Carnegie Center Celebration!

University of Kentucky Special Collections was invited to participate in the Lexington Carnegie Center celebration of Kentucky Authors, Editors, & Publishers, featuring 2013 Kentucky Poet Laureate, Frank X Walker.  The event was held April 27, 2013, 6-9 pm. 

Gail Kennedy, Arts and Outreach Librarian, organized the library book display in recognition of the six inaugural inductees to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame:  Harriette Arnow, William Wells Brown, Harry Caudill, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, James Still, and Robert Penn Warren. 

“The Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame was created to recognize Kentucky writers whose work reflects the character and culture of our commonwealth, and to educate Kentuckians about our state’s rich literary heritage.” - - [Lexington Carnegie Center website]

Each of the authors, except William Wells Brown, has an archival collection in Special.  [No collection exists for William Wells Brown in any institution at this time.]  Also housed in Special are the books written by each of the authors, including first editions.  The display of books was very well received and appreciated by those attending the event. 

The other library participants were Jim Birchfield, Curator of Rare Books; Ruth Bryan, Director of Archives; Reinette Jones, Oral History Librarian and African American Studies Academic Liaison.  

Story by Reinette Jones; Photo by Ruth Bryan   

Historical Marker Dedicated in front of WT Young Library



The Marker!

A ceremony celebrating the dedication of a new historical maker commemorating college traditions at the University of Kentucky was recently held.  The marker specifically highlights the annual tug of war contest between the freshman and sophomore classes which occurred in the early 1900s.  The ceremony took place in the walkway around the bowl on the Rose Street side of WT Young Library.  This location was fitting because the original tug of war battles were waged over Clifton Pond which formerly occupied that spot. 

The ceremony was hosted by Carl Nathe, of UK Public Relations, who stated that he had been at all of the historical marker ceremonies on campus since they started in 1994.  First on the program of speakers was Jonathon Nunley, president of the Student Development Council, who spoke of the importance of tradition.  He noted the philanthropic spirit that motivated the class of 2012 to give this gift and expressed his hope that they will continue to give to the University in the coming years.

Deidra Scaggs spoke next, giving the audience, what Nathe referred to as “a history lesson.”  She talked of the rough and rowdy students who attended State College, as UK was known in the early years of the twentieth century, who would engage in annual tug-of-war battles.  The losing class would be pulled into Clifton pond.  Her colorful description was a highlight of the event. 

Deidra Speaks!

 

Becky Riddell of the Kentucky Historical Society gave a brief overview of the historical markers program which includes 2392 markers, with at least one in every county.  The program started in 1949 and informs travelers on Kentucky’s roads and highways.

The Marker is Unveiled!

Eli Capilouto finished the program by remembering his visit to UK before taking the job as president.  At that time, he said he was prompted to contemplate UK’s long history after noticing some of the markers as he walked unnoticed around campus.  He noted that rich traditions engender rich relationships which can continue for many years.    

 

Story and Photos by Peter Hesseldenz 

 

Science Library Decorated!

Bonnie Dong and Heidi Hayes

A paper garden

The Science Library has recently become much more beautiful, thanks to student workers Bonnie Dong and Heidi Hayes, who decorated the front desk area with their paper art.  Those ornaments, along with an origami display on the first floor, has made the Science Library a colorful and festive destination for students and faculty.



Wall of Origami
 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Peter Hesseldenz and Jan Carver

Library Gems: UKnowledge

Adrian and his screens

It’s growing.  And growing.  Which is exactly what Adrian Ho, Director of Digital Scholarship, and Mary Beth Thomson, Senior Associate Dean for Collections, Digital Scholarship and Technical Services, want for UKnowledge.  They carry the banner for open access and they are energetic promoters of the preservation of and free and easy access to intellectual output and to making available to the world whatever UK scholars are creating.  The vehicle for these lofty aspirations is UKnowledge.

UKnowledge began in 2007 with the formation of the Institutional Repository Work Group chaired by Lisa Carter and Mary Molinaro.  In  that group’s final report, “Opening Doors to Open Scholarship”, they recommended the development of a digital object repository (DOR) at the University of Kentucky that would include an institutional repository of UK scholarly efforts, “e-journal content, digitized resources from the Libraries’ collections and other digital resources created at the University. “ ¹ The first director was Pat Wilson.  Some of the first materials collected were theses and dissertations previously stored using a freeware program called DSpace developed at MIT.    DSpace required in-house software program expertise so it was later replaced by Digital Commons, a hosted institutional repository system, which is purchased from Berkeley Electronic Press.   This system provides programming and storage space as well as technical assistance.    

So  what materials are currently at UKnowledge?    To date, there are over 3,800 records, most of which are associated with a downloadable item.  The database also contains 4 hosted journals, 1,106 PhD dissertations, 804 master’s theses, 44 researcher profiles and 10 image galleries.  Since December 2010 there have been almost 630,000 downloads from it.  On the day of this writing, the three most popular papers for downloads were: 1. “Real-time 3-D Reconstruction by Means of Structured Light Illumination”  by Kai Liu, 2. “Health Promotion and Health Education:  Nursing Students Perspectives “ by Kathleen Ann Halcomb and 3) Developing a Time and Motion Study for a Lean Healthcare Environment” by  Michael Winston Patton, Jr..    For those with downloadable objects at UKnowledge, there are monthly reports with graphs and statistics.  One not only gets data on the number of downloads for one’s object, there is also information regarding from what resource the downloader discovered the work, fascinating information for those interested in information retrieval. 

UKnowledge is beyond words; it is not just about providing print electronically.   There is music in there.  Photographs.  Prints.  Posters.  Ideas.  People.  It is a site for profiling one’s scholarly interests and accomplishments.  In the Researchers Gallery, UK faculty and researchers can establish their own page that includes a photo, profile of expertise, research interests and a bibliography of publications, presentations and other scholarly creations with links to the actual objects.   It is a site that sends across time and space the products of scholarly thought that originate here at UK, whatever their output.  As Adrian put it, this is a site to “showcase and celebrate” creative works of UK scholars and, thereby, the UK scholars themselves, the University and Kentucky.  

One thing is clear.  Adrian Ho, Director of Digital Scholarship, is passionate about his work with UKnowledge.    When he hears or reads of any new scholarly work by UK authors, he contacts the authors and asks to include their work in UKnowledge.  He makes this a completely painless process by offering to contact the publisher or copyright holder to request permission.  If he is able to obtain it, his office will handle the upload and indexing. Of course, one can also self-submit and instructions are available at the site for doing this.  Adrian also is available to speak to faculty as groups or individuals to share his expertise on issues related to their author rights for their intellectual outputs; he can provide information for negotiating access rights for authors.   He is an enthusiastic promoter of author’s right and open access scholarship and he clearly is in expert in all matters related. 

In only six years, UKnowledge has grown from a white paper to a living, thriving and growing entity. I would dare say that in 2007 many of us were skeptics that the world of propriety publishing would shift off its axis  to such a degree that  this great quantity of scholarship would now be freely available to all. But it is.  And UKnowledge continues to grow…

1.     Carter, Lisa; Molinaro, Mary H.; Ryder, Rebecca; Lybarger, Kathryn; Kraemer, Beth; Helm, Brian; Thomson, Mary Beth; Soward, John; and Scaggs, Dierdre, "Opening Doors to Open Scholarship: A White Paper Exploring the Role of a Digital Object Repository to Support and Preserve the University of Kentucky’s Digital Assets" (2008). Library White Papers. Paper 1.http://uknowledge.uky.edu/libraries_reports/1

 

Story by Tag Heister; Photo by Lewis Warden

The Music Staff - Abbye Tackett

 

Lexington native Abbye Tackett is a cello player.  Yes, she is in technical services in the Fine Arts Library, also, but she was a cello player long before coming to UK.  Abbye has been playing the cello since she was eight years old and signed herself up to play a musical instrument at school.  Her first choice was actually the violin, but by the time the music teacher got to the students whose last names started with the letter “T”, all of the violins had been taken. 

For Abbye, the other option was a cello, and when the school day ended, she went home and told her parents that she would be playing the cello.  They had all talked about her eventually playing a musical instrument, so the news about the cello was not exactly a complete surprise.

Abbye’s first music teacher was Mrs. Dennison, the orchestra teacher at Picadome Elementary.  Her first instrument was a children’s ¼ size cello.  She advanced to a ¾ cello, an instrument that she says she outgrew, but continued to play it in high school because she loved the instrument.  Though, she had to eventually give it up and upgrade to a full size cello. 

“I knew it [the ¾ size cello].  We kind of grew up together, so I knew where everything was on the cello.   I knew what to expect out of it, I knew the sound.  It was just comfortable.  You get to know them, they all have their individual voices and I knew what to expect out of it.  They are like people, it’s like an old friend and you know what they are going to say.”

“The cello is designed like the body of a person and it leans against you.  I feel much more connected to the cello than I think a violinist would be with a violin.  I am biased.  I think the cello is the best instrument ever!  I feel very connected to it.  It’s a whole body thing and you are wrapped around it.”

At Lafayette High School, Abbye said that she played in the orchestra.  She was also a member of the Strolling Strings.  The group wore red and white, button down, barber striped shirts, along with polyester black pants, a bow tie, and a cummerbund.  Abbye said that she tried not to let her classmates see her in the outfit.  Though as luck would have it, one day there was a field trip and she had to change into her outfit during the school day.  After changing clothes, she had planned to escape down the empty hallway carrying her cello.  But suddenly, the hallways were filled with students changing classes.  Everyone saw her! 

Popular kids were not members of the Strolling Strings.  So, when she was about 15 years old, Abbye said that she stopped playing the cello and took a four year hiatus.  Playing the cello was not a cool thing for a teenager to do. 

“Now, playing an instrument, playing the cello, has a whole new connotation than it used to.  It seems like the cello is a cool thing to do now.  It shows up in bands.  It’s not unusual to see it in an indie rock band.  There was a stint when nobody even knew what a cello was.  Most everybody knows what it is now.  A lot of that has to do with famous players like Yo-Yo Ma being in the main stream.  He has done a lot for the instrument.”

Abbye said that she was watching a concert on PBS and it came to her that she was ready to go back to the cello.  She found a private teacher and practiced like crazy.  When she came to college, one of the instructors she learned a lot from was Benjamin Karp, the cello professor at the University of Kentucky.  Abbye earned her B.A and M.A in Music Performance, both from UK.  She also earned a masters degree in Library Science.  She continues to play the cello on a regular basis and is a member of the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.  

Abbye has some advice for those who would like to learn to play an instrument.

“Approach learning with humility.  Everybody learns differently.  Everybody can learn.  You just have to approach it the right way.  For most people, it is our egos that get in the way.  With musicians we are always battling with that because we all have huge egos, we all think we are awesome.  So you have to push that aside to learn.”  

The recorded interview with Abbye Tackett is available at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History.

Story by Reinette Jones; Photo by Lewis Warden

Kate Black Honored

Kate Black and Sheli Walker, Library Graduate Assistant and a teaching assistant in Special Collections

 

On Monday, April 8, 2013, retired UK librarian Kate Black was honored for her many years of dedication to the Appalachian Collection.  Kate received much recognition for her skill in processing the collections, the use of the collections within the classroom, for providing intellectual guidance and collaboration with scholars across many disciplines at the University of Kentucky, and her work with researchers around the state.  Such admirable recognition could only have come from those who know the caliber of Kate Black’s library efforts and her academic efforts.   The celebration, titled “Hearing Appalachian Voices,” was sponsored by the UK Appalachian Center, the Kentucky Humanities Council, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  The well attended event was held at the UK Good Barn. 

 

Kate Black and Nyoka Hawkins, Old Cove Press

 

 



 

Story by Reinette Jones; photos by Gail Kennedy

What We’re Reading: History and Philosophy Buff

Are you a history buff? Do you enjoy dabbling in a bit of philosophy? If so, you may enjoy grabbing a cup of coffee with Kelly Vickery, Director for Infrastructure and Systems. Kelly usually has more than one book going at a time and he has a definite penchant for history, particularly 19^th century European history. He has an undergraduate degree in history with a concentration in Russian history and he had started working on a graduate degree in history several years ago. When we sat down to discuss his latest reads he was actively reading three different books.

Our discussion focused primarily on the book King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed,Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild. This book deals with the Scramble for Africa beginning in the late 1800s, specifically King Leopold II of Belgium and his quest for the Congo region. Africa was the last largely unexplored region of the world at this time and many European powers were looking for ways to colonize the area and take advantage of its resources. In particular, explorers were interested in finding the source of the Nile and other large rivers in order to create trade routes into the interior regions of Africa. King Leopold had funded an expedition for an American named HenryStanley (who on a previous expedition in Africa had located the missing Dr.David Livingstone) and it was Stanley who discovered the source of the Congo River. Leopold was able to lay claim to the Congo region and get permission from other European powers to do so. Through his colonization of the Congo he was able to build a reputation for himself in Europe as a great humanitarian. But as Kelly pointed out to me during our conversation, the truth was vastly different. In the early years of the 20^th century an accountant got suspicious as he was reviewing the books on the shipping in and out of the Congo. This was followed by some British investigators who discovered the many atrocities that were occurring in the Congo: cutting off of hands, slavery, monopolies on trade, and much more. Reports started coming out around 1903 to 1907 about the horrific things occurring in the area. Kelly is about two thirds of the way through the book and this is where he has recently left off. Want to know what happens? Grab a copy of this book yourself or catch Kelly sometime to ask him more.

Kelly is also about a third of the way through two other books. The first of these two is Pragmatism:The Classical Writings edited by H.S. Thayer.  He is reading this collection of essays  mostly because he is interested in the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, who in the 1870s founded the philosophical movement known as pragmatism. Peirce is also the founder of semiotics (the study of symbols and their functions) and abductive reasoning, both areas that Kelly is very interested in.

The second book that Kelly is also about a third of the way into is Darwinizing Culture: The Status ofMemetics as a Science edited by Robert Aunger. This book is a group of essays on the science of Memetics, which Kelly described as ideas or expressions humans create (words, buildings, ideas, art, etc.) and how those “ideas” or “memes” act as replicators, much as genes do, and through our behavior as interactors which can actually change the environment humans live in as we share these with each other. In a way it is a concept that shapes who we are and the environment we live in that goes beyond the genes we inherit from our parents.

Kelly’s favorite type of book to read is anything to do with history, although he obviously has a keen interest in philosophy, too. But don’t come away thinking that Kelly only reads this sort of heavy stuff all the time. He just finished reading The BorneIdentity by Robert Ludlum which he says differs from the movie in significant ways and his favorite fiction author is Cormac McCarthy, who wrote The Road, No Country for Old Men, and many other books. Kelly does try to keep a balance.

What is your favorite time period in history? Are you a history buff? What about philosophy? Leave comments below!