University Libraries

The latest edition of The University of Iowa Faculty & Staff newsletter fyi contains a photo feature on historic children’s books held in Special Collections. Click on the link to see some nice photographs of these materials, which are always available to view in person in the Special Collections reading room, and they can also be made available for presentations to classes.

Kathy Skhal, Clinical Education Librarian at the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences will be co-presenting a poster with Helen Damon-Moore, Ph.D. and Dee Dee Stafford, M.D., Ph.D. at the Medical Education Celebration Day on Thursday, November 30. The poster session is scheduled from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the MERF Atrium.

The poster describes a major pilot project that Kathy took the lead on for the Foundations of Clinical Practice IV (FCP IV) course, linking information concepts in the FCP IV curriculum to lecture notes and course materials presented in the FCP I, II and III class series.

A $225,000 gift from the estate of Clarice E. Krieg, who worked at the University of Iowa Libraries as a cataloguer in the 1920s and 1930s, will assist the UI Libraries in purchasing books and reference materials far into the future.

A 1932 graduate of the UI, Krieg died in 2004, having lived most recently in Eugene, Ore. Before designating that a portion of her estate be used to create the Clarice Krieg Libraries Fund, Krieg had been a longtime supporter of UI Libraries; her gifts included monetary contributions and her collection of Christmas-related greeting cards, which she donated to UI Libraries’ Special Collections. Those cards formed the heart of an exhibition at the UI Main Library in December 2000.

“We have been very touched by Clarice Krieg’s generosity to the University of Iowa Libraries over the years,” says Nancy L. Baker, University Librarian. “As a fellow academic librarian, she spent her career providing access to information. With this bequest, the UI Libraries will honor her legacy by continuing to meet the information needs of our students, faculty and staff.”

The University of Iowa Libraries is the largest library system in the state of Iowa and among the top 25 of the nation’s research libraries. The University’s Main Library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, 10 branch libraries, and the Law Library contain more than 4 million volumes.

The UI Foundation is acknowledged by the UI as a preferred channel for private contributions that benefit all areas of the university. For more information, visit the Foundation’s web site at www.uiowafoundation.org.

Carlette Washington-Hoagland, Assessment and Staff Development Coordinator at the University of Iowa Libraries, is among 20 librarians selected for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership and Career Development Program. The selected librarians represent a diverse combination of library experience, cultural backgrounds and research interest areas. Washington-Hoagland was selected from a very competitive applicant pool.

“Carlette has been an asset to the UI Libraries for many years, and I’m so pleased that she has earned this honor,” says Nancy L. Baker, University Librarian. “She has managed an excellent staff development program at a time of tremendous change in libraries and her work in assessment has helped us respond to the needs of today’s library users.”

ARL sponsors the program to address the needs of research libraries for a more diverse professional workforce that can contribute to library success in serving increasingly diverse scholarly and learning communities. The 18-month program prepares mid-career librarians from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups to take on increasingly demanding leadership roles in research libraries. It consists of several components: Leadership Institutes hosted across the country throughout the program, a Career Coach and personal visit to an ARL library and a research project related to one of the ARL strategic directions. Through contacts with experts and research library leaders, these program elements are combined to allow participants to explore the strategic issues faced by research libraries in the digital environment, leadership roles within research libraries and career development options and opportunities.

To celebrate the School of Music’s 100th Anniversary, the staff at the Rita Benton Music Library invite you to join them for a party on Friday, November 3rd at 12 p.m.

This fall students and faculty from the School of Music performed a series of mini recitals in the library. For the finale this week an anniversary cake takes center stage.

For more information, contact Ruthann McTyre, Music Librarian at 335-3088.

A rare film produced by noted social psychologist Kurt Lewin, a member of the University of Iowa faculty over 60 years ago, has been restored thanks to a National Film Preservation Foundation grant to the University Archives, Dept. of Special Collections in the University of Iowa Libraries.

The film, “Experimental Studies in the Social Climates of Groups, Parts I and II,” was produced by Lewin in 1938 to demonstrate patterns of group behavior that result from different types of environments, according to a 1940 UI Extension catalog describing the film. His pioneering research at Iowa suggested that one’s surroundings, not their individual traits, largely shape their actions.

Lewin (1890-1947) fled his native Germany in 1933 following the rise of Hitler and was a member of the UI faculty from 1935 to 1944. After moving to Boston in 1944, he established the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A 1984 survey identified Lewin, with Sigmund Freud, as the greatest influence on the thinking of contemporary psychologists.

The grant, for $4,760, provided for the cleaning and restoration of the original film, as well as production of digital and videotape copies for researchers to use.

The UI Libraries has partnered with the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum on this project. The UI Libraries will maintain DVD and VHS copies of the film in Media Services, which will be available to researchers. The original film and a preservation master (Beta tape) will be located in a climate-controlled facility at the Hoover Museum.

A University of Iowa faculty member, staff member, student and a clinic started by students are this year’s recipients of the UI President’s Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement, UI President David J. Skorton announced today.

The annual award, created as part of the Year of Public Engagement, honors faculty, staff and students (individuals or groups) who demonstrate exemplary outreach to the State of Iowa. The $1,000 awards are given in four categories — faculty, staff, student and group/organization. Group winners share the $1,000 stipend equally.

The 2006 recipients are Don Coffman, professor and area head in the College of Education’s music education program and faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences School of Music; Nancy E. Kraft, preservation librarian in UI Libraries; Mark Kresowik, former UI Student Government president; and the Mobile Clinic, an interdisciplinary project that was started by and engages students from the health sciences across the UI.

“I am very gratified at the large number of nominations we received for this award and for the truly impressive amount of creative and generous outreach and service in which our university community engages,” Skorton said. “Our awardees are representative of a remarkable spirit of caring and giving that permeates our entire campus and community. I thank the selection committee for their dedication and excellent work in providing me with a number of wonderful nominations from which to make still-difficult choices.”

Nancy Kraft is being recognized not only for her general contributions to the preservation and accessibility of historical sources in Iowa, but also for two particular initiatives: the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium (ICPC) and the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections. Ms. Kraft has played an important leadership role in the ICPC in developing and delivering a training program for Iowans (delivered in part through the ICN), especially those who work in small repositories around the state, on ways to take care of historical collections of all kinds. Many attendees work in isolated settings with little or no access to additional expertise and advice. Ms. Kraft has also led the creation of the Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, a statewide project designed to make the wide range of collections pertaining to Iowa that are housed in different types of libraries, museums, and historical societies throughout the state widely available through an online database (http://iowaheritage.lib.uiowa.edu/). Ms. Kraft has helped ensure that Iowa’s cultural assets and cultural memory last well into the future and remain widely accessible.

Although Latinos have been a part of Iowa’s population since the 19th century, nobody has ever bothered to write down their history.

“There have been so many Latinas who have lived and worked and raised their families here, who have really changed the state of Iowa, but we know so few of their stories,” said Karen Mason, curator of the Iowa Women’s Archives in the UI Libraries.

Mason hopes that the Mujeres Latinas project of the IWA will correct that. An oral history project, Mujeres Latinas is collecting stories and documents of Latinos, particularly women, who live in Iowa. Archives staff members have interviewed 38 people since the project started in 2004, some of whom came to Iowa from Mexico or the American Southwest, others whose families have been in Iowa for generations.

So far, the research has led to dozens of riveting stories, as well as boxes of family photographs, letters and other historical items.

“People in the community appreciate the importance we place on Latino history,” said Rachel Carreón, a librarian who is working on the project. “I’ve been welcomed into so many homes and often made to feel like family.”

Many of Iowa’s Latino families can trace their Iowa roots to the first significant wave of immigration to the state in the early decades of the 20th century. Other families came to Iowa in later immigration surges in the 1930s, 1970s and 1990s, a wave that continues to the present time. The earliest immigrants came as railroad workers. The state’s oldest Mexican community, in Fort Madison, formed when the Santa Fe railroad recruited workers in Texas and Mexico to work in its rail yard. One resident of Fort Madison gave the Archives an album with photos of El Cometa, the settlement along the river where residents lived in boxcars or in homes made of boxcar lumber. Later, Mexican-Americans from Texas passed through Iowa each summer to work in the tomato and onion fields of southeast Iowa and the sugar beet and asparagus fields in the north central part of the state. Many migrant workers settled permanently in communities such as Mason City and Muscatine. By mid-century, Latinos were also working in meat-packing plants and a variety of other occupations.

In places like Fort Madison, where immigration began more than a century ago, many of the Mexican-American residents are third and fourth generation American citizens and the community has reflected their presence for many years. But immigration has changed the face of many other Iowa communities recently. Although they make up only 5 percent of Iowa’s overall population, Latinos make up as much as 10 percent of the population of Sioux City and 30 percent in Marshalltown. Towns such as Columbus Junction and West Liberty have recently seen significant increases in their Latino populations.

“When I walk through downtown Columbus Junction, the people, food, and language all remind me of home,” said Carreón, a native of San Antonio, Texas.

Mason said the project is ongoing. IWA staff members have attended community events around the state and spoken to individuals and groups, encouraging them to donate materials and tell their stories.

“There’s a real urgency to this because so many of these stories were never written down and we want to record them before it’s too late,” said Mason.

More information about Mujeres Latinas is available online at www.lib.uiowa.edu/iwa. To participate in the project or to learn more, call the Iowa Women’s Archives at (319) 335-5068 or email at lib-women@uiowa.edu.

Part of the funding for Mujeres Latinas comes from a Year of Public Engagement grant. President David J. Skorton declared 2005-2006 the Year of Public Engagement, during which the University community is intensifying its efforts and sharpening its focus on engagement with the public at the local, state, national, and international levels. More information is online, http://www.ype.uiowa.edu/.

The project also received a 2004 Year of the Arts and Humanities grant from the President’s Office and grants from the Iowa Historical Resources Development Program and the State Historical Society, Inc.

The Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium (ICPC) and University of Iowa Libraries will host a series of day-long preservation workshops held at four locations across the state in June.

The preservation sessions are designed for archivists, conservators, county clerks, curators, genealogists, librarians, museum workers, registrars, volunteers and anyone who cares about conserving and preserving our material heritage. The general public is welcomed.

The hands-on session will be held at the following locations:

• June 1, Indianola, Simpson College, Dunn Library
• June 2, Storm Lake, Buena Vista University, Buena Vista University Library
• June 8, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa Wesleyan University, Iowa Wesleyan University Library
• June 9, Waverly, Wartburg College, Wartburg College Library

Cost is $40 for a member of the Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium, $50 for a non-member.

More information and registration form can be found on the Web at: http://web.grinnell.edu/individuals/stuhrr/icpc/preservation101-102.html

Information is also available by contacting Nancy E. Kraft at 319-335-5286 or nancy-e-kraft@uiowa.edu or Lucy David at 319-338-0514 or lucy-david@uiowa.edu.

Participants will have the opportunity to perform a full book repair, mount and mat a photograph, learn basics of digitizing photographs, repair a wooden object and discover the basics of cataloging and accessioning of museum and archival collections. University of Iowa Libraries instructors includes Nancy E. Kraft, UI preservation librarian, and Susan Hansen, UI book repair supervisor.
The Iowa Conservation and Preservation Consortium (ICPC) is a membership organization seeking to initiate, encourage, and enhance preservation and conservation activities by providing basic preservation education and training. Funding for the 2006 preservation training program was partially supported through funding from the Resource Enhancement and Protection act through a Historical Resource Development Program grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Irving Weber is going online.

A collection of stories written by Iowa City’s beloved historian and Iowa City Press-Citizen columnist is being digitized by the University of Iowa Libraries’ Digital Library Services Department.

“Irving Weber loved to share his stories of old Iowa City, and I think he would be pleased to share these stories in a new medium and make them accessible to the people of the community, the state and beyond,” said Nancy E. Kraft, UI Libraries preservation librarian.

Weber started writing his Press-Citizen column in 1973, and a collection of his work was eventually published in an eight-volume set by the Iowa City Host Noon Lions Club. That book is now out of print, but the UI Libraries is working with the Lions Club and the Iowa City Public Library to put those volumes online.

As part of the Iowa City Public Library’s celebration of Irving Weber Days, Kraft and Mark Anderson, digital initiatives librarian from UI Libraries, will present a program about this newly digitized collection on Thursday, May 11, at noon in Room A of the Iowa City Public Library.

Each volume contains about 100 stories, including accounts of historic Iowa City homes and their owners, early businesses and factories, Iowa City churches and early modes of transportation into the city, as well as other historical fascinations.

The Irving Weber collection is part of the Iowa Heritage Digital Collection (IHDC). IHDC is a collection of 8,000 documents, photographs, images, maps and other media about Iowa’s history and culture. This online collection was developed by libraries, museums, archives and historical societies across the state. To access the Weber collection as well as any of 30 other collections of the IHDC, check online at http://iowaheritage.org.

Using Optical Character Recognition software, the UI Libraries was able to create images of the article pages that are full-text searchable.