Among THE NEWSLETTER OF THEFriends FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY VOLUME 23 NUMBER 1 • SPRING/SUMMER 2010 Students and the Library ½ Creating a 21st Century Library ½ The Library’s Team of Student Workers ½ Rewarding Student Research Jeffrey Schreck ’73 From the University Librarian’s Office Chair Linda Aro ’81, MA ’83 Vice-Chair Harriette Hemmasi Joukowsky Family University Librarian Honorary Directors Maurice Glicksman ScD ’97, P ’78 Blending the Past, Martha S. Joukowsky ’58, P ’87 Chair Emerita Present and Future Fraser Lang ’67, P ’04 Chair Emeritus ne of my greatest joys is to Beyond the undeniable John F. Mastroianni, Jr. ’71 see Brown students using importance of bricks and mortar, Barbara Mosbacher ’45 O our libraries across campus collections, services and the growing President Ruth Simmons — studying, socializing or just taking array of online offerings, we recognize a moment to rest and reflect on life. that these are not our end-goal. Directors Whether it is late nights at the Rather, the Library thrives because Prof. Thomas Banchoff, P ’91 Sciences Library cramming for an it is integral to the academic life of Phoebe Simpson Bean ’94 organic chemistry exam, study breaks Brown’s students and faculty. We take Alice H. R. H. Beckwith ’69 Board ofBoard Directors in the lobby of the Rockefeller pride in the fact that Brown students Thomas Bryson ’72 Library, or joining classmates for a draw on our resources to create their Seth Dorsky ’03 seminar at the John Hay Library, the own papers and research projects; Jean Edwards ’45, P ’76 University libraries have brought they initiate new multimedia projects Jacqueline Friedman ’08 generations of Brown students using elements of our collections Prof. Abbott (Tom) Gleason ADE ’74 Hon. together and helped them mature as and the latest technologies; and they Herbert Iselin ’42, P ’79, P ’81 scholars and thinkers. flock to the libraries at all hours of S.T. (Sunand Tryambak) Joshi ’80, MA ’82 In this magazine, Paul Sorensen, the day and night. Students are the Jon Land ’79 who with his wife Joan has given reason the Library exists. Brent Lang ’04 generously to modernize the central This latest issue of Among Bernicestine McLeod ’68, P ’99, P ’03 reading room of the first floor of the Friends is an acknowledgement of Ryan Roth ’05 Rock, argues that any first rate our students’ ongoing contribution Daniel Siegel ’57 university is only as good as its to the libraries and our raison d’être. Fredi Solod ’50, P ’78 library. That’s true. And I ask what I close with a small hope that, despite Dennis Stark good is the Library if it does not meet the sea of change taking place within Andrew Wendel ’85 the day-to-day and ever expanding the academy and throughout society, Allison Whiting AM ’90 academic needs of the University’s Brown students will never stop Robert Wigod ’54, P ’84, P ’88 faculty and students? The Brown interacting with the past in order to Hon. Frank Williams University Library strives to support envision the future. Richard Williamson ’65, P ’03 the changing patterns of teaching, Prof. Emeritus Don Wilmeth learning and research by combining Constance Worthington ’68 traditional and modern resources and Member Ex-Officio services with emerging information Harriette Hemmasi Edward Widmer technology in inviting, collaborative Joukowsky Family University Librarian Director and Librarian, spaces. We, as no other entity on John Carter Brown Library campus, represent a convergence of the physical and virtual, a blending Staff of the past, present and future. Jane Cabral Now more than ever, students Friends of the Library and Events Coordinator need libraries as study spaces where individuals and groups can meet, to provide relevant and authentic sources (an antidote to websites of dubious veracity), and to offer friendly and knowledgeable librarians who answer questions and guide Cover: Students studying and relaxing in the research. And because of our massive newly renovated sections of the Rockefeller online collections and services, the Library. Library visitors investigate the “Surface,” the touch screen computer where Library is available to Brown students the Garibaldi panorama can be accessed. and faculty anywhere, anytime. 2 Among Friends Spring/Summer 2010 View from the Chair enerally, the focus of the of students. how the Brown libraries are fulfilling Friends of the Library has In part this is because most of or not fulfilling the needs of its users. G been on what I would call us do not know what it is like to be Students, how are you using the the “supply” side of the equation an undergraduate or graduate student Library? What do you look for? How rather than the “demand” side. The in this century. Libraries and the accessible is the information you Friends of the Library have not given demands on libraries have changed need? What, if anything, could the much attention over the years to the dramatically over the last few decades, Library do to improve your ability student side of the library/student and so have the needs of students. We to use its resources? The Library equation. We have been concerned know from our Friends’ participation exists to serve the needs of students, with University collections and that the Brown librarians work and the University Librarian wants resources of the Library, including extremely hard to satisfy the needs student input. Access to such buildings, furniture and other library of students and professors. We information could help the Library amenities. In recent years we have appreciate that, as substantial as the and the Friends in its mission to discussed digitization and online resources are that are devoted to the support the Brown libraries in the access, off-site storage and the libraries, the available resources are decades to come. competition for resources between stretched to the limit and not all hard copy and electronic material. needs can be completely satisfied. Although the goal always has been The question we ask as Friends to make the Library “better,” more of the Library is whether there is accessible, and more useful, we anything more we can do to help on have viewed the Library from the the “demand” side. We and the perspective of the library staff and Library invite users of library services Jeffrey Schreck ’73 as alumni, not from the perspective to provide us with information as to Chair Commemorating the Past and Creating the Future 100 Years of the John Hay Library, 1910-2010 John Hay Library, Main Gallery April 12 – June 4, 2010 This exhibit will include materials tracing the history of the John Hay Library at Brown University, primarily focusing on the building of the Library and its evolution from the University library to the Special Collections library. Melchor Pérez de Soto, A Private Book Collector Ahead of His Time John Hay Library, Main Gallery Mid-June – July, 2010 Melchor Pérez de Soto, a Mexican astrologer and architect, built one and spent several weeks in solitary confinement. He was found dead of the most impressive private collections of printed books in 17th in his cell in the prison on March 17 of the same year. Century Mexico. According to an inventory of its library made by This exhibit illustrates the depth and breadth of the Pérez de clerks of the Inquisition, the collection contained 1,592 volumes, Soto private collection and provides a glimpse into one of the finest covered various disciplines, and represented authors from the classical minds among humanists in colonial Mexico. to contemporary periods. During the last five years of his life, the Holy Office gathered For library hours and updated information on library exhibits, visit: evidence on perceived heretical activities carried out by Pérez de Soto http://library.brown.edu/libweb/hours.php which included practicing astrology and owning prohibited books. http://library.brown.edu/exhibits He was arrested by the officers of the Inquisition on January 13, 1655, Exhibits Calendar Spring/Summer 2010 Among Friends 3 Meninas; Mud, River, Stone; Por’knockers; and POOF! Nottage is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2007 MacArthur Foundation “Genius ing Events Grant,” the National Black Theatre Festival’s August Wilson Playwriting Award, the 2004 PEN/Laura Pels r Award for Drama, the 2005 Guggenheim Grant for Playwriting, as well as fellowships from the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists Sp and New York Foundation for the Arts. Her most recent publications include: Ruined (TCG), Intimate Apparel and Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine: Two Plays (TCG) and Crumbs from the Table Why Theater? of Joy and Other Plays (TCG). She is a member of The Sixth Annual Don Wilmeth Endowed Lectureship Dramatists Guild, an alumna of New Dramatists and a in American Theatre graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she is a visiting lecturer. Lynn Nottage ’86 www.lynnnottage.net. Salomon Hall 001 Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 7 p.m. An Afternoon with Maryalice Huggins and Jane Leikin Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined has also received an OBIE, the Lucille Lortel Award, New Maryalice Huggins, author York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Drama Desk Award Jane Leikin, soprano and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play (Manhattan Lownes Room, John Hay Library Theatre Club, Goodman Theatre). Other plays include: Monday, May 10, 2010, 4 p.m Intimate Apparel (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play; Roundabout Theatre, CENTERSTAGE, Maryalice Huggins, author of Aesop’s Mirror,will be South Coast Repertory); Fabulation, or The Re-Education guest speaker, and Jane Leikin, soprano, will entertain of Undine (OBIE Award; Playwrights Horizons, London’s with a few French songs at the annual Mel and Cindy Tricycle Theatre); Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Las Yoken Cultural Series lecture.