Contents:

Spotlight on the Africana Library
Supporting Transnationalism
Facilities Projects Scorecard
Annex Expansion Update
Uris Library Collections
Staff News: Staff Comings, Goings, and Kudos
Students to Study Way-Finding in Olin, Uris, & Kroch Asia
Exhibits and Events

Is the clock laying eggs now?

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On April 19, 1969, black students occupied Willard Straight during Parents' Weekend as a continuing form of protest about racial issues on campus. Citing the university's racist attitudes and irrelevant curriculum, the students occupied the building for thirty-six hours. The takeover received national attention as thousands of black and white students became involved, which engaged the community in broad discussion about race relations and educational matters. For many the image of students leaving the Straight with guns is the only lasting memory they have of the takeover. However, it was more than that. The guns were introduced in the seizure of a building only after groups of white students had attacked the black students occupying the Straight. After the takeover ended, Cornell University introduced a curriculum in Africana Studies and established the Africana Studies & Research Center. In 1985, faculty named the Library there in honor of Dr. John Henrik Clarke, a distinguished historian who had played a major role in bringing Africana Studies to Cornell. —Eric Acree

It seems fitting, therefore, that we turn the spotlight on the John Henrik Clarke Africana Library. Indeed, much has been happening there, and Eric offered to provide us with some of the details.

Spotlight on the Africana Library
By Eric Kofi Acree, Africana Librarian

New Africana Library to be Built
The Africana Studies & Research Center, which sits on Cornell University’s North Campus, will be undergoing major renovation and expansion this year. This is the first time a project of this scale has hit the Center since it was transformed from the 1956 Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity dormitory to the current structure in the early 1970s. This project will address many of the programming needs of the Center by adding additional office and classroom space. In addition, the John Henrik Clarke Africana Library will occupy a new building.

Artist Drawing courtesy Shepley Bulfinch Richardson Abbott

Ralph Jackson and David Bliss of the architectural firm Shepley, Bullfinch, Richardson and Abbott (SBRA) of Boston have drawn up the designs for the Center and Library. SBRA is the same firm that designed Kroch and Cox libraries. There will be a few surprises in the design of the new building. Among the surprises will be the incorporation of an African element. The project is scheduled to be completed January 2005.

Dated view of library interior courtesy Shepley Bulfinch Richardson Abbott

The new library will sit east of the current Africana Center, and will lie along Triphammer Road. The total footage of the library after construction will be 3020 square feet—an increase of 1000 square feet from its current size.

Construction is slated to begin immediately after the Memorial Day weekend. Along with the building of the new library, a multipurpose room will be added. In order for the renovation/expansion to be completed in a timely manner, the Africana Library will be relocated for the duration of the project.

During the construction period, the bulk of the Africana Library’s collection will be moved to the 6th level of Uris Library. This includes most of the monographs and bound serials. The Africana reference materials will also be housed on the 6th level, but will be shelved as a distinct collection. Current newspapers, and selected journals will be moved to the current periodical section in the Dean Room. The circulating video/DVD collection and microforms will be housed in the Olin Media Center and the restricted audio/visual material will be located in Uris reserve. I will have an office in Uris Library and I hope a satellite office in the Africana Center in order to meet and consult with Africana faculty. A ready reference collection will be kept in this office. Sharon Parsons, Sr. Circ/Reserve Assistant, will also be located in the Uris Library.

Even with this temporary relocation, Africana Library will maintain its regular services, and patrons will still have full access to the library’s collection.

Putting The Fixings On The Hot Dog: Redesigning Africana Library’s Web Site
In a collaborative effort between the Africana Library and the IRIS Design Team, the Africana Library’s Web site has gone through major renovations. The desire to redesign the site was born out of my belief that too many good resources were buried within the site. In addition to making the site easier to navigate through, I felt that the site needed a facelift to showcase the growth and change within the Africana Library.

The first thing I did was to look at other academic libraries Web sites. I wanted to find examples of sites that I felt were easy to navigate and visually appealing. Among the sites I wanted to emulate were the University at Buffalo Library; Yale University Library, African Collection; and Indiana University Library, African Collection. In addition, I wanted to build upon the look and feel of the CUL Gateway.

The second step I took was to contact members of IRIS to discuss the kind of design/technical support they could offer. Carla DeMello played a key role in designing the site; both Maureen Morris and Carla supported me in realizing the site structure I envisioned. Valerie Jacoski provided key technical support. She showed me how to use Dreamweaver (a Web editor) and created the cascading style sheet (css). A cascading style sheet is the driving force that allows a Web page to maintain its design. Val, Carla, Maureen, and I did a lot of communicating over email, and when necessary, set up meetings.

I mapped out the structure of the site, and had determined how to bring previously hidden items to the forefront. For example, the front page is divided into four main categories. One category is labeled Inside Africana Library. This section gives the user insight into the history of the Africana Library as well as the mission and collection development policy of the library. In addition, information is given about services that the library offers to faculty and students. The section labeled Africana Library Collection provides the user with a listing of special, unique holdings of Africana Library, such as a link to Africana selected subject guides. Selected Internet Resources provides the user with links that are Africana (Black Studies) related. The final category, Research Tools provides selected quick links for Cornell library users to use CUL Gateway. The front page also offers links to feature articles in the current issue of the Africana Newsletter Sankofa. Finally, there is a common navigation side bar, which appears on most pages, and is intended to help the user move through the site.

I was also interested in enhancing the information contained in the old Africana Library website. For example, it listed the published Africana Masters theses, but did not provide any additional information. I wanted to give library users more granular access to this important body of work, so we added a link to the abstract of each thesis as well as the title and author, and created a subject category where users could search the theses by topic.

Since the new site has been up, I have been receiving more e-mail reference questions and comments from patrons who have visited our web site and have used some of the newly designed pages and features for research.

Africana site when I came aboard in July 2002

Africana site after I made small modifications:

Africana site today

(note: the Africana Library has now become part of the Information Services administration—see Staff News, below, for details)

Supporting Transnationalism
In his first inaugural speech in Doha, Qatar, President Jeffrey Lehman expressed his belief that Cornell should become a premier transnational university of the future. “A transnational perspective implies a willingness to engage,” he said, “to participate in the efforts of people everywhere to better understand the world and to improve the conditions of their lives. To advocate for certain humanist values, even while listening carefully and respectfully to those who might reject those values.”

Two separate efforts in the past month highlight how IRIS staff are responding to this challenge. First, the National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded Cornell one of the first two grants under a special initiative to help rebuild the libraries and archives in Iraq. Cornell’s award of $97,554 goes to the Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance (PCM). Under John Dean’s direction, PCM will develop an online preservation tutorial in Arabic on the treatment and care of books, manuscripts, image and recorded sound collections, papyrus, and clay tablets. Although aimed specifically at Iraq, the tutorial will also be applicable to other areas of the Arabic-speaking world, including Egypt, the Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, the Yemen, United Arab Republic, Oman, and Lebanon.

Second, Cornell Library will be hosting ten Russian librarians and facilitators visiting the United States as part of a professional exchange program sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, an independent federal agency housed at the Library of Congress. Representative Amory Houghton (R-NY) serves on the board of trustees for the Center. The Russians will be visiting Ithaca for 5 days from June 28 to July 2—right after ALA—and will be spending time at various libraries in this area. IRIS has agreed to coordinate local arrangements for their visit. If you are interested in participating in the planning process—or are willing to serve as a host family to provide housing and breakfast—please contact Carmen Blankinship.

Facilities Projects Scorecard
There are so many facilities-related projects currently underway or in the planning stage that it’s often difficult to figure out who’s on first. To help the IRIS Management Team read the tea leaves, Sharon Wargo attended last month’s management team meeting and presented a matrix of facilities planning efforts. Of most immediate interest to Olin dwellers is that the three Olin elevators will be receiving a major update this year. The project should commence the last week of May. At that time the freight elevator and one passenger car will be taken out of service. The usual duration for this work is 8 weeks. The passenger elevator should be functional again by the first week of July and the freight elevator by the last week in July. As soon as the first passenger car is back in service, the second one will be upgraded, with the goal of having it go through a “shakedown” week by the 3rd week in August. If for any reason the “shakedown” week has to be postponed until the fourth week of August, the elevator will still be available—with the novelty of having an attendant on board.

Here’s Sharon’s scorecard:

Annex Expansion Update
The design for three new storage modules at the Library Annex is quickly moving forward. The architect (Russell, Scott, Steedle & Capone) and the engineer (Wilson Engineering) have just completed Design Development and are now working on the Construction Documents (CD) for the three modules. The architect, engineer and CUL have already met to discuss structural issues, including the type of HVAC, fire protection system, lighting levels, as well as the design and addition of a new loading dock area (which will include a new van garage, a battery charging area for the forklift, a staging area for loaded booktrucks, a tray storage and assembly area and a new book cleaning room with a specially equipped vacuum). We are also proceeding apace with the CUL Measuring Project. The project team, Susann Argetsinger and Kelly Smallidge, is currently measuring Mann Library with Entomology, Geneva, Law, Ornithology and the materials in Central Technical Services left to be measured. A Library Annex Planning Committee is being organized to begin meeting with units to discuss the mix and amount of materials to be moved to the new warehouse once it is completed. Right now, the committee includes Susan Currie (chair), John Hoffmann, Cammie Hoffmier, Barbara Berger-Eden, John Marmora, Zoe Stewart-Marshall and Robert Smith from the University Architect's office. If all goes as planned, the project will go to bid in July 2004, with ground-breaking expected sometime in August 2004.

Uris Library Collections
The Uris Library Collections are undergoing some changes, due in large part to three separate initiatives. First, a decision was made in February to discontinue the purchase of duplicate titles for Uris. Second, a shelf review is underway to identify rare to medium-rare materials in the Uris stacks and transfer them to the custody of RMC. Third, space must be freed up to accommodate the Africana Collection during the renovation and reconstruction of the Africana Library.

Ross Atkinson reported in the Feb 20 CD Exec minutes that a project is underway to eliminate the purchase of duplicate materials in Uris, so that those funds can be freed up to purchase more unique materials for the system. This is the first step in a broader effort to reduce substantially the level of duplication in CUL. A transition team, consisting of Ross, David Block, Lance Heidig, Martha Hsu, and Fred Muratori, have been working on identifying categories of unique materials that Uris has traditionally collected (now approximately one-third of the collection). These generally fall into two categories: (a) introductory materials to humanities and social science subjects and (b) recreational materials (e.g., children's literature, science fiction, physical education, other popular fiction). We will continue to acquire these materials but the transition team recommended that this be done through the approval plan and negotiations are currently underway with Yankee to implement this process. Undergraduate reserve will continue to operate, and a separate budget line will be created specifically for that purpose. There will also be funds to support duplication in cases of special need.

On April 7, Lance Heidig conducted a walk-through with Katherine Reagan of Uris 6th level to identify rare and medium-rare materials. As titles are identified, collection maintenance staff is pulling volumes and delivering them to RMC. Lance also identified 37 shelves worth of bound volumes of Uris unique serial titles. These will remain in the 6th level but physically and visually separated from the area for Africana materials.

In preparation for housing the Africana Library, additional space is being freed in Uris. Uris bound volumes will go to B2 Olin for CTS processing. Staff plan to work around the end of semester rush. Lance will also cancel some duplicate Uris subscriptions so that the Africana current issues can be accommodated in the current periodicals area in the Dean Room. Finally, Uris microfiche and equipment have been moved to Olin and integrated with the Olin media center. CTS has begun to change the online records for the Uris fiche and will be updating location information for the Uris serials and Africana materials that will be moved.

Staff News: Staff Comings, Goings, and Kudos

Comings
In March the IRIS organization chart changed a little when the Africana Library moved from World Area Collections to the Information Services Division. Eric and his staff will have much in common with the units in IS—Access Services, Interlibrary Services, Reference Services, and the two other IRIS unit libraries, Music and Fine Arts. The timing for this move is opportune given the temporary relocation of the Africana Library and staff to Uris this summer. Having all the IRIS unit libraries under one umbrella will facilitate the ongoing efforts in IS to support more cohesive policies, procedures, and operations.

Welcome to David Rosenthal, who will be a member of IRIS's Technology Support Team (TST) while Chris Bucko is away on military duty. David's past experience includes administering desktop computing solutions for a large, complex architectural firm, Thomas Associates, and we're very glad to have him on board. He will work approximately half-time, normally in the mornings, Monday through Friday.

Ida Martinez is in the process of assuming responsibility, from David Brumberg, for building the Native American History collection. She has been working closely with David, who has ably built the collection along with his other American history duties, and who is retiring in August.

Bethany and Keene Silfer welcomed their newborn daughter Rie (pronounced "Ree") Maryalice Silfer into the world at 1:03pm, March 10th. She weighed 6 pounds even and measured 18 3/4 inches long. Here are some early pictures of Rie.

Goings
Chris DeWilde resigned from his position at the Library Annex effective March 23rd. Chris is pursuing a career as an Emergency Medical Technician in the area.

Valerie Jacoski of the IRIS Design Group has accepted a position as Director of Tioga Point Museum in Athens, PA, her hometown. Val contributed to the Africana Library website, RLG DigiNews, and IRIS TST support.

On April 6, Eileen Parlange retired from her position as Collection Specialist in the Wason Collection after 18 years service. She began her library career in Central Technical Services as a retrospective conversion technician. When she moved to Wason, Eileen quickly became that unit's chief administrator, diplomat and mother confessor. Librarians relied on her mastery of the bureaucracy and her ability to get things done; generations of students were devoted to Eileen, and everyone who knew recognized her kindness, tact and grace. —David Block

Kudos
I’ve already mentioned the NEH Iraq grant that Preservation and Collection Maintenance received to develop an online preservation tutorial in Arabic.

IRIS staffers have also been busy publishing:

Ira Revels, Lee LaFleur, and Ida Martinez have an article, “Taking Library Recruitment a Step Closer Recruiting the Next Generation of Librarians” in the February issue of The Reference Librarian. This article describes Cornell University Library’s Junior Fellows Program, an initiative aimed at introducing high school students of color to academic libraries and librarianship.

Peter Hirtle’s SAA Presidential Address, entitled “Archives or Assets?” appears in the most recent issue of the American Archivist, which came out last week (Vol 66, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2003).

This month’s D-Lib Magazine includes an article from the IRIS Research Team on a web archiving strategy called “Virtual Remote Control.” This work has been funded over the past several years by an NSF-DLI2 grant (Project Prism) and the Mellon Foundation (Political Communications Web Archiving grant). CUL staff might be interested in the developing Tool Inventory to support virtual remote control.

David Block's "Thirty Years of Visitas de Indios, an annotated bibliography," appeared in Los Andes: cincuenta años después (1953-2003) : homenaje a John Murra / Ana María Lorandi, Carmen Salazar-Soler, Nathan Wachtel, compiladores. (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2003).

Students Study Way-Finding in Olin, Uris, and Kroch Asia
Professor Alan Hedge’s class, DEA 470 Environmental Analysis: Applied Ergonomics Methods, is evaluating how people use information to find their way about buildings and this semester they are focusing on an analysis of signs in Olin, Uris, and Kroch Asia. Susan Currie and the IRIS Sign Committee, Kim LaMorte, Craig Mains, Ida Martinez, and Sharon Wargo, met with members of the class on April 8th.
The class identified the following factors they would like to consider:

• General Way-finding concerns
• Sign Design
• Information Signage (how to use the LC system or other classification schemes noted in the library to find materials)
• Environmental Considerations (do people get lost, are certain spaces overwhelming or unclear)
• Comparison of the impact of areas that have newer signs with areas where the signs have not been changed.

The class is divided into 3 groups, with each group assigned to a library. The project deliverable will be a presentation and a written report. For more information on the class and ergonomics studies at Cornell, check out CUErgo and the class page.

Exhibits and Events

The beginning of a new tradition for the library occurred on March 9 and coincided with RMC’s wonderful exhibit, “Pastimes and Paradigms.” Games Night in the Libe Café attracted around one hundred students. Libe Café was turned into a soda fountain, with ice cream sodas and sundaes and fifties music. Tables held board games and puzzles for students to play, including Monopoly, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit, Checkers, and playing cards.

Eight teams of three students each took part in the trivia contest, which included a combination of general and Cornell-related questions, drawn from Carol Kammen's trivia game and the brains of RMC staff. There were a couple of trick questions, the most obvious being “Who is the Carl A. Kroch Librarian,” even though Sarah Thomas emceed the event and Eli Brown introduced her title twice. The contest was lively, taking more than an hour for the winners to be declared. The winning team was Sobchek Security, which included Leigh Bernstein (Human Ecology), Erin Leidy (Arts and Sciences) and Cara Santillo (Human Ecology). The winning question was:

Which of the following is not one of the seven deadly sins
a.sloth
b.avarice
c. anger
d. murder
answer d. murder

The much-coveted grand prize was a Monopoly game with the board personally autographed by Cornell President Jeff Lehman.

As emcee, Sarah sported a 1916 class reunion jacket and top hat. Eli assisted her, wearing one of her vintage dresses. Carol Kammen served as judge; Kari Smith was timekeeper (wearing her rugby referee shirt); and I was scorekeeper. Others who played a major role in bringing this off included CJ Lance-Duboscq, Barbara Berger Eden, Beth Fontana, and Carla DeMello. They were ably assisted by Nancy McGovern, Margaret Nichols, Susan Currie, Sarah Gordon, Brenda Marston, Lance Heidig, Elaine Engst, and Susette Newberry.

Plans are to repeat Games Night next year, either at the beginning of the Fall or Winter semester.

Thomas Hahn and the staff of RMC, with the assistance of staff in the conservation lab, prepared an exhibit, "Tianjin: 600 Years of Urban Development and Planning," which is now on display through June 4 in the Hirshland Gallery of the Kroch Library. The exhibit aims to show how Tianjin developed as a colonial, urban "collage city" of very diverse style and orientation; how the various parts and pieces (nine tenths of them of foreign extraction) defined themselves architecturally and socially; and how the parts constituted a functioning whole, which dominated most of the economic and cultural landscape of Northern China for almost 100 years. On display are historical photographs, architectural drawings—such as the important Palace Maps of 1897 depicting modifications to an imperial palace for the benefit of the Chinese emperor's visitations to Tianjin—plus a great variety of textual materials and objects.

Margaret Washington, Professor of History, gave the inaugural Rudin Lecture on American Culture in the Libe Café on Wednesday, March 31st. Her talk "'Price to be Determined at the Close of the War'—The Impacts of 'Slave' Trading on the Development of Black Culture in America," highlighted the generosity of Gail and Stephen Rudin, who not only funded the annual Rudin Lecture, but also donated to RMC an outstanding collection of manuscripts, rare books, and other materials documenting the history of slavery in America. The title of Dr. Washington's talk is a direct quote from one of the documents in the Rudin collection and refers to the domestic slave trade in the mid-1860s.

Once again, the Cornell University Library Staff Art Show, held on March 25, revealed the depth of talent and creativity of CUL staff. The show included visual arts and crafts and a performance hour, featuring music and dance. Click here to see some pictures from the Show.

Well, that’s it for this time. Over the weekend, members of the Art Majors Organization will be hanging student art in the Tower Café, so you might want to plan a coffee break over there next week. As always, drop a line with questions and comments.
Anne

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