Tuesday, September 23, 2008

New Media Education 2008: Connecting a Global Community

The specs
Date: Friday, October 17th, 2008
Time: 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Location: Low Memorial Library, Columbia University
Breakfast, lunch, and a cocktail reception held for all registered guests.

The blurb
The New Media in Education 2008 conference, hosted by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, is a free, all-day event for faculty, instructors, and the Columbia community to explore emerging technologies that are connecting students globally. As curricular challenges arise and new technologies develop, the Center works with faculty to discover how digital tools can enhance teaching and learning. During this event, Columbia faculty members and leaders in the field of education and technology will host seminars and workshops that address the successes and challenges of using technologies such as simulations, wikis, and multimedia case studies and provide examples of their use at Columbia University.

The schedule

Looks like a really good conference. I'd be all over it if I didn't already have 10 other things I'm all over! Therefore, I'll wait and see who the speakers are (and what the gender balance is!) before deciding.

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Friday, September 19, 2008

Images of the American Civil War

New electronic resource:

Images of the American Civil War : photographs, posters, and ephemera presents the dramatic imagery of nineteenth-century Americana as experienced from the social, military, and political perspectives. At completion, the collection will present 75,000 images drawn from archives around the country, documenting the camp and battle experiences of Union and Confederate soldiers of all ranks, time spent in hospitals and in prisons, civilian life in cities and towns close to and far from the front lines of war, and the demeanor of the politicians whose decisions could bring the nation together or tear it apart. Many of the images in the collection were captured by famous and lesser-known innovators working with the burgeoning medium of nineteenth-century photography. Additionally, graphical content such as envelopes, song sheets, recruiting posters, imprints, and cartoons give users the ability to research how wartime America illustrated their times visually.

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

our archivists--new and "old"

Introducing Marcia Bassett, the Barnard library's new Archivist, and Astrid Cravens, our Image Archivist. Astrid has been here a year or two, but since she works in the basement, I assume very few of us have had a chance to get to know her at all. So, following are brief bios of each and short interviews.



Marcia Bassett
I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School Art. In 1999, I graduated from Drexel University with a MS (Information Science and Technology). While in living in Philadelphia, I worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Museum Library and Archives. I moved to New York City after receiving my graduate degree to work as a Project Archivist, processing the Grace M. Mayer Papers, at MoMA. Since that time, I have worked on multiple archival projects—from processing personal papers and corporate records, cataloging and rehousing prints and photographs to managing the implementation of archival policies and procedures in repositories. Over a period of four years, I worked on a variety of archival projects at the Frick Art Reference Library, completing my last project with them in July of 2007. Prior to coming to Barnard, I cataloged a collection of Works Progress Administration (WPA) prints at the Queens Library Gallery.

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time outdoors. I have a small potted roof garden at my apartment in Brooklyn. I grow a few edible vegetables and a variety of herbs and flowers. I also have two composting containers. When I get the chance, I like to escape the city. My most recent trip was to the Berkshires, where I hiked on the Appalachian Trail and visited MASS MoCA. I also enjoy playing guitar and seeing new and improvised music in the city. The last show I went to was at Glasslands featuring the Garcia / Biba Bell Duo with the trio of C. Spencer Yeh -violin, voice, electronics, Don Dietrich -saxophone, electronics and Ben Hall-percussion, and the duo of Carlos Giffoni-synthesizer and Okkyung Lee -cello.

Astrid Cravens
I studied photography and film at Hampshire college. After college I moved back and forth between New York and San Francisco where I spent a number of years restoring, transferring and digitizing archival films, photographs and videos at a small film transfer house. During this time I also worked as a stop motion animator. I relocated back to New York--my home town-- about four years ago. I live in Brooklyn, where I have another job as a visual artist.

Care to assess the Barnard Archives and Special Collections?
MB: The Barnard College Archives was founded in 1963 as the permanent repository for the records of the College from the 1880's to the present day. The Archives holds over 1,000 linear feet of unpublished manuscript materials relating to the history of the higher education of women. The unpublished items include official non-current records of the College, and papers of individuals associated with. The Archives also has a sizable visual materials collection, which includes over ten thousand negatives and prints; one hundred lantern slides; several thousand color slides; numerous films; framed artworks and three-dimensional artifacts; and architectural drawings, posters, and prints. The audiotape collection includes speeches, lectures, and radio programs dating from the 1930's to the present.

AC
: We have a marvelous collection of photographs here in the Archives.


Are there any items you're particularly excited to work with or proud of?
MB: Currently we are busy creating an overall guide to the collection. This is a sizable and exciting job, as we discover areas in the collection which yield further insight into the history of the College. Most recently, I came across a group of student class notes, spanning from 1902-1913.I am particularly excited about the early images, including a small collection of WWI relief effort photographs.

AC: I am particularly excited about the early images, including a small collection of WWI relief effort photographs.

Can you tell us about your ideas and plans for the collection--from immediate housekeeping to pie in the sky dreams?
MB: Our goal is to create an overall guide to the collection and then, begin to focus on inventories and finding aids. The guide will outline and provide a brief description of the record groups in the collection. So far, we have created an overall shelf listing of the Archives holdings. The shelf listing enables us to locate materials with more ease and better assist researchers with their queries. Additionally, student assistants are busy working on inventories of the file cabinet drawers. So far, we have inventoried the Barnardiana files, the Graduate files, and the Trustee and Student files.

AC: Once all the photographs, transparencies, lantern slides, films and videos have been cataloged and properly housed, my other "pie in the sky" goal is to digitize the entire collection and to make much of it accessible online to researchers. It's a monumental job because we have thousands upon thousands of photographs here in the archives. But, I think my role here is ultimately to make myself obsolete.

What are each of you currently reading (or listening to)?
MB: I have been reading off and on The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki. I recently finished reading Flaubert in Egypt edited by Francis Steegmuller. I am currently reading Paul Bowles, Up Above the World. I have lined up Astraea by Frances Yates, Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, and I’ll find some lighter fiction to read on the subway.

AC: Right now I’m reading The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, World's End by Upton Sinclair, The Collected Poems of Charles Olson and The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 3: 1925-1930.

MB: I am enjoying listening to Columbia’s radio station WKCR. My new musical purchases include: Karen Dalton "Cotton Eyed Joe: the Attic tapes," Terry Riley "Music for the Gift," Derek Bailey "Pieces for Guitar," and an assortment of cassettes of traditional world music (found at a thrift store) on the Lyrichord label.

AC: This past week I've been listening to some excellent live Sun Ra recordings from the '70s, early Brian Eno as well as various other recordings.

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Friday, September 12, 2008

over 200 new NYPL card holders

At Wednesday's National Library Card Sign Up Month Barnard/NYPL event librarians Amy Landry and Anne Witte from the Morningside Heights branch of the New York Public Library gave out 247 cards in a 2-hour period to Barnard students, faculty, and staff.




Among those registered for cards were Provost Elizabeth Boylan and Dean Dorothy Denburg.












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Thursday, September 11, 2008

new databases 9/11/08

Aluka: Struggles for Freedom in Southern Africa
Focuses on the complex and varied liberation struggles in Southern African, with an initial concentration on six nations: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.

Electronic Enlightenment
Searchable and browseable database offering extensive access to the web of correspondence between the greatest thinkers and writers of the long eighteenth century and their families and friends, bankers and booksellers, patrons and publishers. Coverage includes letters and documents, document sources such as manuscripts and early printed editions, scholarly annotations, and links to biographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, newspapers, and other online resources.

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Artemis on the desktop

I've added shortcuts to the student timesheets and to Heidi's folder on the shared drive. (Ali and Shoshannah, I'll tell you more about the timesheets once your contracts are processed and you're added to the file.)

I recommend that the librarians, other than Heidi, continue to remote into their own computers, though, rather than accessing the shared drive from the reference desk computer. (Heidi, ask me to show you how to log out.)

When you click on the shortcut, you should be prompted to log in via Novell. If you are not prompted to log in, that means that someone else is already logged in, and you should instead log in by right clicking the red N on the task bar.

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

CU lockdown

You all know that McCain and Obama are coming to Columbia on 9/11, right?

Well, from an email from Bill Sees:

"On Thursday, September 11, the Morningside campus will be locked down sometime in the afternoon. Public Safety is not sure when access will be limited to CUID holders, but the temporary reader cards that are issued by staff in the Library Information Office will not provide access to the campus during this period. "

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Columbia collection development policies

Barbara List sent this link to the Columbia Libraries collection development policies to the Selectors. Maybe we should do something similar?

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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Fall 2008 @ CCNMTL

Reported by Jen Rutner on CUL Notes and CUL FYI

EnhancED A great way to stay up to date on new ed tech trends and tools, "The articles found in this website explain how you can use new technology to actively engage your students in class discussions, readings, peer editing, and more." "New media tools " and "Getting things done" promise to be of interest to library staff."

iTunes U "Columbia on iTunes U delivers Columbia-produced educational content to students, faculty, and the public through Apple's popular iTunes desktop media player. Faculty can manage their course-related audio and video collections that students can download."

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Guide to the Libraries

The new CUL Guide to the Libraries and other guides are also available online.

The new Guide to the Libraries is now available in each Columbia University library. This compact brochure offers everyone, from new students to seasoned researchers, a convenient overview of the Libraries’ user services and outstanding collections. It describes the basic steps for starting library research at Columbia, and answers questions about where to turn for expert help and how to access key library services via the Libraries’ website. The Guide to the Libraries includes practical tips, a listing of subject specialist librarians, a campus map showing the location of all 25 libraries at Columbia and its affiliated institutions, and information on where major service points and collections are throughout the Libraries. The Guide to the Libraries will be an indispensable companion throughout the year for anyone whose research involves library resources.

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Dewey no more

We have completed retrospective conversion and reclassification. Barnard has no more Dewey books. Please give a copy of any CLIO record showing Dewey holdings for Barnard to Albert or to Michael so that he can suppress the record.

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