in the Chicago area.

Hamilton will appear on Sunday with Paul Ingram from Prairie Lights for an ICBF edition of Paul’s Book Club. Hamilton’s first novel, “The Book of Ruth,” won the PEN/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel and was a selection of the Oprah Book Club. Her second novel, “A Map of the World,” was an international bestseller.

Goodheart will appear as part of the Shambaugh Auditorium Series. He is regular columnist for The New York Times’ acclaimed Civil War series, “Disunion.” His new work, “1861: The Civil War Awakening,” will be published in April. Goodheart is a historian, journalist and travel writer. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, Smithsonian, The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine, among other publications. He is also the director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

Stephanie Kallos, author of “Sing Them Home,” the 2011 All Iowa Reads selection, will present on Saturday in the Shambaugh Auditorium Series. She has received the Raymond Carver Award and a Pushcart Prize nomination for her short fiction. Kallos’ first novel, “Broken for You,” won the Washington State Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and was chosen as a “Today Show” book club selection. “Sing Them Home” was a Pacific Northwest Independent Bookseller bestseller and a January 2009 IndieNext pick.

Festival programming on Saturday also includes UI Press award-winning authors Will Boast, “Power Ballads”; Julie Hanson, “Unbeknownst”; Thisbe Nissen, “The Good People of New York”; Josh Rolnick, “Pulp and Paper”; and Don Waters, “Desert Gothic.”

Fiction writers featured at the ICBF are Bonnie Jo Campbell, “Once Upon a River: A Novel”; Gregg Hurwitz, “You’re Next: A Novel”; Jeremy Jackson, “Hot Lunch”; Julie Kramer “Silencing Sam”; David Mullins, “Greetings from Below: Stories”; and Mary Helen Stefaniak, “The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel.”

Nonfiction writers include Jerry Harp, “For Us, What Music?: The Life and Poetry of Donald Justice”; John T. Price, “Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships”; and Robin Romm, “The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks.”

Poets Camille Dungy, “Suck on Marrow”; Robyn Schiff, “Revolver” will headline the poetry readings.

In addition to children’s book characters and other hands-on activities for kids, the ICBF has expanded programming by inviting children’s and young adult authors: Ibtisam Barakat, “Al-Ta’ Al-Marbouta Tateer (Flight of the Tied T)”; Linda Gerdner, “Grandfather’s Story Cloth”; Claudia McGehee, “Where Do Birds Live?”; Sarah Prineas, “The Magic Thief”; Laurel Snyder, “Penny Dreadful”; and Tess Weaver, “Opera Cat.”

The UI Libraries again is partnering with the UI Press, Iowa City Public Library, the UNESCO City of Literature and Prairie Lights Book Store to organize ICBF. The ICBF receives significant support from Humanities Iowa as well as the Community Foundation of Johnson County, the City of Iowa City and MidWestOne Bank.

For more information about the ICBF, to register as a vendor at the festival or to submit a program idea for the Day in the City of Literature activities, please check the website: http://www.iowacitybookfestival.org.

Mar 24 2011

Persson Recognized as Person with Heart & Soul

UI Librarian Dottie Persson was profiled along with dozens of other community members in the Iowa City Press-Citizen’s Heart & Soul publication. She is one who gives all she has to the community. Dottie’s giving nature is not news to the hundreds of students, faculty and staff members she has worked with during her years at the University of Iowa Libraries.

Read more about Dottie and her work with the Shelter House.

Mar 23 2011

Remember the Triangle Fire, March 25

We will close women’s history month on Friday, March 25th  with “In Memoriam:  The Triangle Factory Fire 100th Anniversary,” an event to commemorate the 146 young, immigrant garment workers who lost their lives in this tragedy. 

Friday, March 25
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Second Floor Conference Room (2032), UI Main Library

Remarks by Professor of History Linda K. Kerber and dramatic readings by Carol Macvey and UI theater students will follow, with comments by playwright Janet Schlapkohl. 

For further information call 319-335-5068.  Event is free and open to the public.

Mar 22 2011

Filmmaker Booth to speak in Iowa Women’s Archives, March 22

Award-winning filmmaker Marlene Booth will present a talk entitled “Tell Me a Story:  Making and Learning From Documentary Films” on Tuesday, March 22nd. Born and raised in Des Moines, Booth looks back – with clips from her films – on 35 years of filmmaking as a woman, a feminist, and a dyed-in-the-wool Hawkeye. 

Iowa Women’s Archives, third floor UI Main Library
March 22, 2011
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.  Reception at 4:00 p.m., followed by presentation from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

Booth, a lecturer in film at the University of Hawaii, has worked in film since 1975, both as an independent and for public television station WGBH-TV in Boston. She has produced and directed several major documentary films screened on PBS, at national and international film festivals, and in classrooms nationwide. Her most recent film, Pidgin: the voice of Hawaii (2009), examines the language spoken by over half of Hawai’i’s people, and confronts issues of language and identity, and who gets to decide what language we speak. 

Booth’s 1999 film “Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa” (1999) explores her Iowa-Jewish roots and uses home movies, period photos, her high school reunion, and interviews, to examine the process of negotiating identity, as an American, a Jew, and a woman.  “Yidl in the Middle” will be screened at Hillel (122 E. Market St.) on Wednesday, March 23rd at 7:00 p.m., followed by a question and answer with the director.