Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ category

UN Anniversaries and Postal Librariana

October 13th, 2011
Envelope showing one of the first stamps of the United Nations
Special event envelope for dedication of Hammarskjold Library
There are two upcoming anniversaries related to the United Nations that are noteworthy. The first is the 60th anniversary of the first issue of postage stamps by the United Nations in New York which occurs on October 24th. The second is the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the UN Dag Hammarskjold Library in New York which occurs on November 16th. Both of these anniversaries have relevance to my interest in postal librariana. The first envelope shown above is a first day cover for one of the stamps in the first group of stamps issued by the UN. That stamp depicts the large Secretariat Building of the United Nations and a smaller building next to it which served as the library from 1951 to 1959. The building which housed the library was referred to as the "Manhattan Building". The second cover shown above is a special event cover for the dedication of the Dag Hammarskjold Library which replaced the previous building which was torn down.  Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold had already sent out the invitation to the dedication of the new library building when he was killed in an airplane crash in 1961. The decision to name the library for him occurred after his death.  The Hammarskjold Library appears on more postage stamps than any other library in the world. If you visit the United Nations in New York you can have your own personalized stamp created. I did this on a visit and a sheet of my personalized stamps is shown below.  The sheet has a nice image of the Hammarskjold Library.  It is the building at the bottom of the UN complex.

Reused Envelopes in WWII England

October 12th, 2011
Envelope with label provided by Royal Naval War Libraries
Back flap of RNWL label
Envelope mailed by Univ. of WI Library in 1940
It is difficult to imagine the hardships that the people of Great Britain endured during World War II. One small indication of the difficulty of this period is shown by two envelopes in my postal librariana collection. They both have labels that have been pasted over a previously used envelope so that they can be reused. The first envelope has a label that was provided by the Royal Naval War Libraries, a wartime charitable organization that provided books to service men and women. These "Economy Labels" could be purchased from the Royal Naval War Libraries as shown by the back flap of the label. The second envelope was originally mailed to the Economic and Statistics Section of the Bank of England by the Library of the University of Wisconsin - Madison (the first address is visible under the label) in 1940. It has been censored by Examiner 5086. The top part of the label has been removed to reveal that it was originally mailed by the UW Library.


Library of Congress Stereoview

October 11th, 2011


Stereoviews are double images of a scene on a card that when viewed with a stereoscope appear to be three dimensional or in 3D. Several decades before libraries appeared on picture postcards they could be viewed on stereoviews.  Although the period when stereoviews were available ran from the 1850s up to World War I, the "Golden Age of Stereoviews" was the 1860s and 70s. I've only collected a few library stereoviews, but I recently acquired a very interesting one. It depicts the interior of the Library of Congress when it was located in the Capitol. The back of the card indicates that it was "Entered according to Act of Congress, A.D. 1866, by G. G. Wakely, in the District Court of Washington, D.C.".  The Library of Congress did not take over the administration of copyright until 1870. Prior to that copyright was registered in the U.S. District Courts. The neat thing about this stereoview is that it depicts both library users and library staff members. There is also an interesting piece of furniture in the library that separates the staff work area (with books piled high) from the rest of the library space. The space in the Capitol designated for the Library of Congress was greatly enhanced following a disastrous fire on Dec. 24, 1851. When the Library reopened on Aug. 23, 1853 it was considered to be "the largest room made of iron in the world." Source: For Congress and the Nation, A Chronological History of the Library of Congress by John Y. Cole (Library of Congress, 1979).

Service Interruption 10/8

October 7th, 2011

Electricity in the library will be shut down Saturday October 8, at 11:00 p.m until 3:00 a.m. Sunday.

The Library databases will be down during this time and Atrium after hours access will be closed.


Welcome Two New Permanent Librarians

October 6th, 2011

Gleeson Library | Geschke Center is pleased to welcome two new librarians, Claire Sharifi, who is the liaison to the School of Nursing, and Amy Gilgan, who is the liaison to the School of Education. Claire and Amy both began here at Gleeson in January as temporary part time librarians. Late this past summer, the library posted two full time librarian positions on the USF jobs site. Claire and Amy applied to the respective openings, went through the rigorous interview process, and both got the job! We are excited to welcome them into our “library family”–or perhaps more precisely, we’re happy they’re not leaving our family!–and look forward to all the great work they’ll do with the students and their respective faculty.

Introducing… Claire & Amy!

Claire Sharifi has been building her career to the point of being a Health Sciences Librarian. After graduating from San Francisco State University with a B.S. in Health Education, she took a case worker position at Project Open Hand and also held the position of research assistant at UCSF. Although she felt nudged to get a Masters in Public Health during this time, she relished the research aspect of her job at UCSF and instead pursued a career as a reference librarian, getting her Masters in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. Since then she has worked at Barnett Briggs Medical Library at SF General Hospital and as a librarian at Life Chiropractic College West Library in Hayward, CA. She is excited about the evidence-based practice movement in the health sciences because it provides a natural opportunity for practitioners and librarians to collaborate. Her favorite fruit is the strawberry.

Her personal take on USF:
I have very much enjoyed my first few months here at USF. While I am impressed by the dedication to learning and education I see in both the students and faculty, I am particularly struck by the social consciousness of many of the students. Students come to the reference desk with research questions that demonstrate their awareness and
involvement in important current issues, and throughout campus I see evidence of students’ investment in their community, from posters encouraging students to volunteer at service organizations, to composting and recycling bins in the dining centers, to the movement to save the Upward Bound program. It is great to work among individuals who are committed to education, the environment and social justice.

Amy Gilgan comes to USF from the Art Institute of California-San Francisco where she managed library instruction for over 3 years. During her temporary appointment here at USF, she also worked at City College of San Francisco. She enjoys doing library instruction at USF, and loves the amazing collection of religious books at the Gleeson Library. In her spare time, she trains in Aikido, Muay Thai and Western Boxing.

Her personal take on USF and libraries in general:
One of the many things that attracted me to USF was the university’s commitment to social justice. At USF, I have the pleasure of working with students and faculty in a variety of disciplines who are interrogating a myriad of topics through a lens of social justice.
With the Googlization of information, many students are under the impression that everything can be accessed electronically. As an instructor, I strive to meet students where they are and use the tools they are familiar with, like Google, as a jumping off point for learning how to search effectively. Once students see the strengths and weaknesses of broad keyword searching, I love empowering them to do more in-depth searches with indexed subject terms. My experience working as an archivist at the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library taught me that due to the high cost of digitization, the histories of marginalized communities are often underrepresented in electronic resources. Whether I am teaching students to search the open Web or proprietary databases, I encourage them to critically interrogate the search results and ask whose voices are not represented.

This info taken from last semester’s edition of Global Update, the Gleeson Library | Geschke Center Newsletter.