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| October 2007 |
HAVERFORD COLLEGE |
No. 6 |
Table of Contents
From the Director
by Bob Kieft
For all the bragging rights libraries
like to claim--"my library's bigger than your library"
or has X Y or Z rare or unique item--the modern traditions of
librarianship in the U.S. manifest a strong cooperative streak.
On the whole, U.S. libraries are "all for one, one for all"
organizations in spite of the barriers that libraries occasionally
erect to make it hard for "outsiders" to get at their
collections.
Pennsylvania poses well-known geographical
and political/cultural impediments to cooperation among academic
libraries, and it wasn't until the mid-1990s that the Pennsylvania
Academic Library Consortium Inc. (PALCI, http://www.palci.org/)
developed to share resources among the state's college and university
libraries. Our Tri-College Library Consortium joined PALCI, and
today user-generated requests through PALCI's E-Z Borrow service
account for 50% of our interlibrary activity with books.
The Tri-College Consortium experience has
been that resource sharing leads to more sophisticated thinking
about the relationship among collections and the services that
make those collections available. That has also been the case
with PALCI, for which, as the result of a planning initiative
during the 2004/5 academic year, I have been convening a task
force on cooperative collection development.
Discussions have centered on members' general
interest in cooperative approaches to the following:
To realize this vision, we will have to work
in the context of members' existing peer groups, affiliations,
and funding mechanisms to
- define the roles of individual libraries,
kinds and groups of libraries, and other consortia (PALINET, AccessPA,
etc.)
- create unified access to holdings information
- develop materials access/delivery systems
- create a resource discovery as well as known-item
search tool
- agree on long-term responsibility for funding
materials storage, preservation, conservation, and resource sharing
- agree on terms for relying on trusted repositories
of e-texts and for designating PALCI libraries as light/dim/dark
archives of print titles
- purchase and share e-monographs; consider
joint purchasing of new printed monographs
- ensure the preservation of print materials
as most users begin in the next 10-20 years to prefer digitized
versions for search, discovery, evaluation, and reading of most
texts under most circumstances
- establish a collective approach to archiving
new material for future scholarship (popular works and other things
we do not collect heavily now)
- create a system of incentives to collect
and preserve unusual and unique materials.
Such events as the Aberdeen Woods Conferences
(1999, 2002) and Preserving America's Print Resources (PAPR, 2003),
the recent North American Storage Trust discussions, and technology
solutions offered by library systems, Google, and OCLC, together
with policy and program developments among library consortia in
the Pacific Northwest, New Jersey, Colorado, and Ohio provide
PALCI with agenda, models, and new capacities from which to choose.
All situate themselves in the long history of library efforts
to provide the most varied resources quickly to any given reader
as libraries and readers adjust to fundamental changes in the
information environment.
-Bob Kieft is
Director of College Information Resources & Librarian of the College
A New Haverford Web Presence
by Jennifer Grant
 On
September 18th, Haverford College launched a new website <Haverford.edu>,
the long-awaited result of a two-year redesign project. Tasked
with the job by former President Tom Tritton, the College has
worked with White Whale Web Services, a web design company based
in Oakland, CA. The new website features much more than a simple
design overhaul. Many goals were outlined in its development,
including the need to better represent who we are to the outside
world, and to provide tools for on-campus users to better manage
and present online information.
As a result, both the content and capabilities
of our website will be greatly expanded. The narrative content
has been significantly expanded so that “the Haverford story”
is more easily told, with pages about its Quaker heritage, the
Honor Code, and much about Haverford life and academics. The new,
integrated campus calendar allows groups to publish their events
to the calendar and see those same events display on their own
website. The new site also boasts a more effective search tool
using Google technology; student, faculty and organizational profiles;
a news management system; an updated course information tool;
and easier ways for the campus community to incorporate the overall
look and feel of the College site into their own pages.
College Information Resources (CIR) has played
a significant role in this project from its inception. Currently,
Bob Kieft, Director of CIR, serves as web committee co-chair,
along with Jess Lord, Dean of Admissions, and Chris Mills, Director
of Marketing & Communications. Jennifer Patton of Marketing
& Communications has been the project manager, and committee
members include CIR staff Dawn Heckert, Jennifer Grant, Mary Lynn
Morris Kennedy, Mary Ellen Luongo, Barbara Mindell, Matt Nocifore,
and Bill Ulrich.
-Jennifer Grant
is Applications Support Specialist
Technology Orientation for
New Students
by Sharon Strauss
“I couldn’t access
my course readings!” “Blackboard? What’s Blackboard?”
“My computer broke and I couldn’t finish my paper.”
After hearing statements like these a few
too many times, Raisa Williams, Dean for First-Year Students,
approached Academic Computing about a way to help new students
learn the computer skills they need to succeed at Haverford. Working
with the Dean’s Office, Academic Computing devised an on-line
technology orientation that introduces students to important Haverford-specific
computing information, such as how to contact the Helpdesk and
locate campus computer labs. It also introduces students to the
Blackboard course management
system, where most course readings are stored, and teaches them
how to log onto it. Once in Blackboard, students must complete
a short quiz to verify that they accessed Blackboard successfully
and are familiar with other essential computing information.
Students can complete this orientation at
any time during the summer or when they arrive on campus for non-academic
registration. Those students who complete the assignment over
the summer were entered into a raffle. Winners were announced
at non-academic registration. Nathaniel Blood-Patterson won a
Dell Photo All-In-One printer 966, donated by Dell Computer. Alexander
Cahill and William Holloway both won iPod Shuffles.
Academic Computing and the Dean’s Office
have been jointly running a technology orientation every summer
since 2004. In addition to teaching students important computer
skills, it enables the computing center to find and resolve any
Blackboard account problems before classes start. To access the
web-based portion of the orientation, see <http://www.haverford.edu/acc/docs/general/orientation/>.
For more information, contact Sharon Strauss (sstrauss@haverford.edu,
610-896-4916.)
-Sharon Strauss
is Publications & Training Coordinator
New Acquisition in Special Collections
by Ann W. Upton
This past winter, Special Collections
was able to acquire a copy of Thomas Eddy’s An Account of
the State Prison or Penitentiary House, in the City of New York,
1801. Eddy (1758–1827), a Quaker from New York, wrote this
proposal, the first on prison reform to be published in America.
Quaker activism in prison reform is a popular
topic with Haverford students who are studying the history of
Quakerism, and there is a long tradition of Friends’ involvement
in this social concern in the Philadelphia area. Thomas Eddy,
however, furthered the reform movement and influenced Friends
and civil governments to work for improvements throughout the
country.
Eddy visited the infamous Philadelphia Walnut
Street Jail in 1796. This penitentiary, constructed in 1790, was
the first of modern prisons. Women were separated from men and
debtors from others, liquor was forbidden, and eventually even
the dungeons were eliminated. Although the social experiment at
the Walnut Street Jail failed by 1800 due to overpopulation, it
served as a model for Eddy, who took the progressive elements
he viewed and wrote a plan for the construction of two similar
penitentiaries in New York City. Soon after Eddy’s Account
was published, Newgate Prison was constructed in Greenwich Village
based on his plan. Eddy’s report contains all the specifications
for a modern prison including folding plates showing elevation
and floor plans, and the accompanying humanitarian rationale for
the features he proposed. The publication became a guide for the
reform of penitentiaries that was followed as America grew larger
and increasingly complex.
The acquisition of this volume has enhanced
the scholarly experience for Haverford’s students and researchers,
and leads to increasing appreciation and understanding of the
history of social reform in America.
-Ann W. Upton
is Quaker Bibliographer
A Conversation with Darin Hayton
by Margaret Schaus
In a wide-ranging talk History
of Science professor Darin Hayton shares his thoughts about teaching,
research, and critical points in history along with fascinating
bits of arcana that you never learned in school.
 MS:
How do your students use the Library?
DH: Students exploit the Library in two ways, in print and electronically.
They choose a topic and need to investigate a rare book at Bryn
Mawr or Haverford as a primary source. Then they fill in the context-
other books by the same author and other titles on the same topic-
in an electronic fulltext database like Early English Books Online
(EEBO). For students this is the best symbiotic use of rare and
electronic.
Students working in early-modern history must
confront a series of challenges, of which orthography and typography
are only the most mundane. Those who have studied foreign languages
are often not used to reading them or have limited exposure to
the technical vocabulary. To help students, I started a Latin
reading group. We read authors like John of Seville, who translated
Arabic medical and scientific texts, including astrology, geography,
and comets. Working through these texts helps students gain confidence
and facility with Latin sources.
MS: What did they learn about comets?
DH: Comets and other unusual phenomena were political and religious
events. In 1494 Sebastian Brant was convinced that a recent meteorite
portended success for Emperor Maximilian I in his conflict with
the French. After Maximilian had concluded a peace with the French,
Brant used this meteorite again to argue that Maximilian would
vanquish the Turks. Prodigious phenomena were epistemologically
multivalent and recycled to fit new and changing situations.
Brant was not unique. Religious conflicts
in the fifteenth century along with the fall of Constantinople
in 1453 had intensified millennial fears. By the end of the century,
Europe seemed to be on the brink of disaster. Intellectuals regularly
looked for prodigious phenomena to help them understand their
political and social situation.
MS: Where else do you see a need for more
study?
DH: I’ve become particularly interested in Hungary, which
is typically considered a borderland between full Imperial and
Turkish control. This picture, however, is a product of 20th-century
geopolitics and our own categories and blinders. Consider Matthias
Corvinus’s court in 15th-century Buda. When Regiomontanus
(from Germany), Martin Bylica (from Poland) and Hans Dorn (from
Austria) worked at Corvinus’s court they were part of a
European-wide network of scholars. Confusingly, nationalist historigraphies
now treat Bylica as a Pole or a Hungarian rather than as a member
of a broader European culture. Our own prejudices should not fragment
the past.
-Margaret Schaus
is Bibliographer & Reference Librarian
“Until Called For”: Safekeeping Materials in Special
Collections
by J'aime Wells
Every once in awhile the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania places in the Philadelphia Inquirer lists of “unclaimed
property,” and we are all familiar with warehouse sales
of “unclaimed freight.” Readers of this Newsletter
might be surprised to know that the Library's Special Collections
Department also holds such items.
In previous decades, Special Collections staff
arranged with community members to deposit valuable items for
“safekeeping” in the Library vault. Along with rare
books, manuscripts, and fine art in College collections, then,
the vault also contained family heirlooms, business or organization
records, and typed or hand-written book manuscripts—materials
never intended to become part of the Library’s collections
but allowed to “visit” for a short time, such as a
family’s summer vacation, or “until called for”
by their owner (past items included numerous silver sets and a
stack of Beatles albums; even the ashes of James Magill were kept
in safekeeping for a short time before being buried beneath the
large oak at the library’s entrance!).
Over the years, Haverford’s collections
of rare books and manuscripts have grown to the point where no
more room is available for safekeeping items, and we have been
systematically over the last few years returning long-unclaimed
possessions to their owners. When I came to Haverford in August,
2006, one of the first tasks I undertook was to inventory the
remaining boxes of safekeeping and to search our records for contact
information about each item. This was a fun job, as I cracked
open each box with no idea what I might find and then began to
speak to people by email, letter, and phone to explain that we
could no longer offer safekeeping and would like to return their
possessions.
“1833 large cent; carbon-copied
book manuscript from 1970; slides for teaching a Buddhism course…”
Some searches were easy. I found a book manuscript
written by someone personally known to a Library staff member;
it was easily returned. Slides picturing Buddhist temples and
shrines were reclaimed by Haverford’s Religion Department
for possible use in future courses. A “large cent”
penny from 1833 was accompanied by a note, “deposited by
the Development Office.” The note was dated 1982, and Haverford
no longer has a “Development Office,” but checking
with the office now called Institutional Advancement resulted
in the coin’s donation to the College Archives. The penny
has now been cataloged for the benefit of researchers interested
in Haverford’s early years, and it may someday lend a wonderfully
authentic touch to an exhibit about the year of the College’s
founding.
“1796 Bible in Welsh; records
of the Philadelphia Skating Club, 1940-1965…”
In some cases a simple Internet search enabled
me to return items. A wonderful Welsh Bible dated 1796 was deposited
by Merion Meeting in the 1940s. Luckily, the Meeting has its own
website, which gave me the name of the member currently serving
as clerk. On receiving our letter, the clerk was happy to reclaim
the Meeting’s treasured heirloom. The “Philadelphia
Skating Club and Humane Society” still exists and also has
a website with contact information. The current officers had no
idea so much of their organization’s history was preserved
at Haverford and were greatly interested to retrieve their membership
and financial records.
“Medal of Freedom awarded to
Joseph Stokes; issues of Intercollegiate Soccer Guide annual periodical,
1930-1950…”
Some items required a fair amount of detective
work but happily ended up finding their homes. I was mystified
by a box of books and magazines about soccer until I found a clue
on an old inventory, which referred to the “National Soccer
Coaches archives.” A quick Google search turned up the website
of the National Soccer Coaches Association. Like the Skating Club,
the Association’s current leadership would never have thought
to reclaim their property but were deeply interested.
Joseph Stokes was a Haverford alumnus who
became a prominent medical doctor. He received several prestigious
awards, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work
on a treatment for hepatitis that saved many lives during World
War II. These medals and awards were stored at Haverford many
years ago by the Stokes family. We began the search with a Stokes
family member for whom we had contact information, and he led
us to closer connections, including the daughter of Joseph Stokes.
After considering several plans for public display of the medals,
the family donated them to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia,
an institution that itself awarded one of Dr. Stokes’ medals
and still honors his memory.
“Four large leather-bound record
books with completely blank pages; Hough’s American Woods;
three boxes of Dunn china…”
There are a few cases that have me stumped
so far. There is a set of antique china with very little in the
way of records. It is labeled as the “Dunn china”;
the person who deposited it has passed away, and so far we have
been unable to locate any heirs. A 14-volume set of books containing
hundreds of samples of American woods gives even fewer clues to
its original owner or why it might have been placed with us. Perhaps
most unusual of all for placement in a secure, climate-controlled
vault are four large record books, nicely bound in leather but
with no writing on any pages and no evidence at all as to whom
they belong to.
I am pleased to say that most, if not all, of the safekeeping
items are now back with the people who value them, and Special
Collections has gained some new space for housing our ever-increasing
body of printed and archival materials.
-J’aime
Wells was Special Collections Executive Assistant
Staff News and Notes
Compiled by Mike Persick
Catalog Librarian Rich Aldred’s
daughter Rebecca married Matthew Rankin on July 6th in Falmouth,
Massachusetts. The couple lives in Philadelphia and regularly
joins Rich at Phillies games. Rich is running for Township Supervisor
in Thornbury Township, Delaware County.
James Gulick, Reference Librarian, presented
“Material Religion: The Challenges It Poses to Libraries”
at the Annual Conference of the American Theological Library Association,
held in June in Philadelphia.
Bob Kieft, Director of College Information
Resources & Librarian of the College, and Tom Clareson, Program
Director for New Initiatives at PALINET, are convening a group,
funded by a Library Services Technology Act grant, which during
the next year will develop a collection development policy for
a digital collection about Pennsylvania history, society, and
culture. Bob continues to convene a task force on cooperative
collection development for the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium
Inc. (see “From the Director” on p.1 for additional
details)
The Library recently completed a project to
digitize the backfile of Library Resources & Technical Services
(LRTS), the official journal of the Association for Library Collections
and Technical Services (ALCTS). From March through July 2007,
Norm Medeiros, Associate Librarian, Bruce Bumbarger, Conservator,
Evan Pugh, HC ’07, and Matthew Scheinerman, HC ’09,
disbound, scanned, adjusted, and marked up the first 43 volumes
of LRTS (1957-1999). The resulting PDF and HTML files have been
delivered to ALCTS for mounting on its web site. The Library was
recognized through a certificate of appreciation signed by Pamela
Bluh, ALCTS President, and Peggy Johnson, LRTS Editor.
Diana Franzusoff Peterson, Manuscripts Librarian
and College Archivist, is author of the Haverford College chapter
in Founded by Friends: the Quaker Heritage of Fifteen American
Colleges and Universities (Scarecrow Press, 2007).
Aaron Smith, Network Specialist, finished
his Masters of Science in Information Science at Penn State Great
Valley this past May.
Christa Williford, User Services Librarian,
spent two months this summer in Seattle learning image cataloging
and thesaurus management skills at Corbis Corporation, while also
conducting an independent study on the best practices for preparing
interactive 3D web resources for online teaching and learning
portals for theater studies. After these two experiences, she
has only two more courses remaining to earn her Masters of Library
and Information Science.
CIR welcomes the following new staff members:
David Conners started on August 1st as the
new Digital Collections Librarian in Special Collections. David,
a Swarthmore alum, graduated from the Pratt Institute in May with
his Masters of Library Science. He has an article, “The
Jobs can be Found: A Response to ‘The Entry-Level Gap,’”
in the September issue of Library Journal.
Jennifer Scales has joined CIR as Help Desk and Public Lab Coordinator.
Jen was previously a Help Desk manager at Temple University.
Bill Ulrich is our new Web Developer/Administrator. Bill comes
to Haverford from the University of Delaware.
-Mike Persick
is Acquisitions Librarian & Assistant Catalog Librarian
PUBLISHED BY COLLEGE
INFORMATION RESOURCES
HAVERFORD COLLEGE
Haverford, PA 19041
610-896-1175
http://www.haverford.edu/
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