March 2013 Archives
All graduates in the MCV Campus class of 2013 are invited to a graduation reception honoring them hosted by Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, noon to 1 p.m., April 25 in the Special Collections Reading Room. For special accommodations or to RSVP, contact Thelma Mack at mackta@vcu.edu or (804) 828-0017. Congratulations to graduates of the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing and Allied Health as they begin the next stages of their study, research and careers.
University Librarian John E. Ulmschneider (pictured, right). "This data directs strategic decisions. Results of the 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011 surveys have guided the university and VCU Libraries on how best to invest time, effort and money to improve our libraries for the VCU community. The results of previous surveys have led to much stronger digital content and to new services, including round-the-clock service in Cabell Library. Your input will have an particularly high impact over the next two years as we build a new library and further develop collections of digital books and journals.- Replaced 1970s era furnishing
- Stacks improvement project
- Increased size of electronic resources collection
- Cabell 4th floor renovation adds student space, including graduate reading room.
After 2008 survey
- Cabell Learning Commons opened in 2010 utilizing space freed by creation of offsite storage facility.
- Redesigned website to enhance usability
- Increased library instruction on both campuses
- Additional journal collection funding provided
After 2011 Survey
- Renovations at both libraries created additional user space with improved furnishings and study conditions.
- Primo, a one-button search function, was introduced to expedite online discovery of library materials.
- Alma, new technical infrastructure, was adopted to add efficiencies.
- Collections in all formats were expanded.
- VCU Libraries has curated an exhibition of RPI history, which will be on display in coordination with the art show. This exhibition was organized by Ray Bonis, archives coordinator for James Branch Cabell Library. The exhibits focus on three individuals and the Bang Arts Festival of the 1960s that brought modern and pop art to Richmond. The individuals featured are Theresa Pollak, who founded the School. of Arts in the 1920s; Chick Larsen, graphic artist and editorial cartoonist who graduated from RPI in the 1950s; and Richmond writer Tom Robbins, class of 1959, who was part of the Richmond Art Scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
- Assistant Head, Special Collections and Archives Yuki Hibben will also be on the walk. Students from the photography class she team-teaches with professional bookbinder, Helen Cassidy, will be running a sale of limited edition photobooks created for the class. The sale will take place in front of Candela Gallery, 214 West Broad St. Proceeds will be contributed to the 2013 Photography BFA show.
- And, farther east at UR Downtown, 626 E. Broad St., "Mapping RVA: Where You Live Makes All the Difference" opens. The exhibition, organized by Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME) in conjunction with Affordable Housing Awareness Week, illustrates poverty in metro Richmond. Dr. John V. Moeser, a former VCU professor and senior fellow of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, will give a presentation at 6 p.m. Also on view are images of editorial cartoons by longtime Richmond Times-Dispatch cartoonist Larsen. The images are from Special Collections and Archives, Cabell Library.
Member, Cabell Library Undergraduate Advisory Committee
Arendt and Roseberry will work closely with science departments in the College of Humanities and Sciences, the School of Engineering, VCU Life Sciences, and colleagues on the MCV Campus to meet teaching and research needs of faculty and students in the sciences and engineering. They will collaborate with teaching faculty and colleagues in the VCU Libraries to develop and deliver course-integrated instructional content, as well as extend research consultation services and provide customized, discipline-specific research assistance. They also will help develop the print and digital reference collections supporting the sciences and engineering, and will work closely with colleagues at Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences to meet the needs of faculty and students in sciences and engineering throughout the university community.
Arendt (right) brings a foundation of experience to her new
role with
the VCU Libraries. As science and engineering reference librarian at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, she was liaison to several departments including mechanical
engineering and energy processes, chemistry, physics and psychology. She provided specialized reference services, discipline-specific information
literacy instruction and online content. Arendt also taught a course on information literacy and use of the library. She holds a B.S. in chemistry and psychology from the University of Wisconsin and a
Master of Science in Information from the University of Michigan.
Roseberry (left) brings strong background in science to her new role with
the VCU Libraries. Her experience includes co-authoring an article
published in the International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos and work
as a research assistant as part of the National Science Foundation's
Research Experiences for Undergraduates. While working at a practicum at
Oberlin College's Science Library, she produced an extensive collection
of subject guides as part of a transition to Subject Plus and assisted
with library instruction for biology students. Roseberry holds a
B.A. in physics from the College of Wooster and Master of Library and
Information Science from Kent State University.Freedom of Assembly: Online exhibit showcases little-known Emancipation Day marches and celebrations
On April 3, 1905, a photographer from the
Detroit Publishing Co. captured hundreds of African Americans parading through
the streets of Richmond, Va. The photo made it onto a postcard. Years later, an
archivist for VCU Libraries spotted the postcard on an auction website. After a
little digging, it inspired "Timeline of Emancipation Day Celebrations," a new
online exhibit from James Branch Cabell Library's Special Collections and
Archives. The focus is on how African-Americans in Richmond have celebrated
their freedom over the last 150 years.
"The date, April 3, was on the
image, so...we had a look at the white and African- American newspapers at the
time to see what the coverage was for this parade," said Archives Coordinator
Ray Bonis. He found that the parade was part of an Emancipation Day celebration
held by Richmond's African-American community on the anniversary of the fall of
Richmond. The parades began on April 3, 1866, one year after the fall of
Richmond and just over three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation.
These celebrations also relate to
recent efforts by Richmond's Elegba Folklore Society to celebrate Juneteenth
National Freedom Day, which commemorates the day slaves in Texas learned they
were free. Bonis is working with the Folklore Society to include their coverage
of these celebrations in the exhibit as well.
Bonis discovered the story behind
the 1905 image almost 10 years ago, but work on the larger exhibit only began
last summer. The exhibit covers every documented emancipation celebration from
1865 to 2012 and was launched as part of VCU's "Year of Freedom" initiative,
and is the only exhibit of its kind to focus on a single city.
"This year is the year of
emancipation, and that's in some ways the most important event in American
history," said John Kneebone, the chair of the "Year of Freedom" committee.
"African-American Richmonders didn't have the resources, the power or the money
to take up public space, yet they too celebrated their history and tried to
keep alive the memory of emancipation." The photos and newspaper articles in Timeline
of Emancipation prove just that.
Danielle Tarullo, a recent art history
graduate and a research assistant in Special Collections and Archives, investigated
the history of these celebrations through VCU Libraries' collection of The
Richmond Planet, the city's major African-American newspaper, and digitized
newspapers from the Library of Congress.
"In the beginning it was very much
a parade through town," Tarullo said. "Sometimes the routes were given in the
newspapers, and a lot of times they would end at the governor's steps or on the
capitol steps - places that it was very important that they show they had the
right to go. ... But in the later Emancipation Day celebrations it became less
about walking through the city and more about gathering at one central
location."
Though the manner of the
celebrations changed over time, their continued existence was a testament to
their importance for the African American community, according to Lauranett
Lee, curator of African-American History at the Virginia Historical Society.
"Immediately after the war, it
really says something about the determination of people to have Emancipation
Day celebrations, because most of the white people did not want them to do
this," Lee said. "Even in the nadir between 1890 and 1920, when a great deal of
lynching occurred, they continued holding these parades and celebrations."
In fact, according to Tarullo, the
celebrations held strong until the 1950s and 1960s, at which point the African-American
community's focus shifted to civil rights and to honoring Martin Luther King Jr. after his
assassination.
But the exhibit shows more than the
importance of commemorating emancipation. Lee said photos like these represent
an important shift in the African-American community.
"[Before the Civil War] you did not
see photographs of black people in mass like this," Lee said. "This was
something that whites feared. So to have photographs of black people marching
says a great deal about how they want to be seen, and the fact that they could
gather and march in public as a people.
And for Bonis, the exhibit is a
reminder of history that is not so far in the past.
"That photo
is from 1905. That's just two or three generations away," he said. "So for a
lot of Richmonders, their great-grandparents participated in these marches. With
this website they can learn more about it, explore the topic itself, and tell
others about it."
To view the exhibit, visit http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/vbha/freedom.html. The information was gathered from a variety of sources but mostly from newspaper accounts from Richmond newspapers. Chronicling America, the Library of Congress' online resource of digital versions of American newspapers, was instrumental in that research. Other sources included journal articles, monographs, and the microfilm versions of late 19th and 20th century newspapers. Additional items will be added to this site as new information is uncovered. Members of the community are invited to email Special Collections and Archives additions to the information as well as personal observations and questions. Visit this site for additional Resources on Slavery in Richmond
- Edward L. Ayers, president, University of Richmond, pioneer in the digital humanities
- Amanda French, THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) coordinator, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
- Emily Smith, executive director, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, curator and creator of InLight Richmond
- Moderator: Roy D. McKelvey, associate professor, Department of Graphic Design, VCU, co-founder of Loop: AIGA Journal of Interactive Design Education
- Ben Fino-Radin, digital conservator for Rhizome at the New Museum and manager of the Museum of Modern Art Digital Repository
- Francesca Fiorani, associate professor, History of Art and Architecture, UVA, director of Leonardo da Vinci and His Treatise on Painting
- Michael Poston, database applications associate, Folger Shakespeare Library
- Moderator: Joshua Eckhardt, associate professor, Department of English, VCU, and founding, general co-editor of British Virginia
- Jessica Venable, grant analyst, Office of Research, VCU
- David Holland, research and entrepreneurship specialist, School of the Arts, VCU
"Answering research questions by text is now an essential part of our package of services," says Research Librarian Kristina Keogh, who is in charge of setting up the new service. "At VCU, we meet our users where they are. They may be across town in a Panera working on a paper or they may be in a quiet corner on the fourth floor quiet-study area and don't want to leave their materials to come downstairs to speak with a research librarian."
Librarians are prepared for a range of questions. Keogh expects to receive both basic and advanced queries--everything from "where do I find this book?" to how to cite a source properly, from how to get started on a project to how late Starbucks is open.
"Pinning Gabriel's Rebellion"Wednesday, March 13Noon-1:00 PMLecture Hall, Library of Virginia
Using the new website HistoryPin, historians Gregg Kimball and authors Nicholls and Schwarz will trace the activities and events leading up to the best-planned--and potentially most damaging--slave insurrection in Virginia. The region's geography and the library's documents are merged on the website to graphically depict the actions and aftermath of the Henrico bondsman. This program is presented in partnership with VCU Libraries.
- March 1, 2013 (Friday) Cabell closes at 8 p.m.
- March 2-3, 2013 (Saturday and Sunday) Cabell closed.
- March 4 (Monday) 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cabell has delayed opening due to annual mechanical testing.
- March 5-8 (Tuesday through Friday) Cabell operates 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- March 9, 2013 (Saturday) Cabell Library is closed; Tompkins-McCaw Library is open noon to 6 p.m.
