Members of these advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.
The boards will typically meet four times a semester to discuss all aspects of Duke Libraries and provide feedback to library staff. This is an amazing opportunity for students to serve on the advisory board of a large, nationally recognized non-profit organization.
All three advisory boards are now taking applications or nominations. Application deadlines are:
Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and the Undergraduate Advisory Board will be selected and notified by mid-September, and groups will begin to meet in late September. More information is available on our website, where you will also find links to the online applications forms.
For more information or questions about these opportunities, please contact:
The Duke University Libraries will be offering a suite of RCR workshops for graduate students over Fall Break, October 8-9, 2018, including:
Monday, October 8
Ethics and Visualization 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This session introduces participants to core ideas in the ethics of visualization—designing to avoid distortion, designing ethically for broad user communities, developing empathy for people represented within the data, and using reproducibility to increase the transparency of design. Learn more and register
Digital Publishing: Multimodal Storytelling 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This session will provide an overview of common options for publishing sound and video on the web, focusing on the benefits of various platforms, licensing and rights issues, accessibility issues to consider, and methods of integrating multiple media into research publications. Learn more and register
Research Impact Concepts and Tools 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. This workshop is designed to help you, as a graduate student, better understand how research impact is currently measured and outline Duke’s resources for assessing impact, from Web of Science to Altmetric Explorer. The workshop will include hands-on exploration of research impact tools, so please bring your laptop to participate. Learn more and register
Digital Publishing: Reaching and Engaging Audiences 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Who are the intended users of your digital publication? How can you reach new audiences and keep your existing audiences actively engaged? We’ll learn about some of the ways successful projects connect with their users and promote their work to potential audiences. Participants will leave this session with a solid grounding in the ethical and logistical dimensions of engaging audiences and incorporating audience involvement into their own publication practices. Learn more and register
Image Copyright and Acquisition for Scholars 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Visual literacy standards and the law are necessary for nearly every humanities and social-sciences project. This workshop addresses two aspects of image use in scholarship: 1) techniques in obtaining scholarly images (what a scholarly image is, determining original resolution, searching free- and free-to-use images for scholarly research, and when you should pay), and 2) a brief course on image copyright and intellectual property—both the scholar’s and the user’s rights and how each can be asserted. Relevant case history examples will be cited to back up a scholar’s use of images. Learn more and register
Tuesday, October 9
Retractions in Science and Social Science Literature 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This workshop will discuss the burgeoning phenomena of retractions in the scientific and social scientific literature. No one plans to have an article retracted, so we will cover what to do to avoid or address a retraction or expression of concern and what the existing editorial literature can offer if you do find yourself dealing with a retraction as an author or one of a group of authors. Learn more and register
Text/Data: Acquiring and Preparing a Corpus of Texts 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This session focuses on the technical dimensions of corpus development. Using an array of printed matter—from digital facsimiles of incunabula to modern letterpress/offset books—we will explore the risks and benefits of optical character recognition (OCR); file formatting and naming issues; organization strategies for large corpora; and problems of data cleaning and preparation. While this session will not examine legal issues in detail, we will discuss some common legal concerns around the use of textual corpora. Learn more and register
Text/Data: Topic Modeling and Document Classification With MALLET 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Participants in this session will acquire a general understanding of topic modeling, the automated analysis technique often referred to as “text mining.” In addition to topic modeling, this session introduces the concepts of sequence labeling and automated document classification, both of which are also possible with MALLET. Learn more and register
Shaping Your Professional Identity Online 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. This workshop is designed to help you consider the best ways to navigate how you want to present yourself online. We will discuss topics such as what to share and how to share, the ethical issues involved, and how to maintain the right balance of privacy. We will also examine some steps you can take, such as creating a profile on Google Scholar, creating a Google alert for your name, creating an ORCID ID, interacting professionally on Twitter, and creating an online portfolio. Learn more and register
What a tremendous year this has been for Duke Libraries! Looking back at all we have accomplished as a community, we are overwhelmed with gratitude for our friends and supporters.
For the first time ever, our donors together contributed over $1 million to the Libraries Annual Fund. That unrestricted support is so important to fulfilling our mission to Duke students and faculty, and allows us the flexibility we need to expand our collections, staff, and services.
Overall, we received almost $8 million from 2,500 donors to the Libraries. Thanks to our donors, we have been able to create new programs and establish a number of new endowments that will provide for the Duke community now and into the future. Here are just a few of our accomplishments from the past fiscal year:
Robert L. Byrd Endowment Fund: Created a supported by many of our friends in honor of Bob Byrd and his forty-year service to the Libraries, this endowment will support the Director of the Rubenstein Library.
Weaver Memorial Lecture featuring Colson Whitehead: The bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize, spoke to a full house audience in Page Auditorium after viewing materials from the Libraries’ collection.
Chopped! The Historical Edition: First-year and sophomore students explored the culture, politics, and economics of food with staff from the Rubenstein Library for this “Spring Breakthrough” seminar.
Textbooks on Reserve: Students can now check out textbooks for some of Duke’s most popular classes. While students are still encouraged to buy their own textbooks, this program allows them to borrow a copy in a pinch.
Here in the library, we’re taking the summer months to evaluate some of our communications efforts.
In particular, we’re asking for your feedback on our email newsletter, which goes out every other week during the academic year. (What’s that? You don’t subscribe to our email newsletter? We can fix that right now!)
Your responses will help us make sure we’re sending you the most interesting and relevant library news from Duke.
At the end of the survey, you’ll have the option to enter a drawing for this handsome Duke University Libraries tote bag and journal. Guaranteed to make you look even smarter!
Classes are ending, food points are running out, and the school year is officially coming to a close. You might be saying, “I’m so over this semester.” Well, we’re here to tell you we’ve got one last treat for you before you dig into finals week.
Did someone say “treat”?
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of collars jingling, tails wagging, and all of your stresses melting away.
I heard it’s going to be pawesome!
That’s right. It’s doggo time. Puppies in Perkins is back!
Come join us in Perkins 217 on Monday, April 30 for some quality time with Student’s Best Friend. From 1:00-3:00 pm, therapy dogs will be visiting the library to provide you with the study break —and snuggles— you need to finish this semester strong. There will also be fun, finals-themed button-making! Because who doesn’t love buttons?
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant will fund implementation of shared staffing model across 7 academic libraries and the Dryad Digital Repository.
The Duke University Libraries will greatly expand data curation services to the Duke community as part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Data Curation Network (DCN).
Designed to support researchers seeking data curation assistance, the three-year DCN grant will establish a shared network of data curation staff across seven academic libraries and the Dryad Digital Repository that expands the curation capabilities of all the members.
Researchers at Duke will be able to draw on a wide range of data experience with the DCN, extending the data curation staff beyond those in the Duke Libraries as established from the recommendations of the Digital Research Data Services Faculty Working Group. As data curation becomes more discipline-specific, the DCN will allow a much more specialized level of curation than is possible at any one institution.
DCN members include the following partners: University of Minnesota Libraries, Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, University of Michigan Library, University Library at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Cornell University Library, Penn State University Libraries, and the Dryad Digital Repository.
Currently, staff at each of these institutions provide their own data curation services. But because data curation requires a specialized skill set — spanning a wide variety of data types and discipline-specific data formats — institutions cannot reasonably expect to hire an expert in each area.
The intent of the DCN is to serve as a cross-institutional staffing model that seamlessly connects a network of expert data curators to local datasets and to supplement local curation expertise. Data curators bring the disciplinary knowledge and software expertise necessary for reviewing and curating data deposits to ensure that the data are reusable. The project aims to increase local capacity, strengthen collaboration between libraries and disciplinary projects, and ensure that researchers and institutions ethically and appropriately share data.
“The Data Curation Network allows Duke Libraries to expand its deep commitment to research data management through a partnership that will empower Duke researchers to share their data with the wider academic community,” said Joel Herndon, Head of Data and Visualization Services in the Duke Libraries.
Data curation is a relatively new service at universities as funders increasingly require that the raw data from sponsored research be preserved and shared. In addition, many publishers now either require or encourage that data sets accompanying articles be made available through a publicly accessible repository. Finally, many researchers wish to make their data available regardless of funder requirements both to enhance their impact and also to propel the concept of open science.
This project builds on previous work that includes the July 2017 report: “Data Curation Network: A Cross-Institutional Staffing Model for Curating Research Data,” which is available on the project website, datacurationnetwork.org.
For more information about the grant and/or data curation in Duke Libraries, please contact askdata@duke.edu.
“Earning While They’re Learning” is an occasional series of stories celebrating our library student workers. The Duke University Libraries employ more than 250 undergraduates and graduate students every year, making us one of the largest student employers on campus.
Everyone’s got their “spot” on campus. It’s that place where you can step back from school work and daily stresses and find your zone. For Gauri Prasad, a senior majoring in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering, that place is Lilly Library.
Since freshman year, Gauri has been a service desk assistant in Lilly. A typical night owl, you can usually find her working the latest of late-night shifts. She’s been specifically trained to close Lilly down, which means staying up until midnight on weekends and 4 a.m. every other night of the week.
Gauri doesn’t mind these late hours though, and has made some of her favorite memories alongside the rest of the closing shift staff.
“My favorite experiences at Lilly so far,” she remembered, “have come from working with the security guard, Lonnie Williams. He is one of the nicest people and was always ordering us pizza, sharing popcorn, or asking me for my “expert” engineering help in fixing his computer or phone.”
“I love Lilly because I love the people.” Gauri said. Whether she is sharing snacks and conversation with Lonny, helping students check out a DVD on Saturday nights, or interacting with faculty, Gauri enjoys being able to help people through positive social interactions.
It goes both ways, too. While she is manning the desk and supporting library patrons, she feels equally supported by her supervisors behind the scenes. For the past four years, she’s loved knowing that come Halloween and Valentine’s Day they will be there with a bag of candy or other treats.
“The entire staff is great: supportive, sweet, and thoughtful. They go above and beyond to try to make my experience better.”
Even off the clock, she feels most comfortable in Lilly. She loves hanging out in the lobby area, taking in the background noise, and studying in a space she knows so well and where everyone knows her well, too.
Reflecting at the end of our interview, she laughed a bit and said, “I think Lilly is the one place where I don’t just interact with engineers.”
For Gauri, Lilly is more than just her workplace. It’s home base.
About this Series: Students like Gauri are an indispensable part of our library workforce. Their employment provides Duke students with valuable financial aid to support their education, and they learn useful skills that enhance their academic studies and careers after college. This year, to encourage senior giving to the Libraries, George Grody (Associate Professor of Markets and Management Studies) has set up the Grody Senior Challenge. Every gift made by the Class of 2018 to the Libraries Annual Fund will be matched by Professor Grody. All funds will directly support library student workers who provide research and instructional help.
Exam season is coming. The nights are getting longer, the assignments bigger. Do you ever feel like you basically live in the library?
Now you can prove that you actually do! It’s National Library Week, and we’re celebrating with retro-looking postcards that you can mail to family and friends from your “home away from home” here at Duke.
Rediscover the lost art of postcard writing.
Join us Monday (Apr. 9) and Wednesday (Apr. 11) in Perkins Library and Tuesday afternoon (Apr. 10) at Lilly Library on East Campus. Choose from one of four attractive postcard designs and let the outside world know you’re still alive!
You know you want one of these.
Shoot your folks a quick hello from the “Browser’s Paradise” of Perkins Library, or let a friend or two know you’re “Living on the Edge” in Bostock. We provide the stamps (both domestic and international), so you can send your message anywhere in the world.
Choose from an assortment of old-fashioned fountain and feather pens to compose your lofty thoughts, then pop it in our mailbox—we’ll mail it for you that very day!
Everybody loves real mail!
Also, don’t forget to check out our postcard-inspired Snapchat filters the next time you’re avoiding real work in Perkins, Bostock, Lilly, or Rubenstein.
So what do you say? Celebrate National Library Week with a postcard from your favorite semi-permanent address here at Duke. Somebody out there will be glad to hear from you!
A selection of books by authors in the Class of 1968 will be on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room during Reunions Weekend, April 13-14.
Duke alumni will be gathering on campus soon to celebrate their annual class reunions. One class in particular is marking a special milestone—members of the Class of 1968 will come together for their fiftieth reunion this spring.
To help them commemorate the half-century mark, the Duke University Libraries and the Duke Alumni Association are proud to present a display of books by authors from the Class of 1968.
The display includes some 67 titles written by 25 different alumni authors. The range of genres and subject matter is impressive, encompassing everything from novels to academic studies of French history and journalistic memoirs of covering the White House. It’s an inspiring reminder of the creativity, talent, and intelligence that each class of Duke graduates carries with it out into the world, and the many ways Duke alumni leave their mark.
The books will be on display April 13-14 in the Mary Duke Biddle Room galleries.
Visitors are encouraged to drop by any time during the Biddle Room’s hours of operation (Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.) and help us celebrate the achievements of the Class of 1968.
Special thanks to Bill Lawrence T’68 and Gary Nelson T’64 P’95, a member of the Duke Alumni Association Board of Directors, for coordinating the display.
Director Nelson Oliver has spent the past decade working on a narrative retelling of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, the only violent government overthrow in U.S. history. In a free film screening coming to Duke on Wednesday, April 18, in Perkins Library 217, Oliver’s The Red Cape will explore the conspiracy, riot, and ensuing racially-motivated massacre that went largely ignored by historians until a 2000 historical commission by the North Carolina General Assembly.
The Red Cape follows the fates of a young black boy and his father in what was then North Carolina’s most progressive city. Incensed by the biracial makeup of the newly-elected city legislature, a group of white businessmen stage a coup—publicizing a “White Declaration of Independence,” replacing democratically-elected officeholders with white supremacists, and massacring untold numbers of black citizens in the resulting chaos.
The film is 40 minutes in length, and it will be screened twice: once at 4:00 p.m., and again at 5:30 p.m.
Attendees listen to remarks from the university’s official portrait painter at the unveiling ceremony, Sunday, April 1, 2018.
The Gothic Reading Room on the second floor of Duke’s Rubenstein Library serves as a gallery of noteworthy figures in the university’s history. Portraits of Washington Duke, James Buchanan Duke, and Benjamin Newton Duke are surrounded by those of trustees of the Duke Endowment, Duke’s previous presidents, and other distinguished personages from the past.
Today, thanks to a gift from an anonymous donor, the Duke University Libraries are pleased to unveil the newest addition to this pantheon of worthies: Nugget, Duke’s famous golden retriever.
Workers installed the portrait late Saturday night.
“Over the past few years, Nugget and her paw, Keith, have become fixtures of campus,” said Duke President Vincent E. Price at the portrait unveiling ceremony, flanked on either side of the dais by presidential pets Scout and Cricket. “Throughout the dog days of midterms and ruff final exams, they are always there with a wag and a wave, reminding students to never stop retrieving. Those familiar with their story know it as a tail of serving others and spreading joy.”
Price noted that as the university places an increased emphasis on student and employee wellness, “It is only fitting to recognize Nugget’s uncanny ability to breedpositivity and lower stress.”
In a nod to her own pawpularity on campus, the honor of pulling down the black cloth was a special treat reserved for Peaches the calico cat, who promptly curled up on it and napped through the rest of the ceremony.
Attendees at the event commented on the portrait’s rebarkable likeness and how well it captured Nugget’s well-breddognity. It came as no surprise to learn from the university’s official portrait painter that she had maintained great pawsture throughout the painting session, obediently responding to his commands of “Sit,” “Lay down,” and “Stay.”
“For years, Nugget and Keith have been hounded by the puparazzi every time they set foot on campus,” said Price. “Now, we’ve captured that lovable smile and silky golden coat in a manner that can last fur-ever. Though the idea of placing her among such esteemed company here in the Dukiest place on campus may seem far-fetched to some, I think we can all agree it’s about time Nugget gets the appaws she deserves.”
“After all,” the president concluded, “she’s such a good girl.”
Is this all fur-real? Unfortunately not. Happy April Fools’ Day!
There was lots of action in the 1st Round of Lilly Library’s March Movie Madness brackets. Looks like “The Dude” was “Blind Side-d”, Caddyshack may have what it takes to be a Cinderella story, the Karate Kid “waxed off” Hoosiers, and Talladega Nights did a “Shake’n Bake” all over the Field of Dreams.
March Movie Madness @ Lilly begins Monday, March 19th.
Lilly Library has 100s of sports films – ranging from iconic classics such as Rocky to quirky films like Shaolin Soccer to searing dramas such as Creed. In fact, we have so many sports films, we decided to select just 64 (sound familiar?) for our very own Lilly Library version of March Madness. You may not agree with our title selections (does that also sound familiar?), but don’t let that stop you from joining in the fun and having a chance to win a Crazie great PRIZE!*
Here’s how:
To vote, visit our 64-team Lilly Library March Movie Madness online field. Round two is now open for votinghere!
To record your selections, vote for your choice of Heavy Hitters in Bracket A versus films that Go the Distance in Bracket B to eventually face those films that are Down to the Wire in Bracket C opposite the Full Court Press of Bracket D. Voting dates are listed below and on the contest page.
Updates will be posted in Lilly Library’s lobby and on Lilly’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts in addition to our blog, Latest@Lilly.
There was lots of action in the 1st Round of Lilly Library’s March Movie Madness brackets. Looks like “The Dude” was “Blind Side-d”, Caddyshack may have what it takes to be a Cinderella story, the Karate Kid “waxed off” Hoosiers, and TalladegaNights did a “Shake’n Bake” all over the Field of Dreams.
Winner announced: Wednesday, April 4th!
Bonus: Extra Innings? Overtime? Want MORE sports movies?
Some movies are so iconic that they are more suitable for the Hall of Fame. If you are wondering what great movies (and maybe not so great) did NOT make the field, check out the bench-warmers here at March Madness – On the Bench.
At Lilly Library, now that it’s time for The Big Dance –
we hope you join in!
A number of senior leadership changes are under way at the Duke University Libraries, reflecting the emphases of our strategic plan—Engage, Discover, Transform—and aligning our operations with evolving developments and directions in academic libraries, scholarship, and publishing.
Dracine Hodges
In January 2018, Dracine Hodges, Assistant University Librarian for Technical Services, was promoted to Associate University Librarian for Technical Services, serving as a member of the Libraries’ Executive Group.
Hodges came to Duke in March 2016 as Head of Technical Services, a newly created position. In that role, she oversaw the broad structural reorganization of the Libraries’ Technical Services departments, working with staff to define challenges and identify ways to meet those challenges strategically. That work resulted in the restructuring of Technical Services into the new departments of Continuing Resource Acquisitions, Monograph Acquisitions, Metadata and Discovery Strategy, Serials and Retention Management, and Resource Description. The new structure is better able to meet the evolving demands of a modern research library. In her new role as AUL, Hodges also oversees the Libraries’ Conservation Services department. This recognizes the breadth of responsibility of Conservation Services, which like other Technical Services departments works with both general and special collections.
“We are very pleased that Dracine has agreed to join the Executive Group,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “This appointment is a recognition of the broad scope of responsibility she has in overseeing multiple departments as well as the complex and vital role that Technical Services plays in supporting the research enterprise.”
Prior to coming to Duke in 2016, Hodges was a tenured Associate Professor and Head of the Acquisitions Department at the Ohio State University Libraries. She has published several book chapters and well-cited peer-reviewed articles related to collection development models and diversity in libraries. She is a member of the Advisory Board for the IMLS-funded Institute for Research Design in Librarianship and an active member of the ALCTS division of the American Library Association. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Wesleyan College and an MLIS from Florida State University.
Hodges’s appointment comes just as another member of the Libraries’ Executive Group prepares to step down. In May 2018, Robert L. Byrd, Associate University Librarian for Collections and User Services, will retire after 40 years of service to the Duke University Libraries.
“An account of Bob’s professional contributions to the Duke University Libraries, and to the university, would go on for pages,” said Jakubs. “Perhaps most notably, he has been the force of quiet persistence behind our special collections. It was his vision, beginning decades ago, that ultimately led to the creation of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.”
Robert L. Byrd
Byrd was educated at Duke (BA, 1972), Yale (M.Phil., 1975), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MSLS, 1978). He first worked at Duke as a library clerk in the Manuscript Department. After receiving his MSLS degree, he was appointed Assistant Curator of Manuscripts for Reader Services, then Manuscripts Librarian, then Curator of Manuscripts. In 1989-90, Byrd spearheaded the union of the separate Rare Book and Manuscript departments, creating the Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library, which he continued to direct until 2010. In 2015, Duke formally dedicated the Rubenstein Library, bringing Duke into the company of its peers as the home of a named special collections library.
In the four decades he has worked at Duke, Byrd has negotiated the acquisition of some of the Libraries’ most noteworthy and distinctive collections. He has also contributed much beyond the Libraries, serving on numerous university committees and important initiatives, including the reaccreditation process, the launch of Duke Kunshan University, and the Perkins Project, a 15-year-long effort to renovate and re-imagine Duke’s West Campus library complex. A celebration of his career and many contributions to the University will be held on May 7 in the Gothic Reading Room at 4 p.m. His last day at Duke will be May 11.
When Byrd retires in May, he will be succeeded on the Libraries’ Executive Group by David Hansen, Director of Copyright and Scholarly Communications. Hansen’s new title will be Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections and Scholarly Communication. This model highlights a focus on the research lifecycle, from research/instruction to publication and access to scholarship, and also reflects a major theme of the Libraries’ strategic plan, Engage, Discover, Transform.
David Hansen
“Although we will clearly miss Bob, I am excited at the prospect of Dave’s leadership in this expanded role, and his participation in the Executive Group,” said Jakubs. “As the head of the Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications, Dave has forged important relationships with faculty across campus and reinforced the broad and essential role of the Libraries in the research and publication process. We will have the benefit of a smooth transition over the coming months.”
Hansen is a widely-read and respected expert on copyright and libraries. He has worked at Duke since November 2016. Since that time, Hansen and his staff have led efforts to increase Duke’s open access footprint and expand the accessibility of Duke faculty publications through Duke’s open access repository. Working with partners across campus, he has also helped to expand financial support for Duke researchers who wish to publish their work in open access journals. And he has been deeply involved in efforts to include rightsstatements.org metadata into digitized library collections in order to more clearly communicate the copyright status of library holdings. “Dave is a thoughtful, experienced, and committed leader who recognizes the complexity of the Libraries’ relationship with the university and the broader academic community,” Jakubs said.
Finally, Hansen and his staff have strengthened the Libraries’ role in campus copyright issues by developing the Copyright Consultants Program. The program provides copyright training for front-line library staff to better assess and resolve copyright questions in their interactions with faculty, students, and other researchers. His office also oversees the Triangle Scholarly Communications Institute (SCI).
Prior to coming to Duke, Hansen served as Clinical Assistant Professor and Faculty Research Librarian at the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the University of North Carolina’s School of Law. He has also worked as a Digital Library Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law. A graduate of UNC-Charlotte’s Belk College of Business/Department of Economics, Hansen earned his JD and his MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Timothy M. McGeary
With the retirement of Robert Byrd and the promotion of Dracine Hodges and David Hansen to the Libraries’ Executive Group, one final leadership change will also take effect. Timothy M. McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology, will have a new title—Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology. Under McGeary’s leadership, the newly reorganized division of Digital Strategies and Technology will take on a broader engagement with Duke’s campus on digital strategies and the impact the Libraries have in areas such as user experience, research data and scholarship, digital preservation, open source library systems, strategic assessment of library data and services, and technology collaboration and governance.
The other members of the Libraries’ Executive Group include Ann Elsner, Associate University Librarian for Administrative Services; Tom Hadzor, Associate University Librarian for Development; and Naomi Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Last week, the staff of the Duke University Libraries were treated to a fascinating presentation by Durham County Library Director Tammy Baggett-Best, who offered an update on the renovation of Durham’s Main Library on N. Roxboro Street.
With our own major library renovation here at Duke just a few years behind us, it was exciting to see what our colleagues down the street have planned. As downtown Durham continues to grow more vibrant, the renovated Main Library promises to be yet another point of pride for those who live and work in the area.
The Main Library renovation started in early 2017 and is scheduled to be complete in late 2019. With over $44.3 million in funding and a planned addition of 19,804 square feet to the existing 65,000 square feet of library space, Baggett-Best explained that Main Library is undergoing some serious transformations.
“Pretty much the only thing that will be left is the foundation and the frames,” she said—joking that the library outreach program “Downtown Library Without Walls” was being taken rather literally by the renovation crew.
Simplified cross-section of Main Library before (left) and after renovations (right), showing the greater vertical openness, connectivity, and natural light in the new building.
And it’s true: with the goals of creating greater openness and visibility throughout the building site, Main Library may be almost unrecognizable to many Durham residents by the time renovations are complete. New roof terraces, glass walls, and horizontally integrated staircases are all designed to create a heightened sense of freedom and connectivity, while new meeting spaces, public spaces, and a comprehensive literacy and technology center are intended to improve community outreach.
A rendering of how the library will look once complete when viewed from the side facing Liberty Street.
Some areas of particular interest include a career development workspace, a MakerLab / S.T.E.A.M. space, a cultural/arts exhibition gallery space, and an expanded and more accessible space for the popular North Carolina Collection. The newly renovated library will also provide more social space for children, teenagers, and adults, along with multiple event venues.
Outside the building, meanwhile, the library grounds will feature numerous open areas for library and community use, including an art garden, an amphitheater, a public plaza, covered seating, an urban agriculture section, and an interactive play and gathering space. Baggett-Best hopes these and other programs will contribute to a sense of community and connectivity across social groups.
Indeed, the renovations are just one part of the Durham County Library’s mission to help Durham grow and thrive. Improved access and technological services feature heavily in their plans. Baggett-Best said they are currently working on a program that will allow all Durham County public school students’ ID cards to do double-duty as their library cards. They’re also working on a way to clear all outstanding overdue fees by public school students at the end of each school year.
Rendering of a community event at Main Library, post-renovation.
It was heartening to learn that Durhamites are big library users, even before the renovation got started. Approximately 71% of all Durham County residents have a library card, compared with 44% statewide. In a recent city/county survey, the only local government agency or service that gets higher satisfaction marks from residents is EMS. In 2017, Durham libraries circulated nearly three million physical items—a number that has been decreasing slightly in recent years in tandem with increased use of online resources.
This seems like a good time for a public service announcement to our Duke students: All Duke students are eligible to get a free library card at any Durham County Library location. Even if you’re not a North Carolina resident, you can still use the public library, and you don’t even have to leave your dorm room. If you love the hundreds of popular e-books and audiobooks you can get online through the Duke Libraries’ OverDrive app, consider the thousands and thousands more you have access to through the Durham County Library!
Overall, it’s clear that the renovations at Main Library represent one more sign of the ongoing revitalization of downtown Durham. The “library without walls” will have some pretty spectacular walls once again before long, and we can’t wait to help them celebrate its re-opening in 2019!
Does your reading life feel like it’s lost that special spark? Do you find yourself staring at your bookshelves at night, brooding over old flames?
Don’t worry—our love experts here at the Libraries are here to help. This Valentine’s Day, they’ve hand-picked some choice selections guaranteed to improve your circulation, if you know what we mean.
From now through the end of February, sidle up to our Mystery Date with a Book display next to the Perkins Library Service Desk and get a peek at some of our secret suitors.
Now, watch yourself—these books are a bit of a tease. They come wrapped in pink and red paper with “come-hither” teasers to lure you in. Will you get fiction or nonfiction? Poetry or short stories? Travelogue or fantasy? No peeking until until you’re ready to “get between the covers,” nudge, nudge.
Give your date a chance, but if it doesn’t work out, no hard feelings. After the two of you have gotten acquainted, don’t forget to let our matchmakers know how it went. Each book comes with a card you can use to rate your date. Use it is a bookmark, then drop it in our Mystery Date with a Book box when you return your book to Perkins and pick up a little Valentine button from us.
This February, don’t leave our literary lovelies all lonely by themselves. Take one home with you—you might find a perfect match!
Rate your mystery date, and take one of our fashionable buttons! You know you want one of these.
Take our survey and you could win a $150 Amazon Gift Card (students), or a $75 gift card to your favorite restaurant (faculty)!
Here in the Libraries, we’re always looking for ways to make your life easier. That’s why every two years we invite library users to take part in a brief user survey to help us better understand their experiences and thoughts on library spaces, collections, and services.
The survey takes no more than 5 minutes to complete and will remain open between now and February 13.
Student Survey: As a special thank you for participating, all student respondents will be entered into a raffle for a $150 Amazon gift card.
Faculty Survey: All faculty members who respond will be entered to win a $75 gift card to their favorite restaurant.
When libraries, students, and faculty work together, everybody wins. Take a look at some of the improvements we’ve made in the last two years as a direct result of our last user survey.
Added color and icon-based signage to make navigating Perkins and Bostock easier
Increased frequency with which we clean computers and study tables
Developed a workflow for checking broken power outlets
Ensured keyboard and computer equipment is cleaned regularly and replaced as need
Made improvements to public computers
Improved our Room Reservation page and made it easier for students to reserve group study rooms and access specialized spaces in the library
Added an Interview Room and made enhancements to both spaces
Evaluated and made improvements to ePrint
Worked with DSG to develop OASIS:Perkins
Developed clear signage to help students select study spaces based on their needs and preferences
Worked with security guards to enforce Quiet Zone guidelines
Feedback is what helps the Libraries grow, and the more input we get, the better we’ll be able to renovate, rethink, and improve.
So please, take a couple minutes of your time to complete the 2018 survey—and thank you for your help in making the Duke University Libraries a better place.
The Duke University Libraries are pleased to present an evening with author Colson Whitehead at 6 p.m., Wednesday, February 7, in Page Auditorium.
The event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required for entry and available through the Duke University Box Office.
To reserve a ticket, visit the Duke Box Office in person in the Bryan Center, go to its website (tickets.duke.edu), or call (919) 684-4444. (Note: Ticket reservations made online or by phone carry a $1.50 per ticket service charge.)
Public parking ($5) will be available in Parking Garage IV (Bryan Center Parking Garage) at 125 Science Drive, with overflow parking in the Chemistry Lot at the intersection of Towerview Road and Circuit Drive. ADA parking will be available in the Bryan Center Surface Lot. (See directions and more information about parking for events at Page Auditorium.)
Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, winner of the 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer Prize. In the novel’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is not a metaphor, but rather a secret network of tracks and tunnels that have been built beneath the Southern soil. It is through this web of stations that the novel’s heroine, an escaped slave named Cora, flees the unrelenting brutality of the Georgia plantation on which she was born.
Whitehead’s other books include The Noble Hustle, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, and The Colossus of New York, among others. Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for John Henry Days. He lives in New York City.
Copies of Whitehead’s books will be available for sale at the event, and a booksigning with the author will follow his talk.
Whitehead’s talk on February 7 will be recorded and made available to subscribers to the Duke University Libraries newsletter. If you can’t make the live event, you may sign up for our newsletter and get notified when the recording is available to view.
Whitehead’s appearance at Duke is presented as the Weaver Memorial Lecture, a speaker series hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and founding member of the Library Advisory Board. Previous speakers have included Barbara Kingsolver, Oliver Sacks, Dave Eggers, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and David Rubenstein, among others.
Special thanks to our co-sponsors for this event: The Office of the President, Office of the Provost, and Department of English.
Left your textbook in your dorm room? Borrow our copy!
As the spring 2018 semester gets underway, we want to remind students that you can check out copies of textbooks for the largest courses on campus from the library.
The books include required texts for some of Duke’s most popular courses in Economics, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, Biology, Psychology, and other subjects. They can be checked out for three hours at a time and are available at the Perkins Library Service Desk. Some textbooks are also available at Lilly Library on East Campus.
Here’s a complete listing of courses that have textbooks on reserve in the library. (This list is also available on our website. More courses may be added as orders come in.) Courses listed in red also have copies available at Lilly Library.
COURSE NUMBER
COURSE TITLE
AAAS 335
HISTORY OF HIP-HOP
BIOCHEM 301
INTRO BIOCHEMISTRY I
BIOLOGY 223
CELL AND MOLEC NEUROBIO
BIOLOGY 201L
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
BIOLOGY 202L
GENETICS AND EVOLUTION
CHEM 201DL
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY I
CHEM 202L
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY II
CHEM 210DL
MOD APPS CHEM PRINCIPLES
CLST 262
ANCIENT ATHLETES
COMPSCI 330
DESIGN/ANALY ALGORITHMS
COMPSCI 250D
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
ECE 110L
FUND OF ELEC AND COMP ENGR
ECON 208D
INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMETRICS
EGR 244L
DYNAMICS
EVANTH 260
HUMAN COGNITIVE EVOLUTION
GLHLTH 101
FUNDAMENTALS OF GLOBAL HEALTH
MATH 230
PROBABILITY
MATH 202D
MULTIVAR CALCULUS FOR ECON
MATH 216
LINEAR ALGEBRA & DIFF EQUATION
MATH 353
ORD AND PRTL DIFF EQUATIONS
MATH 112L
LABORATORY CALCULUS II
MATH 212
MULTIVARIABLE CALCULUS
NEUROSCI 101
BIO BASES OF BEHAVIOR
PHYSICS 142L
GENERAL PHYSICS II
PSY 104
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY 105
ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSY 101
INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY
SPANISH 203
INTERMEDIATE SPANISH
STA 101
DATA ANALY/STAT INFER
Please note:Textbooks on reserve are not intended to take the place of students purchasing textbooks for their courses. Due to budget limitations, the Libraries are unable to purchase textbooks for every course at Duke.
For questions related to textbook reserves at Perkins Library, please contact: perkins-reserves@duke.edu.
For questions related to textbook reserves at Lilly Library, please contact: lilly-requests@duke.edu
Duke Self-Checkout is a fast, easy way to check out books from the Duke University Libraries.
Starting this week, you can now use your smartphone to check out library books in Perkins and Bostock Libraries, without having to bring them to the desk on the main floor.
Make sure to let Duke Self-Checkout access your camera, send you notifications, and use your location.
Open the app and log in with your Duke NetID and password. Click the ‘+’ sign in the top right corner to activate your camera.
When you find a book you want to check out, use the app on your phone to scan the library barcode. The app will blink green when it recognizes the barcode and check the item out to you right there. That’s it!
Remember to demagnetize your book before you leave the building!
If you want leave the building with your book, make sure you stop at one of the Duke Self-Checkout stations to demagnetize your book so it doesn’t set off an alarm.
Don’t have a phone or don’t want to download the app? Use the iPad at the Duke Self-Checkout stations, located in Perkins near the Perkins / Bostock Lobby, and in Bostock at the Edge Service Desk.
Duke Self-Checkout is also available at the Marine Lab Library.
Forget about finals, forget about stress, you deserve a break. More importantly, you deserve a break involving snuggles, barks and happy wagging tails, because seriously, what’s better than puppies?
Don’t get like this poor pooch. Take a puppy study bark… er, we mean break.
Please don’t miss it! The puppies will miss you!
Sad puppy. Why wouldn’t they take a break to come see me?
We like happy puppies, and also happy students. Everyone will be happy! The puppies will be adorable! Come see them! We’ll make buttons! We’re full of exclamation marks just thinking about it!
What: Writing and research help, stress relief, and finals prep Where: The Edge When: Wednesday, December 6, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—finals season, of course! We know you can hardly stand the wait for those magical days ahead, but the Long Night Against Procrastination can help make extra sure we’re all working at maximum productivity.
Spend an evening getting on top of everything you have to do—or just come and de-stress with our soothing activities, door prizes, and free coffee and snacks! However you want to approach it, we’re doing everything we can to make sure finals week is as simple and pain-free as possible.
Staff from the Libraries and the TWP Writing Studio will be on hand for help with research and writing. Math and Chemistry tutors will also be available. Tutorial times:
Math 111: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Math 212: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Chemistry 101: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Chemistry 201: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Help us make the event green by bringing your own coffee mugs and water bottles, and let us help you ace finals week!
Sponsored by Duke University Libraries, the TWP Writing Studio, the Academic Resource Center, the Duke Student Wellness Center, and Duke Recreation and Physical Education.
Refreshments provided by Saladelia, Duke University Campus Club, and Friends of the Duke University Libraries.
Re:Publishing: Publishing as Conversation Friday, December 1, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock 127)
Scholarly publishing is often treated as one-way communication: send some knowledge out into the world, then hope others learn from it and maybe cite it somewhere down the road. But how can we make publishing an opportunity to engage with others? How can it be a conversation while avoiding trolls, hecklers, and defeatists?
This event will feature a moderated discussion among members of the Duke community about these ideas and more, exploring what it means to approach scholarly publishing as a conversation and how to find, seed, and engage in broader discussion of your scholarly work.
This event is part of the Re:Publishing series co-sponsored by Duke University Libraries, Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), Digital Humanities Initiative, Digital Scholarship Services (Duke University Libraries), Forum for Scholars and Publics, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Office of Copyright & Scholarly Communication (Duke University Libraries), Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, PhD Lab in Digital Knowledge, Duke Initiative for Science & Society and Wired! Lab for Digital Art History and Visual Culture.
This past Friday, October 20, Duke University Libraries was excited to host the reception of our 2017 writing and research award winners. With topics covering everything from the slums of Bangalore to medieval publishers to personal poetry and creative nonfiction, these student superstars ran the gamut of passions, questions, and creative impulses.
No matter how much their interests varied, though, all of the contestants were judged to have made major contributions to their fields. The response was warm, the students’ and advisors’ speeches were phenomenal, and we’re truly thankful to everyone who was in the audience for the pride and support you showed these winners.
McKenzie Cook, winner of the First/Second-Year Lowell Aptman Prize
Valerie Muensterman, winner of the
Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
Kushal Kadakia, winner of the Ole R. Holsti Prize
Sabrina Hao, winner of the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
Jack Harrington, winner of the Third/Fourth-Year Lowell Aptman Prize, with History Professor Vasant Kaiwar
Hannah Rogers, winner of the Chester P. Middlesworth Award
The newly-renovated Perkins B09, ready for your big interview. Go get em, tiger.
Got a big phone or Skype interview coming up you just have to nail? Worried about noise, bad cell service, or nosy roommates jeopardizing that all-important first impression? The Libraries have felt your pain, and we’re here to help.
We now have not one but two beautifully renovated interview rooms in Perkins Library, designed especially for phone and remote video interviews and available to all Duke students, faculty, and staff.
To reserve one of the Interview Rooms, visit the online registration page, check the schedule for an available day and time, enter your name and Duke email address, and respond to the confirmation email within 1 hour (otherwise your reservation could be canceled). That’s it! The room is all yours.
The two rooms have similar but slightly different features. Perkins B09 (located on Lower Level 2) features a brand new all-in-one telephone/videoconferencing system, whereas Perkins 130 (located on the library’s main floor) features a landline system only. Each room has its own dedicated phone number, in case the person conducting the interview prefers to call you.
Also, in response to popular demand, we have increased the 60-minute time limit on the rooms to 90 minutes.
Questions? Comments? Fan mail for helping you land that dream internship? Let us know at asklib@duke.edu.
October 2017, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and over the next few weeks Duke’s IT security office will be sharing tips and resources to help students, faculty, and staff protect their digital security.
Here in the Libraries, we’re doing our own part to make our web presence more secure. During fall break, the Duke University Libraries web site will begin using the HTTPS protocol by default. HTTPS, which means Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, ensures an encrypted connection, providing greater privacy and security than the HTTP protocol many of our sites have previously used. This change will apply to web sites that we maintain directly, such as our homepage and our digitized collections, and to hundreds of the databases and journals that we subscribe to.
What does this mean?
When you go to our web site using the old adress that begins with “http://” you will automatically be redirected to an address that begins with “https://” — for example, the full address of our homepage will be https://library.duke.edu.
You will know a web site is using HTTPS when the URL begins with “https://” and your web browser displays a closed padlock icon as seen in the following example:
Will the entire Library web site use HTTPS?
Most of the Library web site will use HTTPS; however, the portion of the Library web site that we refer to as the Classic Catalog will not transition from HTTP to HTTPS. Students, faculty, and staff may continue to use Classic Catalog “as is,” and it will continue to function as it always has without change. When using Classic Catalog, some newer web browsers will display a “Not Secure” warning when you type search terms into the search box.
As an alternative, we encourage you to use either the All search or Books & Media search to find resources at Duke University Libraries via the more secure HTTPS protocol. Both of these more secure search options are available within the library’s home page search box.
On October 25, 2017, we will remove the link to Classic Catalog from our home page, although this legacy platform will continue to be available “as is” at its current address.
Problems? Questions?
Additional information is available for your use in troubleshooting, reporting problems, and asking questions.
Every year the Duke University Libraries run a series of essay contests recognizing the original research of Duke students and encouraging the use of library resources. We are pleased to announce the winners of our 2016-2017 library writing and research awards.
Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using sources from the Libraries’ general collections.
Honor Thesis Prize:Anna Mukamal for “Creative Impulse in the Modern Age: The Embodiment of Anxiety in the Early Poetry of T. S. Eliot (1910-1917)”
Third/Fourth-Year Prize:Jack Harrington for “In The Empire’s Back Yard: The Radicalization of Public Opinion In Ireland and It’s Impact on the Anglo-Irish War (1913-1920)”
First/Second-Year Prize:McKenzie Cook for “World War I and The London Theatre”
Recognizing excellence of analysis, research, and writing in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Maegan Stanley for “In Honest Affection and Friendlinesse”
Hannah Rogers for “Subversion as Service: The Life and Controversy of Jeanne Audrey Powers”
We will be celebrating our winners and their achievements at a special awards reception coinciding with Duke Family Weekend. All are invited to join us for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.
Starting on Constitution Day, September 17, the Durham County Library is hosting a month-long series of free programs focused on a community reading of the U.S. Constitution. Events include:
film showings, Hamilton sing-a-longs, book clubs, storytime for kids, and more.
You can pick up a free copy of the U.S. Constitution at any Durham County Library location, while supplies last. And check out their Durham Speaks videos, short interviews with Durham residents sharing their thoughts on the Constitution and what it means to them.
A reminder to Duke students: As residents of Durham County, you’re eligible to get a free library card at any Durham County Library location. You’re not required to have one to participate in Durham Reads Together, but it’s another resource at your fingertips.
Post contributed by Kim Duckett, Head of Research and Instructional Services
This fall the Libraries welcome a new graduate student fellow — and fellowship — to help encourage and aid digital humanities research and publishing at Duke. Imani Mosley joins the Digital Scholarship Services team as its first Harsha Murthy Fellow in Digital Scholarship, a position created with funding from Harsha Murthy (T‘81), a longtime member of our Library Advisory Board. The Murthy Fellow helps to raise awareness of and engagement in digital scholarship at Duke, primarily by promoting activities and programs in the Murthy Digital Studio in The Edge.
The Murthy Digital Studio in The/EDGE (Bostock Library Level 1)
Located on the western corner of The/EDGE overlooking Telecom Drive, the Murthy Digital Studio is a light-filled, comfortable space for a range of digital activities, from hands-on workshops and research talks, to discussion groups and project work.
Imani is already helping to organize, promote, and facilitate a number of events and projects, but gamely took a few minutes to answer some questions that would help us get to know her and this new position.
Tell us a little about yourself, what you are doing at Duke and what brought you to the digital humanities.
I’m a North Carolina native and a musicologist, and I’m working on my dissertation on twentieth-century opera entitled “‘The queer things he said’: British Identity, Social History, and Press Reception of Benjamin Britten’s Postwar Operas.” Last year, I joined the Digital Scholarship Services team and oversaw social media and outreach. I have a strong background in technology and social media so working for DSS seemed like a great fit for me.
What was it about the Murthy Fellowship in Digital Scholarship that appealed to you?
For a long time, at least back to when I started grad school at Columbia (which coincidentally is when I first started working for Apple), I’ve been fascinated with making connections between technology and the digital with the scholarly. I was always looking for ways to make my life as a scholar more public, more accessible, and more current. So the idea of being able to coordinate and create events that did just that, for graduate students and faculty, really excited me. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years — from engaging with academic communities online to converting published content to Open Access (and the legal and procedural processes involved) to working with academic software, both specific to my field and more general. Through this work with the Murthy Digital Studio, I can organize events in which I can share that information as well as learn from others who’ve had similar experiences.
What do you think will be some of the major challenges in this new role?
I think there’s no denying how much of it will be logistical. Everyone at Duke deals with a barrage of information about all of the awesome things happening on campus and for me, it’s about finding a way to cut through the din. I recognize that since this is a brand new position, that a lot of it will be about laying the groundwork, but of course I want people to come to events! So trying to be innovative and find a way to stand out that creates (assessable) results is, I think, my foremost challenge.
Something more conceptual that will be challenging in this position is identifying audiences and creating spaces that fit their needs…and finding ways to get different groups working together. I would love for humanists to ponder the possibilities of the digital humanities and digital scholarship just as I would love for those outside of the humanities to come in contact with some of the things we do. Basically, I’m hoping for interdisciplinarity at its finest!
Look for more updates from Imani soon, as she spreads the word about what’s happening in the Studio this fall! You can follow her tweets @murthydigital or subscribe directly to the Studio’s announcement list — murthydigitalstudio@duke.edu
Members of these advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.
The boards will typically meet four times a semester to discuss all aspects of Duke Libraries and provide feedback to library staff. This is an amazing opportunity for students to serve on the advisory board of a large, nationally recognized non-profit organization.
All three advisory boards are now taking applications or nominations. Application deadlines are:
Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and the Undergraduate Advisory Board will be selected and notified by mid-September, and groups will begin to meet in late September. More information is available on our website, where you will also find links to the online applications forms.
For more information or questions about these opportunities, please contact:
Man and woman looking over a brochure for a political candidate before election day in Lowndes County, Alabama, November, 1966, Photograph by Jim Peppler, Courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.
What can the immediate past teach us about voting rights, self-determination, and democracy today? A new website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University explores how the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)—the only youth-led national civil rights group—organized a grassroots movement in the 1960s that empowered Black communities and transformed the nation. Told from the perspectives of the activists themselves, the SNCC Digital Gateway: Learn from the Past, Organize for the Future, Make Democracy Work (snccdigital.org) highlights SNCC’s thinking and work building democracy from the ground up, making those experiences and strategies accessible to activists, educators, and engaged citizens today.
Generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the site uses documentary footage, audio recordings, photographs, and documents to chronicle how SNCC organizers, alongside thousands of local Black residents in the Deep South, worked to enable Black people to take control of their lives. The gateway unveils and examines the inner workings of SNCC over the course of its 12-year existence—its structure, how it coordinated sit-ins and other direct action protests, and how it organized voter registration efforts and economic cooperatives to effect social change. SNCC had more field staff than any civil rights organization and was considered the cutting edge of the civil rights movement.
The SNCC Digital Gateway also presents the voices of today’s young activists in the Movement for Black Lives, sharing their views on the impact of SNCC and the southern civil rights movement of the 1960s on their activities today. “Reading through the SNCC Digital Gateway website is like taking a masters class in community organizing,” explains Jennifer Bryant, a community organizer based in Washington, D.C. “The primary source documents provide a deeper understanding of how SNCC was structured, the day-to-day work of field organizers and how campaigns were shaped. The site serves as a reminder that the civil rights movement was fought by everyday people. It provides hope that in these perilous times, we too can fight and win.” Courtland Cox, chairman of the SNCC Legacy Project, who served as an organizer in Mississippi and Alabama in the 1960s, explains, “Our experiences have created a level of ‘informational wealth’ that we need to pass on to young people. This unprecedented collaboration with Duke University hopefully will pilot a way for other academic institutions to re-engage history and those who make it.”
The website is a product of a groundbreaking partnership among veteran civil rights activists of the SNCC Legacy Project, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, Duke University Libraries, and civil rights scholars. Wesley Hogan, director of the Center for Documentary Studies, who has written extensively about SNCC’s work and legacy explains, “The way we are working together—activists, archivists, and scholars—is a powerful new model. This project gives us a unique opportunity to understand the work of the local people who broke apart Jim Crow that would otherwise be lost to future generations.”
For more information, contact:
Wesley Hogan, Director, Center for Documentary Studies
(919) 660-3610
wesley.hogan@duke.edu
This spring Michael Peper and Melanie Sturgeon, two Duke science and engineering librarians, left Duke University Libraries to pursue other opportunities. We’re sad to lose these valued colleagues, but are thrilled to introduce two new staff members and some different roles for remaining staff. Please see below for our updated titles and responsibilities.
Elena Feinstein Head, Natural Sciences and Engineering Section Librarian for Biological Sciences
Elena has moved into a leadership role for the science and engineering librarians group, and she looks forward to continuing her work with the departments of Biology and Evolutionary Anthropology as well as other biologically focused programs.
Ciara Healy Librarian for Psychology & Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Physics
Ciara is thrilled about continuing her work with the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience and Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, and learning more about the needs of the Departments of Mathematics and Physics.
Janil Miller Librarian for Marine Science and Coordinator, Pearse Memorial Library at Duke Marine Laboratory
Janil will continue coordinating library services and collections at the Duke Marine Lab, serving the Nicholas School of the Environment’s Division of Marine Science & Conservation as well as other Marine Lab patrons.
Sarah Park Librarian for Engineering and Computer Science
Sarah joins Duke on July 18 as liaison to the Pratt School of Engineering and the Department of Computer Science. She has 15 years of experience as a science and engineering librarian, most recently at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In addition to her library science degrees, Sarah holds an M.S. in applied computer science.
Jodi Psoter Librarian for Chemistry and Statistical Science
Jodi joins Duke on August 14 as liaison to the Departments of Chemistry and Statistical Science. She has 15 years of experience as a science and engineering librarian, most recently at Williams College.
Brittany Wofford Coordinator for the Edge and Librarian for the Nicholas School of the Environment
Brittany will continue to coordinate services and spaces for The Edge research commons and will take on a new role as liaison to the Nicholas School of the Environment. Brittany has experience as the librarian for Cultural Anthropology, which will return to the care of librarian Linda Daniel.
If you’re ever in doubt about which of us to contact, we can all be reached at askscience@duke.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!
A weevil (family Curculionidae), one of many insects on display as part of the of the new Incredible Insects exhibit.
Incredible Insects: A Celebration of Insect Biology
On display June 13 – October 15, 2017
in the Chappell Family Gallery and Stone Family Gallery, Perkins and Rubenstein Libraries, Duke West Campus (Click for map)
Insects are the most numerous and diverse animals on earth. They can be found in almost every environment. Because of their tremendous diversity, they play many important roles in nature, as well as in human society—enchanting us with their beauty, unsettling us with their strangeness. Whether revered or reviled, these fascinating and ubiquitous organisms can truly be said to have conquered the planet.
A new library exhibit offers a glimpse into the multifaceted world of insects, including research on insects conducted here at Duke.
There are three times as many species of insects than all other animals (mammals, birds, fish reptiles, amphibians) combined. The number of individual insects is estimated to be in excess of a quintillion (that’s a 10 with 18 zeros behind it).
The exhibit is divided into several sections, including insect evolution and diversity, coloration and camouflage, types and stages of insect metamorphosis, the roles of insects in human history and culture, and a fascinating look at two of nature’s greatest mysteries: the migration of the monarch butterfly and the clockwork-like appearance of periodical cicadas.
Periodical cicadas are one of the most remarkable phenomena of nature. They suddenly appear in the millions every 13 or 17 years. Then they disappear as suddenly as they came,
Exhibit visitors can also hear sound recordings of insect calls at a nearby kiosk and see up-close images of insects taken with electron microscopes.
Around the corner from the Chappell Family Gallery, viewers can step inside the Rubenstein Library’s Stone Family Gallery and peruse several selections of rare books that complement the exhibit. The exhibit curators selected these works because they represent some of the earliest scientific investigations to discover general aspects of biology and natural history through the study of insects.
Image of a fly drawn by Robert Hooke in his Micrographia (1667), one of several rare historical volumes on entomology on display in the Stone Family Gallery.
Incredible Insects was curated by a team of entymology students, faculty and staff from the Duke biology department.
Are you in the library so often you’ve practically become a part of it yourself?
Join us as we celebrate National Library Week (April 9 – 15) and show off your love of the Libraries by being one for the books… literally!
Last year we celebrated National Library Week by asking people to #ThankALibrarian and tell us how a librarian had helped them recently (see video).
This year, we invite you to become a part of our amazing collections by making a “bookface” and participating in a video celebrating all of the resources the Duke Libraries have to offer!
We will be photographing bookfaces outside Perkins Library on Monday, April 10, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. and Lilly Library on Friday, April 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. We’ll also have fun celebratory buttons you can take with you!
Join us to help make this year’s National Library Week one for the books!
P.S. Look out for a Snapchat Geotag in Rubenstein, Perkins, Bostock, and Lilly and posts to our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts throughout the entire week!
Thanks for loving your library. You’re one for the books!
Counting what, you may ask? 30,000 DVDs in the Lilly Library!
Lilly Library celebrates the acquisition of our 30,000th DVD
Lilly DVD 30000
Lilly Library has a deep and rich collection of films, and as the films are continually ordered and catalogued, we became aware that we were nearing a milestone of 30,000 DVDs on our shelves. The very first DVD cataloged for Lilly Library was the French film, The Last Metro, and it marked the beginning of a highly regarded collection brimming with classic films, international and global films, serious documentaries and ever popular animated films.
Why The Princess Bride?
The inspiration on what to select as our 30,000th film came from our First-Year Library Advisory Board Group which suggested a “fun” film from 30 years ago. Films from 1987 such as Predator, Rain Man, Full Metal Jacket and Fatal Attraction didn’t quite “fit the bill”, but The Princess Bride emerged as a favorite, and most importantly – F U N!
To mark the acquisition of the 30,000th DVD in our collection, Lilly Library is sponsoring the following events:
Cake! Enjoy a special Twue Wuv Cake
Meet the people behind the scenes, the catalogers & staff involved in bringing this film, and other films to our library users.
Wednesday, March 29th at 10 a.m.
Where: Lilly Library Lobby For Duke Students: If your slice has the “Miracle Max Pill”, you win a prize!
Movie! The Princess Bride
When: Friday, March 31st at 8 p.m.
Where: Trinity Café, East Campus Union Refreshments provided – while they last
Sponsored by the East Campus Libraries – Lilly and Music –
and Devils After Dark
Inspired by the success of our Blind Date with a Book program, we are launching Collection Spotlight, a thematic pop-up display of materials in the New and Noteworthy section of Perkins Library near the service desk. Our first Collection Spotlight highlights the Trans Day of Visibility, celebrated on March 31 to draw attention to the lives and accomplishments of trans & gender-nonconforming people, as well as continuing challenges faced by the community. The Duke University Libraries actively collect fiction and nonfiction books, films, and other materials by transgender authors and about transgender issues. In addition to supporting the program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke and other interdisciplinary scholarship, these materials may reflect and validate the personal experiences and identities of our diverse student body and broader Duke community. Learn more about our LGBTQ collections.
Duke’s Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity also has a small lending library of books and DVDs, and offers social and support groups as well as trainings such as Trans 101. In recognition of this Trans Day of Visibility, the Center is hosting a performance of Mashuq Deen’s “Draw the Circle” (Friday, March 31 at 6:00 p.m. in White Lecture Hall), the story of a conservative Muslim mother at her wit’s end, a Muslim father who likes to tell jokes, and a queer American woman trying to make a good impression on her Indian in-laws, all performed by Deen himself. A Trans 101 training will be held on the afternoon of March 30 in advance of this event.
CAPTURING THE MOMENT: CENTURIES OF THE PASSOVER HAGGADAH
Opening Reception and Guest Speaker Professor Kalman Bland, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies
DATE: Wednesday, March 22 TIME: 5:30 p.m. WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library
Join us to celebrate the opening of a new exhibit of the Passover Haggadah, a Jewish text written for the Passover Seder meal. This exhibit explores the long and interesting history of the Haggadot (pl. of Haggadah) and how their illustrations and texts shed light on cultural, religious and political changes.
On display in the Jerry and Bruce Chappell Family Gallery (near the main entrance to Perkins Library) February 23 – June 11.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, entry from the 2014 contest
WHAT: Edible Book Festival
WHEN: Friday, March 31, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Perkins Library, Room 217
Girl with a Pearl Onion, entry from the 2012 contest
Calling all bibliophiles, foodies, pun aficionados, and spectators: Duke’s Edible Book Festival is seeking submissions for its annual contest on March 31.
The Edible Book Festival is an international event started in 1999 that invites people to share “bookish foods” and to celebrate the literal and figurative ingestion of culture.
Duke’s festival is sponsored by Duke University Libraries and will take place on Friday, March 31, 1:00-3:00 p.m. in Perkins Library Room 217.
The event features a contest of edible books, voting for favorite entries, and prizes for winners. Contestants and attendees are also invited to to bring gently used books to donate to a drive for Book Harvest, a nonprofit organization that provides books to local children in need.
To Stir, with Love, entry from the 2014 contest
To participate, individuals are asked to submit edible art that has something to do with books as shapes or content. Prizes will be awarded for Most Edible, Least Edible, Punniest, and Best in Show.
The festival is open to all Duke faculty, staff, students and the general public. Entries should be delivered to Perkins 217 between 12:00 and 12:30 p.m. the day of the event.
Since 1947, the Duke University Libraries have presented the Prize for Book Collecting in alternating years to promote the development of students’ personal libraries.
Members of the public are invited to a showing at which undergraduate and graduate student competitors will have selections from their personal collections on display and will answer any questions about the works they collect.
The contest is named for Dr. Andrew T. Nadell M’74, who began collecting rare books when he was a student at Duke. The contest is open to all students regularly enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate/professional degree program at Duke. Winners of our contest will be eligible to enter the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, where they will compete for a $2,500 prize and an invitation to the awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
This workshop will discuss the burgeoning phenomena of article retractions in the scientific and social scientific literature. No one plans to have an article retracted, so we will cover what to do to avoid a retraction and language the existing editorial literature can offer if you do find yourself dealing with a retraction as an author or one of a group of authors.
We will look at retraction notices, notices of withdrawal, errata, statements of editorial concern and other forms of announcement and notification used in journals. Participants will also learn how to find actual notices of retraction, where in databases and journals these statements may reside and how to decipher some of the coded language around articles that are in the process of being withdrawn.
Are you stuck in a reading rut? Is your desire for abstraction not getting any action?
This Valentine’s Day, spice up your reading life and take home a one-night stand for your nightstand.
Check out our Blind Date with a Book display February 9-17 in Perkins Library next to the New and Noteworthy section.
Our librarians have hand-picked some of their all-time favorite literary crushes. Trust us. Librarians are the professional matchmakers of the book world. If these titles were on Tinder, we’d swipe right on every one. (Not that you should ever judge a book by its cover.)
Each book comes wrapped in brown paper with a come-hither teaser to pique your interest. Will you get fiction or nonfiction? Short stories or travelogue? Memoir or thriller? You won’t know until you “get between the covers,” if you know what we mean.
Not looking for commitment? No problem. Let us hook you up with a 100-page quickie.
Or maybe you’re the type who likes it long and intense? Here’s a little somethin-somethin that will keep you up all night for weeks. Aw, yeah.
Either way, be sure to let us know what you think. Each book comes with a “Rate Your Date” card. Use it as a bookmark. Then drop it in our Blind Date with a Book box when you return your book to Perkins. You’ll be entered to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
So treat your pretty little self to a mystery date. Who knows? You might just fall in love with a new favorite writer!
When: Friday, March 3, 2017 Time: 9:00 p.m. to Midnight Where: Perkins and Bostock Libraries, 1st Floor Admission: Free Dress: Semi-Formal Attire, or Dress as Your Favorite Mystery Character
The Library Party is a unique Duke tradition. For one night only, Perkins and Bostock Libraries throw open their doors for a night of music, food, and un-shushed entertainment. The event is free and open to the entire Duke community.
After a couple of years on hiatus, the Library Party is back! Once again, the Libraries are partnering with the Duke Marketing Club to organize this year’s event. The theme—“Mystery in the Stacks”—is inspired by classic works of mystery and detective fiction.
The event will feature live music, costumes, decorations, food and beverages, and plenty of mystery!
Senior Toast at 10:30 p.m. Join us in von der Heyden for a special champagne toast to the Duke Class of 2017, with remarks by Senior Class President Kavita Jain.
Keep the Mystery Going The Library Party will be followed by a Freewater Presentations screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in Griffith Theater at 12:15 a.m.
Many thanks to our not-so-mysterious co-sponsors: the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Markets & Management Studies, Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, and Duke Student Government.
Have you ever gone to the library motivated and ready to work, but you just can’t get settled in? Instead, you’ve found yourself having a complete “Goldilocks” moment. Either the person next to you is distracting with their chit chat and loud snacking or you just can’t “bear” the thought of sitting silently in a desk after a long day of cramped classrooms and long lectures.
Well, worry no more! The Libraries has solutions to all of your study space problems. With a diverse mix of study rooms for any occasion and fun desk-alternatives, Duke Libraries has just what you need to make your studying fit “just right.”
Who needs Wilson Gym?
Fit-Desks are located on the first floor of Perkins. They have space to position your laptop and reading material and are attached to an exercise bike. Peddling away, you can add some extra energize your studying and even burn some calories!
“Stand-Up” to mundane tables and chairs!
Standing Desks travel their way around Perkins and Bostock, but can usually be spotted in the Edge. They are perfect for days when you want to work, but you just can’t “stand” the thought of sitting.
Shhhhhh…I’m finally being productive!
Quiet and Food Free-Space can be found throughout the Libraries. From the Gothic Reading Room in Rubenstein to the Carpenter Reading Room on 3rd-floor Bostock, there is plenty of space available for you to get in the zone without distraction, and with a great view too!
Neutral background? Perfect for skype interview
Interview Rooms on first-floor Perkins are available for reservation online. They are equipped with a desk and a land-line interview so nothing (not a noisy roommate or bad connection) can come between you and your dream internship!
Want to get a study room? Answer: always yes!
Reservable Study Rooms make up a huge part of our available study space and are scattered around the halls of the Libraries. From simple desks to full whiteboard and projectors, make sure to reserve online ahead of time and secure you and your group the exact space you need.
A dedicated space just for our hard-working grad students.
The Graduate Student Reading Room is located on the 2nd floor of Perkins, next to the Staff Lounge. With seating for 14 people, it is set aside for the use of any graduate and professional school students at Duke. Stop by the Perkins Library Service Desk to the get the code for the keypad.
Finals getting to you? One student’s note puts things in perspective
Mindfulness, anyone?
Who hasn’t heard or read that coloring reduces stress? There is evidence that even a short coloring or craft session helps to improve focus and spur creativity.1 In fact, at Lilly Library we are aware of this effect, so for the past several years we’ve offered Duke students the LillyRelaxation Station. Located in our first floor training room, the Relaxation Station provides games, crafts, puzzles, coloring, and markers for whiteboards so that students may take a moment (or two) to relax and recharge their gray matter!
Students created and shared origami
What: Lilly Relaxation Station
When: Tuesday, December 13ththrough Sunday December 18th
Duke Students are invited to drop in, “take a moment” (or however much time they wish – no pressure!) and enjoy themselves during Finals Week.
Check out the Lilly Facebook page for event details. Additionally, Lilly partners with Devils After Dark to offer snacks on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, at 8 p.m. in the Lilly foyer.
On a “final” note, sure to check out Duke Libraries’ helpful End of Semester Survival Guidefor lots of tips and information to get you through exams.
Good News! It’s time for a study bark! I mean, break.
Wednesday, December 14, Puppies in Perkins will be back! Puppies, wagging tails, and snuggles for all. From 12 pm-3 pm in Perkins 217 therapy dogs will be in the library to soothe all your finals woes and give you the cuddles you so richly deserve. There will also be fun, finals-themed button-making! Come take a study break and meet and greet the cutest pups on campus!
“Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow.” –Gerald Vaughan
What: Writing and research help, finals prep, de-stressing, & snacks! Where: The Edge When: Tuesday, December 6, 7:00-11:00 pm
T-minus two weeks until finals are upon us! Don’t let final papers, presentations, and exams sneak up on you. Duke University’s Long Night Against Procrastination is a night set apart for maximum productivity–an evening you can devote to studying, snacks, and staying on stop of everything on your to-do list.
Staff from the Libraries, the TWP Writing Studio, and the Academic Resource Center will all be on hand to help with research and writing assistance. Whether it’s finding that last source for your research paper or polishing up your final essay, the LNAP staff can help you tackle those assignments that have you feeling stuck. You can even track your study progress and pick up free study materials throughout the evening. Also, tutors for Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 will be on hand from 8:00-11:-00 pm!
There will also be stress-relieving activities including coloring, button-making, and relaxation stations for when you need a short brain break. And, of course, there will be plenty of snacks and coffee to feed your productivity. Please help us make the event green by bringing your own coffee mugs and water bottles. Come out for a Long Night Against Procrastination to tackle your problem sets, papers, and study sessions and conquer your finals week!
Sponsored by Duke University Libraries, the TWP Writing Studio, the Academic Resource Center, and the Duke Student Wellness Center
Refreshments provided by Saladelia, Pepsi, Duke University Campus Club, and Friends of the Duke University Libraries
The latest installment in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) series highlighting digital scholarship support at ARL member libraries features the work of the Duke University Libraries.
The Duke University profile, written by ARL visiting program officer Catherine Davidson, presents a brief history of the evolution of digital scholarship support at the university, highlighting The Edge: The Ruppert Commons for Research, Technology, and Collaboration.
This profile includes information about staffing, workspaces, programming, services, and collaboration, and concludes with a brief discussion of how the Duke University Libraries are looking to the future to expand connections through “scholarly engagement platforms,” such as The Edge.
Four established projects are featured in the profile:
Project Vox: an online resource and international research initiative that aims to restore the voices of early modern women philosophers through traditional and digital publishing efforts
Sonic Dictionary: a collection of recordings curated by students from Duke and other collaborating institutions, developed to fill a gap in audio culture resources
MorphoSource: an open data archive of 3-D images of skeletal specimens contributed by registered users.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is announcing a data visualization challenge focused on a rich dataset describing research activity and output of Duke researchers. The datasets are from Scholars@Duke and they describe publications, authorships, and scholarly collaborations from university researchers.
The challenge. Create visualizations to capture the richness and dynamism of Duke research. Envisioning Duke Research | Visualizing Scholars@Duke
The dataset encompasses bibliographical information and abstracts, publication venue (including journals and conferences), and a co-authorship network. More information can be obtained on the Scholars@Duke website.
In order to participate in the challenge, simply download the data and indicate your intent to submit visualization by midnight on Sunday, January 15, 2017. The visualization will be presented at a poster session on January 19 and at the Duke Research Computing Symposium on January 20.
First prize is $500, second prize is $250, and third prize will be awarded $100. Judges of the posters are experts in data analysis and visualization in the Duke community. All are invited to participate in this amazing opportunity to showcase skills in data visualization!
To help Duke University students, staff, and faculty protect their personal property such as laptops, iPhones, and iPads, the Duke University Police Department will be offering free engraving services in Perkins Library on Thursday, November 17.
Items are engraved with the owner’s name and other ID information to deter theft and help track owners when stolen items are recovered. Pawn shops will not accept items that are engraved with the owner’s information.
The engraving takes only 5 minutes and is free of charge.
What to bring:
Duke ID
Driver’s license
Laptops, smart phones, personal electronics
Anything else you want engraved!
For more information, contact Officer Kelly George with the Duke Police Department: 919-684-2444.
Inspired by the heroic efforts of Duke EMS students to successfully save a professor who underwent cardiac arrest in the Link last year, four new automated external defibrillators (AEDs) have been installed throughout Perkins and Rubenstein Libraries.
The AEDs are now active and ready to be deployed in case of emergency. Instructions on how to operate the devices are available at each location. The locations are as follows:
1st Floor, Rubenstein Library: Between the women’s restroom and the elevator
3rd Floor, Rubenstein Library: Between the women’s restroom and the elevator
Lower Level 1, Perkins Library: The Link, next to Fish Staircase
3rd Floor, Perkins Library: Next to Fish Staircase
Upon opening the AED wall box, an audible alarm will sound alerting personnel in the area that the AED was removed.
Through these installations, we hope to improve safety and emergency response time for everyone who works and studies in the Duke University Libraries.
Congratulations to the Library Research and Writing Award Winners!
The Duke University Libraries are pleased to announce the 2015/2016 winners of the libraries’ research and writing awards. The Aptman Prize, the Holsti Prize, and the Middlesworth Awards are granted to students whose research demonstrates excellence in the use of sources from the Libraries’ general collections, collections based in political science or public policy, and the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, respectively. The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award is given in recognition of outstanding works of creative writing by undergraduate students.
This year’s winners are as follows:
Aptman Prize
Honor Thesis Prize: David Monroe
Third/Fourth-Year Prize: Alexandria Miller
First/Second-Year Prize: Jack Dolgin
Holsti Prize
Course Paper Prize: Matthew King
Honor Thesis Prize: Michael Pelle
Middlesworth Awards
Cord Peters
Dante Cordaro & Charles Miller
Rosati Creative Writing Award
Catherine Faye Goodwin
Jamie McGhee
We will be celebrating their achievements at an awards reception on Thursday, November 3rd, from 3:30-4:30 in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room. All are invited for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.
Detail from Latin MS No. 8, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
As bookbagging classes for the Spring semester commences, we are excited to announce the next wave of Archives Alive courses offered for Duke undergraduates. These courses are aimed at enabling students to develop innovative and significant projects based on original materials held in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
As opposed to traditional offerings, Archives Alive courses provide students with weekly opportunities to conduct “hands-on” explorations into the rich and varied collections of rare print, manuscript, photographic, and audio materials. Students gain first-hand exposure to advanced research techniques in the new classroom space of the Rubenstein Library.
This upcoming semester, the Rubenstein Library will host two engaging courses that debuted last year. “History of the Book,” a phenomenally successful course on written text in its earliest forms through the 21st century, has been described by students as “thrilling,” “awesome,” and “engaging.” Another course dealing with recording technology, music, local history, and digital tools, “NC Jukebox,” has students raving about the hands-on explorations into century-old correspondence and audio recordings.
These classes for Spring 2017 are listed as follows:
Topics in Digital History & Humanities: NC Jukebox
HISTORY 390S-1/ISS 390S/MUSIC 290S-1
Curriculum Codes: ALP, CZ, R
Thursday 10:05-12:30
Instructors: Trudi Abel/Victoria Szabo
History of the Book
CLST 360/MEDREN 346/ISS 360/HISTORY 367
Curriculum Code: ALP
MW 3:05-4:20. Rubenstein Library 150
Instructor: Clare Woods
What: Opening of 50 Years of Lemurs at Duke exhibit
When: Thursday, October 27, 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Where: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein 153) and Chappell Family Gallery (map)
Who: Free and open to the public
The Duke Lemur Center and the Duke University Libraries will debut a new exhibit in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Lemur Center, home to the world’s largest and most diverse collection of lemurs – Earth’s most threatened group of mammals – outside of Madagascar.
A public event celebrating the opening of the exhibit will take place on Thursday, October 27, from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.
The event will include short introductory remarks by Anne Yoder, Director of the Lemur Center, followed by a drop-in reception with light refreshments to view 50 Years of Lemurs at Duke,an exhibition curated by Lemur Center staff. The exhibition explores different facets of the Center, including ways in which it has worked to support research, both locally and around the world, for half of a century.
Most importantly, the exhibit will feature the true stars of the center: the lemurs! Guests will have the opportunity to admire these honorary mascots of the university in both pictures and on film. Members of the Lemur Center staff will be available to answer questions and share stories.
The event is free and open to the public and all are welcome to join in celebrating a semicentennial era of lemurs at Duke!
The Duke University Libraries are offering $250 to faculty who are interested in learning about open educational resources for the courses they teach. Details below.
What are open educational resources (OERs)?
Open educational resources are teaching and learning materials that are free. Unlike traditional textbooks or course packets that students must purchase every semester, OERs are released under an open license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. OERs can include textbooks, full courses, lesson plans, videos, tests, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports free access to knowledge.
What is the Duke University Libraries OER Review Project?
The OER Review Project is a collaborative effort of the Duke Endowment Libraries, which includes all libraries at institutions supported by the Duke Endowment—Duke, Davidson College, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University. Faculty at all four schools are being offered $250 stipends to review OERs for potential use in their courses. (Limit 10 stipends per university.)
How does the program work?
Meet with a library staff member to learn more about OERs and select OERs to review.
Review each of your OERs by a determined date. We supply the review form.
Fill out a short survey about participating in the program.
10 lucky faculty members will get $250!
Who can participate?
All Duke faculty members. We’re interested in working with faculty from a variety of schools and academic programs. To learn more, please contact:
Haley Walton
Outreach Coordinator for Open Access
haley.walton@duke.edu
Kim Duckett
Head of Research and Instructional Services
kim.duckett@duke.edu
What: Opening of Franklin Gallery When: Wednesday, October 19, 4:30-6:30 p.m. Where: Carr Building, East Campus (map) Who: Free and Open to the Public
A new exhibit space on Duke’s East Campus will debut this month with a display of historical visual materials from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
The Franklin Gallery, named in honor of legendary historian and Duke professor John Hope Franklin, is located in the Carr Building, home of Duke’s history department. The new space will be devoted to displaying visual materials of historical importance.
A public event celebrating the opening of the new gallery space will take place on Wednesday, October 19, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Two of the inaugural exhibits in the Franklin Gallery will feature items from important collections in the Rubenstein Library. John Gartrell, Director of the Rubenstein Library’s John Hope Franklin Research Center, has curated one of them. “John Hope Franklin: Imprint of an American Scholar” features photographs and related materials that illustrate Professor Franklin’s impact as a scholar and public intellectual.
Duke History Professor Sucheta Mazumdar has prepared another exhibit, displaying Chinese posters from the Rubenstein Library’s collections that portray the period of the Cultural Revolution. These posters, such as the one below, feature themes of solidarity among races and classes in society.
A poster from the exhibit “Building Solidarity: Themes in Chinese Cultural Revolution Poster Art”
Throughout the year, the Franklin Gallery will be open during the Carr Building’s normal hours. The opening event on October 19 is free and open to the public.
Post contributed by Carson Holloway, Librarian for History of Science and Technology, Military History, British and Irish Studies, Canadian Studies and General History.
In case you can’t get enough of politics in this election cycle, Lilly Library’s exhibit Reel Politics: Focus on Elections highlights the wide range of political or politically themed films in our collections. Duke students, staff and faculty can “write-in” their favorite film or choose from some of the titles represented.
Veep Lilly DVD 26598Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Lilly DVD 605
The American political process and environment are explored, celebrated and, yes, deplored in all genres of film and television programs: romances, satires, and searing dramas, cynical and sometimes insightful documentaries. Films available in the Lilly Library collections include classics such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington or its cynical counterpart, The Candidate, idealized romances such as The American President, comedies such as Election, and documentaries such as Weiner or The War Room. Television series also portray the American political scene in a variety of ways – what starker contrast in depictions of the Presidency can be found than between that of The West Wing and the recent series, House of Cards?
What are the bestfilms , documentaries and television series about American elections? The films and television series in the exhibit represent just a very few of the hundreds of films and series about American elections and politics that the library offers. Explore the possibilities with a search of our library catalogue, peruse the Lilly Video Spotlight on Political Documentaries, and remember, just like the candidates, films have their champions and detractors.
In keeping with the season, perhaps you can conduct your own poll!
Reel Politics: Focus on Elections Exhibit on display through October Lilly Library foyer
The treasures of Duke’s branch libraries are often hidden. The circulating collections and services of these smaller libraries often claim the pride of place. Both libraries on East Campus, Lilly Library and Music Library, however, hold precious material relating to their subject collections. Known in the library world as “medium rare” (as opposed to the rare materials located in the David M. Rubenstein Library) such primary source materials allow students to examine history first hand.
This fall the Lilly Library added a lobby display case to highlight its unique collections. The inaugural display is one volume of our three-volume Vitruvius Britannicus, a large and early folio devoted to the great buildings of England to be seen in 1717.
Vitruvius Britannicus
An outstanding example of a folio (book) format as well as the awakening of interest in British architecture by its own architects – quoting from the Oxford Art Online – Vitruvius Britannicus was a cooperative venture that appears to have developed out of the desire of a group of booksellers to capitalize on an already established taste for topographical illustration.
Published in 1715 and 1717, the two original volumes each consisted of 100 large folio plates of plans, elevations and sections chiefly illustrating contemporary secular buildings. Many of these plates provided lavish illustration of the best-known houses of the day, such as Chatsworth, Derbys, or Blenheim Palace, Oxon, intended to appeal to the widespread desire for prints of such buildings as well as providing their architects a chance to publicize their current work.
We invite you to visit the Lilly Library on East Campus and to enjoy this “medium rare” folio on exhibit. For more information about the Lilly Library folio or art and image collections, contact Lee Sorensen, the Librarian for Visual Studies.
Members of all faiths are welcome to use the new Prayer and Meditation Room in Perkins Library.
With the fall semester now well under way, we thought this would be a good time to remind our hard-working students and faculty that the library is not just for studying. Earlier this year, in response to student requests, the Libraries opened a space on the second floor of Perkins specifically dedicated to prayer and meditation.
The Prayer and Meditation Room is available for students and faculty of all faiths. The room is a shared space open to all members of the Duke community to use either individually or in groups.
Room 220 in Perkins Library is located near the open study area with wooden carrels on the library’s second floor. (See map below.)
The Prayer and Meditation Room is located in Room 220 on the 2nd Floor of Perkins Library.
Anyone who wishes to use the space is asked to follow a few simple guidelines:
Prayer or meditation does not necessarily need to be silent, but it should be quiet enough not to disturb anyone studying in adjacent areas or rooms.
The Prayer and Meditation Room cannot be reserved and is not to be used for studying or for meetings.
If you use the room, please show respect toward others who use it. Keep the room clean, take your personal belongings with you when you leave, and do not sleep or bring food into the space.
We welcome members of all faiths who study and work in the library to use and enjoy this space!
Never let this sight ruin your study session again! Phone and laptop chargers available in Perkins and Lilly Libraries
With the semester halfway over, the library has become practically your second home. You’ve loaded up your textbooks, grabbed a coffee, and settled into “the perfect study spot.”
You’re halfway through writing an essay, when you realize your laptop only has 5% battery left. You scramble through your backpack, but no luck. You forgot your charger… again.
No worries! Perkins and Lilly Library now have a variety of chargers that students can check out to get you right back into your study zone.
Chargers are available at the Link Help Desk in Perkins or at the service desk in Lilly. Each charger can be checked out for three hours, plenty of time to recharge your battery and finish that paper. Below is the list of chargers that are now available:
Dell 90W AC Adapter
OB46994 Lenovo 90W AC Adapter (Slim Tip) for T440 series and current Lenovo laptops
Apple 80W MagSafe for earlier model laptops
Apple 80W MagSafe2 for current model laptops
Multiuse phone charger compatible with new and older model iPhones, along with a micro USB, compatible with most Android phones
So if you are need of a quick recharge, be sure to swing by the Link Help Desk in Perkins or the service desk at Lilly, and never let a forgotten charger ruin your perfect study session again!
Exhibits in the Mary Duke Biddle Room (shown here) in the Rubenstein Library will be open on Saturday for Duke Homecoming weekend.
The Rubenstein Library exhibit suite (Mary Duke Biddle Room, Stone Family Gallery, and Josiah C. Trent History of Medicine Room) will all be open on Saturday, October 1, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., for Duke Homecoming weekend.
Library visitors can see Virginia Woolf’s writing desk, a copy of the Bay Psalm Book (first book printed in what is now the United States), two of our double-elephant folios of Audubon’s Birds of America, and many other treasures from the Rubenstein Library.
Durham School of the Arts students tour the abandoned prison in Wagram, NC, which the nonprofit organization GrowingChange is hoping to flip into a sustainable farm and education center.
The Duke University Libraries have received a $52,647 grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board to help transform an abandoned prison into a sustainable farm and education center through the magic of virtual reality.
“It’s not easy to visualize how an abandoned and unused prison can be repurposed to help a struggling community,” said David Stein, Duke PepsiCo Education Technology Partnership Coordinator and principal investigator for the project. “We are ‘shackled’ by our preconceived notions of what prisons can be.”
The prison in question is an actual former correctional facility in rural Wagram, in one of the poorest counties in North Carolina with one of the state’s highest unemployment rates. The idea to “flip” the abandoned site into a sustainable farm is the mission of GrowingChange, a North Carolina nonprofit led by a team of formerly incarcerated youth.
GrowingChange gives young people in the criminal justice system job training and life skills through farming and service learning. Their goal is to create as a national model for reusing closed prisons.
Eight high school students in the Game Art & Design concentration at the Durham School of the Arts, working under veteran teacher Robert Bourgeois, will work with youth participants in GrowingChange to design a virtual reality version of the flipped prison, in order to help people visualize the site’s untapped potential. Jail cells will be transformed into aquaponics tanks, guard towers into climbing walls, the galley into a certified community kitchen, and the old “hot box” will become a recording studio.
In recent years, virtual reality technology has been rapidly transforming industries from journalism to documentary filmmaking by providing audiences 360-degree sensory experiences that are hard to forget. The grant will support the development and design of the virtual reality program, which GrowingChange can use to better communicate its vision.
Training and technical support in virtual reality content production will be provided throughout the project by the Virtual Reality Learning Experience (VRLE), an educational outreach and advocacy arm of Durham’s Lucid Dream, a virtual reality production studio based in the American Underground technology incubator. “This is exactly the sort of transformational story that cannot be sufficiently conveyed using traditional mediums like video and web,” said Mike McArdle, co-founder at Lucid Dream/VRLE. “This project is perfectly suited for the sort of immersive and visceral experience that VR enables.”
Students try out virtual reality technology at the American Underground offices of Lucid Dream, a virtual reality production company in Durham.
According to GrowingChange director Noran Sanford, “Just as our youth leaders have re-visualized their life, virtual reality allows them to share a new vision for Scotland, Hoke and Robeson Counties, home of North Carolina’s highest unemployment, poverty, and violent crime rates and the worst health outcomes. Classrooms, state leaders, and supporters touring a traveling museum exhibit will be able to walk along the top of the front guard tower and see the future vision of it becoming a climbing wall and repelling station. Through this process, our community will be able to re-visualize how youth from tough circumstances can become the leaders to help us change our grim statistics.”
The grant will be administered through the PepsiCo K-12 Technology Mentor Program, a partnership between the Duke University Libraries and Duke’s Office of Durham and Regional Affairs. The program, endowed by a grant from PepsiCo, encourages the use of educational technology in Durham Public Schools.
GrowingChange hopes that the Wagram prison will become a national model for reusing closed prisons.
The grant is one of 63 service-learning, youth-led projects across the United States to receive funding this year by the State Farm Youth Advisory Board. Since its inception in 2006, the State Farm Youth Advisory Board has granted over $40 million, impacting over 21.5 million students.
“State Farm supports service-learning because it integrates service to the community into classroom curriculum using a hands-on approach to mastering subject material while fostering civic responsibility,” said Kim Conyers, Community Specialist for North Carolina. “The State Farm Youth Advisory Board is a prime example of State Farm’s commitment to education, our community and our youth.”
Media Contacts:
State Farm: Michal Brower, media spokesperson for North Carolina, 863-318-3088
Duke University Libraries: Aaron Welborn, director of communications, 919-660-5816
GrowingChange: Noran Sanford, 910-280-4150
Durham School of the Arts: Robert Bourgeois, 919-560-3926, ext. 23489
The Edge is happy to announce a new programming series for the 2016-2017 academic year focused on the theme of “OPEN.” The rise of digital tools and online services expand the possibilities for collaborative research, scholarly publishing, and new forms of scholarship. This year’s OPEN series considers the academic, economic, social, and technical implications of embracing a variety of forms of open research.
Starting this semester (Fall 2016), the Duke University Libraries will be piloting a program to provide selected textbooks on 3-hour reserve in Perkins Library on West Campus. Some textbooks will also be available at Lilly Library on East Campus.
Included among the 300 items are textbooks for courses in Economics, Chemistry, Math, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. The books have been selected based on orders placed with the Duke Textbook Store by departments and faculty.
Please note:Textbooks on reserve are not intended to take the place of students purchasing textbooks for their courses. Due to budget limitations, the Libraries are unable to purchase textbooks for every course at Duke.
Circulation numbers will be reviewed to determine if this pilot program is valued and should be extended.
For questions related to textbook reserves at Perkins Library, please contact: perkins-reserves@duke.edu.
For questions related to textbook reserves at Lilly Library, please contact: lilly-requests@duke.edu
Members of these advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.
The boards will typically meet four times a semester to discuss all aspects of Duke Libraries and provide feedback to library staff. This is an amazing opportunity for students to serve on the advisory board of a large, nationally recognized non-profit organization.
All three advisory boards are now taking applications or nominations. Application deadlines are:
Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and the Undergraduate Advisory Board will be selected and notified by mid-September, and groups will begin to meet in late September. More information is available on our website, where you will also find links to the online applications forms.
For more information or questions about these opportunities, please contact:
The Richard and Nancy Riess Graduate Student Reading Room is located on the 2nd floor of Perkins Library in Room 211, next to the Staff Lounge.
With the start of a new academic year upon us, we thought this would be a good time to remind our hard-working graduate students that we have a dedicated library reading room just for them.
The Richard and Nancy Riess Graduate Student Reading Room is reserved for Duke University graduate students only. With seating for 14 people, it is located on the 2nd floor of Perkins Library in Room 211, next door to the library Staff Lounge. (See map below.)
The reading room is accessible by using a keypad on the door. To get the code, simply stop by the Library Service Desk on the main floor of Perkins Library, show us your Duke ID to verify your graduate student status, and fill out a short form.
Access to the Riess Graduate Student Reading Room is available to all graduate and professional school students throughout the university. We encourage you to stop by the Library Service Desk for the reading room code.
Learn to “swim” – and to keep swimming – in the Libraries!
The Libraries welcome the newest Blue Devils
On East Campus, after students settle in and begin classes, the Lilly Library and Duke Music Library offer several ways for the newest Blue Devils to learn and benefit from the incredible resources of the Duke Libraries. Lilly and Music sponsor Library Orientation events – including a film on the East Campus Quad and an Open House to introduce students to library services and collections. In recent years, students ventured into a library-themed Jurassic Park, played The Library Games, and were wowed by theIncredibles and our libraries’ super powers. This year, the Class of 2020 will explore the power of discovery and the rewards of research, and learn to “keep swimming” in our resources when they …
Dive Into the Libraries
Schedule of Library Orientation Events for Fall Semester 2016
After the excitement of the beginning of the new semester subsides, the Duke University Libraries continue to reach out to our students, always ready to offer research support and access to resources in support of their scholarly needs.
Here’s to a great fall semester!
Keep swimming! And, remember – we’re available to help you “keep searching”!
Thanks to Devils After Dark for partnering
with the East Campus Libraries for our orientation events.
… What are the libraries’ hours? … How do I find a book? … Who can help me with research? … Where can I print?*
Duke University’s newest students will find the answers to these questions (and more!) on the Library’s First-Year Library Servicesportal page.
Lilly Library on East Campus
Each August, a new class of undergraduates arrives in Durham ready to immerse themselves in the Duke Community. Duke University Libraries serve as the core of intellectual life on campus. Because East Campus is home to the First-Year students, Lillyand Music Libraries have the unique opportunity to introduce our newest “Dukies” to the array of Library resources and research services available.
To help navigate the vast library resources, there is a portal especially for First-Year Students. Through this portal page, new students (and even some not-so-new) can discover all that the Duke University Libraries offer:
A message from Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Every library book is like a little gift to someone. We never know who will find it or what difference it will make in their life. But in a library of millions of volumes, all those little gifts add up to something truly big.
The same is true for your gift to the Duke University Libraries.
As you see in the charts below, more than 2,000 people make a gift to the Libraries Annual Fund every year. That includes you and me. More than half of those gifts are $100 or less, and many of them come from repeat donors. Together, however, they add up to more than $2.6 million in unrestricted support over the past three years!
Libraries Annual Fund DonorsLibraries Annual Fund Cash
Unrestricted giving has enabled the Libraries to do some spectacular things. It has allowed us to build world-class collections and implement innovative programs, particularly for undergraduates. In fact, the Libraries are partners in research for students from the moment they step on campus until long after they’ve graduated.
Here are just a few of the things we’re able to do with support from the Libraries Annual Fund.
Every gift counts and every gift makes a difference! Thank you for joining me in supporting the Libraries Annual Fund. Together, we are making a real difference in the Duke community.
Exhibits in the Trent History of Medicine Room (shown here), Mary Duke Biddle Room, and Stone Family Gallery in the Rubenstein Library will all be open on Saturday for Duke Commencement weekend.
The Rubenstein Library exhibit suite (Mary Duke Biddle Room, Stone Family Gallery, and Josiah C. Trent History of Medicine Room) will all be open on Saturday, May 14, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., for Duke Commencement weekend.
Library visitors can see Virginia Woolf’s writing desk, a copy of the Bay Psalm Book (first book printed in what is now the United States), our double-elephant folios of Audubon’s Birds of America, and many other treasures from the Rubenstein Library.
As finals loom ahead, Lilly Library is here to help the sailing go as smoothly as possible.
For those of you looking to study all hours of the night and day, Lilly is now open 24/7 beginning Thursday, April 28 at 8 a.m. and closing 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 7.
Join us for our Study Break at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 2 for beverages and lots of snacks, both healthy (fruit and veggies) and the kind you really want to eat (cookies, brownies and the like).
Puzzles, games and more await for a “Brain Break” in the Relaxation Station in Lilly’s Training Room
And a Lilly tradition for the past several years–the Relaxation Station–is back, opening on Tuesday, May 3 and running through the end of exams on Saturday. The Relaxation Station offers games, puzzles, coloring and crafts so that students may take a moment (or two) to relax and recharge their gray matter!
Finally, Lilly Library is partnering with Devils After Dark to offer snacks on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, usually starting around 8 p.m. and in the Lilly foyer.
If studying for finals has you feeling a little overwhelmed…
What is this? Did we learn this? Is it even in English?
Good News! It’s time for a study break.
Tuesday May 3rd, Puppies in Perkins will be back! Puppies, wagging tails, and snuggles for all. From 1 pm-4 pm in Perkins 217 therapy dogs will be in the library to soothe all your finals woes and give you the cuddles you so richly deserve. Come take a study break and meet and greet the cutest pups on campus!
Your friendly neighborhood puppies are ready to help you study! Or at the very least chew on you pen.
WHAT: Talk and Q&A with French writer and journalist Philippe Lançon
WHEN: Wednesday, April 20, 5:00 p.m.
WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library Room 153
Reception to follow.
French writer and journalist, Philippe Lançon, will speak at Duke University on the vital force of reading and writing in the face of terror attacks.
His talk, “Comment lire et écrire après un attentat (How to read and write in the wake of an attack),” will be in French with an English synopsis provided. The Q&A will also be conducted in English. A reception will follow.
Lançon will be speaking on a subject he knows all too well. A contributor to the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, he was participating in the editorial meeting the morning of the terrorist attack on January 7, 2015. He came out, injured, and ready to write again a week later.
Parisians rally at the Place de la Republique in support of the victims of the January 7, 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting. Photo by Olivier Ortelpa from Wikimedia Commons.
Lançon’s writing as a critic of literature and the arts is widely known and respected. For his work in Libération and XXI, he has won the Hennessy award as well as the Lagardère Journalist Award. Lançon has a particular interest in the fiction of Spanish America, especially Cuba.
Lançon is also the author of several novels and short stories, including L’élan (2011) and Les îles (2013), publishing playfully under a pseudonym as well.
In 2010, Lançon taught two courses on French literature and politics at Duke in the Department of Romance Studies. He first came to Duke as a Media Fellow in the Sanford School for Public Policy, now part of the Franklin Humanities Institute.
Earlier this year, Duke University Libraries conducted a survey to obtain feedback about the services and facilities we provide to our users. Lilly Library, on East Campus, was one area of focus within the broader survey.
Here is your opportunity to share your thoughts about ways to improve and enhance Lilly Library services, spaces, and resources in a one-hour moderated focus group. In particular, because Lilly Library is being considered for renovation in the near future, feedback from interested library users like you is a vital part of our planning process.
In return, we’ll feed you… Monuts, anyone?
Register for ONE of the sessions:
What: Focus Group I for Lilly Library
When: Tuesday, April 19th 5 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Where: East Union Lower Level Classroom 1 — Room 041
WHAT: International and Area Studies 25th Anniversary Celebration WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 4:00 p.m. WHERE: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library RECEPTION: Featuring a selection of food and drink from around the world
Join us as we commemorate the founding of the International and Area Studies (IAS) department of the Duke University Libraries with a reception featuring food and drink from around the world.
Remarks by Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Peter Lange, Thomas A. Langford University Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and former Duke University Provost
Faculty Roundtable Our program will feature five Duke faculty members in area studies discussing their teaching and research and how they have worked with library.
Laurent Dubois (Professor of History and Romance Languages, Director of the Forum for Scholars and Publics) is currently teaching a class on the Modern Caribbean using materials about Haiti recently acquired by the Rubenstein Library.
Guo-Juin Hong (Associate Professor, Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Program in Arts of the Moving Image) will talk about curating exhibits on the photography of Sidney D. Gamble and using video oral histories that are part of the Memory Project.
Timur Kuran (Professor of Economics and Political Science, Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies) will discuss how the social sciences are integrating area studies and facilitating interactions among scholars working on different parts of the world. His observations will focus on the benefits to the study of Islam and the Middle East.
Charmaine Royal (Associate Professor, African & African American Studies and Director, Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference) will talk about her research on the intersection of genetics/genomics and concepts of “race,” ancestry, ethnicity, and identity.
Sumathi Ramaswamy (Professor and Interim Chair, Department of History) will discuss using the tools of digital humanities to track the itineraries of the terrestrial globe in Mughal India.
Special Thanks to Our Co-Sponsors Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Duke University Center for International Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Duke University Middle East Studies Center, Office of Global Affairs
This year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, and people around the world are celebrating his life. You can check out some of the festivities happening in the UK on the Shakespeare400 website. Also, there are special performances and events at the Shakespeare Globe (I have to figure out a way to get there). Back here in the United States the Folger Library is getting in on the action with their The Wonder of Will program. Another thing not to be missed is the Shakespeare Documented online exhibit!
On Twitter scroll through #Shakespeare400 to see what people are talking about!
Locally check out some of the events taking place around Raleigh. It’s not too late to attend the Carolina Ballet’s performance of Macbeth. The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA is putting on a festival on April 23rd!
Here at the library we are celebrating in several ways. All this week we will be posting blog posts related to Shakespeare, using the hashtags #shakespeareeverywhere and #shakespeare400. Rubenstein will be featuring several Shakespeare related documents, including this document showing some of Whitman’s thoughts about Shakespeare. And of course this Friday the first hour (10-11) of Shakespeare Everywhere will be taking place in The Edge Workshop Room. They will then be moving over to the Hanes Iris Garden Amphitheater in Duke Gardens from 11:30-12:30, and then the LSRC Hall of Science Atrium from 1-2.
That’s the question we’re asking Duke students and faculty today—and every day this week.
It’s National Library Week (April 10-16), and we’re celebrating by asking people to #ThankALibrarian and tell us how a librarian has helped them.
Has a librarian helped you with a paper or research project recently? Or maybe someone helped you check out a book or a DVD? Or maybe someone came to one of your classes and taught you about a new tool or database?
If so, now’s your chance to say thanks! (We’ll only blush a little).
Look for groups of librarians all around campus (East and West) this week. We’ll be taking pictures, posting them on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts using the hashtag #ThankALibrarian.
Buttons!
You can also send us your own photo by downloading and printing this handy template. Write a message, take a photo, and post your photo with the hashtag #ThankALibrarian on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and tag us (@dukelibraries).
We’ll be giving away fun library buttons (because everyone loves buttons, right?). Plus you can enter a drawing to win one of our sweet Perkins-Bostock-Rubenstein library T-shirts.
You know you want one of these.
So if you see us out there, take a moment to stop and #ThankALibrarian!
What: Research + creativity on display, coffee and dessert Where: The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock 127) When: April 11, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
You’ve seen their projects around campus–come find out what these students are working on! Join us in The Edge for a series of lightning talks given by undergraduate students using the Innovation Co-Lab or The Edge to power their work. They will discuss their research work and future plans. The participating students are working on projects with:
Following the lightning talks and a panel Q&A, join presenters for a coffee and dessert reception to celebrate a successful semester. Student projects from the Innovation Studio will be on display in the Lounge during this time.
Interested in project space in The Edge next semester? We’re accepting applications for Summer or Fall 2016 semesters. Submit an application online or email us at edge@duke.edu for more information.
Learn more about the Innovation Co-Lab and their projects and programming: https://colab.duke.edu/.
This event is co-sponsored by the Innovation Co-Lab and Duke University Libraries.
A green devil in a stained glass window in the Chapel
A new exhibit focusing on the history and legacy of Duke Chapel is now on display in the Jerry and Bruce Chappell Family Gallery. The exhibit, which will be on display through June 19, opens wide the doors of the Chapel to reveal the stories within—from the origins of the stained glass windows to the legacy of student protest.
Duke Chapel is the most iconic building on West Campus, and it has a history as rich as its architectural grandeur. Over the past eight decades, Duke Chapel has celebrated thousands of services, welcomed millions of guests, and served as the preeminent icon for the university. The Chapel represents many things to many different people. Its varied roles, constituencies, and history allowed it to cultivate an atmosphere that welcomed world-renowned speakers and musicians while also providing space to express the emotions of life in the silence of a sacred space.
Students protesting South African apartheid outside Duke Chapel in 1985.
The story of Duke Chapel is not just the story of a building. It represents the story of a community and of the richly diverse group of people who have helped to shape the Chapel’s legacy—and who will ultimately shape its future.
The exhibit is co-curated by Andrew Klumpp D’14, former Visitor Relations Specialist at Duke University Chapel and current Ph. D. student in American Religious History at Southern Methodist University, with the assistance of Sara Blaine Clark D’09, Assistant Manager, Special Events, Duke University Chapel.
Palfrey is the author of “BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More than Ever in the Age of Google”
What: Lecture and Opening of the Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Archive When: Thursday, April 7, 5:00 p.m. Where: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library Reception to follow
Join the Duke University Libraries as we celebrate the opening of the Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Archive with a special lecture featuring educator and technology expert John Palfrey, distinguished authority on education and technology and author of BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google (Basic Books, 2015).
Palfrey is the Head of School at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Previously, Palfrey served as Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School and as the founding chairman of the Digital Public Library of America. He has written extensively on internet law, intellectual property, and the potential of new technologies to strengthen democracies locally and around the world.
Palfrey’s talk will be followed by a brief response by N. Katherine Hayles, James B. Duke Professor of Literature at Duke and author of numerous books, including How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (University of Chicago, 2012).
Sponsored by the Duke University Libraries, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Information Science + Studies Program, Information Initiative at Duke, Masters of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Studies Program, Center for Documentary Studies, Forum for Scholars and Publics, and the UNC School of Information and Library Science.
Head coach David Cutcliffe holds up the New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy after Duke defeated Indiana. Image by Duke Photography.
On Tuesday, March 1, Duke fans will get a chance to see the university’s latest athletic accolade up-close and in-person in Perkins Library.
The New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy will be on public display across from the first floor service desk from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.Visitors are invited to stop by, take a photo with the trophy, and meet members of the Duke football team and Duke Athletics staff.
Historical Duke football memorabilia from the Duke University Archives will also be displayed, including game programs from the 1942 Rose Bowl, 1945 Sugar Bowl, 1955 Orange Bowl, and 1961 Cotton Bowl. Legendary coach Eddie Cameron’s own scrapbook from the 1945 Sugar Bowl will also be on display, containing photographs, clippings, letters, and souvenirs.
The New Era Pinstripe Bowl trophy commemorates the Blue Devils’ historic win over Indiana University, 44-41, at Yankee Stadium, in one of the most dramatic games of the 2015 postseason.
The game gave Duke its first bowl victory since 1961.
So stop by the library, get a photo, and join us as we celebrate another historic Duke victory!
Related Pinstripe Bowl coverage from Duke Athletics
Members of all faiths are welcome to use the new Prayer and Meditation Room in the library.
In response to student requests, the Duke University Libraries are pleased to set aside a dedicated room on the second floor of Perkins Library for prayer and meditation.
Room 220 in Perkins Library is located near the open study area with wooden carrels on the library’s second floor. (See map below.) The room is a shared space open to all members of the Duke community to use either individually or in groups.
Anyone who wishes to use the space is asked to follow a few simple guidelines:
Prayer or meditation does not necessarily need to be silent, but it should be quiet enough not to disturb anyone studying in adjacent areas or rooms.
The Prayer and Meditation Room cannot be reserved and is not to be used for studying or for meetings.
If you use the room, please show respect toward others who use it. Keep the room clean, take your personal belongings with you when you leave, and do not sleep or bring food into the space.
We hope the room will be of use to members of all faiths who study and work in the library.
The Prayer and Meditation Room is located in Room 220 on the 2nd Floor of Perkins Library.
Duke University has received a $1.165 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the continued development of an open-source integrated library system.
Known as Kuali OLE (pronounced oh-LAY), for Open Library Environment, it is the first system designed by and for academic and research libraries to manage and deliver scholarly information. Three OLE Partners—Lehigh University, the University of Chicago, and SOAS at the University of London—have already implemented Kuali OLE in their library operations. The grant will support the further development, refinement, and adoption of the system by a broader group of public and private institutions.
Large research library systems manage and provide access to millions of books, journals, online resources, special collections, and other media. To do so, they rely on various commercial software products to handle the everyday work of ordering and paying for materials, cataloging them, loaning them to library patrons, and making disparate computer systems work together. These routine business functions are mission-critical for libraries, but the proprietary software that manages them can cost colleges and universities thousands or millions of dollars to license and maintain.
The goal of Kuali OLE is to replace some of the costly, inflexible systems many libraries currently rely on with an open-source, enterprise-level system that is freely available to libraries worldwide and supported by members of the library profession itself.
“The information environment has changed rapidly over the last few decades, but the technology of library management systems has not kept pace,” said Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs at Duke. “The development of OLE offers a welcome opportunity to design a system that is flexible, customizable, and nimble enough to meet the complex needs of today’s libraries and library users.”
The Open Library Environment has been in development, with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, since 2008. In that year, representatives from more than a dozen libraries convened at Duke to discuss a next-generation framework for managing library collections and resources—essentially a library system designed by and for librarians.
This grant from Mellon will support the next phase of OLE’s code development through December 2017 by strengthening the technical capacity of the Kuali OLE Core Team. This will enable OLE to respond and adapt to technical infrastructure changes. It will also allow for increased functionality and features for successful implementation at the other partner libraries, including Duke, Cornell, Indiana University, Texas A&M University, North Carolina State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University.
The hope is that Kuali OLE’s implementation at a range of private and public institutions will generate interest and participation among more academic institutions and partners worldwide.
“We envision this project as both a pivot for OLE that leads to a stronger, more effective and sustainable technology infrastructure, and an opportunity to renovate our organizational model to address code, community ownership, and the speed of development,” said Tim McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology Services at Duke. “We are grateful to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for recognizing the promise of the Kuali OLE project.”
Duke University Libraries will host a reading and discussion with Roxana Robinson, critically acclaimed fiction writer and author most recently of the novelSparta.
When: Tuesday, February 2, 4:00-5:30 p.m. Where: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library Room 153 Q&A, book signing, and reception to follow.
Ms. Robinson is the Libraries’ inaugural Rosati Visiting Writer. She will be in residence at Duke January 28-February 18, 2016. She is the acclaimed author of numerous novels and short stories, as well as the definitive biography of Georgia O’Keefe. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere. She teaches in the Hunter College/CUNY MFA Program, has received NEA and Guggenheim fellowships, and is President of the Authors’ Guild.
This event is free and open to the public.
Master Class Opportunity for Duke Undergrads [REGISTRATION REQUIRED] In addition to her public reading, Ms. Robinson will conduct a master class in writing for Duke undergraduate students on Tuesday, February 9, 10:05 a.m.-12:35 p.m. Interested students should register for the master class with Sara Seten Berghausen (sara@duke.edu). The registration deadline is February 3, 2016.
Some 60 wax cylinders and 76 aluminum discs containing approximately 1,367 songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s will be digitized as part of the project.
The collection includes some 1,367 songs recorded in the 1920s and 1930s on wax cylinders and aluminum discs. The recordings were made in the field by folklorist, professor of English, and Duke University administrator Frank Clyde Brown (1870-1943), who traveled across North Carolina collecting folk songs, sayings, stories, and other folklore between 1912 and his death in 1943. Brown collected songs from at least 52 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, representing all regions of the state.
“The recordings include music unique to North Carolina, as well as popular American folk songs, traditional British ballads, and a range of other tunes,” said Winston Atkins, Preservation Officer for Duke University Libraries and the principal investigator for the project. “Taken together, they represent an important and untapped primary source of American folk music in the early twentieth century.”
The songs have never been widely accessible due to the age and fragility of the recording technology Brown used, as well as the difficulty of transferring them to more modern media formats.
Because they are too fragile to be played as intended, the cylinders and discs will be digitized using a non-contact visual scanning technology known as IRENE.
“Until recently, there has been no non-destructive way to recover audio on historical wax cylinders and aluminum discs, which require a mechanical stylus and can be damaged if played today,” said Craig Breaden, Audiovisual Archivist in Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
The Duke recordings will be digitized using a new non-contact technology, known as IRENE, at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Massachusetts. IRENE takes ultra-high resolution visual scans of the grooves imprinted on the cylinders and discs and mathematically translates those into digital sound files that are remarkably faithful to the original recordings. Because there is no actual contact with the recording, IRENE’s scans can also capture sounds from damaged media.
Digitization will begin in the summer of 2016 and take approximately one year. The recordings will then be described and processed, and the collection will be made freely and publicly available through the Duke University Libraries website in 2018.
Undated photograph of Frank C. Brown from the Duke University Archives.
Born in 1870, Frank Clyde Brown began his career as a professor of English at Trinity College in Durham (the forerunner of Duke University) in 1909 and later became chairman of the department. Between 1924 and 1930, as Trinity expanded into Duke University, Brown served as the institution’s first comptroller, overseeing the construction of West Campus and the renovation of East Campus. He also served as university marshal, entertaining distinguished visitors to the new university.
In 1913, at the urging of legendary folklorist and musicologist John A. Lomax, Brown founded the North Carolina Folklore Society and was elected its first president. He later served as its secretary-treasurer, program chairman, and primary collector until his death in 1943. His efforts to record the sounds and nuances of North Carolina’s “folk” were part of a national trend in the early twentieth century to preserve American folk culture, aided by new technologies that allowed folklorists to make recordings in the field. The 1,367 songs captured by Brown are a significant part of that legacy.
The seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, published posthumously by Duke University Press between 1952 and 1964, represents Brown’s lifetime of collecting. It is widely regarded as one of the premiere collections of American folklore ever published and is available online. Four of the seven volumes are dedicated to the music Brown recorded and include transcribed melodies and song lyrics. However, the editors of Brown’s work left out an estimated 400 songs he recorded. These “bonus tracks,” which are found on the wax cylinders and aluminum discs but not in the published collection, will be digitized as part of the project.
“All Day Singing.” Woodcut by Clare Leighton, from Vol. 2 of the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, published by Duke University Press in 1952.
Brown’s original manuscripts and notes, which were used to compile the collection, along with his original recordings, are housed in Duke’s Rubenstein Library.
In 2015, two Duke faculty members—Victoria Szabo and Trudi Abel—incorporated some of the Frank C. Brown recordings into NC Jukebox, an interdisciplinary Bass Connections course introducing undergraduate and graduate students to digital history. Students conducted original research on the history of the recordings and tracked down the descendants of some of the singers and musicians. The course will be offered again in Spring 2017.
The grant to digitize Brown’s recordings is part of CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives awards program, a national competition that funds the digitization of rare and unique content held by libraries and cultural memory institutions that would otherwise be unavailable to the public.
During the winter break, we’re reconfiguring the Circulation and Reference Desks into a single combined library service point.
With the fall semester now over, we are going back into construction mode to complete five small projects in Perkins and Bostock Libraries. The majority of the projects are expected to be wrapped up by the start of the semester in January 2016.
Here’s a summary of the projects and what you can expect if you visit the library over the winter break.
New Perkins Library Service Desk: On the main level of Perkins Library, the Circulation and Reference Desks are being completely reconfigured into a new single library service point. Demolition of the existing desk area started this week and is expected to take a week or so. A new desk, consultation spaces, shelving area and processing area will be created in the existing space. While the work is going on, library services will be available by the Perkins archway entrance.
Bostock Floor 2: The spaces formerly occupied by Library Development, Communications, the Duke Collaboratory for Classics Computing, and Business Services will be renovated. Temporary walls have already been removed and pre-construction work has been completed. Once finished, the Data and Visualization and Digital Scholarship department heads and staff will relocate to offices in the renovated space. There will also be a meeting room within their combined suite. The DC3 (temporarily located in the 1928 Rubenstein Library tower offices) will return to a new space just down the hall from their former location.
The former home of Data and Visualization Services on the 2nd floor of Perkins Library is being transformed into a dedicated Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab for Duke graduate students.
Bostock Floors 2/3: The spaces formerly occupied by the Library Administration Office, Business Services, and Library Human Resources will be touched up, painted, and furniture will be returned to those areas. The former office for Library Human Resources will revert to a reservable meeting room for library staff.
Perkins Floor 3: The temporary stack and reading room spaces created for Rubenstein Library staff and services during the renovation will be returned to student/public spaces. The temporary walls have already been removed and some furniture has been returned. The shelves are clear and some shelving is being removed or relocated. Books and other materials will return to the third floor later in Spring 2016.
New Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab, Perkins Floor 2: The former Data/Visualization Lab on the 2nd floor of Perkins will become a new Dissertation Reading and Writing Lab. The space will be emptied, new carpet will be installed, and a number of open carrels and portable storage units will be installed in late January for use by graduate students. This space is expected to open in February or March.
Pardon our progress while we continue to improve your library!
Ever wonder who those teams of people are and what they’re working on? Come find out December 4!
What: Research-in-progress, coffee and dessert Where: The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock Library 127) When: Friday, December 4, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
You’ve seen the project teams in The Edge—come find out what they’re working on! In between LDOC festivities, join us in The Edge for a series of lightning talks given by Bass Connections project team participants about their team’s research work in progress and future plans. The participating teams are:
Following the lightning talks and a panel Q&A, join the team members for a coffee and dessert reception to celebrate a successful semester.
Interested in project space in The Edge next semester? We’re accepting applications for the Spring 2016 semester. Submit an application online or email us at edge@duke.edu for more information.
Duke University Press will be celebrating University Press Week November 8-15, 2015, along with the Association of American University Presses and its more than 130 members. University Press Week highlights the extraordinary work of nonprofit scholarly publishers and their many contributions to culture, the academy, and an informed society. A number of local events are planned.
For the first time ever, The Regulator Bookshop in Durham will host a pop-up university press bookstore in its lower level. The bookstore will feature books and journals from local presses Duke University Press and Wake Forest University Press as well as presses from around the country. Browsers may be surprised to find how many books of general interest university presses publish, from cookbooks to music books to local history, memoir and travel. The Regulator Bookshop will also host two events during the week, a reading by Alejandro Velasco, author of Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela (University of California Press) and a reception followed by a reading by Ambassador James Joseph, author of Saved for a Purpose: A Journey from Private Virtues to Public Values (Duke University Press).
Other events celebrating University Press Week include displays of Duke University Press books and journals in the Durham County Library and Duke University’s Perkins Library. The Perkins display can be found on the first floor near the Duke Authors display. The Center for Documentary Studies will sponsor an artist talk and book signing at Duke University’s Rubenstein Library, featuring Nadia Sablin, whose book Aunties: The Seven Summers of Alevtina and Ludmila is the seventh winner of the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography. You can find more details about this event here.
Duke University Press will feature special University Press Week posts on its blog and will sponsor online contests during the week. Fans of university presses are encouraged to use the hashtags #ReadUP and #PublishUP to talk online about why they love to read, teach, and write university press books and journal articles and to use the #UPShelfie hashtag to share pictures of the university press books on their shelves.
Getting ready for Halloween? So is Lilly Library! Come check out our collection of spooky DVDs and graphic novels, on exhibit through the end of October.
The H Word: Horror in the LibrariesFuture Imperfect: Dystopian and Post-Holocaust Cinema
Congratulations to the 2015 Library Writing and Research Award Winners!
The Duke University Libraries are pleased to announce the winners of the 2014-2015 library writing and research awards. The Aptman Prize, the Middlesworth Award, and the Holsti Prize recognize excellence in student research using sources from the Libraries’ general collections, the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and primary sources for political science or public policy, respectively. New this year is the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award which is given in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing.
Chester P. Middlesworth Award
Undergraduate: Michael Sotsky
Holsti Prize
Honors Thesis: Charlotte Lee
Semester Paper: Jack Dolgin
Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
Antonio Lopez, Jr.
We will be celebrating their achievements at an awards reception on Friday, October 30 from 3:30-4:30 in the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room. All are invited to join us for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.
Note: In our original blog post about these awards, we inadvertently omitted Jack Dolgin’s name when we first announced the winners. Our apologies to Mr. Dolgin!
The term “Hackathon” traditionally refers to an event in which computer programmers collaborate intensively on software projects. But Duke University Libraries and the History Department are putting a historical twist on their approach to the Hackathon phenomenon. In this case, the History Hackathon is a contest for undergraduate student teams to research, collaborate, and create projects inspired by the resources available in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library collections. Projects may include performances, essays, websites, infographics, lectures, podcasts, and more. A panel of experts will serve as judges and rank the top three teams. Cash Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams.
Date: Tuesday, October 6 Time: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Location: Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room, Rubenstein Library
Join us for an evening of music and conversation in the Rubenstein Library as we explore the deep roots of the Mountain Music of North Carolina.
Terry McKinney–bluegrass, country, and gospel musician–will give a free performance as part of the Archives Alive course NC Jukebox, which explores the history of music making in early twentieth-century North Carolina.
This event is free and open to the public.
To learn more about the Archives Alive initiative, a joint venture of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, visit the website.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will discuss her books, the American presidency, and leadership lessons from the White House at 6 p.m. Thursday, November 5, in Duke University’s Reynolds Industries Theater. The event is free and open to the public.
Doris Kearns Goodwin will be joined onstage by David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees.
Goodwin will be joined on stage in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group and Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees. The event is one of several programs this year celebrating the opening of the renovated the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke.
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. She is the author of six critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling books. She appears regularly on network TV programs and was an on-air consultant for PBS documentaries on Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy Family, and Ken Burn’s The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.
Goodwin was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She received her B.A. from Colby College and her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. Goodwin served as an assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson in his last year in the White House. She later assisted Johnson in the preparation of his memoirs.
Goodwin’s monumental history of Abraham Lincoln, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book won the Lincoln Prize, the New York Historical Society Book Prize, the Richard Nelson Current Award, the New York State Archives History Makers Award, and was the basis of the 2012 feature film Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day Lewis.
Goodwin’s most recent book, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (2013), is a dynamic history of the first decade of the Progressive era, that tumultuous time when the nation was coming unseamed and reform was in the air. Dreamworks Studios/Steven Spielberg have acquired the film rights to the book.
Goodwin lives in Concord, Massachusetts, with her husband Richard N. Goodwin, who worked in the White House under both Kennedy and Johnson. The Goodwins have three sons.
The evening with Goodwin and Rubenstein will be presented as the Weaver Memorial Lecture, hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and former member of the Library Advisory Board. The event is co-sponsored by the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Sanford School of Public Policy, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, and the Department of History. Copies of Goodwin’s books will be available for sale at the event.
Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available through the Duke Box Office. A small service charge may apply for tickets ordered by phone, online, or mail. Visit tickets.duke.edu for more information.
Recording during this event is not permitted. Questions? Contact Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications, Duke University Libraries, at 919-660-5816 or aaron.welborn@duke.edu.
The construction fence surrounding Rubenstein Library.
Although the inside of Rubenstein Library is now fully renovated and open for use, you may have noticed that, outside, construction vehicles and fencing linger on.
In case you’re wondering, the blue fence around Rubenstein Library is hiding a new landscaping project that will take place over the next few months. Workers will be replacing the topsoil, installing irrigation measures, planting new trees and shrubs, and hardscaping. The whole project is scheduled to be complete by December 31, 2015.
The corner entrance to Rubenstein will be open after December 31.
In the meantime, the corner entrance to Rubenstein will remain closed so that work vehicles can move back and forth without affecting pedestrians. (You can still see the gorgeous vaulted interior behind that door if you enter through the main library entrance, walk through the Photography Gallery, and hang a left).
Come December, the fences will be down, plantings will be in place, and the public will be free to use BOTH library entrances. Thanks for being patient while we put the finishing touches on Duke’s latest point of pride!
Duke faculty can help us improve library services by participating in the Ithaka Faculty Survey!
This fall, the Duke University Libraries will be participating in the national Ithaka Faculty Survey.
On Wednesday, September 9, nearly 1,000 Duke faculty will receive an email invitation to participate. The survey will be open through Fall Break, and faculty will be encouraged to complete the online questionnaire throughout the month it is open.
We will use findings from the Ithaka survey to gain a better understanding of Duke faculty members’ research and teaching experiences, habits, and patterns. These findings will help us to direct resources and develop services to help meet their expressed needs.
Institutions that have participated in the past report that their findings were extremely useful for strategic planning and long-term goal setting, so we feel the timing of this survey is especially appropriate as the Provost’s Office embarks on a university-wide strategic planning process. Also, by participating in this national survey, we will have an opportunity to compare local findings with data from peer institutions.
If you are a Duke faculty member and receive a link to the survey, we hope you will participate. As a small incentive, all faculty who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing for a $75 Amazon gift card.
If you have any questions about the Ithaka Faculty Survey, please contact Emily Daly, Head of the Assessment and User Experience Department in the Duke University Libraries.
Members of these advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.
The boards will typically meet four times a semester to discuss all aspects of Duke Libraries and provide feedback to library staff. This is an amazing opportunity for students to serve on the advisory board of a large, nationally recognized non-profit organization.
All three advisory boards are now taking applications or nominations. Application deadlines are:
Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and the Undergraduate Advisory Board will be selected and notified by mid-September, and groups will begin to meet in late September. More information is available on our website, where you will also find links to the online applications forms.
For more information or questions about these opportunities, please contact:
When is the library open? How do I find a book? Where do I print?*
Duke University’s newest students can find the answers to these questions (and more!) on the Library’s First-Year Library Servicesportal page.
Each August, a new class of undergraduates arrives in Durham ready to immerse themselves in the Duke Community. Duke University Libraries serve as the core of intellectual life on campus. On East Campus particularly, the Lilly and Music Libraries have the unique opportunity to introduce our newest “Dukies” to the array of Library resources and research services available.
To help navigate the vast Library resources, we’ve created a portal especially for First-Year students. Through this portal page, new students (and even some not-so-new) can discover all that the Duke University Libraries offer:
Quick Facts: about collections and loan policies Where: to study, print, and … eat! How: to find and check out books & material, and get… Help!: Meet the “who” – Librarians, Specialists, & Residence Hall Librarians Research 101: how to navigate the Research Process Citation 101: how to cite using recommended styles *And when is the Library open?
Find the answer in our list of the Top 12 Questions, developed with input from First-Year Library Advisory Board students.
On East Campus, after students settle in and begin classes, the Lilly Library and Duke Music Library offer several ways for the newest “Dukies” to learn and benefit from the incredible resources of the Duke Libraries. Lilly and Music sponsor Library Orientation events such as scavenger hunts, film showings, and prize drawings to familiarize them with library services and collections. In recent years, students played The Library Games, and were wowed by theIncredibles and the Libraries’ super powers. This year, the Class of 2019 will experience the power of discovery because …
After the excitement of the new semester subsides, the Duke University Libraries continue to reach out to our students, always ready to offer research support and access to resources in support of their scholarly needs.
Here’s to a great year – and Duke career – filled with academic success!
Remarks at 2:30 p.m. in the Gothic Reading Room
by Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian
and Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Help us celebrate the transformation of a library that is truly one of the crown jewels of Duke by joining us for a special open house for the entire Duke and Triangle-area community on Thursday, September 10, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Tour the new spaces and exhibits.
Meet and mingle with library staff.
Learn how the Rubenstein Library can support your research.
Free giveaways and light refreshments.
Free and open to the public.
Visitor Parking Information: Free parking will be available at Parking Garage IV (click for map), next to the Bryan Center, for visitors traveling to the open house from off-campus. Take a ticket when you enter the parking deck. When you exit, inform the parking booth attendant that you were visiting the Rubenstein Library Open House. The attendant will take your ticket and allow you to exit at no cost.
Virginia Woolf’s writing desk, part of the recently acquired Lisa Unger Baskin Collection, on display in the Mary Duke Biddle Room.
An extremely rare copy of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first book printed in what is now the United States, on loan by special arrangement with David M. Rubenstein. On display in the Michael and Karen Stone Family Gallery.
A new permanent exhibit on the history of Duke University, on display outside the Gothic Reading Room.
Our new Photography Gallery, featuring an exhibit on early 20th-century images of China by Sidney Gamble.
The new Rubenstein Library reading room, where researchers can explore our special collections.
More Opening Events and Exhibits
We’re lining up a number of events and exhibits to celebrate the opening of the Rubenstein Library throughout the fall of 2015. Check out our opening events site for a complete listing and stay tuned for regular updates.
About the Rubenstein Library Renovation
The construction crane looms over a gutted Rubenstein Library stack core, December 2013. See our Flickr album of renovation images for more.
The renovation of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, housed in Duke’s original West Campus library building, is the final phase of the Perkins Project, a 15-year-long effort to renovate and re-imagine Duke’s West Campus library complex that started back in 2000. (Read more about the history of the Perkins Project on our renovation website.)
Construction work on the Rubenstein began in late 2012, and the building will officially open to the public on August 24, 2015.
The 1948 library tower under scaffolding, August 2014.
The Rubenstein renovation has transformed one of the university’s oldest and most recognizable buildings into a state-of-the-art research facility where students, faculty, and visitors can engage with the Libraries’ collection of rare and unique scholarly materials.
The research, instruction, storage, and exhibition capabilities of the Rubenstein Library have all been greatly increased. The new library also features state-of-the-art closed stacks with high-tech security and a closely-monitored environment.
Workers re-hang portraits of historic Duke luminaries in the renovated Gothic Reading Room, July 2015.
Updates have also extended to the Mary Duke Biddle Room and the Gothic Reading Room. The charm and character of these signature Duke spaces has been preserved, but their finishes, furnishings, lighting, technology infrastructure, and exhibition facilities have all been enhanced.
Finally, the library’s main entrance has been redesigned with new doors, windows, and lighting to give the entire library complex a more unified and welcoming presence on the historic West Quad.
Mark your calendars and join us 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. on September 10!
Join the Duke University Libraries for a night of comics-themed trivia at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham. Test your knowledge of superheroes, women in comics, comics and war, popular media depictions of comics, and more.
Duke’s Rubenstein Library is home to the Edwin and Terry Murray Comic Book Collection, which includes over 65,000 comics from the 1930s to the present, making it one of the largest archival comic collections in the world.
Our comics trivia night will take place at Fullsteam Brewery in downtown Durham on July 23.
Our comics trivia night will coincide with Durham Comics Fest on July 25, an annual, all-ages celebration of comics and graphic novels organized by the Durham County Library.
This event is free and open to the public, ages 21 and up.
The 2015 season of the American Dance Festival has now kicked off with fabulous performances through July 25th.
To help you get your groove on, check out dance-themed highlights from Lilly Library’s film/video collection in the Lilly Video Spotlight: Dance on Film.
If our spotlight whets your appetite, explore Lilly Library’s large selection of dance DVDs to keep you tripping the light fantastic all summer long. Don’t feel like tripping the light fantastic with Lilly? The ADF Archives serve as an excellent resource for dance historians, and this summer the International Screendance Festival hosts screenings at the Nasher Museum of Art.
Updated from a June 2014 post authored by Danette Pachtner, Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media and Women’s Studies
News, Events, and Exhibits from Duke University Libraries
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The latest installment in the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) series highlighting digital scholarship support at ARL member libraries features the work of the Duke University Libraries.
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Join the Duke University Libraries as we celebrate the opening of the 
