Why We're All Here — Promoting Ourselves, Mentoring Others
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ISSN 1553-7641 Newsletter of the Archivists and Librarians Volume XXX, Number 1 in the History of the Health Sciences Winter 2006-2007 Why We’re All Here — Promoting Additionally, we can all learn from one another as we continue to be included and stay relevant. Ourselves, Mentoring Others Indeed, these three themes are substantially intertwined. Shortly after our 2006 meeting in Halifax, all heck I would propose that there are ways in which we can broke loose around our shop, and I was remiss in shar- programmatically help one another while increasing ing any presidential direction or insight. My apologies our visibility and relevancy to our institutions. In this if I have seemed removed or unengaged to any of the era of expensive online licenses, small staffs, database- membership. Behind the scenes I have dealt with Wa- driven research, and uninformed administrators, how termark concerns, passing of the baton for our listserv do we, as my teenager so succinctly put it, “stay sexy”? administrator, listserv etiquette, committee creation, local arrangements mentoring, and some banking an- I know that many of you have your own examples of noyances. To that end I would like to thank Eric for how you highlight your collections and services with hanging in there as editor, Cynthia Kahn for taking the use of exhibits, enhanced Web content, catalogs, over as listserv coordinator, Richard Behles for his lecture series, workshops with professors, guest scho- insight into the vagaries of listserv moderation, all the lars, and brownbag lunches. Opportunities to feature Committee members for Nominations, Program, and our own services and collections came with a move to Awards, Christopher Lyons for Local Arrangements a new building in 2004. We were suddenly blessed for Montréal 2007, Kathy Donahue and Russell John- with new space, new constituents, and yes, a renewed son for Web updates, and my rock, Pat Gallagher, for enthusiasm. exemplary treasuring. Subsequently there have been three projects (one is In anticipation of our 2007 Montréal meeting, as well pending) that greatly increased our visibility, empha- as my second year as president, I want to share a philo- sized our staff and collection, illustrated a high level sophical platform with you. This platform is threefold: of collegiality, and showed how relevant we are to our own health science institutions and to other disciplines. 1. Inclusion — the idea that we try to involve our One of the important concepts for those not blessed membership in discussing or sharing our difficulties with supportive academic programs, new or enhanced and triumphs. The broader idea is that we remain space, helpful staff, endowments, or administrative en- included in our institution’s budgets and directives. couragement is that we must take advantage of novel 2. Relevancy — the idea that we and our collections opportunities, untapped resources, underutilized space, continue to be relevant to our constituents and our and unrequited relationships. We must, with a nod to institutions. an overused phrase, “think outside the box.” 3. Mentorship — the idea that those of us who are experienced curators, archivists, and librarians help In July 2006 our recently installed Walker Display Sys- our members who are just beginning in their fields. tem (which created 300 linear feet of gallery space) 2 Watermark, Vol. XXX, No. 1 (Winter 2006-2007) was used by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Application: Practicums, while time consuming, in- (GNSI) to hang 60 pieces of their juried artwork for a clude others in their planning and execution. They of- three-month period. During that time, their yearly con- fer the opportunity to mentor someone who may even- ference flowed through our building and onto the Uni- tually choose a curatorial, library, or archival career. versity of Wisconsin campus. We did a complementary Your library or archives looks very helpful and colle- exhibit in our historical reading room called “Science gial in the eyes of the student’s affiliate. Do not limit Made Clear: The Art of Illustration at the Ebling Li- yourself to university students — there are some very brary,” which highlighted comparative anatomy and motivated high school students who might be interested other natural history rare books from the collection. in rare book conservation, archival processing, or des- This foray into art has had a huge impact on intercol- cribing artifacts. Do not limit yourself to history or li- legial opportunities, with the space now being booked brary students. Someone in computer sciences might for a Master of Fine Arts graduate student exhibit, a get you started with a digitization project or offer an medical student art show, and a national traveling ex- iterative Web tutorial, replacing that ten-page paper hibit of photographs called “Reclaiming Midwives,” handout to historical resources that you have been co-hosted by our History of Medicine and Bioethics using for years. Department. In creating and promoting exhibits we have also While I never intended to get into the art gallery busi- learned that there are many ways to do them economi- ness, it has brought visibility, potential donors, and a cally. Who knew that a colorful scarf could be used to lovely aesthetic into our professional lives. It also of- support an eighteenth-century book of cookery? Sea- fers interesting opportunities by which to use our col- shells and geodes make lovely stands? That black felt lections to compliment the art. When “Reclaiming can be cut and shaped around a triangle of cardboard Midwives” opens in late April, we will be installing instead of purchasing expensive Plexiglas? Or an in- an exhibit on the history of Wisconsin midwifery, pre- vestment in a laminator and a color copier is far less pared by my associate, Mary Hitchcock, and a history expensive then using a professional printer for your of science student, Kala Kluender. promotional posters and invitations? In that regard, we hope to have a seminar this year for our campus col- Application: Think of other departments that might use leagues (some 38 department libraries, multiple art your space to display their wares. Perhaps your Carto- galleries, etc.) to set up a resource sharing consortium graphy Department would like to hang some maps in beyond the usual book and journal distribution that we your area — and you could do an exhibit or annotated now provide. bibliography on medical geography. Perhaps someone in Art History could show their graduate students your Application: Examine your institution; see who else sixteenth-century illustrated anatomy texts to compare creates visual displays. Might you help one another with their usual da Vinci course material. with artifact stands? Does another department have a digital camera you might borrow? Have you considered Speaking of students, we recently completed a practi- local historical societies when you think of resource cum with a UW School of Information and Library sharing? Science (SLIS) graduate student, Meredith Torre. The project consisted of 140 hours in which she produced A curatorial colleague of mine has suggested that — an exhibit from start to finish. She created a theme, Google or no Google — nothing will ever replace the found books to support her idea, did research on indivi- importance of the entities we refer to as Rare Books dual titles, wrote text descriptions, and created verbal and Special Collections. Tell that to our administrators, and illustrative promotional material. “A Spoonful of colleagues, patrons, and donors, who can be either sup- Sugar: Medicinal Preparation in the Domestic Sphere” portive or asking that uninformed question, “Why do has been well received by the campus, SLIS, and our we keep all this old stuff?” So, how do we stay in- health science students, who always welcome a bit of cluded and relevant, while mentoring our constituents history in their study space. Meredith, a budding rare and one another? book librarian, learned an enormous amount, and we acquired an exhibition that we would not have had I would like to invite others, as our editor has done in time to research and install ourselves. the past, to submit similar projects or ideas to The Wa- Watermark, Vol. XXX, No. 1 (Winter 2006-2007) 3 termark so that all of us may learn or blatantly copy French Empire in America until being ceded to the from one another: British in 1763. In the nineteenth century Montréal developed as the economic capital of Canada, with the 1. The Watermark should reproduce some of the more headquarters of commercial and financial concerns global questions and responses that have come on located here, along with many industries. The wealthy our listserv. For example, why should we keep the built large mansions upon the slopes of Mount Royal, Cumulative Index Medicus in hard copy when we which dominates the Montréal skyline. The poor lived now have IndexCat online? Or, What do people do in row housing in various parts of the city, always close with their old catalogs from rare book dealers? Or, to the industries where they worked long hours in often How do people do exhibitions inexpensively? The dangerous conditions. The English, Scottish, and Irish listserv is useful, but having an archival record of immigrants of the nineteenth century were later joined such in-house concerns would be appreciated. by Eastern Europeans (especially Jews fleeing pogroms 2. Many of us are seasoned curators, librarians, and and poor conditions), Italians, Greeks, and Chinese in archivists. Most of us have small budgets, little staff, the twentieth century. More recently, Montréal’s im- cramped or compromised space, etc. How do we migrant communities have reflected the desire of the help mentor those coming up in the field — short of Québec government to strengthen the “French fact” of the annual meeting — which not everyone can attend Québec, so francophones from Haiti, Morocco, Algeria, — and The Watermark? Might our Web site be fur- Lebanon, and Vietnam have come in large numbers.