Christof Galli

When you can get anything from apricots to zithers delivered to your front door (often with the option of overnight shipping) by shopping online, it may be difficult to believe that librarians sometimes have to leave their computers, their desks, home and country to buy books and other materials for the Libraries’ collections.

Yes, it is true that most of what the Libraries’ acquire, including foreign-language materials, comes to Duke through approval plans and orders placed with domestic and overseas vendors. However, the librarians building our international and area studies collections still need to make periodic trips abroad to buy materials and build relationships in their country (or countries) of interest. This year, Christof Galli, Miree Ku, and Luo Zhou have all been on the road.

In late January, Galli, librarian for Middle East and Islamic Studies, traveled to Egypt to attend the International Cairo Book Fair where he purchased approximately 1,200 titles directly from vendors from various Arabic-speaking countries. He also visited other countries in the region (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Morocco) and met with prospective vendors. Galli said:

The book buying trip did not just allow me to acquire materials ‘in the field,’ but provided me with an invaluable opportunity to engage anew with Middle Eastern culture in a very direct and unmediated way after an absence of several years. Experiencing daily life on the ground firsthand has helped me immensely in gaining insights into the current complex and complicated political, societal, and cultural issues affecting the region. These insights will in turn enhance my ability to build useful and effective collections…

Miree Ku

During Korean Studies librarian Miree Ku’s trip to South Korea, she met with officials of the National Institute of Korean History and the Korea Foundation, as well as publishers and vendors. One publisher specializing in literature and history offered Ku his entire catalogue at about half the retail price. Her visit to the National Institute of Korean History was also fruitful. After meetings with researchers and the Institute’s director, Ku received their promise of a gift of copies of all their current publications, if the Duke Libraries would pay the shipping costs. Ku expects to receive books from the Institute this year and next year. She said, “…I am so excited…” and then added, “It was so helpful to me to have established good relationships with them through my previous trips to Korea and attending the annual meetings of the Council on East Asian Libraries.”

Luo Zhou

Chinese Studies librarian Luo Zhou visited four libraries in June when she was in China. At the National Library of China she met with the director of the Legislative Service Department and the librarians in charge of the Law Documents Section and the Chinese Studies Documents Section. Zhou came away from the meeting confident that the staff will assist her in getting legal and government information for Duke’s faculty and researchers. While at the NLC, she also met with the librarian in the Gift & Exchange Department to discuss

the Window of China program. The program, in effect from 2006 to 2010, distributes books to foreign colleges and universities. In other years the Duke Libraries received materials through the program, each time with a value of $800. This year, as a result of Zhou’s visit, Duke was selected to receive materials with a total value of $13,000.

Other stops on Zhou’s itinerary included the National Science Library, Peking University Library, and the library at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). At CASS she also received offers of future reference assistance for Duke students and faculty. Zhou said, “The library is rich in statistics on the social conditions in China, which our faculty is very interested in.” She also had a cordial conversation with CASS’s director of international cooperation. “[I learned] that CASS is eager to establish more cooperation with scholars at Duke, and I brought the message back to the director of Duke’s Asian and Pacific Studies Institute.”

In addition to spending time at the four libraries, Zhou met with Beijing vendors of books and databases, as well as film director Wu Wenguang, one of China’s preeminent producers of independent documentary films. Zhou said, “Getting independent films (or underground films) from China is not easy.” Wu talked to her about the history and current state of independent documentary filmmaking in China and suggested titles for the Duke Libraries’ collection.

Luo Zhou, Miree Ku, and Christof Galli, back in their offices at Duke, are still doing follow-up from their travel earlier this year – receiving and managing the processing of materials acquired, ordering items they identified for purchase, and nurturing their relationships with the librarians, booksellers, and others they met with while they were abroad. This fall two of their colleagues will be making their own book-buying trips. Heidi Madden, Western European Studies librarian, will attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, and Holly Ackerman, librarian for Latin America and Iberia, is headed to Guadalajara, Mexico. Ackerman and Madden anticipate that their trips, like those of Galli, Zhou and Ku, will result in richer collections for the Duke University Libraries and better support for the work of students, faculty, and other researchers.

This summer the Princeton Review released a report that ranks Duke #3 in the category of “Best College Library” based on an extensive student survey. Duke also achieved high rankings in several other categories, but #3 for the Libraries is the highest. In case you’re curious to know which libraries rank #1 and #2: Harvard and Princeton…

Wear this elegant neckwear and proclaim your loyalty to the Duke University Libraries. The four-in-hand ties (available in yellow and watermelon) and the bowties (in ultramarine) are decorated with an image of the Reading Blue Devil weathervane that sits atop the Libraries’ von der Heyden Pavilion. The ties are available from the Duke University Stores or online at http://www.dukestores.duke.edu/.

The Art of Political Murder, an exhaustively researched story of assassination, impunity and justice in Guatemala, has won the first annual WOLA-Duke Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America. Francisco Goldman’s book, published by Grove Press, recounts the 1998 killing of Bishop Juan Gerardi, four days after he and a group of lawyers presented a devastating report on human rights abuses committed by the Guatemalan military against civilians. Goldman received the award at a 17 September gala in Washington, D.C. that was attended by some 250 WOLA supporters, including human rights advocates, scholars, Latin American diplomats, and representatives from Duke. Goldman will speak at Duke on 18 November.

WOLA (the Washington Office on Latin America) and Duke University created the prize to honor the best current, non-fiction book published in English on human rights, democracy and social justice in contemporary Latin America. In addition to the Libraries, the Duke Human Rights Center is also a co-sponsor of the award.

The book award is the second cooperative venture between WOLA and Duke University. Under an agreement signed in January 2008, WOLA has donated its historical archives, dating to the organization’s founding in 1974, to the Archive for Human Rights at the Duke University Libraries. The materials in the archives document WOLA’s influential role in keeping human rights and justice central in U.S. policy toward Latin America. In presenting the book award at the gala, University Librarian Deborah Jakubs said, “We are honored that WOLA selected Duke to be the repository for the organization’s archives and entrusted us with their history. This book award is another element of our partnership, and we look forward to further collaboration with WOLA.”

October 24

Opening reception for Olive Pierce—Forty Years of Photographs (1963-2003), with remarks by photographer Olive Pierce.

Friday, 24 October, 5:30-7:30pm, Perkins Library, Biddle Rare Book Room

October 25

The Libraries Present Duke Moms and Dads!

The Libraries’ annual Parents’ and Family Weekend program featuring a Duke first-year parent who is also a writer or journalist. This year’s guest is Bob Bendetson, whose talk is titled, “Puppets Can Be Jerks and Other Things I Learned Writing Sitcoms.” For more than 20 years, Bob Bendetson has written and produced some of America’s most popular television programs, for which he has earned seven Emmy nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, a Writer’s Guild nomination, and two People’s Choice Awards. His credits include Home Improvement, The Simpsons, and Newhart.

Saturday, 25 October, 11:00am, Perkins Library, Biddle Rare Book Room

November 12

The Weaver Lecture

Oliver Sacks, M.D. will present the 2008 Weaver Lecture, which the Libraries host biennially in memory of William Weaver T’72, a former member of the Library Advisory Board. This year the Weaver Lecture is co-sponsored by the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences.

Sacks, professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and the author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, will speak on the subject of “Music, Healing and the Brain.” In addition to Musicophilia, Sacks is also author of nine other books, including Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

Wednesday, 12 November, 6:00pm, Page Auditorium. No ticket or registration required.

November 14

Rare Music in the Rare Book Room

Reproduction—Some Thoughts on Recreating the Music of Bygone Ages, featuring luthier John Pringle

Pringle will discuss the knotty question of “authenticity” in the performance of what has come to be called Early Music, with special reference to the instruments as tools. Pringle has spent the last thirty years helping to recreate the sounds of music from past times by building stringed instruments based on historical models from the 12th to the 18th centuries.

Friday, 14 November, 4:00pm, Perkins Library, Biddle Rare Rook Room

November 18

Francisco Goldman, author of The Art of Political Murder and winner of the first WOLA-Duke Book Award (see related news note)

The Art of Political Murder, an exhaustively researched story of assassination, impunity and justice in Guatemala, recounts the 1998 killing of Bishop Juan Gerardi.

Tuesday, 18 November, 7:00-8:00pm, followed by a reception and book signing. Perkins Library, Biddle Rare Book Room

December 12

Rare Music in the Rare Book Room

Sound the Bright Flutes!—Seasonal Music for Early Woodwinds, featuring Trio Rossignol (Patricia Petersen, Karen Cook, and Douglas Young)

Members of the Trio will discuss the recorder from its earliest appearance on the musical scene through the contemporary period. Come hear a bit about the instrument’s history and repertory and listen to some delightful seasonal music for the recorder! Pieces for other early winds, such as cornett, shawm, and curtal, will also be included. Co-sponsored by the Libraries and the Duke University Musical Instrument Collections.

Friday, 12 December, 4:00pm, Perkins Library, Biddle Rare Book Room

The Duke University Libraries recently launched its own channel on YouTube, the leading online video community. The channel is part of a greater Duke-YouTube partnership, announced May 2008. Visit the Libraries’ YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/dukeunivlibraries.

Perkins Gallery

October/December

Seven Elections That Changed U.S. History

Long before the “hanging chads” of the 2000 election, presidential contests offered drama, intrigue, and narrow victories. The seven elections featured in this exhibit were selected for the pivotal role they played in shaping U.S. history and our electoral process. All materials displayed are from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

December/March

“How full of life those days seemed”: New Approaches to Art, Literature, Sexuality, and Society in Bloomsbury

The members of the Bloomsbury group explored alternative ways of living and advanced fresh ideas in the arts and social sciences. Their shared spirit of collaboration, community, and inquiry spurred the creation of works as diverse as Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, J.M. Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, and Roger Fry’s study of Cezanne. This exhibit features books and manuscripts from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library documenting the activities of the group’s members, including Woolf, Keynes, Fry, Vanessa Bell, Lytton Strachey, and Duncan Grant, and of the Hogarth Press, created and operated by Woolf with her husband Leonard.

The exhibit at Perkins is one of the elements in the campus-wide celebration of the Bloomsbury Group. Learn more about “Vision and Design: A Year of Bloomsbury” at http://news.duke.edu/2008/09/bloomsbury.html.

March/May

Sarah P. Duke Gardens—Hanes’ Dream, Sarah’s Gift, Our Treasure

Planned to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the dedication of the Gardens’ terraces, the exhibit will explore topics such as the geological importance of the stone used to create the terraces, the work to save endangered plants, the significance of the Metasequoia trees, and the more recent work on the gardens for peace.

Special Collections Gallery

August/December

Olive Pierce—Forty Years of Photographs (1963-2003)

Olive Pierce’s photographs reflect a spirit of community. This retrospective of black and white gelatin silver prints documents life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as in Maine fishing communities. A lifelong political activist, Pierce’s photographs of Iraqis under U.S. economic sanctions in 1999 and Maine citizens demonstrating in 2003 for and against involvement in Iraq make the connection between the local and global communities.

January/March

The New Road: I-26 and the Footprints of Progress

A long-term resident of Madison County, North Carolina, Rob Amberg has been photographing the region since 1973. The pictures in this exhibit document the social, cultural, and environmental impact of the construction of an interstate highway in his rural mountain community.

Special Collections Biddle Rare Book Room Cases

October/January

Not Just Mad Men: Real Advertising Careers in the 1960s

An exhibit inspired by the popularity of the AMC television series Mad Men, which centers on the lives of executives at a fictional advertising agency in the early 1960s. The series has generated much discussion among viewers, as well as among present-day advertising industry professionals and media outlets. Drawing from materials in the collections of the Special Collections Library’s Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, the exhibit highlights the real-life careers of 1960s advertising professionals who held positions in four of the types of agency occupations depicted on the television series: copywriters; creative directors; art directors; and account executives.

Generally, the Special Collections and Perkins galleries are open Monday-Saturday, 9am-9pm, and 10am-9pm on Sunday. Visit http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/ for more information or call 919.684.3009 to confirm hours.

A $475,700 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Duke University Libraries will lead to the design of a next-generation, open-source library system that is flexible, customizable and nimble enough to meet the changing and complex needs of 21st-century libraries and library users. The goal of the Open Library Environment (OLE) Project is to develop a design document for library automation technology that fits modern library workflows, is built on Service Oriented Architecture, and offers an alternative to commercial Integrated Library System products.

Leaders of the OLE Project, representing libraries in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, will involve the library community in the design process through workshops, meetings, webcasts and online discussions. Through those activities, they will develop a plan for a library technology system that breaks away from an emphasis on print-based workflows, reflects the changing nature of library materials and new approaches to scholarly work, meshes well with other enterprise systems, and can be modified easily to suit the needs of different institutions. The project website at http://oleproject.org gives detailed information about the project and includes FAQs, recommended reading, and a comment section.

“The information environment is changing rapidly, but the technology of library management systems has not kept pace,” said Lynne O’Brien, principal investigator on the project and director of Academic Technology and Instructional Services for the Duke University Libraries. “This project is a wonderful opportunity to design a system that supports library innovation and better meets the needs of today’s researchers.”

O’Brien is joined on the OLE Project team by colleagues from Duke as well individuals from the University of Kansas, Lehigh University, the University of Pennsylvania, the National Library of Australia, Library and Archives Canada, Vanderbilt University, the Orbis Cascade Alliance, Rutgers University, the University of Florida, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, the University of Maryland and Whittier College.

Because the OLE Project is a collaborative, community-based venture, there will be many opportunities for individuals from other libraries to participate in the project through regional and virtual meetings, discussion of plans and documents, comments via the project website and listserv and discussions at professional meetings.

In addition to its development of a design document, the OLE Project is intended to create a community of interest that could be tapped to build the planned system in a follow-on project.