Library News: Homepage Top News

After commencement and beyond into summer sessions, operating hours at James Branch Cabell Library will be reduced compared to the busy spring semester. Please refer to this chart for summer hours. Also, note that Cabell Starbucks will be closed May 21-28 for remodeling.

In addition, the building will be closed on these days:

• Sunday, May 13 (day after commencement)
  
• Saturday, May 19
• Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day holiday)
  
• Wednesday, July 4 (Independence Day holiday)
  
• Saturday and Sunday, August 11-12
• Saturday and Sunday, August 18-19

Just in time for summer, when faculty and staff are on the go, VCU Libraries has upgraded its subscription to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Readers can now access The Chronicle using an iPad, smart phone, tablet or any computer located anywhere in the world. 

Simply create a free account using your "@vcu.edu" e-mail address at http://www.chronicle.com/.

Account holders may download The Chronicle's iPad editions at no cost, view the new mobile interface using a web browser on a smart phone or tablet and access the publication via computer from any location.

The day after commencement, May 13, James Branch Cabell Library will be closed. 

To mark May as Military Appreciation Month, two display cases on the fourth floor of James Branch Cabell Library pay tribute to the work of two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist William Henry "Bill" Maudlin. His World War II cartoons were published abroad and in the United States. (Image at right: cover of "This Damn Tree Leaks, A Collection of War Cartoons," by Bill Mauldin, 1945.) 

Maudlin (1921-2003) first gained a following drawing cartoons for the 45th Infantry Division newspaper. His reputation grew at the global military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Willie and Joe, his best known creations, typified common soldiers and gave voice to their experiences. 

After winning the Pulitzer Prize for his wartime work in 1945, Maudlin received a second Pulitzer for a Cold War cartoon. At the Chicago Sun-Times, he created what many observers consider among the greatest editorial cartoons ever penned. In response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1963, Maudlin drew Abraham Lincoln of the Lincoln Memorial bowed in shock and grief. 

• More about the Military Month display
• More on his work from a comics arts blogger and from his official site
• About VCU's new Military Veterans Alumni Council: Take the survey.
  

The Military Appreciation Month exhibition includes items from VCU Libraries' Comic Arts Collection, housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. It consists of some 100,000 items, including more than 40,000 comic books, graphic novels, editorial cartoons, comic strips, memorabilia, comic journals, fanzines and an array of reference materials. In addition to the growing, comprehensive collections for the study of comic arts, VCU Libraries is the repository for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Archives.

 

 

 

Student work from a spring semester topics course, "The Photobook," is on view in the Fourth Floor Gallery at James Branch Cabell Library.

The Department of Photography and Film and VCU Libraries collaborated to develop and teach the 400-level course. The exhibit includes work by Christine Addison, Stephanie Fry, Anna Hendrick, Emily Jones, Melissa Rabin, Stephen Turner and Diego Valdez.

"The Photobook" course coupled studio instruction in bookmaking with a critical examination of artists' books and photobooks in the Cabell Library collection. Throughout the semester, students learned bookmaking techniques and structures ranging in difficulty from concertinas to case bindings. Students also met in Special Collections and Archives each week to explore the history and ideas represented by rare and important examples of artists' books and photobooks. Combining technical skills with their knowledge of the genre, students designed and produced their own photobooks.

A photobook is an autonomous art form in which images are sequenced to tell a story or convey specific concepts. Unlike other photography books, the images in a photobook are less significant as stand-alone photographs but are meaningful as parts of a comprehensive whole.

The course was taught by Helen Cassidy, a professional bookbinder, and Yuki Hibben, assistant professor and assistant head of Special Collections and Archives. 

A limited number of Working Dead posters will be given to library patrons Sunday-Thursday, May 6-10--the last week of long hours in the spring semester. The posters were developed by artist Dave Morrison and VCU Libraries to mark expanded hours.

Want a poster?

Share or comment on the Cabell Facebook page or tweet about #libraryzombies or retweet something from #VCUCabell and come to the main circulation desk to pick up a poster...until supplies are gone. 

The web-based Worth Global Style Network (WGSN) and its archive are now available through VCU Libraries.

This news and culture site tracks trends worldwide with a focus on retail, fashion and design industries--all the style-related industries. It publishes in real time and posts updates daily.

WGSN brings a global view to trends in fashion and design, with a specific focus on areas where style and commerce intersect. The network and its 12-year archive contain more than 5 million images from runways, trade shows, retail outlets, exhibitions and streets around the world. Visual searching allows the user to find similar items according to shape, color, and pattern. WGSN also gives patrons access to 16,000 downloadable copyright-free graphics from a unique library of sector-specific conceptual collections. (At right, a lighting display by Tom Dixon at Milan Design Week in 2012.)

According to its website, WGSN is "the leading online trend-analysis and research service providing creative and business intelligence for the apparel, style, design and retail industries."  It was founded in 1998 and has regional offices and freelancers throughout Europe, Asia, South America and in the United States, where it has offices in New York and Los Angeles.

To access the database: http://library,vcu.edu/search/1168
 

The Index to 19th-Century American Art Periodicals is now available through VCU Libraries.

This resource is the sole online index to 42 periodicals published in the United States during the 19th century.

Each issue is indexed for its entire contents--articles, art notes, illustrations, stories, poems and advertisements. This is a valuable resource on American art, artists, and collecting, as well as popular culture and industry.

To access the database: http://library.vcu.edu/search/1167

 

 

The Commonwealth Times' article Cabell's new 24-hour schedule relies on "The Working Dead features members of James Branch Cabell Library's overnight crew. Those employees are featured as zombified workers in a campy poster by artist Dave Morrison. Since Cabell began operating around-the-clock after spring break, the team has covered the late-night and early-morning shifts.

A limited number of posters will be given to library patrons Sunday-Thursday, May 6-10. Become a fan of the Cabell Facebook page or retweet or tweet about #libraryzombies and come to the main circulation desk to pick up a poster, until supplies are gone.
 
 

Editorial cartoonist Charles Henry 'Bill' Sykes (1882-1942) drew barbed political cartoons often loaded with complex political commentary on Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Germany and Japan and other major actors on the international stage in the years before the United States entered World War II.

James Branch Cabell Library acquired this collection of original circa 1940 drawings in 1980. They are available for view in Special Collections and Archives. This month, they were released in a digital format, further augmenting access to Cabell's outstanding collection of comic arts. The online collection

Born in Alabama and graduated from Philadelphia's Drexel Institute in 1904, Sykes drew as a freelancer and then worked for newspapers. In 1914, he became the first and only editorial cartoonist for the Evening Public Ledger. It ceased publication in 1942, the same year Sykes died. Sykes also had working relationships with Life, Colliers and The New York Evening Post.

His most famous cartoon, "Madonna and Child A.D.1940," depicts the ugliness of war.  The image is of a mother and child wearing gas masks. It was published on August 13, 1940--the first day of the Battle of Britain.

The Sykes Editorial Cartoon Collection consists of 297 original editorial cartoons, three unfinished sketches, a U.S. War Bond poster and a U.S. Victory poster. The cartoons focus on American reaction to the Axis powers in the 1930s and 1940s. Sykes created his early cartoons using the unusual patterns of coquille board for the shading effect. His later works were created with a crayon-and-wash technique.

The online collection