February 2011

Cornell Library Reads: Staff Picks for 2010
CUL Helps Students Locate Computing Resources
Mentoring at CUL
Finding the Way in Taiwan
Retiring Law Professor Lauds Librarians
People News
Retirements
Obituaries

Kaleidoscope is the internal newsletter of CUL. We publish every two months during the academic year, and appear mid month in August, October, December, February, and April. Submissions are due the penultimate (next-to-last) week of the month preceding publication. If you wish to receive a reminder please contact et14. Please help us to celebrate our resources and ourselves while preserving some of our history.

Cornell Library Reads: Staff Picks for 2010

Gwen Glazer

What's a great book you read in 2010? It can be fiction or nonfiction, read for work or for fun, interesting or serious or purely playful.

It's no surprise that most of the people who work in Cornell's library system are passionate about reading, so at the beginning of 2011, we asked library staff members to describe a great book they'd read the year before. Their extensive and interesting choices -- of fiction and nonfiction, classics and newly published thrillers, marathon guides and 18th-century histories, kids' books and cookbooks and Italian autobiographies -- give a great picture of the book-lovers behind the scenes at the library.

All links point to the books in our library catalog.

Hat tip to Fayetteville Free Library for the idea!

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Fiction

The Magicians by Lev Grossman
While it might be tempting to label this book a “Harry Potter for adults,” it’s really so much more than that. Yes, a group of kids attend a college where they learn how to use magic. But Grossman (while clearly influenced by the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and C.S. Lewis) has created something truly unique by blending magical fantasy and psychological realism. At its core, The Magicians is an exploration of what happens when something we’ve always wanted fails to live up to our expectations, and the unexpected and occasionally terrifying results of that realization.

• Tobi Hines, VIVO Project, Mann Library

World Without End by K. Follett kept me glued to its pages. I hardly got anything else done. It’s a quasi-sequel to Pillars of the Earth.  Set in medieval England, it’s about the life of the community and some very enterprising people. Intrigue, mystery, history, courage, etc…. all fun.

• Gaby Castro Gessner, Library Assessment and Communication

We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel by Lionel Shriver
A fictional tale told through letters.  A wife writing to her estranged husband about their son, Kevin, who was responsible for a school massacre at the local high school.  In fascinating and equally horrifying look at school shootings from perspective of the killer's mother. For an equally chilling sequel, read Columbine by Dave Cullen, a non-fiction account of the shooting at Columbine High School and how the explosive media coverage of this event resulted in gross myths about the victims and killers.

• Wendy Wilcox, Olin Library

I really liked E. L. Doctorow’s Homer and Langley, which is also the 2011 New Student Reading Project pick. I read the entire book without realizing that the Collyer brothers in the story were based on real people. Doctorow’s version of their lives is written beautifully and with compassion for these eccentric brothers—something that is all too easy to forget when faced with something uncomfortable or different. Bill Bryson’s At Home: A Short History of Private Life is still with me weeks after I finished it—wonderful, rich, and funny to boot. It got me thinking about so many of the things I take for granted, like the really fascinating tale of building a sewage system under an already existing, very old city. Or the fork: “Eating forks were thought comically dainty and unmanly—and dangerous too, come to that. Since they had only two sharp tines, the scope for spearing one’s lip or tongue was great, particularly if one’s aim was impaired by wine and jollity.”

• Carla DeMello, Library Assessment and Communication

My six-year-old son and I have discovered the Magic Tree House series. They’re his first chapter books, and they’ve become our new favorites for bedtime reading. The stories involve the sorceress Morgan le Fay, a young brother and sister, and the children’s magical journeys through time and space to various points in history all over the world.  They complete missions to obtain treasured books, solve riddles, and ultimately become Master Librarians. 

• Amy Emerson, Law Library

Island Beneath the Sea: A Novel by Isabel Allende
A fascinating account of the slave revolt in Haiti in the 1790s. Historical fiction at its finest.

• Barbara B. Eden, Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance

The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
A fictional book about a bumbling man who seems to be a victim of life, and somehow finds himself with four wives, 28 children and in the midst of a midlife crisis. This book was tragically funny and often had me laughing out loud.

• Erin Eldermire, Mann Library

If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This: Stories by Robin Black
A collection of short stories that is so delicately and exquisitely written that I couldn’t put it down. I seriously considered giving it as a holiday present to all my friends and even though I ended up giving it just to one, she also loved it.

• Kornelia Tancheva, Olin and Uris libraries

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, is the third installment of the amazing Hunger Games trilogy. It's a young-adult series set in a dystopian future, when a centralized government maintains strict control over its citizens and pits teenagers against each other in a televised battle to the death. The final book sees the heroine struggling with her role in the dysfunctional society. It's full of compelling action and amazingly realistic characters -- un-put-down-able.

• Gwen Glazer, Library Assessment and Communication

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
A tale of life, endless love and hope narrated by a philosophical dog. I have always thought my dogs were wise beyond measure and now I know why.

• Anonymous

I read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was very good/great. :)

• Melissa Wallace, Mann Library

 

 

In Eifelheim, Michael Flynn combines contemporary research from a cliologist and his theoretical physicist girlfriend, historical documents, and episodes from a medieval village threatened by the Black Death to produce unexpected results.  With the help of a librarian, the researchers are able to piece together the surprising reason the village of Eifelheim disappeared.
 
Two great quotes (which I just have to add!):

"It was the wildest sort of coincidence. Who knows what else may be out there, lying in archives and libraries, unrecognized because the right people haven't looked at it in the right way? Things for which we've found safe, acceptable, believable explanations."
 
"There is so much information out there, so poorly organized--and so bogus---that knowing how to find it is a science in itself."

• Jessica Withers, Nestlé Library

My pick for this year is Middlemarch by George Eliot, one of those Great Works of Literature which really is a great work of literature. I started reading it as a protest against reality TV, and quickly became engrossed in this novel about an idealistic young woman, her neighbours and friends in a large English town. Though written in 1870 and set in the 1830s, much of it resonates with our lives today: issues of social idealism, scholarship, young people trying to find their way in the world, economic changes due to technology, even middle-class debt. (Photograph by Lauren Gold)
 
Annotated editions available in Olin! And a great video production from the BBC!

• Anne Carson, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Parrot and Olivier in America is Peter Carey’s rambunctious re-imagining of Alexis deTocqueville’s journey to America. It’s the story, told in two voices, of the improbable friendship between a young French aristocrat, shipped off to America to ensure that his head stays on his neck, and the feisty, embittered Englishman who is hired to be his secretary and protector. It’s a rip-snorting, Dickensian adventure, and an unsettling dialogue on the nature of the American democratic experiment. I loved it.

• Liz Brown, Mann Library

Sea Wyf by J. M. Scott
Sometimes after seeing a film I search out the book to see what was left out. Sea Wyf is a survival tale of 3 men and 1 woman on a life boat after their ship from Singapore has been torpedoed in 1942.  It has mystery, romance, and racial conflict. It was made into a 1957 movie with the more conventional name, Sea Wife. After they return home the survivors try to locate each other through the personal column of the newspaper (prior to the Internet); this adds to the suspense.

• Jill Powell, Engineering Library

I discovered the trilogy of Stieg Larsson last year:  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  I don’t know why the Swedes should excel in murder mysteries full of political intrigue and social commentary, but if it has anything to do with northern climes and long harsh winters then northern Ontario will follow suit in the next century.  After an extended romp through the canon of Henning Mankell (my new favorite writer), I turned to Larsson who provided many hours of wonderful escape from everyday realities.  The Swedish movie adaptations are good but the books are so much better. (Photograph by Roger Clearwater)

• Elizabeth Teskey, Law Library

I read and enjoyed The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, also the newest Martin Cruz Smith Arkady Renko mystery: Three Stations.

• Michele Emerick Brown, Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance

Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone. Funny, sad, serious, historical, weird, and wise…

• Eveline Ferretti, Mann Library

 

I read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I found the title on one of the BBC book lists that went around a couple of years ago. It drew me in from the beginning with its “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” and I became immersed in that world of 1950’s Spain and the mysterious author whose novel is at the heart of the story. It was a highly entertaining and absorbing read with a surprising but satisfying conclusion.

• Susann Argetsinger, Department of Preservation and Collection Maintenance

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
When Raymond Chandler is at his best, he creates rich, deep portraits of seedy or flawed characters. Then he makes you sympathize with them and care about them. In my head, Terry Lennox looks like Peter O’Toole, but Philip Marlowe looks like everyman.

• Jim Blake, Mann Library

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Basically – set in turn of the century China and it follows the life of a farmer (who comes from several generations of farmers) from young man to old.  It was published in 1931, but because of the time and place it is set, there are parts that might be a little hard to take for some (particularly how women are treated).  I liked it because it is told very simply, but it puts you in China at that time and you see how they live and understand what drives them.  You get caught up in the life of this family.

• Lori Auble, Library Alumni Affairs & Development

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge
Not only is this a very funny comedy of academia, it’s the best description I’ve ever seen of having high-frequency deafness.

• Linda Stewart, Mann Library

Anathem by Neal Stephenson
It's as lush as any of Stephenson's books, and exciting in a way totally unique to the road trip adventure tales of alternate history science monks. It prompted me do independent research on its topics, laugh out loud repeatedly, and read it nigh obsessively until I was finished. It also could be the best ending he's ever written.

• Jim DelRosso, Catherwood Library

I re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, 2004), an alternate-history/fantasy/comedy of manners that reads like a smash-up of Jane Austen’s wit, Charles Dickens’ societal commentary, and Neil Gaiman’s dark imagination. Magicians were once plentiful in this novel’s version of Regency-era England, but since the disappearance of the powerful Raven King, magic has fallen into disuse and become a subject for scholarly study rather than practical art. That is, until the peevish and vain Mr Norrell reveals himself to the Learned Society of York Magicians and sets the country on its ear…

• Eisha Prather, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Out of This Furnace by Thomas Bell (I checked it out from Mann!). My husband and I read a very interesting article about Braddock, PA in Orion magazine and wanted to learn more of the history of the place. This novel is set there.

• Gail Steinhart, Mann Library

Matterhorn : a novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
Once in a while I like to read historical fiction and this is an amazing book giving the  reader an historically accurate and alarming vivid experience of the conflict that took place over 40 years ago in South East Asia. (The last part of the sentence was taken from a review on amazon.com, it describes the book perfectly.)

• Roswitha Clark, LTS Cataloging, Central Library Operations

Nonfiction

Colors of the World by Jean-Philippe and Dominique Lenclos
These books are the result of cultural, geographical, geological, and anthropological studies of buildings, focusing on color and design. They look at the building materials and the pigments used (often based on local soils) and create profiles for each location describing the distinct color palettes for the building exteriors in a region. Colors of the World includes studies from 11 countries across the world - including Brazil, Morocco and Japan. The pictures are wonderful. Looking at the designs on the exteriors of South African Ndebele houses, the old neighborhood of Sana'a in Yemen (all limestone with white lime tracery) and the brownstones of Greenwich Village, you see what they call the "chromatic physiognomy" of a culture.

• Kathy Chiang, Mann Library

The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
John Grisham’s first work of non-fiction details the story of Ron Williamson, who spent 11 years on Death Row (and came within five days of being executed) for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a sobering account of what can happen when the perception of justice becomes more important than justice itself.

• Ken Bolton, Hotel School Library

Networks, Crowds and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World by Jon Kleinberg, wunderkind Computer Science professor here, and David Easley, professor of Economics at Cornell – a really terrific book from 2010 that’s highly readable and very interesting for anyone fascinated by numbers, trends, graphs, and how it all relates to the real world. The diversity of real-life examples he uses is truly astonishing. Prepare for the book to be recalled if you borrow it.

• Joanne Leary, Library Assessment and Communication

South! by Ernest Shackleton
In 1915, Shackleton and his crew planned to traverse the entire Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea. Unfortunately, their ship, The Endurance, became icebound and was crushed and sank. Their journey turned into one of survival as they spent six months on the ice before sailing to an island in three lifeboats, and that’s only part of the story. It’s a great true story of determination, survival, and leadership.

• Troy Shaver, OLin and Uris Libraries

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall
Inspiring, and spins some great stories anyone would enjoy. What other book might inspire you to not only get out and run, but to try running barefoot?! (Photograph by Carla DeMello)

• Oliver Habicht, CUL Information Technology

Tracy Kidder, Strength In What Remains
It is a story about a man from Burundi who came to the States with two hundred dollars, no English, and no contacts, but a desire for a new life. An amazing, inspirational story.

• Xin Li, AUL Library Administration

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
I barely moved from the couch for two days while I devoured this 350+ page book over the winter break. Skloot explores the life of Henrietta Lacks and the impact her cells (HeLa) have had on medical research. Part biography, part history, and part scientific discovery, Skloot weaves in bioethical issues, the process of scientific discovery, inequities in health care, and the struggles of a family trying to piece together the story of their mother, Henrietta, who died in 1951 of cervical cancer when she was only 31 years old. Today there are billions of HeLa cells in labs all over the world. They have played a major role in many medical discoveries—from cancer drugs to polio vaccines. Find a comfy couch and enjoy a fascinating read.

• Janet McCue, AUL Library Administration

A great book I read in 2010 was The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It’s her memoir of growing up with two crazy parents. The things her mother and father put the family through are alternately horrific and funny, and the parents’ attitudes on issues concerning their children range from startling to endearing to criminally irresponsible. I’m grateful that the author survived to write the book!

• Margaret F. Nichols, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Martin Luther King, Jr.
In this book Martin Luther King, Jr. provides an excellent critique of the problems facing America. He writes about the “triple evils” of racism, materialism, and militarism. I especially like this book because it presents what Locksley Edmondson from the Africana Center says, a mature King. Moreover, for me we are able to see a King beyond his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Finally, I would argue that the triple evils are still with us and need to be addressed.

• Eric Kofi Acree, John Henrik Clarke Africana Library

I’d like to put in a plug for Cooking for Geeks, not just because of the "extra" info offered with recipes but even more so because of the reaction I got from my now freshman in college daughter when I shared this book with her!

• Margaret Carleton, Central Library Operations

La Vita Agra by Luciano Bianciardi
This book is an autobiographical account of the fantasies, frustrations, rants, and reflections of a sad young literary man struggling against modernity during the Italy's so-called "economic miracle" of the 1950s and 1960s.  Even though literature sustains him, he can observe that, of all the books he has read, "each and every one of these has taken something out of me, and all of them together have damaged my soul and even distorted my childhood."

• Keith Jenkins, Mann Library

Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop
This autobiography is as witty and entertaining as the man who wrote it. Interspersed between the anecdotes of the dancing and entertainment industries are descriptions and observations on how it was to be a black professional in the early part of the century. It also includes a ton of information about early dancing for people not  familiar with its history.

• Amanda Bartley, Access Services

No Impact Man by Colin Beavan
Beavan chronicles a year in his life, and the lives of his wife and daughter, as he attempts to go about daily living in Manhattan while consuming as few resources as possible. He does a great job of inspiring people to try to lessen their impact on the planet while also being honest about just how hard it is to do, given both the physical infrastructure and social expectations that people in the U.S. must contend with. He shows that it’s both a tangible challenge and an emotional challenge, but his courage and persistence in the face of them are impressive!

• George Dillmann, Adelson Library

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria by Justin Pollard and Howard Reid
Covers the origins, hay day and eventual decline of the city of Alexandria in Egypt.  The enormous span of time this covers is truly difficult to grasp.  The book is history but written in a very easy reading style that was interesting and fun. 

• Mike Fordon, Frank A. Lee Library, Geneva

Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
This is a personal narrative of a rural family’s and community’s experience during the depression.  Though it’s based in Iowa, the experience was likely quite similar to upstate New York.  We may think we are doing with less during this economic downturn, but there is little to compare with the hardship our parents’ generation endured during that time.  It’s enlightening and even satisfying to see that they found ways to enjoy their lives, not just endure, even when times were tough.

• Marty Schlabach, Mann Library

One of the best books I read in 2010 is Wesley J. Smith’s A Rat Is a Pig Is a Dog Is a Boy: The Human Cost of the Animal Rights Movement. Not only is this book a long overdue and well-documented discussion of the tactics of animal rights extremist groups, I consider it an excellent case for properly distinguishing between animal welfare and animal rights.  I found that the ultimate point of Smith’s book is defending human exceptionalism. Also, one of my favorite mystery writers, Dean Koontz, has written the foreword. (Photograph by Shirley Cowles)

• Bob Willits, Mann Library

Second Wind: One Woman’s Midlife Quest to Run Seven Marathons on Seven Continents by Cami Ostman
The author describes her experiences in training for the marathons, as well as the challenges that she faces before, during, and after the races.

• Michelle Eastman, Library Administration

Dealings: A Political and Financial Life by Felix Rohatyn
If money and politics are the currency of power, this is the memoir of one of the most powerful men of the second half of the twentieth century in America. It is in many ways a memoir of the time, because Rohatyn was there at almost all the critical moments that shaped postwar America. He was known as the Man Who Saved New York, the head of the Municipal Assistance Corporation (“Big MAC”) that brought the city back from the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970s. When President Ford told the city to “drop dead” rather than expect a federal bailout, it was Rohatyn’s work and the intervention of world leaders that convinced him that international solvency depended on preventing a default. There are lessons for today in Rohatyn’s tales, and one wonders what a different world we’d be living in if he had been even more involved at key moments in history – if Rohatyn, for example, and not Alan Greenspan, had been appointed to the Federal Reserve, which President Clinton dared not attempt in the face of Republican opposition. It shows how chance occurrences, and near-misses, have changed the course of events more than we imagine.

The book is written with a feel for drama, pacing, and language, and much reflection, not necessarily expected from an investment banker on a subject that might at first seem wonky. It explains from a first-hand perspective the incremental unraveling that led our economy to its current state: from the leveraged buyouts to the collapse of Enron to the near-collapse of our entire financial system, and the lack of internal and external controls that made it possible. As its title hints, it shows how politics can be a temporizing influence on money (not, for a change, the other way around).

"Dealings" caught my attention because Rohatyn’s recollections are not unlike the stories I work with at the archive named for his contemporary, Theodore Kheel, which provides a window to a recent past when the values that contributed to the American Century were widely shared assumptions.

• Pat Leary, Kheel Center

Gwen Glazer from Library Communications invited staff to submit their picks for sharing both within CUL and the larger reading public on Facebook and the Communications Web site. As one of Kaleidoscope's goals is to put a face to the name, Kaleidoscope asked staff if they would share head shots of themselves. Staff photographs provided by individual contributors to this piece.

CUL Helps Students Locate Computing Resources

Annemarie Morse

As the coordinator of computing facilities in the Engineering Library at the Academic Computing Center (ACCEL), one of the questions I field most often from students is where they can find MATLAB, a Macintosh, or a projector rental on campus. Trying to locate specific computing resources can be a challenge for students not familiar with the computer labs on campus.

The labs are run by many different units. In my role as chair of the Public Computing Advisory Committee (PCAC), I recognized a need for Library patrons to easily find these computing resources on campus from a single Web site. Together a group of interested units including the Library, CIT, and ILR worked to provide a central location or information source where the students could find what they needed.

It was important to recognize that if a student wanted to find MATLAB or a Macintosh on campus, it didn’t matter if it was a CIT or Library resource, but only where it was available. Instead of having to go to three or more different Web sites, one site was optimal.  We wanted the solution to be searchable and easy to use.  CIT offered us the use of a mapping solution and we all worked together to organize it and offer the information that patrons would need in a consistent manner.

The tool is available directly here, but can also be accessed through the Cornell library Web page. Simply mouse over on ”Library Services" and choose "Computing and Equipment," and the map will load in your browser. The map on this page is interactive and the text is searchable in full, giving the user many ways to find hardware, software, and peripheral equipment in the many places they are offered all across campus. We encourage you to explore this tool and to promote it for use by the public.

This type of collaboration and sharing of resources is becoming more important as changes to the physical spaces of the library are occurring. Now we have a one stop location to be able to help our patrons find the computing resources that they need!

Mentoring at CUL: Mentoring Committee Redux

Peter DelaCuadra

In early 2010, the CUL Career Development Committee decided to rejuvenate the Mentoring Committee. This was to be the “All-New” Mentoring Committee, since the previous Mentoring Committee was open only to those with academic or “professional” (exempt) positions.

In the summer of 2010, the CUL All-New Mentoring Committee’s membership was filled, initiated, and charged with developing a program that would promote and nurture professional growth for anyone within the library community regardless of position level and status … a program for anyone with a desire to begin, build, and mold a relationship that would allow discussion of work experiences, desires, and interests with someone else in the CUL community. Committee member terms are typically two years, but members have the opportunity to opt out after the first year.

The current committee members are as follows:

Linda Bryan, ex-officio from Human Resources
Peter DelaCuadra, co-chair, Central Library Operations
Gwen Glazer, Assessment and Communication
Ana Guimaraes, co-chair, Rare and Manuscript Collections
Eileen Keating, Rare and Manuscript Collections
Lydia Pettis, Division of Library Information Technology
Neely Tang, Management Library

The committee from left: Ana Guimaraes, Neely Tang, Peter DelaCuadra, Eileen Keating, Lydia Pettis, Gwen Glazer

On January 13, 2011, the Mentoring Committee began their pilot program with an informal information session at Mann Library. The program was introduced by Peter DelaCuadra, current co-chair of the committee, followed by co-chair Ana Guimaraes, who provided more details about the program. The session also included guest speaker Deb Lamb-Deans, who is currently in a mentor/mentee relationship with one of the committee members, Neely Tang. Together, they shared their thoughts, views, experiences and, most of all, what they gained from that relationship. Although their pairing was established prior to the summer of 2010, it will continue formally through the All-New Mentoring Committee’s program. The session ended with refreshments and some time for attendees to socialize and approach individual committee members with further questions.

The newly developed pilot program is designed to couple individuals who want to pursue a supportive relationship to discuss and develop their careers based on similar interests, experiences, and goals. Once a pair is established, communication can be tailored to suit each other’s needs and schedules. For example, pairs might meet by taking a walk during a work break, or arrange to meet over lunch. Of course, other communication avenues include email, telephone, and video conferencing.

Once the mentee/mentor couples have been established, our committee will kick off the program with an introductory orientation and training session to assist pairings in getting the most from their relationship. Since our program is essentially brand new and is also our pilot, this year it will extend from February through June. In the future, the program timetable will encompass the academic year. (Neely Tang on left)

The Mentoring Committee wants pairings to be successful, edifying, and also enjoyable. Thus, the committee will be available as a support mechanism outside of assigned pairings. Participants should feel free to approach anyone on the committee or to send an email with concerns and questions. The committee’s orientation and training session is tentatively scheduled for February 16, 2011 in Mann 102 from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m., and there will be an end-of-term social sometime in June for pairings to share their experiences. (Sandy Dhimitri and Scott Wicks on right)

Eileen Keating and Gwen Glazer

In closing, there were a total of 21 attendees at our information session and plenty of questions were asked during the refreshment hour. Overall, the committee felt the event was successful.  Much to the committee’s surprise and delight, however, there were a total of 55 applications for the committee’s pilot program. Pairing is now in process. The committee can be contacted via email at: cul-mentor-l@cornell.edu.

Finding the Way in Taiwan

Xin Li

I had never been to Taiwan and had never ever thought that one day I would live there with my family and work remotely for CUL. The prospect of living abroad for several years feels quite different than vacationing. The unexpected relocation was a mixture of excitement and anxiety.

The first challenge sounded simple: where do I start?  I knew no one in and nothing about the libraries in Taiwan. I would have to start with cold calls to explain who I am, what I do, and why I’d like to visit the library. Two CUL colleagues, Teresa Mei and Mei-Hsi Chen, and another Yale Library friend kindly gave me a few leads. The former director of Tsinghua called a university librarian in Taiwan to introduce me. These friends made my startup much easier.

Now, four months into living in Taiwan, I’ve visited quite a few libraries and made friends. Visiting more libraries will be easier from here on. The challenges I face now are different: how do I learn more, how do I dig deeper in order to identify opportunities for CUL, where do I start when sharing what I learn with CUL – I have too much to share. 

It is so true that libraries in Ithaca and Taiwan face very similar challenges and struggle with similar economic pressures, but are moving forward with similar resilience, spirit of innovation, and an undying desire to serve the users with the best of what we can give. Let me start sharing in this first installment with a glimpse of some of the libraries I have already visited and what they are doing well in Taiwan.

In many universities here, the library is still the physical center of the campus.

Graduating class posing for pictures on the steps of the Tamkang Library

Taiwan libraries are interested in what’s going on in the U.S. Many American institutions are making themselves visible here.

Paul Gandel speaking at CONCERT 2010

Friends make finding your way so much easier, especially when the culture is comparatively formal. Thanks to friends at Tsinghua, CUL colleagues, and a Yale Library friend, I was able to attend the 2010 Consortium on Core Electronic Resources in Taiwan (ConCERT) on short notice and tour the National Taiwan University Library which is top ranked among the university libraries.

Visiting the National Taiwan University Library; from left: Yang Yi, AUL of Tsinghua; Ms. Tong, National Taiwan University Library; Xin Li; Peng Wei, Secretary General of the Taiwan Library Association

At the National Taiwan University Library entrance, the floor layout board has lego-like pieces. The librarian who gave us a tour said this is very useful because they change the space layout, i.e., move collections and people, often. The “lego board” makes life very easy for them to reflect the space changes in a timely manner for users.

Floor plan at the entrance to National Taiwan University Library

Some white wall space has been utilized very well. This wall artfully displays the signatures of notable National Taiwan University authors, such as several presidents of Taiwan, who graduated from this university. There is a room housing all the books written by them, very much like the “Duke Scholars” collection at Duke University Library.

Signatures of notable authors from National Taiwan University

We have fire safety issues at Olin but we are lucky that we don’t have frequent earthquakes to worry about.

Note the steel beams above which hold book stacks steady during earthquakes.

And see in the photograph below another measure taken in the land of earthquakes.

Netting fastened to the ceiling prevents ceiling tiles from falling onto users should they drop.

There are fabulous campaign displays, both in print and on digital signs, promoting intellectual property protection, explaining authors' rights. This government agency made it easy: it created a series of posters which libraries can download and print for posting.

Poster in the National Taiwan Normal University Library. The caption says: "Please! How could you even open your mouth to ask me? Users should pay!"

Technology is used to help deploy staff to provide other services. In the library below, users return books through the regular book drop where the books are both discharged by the machine and sorted into bins designated for different shelving areas. The machine also reactivates the security strips in the books. Since all that is left to do is to wheel the books to the floors where they will be shelved, the library makes use of volunteers and temps for this task, freeing up regular staff to work on other projects and services.

Book sorting system in the National Taizhong Library

On a different note, some things that are not acceptable in our culture are acceptable in Taiwan's. For example, a board at the entrance to the National Taiwan University Library lists violators of the library rules.

The sign reads: As stipulated by Library Policy Article #9, the Library is to publically disclose violators. They are: Zhang, Jingxin, ID#B96504100, Chemistry Department, No borrowing privileges until 2010.10.02, For lending his personal ID card to others, Freeze borrowing privileges for 3 months; [7 other names]; Zhang, Zhexin, ID#A224****13 (sic), Japanese Department Alumnus, No library visiting privileges until 2010.10.22, For lending his alumnus ID to others, Freeze library visiting privileges for 6 months; [8 other names].

Exposure to a different culture has been as valuable to me as seeing different libraries. As libraries become multi-institutional entities with international partners, cultural competency becomes as important as IQ and EQ. I am admiring innovation in Taiwan libraries and learning new things on a weekly basis. I look forward to sharing more with you in the future.

For readers who might be interested, I have a blog about daily life in Taiwan. My blog is located here (likecoffeeliketea.wordpress.com).

Photographs by Xin Li

Retiring Law Professor Lauds Librarians

Elizabeth Teskey

At his last Contracts class in December of 2010, part of a series of Retirement Events, Professor Robert S. Summers was honored by former and present students, colleagues, family, and friends.  He had two opportunities to address the group and in his first brief remarks he said it was the most appropriate occasion “to express his profound gratitude for 42 years at Cornell Law School.”  He expressed gratitude to his students, colleagues, research assistants, and administrative assistants, and “gratitude to the attentive and very helpful librarians – God bless them – their great contributions should be acknowledged more often.”

Professor Summers in the Law Library Reading Room with his four-volume magnum opus Uniform Commercial Code, co-authored with James White and now in its 6th ed. Staff were kept happily busy both by him and his administrative assistants as he was an avid user and supporter of the Library. If the Library were to seek a patron saint, or ambassador, it would look no further.

Later, near the end of the occasion, he said, "I wish also to express my profound gratitude and appreciation … to the excellent librarians, without whom naught! I’m a book worm and those librarians have satisfied the appetite of that worm in a most remarkable way. And sometimes I fear the librarians don’t get quite their due and I want to emphasize their importance.

And for a good many years I not only was heavily engaged in supporting our librarians here but I was chair of the Cornell University Library board. And we did our best to get people in line to support the Library budget and to support the efforts of the librarians to make the campus conscious of the profound importance of those libraries. We just tend too often to take all those books on those shelves for granted. Let me tell you there’s a lot of work behind that, a lot of careful attention behind that, and much gratitude is due."

(Mediasite Presenter: Professor Summers Retirement Event - Fall 2010, Law School, quotation starts at 37:30)

Welcome

Sandra Dhimitri is our new director of Library Human Resources. Sandy began her shared position as Director of Library Human Resources on January 1, 2011. Sandy has been Director of Human Resources with the College of Human Ecology (CHE) for the past 7 years. From January 2009 through July 2010, she  accepted a shared appointment as the Director of Human Resources for ILR in addition to her role at CHE. Prior to coming to Cornell, she spent 20+ years in Human Resources in a variety of corporate settings that included New Balance Athletic Shoe, Medtronic, and Sanmina. Sandy has a BSBA from Northeastern in Boston with a concentration in Human Resources.

Jonathan Eschler is the new public services assistant in Mann Library. Jake was a team leader in the Mann Library move at different times duing the massive renovation, both in April through August of 2007 and from July 2008 on. Previously he held many jobs including installation apprentice for kitchens and bathrooms, deli worker and supervisor, movie cinema projectionist, metalsmith apprentice, and stacks manager in the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz. He has a BA in English literature from SUNY New Paltz. Mann Library is delighted to welcome Jake to public services.