August 2012 Archives

From left to right: Jim Coleman, Dean of the VCU College of Humanities and
Sciences; the Honorable Ibrahim Rasool; John Ulmschneider, University Librarian;
and Jim Moore, President of the VCU Friends of the Library

"Australopithecine!" (aw-stral-o-PITH-eh-seen), an exhibit on the first floor of James Branch Cabell Library, features facsimiles of fossils of a recently discovered species that anthropologists say could be a missing link between the genus Homo and the more ancient genus Australopithecus.

The facsimile fossils on display make up the partial skeletons of two specimens of Australopithecus sediba (aw-stral-o-PITH-eh-cus seh-DI-ba), unearthed in 2008 at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site in South Africa, and offer library visitors the rare opportunity of observing the differences between life two-million years ago and life in the present day. The exhibit will be open through December 18 before moving to the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville.

The exhibit is made possible through the generous loan of the facsimile fossils from the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa. In a visit to VCU on August 28, the Honorable Ibrahim Rasool, South African ambassador to the United States, spoke about the importance of the discovery to his nation and to the world as a whole, suggesting that the successful advancement of civilization would not be possible without a deep understanding of the past. Dr. Noel Boaz of the VCU Anthropology Program said that the "Australopithecine!" exhibit was intended to showcase the ongoing developments in the study of hominid ancestry. More

The exhibit is supported by partnerships with the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, Integrative Centers for Science and Medicine and the International Institute for Human Evolutionary Research. It is cosponsored by the VCU Anthropology Program in the School of World Studies, the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences and VCU Libraries.

VCU Libraries is recruiting students for the Cabell Library Undergraduate Advisory Committee, which meets monthly to discuss library issues, advise VCU Libraries administration and participate in library service activities.

Application deadline is Friday, Aug. 31. Application Questions? Email: cluac@vcu.edu.  

The VCU Board of Visitors has approved the $3.2 million contract for design work on the $47.3 million Library and Academic Commons project.

Moseley Architects with Shepley Bulfinch was selected as the architect/engineer for the project, a combination of new construction and improvements to the James Branch Cabell Library. Background and timeline

ILLiad, the automated system for interlibrary loan and document delivery services, will be unavailable Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 20-21 due to a scheduled system upgrade. Users will not be able to register, update profiles, submit requests, check the status of requests or revise requests.

In urgent situations, please contact the interlibrary loan staff at VCU Libraries.

• James Branch Cabell Library (804-828-1115, libjbcrds@vcu.edu)
• Tompkins-McCaw Library (804-828-0630, libtmlrds@vcu.edu).

Take advantage of orientations, tours, workshops and other events designed to help students and faculty succeed in their research.

• Consult the VCU Libraries calendar
  
• See the Libraries link at the bottom of every TelegRAM, the University-wide email system

Some highlights:

• Library Fest at James Branch Cabell Library Aug. 20
  
• Open houses and orientations Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences Aug. 21 and 23
• Walk-in Tours of Cabell Library
  

Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences invites current MCV Campus students to share photographs from their 2011-12 health services projects anywhere in the world to the Rams Reaching Out Photography Contest. Selected photographs will be displayed in the Tompkins-McCaw Library Gallery and win cash prizes. Some will be shared on Facebook.

Here's how it works:

• Serve. Do what VCU does best. Go out into your community and the world, and help improve lives wherever you go. It's what health professions are all about.
• Snap.Take photos of what moves you. The injured farmer in Manitoba you helped learn to walk again. Your clinic in San Salvador. Your team in Southwest Virginia.
  
• Send. Submissions are accepted August 15-September 15 from all Fall 2012 MCV Campus students. Use VCU FileDrop and send a full-resolution copy the photograph(s) along with a brief description of what's going on in the photo to us at libtmlsca@vcu.edu. 

Note: All photos of identifiable individuals require signed releases. No cell phone photos accepted. 

Questions: email at libtmlsca@vcu.edu with the subject line "Photos."
Rams Reaching Out Web site

Here's a new way to support Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Libraries: Vote in Virginia's Top 10 Endangered Artifacts campaign. This public awareness campaign of the Virginia Association of Museums  is designed to show the importance of preserving artifacts in care at collecting institutions such as museums, libraries and archives.

VCU Libraries has nominated one artifact in need of preservation and it tells a significant story about one of VCU Libraries' special collections, the Comic Arts Collection.

In the running: the office door of pioneering cartoonist Billy DeBeck featuring an oil painting of Barney Google and his equine sidekick. The door resides in the office of Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library.

William Morgan DeBeck, 1890-1942, was a giant in the "comic strip" art form. To readers in the Jazz Age and Depression era, his characters were as beloved as Superman, Peanuts and Doonesbury became to later generations. Dialog from Barney Google became part of the cultural syntax. Catchphrases from his strips included: "Horsefeathers!" "Heebie-jeebies;" "Jeepers Creepers!" "Bus' Mah Britches!" and "Time's a'wastin'!" DeBeck invented the moniker "Google" for his character. Like many illustrators and cartoonists, DeBeck didn't confine his art to paper but painted on his office door. The door was donated to Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library by DeBeck's former secretary, who had ties to Virginia.

• To vote, use this link and scroll down to the click-off button for the DeBeck door.
  
• If you have difficulty voting, send your choice by email to srobinson26@vcu.edu 
  
• Voting ends August 29. Public voting will be considered by an independent panel of collections and conservation experts who will select the final Top 10. That list will be announced in November.
  

Each year, VCU honors a first-time published fiction writer with The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.

The recipient receives a $5,000 prize. Travel expenses and lodging also are provided for the author and his or her agent and editor to attend the VCU Cabell First Novelist Festival, a series of events that focus on the creation, publication and promotion of a debut novel.Co-sponsors of the award and the festival are the VCU Department of English, the VCU MFA Program in Creative Writing, the James Branch Cabell Library Associates, the VCU Friends of the Library, VCU Libraries, the VCU Honors College, Barnes & Noble @ VCU and the VCU College of Humanities and Sciences.

The deadline for the 2013 VCU Cabell First Novelist Award is September 15 for books published January through June 2012. For books published July through December 2012, the deadline is January 12, 2013.

For more information, visit www.firstnovelist.vcu.edu.

Justin Torres has won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, which honors an outstanding debut novel published during a calendar year. His winning book, "We the Animals," is a powerful coming-of-age novel about three brothers growing up amidst the chaotic and destructive love of their working-class parents.  

Torres will receive the award at the VCU Cabell First Novelist Festival at Virginia Commonwealth University on Nov. 8. He was one of three finalists for the prize, now in its eleventh year. The other finalists were Alexi Zentner for "Touch" and Peter Mountford for "A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism."

Published in August 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, "We the Animals" is narrated by the youngest sibling in a voice that is both compelling and urgent and prose that is brutally honest and beautifully poetic. Composed in short, disjointed chapters, the novel swiftly moves through six years in the tumultuous childhood of the three brothers as they claw their way toward adulthood. More

Universities promote the reading of research papers, in-depth articles and sophisticated books of all varieties. But often books that a person reads early in life make significant impacts, too. That's the idea behind Books You Carry with You, an exhibition at James Branch Cabell Library through September.  

On loan from and organized by the Richmond Public Library System and its Friends of the Library, the exhibition features some 50 Richmond leaders and their childhood book inspirations. People such as VCU President Rao, Rams Basketball Head Coach Shaka Smart, Richmond Schools Superintendent Yvonne Brandon, musician Jason Mraz and other interesting voices share the children's books that still inspire them.

Participants recall works including Shel Silverstein's "Where the Sidewalk Ends," Don Freeman's "Corduroy" and several titles by Dr. Seuss. Each poster offers a short essay about the book and how it has influenced its reader.  

The VCU Libraries show seeks participation and invites everyone to share their reflections on books from childhood and youth that made lasting impressions.

How to participate in the exhibition and conversation

• A dry board will be available for visitors to post titles of their favorites and note why they inspire them today.  
• Use the Cabell Twitter address, @VCUcabell, and the hashtag #VCUreads to tweet their thoughts.
  
• Submit (anonymously or not) thoughts via this survey form. Library staff will post it to the board in the building.
  
• Comment on the Cabell Facebook page.  
  

Books You Carry with You will be on display during Library Fest on August 20, when some 1,000 new students will attend the annual VCU Libraries open house, and throughout September at James Branch Cabell Library on the Monroe Park campus, 901 Park Ave. The traveling exhibition previously was on view at Main Library and at the Children's Museum of Richmond. VCU Libraries thanks the staff and Friends of the Richmond Public Library for organizing, creating, and sharing this exhibit with the VCU community.