Friends Support Library Projects
What's New in the Music Library; Why is it There by David Gilbert, Music Librarian
Science Notes by Lisa Brainard, Science Librarian
Faculty Summer Seminar: The Art and History of the Book by Lilian Armstrong, Mildred Kane Kemper Professor of Art
Art on the WEB by Richard McElroy, Art Librarian
Lipman Reads from Novel-in-Progress
by June Stobaugh ('66)
Four-time author Elinor Lipman read excerpts of her novel-in-the-works, tentatively titled The Inn at Lake Divine, at a program October 19 sponsored jointly by the Friends of the Wellesley College Library and the MIT Library. Lipman, who finished Isabel's Bed two years ago, has struggled with this new novel, she acknowledged to her audience. She admitted to twelve false starts, but now she believes she's on target, with 118 pages written. The novel examines anti-Semitism in a comic vein: it is a kind of upbeat version of the movie "Gentleman's Agreement."
Lipman says she doesn't know how The Inn at Lake Divine will turn out because she doesn't outline plots. Her characters take on a life of their own. When she was writing Isabel's Bed, for instance, she gave a reading at Bennington. Noting that her audience wanted more details about Kenny, the cloddish bagel-maker who unceremoniously dumps his live-in girl friend of 12 years to marry someone younger, Lipman expanded his role. The novel evolved into something of a revenge comedy, the comeuppance of Kenny, as the jilted Harriet blossoms, finding new love and a bagel business of her own.
Lipman, who lives in Northampton with her husband and son, has a wonderfully funny sense of self -- no grandiose image here! Recounting one of her earliest jobs, she says, "I was always the one asked to take the lasagna dish home to wash after the office party." No longer low woman on the totem pole, now, however, Lipman has received glowing reviews of her novels. She has been cited for her "meticulous observance of civilized ways" (The New York Times, Feb. 12, 1995) and urbane romanticism: "If Jane Austen had been born about two centuries later...chances are she'd have written like Elinor Lipman." (Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1995)
Lipman was introduced by friend and fellow author Jill McCorkle, who characterized Lipman's books as "what you read for yourself when you have time. Once you start her books, you don't put them down."
After the reading and reception at Slater International Center, Lipman autographed copies of Isabel's Bed. Her other books are Then She Found Me, The Way Men Act, and Into Love and Out Again.
On Tuesday, November 14, Elizabeth Berg, David Macaulay, and Julie Moir Messervy ('73) will speak about their recent books. Berg will discuss her new novel Range of Motion, author and illustrator Macaulay will talk about his new children's book Shortcut, and Messervy will speak about her recent book The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning. Robert D. Hale will again be the moderator.
This annual fall program, sponsored by the Wellesley College Alumnae of Boston, will be held at the College Club on campus. Coffee will be served from 9:45 a.m. until the program begins at 10:30.
As usual, the featured books will be available at discount and may be autographed by the authors after the program. Tickets are $12. All proceeds from this event benefit the Wellesley College Library.
For reservations or information, call (617) 237-5519.
Friends Support Library Projects
At the May 3, 1995 Board meeting, the Friends Steering Committee voted to fund three projects that will benefit the Wellesley College Library. Two of the projects are continuations of previously funded activities; one is a significant addition to Special Collections.
The New Faculty Collection Development Program was initiated in 1993 to support the purchase of library materials selected by newly-appointed faculty members in tenure-track positions. Through the Program each recipient receives approximately $300, to be spent during the first two years at Wellesley, for the purchase of books, and other non-serial titles directly related to his or her curricular or research needs. The Program has proved to be a highly successful way to engage new faculty members in the development of the Library's collections. The total amount for the New Faculty Program is $3000.
In 1994 the Friends approved the first phase of furnishing the newly-created media services area within the Science Library. Funds were allocated for the purchase of two flexible media carrels, designed to house audiovisual equipment and materials and to provide a comfortable and effective place for student use of these resources. The use of audiovisual materials in support of classroom instruction in the sciences continues to grow, and these carrels have been used heavily during this first year. The purchase of six additional carrels at a cost of $5000 was approved, completing the refurbishment of the media services area in the Science Library.
Building upon the very fine collection of Chaucer editions held by the Wellesley College Library, the Friends approved the purchase of a facsimile edition of the Ellesmere Chaucer, co-published in June 1995 by the Huntington Library Press and Yushodo Co., Ltd., Tokyo. This full-color, full-size facsimile is reproduced from one of the most famous of all English literary manuscripts. The Ellesmere Canterbury Tales contains twenty-three portraits of the storytellers, including a picture of Chaucer himself. Though others exist, the Ellesmere manuscript is considered to be superior, both in the ordering of the text and the quality of decoration. The Library selected the facsimile edition issued in unsewn sheets, similar to the original ones, contained in a linen-covered box. This edition was designed for use by students and scholars engaged in the study of the decorations, portraits, order of tales and editing in the Ellesmere Chaucer. (See accompanying article) The cost of this important acquisition was $7000.
Through these projects and the many others previously funded by the Friends, the Library continues to enhance the collections and services provided to the College community.
Lia Poorvu, ChairCollege Friends of the Library
Ms. Poorvu,
I am writing to let you know how much my students and I appreciate the new Ellesmere facsimile, which the Friends of the Library generously gave to Special Collections at Wellesley. For years I have been showing slides of the famous Ellesmere miniatures to my Chaucer class, but this year I was able to take them to the library and to give them a concrete idea of what a real medieval book would have looked like, where the miniatures would have been positioned, how the marginal glosses would have affected an early reading of the manuscript, where punctuation marks would have been missing--and many other important facts about the original presentation of The Canterbury Tales.
Not many undergraduate libraries will have a resource such as the Ellesmere facsimile. We know that it represents a serious investment of resources from the Friends of the Library, and as students and friends of Chaucer we are extremely grateful and hope that you will share our gratitude with other members of the Friends of the Library. Thank you again.
Kathryn L. Lynch and the members of English 213 (Chaucer), Fall 1995
A new color brochure (available since June 1995) brings information about Special Collections at the Library up to date. In addition to a complete list of the holdings of Special Collections, the brochure provides detailed descriptions of the Book Arts Collection and includes color reproductions from the Goodman Collection. If you would like to obtain a copy of this catalog, send a request on a postcard to Special Collections, Wellesley College Library, Wellesley MA 02181.
What's New in the Music Library; Why is it There?
by David Gilbert, Music Librarian
The primary role of the Music Library is to support the teaching activities of the Music Department and the College. Back in the old days, twenty or so years ago, the Music Librarian's goal was to provide comprehensive, in-depth, coverage of the Western classical music tradition. This meant almost exclusively the three B's (Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms) and their cohorts, the creators of music in Europe over the last 300 years. The token American or contemporary composer who had gained some academic acceptance, and early composers whose work culminated in Johann Sebastian Bach, were occasionally thrown in for comprehensiveness.
While the Library still provides in-depth coverage of the Western classical music tradition, trends in scholarship and changes in the curriculum of the College have necessitated the addition of items to the Music Library which may have had librarians of the past jumping out of their sensible shoes. For a class in popular culture the Music Library has acquired videos of the controversial rapper Ice-T, studies of the underground rock music cultures in countries emerging from the former Communist bloc, biographies of country and western singers, and a "surreal history of Muzak, easy listening, and other moodsong". Next to some of this literature, the Library's extensive jazz collection seems quite traditional. Study and understanding of this material, however, is crucial for understanding the vast changing culture of the United States, the politics of art, the barrage of media thrown at us every day, and life at the end of the second millennium.
One of the most important new trends in humanistic scholarship has been Gender Studies, the relevance of gender and sexuality to artists and their work. While this movement began in literary studies more than a decade ago, it has only recently begun to make an impact in musicology. Anthologies of articles by scholars working in this area have "outed" composers Schubert and Handel, and attempted to revise the accepted view of the decline and suicide of Tchaikovsky. Scholars are also experimenting with new analytical theories which attempt to take into account the gender of a composer. Does music by women composers sound different from that composed by men? Do traditional methods of analysis developed by male theorists therefore favor a male dominated aesthetic? Is this the reason for the paucity of music by women in the traditional repertoire?
Along with these trends, however, it is important to note an increase in the use of music by faculty in other disciplines, particularly in art, history, foreign languages, and cultural studies. Students of history can learn something about the rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century by listening to the music of Verdi, Wagner, and Dvorak. Students of the Italian language may benefit from a video performance of a Verdi opera. German lieder and French chansons are essential to students of the literature and poetry in those langurage. Music as an anthropological artifact, however, evolved years ago into a separate discipline in its own right: ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicologists answer such questions as: How does the organization of the gamelan reflect the hierarchy of Javanese society? Do changes observed in the music of Indians of the Andes as they move from the mountains to the crowded cities reflect their changing social milieu? What are the origins and what influences created New Orleans Zydeco?
While the core of the Music Library's collection will continue to be that familiar to Helen Joy Sleeper, Music Librarian at the College from 1938 to 1958, the Library's collection must continue to grow and diversify to meet the changes in scholarship and the curriculum. Wellesley students arrive each year with fantastically varied interests, new questions, and new skills with which to explore them. The Libraries must keep abreast of the changing field of knowledge in order to provide the tools to prepare the future generations of scholars.
by Lisa Brainard, Science Librarian
AV Room Furnished
Over the summer the Science Library received and installed the final two carrels for its AV Room. Generous support from the Friends of the Library allowed the Science Library to complete the furnishing of this room. Students are able to view laser discs, videotapes, and slides, to access the networked campus fileservers, or to listen to audio tapes in an atmosphere conducive to studying.
CCTV Purchased
The Science Library recently purchased a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) that enlarges print and enables readers with vision difficulties to see text clearly. Located in the Science Library's reference area, the CCTV is easily operated. An open book is placed on a small platform, the machine is turned on, and text immediately springs to the screen. Magnification of text is easily altered by one simple lever. Another lever allows viewers to change text from positive (black text on white background) to negative (white text on black background) viewing. Adjustment of the platform that holds the book lets viewers scan down a page.
Acquisition of this special viewer has been on the Science Library's "wish list" for some time. Moreover, purchase of the CCTV demonstrates Wellesley's commitment to supporting the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.
Faculty Summer Seminar: The Art and History of the Book
by Lilian Armstrong, Mildred Kane Kemper Professor of Art
An enthusiastic group of eleven faculty members from eight academic departments plus Ruth Rogers, Special Collections Librarian, met daily for ten days in June to learn about a wide variety of topics related to the Art and History of the Book. The Seminar sessions, held in Special Collections of the Margaret Clapp Library and in the Book Arts Lab, consisted of fourteen presentations with ensuing discussions over lunch, two days of hands-on workshops in letterpress printing, and a final discussion on how faculty could incorporate Special Collections material in their teaching.
Almost all sessions were structured around a particular group of 20 or more books or manuscripts in Special Collections. Presenters provided commentary on the texts or physical construction and visual appearance of the volumes, which were handed around the table for closer inspection. Slides supplemented a few talks, and Takis Metaxas and Jay Panetta brought in computers and computer projection equipment for their presentation on electronic publishing. Speakers also assigned preliminary reading and lists of the works and bibliographies for further consultation.
The topics and presenters were as follows:
The rare privilege of learning something about letterpress printing was an integral part of the seminar. Two full sessions of instruction were led by Marilyn Hatch in the Book Arts Lab. Each participant set the type for a segment of a broadside which thus became a collective printing project. Preliminary proofs of the short segments were made. On the second morning everyone observed the type being locked into the chase and made further design decisions based on proofs of the whole broadside. Each participant learned to ink, adjusted damp or dry paper, and printed three or four sheets. Since the collective printing process occurred early in the seminar, the labor-intensive techniques of printing were very much in mind as examples of early printing were examined.
Themes raised by the speakers echoed throughout the seminar, often providing fascinating and unanticipated connections between the presentations. Among these themes were oral transmission of information in relation to written form (Classical Greece and Rome; Islamic cultures; teaching of Gregorian chant in Medieval Europe); production of the physical object conveying information (papyrus scrolls; parchment and paper manuscripts; books printed with movable type; the computer and computer screen); design of the surface-carrying text, images, decoration; design of letters (typeface for printed books; computer graphics); relation of text to format (religious, scientific, and philosophical texts); relation of text to illustration and decoration (European and Islamic manuscripts; woodcut illustration in Renaissance and in 19th century American novels; poets' and artists' books); definitions of "the book" (the text independent of its written form; the physical object conveying information - scrolls, codex, computer screen; the book as a form manipulated by artists rather than as a conveyer of text).
Individual faculty evaluations of the seminar indicated deep appreciation for the riches of the Special Collections and commitment to incorporating what had been learned into future courses.
Alums and friends of the College can access the Campus Wide Information System from off campus if they have an Internet connection and a program which accesses the World Wide Web, by using the following address: http://www.wellesley.edu
Among the helpful information available are:
by Richard McElroy, Art Librarian
Within the last year the blossoming of the World Wide Web as a resource for the visual arts has added a new dimension to the study of art and art history. An excellent example of its quality and value is Wellesley's Davis Museum and Cultural Center's Web homepage (http://www.wellesley.edu/DavisMuseum/davismenu.html). Found there are lists of exhibits and events, electronic exhibition catalogs, descriptions of collections and the building, images and a continually expanding wealth of information.
Because the field is still undefined two pointer sites are particularly helpful: Artsource (http://www.uky.edu/Artsource/artsourcehome.html), a refereed list of art and architecture sites and Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/Arts/) a large catch-all with serendipitous potential.
A boon to students and researchers has been the J. Paul Getty Foundation web site (http://www.ahip.getty.edu/ahip/home.html) which includes RILA: International Repertory of the Literature of Art, the major scholarly index for art history, as well as information on many other Getty programs.
One innovative use of the web has been for instructors to place text and images on it for course study. Two sites were located at other colleges to meet the needs of the introductory art history course, and students are doing assignments with them.
An especially rich web site was established by the French Ministry of Culture (http://web.culture.fr/). Included are La Bibliotheque Nationale, exhibits at the Louvre and other museums, images of the recently discovered cave art at Ardeche, the database Joconde for museum holdings in France, plus many, many, more sites. In addition, artists have created many creative and fascinating works on the web. One which is particularly well done is the documentation of Christo wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin last summer (http://www.nbn.com/youcan/christo/berlin.html).
Friends should feel free to visit the Art Library or Clapp Library and browse on the web stations. The results are surprising and rewarding.
Give Friends Notecards to Friends
As prominently displayed in the summer Wellesley Bulletin's Club Shopping section, the Library Friends group has beautiful floral notecards for sale. Four designs of 19th century botanical prints from a volume in Special Collections. Blank inside. $10 a box for 8 cards, plus $2 postage. Send check to Wellesley College Library, 106 Central St., Wellesley MA 02181.
Eleanor A. Gustafson
Ann Hayden Hamilton '67
Janice G. Hunt '52
Cynthia Johnson '72
Jean Kendall CE '88
Mary Ann Lash '52
Bettina Antonia Norton '58
Ruth Rogers
Jane Sibley '54, CE '89
June Stobaugh '66
Elinor Bunn Thompson '37
Kathleen Thompson CE '80
Sigrid R. Watson '47
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