Post contributed by Lee Sorensen, Librarian for Visual Studies and Dance
The Art & Architecture ePortal (A&AePortal) is an aggregate of full-text books on art, architecture and cultural studies by the presses of major academic publishers.
Why Should You Use This?
Use this database tool to search the cultural aspect of many topics. What were the styles of dress in 19th-cenury Paris? What were the contributions of women to abstract art. What African peoples produced masks and in what quantities? All from hundreds of peer-reviewed sources.
Cool Features
Best of all, you can search images or text or both to create metadata about your image or links. Create slideshows, presentations and papers. Save your search results in a folder in the database so that you never have to repeat a search.
Recent titles include:
Database Tips
Search the A&AePortal for books from Harvard, Yale, Chicago and museums such as Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago–many available full-text exclusively on the A&AePortal. Finding scholarly sources for even short bits of information has never been easier!
Similar Resources
Find more image-related tools on the Art & Art History research guide.
Questions?
Contact Lee Sorensen, Librarian for Visual Studies and Dance.
Looking for study space around East Campus? You have probably heard that Lilly Library is closed this year for renovation. The Lilly building is closed but you can get help from Lilly staff at the Bishop’s House (located behind Bassett Residence Hall and next to the Academic Advising Building). We want to highlight several other prominent study spots available on East. Check out the Academic Resource Center’s Campus Study Spaces Map to find more study spaces!
Wall Center for Student Life (East Campus Union)
There are a number of study spaces available in the Wall Center. You can choose from large open tables to soft seating.
The South side of the Marketplace dining area is open for late night study from 9 PM to 2 AM Sunday through Thursday.
The 2nd floor of the Wall Center has two balcony study rooms with large tables, chairs, and whiteboards.
The Trinity Cafe area in the basement includes tables, chairs, and booths. The Wall Center is accessible to students by card swipe until 2 AM.
Music Library
The Music Library is located in the Biddle Music Building (this is the low brick building back behind Pegram Residence Hall). In addition to library services, the Music Library offers a variety of study options, including soft seating, open study tables, individual study cubicles, and lots of natural lighting on the first floor.
The Music Library is open 9 AM to 8 PM Monday through Thursday, 9 AM to 5 PM on Friday, 1 to 5 PM on Saturday, and 1 to 8 PM on Sunday.
The basement of the Biddle Music Building also has a soft seating area with a relaxing fountain.
Gilbert-Addoms DownUnder
Located in the basement of Gilbert-Addoms Residence Hall, GA DownUnder offers a large space for study with soft seating and tables. Looking to take a break from study? GA DownUnder also has a pool table and ping pong table.
Bishop’s House Front Porch
Although study space inside Bishop’s House is limited, we have outdoor seating on the porch for days when the weather is nice.
This past summer I visited the Turkish city of Izmir on a book buying trip on behalf of Duke University Libraries (DUL). Located on the Aegean coast, Izmir is the third largest city of Turkey after Istanbul and Ankara with a population of over 4 million people. Part of the reason for visiting the city was to continue building upon DUL’s growing Turkish collections, in particular those documenting the so-called “Population Exchange” (Mübadele) between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Those collections will be exhibited in the Mary Duke Biddle Room, on Duke’s West Campus, in August 2025.
Lozan Kapısı (Lausanne Gate), Izmir. Photo by Sean Swanick, 2024.
Izmir was one among many cities, towns, and villages along the Aegean Coast to be dramatically impacted by the Mübadele, the largest mass transfer of humans in history. As a direct result of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) between the newly founded Republic of Turkey and the Kingdom of Greece, approximately 1.6 million people were forced to move from their homes and communities to new environments. The exchange entailed 400,000 Muslims in Greece moving to Turkey while 1.2 million Greek Christians moved from Turkey to Greece. The Mübadele represents the first mass expulsion of a people in the modern period and fully agreed upon by 2 sovereign nation-states. In today’s parlance, we may rightfully call ethnic cleansing. It became known as the ‘Lausanne Principle’, and influenced various other nation-states in their formation, e.g., India and Pakistan. During the Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996) and the Serbian led war on Bosnia and Herzegovina, there was discussion of transferring various peoples to other parts of the Balkans due to the ethnical, religious, and linguistic diversity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Izmir (ازمير), formerly known as Smyrna (Σμύρνα), is a multi-lingual port city bustling with activity from trade, imports and exports of goods, travellers from near and far, and an example of the Ottoman Empire’s diversity of peoples, languages, religions, and cultures. The city had witnessed terrific damage during the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922, including an enormous fire that ravaged the Armenian and Greek quarters of the city. After 1923, the city’s character, like much of Turkey and Greece, changed significantly. New populations were told to live in this foreign-to-them city, some of whom did not speak the national language (Turkish) or were familiar with the customs of their forcibly-adopted country (Turkey). And the same fate befell those people who were forcibly removed from Turkey to live in Greece.
Osmanlıca İzmir görüntülü Ege haritası ve Yunan adaları. Ottoman Maps Collection: https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/ottomanempiremaps.
One particular place of importance for this book purchasing trip was the Göç ve Mübadele Anı Evi. Located in the Buca district of Izmir Province, this house museum it is a short bus ride away from the centre of the Izmir. Buca, known for its many butcher shops (kasaplar) was once home to a sizeable Greek population.
Mural on the Göç ve Mübadele Anı Evi. The mural depicts a Muslim family about to board a ship from Greece to Turkey as part of the Mübadele. Photo by Sean Swanick, 2024.
The house once belonged to a Greek family who were forced to relocate to Greece. A few years ago, the Izmir Municipality Government restored the house and transformed it into a small museum. The objects in the museum come from local families who were forced to leave their homes in Greece, in particular Crete, and relocate to Izmir Province. With trunks, documents, and photos, the Museum provides a realistic feeling to the difficulties, the pain, and suffering the Mübadele caused. Families had become strangers in what the Greek and Turkish governments had decided was their homeland.
Turkish families having arrived in their new homeland. Göç ve Mübadele Anı Evi.
Sean Swanick, Librarian for Middle East, North Africa, and Islamic Studies, Duke University.
Further reading
İzmir Sephardic Cuisine : With Its Lost and Existing 100 Recipes. 2012. Second edition. İzmir: Etki.
Eldem, Edhem, Daniel Goffman, and Bruce Alan Masters. 1999. The Ottoman City between East and West : Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Tansuǧ, Feryal. 2018. İzmir/Smyrna 1862-1864 : Greek-Turkish Relations in a Late Ottoman City. Berlin: Peter Lang GmbH.
Yılmaz, Fikret, Sabri Yetkin, and Seyhun Binzet. 2003. İzmir Karpostalları 1900 = Izmir in Postcards 1900. İzmir: İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür Yayını.
Zandi-Sayek, Sibel. 2012. Ottoman Izmir : The Rise of a Cosmopolitan Port, 1840/1880. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
This post was contributed by Luo Zhou, Librarian for Chinese Studies & Coordinator for East Asian Collection Management, Duke University Libraries.
Duke University Libraries has just published the first installment of the William Hillman Shockley Photographs, 1896-1922, depicting daily life in early 20th-century China, Russia, Korea, and Australia. These black-and-white photographs were taken by William Hillman Shockley (1855-1925), an American mining engineer and amateur photographer, during his international trips on behalf of companies interested in identifying favorable sites for the profitable extraction of natural resources. As such, these 4 x 6-inch prints serve as an important visual source not only for the history of these world regions, but also for the study of the global spread of extractive capitalism and its effects on the environment. When completed, this new digital collection will include over 2,200 prints and negatives (more than half of which depict people and places in late-19th-century Qing China).
The prominence of China in Shockley’s photographic archive explains why I was invited to help Duke’s Archive of Documentary Arts create the descriptive metadata for this digital collection —a process that took more than a year’s worth of work. Together with Paula Jeanet, Visual Materials Processing Archivist, who retired earlier this year, and Tiewa Cao, a visiting Chinese archivist, who joined the team for six months, I worked to identify the images of China captured by Shockley’s camera. As is the case in the following portrait of Shockley—who is shown sitting next to an iron furnace, his translator behind him, surrounded by local Chinese workers—half of these prints have captions on the back. Although very brief, Shockley’s hand-written captions provide unique information about the subject and location of the pictures. This is the information that went into the creation of the metadata for Duke’s newest international-themed digital collection.
Yu Hsien (Yu Xian 盂县), Iron Furnace, Shanxi Province (山西省)
The late 19th-century saw some very large mining concession deals between the Qing government and foreign companies. The Peking Syndicate Limited—a British-Italian company headquartered in London—was one such company and had a deal with rights to mine coal, iron, and petroleum in Shanxi Province in Western China. In 1897, William Shockley was hired by the Peking Syndicate to survey the mining resources in Shanxi. He arrived in Beijing in January 1898 and started a four-month survey journey that covered the Southeastern part of the province. The survey group had help from local government officials, but the mountainous roads were not easy to traverse in wintertime.
In 1904, Shockley published a detailed report about this trip to China in the flagship journal of the American mining and metallurgical engineering association (“Notes on the coal- and iron-fields of Southeastern Shansi, China,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers 34 [1904]: 841-871). Based on this report, I created a map showing the places in China Shockley visited between January to April 1898. All dots on the map are places the American mining engineer listed in his report.
In his capacity as a mining engineer, Shockley visited mainly rural China. This destination was very different from that of most other contemporary foreign visitors, who tended to stick to the big cities and the well-traveled roads. His camera captured images of the local people, their life and social events in villages and small towns. And this focus on rural life is one of the main reasons for the uniqueness of this new digital collection.
Another reason for the uniqueness of Shockley’s photos is their documentation of traditional mining technology, which predated the arrival of the American mining engineer. The earliest description of the Chinese iron making process (known as crucible iron making, 坩埚炼铁) appears in a mid-18th century local gazetteer (博山县志). However, this printed primary source does not include drawings of the crucibles (坩埚) or the furnace used to hold these cylinder-shaped containers, which are described in more detail in modern research papers. But even these publications lack visual evidence on how this local mining technology was used in real life. Shockley’s photos of the coal and iron mining facilities in Shanxi provide a visual supplement to Chinese-language texts describing traditional metallurgical process and tools. For example, the photo on the left depicts the iron furnace at Dayang (大阳镇), an important town for iron products in China (Shockley is the man standing at the right from corner, with crucibles on the left and the furnace behind the group); while the photo on the right provides a close-up of both the crucibles and the men responsible for manufacturing them.
Iron Furnace Ta Yang (Dayang 大阳镇); Making crucibles Yu Hsien (Yuxian 盂县)
The newly launched digital collection includes images not only from Shanxi and Shanghai (368 photos), but also Neimenggu, Henan, Hebei, Hubei, Northeastern China, as well as Bogoslovsk, Russia (52) and Korea (16). Photos of these other places, as well as additional images of Russia, will be digitized and made available in the near future. So stay tuned!
In the meantime, please check out the current version of Duke’s new digital collection, read the online archival guide to the Shockley photo collection, and email the Archive of Documentary Arts or me if you have any questions.
Related material:
1898, 一个美国工程师的山西之行，民间影像，8, 2018 (my Chinese-language article on Shockley’s travels in Shanxi)
This room is the student’s workshop.
This is the Socratean basket in which he is lifted from the business world. Professor William Francis Gill (T 1894), on libraries.
The Gill Endowment
The single endowment for collections in Classical Studies for the Duke University Libraries was created in memory of Latin Professor William “Billy” Francis Gill in December 1917. Native to Henderson, North Carolina, Professor Gill graduated from Trinity College in 1894, and completed his graduate work at Johns Hopkins University in 1898. He returned to Trinity to teach until his untimely death in October of 1917. He established Duke’s Classical Club in 1910. Materials in the Duke University Archives, and Johns Hopkins University Archives, offer glimpses of the life, personality, and scholarship of Professor Gill, in a separate blog post: Professor of Latin, William Francis Gill (T 1894) .
Lilly’s Loeb Classics Collection
Greek Loeb Classics on the Move
The Loeb Classics are facing editions in Latin and Greek, with 560 volumes in a complete set. Over the last 100 years, Duke University Libraries have collected duplicate, triplicate and in some cases five or six copies of each author, with several thousand copies currently in the University’s Libraries. Lilly’s Loebs duplicate two complete collections in Perkins Library, many editions in the Divinity School Library, as well as the online Loeb Classical Library. There is another collection at Duke’s Kunshan Library.
As the original library of Trinity College, Lilly’s collection includes some of the oldest acquisitions, many of them bought for the Woman’s College Library in the 1930s. Many are in good condition, others are visibly tattered, worn, loved, and annotated by generations of students who studied Latin and Greek on East Campus.
In the spirit of Professor Billy Gill’s commitment to classical scholarship and teaching, in preparation of Lilly’s renovation, and in honor of those studious alumni, we are giving away the Lilly Loebs as gifts to Duke’s current students, faculty and staff. Each book includes a plate commemorating the Lilly Renovation Project, designed by Ms. Carol Terry, of Lilly Library.
Duke faculty, staff and students are invited to select gift copies from the Lilly Library Loeb Classics collection. Details:
Lilly Gives its Loebs to Duke Students, Faculty, and Staff
You’re almost there! Here are some resources to power you through the end of the semester and beyond.
End-of-Semester Events
Miniature Therapy Horses at Lilly Library – Sunday, December 10th from 11 AM to 1 PM. Take a break from studying and drop by Lilly Library to de-stress with the miniature therapy horses from Stampede of Love and relax with some snacks and hot cider!
Lilly Relaxation Station – Monday, December 11th to Monday, December 18th. Take a break and refresh during Reading and Exam Period! Open 24/7: Puzzles, games, Play-Doh, origami, coloring… just chill for a bit in Lilly’s 1st floor classroom! Light snacks will be provided in the evening December 11th through the 14th.
Crafternoon at Perkins: Holiday Edition – Monday, December 11th from 11:30 to 1PM. Stuck on what to gift Grandma or how to craft the perfect card for a friend? Stop by the lobby outside of Perkins Library to make origami ornaments, creative holiday cards, and other crafts. You supply the creativity, and we supply the materials – cardstock, origami paper, googly eyes, and much more!
The library is always here for you! Maybe you already know that you can access many of our online resources from home or that you can check out books to take home with you. We also have movies and music that you can stream and some e-books that you can download to your devices. Here are some of the resources we have to do this!
Streaming Video includes:
Kanopy: Watch thousands of award-winning documentaries and feature films including titles from the Criterion Collection.
Go to duke.overdrive.com to access downloadable eBooks and audiobooks that can be enjoyed on all major computers and devices, including iPhones®, iPads®, Nooks®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindles®.
Streaming Music includes:
Contemporary World Music: Listen to music from around the world, including reggae, Bollywood, fado, American folk music, and more.
Jazz Music Library: Access a wide range of recordings from jazz classics to contemporary jazz.
Medici.tv: Browse an online collection of classical music, operas and ballets.
Metropolitan Opera on Demand: For opera fans, a large selection of opera videos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
Naxos Music Library: Huge selection of classical music recordings—over 1,925,000 tracks!
Duke Libraries’ resident aficionado of off-beat and oft-frightening films is back to cast a horror-ful look at houses both embodying and encasing evil. Enjoy this spine-tingling Lilly Library Collection Spotlight, curated every Halloween by Stephen Conrad, Team Lead of Monographic Acquisitions (and most importantly–movies), and enter his warped world of BAD HOUSES!
The Old Dark House – This pre-code chiller from director James Whale (‘Frankenstein’, ‘Invisible Man’ etc.) is a startling and also chuckling early-talkies take on the scary house theme. Five motorists seek shelter from a deluge in the titular Old Dark House, occupied by the cranky and bizarre Femm family. Boris Karloff gets his first top billing playing the servant Morgan, a brutish and hirsute drunk prone to rages. But beware, the biggest threat might be locked away upstairs…
The Innocents – Truman Capote co-wrote the screenplay for this 1961 adaptation of Henry James’s ‘Turn of the Screw’, directed by Jack Clayton. Deborah Kerr plays a young governess hired to take care of two young charges in a spooky and sprawling country estate. There is a haunting afoot though, with the house playing no small part in the mood and atmosphere. Brilliant cinematography by Freddie Francis really sets off the black & white scene, with truly effective use of candles and shadows.
The Sentinel– You’ll be gobsmacked by the stellar cast but then utterly horrified by the proceedings in this frightening 1977 evil house terror from Michael Winner. A young fashion model named Alison moves into a brownstone (at 10 Montague Place, in Brooklyn Heights, btw) also occupied by a blind priest. Soon after moving in things turn very strange and sinister for Alison, and her presence there is more intentional than expected, for “there is evil everywhere and the Sentinel is the only hope”.
House (Hausu) – For sheer, nightmarish, what-the-what-ness, there may not be a better movie than Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s 1977 Hausu. A schoolgirl takes six of her classmates on a summer trip to her Aunt’s country house which is, yes, haunted. One by one they vanish, in an utterly brilliant, wacky and deranged series of happenings and scenarios. Some of the wildest and weirdest effects possible are employed, including hyper-wild uses of colors. Watch and discover that it is possible to view something slack-jawed while laughing and also being freaked out and thoroughly amazed.
House of the Devil– An early directorial effort from modern genre master Ti West, this 2009 throwback shocker is set in the ‘80s (complete with ample Walkman usage). A college student takes a strange babysitting gig at a large house on the outskirts of town on a lunar eclipse (tip: DON’T do that) and all hell breaks loose. The slow burn leads to a gruesome and graphic final chapter, making hash of whatever nerves you had left. Could it be…..Satan?
Do you recognize the movie that’s pictured at the top of this post? Test your trivia skills and see if you can Name that Film.
The Libraries provides access to thousands of streaming films to the Duke community, through multiple platforms. For Hispanic Heritage Month this year, take a look at our newest offering: PROJECTR. Projectr curates an ever-expanding collection of acclaimed movies, archival restorations, award-winning documentaries and artist-made works from around the world. Projectr offers over a hundred works exploring the Latinx and Latin American experience. You can browse this rich collection by Subject or Country, and get recommendations from independent filmmakers.
Here is a small selection that Projectr presents, with descriptions they provide. Explore and enjoy!
Fruits of Labor (dir. Emily Cohen Ibañez) A Mexican-American teenage farmworker dreams of graduating high school when ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become her family’s breadwinner. Fruits of Labor is a lyrical, coming-of-age documentary about adolescence, nature, and how ancestors paved the way for us.
La Flor (dir. Mariano Llinás) La Flor is an eight-part film, a decade in the making. It is an epic adventure in scale and imagination, a wildly entertaining ode to the power of storytelling. Filmed around the world, it is composed of six distinct episodes over eight parts, each starting the same four actresses. It redefines the concept of binge viewing.
An electrifying portrait of Brazil’s dystopian contemporary moment that blends documentary with narrative fiction and genre elements. “A politically incendiary ethnographic sci-fi…In Dry Ground Burning, the future isn’t just female: it is Black, lesbian, profoundly matriarchal.” —Sight and Sound
A River Below(dir. Mark Grieco) A captivating documentary about the ethics of activism in the modern media age. A River Below examines the efforts of two conservationists in the Amazon. One is a marine biologist and the other an animal activist and host of a popular National Geographic t.v. show. Their methods to save the pink river dolphin from extinction triggers unforeseen consequences.
Cuatro Paredes(dir. Matt Porterfield) A luminous short film by Matt Porterfield (SOLLERS POINT, PUTTY HILL) featuring rising star Barbara Lopez, CUATRO PAREDES follows Karla, recently arrived in Tijuana, Mexico to stay at her estranged aunt’s house a year after her father’s death. In this moment of solitude and calm, she looks up, down, inward and outward through the transpositional alchemy of text and is reminded that speaking to oneself feels like a vital human practice.
Open Scholarship in the Humanities: Insights from Graduate Students’ Digital Projects
Thursday, October 5, 12:00-1:00 PM The Edge Workshop (Bostock Library) Register:https://duke.libcal.com/event/11159787 Lunch included – please register for planning purposes.
All are welcome to attend. This event qualifies for 200-level RCR credit.
Open scholarship encompasses a range of activities and outputs that encourage inclusion, transparency, collaboration, and innovation. Though often interchanged with the term “open science,” open scholarship transcends disciplines. Research, teaching, and publishing in the digital humanities, for instance, has been designed and implemented in ways that promote not just access but also accessibility, reuse, and more equitable engagement in scholarly work; and much of that work in turn relies on the ability to openly access and reuse content for future research.
This in-person panel discussion with four current and former graduate students will explore their approaches to engaging in open humanistic scholarship. Digital Humanities Consultant Will Shaw will moderate this discussion of the practical and ethical aspects of conducting digital projects in the open, from using information created or collected by others to sharing one’s own research outcomes in ways that are accessible and reusable. This event will conclude with an open Q&A to allow for interactive discussion among the panel and attendees.
Whether you’re planning to start your own digital project or just interested in learning more about public scholarship and digital humanities, join us for lunch and conversation about what motivates these projects, the people and work involved in realizing them, and insights into what makes this work challenging, rewarding, and essential.
Panel Jobie Hill (Department of History, Duke University) Nitin Luthra (Department of English, Duke University) Emilie Menzel (Goodson Law Library, Duke University) Ann Chapman Price (Department of Religious Studies, Duke University) Moderator:William Shaw (Digital Scholarship & Publishing Services, Duke University Libraries
May 18th marks the 12th annual celebration of GAAD. This day serves to raise awareness of the need for digital inclusion and accessible web content for people with disabilities.
Why does web accessibility matter? People with disabilities have a right to access and enjoy web content and digital objects. Based on data from the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people have disabilities, or 1 in 6 people worldwide. According to a WebAIM report from February 2023, 96.3% of the top million homepages on the Internet had accessibility errors based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The most common accessibility error is low contrast text. Other common errors include missing alternative text for images, empty links, and improperly structured headings (very important for people using screen-readers). Ensuring web pages are accessible makes the Internet a more equitable and inclusive space.
Another expanding area of accessibility and digital inclusion is in video games. You may have watched the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, but did you know that The Last of Us Part II’s release in 2020 was a landmark moment for accessibility in gaming? Organizations like AbleGamers and websites like Can I Play That? are advocating for a more inclusive gaming landscape. Game developers have also created a list of Game Accessibility Guidelines to make games more accessible for those with disabilities. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more about accessibility and disability representation in gaming, you may want to check out the 2023 book Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games.
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Lilly Library’s Class of 2023
There is life outside of Lilly! Congratulations to Celine!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Celine W., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Celine
A Lilly selfie with Celine
Hometown: Colleyville, TX
Family/siblings/pets: An older sister (with the cutest dog, Zoey!) and a younger brother
Academic major: Literature
Activities on campus: Asian American Studies Working Group
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library):
Relaxing at the Duke Gardens
Favorite off-campus activity:
Ice cream at Pincho Loco
Favorite campus eatery: Beyu Blue!!
Favorite off-campus eatery: Wheat
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: I would like to sleep in the Stacks!! I think setting up a sleeping bag and napping amongst the shelves would be very cozy!!
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: There’s this Vivienne Westwood book that’s bound in the iconic tartan pattern, and I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it looks incredible and is filled with so many historically important runway looks.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: I love talking to the patrons and learning about their research! Especially when they come by to pick up a bunch of books from reserve! I do get a question about printing every shift, so I could do without that.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: Learning how to use the dumbwaiter or the microfiche, it’s like learning a piece of technology that would’ve been so revolutionary before.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: Using the dumbwaiter!! It feels like I’m living out a retro library experience!
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I think any type of work where I get to talk to people and help them interact makes my life richer and grows my empathy toward serving others. I’m studying to become a doctor, and take every experience where I can help others as a learning experience!
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: The beautiful interior. Lilly was my home in freshman year, and I’m excited to see it become home to many students in the future.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’m taking a gap year before medical school, and will be working at a hospital.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A panda!!
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Celine and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Celine’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Our Lilly Class of 2023
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Hailey B., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate them as much we do.
Hailey, Lilly student assistant and Duke Class of 2023
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Hailey
Hometown: Palm Harbor, FL
Family/siblings/pets: I have one (much) younger 3-year-old half-sister and a dog named Carter
Academic major: Psychology, plus minors in Computer Science and Math
Activities on campus: Duke University Marching Band (DUMB), Duke Cyber, Durham Chi Omega
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library 😉 ): Being at Duke games with the marching/pep band! My personal favorite is Duke WBB games
Favorite off-campus activity: Trying new restaurants with friends
Favorite campus eatery: Krafthouse
Favorite off-campus eatery: HeavBuffs
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Probably the Thomas Reading Room at Lilly – it’s the most beautiful space and I’d love to wake up to the sunlight through those big windows. Plus the couches are great.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: Most interesting is definitely “First Person Singular” by Haruki Murakami. It’s a collection of short stories all about different narrators, all told from first person singular point of view. It’s super cool and I totally recommend it. Most strange would be a book of poems told entirely from the point of view of a cat – it was incredible. Also interesting that both my picks include playing with POV – maybe that kind of thing just really gets me.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: My favorite part is for sure the people – everyone who works at Lilly is incredible and they’re the best coworkers. I can always count on one of the other students or staff librarians brightening my day. My least favorite thing as an avid reader is that I constantly have to resist the urge not to check out 40 books every time I work a shift.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: I found out I had made it to the final interview round for a really competitive job while I was on shift and everyone was so happy and helped me celebrate. It was a really special moment.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I honestly don’t think I’ve ever done anything super crazy – probably just printing out so many pages at one time that I stood at the printer for like 20 minutes.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: Customer service is always applicable! Plus a great eye for detail and the ability to learn new things quickly.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: Similar to my favorite part, I’ll miss the people. I’ll have to come back and visit so I can see some of them again! Note: Please do! We always love seeing our “Lilly alumni”!
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’m currently interviewing for jobs (I have another one this week, wish me luck) with nonprofit organizations and will be working for 1 gap year, before attending law school in Fall 2024. Longer-term, I plan to work in social justice law.
Q: What is the animal that you most identify with? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: I’ve been told I remind people of a chinchilla – I’m not entirely sure what that means but I love chinchillas so I’ll take it. Other answers I’ve received: orange cat, pangolin, and panther.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to them and our other graduates, treasured members of our Lilly Library “family”. We appreciate Hailey’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish them all the best!
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Our Class of 2023
Meet “Lilly'” Class of 2023 – Emma
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Emma L., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Emma
A Lilly selfie with Emma
Hometown: Oak Park, IL
Family/siblings/pets: One younger sister. The closest thing I have to a pet is a lot of houseplants.
Academic major: Biology and Chemistry
Activities on campus: Research, Duke Symphony Orchestra, avid Cameron Crazie
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library 😉 ): Duke Symphony Orchestra!
Favorite off-campus activity: Walks at Eno
Favorite campus eatery: Late-night Pitchforks
Favorite off-campus eatery: The Parlour
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: The bottom floor of the Biddle library, it’s so calm and quiet.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: The locked stacks at Lilly have some really cool, really old books! No one book in particular stands out to me, but I love working in that room and seeing all the titles and publication years in there.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: The people are my favorite thing by far! I’ve met so many wonderful people at Lilly, from the librarians to the other student workers to the people who come up to the front desk. My least favorite part is when I just barely miss the bus after my shift, which isn’t even to do with Lilly.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: There was a tornado warning during one of my shifts this year, so we had to gather everyone up and go down to the basement. It only lasted 15-ish minutes, but it was interesting while it lasted.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I’ve done several shifts without shoes on because it was raining so hard that they were too wet to wear by the time I got to work.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I’ve learned how to make searches specific enough to find what I’m looking for when finding sources for research. It’s also really helped me learn how to troubleshoot a printer (always a good skill to have).
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: How friendly everyone who works there is! Especially having worked at Lilly for four years, I’ll miss all the people (especially the librarians) who I met as a freshman. My favorite part of working an early shift this year is that I get to chat with everyone as they come in, and I’m sad I won’t get to do that anymore.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’ll be pursuing a PhD in molecular microbiology at Tufts in Boston!
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A cat, purely because of how much they love napping in the sun
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Emma and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Emma’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Cierra H., one of the Duke Music Library‘s graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke (and Music!) Senior Cierra
Hometown: Roanoke Rapids, NC
Family/siblings/pets: Three younger siblings, Three dogs
Academic major: Biology
Activities on campus: Duke Med BEC Fellows/Root Causes/Project FEED, Duke Jazz Ensemble
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library): Working in my research lab
Favorite off-campus activity: Bowling
Favorite campus eatery: Il Forno / Sazon
Favorite off-campus eatery: Guasaca
Behind the Curtain at the Music Library
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: The Music Library because it is always quiet in the evenings, there is plenty of space as well as a piano which would be fun to play.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: There was once a book full of slang that I thought was interesting. We tend to read more of the serious works and to read something that was serious, but lighthearted, was fun.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at the Music Library? Least favorite? A: My favorite part is finding new books to read and helping people out at the desk. It is also therapeutic to re-shelve or process new books as well as pull items. I don’t think I have a least favorite thing about working at the library.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: I will never forget two things. One is the freebies event we had where we gave away a bunch of scores and books. The second is when Jamie put up a skeleton behind the circulation desk named Skylar who pretended to be conducting music on Halloween .
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I haven’t done anything crazy in the library.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I’ve learned to catalog books and how to better interact with people. I’ve gotten to work with some amazing staff and make friends amongst my peers that also work here. There is never a dull moment and some of the socialization skills I’ve gained will be useful in my future.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: I will miss the staff: Laura, Sarah, and Jamie (and Jamie’s emails every week). They were very welcoming at first and over the two years, they have gotten to know me on a personal level and I’ve enjoyed every conversation we’ve had.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Clinical research for two years while applying to medical schools.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … Well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A dolphin
Graduation in May means the Duke Music Library will say farewell to Cierra and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Cierra’s stellar work and dedication to Music and wish her all the best!
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. Blandine isn’t like the other residents of her building. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom. Learn more about this National Book Award Winner in The New York Times Book Review.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts impulsively: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her work? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller is? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, cultural appropriation, and the terrifying alienation of social media.
The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, a small wooden box is waiting for you. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another. Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest. Read more in The New York Times Book Review. This intriguing novel was selected as this year’s reading for first-year students Duke Common Experience.
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts. Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their tumultuous family lives and declining town. Monica left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci and many in their circle of friends did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Potts discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had dropped steeply—the sharpest such fall in a century. This decline has been attributed to “deaths of despair”—suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses—but Potts knew their causes were too complex to identify in a sociological study. In this narrative, Potts deftly pinpoints the choices that sent her and Darci on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited.Learn more in this All Things Considered NPR interview.
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. A stunning debut follows Clytemnestra, the ancient world’s most notorious villainess, and the events that forged her into the legendary queen. As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best…You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot. But when your husband returns triumphantly, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands into the game of retribution. A blazing novel set in Ancient Greece, this is a thrilling tale of power, prophecies, hatred, love, and an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt death to those who wronged her.
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Duke senior Kari N., a David M. Rubenstein Scholar and one of our graduating student assistants, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke (and Lilly!) Senior Kari
One of Lilly’s “Class of 2023” – Kari
Hometown: Chicago
Family/siblings/pets: I am an only child to my mother, Kimberly. I have a cat named Lex, sometimes lovingly called Lexthaniel or Lex Luther.
Academic major: Sociology with a concentration in Crime, Law, and Society. Education minor
Activities on campus: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, ARAC
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library):
Going to the gardens and relaxing
Favorite off-campus activity: Going out to try a new restaurant
Favorite campus eatery: Ginger and Soy
Favorite off-campus eatery: Juice Keys
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Definitely the breakroom. The couch will automatically put me to sleep.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: I didn’t realize how many fashion books Lilly had. That was super cool. I got to look through some Chanel and Louis Vuitton books.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at the library? Least favorite? A: Favorite part has definitely been learning about Duke history and hearing more about how things have changed over time from head librarians. Also, starting to recognize the people who come in often.
Least favorite: shelf-reading, OMG (it seems we’ve seen this response from more than one of our students)
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: When the little ponies (miniature therapy horses) were outside for finals week. They were so cute 🙂
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I stayed there for hours (to study) and watched tv the whole time.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I think it’s helped me a lot with getting into a routine, knowing how to answer the phone for a business, and interacting with different aged people (from little kids to seniors)
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: Honestly, just sitting at the desk and watching who comes in.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Currently, figuring out what my long-term career will be, but right now, I will be spending the summer working, traveling, and taking a bit of a break.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … Well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: An emu. I can’t explain. It’s just energy if you will.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Kari’s and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Kari’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Brandon L., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate the importance of our student staff as much we do.
Graduate Student Brandon
Graduate Student assistant – Brandon
Hometown: Allentown
Family/siblings/pets: 1 younger sister, no pets 🙁
Academic major: Masters of Public Policy
Activities on campus:
President of the Sanford Energy and Environment Club; Chair of the Partnerships Team of Oceans @ Duke; Tutor for economics and statistics; Mentor in Duke F1RSTS; and Member of the Energy Week Leadership Committee.
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library): Duke basketball
Favorite off-campus activity: Biking or hiking
Favorite campus eatery: Tandoor
Favorite off-campus eatery: East Cut
Behind the Curtain: Lilly Library
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Thomas Reading Room in Lilly because it’s spacious and comfortable.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: Feline Philosophy, a book about cats.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: Faculty delivery when it’s sunny. Least favorite has to be shelf reading.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: A student accidentally printed out 100 color copies of Caleb Love (a UNC basketball player). She meant to print 10 for her friends to hold up at the UNC game.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: Worked two 6-hour shifts on back-to-back days. Note: We agree – that was crazy!
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: Knowing all the resources and benefits that come with being a member of a library will be very helpful. There is so much people don’t know libraries offer.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: All the little treats we got during holidays or the reading period.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Moving to Chicago for a job at the Federal Reserve.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: An owl because that was my undergrad’s mascot and I love staying up late.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Brandon and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries’ “family”. We appreciate Brandon’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish him all the best!
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Dyscalculia: A Love Story of Epic Miscalculation, by Camonghne Felix. When Felix goes through a monumental breakup, culminating in a hospital stay, everything—from her early childhood trauma and mental health to her relationship with mathematics—shows up in the tapestry of her healing. In this exquisite and raw reflection, Felix repossesses herself through the exploration of history she’d left behind, using her childhood “dyscalculia”—a disorder that makes it difficult to learn math—as a metaphor for the consequences of her miscalculations in love. Through reckoning with this breakup and other adult gambles in intimacy, Felix asks the question: Who gets to assert their right to pain? “Black girls get to write about benign heartbreak too,” she writes. Dyscalculia negotiates the misalignments of perception and reality, love and harm, and the politics of heartbreak, both romantic and familial.
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens. In 1473, fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when George Sand, her two children, and her lover Frederic Chopin arrive in the village, Blanca is still there: a spirited, funny, righteous ghost, she’s been hanging around the monastery since her accidental death, spying on the monks and the townspeople and keeping track of her descendants. Blanca is enchanted the moment she sees George, and the magical novel unfolds as a story of deeply felt, unrequited longing–a teenage ghost pining for a woman who can’t see her and doesn’t know she exists. As George and Chopin, who wear their unconventionality, in George’s case, literally on their sleeves, find themselves in deepening trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly. She reflects on the circumstances of her own death (which involved an ill-advised love affair with a monk-in-training). From NPR, “Nell Stevens’ debut novel Briefly, A Delicious Life is a curious mashup of historical fiction, a ghost story, and a queer love story.”
Heartbroke: Stories by Chelsea Bieker. From the acclaimed author of Godshot and “a pitch-perfect ventriloquist of extraordinary talent and ferocity” (T Kira Madden) comes a defining book of Californian stories where everyone is seeking or sabotaging love United by the stark and sprawling landscapes of California’s Central Valley, the characters of Heartbroke boil with reckless desire. A woman steals a baby from a shelter in an attempt to recoup her own lost motherhood. A phone-sex operator sees divine opportunity when a lavender-eyed cowboy walks into her life. A mother and a son selling dream catchers along a highway that leads to a toxic beach manifest two young documentary filmmakers into their realm. And two teenage girls play a dangerous online game with destiny. Heartbroke brims over with each character’s attempt to salvage grace where they can find it. Told in bright, snapping prose that reveals a world of loss and love underneath, Chelsea Bieker brilliantly illuminates a golden yet gothic world of longing and abandonment under an unrelenting California sun. Learn more about this title in the Los Angeles Times book review here.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results. But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo. Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters.
The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon. As Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrives in Sarajevo one June day in 1914, Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs and grinding tablets behind the counter at the pharmacy he inherited from his estimable father. It’s not quite the life he had expected during his poetry-filled student days in libertine Vienna. And then the world explodes. In the trenches in Galicia, fantasies fall flat. Heroism gets a man killed quickly. War devours all that they have known, and the only thing Pinto has to live for is the attention of Osman, a fellow soldier, a man of action to complement Pinto’s introspective, poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; Pinto’s protector and lover. Together, Pinto and Osman will escape the trenches, survive near-certain death, and tangle with spies and Bolsheviks. Read what The New York Times has to say about this novel here!
Celebrate the end of Fall Semester 2022
with the Stampede of Love!
Kiwi of the Stampede of Love – photo courtesy of Stampede of Love stampedeoflove.org
Have you heard about the “mane” event
at Lilly Library?
Where did Fall Semester go? December is here, and with it, exams await all Duke students. Because the First-Year students live on East Campus, the staff at Lilly Library does its best to offer support and relieve the stress of the fall semester for our “neighbors” experiencing their first finals at Duke. Extending our hours to a 24/7 schedule during exams, offering a study break with refreshments, and providing a room dedicated as a relaxation station are longstanding Lilly traditions.
Our favorite tradition is hosting the Stampede of Love, miniature therapy horses who bring smiles to stressed students (and librarians!). If you decide to trot over to East Campus neigh-borhood, saddle up for Lilly’s end of semester events:
Saturday, December 10th: 225 continuous hours!?!
Beginning at 10am, Lilly expands its schedule to 24/7 through the examination period, ending at 7pm on Monday, December 19th. Info for all Duke Library Hours
This post by Joseph Mulligan is part of an occasional series on graduate students’ “Intern Experience” at Duke University Libraries. Joseph received his PhD in Romance Studies in 2022 and is currently a Post-Doctoral Associate at Duke.
Like many graduate students, I spent much of my academic career reading and researching in the library. But I also participated in initiatives based out of the Libraries (like Archival Expeditions) and worked in various Libraries departments. Perhaps my most formative experience was through my work as a Humanities Unbounded Graduate Assistant (2019-2022) in Duke Libraries’ Digital Scholarship and Publishing Services (DSPS) department. The skills I learned from my libraries work have been translatable in surprising ways. In this post I share my experience so that graduate students in the earlier stages of their programs might see how working with the libraries can be an integrating force in their doctoral experience.
In the first semester working with DSPS, I spent much of my time in the proverbial sandbox: researching current trends in digital humanities scholarship, identifying methodologies used widely in academia, and studying how digital projects are organized and funded. For instance, I learned how interactive web maps are being used by practitioners of spatial history. I discovered that corpus analytics, or text mining, is entirely accessible for scholars who wish to incorporate digital methods into their research — even if they are not card-carrying, self-proclaimed Digital Humanists. Moreover, I started thinking about the critical importance of applying metadata to items in one’s digital research archive. Through these first explorations, I discovered methods and tools that would advance my research agenda, and, to my surprise, I realized I could use these same tools in the undergraduate classroom, to help facilitate students’ critical reflection on primary sources.
The digital methods I learned from this first semester with DSPS carried over into my pedagogical research as a fellow in Archival Expeditions, directed by Katie Henningsen of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. In my project, sponsored by José María Rodríguez García of Romance Studies, I innovated a module of a modern Spanish literature survey course by integrating digital image repositories and web mapping activities into lesson plans that promoted collaborative inquiry. Specifically, I created a digital reproduction of two art exhibits that were displayed in the Museo Circulante (also known as Museo del Pueblo) of the government-sponsored service-learning program Misiones Pedagógicas in 1930s Spain. These exhibits reproduced paintings that dated back to the 16th and 17th centuries. I complemented this digital reproduction by compiling an archive of photographs which documented the exhibit openings as well as other activities undertaken by the program. Additionally, I incorporated this archive of documentary photographs into an interactive web map – Misiones Pedagógicas Cartografiadas – which visualizes the dispersion of the outreach program and identifies participants at a given location, visually representing the participants in the form of a photograph, when one is available. (Access the module here.) The following year, I incorporated these digital approaches into a seminar I developed for first-year students, Culture on Wheels (taught with the support of the Bass Instructional fellowship). I also presented this work at the 2022 Modern Language Association annual convention, as part of a panel I convened titled Digital Methods in Humanities Pedagogy.
Aside from helping me incorporate digital methods into my teaching, the Humanities Unbounded assistantship with DSPS also developed my ability to support the research of fellow graduate students as well as Duke faculty and visiting scholars, specifically with respect to digital image management, text mining, and network analysis. For the MicroWorlds Lab, the Manuscript Migration Lab, and the National Humanities Center, I designed and led workshops that explored how digital images can be managed as data (using Tropy), how large digital corpora may be approached efficiently (using OverviewDocs), how networks of intellectual and material exchange can be studied and visualized from a relational perspective (using Kumu). In my prsentations I highlighted key features of the relevant tools and developed video tutorials that were used as pre-workshop activities but also designed as standalone modules open to the public.
Finally, during fall 2021, I worked closely with Humanities Unbounded Visiting Scholar Dr. Gay Byron of Howard University, who spent the 2021-2022 academic year deeply engaged in archival research on the collection of Ge’ez (Ethiopic) manuscripts held in special collections at the Rubenstein Library. At the intersection of philology and the history of religion, Dr. Byron’s research consisted, in part, in complementing and supplementing the Rubenstein’s catalogue description of this collection as well as creating a digital archive of the manuscripts and scrolls. With the support of Andy Armacost (the Rubenstein Library’s Curator of Collections) and through consultations with other archivists, I helped Dr. Byron establish a workflow for her project, designate roles between her and her assigned Research Assistant, incorporate the software Tropy into her research process, and build a customized taxonomy with a metadata template that, when applied to her files, effectively organized her archive for easy reference, annotation, and sharing.
In each of these cases, my position in the Libraries allowed me to collaborate with faculty and students to create, develop, and sustain innovative scholarship. The Libraries are distinctive in offering these kinds of opportunities for exploration and cross-disciplinary partnership, and as a result of my work here, I’ve been able to cultivate skills that continue to enrich my scholarship and teaching.
Films, Books, and Music of the 1980s in the Libraries’ Collections
Do you know that the creators of Stranger Things are from Durham, North Carolina?
The supernatural series may be set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer grew up in Durham. Although the identical twins grew up in the 90s, the series is awash with popular culture references from the 1980s. They lived in Durham County and attended the Duke School for elementary and middle school, graduating from Jordan High School. The Duffer brothers later attended Chapman University in California where they studied film and media arts.
Enjoy the ambience of Hawkins – we mean Durham – and immerse yourself in the 1980s. Discover movies, books, comics, and music of the era in our Duke Libraries’ collections.
Films of the 1980s
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain) DVD 30088
To give a sense of the world beyond Hawkins/Durham, we’ve highlighted international films from the same period including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain), Police Story (Hong Kong), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), and My Neighbor Totoro (Japan).
Films that the Hellfire gang watched include popular titles like Ghostbustersand E.T. – and, yes, those are in our film collection.
Visit the Library Things Collection Spotlight in our lobby to browse these films* – and more (the full list is here) – that we’ve selected from our film collection.
Note: The list incudes some titles which you can stream via your Duke NetID.
Music of the 1980s
LL Cool J’s Radio (1985)
Heavy Metal, Punk, Rock, Electronic, Pop, Rap – the 1980s are calling! Songs and artists featured in the show are seeing a resurgence of interest and gaining new audiences. If you wonder why “old” music such as Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (1985), Metallica’s Master of Puppets (1986), and the Clash have been at the top of playlists, you can thank Stranger Things. The 1980s also saw the rise of Rap as a musical force with the emergence of iconic performers such as LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, and Run D.M.C.
The Duke Music Library has a collection of CDs embracing all musical genres including rock, folk and rap. Don’t want to immerse yourself in the 1980s with a boombox or other older formats? Your Duke NetID provides access to streaming music platforms. Interested in the same sort of 1980s (and more recent) music of Stranger Things? Alexander Street Music database can lead you directly to genres of popular music.
Books of the 1980s
Stephen King’s It
While film, music, and the rise of gaming of the 1980s populate the atmosphere of Stranger Things, books about – and of – the period illuminate popular culture. A selection of suspense and fantasy novels by writers such as Stephen King, graphic novels (which evolved from comic books), and books examining contemporary culture are available in the Lilly Library lobby. Peruse these highlighted titles, plus a few eBooks in our Lilly Collection Spotlight Reading List.
To quote Stranger Things‘ character Dustin:
… I am on a curiosity voyage, and I need my paddles to travel. These books… these books are my paddles…
Our Duke Libraries and your Duke NetID provide “paddles” that encompass books, film, music, and a breadth of online resources. Explore Duke Libraries’ “library things” and embark on your own curiosity voyage!
Philosophy is a discipline whose historical canon is dominated by European males (despite active and influential contributions of women in the field’s formation) and that typically attracts fewer women to its college classrooms. Want to change the face of philosophy?
This fall, Duke undergraduate students can contribute to a global initiative to reform philosophy while learning about and taking part in open scholarly publishing. Project Vox, a collaboration between Duke University Libraries and the Department of Philosophy, is the basis for a new tutorial course, ISS 395T. In this course students will learn and apply skills in researching primary and secondary sources and images and in writing for Project Vox’s audience — teachers, students, scholars, and interested members of the public.
The two graduate instructors leading this course, Dana Hogan and Yasemin Altun, are alums of the Project Vox team. Their recent posts to its “Behind the Scenes” blog series offer insight into the skills and experience they’ve acquired as well as the kinds of work students will do in this course:
April 3-9, 2022 marks National Library Week. Celebrate libraries and librarians by “checking out” (get it?) one of these excellent films in Duke Libraries’ collection:
dir. Alain Guillon, 2020
Chut…!
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis. In a society where everything is commercial, where time is limited, where transmission is devalued, there is a place of gratuitousness and encounter where all kinds of people, cultures, practices meet, where we constantly fight inequalities and social violence, a place of sharing, a refuge, an island. Quietly, joyfully, something important is being made here, invisible to the hurried or accounting gaze: the development of a new social contract.
dir. Frederick Wiseman, 2017
Ex Libris: New York Public Library
“I’ve always loved and used public libraries for what I can learn and discover and for the surprises and stimulation they offer. I was not familiar, before I made the film, with the depth, scope and range of the New York Public Library and the wide range of services they provide to all classes, races and ethnicities in the main library and its 92 branches.” — Frederick Wiseman
dir. Vivienne Roumani-Denn, 2013
Out of Print
Every aspect of the written word is changing—from publishing to writing and selling to reading. If books are the foundation of civilization, how does that change the world of ideas? And how does it change us? With the unique perspective gained as a director at the Library of Congress and the UC Berkeley Library, filmmaker Vivienne Roumani tackles the questions confronting today’s word industry and shows that much more is at stake than how quickly we can access the latest byte. Out of Print is narrated by Meryl Streep and features Jeff Bezos, Scott Turow, Ray Bradbury, Jeffrey Toobin, Robert Darnton, Jane Friedman, Alberto Manguel, booksellers, cognitive scientists, architects, educators, parents, and students.
dir. Megan Rossman, 2018
The Archivettes
For more than 40 years, the Lesbian Herstory Archives has combated lesbian invisibility by literally rescuing history from the trash. The Archivettes provides a comprehensive look at the history of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the personal lives of the women involved in it, and the materials it protects and the challenges arising as the founders face their final years. The Lesbian Herstory Archives began in 1974, when a group of women involved in the Gay Academic Union realized that lesbian history was disappearing as quickly as it was being made. It is now home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.
dir. Julian Samuel, 2004
Save and Burn The first half of the film discusses the history of libraries and how they have facilitated the cross fertilization of ideas from one culture to another throughout history. The second half switches focus towards libraries in the political realm, including a discussion of the fate of libraries and their collections during periods of social unrest. Topics in this portion include the Patriot Act, the destruction of Palestinian libraries by Israeli soldiers, and the fate of Iraqi libraries during the country’s “liberation.”
dir. Terry Sanders, 1987
Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record
This award-winning documentary tells the unforgettable story of the deterioration and destruction of our world’s intellectual heritage and the global crisis in preserving library materials. Sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources. Millions of pages of paper in books, photographs, drawings, and maps are disintegrating and turning to dust. This remarkable film provides a comprehensive assessment of the worldwide situation, demonstrates methods of restoration and preservation and suggests ways to prevent new documents from facing ultimate destruction.
Change the Subject
No human being is illegal. When Dartmouth College students challenged anti-immigrant language in the Library of Congress, their activism sparked a movement–and a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
Films curated by Danette Pachtner, Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Lilly Library celebrates Women’s History Month by shining our spotlight on Notable Women in Science and Beyond. Films and books that highlight the vital role of women in the sciences as well as other areas of society and culture are featured. Below are just a few of the many titles – check them out in person or online!
Books about Women in the Sciences
Code Breaker: Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna
Life in code : a personal history of technology Pioneering computer programmer Ellen Ullman worked inside the rising culture of technology and the internet. In Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective.
The code breaker: Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race
Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues including Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions, a life science revolution.
The doctors Blackwell: how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women–and women to medicine
In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was joined by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician. Exploring the sisters’ allies, and challenges, we see a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women.
Films about Women in the Sciences … and Beyond
Hidden Figures available via streaming or DVD
Hidden Figures via Streaming , DVD, Book, or Audio book
NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.
Geek Girls DVD 31054
Filmmaker Gina Hara, struggling with her own geek identity, explores the issue with a cast of women who live geek life up to the hilt: A feminist geek blogger, a convention-trotting cosplayer, a professional gamer, a video-game designer, and a NASA engineer.
Picture a Scientist
Picture a Scientist DVD 33770 or Streaming This documentary film chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. A biologist, a chemist and a geologist lead viewers reveal their experiences as they confront brutal harassment, institutional discrimination, and years of subtle slights to revolutionize the culture of science.
We are the Radical MonarchsStreaming
This film documents the Radical Monarchs–an alternative to the Scout movement for girls of color, aged 8-13. Its members earn badges for completing units on social justice including being an LGBTQ ally, the environment, and disability justice.
Daughters of the ForestStreaming
This documentary tells the story of a small group of girls in one of the most remote forests left on earth who attend a radical high school where they learn to protect the threatened forest.
The Gender Chip Project
The Gender Chip Project DVD 5320
Filmmaker Helen de Michiel documented several young women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University. They met regularly over their next three years of college, and created a community to share experiences and struggles. This documentary reveals women finding new ways to honor their own growth, motivations and experience as they imagine how to make the science and technology workplace a comfortable environment for women.
Symbiotic Earth : how Lynn Margulis rocked the boat and started a scientific revolution via DVD 31267 or Streaming
Symbiotic Earth explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at evolution, the environment, and ourselves.
SciFinder-nis now available to all Duke students, faculty, and staff! The new interface offers new features, improved searching, and better integration of content. These enhancements make finding information easier, giving you more time for your research. Use your current SciFinder username and password to log in and start searching.
Trainers Edwin Robinson and Scott Hertzog of Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a division of the American Chemical Service (ACS), will be on campus to offer in-person demonstrations and answer questions. Join us to learn about new tools designed to help researchers in chemistry, engineering, biology, the environment and medicine.
Students and faculty, new and veteran searchers, are encouraged to attend one or more sessions. Bring your laptop to search along! All training sessions will be held in French Family Science Center 2237.
“Badly drawn, badly written and badly printed – a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems.” – Sterling North, Literary Editor, Chicago Daily News, 1940
Challenged from the Start
From the beginning, comics and graphic novels have had fans and detractors. To critics, comics were at a minimum second-rate and low-brow while at the extreme end, a corrupting force leading to juvenile delinquency. In 1954, Frederic Wertham published the now infamous Seduction of the Innocent, linking juvenile delinquency to comics which led to a de facto censorship system which lasted for decades.
Fast forward to today, graphic novels, fiction and non-fiction works in comic-strip format, are frequent targets for challenges and bans. Though the majority of challenges come from parents and other concerned citizens, state officials have often lodged complaints. North Carolina’s own Lt. Governor, Mark Robinson, vehemently protested the inclusion of the graphic novel, Gender Queer, in school library collections, calling for its immediate removal.
Why graphic novels?
Expanding beyond superheroes, authors and illustrators are connecting with their audiences on a variety of topics and issues through text and images. The combination of subject matter and static images makes graphic novels uniquely vulnerable to challenges.
Since 2013, graphic novels have made frequent appearances on the American Library Association’s yearly “Top 10 Most Challenged Books.” In addition, the numerous challenges faced by publishers, libraries, retailers, and even readers over comics and graphics gave rise in 1986 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit whose mission is the protection of the “First Amendment rights of the comics art form.”
Below are some titles in our collection that have been frequent targets of these challenges (click on the images for library location information).
Post by Danette Pachtner, Duke Libraries’ Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Black History Month is dedicated to the histories and stories of Black Americans and the African diaspora who have systemically been sidelined for centuries. Duke Libraries’ film collection has a treasure trove of titles to view and explore.
The Docuseek African-American Studies Collection is an interdisciplinary streaming video collection of over 80 award-winning films, featuring popular and classic films plus dynamic new releases, focused on social, political and cultural history and contemporary issues that are ideal resources for Black History Month.
Duke Libraries provides access to these streaming videos in TheDocuseek Complete Collection, with Duke NetId/password authentication.
John Lewis: Get in the Way | dir. Kathleen Dowdey | 2020
John Lewis: Get in the Way tells the gripping tale of Lewis’s role in the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement through never-before-seen interviews shot over 20 years.
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution details the history of how Medicare was leveraged to desegregate hospitals. Before Medicare, fewer than half the nation’s hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies. Power to Heal illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve a greater measure of justice and fairness for African-Americans.
Horror Noire: a History of Black Horror | dir. Xavier Burgin | 2019
Horror Noire traces the extensive history of Black horror films. Delving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, Horror Noire traces a secret history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre.
Al Helm follows an African American Christian choir’s journey to the Palestinian National Theater to put on a play about Martin Luther King, Jr. A rousing portrait of the changes unfolding in the Middle East as a nonviolent movement grows in Palestine, this dynamic and complex work is born of a brilliantly simple and potent idea: what would happen if African American Christians—the same group who served as exemplars of the Civil Rights Movement—could witness firsthand the plight of Palestinians today?
The Loving Story | dir. Nancy Buirski | 2011
A Crime on the Bayou | dir. Nancy Buirski | 2020
The classic documentary film, The Loving Story, from Nancy Buirski’s trilogy profiling brave individuals who fought for justice in and around the Civil Rights era, is a heart-rending story of the Lovings and the ground-breaking court case that legalized marriage between interracial couples.A Crime on the Bayou, is the final film in Buirski’s trilogy, which outlines the extraordinary story of Gary Duncan, arrested for touching a white boy’s arm, whose civil rights case in Louisiana went all the way to the Supreme Court in the late 1960s.
River City Drumbeatchronicles Edward “Nardie” White’s instruction of ancestral Pan-African culture and drumming in Louisville, Kentucky. For three decades, Edward “Nardie” White has been leading the River City Drum Corps in order to instill a foundation of purposeful resilience within his neighborhood youth. Against the backdrop of the American South, Mr. White’s drumline and its multi-generational network of support has been a lifeline for many young African Americans. In his final year as director he trains his successor Albert Shumake, a young artist whose troubled life was transformed by the drumline and Mr. White’s mentorship when he was a teen. During this transitional year, Mr. White and Albert reflect on the tragedies and triumphs in their lives and the legacy of the drum corps.
Father’s Kingdom depicts the untold story of the remarkable civil rights pioneer Father Divine. Once a celebrity who was decades ahead of his time fighting for civil rights, he has largely been written out of history because of the audacity of his religious claims, Father’s revolutionary ideas on race and identity still resonate today.
Black Girl in Suburbia | dir. Melissa Lowery | 2016
Black Girl in Suburbia takes a look at the suburbs of America from the perspective of women of color. Through conversations with her own daughters, with teachers and scholars who are experts in the personal impacts of growing up a person of color in a predominately white place, this film explores the conflicts that many Black girls in homogeneous hometowns have in relating to both white and Black communities.
New Docuseek releases include Stateless, a film that reveals the dark and deadly history of institutionalized oppression of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, and Oliver Tambo, about the man responsible for the release of Nelson Mandela and who helped to end the apartheid in South Africa.
In 1949, after living and working in the US for 30 years and making his home in Durham for over 10 years, Der Wo, the owner and operator of Durham’s first, very popular, Chinese restaurant was joyfully reunited with his family for the first time in 18 years.
Durham Morning Herald, 25 February 1949
Der Wo was originally from the Chinese province of Guangdong (called Canton by Westerners of the time) near Hong Kong. He immigrated to the US to work in Chinese restaurants in Washington DC. Before he came to Durham, he had 16 years of experience in the Chinese/American restaurant business. Der Wo brought his skills and joined a venture in Durham backed by the very successful sister restaurant, also the Oriental, based in Charlotte NC. Although the term “Oriental” is no longer used to identify people of Asian ancestry, in the period of the founding of this cafe, the term was widely used. The term “Chinese /American” more accurately reflects the people born in China who lived and worked in the United States.
Chinese /American cuisine had been a national fad in urban areas across the United States since the early 1900s. By the mid-1930s, Chop Suey, the common name for a Chinese/American adaptation of stir fry, was only available in Durham as a canned good from La Choy, founded in the US midwest in 1922, or from the Pines Tea Room near Chapel Hill, run by a Mrs. Vickers.
Collection of John DeFerrari, http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2021/11/chinese-restaurants-in-dc-at-mid-century.html
The Immigration Act of 1790 and the Chinese Exclusion Acts, in force from the 1880s until 1942, meant that Der Wo could not become a US citizen. In 1915 a court action opened the door for more Chinese restaurant workers to enter the US, but this immigration was tightly controlled. In the 1930 US Census, Durham had only 3 people identified as Chinese-born.
Nonetheless, by 1938 downtown Durham had the Oriental Restaurant, a thriving Chinese/American eatery. The Oriental, like other Chinese-owned businesses, followed Exclusion era practices by employing Chinese “bachelor” cooks and staff, several of whom lived on the premises. In the 1940 Census, Der Wo and five of his employees were listed as living above the restaurant on Parrish St.
A system of mutual support developed among Chinese/Americans and among business owners and restauranteurs called Huiguan. This relatively informal association system was similar to clans or a guild system for the management of both the supply of Chinese food and specialty products, and the flow of restaurant workers into the United States. The small staff of Chinese men gathered in Durham in the mid-1930s to open the new Chinese restaurant.
Durham Sun, 18 August 1938
The Oriental was essentially a 90-seat `white tablecloth restaurant well-sited in downtown Durham about equidistant from the two largest hotels in the downtown area and two blocks from the busy passenger train station. The Oriental was whites only. The operators chose Parrish St, also known as the “Black Wall Street,” because of proximity to patrons via the railroad and hotels, but the business did not make any accommodation for black patrons. The presence of Black Wall Street in a white downtown was an anomaly as was a segregated Chinese Restaurant just steps from the two largest black-owned enterprises in the city.
By the early 1940s, a Chinese restaurant for black patrons, the Asia Cafe, was established about a mile from the Oriental. Located in Hayti, Durham’s black business district, the restaurant was near the important intersection of Fayetteville St and Pettigrew St. The Asia Cafe was operated by Hugh Wong. The site was taken under urban renewal as part of Durham Freeway.
The Oriental used many of the marketing tools available in the 1930s. Der Wo advertised his restaurant in the Duke Chronicle, UNC’s Daily Tar Heel, and the Durham newspapers as well as the City Directories and the telephone books. Der Wo arranged for civic groups to hold meetings and banquets in his facility. In addition to supporting the American war effort during World War Two via war bond drives and other donations, Der Wo’s earlier activism included support for the nationalist Chinese cause including holding a banquet at the Oriental in honor of a barnstorming Chinese aviatrix raising funds for the support of the nationalists against the Japanese.
Open Durham
A grand opening for the Oriental was held on Saturday June18th 1938 and the restaurant was a hit from the start. Der Wo with the backing of the owner of the Oriental in Charlotte had rented a white brick two-story restaurant building with granite details likely built in the late teens or early twenties. Since he came from restaurants in more architecturally sophisticated urban Washington DC, the Oriental exterior was modernized in the Moderne style with full plate glass doors and windows surrounded by opaque panels of pigmented structural glass, probably Vitrolite, in ivory and black . The name “The Oriental Restaurant” was in a green bamboo style script in the glass panel above the front facade and there was a neon sign. The colors of the renovated interior were cream and brown and the main dining room seated 60 and included both high booths and tables. There was an adjoining dining room seating 30 for meetings. The restaurant was fully air-conditioned at a time that many offices and hotel rooms were not.
Open Durham
The preferred Chinese/ American dish in the 1930s remained Chop Suey, but in a recent survey on social media of long-term Durham residents now in their 60’s and older, the Oriental’s Chicken Chow Mein is the most frequently remembered dish. The owner of a local plumbing company was so fond of the Oriental that his family ate there once a week throughout the 1950s and 1960s and many survey respondents remembered special Sunday lunches at the Oriental. The judgment concerning the popularity of the Oriental’s Chow Mein is verified in a 1950s newspaper article about the long-time cook at the Oriental, Frank Dea Toy.
George Lougee, a local newspaper reporter for the Durham Herald Sun, wrote affectionately not only about Der Wo, but also about the kitchen workers like Frank Dea Toy over several decades. Lougee’s primary beat was the Courts, and the Oriental was just around the corner from the Courthouse and jail.
From the Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection #P0105, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Among the most interesting aspects of the Oriental story is Der Wo and his family’s path from China to Durham which was detailed in Lougee’s 1949 feature newspaper story about the reunion of Der Wo and his family after the long separation because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the disruption of World War II.
In 1919, Der Wo immigrated from China via San Francisco to Washington DC to make his way in the restaurant business. No doubt he improved his English and he learned about the operations of restaurants.
In 1931 Der Wo was successful enough to make the two-month journey to return to China to marry. Der Wo’s parents had arranged his marriage to Wu Mei On, an eligible young woman. Before Der Wo returned to the US about a year later, Wu Mei On had had a daughter and was pregnant. Wu Mei On and her children lived with Der Wo’s parents. Der Wo returned to the restaurant business in Washington DC in 1932 before coming to Durham in late 1937.
In 1941, the Japanese bombed and invaded the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The danger and brutality of the attack prompted the extended Der Wo family to flee into the interior of China. After a few months, they returned to Hong Kong to find their home intact and they resumed their lives there.
Der Wo, Immigration records, ancestry.com
In some of the records of the census and other Federal agencies from the 1930s and 1940s, Der Wo is listed as white. In 1949 Der Wo began Naturalization proceedings and was finally reunited with his wife and met, for the first time, his 18-year old son. Part of the delay in the reunion was because of immigration restrictions. Both his wife and son had to come to the United States on temporary visas. The family lived together for a number of years and two other sons were born.
In 1953 Der Wo, suffering from heart disease, died of a sudden heart attack, and his wife and older son were forced to take over the operation of the restaurant.
In 1954 Federal Immigration and Naturalization authorities contacted the family about possible deportation because of the lapsed visa status of both Der Wo’s wife and older son. Lougee wrote about the family’s immigration situation and gathered local support. With the assistance of Congressman Carl Durham, a private bill was introduced and approved by Congress and signed by President Eisenhower to allow the family to stay together in Durham.
With the help of her son and the restaurant staff, Mrs Der Wo operated the restaurant successfully throughout the 1950s despite her limited English language skills.
In a mid-1950s feature story, Frank Dea Toy, cook at the Oriental, was featured. Dea Toy claimed, to newspaperman Lougee’s astonishment, that after living in Durham for over twenty years he had never been to any sort of ball game nor had he attend more than one movie a year. Radio and television were, he said, too “noisy.” The isolation of the Chinese workers was further illustrated by Lougee’s reporting on a 1944 fatal hit and run accident that killed an Oriental employee who was walking in Durham with two Chinese colleagues. The death was never solved.
Frank Dea Toy, From the Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection #P0105, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
By the early1960’s a shift in the primary shopping areas from downtown Durham to the suburbs north and south of Durham’s city center was well underway and the lunch and dinner trade at the Oriental were likely a fraction of what they had been. Urban renewal was in the planning stages and the face of Durham was changing.
Civil rights protest was also rising, and in May 1963 the Oriental was a site at which Black students, primarily from North Carolina Central University (then College), staged a late afternoon peaceful sit-in. Sit-in leaders asked to be served on behalf of their 60 followers and were refused by management. Some students left, but 48 waited for the police to charge them with unlawful trespass. All were charged and released without bond.
By 1964 the formal process of downtown Durham redevelopment using Federal funds was underway. The passenger train station in downtown Durham was closed and one of the two major downtown hotels closed as well. No doubt redevelopment was a part of the decline of the Oriental. Mrs. Der closed the Oriental in 1966. The building itself was not demolished until the early 1970s. The ultimate causes of the closure of the restaurant may have been the aging of the staff and owner, but other factors may have included the aging infrastructure and the changes in the surrounding business climate. In the face of public accommodation laws, urban renewal programs, the Durham Freeway, and the end of official segregation, the Oriental did not survive.
Many thanks to my colleagues, Yunyi Wang and Luo Zhou, and to Prof. Calvin Cheung-Miaw for their editorial assistance.
Holaday, J. Chris, and Patrick Cullom. Classic Restaurants of Durham. Charleston, SC: Charleston, SC : American Palate, a Division of The History Press, 2020.
Native Americans in North Carolina:
the Path from the Past to the Present
The research and suggested resources presented in the article Imagining Duke’s Campus in 1000 AD inspire the Lilly Library exhibit: Native Americans in North Carolina: the Path from the Past to the Present. Tangible artifacts and reference material highlighting the history of Native Americans in North Carolina carry us together on a journey over time to the campus experience of today. The exhibit presents historical evidence predating European contact, records and accounts of the university’s Native American student experience, and a look at the extent of Native American tribal reach in present day North Carolina.
North Carolina: The Arrival of Europeans
A New Voyage to Carolina, John Lawson (1709)
When the first Europeans arrived in what they called Carolina, the 16th century surveyor John White depicted in detail the established villages and individuals living on the land near Roanoke. A century later John Lawson catalogued the peoples and bounty of the land he traveled. His account A New Voyage to Carolina (produced in 1709) revealed the diversity of nature especially flora and of the nations of Native Americans. An original edition of Lawson’s book is found in the Rubenstein Library collection but does not circulate.
For Duke community members with NetIDs who wish to examine Lawson’s work, reprints and online versions are readily available.
Duke: The Arrival of Joseph S. Maytubby
Joseph S. Maytubby (Image from Duke University Archives)
The relationship between Duke and its Native American constituents goes back further in history than one might expect. In 1892, Trinity College (the predecessor to Duke University) saw the arrival of Joseph S. Maytubby on its campus in Durham. Maytubby, a member of the Chickasaw tribe became the first Native American to receive a degree from Trinity College. An excellent student, he served as president of the Hesperian Literary Society, was involved with the Trinity Archive literary magazine, played football, and, as a capstone to his stellar academic career, his oratory skills won the Wiley Gray Medal competition for the 1896 commencement.
In present day, the Duke Native American Student Alliance serves as a resource and advocates on behalf of Native American Students on campus. Read its mission statement to learn more. One element of NASA’s stated mission is to advance the awareness of Native American culture throughout campus and the state.
Map of NC Tribal Communities – source: North Carolina Dept. of Administration
It is not generally known that North Carolina has the largest Native American population east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina is home to eight tribes recognized tribes by the state, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation – the only federally recognized Native American community in North Carolina. This exhibit offers a glimpse into the complicated and often uncomfortable history of the Native American tale.
The Lilly Library exhibit Native Americans in North Carolina: the Path from the Past to the Present is on display until March 1, 2022.
Curated by Librarians Greta Boers and Carson Holloway. Artifacts on display are from the collections of Carson Holloway and Greta Boers.
For Native American History Month, one of Duke Libraries’ streaming video platforms, Docuseek, is highlighting a number of films about and made by Indigenous Peoples. Docuseek presents an excellent collection of documentary films about Native Americans, including National Film Board of Canada’s First Nations films, Women Make Movies, and distributors Bullfrog Films and Icarus Films.
These selections trace Indigenous activism, movement-building, politics, art, culture, language, astronomy, restorative-justice systems, and the fight to protect water and sacred lands.
As Nutayuneaan (dir. Anne Makepeace, 2011)
As Nutayuneaan (We Still Live Here)
Tells the amazing story of the return of the Wampanoag language, a language that was silenced for more than a century.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Conscience Point (dir. Treva Wurmfeld, 2021)
Conscience Point Unearths a deep clash of values between the Shinnecock Indian Nation and their elite Hamptons neighbors, who have made sacred land their playground. (Women Make Movies; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (dir. Alanis Obomsawin, 2015)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Examines the historic confrontation between the Mohawks, Québec police, and the Canadian army that propelled Native issues into the international spotlight and into the Canadian conscience.
(National Film Board of Canada; streaming with Duke netid/password)
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, dir. Anna Sofaer, 2015)
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Unveils the ancient astronomy of southwestern Pueblo Indians.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Skydancer (dir. Katja Esson, 2021)
Skydancer
Academy Award-nominated director Katja Esson explores the colorful and at times tragic history of the Mohawk skywalkers, men who leave their families on the reservation to travel to NYC to work construction jobs.
(Women Make Movies; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Standing on Sacred Ground (dir. Christopher McLeod, 2015)
Standing on Sacred Ground
In this four-part documentary series from the producer of In the Light of Reverence, native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land in the form of government megaprojects, consumer culture, and resource extraction as well as competing religions and climate change.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Native Cinema Showcase 2021
If these titles whet your appetite for more great movies, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Cinema Showcase is coming up later this month. An annual celebration of the best in Native film, this year’s showcase is online and runs from November 12-18, 2021. And Women Make Movies is screening online a selection of films by and about Native American women from November 19-30th; sign up here to receive more info.
As the leaves are finally changing and the temperatures are finally resembling those of autumn, you might find yourself looking for a new book to read with your PSL or otherwise seasonally appropriate hot beverage. Well, look no further! Here’s a quick sampling of some recently added titles in our Overdrive and New & Noteworthy collections. Remember, we are always adding new titles to both of these collections, so be sure to frequently check back with each of them!
The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine. Alameddine’s sixth novel tells the story of Mina Simpson, a middle-aged Lebanese-American physician who volunteers to treat migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos in the midst of a refugee crisis. The experience is very emotionally taxing for Mina, in no small part because her patients and their lives remind her so much of her painful childhood growing up in Beirut, clashing with the conservative culture in which she was raised—along with her abusive parents—before eventually attending Harvard, becoming a doctor in Chicago, undergoing gender transitioning, and adopting her current name. While dealing with these connections, she serves as a vivid narrator of all the people she encounters, painting detailed portraits of her patients to an unnamed Lebanese writer, and wryly criticizing the Western journalists and others who have come to Lesbos to gawk at the crisis as it unfolds. Indeed, the novel offers a thorough examination of Western attitudes toward the Middle East and the refugee crisis in particular, as Mina and the writer contemplate how her stories might be received in the United States. You can read reviews here and here.
Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence by Anita Hill. In this book, Brandeis law professor Anita Hill discusses the current state of gender-based violence in the contemporary United States, describing its general pervasiveness and inextricable connection to other forms of bigotry, including racism and transphobia. Reflecting on her own allegations of sexual harassment against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and her subsequent testimony against him during his confirmation hearings thirty years ago, Hill remarks upon how little the myriad difficulties facing people alleging gender-based violence against those in power have changed, comparing her experience with that of Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged sexual assault by, and testified against, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, as well as that of Tara Reade, who alleged that now-President Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993. In describing all these events, as well as several others, Hill focuses primarily on the numerous barriers facing those who experience gender-based violence, as well as the way this violence affects everyone all of ages, races, and social classes. With its informative—though often difficult—details, Hill’s book is a compelling read. You can read reviews here and here.
My Monticelloby Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. In this debut collection, Johnson tells numerous stories, most of which feature Black characters in contemporary Virginia (Johnson’s home state) reckoning with experiences of racism and their own racial identities, with the heavy history and culture of the state serving as a kind of omnipresent backdrop. The titular novella of the collection, which takes up the most space in the book and also arrives at the very end of the collection, sets itself in a near-future Charlottesville undergoing organized racial violence perpetrated by white supremacist militias (with Johnson’s imagery heavily alluding to the events of the 2017 Unite the Right rally that took place in the city). In this story, UVA student Da’Naisha leads a group of fleeing Black and brown Charlottesville residents (including her own grandmother) to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s plantation located just outside the city; having previously interned there, Da’Naisha knows it to be a potentially effective hideout. As the characters hide there, they are continuously confronted with the links between the plantation’s history and their current circumstances as refugees from racial violence. For Da’Naisha, this link is particularly acute, as she reveals to her grandmother that they are both descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. You can read reviews here and here.
Americanon: An Unexpected U.S. History in Thirteen Bestselling Books by Jess McHugh. In this nonfiction debut, journalist McHugh traces the history of common cultural values and ideas of success in American society by examining thirteen bestselling books, all of which serve as instructional texts of some kind (with many resembling modern-day self-help books, despite preceding the advent of the formal genre). Ranging from The Old Farmer’s Almanac to Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, McHugh offers up a comprehensive overview of each title, explaining the varying cultural contexts and publication histories surrounding them. In so doing, she creates a fascinating work on the ways commonplace American values have changed—and not changed—over the past three centuries, and also offers a thorough examination of whose voices and values have been (and currently are) the most present and privileged in the popular market of didactic books. You can read reviews here and here.
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala. Manansala’s debut, the first entry in a new mystery series, tells the story of Lila Macapagal, a young woman who has moved back to her Illinois hometown following the emotionally-wrought breakup of her engagement. While she intends simply to assist her aunt in the running of her Filipino restaurant, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, things quickly take a turn when her embittered ex-boyfriend from high school, restaurant reviewer Derek Winter, abruptly dies in the middle of a meal there. While these circumstances are enough to cast suspicion on Lila, making matters worse is the fact that Derek was dining with his stepfather, the restaurant’s landlord with whom Lila’s aunt had been having financial difficulties. Lila is quickly pinned as the primary suspect in Derek’s apparent murder, leaving her no recourse but to try to clear her name, which she does with the assistance of her friend Adeena and Adeena’s brother Amir, an attorney who also serves as Lila’s love interest. Though this mystery deals with a number of dark elements, the tone remains generally light throughout, and the events of the novel are brightened by Manansala’s detailed descriptions of food and the many ways it figures into the lives of the book’s characters. You can read reviews here and here.
“Who are we gonna call” when we order films for Duke Libraries’ film collections? For Lilly Library, it’s not Ghostbusters but our guest curator, Stephen Conrad, that’s who! Stephen is Duke Libraries’ Team Lead for Western Languages in Monographic Acquisitions. One of the hats he wears is “orders person” for new DVDs. Because of Stephen’s knowledge and interest in film, we invited him to curate (and order) new titles to give our horror collection a jolt! Enjoy Stephen’s horror-ful Halloween picks … if you dare!
Good Manners aka As Boas Maneiras
As Boas Maneiras Lilly DVD 34167
Translated into English as Good Manners, this is a Brazilian werewolf tale set in São Paulo, from directors Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra. A mysterious and wealthy woman hires a housekeeper/nanny for her unborn child. The two grow close but there are complications, to put it mildly. Part fairy tale, part musical, this beyond-genre experience is truly a wild one. (2017)
The Mutilator aka Fall Break
MutilatorLilly DVD 34199
Also known as Fall Break, this North Carolina produced teen slasher was the first and only effort from director Buddy Cooper. Low in budget and high in gore, the picture is of particular interest for visitors to the NC coast, as large portions were filmed around the Crystal Coast locales of Morehead City and Atlantic Beach.
Season of the Witch Lilly DVD 34156
Season of the WitchLilly DVD 34156
One of George A. Romero’s earlier films, the retitled Hungry Wives is the tale of a suburban Pittsburgh housewife turning to witchcraft as an escape from her doldrums. Perhaps more social commentary than true horror, Romero is still a master and conjures dread and seediness from both roomfuls of shag carpet and boorish husbands.
House of the Devil Lilly DVD 34155
House of the DevilLilly DVD 34155
A truly creepy and terrifying evil-house movie, from 2009 but set in the horror/slasher epoch of 1983. Director Ti West continually ratchets up the fright as a cash-strapped college student takes a babysitting gig at a big old house outside of town. But, there are no kids. And it’s a full lunar eclipse. Oh yeah, and Satan’s in the house.
Messiah of Evil Lilly DVD 34200
Messiah of Evil Lilly DVD 34200
1973. Quasi-zombies. Art. A bright Ralph’s supermarket at night. ‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.’ JOY BANG! Suspended bed. Proto Blue-Man-Group. The director of ‘Howard the Duck’. More art. Fires on the beach. Undead Cult. Point Dune. Second Coming. Electronic score. Blood moon. ELISHA COOK, JR.!
Without Name Lilly DVD 34171
Without Name Lilly DVD 34171
Modern Irish eco-horror by director Lorcan Finnegan. A land surveyor and his assistant are sent on a job into a forest outside of Dublin, only for things to go eerily and dreadfully awry. The sound design is most notable, and to paraphrase the lead character: “I could say it is a doorway or frequency or dream….it is like those things, but not.”
A Halloween Bonus Treat! Seeking additional thrills and chills?
If you’re feeling brave, take a peek at our online Screaming videos! Access these frightful films with
your Duke netid/password.
In 1954, Frederic Wertham published the now infamous Seduction of the Innocent, linking juvenile delinquency to comics. Testifying before Congress in 1954, Wertham stated emphatically that “it is my opinion, without any reasonable doubt, and without any reservation, that comic books are an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency.” The ensuing uproar on comics’ deleterious effects on the nation’s youth led to the creation of the Comics Magazine Association of American which in turn issued the Comics Code Authority (CCA).
While the adoption of the code by publishers was voluntary, comics without the CCA logo faced an uphill battle in terms of distribution. This de facto censorship system was wide-ranging, touching on such things as how persons in authority could be portrayed, how crimes could be presented, directives on illustrations, and the portrayals of marriage and sex.
The CCA had a long-term chilling effect on the portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters in mainstream comics; However, its creation led to the vibrant underground comix movement where artists and authors ignored the strict code. Though the CCA was revised several times in the 1970s, loosening some restrictions, it wasn’t until 1992 in Alpha Flight #106 that Marvel’s Northstar stated, “I am gay.” The CCA was totally abandoned in the early 2000s.
Today, though there is still progress to be made, LGBTQIA+ persons and characters are found in graphic novels from superhero-themed to memoirs. The Lilly Graphic Novel Collection is a great place to begin your exploration. Below are a few highlights from our vast collection. Enjoy!
Fun Home
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. In this award winning graphic memoir, Bechdel chronicles her relationship with her distant father, an English teacher and director of the town’s funeral home, “Fun Home” to the Bechdel family. From childhood through her coming out to her parents, Fun Home explores Bechdel’s fraught relationship with her father, the exploration of her sexuality, and a tragedy that leaves her much to reckon with. Fun Home was adapted for Broadway and has the distinction of being the first Broadway musical featuring a lesbian protagonist. It won the Tony award for Best Musical in 2015. Bechdel is also the author of the critically acclaimed Dykes to Watch Out For series.
Bingo Love
Bingo Love by Tee Franklin (author) and Jenn St.-Onge and Joy San (artists). In 1963, Hazel and Mari meet at church bingo, and their friendship grows into love. This new found love, however, is unacceptable to their families and their community, and Mari’s family moves away. Many years later, after Hazel and Mari each married and raised children, they reconnect at a bingo hall and realize that their feelings are unchanged. Fifty years later, through strength and determination, they claim the life that they always wanted. Bingo Love started as a Kickstarter project until it was picked up by Image Comics.
Our Work Is Everywhere
Our Work is Everywhere by Syan Rose. This graphic non-fiction work highlights the diverse voices in the queer and trans communities. Rose has a broad definition of work, not just what we do in our professional careers but also the ways that we improve ourselves, our communities, and our world. Interviews with queer and trans organizers, health justice activists, martial artists, and more are included, accompanied by Rose’s beautiful and expressive illustrations.
Gender Queer
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (author) and Phoebe Kobabe (colorist). Both a memoir and an introduction to eir family and readers on what it means to be non-binary, Kobabe (e/em/eir pronouns) chronicles eir journey of self-identity. Kobabe’s touching and honest story is a useful guide on gender identity for everyone.
Heartstopper
HeartstopperbyAlice Oseman. Begun as a serial webcomic in 2016, Heartstopper, available now in two printed volumes, introduces readers to Charlie and Nick who meet and develop a friendship at a British all-boys grammar school. The friendship grows into love. Optioned by Netflix, Heartstopper is slated for live-action adaptation in the near future.
These influential and impactful works are among the hundreds of titles in the Lilly Graphic Novel Collection, located in the first floor Carpenter Room.
The Docuseekstreaming video platform provides a window into subjects and content from around the world and across disciplines. Here is a selection of titles that examine indigenous peoples of North America. Available through Duke Libraries with netid/password authentication, explore new cultures and topics through the lens of award-winning filmmakers.
AmaStream Online
A powerful look at the untold story of the involuntary sterilization of Native American women conducted by the Indian Health Service and lasting well into the 1970s.
(Bullfrog Films, 2019, dir. Lorna Tucker)
Awake : a dream from Standing RockStream Online or Lilly DVD 31281
Moving from summer 2016, when demonstrations over the Dakota Access Pipeline’s demolishing of sacred Native burial grounds began, the film documents the story of Native-led fight for clean water and the environment. The film is a collaboration between indigenous filmmakers: Director Myron Dewey and Executive Producer Doug Good Feather; and environmental Oscar-nominated filmmakers Josh Fox and James Spione.
nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up Stream Online
The story of the killing of young Cree man Colten Boushie and his family’s pursuit of justice weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption. (National Film Board of Canada, 2020, dir. Tasha Hubbard)
PauletteStream Online
Follows the historic campaign of Paulette Jordan, the first Native American candidate — as well as the first woman — to win the Idaho Primary for Governor. (Women Make Movies, 2020, dir. Heather Rae)
Sisters Rising Stream Online Native American survivors of sexual assault fight to restore personal and tribal sovereignty against the backdrop of an ongoing legacy of violent colonization. (Woman Make Movies, 2021, dir. Willow O’Feral)
Tribal Justice Stream Online
Anne Makepeace documents an effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to return to traditional, community-healing concepts of justice. (Bullfrog Films, 2017, dir. Anne Makepeace)
Without a Whisper Stream online
The untold story of the profound influence of Indigenous women on the beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States. (Women Make Movies, 2020, dir. Katsitsionni Fox)
Explore films from the Duke Libraries to educate yourself about the significant contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made to U.S. culture, and as a reminder of ongoing challenges they face, along with the anti-racist work that we have yet to do.
Directed by Celine Parreñas Shimizu, 2021
The Celine Archive Streaming video – Duke netid/password required The Celine Archive is simultaneously an act of journalism, a journey into family and community memory and archives, a love poem, a story of grief and trauma, and a séance for the buried history of Filipino-Americans. Filmmaker and scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu artfully weaves together her own story of grief with the story of the tragic death of Celine Navarro, which has become lore. In 1932, Navarro was buried alive by her own community of Filipino-Americans in Northern California, but the circumstances surrounding her death were and are unclear and have oft been spun, sensationalized, and dramatized. The filmmaker, a grieving mother with ties to the same community, finds resonance with Navarro’s memory and long-lost story, and she sets out to first learn — and then tell — the truth about Navarro’s death, ultimately portraying her as a feminist heroine.
PBS, 2020
Asian Americans Lilly DVD 33607 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
Asian Americans is a five-hour film PBS series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided, while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story.
PBS, 2018
The Chinese Exclusion Act DVD 31536 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
This American Experience documentary examines the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, it remained in force for more than 60 years.
dir. by Puhipau and Joan Lander, 2005
Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege
Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
Inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for 2020. Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege paints a portrait of a mountain that has become a symbol of the Hawaiian struggle for physical, cultural and political survival. The program explores conflicting forces as they play themselves out in a contemporary island society where cultures collide daily. In an effort to find commonalities among indigenous people elsewhere regarding sacred mountains, the documentary visits Apache elders of Arizona who face the reality of telescope development on their revered mountain, Dzil Nchaa Si An, known as Mt. Graham.
directed by Renee Tajima-Peña, 1996
My America, or Honk if you Love Buddha Lilly DVD 33771
The director of Who Killed Vincent Chin? takes to the road to see what it means to be Asian American in our rapidly-changing society.
Directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima, 1990
Who Killed Vincent Chin? Lilly DVD 28025 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
This Academy-Award nominated film is a powerful statement about racism in working-class America. It relates the stark facts of Vincent Chin’s brutal murder. Outrage filled the Asian-American community, after his accused murderer received a suspended sentence and a small fine, to the point where they organized an unprecedented civil rights protest. His bereaved mother, brought up to be self-effacing, successfully led a nationwide crusade for a retrial. This tragic story is interwoven with the whole fabric of timely social concerns. It addresses issues such as the failure of our judicial system to value every citizen’s rights equally, the collapse of the automobile industry under pressure from Japanese imports, and the souring of the American dream for the blue collar worker.
Asian and Asian American Film
Looking for Feature Films and more?
Lilly Library’s collection of feature films about Asian American and Pacific Islanders is rich and deep! Classic films, romantic comedies, family dramas, etc., created by Asians and Asian Americans are available to entertain and inspire you.
Discover the Duke Libraries’ collection of DVDs and streaming video platforms to watch Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, Joy Luck Club , The Namesake and Minari along with a host of other great movies.
Streaming Access available via Duke netid/password.
Grace in one of her favorite spots in Lilly Library
Do you remember the Library before the covid era? If you had ever been in Lilly Library late in the evenings, you may have seen our graduate student assistant, Odunola (who goes by Grace) at our desk. We are fortunate that Grace continued to work with us this past year. And, what a year it has been!
Adjusting to a very different library schedule, re-shelving thousands of returned books that were warehoused during the summer of 2020, scrupulously searching for books requested for Library Take-Out, and even helping staff prepare over 1500 “Welcome” library goodie bags for the Class of 2024 – Grace has been a vital member of our Lilly team this past year.
Now is your chance to get to know Grace in this profile, and you will appreciate her as much we do!
Graduate Student Grace
Grace celebrating graduation
Hometown: Oyan, Osun State, Nigeria
Family: Father, Mother, a brother, two sisters, three nieces, and a nephew.
Academic field of study: Medical Physics M.Sc.
Activities on campus: Member of GPSG, walking, my research work involved 3D printing and working with the staff at the Duke Innovation Co-Lab
Favorite on-campus activity: Visiting the Duke clinics to shadow physicists, performing QA on medical equipment like the Linac and the brachytherapy afterloader.
Favorite off-campus activity: Participating in my local church’s monthly food drive to support the community.
Favorite off-campus eatery: Shanghai (on Hillsborough)
Describe your work in Lilly and the changes you saw this pandemic year:
Grace surveying the Lilly lobby
Q: What’s the strangest or most interesting book or movie you’ve come across in Lilly? A: There was a book (I can’t really remember the title) that showed portraits of African/Black women drawn during the slave trade era. According to the author, having one’s portrait done at that time was a thing of honor, however, the women were posed in such a dishonorable way because they were slaves even though they were beautiful to behold. It was an odd book.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly? A: Manning the front desk and being able to help people out, working with kind and flexible staff members, occasional free food
Q: Least favorite? A: Book search – I feel I have left the task incomplete when I do not find the book.
Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget? A: How excited I was to come back after the initial lockdown restriction was eased. I truly missed working at Lilly.
Q: What is working in a now almost empty Lilly like compared to your past work at the Lilly desk? A: It was quite strange at first. The pandemic was unexpected and its effects were far-reaching. The usually busy front desk and reading rooms became deserted and really quiet. It was quite strange. I miss the hustle and bustle of pre-covid.
Q: What will you miss most about Lilly? A: The building itself! I love the architecture from the outside and the different rooms, especially the Thomas room upstairs. Apparently, I love old buildings.
Q: What are your plans after finishing your degree and leaving Duke? A: I will be proceeding to obtain a Ph.D. degree in Medical Physics from the University of Alberta in Canada.
We wish Grace the best and much success as she continues her studies far from Duke. Congratulations!
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Lilly Library shines a spotlight on Women in Sport. Books and movies – including e-books and streaming film – which feature women athletes are “teeming” in our collections. The titles featured here give a sense of the breadth of the issues and themes present in the world of women’s athletics.
To discover more about women athletes, browse the Duke Libraries catalogue. A basic subject search of women athletes reveals hundreds of titles available. Your Duke netID is your ticket to read, learn, witness, and celebrate the wide range of women and their athletic challenges and achievements!
Based on the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, this book focuses on the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the twentieth century as featured in Instagram. Rarely seen photos and in-depth interviews feature past and present game changers such as Abby Wambach and Cari Champion.
This online book offers a sweeping look at the experience of Black women athletes. Through the stories of six groundbreaking women– Alice Coachman, Ora Washington, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Wyomia Tyus, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee– author Jennifer H. Lansbury outlines the careers of these women and their experiences with attitudes of race, class, and gender.
What do we know about the communities of women in sport in Latin America? Futbolera weaves the stories of these women as athletes and fans in the tapestry of social class, national and racial identities, sexuality, and gender roles in countries better known for male athletes of global fame.
GV709 .S495 2016
Kicking Off: How Women in Sport are Changing the Game
There’s a battle being fought. It’s raging on the sports fields, in the newsrooms and behind the scenes at every major broadcaster. Women in sport fight for equality, but are they breaking down the barriers? Writer Sarah Shephard looks behind headlines to see whether progress is really being made.
Film – Documentary and Feature
Films exploring and illuminating the challenges faced by women athletes the world over are highlighted here:
Streaming or DVD 14381
Offside Streaming or DVD14381
During the 2006 Iran-Bahrain match, the Tehran soccer stadium roars with 100,000 cheering men and, officially, no women. According to Islamic custom, women are not permitted to watch or participate in men’s sports. Many ambitious young female fans manage to sneak into the arena but are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes these young men and women adversaries, but duty can’t overcome shared dreams and an overriding sense of national pride and humanity.
Examines the post Title IX media environment in terms of the representation of female athletes. It demonstrates that while men’s identities in sports are equated with deeply held values of courage, strength and endurance, the accomplishments of female athletes are framed very differently and in much more stereotypical ways.
Dr. Donnis Thompson, coach, Patsy Mink ,U.S. congresswoman, and Beth McLachlin, team captain of the University of Hawaii volleyball team, battle discrimination from the halls of Washington D.C. to the dusty volleyball courts of the University of Hawaii, fighting for the rights of young women to play sports. The film reveals how change-makers overcome injustice with wisdom, an innovative spirit, and without becoming victims to their circumstances.
Best Films about Women in Sport?
In a less serious vein – do you have a favorite film about women in sports?
Film Picks: Women in Sport
Nine of the titles most frequently named in “Best” or “Top” lists are in our collections:
Welcome to 2021, and the Spring semester at Duke University Libraries!
Libraries reopen on January 4, but services and hours will remain limited through the 19th. You can learn more on the Library hours page.
Swipe access to library buildings remains linked to COVID-19 testing and symptom monitoring. See below for more detailed information.
Beginning with the start of classes on January 20, library services will return to the same level as the Fall semester. Use Library Takeout for print materials, reserve study spaces and technology, and join in virtual instruction and research consultation.
Access to Library Buildings
Students who are cleared to remain on campus through the intersession must continue to participate in testing to access library buildings. To gain access, patrons must swipe in, show their SymMon clearance, and demonstrate a need to be in the library (e.g., Takeout). Anyone not compliant with testing will have swipe access cut off until they comply with testing.
Undergraduate and graduate students who have NOT been cleared to remain on campus must test and quarantine as soon as they return to campus. You cannot test and begin quarantine any earlier than January 11. Beginning January 13, students who have tested, quarantined, and received a negative result will have swipe access to library buildings during open hours. Students will need to show their SymMon clearance and demonstrate a need to be in the library (e.g., Takeout).
Trying to figure out what you’re going to do over your extra long Winter Break this year? You might already know you can access many of our library resources from home and that you can use Library Takeout to check out print books, but you may not know about some of the libraries’ more fun-focused online resources. Keep reading for popular streaming video, streaming music, and eBook resources! Duke’s personal librarians also share books, films, and other resources that they’ve been enjoying.
Streaming Video
Duke has access to dozens of streaming video databases. Here are three I recommend checking out if you’re looking for something entertaining to watch.
Kanopy – This database has a vibrant collection of independent films, international films, and documentaries on a broad range of subjects. Think of it as an artsy version of Netflix.
Swank Digital Campus – If you’re looking for Hollywood movies, this is your spot. Swank has both recent films and older classics in a wide range of genres.
Academic Video Online (AVON) – This database has a huge collection of videos. Although the platform is most notable for its excellent documentaries (PBS, CNN, and BBC are all featured), it also has a number of independent feature films in its Sony Pictures Classics collection.
Popular eBooks
Overdrive – This platform has thousands of popular eBooks and audiobooks. Overdrive titles can be enjoyed on a computer, tablet, e-reader, or phone.
Streaming Music
Naxos Music Library– This database has a massive collection of classical music with over 2 million tracks streaming. Great for throwing on while you relax at home!
Music Online: Jazz Music Library– This is your go-to spot if you want to stream jazz. The library includes thousands of artists and albums across a wide range of sub-genres from hard-bop to Latin jazz to swing.
Curious what books and films Duke librarians have been enjoying recently? Check out the following recommendations.
Arianne Hartsell-Gundy – I’ve recently read two books. Unmarriageable: A Novel by Soniah Kamal, is a charming and fun retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in Pakistan. It’s available on Overdrive and in print at Lilly and Perkins. I also enjoyed The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert, available on Overdrive. Two first-time teen voters meet at their polling place and fall in love over the course of one crazy day in this YA novel. Bonus: there’s an adorable cat named Selma.
Carson Holloway – I’ve read two non-fiction books that were great. The first, Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline by Nick Estes, is about Standing Rock, but also about the long arc of resistance to the erosion of the rights of native people. The book is well written as a work of history, and it puts the development of indigenous rights in perspective, but it is also a pointed argument about the necessity of persistence. The second is Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano, and translated by Mark Fried. Mirrors is a sort of world history illustrated with factoids that remind us that not only the great men are interesting when big events happen. Galeano was from Uruguay and his perspective on the rise of colonial South America, women’s suffrage, and the role of illiterate people in history is fascinating.
Lee Sorensen – I’ve been playing around with the David Rumsey online map collection. I started out looking for historical maps of some of the places I was reading about, but soon discovered that the definition of “map” can be fun and entertaining. For example, I searched for the word “mythical” or “fantastic” and got quite a lot of representational results of imaginary places. I loved the 1938 Shell Oil company visualization of how the airport world would be!
Ira King – I recently re-watched one of my favorite films, Hoop Dreams, which we have streaming on Kanopy. On the surface this 1994 documentary is about basketball, but it encompasses race, class, the American education system, and more as the filmmakers follow two Chicago-area high school basketball players over a five year span. Hoop Dreams is frequently cited as one of the greatest documentaries of all-time, and I’m inclined to agree. I’ve also been enjoying Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past science fiction trilogy that begins with The Three Body Problem. This trilogy is available in audiobook format on Duke’s Overdrive page.
Rijksmuseum, Copyrighted free use, via Wikimedia Commons
Greta Boers – I’d like to highlight three books I’ve really enjoyed— all long ago stories about women:
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish – a novel that focuses on a Sephardic community in 17th century London and modern day;
The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton – a novel about pre-Raphaelite artists in the late 19th century through the 20th;
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton – a novel centered around a traditional burgher household in 17th century Amsterdam.
I liked these books because they are all about women in various historical periods, who are reimagined with more control and more power to shape their own destinies. All three of these novels have interesting connections to historical events. The main character of The Miniaturist is Petronella Oortman whose dollhouse (pictured above) is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The Jewish Museum London has a blog post about the 17th century Sephardic Jewish community written about in The Weight of Ink. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a fascinating essay with photos of the 17th and 18th century European clocks featured in The Clockmaker’s Daughter.
The Duke University Libraries is offering a number of RCR programs for new graduate students. These workshops are designed as a complement to the required RCR orientations for new graduate and professional school students. The library will offer a number of additional RCR programs through the academic year.
Workshop Description
This interactive online workshop will introduce you to a variety of library resources to support your research practices. We’ll cover copyright and fair use, citation practices and avoiding plagiarism, research data management, [using rare materials and manuscripts], and issues in scholarly publishing from an author’s perspective. You’ll meet library experts relevant to your discipline and leave the session informed on how to dig deeper and get individualized help when these topics arise in your graduate student career. This workshop has been approved for two hours of RCR credit.
You must register for the workshop. Click the link to register.
For many of us, the summer of 2020 will look and feel a little different. Vacations have been postponed or canceled, beaches and museums are closed. What would normally feel like a time to relax and take a break might feel more like an additional burden, trying to find ways to fill the days and weeks ahead. Luckily, we’re here to help!
We’ve put together a Summer Bucket List Quaran-zine, a pocket-sized zine to help you get organized and excited in preparation for a summer spent primarily at home. We’ve provided the categories of things you can do throughout the summer to help you get started, but the rest is up to you.
Been meaning to watch the Avengers movies in chronological order? Write it down! Having trouble keeping up with the books your friends keep recommending? Write them down! Always wanted to try your grandmother’s peach pie recipe but never found the time? You know what to do!
The best part of your tiny to-do list: checking off each thing as you go, and maybe making the summer of 2020 one of your best ever.
Instructions: How to Print, Fold, and Make This Zine
You will need a printer. Or, you can hand-copy what you see on the screen on your own sheet of paper and make your own!
By Holly Ackerman, Ph.D., with assistance from Ernest Zitser, Ph.D.
On June 30, 2020, Kristina Kade Troost, Ph.D. will retire from the Duke University Libraries (DUL), after a diverse and distinguished career spanning 30 years.
Kristina (Kris) Troost
Kris will be remembered as much for the qualities of her character as for her innovative collection building, teaching, mentoring, and contributions to professional organizations. Margaret McKean, Duke Professor Emerita of Political Science, who first met Kris in 1977 and helped to recruit her to Duke, described her this way: “Kris is a gifted colleague-builder and a colleague-keeper; a friend-builder and a friend-keeper. She’s also an institution-builder who thinks big and thinks ahead.” Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian & Vice Provost for Library Affairs, who has known Kris for many years, agrees with this characterization, saying: “It is remarkable how one person can create a climate that produces outstanding results. Kris has done that with IAS [DUL’s International & Area Studies Department, which Deborah created and which Kris headed for over two decades] and as a mentor to students in the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute [where Kris served as graduate advisor from 2008 to 2020].”
Kris (in red jacket) at the Duke Asian/Pacific Studies Institute
Unlike many of her peers, Kris began her distinguished library career as a professional historian, rather than as a library school graduate. The topic of the doctoral dissertation that she defended at Harvard University (1990)—the link between common property and community formation in self-governing villages of late medieval Japan—seemed to be about as far as one could get from the world of library science. And yet Kris could not hide her obvious love of all things related to Japanese Studies. From 1977-1990, while starting her family and completing her dissertation, she participated actively in the community of Japanese Studies scholars in the Research Triangle. Andrew Gordon, then a Duke Professor of History, noticed her interest in Japanese Studies and urged her to consider a career in librarianship. Thus began her transition to the field of library science.
In 1990, DUL hired Kris to serve, on a half time basis, as Duke’s first Japanese Studies Bibliographer. Two years later, she received a promotion to the position of full-time East Asian Librarian, with the responsibility for building collections in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. That experience taught Kris a valuable lesson about the need for language-specific subject expertise and the value of not spreading oneself too thin. In 1998, after she became the head of IAS, Kris worked tirelessly to increase DUL’s capacity to provide support by subject area specialists who knew the language and culture of the world areas that they curated. Under her leadership, the staff of IAS doubled in size and now includes specialists covering Africa, China, Russia & Eastern Europe, Japan, Jewish Studies, Korea, Latin America, the Middle East, South & Southeast Asia, and Western Europe.
Kris (second from right) with IAS staff, Nov. 8, 2013
Kris’ accomplishments are too many and varied to list in a blog post. Instead, I have decided to focus on four key areas where she has made a difference: collections, teaching/mentoring/managing, service to the Libraries, and service to the profession.
Creation of DUL’s East Asia Collection
In 1991, Kris personally went through the Perkins stacks, pulling every book written in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese – a total of 20,000 titles – in order to form one, consolidated, easy-to-use East Asia Collection. Today that collection contains 200,000 volumes and is the single largest separately-organized and -maintained East Asia Collection in the Southeastern United States. Commenting on the value of that work, Amy V. Heinrich, the former Director of Columbia University’s C. V. Starr East Asian Library, points out: “Kris was a voice in national organizations advocating for libraries with small collections. She saw to it that they were included in discussions, obtained funding, and could grow.”
Teaching/Mentoring/Managing
Kris established and regularly taught a popular course on “Research Methods in Japanese Studies,” which was cross-listed not only in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, but also in Cultural Anthropology, History, Political Science, Religion, and Art History. She later adapted the course to cover multiple world areas, making it possible to co-teach it with her IAS colleagues. Kris helped draft the proposal for an MA in East Asian Studies and served as the Director of Graduate Studies for the program from 2008 until her retirement. Speaking of her role as a manager and supervisor, former Librarian for South Asian Studies, Avinash Maheshwary says: “She was an ideal manager who constantly moved you and your program forward without looking over your shoulder. She was a vital participant in creating a joint TRLN librarian position for South and Southeast Asian Studies – the only one of its kind in the U.S.” Luo Zhou, DUL’s current Chinese Studies Librarian, echoes these thoughts: “She has given me a broad space to grow, supported my initiatives with advice and suggestions, and often gave me a pat on the back when I was frustrated and tired.”
Serving DUL as a whole
As President of the Librarians Assembly, Kris worked with the leaders of DUL and the professional school libraries to obtain a regular budget for Librarians Assembly, in order to establish and help maintain a speakers program, thereby expanding the substantive possibilities on offer to the group as a whole. As a member of the Perkins Relocation Group, Kris helped to establish workflows for moving books to the Library Service Center and for initially identifying exactly what materials would need to be moved off-site. In 1997, her multiple contributions were recognized with the Florence Blakely Award—the highest staff honor conferred by the Duke University Libraries—which rewards extraordinary performance that far exceeds individual goals or expectations.
Serving the Profession
Kris has served as the President of both of the main organizations in her field, The Council of East Asian Libraries (CEAL) and the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources (NCC). As Amy Heinrich points out: “She always came with a vision.” For example, when she chaired the NCC (1998-2000), Kris organized an annual conference that set the agenda for the first decade of NCC collaboration in the 21st century by agreeing on joint priorities for collection development, serials access, technical services workflows, and recruitment of new librarians. Kris’ contributions to East Asian libraries/East Asian Studies and to CEAL were recognized in 2020, when she became the inaugural recipient of the Council of East Asian Libraries (CEAL) Distinguished Service Award.
No summary of Kris’ career would be complete without mentioning the potluck parties that she hosted in her lovely home, continuing an IAS tradition established by Deborah Jakubs. Deborah says, “Kris and I were lucky to come up in International and Area Studies at a time when it was communal and had deep engagement by faculty and librarians working so closely. We had a lot of fun together as well as many professional accomplishments as a group.”
Party at Kris’ house, Nov. 23, 2009
Best wishes on your next chapter, Kris! And thank you for leaving us with a strong foundation.
When Spring Break 2020 (remember all the way back to March?) morphed into a covid19 quarantine, closing our Lilly Library building did not mean we left our library resources “remaining in place”. Digitizing course material, consulting with students and faculty, while expanding online collections and streaming databases are a few ways all of us in the Duke Libraries connect with our users.
Being off campus has us thinking of Lilly Library and missing all of our wonderful assets, headlined by our knowledgeable colleagues. One way to stay connected is with our new series of virtual pop-ups, Lilly Looks.
Lilly Looks is a collage of insider glimpses and highlights of our collections of resources, films, books, and beyond, presented in short video posts. Some may be scholarly while some may definitely go “beyond” with lighthearted and fresh perspectives!
A wistful Carol Terry, who works with Lilly’s Communications and Collections, finds a way to travel this summer via Alexander Street Films, one of the libraries’ streaming video databases.
While out hiking, Ira King, Evening Librarian and Disability Studies Librarian, reveals the breadth of Overdrive for Duke Library users.
Continue exploring the Duke Libraries, no matter where you may be – and, stay tuned as we post weekly on Lilly Library’sFacebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Lilly Library is at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during what used to be a normal semester, Lilly Library remains open for 129 hours each week AND hosts lots of outreach events in support of the First-Year Experience!
If you’ve been in Lilly Library over the past four years, chances are you’ve seen our seniors: Noelle, Sarah, Esha, Toni, and Jessica. Noelle is one of our seniors who worked at Lilly Library since her first year at Duke.
Our student assistants are an essential element in supporting their fellow “dukies”; their presence underscores how welcoming and inclusive our libraries are to new students. Noelle’s creativity and enthusiasm in her role of support for student outreach is appreciated. She welcomed students and created promotional materials for events such as First-Year Orientations, Blue Devil Days, was a member of the Libraries’ Student Advisory boards, and even shelved lots of journals (not quite as exciting, but still appreciated).
Commencement 2020 may be virtual, but our regard for our student assistants is very real and enduring.
Take this opportunity to acquaint yourselves with Noelle, one of our treasured Lilly Library Class of 2020.
Senior Noelle
Noelle (r) and a friend Bookface at Blue Devil Days during American Library Week
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Family/siblings/pets: 1 younger brother, 1 dog!
Academic major: Neuroscience and Computer Science
Activities on campus: Devils En Pointe, Momentum Dance Company, Duke Swing Dance, Career Ambassador, Undergraduate Library Board, and Working at Lilly!
Favorite on-campus activity, besides working at Lilly: Dance!
Favorite off-campus activity: Sleeping in – haha
Favorite campus eatery: Div Cafe
Favorite off-campus eatery: Mad Hatter’s
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: The Thomas Reading Room because I could easily fall asleep in those nice plushy chairs.
Q: Why have you worked at Lilly Library ever since your first year? A: I love coming in and seeing everyone who works there! And I love to make buttons of course.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in Lilly? A: I haven’t actually done this but it would be kind of fun to see if you could fit into the dumbwaiter. Wouldn’t suggest it though!
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: After graduation, I’ll be moving to Charlotte!
Q: What is your spirit animal? A: The narwhal!
Dancer Noelle as photographed for Devils En Pointe (pc)
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Noelle and our other seniors, treasured members of our Lilly “family”. We appreciate her stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
Toni with Kiwi at Lilly’s Stampede of Love December 2019
Lilly Library is at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during what used to be a normal semester, Lilly remains open for 129 hours each week, and 24/7 during reading period and final exams each semester.
Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our Lilly alumni, Toni – a December 2019 graduate who worked in Lilly Library throughout her Duke career.
If you’ve been in Lilly Library over the past four years, chances are you’ve seen all of this year’s seniors: Toni, Jessica, Sarah, Esha, and Noelle. Toni is one of our seniors who worked at Lilly Library since she arrived as wide-eyed First-Year student on East Campus way back in August of 2016. Toni graduated last December, but is an honorary member of this year’s Lilly class.
Take this opportunity to acquaint yourselves with Toni, one of our treasured Lilly seniors of this past academic year, albeit, technically, a treasured alumna of the Lilly Library Class of 2019!
Senior Toniya aka “Toni”
A tower of books is no match for Toni
Hometown: I moved a lot growing up because my dad is in the Army, but we currently live in Washington D.C.
Family/siblings/pets:
My mom, my dad, my three siblings, and a very sassy chihuahua
Academic major: Psychology
Activities on campus: The Center for Race Relations, researcher in the Duke Hospital Psychiatric Department, Camp Kesem Counselor, Residential Assistant
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working at Lilly): Hanging out with my friends late at night in the Bryan Center
Favorite off-campus activity: Volunteering for the organization “A Helping Hand” (check them out online!)
Favorite campus eatery: Il Forno
Favorite off-campus eatery: Dames Chicken and Waffles
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Probably the Lilly staff lounge! It’s so cozy down there and we might find yummy leftovers. Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie you’ve come across in Lilly? A: There was a book called The Aesthetics of Ugliness that I remember seeing my first year. Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly? Least favorite? A: My favorite part is definitely the people there. The staff and patrons have all been such warm, genuinely caring, fascinating individuals. This has led to many amazing spontaneous conversations! My least favorite part about working at Lilly is probably finding shift coverage during a shift at a busy hour (evenings on a weekday, late night on a weekend, etc.) Q: Why have you worked at Lilly Library ever since your first year? A: The staff has been so kind to me and coming back every year has been the only consistent part my Duke experience year after year. Going into a space where people know your name and have seen you mature has been so comforting. In addition, Yunyi is probably the best supervisor and mentor ever! Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget? A: One time a student came in at 2 am on the day of spring LDOC. His eyes were very red and he seemed dazed (I won’t speculate as to why) and he walked up to the desk and stared at me for a solid two minutes while I repeated “Can I help you? Sir? Do you need assistance finding materials?…. Sir?”. FINALLY, he asked me “Do you have any books about…. Physics?” I told him we had physics textbooks and asked if he wanted a book to read for class or as leisure reading. His response was “it’s for fun…. Thank you” then he promptly walked out the door before I could respond. Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in Lilly? A: One time during a reading period over-night shift, I texted this guy I liked at the time to come and keep me company behind the desk for a bit (DEFINITELY against the rules, but the things we do for love. Am I right?). He came over to Lilly at about 1:30 am and he stayed and talked to me until I forced him to go to bed around 7:45am (so basically the whole shift). It was very sweet, wholesome, but also super risky given one of the librarians could have came in early and saw him! Q: What was closing Lilly late at night like? Eerily empty, people reluctant to leave, unexpected people? A: I won’t change my answer now to my least favorite part of working at Lilly, but clearing people out at 4 a.m. was the WORST. People get so testy when you ask them to leave or remind them of closing soon. I’m always so grateful Lonny (the night shift guard, I heart you Lonny!) is usually willing to round up stragglers. Also, one of my most niche fears was that someone secretly lives in the basement of Lilly and they were going to pop up somewhere unexpectedly in the dark, eerie, basement at 4 am and attack me. I think if someone (or thing) lives down there, they’re too scared of Lonny to show their face. Q: How will your time at Lilly help you in your future pursuits? A: I created an online library catalog system at a non-profit I interned at a couple summers ago which kind of kick started me using the skills I’ve picked up here in all of my other jobs. I’ve learned how to talk to literally anyone and learn how to operate computer systems and data systems swiftly which will help me in whatever else I find myself doing later on in life! Q: What will you miss most about Lilly when you graduate? A: Definitely the staff and the way feeling of security I felt working there. I had been performing the same tasks for four years and it’s nice to be able to zone out doing something familiar. Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I will be completing a pre-medical post baccalaureate program at Bryn Mawr College in the fall before applying to medical school next year! Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about Lilly, did you? A: A panda because I’m usually very mellow and unassuming. But I could actually bite your head off if I wanted to.
Graduation in December meant Lilly Library had to say farewell to Toni as an employee, but we treasure her as a member of our Lilly forever “family”. We appreciate her stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
So much for our Pixar versus Disney match-up; Disney stands alone in the championship round with a match-up between The Lion King and Mulan. Lilly’s resident Bracketologist Nathaniel recaps the penultimate round and looks at the championship match below.
Welcome back! Watch my recap on Lilly Library’s Facebook page.
Who will go on to the Perfect Pair? In the battle of the Number One seeds, The Lion King “stampeded” Toy Story in a rout! And on the other side of the bracket, Finding Nemo has “gone fishing” after Mulan sent it packing! To quote an esteemed colleague, “So much for Pixar, Disney took them all out!”
This sets up an all Disney final. Two grizzled veterans are squaring off for the championship, proving that oldies can indeed be goodies! In one corner, we have the 1998 film, Mulan. Mulan used the “fire dragon out of water” to bury every “Hun” adversary that has come along. She toppled Wall-E, Frozen, and Finding Nemo – all seeds higher than her own. Can she “stay true to her heart” and “bring honor to us all” by defeating one more adversary in the Lion King? Will her “reflection” finally show the champion she is inside?
In the other corner, we have the 1994 film, The Lion King. Simba mauled his way through the competition. He thrashed all his opponents comfortably along the way, defeating Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, and Toy Story. Has Simba “waited long enough to be king?” Can he complete the “circle of life” to bring home the championship?
The brackets are now open until 4/21/20 at 8PM!
Please cast your vote to crown this year’s champion!
Enchanted no more?
It’s down to the Favorite Four!
Animated April’s Favorite Four
The voting for the Enchanted Eight in Round Two is over, and the Favorite Four remain. Lilly’s resident (or shall we say currently remote) analyst Nathaniel offers his take on the results of the latest Disney versus Pixar match.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! Round Three results of the Enchanted Eight are in…
Representing the FIRE region, the Lion King slashed the Incredibles! In the ICE bracket, Mulan thawed the number one seed Frozen in a rout! In the EARTH region, Toy Story made its way back to the winner’s circle by defeating Beauty and the Beast. And representing the UNDER THE SEA bracket, Finding Nemo “UP”ends Up!
The Fave Four match-ups are set! Who will continue their path to the championship? We have two number one seeds squaring off for a place at the championship table:
Representing FIRE, we have The Lion King and representing EARTH, we have Toy Story. Can Simba continue to wear his “big cub pants” and rip the championship hopes of Woody and company to shreds, proving that he is indeed king of the jungle, FIRE, and EARTH? Or will Woody put fear in the heart of young Simba with a “snake” and his “boot” and send the cub back to the desert of outcasts scouring for grub?
On the other side of the bracket, we have no number one seeds remaining. What we do have are two scrappy films that have demonstrated dominance in their own way. With a number three seed representing the ICE region, we have Mulan. And with a number two seed representing UNDER THE SEA, we have Finding Nemo. Already taking down a number two seed (WALL-E) and a number one seed (Frozen), can Shang “make a man” out of Mulan as she dons the old armor to not only snatch the helpless fish, but also snatch the championship wishes and title dreams? Or will Nemo prove he is not just “the little clownfish from the reef,” and that these are not just “fishing grounds,” but that he can be a “shark” in his own right? Will Dory take Mulan “down” under to 42 Wallaby Way?
Stay tuned to see who goes on to be the Perfect Pair!
Lilly Senior Esha with Kiwi at Lilly’s Stampede Of Love Study Break
Lilly Library is at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community (during what used to be a “normal” semester), Lilly Library remains open for 129 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2020” – seniors who have worked in Lilly Library throughout their Duke careers. Get to know our seniors in these profiles, and you’ll appreciate them as much we do.
If you’ve been in Lilly Library over the past four years, chances are you’ve seen our seniors: Esha, Jessica, Sarah, Toni, and Noelle. Esha is one of our seniors who worked at Lilly Library since she arrived as wide-eyed First-Year student on East Campus way back in August of 2016.
Commencement 2020 may be virtual, but our regard for our student assistants is very real and enduring. Take this opportunity to acquaint yourselves with Esha, one of our treasured Lilly Library Class of 2020.
Senior Esha
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Family/siblings/pets: 1 older brother, no pets
Academic major: Economics and Political Science
Activities on campus: RA (N1 and Craven), Resident
Favorite on-campus activity, besides working at Lilly: Being an RA!
Favorite off-campus activity: Getting ice cream at the Parlour
Favorite campus eatery: Sazon
Favorite off-campus eatery: Bali Hai
Lilly’s Class of 2020 Esha and Sarah
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Green couches in Perkins first floor because they are so comfy!
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie you’ve come across in Lilly? A: There were so many but a single one doesn’t come to mind right now!
Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly? Least favorite? A: Favorite part is working with the librarians because they are so nice/helpful, and fun to have random conversations with. Least favorite is when I have to check in/out 20+ books on my own.
Q: Why have you worked at Lilly Library ever since your first year? A: I love working at Lilly because everyone is so friendly! They make you want to keep coming back.
Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget? A: Having to check in two FULL-SIZED suitcases full of books by myself. I think I checked in at least 50 books!
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in Lilly? A: Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything crazy in Lilly.
Q: What was opening an empty (or at least, it was supposed to be empty) Lilly like? Eerie? A: I worked the Sunday morning shift, which was really nice because there were very few people (unless it was midterm/finals season), so everything was calm and quiet. I absolutely LOVED working Sunday mornings!!
Q: How will your time at Lilly help you in your future pursuits? A: Working at Lilly taught me to be organized and be better at time management, which is super useful no matter where I end up after leaving.
Q: What will you miss most about Lilly when you graduate? A: I will definitely miss the librarians the most!
Q: What are your plans after graduation? A: Who knows!
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about Lilly, do you? A: Definitely an elephant
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Esha and our other seniors, treasured members of our Lilly “family”. We appreciate her stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
While Round One is over, and some of our stars may have fallen, we still have an Enchanted Eight remaining. Lilly’s resident (or shall we say currently remote) analyst Nathaniel offers his take on the results of the first round voting.
In the Fire Region, The Lion King‘s Simba took Rafiki’s stick and made sure Monsters Inc. did not “feel the love tonight” by trouncing them in the first round! The Incredibles, once again proving their “glory days” are here again, defeated Aladdin!
In the Ice Region, Frozen almost had a “meltdown,” but pulled out the victory over Coco by 2 votes! Meanwhile, Mulan unleashed the “dragon” and easily disposed of Wall-E.
In the Earth Region, Toy Story showed Cinderella she did not have a “friend in them” by taking her glass slippers, ushering in the midnight hour, and dispatching the would-be princess. In a touch and go affair, Belle managed to revive the downtrodden Beast and restore their championship hopes as the Beauty and the Beast rallied to defeat that pesky Ratatouille by just 2 votes!
Lastly, Under the Sea, Finding Nemo defeated Moana and in the surprise of the tournament, Up “rose to the occasion” and desiccated the Little Mermaid in a rout, not even close with a margin of victory greater than two to one!
Welcome to this year’s special Bracketology: Lilly Library’s Animated April featuring Lilly Library’s resident (despite working remotely), Bracketologist, Nathaniel Brown:
We have a stacked bracket this year full of favorites and some underdogs.
In the FIRE region The Lion King takes on Monsters Inc. In this first round match Simba “can’t wait to be king” so let’s see if he and Naila will “be prepared” to defeat Sullivan and Mike. Or will Sully intimidate and scare the young pup? In the other First Round match, Aladdin squares off with The Incredibles. Aladdin has the street smarts to woo Princess Jasmine and defeat Jafar, but does he possess the “magic” to dethrone The Incredibles, the family of superheroes who finished in the Final Four in last year’s tourney, losing to the eventual finalist, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse.
In the ICE region we have Frozen vs. Coco. Will Elsa and company put the freeze on Miguel and Hector? Or will Miguel remember the game plan and force Elsa to let it (her chance at a championship) go? The second match-up features Mulan vs. Wall-E. Can Mulan reflect her true passion to take out the trash? Or will Wall-E dispose of the determined and courageous warrior?
In the EARTH region, Beauty and the Beast takes on Cinderella. Can the spirited and headstrong Belle sacrifice enough to overcome the oppressed and ragged Cinderella and turn her championship dreams into pumpkins at midnight? Or will Cinderella embody the phrase ball is life royally and take out Belle?
Next we have Ratatouille vs. Toy Story. Will Remy make the championship his new object of affection, subjecting Woody and company to their greatest fear, the lonely shelf in the dark closet never to be heard from again? Or will Woody and Buzz destroy Remy’s illusions of grandeur and instill in him that rats belong down in the dumps?
Last but certainly not least in the UNDER THE SEA region, we have the Little Mermaid vs. Up. Can Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian deflate the hopes of Carl and Russell and attempt to be a part of that championship world? Or will Carl, Russell, and Dug kiss the girl (Ariel) goodbye in the first round? Finally, we have Moana vs. Finding Nemo. Can Nemo and Dory forget his deficiencies and find a way to continue along their path to championship glory? Or will Moana and Maui find the heart to set sail toward a championship victory?
Keep voting, and stay tuned – especially on Lilly Library’s Instagram and Facebook feeds for my bonus video analysis – over the next week and a half for results as we crown this year’s champion!
Animated April – Are you Team Pixar or Team Disney?
Brackets aren’t just for March!
Do you like Looney Tunes, the quirkiness of Wallace and Gromit, anime like Spirited Away, French comedies like The Triplets of Belleville? Are you all about Disney classics or the latest offerings from Pixar?
Lilly Library has 100s of animated films. In fact, we have so many animated films, it’s time for you to “toon” in and enjoy our very own Lilly Library Animated April challenge: Pixar versus Disney.
If it’s animated, Disney and Pixar are the dominant players, so we’re highlighting eight films from each studio to face off in a special edition of our Animated April challenge starting Monday, April 13th. Join in the fun, pick your favorites, and maybe win a prize!
Here’s how:
Vote when you visit our Lilly Library Animated April cast of characters HERE.
Make your selections and vote for your choice of hot titles in Bracket Fire versus films that landed in Bracket Earth to eventually face the coolest films in Bracket Ice, which challenge the animated gems making waves in Bracket Under the Sea.
All the Characters in Animated April
Voting dates are listed below and on the contest page.
Updates will be posted on Lilly’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts as well as in our blog, Latest@Lilly :
Round 4: Perfect Pair VOTE HERE Voting opens Monday, April 20 9am
Voting closes Tuesday, April 21 8pm
Champion Crowned: Wednesday April 22nd
*Did someone say PRIZES?
Participants who provide their Duke NetID and vote for the animated movie “champion” will be entered into drawings for virtual prizes, as well as special prizes for Duke students.
Be sure to make your picks of your favorites – Pixar or Disney!
Have you ever found an article on Google Scholar and when you tried to view it, it asked you to pay?
You want to pass your assignment but at $42 for one article, you’re starting to debate if it’s worth it…
But don’t give up yet!
Linking your Google Scholar account with Duke University Libraries will save you time, money, and from feelings of despair.
First you’ll want to sign into your Google Account and then head on over to Google Scholar‘s home page.
Next select the menu bar in the top left () and choose settings.
Under settings, choose library links, search for Duke University, choose all that apply, press save and log in using your Duke login.
Now you’re linked! Now when you find an article on Google Scholar on the right there will be a Get It at Duke link () that will let you bypass that paywall!
But wait! One more thing (it’s optional)…
Under settings, go to account, and check “Signed-in off-campus access links”, now for 30 days if you revisit an article that you visited on campus originally, it will automatically re-provide access.
Lilly is at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during what used to be a normal semester, Lilly Library remains open for 129 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2020” – seniors who have worked in Lilly Library throughout their Duke careers. Get to know our seniors in these profiles, and you’ll appreciate them as much we do.
If you’ve been in Lilly Library over the past four years, chances are you’ve seen our seniors: Jess, Sarah, Esha, Toni, and Noelle. Jessica is one of our seniors who worked at Lilly Library since she arrived as wide-eyed First-Year student on East Campus way back in August of 2016.
Commencement 2020 may be virtual, but our regard for our student assistants is very real and enduring.
Take this opportunity to acquaint yourselves with Jessica, one of our treasured Lilly Library Class of 2020.
Senior Jessica
A model student: Jessica demos a 3D Scanner for a Lilly Library Facebook post
Hometown: Glen Rock, NJ
Family/siblings/pets: I have one younger brother
Academic major: Statistics and Computer Science
Activities on campus: Marching & Pep Band
Favorite on-campus activity, besides working at Lilly: Playing with the band at basketball games
Favorite off-campus activity: Used to be going for cheese and chocolate fondue at the Little Dipper on Ladies’ Night (it’s now closed though)
Favorite campus eatery: Div Cafe
Favorite off-campus eatery: Sushi Love
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: I would say the armchairs in the Thomas Reading Room. It has a very pleasant, relaxing atmosphere, and I’m pretty sure I’ve already taken accidental naps there while doing homework.
Q: What’s the most interesting book you’ve come across in Lilly? A: The most interesting book I came across at Lilly was a photography book about Jim Marshall. Someone had just returned it and I flipped through all the photos before putting it in the bin of Perkins books.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly? Least favorite? A: I loved having time to put down the rest of my schoolwork and thinking about something else for at least a short while. I always found the tasks at Lilly like shelving books and processing holds to be quite satisfying. I don’t think I had a least favorite part!
Q: Why have you worked at Lilly Library ever since your first year? A: I thought about switching to Perkins after freshman year, but then I wouldn’t get to see Yunyi every week!
Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget? A: It’s not one specific memory, but because I’m in the band, a lot of the staff would chat with me about Duke football and basketball with me, especially Yunyi. I always knew that if the basketball team lost, I would get a chance to vent and complain about the team at my next shift. I will never forget how excited the staff always was for me when I got to travel with the teams for tournament games.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in Lilly? A: It’s not super crazy, but the few times I had to shelve books or straighten the stacks on the 4th level and no one was around, I would listen to music and dance to myself as I worked.
Q: How will your time at Lilly help you in your future pursuits? A: Lilly provided the first customer service-related job I’ve ever had, and my time at Lilly certainly helped me develop skills in that area, especially with continuing to be polite even when patrons were not (although that was quite rare to encounter). It also helped me with organization, multitasking, and adaptability, skills translatable into all kinds of fields.
Q: What will you miss most about Lilly when you graduate? A: I will definitely miss Yunyi and the other librarians/staff members the most.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I will be working as a Data Scientist for a start-up in New York City.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about Lilly, did you? A: Always a tough question, but I guess a cat?
Lilly Senior Jessica
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Jessica and our other seniors, treasured members of our Lilly “family”. We appreciate her stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
by Lee Sorensen
Librarian for Visual Studies and Dance, Lilly Library
Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company / Featured plate: Eugene Atget Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve [PC: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Gilman Collection, Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Henry R. Kravis Gift, 2005]What is that “big book” on display in the lobby of Lilly Library? Its proper title is Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company. This book is a gift to Duke University Libraries from the Nasher Museum of Art, and will remain in Lilly through the spring semester.
With the rise of e-books and readers, one of the most uncommon and increasingly rare printed formats is the folio book, defined by one student as, “too damn large to carry.” In the days before book criteria included portability, giant books were produced to contain actual-size documents such as building plans and engravings, detailed scientific renderings and later, photography.
Librarian Lee Sorensen with the book Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company
The “big book” on display is a modern edition of photographs from the Gilman Paper Company, New York. The firm had one of the best private collections of photographs in the world, which was acquired by New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005 . This magisterial book contains reprinted photographs of photographers such as Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Fox Talbot, Eugene Atget and Edward S. Curtis. The edition was curated by Pierre Apraxine, with plates created by renowned photographer and printer Richard Benson (who was also the Dean of Yale School of Art), and notes contributed by photography consultant Lee Marks. This volume, printed by Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy, and half-bound in leather, is the only one in North Carolina outside of the Mint Museum, Charlotte.
Pages are turned periodically to show new images. 47 cm in length, the volume consists of 480 pages with 199 offset lithographs plus an offset lithographic frontispiece.
Dr. Kristina Troost, Duke University Library’s own Japanese studies librarian and the head of its East Asian Collections, is the inaugural recipient of the Council of East Asian Libraries (CEAL) Distinguished Service Award. This prestigious award honors an individual who has made significant contributions to East Asian libraries/East Asian Studies and to CEAL. Please see the official announcement: https://www.eastasianlib.org/newsite/kristina-troost-is-inaugural-ceal-distinguished-service-award-recipient/
Duke University Library’s collection of materials on East Asia began with a gift from James A. Thomas in the late 1920s. In the 1930s, when Duke faculty first started teaching courses on East Asia , the library systematically began to build an East Asian collection in English only. The postwar growth of area studies served as the initial impetus for acquiring materials in Japanese and Chinese languages. In 1981, the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute (APSI) was founded at Duke, and new faculty were hired to teach additional courses on the region. To meet the growing needs of APSI faculty and students, Dr. Kristina Troost was hired in 1990, first as Japanese studies bibliographer, and then, in 1992, as the East Asian librarian responsible for building collections in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. In 1996, Dr. Troost invited an external consultant to review the Chinese collection, which resulted in the hiring of the first full-time Chinese studies librarian at Duke in 2000. Duke’s Korean studies program expanded as well, and in 2006, Dr. Troost invited an external review of the Korean collection, as a result of which Duke hired its first Korean studies librarian in 2007. Under Dr. Troost’s leadership, Duke‘s East Asian collection has grown rapidly. Today, Duke University Library’s East Asian Collection is one of the major East Asian Collections in North America.
2020 Digital Scholarship Open House
Thursday, February 13, 12:00-1:00 PM
The Edge Workshop Room (Bostock Library 127) Register:https://duke.libcal.com/event/6403682
At its annual open house Duke University Libraries’ Digital Scholarship & Publishing Services department showcases some of its work over the past year. This year’s slate of speakers and projects offers a view into what it means to create public-oriented digital scholarship — from considering the interests of collaborators in how the scholarship is shared, to ensuring the scholarship reaches audiences most likely to benefit from it, to using audience feedback and needs to drive future work.
Whether you are just interested in learning more about digital scholarship, publishing, and public scholarship, or planning to start your own publishing project, join us for lunch and conversation with this cross-disciplinary panel as they discuss the motivations behind their projects, the people and work involved in realizing it, and the insights and skills gained along the way.
Joella Bitter (Doctoral candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Department of Cultural Anthropology)
David Johnston (Associate Professor of the Practice of Marine Conservation Ecology, Nicholas School of the Environment)
Elizabeth Schrader (Doctoral candidate in Early Christianity, Department of Religion)
Nicholas Smolenski (Doctoral student in Musicology and Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Department of Music)
The Hong Kong publishing market may be smaller than that of mainland China or Taiwan, but its annual book fair— which is organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and held every summer at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center—is definitely a must-see travel destination. And not just for the East Asian library specialist. Book lovers of any subject can find something of interest at this yearly event.
I first started attending the Hong Kong book fair out of a sense of professional necessity. For several years, political events in Hong Kong had been having serious repercussions on the book trade (and, thereby, on Duke University Libraries’ acquisitions of Chinese books published in Hong Kong). Following the 2014 “Umbrella Movement” – so named because the protesters who occupied the city for 79 days while calling for electoral reform had used umbrellas to protect themselves from the pepper spray employed against them by the police – it became increasingly more difficult for bookstores to conduct business as usual. In 2015, one of the Hong Kong-based book vendors with whom Duke Libraries had worked for a long time was forced to close its doors. Later that same year came the shocking news of the disappearance of the manager of Causeway Bay Books, an upstairs bookstore in Hong Kong that is famous for selling works on topics considered politically-sensitive (and therefore banned) in mainland China. It was later confirmed that the manager, along with four other staff members from the same bookstore, were being held in police custody in Guangdong, China. The Library has another book vendor in Hong Kong, but after evaluating their catalogs for one year, I was concerned that many books that we would have liked to purchase for our Chinese collection were not included in their list of offerings. I felt that I needed to be on the ground in order to see how I could rectify the situation.
Selected books acquired from the fair on display on top of EAC microfilm cabinet East Asian Collection, second floor of Bostock Library
During my first visit to the Hong Kong book fair, in 2017, I made contact with publishers with whom I was barely familiar or did not know at all and asked for their catalogs. It was mostly a study trip and I purchased only a small number of books. I also visited a few upstairs or “second floor” bookstores: smaller shops, packed with shelf-after-shelf of books, from floor to ceiling, and usually located on the second or third floor of a building, where the rent is much cheaper.
In 2018, I visited the fair in the company of the Assistant Fung Ping Shan Library Librarian for Collections of the University of Hong Kong Libraries (UHKL), who attends the Hong Kong book fair every year and regularly acquires books there. With the guidance of this local expert, I gained more knowledge about the publishers and vendors at the fair. I also learned that for many independent and/or small publishers, the fair is the most important place to distribute their books, which are often printed in small numbers and difficult to acquire outside the fair.
My latest trip to the Hong Kong book fair occurred in the summer of 2019. That year’s event was especially festive because it marked the 30th anniversary of the Hong Kong book fair. The theme of this fair was “Sci-Fi and Mystery”, but the tagline “Reading the World” http://hkbookfair.hktdc.com/tc/About-Book-Fair/Previous-Fair/Theme-Of-The-Year.html, pointed to more global aspirations. There were a total of 686 exhibitors and close to one million visitors. Besides the usual plethora of seminars by local and international authors and scholars, the fair had its own Art Gallery, which exhibited photos from the archives of past fairs. Other highlights included the distribution of limited-edition bookmarks created for Hong Kong author Xi Xi’s The Teddy Bear Chronicles; and photographs of Louis Cha, one of the giants of martial arts literature, visiting the Book Fair. I managed to purchase a good number of books (that we would never have acquired otherwise) at the fair. I also visited a mini fair organized by several independent bookstores outside the grounds of the convention center, and held on two floors of an old, narrow building in Wai Chai, Hong Kong. The building’s small and shaky elevator could only take about three to four people up at a time. There was a good number of people at each of the two floors and payment was by cash only. And yet, the sense of being at an exclusive book store, one not frequented by many Chinese booklovers, much less other US-based East Asian library specialists, was priceless.
An Indie Bookstore Poster
To get some sense of the variety of books purchased at the 2019 Hong Kong book fair, check out selected items on display on top of the microfilm cabinet at the East Asian Collection on the second floor of Bostock library. As the brief annotations written by me and two of my Chinese-speaking student assistants show, these books encompass numerous topics, themes, and media. This sample display demonstrates the vibrancy of the Hong Kong book market and the value of collecting materials from this part of the world.
Hundred Year of Colonial Impressions
A Hundred Years of Colonial Impressions by Otto C.C. Lam. 300 black and white photographs documenting Hong Kong from 1860 to 1960 in 13 chapters. The baby on the cover is Ian Kreft, 18 months old, at Southampton, England, waiting for the ship to take him and his mother to Hong Kong to reunite with his father, who served at Royal Engineers.
Umbrella Movement
Umbrella Chronicle by Simon Chow: 248 black and white drawings documenting and chronologizing incidents in the “Umbrella Movement.”
Wakened by 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident
Awakened by 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests by Liu Ruishao. As a witness of June 4th Incident and a Hong Kong citizen in the face of impending pressure from the Mainland, the author shares his immersive experience of the turning point in Modern China’s history. This book offers an opportunity to look into the dynamics of democratic movement and political struggles across 30 years in Greater China from Hong Kong’s perspective.”
No Trump No New China (US-China) Trade War
Xi Dada
Dark Soy Sauce China by Zunzi. Bo Yang a Chinese historian and poet, describes Chinese culture as a “soy sauce vat”—in contrast to the organic fluidity of a river, with thousands of years of precipitation, China, and especially Chinese politics, has become as dark and stinky as a soy sauce vat. The book’s author, Zun Zi, one of the most famous comic artists in Hong Kong, ironically names his two newly published comic books as Dark Soy Sauce China and Soy Sauce Hong Kong to unveil the genealogy of Chinese politics.
This spring the Duke Libraries welcome the latest Harsha Murthy Fellow in Digital Scholarship, Sandra Luksic. As a member of the Digital Scholarship and Publishing Services team and working closely with ScholarWorks: A Center for Scholarly Publishing at Duke University Libraries, Sandra will be helping to raise the visibility of programs, services, and resources that support open and innovative forms of digital research, publishing, and pedagogy. The Harsha Murthy Fellow in Digital Scholarship is 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.
Located on the western corner of The/EDGE (Bostock Library 121) and 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.
Sandra is already helping to promote and facilitate several programs — and will even be giving a talk at this spring’s first Digital Brown Bag event, January 15 — but gamely took a few minutes to answer some questions that would help us get to know them and their aspirations for this work.
Tell us a little about yourself, what you are doing at Duke and what brought you to the digital humanities.
I’m a senior studying philosophy and political science and very interested in how technology is related to ethics, race, and gender. I’m currently working on my honors thesis on the philosophy of Natural Language Processing. I just love how interdisciplinary the digital humanities is. It has felt very liberating and creative.
What was it about the Murthy Fellowship in Digital Scholarship that appealed to you?
I’m very excited about the breadth of projects I get to work with. Because ScholarWorks is a kind of support service, there are so many different subject matters this role will expose me to, which really satisfies my sporadic curiosity. The opportunity to better understand open source initiatives is also really appealing to me. Some technologists debate whether open source work will improve transparency and accountability or prevent scholars from claiming rights to their work to prevent nefarious uses – I hope to help make it the former!
What do you think will be some of the major challenges in this new role?
I think there is a tendency in “new” “interdisciplinary” fields, such as the digital humanities, to overlook the work of Black, Indigenous, and scholars of color who have already developed “alternate” ways of making their work accessible and meaningful for their intended audiences. If the goal of initiatives like ScholarWorks and the Murthy Fellowship is to open up academia and connect with the public, then I can’t forget the people who have been doing exactly that for centuries.
On another note, I have a lot to learn about the publishing and copyright world. Navigating the logistics of event organizing and drawing people to ScholarWorks will be another interesting challenge. That being said, I’m grateful that the previous Murthy fellows have done a diligent job of creating resources and documenting what they have learned.
Look for more updates from Sandra soon, as they spread the word about what’s happening in the Studio this spring and promote ScholarWorks (and help us all think more critically about what it means to be open)! You can follow their tweets @DScholarWorks or subscribe directly to the Digital announcement list — https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/subscribe/digital.
Hello! My name is Andrea Kolarova and I am graduating with a B.S. in Environmental Science (2020). During my three and a half years at Duke thus far, I have traveled all around the world, meeting new people and exploring unique ecosystems.
My main areas of interest are within ecology and conservation science. I am an avid reader, rock climber, and music lover. No matter where I have gone or where my interests have taken me, the Duke library system has followed me, supporting all my adventures!
How has the library impacted your Duke experience?
The libraries at Duke have been an integral part of my experience at Duke. During my four years, I’ve used the libraries in a variety of ways: there arestudy spaces for group projects or focused reading,textbooks on reserve, movies to rent, and seemingly limitless books. The librarianshave also been an important part of my education — they’ve assisted me in getting the resources I need for my research projects, even when I was living way out in Beaufort!
What’s something you’ve discovered in the library or library’s collections?
The Duke Archivesare such an interesting corner of the library system! My freshman year, I found out that we have a large collection of third wave feminist zines. It’s incredible to see and feel the original creations of folks from an era that excites my interest and admiration.
What’s a favorite space or service? And why?
Even though I’m now a senior, I sometimes return to Lilly Library to study with my little sister. I enjoy coming back to where my Duke journey began, especially in the big rooms with long tables and desk lamps.
Andie’s library pro tip:
Get to know your librarians!They are friendly, knowledgeable, and here to help you! They can assist you in using the inter-library loan system or familiarize you with the databases the university is subscribed to. Being a part of the Duke library system opens you up to an incredible breadth of material — take advantage of it!
Have you heard about the “mane” event at Lilly Library?
Where did Fall Semester go? December is here, and with it, exams await all Duke Students. Because the First-Year students live on East Campus, the staff at Lilly Library does its best to offer support and relieve the stress of the fall semester for our “neighbors” experiencing their first finals at Duke. Extending our hours to a 24/7 schedule during exams, offering a study break with refreshments, and a room reserved as a relaxation station are longstanding Lilly traditions.
The end of Fall Semester 2019 is different, a horse of a different color, so to speak! On Saturday, December 7th from noon until 2pm, we are hosting our second visit with the Stampede of Love, miniature therapy horses whose tiny hooves will bring smiles to stressed students (and maybe a librarian or two!). If you decide to trot over to East Campus, here is a list of useful dates and events:
Lilly Library Finals Week Events
Saturday, December 7th at noon until 2pm: Stampede of Love
Lilly Library event details HERE
Saturday, December 7th:
Beginning at 9am, Lilly expands its schedule to 24/7 through the examination period, ending at 7pm on Monday, December 16th.
Details at Duke Library Hours
Monday, December 9th at 8pm:
Lilly Study Break for Students Details here
Wednesday, December 11th at 8am throughout finals: Relaxation Station in Lilly opens for students
Best of luck to everyone during Finals!
Kiwi of the Stampede of Love
Straight from the horse’s mouth:
It’s been a great Fall Semester, and here’s to a very Happy 2020!
European Studies librarians in North America build collections from multiple countries in a variety of languages. How can they become acquainted with the networks of libraries, publishers, and vendors necessary to develop these collections, and to provide research support effectively? Studying the bibliographical guides to European Studies librarianship are, of course, an excellent first step. There is the classic text by Dan Hazen and James Henry Spohrer, Building area studies collections, from 2007, and the Suddenly Selector Series will include practice-based guides for European Studies in the future. A more general recent introduction is provided by Lesley Pitman in Supporting Research in Area Studies (2015), and the collaboration of area studies administrators on International and Area Studies Collections In the 21st Century, addresses mutual concerns in all area studies such as training, recruitment, digital content and finances.
Library and cultural heritage organizations nationally and internationally use acronyms as short hand for pointing to projects, standards and organizations. Outlining the basic organization of European Studies associations illustrates what a challenge it is to develop a deep understanding of each organization, its mission, and its audiences
“All theory is gray, my friend. But forever green is the tree of life.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Faust. 1808.
The American Library Association and the German equivalent, Bibliothek & Information Deutschland (BID) e.V, decided to embark on an extended information exchange to provide the “tree of life” kind of learning needed for getting to know how our respective information and cultural heritage organizations operate. ALA and BID signed an agreement for the collaboration in 2014, and the exchange was set up to help a large number of subject librarians build a professional network both on the national and international level over three years, from 2016 to 2019. The many projects, meetings, and activities that resulted from the initiative demonstrate what it takes to explore issues and trends in librarianship in just one country, Germany, and can serve as a model for learning about other countries.
The article describing the exchange: “The American Library Association and German Library & Information Association Partnership: A Celebration,” was co-authored by Sharon Bostick (Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL), Fred Gitner (Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL), Hella Klauser (Internationale Kooperation, Deutscher Bibliotheksverband e.V. (dbv); Kompetenznetzwerk für Bibliotheken (knb), and Heidi Madden (Duke University).
The article appeared simultaneously in two venues, in the O-Bib, Das Offene Bibliotheksportal (Open Access Library Platform, Germany) and in International Leads (A Publication of the International Relations Round Table of the American Library Association).
If you want further information about the behind-the-scenes work in writing the article or European librarianship, email Heidi.
As this week is Open Access week, I thought it would be good to write a short post about OA resources for Middle East and Islamic Studies. Like many other disciplines, there are copious amounts of resources available in different formats from interviews to journals and ebooks.
Before listing those resources, I would like to draw your attention to this informative post from our friends at the University of Toronto: OA 2019: THE HIDDEN COST OF DOING RESEARCH. Yayo Umetsudo, Scholarly Communications & Liaison Librarian provides details of some UoT subscription costs.
For Middle East and Islamic Studies, there are a number of tremendous resources. Perhaps the most important is AMIR (Access to Middle East and Islamic Resources) which has been collecting OA materials since its founding by Charles Jones and Peter Magierski in 2010.
A relatively new OA digital resource is provided by the University of Bonn’s Digital Translatio project. The resource provides free access to rare or hard to find journals in Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman. Check it out here. In a similar vein, أرشيف المجلات الأدبية والثقافية العربية, which translates roughly as the Archive of Arab literary and cultural magazines, provides terrific access to a large collection of Arabic journals. Check it out here. Announced yesterday, the important Istanbul Kadı sicilleri (Court records) is now freely accessible online in Turkish transcription from the original Ottoman. Check it our here.
A highly valuable lecture series is the History of Philosophy (HoP) podcasts from King’s College, London. HoP covers the Classical age, Later Antiquity and the Islamic World striving to seamless illustrate the evolution of ideas in different eras, epochs and religious vantage points. The Islamic World covers the idea of falsafah (philosophy) before moving on to some of the great proponents of philosophy in the Islamic World, e.g. al-Kindī, al-Fārābī and others. Each episode lasts for about 20-30 minutes and offers a bibliography of core texts.
Yale University has a number of series and lectures freely available. Included amongst these are some 20 lectures pertaining to different aspects of the Islamicate, Islam or the Middle East. Each one of these lectures is roughly 40-45 minutes and includes an assignment and often a mini-syllabus.
iTunes U offers a many freely accessible resources. One has to register with iTunes U but after that a number of valuable resources are available. A particularly delightful feature of iTunesU are the language courses, check out the Arabic one. These are great for the multi-tasker in you!
Finally, a very general resource of OA materials spanning multiple disciplines is Open Culture. There are countless resources available to the researcher from language classes to ebooks to short essays of interesting facts such as the last, known, hand-written newspaper Musalman.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Ivy Plus web collecting project of which a number of DUL colleagues are active participants. See the list of projects here.
This list is not meant to be exhaustive but rather to peek your interest in some of the freely available resources. Happy OA week.
Need some new reading material or are you just interested in seeing what’s in the Lilly Library’s collections that you might not know about? Check out Lilly’s Collection Spotlight!
To accompany the Duke Common Experience Reading Program selection of Tommy Orange’s There There, our spotlight highlights books and films that center Native American voices and perspectives. Orange, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, writes in his debut novel about a dozen Native Americans travelling to a powwow in Oakland, California. There There focuses on urban Native Americans, exploring the beauty and despair these characters experience as they navigate life in the United States.
Our collections include books on Native American art, novels by Native Americans, memoirs of native experiences, films and documentaries, and historical accounts. Here are a few highlights from our collection:
Hearts of Our People: Exhibit at the Minneapolis Museum of Art
This exhibition catalog from the Minneapolis Institute of Art highlights a broad spectrum of art created by Native American women. Work explored ranges from textiles to painting to photography and video, and covers antiquity to contemporary work. If you’re interested in checking out some Native art in person, the Nasher Museum’s exhibit, Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now, opens on August 29th.
Future Home of the Living God
Future Home of the Living Godby Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich, an acclaimed writer and member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe, experiments with a dystopian setting in this novel. The novel follows Cedar Hawk Songmaker, four months pregnant, as she ventures out of Minneapolis and seeks out her Ojibwe birth mother against the backdrop of a security state cracking down on pregnant women. Check out Erdrich’s bookstore if you are ever in the Twin Cities.
Everything You Know About Indians is Wrongby Paul ChaatSmith Smith, an associate curator at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, challenges mainstream assumptions about native peoples and cultures in this essay collection. This book blends memoir and cultural commentary to paint a more nuanced picture of native life.
Smoke Signals Based on a Sherman Alexie short story, this film follows two young Native Americans, Victor and Thomas, on a road trip to pick up Victor’s father’s remains. Smoke Signals is notable for having a Native American writer and director, as well as an almost entirely native cast and crew.
Each year the UNC/Duke Consortium for Latin American &Caribbean Studies offers competitive fellowships for scholars who want to use our library resources. Priority goes to researchers from officially recognized Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Predominately Black Institutions, Minority Serving Institutions, and community colleges. Holly Ackerman talked with the two fellows selected by the Duke Libraries for 2019-2020. Below is the interview with Prof. Rachel Chrane. See the interview with Dr. Shearon Roberts at https://blogs.library.duke.edu/blog/2019/08/22/a-interview-with-shearon-roberts/
Prof. Chrane (L) and Cong. Norma Torres (D-CA 35th District), Washington, D.C., July 2019
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Walk us through your CV.
I grew up in Texas, but I’ve spent most of my adult life teaching Spanish and English as a Second Language at Lees-McRae College in the mountains of North Carolina. I lived in Paris, France for a year, thanks to a Rotary International Scholarship that allowed me to study French literature, culture and language at the Sorbonne. I also taught Spanish at The Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington, DC, an Orthodox Jewish prep school. I enjoy learning languages and connecting with other cultures, and I believe the United States is a stronger nation because of our diversity.
When I see the people from Central America in the migrant caravan walking to the United States, I see people who will make our country stronger and more vibrant. But, when I see how they are treated at the border and portrayed on the news, I realize that it’s time for me to get out of my comfort zone and discuss the United States’ role in creating the caravan crisis.
As I shared my uncomfortable research with my Spanish students last year, we realized that we had to share this information with anyone who would listen. In March, I took students to the bipartisan Unrig Summit in Nashville, where we made a presentation about U.S. Involvement in the Caravan Crisis. People in the audience were shocked by the information we shared and they wondered why this information isn’t discussed on the news. It is sometimes difficult to believe information that doesn’t match the version of reality that is portrayed on television. The quote attributed to Mark Twain is often true: “It’s easier to fool someone than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
Prof. Chrane with students from her Spanish class at the Unrig Summit
What was your research project this summer?
My research project focuses on U.S. involvement in the Northern Triangle: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. I want to know as much as I can about why the people in the migrant caravan are willing to leave their homes, their culture and their ancestral burial grounds to walk more than two thousand miles to the United States. And, now that so many Central American people are here seeking asylum, I want information on what we should be doing to honor the asylum process?
How will the information you gathered at the Duke Libraries be used?
The information I am gathering at the Duke Libraries will be the basis for a spring course at Lees-McRae College: Spanish for Social Justice. In this course, we will spend the first half of the semester looking at the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and U.S. involvement in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
We won’t be content to learn about the Central American crisis simply for knowledge’s sake. So the second half of the semester will focus on getting involved in our communities to help spread a deeper understanding of the crisis in Central America.
I cannot thank The Consortium enough for their generous research grant and the opportunity to consult with scholars at Duke University and at UNC Chapel Hill. I am truly humbled by this amazing opportunity.
What interested you most during your stay?
I was most interested in the people I met and how genuinely kind and helpful they are. Dr. Corin Zaragoza Estrera started working with me before I arrived; helping me navigate the wealth of resources at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Holly Ackerman has helped me tremendously as I explored Duke’s vast library, and she continues to help me find valuable resources for my research.
I also had the honor of talking with the former Ambassador to Venezuela, Patrick Duddy, who is the Director of the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Natalie Hartman, the Associate Director, and Ambassador Duddy made it possible for me to attend the First Annual Conference on Security, Migration, and Rule of Law in the Northern Triangle of Central America while I was in Washington, D.C. in June. At the conference, I met Norma Torres (D-California) and I was grateful to get to ask her questions about her perspective on CAFTA.
The experience has simply been amazing, and it is not over! I look forward to returning September 19 to hear the Conversation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
How can you make the most of your first-year? We have the answer: Jump into the First-Year Library Experience. On August 20th, the newest Blue Devils, the Class of Duke 2023, will arrive on East Campus for Orientation.
What will Duke 2023 find in their new neighborhood? Two libraries are on East Campus, Lilly Library and Duke Music Library which can introduce the First-Year “Dukies” to the powerful resources of all the Duke Libraries. While Lilly Library is home to the film collection, as well as a range of other materials, the specialized Music Library plays a different tune. Both libraries offer research support as well as study space for our new East Campus neighbors.
Cast your eyes upon our exciting schedule of events for Orientation 2019:
Enjoy Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse on Wednesday August 21st
Movie on the Quad: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
co-sponsored by Duke University Student Affairs When: Wednesday, August 21st at 10 pm Where: East Campus Quad between Lilly & the Union
First Big Week on East Campus
Overwhelmed at the beginning of the semester? Lilly and Music will host a Harry Potter Open House the first week of class. We’ll get you “sorted” out! Duke 2023 will be captivated by our powerful library services: our research wizards, 3D labs, streaming media, study spaces – No Restricted Sections, please – as well as enjoying free food, prizes, and MORE!
The Duke University Libraries will be offering a suite of RCR workshops for graduate students over Fall Break, October 7-8, 2019, including:
Monday, October 7
Shaping Your Professional Identity Online
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 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. More information and registration
Project Management for Academics 10:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.
The skills of project management are valuable skills for academics at any stage in their career and for a range of activities. This workshop will present basic principles for managing goals, time, and people, including how these can be applied to work with project teams. Activities and discussions will enable participants to begin formulating their own strategies for project management and help them build a toolkit of ideas and approaches that they can use in their academic life. More information and registration
Copyright in Online Environments and International Collaborations 1:00 p.m. -3:00 p.m.
International collaboration in research, teaching, and publishing requires gathering and sharing archival materials, digital primary sources, and academic publications. What copyright laws apply when sharing materials in learning management systems, digital publishing projects, open educational resources, or academic publications, including the thesis and dissertation? How can scholars be confident in Fair Use analysis? Come learn from a wide-ranging consideration of copyright issues in international online environments. More information and registration
Tuesday, October 8
Project Management for Academics 10:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m.
The skills of project management are valuable skills for academics at any stage in their career and for a range of activities. This workshop will present basic principles for managing goals, time, and people, including how these can be applied to work with project teams. Activities and discussions will enable participants to begin formulating their own strategies for project management and help them build a toolkit of ideas and approaches that they can use in their academic life. More information and registration
The Empowered Author: Evaluating Publishers, Negotiating Contracts, and Navigating the Scholarly Publishing Ecosystem 10:00 am. – 12:00 p.m. This is a workshop about the process of being an author, about getting published and getting the rewards of being published, while sharing the benefits of your research with as broad an audience as possible. Through a mix of lecture and hands-on activities you will learn about methods to:
– evaluate publishers, avoiding “predatory” journals and scams,
– analyze and negotiate publication contracts, and
– increase the reach of your work outside of traditional publications. More information and registration
Digital Text Analysis 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. This session provides an overview of text analysis methods that are useful in humanities scholarship. Participants will learn about the kinds of textual analysis that are possible using various techniques and concepts, including collocates, measures of distinctiveness and similarity (e.g., term frequency-inverse document frequency), collocates, topic modeling, and document classification. Using Voyant Tools for hands-on exploration, participants will learn how to apply these techniques to sample corpora and to their own research questions. More information and registration
Ethics and Visualization 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Data visualization is an increasingly important skill for researchers in all disciplines, but it is easy to focus more on the mechanics of creating visualizations than on how visualizations relate to ethics. 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. More information and registration
Finding a Home For Your Data: An Introduction to Archives and Repositories 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Publishing and preserving research data within a trusted repository helps researchers comply with funder and journal data sharing policies, supports the discovery of and access to data, and can result in more visibility and higher impact for research projects. This workshop will provide an overview of the different types of repositories, including Duke’s own Research Data Repository, and the overall role of repositories within the data sharing landscape. Key repositories in various disciplines will be explored and attendees will learn strategies for locating and assessing repositories. Attendees will also have an opportunity to explore potential repositories for their own research. More information and registration
Digital Publishing 101: The Audiences of Digital Publishing 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Who are the intended users of a digital publication? How can scholars reach new audiences and keep 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 and how you can incorporate these into your own publication planning. We’ll also consider how to effectively and ethically involve and credit audience involvement in one’s research. Participants will leave this session with an understanding of how to engage audiences and incorporate audience involvement into digital publication practices. More information and registration
This month’s Collection Spotlight in Perkins Library explores foodways of the southeastern United States. People come to Duke from all over the world, and while they’re here, they will undoubtedly eat. We invite you to reflect on the cultural importance of food in this region, whether you’re here for life or just a little while.
We’re featuring books that explore the intersections of food with race and class and gender. We’ve tried to represent some of the regional diversity in southern food, from Appalachia to the Piedmont, the Low Country to the Gulf Coast, and some of the diversecultures that contribute to southern food today. We’re thinking about politics and history and personal stories. And we hope there’s something for everyone, whether you’re interested in food studies theory and methods, a recipe for your evening meal, or even poetry.
Of course, some of the hottest titles are perpetually checked out, and for those you’re invited to submit an interlibrary request (tip: you can just use the green “Request” button when you search for a book and it will populate the form). Of course, we also have many eBooks you won’t see on display, so don’t forget to check the catalog.
Come take a peek next to the Perkins Library Service Desk, though we can’t promise you won’t leave hungry.
When was the last time you wrote a letter or received a card in a real mailbox?
Before the Digital Age – and there was such a time – people wrote letters on paper and sent cards to each other. The latest Lilly Collection Spotlight shines on the disappearing art of letter writing, featuring a selection of books and films in which letters or ongoing correspondence play an integral role. Authors include literary and political figures such as Epicurus, Jane Austen, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Samuel Beckett.
Films about letter writing
The role letter writing plays in film, whether just as a plot device or as narration and explication helped us choose a few films from our collections. Relationships built through intimate correspondence, letters never received, mis-delivered or rediscovered frame many film narratives. Steal a Pencil for Me, Mary and Max, Letters to Juliet and P.S. I Love You are among the films featured.
Accompanying our Collection Spotlight are two exhibit cases featuring artists’ correspondence. Displayed in the lobby case are volumes of Vincent van Gogh’s letters. He was a prolific letter writer whose writings provide insight into his work, his art, and his struggles. Van Gogh often adorned his letters with drawings and sketches. The exhibit case in the foyer highlights letters written by other artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Albert Eisenstadt, and Henry Ossawa Tanner.
Duke Class of 2019 Notes to Duke 2022
p.s.
In addition to the Collection Spotlight, browse the nearby interactive exhibit of handwritten notes from Duke Seniors, Class of 2019, to the First-Year members of Duke’s Class of 2022.
Feel free to pull out the notes from the board and read them. There is a bit of advice, personal observations, and even a little bit of wisdom on display!
Excerpts of Emilie du Châtelet’s handwritten “Essai sur l’Optique” that were used to construct the translation. (Images courtesy of Project Vox)
Scholars have known about Du Châtelet’s Essai sur l’Optique for many years, but until recently the text has been unavailable because all copies were thought to be lost. In 1947 Ira O. Wade published the first known edition of the Essai’s fourth chapter, which was held among Voltaire’s papers in Russia. Sixty years later, Fritz Nagel, Director of the Basel Research Center of the Bernoulli Edition, discovered the first complete copy of the Essai in the Bernoulli archives in Basel. Two other complete copies, which had previously gone unnoticed, were then discovered among Du Châtelet’s surviving manuscript material.
Working with Nagel and with Duke Philosophy professor Andrew Janiak, Gessell helped produce and publish a transcription of du Châtelet’s Essai on Project Vox in 2017. The translation, more accessible to undergraduate philosophy students, helps the next generation of scholars recognize and follow the development of Châtelet’s ideas about natural philosophy.
Project Vox seeks to transform the discipline of philosophy by making the lives, works, and ideas of early modern women philosophers available for research and classroom use. Since its inception in 2014, this open educational resource has been produced by a cross-professional, cross-disciplinary, and cross-institutional team made up mostly of students, with review and advisement from philosophers worldwide. Learn more about how Duke University Libraries increase access to scholarship at ScholarWorks.duke.edu.
Classes are ending, food points are running out, and the weather is getting especially lovely. You might be saying, “I’m so over this semester” or find yourself in need of some extra cuddles. Well, we’re here to tell you we’ve got one last treat for you before you dig into finals week.
Did somebody say treat?
Do you hear that? It’s the sound of collars jingling, tails wagging, and all of your stresses floating away.
That’s right. It’s doggo time. Puppies in Perkins is back!
Finals? What finals?
Come join the Libraries and Duke PAWS in the Korman Assembly Room (Perkins 217) on Wednesday, April 30th 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?
All Hail the Conquering (super) Hero: Black Panther
From your friendly Lilly Library Bracketologist:
Bracketologist Nathaniel Brown
Vibrationally speaking, in the final matchup, The Black Panther quivered and pounded The Incredibles into submission as it came out on top as the Best Superhero Movie, 80-59!
I must give credit where credit is due…The Incredibles had an incredible run to the finals toppling giants and proving they can run with the big dogs.
But this year’s bracket (and box office) belongs to The King of Wakanda! All Hail T’Challa!
This year’s Superhero Edition of March Movie Madness proved to be a Marvel, and an Incredible adventure. Thank you to all the students and university staff who participated.
As for the hopes of the vanquished,
just wait until next year!
Contributors: Nathaniel Brown, Lilly Library Media and Reserves Coordinator Carol Terry, Lilly Library Collection Services & Communications Coordinator
After three rounds of voting, the brackets are cleared, and just two Superhero movies remain standing – our Dynamic Duo of Black Panther and the family known as The Incredibles.
Are you surprised?
Lilly’s expert bracketologist, the man with super-vision and powers of prognostication isn’t … and, yet, he is also “incredibly” surprised:
Bracketologist Nathaniel Brown
This just in from the FANTASTIC FOUR news desk…
The Black Panther continues its meteoric path through the brackets, mowing down Thor: Ragnarok 95-40!
And in a complete shocker, The Incredibles, proving that blood runs thicker than water and that no one can take them out, squeak by Spiderman Into the Spider-verse, 70-65! I, your expert, for one did not see this happening! Stay tuned for the DYNAMIC DUO Champion Round:
Lilly Library’s March Movie MaDnEsS: The Final Four Superhero Films
Survive and advance – that should resonate with our Duke Crazies! Did your superhero Movie advance to the Fantastic Four?
Take that Fantastic Four to a Dynamic Duo – Vote HERE now!
Bracketologist Nathaniel Brown
Lilly’s March Movie Madness Expert Bracketologist, Nathaniel Brown, offers a recap of the epic battle waged between the remaining Exteme Eight Films:
In the Metropolis region, although Captain America did upset the hometown boy in the first round, he couldn’t handle the family of animated heroes! Jack-Jack, who’s really coming into his powers, overwhelmed the First Avenger and helped his Incredible family destroy Captain America: Civil War116-48!
The Black Panther continued to take care of Wakanda business as he thrashed all five of the Guardians with the tally of 108-56!
Spider-Man: into the Spider-Verse overtook Wonder Woman and dethroned the first-born child of the Paradise Isle, defeating her 90-74!
And in a shocker, Thor’s mighty hammer, Mjolnir, struck a fatal blow and edged the Dark Knight out of Gotham—and out of the Extreme Eight round— 84-80!
And then there were Four
Reminder: Round 3 voting
ends Thursday March 28th at noon.
Did your superhero Movie advance to the Extreme Eight?
Vote HERE now to take that Extreme Eight to a Fantastic Four!
Need some advice? You may want to check in with Lilly Library’s resident Bracketologist, Nathaniel Brown, as he offers insights and expert March Movie Madness opinions :
Lilly’s Bracketologist Nathaniel Brown
After Round 1, my brackets are still intact. What about yours? As predicted, the Dark Knight protected Gotham in the first round by blasting his Lego counterpart 128-30. The God of Thunder Thor brought the thunder against Aquaman, stunning him and washing him away 134-24.
The Black Panther closed ranks and pounced Spidey right out of Wakanda 143-15. Meanwhile,, The Guardians of the Galaxy blasted the Justice League 142-16.
In a stunning upset, Superman Classic got defeated by the First Avenger in Metropolis! Cap takes it 122-36. The Incredibles proved too much for the X-Men United tossing them from the first round 144-14.
And on the Paradise Island, Wonder Woman edged out the wisecracking Deadpool, 87-71, preserving home field. Spidey and his multiverse surprised Tony Stark upending him 102-56.
Round 1 Results: the Extreme Eight
Reminder: Round 2 voting runs through Sunday the 24th
Who is the best superhero or superhero faction? Does the Marvel Universe or DC Comics reign supreme? The decision is entirely in your hands if you enter Lilly Library’s March Movie Madness! While the battles for the rounds of 64 and 32 occurred on Knowhere and Xandar respectively, we announce that Super Sixteencombatants remain. Now the war has arrived on Earth (or, at least, Lilly Library) and it’s time to crown our champion!
This year’s Lilly Library March Movie Madness begins Monday, March 18th. It’s YOUR turn to enter into the fray and vote in the evolving brackets to help decide our ultimate superhero! And, yes – there are prizes!
BRACKETOLOGY by Nathaniel Brown
Lilly Library’s Expert Bracketologist Nathaniel Brown
In the Gotham bracket, will the hometown advantage aid the Caped Crusader to pull out the victory and advance to the Fantastic Four? Which version of the Dark Knight will advance – the sarcastic and brooding Lego version, or the equally brooding, looking to retire Christian Bale version? Will the God of Thunder electrify Gotham instead? Or will the King of Atlantis flood the city?
In the Metropolis bracket, will the animated family of the Incredibles overtake the Xavier led group of mutants? Will the Man of Steel preserve home field and annihilate the First Avenger?
In the majestic bracket of Paradise Island, will Wonder Woman continue her blockbuster success and dethrone the wisecracking Deadpool? Will the Spider multiverse pelt the suit of the Man in a Tin Can with his web shooters?
Lastly, in the Wakandabracket, will the all-powerful Justice League defeat the Guardians of the Galaxy (who always seem to have their own personal agendas but come together when it counts)? Or will the King of Wakanda pounce and maul the opposition provided by the Web-slinger?
*NOTE: Participants who provide their Duke netID and compete in all the brackets to vote for our CONQUERING HERO, will be entered into Prize Drawings for Student CRAZIES and for stalwart Duke Staff.
Do You Have Nerves of
Superman: Man of Steel
To Take It All The Way?
Here’s to a great adventure as we all advance through the Lilly Library March Movie Madness Superhero Brackets to crown the Conquering Hero!
Contributors: Nathaniel Brown, Lilly Library Media and Reserves Coordinator Carol Terry, Lilly Library Collection Services & Communications Coordinator
Cold and dreary January doesn’t have to be the bleakest and grayest time of year. Visit Lilly Library’s new Collection Spotlight and exhibit to brighten your winter season! To warm you, the Lilly Collection Spotlight What’s Cooking in the Libraries? offers a serving of books and films in celebration of food, chefs, and international cuisine. To accompany our main course, feast your eyes on our latest exhibit Carnival, Carnevale, Carnaval, Karneval, an overview and celebration of international Carnival traditions.
What’s Cooking in the Libraries?
Film and books for foodies
Food captured on-screen appeals to all our senses. Savor our diverse selection of foodie-films with favorites such as Ratatouille, Big Night, Tortilla Soup, City of Gold, Tampopo, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Chef, Eat Drink Man Woman, and many more!
Books about chefs, food history, and culinary traditions and cuisines complete our menu. Sample more books and films about food in Lilly and the Duke Libraries here.
Carnival, Carnevale, Carnaval, Karneval
Carnival Celebrations and Traditions
In addition to our feast of books and films about food, our exhibit Carnival, Carnevale, Carnaval, Karnaval highlights the variety and breadth of carnival festivities celebrated throughout the world. Practiced over several centuries, the ancient tradition of a mid-February Carnival has evolved and become as varied and diverse as its many locales. Originating from spiritual and religious traditions, present-day carnival festivities are exuberant and high-spirited affairs. Venice, Rio, New Orleans, Bavarian towns, cantons of Switzerland, and the islands of the Caribbean are just a few settings noted for elaborate celebrations and revelry during the Carnival season. Explore films and books about carnival here.
Even though it is winter, Laissez les bons temps rouler!
Celebrate the end of Fall Semester with the Stampede of Love!
Kiwi of the Stampede of Love
Have you heard about the “mane” event at Lilly Library?
Where did Fall Semester go? December is here, and with it, exams await all Duke students. Because the First-Year students live on East Campus, the staff at Lilly Library does its best to offer support and relieve the stress of the fall semester for our “neighbors” experiencing their first finals at Duke. Extending our hours to a 24/7 schedule during exams, offering a study break with refreshments, and a room reserved as a relaxation station are longstanding Lilly traditions.
But the end of Fall Semester 2018 is different, a horse of a different color, so to speak! On Friday, December 7th, we are hosting the Stampede of Love, miniature therapy horses whose tiny hooves will bring smiles to stressed students. If you decide to trot over to East Campus, here is a list of useful dates and event:
Saturday, December 8th:
Beginning at 9am, Lilly expands its schedule to 24/7 through the examination period, ending at 7pm on Monday, December 17th. More Duke Library Hours
Tuesday, December 11th at 8pm:
Lilly Study Break for Students Details here
Wednesday, December 12th at 8am: Relaxation Station in Lilly opens for students
It’s been a great fall semester
and best of luck to everyone during Finals!
What: Writing, subject tutoring, stress relief, and food! Where: The Edge, first floor Bostock Library When: Tuesday, December 4, 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 TWP Writing Studio and Duke Libraries will be on hand for help with writing and research. Chemistry and Computer Science tutors will also be available. Tutorial times:
Chem 101: 9-11pm
Chem 202: 7-11pm
CompSci 101: 7-11pm
CompSci 201: 7-9pm
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.
Asian America: Movements, Communities, Settlements
– an exhibit –
Asian America: Movements, Communities, Settlements – an exhibit
A new exhibit, now on display in the History Department on East Campus, is open to the Duke community. Curated by Sucheta Mazumdar, Associate Professor of History and Alta Zhang, Research Associate, the exhibit marks both the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the 50th anniversary of Third World Student Strike at San Francisco State University. The Third World Student Strike led to the founding of the first College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, and helped to establish Ethnic Studies as a discipline in universities throughout the United States. Duke University is celebrating the inaugural year of its Asian American Studies Program (AASP) at Duke by hosting a conference, Afro/Asian Connections in the Local/Global South.
The opening of this exhibit coincides with the Asian American Studies Program’s inaugural conference and features materials from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Librarians Kelley Lawton and Carson Holloway of Lilly Library prepared the chronology of Asian American history found in the exhibit.
Asian America: Movements, Communities, Settlements
Exhibits made possible by and/or funded by History Department, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dean of Humanities, Dean of Social Sciences, Asian American Studies Program, The Kenan Institute for Ethics, and Global Asia Initiative
Halloween may be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still get your scare on!
Check out Lilly Library’s collection spotlight on books and movies that celebrate Frankenstein’s 200th birthday and comprise a ghoulish grouping of truly terrifying titles….
Lilly’s collections include books on philosophy and ethics, graphic novels, art and visual studies, and film. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s enduring tale, Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, both Lilly and Perkins are highlighting their titles on the subject. At Lilly we’ve thrown in additional scary movies to add to the horror. Enjoy the holiday chills!
… What are the libraries’ hours? … How do I find a book? … Who can help me with research? … Where can I print?*
Duke’s newest students can find the answers to these questions – and more – on the Library’s Services for First-Year Students 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, 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, 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:
Welcome to East Campus
for Your First-Year Library Experience
On August 21st, the newest Blue Devils, the Class of Duke 2022, will arrive on East Campus for Orientation, also known as Big-O Week. Numerous events, workshops and programs are presented to ease the transition to life as an undergraduate.
The two libraries on East Campus, Lilly Library and Duke Music Library welcome our newest neighbors and do our part to introduce the newest “Dukies” to the powerful research resources of the Duke Libraries. On Move-In Day exclusively, Lilly is the pick up site for Blue Devil Delivery for pre-ordered textbooks and computers. Lilly is home to the film collection as well as a range of other material, and Music … is self-explanatory.
Where: East Campus Quad between Lilly and the East Union
In addition to the Movie on the Quad, Lilly and Music will host a Superheroes Open House the first week of class. Duke 2022 can explore our powerful library services : experts in research, 3D labs, streaming media, Residence Hall Librarians, study spaces – and enjoy food and win prizes!
Get to know your Duke University Residence HallLibrarians – Yes, your East Campus dorms have librarians assigned to help you! Look for their emails during the academic year.
Work in the Libraries – Work/Study Students apply here
The American Dance Festival kicked off its 41st year in Durham this June 2018. Lilly Libraryis celebrating with an exhibit and collection spotlight highlighting our diverse range of books and films related to dance.
Duke University Libraries house the ADF Archives, including its Moving Images Collection of approximately 2,000 films and videos from 1930 to the present. These videos capture dance classes, panels, performances, discussions, showings, interviews and special events. Many can be viewed on-site in Lilly. Stop by and check us out!
ADF Extra:
Saturdays in June and July, view Movies By Movers, at the Nasher Museum of Art and White Lecture Hall on Duke’s East Campus. This ADF series is a bi-annual festival dedicated to the celebration of body and the camera. A full screening schedule can be found here.
Our Lilly Collection Spotlight shines on talented Duke Alumni including authors, broadcasters, researchers, as well as many who are accomplished in popular entertainment – both on screen and behind the scenes. Their studies while at Duke are varied, and for many, their majors were not directly related to their career. The featured books encompass a range of genres and styles – from sociological research to critically acclaimed fiction to sports journalism. Duke alumni working in film and television produce and appear in a variety of films including comedies, drama and thoughtful documentaries. Actors, directors, writers – they experience success both in front of the camera and behind. What they all have in common is their “Duke experience”.
Check out the entire list of books in the Lilly Collection Spotlightand visit Lilly Library to view the exhibit Duke Alumni on the Screen and Behind the Scenes.
Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler’s inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies. Tyler graduated from Duke in 1961.
The Legends Club : Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an epic college basketball rivalry
In the skillful hands of John Feinstein (Duke 1977), this extraordinary rivalry–and the men behind it–comes to life in a unique, intimate way. The Legends Club is a sports book that captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition.
Dollars and sense : how we misthink money and how to spend smarter
Dollars and sense : how we misthink money and how to spend smarter Bestselling author (Predictably Irrational) and behavioral economist Dan Ariely (PhD Business 1998) teams up with financial comedian and writer Jeff Kreisler to challenge many of our most basic assumptions about the precarious relationship between our brains and our money.
The Gaza Kitchen: a Palestinian culinary journey
This is a richly illustrated and researched cookbook that explores the distinctive cuisine of the area known prior to 1948 as the Gaza District–and that of the many refugees who came to Gaza in 1948 and have been forced to stay there ever since. In summer 2010, Laila El-Haddad (Duke 2000) and Maggie Schmitt traveled throughout the Gaza Strip to collect the recipes and shoot the stunning photographs presented in the book.
Forever Duke: On the Screen and Behind the Scenes
Accompanying the books in the Collection Spotlight, the current exhibit in the Lilly Library foyer is Forever Duke: On the Screen and Behind the Scenes. The works of Duke alumni filmmakers, writers and actors featured include films and series found in the Lilly Library collections. A few of the more well known titles or personalities:
We Were Soldiers – directed by Randall Wallace (’72)
We Were Soldiers Directed by Randall Wallace (’72) Wallace wrote and directed We Were Soldiers. Nominated for an Oscar as screenwriter for Braveheart, he also worked on films such as Pearl Harbor and The Man in the Iron Mask.
Community and The Hangover
Community featuring Ken Jeong
Ken Jeong (’90) was a premed student at Duke. A licensed physician, Jeong found fame in comic roles in both television and film.
Other Duke luminaries include actress and Baldwin Scholar Annabeth Gish (’93) who stars in the current X-Files, Martin Kratt (’89), the co-creator of the beloved children’s series Zoboomafoo and Wild Kratts, Oscar and BAFTA nominee cinematographer Robert Yeoman (’73) , film editor Alisa Lepselter who has worked on Woody Allen films such as Midnight in Paris and Match Point, and documentary filmmakers Ryan White (’04) and Rossana Lacayo (’79).
The Duke campus and Durham have also been featured in film and television; productions include Bull Durham, The Handmaid’s Tale (the film), The Program, Main Street, Iron Man 3, Kiss the Girls, Brainstorm and the late 1990’s coming-of-age television series Dawson’s Creek. Whether it’s American Pie 2, Mystic Pizza, The Squid and the Whale or Parks and Recreation, you will find a Blue Devil!
Black Panther tells the story of T’Challa (real name), king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. T’Challa possesses enhanced abilities garnered through ancient Wakandan rituals of drinking the heart-shaped herb. He also utilizes his proficiency in science, rigorous physical training, hand-to-hand combat skills, and access to wealth and advanced technology (through vibranium) to combat his enemies. The character was created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby when Kirby realized he had no blacks in his comic strip. “I came up with the Black Panther because I realized I had no blacks in my strip. I’d never drawn a black,” Kirby told the Comics Journal. “I needed a black. I suddenly discovered that I had a lot of black readers. My first friend was a black! And here I was ignoring them because I was associating with everybody else.” Kirby, though far from eloquent in his word choice, gets at an essential idea—representation and its importance in a reader’s view. They should be able to see themselves in the work.
Black Panther opened on February 16, 2018 to much fanfare and high expectations. It was the first standalone movie for the character in the Marvel cinematic universe, which includes Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman, and dozens of other superheroes. All of these prior characters’ movies have had success, but what distinguishes Black Panther is that it featured an almost entirely African-American cast—including Lupita Nyong’o, Daniel Kaluuya, Michael B. Jordan, and Angela Bassett, and a black director—Ryan Coogler (whose credits include Fruitvale Station and Creed). The storyline dives into topics of race, highlights the strengths of black women (as they are depicted as warriors, queens, and scientists in the film), and the roles and depictions of families and communities deviate from depictions in the mainstream media. These differences are particularly important as it debunks conventional wisdoms that black films and black filmmakers are unprofitable and impossible. A study done by USC concluded African Americans represented 13.6% of characters in major film projects, compared to 70.8% of white characters in 2017. Behind the camera numbers were worse, 5.6% were directors compared to their peers for the same year.
Black Panther took the box office by storm! At the time of this writing, it had smashed many previous box office records on its way to becoming the top grossing superhero film of all time in the U.S. as it passed fellow Marvel title, The Avengers. It grossed $623.4 million in 2012. To date, Black Panther has grossed $630.9 million domestic and $1.237 billion worldwide. So, why did it do so well? There are plenty of factors. Notwithstanding the outstanding cast, critically acclaimed director, and core audience of Marvel devotees, Black Panther benefited from a surge of people who don’t typically make a point to see Marvel movies. 37% of the audience were African American, followed by 35% white, and 18% Hispanic. Typically only 15% of the audience is comprised of African Americans for the Marvel movie demographic. Far and wide, African Americans treated the Black Panther premiere as a holiday. Many moviegoers dressed in traditional African attire, themed events with African drum ensembles, Afro-futuristic themed parties, and academic panel discussions sponsored by universities and churches popped up in many cities. Black Panther also benefitted from group ticket sales to schools and churches.
For some of these first-timers this was a one-off, whether it was for the political nature of the film in our current time and the hopeful agenda it could lead to, or just pure curiosity. For many, though, this could lead to a kinship to the MCU (especially since the Black Panther and company will return for future Marvel movies!). So one may ask, how can I catch up with the storyline? AMC Theaters are advertising a 31-hour epic Marvel marathon that will include 12 MCU films leading into the next venture: Avengers: Infinity War. The full list of movies that will be screened:
Why sit sleep-deprived in a dark theater paying high prices for concessions, when you can comfortably sit at home eating food you already paid for and watch at your own pace? GUESS WHAT? We own all of these movies listed above (except The Incredible Hulk), in addition to some notable absentees:
Your opinion counts! Share your thoughts about ways to improve and enhance library services, collections, and spaces in a one-hour moderated focus group. In return, we’ll feed you!
Here in the Libraries, we’re always trying to up our game. To help us serve our Duke students and faculty better, we conduct periodic focus groups with undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members.
We want to know what you really think. Focus groups help us improve our existing services and develop new ones to meet emerging needs. Click on the links below to be part of a focus group session.
Focus Groups for Undergraduates
Wednesday, April 11
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. Perkins 118 On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee Register for this session
Thursday, April 12 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Perkins 118 On the Menu: Pre-dinner snacks Register for this session
Focus Groups for Graduate Students
Friday, April 13
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Perkins 118 On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee Register for this session
Wednesday, April 18
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Perkins 118 On the Menu: Monuts Donuts and Joe Van Gogh Coffee Register for this session
… ’cause all I wanna do is go the distance – Rocky Balboa
Say what you will about Philadelphia (and a lot of people have), it looks a great sports season for the City of Brotherly Love – first the Eagles, then Villanova, and now The Italian Stallion! Rocky took down a worthy challenger, The Karate Kid to become the champion of Lilly’s inaugural March Movie Madness. Our brackets began with an interesting range of sports films, from the iconic to the obscure. There were a few upsets, but it is interesting to note that our final contenders classify as classics!
How about a stress free March Madness bracket and Final Game?
The results from the Final Four of March Movie Madness @ Lilly leave two classic films standing. It’s The Italian Stallion, Rocky, facing Daniel The Karate Kid, in the Championship!
Pick your favorite to win our sports movie brackets, and if you provide your netID, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a CRAZIE prize!
New voters are welcome – submit your pick for the Championship HERE and enjoy the final game!
Here is a look at the path our two title contenders took to reach the Finals:
March Movie Madness @ Lilly – Sports Films
Our original brackets featured a wide range of sports films, but Lilly Library has many more titles available. From the iconic to the obscure, check out On The Bench
Stay tuned: the Winner will be announced on Wednesday, April 4th!
There is No Crying in Baseball –
Three of the Elite Eight are Baseball movies!
A League of Their Own turned off the Friday Night Lights for good, and Moneyball and 42 continued to score on the field. Alas, local favorite Bull Durham discovered that it is all “sunshine” as Remember the Titans piled on. Rocky may have knocked out When We Were Kings, but he’ll soon to have face the GOAT Michael Jordan and teammates when it is game time in Space Jam! Can the youngsters Karate Kid and Creed prevail?
NEW VOTERS are welcome! It’s not too late to vote in the Elite Eight,then on Saturday 3/31 make your picks for the Final Four and the Championship round on Monday 4/2. Vote here
Who’s left? Pick your brackets and VOTE in the Elite Eight
Extra Innings? OT? Bonus points?
We have more sports movies to recommend – check out the bench-warmer roster at March Madness-On The Bench
Remember, if you submit your Duke NetID, you may win a CRAZIE prize!
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!
To celebrate Women’s History Month 2018, Lilly Library is shining a spotlight on Women in Sport. Books and movies that feature women athletes are “teeming” in our collections. Come to East Campus and check out this month’s Lilly Collection Spotlight. Click here for the complete line-up.
While you’re at Lilly, visit the exhibit in the foyer, On the Field, the Courts and Beyond: Women in Sports – TITLE IX, that complements our Lilly Collection Spotlight.
Based on the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, a celebration of the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the twentieth century that features rarely seen photos and new interviews with past and present game changers including Abby Wambach and Cari Champion.
2016 | Sarah Shephard
There’s a battle being fought. It’s raging on the sports fields, in the newsrooms and behind the scenes at every major broadcaster. Women in sport are fighting for equality with more vigour than ever, but are they breaking down the barriers that stand in their way? Sarah Shephard looks behind the headlines to see whether progress is really being made and tells the stories that can no longer be ignored. It’s time for women to switch their focus from the battlefield to the sports field, once and for all.
2007 | Cecil Harris and Larryette Kyle-DeBose
Beginning with the Williams sisters, the authors examine the foundation of their development as tennis phenoms during the 1990s and the prophetic yet unabashed approach of their coach, father, and sports psychologist, Richard Williams, in crafting a world within which they would be groomed to be successful. a compelling examination of the impact of African Americans on the world of professional tennis and the various challenges and outcomes of that involvement.
2015 | Nicholas ChareFILMS
An overview of films about women in sport and a timely critical analysis of their role in shaping perceptions of female athletic ability. It examines themes of aggression, beauty, class, ethnicity, physical feminism, sexuality, synaesthesia and technology in relation to mainstream and arthouse cinematic depictions of sportswomen from Pumping Iron 2 to Bend it Like Beckham.
2004 | Bruce Schoenfeld
50 years ago when Gibson and Buxton were two of the top women’s tennis players in the world. Coming from widely divergent backgrounds (Gibson from a poor black family in Harlem, Buxton from a well-to-do Jewish family in London), the two hooked up in the mid-1950s and became tennis partners and lifelong friends.
2015 | ed. Alex Channon
Offers a wide-reaching overview of current academic research on women’s participation in combat sports within a wide range of different national and trans-national contexts, detailing many of the struggles and opportunities experienced by women at various levels of engagement within sports such as boxing, wrestling and mixed martial arts.
During the 2006 Iran-Bahrain match, the Tehran soccer stadium roars with 100,000 cheering men and, officially, no women. According to Islamic custom, women are not permitted to watch or participate in men’s sports. Many of the ambitious young female fans who manage to sneak into the arena are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes these young men and women adversaries, but duty can’t overcome their shared dreams, their mutual attraction, and ultimately their overriding sense of national pride and humanity.
DVD 21482 and Streaming Video
Examines the post Title IX media environment in terms of the representation of female athletes. It demonstrates that while men’s identities in sports are equated with deeply held values of courage, strength and endurance, the accomplishments of female athletes are framed very differently and in much more stereotypical ways.
DVD 11362
A promising hurdler, played by Mariel Hemingway, finds needed emotional and athletic seasoning with a caring mentor. After the two fall in love, their relationship is threatened as both vie for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
DVD 25223 and streaming video
Members of the Cuban National Women’s Baseball Team discuss their passion for the sport and hardships they faced in Cuba’s society filled with machismo, prejudice and daily hardships.
DVD 6270
The story of the surviving members of the Viennese Hakoah sports club women’s swim team, a world-dominating competitor in the 1930s. The club was eventually shut down during Hitler’s reign, though all the women managed to escape capture. Combines historical footage and contemporary interviews to reconnect the women’s lives and memories.
DVD 5579
The new man in town has just accepted a position as an English professor on a reservation in Utah. Finding it hard to fit in with the Native American community, he decides to take on the challenge of coaching the girls’ basketball team.
DVD 18946
Bliss Cavender is a small-town teenager looking for her own path. Tired of following in her family’s footsteps, she discovers a way to put her life on the fast track–literally. She lands a spot on a roller derby team and becomes “Babe Ruthless.” Co-starring Drew Barrymore in her feature film directorial debut.
Contributors: Carol Terry, Danette Pachtner and Ira King
Winter Sports: Skiing, Skating and Hockey
Winter Olympics and Sport
Tired of cold wintry weather? Don’t be snowboard – curlup with interesting reading, or peakat these films … what do you have to luge? (Are we skatingon thin ice here?)
If you are ready for vicarious international adventures in spectacular snow and ice, Lilly Library’s collections will transport you. Our latest Collection Spotlight shines on winter sports, Olympic history and snowy landscapes inspired by the upcoming Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Some winning titles are featured below, but judge for yourself and see the full list in Best in Snow.
Film
The Price of Gold (2014, dir. Nanette Burstein) ESPN 30 for 30
The world couldn’t keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer – Nancy Kerrigan, the elegant brunette and Tonya Harding, the feisty blonde who would stop at nothing to get on the Olympic podium.
Sister (2012, dir. Ursula Meir)
Sister-Lilly DVD 27001
A drama set at a Swiss ski resort and centered on a boy who supports his sister by stealing from wealthy guests.
Curling (2010, dir. Denis Côté)
On the fringe of society in a remote part of the French-Canadian countryside, the fragile relationship and unusual private life of a father and daughter is jeopardized by dreary, unforeseen circumstances.
Of Miracles and Men (2009, dir. Jonathan Hock) ESPN 30 for 30
The story of one of the greatest upsets in sports history has been told. Or has it? On a Friday evening in Lake Placid, a plucky band of American collegians stunned the vaunted Soviet national team, 4-3 in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey competition. Americans couldn’t help but believe in miracles that night, and when the members of Team USA won the gold medal two days later, they became one for the ages. But there was another, unchronicled side to the “Miracle On Ice.”
Blades of Glory (2007, dirs. Josh Gordon and Will Speck)
Cool Runnings Lilly DVD 7974
In 2002, two rival Olympic ice skaters were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men’s single competition. Presently, however, they’ve found a loophole that will allow them to qualify as a pairs team.
Cool Runnings (1998, dir. Jon Turteltaub)When a Jamaican sprinter is disqualified from the Olympic Games,he enlists the help of a dishonored coach to start the first Jamaican Bobsled Team.
In the 1930s, as the world hurtled towards terrible global conflict, speed was all the rage. Exotic, exciting and above all dangerous, it was by far the most popular event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. It required an abundance of skill and bravery. And the four men who triumphed at those Games lived the most extraordinary lives.
Artistic Impressions: Figure Skating, Masculinity, and the Limits of Sport by Mary Louise Adams
In contemporary North America, figure skating ranks among the most ‘feminine’ of sports and few boys take it up for fear of being labelled effeminate or gay. Yet figure skating was once an exclusively male pastime – women did not skate in significant numbers until the late 1800s, at least a century after the founding of the first skating club. Only in the 1930s did figure skating begin to acquire its feminine image.
Roland Huntford’s brilliant history begins 20,000 years ago in the last ice age on the icy tundra of an unformed earth. Man is a travelling animal, and on these icy slopes skiing began as a means of survival. In polar exploration, skiing changed the course of history. Elsewhere, in war and peace, it has done so too.
So many more books and films examine the Olympics from a range of perspectives – from pure sport and Olympic ideals to international political and social concerns and controversies. Explore further in our Collection Spotlight, and visit Best in Snow.
When it’s cold and snowy out, there’s nothing better than a good book (well maybe a hot beverage and some warm blankets). Check out our New and Noteworthy and Current Literature collections for some good reads to enjoy! Oh and if you’re not planning on leaving the house anytime soon, make sure to see what we have on Overdrive!
All the Beloved Ghosts by Alison MacLeod (a Booker-longlisted author) is a collection of short stories that blend fiction, biography, and memoir. MacLeod’s characters hover on the border of life and death, where memory is most vivid and the present most elusive. Moving from the London riots of 2011 to 1920s Nova Scotia, from Oscar Wilde’s grave to the Brighton Pier, these exquisitely formed stories capture the small tragedies and profound truths of existence. You can find a review here, and you can find an excerpt here.
Before the War by Fay Weldon. London, 1922. It’s a cold November morning, the station is windswept and rural, the sky is threatening snow, and the train is late. Vivien Ripple, 20 years old and an ungainly five foot eleven, waits on the platform at Dilberne Halt. She is wealthy and well-bred–only daughter to the founder of Ripple & Co, the nation’s top publisher–but plain, painfully awkward, and, perhaps worst of all, intelligent. But she has a plan. That very morning, Vivvie will ride to the city with the express purpose of changing her life forever. With one eye on the present and one on the past, Fay Weldon offers Vivien’s fate, along with that of London between World Wars I and II: a city fizzing with change, full of flat-chested flappers, shell-shocked soldiers, and aristocrats clinging to history.
Murder in the Manuscript Room is the second in Con Lehane’s 42nd Street Library mystery series. It is a smart, compelling mystery in which the characters themselves are at least as interesting as the striking sleuthing. When a murder desecrates the somber, book-lined halls of New York City’s iconic 42nd Street Library, Raymond Ambler, the library’s curator of crime fiction, has a personal interest in solving the crime. His quest to solve the murder is complicated by personal entanglements involving his friend–or perhaps more-than-friend–Adele Morgan. No one else sees the connections Ambler is sure are there–not an unusual state of affairs for Ambler.
Careers for Women: A Novel by Joanna Scott. New York in the late 1950s. A city, and a world, on the cusp of change…Careers for Women is a masterful novel about the difficulties of building a career, a dream, or a life–and about the powerful small mercies of friendship and compassion. There are reviews from the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Kate Atkinson described it as a “[…] spectacular novel about the dreams women chase, the choices we make and the power of those decisions to undo us at every turn. I loved it.”
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden. From a new voice in the tradition of Lauren Beukes, Ian McDonald, and Nnedi Okorafor comes The Prey of Gods, a fantastic, boundary-challenging tale, set in a South African locale both familiar and yet utterly new, which braids elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and dark humor. Fun and fantastic, Nicky Drayden takes her brilliance as a short story writer and weaves together an elaborate tale that will capture your heart . . . even as one particular demigoddess threatens to rip it out. Listed as a Book Riot Best Books of 2017 Pick and a Vulture “The 10 Best Fantasy Books of 2017” Pick!
The end of fall semester is near, and finals exams are even closer. If you feel the need for a little winter holiday cheer or diversion, our librarians can help. With over 30,000 films in our collections, our staff selected 100 holiday-themed films for December’s Lilly Collection Spotlight. There are traditional titles in the list such as A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Home Alone as well as other winter holiday films such as Eight Crazy Nights, Tokyo Godfathers, and Black Candle. Animated classics, international gems, and a few offbeat films such as Bad Santa and A Junky’s Christmas are waiting for you!
Want to see the entire list?
You decide what is Naughty-or-nice-Holiday-films-100 List!
In case you are wondering – yes, we have Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (Lilly DVD 15343)
Don’t want to scroll through one hundred titles? Take a peek at some of our selections and sample the first Video Spotlight on Winter Holiday films in our Video Spotlight Archives.
A weekend of British music begins this Friday, Nov. 3, with a performance by The Villiers Quartet at 8:00 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium.
The Villiers Quartet is quickly establishing a reputation as champions of 20th-21st century British (and American) music. This concert in Duke’s Baldwin Auditorium, part of their 2017 North American tour, features a wonderful balance of the lushly romantic Delius (in its original 1916 version), the lyrical poise of American composer/violinist Andrew Waggoner’s recent score Every Sentient Being, and unusual British pieces from the 1920s (Bush’s Dialectic) and 1950s (Fricker’s Quartet No. 2).
The public is invited to attend a pre-concert talk given by Daniel Grimley (Merton College, Oxford) at 7:00 p.m. in the Library Seminar Room, Biddle Music Building (adjacent to Baldwin Auditorium).
On Saturday, Nov. 4, at 5:00 p.m. in the Nelson Music Room on Duke’s East Campus, British composer Frank Bridge’s Piano Trio No. 2 (1929), widely considered to be one of his greatest chamber works, will be featured in a concert by violinist Hsiao-mei Ku, Professor in the Duke Department of Music and member of the Ciompi Quartet; pianist R. Larry Todd, Arts and Sciences Professor of Music at Duke; and cellist David Meyer of the North Carolina Symphony. Listen to a performance of this piece through the Duke Music Library subscription to the Naxos online streaming service.
These two concerts are part of the symposium, British Music & Europe in the Age of Brexit, presented by the Duke University Department of Music and Franklin Humanities Institute: Humanities Futures.
Cuban-Americans, the Duke Common Experience and Beyond
Need some new reading material or just interested in seeing what’s in Lilly Library’s collection that you might not know about? Check out Lilly’s Collection Spotlight!
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month and the Duke Common Experience Reading Program selection of Richard Blanco’s The Prince of Los Cocuyos, our spotlight shines on books and films relevant to his and the Cuban-American experience. Blanco, the inaugural poet for Barack Obama in 2012, writes in his memoir of his childhood growing up in Miami as a son of Cuban immigrants. The memoir finds Blanco grappling with both his place in America and his sexuality, striving to discover his identity.
Our collections include books on Cuban Art, the Cuban-American immigrant experience in the United States, LGBTQ communities in Hispanic culture, and several books of Blanco’s poetry. Here are a few highlights from our Lilly Collection Spotlight:
Books:
Adios Utopia — Art in Cuba Since 1950
This exhibition catalog covers Cuban art from 1950 to the present viewed through the particular lenses of the Cuban Revolution, utopian ideals, and subsequent Cuban history. The collection covered in this book will be on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis starting in November.
In this book, scholar Frederick Luis Aldama interviews 29 Latinx comic book creators, ranging from the legendary Jaime Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame to lesser known up and coming writers/illustrators.
This bilingual chapbook contains a poem Blanco wrote and read for the reopening of the US Embassy in Havana in 2015. Blanco writes in the opening lines, “The sea doesn’t matter, what matters is this: we all belong to the sea between us, all of us.”
Films:
CubAmerican (2012) DVD 28418
Exploring the causes leading to the exile of millions of Cubans from communist Cuba by depicting the journey of illustrious Cuban-Americans to their new life in the United States
Finally the sea (2007) DVD 12185
“The wreckage of an empty Cuban raft is the catalyst for Tony, a successful Cuban-American businessman, who files from Wall Street to Cuba to discover his roots. His journey develops into a striking love story where politics and romance collide
Mambo Kings (1992) DVD 27116
Musician brothers, Cesar and Nestor, leave Cuba for America (NYC) in the 1950s, with the hopes of making it to the top of the Latin music scene. Cesar is the older brother who serves as the business manager and is a consummate ladies’ man. Nestor is the brooding songwriter, who cannot forget the woman in Cuba who broke his heart. This is an unrated version of the film, with one restored scene.
Visit our Collection Spotlight shelf, in the lobby to the left of the Lilly desk. There are many more titles available to you, and if you want more suggestions – just ask us. Stay tuned – We will highlight our diverse and varied holdings at Lilly with a different theme each month.
Civitates Orbis Terrarum atlas from the Duke Libraries’ collection
An event discussing the new innovative exhibition, “A Portrait of Venice,” to come on display at the Nasher Museum of Art this September will take place April 20th from 4:00-5:00 pm in Perkins 218.
Along with the mural-sized, first state print borrowed from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the exhibition features a number of interactive digital engagements that bring the city to life.
Multi-media visualizations of the print’s art historical and historical material have led to exciting discoveries and invaluable understandings, information to be shared with the public for the first time. The result is an original, highly dynamic, and multi-sensory way of experiencing art and its history.
Dr. Kristin Lanzoni (Wired! Lab) will give an overview of this digital humanities initiative, and undergraduate Mary Kate Weggeland will discuss her work with the exhibition and on a digital display of the Civitates Orbis Terrarum atlas from the Duke Libraries’ collection.
The event is free and open to the public. Please join us this upcoming Thursday for the discussion and be sure to visit the exhibition this September!
Lilly Library offers a selection of Full Frame titles
Each spring since 1998, Durham has hosted international filmmakers and film lovers who flock to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Festival goers revel in the latest in documentary, or non-fiction, films which are presented in venues throughout historic downtown Durham.
Because it is the 20th anniversary, this year’s festival’s thematic program is a cinematic retrospective of the twenty years of Full Frame. Curated by Artistic Director Sadie Tillery, notable films, filmmakers, and special moments that have distinguished Full Frame since it was founded in 1998 are to be highlighted this year.
Do you know that Duke University is a major supporter of Full Frame?
Of special note, because of his support and commitment to the arts, Duke University President Richard Brodhead will be honored with the Full Frame 2017 Advocate Award. In addition, the Duke University Libraries support and highlight films from past festivals. If you don’t attend the festival, consider the Libraries’ collections. A major resource is the Rubenstein Library’s Full Frame Archive Film Collection, that includes festival winners from 1998 through 2012. In addition, the film and video collection at Lilly Library on East Campus contains a selection of Full Frame titles available to the Duke community.
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
News, Events, and Exhibits from Duke University Libraries
La Flor is an eight-part film, a decade in the making. It is an epic adventure in scale and imagination, a wildly entertaining ode to the power of storytelling. Filmed around the world, it is composed of six distinct episodes over eight parts, each starting the same four actresses. It redefines the concept of binge viewing. 
A captivating documentary about the ethics of activism in the modern media age. A River Below examines the efforts of two conservationists in the Amazon. One is a marine biologist and the other an animal activist and host of a popular National Geographic t.v. show. Their methods to save the pink river dolphin from extinction triggers unforeseen consequences.
A luminous short film by Matt Porterfield (SOLLERS POINT, PUTTY HILL) featuring rising star Barbara Lopez, CUATRO PAREDES follows Karla, recently arrived in Tijuana, Mexico to stay at her estranged aunt’s house a year after her father’s death. In this moment of solitude and calm, she looks up, down, inward and outward through the transpositional alchemy of text and is reminded that speaking to oneself feels like a vital human practice.
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Films and their descriptions curated by 
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