Library News: Top News

During the spring semester, a group of students from the Department of Interior Design and the Department of Crafts and Material Studies met in Cabell Library Special Collections and Archives to participate in a collaborative project inspired by Special Collections and Archives itself. The students worked in teams composed of two Interior Design graduate students and one Craft and Material Studies major, and each team selected a particular focus of Special Collections and Archives to serve as the catalyst for a design for a functional LED light fixture. With Cabell Library preparing for the construction of a major new building adjacent and attached to the existing structure, the teams also engaged with the vision for the new building, trying to imagine their completed light fixtures installed inside it and incorporated into the architecture.

The completed light fixtures will be on display on the first floor of Cabell Library from April 26 to May 10 for all patrons and visitors to see. An opening reception will take place on Friday, April 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet the designers and to discuss the project. Both the exhibit and the opening reception will be free and open to the public.

Having trouble locating articles for your research project? Not sure how to focus your search? Wondering about library hours and services?

Now, you can get help in real time no matter where you are--at home or at lunch, in the campus connector bus or on the quiet floor at Cabell with your backpack, laptop and notes scattered around you.

To access chat: Go to the "Ask Us"  web page and click on the chat bubble. A chat "box" will open for you to type in your question. A research librarian will help you. 

Chat Hours

• Monday-Thursday 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
• Friday 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Sunday 6 - 10 p.m.

VCU Libraries has been testing the new chat service for months and it now makes its official debut. Chat, or instant messaging, is a fast track for answers. VCU Librarians also take questions by email, phone and, of course, face-to-face. Questions asked by email or left on voicemail are answered within 24 hours, except on weekends. Chat is anonymous: If you end the chat session before you're ready or get cut off, come back online. 

Users are invited to give their feedback about the chat service by using chat. 

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.  

 

 

 

 

 

In his July update to the University community, President Michael Rao unveiled a new University seal and explained the importance of such symbols. He wrote:

"As we move into the ranks of nationally competitive universities, it is more important than ever that we communicate with one voice in a strong, compelling and consistent way that conveys our unique character and academic quality. ... Toward that end, a new university seal and brand mark have been developed and approved by the Board of Visitors. The new seal and brand mark are the result of quantitative and qualitative surveys and significant input from members of the university community, including students, faculty, staff and alumni. ... The new university seal ... reflects the unity of VCU while maintaining its grand historical significance."

A new Web page in Tompkins-McCaw Library's Special Collections and Archives section details the history of the MCV and VCU seals and institutional symbols. Research was provided by VCU Libraries' Jodi Koste and Ray Bonis. History of the Seal  (Below is an early MCV symbol of science and medicine.)


 

 

Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries has been awarded a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to preserve select films from the Harris H. Stilson film collection. Grants were awarded to 35 projects--including preservation of a newly discovered film by composer John Cage--in 22 states. VCU is the first university in the commonwealth to receive a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation. For more information

Stilson (1868-1934) was a Richmond streetcar conductor, later a motorman, and amateur photographer and film documentarian. His films offer a rarely-seen visual record of Richmond 1929-31. Highlights of the collection are street scenes of black and white citizens, streetcars and buildings and leisure life at Byrd Park and Shields Lake.

"The Stilson work is a unique treasure," said Wesley J. Chenault, head of Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library. "Film footage of the city is rare and our research suggests that these films are among the oldest, if not the oldest, held by any local or regional cultural institution in the commonwealth."

Adding to the historic value are provenance and documentation. The donor is the filmmaker's great-granddaughter, Kitty Snow. Recognizing the importance of this record, she has actively worked to locate and preserve Stilson's collection, which includes some 3,000 photographs and negatives that document the ordinary lives of Richmonders, including African American and Jewish communities and individuals from his streetcar routes. It also contains meticulous records - ledgers, receipts, notes - that identify who and what Stilson captured through his lenses.

Snow says her great-grandfather (at left) "was the poor man's photographer, selling pictures for 20 cents to pay for his cameras, film, and developing materials. He was also an innovative photographer, hand-coloring and even inserting a missing relative's face into a family portrait, sort of an early 'Photoshopped' picture." A selection of his images is the subject of Snow's forthcoming book "From a Richmond Streetcar." The film collection at VCU Libraries represents his only known surviving film work. VCU Libraries is working with Snow to acquire the photographs, negatives and personal papers, which will add immense historical depth and context.

The Kodacolor films in the collection will be the first to be preserved. Introduced for 16 mm film in 1928, this Kodak brand was associated with an early color process known as lenticular. After being cleaned and preserved, the films will be made available for public research and use in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library and online through VCU Libraries Digital Collections.

The film collection is expected to have broad research interest to scholars, students, documentarians and others interested in early 20th century urban life, Virginia and Richmond history, race relations, urban studies, architectural history and more.

Created by the U.S. Congress in 1996 to save the nation's film heritage, the National Film Preservation Foundation is affiliated with the Library of Congress's National Film Preservation Board.  It awards basic preservation grants to nonprofit and public institutions for laboratory work to preserve culturally and historically significant films.

The Sunday, June 24, 2012 Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial page featured this historic cartoon. First published in June 1948 as commentary about a tense moment in the early days of the Cold War, it chronicles the start of the Berlin Blockade. Western powers squared off against the Soviets, who blocked access to rails, roads and waterways to control supply lines into Berlin. In response, Western Allies organized  the Berlin Airlift to provide needed supplies to the people of West Berlin. The blockade, which started on June 24, 1948  and ended the following May, resulted in the creation of two German states and a divided Berlin. 

The cartoonist Fred O. Seibel was the newspaper's editorial cartoonist for more than 40 years.

The Fred O. Seibel Papers are housed in the James Branch Cabell Library's Special Collections and Archives. The collection is part of the library's Comic Arts Collection which includes the papers of several cartoonists, a collection of comic books and a significant collection of reference materials that focus on the comic arts and its history.

The Seibel collection includes correspondence to Seibel, a complete set of his published cartoons, 34 thirty-four original Seibel cartoons and other items. More 

 
 

Longtime Richmond Times-Dispatch cartoonist Chick Larsen is the subject of a small exhibition in the Fourth Floor Gallery of James Branch Cabell Library.

From 1950 to 1954, Carl E. "Chick" Larsen (1923-1991) studied commercial art at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), the forerunner to VCU. He worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for more than 35 years.

He worked in the pre-digital age when X-ACTO knives and India ink were among the trade's tools. Some of those art supplies are on display along with samples of his work for various clients and his student work.

Also on view are clippings of the color comic strip he created around a newspaper delivery carrier. "Carrier-Toons" ran in newspapers nationwide from 1979-84.

The materials on view are from the Carl "Chick" Larsen Papers housed in VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives in James Branch Cabell Library. The materials in the exhibit were donated by Larsen's family to VCU Libraries. The collection documents Larsen's career as a professional artist and contains materials ranging from Larsen's original art work to the art supplies he used during the 1950s through the 1980s. The photograph of Larsen, left, was taken in 1978.


VCU Libraries' Comic Arts Collection, housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library, 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.