Posted by Colette Hayes under
Books | Tags:
book inscriptions |
[6] Comments
The National Library of Scotland’s “The Private Lives of Books” website notes that “Books can tell all kinds of surprising stories through inscriptions people wrote in them, through the signatures of their owners, special bookplates and bindings.” Did you know that many of Gleeson Library’s books had “private lives” before they reached our stacks? Peruse the “P” section (or Library of Congress code for Language and Literature books) of the library, for example, and you may find inscriptions hinting of the adventures our books took prior to arriving at their current home!
The inscription in this 1924 printing of Carl Van Vechten’s The Tiger in the House (Gleeson Library Call Number PS3543.A653 T5) reads “for the Lady Nora (Gros) with a smile on the face of the Tiger Albert — Christmas 1924 with an affection that takes no note of the Atlantic Ocean.” The author of this poetic note is unknown, but look where this book was probably purchased…..Paris!
Let us know if you happen to uncover a library book in our stacks that appears as though it has had an interesting past; we’ll post a picture of it on this blog and reward the best “find.” Please remember, though, inscriptions are a charm of our books’ pasts. Writing in library books is prohibited.
So God apparently has a special place waiting for Greg Mortenson when he gets to heaven. He did all this good like building over 50 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and he founded the Central Asia Institute, which he uses to promote education and literacy advancement for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In case God’s special place isn’t enough, USF is giving Mr. Mortenson an honorary degree and boosting his book sales by assigning his Three Cups of Tea, cowritten with David Oliver Relin, as the summer reading for the incoming class of freshmen.
Curious as to what all this buzz about? Why don’t you judge for yourself! Read Three Cups of Tea and join the USF Book Club to discuss it.
We will meet on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 from 12 noon – 1 pm in the Seminar Room (2nd Fl) of the Gleeson Library | Geschke Center. Bring your lunch! (Faculty and Staff Only)
If you want to try to request the book through the Library’s service, Link+, click here (this book is in high demand and may not be available).
If you want to purchase the book, consider purchasing it through Better World Books. They do a lot of good for the global community.
The Gleeson Library’s Atrium is once again open 24/7. The Atrium is a great place for late night studying. The way it works: while the Library is open, anyone in the USF community can access the Atrium through the Library. As the library closes for the evening, access in and out of the Atrium via the library ceases and students can access the Atrium with their ID card at the east atrium entrance. Note: Atrium 24/7 access is available only during the regular semester.
Starting immediately the library’s catalog, Ignacio, will include records that link to online U.S. government documents that are not distributed in print. This is a critical new service for USF because the U.S. government is increasingly distributing information solely online, and discovering these documents can be very difficult without the help of a catalog.
The new online documents are from a wide variety of government agencies. Take a look at some of the new items we’ve added:
We hope you find this service useful. Special thanks goes to the Technical Services Department of Gleeson|Geschke for making this happen.
- Submitted by Carol Spector and Debbie Benrubi
On March 6th the Donohue Rare Book Room hosted a Thacher Gallery talk that coincided with the opening of “Power Up: Serigraphs by Corita Kent.” The talk included a presentation by Sasha Carrera of the Corita Art Center, as well as presentations by Professors Amy Franceschini and Stuart McKee of the University’s Visual Arts Department. The program was attended by over fifty students, faculty and guests of the University. Also in attendance were several former students of Sr. Corita who shared with the audience their reminiscences of working with her and how she encouraged her students to see their subjects from as many perspectives as possible. After a spirited question and answer period, the program adjourned to the Thacher Gallery where a wonderful opening reception ensued. The exhibition will continue through April 20.
Dave Wolber and Colin Bean (USF Computer Science grad) were by the Gleeson library and presented the USF Live Directory Personos application to a packed audience of library staff.
I know my description is far from ideal, but the way I think of Personos is Facebook meets del.icio.us with an academic/USF twist.
The about USF Live Directory page at the Personos website said it much better:
The USF Live Directory is a place to find up-to-date information about the faculty and staff at the University of San Francisco. It is kept up-to-date because it is very easy for community members to post articles and associate them with people– no web designer needed! It provides a people-centric search of USF’s subset of the web.
Check out Personos if you haven’t – you’ll be glad you did…
And kudos to Karen Johnson for setting this up!
Need to send a fax? Students and staff can send faxes at the University Center. Go to the Event Services and Information Desk Room 301, on the 3rd floor of the UC. (The office is right in front of you when you walk in the entrance from Harney Plaza.) It costs 50 cents per page.
Version 71 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. This selective bibliography presents over 3,250 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet.
The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography (SEPB) presents selected English-language articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Most sources have been published between 1990 and the present; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 1990 are also included. Where possible, links are provided to sources that are freely available on the Internet.
Posted by Shawn P. Calhoun under
Gleeson Library 1 Comment
From a recent (Feb 28, 2008) Foghorn article…
According to USF Project Management project planner J.J. Thorp, the conflict began in late December, when the library building underwent a routine inspection. When they got to the atrium, the officials noticed that the doorway between the atrium and the main library building was marked with a green emergency exit sign, yet that doorway was locked at night and days when the library was closed. Having an emergency exit door locked is hazardous and in violation of building codes, so officials mandated that the atrium either no longer remain open at night or else the library leave the adjoining doors unlocked during that time, which would be a significant security risk for the library full of expensive books and computers.
Since the initial inspection, the facilities management team has worked closely with the city, and removing the exit sign was agreed upon as an amenable solution for all parties concerned. The exit doors that lead outside on the opposite wall are sufficient to meet the room’s minimum requirement for emergency exits. Now the only steps left in the process are to have the illicit sign removed, which should be done in a matter of days, and to have city inspectors verify that the sign was in fact removed, which could take up to two weeks.
You can read the entire article at the Foghorn website.
