ACORN CHRONICLE on Their Usefulness and Usability At
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ACORNChronicle PUBLISHED BY THE JEAN AND ALEXANDER HEARD LIBRARY • VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY • FALL 2006 FROM the University Librarian Library N EWS ost of us think of a library as a place to find only publicly accessible record of U.S. television news. Vanderbilt Television News Archive to Digitize New Assistant Dean of the Divinity School Minformation or a good place to find soli- The archive is growing in popularity since we opened Watergate and Other News Specials to Have Library Ties tude for study. Increasingly, digital infor- its index to Google. Without the Television News mation makes coming to the library unnecessary. Archive, access to yesterday’s broadcast news would be reasured television news specials broadcast from 1968 to 2003 eth Boord, new assistant dean for de- But libraries have another primary mission of signifi- impossible for most Americans. will become more accessible to the public, thanks to the Van- Bvelopment and alumni relations at the cant importance, and that is to preserve our society’s One of our most important preservation activities T derbilt Television News Archive receiving almost $280,000 Divinity School, will also have fundrais- cultural heritage for generations to come. No other is the acquisition of personal papers of noted Vander- ing ties with the library as director of devel- NEIL BRAKE in new funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. institution outside of museums has this mission in bilt alumni and Nashvillians, especially those connected The 1973 Watergate hearings, presidential news conferences, polit- opment. Boord, who began her new duties our society. At Vanderbilt this part of our core mis- to the arts. The acquisition of the papers of noted ical conventions and other gems of the archive’s collection will be Aug. 21, had most recently been director of Paul M.Gherman sion becomes ever more important in the digital age, Nashville art critic Louise LeQuire is a prime exam- converted from tape to digital format. advancement for Harpeth Hall School, where STEVE GREEN University Librarian where information often has no physical location and ple of our efforts to preserve papers both related to the For more information, go to http://www.vanderbilt.edu/regis- she led a successful $44 million campaign. where conditions sometimes place information at arts and journalism in Nashville. ter/articles?id=27199 Her resume includes stints as director of devel- great risk. Of a more mundane nature but of more immediate opment and marketing at the Nature Con- Beth Boord About the cover: A good example of our mission is the effort to pre- importance to Vanderbilt is our ongoing responsibili- servancy of Tennessee, vice president of financial development at the The art on the cover was created serve the Contini-Volterra Photographic Archive, a ty to organize, store and preserve the records of Van- Director of Vanderbilt Divinity Library YMCA, and vice president of major gifts for United Way of Middle by Carolyn Trant, an independent collection of more than 60,000 photographs primari- derbilt’s history. A significant number of Vanderbilt artist and designer of books, as Receives Promotion Tennessee. Boord and Celia Walker, director of communications part of the volume Sonnets of Dark ly of Italian art works. Many of these works were academic departments and business offices turn over and library advancement, will work together to raise funds for the Love. The large book (16.25" by destroyed in World War II bombings. Without our their historic records to the University Archives for ill Hook, director of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, received library. “As the library seeks to involve more supporters in its work, 22.5") illustrates some of the last efforts to store the photos at optimal temperature and permanent safekeeping. Hundreds of boxes of records poems written by Federico García a promotion at the fall Divinity School faculty meeting. His I’m delighted to have Beth as a new colleague and know her strong humidity, make digital copies of them, and catalog are added to our collection each year, ready to be retrieved B Lorca. Widely regarded as Spain’s title had been assistant professor of theological bibliography. fundraising background will be a terrific asset,” Walker said. most distinguished 20th-century them, this record of Western art would simply be lost. whenever they are needed. Because the University’s Upon the recommendation from the senior faculty and the Divin- writer, he was executed by Span- Not only does the archive serve as a research tool, but ish rebel death squads in 1936 at business and our faculty’s research and scholarship is ity dean, he was elevated to professor of the practice of theological age 38. Trant has specialized since it also allows for alternative approaches to primary visu- increasingly digital, our role in preserving that record librarianship. Hook oversaw the move from the General Library Test Pilot Web Site Now Available 1995 in producing artists books al material. has grown even more complex. The digital world is far Building to the Divinity School while the Divinity Library was being under her own imprint, Parvenu he new Test Pilot web site is now available. The site show- Likewise, every day we record television news to more fragile and transient than the paper world to which renovated last summer. He then moved the Divinity Library back Press, and gave the Acorn Chroni- cases pre-production digital tools and services that are in devel- cle permission to use her work. preserve a record of how America is informed about we have been accustomed. Yet it is our mission and into its renovated quarters and was ready for the students when T opment. Try out the featured items and give your feedback significant events. In partnership with the Library of challenge to make sure our history is protected, pre- they returned in the fall. THE ACORN CHRONICLE on their usefulness and usability at http://testpilot.library.vanderbilt.edu. is published semi-annually by the Congress, Vanderbilt’s Television News Archive is the served, and made accessible, regardless of format. Jean and Alexander Heard —PAUL M. GHERMAN Library, Vanderbilt University. Address inquiries to the Library, 419 Twenty-first Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37240, 615/322-4782, or by email to editor [email protected]. Louise LeQuire Papers Span More than 50 Years of Nashville Arts Scene THE ACORN CHRONICLE, Fall 2006 © 2006 by Vanderbilt University. All rights reserved. B Y C E L IA WALKE R , Director of Communications and Library Advancement self. I had to go down to the Banner to turn in my column and I imagine how people in the future would know any of this or re- University Librarian: had to be ready at a certain time. During the week I tried to member it. At the time you don’t think about that, you just don’t Paul M. Gherman Onto this scene burst 26- cover everything in the arts that was going on, and in those days look ahead. I was glad to find a place to donate them.” Editor: Lew Harris he Nashville arts community was still in its Contributors: Paul Gherman, infancy when Louise Lasseter LeQuire year-old Louise LeQuire, it was possible. Today, it wouldn’t be possible for one person to The papers reflect Louise’s lifelong interest: her great affection Celia Walker, Bill Hook, T was born. But by the time Louise completed hired by the Nashville Ban- go to everything.” for the state’s artists. She followed the careers of many artists— Paula Covington, Yvonne Boyer Art Director: Donna D. Pritchett her education at Peabody, BA’45, MA’46, Nash- ner in 1950 to be the city’s Those who knew Louise, who passed away last July, were aware Avery Handly, Jr., A.C. Webb, Puryear Mims (BA ’26, MA ’28), Designer: Suzanna Spring ville had become a place where the arts could flour- first art critic. She held that of her love for art, which she expressed as a teacher, patron, writer, William Edmondson and Nashville native Charles “Red” ish and thrive. Studio art instruction was available position until 1961. Louise and, most importantly, as an artist. She loved art in all its forms: Grooms to name a few—and used the materials to create articles, Visit us on the Web at by 1910 at Watkins Institute and Ward-Belmont and husband Virgil had four music, poetry, and visual art. Over the span of 50 years, Louise col- essays and films. Her files contain a wealth of ephemera— http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/ or http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ Junior College. The first community artists’ group, children during the 1950s, lected and saved materials about the changing Nashville arts scene exhibition brochures, catalogs, newspaper clippings—as well alumni/pub.html the Studio Club, formed in 1932 to share informa- but motherhood did not slow in “clip and save” files in her Nashville studio. Last spring, she as photographs and correspondence that paint a picture of Vanderbilt University is committed tion and hold exhibits. They would later change her down. donated those papers to Special Collections of the Jean and Alexan- Nashville’s arts community in the last half of the 20th century. to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action. their name to the Nashville Artist Guild, a respect- “I had all those babies. Louise LeQuire der Heard Library. Such materials are extremely valuable to art historians wanting ed resource for exhibition opportunities, advice I just remember carrying In an interview about two months before her death, Louise said, to understand the full story of our state’s art development. And and support. them with me—two in my arms and one ‘hipped’ “It seemed to me that donating these papers to Vanderbilt would yet they are frequently discarded and lost.