Skip to content
Skip to main content

Medieval Books Lecture Series at UI Museum of Art

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.

manuscript4.jpgThe 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.

bookbindingmodels.jpg— 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/.

UI Receives Grant For Librarian Recruitment And Education

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.

Rare Books and Manuscripts at UIMA

01_05a_xmms-an3.jpgA 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.

Sudanese Community Visit UI Libraries

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.

arabic.jpgOver 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.

Retirees Visit the UI Libraries

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.

Nancy Drew Author in the Iowa Digital Library

mwbyb1926f2_portrait.jpg

 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.

girl-sleuth1.jpgWith 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.

UI Libraries Joins Google Book Search

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.

google_small.jpgOver 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.

Article Delivery Service Expands

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.

Want to know more about… the World Bank?

images761331_paul_wolfowitz.jpgWith 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.

Frost Testing Super-Absorbent Paper

gfrosttemp.jpgUI 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.