YOUR INFORMATION CONNECTION WWW.LIB.UCONN.EDU APRIL/MAY 2003

Succeeding In The Wilbur Cross Library Difficult TImes Informal Observations on Its Place in UConn History

Brinley Franklin Norman D. Stevens, Emeritus Director of University Libraries Director of University Libraries ies, both of whom had joined the university he renovated Wilbur Cross building, shortly before completion of the addition. A here are times when it is which now houses a range of student collection of 400,000 volumes in 1962 had grown relatively easy to be services, was rededicated on Novem- successful. Difficult times T to a million volumes by 1971. That growth led to T ber 20, 2002. As part of the program, I was the need for a new library building, which opened are more challenging, and asked to speak about the building’s role as the in 1978 and was dedicated as the Homer Babbidge success is harder to achieve. The University Library. Since the University of 2002 UConn women’s basketball Library in 1984. Connecticut Advance and the rededication (Adapted from the rededication program) team had four first-round WNBA program included short pieces on the history picks in its starting line-up. The of the building, I offered informal observa- undefeated team won the national championship, 1939-1945 Upon its completion in 1939, the WCL tions based on my experiences after I joined was an impressive structure that dominated the but it was almost expected. Only one player the staff in 1968 and also on my understand- campus landscape. Its distinctive cupola and gold returned to the starting line-up in 2003, the ing of the earlier history of the library, starting point guard was injured much of the dome made it the signature campus building of its gleaned largely from conversations with day, a position it held for many years. Even today, season, and most of the players were unproven Roberta K. Smith, who began working in the the cupola remains, perhaps, the primary icon of freshmen and sophomores. Nevertheless, the Wilbur Cross Library in 1946. For this article, women Huskies again won the national champion- UConn, and the view of the building from Storrs I have expanded slightly upon those remarks Road still provides a suggestion of its early ship, losing only one game all season. Some to provide a general impression of the place of stateliness. From the library’s front portico, the observers claim it was Coach Auriemma’s finest the Wilbur Cross Library in the history of view of the landscape to the east was extraordi- coaching job. UConn. ! There are no national championships in nary, as there were no buildings to block the vista academic librarianship. In 2003, the UConn towards Horse Barn Hill, and many large trees A Brief History of the Wilbur Cross Building Libraries faced a year in which the operating had fallen in the hurricane of 1938. The Wilbur Cross Library (WCL), the first budget was cut, the acquisitions budget was flat, Planning and construction of the WCL came university structure built specifically to house the and a smaller complement of staff was called upon at the end of an era in the history of library university’s library collections, served as the to do more with (even) less. That the Libraries architecture that emphasized monumental fea- University of Connecticut’s main library from were able to achieve as much as we did this year is tures. The cupola and dome in the center of the 1939 until 1978. Construction of the 110,000 sq. a testament to the dedication and hard work of building, the imposing stairway and main en- ft. building began in 1938 and was completed, at a our staff and to the unwavering support from our trance, and the massive reading rooms at either cost of $424,472, in May 1939. Funding for the donors. Some of the accomplishments of which we side of the building were typical of the time. building was part of a then unprecedented bond are most proud include: Equally typical was the relegation of collections to issue of nearly $3 million approved by the Con- • The Libraries were accepted into the Boston a multi-tier core stack designed to maximize necticut General Assembly for the construction of Library Consortium, the premier research storage capacity with little consideration for ease new buildings. Chief among the building’s library group in New England. The library of use. Sturdy wooden furniture, especially long features were its seven-level core stack area with a immediately began to participate in BLC reading tables, conveyed a sense of the serious capacity for seven tons of volumes and its two initiatives, including priority document deliv- purpose of the space. The building is evocative of monumental reading rooms with 30-foot high ery/interlibrary loan service and 24/7 reference many academic library buildings constructed in ceilings. The WCL was one of the first campus service. the 1920s and 1930s. buildings to be air-conditioned. • We implemented a new collection management/ Library services emphasized strong collections Fittingly, the Connecticut State College security system using smart computer chips, and large open reading rooms in which students became the University of Connecticut in the same becoming the largest North American library to could study and use the collections. The staff was month the library was completed, and in April utilize this technology and receiving interna- relatively small and, other than then Director Paul 1942, the Board of Trustees named the building tional attention. Users enjoy unmediated Alcorn, consisted entirely of women, most of after Wilbur Cross, a native of Mansfield and a collection security and improved self-checkout whom were either Storrs natives or spouses of four-term governor of male faculty members. Continued on page 5 Connecticut. The stacks were closed An addition to the to students, and except Inside UCONNLibraries WCL was completed for a sizeable reference and dedicated in collection in the north 1964. The addition reading room, books PAGE 2 Collections & Services: Our Fingers Did included space for were made available The Walking • Studying Old Maps in New 250,000 volumes and from a circulation Ways workspace for 60 staff service desk facing the PAGE 3 Ken Wilson (1923-2003) A Friend of members. Library entrance. Students the University Libraries • Searching the collections and were part of a close- Archives for Information on UConn’s Past • services grew rapidly knit academic commu- The Class of 1953 Video Theater under the leadership nity and were expected PAGE 5 Exhibit: Early American Decorative Arts of President Homer to abide by strict PAGE 6 Staff News D. Babbidge and John standards governing PAGE 8 Exhibits: The Cutting Edge • Finding P. McDonald, Director appearance and the Big Picture • Then and Now of University Librar- The Wilbur Cross Library’s monumental features were typical Continued on page 4 of library architecture of the first half of the 20th century.

April/MayAvery Point 2003 Greater Hartford Stamford1 Storrs Torrington UCONNWaterburyLibraries Collections & Services

Our Fingers Did The Walking Studying Old Maps in William Uricchio, Director, Trecker Library, Greater Hartford Campus New Ways

Patrick McGlamery Map & Geographic Information Librarian s reported in the February/March 2003 else who had a telephone; and another from UConn Libraries (“SNET Company a farmer who complained that unnamed Records Donated to Archives & Special “Germans” were constantly coming to his abbidge Library owns relatively few A historic or rare printed maps of Connecti Collections”), the university recently completed house to call authorities to remove their dead cut. In lieu of such documents, and in receipt of the Southern New England Tele- horses from their farms. We also discovered B response to an emerging demand for information phone archival collection from SBC SNET. The internal memos from the company’s first article described the collection’s importance to days, including one requesting that operators about urban growth and the use of the state’s resources, the Map and Geographic Information researchers and noted its appraised value at not spend too much time chatting with Center, MAGIC, developed a strategy to create a $3.8 million dollars. customers, and another announcing that For the few of us who were charged with telephones would have numbers (a big digital collection to be accessed via the Internet. The result is a collection of over 300 map images bringing the initial parts of the collection to technical development at the time). tracing the cartographic history of Connecticut. Storrs from SNET’s vaults and offsite storage Once we were convinced we had cap- facilities, the appraised value seems almost tured the heart of the collection, we arranged These images are now accessible at http:// magic.lib.uconn.edu/cgi-bin/MAGIC_HistList.pl. fantastical. The newly organized and described for it to be sent to the Dodd Center. There, Beginning with maps of Connecticut before materials were, just five years ago, boxes upon archivist Cynthia McElroy, who had been key boxes of mostly dusty, sometimes crumbling, to the retrieval operations, began looking 1800, and working from Edmund Thompson’s Maps of Connecticut Before the Year 1800: A Descrip- volumes, random pieces of paper, ancient through the shrink-wrapped pallets of tive List and Maps of Connecticut for the Years of notebooks, and equipment parts. materials to make some sense of it all. Our work started in the basement vault of A predecessor to the January 28, 2003 Industrial Revolution, 1801-1860: A Descriptive List, MAGIC partnered with libraries holding copies of SNET’s longtime headquarters at 32 Church formal presentation of the collection to the rare maps listed in Thompson. We contracted Street in New Haven, moved to the company’s UConn was held at the Dodd Center on executive suite, spread to an adjacent skyscraper, January 28, 1998, exactly 120 years after the with the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress and with other libraries, such which was to be SNET’s new headquarters (the opening of the first telephone exchange as the Yale University Map Library, to scan maps sale to SBC was rumored but had not advanced (which occurred in New Haven and which yet), and finally to a commercial storage facility started the company that became Southern from their collections. These maps of the entire state provide a comprehensive collection that near Bradley International Airport, where New England Telephone). Cynthia and I brings together, for the first time, the historic members of the Dodd Center staff examined brought a representation of the many items hundreds of the 50,000 boxes located there. in the collection to the Dodd Center’s maps of Connecticut. In a second phase of the project, MAGIC As we pored over what seemed to be an beautiful reading room where then SNET added scanned images of maps of towns from mid endless array of materials, we made a number of chairman and CEO Daniel Miglio and th ad hoc decisions that eventually gave form to the UConn president Philip E. Austin praised 19 century county atlases. This was followed by scans of a series of photographic prints of 1830s collection. We took whatever we could find the effort to preserve the collection and charts of the Connecticut coast and scans of about the company’s early days, including recognized the many activities that would be handwritten board minutes bound into leather done in the years ahead to turn it into the Connecticut rivers from the United States Congres- sional Serial Set. Wall maps of Connecticut’s volumes, some of the world’s first telephone valuable research asset that it has become. counties from the mid 19th century and maps of books, historic files that were maintained on a As the center’s then curator for historic town by town basis, and public relations materi- business collections, I worked with Cynthia the Middle Atlantic States and New England showing Connecticut in context have also been als such as the company’s in-house staff newslet- to mount a well received exhibit of some of added to the collection. Currently, MAGIC is ters. We gathered a number of notebooks related the more interesting items that we had to “rate cases,” in which the company detailed discovered. Included were hand-drawn adding images from George W. Eldridge’s Harbor Charts, Volumes 1 and 2—depicting the harbors its rationale for its customer charges. We pawed schematics of the world’s first pay telephone, from New York City to Bar Harbor, Maine. through and took most of a large photograph photographs of cable-laying across the collection, which showed not only SNET Connecticut River, one of the first sets of All of the maps have been scanned to at least 300 dpi—enough resolution to show words. The workers, operations, and offices, but also lineman’s tools, metal signs with the Bell files are large, as large as 678 Megabytes for the contained fine images of the state’s towns and system logo, and some early equipment, cities as the telephone system was installed and including candlestick telephone handsets. TIFF file of the Hartford County wall map. However, the files are compressed so that the user then grew within their boundaries. We also Following the exhibit, the “real work” of can “zoom” into the map and always get “screen accumulated pictures documenting floods and analyzing and describing began in earnest. other disasters that interrupted telephone The kind of nuts and bolts archival resolution.” That is, the 678 Megabytes are not being downloaded, but a reasonable size file service. efforts accomplished to bring the SNET dependent on the user’s screen, can be, allowing Along with more mundane paper items, archives to Storrs are not unlike mining for such as a bound volume from the 1920’s listing gold or silver. Sometimes the work gives a big one to download the map and use it offline if so desired. The compressed image files were viewed the company’s trucks and their repairs, were return and other times it does not. It feels an average of 4,100 times per month last year, fascinating letters, including a missive from one very good to have hit the mother lode— of the company’s first customers who eventually almost $4 million worth of the finest stuff making MAGIC a very popular site. Having added early land use maps to the figured out that being a pioneer wasn’t all it was buried deep in SNET’s many attics. digital collection, mining them for information cracked up to be since he didn’t know anyone was clearly the next step. For example, two early, statewide maps of Connecticut—Blodget (1792) and Warren & Gillette (1811)—were drawn at relatively large scale and have a remarkable “Operator 25” c. 1908 amount of information on them. The Blodget map Performing a valuable community shows industries and houses of worship. The service, Operator 25 was the source of Warren & Gillette map was the first topographic a wide variety of information including survey of the state. Assigning contemporary train schedules, public meeting times, projected coordinate geometry to these 18th and weather forecasts and baseball scores. 19th century documents so that they can be used SNET President Morris Tyler with modern Geographic Information Systems instituted this practice to build public (GIS) was a leap of faith. Coordinates were as- awareness of the usefulness of the signed to town corner points, providing a reason- telephone. In 1909, Operator 25 able level of geographic accuracy—for 200 hun- became “Information.”. SNET Collection, Dodd dred-year-old measures. Research Center During the same period that we were creating the digital collection of historic printed maps, image-based geo-spatial information, or raster based data, in the form of orthographic aerial Continued on page 5

UCONNLibraries 2 April/May 2003 Ken Wilson Searching the Archives for (1923-2003) Information on UConn’s Past Bruce M. Stave A Friend of the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus & Director of the Center for Oral History University Libraries Norman Stevens comprehensive Without the assis- Director of University Libraries, Emeritus history of the tance of Betsy Pittman, University of University Archivist, and hroughout his AConnecticut, largely based the staff at the Dodd more than 50 upon material from the Center, and the wonder- T years in Storrs, University Archives in the ful finding aids they have Ken Wilson was a Dodd Research Center, is prepared, the task would regular user, strong being prepared for be impossible. Even so, supporter, and true publication in 2006, the one often never knows friend of the University 125th anniversary of what to expect in a file. Libraries. When I UConn. In Box 31, an innocu- joined the library in Unlike comparable Governor Abe Ribicoff (left) with UConn President ously labeled folder, 1968, Ken was Dean of major institutions, the Albert Jorgensen simply marked “A,” Liberal Arts & Sciences. Shortly thereafter, in University of Connecticut revealed a treasure trove 1970, he became Vice President for Academic lacks a full-length history. Walter Stemmons of material relating to shared governance and the Programs, a position he held until 1981. published Connecticut Agricultural College—A emergence of unions at the university. The files of During Ken’s tenure as Vice President, History in 1931, marking the university’s 50th former provost Albert Waugh offer very useful Director of University Libraries John anniversary; and more recently, Mark Roy con- information about the development of university McDonald and I worked closely with him, tributed a photo history of the university to The policies and standards. This follows from his habit and his associate Bill Orr, on virtually every College History Series (Arcadia). However, a stan- of writing complete and detailed letters to faculty matter relating to the library. It was a dard academic history of UConn, accessible to a and other administrators. difficult time for the university’s budget. large audience and attractive to libraries both If contemporaries are impressed by the State support for the university diminished nationally and internationally, does not exist. The physical changes brought to campus by UConn greatly as John Dempsey’s tenure as governor planned book will provide a comprehensive 2000 and the promise of 21st Century UConn, the and Homer Babbidge’s tenure as president treatment of the university’s history with special archives reveal that when the president of the came to an end. We were fortunate to have emphasis on the period after 1931, the years not University of New Hampshire received a copy of Ken and Bill, with substantial help from Ed covered by the Stemmons work. Jorgensen’s capital construction list for 1957, he Hanna in the Controller’s Office, looking out Richard D. Brown, Board of Trustees Distin- responded he would “drool over it with envy.” for the library. Although they often could not guished Professor of History and Director of the The archives also shed light on the develop- provide firm budget figures in such critical university’s Humanities Institute, conceived the ment of athletics at the university and, in light of areas as student labor and acquisitions at the idea for the volume and chairs the editorial board events of recent years, offer some sense of irony. start of the fiscal year, we knew that their that oversees the project. The board selected me In 1936, a member of the Board of Trustees verbal assurance of support at the end of the to write the book. congratulated Jorgensen on the resignation of the fiscal year could be relied on. Ken was With the assistance of two graduate students, basketball coach and continued, “perhaps some committed to the growth and development of Laura Burmeister and Leslie Horner, and an day we will have a decent basketball team up the library and could always be counted on undergraduate, William Berger, I am culling the there….” to give sound guidance and, where necessary, University Archives for useful materials. Cur- The presidential papers, along with other to take prompt action on any problem we rently, I have been concentrating on the collections and sources such as the Connecticut brought to his attention. Jorgensen era (1935-1962) presidential papers, Daily Campus and oral histories available in the More than any other administrator that I the period in which the modern university University Archives and to be conducted espe- worked with in my more than 35 years as an developed. The Connecticut Agricultural College cially for this project, illuminate numerous other academic librarian, Ken had a genuine became the Connecticut State College in 1933 and topics such as undergraduate life, the role of understanding of the importance of the the University of Connecticut in 1939, four years women and minorities, academic freedom contro- library to a university. That came not only after the appointment of Albert Jorgensen as versies, the development of research at Storrs, and from his own library-based academic back- president. the establishment of regional campuses and the ground but also from his personal love and Examining these files is a formidable task. law, medical, and social work schools in other use of books and libraries. When he returned The Jorgensen collection alone consists of 38 parts of the state. to teaching in 1981, he once again became a boxes, 16 linear feet; the boxes may include over The project is supported by contributions regular user of the library. On his retirement 100 files, and the files each may include a large from the UConn chapter of the AAUP, the from teaching in 1989, he took up almost number of documents. If the Jorgensen material President’s Office, the Alumni Association, the permanent residence in Babbidge Library to is imposing, Homer Babbidge’s presidential files University of Connecticut Foundation, the Dodd produce The Columbia Guide to Standard consist of 184 boxes, 102.5 linear feet! Research Center, and other sources. American Usage. I saw him then on a regular basis, and he always expressed interest in the well being of the library. Long-time Friends of the University Libraries, Ken and his wife Marilyn partici- The Class of 1953 pated regularly in library events and pro- grams. It is especially fitting, therefore, that Video Theater his family has established the Kenneth he UConn Class of 1953 will cel- Law Center in 1958. He has conducted a Wilson Library Fund to provide ongoing ebrate its 50th reunion at the Storrs private law practice since 1960 and has been support for the. library. After he announced campus on June 27-28. As part of an active in the UConn Alumni Association since his plan to retire as Vice President, Ken kept T overall goal to raise $150,000 as a class gift to graduation. He is currently a member of several a small hand-lettered sign on his desk in the university, the class has earmarked university committees. Gulley Hall, which read “Lame Ducks Bite.” $35,000 to upgrade the equipment and Rocco Murano, co-captain of the UConn It made clear his intention to continue to furnishings for one of Babbidge Library’s two football team in 1953, earned his UConn devote himself to his assignment. The video theaters. Video Theater II was refur- degree in business and went on to a career in establishment of a library fund in his name bished with funds from the Class of 1952 and publishing and fundraising, working for makes it equally clear that Ken’s influence on bears their name. Similarly, the refurbished Condé Nast, McMillan, and Guide Post, the welfare of the Libraries will continue for Video Theater I will be named for the Class of where he retired as executive vice president of years to come. 1953. Daniel Blume and Rocco Murano, both a major division. A member of the Alumni Contributions to the Kenneth Wilson long-time supporters of the university, are Association since 1953, he has twice served as Library Fund may be directed to Linda leading the fund raising effort. president of the UConn Club. In addition, he Perrone, University Libraries, Storrs, CT Mr. Blume, president of the Associated does pro bono fundraising and marketing 06269-1205. Please make checks payable Student Government during his college days, work for the United Way and homeless to the University of Connecticut Founda- graduated from UConn with a degree in shelters for the elderly and has established an tion and note “Kenneth Wilson Library economics and English and went on to earn a endowed UConn football scholarship in his Fund” on the memo line. degree in law from the Georgetown University family’s name.

April/May 2003 3 UCONNLibraries The Wilbur Cross Library education. The keynote speaker at the dedication treatment by the students. This resulted in, among Continued from page 1 of the addition on October 16, 1964 was Keyes D. other things, a proliferation of graffiti. For the Metcalf, Harvard University Librarian and the first time, it became necessary to assign uniformed premier academic library-building consultant of security staff to monitor the library. In an effort to the time. Metcalf, aware of the rapid growth of the improve the ambiance of the building, steps were library’s collections, reportedly told President taken to introduce art and color into the building Babbidge that the university should immediately and to initiate activities and programs of interest begin planning for a new library building. to students. Fortunately, it was an idea that quickly took root. These efforts met with modest success but one The Higher Education Act of 1965 was ill-fated venture is most memorable. To make up designed to strengthen the educational resources for the lack of comfortable lounge furniture in the of colleges and universities. Thanks to vigorous library, we rescued some mattresses from univer- support for that legislation by national library sity surplus, covered them with colorful associations, in which John McDonald played an Marimekko fabric, and placed them in public active role, substantial funds for library resources areas around the building. Students, however, were made available. Under McDonald’s leader- preferred to drag the mattresses into the ship, the UConn libraries received over $2 million building’s many nooks and crannies, where During the 1940s and 1950s, students studied at long tables in federal funds for acquisitions over a ten-year studying became the last thing on their mind. in the library’s grand reading rooms and were not permitted period. That support, coupled with increased Library staff began to respond more directly in the closed stacks. state funding for library materials, grew the to student interests by participating in such collections so rapidly that even the new addition campus programs as the celebration of the first behavior. Women, for example, were not allowed was not adequate to hold them. By the end of the Earth Day on April 22, 1970. The Special Collec- to wear anything but dresses or skirts and blouses 1960s, portions of the library’s collections were tions Department began to collect underground in the library. being stored in other campus buildings. press materials and other activist and political Formal library architectural planning was in a During this period, academic libraries were ephemera. For the first time, serious efforts were developmental stage during this period. It is beginning to automate selected processes. The made to recruit librarians from institutions in unlikely that there was written building program, library joined with the other New England state other parts of the country rather than to rely as would be required today, based on projections almost entirely on a local pool of candidates. The of collection and student growth, defined staff and age and the gender distribution of the staff service requirements, and other needs. The changed as younger people and men began to join building was an expression of standard academic the staff in greater numbers. library architecture interpreted in terms of Perhaps because of changes that were occur- available funds. It was undoubtedly thought that ring within the library, the WCL was never a the WCL would serve the university’s library target of the many protests and sit-ins that took needs well for the rest of the twentieth century. place on campus. On one evening, African American students who were unhappy with their Planners could not have foreseen the 1946-1964 treatment on campus did occupy the WCL just impact of World War II on higher education. At before closing and remained in the building until the end of the war, the GI Bill of Rights and the police forcibly removed them the next day. No interest of veterans in using that legislation to damage was done to the building during that sit- secure a college education produced a substantial in; students repeatedly assured us that none increase in enrollment, faculty and staff, and would occur and that their complaints were with buildings at UConn. The impact on the library broader university policies and programs and not was in the use of space, especially the reading with the library. rooms, new demands for assistance, and growth of Planning for a new library building pro- the collections. The change in the nature of the ceeded throughout the early 1970s, and eventually student body brought with it some relaxation of the General Assembly provided the funding for it. dress codes and other standards, but students The imposing entrance to the Wilbur Cross addition led to For several years, however, the governor refused remained part of a formal community with a spaces with cinder block walls and bare bones furnishings. to place the project on the agenda for the Bond prescribed, and still somewhat rigid, code of Commission. Finally, prompted in part by the conduct. By the mid-1950s, less than 25 years after university libraries to form the New England need to stimulate the state’s construction industry, the completion of the WCL, it was clear that the Library Information Network (NELINET) as a Governor Grasso released the funds in 1975. library was not adequate to meet the demands means of securing federal support to plan collec- Initial plans for the new building envisioned a being placed upon it. tively for the use of machine-based cataloging graduate and research library. The WCL was to records created at the Library of Congress. By the serve as an undergraduate library with a collection 1964-1978 In the late 1940s, the movement early 1970s, WCL staff, with the help of Computer of about 100,000 volumes and services designed towards formal academic library architectural Center staff, had designed and implemented an for undergraduates. As planning proceeded, planning intensified as most college and university IBM punch-card automated circulation system. At however, it became clear that the university campuses across the country underwent substan- about the same time, library staff began to use administration could not provide sufficient staff to tial growth. A widespread acceptance of modular primitive online search systems to assist faculty operate two substantial library buildings, nor the construction, emphasizing function and flexibility, and students in identifying needed information. funds to clean up and renovate the WCL. In any had become the standard by the time a much- To some degree, the addition’s modular construc- case, other pressing space needs of the university needed addition to the WCL was being planned. tion facilitated installation of equipment needed to required that most of the WCL building be used Except for the new main entrance opposite support these new activities, but it was soon clear for non-library purposes. the Benton Museum of Art, monumental features that the long-term need to introduce new library were not included in the WCL addition. Instead, technologies could not be accommodated by the a straightforward three-story rectangular structure existing library. was attached to the rear of the original library. I joined the library staff in 1968 as Associate The new entrance reflected a change in the overall Director of University Libraries, a position orientation of the campus away from Storrs Road. created so that John McDonald could devote more The addition was built with support columns of his time to planning a new graduate library placed at fixed modular intervals, designed building. Yet another major change was about to primarily to accommodate the efficient placement impact higher education and the life and culture of library stacks, and had few interior load- of the WCL in its last years as a library building. bearing walls. Interior space featured open stacks By the late 1960s, college and university with a mixture of shared seating—at tables sub- campuses were in a state of turmoil as student stantially smaller than those in the old reading activism, especially protests against the war in rooms—and individual study carrels. Completed Vietnam, reached a fever pitch. Those issues also Study spaces in the Wilbur Cross addition were crowded, at a time when the state and the university were dominated the work of the American Library unattractive, and poorly maintained. stressing economy, the addition had cinder-block Association and, in many institutions including When we left the WCL to occupy the new walls, standard library and office furniture, and UConn, permeated the thinking and activity of library building in October 1978, we felt apprecia- no frills. Only the administrative offices had any library staff. Student activism brought about a tion for spacious new quarters and relief in features, such as oak paneling, that reflected the major change in their behavior, which in turn, leaving a building that had outlived its usefulness comparative luxury and dignity of the original had a major impact on the WCL. and was in a state of considerable disrepair. But building. By the early 1970s, faced with insufficient we also recognized with gratitude the role that the Construction of the addition had been guided seating and study space and inadequate building WCL had played in developing stronger library by formal planning, but largely unforeseen maintenance, the WCL was subject to harsh services for UConn for almost 40 years. dramatic changes were about to impact higher Continued on page 5 UCONNLibraries 4 April/May 2003 The Wilbur Cross Library Continued from page 4 E X H I B I T Only the new Historical Manuscripts and Archives Department remained behind in the J U N E 9 - A U G U S T 8, 2 0 0 3 WCL, occupying a few offices and the original core stack space for its collections. That depart- ment remained in WCL until moving to the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center in early 1996, Early American when it merged with the Special Collections Department to become Archives & Special Decorative Arts Collections. his exhibit technique, however, 1978-2002 Once most library collections and features uses oil paints with services were removed from Wilbur Cross, the T objects wax to create the building was used, with minimal renovation, for decorated using 19th central design. Some a variety of purposes, including several student century techniques. objects exhibit services and the UConn Foundation. In the late Represented are: several techniques to 1990s, when funds became available under country painting on complete the decora- UConn 2000 and after the library had com- metal and wood tion. pletely left the building, a major renovation employing brush The objects in prepared the building to serve as the central work, as well as the exhibit have been location for Student Affairs. examples of primitive created by members The renovation, by the architectural firm of portraits often of the Charter Oak Arbonies King Vlock, makes remarkably good created prior to the Theorem Design by Valerie Oliver Chapter of the use of the best features of two distinctively introduction of the Historical Society of different architectural styles and integrates them camera; theorem Early American in a way that was never possible when the library painting on white velvet, which utilizes stencils Decoration, Inc., (HSEAD). The society, occupied the building. The original building’s further embellished with brush work; stencil- together with its chapters, carries on the work monumental reading rooms have been retained ing on metal and wood using bronze lining of Esther Stevens Brazer, who devoted her life as open spaces that serve as places to congregate, powders; gold leaf painting on metal; free- to the study and promotion of early American and the office spaces in that portion of the hand bronze work where the bronze lining decoration as an art. building have been refurbished. The old seven- powders are applied without stencils; Pontypool HSEAD also records and maintains tier stack, which always stood as a barrier painting, often featuring tiny daisy-like flowers patterns of early designs, sets standards for between the two buildings and for which no and roses; reverse painting on glass; tinsel contemporary reproductions, provides good alternative use was feasible, has been painting, which is reverse painting on glass awards, teacher certification, and workshops, removed, creating an atrium and allowing for a using translucent paint, the glass later backed conducts two national meetings a year, and central axis between the east and the west with tin foil to produce a sparkling look; and publishes both a newsletter and a journal, The entrances. German designs typically painted on bride’s Decorator. Further information about HSEAD The wisdom of modular planning is fully boxes. can be obtained at www.hsead.org or by demonstrated in the 1964 addition. With For the works exhibited, oil paints, bronze calling 1-866-30H-SEAD toll free. minimal renovation, a series of attractive office lining powders, and gold leaf have been used Babbidge Library, Gallery on the Plaza spaces and service counters have been incorpo- with varnish as the medium. The Pontypool Curators: David Kapp & Valerie Oliver rated, using glass walls and other elements working off the modules that earlier accommo- dated library stacks and service points. The Wilbur Cross building, as it now stands, is far more effective than it ever was as a library. Its contemporary, open interior stands in stark contrast to the sad and shabby building that the library left almost twenty-five years ago. Con- Succeeding in Difficult Times ENCompass for digital collections, which gratulations to all who have brought the build- Continued from page 1 provides integrated access to a variety of local ing back to life! collections, were implemented. A third capabilities. Three staff members have been module that enables instant integrated access redeployed to more productive duties and to commercial content, free web resources, Studying Old Maps in New Ways collection management is significantly im- and our local catalog will be introduced next Continued from page 2 proved. year. • The Libraries hosted three librarians from • Staff continued to develop web-based informa- photography became available and proved to be the University of Fort Hare in South Africa tion literacy modules for freshmen and important for several user communities at the and two Guatemalan librarians to study our upperclassmen, consistent with the university. MAGIC also developed a strategy for library programs and services. The Dodd university’s forthcoming revised General making these very large data sets, some in the Center successfully recruited a project Education Requirements. Librarians taught range of 11 Gigabytes, available. These data are coordinator for the African National Con- 678 instructional sessions for 9,998 students. served out using a wavelet algorithm to compress gress archives project. • The Libraries hosted three significant spon- the files while retaining their geographic nature. • The Libraries completed a pilot project to sored public programs. Samantha Power, These images are in a coordinate projection offer digital audio materials as part of the winner of the 2003 National Book Award for and can be used by a GIS. Computer processing electronic course reserves program. Students non-fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for A enables the user to refer to multiple data layers in two music courses and a virology class Problem From Hell: America and the Age of in a geographic context. For example, US gained access to musical selections and class Genocide, delivered the Raymond and Beverly Census population or housing data can be lectures anytime and anywhere they were able Sackler Lecture. Peter Fisher, Undersecretary mapped to determine where a particular demo- to access the web. of the U.S. Treasury for Domestic Finance, graphic is located; then this map can be laid • The Dodd Center and four library and gave the RBS Greenwich Capital Markets down on the orthophoto for further study. museum partners received a $498,000 grant Lecture. Jean-Claude Guedon, Professor at Orthographic aerial photography was from the Institute for Museum and Library the University of Montreal, and Heather followed with satellite-derived Land Use/Land Services for a second phase of Connecticut Joseph, President of BioOne, addressed the Classification raster data from 1976, 1990 and History Online, allowing us to digitize 1500 crisis in scholarly communications at the 1995. The MAGIC scanner was put to good use images from Archives and Special Collections Chancellor’ Library Advisory Committee- by scanning printed maps of land classification and make them available online. sponsored program, “Publish and Perish.” from 1954, 1961 and 1970, making this informa- • The library is one of the first ten North The University of Connecticut Libraries has tion also available in digital form. American research libraries to install an important role to play on our campus as well Today, images of these historic maps are ENCompass Solutions, developed by En- as in the state, region, nation, and even the dynamically available to users through GIS at deavor Information Systems and its software world. Despite mounting economic pressures in http://mapserver.lib.uconn.edu/magic/. Re- development partners: Cornell University, the 2003, we continued to deliver excellent services searchers can bookmark their place on the maps, Getty Research Institute, Kansas State Univer- and programs. We are extremely thankful to our layering over 200 years of cartographic informa- sity and the University of Kansas. Two mod- st friends and supporters. Like the UConn Hus- tion as they explore 21 century Connecticut ules, Link Finder Plus, which allows direct kies, we aspire to be the best. through time and space. linking to electronic journal articles, and

April/May 2003 5 UCONNLibraries Staff News

Moving Forward at the Exit Desk to ensure that it had been prop- trative Librarian and Director, Regional Campus erly charged out. Late evening and weekend Libraries The nine library staff members profiled below coverage of this desk was essential since it was have opted to take advantage of the state’s early staffed at all hours the library was open. Rich Ellen Esther Embardo came to the retirement offer and will be moving forward to describes himself as a “night person,” so the late University of Connecticut as a the next phase of their lives. As we went to press, evening hours suited him perfectly. transfer student from a small college some additional staff were still considering Library users could count on seeing Rich at in Boston to study at UConn’s retirement, so we may have more to report in the his appointed post until midnight, when the School of Education. She arrived to September/October newsletter. library closed, always ready with a cheerful, and a campus awakening to the con- With her forty years of service to the library, many times, a sympathetic word to students who sciousness of the times: be-ins, buttons, marches, Francis Horila appears to hold the record for were studying diligently or writing reports late and sit-ins. Ellen supported her studies by longevity. But many others have been with the into the night. Rich was a fountain of accurate working in the library during the day and typing library for more than thirty years, and still information and good advice, helping students to the Daily Campus at night. The more she typed, the others arrived in 1978 when the library moved negotiate what can appear to be an overwhelming more she read, and the more interested in the from the Wilbur Cross building to the Babbidge building with complex collections and services. In emerging counter-culture she became. Library. We’re grateful for their loyalty and we’ll every encounter with users, he imparted confi- Ellen graduated after two years with a degree miss their skills and experience. Most of all, dence and offered straight answers. in education, but recognized that librarianship we’ll miss their day-to-day presence as colleagues During the summer of 2002, new library was her calling. She held a variety of temporary and friends. We wish them the best. security technology eliminated the need for an library assistant positions-interlibrary loan super- A party to celebrate retiring staff members is Exit Desk where library books and patron belong- visor, reserves coordinator, and legislative refer- planned for Monday, May 19, from 4 - 6 PM, ings were checked, so Rich opted to join the ence intern—while working toward a professional location to be announced. If you would like to Access Services staff at the Circulation Desk. degree at Simmons College. She was awarded her join us, please RSVP to the Director’s Office at There, his familiarity with the library’s operations Master’s degree in Library Science in 1977 and a 860-486-2219. has most recently been put to invaluable use— few months later accepted her first professional Lee Astin began his career with the once again during those difficult to staff late night position as a Special Collections Librarian at the library as a part-time graduate and weekend hours. Wilbur Cross Library. student worker in the fall of 1977, As Rich retires, we’ll miss his familiar and In 1982, Ellen was formally designated when the library was still housed in friendly greeting, not to mention his wealth of Curator of the Alternative Press Collection and the Wilbur Cross building. This accumulated knowledge and his calm and reassur- Curator of the Northeast Children’s Literature evolved over the years into a full-time career that ing presence. We wish him the very best in the Collection. She saw these grow into two of the is now ending twenty-six years later. future. ! most respected and most visited collections at the Lee remembers well the move from Wilbur Dennis Thornton, Facilities Manager, Babbidge University. Over the years Ellen helped to insti- Cross into the new Homer Babbidge Library Library tute the annual Children’s Book Fair, one of the building in 1978; his assignment was to unpack most popular regional events on campus, and the huge cloth bins full of journals that had been It may be said of Elizabeth (Betty) prepared many memorable exhibits highlighting held for delivery till after the move to the new Dzurnak that her thirty-four year the alternative press, ranging from “Hell No, We building. In 1981, he received his Master’s degree career at the University Libraries Won’t Go” in 1983 to “Voices from the Under- in German Studies, and at the same time accepted took her far professionally and yet ground” in 1999. a full-time position in the Serials Department. didn’t take her very far at all geo- In 1994-95 Ellen spent a year at the Bilkent Eventually he was put in charge of the public graphically. Educated at Saint University in Ankara, Turkey. Not long after her service desk for the former Current Journals Room. Joseph’s College in West Hartford, she started return, she elected to take a new position at the In the early 1990s, processing of journals and work at UConn’s West Hartford campus in 1969— library, that of Reference Librarian and Liaison to serials for commercial binding was transferred to a campus one can see from the parking lot of “St. the Department of Sociology. Ellen thrived in her the Preservation Department. Lee transferred Joe’s” on a leafless winter day. She began at the new position right from the start, for it allowed her along with the journals. He began working a few “old” Harleigh B. Trecker Library in the then- the freedom to combine several of her passions— hours a week in the Conservation Lab where he recently constructed School of Social Work librarianship, learning, law, and teaching—in very learned to repair damaged library materials, Building and, in the mid-1980’s, moved across creative and rewarding ways. Ellen leaves us at the concentrating on journals and serials. campus to the “new” Trecker Library whose pinnacle of her long and productive career; we all In 1996, when current journals were moved expanded mission reached beyond Social Work to will be very much the poorer without her. ! to Level 3, Lee took over the entire journals embrace the business and undergraduate pro- Scott Kennedy, Director, Research & Information management operation and shortly thereafter grams. Services became a member of the Serials Team. As we Betty started as a Library Assistant I but by implement a new security and collections manage- 1971 had already advanced to the next rank and Frances Horila, Library Technical ment system, Lee has been overseeing the creation been given responsibility for the School of Social Assistant in Babbidge Circulation/ of individual identification records for nearly Work library’s important periodicals collections. Reserve, began her forty-year library 300,000 journal volumes. This effort will ulti- She was promoted to Library Assistant III in career as an exit control attendant in mately lead to a fully automated inventory system 1977. With the creation of the “new” Trecker the Wilbur Cross Library, becoming a for the library’s journal collections. Library, Betty assumed responsibility for the circulation assistant several years later. Circulation Lee, an avid gardener, plans to enroll in the expanded journals collections of three formerly was a totally manual operation in those days, and Master Gardener program through the UConn independent libraries that had been brought Frances worked with spindle boxes containing paper Cooperative Extension Center and to help his together under one roof. She was responsible for cards of charge transactions. Each day she would mother with her home and gardens. He also the Periodicals Room in the basement of the pull the spindle so that overdue charge slips would hopes to finish the Sanskrit grammar book he has library building and kept that vital place operat- drop out; then she would produce and mail post been studying for the past several years and to make ing for a decade when library reorganization card notices for overdue books. When the library a pilgrimage to Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, to seek an brought her upstairs to work with the new auto- moved to Babbidge, Frances’ responsibilities ex- audience with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami. mated circulation system. panded to include circulation desk duties and Lee has been responsible for the quiet success Along the way, Betty, most recently as Access assistance with reserves. of so many “behind-the-scenes” operations; it is Services Assistant, helped run the Torrington Over the years, Frances witnessed the installa- hard to imagine how we will maintain the same campus library from time to time, labored to tion and demise of an IBM punch-card circula- service standards as he leaves the library and implement various iterations of the Libraries’ tion system, an interim Epic system, the introduc- enters this next phase of his life. ! access services technologies, and worked closely tion of our first integrated library system–NOTIS, Carole Dyal, Library Conservator/Preservation with the Trecker Library’s student laborers. and its successor, Endeavor Voyager. When the Officer Anyone visiting Betty’s desk area will instantly Libraries reorganized into teams in 1996, Frances learn two things about her—she is a NASCAR joined Access Services, where she has had respon- Richard (Rich) Debrito began enthusiast and this interest is perhaps surpassed sibilities in Document Delivery/Interlibrary Loan, his library career as an Exit only by her enthusiasm for her many cats. Betty as well as in Circulation/Reserve and general Desk attendant in the fall of has many avocations that will keep her busy information services. Probably more than any 1978, with the opening of the during retirement, and if a feline ever learns to current staff member, she has witnessed and then new Homer Babbidge drive in a NASCAR race, two of them will be adapted to the most transformational changes in Library. At that time, each neatly con”cat”enated. ! academic libraries in the 20th century. library book leaving the building William Uricchio, Director, Trecker Library, Continued on page 7 had to be individually inspected UConn/Greater Hartford & Deborah Sunday, Adminis-

UCONNLibraries 6 April/May 2003 Staff News The best part of her job, Sue says, has been its cyclist. His many associates and friends across the Continued from page 6 variety. She knows whereof she speaks, having had campus will miss his expertise and his calm to do just about everything in Torrington during collegiality. ! Still, as the saying goes, “what goes around her years there. She has enjoyed learning new Brinley Franklin, Director, University Libraries comes around.” Last summer, Babbidge installed a skills and has embraced automation. During her new automated security system, and exit control career, the library went through four automation Mary Ann Davison Thomas began duties now reside with circulation desk attendants. systems and innumerable word processing and her library career in the Ledyard Frances, forty years later, is once more responsible spreadsheet programs. Public Library as a volunteer for for exit control in addition to her many other duties. In retirement, Sue will spend more time children’s story hour and then went Frances’ flexibility and sense of humor have teaching jewelry making and silk and fabric on to work at the circulation desk gotten her, and us, through many technological dyeing and will continue to craft the beautiful and as a weekend supervisor. She and organizational changes. She now looks creations we all admire so much. Already an avid earned her Library Technical Assistant (LTA) forward to travel, time with grandchildren, gardener, she plans to become a Master Gardener. certificate at Mohegan Community College while volunteer work, and planting an herb garden. We She is starting a first-of-its-kind 4-H Club for working at the Connecticut College Library. will miss her and wish her much happiness and beaders and will continue to volunteer at the Hunt Ann joined the UConn/Avery Point Library good health in her retirement. ! Library in Falls Village and to organize the staff in 1987. There, she has helped to automate Nancy Orth, Director, Access Services, Babbidge UConn Torrington book sale. Her many talents library functions, participated in space planning Library will be sorely missed in both Torrington and for collections and study areas, offered library Waterbury. ! instruction sessions for new students and faculty, Nancy Orth joined the University Deborah Sunday, Administrative Librarian and and trained and supervised student assistants. The Libraries in 1978. Nancy earned a Director, Regional Campus Libraries; and Janet Swift, most rewarding part of her career, she says, has Bachelor’s Degree in Russian and University Assistant Librarian, Waterbury Regional been working with student assistants; several have French at Emmanuel College and a Campus Library pursued careers in libraries and several remain Master’s Degree in Slavic Languages close friends. and Literature at Brown University. Dennis Thornton is retiring after An active participant in professional activities Prior to joining the Libraries, Nancy taught more than thirty-two years of service for LTAs, Ann helped to organize the LTA sec- Russian at Boston College and high school in at the University of Connecticut. tions in the Connecticut Library Association and Middlebury, Vermont. She also served as Assistant Born in Westerly, Rhode Island and the New England Library Association and served Director for Summer Exchange of Language raised in Stonington, Connecticut, on the Board of Directors for the LTA program at Teachers to the USSR in New York City. Dennis graduated from the Univer- Three Rivers Community College. Nancy became Head of Babbidge Library sity of Connecticut in 1970 with a Bachelor’s “The last 20 years in libraries,” Ann says, Circulation/Reserve Department in 1985 after degree in English and French. “have been most exciting and challenging due to working in the Technical Processing Unit for Dennis joined the library staff in 1970. the impact of the electronic era on our lives and seven years. She has been instrumental in a Previously, he had served in combat in Vietnam the way we communicate, gather and disseminate number of pivotal library automation projects and as a substitute teacher in South Windsor. information. It’s been a treat to be a part of it.” In since assuming a leadership position in 1985. She Dennis also held a number of diverse jobs, all of retirement, she looks forward to spending more has been a key player in both the implementation which contributed to his later success as the time with her family, crafts, gardening, golf, and and maintenance of the university’s first auto- Babbidge Library Facilities Manager. Among the her new endeavor as a senior fitness instructor. ! mated circulation system and our current Voyager positions Dennis held were: surveyor, library integrated library system. Nancy was also a shelver, velvet inspector, landscaper, and automo- Other Staff News member of the teams that brought electronic bile mechanic. Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy course reserve, electronic document delivery, Dennis helped move the library from the and Horror (Scribner’s 2002), has received the 2003 RFID technology, and digital audio electronic Wilbur Cross Building to the new Homer New York Public Library’s “Best of Reference course reserves to the University Libraries. Babbidge Library in 1978 and was named Head of award.” Liaison/reference librarian Richard Nancy was active in the Libraries’ strategic Collection Maintenance in that year; Facilities Bleiler edited the volume and was a major con- planning and organizational restructuring efforts Management was added to his title in 1983. He tributor to it. Earlier, the American Library in 1995-1996, and has served on the University has been an active member of the Libraries’ Association recognized it as the “Outstanding Academic Planning Committee, the Chancellor’s Exhibits Committee for more than twenty years. Reference Source” of the year. Library Advisory Committee, and other university Dennis holds the distinction of being the Suzanne Zack, former Assistant committees as well. In 1992, she was recognized as individual who discovered the Babbidge Library’s to the Vice Chancellor for Informa- part of the university’s celebration of 100 years of failing cantilever in the late 1980s. As a reward, he tion Services for Marketing and Women at UConn. spent the next decade working with the State Communications, has joined the staff In addition to her professional achievements, Department of Public Works, University Facilities of the University Libraries. Prior to Nancy and her husband Sam, a professor at staff, and various structural engineers, architects, coming to UConn, Suzanne served UConn at the time of his death, raised two sons, interior designers, and tradesmen to repair and as Assistant Director of Marketing and Communi- Adam and Austin. Never one to take it easy, Nancy renovate Babbidge Library. The award winning cations, Trinity College, for four years; as Public will continue temporarily in her current role as Babbidge Library that we all enjoy today is in Relations/Development Coordinator and Refer- Director of Library Access Services on a part-time large a result of Dennis’s knowledge of the ence Librarian, Stowe-Day Library, Stowe House, basis. ! building’s infrastructure, his patience and persis- Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, for eight years; and Brinley Franklin, Director, University Libraries tence, and above all, his wonderful sense of as Administrator, Corporate Communications, humor. Aetna, for ten years. Suzanne holds a BA in Susan Dean Thebarge entered UConn Dennis is an avid lover of art and indepen- English Literature from Central Connecticut State as a student in the very first UConn/ dent and foreign cinema. He is also a competitive University. Torrington class. After graduating from Storrs in 1970, she was hired as Administrative Assistant to the Torrington Campus Director. She began working for the Torrington Campus Library in Two university librarians from Guatemala recently spent three weeks at the UConn Libraries as part 1977, and in 1987 she moved to the Waterbury of a USIA Educational Partnership Program Campus Library as Circulation/Serials Assistant. exchange between UConn and the Universidad Since library reorganization in 1997, Sue has San Carlos. Lilian Reyes Camey (left), Library split her time between the Waterbury and Director from Centro Regional, Universidad de Torrington libraries. Her ability to do this helped San Carlos in Quetzaltenango; and Amanda the reorganization succeed and perfectly illustrates Méndez (right), Director, Library, Escuela de her commitment to the university and her willing- Ciencia Política, U. San Carlos; worked with ness to be flexible in response to the ever chang- Darlene Hull, Latin American & Caribbean ing needs of the library and demands of the specialist in the Babbidge Library. profession. The visitors focused their work plan on During her thirty plus years of service to the observing and gathering information regarding university, Sue has managed the local United Way functions of US academic libraries, primarily in the areas of research resources and services to users, campaign six times, acted as treasurer of the as well as setting up a network for donations and Waterbury Campus Association, served on the materials exchange to their libraries. Visits were Waterbury Recruitment Committee, the Libraries’ also scheduled to other libraries in the area including Yale, UMass, Harvard, and Eastern Connecticut State ULA Peer Review Team, and the HOMER and University. Later this year Darlene Hull will travel to Guatemala on a reciprocal visit to work with Regional Campus Libraries Access Services Teams. librarians at the Universidad San Carlos.

April/May 2003 7 UCONNLibraries 273700 NON-PROFIT ORG. U. S. Postage Paid Storrs, Ct UConnLibraries Permit No 3 Homer Babbidge Library U-1005A, Storrs, CT 06269-1005

Homer Babbidge Library Monday-Thursday 8 am - 9 pm Friday 8 am - 5 pm Saturday-Sunday Noon - 5 pm

Dodd Research Center Monday-Friday 10 am - 4 pm Saturday-Sunday Closed

Closed June 28-29 and July 4-6

E X H I B I T S J U N E 9 - A U G U S T 8, 2 0 0 3

The Cutting Edge Finding the Big Picture Papercut Illustrations by Andrea Wisnewski Photographs by Jim Lindsay ndrea Wisnewski has been drawing pictures ever since she was a little or many years, Jim Lindsay maintained an active interest in creating girl growing up on the Eastern shore of Maryland. “I can still collages, using manufactured as well as found papers, metals, and A remember those years wandering through cornfields, searching our wooden pieces. Several years ago, however, he purchased a Canon Fautomatic camera to record ideas that he found in nature, on walls, trash lawn for wild duck eggs and the shoreline for shells,” she says, “It was my own personal time of wonder.” heaps, anywhere that suggested an interesting composition for another collage. Her family moved to Connecticut where they had their own mini farm, He carried the camera everywhere and used countless rolls of film, searching including two wild Shetland ponies, twenty or so chickens, a dog, many cats for new ideas. Gradually, the camera took on a life of its own, and film re- and several gerbils. She tried her hand at pony training but when she broke placed cutting and pasting as his preferred medium of artistic expression. her arm bareback riding she decided to take it easy. Curling up with a great Lindsay’s photographs typically focus on details within a larger setting. book and reading for hours was a favorite pasttime. The Cricket in Times Square For example, his photo “Dumpster 4” is not obviously that of a dumpster. The (George Selden), the Laura Ingalls Wilder series, and The Secret Garden rust riddled end of the heavy metal equipment is hardly noticeable when (Frances Hodgsen Burnett) were among her favorites. viewing the image. Isolated in the viewfinder, the rust assumes a character of Andrea attended the Portland School of Art in Maine and the University its own, leading the viewer to question what he is seeing. The image becomes a of Connecticut in Storrs, where she received her BFA in 1985. Her company, subject for interpretation. Running Rabbit Press, has produced numerous illustrations over the years for Lindsay, a clinical social worker, earned his BA in English with a minor newspapers, magazines, and publishers. A technique that she developed in art at the University of Connecticut. In a review of his work, one critic imitates the look of a woodcut but is actually a papercut. Her first children’s’ noted that, as a psychotherapist, Lindsay “sees many images of life and the book, A Cottage Garden Alphabet was published by David R. Godine in 2002. human condition. But it is what he sees through his camera lens...that makes The papercuts begin by doing sketches on vellum. “When I have tweaked him an artist.” the sketch to my satisfaction,” she says, “the design is transferred onto a black, Dodd Center, West Corridor • Curator: Roger Crossgrove clay-coated paper. Most of the design’s details come out in the cutting process, for which I use a #11 X-acto blade and lots and lots of patience.” When a cut is complete, a magnesium plate is made of the design. The Then and Now plate is then printed on a 32 Collages by Joy Floyd x 34 press hand built by her oy Floyd is a collage artist living and working in Hartford, Connecticut. husband Chris. Often the She says of her work: “My muse is quite tangible. My inspiration is print is hand colored with the ordinary stuff left over at the end of a day or a year or a life. Faded watercolor. The finished J jeans, rusted metal, marbleized papers, linen scraps, stained copper, prints have the effect of a wood shingles, shells, stones, buttons and bottle caps excite me. The unique woodcut and not the micro- beauty of materials with a history obliges me to honor these objects in my surgery with a scalpel that collages. The ideas expressed in my pieces start with a particular material and they are. grow during the mysterious process of selecting and integrating other materi- Andrea lives in Storrs, als to complete the puzzle. I retrieve the textures, shapes, and colors that I Connecticut with her hus- could never create on my own. I can, however, present them in my composi- band Chris, daughter tions as gifts; since they were given to me.” Allison, and their three Ms. Floyd is a long-time member of Artworks Gallery. In 1998, she was Welsh Corgis. awarded an artist fellowship by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Her Dodd Center Gallery dedication to the collage medium stems from her involvement with young Cows by Andrea Wisnewski Curator: Terri Goldich children and their extraordinary imaginative use of materials. Babbidge Library, Stevens Gallery • Curator: Roger Crossgrove

Volume 9, Number 2 www.lib.uconn.edu April/May 2003 UConn Libraries is published by the University of Connecticut Libraries four times each year to provide current information about collections, services, and activities to faculty, staff, friends, and others who are interested in the welfare of the Libraries. If you do not wish to receive the newsletter, please contact Ann Galonska at [email protected] or 860-486-6882 or Dodd Research Center, 405 Babbidge Road, U-1205, Storrs, CT 06269-1205. Editor David Kapp Contributors Roger Crossgrove, Carole Dyal, Kristin Eshelman, Brinley Franklin, Kate Fuller, Ann Galonska, David Garnes, Terri Goldich, Scott Kennedy, Patrick McGlamery, Nancy Orth, Betsy Pittman, Jane Recchio, Bruce Stave, Norman Stevens, Deborah Sunday, Janet Swift, Dennis Thornton, William Uricchio, Darlene Waller, and Suzanne Zack