The Stewards of Knowledge

February 19th, 2010 by Rob Guillen No comments »

A week ago, the Library was honored to receive a sweet letter from a young person named, Lizbet, a fourth-grader at a Bay Area school who, as part of a class project, wrote us for a USF pennant.  The Gleeson Library staff, always touched by a sincere, handwritten letter, immediately jumped at the chance to send this young person a USF pennant, and some assorted goodies for her classmates, including some stuffed animals and some sweet goodies.

We thought Lizbet, her fourth grade class, and her teachers, might appreciate a photo of the Gleeson staff who sent the package, and to put a face to Librarians and Library Assistants everywhere who, daily and without much fanfare, are often the first line of communication between our occasionally intimidating academic halls, and the real world.  We hope Lizbet and her classmates may always appreciate the hard work of Librarians, Library Assistants, and all associated with the stewardship of knowledge, and will always remember us when they visit their own local libraries, both today, and when they, themselves, enter into colleges and universities.  We also commend their hardworking teachers and school staff, who, in these crazy times (economic and otherwise), (and in my personal opinion) embody the admirable gift of commitment to our young people in a political culture which often forsakes them.

We sent these two photos of our staff to Lizbet and her class.  They show only a small number of our dedicated librarians, staff, and student workers, here at our marvelous library, Gleeson.

Gleeson Library Staff hold a pennant being sent to 4th Grader Lizbet, in a Sonoma, California grammar school.

More Librarians, Staff, and Student Assistants


Bookmobile Celebration

February 18th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
I learned through a Twitter message from the American Library Association's Library that there is going to be a National Bookmobile Day on April 14 during National Library Week. This is a very interesting development and I'm curious about how this was accomplished. As someone who has advocated a Library Heritage Day I'm impressed that it was possible to create a special day sponsored by the American Library Association focusing on one fairly small segment of American public library service. Hey Library History Round Table you've been outdone. Now don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of bookmobiles as evidenced by my bookmobile tribute on the Library History Buff website. At the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website I have also created a bookmobile page. National Bookmobile Day provides an opportunity for any library that has had bookmobile service in the past to communicate that legacy to the public. There are some wonderful photographs to incorporate into an exhibit about the heritage and contribution of the bookmobile to the expansion of public library service in the United States. The image of the Washington County (Maryland) Free Library's first motorized bookmobile shown above is from the Wisconsin Historical Society's International Harvester Company digital collection.

Human Rights Film Festival this week

February 17th, 2010 by Debbie Benrubi No comments »

We’re proud that Gleeson Library is a co-sponsor of USF’s 8th Human Rights Film Festival, free and open to the public this Thursday through Saturday.

From USF students’ short films screening Thursday afternoon, to presentations of documentaries co-sponsored by USF’s LGBT Caucus and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women… from the U.S. military to the International Criminal Court, from the sweatshops of Los Angeles to a squatter settlement in South Africa, the power of film can educate viewers and show the way to action for human rights locally and around the world.

From the website:

This year, the Festival will take place on February 18, 19, and 20. It will include films focusing on Ecuador, Haiti. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and the U.S., as well as other countries and regions in a couple of documentaries that illustrate the scope of global poverty and the crimes against humanity that prompted the formation of the International Criminal Court. For the second year, the festival offers a selection of shorts produced by USF students. In addition to the screenings, we are delighted to present a musical performance by Kalbass Kreyol, A Bay Area Haitian Band.

The festival will be held at the Presentation Theater, on Turk St. near Masonic Ave.


Presidential Libraries Exhibit

February 17th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »

I usually participate in a couple of national level philatelic exhibits featuring parts of my collection of postal librariana each year. On Friday my philatelic exhibit on Presidential Libraries and Museums will go on display at the American Philatelic Society's AmeriStamp Expo 2010 in Riverside, California. The show runs February 19-21 at the Riverside Convention Center. The exhibit consists of six frames of 16 pages each featuring the presidential libraries and museums administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. It is entered in the Display Division which allows some non-philatelic material to be included in the exhibit. In addition to many special event and first day covers related to the libraries and museums in the exhibit, there are library dedication programs and invitations to special events. Signatures of Presidents Truman, Ford, Carter, and Clinton on items in the exhibit are included. I first showed the exhibit on a non-competitive basis as a three frame exhibit at the American Philatelic Society's show in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2005 where one of the first day of issues ceremonies for the presidential libraries stamp took place. The Riverside show will be the first time the exhibit has been shown competitively at the national level. I also have a three frame non-competitive exhibit at the Riverside show featuring America's Philatelic Libraries and Museums. If you live in the area stop by. Admission is free. There are many other exceptional philatelic exhibits on display as well as a large number of stamp dealers.

Oldest Overdue Notice?

February 17th, 2010 by Larry T. Nix No comments »














Any library that lends its books or other materials for use outside of the library must have a system for insuring the safe return of those materials. The Library Company of Philadelphia, America's oldest lending library, had an early system under which a member of the library signed a loan slip promising to pay five pounds if the book borrowed wasn't returned to the librarian undefaced. I'm not sure which library mailed out the first overdue notice, but high on the list of things most ephemeral must be overdue notices. In my quest for postal librariana one of the kinds of items I appreciate most are government issued postage pre-paid postal cards. The United States Post Office Department began issuing these cards in 1873 and they were an instant success with the public, with the business community, and with libraries. For one cent which paid for the card and the postage, a library could transact a variety of library related tasks including the mailing of overdue notices. The postal card shown here was used by the Memorial Hall Library in Andover, Massachusetts to mail an overdue notice to Mr. E. L. Barnard of Andover on December 27, 1873. I will make the claim that this is the oldest mailed overdue notice still in existence for a United States library until I am proven wrong. The card is signed by Ballard Holt, the first librarian of the Memorial Hall Library. Holt did double duty as both the librarian and the janitor of the library. The amount of the overdue fine was two cents per day. The overdue book is numbered 633.13, an apparent Dewey Decimal Classification number. However, although Dewey had submitted his classification scheme for consideration by the Amherst College Library where he worked in May of 1873, it was not until 1876 that it was published. The Memorial Hall Library is still in existence and its history can be found HERE. Evidently the library doesn't charge overdue fees now except for DVDs.