The University of Vemont Libraries: Bailey/Howe Library

Special Collections turns 50 this year!

Join the celebration at an open house on February 28 from 4-6 pm in the Special Collections reading room. A reception with refreshments begins at 4:00. At 4:30, four Special Collections librarians will give fast-paced Pecha Kucha presentations about our University Archives, Vermontiana, and Rare Books collections.  A variety of items from the collections will also be on display.

In the spring of 1962, librarians in UVM’s new Guy W. Bailey Library unveiled the new Special Collections Department, under the direction of its first head librarian, John L. Buechler.  Special Collections brought together Vermont research materials, formerly housed in the Fleming Museum’s Wilbur Room, and rare book collections, formerly housed in the Billings Library.  For the first time, these materials—and the specialized attention they required—were combined in one department with a special educational and research mission.

The event is open to the public. For more information, call 656-2138 or email uvmsc@uvm.edu

Photo: Special Collections staff members and collections, 1976.

These works can be found on our New Book shelf in Bailey/Howe, an ever-rotating sampling of things we’re adding to our collection. You can also review all our newest books online, and subscribe via RSS to receive alerts about acquisitions, by discipline.

GOSSIP BOY

Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit by Joseph Epstein
A dishy, incisive exploration of gossip—from celebrity rumors to literary romans à clef, from personal sniping to political slander. Contemporary gossip claims to reveal truth, but as Epstein shows, it’s our belief in truth itself that may be destroyed by gossip.

WHAT THE FUG?

Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the Fuck You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side by Ed Sanders
Fug You traces the flowering years of New York’s downtown bohemia in the sixties, starting with the marketing problems presented by publishing Fuck You/A Magazine of the Arts, as it faced the aboveground’s scrutiny, and leading to Sanders’s arrest after a raid on his Peace Eye Bookstore. The memoir also traces the career of the Fugs–formed in 1964 by Sanders and his neighbor, the legendary Tuli Kupferberg (called “the world’s oldest living hippie” by Allen Ginsberg)–as Sanders strives to find a home for this famous postmodern, innovative anarcho-folk-rock band in the world of record labels.

GIRLS ON FILM

Censorship and Sexuality in Bombay Cinema by Monika Mehta

Monika Mehta breaks new ground by analyzing Hindi films and exploring the censorship of gender and heterosexuality in Bombay cinema. The standard claim is that the state dictates censorship and various prohibitions, but Mehta explores how relationships among the state, the film industry, and the public illuminate censorship’s role in identity formation, while also examining how desire, profits, and corruption are generated through the act of censoring.

Come learn about tools that can help you to keep track of research materials, take notes, format citations, and create bibliographies for you papers in a variety of styles. All workshops are free and open to UVM students, faculty, and staff. No registration is required.

Introduction to Zotero

Learn how to keep track of research materials, organize note taking, and format citations and bibliographies using this easy to master open source solution.

Location: Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)
Facilitator: Daisy Benson

Thurs. Jan 26 – 4pm-5pm
Wed. Feb 15 – 4pm-5pm
Tues. Feb 28 – 4pm-5pm
Tues. March 27 – 4pm-5pm

Advanced Zotero Workshop

Expand the capabilities of Zotero by learning how to sync files to Zotero.org and create group folders for collaborative work. No registration is required for this event.

Location: Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)
Facilitator: Daisy Benson

Thurs. March 1 – 4pm-5pm
Thurs. March 29 – 4pm-5pm

EndNote workshop classes

Learn how to use EndNote (a software program) to keep track of research information, organize notes, and insert citations into your papers.

Location: Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)
Facilitator: Laurie Kutner

Tues. Jan 24 – 4pm-5pm
Wed. Feb 1 – 3pm-4pm
Thurs. Feb 9 – 4pm-5pm
Tues. Feb 14 – 1pm-2pm
Wed. Feb. 22 – 4pm-5pm
Thurs. March 1 – 8:45am-9:45am
Tues. March 13 – 4pm-5pm
Tues. March 21 – 3pm-4pm

EndNote help sessions

Location: Bailey/Howe Library Classroom (Room 123)
Facilitator: Laurie Kutner

Thurs. April 5 – 1pm-2pm
Thurs. April 24 – 4pm-5pm

Or by appointment. To schedule, send e-mail to laurie.kutner@uvm.edu

User support for the EndNote program has recently been expanded in the UVM Libraries and now includes 3 members of the Information and Instruction Services Department who are available to answer EndNote questions.

Jake Barickman (james.barickman@uvm.edu)
Karl Bridges (karl.bridges@uvm.edu)
Laurie Kutner (laurie.kutner@uvm.edu)

Starring Divine

If you’re looking to feel sick, or confused, or even horrified, may I recommend John Waters’ masterpiece movie “Pink Flamingos.” Waters tried really hard to make a movie as repulsive as possible, and he succeeded. The story follows Divine, an obese drag queen, and her quest to earn the title of “Filthiest Person Alive.” Divine lives in a trailer (with namesake lawn ornaments) with her mother Edith, her son Crackers, and companion Cotton. Each character is in some way twisted; Edith, for example, sits in a crib and eats boiled eggs. The Marbles, a husband-and-wife team and Divine’s main competition for the title, run a black market baby ring from their basement and incite fierce competition by mailing feces to the trailer-dwelling gang. It’s expected that what follows would be disgusting, but things go incredibly and repulsively over the top.

A warning to the easily offended: don’t watch this. Or make sure to cover your eyes, especially as Divine crouches down on the sidewalk, for this movie requires a strong stomach and an odd sense of humor. There has, however, never been another film quite like “Pink Flamingos,” which established John Waters as an auteur in his own (trashy) right.

-Elias Baldwin

Persistent Link: http://voyager.uvm.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=1655152

A impressive sample of work by Burlington photographer Fred G. Hill is on display in the Special Collections reading room this semester.

In 2010, photographer Fred G. Hill — a self-described obsessed accumulator of stuff — donated the carefully preserved negatives, prints, work journals and billing ledgers from his commercial and industrial work to Special Collections. The Hill collection, which dates from 1970 into the early years of the 21st century, nicely complements the early and mid 20th-century collections of Burlington photographers Louis L. McAllister and James Detore.

Hill’s business primarily involved advertising and industrial photography, although he also did portrait, passport and wedding photos. He worked in his Burlington studio and on location. His customers included a broad sample of Vermont businesses engaged in manufacturing, retail, finance, recreation, hospitality, printing, and service. Hill also worked for numerous artists and crafts people and social service agencies. Over the years, his photographs were used in many local publications.

The Hill Collection provides an invaluable historical record of late-20th century architecture and development in Vermont. During the course of his career, Hill photographed buildings  and construction sites throughout the state.  In 2004, Hill photographed every façade on the core streets of downtown Burlington, documenting buildings, businesses and activities from Pearl to King and South Union to Lake Streets.

The bulk of the collection includes hundreds of black and white and color negatives, transparencies, slides, prints, and contact prints. Prints are currently boxed in very general categories (art, products, industry, architecture, portraits, activities, theater, music, Philo Records). Hill donated his detailed business records, which will help researchers identify images and also understand the business of commercial photography at the end of the twentieth century. The collection also includes publications where Hill’s photographs appeared and graphic art such as posters. Hill helped organize the Society of Vermont Photographers and the Vermont chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild, and records of their activities are part of the collection.

The Hill photographs will be on display until March 12, 2012 in the Special Collections reading room in Bailey/Howe Library.  Special Collections is open 10 am-7 pm Monday-Wednesday, 10 am-5 pm Tuesday and Thursday, and 1-5 pm on Sunday. The exhibit is open to the public. For more information, call 656-2138 or email uvmsc@uvm.edu

Library courier service will take a brief hiatus December 22- January 2.  Items from the LRA and Williston facilities will not be available during this time period.  The last courier run will be December 21.  Service will resume on January 3.  Please plan your research accordingly.

The semester is almost over.  Time to return your library materials as well as items you borrowed from Interlibrary Loan.  Do it now before you go home for break!

These works can be found on our New Book shelf in Bailey/Howe, an ever-rotating sampling of things we’re adding to our collection. You can also review all our newest books online, and subscribe via RSS to receive alerts about acquisitions, by discipline.

My Russian Grandmother and Her American Vacuum Cleaner by Meir Shalev

Grandma Tonia was never seen without a cleaning rag over her shoulder. She received visitors outdoors. She allowed only the most privileged guests to enter her spotless house. Hilarious and touching, Grandma Tonia and her regulations come richly to life in a narrative that circles around the arrival into the family’s dusty agricultural midst of the big, shiny American sweeper sent as a gift by Great-uncle Yeshayahu (he who had shockingly emigrated to the sinful capitalist heaven of Los Angeles!). America, to little Meir and to his forebears, was a land of hedonism and enchanting progress; of tempting luxuries, dangerous music, and degenerate gum-chewing; and of women with painted fingernails. The sweeper, a stealth weapon from Grandpa Aharon’s American brother meant to beguile the hardworking socialist household with a bit of American ease, was symbolic of the conflicts and visions of the family in every respect.

Freud’s Couch, Scott’s Buttocks, Bronte’s Grave by Simon Goldhill

Author Simon Goldhill visits the ”holy lands” of Sir Walter Scott’s baronial mansion, Wordsworth’s cottage in the Lake District, the Brontë parsonage, Shakespeare’s birthplace, and Freud’s office in Hampstead. Traveling, as much as possible, by methods available to Victorians—and gamely negotiating distractions ranging from broken bicycles to a flock of giggling Japanese schoolgirls—he tries to discern what our forebears were looking for at these sites, as well as what they have to say to the modern mind.

The Virtues of Our Vices: A Modest Defence of Gossip, Rudeness, and Other Bad Habits by Emrys Westacott

Philosopher Emrys Westacott takes a fresh look at important everyday ethical questions–and comes up with surprising answers. He makes a compelling argument that some of our most common vices–rudeness, gossip, snobbery, tasteless humor, and disrespect for others’ beliefs–often have hidden virtues or serve unappreciated but valuable purposes. For instance, there are times when rudeness may be necessary to help someone with a problem or to convey an important message. Gossip can foster intimacy between friends and curb abuses of power. And dubious humor can alleviate existential anxieties.

Dante in Love by A.N. Wilson

A. N. Wilson presents a glittering study of an artist and his world, arguing that without an understanding of medieval Florence, it is impossible to grasp the meaning of Dante’s great poem. He explains how the Italian states were at that time locked into violent feuds, mirrored in the ferocious competition between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy. He shows how Dante’s preoccupations with classical mythology, numerology, and the great Christian philosophers inform every line of the Comedy.

To mark the end of the semester, the silent book auction in the Bailey/Howe lobby features an unusually great selection of books, including mysteries, atlases, history, literature and much more. There are books for gifts, and books for vacation reading–all available at bargain prices.

The auction will be extended until Friday, December 9 at 3:30, so you have plenty of time to make selections and offer bids.

With help from the Class of 2011, approximately 170 new outlets were installed in Bailey/Howe this past summer.

You’ll find these new power sources on the second and third floors, around the perimeter of the building. The photos below show the exact location (marked in yellow) of new outlets.

Second floor outlet locations are marked in yellow (click to enlarge).

Third floor outlet locations are marked in yellow (click to enlarge).

If you head upstairs to plug in, please remember that these are designated as quiet study floors and respect the work of those around you.

Thanks again to the Class of 2011!