STAFF

Co-Editors Barbie Selby Documents Librarian UVA Law Library Virginia 580 Massie Road Charlottesville, VA 22903-1789 (804) 924-3504 [email protected] Libraries Earlene Viano Library Assistant/Reference October/November/December, 2001, Vol. 47, No. 4 Hampton Public Library 4207 Victoria Blvd. Hampton, VA 23669-4243 (757) 727-1312 [email protected] COLUMNS

Editorial Board Barbie Selby and 2 Openers Fran Freimarck Earlene Viano Director Pamunkey Regional Library P.O. Box 119 Cy Dillon 3 President’s Column Hanover, VA 23069 (804) 537-6212 Scott Silet 29 Internet Reference Resources [email protected] Julie A. Campbell, Ed. 30 Virginia Reviews John Kneebone Director, Publications and Educational Services Library of Virginia 800 E. Broad Street FEATURES Richmond, VA 23219-8000 (804) 692-3720 Sue Evans 5 Loudoun’s Irwin Uran Gift Fund [email protected] Nan Seamans An Interview by 8 A Virginia Writer’s Life and Work: Director of Instruction Douglas Gordon A Conversation with Donald McCaig Virginia Tech, University Libraries Blacksburg, VA 24061-0434 Ladd Brown and 21 Managing Electronic Resources (540) 231-2708 Molly Brennan Cox in Technical Services [email protected] Lydia C. Williams Ken Winter 25 Stop Clinging to Those Static Pages Longwood College Library Farmville, VA 23909 (804) 395-2432 [email protected] Antoinette Arsic Corporate Business Development Specialist/Librarian Virginia Libraries is a quarterly journal published by the Virginia Library Association whose pur- EER Systems, Inc. (703) 375-6488 pose is to develop, promote, and improve library and information services and the profession of [email protected] librarianship in order to advance literacy and learning and to ensure access to information in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Molly Brennan Cox The journal, distributed to the membership, is used as a vehicle for members to exchange Librarian information, ideas, and solutions to mutual problems in professional articles on current topics Floyd County High School in the library and information fi eld. Views expressed in Virginia Libraries are not necessarily 721 Baker St. endorsed by the editor or editorial board. Floyd, VA 24091 The Virginia Library Association (VLA) holds the copyright on all articles published in Virginia (540) 745-9450 coxm@fl oyd.k12.va.us Libraries whether the articles appear in print or electronic format. Material may be reproduced for informational, educational, or recreational purposes provided the source of the material is Editor, Virginia Books cited. The print version of Virginia Libraries is designed by Lamp-Post Publicity in Meherrin, Vir- Julie A. Campbell ginia. The electronic version of Virginia Libraries is created by Virginia Tech’s Scholarly Commu- Library of Virginia nications Project and is available at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/VALibs or as a link from 800 E. Broad Street the Virginia Library Association web site at http://www.vla.org. Virginia Libraries is indexed in Richmond, VA 23219-8000 Library Literature, a database produced by the H.W. Wilson Company. (804) 692-3731 Items for publication and editorial inquiries should be addressed to the editor. Inquiries [email protected] 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, Helen Q. Sherman, Librarian, DTIC Technical Library, Defense Technical On the cover: Donald McCaig Information Center, 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 0944, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-6218, (703) with his friend, Harry 767-8180, fax (703) 767-8179, email [email protected]. Virginia Libraries is available by sub- scription at $20 per year. The guidelines for submissions to Virginia Libraries are found on page 24. PAGE 2 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

OPENERS Promoting Understanding

by Barbie Selby and Earlene Viano

n light of our nation’s, indeed, reads, even other species one “ Electronic Resource Diary,” by our world’s, recent tragic interacts with. Douglas Gordon’s means of which they are able to events it seems likely that in-depth interview with Donald organize the bits and pieces of manyI of us have had similar McCaig touches on all these pos- information libraries need to know impulses to those of the 3,000 sibilities for understanding and regarding their electronic purchases people who are weekly applying to gained insight. Reading Mr. and databases. the CIA. We want to do something. McCaig’s thoughts on the training Ken Winter of VMI reports on We want to comfort someone. We of a sheep dog and the almost mysti- their dynamically generated guides want to contribute to the victims called SourceFinder. Prompted by and their families. the excessive amount of work We were extraordinarily pleased involved in regularly updating static to see that Steve Helm quickly What a noble and timely web resource lists and by projects, and prominently included a link to reminder that we all such as VCU’s “MyLibrary” project, donate to the American Red Cross VMI has implemented a database- on the VLA web site. While we all need to learn more about supported, dynamically generated, know the VLA web pages wouldn’t easily-updated reference tool for be the fi rst place anyone would look our shared past and our its students. For those of us who for such a link, it says a lot about shared present! haven’t investigated the possibili- our organization that the link is ties of database-driven web guides there. Good work, Steve. this article should show us the One of the articles in this issue way. of Virginia Libraries seems particu- cal connection between dog/sheep/ Beginning with this issue “Vir- larly appropriate for this sad, but man is illuminating and thought- ginia Books” has a new name, “Vir- challenging, time in our country’s provoking. Surely, if such connec- ginia Reviews,” to refl ect its broader history. Mr. Irwin Uran of Loudoun tions can exist there’s hope of scope. With the proliferation of County gave the Loudoun County strengthening our connections with electronic information resources, Public Library a one-million-dollar one another. we feel it’s time to expand the gift to be used toward promoting a Our fi nal two articles are more coverage of our reviews to include greater understanding of our neigh- traditionally library-oriented. In this media. As seems fi tting in Vir- bors and better relations among all “Managing Electronic Resources in ginia, our fi rst review will be of the people. What a noble and timely Technical Services” Molly Cox and 1880 Virginia census CD from the reminder that we all need to learn Ladd Brown describe the workfl ow Church of Latter Day Saints. Caro- more about our shared past and our and procedures that have worked lyn Barkley will do the honors. We shared present! well at Virginia Tech to track and hope you enjoy and profi t from this Understanding is of many organize their acquisition and main- additional coverage, and we prom- kinds — understanding one’s self, tenance of electronic resources. ise to still “do books.” VL one’s neighbors, writers whom one They include an outline of an OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 3

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN State of the Association

by Cy Dillon

There is only the fi ght to recover what a general statement of our organi- you are a public librarian, be sure had been lost zation’s current state. your board members have copies. And found and lost again and again: Goal I for VLA was to serve as Before the 2001 Designated and now, under conditions an advocate for libraries, infor- Agenda was even written, we had That seem unpropitious. But perhaps mation services, and library per- completed negotiations on an neither gain nor loss. sonnel. exemption for libraries from some of For us, there is only the trying. The rest Our Legislative Committee led the restrictions imposed by UCITA. is not our business. the efforts to retain as much public VLA members have consulted with — T. S. Eliot (East Coker) library funding as possible in a cer- library associations in other states to help stop the spread of this con- troversial law, and at this point nd try we have. This past We will need every no states have joined Virginia and year our Association has Maryland in passing the act. seen its members create ounce of that strength VLA participated in national Leg- Agains, or at least prevent losses, on islative Day and, for the fi rst time, every front at a time when much this winter. sponsored a bus for participants. has been at stake in our Common- We had good attendance at our wealth and our society. We can luncheon, including ALA President look toward 2002 with unity of pur- tifi ably insane budget year. We were Nancy Cranich. Also at the national pose, confi dence in the soundness successful, maintaining funding for level, VLA was one of the fi rst of our organization, and a stub- State Aid to Public Libraries and chapters to contribute fi nancially to born belief that we can make a dif- Infopowering, but library construc- ALA’s battle against the Children’s ference. This is particularly impor- tion and the budget of the Library Internet Protection Act. tant because Virginia faces a severe of Virginia suffered. With an excel- We have negotiated a contract funding shortfall as this year ends lent legislative liaison and an activist for the coming year with the Vectre that will carry over into the coming membership, VLA has become one Corporation and will spend over legislative session. We also have to of the stronger advocacy organiza- $26,000 on our legislative liaison. continue to deal with the imple- tions in Virginia. We will need every In 2002 VLA needs to continue the mentation of UCITA and the court ounce of that strength this winter. work begun this year to stabilize the challenge to CIPA, as well as with The formula for funding State funding for this area. I do not expect local intellectual-freedom issues. Aid was reviewed by the Joint Leg- the need or the cost to decrease. In 2001 VLA Council followed islative Audit and Review Commis- Goal II was to provide and a Designated Agenda for the Asso- sion this year, and VLA worked publicize high quality continu- ciation that focused on four main with public library directors and ing education opportunities that goals that might be abbreviated the JLARC staff to provide infor- are geographically and fi nancially Advocacy, Continuing Education, mation and support funding for accessible to library personnel Services, and Finances. The Agenda all regions. The fi nal report was and support groups. specifi ed initiatives and actions a strong endorsement for libraries From the successful Paraprofes- designed to meet those goals. I will and for local efforts. If you have not sional Forum Conference to the use that format as a means of orga- yet reviewed this document, by all regional workshops to events spon- nizing this report and incorporate means try to read it before the next sored by various committees and reports from various VLA units into session of the General Assembly. If forums, VLA has covered the state

Cy Dillon is President of the Virginia Library Association and is Library Director at Stanley Library, Ferrum College. PAGE 4 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 with affordable and well-attended me all year that the 2001 Executive sure that they are eligible for a tax sessions. This Annual Conference Committee is a particularly dedi- deduction for gifts. We continued to has drawn over 700 attendees even cated and open-minded group, and develop plans to begin a planned- at a time when travel and public I want to recognize them one fi nal giving program. We sought new events are under the shadow of ter- time for their unselfi sh service. scholarship sponsors and found rorism, but perhaps the most inter- The question of the VLA Archives donors to help cover the scholar- esting fact about Conference 2001 has been researched and discussed ship funding lost when Gale bought is that we had more proposals for this year, and the Publications Com- IAC. We aggressively solicited dona- concurrent sessions than we had mittee has recommended a set of tions for supporting the Annual time or space to accommodate. VLA policies that will make the Archive Conference, and, as in the recent members are dedicated practitio- more usable in the future. We have past, we conducted both the Annual ners of continuing education, as a growing and exciting photograph Conference and the Paraprofes- the high quality of the programs archive based on the work of Pierre sional Forum Conference in a way we have enjoyed indicates. Courteous that has the potential to that created net revenue for the The Continuing Education Com- grow into a photographic history organization. mittee has again provided training, of our era. If you need photos of While we are three or four months support, and publicity for units VLA events from the past decade, away from a fi nal fi nancial report sponsoring events, and the VLA we have that covered. for 2001, I am pleased to note that Newsletter and web page have pro- VLA’s web presence continues its we expect to do better than break vided timely communications. Our tradition of excellence with timely even on a budget of $267,200. This directory of continuing education postings of publications, Council indicates a sound fi nancial state as venues will be, when complete, a documents, advocacy tools, and the well as careful planning on the part great help in planning programs. remarkably popular Jobline. We have of the Executive Director and Execu- If we can also develop and main- upgraded our equipment and soft- tive Committee. tain a directory of speakers, we will ware, weathered the autumnal virus During the past year our fi nances give our members tools that will be storms, and managed to keep Steve were reviewed by the accounting valuable years from now. Helm interested in exploring addi- fi rm of Strickland & Jones. They Goal III was to extend and tional applications and services. reported that our reserve fund is enhance appropriate and relevant In addition to VLA.org, I use the above average for a professional services in support of the mem- VLA Membership Directory on a daily association, that our budgeting pro- bership, publicize those services, basis to stay in touch with other cess is “commendable and well and strengthen the organizational members. This year’s version was thought out,” and that VLA has framework of the Association. affordable, too. We can improve “sound management.” In this area we have succeeded in this resource in future years by This review also recommended establishing a structured and uni- making sure VLA has our current some changes in the dues structure fi ed system for the Association’s contact information at all times. We that caused serious concern among many awards, as the Opening Ses- can only publish what we have. the Executive Committee. They sug- sion of this conference made clear. Finally, appropriate and relevant gested, in short, to put more dues We have worked all year on devel- services from VLA are most often burden on lower-paid members. We oping and putting in writing suc- directly connected to Linda Hahne. will be considering these recom- cession plans for the various units She has been the solid foundation mendations during our retreat in within VLA and are very near com- of our Association during its return December. Most of us are reluctant pletion on this small but important to fi nancial and organizational sta- to increase dues and even more aspect of organization. This year’s bility. I have never worked with reluctant to make more than minor unit heads are to be commended anyone who is more focused on ser- revisions to the progressive scale for their efforts to maintain conti- vice. Perhaps the single best thing I that has served us well as VLA has nuity in their area of responsibility. have done in my year as President regained its fi nancial health, which Dependable, consistent leaders are has been to sign Linda to a contract it did in a remarkably short time. any organization’s greatest asset. for 2001. Nevertheless, we want to give the The Executive Committee has GOAL IV was to strengthen the recommendation a good hearing. attempted to enhance communi- fi nancial framework of the asso- If you have an opinion you want cation in the Association through ciation. to express on this matter, use the a series of post-council lunches, This year we confi rmed VLA’s VLA web page to contact me or any including one hosted by Barbie Selby status as a 501C3 nonprofi t organi- of the Executive Committee mem- at her home. It has been clear to zation so that our donors could be bers. We want to represent you. VL OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 5

Loudoun’s Irwin Uran Gift Fund

by Sue Evans

SARAH HUNTINGTON n the summer of 1999, Lou- doun County Public Library Director Douglas Henderson acceptedI a $1 million dollar bequest from philanthropist Irwin W. Uran. Irwin Uran’s goal of a greater under- standing of our neighbors and better relations among all people guides the mission of this gift. The Irwin Uran Gift Fund (a part of the endowment) would provide pro- grams and materials focusing on the cultural and historical impact of the Jewish Holocaust and on Jewish and Klezmer music. The library responded with a range of program- ming and materials that would not only edify and entertain, but would provide venues for thought and dis- cussion of the Holocaust’s effects on history and modern politics. Loudoun County, Virginia, located 30 miles from Washington, DC, is growing rapidly from an agrarian to a suburban community. It is one of the fastest growing counties in the country with more than 15,000 individuals moving in annually. The rapid growth refl ects an ever-changing demography. In an effort to appeal to the county’s changing demography, programs have been scheduled in senior centers, intermediate and high schools (both public and inde- pendent), in the open, and in libraries. The programs targeted youth, families, seniors, and minor- ities. The programs appealed to the humanitarian, the academic, and the aesthetic. Partners for programs included the Hospice of Northern Virginia, the Library of Virginia and Elie Wiesel, The Reverend Betsee Parker, and Mr. Irwin Uran

Sue Evans is a Public Information Specialist, Loudoun County Public Library. PAGE 6 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

the Library of Virginia Foundation, in progress. The “wings” are con- Public Library’s series of programs the Virginia Center for the Book, structed of feathers made of dis- was the appearance of Nobel Peace Lila Wallace Readers’ Digest Fund, carded soda can tabs collected by Prize winner Elie Wiesel. In his talk, the National Endowment for the intermediate school children to Bringing People Together, Mr. Wiesel Arts, and National Video Resources, symbolize the numbers of those called for compassion and under- in partnership with the Catherine individuals killed in the Holocaust. standing among all people. The T. MacArthur Foundation. Over 20,000 students and volun- noted humanitarian envisioned a Response to and participation in teers across the country have taken world in which knowledge and tol- the Irwin Uran Gift-funded pro- part in the sculpture. At its pre- erance are the means for change. grams and the purchase of related sentation in Leesburg (on the lawn Over a thousand individuals includ- materials has been tremendous. The adjacent to the Rust Library), the ing students and teachers attended library has hosted writers, artists, art sculpture measured 50 x 100 feet the program. The library’s bene- exhibits, documentary fi lm series, and contained over 6 million soda factor, Irwin Uran, who received humanitarians, and musicians and tabs. a standing ovation from the audi- has added over 3,000 items to the ence, also attended the program. library’s collection. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, author of William Styron spoke to a The library has the acclaimed best seller When Bad standing-room-only audience about Things Happen to Good People, spoke his Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, hosted writers, to another standing-room-only audi- Sophie’s Choice. The program ence in the Loudoun County Senior appealed to readers, writers, and artists, art exhibits, Center at Cascades in a program humanists of all ages. The book, documentary fi lm series, cosponsored with the Hospice of an All Virginia Reads 2000 book Northern Virginia. Rabbi Kushner selection, provoked the thoughtful humanitarians, and shared his own experiences and discussion that Loudoun County answered questions from an enthu- Public Library and the Irwin Uran musicians…. siastic and interested audience. Gift Fund hoped it would. Award- The concerts attracted diverse winning poet Carolyn Forche read audiences from the Washington, DC from her anthology, Poetry of Wit- The bilingual (Spanish/English) metropolitan area. The music was ness, and author Leo Bretholz art exhibit I Never Saw Another But- traditional and innovative, joyful brought his personal story, Leap terfl y presented the work of children and melancholy. More than 500 into Darkness, to a Loudoun County interred in the Terezin Ghetto from people gathered on the lawn of audience. Anne Skorecki Levy, a 1942 to 1944. The children painted, Leesburg’s Ida Lee Park to hear the Holocaust survivor who trans- sketched, and put into verse fanta- Klezmatics play and sing original formed the horrors of her child- sies, memories, and fears. The art and classic Jewish music. The har- hood into a passionate mission recalled an awful time and an awful mony of the music unifi ed the audi- to defeat the political menace of place but was timeless and univer- ence; they joined together in dance Louisiana’s David Duke, appeared sal in its plea for compassion. and song. as special guest with Lawrence N. Among the several documentary Through programs, concerts, Powell, author of Levy’s biography series hosted by the library were the events, and the purchase of library Troubled Memory. memorable From Rosie to Roosevelt, materials, Loudoun County Public Artist Sherry Zvares Sanabria a fi lm history, covering Americans Library has provided material for exhibited Lagers: In the Shadow of the in World War II, and the PBS spe- thoughtful discussion on the issues Holocaust along with a slide lecture, cial series Witness: Voices from the of tolerance and understanding and in June of 2001, artist Jeffrey Holocaust. The Witness series fea- and has raised the level of apprecia- Schrier conducted workshops for tured Producer-Director Joshua M. tion for Jewish and Klezmer music, over 2000 Loudoun County stu- Greene and a screening of his special thereby channeling this philan- dents and volunteers to contribute series, followed by commentary on thropic gift to the people of Loud- feathers to the Wings of Witness, and discussion of the Holocaust. oun County and the larger metro- a Holocaust Memorial sculpture Highlighting Loudoun County politan area. VL OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 7

LINDA HOLTSLANDER

Students from Simpson Middle School, Leesburg, work on the “Wings of Witness” project, supported by the Uran Gift.

SARAH HUNTINGTON

“Wings of Witness,” designed by artist Jeffrey Schrier and constructed by over 20,000 students and volunteers from across the country using six million discarded soda can tabs in remem- brance of those who were killed during the Holocaust. PAGE 8 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

A Virginia Writer’s Life and Work: A Conversation with Donald McCaig

An Interview by Douglas Gordon

anuary 29, 2001. A cold, mentioned Harry, his aging, Highland County, winter border collie with a failing day. Donald and I take heart, his voice was quieter, J a late morning walk fi lled with respect for his long- through the pastures and down time companion. Harry is out by the Cowpasture River with of McCaig’s Gael and Wilson’s three border collies and an Roy, promised originally to Irish Water Spaniel on her someone who never came to fi rst trip to the farm. Later, as get him. McCaig fi nally called we approach the house and a and said, “There are plenty of group of sheep, we meet Ruth, dogs that will suit you better.” short for Ruthless, the large “Harry” is his puppy name — as wooly, white dog who pro- in “Harry, harry krishna, harry tects sheep from coyotes. After krishna harry, harry.” In May a tuna sandwich lunch, we of 2000, McCaig was awarded sit down for our conversation an Honorary Doctorate of in McCaig’s book-lined study Humane Letters from Chris- where he writes every morn- topher Newport University. “I ing. With a few guests due always did want to be called to arrive for dinner, “Doc” ‘Doc,’” McCaig said. McCaig is cooking a free range turkey and potatoes. He is as When you add up all the exacting about the cooking DG poems, Dog World col- as he is about the details of umns, reviews, articles, NPR his plots. The hand-held timer columns, non-fi ction, and beeped periodically during our novels, you could fairly be talk. Often he paused in called a prolifi c writer. response to my questions; his Yes. You gotta be if you’re responses were thoughtful and DMc gonna make a living. never evasive. At times he broke into great, loud, gen- You have now lived thirty erous laughter, particularly at DG years in one place. You the end when he mentioned have gone from young man to Hardy’s critics. Whenever he Donald McCaig and Harry old timer …

Douglas Gordon is a professor of English and Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Christopher Newport University. He is a contributing editor of The Bark, and has written about and lectures frequently on dogs in literature. He occasionally teaches a special topics course entitled Dogs in Literature at C.N.U.

Photographer: Roy Burke III is a Blue Ridge Mountains photographer. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is a senior water- quality modeler for the State of Georgia Environmental Protection Division. His photographs have appeared in Blue Ridge Country, American Libraries, and Best Friends Magazine. OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 9

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROY BURKE III

The McCaig farmhouse in Highland County, Virginia

… Old man! know me because of my books. I DMc How I relate to my don’t think that having the persona … in Highland County. How is necessarily authentic or good. But DG has this place shaped your neighbors here is I am absolutely sure that if I tried view of the world? to meet people at readings with When we fi rst came here, very different than the the same deliberation I do with my DMc we couldn’t afford plumb- persona that enables me neighbors it would drive me mad. I ers, electricians, carpenters. And so, have some very close relations with I found out if I take enough time, to meet a large group the people here, as with you. The I can do what needs to be done. people I meet through books are Now, I won’t do it as well as a pro- of people who know me essentially literary friendships. But fessional and certainly not as fast. because of my books. I have all these people in the com- But I am not afraid of trying. I munity who are decent people, and have a pretty strong sense that if I got to say something to them. I think about it long enough and But I also have all these people I hard enough, I can then take a Because of living here, I meet because of my books. I got to shot at it. That is not to say I DMc see people in church every say something to them, but I think will succeed, but I am not afraid Sunday. So as far as they are con- most of that is pretty shallow. to try it. That’s been one change. cerned, I might do something odd I would have been afraid before I like insurance or sales, a slightly Has the living on this farm came down here. exotic occupation. How I relate to DG for over thirty years changed my neighbors here is very different your views in any way? Do the people in the commu- than the persona that enables me When we came here I didn’t DG nity know you are a writer? to meet a large group of people who DMc know anything. I had read PAGE 10 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

philosophy in college; I knew how and says “Will you?” the answer is together since it is so isolated out to put an advertisement together almost always “Yes.” They would here. Female companionship had and to survive in the New York not ask unless they needed it. No been breaking down here. In the subway, which now I can’t — all of one likes to ask. So you probably old days they got together for quilt- which are useful skills. But here it ought to say yes. We are indepen- ing bees and husking bees. The was without a doubt a good thing to dent of the greater society in lots of kind of times where women meet suddenly realize that if you did not ways. I don’t watch television very together and talk were gone. You fi x the roof leak, it would leak. One often, so I don’t know what George can get pretty isolated up here from early winter we thought you could W. Bush is doing, and I don’t care; each other. drive in deep snow with a tractor but I do care about what is happen- to get fi rewood, so we weren’t too ing here in this community. What has stayed the same concerned about fi rewood. Anne DG in you as a person? When I wasn’t here at the time. It snowed; Can you give me an example? see photos of you and the young we couldn’t get in or out; we didn’t DG friends who arrived here with you, have a four-wheel drive. At one Well, a woman just brought I wonder what is the constant in time I considered cutting the apple DMc a new baby to church and is McCaig. trees closest to the house. But even going to come again next Sunday. There is a way in which I in those kinds of circumstances There is a young fellow in some DMc can’t answer that question. you cannot drive a tractor without kind of trouble with the law, has I think a writer’s preoccupations chains on the tires, and even then a woman pregnant. Is he going to are formed pretty young — what- it will hardly go anywhere. It is be sensible enough so they at some ever they may be. Most writers extremely dangerous. But a neigh- point can get married? There is a lot explore only a few things trying to bor let it be known he had noticed of good in him but at the same time get a book out. I think we explore the absence of a woodpile, came he is the kind of kid that is a bit of and write a few things trying to down with his bulldozer, cut a tree a hothead and it could all go the get a book out, sensing we’re writ- and dragged it over for us. So you other way. You can see that when ing the same book over and over, try and do stuff by yourself, but at you are an old fart like I am … trying to get it right. Most times I the same time you get really inti- really shy away from asking such mately bound to this community. Dignifi ed elder statesman! an analytical question because I am DG really afraid I would fi nd out and Are you self-suffi cient? Not really. Nobody in a I wouldn’t have anything to write DG DMc community like this runs it. anymore. It’s hard to explain, but It isn’t the case that we Nobody comes and consults. There I can give an example. I went back DMc are self-suffi cient. Not a’tall. are people I call on when I want to Montana this past summer to We’re perfectly dependent upon to get certain kinds of things done. Butte, a diffi cult place to grow up, this small community out here. A One of them you are going to have my hometown. The mining is out. lot of times I do the things simply dinner with tonight — Barry Mar- The fl ying in and out was diffi cult. because there isn’t anybody else to shall, fi re chief, mechanic — been Butte is an industrial town — most do them. I went to my fi rst Shenan- friends for years and years. If I want buildings of stone and brick, two doah Presbytery meeting because if to get something done, I will go are boarded up buildings, one or I didn’t go, who would go? The down and talk to Barry. First the two with an historical monument church members didn’t go for years. two of us and then we will ask for this and that, two have been They didn’t want to be told they’d around. We just don’t go sailing knocked down. All empty. But his- have to close because of too few out and do it. If the community tory can move you while empty. I members. There is a lot that you seems to think it is a good idea and would walk at 10 a.m. on Sunday don’t have the option of not doing wants to support it, then it can get morning for blocks and blocks and if you are able to do it. If you done. Other things, nobody talks blocks. I was staying at a bed and don’t do it, nobody is gonna. Every- to me a’tall — I am not good at cer- breakfast which used to be the old body else is just as pressed or more tain things. Often people will come boarding house. Before my time pressed than you are. You just have and talk to Anne and talk about they would literally rent beds out to do some of these things. But it is stuff that is important in the com- in shifts. That is where the term not my inclination a’tall. My incli- munity. She’s been running a yoga “hotbed” came from. But I could nation is to sit down and read a class once a week and has for fi ve sit there and see the old building bunch of books. But in this com- or six years. She teaches yoga. It is and the sixth fl oor where the com- munity if somebody calls you up really good that the women can get pany had its offi ces. I could sit there OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 11

in this old miners’ boarding house, look out, and see these places where prominent people in that part of the state had worked. I’d sit there and wonder how those miners felt because they saw the same things. In one way it wasn’t any different, but at the same time it is altogether different.

And that is some of what you DG explore in Butte Polka. Which most people think DMc is an uncharacteristic book. And in some ways it is.

I fi nd common threads in all DG of your work. Every time I pick up something else to read that somebody else has written about you, I look at the biography, part of which I know you constructed. What has taken root over the past Donald McCaig and his wife, Anne two decades or more is a sort of romantic story of you and Anne, the society dropouts. Dropped out there about the barn doors. [Shay and lawyer’s wife that would bring of Madison Avenue life to come and McMullen is the McCaig’s main out their lamb for fancy meals — live in this strange community … farmhand, a young, talented car- Anne took this personally — and say … of Aborigines! Hillbillies! penter and sometime guitar picker.] we bought this from this cute little DMc They have to be fi xed and it’s not couple in Highland County. simple. I know what we are going to To what extent is that true? be doing here well into the summer And your view is? DG months. So you always put it into DG Oh, not a’tall. what season — where you will have That it is show biz. I know DMc that kind of time for that kind of DMc people, Wendell Berry for job. This can wait, but this has to one, who doesn’t have a persona. Being here is not dropping be done. What you tear down and He goes out on these book tours, DG out? start over with. and they just tear his guts out. It is It is dropping in — in a very just awful. He gets on with NPR’s DMc serious sense. It is an unfor- Is it that the romantic PR bio Terry Gross who really doesn’t care tunate thing about writers that if DG allows you in some sense to about anything much but rock-and- you want to give interviews to sell maintain the amount of privacy a roll and celebrities. Yet here he is books, you have to give something writer must have … time to think? trying to explain in an honest and in your PR release to sound inter- Yeah. But it isn’t that as decent way what it is like living esting, usually to a reporter who DMc much as you got to have in a rural community where his isn’t the best reporter who’ll see a life — privacy. There are lots of grandfather lived. I just wince to this and say, “Ah ha — interesting.” things about my life that simply hear it. I try to write honestly and Zillions of people have the big fan- are nobody’s business but my own answer questions honestly, but cer- tasy of changing their life while and Anne’s — period — under any tainly the persona is entirely pro- doing something simple. Farming is circumstances. How do you avoid tected. I remember one fellow one enormously complicated. I used to those questions? Well, you become time who was reading. He was ter- design and produce television com- a little cub in the woods. That ribly fl ustered. Afterwards I came mercials — a piece of cake. Edited aggravated Anne quite a bit for a up and said what you need is to movies based on character. This long time. We were selling “locker” use a hat, like this one, my Stetson. morning we talked to Shay out lambs to customers. Every doctor Others have different strategies. I PAGE 12 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

have to disassociate myself. I give a nary reader might read it. Heidig- fast enough to fi nd what I’m inter- performance. ger. Sartre. Wittgenstein. I couldn’t ested in. I’m looking for all this stuff read Kirkegaard for a long time. I on the Black and Tan convention, It struck me driving up here do a bit now. I’m more open to reli- their actual minutes from Recon- DG that, over the years, you have gion. I am currently reading this struction. When I get to that section gone out of this out-of-the way philosopher at U.Va. I don’t read in the novel, I have what I need. place into a much larger world, abstruse philosophy at all, rather whether to London or Kosovo or ones the ordinary reader would. Do you read it then and con- Scotland or Washington or Califor- DG struct that part of the novel nia and then come back to this You think philosophy made its that you are working on almost place. It is a pattern of your life. This DG way into your own writing? immediately after involving your- past year with the many awards for Oh, sure. I often fi nd I don’t self in the primary source? Jacobs’ Ladder and your honorary DMc have a good, logical mind. I It goes back and forth. For doctorate of humane letters from think I am a good storyteller, and DMc instance, I just fi nished a Christopher Newport …. as a consequence my philosophical draft to the Jacob’s Ladder sequel. I loved that ceremony, I papers were awful, but I fi nd the There’s research I haven’t done yet, DMc really liked President Trible. way I learn things is I can learn paragraphs to fi ll in that happen at I loved those students. I really things quickly. That is an advantage every stage of the novel. I tend to liked that, and the students, and I when doing research for a book, an build a skeleton and put meat on expected that I would hate it. article. Next year I won’t remember it. I want to know what happened. a thing about the Bozeman Trail. You start out with a bunch of char- You were invited to the War But something that I want to learn, acters and some of them just disap- DG College in Montgomery. How like dog training, I tend to bring it pear or become important. I have a did that go? What did you talk into my bones not into my head. vague idea, write a draft that is usu- about? Did they ask you about So a lot of the philosophy is in my ally awful. using border collies to get geese off bones, so it comes out at times. the runways? How fast does the draft go? A couple of people came up Once you were looking for a DG DMc to me with books for me to DG recipe — for your follow-up to Depends on the book. Some sign, which was very fl attering. But Jacob’s Ladder from some famous DMc are just hard. Jacob’s Ladder I like these guys a lot. Couple of real hotel restaurant during the after- was hard. Nop’s Trials was easy. dopes, a few vacuosities, but as a math of the Civil War, the Recon- There are times when you are bunch they were smart. Reminded struction? You found it in the Swem ready — sometimes not. Sometimes me of the Amish, who are techno- Library. I sent you a copy. When you have to make yourself ready logically great. If you had a little you go to the library, like the because once you start you have tre- problem with jacking your house Library of Congress, and look at mendous impetus to fi nish because up, get a bunch of Amish and they documents, for your research, do it’s going to be just as hard to start solved it in 47 seconds. It was after you keep notes? the next one. But I was just look- having gone to CNU — a very inter- It depends whether I can get ing at the draft of The Happie Land esting contrast where some of the DMc copies made. of Canaan, which was a mark made people seemed to be the ultimate on a tree, a carving, by the Yellow- theoreticals. The cultures were so But you are more likely to rely stone River, and I was looking at different. Those military guys were DG on photocopies? the eighth draft on the fi rst half. sharp cookies. It all depends on whether I I’ll be able to go through the fi rst DMc can get copies made. When three hundred pages in about two What about your own read- I go up to the Library of Congress weeks because I already know what DG ing. You read and studied phi- next time, I want to look at a micro- happens. losophy. You still read philosophy? fi lm guide to the very fi rst passen- Probably once a year. gers in the First Continental Rail- How have your writing habits DMc road, 1868, see photos of the early DG changed? How do you work? Pullman cars. Literally there will be Do you write all day? Whom did you read most a dozen things there for me. I have No, I can’t. Mostly I now DG often? a friend who is a research librarian DMc have a better sense of time. Probably the existentialists. I there. So when I arrive there will I write from eight ’til noon six days DMc am interested ’cause an ordi- be a stack of books I go through a week. Works out to probably four OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 13

days a week with travel. And I write Some. Some reading I call Almost all of your works seem whether or not I have anything to DMc comfort reads. There’s Nev- DG to have at the core some mys- say. If I can’t write, I rewrite. I read ille Chutes’s Trustee From the Tool tery that has to be solved. Some research … I do something. I’m back Room. You’d like it. Completely knowledge that has to be gained. here working the full time. I have unassuming. Like the macaroni and Some order that has to be set right a June date for The Happie Land of cheese of literature. And another again. All of this implies some hope. Cannan. I have a contract. It has to was Alistair McLean’s fi rst book, But when you get to the end, when be done. It’s a fi ve hundred page HMS Ulysses, just a wonderful adven- the murderer is caught but not pun- book. So I was pushing hard this ture story. I read those the way ished … If the … last year. You get crazy. I don’t write people watch television. If I want The Cooney catcher goes in the afternoon because I don’t to read really good fi ction, I have DMc down … want to. But if I go over the hours I to read it fi rst thing in the morn- set aside, I’m just wastin’ my time. ing — while I have brains left. With If the dog napper doesn’t pay DG a price … then there is a sense Is it a problem working on of exhaustion. Justice comes at a DG a major magazine article, The great price. Is that something you Happie Land of Cannan, and another If I want to read really have thought about? novel all at once? good fi ction, I have to No I haven’t. I have no No. It’s kinda nice. The hard- DMc particular doubt my general DMc est thing to do is put your read it fi rst thing in the worldview is fairly bleak. That’s part nose to the grindstone. I like think- of the Butte Polka. Let’s see. Let me ing about different things. With morning — while I have get the book. I may have used it as a work now it is relaxing because brains left. With really epigraph. [Reads] “Butte, Montana, I’m thinking about different things. is a place where the company is too When I fi nish The Happie Land of good fi ction you have to big to beat, where the house cut is Cannan, I’m going to be working on always too steep, and where victory, one thing. Then if I can’t get going give as good as you get. below ground or above it, consists I’m stuck. [Beep] Time to turn over in snatching a draw out of the jaws the turkey. of certain defeat.” really good fi ction you have to give You’ve written poetry. You still as good as you get. Justice is done, but people are DG write poetry? DG worn out. It’s like Lewis Burk- I read it. Wendell Berry’s You have a fi ne library. What holder going after his stolen dog, DMc most recent poetry I really DG if you had to choose a certain bashing down the wall of the lab liked. Just loaned it to the guy down number of keepers? with the fi re truck. the road. I’m reading the Austra- Well, that’s sort of an unfair … He’ll never be a fi reman lian poet Les Murray, couple of his DMc question. You keep the ones DMc again. He had to resign. books. I was reading one this morn- you haven’t read. Hardy would be ing. It’s on the table. I’m enor- one — Mayor of Casterbridge, Return People tell me my view is too mously fond of Phillip Larkin. I of the Native, even old Tess. Dick- DG bleak and I say … love his work. ens. Eliot was right. When you ask Read some McCaig. writers what they like, it’s the one DMc You’re more likely to read you’re learning from right now? DG poetry than any other thing? Go back to the mystery again. Poetry and popular fi ction. Who are you learning from DG If you can think about Emi- DMc I have a large collection DG right now? nent Dogs, Dangerous Men: You go of popular fi ction. Sometime I Jim Harrison. Alice Munroe. out into the world to search for can’t read a’tall. Then sometimes I DMc Might be Russell Banks. something that is mysterious and read nonfi ction — history. I proba- Wendell Barry defi nitely. Some are unknown to you, and you don’t bly fi nd it hardest to read good fi c- so good you can’t learn anything know if you can do it. And you do tion. It was easier to do when I was from them. Raymond Carver is one it, and you come back, and you are teaching. of those. At least I can’t. And poetry. glad you did it. But, boy, it was sure I love poetry of all things. If I had tiring to work your way through DG You read detective fi ction? my druthers, I’d write poetry. that. PAGE 14 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

You never fi nd what you varius’s various recipes to replicate more comfortable in a Quaker or a DMc think you are going to fi nd. I these varnishes. His dream is to go Unitarian church. It’s a community sometimes say I am a writer because to Cremona. He is discussing how church, so o.k. I am a student — and I am! I really he is trying to replicate these var- want to fi nd out about this stuff. I nishes. And he taps the violin body: I read somewhere that your want to fi nd out how things work, it is a “C”. Taps the bridge — an DG grandfather left Scotland and and I almost always do. When I go “E” and taps another part of this went to Canada? out to fi nd one thing, I always fi nd damned violin and it is an “A”. I don’t really know. I’ve something altogether different. The instrument is a musical chord. DMc never really been interested. I am not sure, but what I do is that He was a stonecutter. He was a Is your idea — I think of Lewis I fi nd this guy interesting, his life Wobblie, died of silicosis. His father DG Burkholder in this sense — that interesting … because he fi nds life (legend has it) was a professor at somehow a man will go out and in that instrument. Now that may McGill in Canada. learn these things, but then he will be simply because I use work as bungle it again? Lewis fi nds Nop, a displacement for life itself. That Were there serious dogs in and then runs the dog nearly to may be the case. That is one of DG your life before Pip? death and he has regret for it. Is the things that I like about Wen- Sure. We had this dog in that a fair characterization? dell Berry. He is one of the very few DMc Montana, a dog and just a Yeah, it is something I had people who writes sensibly about pet. He was named Rascal. And DMc not thought about. On the work. In our culture the idea is there we had this 16-year-old with other hand, I certainly am con- that it’s the unpleasant thing you a driver’s license. I put Rascal in vinced my days of bungling it are do until you got enough money the car and took off. The family not over. I have new and bigger stacked aside to — just stop doing thought I’d be gone a couple of bungles to make. I suppose for some it. That is just insane. First of all, weeks. At the beginning of that there is a sense in some fi ction that most people don’t do that. There summer I had $100 saved up, took when the story is over that life is are those who feel that way. There that cocker spaniel, and there were over. That’s it. But I don’t have that are those that feel the need, but a couple of highway patrol men sense at all. Almost always I have most people rather enjoy what they looking for me by the end of the a sense of taking a slice out of it. do. I think that is true. [Beeper.] summer. I had a good time with To be sure it’s a slice that has the Oops, time to roll the turkey over. that dog. convenient beginning, middle, and Turkey break. end, but that does not mean that My Dog Rascal! Have you read life stopped. When Donald returns from the kitchen, DG My Dog Skip? The famous boy he looks at Ducks, our Irish Water and dog story? What about work? In Butte Spaniel, lying on the fl oor and says I reviewed it for The Post. DG Polka people work and live respectfully to her “You’re a literary DMc You know what’s interesting their lives working hard. People dog, aren’t you?” She looks back in is very often writers’ best books are work hard, and dogs, too, in your earnest. often about dogs. I think it is true other writings. Do human beings of J. R. Ackerley. London. It is an redeem themselves through work? It’s going to be hard to go odd thing. And it is almost always I ever tell you this story? I DMc to readings without Harry. taken as an unimportant part of the DMc spent some time near the He’s just about at the edge of not writer’s work. It’s not unusual. You Blue Ridge Parkway with horse- being able to go anymore. also often fi nd that the dog is often drawn loggers. I met this guy who the only friend a child has. You read owned the land. He had a little tiny Does your commitment to Women and their Dogs? You remem- ranch house the size of this room. DG work make it comfortable to ber some of those stories. Maybe I admired his woods, and he says be in a Calvinist church, to work they are very unhappy children. I to me, he’s retired from the C&O, with Calvinist dogs? Because they don’t know. Anne never really had says, “Wanna see my fi ddles?” I said are Presbyterian dogs? a dog. Her family was very tidy, sure. We go to his workshed — dirt Oh, they’re Calvinist, all cold. So we got this big Labrador, fl oor, his shelf is nailed up by one DMc right. They live to work. half Chesapeake, named Lucille. bolt, dangling there. He’s made Most the reason I go to the Wil- She was the fi rst farm dog. violins the Audubon Quartet are liamsville Presbyterian church is it’s playing. We are looking in this in Williamsville. If it were the Wil- I asked Carol Lea Benjamin country woodshed through Stradi- liamsville Methodist I’d go. I’d be DG [Benjamin is a well-respected OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 15

Donald, Harry, and the sheep

dog trainer and award-winning damage. There are lots of things we have this tremendously deep author of numerous training books, they do not understand. The con- bond. It is inarticulate. Shay works such as Mother Knows Best and fi c- cept of being caressed, being petted. him but he is still my dog. In the tion, most recently detective fi ction The same way you have to beg your way that Josie is becoming Shay’s in which dogs fi gure prominently] dog to beg for treats. They are not dog. Shilo, the dog I trained, kind what she would ask you … blank slates by any means. When of likes me I think, but I think but You’re a mean bastard … Harry went to a reading at an old she is pretty much an opportunist. DMc folks’ Methodist group a couple of Things work better when she pays … if she had one question. I weeks ago, everyone sort of uggie- attention than when she doesn’t. DG found this very interesting. boogie’s Harry, and Harry looks at Then she gets to work the sheep. She said that you often say a border them and walks away. He’s willing She does not want to get yelled at. collie uses his human as a way to to be courteous, but he’s never been I guess what I am saying is I can get to the sheep. And she wants taught you should go up to these speak about that for very specifi c to know other than the opportu- people and pretend you like them. dogs, but I cannot speak about it nity to work — what does “Doc” What counts with these people for dogs in general, and speak with McCaig think the dog is getting out is affection, a complicated thing. some confi dence. of this relationship with man? And When I saw my fi rst Westminster how do you think this might have dog show, there were these Golden So Harry has gotten some- changed since the onset of the part- Retrievers. The dogs jumped away DG thing out of his relationship nership? What’s the dog getting out from their owners trying to jump with you other than the opportu- of this relationship? on total strangers. I was going nuts. nity to work? We got this puppy out of the Where did this come from? They You know that is hard to DMc pound. Probably not social- were trained to do this and it varies DMc say. I could tell you what I ized very well. Mac. We probably a lot from dog to dog. Harry and I have gotten out of my relationship got it in time to repair a lot of this have been together for so long that with Anne, but I really could not PAGE 16 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

tell you what she got out of her He was also a wonderful training. I know next time I go to relationship with me. I’m not being DMc sheep dog. The skills. I England I really want to see him coy. Harry’d have to tell you that. always liked him. He’s getting a work a dog. little grumpy now. I just like him. You have dogs buried on the Can you add anything more DG farm not far from here. You You wrote in Eminent Dogs, DG about what makes this meta- expect to be buried on the farm DG Dangerous Men that the work physical? near them, I presume? What does it of man and border collie is meta- It is impossible. It is in search mean to think about being buried physical. What do you mean by DMc of beauty. It may be ideal in the same place with your dogs that? communication. The kind that hus- because most people are not and You start with the fact that bands and wives can have in a maybe would not want to be? DMc it’s an unknowable mystery. happy marriage. One will start a I haven’t thought about that. You are trying to do something sentence the other will fi nish it. DMc It just seems to me I spend perfectly that cannot be done per- That is what you are doing — but more time each day relating to fectly. Never seen a perfect run in a with another species. dogs than to people. Part of that is sheep dog trial. because there are so many of them. Is that the same with a hus- Unless Shay is here, I’m in charge, It is pursuit of perfection? DG band and wife? and now we have a visitor dog here. DG Maybe. There is a chance Shilo wants to get to the sheep. Yes, but you cannot fall off DMc in which some real bastards Mac wants to play with Ruth, and DMc very far from the perfection. can be involved. In trialing, in I don’t want him to because he’s To the unknowledgeable eye the the act of trialing, they cannot starting to get a little rogue on me. difference between what I do with be. When it does work, what you Festus, the visiting dog, wants to the dogs here and when I do major will see in the best case is kind of play with Mac in the house and sheep dog trial is not evident. transfi guration. doesn’t know how and will destroy The task requires (and the dog it. Silk is being scared to death, fear- knows it as well as I know it) It requires purity of heart in ing that Mac might knock her over every bit of everything — your intel- DG some human beings. and trample her. He will. Dottie is ligence, your refl exes, your knowl- I also remember round at taking advantage of the fear so she edge, your life experiences, your DMc national fi nals two years ago. can get in and nail Silk. Zippy hates physical health, your stamina. Well, Alistair McCrae had a wonderful it because Anne is not here. Josie the story I remember is J.M. Wilson, run. I was sitting there because I was is pregnant and far more timid. I who had a hip replacement very the media guy, talking to some PBS picked the dogs we walked with this early on. The greatest sheep dog guys who were thinking of fi lming morning. The wrong combination trialer in the world. I’ll tell you a next year. He started to come off would have turned into a night- better story than that. There was the fi eld, and one these producers mare. So, they are part of my life, this guy who would trial in a walker. wanted to go congratulate him. and I am going to be buried some- I was in Scotland in spring, and I I said stay away. That man des- where. But I would not bury them saw a guy go out to trial in a wheel- perately needs silence, time with in the cemetery — it would be dis- chair. He wheels out, and then his dog. You won’t see people rush- respectful to kinfolks of people comes the dog’s fi nal time to go to ing. Might applaud. You won’t see already buried there. pen. This is intricate, precision work people trying to talk after some- between human and dog. He rolls thing like that. There’s a moment Is there a heirarchy of dogs out and he sits, dog gets through, to come back into the world. DG in your memory? Some more then rolls off the fi eld. I asked him irreplaceable than others? if he had been doing this a long I was thinking about Nop, They are all mortal, all irre- time and he said, “Nay, I got into DG before Jacob’s Ladder and the DMc placeable. That’s an honest this after I had me accident.” He praise for it. Sometimes it was answer. It’s going to be hard to see learned to handle his dog from a almost as if Nop was the only thing Harry go. I’m really fond of him. wheelchair when he started out. I you had written. I wondered if you asked, “You buy your dogs trained?” thought about the success of Nop’s Is that because of the shared He said, “Nay. I train me own dog,” Trials and that it limited you in DG journey with him? The travels and he takes on other dogs to train. terms of how people see you. to the outside world? Travels with I don’t know how the hell he does Oh, sure. It is real diffi cult Harry. that. He takes in other’s dogs for DMc when, in terms of attention OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 17

span in modern culture, people can take in a couple of sentences and that is about it. “Dog writer. Urban Homesteader.” If you are lucky, they might say literary writer. In general that means you won’t make enough to pay your bills. Some few do. It isn’t wicked. Nobody cares about what I am writing as much as I do. They ought not to. They got their own lives. Maybe a moment of entertainment on an airplane.

Donald, Harry, and the Dodge Power Wagon

McCaig’s, she died in August.] ers, they are all out there walking They are not in the schools, their dogs. You will not see that not in the galleries, not on the here. If you see dogs at all, say out streets …. Where, oh, where, in Montana, they are in the back have my little dogs gone? of pickup trucks. I don’t know what At the rate of 3 million the reason for it is. The English are DMc dollars a year up the more dog savvy than we are — more chimneys. We are a dog dog democratic than we are. Which unfriendly country. We like to is to say that the most important think of ourselves as a nation of dog in the world is sleeping by dog lovers — the old ideal (you the owner’s foot. A gasping old read Thurber’s accounts of dogs), mutt. Not one with ten thousand but somebody’s run over them. trophies. We don’t think that. We A piece of insight here or there. There was a tremendous sea change think that the Westminster dog Someone who’s been where they right after WWII. The world with “Champion” in front of his would like to go. I thought I changed. Changed for dogs, too. name is somehow a better dog. was lucky. Jacob’s Ladder went to Nobody had pure-breed dogs before England’s a better democracy for sixteen publishers before it was then except rich folk. You have a such a caste-ridden society. You accepted. Norton is a literary pub- society now of two-income fami- sort of see two things in this coun- lisher — period. I suspect it was lies. Who’s going to take care of the try: fewer people with dogs and in helpful they had not read anything fancy dogs? general getting more involved in else I had written before they got something with their dogs. I think the book. You have written that ours the AKC herding events are Mickey DG is not a dog-friendly society, Mouse, but I’m glad that people Vicki Hearne said to ask you as manifested in Crofts? [The Brit- are out doing something with their DG where all the doggies have ish National Dog Show] What dogs — lure coursing, search and gone. [Hearne is the author of the is the difference between the Eng- rescue. Fewer but more intense — highly regarded Adam’s Task, named lish approach and the American the success of The Bark is interest- by Audubon as one of the twelve approach to dogs? ing. Several years ago I would not best “animal” books of the 20th You have these little villages have thought it would have been Century. In her book she called DMc in Scotland, and at six in possible. Nop’s Trials one of the best of the morning you will see people walk- best in dog literature. A friend of ing their dogs — farmers, shopkeep- PAGE 18 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

People who are involved in What dog are you running? with a narrow vocabulary and way DG trialing — are those people DG You have been working her of expressing things. And from time prone to tell stories about their about three years now? How is she to time every word is available to dogs? doing? you. I am reasonably convinced Silk. She is bundle of neuro- DMc that if you get three people DMc ses. The most neurotic dog I wonder if it is like Yeats talking about their dogs, no one is out there. It is a really good thing DG saying how can you tell the listening to stories about someone she likes to trial, or it’d be a disaster dancer from the dance, tell the shep- else’s dog. They tend to talk about because it is such a separate world herd from the sheepdog — because it in very short shorthand. Oh, he in her mind. She is a basket case. there is training behind it and came in third at this trial or I got She reminds me of the most weird, discipline. this training strategy — it paid off. most neurotic, college girl we knew. It’s all to reach beyond train- Very short, truncated. One they will The beret-wearer with a fl ower in it. DMc ing and discipline. I remem- tell you is a psychological life his- That’s Silk. ber one time I came home from a tory of the dog. This dog has this, trial course, Harry’s best run. Ran at this dog has that, and that’s what the Nationals and he was a point this means to that dog — all the best out of the top twenty, but after- clinicians and trainers. The very Most of the time you wards people came over to congrat- fi rst thing I’ll do when I see a dog are separate with ulate us. You’re out there for about working with a novice is go up fi fteen minutes, and it seems like to the novice and say very close a narrow vocabulary you are out there for a year. This to these words, “Now, this dog is was fi ve years ago and I can explain thinking this and you want to be and way of expressing today exactly what happened. At thinking this.” So it is mental. And things. And from time the end of it a friend came over to fi nally, it is mysterious. I have been congratulate me, and she’s a nurse. startled time and time again by to time every word is She said I thought I would see dogs doing things that dogs cannot you in the emergency room, you do. I know perfectly well they just available to you. were hyperventilating so bad. I can cannot do this, and there they are remember at the end, at the shed- doing it. When I was out in Mon- ding ring there was a real darkness tana … Working pens with sheep is at the edge of my vision, but I could really very high stress because the Leads me to Claudia’s ques- still see the sheep. All I remember dog just gets jammed against with DG tion, editor of The Bark. She was I had enough vision to work sheep. And they were working from said I would love to hear him talk the dog. 7 a.m. in the morning until 2 p.m. about the moment when dog and in the afternoon. They pushed 800 man are one. What’s that mean? Dog talk has fascinated me sheep through the chutes. Then a You can from time to time — DG and students are always inter- guy jumps them on the back of his DMc you become something sep- ested in talking dogs. I will be teach- fl atbed, dismounts his motorcycle arate from the dog or the man. ing dog lit in the fall. Nop will show and off they go through the sage- What I will say is — it is an out-of- up. Where did this come from for brush. Not a soul for miles. Essen- body experience. You are focused, you as a writer — in Nop’s Trials for tially brings another 800 sheep off your spirit is out there on the the dog talking? about 2,000 acres. Just can’t be course, not as the dog, but as the It is kind of interesting. done. They tree mountain lions, proper place for the dog. You get so DMc Random house wanted the his guard dogs do. His Ruths. Wolf focused you wouldn’t hear some- book but said you cannot have the almost killed one of them, but had one shooting. dogs talking. They talk. That’s non- this spiked collar on, couldn’t bite negotiable. Publishers did not want down. So it is art in a way. It is a cre- it. Thought it was weird. DG ative moment? Are you still trialing? It is fairly similar. The closest I wonder why? This is an DG DMc I can come to it is when the DG ancient form, goes back to Not successfully. writing is going very well and this Lucian, the Latin poet, in his Dia- DMc gift occurs. Every word in the Eng- logues. Cervantes wrote about talk- lish language is available to you. ing dogs. Did it come naturally to Most of the time you are separate you? OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 19

Publishers and editors don’t are a Christian, for example, Jesus dall recently tried to explain some- DMc get time to read enough. Christ died for old Shep’s sin!? thing (you know Donald, he is an Some are not well-educated to start author). I would put myself in the with. Yeah, right from the start. The It’s a thought I like. You wrote B-minus league as a dog trainer. fi rst line, which later came out. “If DG the introduction for a new B-plus as a trialer. thou art a sheepdog like Nop.” It edition of Vicki Hearne’s Adam’s never occurred to me to not. Task. Why do you think that book Let me ask about Anne. She’s has had such an enormous impact? DG part of the legend. Raiser Did you know you write in a Because she takes human- of prize Rambouillet sheep. A. A. DG tradition that stretches back DMc dog communication seriously McCaig. What role has she played to Latin poets? with the seriousness it deserves. in your writing? No, but as soon as I wanted Vicki’s book is about human animal It’s changed very recently. DMc to write a dog book was the understanding and how it can be DMc Very little in the writing — only time I read a lot of dog books. achieved. It is unique. The notion except she changed me as a man. The only time I’ll read books on She certainly did. Recently, with the reconstruction is before I start Jacob’s Ladder, she was one of the a book on it because you can see two most important editors of the where the diffi culties are. For dog One of the reasons book. Her strength is language. books it is … the diffi culty as I saw it I wrote Jacob’s Ladder was that very few writers have man- She can bite on the coin of aged to make the dogs and humans was I was really quite DG your work and see if it is alive. White Fang is a wonderfully authentic? drawn character in the book, but aware if I was to do a Yes, in great detail. there are no human beings, only big novel I was going DMc “Patoohie” and sometime cartoons. Peter Maile’s books have triple “patoohie” is written all over nothing to do with dogs. [Beeper]. to have to do it before the drafts. It is essential if I want to We’re getting critical here, close to fi nd something in the book — enor- 160 degrees. Generally, you have I got much older. mous help. She’s made a chapter- reporters asking why did your dogs by-chapter outline of my next talk? ’Cause they do! No, I didn’t novel. know. It certainly did not seem that the human has as much to absurd to me or that I was invent- learn as the animal is true. Every Your next project is not widely ing a new tradition. I was not aware dog you train is a new experiment. DG known? of other dogs talking. Because we got Mac, a pup, we It is vaguely known — con- have made very radical dog arrange- DMc tractually I’m obliged to It strikes my students who ments here, very quick ones. It share very few details. DG read it the fi rst time as natu- has been in response to him. The . ral. When I read it, I was not sur- household has been disordered and Any other projects in the hay- prised because of my awareness of reordered because of this dog, and I DG loft when you get through the tradition. Some people believe have trained a lot of dogs but they these two novels? How long do to have animals talk is to be of are all different. And they all have you see yourself capable of creating the devil because God gave humans changed me. fi ction? speech and did not give speech to Yesterday. dogs, and that prompts a deep sus- She thinks one of the remark- DMc picion of that tradition. One of the DG able things about you is you reasons people try to get fairy tales came to dog training late in life. Some writers are fi nished by banned is because animals talk. I’m not a great dog trainer. DG time they are forty. That is interesting. I did not DMc It is hard to tell. If I am at It’s unpredictable. Generally, DMc know that. I do remember a sheep dog trial with pretty good DMc if you write big novels you driving down the road and picking people, they don’t come up to ask ought to do it when you have a lot up some Christian broadcaster talk- me questions. People who read my of strength left. It’s no surprise lyric ing to kids: “You may love old Shep, books are not dog trainers. I do poets are young men and women. but Shep is not like you. Be kind to not get complaints from dog train- One of the reasons I wrote Jacob’s him. He hasn’t got a soul.” In one ers. The ones who read tend to Ladder was I was really quite aware way that makes great sense. If you like them. My friend Ken Kukyen- if I was to do a big novel I was going PAGE 20 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

and have Saturdays and Sundays days off. After I fi nished the draft of this book, I didn’t write for three or four days. You can’t tell. And you get to be an old man.

I’ve thought that to get old DG means to become more clearly what we are — if we’re lucky. What might not be virtuous in a younger man, in an old man is … DMc Forgiveable.

Have you ever thought how DG you would like to be remem- bered when all is said and done? How your friends will remember you? No. One minute and the Donald and Harry DMc turkey is out of the oven.

I think in Hardy-esque fash- to have to do it before I got much It ought to be. But it’s over. It is DG ion. Within a short period older. done with. I joke with Anne every 4-6-8 semesters, in my terms — no now and then that one of these one remembers teachers very long. Was it agonizing to you to days we’ll hit the lottery, get a big But I wonder about people who DG have such diffi culty fi nding a movie sale and open the “Leaning read your books? publisher? Tower of Pizza.” This writing is the Well, you see I don’t know The usual agony is “Jesus, only thing I am good at. I am not DMc what it is like to read my DMc how am I going to pay the going to do something I am half- books. I write them but I don’t read bills?” I often worried about that. assed about. them in a certain kind of way. As a freelancer that comes with the territory. On the other hand, when Can you imagine yourself And on your tombstone? I’ve fi nished a piece of work, if I DG doing something other than DG do not fi nd anyone likes it well writing? My tombstone. Old fash- enough, there’s not much I can do I have a dream. I would like DMc ioned river jack. I’m gonna about that. I cannot go back and DMc to do a book on the last get one of those old-fashioned ones. change things. It is done. There wolves of Scotland. I would like to Like in slave cemeteries. Just a ain’t no more there. [Beeper] We’re see if I could write poetry. I’ve writ- marker for the head. getting close to the Magic 160 ten a couple of good poems in the here. Good books are not good last couple of years. Are they one- With your name on it? books because they are not fl awed. shots? Since I’m only writing one a DG Good books’ virtues overwhelm year, it’s hard to make predictions. Nope. their vices. There comes a time I just But I’d have to have 25 years to DMc can’t stand to look at it again. That have 25 good poems. Farming is is it. It is very diffi cult to me when real interesting. The dogs are real Thomas Hardy would appreci- people call me between prints and interesting. If I am not careful I DG ate that. say you’ve got this wrong, these could get too many events. If I am Yeah. But the critics tore him facts wrong. This is misspelled. It’s not careful, I could get sucked up in DMc apart. VL diffi cult for me to change — not community events. It is nice not to because it ought not to be changed. have to write more than fi ve days OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 21

Managing Electronic Resources in Technical Services

by Ladd Brown and Molly Brennan Cox

s electronic information e-resources are not so different from Before licensing became ubiqui- becomes a staple in librar- obtaining print or other formats. tous, library staff was not required ies, it becomes necessary Two areas that stand apart are licens- to do much investigation or han- forA libraries to devote more staff ing issues and record keeping, both dling of these legal documents. Even time to ordering, licensing, and of which tend to generate paper. today, with a myriad of sources for controlling electronic resources. At Licenses are amended and drafts license education, it is still a com- Virginia Tech, staff members have are exchanged between the licensee plex process. License examination taken on new responsibilities and (“us”) and the licensor (“them”). and negotiation slows down the have learned new skills, and the Complete fi les will contain all of acquisitions process. Some licenses workfl ow in the Technical Services these copies. It is prudent to retain are immediately controversial. At department has changed to refl ect notes of purchasing decisions, pre- other times, the whole matter of this new environment. obtaining the e-resource hinges upon a seemingly irrelevant clause or an issue perceived as trivial by Workfl ow Two areas that stand one of the parties. The concept In the traditional print environ- apart are licensing issues of limiting database access to geo- ment, the workfl ow for acquiring graphical confi nes such as a cer- materials is well established. The and record keeping. tain building or main campus may workfl ow is fairly linear: from the make perfect sense to an infor- point of request, to the placing of mation provider, but to a univer- the order with a vendor, to receiv- liminary negotiations, contact infor- sity with remote graduate centers ing. At Virginia Tech, e-resources are mation, and post-purchase informa- it does not. If this small matter is requested, and subsequently placed tion that may aid in the successful not agreed upon, then the contract in the workfl ow, from a variety of delivery of the e-resource. If a crisis goes unsigned, and the product is places. Similar to the print environ- occurs or there is need for problem not purchased. ment, e-resources are requested by solving, nearly all these records Once the licensing issues have subject bibliographers or collection are relevant and certain to be of been resolved, then the order is development staff. E-resources are some value, either in re-establish- placed. In the traditional serial/ also made available through con- ing access or to serve as background print workfl ow orders are primarily sortium agreements, bundled with data. Much of this information will placed with a subscription vendor. print subscriptions, or available be in electronic form (e-mail corre- Due to the complexity of ordering, “free” on the web. They also enter spondence, word-processed memos, licensing and maintenance, Vir- the workfl ow when titles change web sites, internal databases and ginia Tech is placing most orders from print to electronic-only or spreadsheets), but much of it will be for e-resources directly with the when users personally register for in the form of handwritten notes. publisher or information provider a title on the web and then ask Keeping extensive and well-orga- rather than with a subscription the library to help solve access or nized fi les is important when pull- agent. This may change in the future invoice problems. ing together information to solve a as subscription agents develop their Most steps in acquiring problem or answer a question. skills and fi nd their niche in this

Ladd Brown is Head of Acquisitions at Virginia Tech ([email protected]). Molly Brennan Cox (coxm@fl oyd.k12.va.us ) was Serials Coordinator at Virginia Tech. She now works for the Floyd County School System. PAGE 22 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

market. There is a recent example1 shrinking library budgets, staff must thing goes a-miss or if there is of a subscription agent working on be aware of electronic titles that a question. The above-mentioned a library’s behalf to negotiate a duplicate print titles. These dupli- information can be included in a license, using a pre-signed standard cated print titles are often possible checklist. This is fi lled out at the academic single site license created candidates for cancellation in the beginning of the acquisitions pro- by John Cox and Associates. As future. cess or when problems develop at part of this agreement, the subscrip- Part of the new workfl ow in any time during a subscription. tion agent takes care of registration, e-resource acquisitions is gate keep- Here at Virginia Tech, this check- licensing, and invoicing. It is an ing. Used in this context, the term list has evolved into the Electronic interesting development, and one suggests that the e-resource man- Resource Diary, available at the end our general counsel will continue ager will become familiar with the of this article. It has two functions: to monitor. content of, the packaging or bun- as a tracking tool for important Even after the product is pur- dling of, and the patron-use or chronology (the diary) and as a chased or access is made available, curriculum- support reason for selec- source for vital contact information. e-resources continue to affect the tion of e-resources. He or she must Having this checklist, or similar workfl ow. With other formats, the learn to evaluate e-resources within tool, just within reach is sound prac- concept of sale and ownership pre- a technical services framework. tice. Remember, “Be Prepared.” vails and, as owners, libraries can Ideally, all of this “emergency” manage these resources under this information should be online for precept. Within their established ease of update and universal acces- policies, libraries can bind, lend, The e-resource manager's sibility by all stakeholders. The repair, archive, or withdraw as they motto is “Be Prepared.” online version of the checklist is see fi t. With e-resources, constant in development and will be fea- vigilance becomes a part of main- tured on the acquisitions team web tenance. Is there compensation for page soon. Paper may still be the lengthy downtime written into the Which takes priority: a quarterly best medium for the diary. Some license agreement? Are the periph- humanities journal available from information, such as administra- eral and auxiliary aspects like print- a reliable aggregator who adver- tive passwords, may be confi den- ing, viewing, and downloading tises that it has 24 x 7 customer tial. The mobile form can also be causing a problem? Is the electronic and technical support, or a mas- easily taken to meetings. environment consistent within the sive engineering e-resource notori- institution, or are there variations ous for downtime and the unre- Staffi ng in the levels and quality of access sponsiveness of the information from building to building, campus provider? The e-resource manager’s Unlike the linear process of order- to campus? Some of these diffi - motto is “Be Prepared,” and know- ing and receiving associated with culties require technical expertise ing some of these details will help other formats, the e-resource work- to untangle, but access to contact in the event of an access emer- fl ow in Technical Services may fl ow information, purchase information, gency. from Point A to Point B to Point and important background infor- Because e-resources are very G, and then back again. The hub mation will often involve techni- expensive and in high demand, at the center of this circular work- cal services staff. If e-resources are recordkeeping takes on added fl ow is often a technical services cataloged, then any major changes, importance. Primary records in- staff member. such as increase or decrease in the clude copies of contracts — from the Some libraries have made staff- backfi les or URL changes, will entail fi rst draft to the signed copy. Once ing changes because of new elec- new responsibilities for the catalog- institution or agency offi cials have tronic responsibilities. According to ing department. taken their time to sign an approved Montgomery and Sparks2, in the Duplication is one of the new agreement, always safeguard these future libraries will see a decrease concerns or decisions that needs to signed contracts by using registered in the number of staff in journal be made when electronic resources mail or commercial delivery ser- check-in, claiming and binding, are acquired. For example, when an vices. Secondary records are largely and a corresponding increase in e-resource is requested, staff must informational, but no less valuable. staffi ng in the areas of acquisitions, verify that the title doesn’t dupli- E-mails, phone logs, and notes will database and web-site maintenance. cate or overlap any existing print provide history and background Already some libraries have shifted resources. If it does duplicate, is information as well as the all- positions to address this change, it intentional duplication? With important list of contacts if some- while others have created new posi- OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 23 tions. These new positions are often Due to the nature of electronic higher, and e-resource managers are given primary responsibility for products and the intricacies and/or in the spotlight. Therefore, commu- e-resources and are given titles like eccentricities of local environments, nication is imperative. The earliest Electronic Resources Librarian, Elec- technical support is just as impor- draft of the e-resource cataloging tronic Journal/Information Deliv- tant as the sales representative or policy at Virginia Tech contained ery Librarian, or Manager of Elec- customer service contact. Techni- this language: tronic Resources. cal support is vital — both from the Electronic resources exploded library staff and from the informa- Effective communication among onto the library scene long before tion provider. all involved parties about the the position of an Electronic There is more money involved. acquisition, cataloging, and other Resources Librarian came into The fee rates (especially for sci- processing of electronic resources being. The need for a position whose entifi c, technical, and medical/ is essential. job is solely devoted to acquiring STM e-resources) are steep. With- and/or managing and/or catalog- out signifi cant growth in the library The general counsel may not be ing e-resources is readily apparent, familiar with databases; technical but not all institutions can afford support personnel do not necessar- to create a new position. Instead, ily know about the pricing options the responsibilities for acquiring Electronic resources of the products they create and e-resources are either re-assigned exploded onto the library maintain. The channels must be to one position or spread over sev- open and the communicators must eral existing positions. At Virginia scene long before the be aware that oftentimes their com- Tech, we re-assigned a position from munication is closer to three- or monographic acquisitions, creating position of an Electronic four-way, rather than merely two- a new serial-acquisitions assistant. Resources Librarian way. This move allowed the Head of Acquisitions to devote more time came into being. Juggling, Not Balancing: to electronic resources. Even with Skills for the New Millennium this change, the number of respon- sibilities associated with acquiring budget, a greater proportion of the Technical service staff members are and cataloging e-resources has con- existing budget must be committed most likely to function in some sort tinued to increase faster than staff to e-resources. of middle-manager role: They have can manage. The library has recently There are more users: distance to listen; they have to talk. They made the decision to establish a new and distributed-education students, have to relay information, assess professional position. This position extended- campus users, and remote situations, and be conduits, facil- will be responsible primarily for cat- researchers. Virginia Tech has 12 itators, mediators, and sometimes aloging electronic resources but will agricultural extension stations spread totally disinterested third parties, also assist the head of acquisitions all over the state, from the moun- sometimes-major decision makers. in licensing and ordering issues. tains of the west to the Eastern When e-resources are pursued, Shore. Many libraries — public, pri- expectations are born. At one end, vate, academic, special — recognize the requestor is interested in access More, More, More that remote access is a user expecta- at his/her fi ngertips. At the other E-resources present a unique set of tion and are making room for it in end, a very busy legal counsel is circumstances. From the manage- their policies and their budgets. taking her valuable time to see if ment perspective, e-resources dis- There is more paper involved. the license agreement is acceptable. solve the boundaries in today’s Whatever happened to the paper- Along the way, other interested par- libraries. Responsibilities are not so less offi ce? Ironically, the product is ties may express concern or simply clear-cut anymore. The task forces electronic, but the associated doc- be curious about the status of and committees and other groups uments are not. E-resources, espe- a particular resource. Clear, con- committed to e-resources have rep- cially those that involve a license cise, and informed communica- resentatives from almost all library agreement, tend to generate a dis- tion is, to quote the policy above, departments. Not only is the acqui- proportionately larger amount of “essential” when dealing with all sition of e-resources nonlinear, it is paperwork than their print coun- stakeholders. also interdepartmental. terparts. Electronic resources are an inte- There are more players involved, With all these “mores” and extra gral part of almost every library col- both inside and outside the library. players in the mix, the stakes are lection. Several characteristics set PAGE 24 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 them apart from their print coun- PO Box 90001 Endnotes terparts: their price tag is high, Blacksburg, Virginia 24062-9001 they are in high demand, and 1 “Faxon and IUPUI Sign Industry’s they enjoy a rather high reputa- First Licensing Service Agreement,” Voice: (540) 231-6736 tion or status in the library world. Faxon/RoweCom News May 30, 1999. Fax: (540) 231-3694 Wrapped in this “glamour” is the [electronic mail] E-mail: [email protected] reality that e-resources are also high-maintenance, whether it is 2 Montgomery, Carol Hansen and the lengthy acquisitions process or JoAnne L. Sparks, “The Transition Molly Brennan Cox insuring continuous access. Techni- to an Electronic Journal Collec- Serials Coordinator cal services staff that does not treat tion: Managing the Organizational Newman Library [Mail Code 0434] them as “just another acquisition” Changes,” Serials Review 26, no.3 Virginia Polytechnic Institute & in the workfl ow and do not underes- (2000). State University timate their far-reaching and long- PO Box 90001 term impact will “Be Prepared” to Blacksburg, Virginia 24062-9001 manage these resources effectively. Ladd Brown Head of Acquisitions Voice: (540) 231-9254 Newman Library [Mail Code 0434] Fax: (540) 231-3694 Virginia Polytechnic Institute & E-mail: [email protected] VL Electronic Resource Diary State University

Date Initiated: License Chronology [see over] Title: Guidelines for Submissions to Virginia Libraries License Contact: URL: 1. Virginia Libraries seeks to publish articles and reviews of interest Archives? to the library community in Virginia. Articles reporting research, Catalog: OCLC: ISSN: library programs and events, and opinion pieces are all considered ILL? for publication. Queries are encouraged. Brief announcements and IPs Registered: press releases should be directed to the VLA Newsletter. Usage Statistics? 2. While e-mail submissions are preferred (in the body of the message, Users: or as text (.txt) attachments), manuscripts may be submitted as text Deal-stopper? fi les on 3.5-inch computer disks. VLA holds the copyright on all Platform: articles published in Virginia Libraries. Unpublished articles will be Milleniac 2000 Record: returned within one year. Publisher/Vendor/Consortium: Order Info: 3. Illustrations, particularly monochrome images and drawings, are Customer Service: encouraged and should be submitted whenever appropriate to Fund Code: accompany a manuscript. Illustrations will be returned if requested in advance. Technical Support: Payment Info: 4. The names, titles, affi liations, addresses, and e-mail addresses of all Requestor/ “Designated Expert”: authors should be included with each submission. Including this Sub Period: information constitutes agreement by the author(s) to have this Newman Tech Support: information appear with the article and to be contacted by readers Related Print/Other Title(s): of Virginia Libraries. Trial Notes: 5. Bibliographic notes should appear at the end of the manuscript and Action Taken: should conform to the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. License Chronology: Problem Reporting/ 6. Articles should be 750-3000 words. Status/Oddities: 7. Submit e-mail manuscripts to [email protected].

8. Virginia Libraries is published quarterly: Jan/Feb/Mar (no. 1); Apr/ May/June (no. 2); July/Aug/Sept (no. 3); and Oct/Nov/Dec (no. 4). Contact the editor for submission timelines. VL OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 25

Stop Clinging to Those Static Pages

by Ken Winter

ost library Web pages system of 18 “static” link lists for The versity libraries to create and main- are easier to create SourceFinder, a single “dynamic” tain more than 100 such guides than they are to main- search tool that allows students to using this model! Unfortunately, Mtain. That observation used to strike create custom study guides. more pages means more mainte- me while updating some of my To understand how SourceFinder nance, especially when links begin library’s Web based “study guides.” works it helps to understand the to change, when multiple pages list Creating and maintaining such difference between a “static” Web some of the same links, and when guides just comes with the terri- page and one created “dyna mically.” several librarians must maintain the tory for most of us. After all, a cur- Static pages are built and posted pages for their subject disciplines. rent, concise list of resources can onto a Web server, where they sit In complete contrast is the do wonders to help patrons when until they are requested by a browser. “dynamic” web page, a concept we’re not around. When that happens, the static page that has been widely adopted by The theory is good, but even e- commerce sites. It is seen in sub- for small libraries maintaining such scription databases and is one of the guides can be a real hassle. There are A dynamic search tool will driving forces behind Web search links to add, links to remove, descrip- engines. tions to update, dead links, and allow students to create Dynamic Web pages do not exist changed URLs. To confuse matters, until they are requested. In the there are usually multiple subject custom study guides. case of SourceFinder, here’s what experts working on various guides. happens: First, a patron goes to All the while the number of poten- the resource’s main page, where tial information sources keeps grow- appears on screen exactly as it was he specifi es exactly what he wants ing. What’s the best way to handle originally created (or last modifi ed). by selecting from pre-set categories this kind of maintenance problem? Patrons cannot request “parts” and setting the appropriate “limits.” of a Web page in this arrangement. When he clicks the “Search” button, Therefore, we usually avoid over- his request is sent as a query to Static Vs. Dynamic: whelming users with long lists of a database of sources that is orga- What’s the Difference? sources by breaking large pages into nized into searchable “fi elds.” The We stumbled upon the concept of several smaller pages. Sometimes we requested data is identifi ed, col- dynamic Web pages in the Fall of refi ne our organizational scheme lected, poured into a pre-formatted 1999, when we saw the “MyLi- along the way, creating categories HTML template and displayed on brary” personalization project imple- and sub-categories. The logic is as the patron’s computer screen. The mented at Virginia Commonwealth follows: As the categories get more patron’s customized Web page is University. Created by librarians specifi c, lists get more specifi c, and thus built “on the fl y.” Jimmy Ghaphery and Dan Ream, thus shorter. Therefore the odds If the concept seems vaguely the MyLibrary project helps VCU’s increase that patrons will fi nd what familiar there’s a good reason. patrons create shortcuts to their they need without having to scroll Whenever you use JSTOR, Amazon, favorite online resources. We also through excessively longs lists. or Google you benefi t from the discovered “The Data Genie,” a tool In our case that meant instead power of dynamic web-page cre- created at California Polytechnic of creating one study guide called ation. The same is true when you State University, San Luis Obispo. “Humanities” we had one for Eng- use your library’s online catalog or At VMI we decided to emulate lish, one for History, etc. It is not place a bid at an online auction site the Data Genie by scrapping our old unheard of for larger college or uni- like eBay.

Ken Winter is a reference librarian at the Virginia Military Institute. He can be reached at [email protected]. PAGE 26 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 FRONTEND — Figure 1

SourceFinder’s Main Page: The Front End allows a library appears on the screen. The “Front End” patron to search for library sources The second way to search is to We call the main user interface to in three ways. The fi rst way is to simply click on one of the links the SourceFinder the “Front End.” specify a subject, source, and any on the left-hand side of the screen Readers may want to test the Source- limits you wish to place on those under the heading “Take me to ….” Finder’s Front End by going to: sources. By clicking the “Search” One might assume that all eight http://www.vmi.edu/sourcefinder/ button a list of sources and source links in this category connect to (See fi gure 1 — FRONTEND.) descriptions matching your criteria “static” Web pages. In fact, three OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 27

Figure 2 — BACKEND

of the eight links do connect to patrons a number of ways to locate appear on the screen, they all have static pages. Those links are: the library resources. one thing in common — they allow “Online Catalogs” link (which we the administrator to alter the con- rarely need to change), the VIVA tents of the SourceFinder or the way SourceFinder’s Secret Page: “Journal Locator” link (which goes it functions. The librarian simply The “Back End” to a resource outside the VMI types in source titles, checks boxes domain), and a “Help” page that Most SourceFinder users do not real- for criteria that apply, and types in goes to generic help fi le. ize there is a secret “Back End” just a description. When the “submit” Finally, we created a link called for administrators. When librarians button is selected, the change is “Quick Search,” which allows users click on the SourceFinder logo on added to a Microsoft Access database to go to a third search interface the main page they are prompted located on VMI’s server, thereby that lets them conduct keyword for their user name and password. updating the contents of the Source- searches in multiple fi elds or key- A screen then appears with several Finder in real time. word searches in title or subject administrative options: input an There are a few advantages inher- fi elds. entry, edit an existing entry, delete ent in this concept. First, since Having a mix of static and an entry, view all entries, add a new it is Web-based, the contents of dynamic pages, and links that run subject category, and view user com- the SourceFinder can be modifi ed queries automatically, as well as the ments. (See fi gure 2 — BACKEND.) remotely. Second, because the same main SourceFinder search page and While selecting each of these options and check boxes are pre- the “Quick Search” feature, gives categories makes different forms sented for describing every source, PAGE 28 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

descriptions tend to be more consis- by our programmer using the pro- in the process. Instructors can not tent. Because the information will gramming language Visual Basic. only view survey results and see fl ow into an HTML template, on The basic SourceFinder interface who is registered, they can enter a screen appearance is always consis- was created by a single program- “Back End” component of the site to tent. When a source’s URL changes, mer, and was modeled on the Data change or update workshop descrip- we make the change using the Back Genie. We had a working model tions, and even send e-mail that will End and that change instantly and in about two weeks and library automatically go to all registrants. automatically is refl ected in any staff tested the prototype by slowly More recently we created an Elec- study guide created by a patron adding content to the Access data- tronic Reserves system that utilizes from that time on. In addition, base. Next came a process of test- Active Server Pages. The site has a none of the administrative forms ing the resource over the course Front End for patrons to use and a requires any knowledge of HTML. of a month. When we were satis- Back End that allows library staff to Best of all, when librarians need fi ed with the results, we began to add and remove digitized articles, to change a URL in SourceFinder, enter more and more data into the problem sets, practice tests, and they change it only once. Whether Access database. With minor modi- even audio fi les and video clips. the link appears on one or a hun- fi cations the resource was complete In another creative use of Active dred study guides, that change will in another month. Server Pages, the VMI archives just automatically be made on all guides At this point the Access data- went public with a search tool for listing the source. When it is time base contained all the sources and fi nding archived historical images. to run a link check (which we do descriptions that had been our 18 The search tool and display inter- weekly), our link checking software study guides, but in a more versatile face are powered by Active Server checks the contents of one data- format. Essentially, we swapped 18 Pages, allowing it to tap the con- base, instead of 18 separate pages. “static” study guides for a tool that tents of an Access database that could potentially generate thou- will eventually house more than sands of “dynamic” custom guides. 7,000 historical images and their How We Created the Ultimately SourceFinder has records. Not only does it push archi- SourceFinder helped ensure that all our guides val collections out to the public, it Dynamic web pages can be created have a consistent look, structure, also allows archivists more fl exibil- using a variety of hardware, soft- and functionality. It has also com- ity and control in cataloging their ware applications, and hand-written pletely eliminated the need for materials. scripts, including CGI (Common librarians to know HTML, allowing These days, VMI uses Active Gateway Interface), Perl, or JAVA. In us to focus on our strongest suit — Server Pages to power Web sites for fact, almost any programming lan- organizing information sources. We conference registrations, all online guage could conceivably be used. now teach use of the SourceFinder calendars, a jobs postings page, and Since VMI’s computing infra- in all introductory bibliographic several faculty/student directories. structure relies heavily on Microsoft instruction classes and routinely With so many new examples of products, we decided to use what show it to students in one-on-one dynamic Web pages, it suddenly we already had in place. On the consultations. Statistics indicate seems like the sky’s the limit. hardware side, we utilized a server SourceFinder has become one of the running Microsoft NT and Internet most visited of all library pages. References Information Server (IIS). On that server we placed a Microsoft Access Stop the Static: Serve Your Plans for the Future database containing descriptions of Patrons Dynamic Web Pages select library resources. We chose to The technology behind Source- http://www.vmi.edu/ use Microsoft’s Active Server Pages Finder is highly fl exible. Dynamic library/kw/vla2000.htm (ASP) as the programming piece Web pages could be used for a vari- Outlines the author’s presentation between the Front end and the ety of purposes in a typical public at the Fall 2000 VLA conference. Access Database. library branch system or in any aca- The SourceFinder’s main screen demic or special library. My Library (Front End), administrative screens For example, library staff at VMI http://www.library.vcu.edu/ (Back End), and display screens were recently used Active Server Pages mylibrary/ created using Microsoft’s HTML to create an online signup page editor FrontPage. Finally, all the for a series of faculty development The Data Genie components were tied together with workshops. Faculty members regis- http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/ several handwritten scripts created ter online, fi lling out a brief survey research/data_genie.html VL OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 29

Internet Reference Resources

by Scott Silet

ect is an archive of more than 1,200 searching but are not searchable Epguides.com languages covering Africa, Asia, simultaneously. Both also allow http://www.epguides.com the Americas, Europe, and Ocea- users to browse entries by author, nia. Entries could include detailed title, subject, and journal title. Expansive database of episode description of the language, gen- guides for over 1,800 television pro- esis translations, glossed vernacu- Manuscripts Catalogue of grams produced primarily in the lar texts, orthographies, Swadesh the British Library United States. Currently more than word lists, inventories of phonemes, a third of these programs offer in- audio fi les, basic color terms, as well http://molcat.bl.uk/msscat/ depth episode information includ- as miscellaneous texts. Entries also INDEX.ASP ing title, summary, number, origi- include language name, language nal air date, guest stars, writers, and family, and country where the lan- Searchable catalog of more than directors. Program entries include guage is/was spoken. Produced ini- 100,000 manuscripts acquired by cast photograph, regular and recur- tially by the Long Now Foundation the British Library since 1753. ring cast member lists, total number with funding from the Lazy Eight Search the collection index (head- of episodes (and dates), as well as Foundation. ing names) or collection descrip- links to the Internet Movie Data- tions. Manuscript descriptions vary base for complete acting credits. widely in size and content but Making of America Includes handy genre guide (http:// most include brief content entry www.epguides.com/menu/genre. http://moa.umdl.umich.edu and and provenance of the collection. shtml) with nearly a dozen different http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa Copies of manuscripts may be categories from which to browse. ordered from British Library Repro- The database has a few holes Growing full-text digital library of ductions. (notably The Rookies, Room 222, primary sources in American social The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, history from the antebellum period Art Atlas: Art Galleries of and other classics) but the editors through reconstruction. “The col- the World continue to add new shows as lection is particularly strong in time allows. Includes handy search the areas of education, psychology, http://artatlas.com/ engine (http://www.epguides.com/ American history, sociology, reli- search/) to search episode summa- gion, science, and technology.” Address and phone directory of ries. Compiled by a dedicated group These two collections, produced by nearly 5,000 art galleries around the of tv hounds from hundreds of the libraries at the University of world. Particularly strong for Cen- sources. Michigan and Cornell University tral and East European countries. and made possible through fund- Search for galleries (businesses that ing from the Mellon Foundation, sell art) by name, city, artist name, The Rosetta Project include thousands of books and or keyword. The Atlas has started to http://www.rosettaproject.org more than 100,000 journal articles include links to gallery Web sites, (totalling nearly 5 million pages) but most entries don’t have that A comparative linguistic research from 19th-century imprints. Both information yet. Compiled by the project in progress, the Rosetta Proj- collections offer basic and advanced German-based fi rm Datenraum. VL

Scott Silet manages the Internet Reference Sources page for the University of Virginia. Send comments or suggestions to Scott by e-mailing [email protected]. PAGE 30 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

Virginia Reviews

Reviews prepared by staff members of the Library of Virginia Julie A. Campbell, Editor

Lee Miller, Roanoke: Solving unknowingly close to fi nding the the Mystery of the Lost Colony. missing colonists, the Jamestown New York: Arcade Publish- settlers were the fi rst to be puzzled ing, 2001. xv + 362 pp. by the lost colonists’ fate. $25.95 (hardcover). Miller’s tale is intriguing; how- Lee Miller attempts to solve ever, it suffers from her writing the mystery of the Lost Colony, style. First, she does not enclose which was located on Roanoke all efforts by Ralegh and White to quotations from sources in quota- Island, tucked in the sounds behind rescue those who had been stranded tion marks but renders them in ital- North Carolina’s Outer Banks. In in the New World by his machina- ics: “Scrambling up a sandy bank, 1587 John White sailed for Britain, tions. Walsingham succeeded: the White cries out. He has found some- leaving 117 settlers on the island. colony was lost, Ralegh’s prospects thing, an astounding discovery. Cut When he returned three years later, diminished under Elizabeth, and into a tree, in the very brow thereof, they were gone. For too long, Miller were curiously carved these fair Roman contends, historians have been con- letters: CRO.” tent to accept the offi cial version Second, she writes in a melodra- of the colonists’ fate and to attri- Indians tantalized the matic tone punctuated by incom- bute the colony’s failure to the settlers at Jamestown plete sentences: “There are times inept governance of John White when the ocean seems uncannily and the Spanish Armada. Rather, with stories about human. Ask any sailor, and he will Miller argues, the efforts of the recount for you its many changing colony and its founder Sir Walter people like them. moods. Coy, playful, slumbering. Ralegh (as he spelled it and as Fierce. But worse than these is a most modern scholars do, although rising sea, neither one thing nor Miller does not) were sabotaged by under her successor, James I, he was the other. Frightening in its indeci- a powerful enemy, Sir Francis Wals- executed. sion.” Such stylistic oddities make ingham, Queen Elizabeth’s Secre- Miller offers an intriguing expla- it hard for the reader to follow the tary of State. nation as to what happened to the fl ow of her assertions and thereby Miller states that by destroying colonists. A very small group found damage her arguments. the colony, Walsingham accom- its way to friendly Indians on Cro- — reviewed by Trenton Hizer, Pri- plished two things: the removal of a atoan and are lost to her tale. The vate Papers Archivist troublesome group of religious sep- larger group settled inland among aratists, and the removal of Ralegh, the natives. Later, these Indians and his most dangerous rival for Eliz- colonists were attacked by other Lucia Stanton, Free Some Day: abeth’s favor. Walsingham guaran- native tribes that killed, enslaved, The African-American Fam- teed that the colony landed at Roa- or adopted the English. Twenty ilies of Monticello. Charlot- noke Island in a hostile environ- years later, Indians tantalized the tesville: Thomas Jefferson ment, rather than along the shores settlers at Jamestown with stories Foundation, 2000. 192 pp. $13.95 of the Chesapeake Bay. He blocked about people like them. At times (softcover).

Julie A. Campbell is the editor of Virginia Cavalcade, the quarterly illustrated magazine of Virginia history and culture published by the Library of Virginia. OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 31

In this well-designed and read- George became the de facto over- Hemings, her children, and her able book, Lucia Stanton offers the seer for the Monticello and Tufton grandchildren occupied an excep- fruits of her research and that of farms, and his wife Ursula was a tional position in the life of Mon- her colleagues: the stories of the cook who also oversaw the annual ticello. They worked in the house, enslaved people who lived at Mon- bottling of cider, ruled the depen- were excused from fi eldwork during ticello during Thomas Jefferson’s dencies, and served as a wet nurse the annual wheat harvest, hired life. Stanton mixes the few remi- for the Jeffersons’ children. Her son themselves out during Jefferson’s niscences and letters that survive, Isaac became a skilled blacksmith. long absences from home, and trav- Jefferson’s Farm Book and other of The Hern family included Davy, a eled with Jefferson. As the most vis- his writings, materials from Mon- skilled woodworker, his wife Isabel, ible of enslaved laborers to family ticello’s archaeological excavations, and twelve children. Knowing that and visitors, the Hemingses even and the oral histories of the descen- Jefferson supported family stability, wore clothing that was markedly dants of Monticello’s slaves, into several of the Hern sons who mar- different from that of the other a story of how people such as ried women from other farms peti- slaves. the Hemingses, Jupiter, George, and tioned Jefferson to buy their wives Stanton concludes with the dis- others struggled to maintain their persal of Jefferson’s estate in 1827. humanity in a cruel situation by Some of the slaves attempted to learning skills, earning their mas- minimize the breakup of their fam- ter’s trust, and holding their fami- …the men and women ilies by arranging for local farmers lies together. fl eshed out in Free Some and businessmen to purchase sons Stanton brings to life the people and daughters. Often the strategy who made Monticello and Jeffer- Day testify to their ability worked. son’s other farms work. Reading While debates continue over the their stories is to appreciate the to negotiate and survive paradox of Jefferson’s belief in the diffi cult situation in which the their bondage. principles of liberty and his active enslaved African Americans found participation in the institution of themselves. Faced with few options, slavery, the men and women fl eshed they nevertheless learned skills that out in Free Some Day testify to enabled them to win their master’s and to keep their families intact. their ability to negotiate and sur- trust. Tipped in at the back of Their son Davy regularly traveled vive their bondage. the book are family trees of the between Monticello and Washing- — reviewed by Barbara Batson, Jefferson, Hemings, Gillette, and ton, D.C., not only to bring materi- Exhibits Coordinator Hern families, and of two couples als to Jefferson but also to visit his (George and Ursula, Jupiter and wife Fanny Gillette, who was being Suck) that attest to the vitality of taught French cooking at the White Marc Leepson, Saving Mon- these families. House. Jefferson was not immune to ticello: One Family’s Epic Over his life, Jefferson owned rebellious slaves, however. On two Quest to Rescue the House more than six hundred enslaved occasions, James Hubbard ran away That Jefferson Built. New African Americans. Stanton skill- using false emancipation papers York: Free Press, 2001. 320 pp. fully blends facts about individuals and wearing purchased clothing to $25.00 (hardcover). with the larger context of black disguise his status as a slave. In our time, the visitor to Mon- labor on Jefferson’s various farms. The longest chapter is devoted ticello could easily succumb to the She explores the lives of Jupiter, to the Hemings family, fi ve gener- notion that the broad lawn and George, Ursula, Davy Hern, James ations of whom worked at Mon- architectural laboratory that was Hubbard, and their relatives, many ticello during Jefferson’s lifetime. Jefferson’s house appear today just of whom labored on the farms Although Stanton mentions the as he knew them. We are slightly or as skilled artisans in the plan- recent genetic tests and historical aware of the intrusion of a few tation shops. Jupiter, the same age research, which suggest the inti- well-concealed concessions to the as Jefferson, moved from personal mate relationship between Jeffer- modern age, such as electrical light- servant to hostler and coachman, son and Sally Hemings, here she ing and climate control, but gen- in which position he oversaw the is more interested in detailing how erally the illusion that Jefferson Monticello stables. Additionally, he the Hemings children and grand- could step across the threshold learned stonecutting from William children fi t into the Monticello today and feel at home is carefully Rice and worked on the east portico hierarchy and how the family fared maintained. of Monticello. after Jefferson’s death in 1826. Betty Saving Monticello shatters that PAGE 32 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

illusion and in the process tells the Jefferson Levy eventually capit- tory of slavery, and African Ameri- story of a determined and colorful ulated to a national movement can history. The study is based on Jewish family who fi rst purchased begun by a hysterical New York in-depth research into both public the property in 1834. Lieutenant socialite named Maud Littleton in and private papers and treats Vir- Uriah Phillips Levy, an important 1911 to make Monticello a national ginia and North and South Car- but headstrong fi gure in U.S. naval shrine. The house was sold to the olina from the early years of the history, bought what had been a Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foun- eighteenth century to the end of failed silkworm plantation on Jeffer- dation in 1923, ending more than the Civil War. son’s little mountain and began the a hundred years of stewardship by The fi rst chapter traces the evolu- process of repairing Monticello. the Levy family. tion of a unique legal tradition in As an asset owned by an enemy Throughout the long history of the American South by which the offi cer, Monticello was confi scated Monticello and its various owners, slaveholding society attempted to from Levy by the Confederate gov- one thread is constant: The thou- govern the behavior of slaves and ernment. This meant the house sands of visitors who for almost two free blacks. The volume explores and grounds again fell into decline hundred years have been drawn to subtly and in detail the composition during the Civil War and the years of the patrols, which consisted of a following, while the title remained cross-section of Southern white soci- in legal limbo. In 1878 a visitor to ety, not just poor whites, as some the site noted, “There is scarcely “The room in which mistaken old accounts suggest. The a whole shingle upon [the house]. Jefferson died is patrols engaged in intrusive and … The windows are broken. Every- often brutal treatment of both slaves thing is left to the mercy of the piti- darkened; all around it and free blacks, even in good times. less storm. The room in which Jef- White society looked to the ferson died is darkened; all around are the evidences of patrollers as the fi rst line of defense it are the evidences of desolation desolation and decay.” against domestic insurrection when and decay.” emergencies, such as the American It was only the care shown the Revolution or the War of 1812, house by Uriah Levy’s aptly named seemed to offer slaves an avenue of nephew, Jefferson Levy, that saved this remarkable structure and have escape; or when uprisings, such as Monticello from destruction. Begin- paid their respects at the grave of occurred in Richmond in 1800 and ning in 1879, this wealthy New York its extraordinary architect, Thomas in Southampton County in 1831, fi nancier resolved the legal entan- Jefferson. Happily, the role of the presented real or imagined threats glements surrounding the estate Levy family in the preservation of to the systems of slavery and white and lavished a considerable portion Monticello is now recognized in supremacy. of his fortune on the property. His displays and narrative histories pre- The fi nal chapter describes the motivation for saving the house, sented to the public who tour the collapse of the legal slave-patrol even though it was never his actual mansion. Saving Monticello is a thor- system during the Civil War. An residence, was simply his enormous ough and enjoyable record of that important eighteen-page epilogue regard for Jefferson. long-neglected story. places the slave patrols in an even Leepson does an excellent job of — reviewed by Selden Richardson, larger perspective by demonstrat- unraveling the complicated line of Senior Archivist for Architectural ing that they provided a post-war Monticello ownership. Along the Records model for the Ku Klux Klan, which way, he introduces the members of in many respects acted like the the Levy family who fought the patrols but without any effective effects of time and weather, vandal- Sally Hadden. Slave Patrols: legal constraints. ism and anti-Semitism to preserve Law and Violence in Vir- The epilogue and the excellent this most important testimony to ginia and the Carolinas. chapters on who the patrollers were the mind and talent of Thomas Cambridge, Massachusetts: and how the system operated in Jefferson. Supporting players in Harvard University Press, 2001. xi + times of crisis will probably interest Saving Monticello include Lafayette, 340 pp. $32.50 hardcover. the largest number of people. How- Teddy Roosevelt, and William Jen- This book is the fi rst substantial ever, the chapter titled “In Times of nings Bryan, all of whom visited scholarship published on slave Tranquility: Everyday Slave Patrols” Monticello and were profoundly patrols, and it makes important may be the most important in impressed with this architectural contributions to the literature on describing the constant presence in and historical gem. the antebellum South, the legal his- the lives of ordinary black people of OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 33

an armed and organized force that John S. Salmon, The Offi - ments include a glossary, an exten- could victimize them almost at will. cial Virginia Civil War sive bibliography, a list of major — reviewed by Brent Tarter, editor, Battlefi eld Guide. Mech- preservation organizations, and an Dictionary of Virginia Biography anicsburg, Pennsylvania: index. Stackpole Books, 2001. xii + 514 pp. “This guidebook serves several $29.95 (softcover). purposes,” writes Salmon. “The Mark Grimsley and Brooks Salmon, newly retired staff his- most obvious objective is to inform D. Simpson, eds., The torian of the Virginia Department and direct you to the battlefi elds, Collapse of the Confederacy. of Historic Resources, has written a then guide you around each one. Lincoln: University of defi nitive guide to the state’s Civil Another is to educate visitors and Nebraska Press, 2001. 201 pp. War battlefi elds. Several years ago, landowners alike about the battle- $47.50 (hardcover). the Civil War Sites Advisory Com- fi elds, their current integrity, threats Even after Robert E. Lee ordered mission found that 384 battles of to their continued existence, and the Army of Northern Virginia to the war deserved study and pres- opportunities for their preserva- lay down its arms, hope that the ervation. Of that number, a stagger- tion. Most important, I hope you South could still win was alive. Even ing 123 are in Virginia. Salmon used will appreciate the fragility of these though the Confederacy’s most cel- national treasures and help to pre- ebrated fi ghting force had ceased serve them.” This book belongs in to exist, President Jefferson Davis the glove compartment of everyone remained unbowed. “I think we can This book belongs in who likes to visit Civil War battle- whip the enemy yet, if our people the glove compartment fi elds, and it belongs on the shelves will turn out,” he informed his cab- of libraries all over the state. inet two days after Lee’s surrender. of everyone who likes to — reviewed by Julie A. Campbell The confl ict was not fated to end precisely as it did, and this collec- visit Civil War battlefi elds. tion of essays takes that premise as Samuel C. Shepherd Jr., the starting point for discussions Avenues of Faith: Shaping of the various factors impinging on the commission’s fi ndings to shape the Urban Religious Culture the war’s conclusion. his book. He was also spurred to of Richmond, Virginia, Steven E. Woodworth writes action by threats of “development” 1900–1929. Tuscaloosa: University about the end of the Confederacy that hovered over such important of Alabama Press, 2001. xii + 414 and the negotiated peace. Coeditor places as Manassas and Brandy pp. $44.95 (hardcover). Grimsley, an associate professor of Station. With the support of the Samuel C. Shepherd, a professor history at Ohio State University, Department of Historic Resources, of history at Centenary College in examines Southern generals during the National Park Service, and the Louisiana, is a native of Fairfax the fi nal weeks of the Confederacy. American Battlefi eld Protection Pro- County. He says that, like other res- The other editor, Simpson, a profes- gram, he went to work. idents of northern Virginia, while sor of history at Arizona State Uni- Turn to p. 270 and the section he was growing up he viewed Rich- versity, studies the Union high com- on Spotsylvania Court House for an mond as a bastion of the Old South, mand. William B. Feis re-examines example of the book’s nature. Well- “a community with few discern- Davis and the possibility of guer- researched, solid prose tells what ible contributions” to the twenti- rilla warfare. George C. Rable inves- happened during those early days eth century. Now, after years of tigates the collapse of Confederate of May 1864. An excellent map by research, he argues that Richmond morale. Jean V. Berlin wraps things Stackpole Books’ art directors Caro- in the fi rst quarter of that century up with a question in her chapter line M. Stover and Wendy A. Reyn- was a dynamic industrial city with entitled “Did Confederate Women olds clearly shows battle lines, his- a dominant Protestant religious cul- Lose the War?” toric and modern roads, locations ture committed to social activism The book examines a period that of historical markers, and other fea- to solve urban problems. has received insuffi cient attention, tures. Boxed text contains direc- At that time Richmond was and students of the confl ict will tions to and around the site, and an a center for religious publishing, benefi t from a reading of the issues illustration by contemporary artist and Shepherd mines the several these essayists raise. Alfred R. Waud shows weary sol- denominational newspapers pub- — reviewed by Don Gunter, assis- diers preparing for an assault on lished there to illuminate the tant editor, Dictionary of Virginia the Mule Shoe, where for 23 hours responses of Richmond’s church- Biography combat raged. Further enhance- men and churchwomen to social PAGE 34 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 and religious issues. Indeed, the of Virginia, 2001. 239 pp. $27.95 sized spiders invading the canoe, book’s notes and bibliography run (hardcover). prompt comparisons to Bill Bryson’s to nearly 100 pages. In 1998, Earl Swift, a reporter for A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering Although one of the interpretive the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, shoved America on the Appalachian Trail. themes of the book is Richmond’s a canoe into the headwaters of the Kudos to those at the Norfolk religious diversity, to keep the book James River and paddled all the Virginian- Pilot and the University within bounds Shepherd focuses on way to Hampton Roads. For three Press of Virginia who allowed and six mainline, white denominations: weeks, he and his colleague, pho- encouraged Swift to turn his news- Episcopalians, Methodists, Presby- tographer Ian Martin, fi led stories paper pieces into this enjoyable, terians, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, with their paper and ate more Taco well-written book. and Lutherans. Protestant Rich- Bell food than seemed humanly pos- — reviewed by Julie A. Campbell monders generally practiced what sible. Swift has turned his dispatches they preached, but they only par- into a book brimming with humor, tially accepted blacks, Jews, and a love of history, and a palpable Freedman’s Bank Records Catholics. ache at the damage humans have The Church of Jesus Christ Nonetheless, just as the city’s of Latter-Day Saints, $6.50. religious leaders objected to the reli- Order from www.familysearch. gious tests and adversarial stance org or 800-537-5971, item #50120 of the Fundamentalists after World “…a watermark … recalls (CD-ROM) War I, they also helped to prevent the night the Tye River African American genealogical the Ku Klux Klan from gaining sig- research is not for the faint hearted. nifi cant support in Richmond. The burst in, sucked the A basic strategy is to trace an churches’ past experiences of inter- individual family backwards until denominational activity and coop- organ out a window, and they can be located in the 1870 fed- eration facilitated this rejection of carried it to the James.” eral census. Prior to 1870, research divisive issues and organizations. becomes diffi cult at best. Specifi c Shepherd argues that as the records may only be found in the churches responded to urban condi- personal papers of the slave owners tions, the multiple demands made infl icted on the mighty James. as the federal census listed slaves on ministers led to development Swift mixes stories of the modern by name only if they had reached of specialized roles for lay leaders, people and places they encountered the age of 100 years. Surnames were including lay women. The expan- along the way with stories of histor- either not used at all, were different sion of leadership, interdenomina- ical events that have occurred along in one generation from another, tional cooperation, and the system- the river. The chapter this reviewer sometimes duplicating that of a spe- atic planning and organization for found most memorable was “Day cifi c owner, sometimes borrowing bringing about social reforms also Twelve: Thirty Years After the Riv- that of someone greatly admired, bolstered evangelism. er’s Worst Night,” in which Swift sometimes using a name recognized A consequence of the churches’ recounts the sudden devastation only within the slave community, social activism, then, was an that hit part of Virginia in 1969. and sometimes not used at all. increase in the number of churches “After Hurricane Camille, the land- The records of the Freedman’s and church membership. Avenues of scape had so changed in parts of Savings and Trust Company repre- Faith is a signifi cant contribution Nelson County that topographic sent a major resource for tracing to the study of southern religious maps were obsolete,” he wrote. former slaves and their families into history, and it is also a model for “Mountain contours had shifted, the time period prior to the Civil how to incorporate churches and riverbeds straightened or bent. War. The bank was established by religion into local history. Cropland lay deep under mud. an act of Congress on 3 March 1865 — reviewed by John T. Kneebone, Woods had vanished. Thirty years for the benefi t of freed slaves and director, Division of Publications and later, a watermark seven feet up the former African American military Educational Services pine paneling of Grace Episcopal personnel. Registers of Signatures Church in Massies Mill recalls the of Depositors in branches of the night the Tye River burst in, sucked Freedman’s Savings and Trust Com- Earl Swift, Journey on the the organ out a window, and car- pany between 1865 and 1874 James: Three Weeks through ried it to the James.” contain the records of the 29 the Heart of Virginia. Char- Such dramatic and thoughtful branches of the Freedman’s Bank. lottesville: University Press stories, combined with tales of fi st- These original records, preserved as OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 35

National Archives Microfi lm Publi- used to quickly go to other names Virginia Bookends cation M816, asked depositors for in the fi le, surname + dates, sur- their name, date the account was name + spouse, or surname + par- Chalmers Archer Jr. is a recently opened, age, place of birth, where ents, in order to assist in pinpoint- retired professor and adminis- brought up, complexion/height, ing the correct individual. A Soun- trator from Northern Virginia Com- residence, occupation, employer, dex type search can be done by munity College. In 1992 he wrote spouse, children, father, mother, setting search parameters quickly the award-winning Growing Up Black siblings, remarks, and a signature or bringing all surnames that sound in Rural Mississippi about his youth mark. In addition, a wife’s maiden alike together. Wildcard searches in the 1930s and 1940s. His new name or name of former spouse as are also available. Once an individ- book covers his military service in well as military unit for a veteran ual has been selected, a quick search the next decade: Green Berets in might be served. Early forms might will identify all indexed relatives the Vanguard: Inside Special Forces, include name of the former slave- of this individual. A small inconve- 1953–1963 (Annapolis, Maryland: owner and the plantation where nience is the number of entries at Naval Institute Press, 2001. xiv the individual lived. the beginning of the alphabetical + 139 pp. $28.95 hardcover). “I The Church of Jesus Christ of surnames list that represent entries remember a feeling of excitement, Latter-Day Saints’ recently pub- awe, and anticipation on that bright lished Family History Resource File morning in 1952,” he begins. “I was CD Freedman’s Bank Records pro- about to start my fi rst six months at vides an index to these records, Delightful old the Psychological Warfare Center, and by providing access to 480,000 photographs of dogs and at Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. names contained in these records is Army Special Forces.” His recollec- a major tool in identifying African their proud owners add tions are valuable at any time, per- Americans and recreating their fam- haps more now than ever. ilies during this time period. Take to the well-told stories. the case of James Barclay. The index John F. Blair, Publisher, of states that his spouse was named Winston- Salem, North Carolina, Sarah, his father was Steve (no sur- with no names or with inaccurate has published two interesting and name), his mother Hannah (no sur- dates given due to GEDCOM errors. very different books. In Ghost Dogs name), and that he was born in This problem, however, poses no in the South (2001. xxiv + 287 pp. Natchez, Mississippi. He applied for problem when searching a specifi c $16.95 softcover), folklorists Randy an account in the New Orleans surname, or even a specifi c given Russell and Janet Barnett compile branch on 28 October 1872 at age name unassociated with a sur- twenty tales. The stories are scary, 33. This information provides clues name. funny, and poignant. Some of the to locating James in the 1870 federal Family group sheets, kinship animals appear in ghostly form, like census, and moves the researcher reports and a variety of descendant Preston, a Boxer in Nashville who quickly back to 1839, the year of and ancestor charts can be quickly saved a child’s life — after Preston his birth. A search for his parents confi gured and printed as well had lost his own life the day before. in the index identifi es three other as narrative reports. Finally, a Other faithful hounds, like Pepper, children in the family group. Or GEDCOM fi le can be exported for the only Virginian in the bunch, take the case of Mollie (no sur- use in a family genealogy program tried but failed to tell his mistress name) who was married to John of the researcher’s choice. about the otherworldly nature of (no surname) before 1808 and who The CD is easy to use and does her mysterious husband. Delightful had sons named John Halfort and not require lengthy instructions. old photographs of dogs and their Daniel Bedne. The Freedman’s Bank The help screens are easily accessed proud owners add to the well-told Records may be the only source and understood. At $6.50, the stories, some of which are set in to link these two men with their disk is a welcome addition to a recent times. mother. library’s genealogical collection, par- The CD requires Windows 95 or ticularly in libraries with a demand Blair also has issued Walking the NT 4.0 or higher and 8 MB of hard- for African American genealogical Path of a Legend: On the Trail disk space. No separate viewer is resources. of Robert E. Lee, by Clint Johnson required, and the CD loads quite — reviewed by Carolyn Barkley (xix + 186 pp., $12.95 softcover). quickly even on a less powerful PC. “This is your guide to both the A basic surname search can be dis- major Lee sites in Virginia and West played as name + a PIN number Virginia and lesser-known sites in PAGE 36 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES OCTOBER–DECEMBER, 2001

distant states,” says the back cover. others, praised the tale of Dave and Dana Littlepage Smith, a Rich- “From Texas, where he was sent to Blueboy, black men who worked as mond native who lives in Eng- chase Indians; to New York, where waiters and numbers runners in a land, offers her fi rst book of poetry, he rode his horse down Broadway; fi ctional 1930s Richmond. Author Women Clothed with the Sun (Baton to Florida, where he picked oranges Pharr was born in Richmond in Rouge: 2001. 116 pp. $26.95 hard- as an elderly tourist. Taken together, 1916, received a degree from Vir- cover, $19.95 softcover). In sensu- they will let you — as far as is ginia Union University, and stud- ous verse, Smith fi nds words for possible — stand where General Lee ied at New York University, Fisk, ninety women from the Old and stood and see what he saw.” Photo- and Columbia. Despite his aca- New Testaments. In “Susanna,” her graphs, maps, and directions help demic training, he made his living subject commands: readers fi nd their way. as a waiter at racetracks. In his Slice cucumbers, beloved new afterword, Jabari Asim, a book & drape the mint green room The University Press of Vir- editor at the Washington Post, calls with scarves of silver. ginia has issued two new titles the book “a lost gem.” The day has come for an end in its popular Virginia Bookshelf to mourning; let the elders drink series, softcover reprints of note- Louisiana State University has brine. worthy books. The fi rst is a satiri- published two books of poetry Our drink, Joakim, will be the cal treatise by the prolifi c Virginia by Virginians. Messenger (Baton dew. writer James Branch Cabell, Let Me Rouge: 2001. 75 pp. $24.95 hard- They sleep in dust, I bring you Lie: Being in the Main an Ethnological cover, $16.95 softcover) fl ows from silken pillows. Let woe become Account of the Remarkable Common- the pen and mind of R. T. “Rod” the skirl of night. Dawn rises wealth of Virginia and the Making Smith, who lives in Rockbridge when I fi nd you. of Its History (Charlottesville: 2001. County and edits Shenandoah at xix + 286 pp., $17.95 softcover). Washington and Lee University. And fi nally, two works of his- First published in 1947, it was met This is the second book in a trilogy, torical fi ction about Virginia with silence and has, in the words “Dreaming in Irish.” Readers and and Virginians. Virginia Beard of R. H. W. Dillard, director of cre- dreamers will appreciate the poem Morton has written Marching ative writing at Hollins University, titled “Reading Groups”: Through Culpeper: A Novel of Cul- “been … generally ignored even by Five blackbirds sat in the corner peper, Virginia, Crossroads of the Civil Cabell scholars for roughly half a circle, War (2000. Edgehill Books, P.O. Box century.” An example of Cabell’s slow with books, Miss Noonan 1342, Orange VA 22960. 544 pp. observations: “In Virginia a tacky claimed. $27.99 hardcover). Morton grew person is one who, so nearly as I Cardinals and Robins crooned up in Richmond and has lived in can phrase his defi ciency, does not the antics of Dick and prissy Jane Culpeper for thirty years. Ron Cart- quite know just how to behave in for extra milk and tinfoil stars er’s new book is Prelude to Glory, the way that well-born Virginians while my fl ock struggled. We read Vol. 5: A Cold, Bleak Hill (Salt Lake tacitly expect an equal to behave in aloud or doodled. I preferred City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, civilized intercourse. … [I]f he does Genesis, Grit, The Atlanta Consti- 2001. xvii + 557 pp. $22.95 hard- not know, by sheer intuition, that tution cover). This installment in a series unworded code which is custom- (“Covers Dixie Like the Dew”), of novels about the Revolutionary ary among the indigent, well-bred reports of train wrecks, War follows George Washington inner circles of Virginia, why then Lester Maddox, Tech football and his soldiers to Valley Forge. he remains forever tacky.” and barbecues. Stop that cloud — reviewed by Julie A. Campbell VL gathering, her stern voice said. The other offering is a 1969 Her plastic ruler slapped my hand, novel by Robert Deane Pharr, but I was elsewhere, wind-borne, The Book of Numbers (Charlottes- fl ying. ville: 2001. 382 pp. $18.95 soft- The welt across my palm burned cover). Critics at the New York Times red Book Review and Newsweek, among as the rose on a blackbird’s wing.