Date: January 11, 2006    Issue: #36

 

 

Communications from Library Committees:

Minutes:

Administrative Council

Cataloging Policy Committee

Collection Development Committee
Executive Committee
Integrated System Coordinating Committee
Library Faculty Meetings

Staff Development and Training Committee

Staff Development & Training Calendar

User Ed Committee

 

News & Announcements from Units:

 

NEW NAME FOR OLD BOOKS

 

Press Release for immediate release

January 3, 2006

 

The Library that houses the rarest treasures of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library has a new name. As of 1 January 2006, the former Rare Book and Special Collections library will be known as The Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

 

The change better reflects the collections and allows the university to use the term “Special Collections” to also include a wider variety of collections on campus, such as the Map Library, the University Archives, and the Sousa Collection. “Our mission and vision remain the same,” say Professor Valerie Hotchkiss, the new Head of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, but the name change describes us better.”   The Library is the principal repository for early manuscripts, rare books, and literary archives in the broad fields of literature, history, art, education, theology, technology, and the natural sciences.

 

Over 300,000 rare books, manuscripts, and special collections are housed in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library. From the establishment of printing with Gutenberg to the earliest stirrings of Google, the university has collected books and manuscripts for their intellectual content and their worthiness as cultural objects. 

 

Particular strengths lie in early printing, the Elizabethan and Stuart periods in England, with works by Shakespeare, various important editions of the Bible, and renaissance school books standing out as particular specialties. The Library is renowned for its outstanding collections of emblem books and incunabula (the 3rd largest university collection in America).  Also noteworthy are the collections in the history of science, Mark Twain and his age, the history of economics, and natural history, and the papers of such notable figures as Benjamin Disraeli, Anthony Trollope, Marcel Proust, John Richardson, Carl Sandburg, H.G. Wells, and W.S. Merwin.

 

Hotchkiss says she hopes this is only the beginning of changes and improvements to The Rare Book & Manuscript Library.  She is also working on improving access to the collections, more public programming, and the even larger goal of getting a new building with proper environmental and security controls to house these treasures.  “The collections have been valued at over $750,000,” says Hotchkiss.  “It is perhaps the most valuable physical asset on campus and certainly the most valuable cultural collection in the state outside of Chicago. The books and manuscripts—and the people of Illinois—deserve a proper home for these important cultural artifacts.

 

 

 

Announcing the Formation of a Book Collectors’ Club

 

The No. 44 Society

 

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois announces the establishment of a book collectors’ club for acquisitive book lovers who either have a collection or would like to begin one. 

 

The club has been dubbed The No. 44 Society, taking its name from the hero of Mark Twain's last novel No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger, a fantastical, but little-known Twain story set in a 15th-century print shop The only requirements for membership are to have read Twain’s novel* and to love books. 

 

The quirky name is inspired by the fine collection of American wit and humor, including broad Twain holdings, at the University of Illinois. We hope to attract a lively mixture of undergraduates, graduates, faculty members, and local and regional collectors to the club. 

 

Activities will include: offering advice to beginning collectors; sharing tips and tidbits about dealers and collectors; regaling one another with tales of the chase; and even some formal presentations on members’ collections. We may work toward the goal of establishing a university-sponsored book collectors’ prize. Members’ exhibitions might also be possible. 

 

In short, it shall be a convivial club for mysterious strangers united by a shared affliction called bibliophilia.

 

The No. 44 Society will meet at 4:00pm on the first Wednesday of the month in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Room 346 of the Main Library.

 

The first meeting of the club will take place on Wednesday, February 8, 2006.   

 

For more information, call 217 333 3777. 

 

*In the definitive University of California edition based on the original manuscript; Mark Twain Library, 3.

 

 

News & Announcements from Library Administration:

Academic Search Position Update

 

 

 

News from the Field:

NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                                 

26 December 2005                                                                                                                        

For More Information Contact:

Assistant Dean for Communications Marlo Welshons: 217.244.4643; welshons@uiuc.edu or

Publicity and Communications Specialist, Kim Schmidt: 217.265.6391; kimsch@uiuc.edu

 

 

2005 Downs Intellectual Freedom Award will be

Presented to John Doe (John Doe v. Gonzales)

 

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, ILC When the glasses are lifted to honor the 2005 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award recipient, the stage will be empty.

 

That’s because this year’s award, presented by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is being granted to John Doe of the court case “John Doe v. Gonzales,” whose legal challenge to a National Security Letter requesting library patron records represents an important defense of intellectual freedom.

 

“It takes courage to defend the principles of intellectual freedom in libraries—to insist that every person has the right to read, think and inquire without fear. This year we honor an unnamed individual for his or her courage in defending intellectual freedom when it was not even possible to talk to friends, family or other professionals. This person not only stood alone at the moment of upholding principle; but has to remain isolated because of the gag order under the USA PATRIOT Act,” said Leigh Estabrook, director of the Library Research Center and Professor at GSLIS.

 

In August, the ACLU filed suit against the U.S. government on behalf of John Doe and his employer who are challenging the constitutionality of Section 505 of the Patriot Act, the section that relaxes the guidelines the government must follow when requesting information from libraries. John Doe and his lawyers are bound by a gag order preventing them from discussing or even acknowledging the government’s request. Because accepting the award might mean a violation of the gag order, the award will be accepted by a third party.

 

Since filing suit, John Doe and the ACLU have been supported by such groups as the American Library Association, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the Association of American Publishers, and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, all of whom have filed amicus briefs and spoken out on John Doe’s behalf.

 

Many supporters have called for a lift on the gag order as the identity of John Doe has been uncovered and publicized by reporters—in November, the Washington Post identified John Doe and his employer as George Christian of Library Connection Inc., a consortium of libraries based in Connecticut. Christian and the ACLU have made no public comment confirming this fact.

 

The efforts of John Doe and his employer will be honored at a reception during the American Library Association (ALA) annual midwinter meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The reception, co-hosted by GSLIS and Greenwood Publishing Group, will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2006 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. in the Sky Line Atrium of the Holiday Inn Riverwalk Hotel. Greenwood Publishing Group, located in Westport, Connecticut, also provides an honorarium to the award recipients.

 

The Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award is given annually to acknowledge individuals or groups who have furthered the cause of intellectual freedom, particularly as it affects libraries and information centers and the dissemination of ideas. Granted to those who have resisted censorship or efforts to abridge the freedom of individuals to read or view materials of their choice, the award may be in recognition of a particular action or long-term interest in, and dedication to, the cause of intellectual freedom. The award was established in 1969 by the GSLIS faculty to honor Robert Downs, a champion of intellectual freedom, on his 25th anniversary as director of the school.

 

Additional information about the award and past recipients can be found at www.lis.uiuc.edu/about/awards/downs-award.html.

 

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Consistently ranked as one of the top three library and information science programs in the United States, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, founded in 1893 at the Armour Institute in Chicago, maintains a reputation of excellence and quality.  The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was founded in 1867, and is regularly cited among leading universities in the United States.

 

 

Comings & Goings:

JANUARY 2006 LIBRARY EXHIBITS

 

Celebrating Black Community in the Congressional Black Caucus - Government 
Documents – Main Hall Wall Display Cases - January 18 – February 28, 2006

 

Black Diaspora in Latin America and the Caribbean - Latín American and Caribbean 
Library Display
 
UIUC Faculty Promotion and Tenure -Main Hall Display Cases
 
Prof. Anthony K. Cassell:  A Tribute to His Legacy
and
A Voice in Medieval Italian Literature:  Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio - Modern 
Languages and Linguistics Library
 
So Full of Subtle Flame-The Franklin J. Meine Mark Twain Collection - Rare Book 
and Special Collections Library, 346 Library

 

Send items to Kim Reynolds
Library OnLine Notes
230 Library, MC-522
ksreynol@uiuc.edu
Fax – 217-244-4358