Open Mic Poetry Reading

In honor of National Poetry Month, the Gleeson Library is pleased to co-sponsor with Sigma Tau Delta an “Open Mic” poetry reading in the Donohue Rare Book Room on Tuesday, April 23rd from noon to 1:00 p.m. Students are encouraged to perform 2-3 minute readings of their original work. Do not miss this opportunity to celebrate poetry and honor student voices.

The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian
Special Collections & University Archives

Library Faculty Reading

The Gleeson Library is pleased to sponsor a faculty reading on Thursday, April 18 as it welcomes University of San Francisco Professors Kathleen Winter and Brian Dempster (Rhetoric and Language) who will read from their recent works. Kathleen Winter will read from her volume of poetry Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (Elixir Press, 2012). The collection recently won the Antivenom Poetry Award. Professor Dempster will read from his forthcoming volume of poetry, Topaz, as well as Making Home From War: Stories of Japanese American Exile and Resettlement (Heyday Press, 2011). Both works document and consider Japanese American imprisonment experience during World War II and its aftermath in a world that for many had drastically changed in just a few short years.

The program begins at 5:00 on Thursday, April 18 in the Donohue Rare Book Room, located on the third floor of the Gleeson Library. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian
Special Collections & University Archives

Richard Greggory Johnson III Library Reading

Richard Greggory Johnson IIIThe Gleeson Library is pleased to welcome University of San Francisco Associate Professor Richard Greggory Johnson III, who will read from his most recent book on October 25 in the Donohue Rare Book Room. Professor Johnson teaches in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration in the School of Management where his focus is public policy and administration, focusing in the areas of social equity, human resources management, higher education management and qualitative research. Dr. Johnson has published several books, including Cultural Competence for Public Managers: Managing Diversity in Today’s World (CRC Press, 2012) and The Black Professorate: Negotiating a Habitable Space in the Academy (Peter Lang, 2011). His most recent title is Teaching College Students Communication Strategies for Effective Social Justice Advocacy (Peter Lang, 2012). Dr. Johnson’s research centers on social equity and human rights within public policy and administration, targeting issues of race, gender, sexual orientation and social class.

The program begins at 5:00 on Thursday, October 25th in the Donohue Rare Book Room, located on the third floor of the Gleeson Library. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

Walls Exhibition

On exhibition in the Donohue Rare Book Room through October 9 is the recent acquisition Walls: A Journey Across Three Continents (Santa Cruz: Quail Press, 1990) by master printmaker, Tom Killion. Exhibited with the book is an archive, on loan from the artist, which includes original watercolors and woodcut blocks used to illustrate the book. A prolific printmaker known for his depictions of Northern California and the California Coast, Tom Killion is also a bookmaker and illustrator who works in the fine press tradition. Among his works housed in the Donohue Rare Book Room are The Coast of California: Point Reyes to Point Sur (1979); Fortress Marin (1977); and the William Everson titles Eastward the Armies (1980) and In Medias Res (1984). The Gleeson Library is pleased to exhibit Walls in conjunction with the exhibition Silent Poetry: Woodcut Prints of the California Landscape by Tom Killion in the Thacher Gallery.

An opening reception will take place in the Thacher Gallery and Donohue Rare Book Room on Thursday, September 6th from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. followed by an artist lecture “Topofilia: The California Landscape in Japanese-style Woodcut Prints” in McLaren 250. A printmaking demonstration with USF students will take place in the Donohue Rare Book Room on Tuesday, October 2nd from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Both programs are free to attend and open to the public.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

Geschkes Recognized for Philanthropy, Leadership and Service

Chuck and Nancy GeschkeChuck and Nancy Geschke will receive the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) for their ongoing leadership and philanthropic contributions to Catholic education.  The award will be presented during the 22nd annual Seton Awards ceremony Oct. 1 at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

The Seton Award is NCEA’s highest honor, given in recognition of significant contributions to Catholic education. The award is named in honor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), the first native-born American saint.

Charles and Nancy Geschke 

The accomplishments of the Charles M. and Nancy A. Geschke Foundation underscore the importance of the well-being of our nation’s youth and of keeping Catholic schools vital and available for the next generation. The Geschkes have provided leadership to the University of San Francisco, Xavier University of Cincinnati, Marygrove College in Detroit, the Catholic Foundation of Santa Clara County and Magnificat and St. Ignatius high schools in Cleveland, among other important endeavors.

Through their support of the Endowed Faculty Fund, the construction of the Geschke Learning Resource Center and Charles Geschke’s role as the inaugural holder of the Rossi Entrepreneurial Chair at the University of San Francisco, the Geschkes have been instrumental in advancing education.

Nancy Geschke, a Marygrove College alumna, was instrumental in creating Marygrove’s Nancy A. McDonough Geschke Writing Center. She recently was named to the board of trustees at the Detroit college. Nancy Geschke also has spearheaded a capital campaign to revitalize both the building and operations of the Nantucket Athenaeum in Nantucket, Mass.

Charles Geschke, a graduate of Xavier University, began a teaching career at John Carroll University. In 1982 he co-founded Adobe Systems with John Warnock and built Adobe into one of the world’s largest software companies. Now co-chairman of Adobe’s board of directors, Geschke also serves on the boards of several educational institutions and arts and non-profit organizations.

This year’s other Seton Award recipients are:

Robert A. Conway, Cincinnati, philanthropist and co-founder of The Bistro Group, for his expansive support of Catholic educational institutions in Greater Cincinnati.

Leigh-Anne Kazma, Chicago, who has dedicated her career to the patronage of Catholic education through the generous efforts of the Kazma Family Foundation.

Tom Moran, New York City, chairman and CEO, Mutual of America, for his benevolent corporate sponsorship within the Archdiocese of New York.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, who has renewed and revitalized Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Boston.

Lorraine Ozar, associate professor of education at Loyola University Chicago, will receive the NCEA President’s Award for her vision and leadership in the development of effective Catholic school curricula and instruction.

For reservations or additional information about the Seton Awards, contact Xaverian Brother Stephen Comeau at (571) 257-2891.

NCEA, founded in 1904, is a professional membership organization that provides leadership, direction and service to fulfill the evangelizing, catechizing and teaching mission of the church. NCEA’s members include elementary schools, high schools, parish religious education programs and seminaries.

Read a Rare Book This Summer

The San Francisco Public Library’s summer reading program Summer Read SF 2012 begins on June 1. Many readers enjoy books throughout the year, yet there is something inviting about summer reading that encourages one to stretch out a bit: perhaps to spend more time reading while on vacation; to indulge in purely entertaining reading; or to undertake a weighty tome that one has always wanted to complete. In the spirit of adding something new to one’s summer reading regimen, consider reading  a rare book in the Donohue Rare Book Room. The Rare Book Room has nearly 17,000 volumes cataloged in Ignacio, ranging from early printed books to contemporary artists’ books. Most titles are printed in English and many can be enjoyed in one or two visits. Experience the unique opportunity of spending time among Gleeson Library’s special collections with a signed first edition or a deluxe illustrated book. Aside from the singularity of it, imagine how fun it will be to answer the question “have you read any good books this summer?”

Donohue Rare Book Room summer hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

USF Book Club: June & July Selections

The USF Book Club will meet to discuss the following two books in the upcoming months:

An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. Friday, June 8, 2012. Room 209 of Gleeson Library, 12 noon – 1 pm. Request this one through Link+ or get it at SFPL.

Lacey Yeager appears on New York’s art scene as a clever, funny young Sotheby’s intern. With charm, ambition, and occasionally illegal tactics, she climbs the city’s cultural ladder to success in the labyrinthine art world. Her knowledge of art and its collectors quickly grows alongside a list of men she enchants and inevitably destroys. Her rise to society’s highest tiers parallels the soaring heights – and, at times, the dark lows – of the art world and the country from the early ’90s through today. –stevemartin.com

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick. Friday, July 6, 2012. Room 209 of Gleeson Library, 12 noon – 1 pm. Request this one through Link+ or get it at SFPL.

Ozick reworks Henry James’s The Ambassadors, setting it in 1950s Paris, a seedy, impractical place for well-to-do and disaffected youth. Bea is a divorcee, long shut off from her feelings, who is bullied by her unbearable brother into traveling to Paris to bring back his errant son, Julian. While Bea begins to break through her emotional morass, her actions lead to dreadful results for her niece, her nephew, and his Jewish wife with a tragic past. While it is difficult to comprehend why everyone is so obsessed with Julian, the other characters are beautifully delineated with great sensitivity. Tandy Cronyn is the perfect reader here. Her portrayal of Bea’s emotional fog, the ennui of the Americans in Paris, and the bully Marvin is simply superb, and the pacing is excellent. –Library Journal

From the Archives: Bill Cosby

Distinguished comedian and educator Bill Cosby will be an Honorary Degree Recipient and Commencement Speaker at the Undergraduate Arts and Social Sciences ceremony on May 18 in St. Ignatius Church. But did you know that Bill Cosby previously visited the University of San Francisco campus 25 years ago in April, 1987? The Foghorn (Volume 82, Number 19) featured a photograph with the caption:

I Spy—Film and television star, Bill Cosby, ducked onto campus over Easter break. Public Safety’s crowd control nonetheless allowed some fans to encircle The Cosby Show’s lead character, and a wily Foghorn photographer managed to snap the shot. Cosby is in San Francisco shooting a new movie. Said Stephanie Martirani (at Cosby’s right), “It was a lot more fun than watching the grass grow.”

The photographs below (the first of which was published in The Foghorn) are from University Archives where they are housed in an extensive collection of University publicity photographs.

With thanks to Gabby Perez for locating the photographs in University Archives and researching their history.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

New Library Newsletter!

Hot off the press!

The Spring 2012 issue of the library newsletter, Global Update, is now available for download.

Global Update is a collection library blog posts, book reviews, and other features all in one attractive place. Snuggle up with the PDF and see what’s been going on in the library all semester!

ImageYou can download it directly from the link above, or you can get it from two other places:

Global Update is linked on the library’s “Follow Us” page, which makes hooking up with us via Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr easy as well.

• All past and current issues of Global Update are housed on our Library Newsletter page.

Annick Wibben Reading

The Gleeson Library is pleased to welcome University of San Francisco Associate Professor Annick T.R. Wibben who will read from her book Feminist Security Studies: a Narrative Approach (Routledge, 2011) on Wednesday, May 2nd in the Donohue Rare Book Room. The book rethinks security theory from a feminist perspective and challenges the way we think about security, violence and war. Professor Wibben teaches international politics and specializes in critical security studies, international theory, and feminist international relations. Prior to teaching at the University of San Francisco, she worked with the Information Technology, War and Peace Project at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University from 2001-2005. Her article “Feminist Politics in Feminist Security Studies” (2011) was published in Politics & Gender and “The Gendering of Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan” (co-authored with Keally McBride) is forthcoming in Humanity. She is the Chair of the Bachelor in International Studies program and serves as an Advisory Board Member to Gender and Sexualities Studies; Peace and Justice Studies; and the Master program in International Studies.

The program begins at 5:15 on Wednesday, May 2nd in the Donohue Rare Book Room, located on the third floor of the Gleeson Library. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

Dean Rader Poetry Reading

The Gleeson Library is pleased to sponsor a faculty reading on Thursday, April 26 as it welcomes University of San Francisco Associate Professor Dean Rader, who will read from his book Works & Days (Truman State University Press) which received the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2010. Professor Rader has published widely in the fields of poetry, literary studies, American Indian studies, and visual/popular culture. He co-edited Speak To Me Words: Essays on Contemporary American Indian Poetry (2003), and his pop culture reader, The World Is A Text, is in its fourth edition. His book Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film From Alcatraz to the NMAI was published by the University of Texas Press in 2011. He teaches in the English Department and in the Honors Program in the Humanities. He also is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle City Brights Blog.

The program begins at 5:00 on Thursday, April 26 in the Donohue Rare Book Room, located on the third floor of the Gleeson Library. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

Poetry Month in the Donohue Rare Book Room

April is Poetry Month and the Gleeson Library will be celebrating with three evening programs in the Donohue Rare Book Room. The programs include an event on April 11, co-sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, at which poets Camille Dungy and Matthew Zapruder will be reading from their work; the fourth annual faculty, staff and student poetry reading on April 19; and on April 26 University of San Francisco Professor and poet Dean Rader will give a faculty reading. All programs begin at 5:00

Poetry Month programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served and books will be available for sale. For further information, please call 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

California Native Wildflowers

California Native Wildflowers: Prints by Henry Evans is an exhibition of fifteen color linocut prints from the Donohue Rare Book Room’s recent acquisition of a limited edition portfolio of forty botanical prints by the San Francisco printmaker, Henry Evans. The linocut prints, on exhibition through May 11 in the Donohue Rare Book Room, portray some of the most beautiful wildflowers native to California, arranged in chronological order of botanical discovery, accompanied with text written by the artist. Evans (1918-1990) was a prolific artist who produced over a thousand prints in his lifetime. He also was a publisher and bookseller whose shop, The Porpoise Bookshop, was located on Clement Street a few blocks from the University on San Francisco.

The portfolio, California Native Wildflowers complements the Donohue Rare Book Room’s holdings of works by Henry Evans, including materials published by his Peregrine Press. Additional prints are featured in the Thacher Gallery exhibition Aroused Tranquility: Graphic Botanicals by Henry Evans, March 18 to April 22. An opening reception and printmaking demonstration on the Rare Book Room’s historic 1854 Albion hand-press will take place on March 27.

The acquisition of California Native Wildflowers was made possible from a bequest by Nancy Weston in Memory of William J. Monihan, S.J.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives

USF Book Club: April and May Selections

Book Club is breaking out of our habit of reading books about boys/kids who have lost their fathers!

April 13, 2012 (Fri), 12-1 pm: A Private Life by Jane Smiley. Room 209 of Gleeson Library.

Gleeson library doesn’t have a paper copy of this one (yet?), so you’ll have to request it through Link+ (comes fast–in about 4 business days!), or read it on one of our iPads or Kindle. If all else fails, the public library has it in many formats.

[This] Pulitzer Prize–winning author offers a cold-eyed view of the compromises required by marriage while also providing an intimate portrait of life in the Midwest and West during the years 1883–1942. By the time she reaches the age of 27, Margaret Mayfield has known a lot of tragedy in her life. She has lost two brothers, one to an accident, the other to illness, as well as her father, who committed suicide. Her strong-minded mother, Lavinia, knows that her daughter’s prospects for marriage are dim and takes every opportunity to encourage Margaret’s friendship with eccentric scientist Andrew Early. When the two marry and move to a naval base in San Francisco, Margaret becomes more than Andrew’s helpmeet—she is also his cook, driver, and typist as well as the captive audience for his rants against Einstein and his own quirky theories about the universe. As Smiley covers in absorbing detail both private and world events—a lovely Missouri wedding, the chaos of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the wrenching death of a baby—she keeps at the center of the narrative Margaret’s growing realization that she has married a madman and her subsequent attempts to deal with her marriage by becoming adept at “the neutral smile, the moment of patient silence,” before giving in to bitterness. Smiley casts a gimlet eye on the institution of marriage even as she offers a fascinating glimpse of a distant era. –Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

Make sure you speed through it and start this next one early because it’s quite long:

May 11, 2012 (Fri), 12-1 pm: Storyteller : The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Donald Sturrock. Probably in room 139 of Gleeson Library, or if the weather is nice, the USF Community Garden… stay tuned for updates.

Gleeson does have a copy of this, but it’s checked out. You can request it through Link+ and the public library has a few copies available. Of course you can also read it on one of our iPads or Kindle.

The first authorized biography of Roald Dahl [author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, most famously], Storyteller is a masterful, witty and incisive look at one of the greatest authors and eccentric characters of the modern age…

Granted unprecedented access to the Dahl estate’s extraordinary archives—personal correspondence, journals and interviews with family members and famous friends—Donald Sturrock draws on a wealth of previously unpublished materials that informed Dahl’s writing and his life. It was a life filled with incident, drama and adventure: from his harrowing experiences as an RAF fighter pilot and his work in wartime intelligence, to his many romances and turbulent marriage to the actress Patricia Neal, to the mental anguish caused by the death of his young daughter Olivia. Tracing a brilliant yet tempestuous ascent toward notoriety, Sturrock sheds new light on Dahl’s need for controversy, his abrasive manner and his fascination for the gruesome and the macabre. –Amazon.com

The USF Book Club is run by Kelci Baughman McDowell, Reference Library Assistant in Gleeson. For information or to sign up for the mailing list, email kbaughmanmcdowell@usfca.edu. You can visit our wiki for more info, as well. (Please note, you do not have to join the wiki to view it.) No rsvp for the meeting is necessary–just drop by if you’ve read the book or if you’re interested in it. Lastly, feel free to bring your lunch. See you in April!

Calling All Student Poets!

Do you write poetry? Are you a USF Student? Want to perform your original work in celebration of National Poetry Month? Then keep reading!

The Gleeson Library Poetry Committee is gearing up for our 4th annual faculty, staff, and student reading. Lily Iona MacKenzie and Kelci M. Kelci (yours truly) will headline, and we want some student poets to open up the show.

The reading will take place on Thursday, April 19, 2012 in the library’s Rare Book Room from 5-6:30 p.m.

If you are a student poet and are interested in participating, please email the selection committee (gleesonpoetry@gmail.com) the following information:

• Your name
• Your contact info
• A writing sample of 3-5 poems (max.10 pages) that represents what type of work you intend to read
• A little bit about yourself and what you study at USF
• A list of 5-30 books or authors that are essential to your life as a poet

The deadline to apply is Friday, March 16, 2012.

If you apply, please make sure you will be available to read on Thursday, April 19, 2012 from 5-6:30 p.m.

Please understand the number of readers on the program will be limited and the selection committee is seeking a diverse representation of USF students to complement the established readers. We anticipate not being able to accept all applicants. Decisions of the selection committee are final.

Thank you! We look forward to reading your work.

Sincerely,

The Gleeson Library Poetry Selection Committee
gleesonpoetry@gmail.com

Colette Hayes – Evening / Weekend Circulation / Reserves Coordinator
Patrick Dunagan – Periodicals & Bindery Specialist
Matthew Collins – Senior Assistant Head of Access Services
Kelci Baughman McDowell – Reference Library Assistant