LibrariesISSN 0273-3951 VOL. 45, NO. 2 APRIL/MAY/JUNE 1999

Virginia Is Rich with Special

Also: Copyright Law, New Directions for Virginia History, and Virginia Books STAFF

Editor Cy Dillon Stanley Library Virginia Ferrum College P.O. Box 1000 Ferrum, Virginia 24088 (540) 365-4428 Libraries [email protected] April/May/June, 1999, Vol. 45, No. 2 Associate Editor Nancy H. Seamans Virginia Tech COLUMNS University Libraries Blacksburg, Virginia Sandra Heinemann 2 President’s Column: The Value of a (540) 231-2708 State Library Association [email protected] Cy Dillon 3 Openers: Special Libraries, Expanded Editorial Board Online Presence Karen W. Dillon Julie A. Campbell, Ed. 24 Virginia Books Contract Manager SWING (Southwest Information Network Group) 3045 Dugspur Road FEATURES Callaway, Virginia 24067 Frances Pollard 4 Listening to the Past: The Collections of (540) 334-5089 the Virginia Historical Society [email protected] Karen Grandage and 8 Partnering for Better Health Care: John T. Kneebone Linda Watson The Role of Academic Health Sciences Publications Division Library of Virginia 11th Street at Capitol Square Laura Rose 10 A New Home for the National Sporting Richmond, Virginia 23219 Library (804) 786-7311 [email protected] Barbara Selby 12 Refdesk: The University of Virginia ’s Approach to E-mail Reference Rebecca R. Laine Longwood College Library Amy W. Boykin and 15 Creating Library Newsletters on the Farmville, Virginia 23909 Andrea Kross World Wide Web (804) 395-2441 John T. Kneebone 18 Of Books, Readers, and Reading: New [email protected] Directions for Virginia

Sarah K. Wiant 19 ‘License’ or ‘Sale’? New Regulations On the cover: The Virginia Historical Society May Affect Libraries

Virginia Libraries is a quarterly journal published by the Virginia Library Association whose purpose is to develop, promote, and improve library and information services and the pro- fession of librarianship in order to advance literacy and learning and to ensure access to information in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The journal, distributed to the membership, is used as a vehicle for members to exchange information, ideas, and solutions to mutual problems in professional articles on current topics in the library and information field. Views expressed in Virginia Libraries are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or edito- rial board. Information in Virginia Libraries is copyrighted by the Virginia Library Associa- tion. Material may be reproduced for informational, educational, or recreational purposes. Virginia Libraries is indexed in Library Literature. Items for publication and editorial inquiries should be addressed to the editor. Inquiries regarding membership, subscriptions, advertising, or claims should be directed to VLA, P.O. Box 8277, Norfolk, VA 23503-0277. All personnel happenings and announcements should be sent to the VLA Newsletter, Mary Hansbrough, P.O. Box 90001, University Libraries, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24062, (540) 231-8832, fax (540) 231-3694, e-mail maryhans@

Graphic Design by Lamp-Post Publicity, Meherrin vt.edu. Virginia Libraries is available by subscription at $20 per year. Printing by Farmville Printing, Farmville The guidelines for submissions to Virginia Libraries are found on page 11. PAGE 2 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN The Value of a State Library Association

by Sandra Heinemann

ay marked the half- voice can move mountains. This ment and career advancement are way mark in my ten- year, through the efforts of VLA’s furthered through networking at ure as VLA President. legislative liaison and Legislative VLA conferences and workshops, MIt has been a very busy time. I Committee, the association secured and by serving the association on have attended meetings in many a budget amendment which in- committees and in other leader- areas of the Commonwealth, writ- creased state aid to public libraries ship positions. Such opportunities ten numerous letters, chaired by $2.8 million for FY2000. Every are less costly to institutions in meetings, responded to e-mails, and its users benefit terms of personnel time and insti- spoken with legislators, and car- from this. VLA also worked with tutional resources than participa- ried out a myriad of other duties. members of the General Assembly tion in regional or national organi- During this time, my commitment to adopt Internet use policies that zations. VLA funds two major to the association that I have been would allow libraries local control scholarships through corporate involved in for over 20 years has over patron use of the Internet. and individual donations with the increased, and, more than ever, I This occurred during a time when awards contingent on the recipi- appreciate and value the ways in attempts were made to legislate ent’s commitment to a career in a which the members promote and use of the Internet in libraries and Virginia library. These people will sustain its mission. The association schools, thereby impeding access staff the libraries of tomorrow. is the sum of its various parts. to electronic information sources Why should every library direc- Members work in a number of dif- in those institutions. tor and all other library personnel ferent types of libraries—special, Secondly, the Virginia Library and supporters belong to VLA? academic, school, and public. They Association provides affordable and VLA is the underpinning that con- hold a variety of positions— accessible continuing education nects all library services and library reference, technical services, acqui- opportunities for all library person- personnel in the state. Every one sitions, and administration, to nel in the state. At a time when of us lives in a community that name a few. Some of our members the costs of training opportunities has a public library; every one of are trustees or friends. What we all and attendance at national confer- us is a library user. Many of our have in common is a belief in the ences is escalating, VLA offers work- children use school libraries; some value of libraries, library services, shops of current interest to all lev- of us are graduate students who and the library profession. els and types of library employees. use university libraries. We should So, why are we members of our The VLA Annual Conference has support an organization that state professional association? First been held every year since 1923. It allows our collective voices to be and foremost, our association gives continues to attract first rate speak- heard in a way that can bring us the opportunity to speak as one ers on a variety of relevant topics. results. Organizations such as ours voice in support of our mission and In addition, it provides an oppor- do not exist on air alone; people our values. The Virginia Library tunity to showcase our local talent provide the time, energy , commit- Association provides leadership and as more and more Virginia librari- ment, and financial support to a structure to effectively influence ans support the association by pre- maintain worthwhile organiza- legislators in both the Virginia Gen- senting programs at the confer- tions. The more individuals and eral Assembly and the U. S. Con- ence. The VLA-sponsored Parapro- institutions contribute, the more gress. Critical issues relative to fessional Forum Conference attracts they, and society, will receive in funding and intellectual freedom nearly 500 attendees annually be- return. To those of you who are are determined by these governing cause it fulfills a need to network members, take “One Minute for bodies. There is strength in num- and learn, and it is affordable. Membership” and ask someone bers. A critical mass speaking as one Thirdly, professional develop- you know to join. VL

Sandra Heinemann is Head Catalog at Hampden-Sydney College. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 3

OPENERS Special Libraries, Expanded Online Presence

by Cy Dillon

inger Young, current ing in a special library, Ginger look for yourself by going to the president of the Vir- advises that “The future looks VLA page, selecting “publications,” ginia Special Libraries promising for a career in special and clicking on the Virginia Librar- GAssociation, recently asked me, libraries; information is highly val- ies link. Beyond the value of the “Where else can you network with ued in the business world. Special itself, we are delighted librarians from NASA Langely, Librarians tend to work with spe- with the additional status our Colonial Williamsburg, the Roa- cialized types of information, and authors will have by being part of noke Times, Mezzullo & McCand- personal expertise is welcomed.” the SCP. It is also pleasing to think lish, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Let me add that VLA appreciates of being able to post links to arti- College of William and Mary, and the participation and support of all cles in listservs and on web sites, Philip Morris?” She had me there. the professionals and paraprofes- or even of being able to access and Living in a state rich with spe- sionals who make Virginia’s spe- download images from past issues. cial libraries, we often take their cial libraries work. Our copyright policy allows, even diversity and bounty for granted. Speaking of work, all of us asso- encourages just that sort of use. While Virginia Libraries frequently ciated with Virginia Libraries want We believe this web presence, features special libraries and their to thank Gail McMillian and the along with the quality hard copy librarians, we are particularly fortu- rest of the staff at the Virginia and the H. W. Wilson commercial nate that this issue contains five Tech Library’s Scholarly Commu- version of our journal, help us ful- articles about special libraries and nication Project for the job they fill our purpose. Virginia Libraries is their work, along with a discussion have done in making our journal intended to promote communica- of copyright law by a distinguished part of their electronic publishing tion among members of the library law librarian and a piece on a new effort. Led by our own Associate community and to make it easy to prize for writing about the history Editor Nan Seamans, they have share good ideas, pass along vital of libraries in the Commonwealth. produced a handsome and remark- information, and address impor- Ginger went on to say that “Our ably useful version of the maga- tant issues we face in our work. libraries add a touch of the corpo- zine. Issues since the title change The SCP version takes us to an rate and the world to the are archived in the pdf format, entirely new level of ease of access public, school and academic librar- providing exact images of the and use. ies, which are the backbone of pages. Issues beginning with the Finally, I want to make a VLA. We have varying work places first quarter of 1999 will be belated expression of appreciation and clientele, but networking gives available in both the pdf and for the efforts of Jane Schillie in us valuable support for serving our HTML versions. HTML allows for helping put together the first quar- parent companies.” Certainly our live links to internet sites and e- ter issue on . She association is enriched by its scores mail addresses, and it has the not only wrote a fine article, but of members from special libraries, advantages of quick downloading she also helped identify and and the level of interconnection and easy cutting and pasting for recruit new authors. A space and multi-type cooperation found quotations. That means articles crunch in the column area and my among Virginia’s libraries should featuring web sites will support own carelessness in writing caused be a model for other types of insti- direct browsing, and that it will be an oversight that has to be cor- tutions. We have longstanding quite simple to send a colleague— rected. The quality of the articles success in multi-type buying con- or an entire list—a book review or in Virginia Libraries is often the sortia, multi-type interlibrary loan article. result of networking by recognized agreements, and, through VLA’s The SCP staff has also allowed leaders such as Jane, and I would legislative efforts, multi-type advo- our webmaster Steve Helm to link not want to be responsible for pro- cacy programs. We can expect directly to their attractive and ducing the journal without sup- even more in the future authoritative site for the VLA site’s port of this caliber. VL If you are thinking about work- version of Virginia Libraries. Take a PAGE 4 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 Listening to the Past: The Collections of the Virginia Historical Society

by Frances Pollard

hortly after he was named stuff.” Since 1831, the Historical the diary of George Washington the Librarian of Congress Society has collected materials that kept during his first year as presi- in 1939, Archibald Mac- support the study and interpreta- dent, letters written by emanci- SLeish commented that libraries tion of Virginia’s history and cul- pated slaves who emigrated to were familiar to most people only ture. The first items given to the Liberia, the first cookbook pub- as “imposing edifices on important Society—an account of the 1706 lished in America, and gold but- streets.” The Virginia Historical witchcraft trial of Grace Sherwood tons from a hat worn by Pocahon- Society fits that description, and of Princess Anne County and a tas. The collection and preserva- until more recent times, it prob- memoir of Colonel John Stuart tion of these unique and fragile ably took a certain amount of cou- items is complemented by the His- rage for visitors to climb the front torical Society’s commitment to steps, pass by the Ionic columns, their access and interpretation. and peek inside the front doors. The occasional The manuscripts are the most Those doors stand open these tourist approaches the important segment of the collec- days, and a glance at the registra- tions. As the largest repository of tion guest book confirms that the and non-official manuscripts in Vir- library attracts a varied mix of ginia, the Society is a magnet for researchers. There are historians asks innocently, researchers. The collection in- sifting through manuscripts and “What kind of stuff cludes personal, family, and corpo- doctoral students anxiously trying rate papers from the 17th century to wrap up their Virginia research do you have here?” to the present. One can read the before time and funds run out. private mail of the colonial elite— Local history enthusiasts seek the Carters, the Byrds of Westover, information on a particular field of the Tayloes of Mt. Airy, and the interest, from railroads to the about the Indian wars in western Fitzhughs. There are diaries, and Algonquian vocabulary. A high Virginia—are still preserved in the letter books, and account books school student writes his honors collections and have been joined kept by governors and presidents paper on the history of Richmond by 7 million manuscripts, 145,000 and Revolutionary patriots. The baseball leagues. Genealogists from books, and an extensive collection leaders of the Confederacy are all over the country arrive because of maps, newspapers, photographs, well-represented, including Jeb their ancestors have led them back and museum objects. Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and the to Virginia. And the occasional After more than a century and a largest collection of Robert E. Lee tourist approaches the Reference half of collecting, the Society correspondence in existence. Desk and asks innocently, “What holds the evidence of the life and In addition to these manu- kind of stuff do you have here?” times of Virginians whose shared scripts pertaining to the “rich and It is a legitimate question and stories constitute our past. The col- famous,” patrons also can sit in the short answer is “Virginia lections include such treasures as the reading room and handle the

Frances S. Pollard is Assistant Director of Library Services at The Virginia Historical Society. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 5

papers of “ordinary” Virginians: evoke a particular sense of place the businessman writing in the Reading such documents and time. 1840s and wondering if he will be Complementing the Society’s able to pay his bank loan; or the can be an intimate and manuscript holdings is its collec- anxious farmer recording the tion of rare books and other pub- weather daily, praying for rain. moving experience. lished materials. In addition to Vir- There is a mother’s antebellum These are authentic ginia-related travels, histories, and diary where she records with heart- biographical accounts, the library breaking regularity the births and voices from the past and actively collects architectural plan deaths of her children. And home- books, Confederate imprints, and sick soldiers during World War II historians listen closely. Virginia imprints, particularly send V-mail back to their families those prior to 1870. The library in Virginia. also seeks first editions by Virginia Reading such documents can be The field of social history, while not authors and “association books,” an intimate and moving experi- new, continues to attract a growing or books once owned by Virgin- ence. These are authentic voices number of students and historians. ians and bearing signatures, book- from the past and historians listen Whether they are researching plates, annotations, or other marks closely. The traditional fields of his- women’s history, African-American of ownership. Examples of these torical study—biography, military, studies, or the ideology of Civil holdings include the library of political, church, business, and eco- War soldiers, these collections of Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, Gen- nomic research—continue to be private family papers are a gold eral Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jack- researched through the collections. mine for researchers trying to son’s personal library, and vol- PAGE 6 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 umes from the libraries of William Desert Storm. The museum collec- building in 1998, part of which is Byrd of Westover, Thomas Jeffer- tions include photographs, por- rented to the DHR under long- son, Patrick Henry, and Ellen Glas- traits, the largest collection of Con- term lease. The DHR now has a gow, as well as many others who federate militaria in the country, permanent, public exhibition figure in the four centuries of Vir- Virginia-made silver and furniture, space, collection facilities, and an ginia’s history. and mourning jewelry. These col- expanded library and for The comprehensive Virginiana lections are showcased in the per- the public. These two institutions, collection ranges from the gen- manent exhibit “The Story of Vir- one private and one public, share a eral—local history, genealogies, ginia: an American Experience.” similar mission of stewardship of directories, regimental histories A special effort has been made Virginia’s rich historical legacy. and published records—to the to preserve ephemeral items, such All of these diverse collections obscure—a booklet that lists the as tickets, bookplates, menus, pro- take on an added significance by name of everyone issued a Virginia grams, playbills, and invitations. being housed under one roof. A drivers license in 1912. More selec- researcher studying migration pat- tive collections of American, terns from Virginia to the West Southern, and English history are can come to the library and read also maintained. There is an exten- The the secondary literature and then sive collection of sheet music per- examine an original 1846 journal taining to Virginia, and a broad- also house items that kept by a young woman who left side collection announcing every- Virginia for Missouri. The patron thing from a 1615 lottery in range from the eccentric can later stroll through the gallery England to raise money to settle to the bizarre, such as a and stand before an authentic Virginia to Douglas Wilder’s cam- Conestoga wagon made in Sperry- paign for governor. cigar butt discarded by ville in the 1830s. The manuscript and book col- A local high school student lections are thoroughly cataloged, Jefferson Davis… recently made a remark that and many items have additional reminded us of the value and rich- indices prepared by the staff. This ness of the collections. She attends is a non-circulating library with an all-girls school that has formed closed stacks, but people who can- The special collections also house a partnership with the Historical not visit the library can log onto items that range from the eccentric Society, and the class visits the the catalog via the Internet to the bizarre, such as a cigar butt library throughout the year. A through the Society’s Web site discarded by Jefferson Davis, a like- reporter had come to the library to (www.vahistorical.org). Although ness of Robert E. Lee carved from a interview the students who were it will be some time before retro- tree fungus, hair from the tail of working on a class project about spective conversion is complete, Lee’s horse, Traveller, and an auto- women’s clubs in the 1920s. When the on-line catalog will eventually graphed photo of Elvis inscribed to the reporter asked one student provide integrated access to the Governor Lindsay Almond. what textbook the class was using, manuscript, book, and museum The Historical Society’s staff the student responded, “We don’t collections in one searchable data- provides access to these materials have one. The Society’s library is base. Future searchable compo- through exhibits, the research our textbook.” nents of the catalog will include library, publications such as the The Virginia Historical Society is records of maps, newspapers, pho- Virginia Magazine of History and located at 428 N. Boulevard, Rich- tographs, and portraiture. Biography, and a variety of educa- mond, Virginia 23221. The library, In addition to being a research tional programs. All these activities galleries, and offices are open library, the Virginia Historical Soci- are enhanced by a partnership Monday through Saturday, 10:00 ety is also a museum that oversees with the Virginia Department of a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The galleries are the special collections. These mate- Historic Resources, the state also open on Sunday from 1:00 to rials range chronologically from agency charged with overseeing 5:00 p.m. VL Jamestown colony relics to a uni- historic preservation. A three-story form worn by a Virginia marine in wing was added to the Society’s APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 7

The Library of Virginia History, located in the new addition of the Virginia Historical Society, features ample seating and museum-like displays. PAGE 8 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 Partnering for Better Health Care: The Role of Academic Health Sciences Librarians

by Karen Grandage and Linda Watson

sk a group of health sci- graphically remote community- Information at the Bedside ences librarians why they based primary care sites around are in this specialty, and The academic health sciences cen- the state. At the Claude Moore Ayou are likely to hear at least one ter is a setting where information Health Sciences Library, an ever- of the following: “The information is often put to immediate use with expanding Web site (http:// I provide could help save a potential impact on life and death www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/) patient’s life.” “I feel I am making situations. The library serves as an serves as a single, convenient a real contribution to the progress access point for databases, links to of medicine.” “I like to be where full-text books and journals, and the action is.” “I’m proud of the There is a palpable even online forms for requesting leadership role medical libraries information that the Library have taken in library automation sense of urgency and doesn’t have in its collection. Cus- and computer services for clients.” tomized “portals” or Web front “Medicine is an exciting and chal- energy—reflecting, doors to library resources and ser- lenging environment.” And in- perhaps, the pace of vices are now being developed to deed, when walking down the allow clinicians and researchers to halls in an academic health sci- scientific discoveries further individualize the essential ences center, one notices that the information they access on a daily pace is seldom slow. There is a pal- and their application basis. pable sense of urgency and to medicine…. energy—reflecting, perhaps, the Teaching Information-Seeking pace of scientific discoveries and Skills their application to medicine, as well as the increasing capabilities important link in providing access The explosion of the medical liter- of computer technology in medi- to information that trains health ature and the influx of new infor- cal diagnosis, therapy, and infor- care providers and supports daily mation technologies have in- mation management. Academic health care decisions. The library’s creased the opportunities for health sciences libraries reflect the goal is to make information re- health sciences librarians to get unique health care institutions sources more readily available to involved in education and curricu- they serve where users might clinicians at the point of need. The lum-related activities in the health arrive in scrubs or business suits Internet and, more specifically, the sciences center. Busy health care and where research mingles with World Wide Web, have enabled practitioners are shifting away teaching and the delivery of health librarians to develop linkages and from being memory repositories to care by physicians, nurses, and the deliver information within the becoming efficient information many different allied health pro- health professional schools, the seekers and managers. Many of the fessions. hospitals and clinics, and to geo- facts learned in medical school

Karen Grandage is the Educational Services Coordinator and Linda Watson the Director of the Claude Moore Health Sci- ences Library - University of Virginia Health Sciences Center, Charlottesville Virginia. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 9 today will be irrelevant, or even wrong, five years from now. An It Really Adds Up evolving approach toward “evidence- based healthcare” emphasizes that In 1997/98 there were 159 medical school libraries (both allopathic not all information is good or rele- and osteopathic) in the and Canada. Most of these vant, and promotes the idea that libraries are part of an academic health center which often includes the literature must be passed schools for other disciplines such as nursing, dentistry, public through a filter of critical evalua- health or allied health, as well as one or more hospitals. Collec- tion to become evidence used in tively, these libraries hold more than 32 million volumes, employ medical practice. Health sciences librarians are becoming instrumen- 5,000 total librarians and support staff, and have annual expendi- tal in working with clinicians to tures of nearly $306 million. In Virginia, the three academic health identify and manage the “best” sciences libraries (at Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Com- information for clinical care. monwealth University and the University of Virginia) together Librarians are now involved in have 606,000 volumes, 127 staff and $7.5 million in annual expen- training students and practitioners ditures. to convert information needs into focused questions, to determine (Figures from Annual Statistics of Medical School Libraries in the appropriate information sources United States and Canada 1997/98, Seattle: Association of Academic and search strategies, and to criti- Health Sciences Libraries, 1999.) cally appraise studies and results. This approach is also playing out in consumer health information, where librarians are creating and promoting guidelines for consu- publication landscape now re- ies which eventually result in a mers on how to separate good quires the careful negotiation of new way to test for genetic disease. information from bad on the Inter- license agreements with online A genetic counselor at the aca- net. vendors to permit optimum access demic health center attends a class for library users. Librarians are also at the library that teaches how to fighting hard to protect fair-use identify information that makes a Managing Information and preservation rights in the difference in patient care. He puts Medical school libraries share the electronic environment. Long- that knowledge to work and finds dilemma of other academic established resource sharing net- an article based on the research of research libraries in trying to cope works such as the National Net- the molecular geneticist. The next with the publication of unprece- work of Libraries of Medicine day he suggests the test to a dented amounts of new knowl- could be at risk, or will need to patient, and later teaches a group edge. The volume of biomedical change with the new models of of second-year medical students information is estimated to double publication. about what he was able to do with every 10 years with millions of the information he found. medical articles published annu- This is part of the satisfaction of The Cycle of Discovery, ally in more than 70 languages. It being a health sciences librarian— Practice, and Learning has been claimed that if you man- playing an integral role in the aged to read two biomedical arti- A researcher in molecular genetics cycle of scientific communication cles every single day, you would be has an idea. She seeks the assis- as knowledge navigators and 55 centuries behind each year! tance of a health sciences librarian teachers. The discovery of new This glut of information (someone to formulate a comprehensive liter- information, the dissemination of likened it to drinking from a fire ature review through resources that information and its synthesis hose) is coupled with the increas- such as MEDLINE, as well as the into knowledge, the application of ing expectations of users that Internet, to include with her grant that knowledge to benefit a “everything is online, for free.” proposal. The researcher receives patient, and finally, the transfer of This, of course, is not true. Medical the grant, makes significant dis- knowledge to the next generation library budgets are strained to the coveries, and publishes several arti- of health professionals: this is the breaking point trying to balance cles in prestigious journals to environment in which health sci- the purchase of both print and which her library subscribes. Other ences librarians thrive and make electronic materials. The shifting researchers build on her discover- their contribution to society. VL PAGE 10 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 A New Home for the National Sporting Library

by Laura Rose

n a 1995 article in this jour- biggest challenges in the near tunities for the library to reach out nal, I wrote that that the future will be not its limitations to a diverse community. An inau- National Sporting Library, but a lack of them as it expands gural exhibit featuring treasures whichI has a world-class collection both as a research center and a from the library’s collection will of books on horse and field sports, member of its community. kick off an extensive program of was the best-kept secret in the The new facility will offer the exhibitions, events, lectures and quiet, historic town of Middleburg, library’s 15,000-volume room to other educational offerings eagerly Virginia. Secret? With all the blast- breathe and grow. A secure and anticipated by library users and ing, bulldozing, and building that supporters near and far, and by the has accompanied the construction 600 inhabitants of Middleburg and of its new 15,000-square foot facil- many residents in the surrounding ity on the west end of town, the Secret? …the library areas. library is now anything but, and it Forty-five years after its found- promises to remain a hot topic on is now anything but, and ing, the library will finally have the streets of Middleburg and it promises to remain the home it deserves. The collec- beyond as it opens the doors this tion, which was perhaps appropri- fall to its new home and ushers in a hot topic on the ately first housed in a barn, was a colorful and exciting new era in founded by Alexander Mackay- its history. streets of Middleburg Smith and George L. Ohrstrom Sr., For nearly 30 years the library and beyond as it opens who envisioned a place where pre- has been housed in the basement cious sporting book collections of Vine Hill, an 1804 brick man- the doors this fall… could be assembled for the use of sion in Middleburg. Many of the researchers. A special “Founders’ visitors making their way down to Room” will honor the men whose the library space, which has a vision has been taken to the limit leaky vault and one two-by-three- environmentally-controlled rare as the National Sporting Library foot window, have commented on book room will house the rare has evolved into a bona fide the less-than-perfect conditions for book collection, which includes research center with an interna- both books and the people who items dating back to 1528. An tional reputation in its fields of work with and enjoy them. As the audiovisual center will allow stor- study. library grew, it began bursting at age and viewing opportunities for Mr. Mackay-Smith, himself the seams, and in the early 1990s films, videos and other materials. known around the world as a the library’s board began to And, numerous attractive study renowned scholar on sporting sub- research possibilities for expan- areas will be available for research- jects, was the library’s guiding sion. In the end the decision was ers. influence until his death last year made to construct a state-of-the-art But researchers aren’t the only at the age of 95. He served not facility—one designed with opti- ones who will benefit from the only as curator and a member of mum conditions in mind—on the new facility, which includes an the library’s board of directors same seven-acre site as Vine Hill. exhibit hall and a meeting room until that time, but from its incep- The result is a library whose that will provide unlimited oppor- tion was also the greatest fan and

Laura Rose is librarian of the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 11 user of its collections. Not two Friends of the National Sporting dan, assistant director. Their weeks before his death he called Library has tripled, and its mem- energy and enthusiasm—along the library to inquire about a title bers have become increasingly with that of the library’s dedicated he needed to complete his tenth interested in the library’s progress board of directors—can only lead book, Speed and the Thoroughbred and activities. The annual dupli- to a new generation of unforgetta- Racehorse, which is forthcoming. cate book sale has increased in ble memories in the new library Though Vine Hill will no longer popularity and offerings, netting building. house the National Sporting up to $20,000 in one year and More than one person has men- Library, it will still be the keeper of placing thousands of books in tioned the NSL’s transformation in many of my fondest memories. It’s book-loving homes. The library’s terms of a Cinderella story. From where I unpacked box after box newsletter has doubled in size and barn to basement to beauty, it has after box of incredible rare books frequency and won a national been blessed thanks to the gene- from the remarkable 5,000-volume award for excellence. rosity of individuals who appre- collection donated by collector This year the library has grown ciate the library’s distinguished John H. Daniels. It’s where I had in a new direction by adding in- past and support its goals for the the opportunity to meet Paul Mel- valuable assets to its staff. Four future. As the National Sporting lon, who in his will generously members have joined the ranks: Library moves from best-kept remembered the library with $1 Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, director; secret into a star in the limelight, I million and numerous artworks, Elizabeth Manierre, exhibitions will join the supporting cast proud including a bronze of a Civil War coordinator; Antoinette Arsic, to see it achieve the recognition mount that will stand in front of assistant librarian; and Kelly Jor- and admiration it deserves. VL the new library building. It’s where I watched the late Ellen B. Wells, the brilliant former chief of Special Collections at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, after the arri- Guidelines for Submissions val of the NSL’s von Hunersdorf to Virginia Libraries Collection as she handled rare titles she had included in her une- 1. Virginia Libraries seeks to publish articles and reviews of interest to the qualed 1985 bibliography on library community in Virginia. Articles reporting research, library pro- horsemanship—but had never grams and events, and opinion pieces are all considered for publication. actually seen. Queries are encouraged. Brief announcements and press releases should Books figure prominently in be directed to the VLA Newsletter. many of my underground memo- 2. While e-mail submissions are preferred, manuscripts may be submitted ries, but as any librarian knows, as text files on 3.5-inch computer disks. Both manuscripts and disks the parade of people who come to become the property of Virginia Libraries upon publication. Unpublished use them are also unforgettable. articles will be returned within one year. Have you had a huntsman stop in during a break in a field trial and 3. Illustrations, particularly monochrome images and drawings, are encouraged and should be submitted whenever appropriate to accom- blow you a tune on his hunting pany a manuscript. Illustrations will be returned if requested in advance. horn? Have you assisted a Pulitzer winner wearing a baseball cap? 4. Bibliographic notes should appear at the end of the manuscript and Have you been invited to a family should conform to the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. reunion at which an historical marker you helped bring to life 5. Articles should be 750-1250 words. would be dedicated? Have you re- 6. Submit manuscripts to: united childhood friends through Cy Dillon your newsletter? Have you seen a Ferrum College romance blossom at one of your P.O. Box 1000 research tables? Ferrum, Virginia 24088 Since joining the NSL in 1991, [email protected] Peter Winants, now director emeri- 7. Deadlines for submissions are: December 15 for January/February/ tus, and I have watched the library March; March 15 for April/May/June; June 15 for July/August/ grow in more ways than just its September; September 1 for October/November/December. VL collections. Membership in The PAGE 12 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 Refdesk: UVa Law Library’s Approach to E-mail Reference

by Barbara Selby

The remoter and more general aspects tal agreements and how we think If the President is impeached, are of the law are those which give it uni- about marriage” the laws he signed and/or the versal interest. It is through them that “Is Emissions Trading an Eco- Executive Orders he issued also you not only become a great master in nomic Incentive Program?: Replac- impeached? your calling, but connect your subject ing the command and control/ Who said (and where), something with the universe and catch an echo economic incentive dichotomy” like: “ should not be blind of the infinite, a glimpse of its “Hard Bargains: The politics of het- to what the whole world can see.” unfathomable process, a hint of the erosexuality” universal law. “God and Man in the Yale Dormi- The University of Virginia Law —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. in tories” serves its faculty The Path of the Law, 1897. “Sex and Guilt” research needs primarily via an E- “The Constitutionality of Censure” mail reference affectionately known “A Literalist Proposes Four Modest as “refdesk.” Faculty are invited to Revisions to U.C.C. Article 3” submit any and all questions to s Holmes implies, the Law “Don’t Ask, Just Tell: Insider trad- refdesk. It is their point of contact is universal and touches ing after United States v. O’Hagan” with the library. Whether their all aspects of our life. We “At War with the Environment” 1 question is an involved research Awake up on sheets which are labeled query or simply a request for for their fiber content; our break- Because law school libraries are photocopies, they send it to ref- fast cereal states its nutritional smaller and serve a more concen- desk. Reference librarians monitor value; we drive to work in cars trated clientele than an undergrad- refdesk in two-hour shifts. They which must pass crash tests, burn- uate or graduate university or col- forward the photocopy and other ing gasoline which is graded accord- lege library, they tend to cater to simple requests to library assist- ing to government guidelines; our professors and do more actual ants, while keeping the interesting computer monitors must meet research for professors. In fact one questions for themselves. mandated standards; etc., etc., etc. law school library invites legal ref- Reference librarians may spend These trivial examples only erence questions from around the a few minutes on a question or scratch the surface of the ways in world: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/ref they may search for days. Profes- which Law impacts on our every- _desk.htm#Reference. Recent ques- sors are never turned away with day life. Law professors, in their tions to this site included: the “Here, let me show you some academic writings, intend to do sources you might want to look much more than scratch the sur- Were there small claims courts in in” line. (Students, of course, are.) face. They delve to great depths in Italy in the year 1498? Refdesk is designed to give the pro- the many areas where life and Law How can I find information regard- fessor the answer to the question, intersect. A few titles from articles ing any penalties imposed on not to teach her how to approach in recent law reviews from Virginia those who violate the statute of research. Of course, some profes- law schools should suffice: limitations in regards to child sup- sors do want to learn more about “Bargaining in the Shadow of port for the states of Oklahoma how to find answers. Librarians get Love: The enforcement of premari- and Virginia? to know the preferences of law

Barbie Selby is Documents Librarian at the UVA Law School Library, and is currently Chair of the Publications Committee of the Virginia Library Association. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 13 professors and answer questions some preliminary groundwork and December 1978, at page 18. (Cited as accordingly. A web address may be then consults the specialist in that example of porn) provided to a particularly com- area. Currently there is no central What was Thomas Jefferson doing at puter savvy professor, while another file of previous refdesk questions. the age of 40? professor with a similar question The creation of such a file is under may be sent the information in an consideration. Copy of a state constitution (try CA e-mail message or as a printout. Here’s a sample of questions or MA) containing very detailed rules Refdesk has proven extremely that have come through on ref- about subjects that are covered in the popular. In March there were 215 desk. Some have been changed U.S. Constitution in abstract, terse e-mailed requests from 47 profes- slightly for privacy reasons. language—e.g., detailed rules about sors. The questions broke down as freedom of speech or police proce- follows: 92 copying or retrieval of Why the state-local dominance on dures. Law Library material, 71 miscella- matters relating to environmental reg- neous reference inquiries, 43 copying ulation of land use versus the federal Two possible endings: or retrieval from other UVA libraries dominance in matters relating to pol- 1) Now, if we could only find the or via ILL, 7 acquisition requests, 2 lution control? (male) reference librarian who’s reserve/circulation inquiries. Can “Va [expletive deleted]” be put searching for the picture from Many of the 135 copying and on a vanity license plate in Virginia? Hustler…. retrieval requests are straightfor- 2) Perhaps some of the answers ward. On the other hand, law pro- What was the break-down of Federal- provided by refdesk will help UVA fessors aren’t immune from the ists and Anti-Federalists/Republicans law professors “catch an echo of “the title is… when the title really in Pennsylvania’s first few congres- the infinite” in their articles and is something quite different” syn- sional delegations? lectures. drome. So even these “simple” Request for information on integrated copying requests can turn into pest management for a cultivated hunting expeditions. Additionally, Notes environment. a “simple” copy request may be for 1 Here are the Blue Book citations for dozens of articles. Is there a word for a river that keeps the articles I mention. (Don’t get me The 71 “miscellaneous reference being the same river when it joins up started on Blue Book format….) Brian inquiries” are, of course, our meat with other rivers that lose their name? Bix, Bargaining in the Shadow of Love: and potatoes (or pasta and tofu, if I’m interested in differences in mean- The enforcement of premarital agreements you prefer). Again, these run the and how we think about marriage, 40 ing, if there are any, among rapine, gamut from finding a ’s mail- Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 145 (1998). pillage, plunder, sacking, and looting. ing address to researching a mid- David M. Driesen, Is Emissions Trad- century Virginia congressman’s I am looking for pictures of two archi- ing an Economic Incentive Program?: Replacing the command and control/ views on taxation to exploring tectural models of Marcel Breuer’s pro- economic incentive dichotomy, 55 Wash. Internet chat rooms with a profes- posed building above the Grand Cen- & Lee L. Rev. 289 (1998). sor. Reference librarians will search tral Station. Linda Hirshman, Hard Bargains: The databases, read articles and books, politics of heterosexuality, 55 Wash. & Can we get any data on the number surf the Web, make numerous Lee L. Rev. 185 (1998). of cases (a) pending (b) decided in phone calls, etc., in order to Michael C. Dorf, God and Man in the Delaware’s (I) Court of Chancery and answer a professor’s question. Yale Dormitories, 84 Va. L. Rev. 843 (ii) Supreme Court in (x) 1975 and Once the answer is found, it is (1998). (y) the most recent year available? Anne M. Coughlin, Sex and Guilt, 84 e-mailed back to the professor and Va. L. Rev. (1998). to all other reference librarians. Were the no-fly zones in northern and Michael J. Gerhardt, The Constitu- This enables everyone to see the southern Iraq authorized by a UN tionality of Censure, 33 U Rich. L. Rev. answer and learn from each ques- Security Council Resolution and, if so, 33 (1999). tion. Of course, some reference which Resolution? Timothy R. Zinnecker, A Literalist librarians have specialties. If a par- Proposes Four Modest Revisions to U.C.C. Need articles discussing the pork bar- ticularly difficult international law Article 3, U. Rich. L. Rev. 63 (1998). rel aspects of the Lawrence Welk Richard W. Painter et al., Don’t Ask, question comes in, the librarian on museum on which some congressional Just Tell: Insider trading after United duty may consult with the Inter- worthies proposed to lavish federal States v. O’Hagan, Va. L. Rev. 153 national Law librarian before money in 1991–92. (1998). responding to the question. Usu- David A. Wirth, At War with the En- ally, the librarian on duty does Copy of a photo published in Hustler, vironment, 84 Va. L. Rev. 153 (1998). VL PAGE 14 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 Creating Library Newsletters on the World Wide Web

by Amy W. Boykin and Andrea Kross

he Captain John Smith While a print format newsletter tation, there are many options Library has produced a has a limited and controlled distri- that will work for most browsers. A library newsletter for bution, the web version is accessi- variety of list formats (such as Tmany years. As the Library’s web ble to anyone and everyone. This ordered or numbered lists) can be presence expanded, it was logical means that the audience has sud- used to present information. Use a to add the full text of our newslet- denly broadened. Our print news- series of heading levels to indicate ter. This brought up some interest- letter was distributed to faculty relative font size, such as

, ing challenges as we were forced to and staff, with a few left over for

, etc. (Maxymuk, 168). Non- think about the differences be- students or community patrons to dithering or web-safe colors are the tween print and electronic media: pick up if they were interested. best; these 216 colors are not loading an exact duplicate of the With the move to the web, it is browser-dependent. Use text mark- print version was not feasible. up tags that are logical, giving the Through trial and error, and by full meaning instead of an ambigu- consulting the literature and other ous letter in the html coding, such web versions of newsletters, we While a print format as instead of (Maxy- have found some answers to the newsletter has a limited muk, 161). Several web sites show question, “How do you go about what the non-dithering colors are creating an effective web version distribution, the web and how to use logical tags.1 of your library’s newsletter?” While it is okay to use back- Some elements may remain the version is accessible to grounds, color, and special effects, same in both the print and elec- anyone and everyone. they should not take away from tronic versions, such as the con- the text. Remember that the main tent. Ideas for library newsletter thrust of your newsletter is to content include reviews of new present information. Instead of acquisitions, introductions of new accessible to more student and trying to be fancy, use basic web services and technologies, having a community patrons and also to tools and aim for simple elegance reader’s advisory, answering fre- people who have never been to (Maxymuk, 169). quently asked questions, spotlight- our Library. Instead of the Library John Maxymuk (p. 168) has five ing various departments of the staff deciding who will receive it, basic recommendations to keep in library (e.g. technical services, readers self select. They may not mind when creating a newsletter media, interlibrary loan) or com- be using Netscape or Microsoft on the Internet; the last may be municating changed hours, Internet Explorer to access the the hardest to accomplish. changed telephone numbers or Internet, and even if they are, they contact information. may not be able to view frames or 1. Keep the text clear and legible. For any newsletter, the content access java-encoded information. 2. Give prominence to the most is determined by identifying your An important consideration is how important features/information. audience. Information that will text browsers such as Lynx will dis- 3. White space should be ample; interest faculty and staff may not play text and links to other sites. the page shouldn’t look clut- appeal to students, for example. While this may seem like a limi- tered.

Amy W. Boykin is Assistant Reference Librarian, and Andrea Kross is Catalog Librarian at Christo- pher Newport University's Captain John Smith Library. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 15

4. Graphics should be large variety of formats. For print news- proves readability. enough to be seen but not so letters, it is worthwhile to convert For ideas on formatting web large that they overwhelm the bitmap files to vector graphic files. pages and to see how the web ele- screen/text. Software like Lview, WinJPEG or ments work together, look at other 5. The mix of text, white space and Adobe Photoshop facilitate conver- web sites. There are many other graphics should be balanced, sion. Vector graphic file formats libraries with newsletters on the consistent and pleasing. (.cgm, .eps and .wmf) are impor- Internet—Bluefield College, Bridge- tant because graphics have true water College, College of William The first basic element, text, is cru- curves and will resize neatly. On & Mary—to mention a few.3 By cial in transmitting the desired the other hand, web pages load using the browser’s “View Codes” information. Be sure to check better if the graphics are in either or “View Page Source” commands grammar, spelling and punctua- .gif or .jpg formats; graphic files it is possible to see how the text or tion. Organize the text in a logical graphic is manipulated to look a fashion; it should flow smoothly. certain way. Software such as Microsoft Word Remember that the library’s or Microsoft FrontPage is helpful Keep in mind the newsletter, whether in print or elec- in converting the text into html. intent of the graphic, tronic format, is a reflection of the Of course, the html coding can be library and its staff. It is a public re- done manually, which allows which is to say in lations tool: make it a positive one. more control over how the web page/newsletter will look. pictures what you Notes Unlike the print edition of the are saying in the text. newsletter where the placement of 1 For a chart of non-dithering colors: text and graphics is important, http://www.xnet.com/~efflandt/ placement in the web edition is pub/ccblack.html; Information about not as critical. Generally, the best can often be converted into the html tags—http://cgi1.geocities.com/ place to put prominent informa- necessary formats using the soft- SiliconValley/6763/reference.html tion is at the top of the web page. ware mentioned above. Some for- “HTML Reference page.” However, a clickable table of con- matting, such as nameplates, mast- 2 Supplemental information, tents listing all the sections and heads, tables, and even some such as links to free clipart and a headlines at the top of the newslet- graphics, will not transform bibliography of sources used for ter will let the reader go directly to smoothly. In these cases you may our VLA presentation in October the section of interest. This also want to search for an alternate 1998, is available at http://www. helps people know what to expect graphic. The Internet is the best cnu.edu/library/newsltrs.html. from this edition of the newsletter: source for .gif and .jpg graphics; 3 Internet addresses for the web all the options are listed in one many web sites offer free and newsletters include Bluefield Col- place. Remember to include a link copyright-free graphics for use on lege (http://www.bluefield.edu/ at the end of each section to take web pages.2 Keep in mind the library/libnews.html), Bridgewater the reader back to the top of the intent of the graphic, which is to College (http://www.bridgewater. newsletter. Keep in mind that say in pictures what you are saying edu/departments/library/anotes. there will be people who will want in the text. Avoid trite, meaning- htm), and the College of William to read the newsletter from begin- less, or tasteless graphics: if it is and Mary (http://www.swem.wm. ning to end. For this reason, it is not related to the message, leave it edu/Newsletters/newsletters.html). better to put the newsletter on one out. It is best to keep the size of Christopher Newport University long web page than to make separ- the graphic file small (under 20k) newsletters, called Bookends, are ate web pages for each section. so that the page will load quickly available on the Library Informa- One of the areas where we and the graphic will not detract tion page (http://www.cnu.edu/ encountered difficulty was in from the text (Maxymuk, 169). library/libinfo.html). transferring graphics. Clip art for In both print and web versions, print versions of newsletters can keep the newsletter presentation Source be bought, found in word process- simple (Maxymuk, 196). Use graph- ing or desktop publishing pro- ics sparingly, leaving plenty of Maxymuk, John. Using Desktop grams, or found on the Internet white (or background color) space. Publishing to Create Newsletters, (look for copyright-free clip art, of Maintain a single style throughout Handouts and Web Pages. New course). Graphic files come in a the newsletter; consistency im- York: Neal-Schuman, 1997. VL PAGE 16 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

Of Books, Readers, and Reading: New Directions for Virginia Library History

by John T. Kneebone

he Library of Virginia needed a library history. He was demand consideration in the Foundation and the Vir- prepared to help, too. He would awards competition. Researchers ginia Center for the Book fund a generous annual prize to also need to know what has Thave announced an annual award recognize outstanding contribu- already been done. Bibliographies to be given for at least the next tions toward a fuller, more com- of relevant works, both published five years to recognize and encour- plete understanding and apprecia- and unpublished, would be worthy age outstanding research and writ- tion of the in projects, too. The scholars sug- ing on the history of libraries in Virginia. Each year’s winning work gested American Library History: A Virginia. The announcement may in Virginia library history would Comprehensive Guide to the Litera- have barely registered with many be announced at the annual con- ture (1989) as a good starting place. of Virginia’s librarians, busy with Libraries and Culture, formerly the the tasks of the day. Why the his- Journal of Library History, has pub- tory of Virginia libraries? To what I told my caller the bad lished a biennial annotated bibli- purpose? This essay attempts to ography of scholarship in library answer those questions and to news, and he responded history since 1968, and a similar invite the involvement of Virginia bibliography featured in the news- librarians in making their heritage that Virginia needed letter of the Library History Round better known. a library history. Table is available at the LHRT’s A few years ago I received a call Website (http://www.spertus.edu/ from a gentleman with a great library-history/). interest in books. He wanted to One respondent pointed out read a history of libraries and ferences of the Virginia Library that library historians often define librarianship in Virginia. I Association. and organize projects by chronol- searched the Library of Virginia’s To ensure that quality works ogy (such as a study of Virginia online catalog and found numer- repaid such generosity, I sought libraries during the Great Depres- ous materials for such a history— the advice of a dozen or so schol- sion) or by type of library (for annual reports of libraries and ars associated with the American example, the development of planning documents from state Library Association’s Library His- school libraries in Virginia). Bibli- and local governments—but only a tory Round Table and the journal ographies and existing informa- few histories of individual libraries. Libraries and Culture. The responses tion about archival materials can Not only was there no comprehen- were enthusiastic but also realistic. be used to assess the strengths and sive history of libraries in Virginia, There are some fundamental weaknesses of the historical litera- but hardly any of the necessary tasks to be done, the scholars ture on Virginia libraries and scholarly foundations for such a agreed. What records do Virginia’s thereby identify topics that have work had been laid. libraries hold that document their been neglected and periods of the I told my caller the bad news, histories? A records survey would past about which we know very lit- and he responded that Virginia be invaluable and therefore tle. For this work, the annual

John T. Kneebone is Director, Publications and Educational Services Division of the Library of Virginia. APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 17 indexes to scholarship in American more widespread than smug histo- tories of imprints, the printed History and Life and the Library of rians from New England had works produced in a particular Virginia’s compilation, Theses and claimed. More recently, Joseph F. place, have been compiled for Dissertations in Virginia History Kett and Patricia A. McClung used Abingdon, Fredericksburg, Norfolk, (1986), would also be useful. Any similar records to analyze “Book Petersburg, Richmond, and Win- serious bibliographer would be Culture in Post-Revolutionary Vir- chester, usually through 1876, and expected to make a systematic ginia” in the Proceedings of the also for early German-language search of online bibliographic American Antiquarian Society (1984). imprints in Virginia. The seeds of databases, electronic library cata- Most notable among several stud- information in these volumes logs, and the Web, too. ies of the private libraries of early might flower into studies of the The respondents were also Virginians are Kevin J. Hayes’s book trade and patterns of reading emphatic that library history detailed description of the nearly in Virginia before and after the should be defined broadly enough Civil War, research projects that to include the exciting research could also chart the emergence of and writing being done today a national market for printed under the rubric of book history. Virginia researchers books and magazines. The international Society for the might profitably Students of library history in History of Authorship, Reading, the U.S. regard 1876, the year and Publishing (SHARP) identifies investigate literacy when the American Library Associ- its interests as broadly as its name, ation was founded, as the begin- but libraries are a central concern, and the roles of ning of the modern era of profes- and not only as subjects. For exam- readers in the sionalization of librarianship and ple, the Program in the History of of the public library as an institu- the Book in American Culture at slave community… tion. Virginia lagged behind. As the American Antiquarian Society late as 1922, public funds sup- builds on that institution’s vast ported a mere six libraries in the collection of American imprints state. In her unpublished disserta- issued before 1876. Similarly, the 2,500 volumes in the Library of tion, Richmond Rejects a Library: new Center for the History of Print William Byrd of Westover (1997) The Carnegie Public Library Move- Culture in Modern America at the and E. Millicent Sowerby’s five- ment in Richmond, Virginia (Vir- University of Wisconsin-Madison volume Catalogue of the Library of ginia Commonwealth University, draws on the combined resources Thomas Jefferson (1983). 1992), Carolyn H. Leatherman of the libraries of the university Much work remains to be done. examined the various social, cultu- and of the Wisconsin State Histori- One promising area is the study of ral, and political forces that con- cal Society. For links to more infor- reading and readers. Librarians spired to delay the creation of a mation about those programs and know that books have power, that public library in Richmond for other aspects of book history, see reading helps to forge personal nearly a quarter century. Her work SHARP’s Website at http://www. identity and that common reading situates Richmond’s library history indiana.edu/~sharp/intro.html. can create communities. Books within the full social and cultural SHARP’s annual conference in express and enforce social and cul- contexts of the times, avoiding the 2001 will be in Virginia, co-hosted tural conventions, yet reading can tunnel vision that afflicts some by the Library of Virginia and the also help loosen those bonds and library histories narrowly focused American Studies Department and subvert the power of the status on successive library administra- the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the quo. Virginia researchers might tions. College of William and Mary, by profitably investigate literacy and All history is local, to para- which time the Virginia Library the roles of readers in the slave phrase Tip O’Neill’s famous remark History Awards will have begun to community, print culture’s part in about politics. Certainly there is bear fruit. the antebellum sectional conflict, ample opportunity for researchers To be sure, useful works on Vir- differences between the groups in local library history in Virginia. ginia library history exist already. that created social or subscription The Library History Round Table’s A century ago defensive Virginia libraries, the contents of middle- Web site offers practical “Guide- antiquarians collected data, usu- class family libraries during an era lines for Writing Local Library His- ally from wills and estate settle- that prescribed “separate spheres” tory.” Through its ambitious “Flor- ments, to prove that book owner- for the sexes, or any number of ida Library History Project” the ship in colonial Virginia had been other reading-related topics. Inven- University of South Florida’s PAGE 18 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

School of Library and Information ited success, for action to clean up professional training as a librarian Science is compiling and electron- the city. The Civic Betterment figure into the success of the cam- ically publishing histories of every Club later became the Roanoke paign for the library? Further public and in that Women’s Club, and Caldwell research might lead to the fascinat- state (http://www.lib.usf.edu/spccoll/ served from 1912 to 1915 as presi- ing conclusion that, at the local guide/f/flibhist/guide.html). Several dent of the Virginia Federation of level, connections between female Virginia libraries already include Women’s Clubs. The Roanoke City library professionals and other concise institutional histories on Public Library came about in large women leaders were essential to their Web sites, too. part because Sarah Butler was able the successes of the public library First-rate local library histories to draw upon an existing local net- movement in America. will need to investigate complex work of women activists and civic Thanks to the generosity of the issues. For example, the Roanoke leaders. creator of the Virginia Library His- City Public Library’s Web site cred- tory Awards, we can look forward its Mrs. W. W. S. Butler Jr. with to answers to these and other ques- leading a group of prominent citi- tions. To provide a fuller field for zens in raising the funds for the …libraries are fully nominations, the first award will city’s first public library, which part of their times recognize the outstanding work in opened on 21 May 1921. Sarah Virginia library history completed Poage Caldwell Butler (1892-1983) and places, and library between 1 January 1997 and 31 had grown up in Roanoke and August 1999. The competition will attended Mary Baldwin College history is important to be annual in the future. Nomina- before being trained in library sci- understanding all of tions might include bibliographies, ence at the Pratt Institute in Brook- unpublished dissertations or the- lyn. She worked for the New York Virginia’s history. ses, journal articles, local histories, Public Library for a few years or scholarly monographs, and the before returning to Roanoke to judges have agreed to define Vir- marry physician William W. S. ginia library history broadly to Butler. As an experienced library Telling the full story of the include relevant histories of professional when she began her founding of the Roanoke City Pub- authorship, reading, publishing campaign for a public library, But- lic Library would involve research and similar topics. Please direct ler soon found that the standards into such intriguing questions as nominations to Virginia Library of professional librarianship inter- the political agency of women in History Award, The Library of Vir- acted with the realities of local the era before they had won the ginia, 800 East Broad Street, Rich- conditions, just as they do today. right to vote. Because the Gains- mond, VA 23219-8000, and please Sarah Butler’s mother, Willie boro Branch, which served African encourage librarians and others to Walker Caldwell (1860-1946), had American readers, opened just take up future projects in library been one of the Roanoke women seven months later, the public- history. Professional heritage is who organized the Women’s Civic library campaign in Roanoke’s worth preserving in any event, but Betterment Club in 1906 because black community would have to libraries are fully part of their the city government and men’s be studied, too. What were the times and places, and library his- groups had done nothing to exact connections between the tory is important to understanding improve public sanitation. Cald- campaign for the library and the all of Virginia’s history. VL well’s group commissioned studies women’s earlier campaigns for by experts and lobbied, with lim- civic betterment? How did Butler’s APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 19 ‘License’ or ‘Sale’? New Regulations May Affect Libraries

by Sarah K. Wiant

proposed revision to the ically activated the instant the user grants permission to access or use Uniform Commercial installs software. Many users may information subject to conditions Code (UCC) which agree to the terms sight unseen in set forth in the license.2 A license is addressesA licensing could drastically order to continue with the software neither a sale nor a lease, because change the manner in which librar- installation. those terms refer to goods. The ies operate in today’s information focus is not on the physical disc but age. The controversy surrounding on the information or application licensing has centered on computer on the disc. The passage of article software, both content with valu- The focus is not on the 2B and its potential adoption into able information and utility, physical disc but on state law would authorize most including word processing and types of shrinkwrap licenses. spreadsheets. However, as the the information or methods of information delivery Software Licenses and multiply, the overlap between application on the disc. Intellectual Property Law books and digital media expands. Currently, it is unclear whether The legitimacy of shrinkwrap shrinkwrap licenses associated with licenses has produced continuing UCC Revisions software which limit users’ rights debate in the intellectual property granted under copyright law are The UCC is drafted by two groups, field. In the Copyright Act, Con- legally enforceable. The disparity in the American Law Institute (ALI) gress struck a careful balance for judicial treatment of shrinkwrap and the National Conference of the use of writing, reserving exclu- licenses and questions of federal Commissioners on Uniform State sive rights to the work’s author, preemption of state software license Laws (NCCUSL), and generally while preserving some uses for the terms have resulted in the recent reflects the state of contract law. public. Shrinkwrap licenses are con- efforts to revise the Uniform Com- Once provisions of the UCC are tracts separate from the provisions mercial Code (UCC). approved by both the ALI and of the Copyright Act. Frequently, Generally, shrinkwrap licenses NCCUSL, they are submitted to the these contracts are more restrictive permit the user to access software state governments. A state’s legisla- than copyright law. For example, programs or information provided ture must adopt the UCC before it shrinkwrap licenses that prevent on discs. Similar to the shrinkwrap becomes law in that state. the resale of the user’s copy of the license are the “click-on” license Currently, the ALI and NCCUSL software expressly conflict with the and the “active click wrap” license are working to amend Article 2 of first sale provision of the Copyright which accompany vast amounts of the UCC to reflect today’s changing Act.3 Under the first sale provision, information online. Unlike shrink- economy. Article 2 addresses trans- an owner of an object is allowed to wrap1 licenses, which physically actions in goods, primarily sales. treat it as his own. An owner, for accompany a disc or package, click- Article 2A concerns personal prop- example, can use, resell or lend the on and active click wrap licenses erty (goods) leasing transactions. object as she pleases. By terming are usually transmitted electron- The new section would be Article the transaction a “license” rather ically and usually do not require 2B, which would cover licensing of than a “sale,” vendors make clear any explicit agreement to adhere to information. According to the that they are permitting the user to the terms of a license. They are typ- draft, a license is a contract which use a copy of the software while the

Sally Wiant is Director of the Law Library and Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University. PAGE 20 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

vendor retains ownership of the advantage of on-line systems availa- drafters of Article 2B would recog- underlying program. The most impor- ble on the Internet could open nize the potential problems the cur- tant shrinkwrap provisions in terms libraries to potential liability and rent draft of article 2B will cause for of intellectual property are those responsibility. Information on the in libraries, and should amend the limiting users’ rights—rights which web upon which the general public revision accordingly. Unfortunately, users would otherwise enjoy under increasingly depends upon might the issue is even more confusing federal copyright law. The potential be restricted and/or closely moni- now. The joint drafting organiza- for copyright law preemption of a tored if the current draft of article tion, the American Law Institute new UCC section has been discussed 2B is codified into state law. (ALI), found the draft to be fatally throughout the drafting process. While shrinkwrap licenses seem flawed and did not send it forward unduly restrictive when applied to to its membership for a vote this software, they seem downright out- May. The National Commissioners Enforceability of rageous when applied to books. on Uniform State Laws does intend Shrinkwrap Licenses Presently, article 2B does not to go forward with its vote. The There have been many questions address the commercial distribution draft now is represented as a model about whether shrinkwrap agree- of books because it applies to statute instead of a uniform law ments can be enforced under con- licensing, and books currently are and no longer will need the sup- tract law or whether they may be sold, not licensed. If publishers port of the ALI. If adopted by the preempted by copyright law. In could replace the sale of a book commissioners it would then be Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd.,4 a with a shrinkwrap-type license, offered to states to enact as state leg- federal court invalidated a shrink- however, article 2B might have islation. According to Mark Lemey, wrap license term which was per- restricted the lending of books. a professor at the University of mitted under state law. Courts have However, as supplements to books Texas Law School, the draft as it is been reluctant to enforce shrink- are issued on CD-Rom, a library going forward under only NCCUSL wrap licenses where the consumer may own the book which may be is called the Uniform Communica- was not aware of the terms when lent and may not lend the supple- tions Information Transactions Act the contract was formed (e.g., at the ment because of licensing restric- and will be separate from the UCC. time of purchase) or where the con- tions. Similarly, if publishers could NCCUSL announced that it will sumer occupies a significantly include the terms of a shrinkwrap promulgate the same draft law as a weaker bargaining position than license which contract away the separate uniform act (the Uniform the vendor. Some courts have fair use allowances contained in the Communications Information Trans- enforced shrinkwrap licenses under Copyright Act, then libraries and actions Act), and that it will finalize existing laws. In Pro-CD Inc. v. Zei- their users might lose the rights to it this summer and send it to the denberg,5 the Seventh Circuit held make copies of limited sections of states this fall. that generally, a shrinkwrap license copyrighted materials. is enforceable unless its terms vio- In response to opposition from the late ordinary contract law. Digital Future Coalition, a collabo- Notes ration of non-profit educational, 1 The term shrinkwrap will be used to scholarly and library groups, and cover shrinkwrap, click-on, and active Shrinkwrap Implications criticism from the Federal Trade click wrap licenses. for Libraries Commission among others, in De- 2 U.C.C. § 2B-102(27) (April 15, Currently, a book is personal prop- cember 1998 the American Law In- 1998 Draft). The most recent draft of Article 2B is available at the National erty, and in exchange for the pur- stitute decided that the draft is not Conference of Commissioners on Uni- chase price the reader obtains title, ready to submit to its membership for form State Laws’ World Wide Web site, or ownership, of a copy of the approval at its May 1999 meeting. http://www. law.upenn.edu/library/ulc/ book. Title to software, on the In spite of the fact that the scope ulc.htm. other hand, does not change hands of the provision has been restricted 3 The first sale provision permits

when the consumer purchases a to cover only software and informa- “the owner of a particular copy… with- disc containing a copy of the soft- tion that is electronically dissemi- out the authority of the copyright ware program. The user is merely nated, the draft is still not as clear owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of “licensed” to use the software and as it needs to be.6 Although the the possession of that copy….” 17 U.S.C. § 109(a) (1994). the vendor retains the title. two sponsoring groups are in disa- 4 847 F.2d 255 (5th Cir. 1988). While a free reign on the Inter- greement, the drafting committee 5 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996). net facilitates the research process met February 26–28, 1999 to fur- 6 Article 2B Proponents Respond to and encourages independent study, ther revise the draft. Critics, While Sponsor Rejects Latest users who inadvertently enter into When this article was originally Draft of Law, 67 U.S.L.W. 2360, 2361 license agreements when they take written, it was to be hoped that the (1998). VL APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 21 Virginia Books

Reviews prepared by the staff of the Division of Publications and Educational Services of the Library of Virginia Julie A. Campbell, Editor

William M. S. Rasmussen John P. Kaminski, ed., Jeffer- and Robert S. Tilton, George son in Love: The Love Letters Washington: The Man Between Thomas Jefferson & Behind the Myths. Char- Maria Cosway. Madison, lottesville: University Press of Wis.: Madison House Publishers, Virginia, 1999. xv + 328 pp. $24.95 Inc., 1999. xiii + 138 pp. $16.95 (soft cover). a flesh-and-blood human, a prod- (hardcover). Rasmussen, the curator of art at uct of colonial Virginia. Rasmussen In August 1786, Thomas Jeffer- the Virginia Historical Society, and and Tilton examine it all. son began the best-documented Tilton, a professor of American lit- The book is big and handsome, romantic encounter of his life. The erature and American studies, have packed with 261 color and black- widower from Virginia, then in done it again. Their 1994 catalog and-white images: paintings, docu- Paris as American minister to for the VHS exhibit, Pocahontas: France, met and evidently fell Her Life & Legend, set a high stan- deeply in love with Maria Hadfield dard with its combination of his- …the Head upbraids the Cosway, a twenty-seven-year-old tory, art, and prose. With this new Italian woman of English parent- and quite substantial catalog, they Heart for its passionate age. Despite the inconvenient pres- meet their own standard with a ence of her husband, English artist fresh look at George Washington. folly, and the Heart Richard Cosway, Jefferson was Washington’s story is well basically tells the Head to immediately smitten by her known, of course, but in the two beauty, charm, and gifts as an art- hundred years since his death, dis- mind its own business. ist and musician, and they spent tortions, falsehoods, and myths much of the next several weeks in have entwined with the truth to each other’s company. produce a popular yet sometimes ments, rooms at Mount Vernon, In his first letter to her after her unreliable picture. Artists over the architectural plans in Washing- return to London, Jefferson in- centuries have only added to that ton’s own hand, and so on. Exten- cluded his extraordinary and justly image, depicting Washington’s sive endnotes and a useful index renowned “Dialogue between my youth, family life, wartime duty, make it useful for scholarly types. Head and my Heart,” in which the presidential service, and old age The authors’ accessible writing Head upbraids the Heart for its with varying degrees of accuracy. style and a knack for blending sev- passionate folly, and the Heart Artists have also worked under the eral themes make the book a good basically tells the Head to mind its influence of their times, and popu- read for anyone interested in own business. The lengthy and lar culture has treated Washington understanding the real George emotionally charged essay was ren- in a variety of ways, often elevat- Washington. dered more astonishing because ing him into a moral and patriotic —reviewed by Julie A. Campbell, Jefferson wrote it with his left paragon and forgetting that he was Editor, Virginia Cavalcade hand, having broken his right

Julie A. Campbell is editor of Virginia Cavalcade magazine. She works in the Publications and Educational Services Divi- sion at the Library of Virginia. Staff members from other divisions of the Library occasionally contribute to “Virginia Books” and are so noted in their bylines. PAGE 22 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

wrist during a coltish effort to Thomas Jefferson. But Kaminski’s mately, Jabour concludes, “a fun- impress Cosway by jumping over a book, complete with a few essen- damental inequity between men fence. tial annotations, an elegant intro- and women” undermined the The apparent passion of the duction, and a useful bibliography, Wirts’ efforts to achieve their beau relationship was unsustained. A provides a much handier way for ideal. year later Cosway came to Paris for general readers to draw their own The Wirts envisioned them- several months, alone this time, conclusions about this fascinating selves as partners in finance, par- but she and Jefferson each seemed interlude and the complex person- enthood, and romance, but Wil- to have waited for the other to alities of the two key players liam’s professional ambitions and make the first move, and they therein. the domestic constraints that their wound up seeing little of each —reviewed by J. Jefferson Looney, ten children placed upon Elizabeth other. They never met again, but Senior Editor, Dictionary of Virginia stymied their plans. In their beau corresponded regularly for the rest Biography ideal, Elizabeth’s domestic produc- of Jefferson’s stay in Europe and tion complemented William’s law much less frequently thereafter. practice, and the parents cooper- Historians ever since have pon- Anya Jabour, Marriage in the ated to home-school their children dered the Head and Heart dialogue, Early Republic: Elizabeth and and live together in domestic bliss. a maddeningly enigmatic but still William Wirt and the Com- As the couple’s extensive corre- uniquely revealing glimpse into panionate Ideal. Baltimore: spondence reveals, however, Eliza- Jefferson’s emotional world, and Johns Hopkins University Press, beth and William spent much of the exact nature of the Jefferson- 1998. ix + 217 pp. $42.00. their married life apart. William Cosway relationship. Many have traveled to courts throughout Vir- argued that the Head triumphs in ginia, Maryland, and the District the letter, which this reviewer of Columbia, while Elizabeth strug- denies, or that it quickly reasserted Betsey…assented gled to maintain a household and its habitual rule thereafter, which “reluctantly” to a marriage to coax her husband to live a quiet seems much more defensible. Oth- life at home. Although William ers have wondered whether Jeffer- in which husband and sighed often that his “happiness, son and Cosway shared only a con- dearest Betsey, is always at home,” ventional if extravagantly worded wife played different he also expressed great satisfaction friendship, a passionate but pla- roles and held unequal with a career that culminated with tonic love, or a brief sexual liaison. his appointment as United States The developing consensus that shares of power. Attorney General in 1817. Betsey, Jefferson was not perpetually celi- isolated at home by William’s bate after his wife’s death needs to absence and frustrated by his dis- be considered on the latter point, counting of her contributions to but the only direct evidence on his In 1803, newlyweds William the household economy, assented involvement with Cosway remains Wirt and Elizabeth Gamble of Vir- “reluctantly” to a marriage in their correspondence. In Jefferson ginia described a marriage based which husband and wife played in Love, John P. Kaminski collects on companionship and reciprocity different roles and held unequal the fifty-eight letters Jefferson and as their “beau ideal.” Yet, as Anya shares of power. Cosway exchanged through 1790. Jabour argues, their thirty-year Ironically, William’s role as the Concluding that there is a clear marriage reveals the “fault lines” family’s provider shut him off drop-off in their emotional inten- between the nineteenth-century from its domestic life. While Wil- sity thereafter, he omits the thir- egalitarian ideal of marriage and liam’s income provided the home, teen letters that concluded the the traditional hierarchical rela- Elizabeth was the central parental epistolary conversation, a decision tionship between a patriarch and figure to whom their children that some readers will regret, but his wife. Intended as a contribu- turned most often for guidance one which is remedied to some tion to the fields of family and and love. And, at William’s death, extent by a summary in the intro- gender history, Marriage in the Betsey also proved the better econ- duction. Early Republic tests historians’ omist, transforming his vast debts All of the letters in the slim vol- interpretations of the development into a sizeable legacy for the Wirt ume that results have in fact of companionate marriage through children. To their frustration, the already been printed in the Prince- a case study of an elite couple Wirts never achieved their ideal ton edition of The Papers of residing in the Upper South. Ulti- companionate marriage. As Jabour APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 23

demonstrates, however, they did care of the poor and orphans, and southwestern Virginia, the battle ease away from the patriarchal reform movements, such as the at New Market, Gen. David family structure and move halt- temperance movement. Hunter’s movements, and Gen. ingly toward the nineteenth- This left them room to maneu- Jubal Early’s Valley campaign into century family that placed the ver within what was supposed to one comprehensive study. To rem- mother at the center of the house- have been a confined sphere of edy this void, Richard R. Duncan, hold. influence, and after the period a professor of history at George- —reviewed by Mary Carroll Johan- under consideration in this vol- town University, has blended sen, Research Associate, Dictionary ume, many women emerged again recent research with the older stan- of Virginia Biography in more overtly political roles dard works to produce an insight- when educational and moral issues ful, readable, and enjoyable narra- again took prominent place in tive. Cynthia A. Kierner, Beyond political discourse. From the outset, Duncan in- the Household: Women’s Rather like the women de- tends to demonstrate that the cam- Place in the Early South, scribed in Anne Firor Scott’s The paigning in western Virginia was 1700–1835. Ithaca, N.Y.: Southern Lady, the subjects of Cyn- part of a larger, overall strategy for Cornell University Press, 1998. xii both Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. + 295 pp. $55.00 (hardcover), Ulysses S. Grant; both generals $18.95 (softcover). considered the Valley their west- This subtle and sophisticated A great strength of ern flank. Lee depended upon the analysis of the evolution of the the book is its emphasis agriculturally rich Shenandoah stereotype of the southern lady, Valley for subsistence, and the salt and of the differences between the on the plight of the works and lead mines in south- stereotype and actual reality, western Virginia were vital to the bridges a gap between some of the inhabitants of the Valley. survival of the Confederacy. Lee’s best new scholarship on women in western transportation systems, the colonial period and on women especially the railroads, were in the nineteenth century. It important links to the West. When focuses on white women in Vir- thia Kierner’s Beyond the Household the Federal army began its coordi- ginia and the Carolinas, but it conformed in many respects to nated offensive in the spring of considers the implications for their culture’s expectation that 1864, Grant understood the need women’s history in other portions they would be genteel influences to apply constant pressure in this of the South and points out simi- for good within their allotted place region. Both Lee and Grant larities and differences between in the home, but they also took attempted to play on the other’s Northern and Southern women. part in public activities that were fears for the safety of the area. Kierner makes excellent use of logical extensions of that domestic When Hunter took charge after letters, diaries, biographies, works role. the Union thrust in the Valley of art, and other resources to docu- —reviewed by Brent Tarter, Editor, stalled at the Battle of New Market, ment the changing roles of white Dictionary of Virginia Biography the entire complexion of the war women of different classes and changed, with the focus of the places. After the American Revolu- fighting moving down the Shenan- tion, women tended to recede Richard R. Duncan, Lee’s doah and away from the south- from prominent public participa- Endangered Left: The Civil west. After the Federal occupation tion in activities that had overtly War in Western Virginia, of Staunton, however, the Union partisan political overtones, but Spring of 1864. Baton Rouge: faltered. Momentum again swung the increased emphasis that they Louisiana State University Press, to the Confederacy as the South- and their society placed on the 1999. xvi + 346 pp. $29.95. ern forces swept down the Valley, religious, moral, and educational The Civil War in western Vir- but then Gen. Philip Sheridan responsibilities of women enabled ginia is a fertile field for modern whipped Jubal Early at Winchester them, in spite of a growing expec- scholarly research. The Valley and Cedar Creek, thus effectively tation that women would confine Campaign of 1864 in particular ending the Southern presence in their influences to their homes has been long neglected, lacking a the Valley. and families, to engage in coopera- narrative treating the campaigns in A great strength of the book is tive and public projects on behalf the region as a whole. No prior its emphasis on the plight of the of education, religious instruction, work has combined the conflict in inhabitants of the Valley. Al- PAGE 24 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 though a common theme in mod- procedures and operations. As Bar- army was a semi-modern organiza- ern scholarship, surprising little tholomees cast about for informa- tion attempting to deal in tradi- has been done on the effects of the tion on the topic, he discovered tional ways with problems that fighting on the civilian population that few published sources existed, were essentially modern. in this war-torn region. (A recent and those treated only certain Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons is exception is John L. Heatwole’s aspects of staff work rather than aimed at readers who are already The Burning: Sheridan in the Shenan- the entire subject in a general, familiar with both the war and the doah Valley, reviewed in the Janu- comprehensive fashion. His efforts operations of the Army of North- ary/February/March 1999 issue of to fill that void became a project ern Virginia. Working in original Virginia Libraries.) Although at that became this book. documents as well as published times both sides displayed compas- Readers who enjoy military his- primary and secondary sources, sion and humanity, Hunter’s pol- tory, especially the American Civil the author has taken what he icy of living off the country War, are familiar with the activi- believes is a major step toward fur- ensured many atrocities, which nishing an understanding of this Duncan chronicles. subject, but he acknowledges that Duncan is more concerned with a vast amount of unpublished pri- the overall strategies of the armies, …the superficial mary documents remains unexam- and he advises readers to look else- ined and invites further analysis. A where for more thorough treat- information that usually long-needed work on a neglected ments of the individual battles. He topic, Bartholomees’s examina- does, however, render remarkably assuaged curious visitors tion—of those soldiers whose good and engaging summaries of …would not begin to activities have stayed in the back- skirmishes and battles. Anyone ground but whose work made the desiring a comprehensive overview satisfy the demanding efficient operations of the army of the 1864 Valley Campaign, or possible and counted no little with an interest in Lee’s overall questions that… toward its victories—is a necessary military strategy in 1864, would be officers put to him. addition to any library collection. well served by reading this book. —reviewed by Don Gunter, Assist- —reviewed by Eddie Woodward, ant Editor, Dictionary of Virginia Local Records Archivist Biography

ties of general staff personnel; they J. Boone Bartholomees, Jr., come and go during the action Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, Freed- Buff Facings and Gilt Buttons: with their odd-sounding, inscruta- people in the Tobacco South: Staff and Headquarters Opera- ble titles and seem to have impor- Virginia, 1860–1900. Chapel tions in the Army of Northern tant functions, but few readers Hill: University of North Virginia, 1861–1865. Columbia: know about the variety of duties Carolina Press, 1999. xv + 295 pp. University of Press, and responsibilities involved. To $55.00 (hardcover), $18.95 (soft- 1998. xv + 352 pp. $29.95. clarify the importance of staff cover). This volume grew out of the work and believing, from personal Scholarly studies of the experi- author’s preparations for guiding experience, that army staffs ences of former slaves during the fellow army officers on junkets to develop individual styles that years and decades after emancipa- Civil War battlefields. Bartholo- come to resemble a unique person- tion are currently a popular form mees, a professor of military his- ality, Bartholomees limited his of historical literature. There are tory at the United States Army War field of study to a single working already several books that treat College at Carlisle Barracks, Penn- model: the staff operations of the individual Virginia localities, but sylvania, learned quickly that the Army of Northern Virginia. He there is as yet no general study for superficial information that usu- focuses on the activities of the the entire state. This volume falls ally assuaged curious visitors to chief of staff, the adjutant general, in between. It focuses on the por- Gettysburg or Antietam would not and inspector general, including tions of Virginia where tobacco begin to satisfy the demanding the logistical staff personnel, remained the main agricultural questions that a busload of knowl- among them the quartermasters commodity at the time of the Civil edgeable army officers put to him. and commissary officers, as well as War. Moreover, a surprising number of other officers. Complicating his The bulk of the volume treats these questions concerned staff study is the knowledge that this the changing economic conditions APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 25 in which the freed people lived to the minor-league parks scattered forward recollections of brushing and worked in the thirty-five years across Dixie. In places as different back Jim Crow are tinged with wit, after the end of the Civil War. as Danville, Virginia, and Birming- irony, and sometimes bitterness. There are chapters on politics and ham, Alabama, young black men They also reveal an abiding love on Hampton Institute, but there is integrated white teams in the for a game that placed them on little about education in general, heartland of segregation in the the front lines of integration. and there is very little about relig- 1950s and 1960s. Never removed —reviewed by Gregg D. Kimball, ion and churches, non-agricultural from southern Jim Crowism and Assistant Director, Publications and labor, urban life, or family life. the civil-rights struggle that raged Educational Services Division There is almost nothing specifi- in those same years, these black cally about women and children, pioneers faced a very different and there is comparatively little experience than those who quickly William L. Whitesides, Sr., about the lives of individual peo- made it to the majors. Adelson’s ed., Reinvention of the Public ple. Because of the nature of the chronological treatment weaves Library for the 21st Century. sources, the volume’s descriptions Englewood, Colorado: Li- and voices are for the most part braries Unlimited Inc., 1998. xxvi the words of white commentators. + 302 pp. $40.00. It is therefore still an incomplete The ballplayers’ Bill Whitesides is known to portrait of life for the freed people many readers of Virginia Libraries in the tobacco belt of Virginia. straightforward from his long career in the state, The overall account of how the recollections of including service in the Library changing tobacco economy altered Development and Networking the economic climate in which the brushing back Jim Crow Division of the Library of Virginia. freed people (and many of the In 1996 he taught a graduate-level white farmers and operatives, too) are tinged with wit, course on “The Public Library,” lived is thorough and interesting. irony, and sometimes offered by the Catholic University It invites more detailed analysis of School of Library and Information how those changing circumstances bitterness. Science through the University of changed the lives of the people Richmond. He searched unsuccess- who planted tobacco, worked in fully for a suitable textbook and the tobacco factories, or had to then had an idea. Why not have change their means of making a together the personal stories of the the class write a book about public living as the tobacco processing ballplayers and the battle against libraries on the edge of a new mil- and marketing industries changed. Jim Crow. lennium? This publication is the —reviewed by Brent Tarter, Editor, Adelson tells the men’s stories result. Dictionary of Virginia Biography largely through their own words The approach that the class fol- and other contemporary sources. lowed for analyzing the “reinven- Long excerpts from numerous tion” of public libraries occupies a Bruce Adelson, Brushing interviews with ballplayers, team- middle ground: public libraries Back Jim Crow: The Integra- mates, managers, sportswriters, that can effectively combine the tion of Minor League Baseball and newspapers carry the narra- old and the new are most likely to in the American South. Char- tive. Some of the ballplayers are flourish through a time of swift lottesville: University Press of Vir- well known: Henry Aaron, Willie changes. Rather than prescribing a ginia, 1999. 275 pp. $27.95. McCovey, and Willie Mays all single path for librarians to follow, Jackie Robinson’s breaking of played in the southern minor the book actually is most valuable the color barrier in major-league leagues on their way to stardom, as a sourcebook. Twelve chapters baseball and his artistry as a player McCovey and Mays for the Dan- cover such topics as technology, have made him an American icon. ville Giants. support groups, and services, and Most baseball aficionados will also The most poignant memories each provides a survey of the pro- recognize the name of Larry Doby, are from men who never reached fessional literature on all the top- the first African American to play those heights, for they endured ics. The authors also developed a in the American League. This book many years of life on the road in set of discussion questions for each shifts our attention from the big the southern leagues and faced a chapter, which help to frame the league’s northern cities such as segregated society roiling with issues for readers. Brooklyn, Detroit, and Cleveland change. The ballplayers’ straight- The students then identified PAGE 26 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999 recent recipients of the Gale Virginia Van Der Veer Hamilton, tences, conclusions cohere.” Research/Library Journal “Public Theda Perdue, Jean B. Lee, Anne Women historians of the South Library of the Year” awards (none Firor Scott, Glenda Elizabeth Gil- raise their voices in Taking Off the of them Virginia libraries, it must more, Carol Bleser, and Darlene White Gloves, creating a book that be admitted). A member of the Clark Hine. Their essays cover a is interesting and informative. class contacted people in charge at broad spectrum of topics, including —reviewed by Jennifer Davis each of these exemplary institu- women workers in the twentieth- McDaid, Assistant Editor, Virginia tions to learn how they were pre- century South, the southern expe- Cavalcade paring for the future. The book rience in the American Revolution, closes with reports on practices at and female leadership of the thirteen of the nation’s best public Southern Historical Association. Mary Kemp Davis, Nat Turner libraries. Students of library sci- Two authors deal with topics Before the Bar of Judgment: ence will be grateful for this book, related to Virginia. Theda Perdue Fictional Treatments of the and anyone involved in adminis- thoughtfully examines the rela- Southampton Slave Insurrec- tration of public libraries will find tionship between native women tion. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State it an informative resource. Bill and European men (mentioning University Press, 1999. xiv + 298 Whitesides’s inspiration even ben- Pocahontas and John Smith), and pp. $30.00. efited himself. Now he has the Mary Kemp Davis, an associate textbook that he needed for his professor of English at Florida course. A&M University, examines six fic- —reviewed by John T. Kneebone, Many shed their gloves tional accounts of Nat Turner’s Director, Publications and Educa- 1831 insurrection in Southamp- tional Services Division in 1970…and slip into ton, Virginia. She begins by explor- them now only to handle ing the historical events and responses surrounding the insur- Michele Gillespie and fragile archival materials. rection and the publication in Catherine Clinton, eds., 1831 of Thomas Gray’s The Confes- Taking Off the White Gloves: sions of Nat Turner, which William Southern Women and Women Styron used in his 1967 book of Historians. Columbia: University of Suzanne Lebsock outlines Vir- the same name. The six novels are Missouri Press, 1998. x + 186 pp. ginia’s woman suffrage movement The Old Dominion; or, The South- $27.50. and traces its ties to white supre- ampton Massacre by George Payne Many southern women, myself macy. Rainsford James (1856); Dred: A included, have donned white While increasing our under- Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp by gloves for special occasions. Gloves standing of women in the past, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1856); of various lengths, from wrist to these essays also help us under- Homoselle by Mary Spear Tiernan elbow, are still trotted out for wed- stand women in the present. What (1881); Their Shadows Before: A dings, proms, and beauty pageants. is the status of women in the his- Story of the Southampton Insurrection Michele Gillespie and Catherine torical profession? What is the by Pauline Carrington Rust Bouvé Clinton, editors of this collection research process really like? What (1899); Ol’ Prophet Nat by Daniel of ten essays, explain in their is the connection between women’s Panger (1967); and Styron’s The introduction that by taking the history and women’s activism? Confessions of Nat Turner. Davis gloves off, scholars free themselves How can race and gender be writ- concludes her discussion with for the demanding work of writing ten into political history? What Dessa Rose (1986), written by Sher- women back into history. Many was it like to be a female graduate ley Anne Williams in response to shed their gloves in 1970, when student in the 1960s? How is his- Styron. the Southern Association of Women tory written, and why is it impor- Davis traces the origins of the Historians (SAWH) was formed, tant? Sifting through research book to her college introduction to and slip into them now only to notes and crafting words into sen- Styron’s novel and her continuing handle fragile archival materials. tences, paragraphs, and pages is fascination with Nat Turner. The The book contains a selection of hard work, Glenda Gilmore ex- work is an outgrowth of her Ph.D. the addresses given annually to plains, but when historians “get dissertation, The Historical Slave the SAWH by a who’s who of his- really lucky, magic happens; we Revolt and the Literary Imagination torians: Mary Frederickson, Su- find a voice, stories spill out, argu- (University of North Carolina at zanne Lebsock, Catherine Clinton, ments leap up into topic sen- Chapel Hill, 1984). Her intent is APRIL–JUNE, 1999 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 27

“to show how each novel contrives works of fiction, they are produced fifteen-mile area each year, the to extract a ‘verdict’ from its plot.” within an historical context and woolly adelgids endanger the trees, Davis begins her discussion by that their encoded language must and perhaps may make extinct the deconstructing the earlier texts not be taken at face value. In this, Carolina hemlock. relating to the trials: Governor she is preaching to the choir. Nash also discusses acid rain John Floyd’s official address to the —reviewed by Barbara Batson, (mostly caused by coal-burning General Assembly on 6 December Exhibits Coordinator power plants), ozone pollution, 1831, the trial transcripts, articles and other forms of pollution in in the Richmond Enquirer and the Blue Ridge environment. In Richmond Constitutional Whig, Steve Nash, Blue Ridge 2020: addition, he explores the en- and Gray’s The Confessions of Nat An Owner’s Manual. Chapel croachment of humans with hous- Turner. Hill: University of North ing developments and deforesta- These texts, especially Confes- Carolina Press, 1999. xviii + tion and the resulting endanger- sions, which resulted from Gray’s 211 pp. $19.95 (soft cover). ment of the natural environment. deposition of Turner over three The Blue Ridge Mountains are And he looks at the effects of days, serve as the basic documents home to three national parks, uncertain federal and state govern- from which the later novels drew seven national forests, twenty-nine ment funding of research and the material. Davis concludes that wilderness areas, parts of the Appa- lack of legislative, governmental, these texts all purport to represent lachian Trail, and numerous state and public support to preserve the the “true” Nat Turner but ulti- parks, forests, and natural areas. Blue Ridge. Nash concludes with a mately fail to achieve the truth The Blue Ridge is also home to review of the various initiatives about the revolt because the writ- almost as many species of mam- that have recently been under- ers cannot decide on Turner’s mals, snakes, birds, fish, flowering taken, especially on the local level, essential nature. Is his religious plants, and trees as Europe, and it to undo the damage and discusses fanaticism a legitimate explana- encompasses the largest concentra- Americans’ need to become more tion for the events or is Turner tion of public land east of the Mis- aware of and sensitive to our simply a madman? sissippi. Steve Nash, associate pro- responsibilities for preserving this Her fundamental argument is fessor of journalism at the Univer- important area. Maps, tables, and that the novelists use the Nat sity of Richmond and a reporter several informative sidebars titled Turner Revolt as a dramatic device on environmental issues for BioSci- “Solutions” round out his picture without achieving a true image of ence, National Parks, and the Wash- of an imperiled ecosystem. Turner himself. Davis points out ington Post, summarizes the work —reviewed by Emily J. Salmon, that the novelists were (and are) of scientists and other profession- Senior Copy Editor white and that no African Amer- als in government and academia to icans have written fictional explore the present environmental accounts of Turner. She finds this status of the Blue Ridge and to sug- Virginia Bookends curious, but does not explore the gest ways we can save the moun- reasons why this might be. In her tains for future generations. The next time you pitch camp final chapter, Davis compares Sty- In a conversational tone that at Black Horse Gap on the ron’s Confessions to Dessa Rose. For forsakes scientific jargon, Nash dis- Appalachian Trail, “be sure to keep Davis, Williams is the only novel- cusses a number of issues. He an eye on the Sundrops while you ist to come close to the oral tradi- examines endangered species and prepare breakfast,” advises Leonard tion of African American culture the deleterious effects of non- M. Adkins, a resident of Catawba, and to break free of the previous native species on the natives. He Virginia. “The tightly wound, red- novelists’ reliance on the pub- postulates, for example, that Major dish orange, tapering buds will lished record, which suppresses the James Dooley, creator of what is begin to spread outward, eventu- voices of Nat Turner and his fol- now Richmond’s Maymont Park, ally opening up to become deep- lowers. may have inadvertently intro- golden blossoms whose pigment The book is geared toward an duced to Virginia an Asian insect, mimics that of the solar orb rising academic audience, not the gen- the hemlock woolly adelgid, when higher into the sky.” For more eral public. For readers unfamiliar he acquired a Japanese hemlock such enjoyable and poetic descrip- with the language of deconstruc- for Maymont in the early years of tions, not to mention attractive tion, it makes for tough reading. the twentieth century. The insect illustrations by Georgia photogra- Davis cautions readers to remem- now infests hemlocks of the Blue phers Joe and Monica Cook, add ber that, although novels are Ridge. Taking over a new ten-to- to your backpack Wildflowers of the PAGE 28 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES APRIL–JUNE, 1999

Appalachian Trail (Birmingham, New York Press, 1998. xi + 178 pp. Civil War Bookends Alabama: Menasha Ridge Press, $18.95 soft cover) that its goal “is 1999. x + 214 pp. $15.95 soft- to initiate consideration of Cayce Louisiana State University cover). in historical context as a major fig- Press has reissued a book by ure in twentieth-century American Confederate spy Belle Boyd, Belle Of special interest to local his- spirituality.” Cayce (1877–1945) Boyd in Camp and Prison (Baton torians and genealogists: Vir- became known as the “Sleeping Rouge: 1865, reprint 1999. 268 pp. ginia Lee Hutcheson Davis has pre- Prophet” for his advice on health, $16.95 soft cover). Scholars Drew pared Tidewater Virginia Families: Christianity, psychology, reincar- Gilpin Faust and Sharon Kennedy- Generations Beyond (Baltimore: nation, Atlantis, and other mat- Nolle add a foreword and introduc- Genealogical Publishing Co., 1998. ters, which he gave while in a tion that discuss Boyd in the light 221 pp. $45.00), a supplement to trance. Cayce’s Association for Re- of recent scholarship on women her 1990 book, Tidewater Virginia search and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), and the Civil War. Families. Davis has added eleven located in Virginia Beach, outlived families to the original forty, all him and is today a center of New The Bison Books imprint of the connected to the Hutcheson, Pea- Age study. Johnson briefly exam- University of Nebraska Press tross, Butler, and Lee clans, and ines Cayce’s readings and discusses continues its steady stream of Civil has included information on his peers but invites other scholars War reissues in soft cover, begin- homes, graveyards, sibling lines, to conduct in-depth research. ning with a book by Virginian Clif- and personal anecdotes. Nancy B. Detweiler, of Rich- ford Dowdey, Lee & His Men at Get- mond, has written a kind of spiri- tysburg: The Death of a Nation (393 Quentin P. Taylor, a scholar of tual scrapbook of her life, A New pp. $16.95). The work focuses on politics and humanities, has Age Christian: My Spiritual Journey the Army of Northern Virginia; it edited The Essential Federalist: A (Richmond: Bridging the Gap Min- is the first of a trilogy, the other New Reading of the Federalist Papers istries, 1998. 236 pp. $24.95 soft titles of which are also Bison (Madison, Wisconsin: Madison cover). Some of her concerns, such Books. George Dallas Mosgrove House Publishers, Inc., 1998. xi + as reincarnation and Christ con- published Kentucky Cavaliers in 183 pp. $28.95 hardcover, $16.95 sciousness, echo those of Edgar Dixie: Reminiscences of a Confederate soft cover). Taylor has distributed Cayce; others, such as karma, Cavalryman (xiii + 282 pp. $15.00 among nine topical chapters the astrology, and numerology, derive soft cover) in 1895. He approv- core of the complete Papers, about from spiritual and metaphysical ingly compared the Shenandoah one-fourth the length of the origi- practices all over the world. Under- Valley to his home’s bluegrass nal. According to John P. Kamin- pinning the entire narrative is her country, enjoyed a visit to the Nat- ski (editor of Madison House’s Jef- struggle to reconcile her Christian- ural Bridge, and paid his respects ferson in Love, reviewed elsewhere ity with her New Age beliefs. at Stonewall Jackson’s grave. One in this column), of the Center for The late Robert R. Brown, an of Mosgrove’s opponents, Rufus R. the Study of the American Consti- Episcopal bishop with a divinity Dawes, wrote A Full Blown Yankee tution (under whose banner this degree from Virginia Theological of the Iron Brigade: Service with the book is published), “the best of the Seminary, wrote an extended med- Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers (xv + writing and all of the key ideas itation titled “And One Was a Sol- 330 pp. $16.95) in 1890, basing his have been preserved” and “Taylor dier”: The Spiritual Pilgrimage of account on a wartime journal and has made The Federalist Papers Robert E. Lee (Shippensburg, Penn- on letters to his family back in truly accessible.” Taylor adds a bio- sylvania: White Mane Publishing Ohio. Dawes fought all over Vir- graphical essay on each of the Co., 1998. xvii + 125 pp. $19.95). ginia, including the great battles at three authors of the papers, includ- Brown based his thoughtful book Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, ing Virginian James Madison, and on his own extensive knowledge and Cold Harbor. an essay on the historical context of the Civil War and of Lee, —reviewed by Julie A. Campbell VL of the writings. although he acknowledged that “there is no way of measuring pre- Three recent titles touch on cisely the depth of his [Lee’s] faith, religious and spiritual themes. particularly as he was such an Virginia librarian K. Paul Johnson uncommunicative man.” However, says of his book Edgar Cayce in wrote Brown, “I think the subject Context: The Readings: Truth and important enough to try.” Fiction (Albany: State University of