James Longley, documentary filmmaker and 2009 MacArthur Fellow, visited campus on October 29 to inaugurate the Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series. Longley joined Diamonstein-Spielvogel, the series’ namesake, on stage at the Nasher Museum of Art for a public conversation about his films and current projects. He is the director of several award-winning documentaries, including Iraq in Fragments,Sari’s Mother, and Gaza Strip. The Diamonstein-Spielvogel Visiting Filmmaker Series features artists whose work addresses significant contemporary topics of social, political, economic, and cultural urgency. Filmmakers chosen to participate will have a recognized body of work and show promise of future contributions to documentary filmmaking.
Photo credit: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Duke University has joined a group of leading research institutions in signing a Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity (COPE). The goal of the compact is to make it easier for researchers to publish their work in open-access scholarly journals, where it would be freely available online.
As part of its commitment to COPE, Duke has created a special fund to help pay for article processing fees associated with open-access publishing. COPE aims to encourage open access by supporting Duke authors who find such fees an obstacle to publication. The fund, which will be administered by the Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communications, is supported by the Duke University Libraries and the Office of the Provost.
According to Provost Peter Lange, the aims of COPE are in keeping with Duke’s continued emphasis on knowledge in the service of society. “By establishing this fund, we hope to support the university’s commitment to promoting openness as an important value in scholarship,” Lange said. “Increased open access means more opportunities for the research of our faculty and researchers to reach a wide audience and have a meaningful impact on the world.”
The Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) has selected Aisha Harvey, Head of Collection Development at Duke University’s Perkins Library, to serve as the organization’s first Visiting Program Officer. ASERL is the largest regional research library consortium in the United States. Harvey will lead the development of a cooperative print journal retention program for ASERL member libraries. The program will seek out new ways of sharing the costs and effort of archiving little-used print journals among libraries in the consortium. Her work with ASERL will be a six-month assignment, starting in October. Harvey worked on designing and implementing a single-copy agreement between Duke University and other research libraries in the Research Triangle. According to Harvey, “ASERL is uniquely positioned to make sure future researchers in the region can inherit a thoughtfully designed print archive of our collective assets.”
Emily Daly, Instruction and Outreach Librarian and Coordinator of Upper Level Instruction, has been selected by the American Library Association (ALA) as one of 83 Emerging Leaders for 2011. The Emerging Leaders program enables newer library workers from across the country to participate in problem-solving work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. Participants must be under 35 years old or have fewer than five years of experience working in the library profession. Daly has worked for Duke University Libraries since August 2006. As Coordinator of Upper Level Instruction, she is responsible for developing innovative ways to make instructional materials and services available for upper level undergraduate and graduate students. As an ALA Emerging Leader, she will develop and work on a six-month professional project with two other program participants, the results of which will presented at the American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans in summer 2011.
A student string quartet performs at the entrance of Perkins Library as part of the Duke Arts Festival October 22-November 7. Throughout the festival, student artwork—including painting, photography, poetry, sculpture, performance, digital art, animation, music, and film—was on display throughout Duke’s campus, including bus stops and other casual locations, in order to create an immersive arts experience for Duke students.
The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and Duke University have selected Hostage Nation: Colombia’s Guerrilla Army and the Failed War on Drugs (Knopf, 2010) as the winner of the third annual WOLA-Duke Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America.
The authors of the winning book—Victoria Bruce, Karin Hayes and Jorge Enrique Botero—were honored at a special reception in the Biddle Rare Book Room on December 7, where they were presented with a $1,000 cash award.
WOLA, a human rights research and advocacy group established in 1974, 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 Duke University Libraries’ Archive for Human Rights, the Duke Human Rights Center and the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies co-sponsor the award.
On October 22, the Libraries held a special reception honoring the winners of the Chester P. Middlesworth Award and the Robert F. Durden Prize. The Middlesworth Award and Durden Prize recognize Duke University students’ excellence in research, analysis, and writing and their use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library (Middlesworth Award) and the Libraries’ general collections (Durden Prize). Each award carries a cash prize of $1,000. Pictured here are Professor Ann Marie Rasmussen (left) and Hannah Craddock, recipient of the 2010 Middlesworth Award for best senior honors thesis.
The Duke Divinity School Library is leading a statewide effort to gather the publications of churches and other religious bodies in North Carolina through a $30,000 planning grant awarded by the State Library of North Carolina. The Religion in North Carolina Digital Collection, a joint project with the libraries at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University, will include the histories of local religious bodies (individual churches, synagogues, etc.) as well as publications of larger North Carolina denominations or cooperative networks. The libraries plan to provide digital access and tools for searching across these significant works.
According to Andy Keck, associate director of the Divinity School Library and project manager, “Local church histories are often self-published for members of a congregation, yet they are indispensable for describing the development of a community, documenting involvement with other religious institutions and communities, illustrating struggles with broader societal events or issues, and illuminating particular religious disputes.”
A trove of papers documenting the career of award-winning author Dorothy Allison recently arrived at Duke University Libraries, where they will join the literary papers of such celebrated Southern writers as William Styron, Anne Tyler and Richard Bausch. Allison’s papers were acquired by the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture, part of Duke’s Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. The acquisition had been on the library’s wish list for almost two decades.
Allison is the author of numerous books and short stories. Her first novel, Bastard Out of Carolina, was a finalist for the National Book Award and became an award-winning movie. Her second novel, Cavedweller, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won the Lambda Literary Award for fiction, and was a finalist for the Lillian Smith Prize. It was also adapted for the stage and screen. Bingham Center and literary curatorial staff collaborated on the initial acquisition of nearly 60 boxes of Allison’s papers, including drafts of her writings, extensive correspondence and research files, personal journals documenting her life and creative process, and more.
Celebrated author, editor, publisher, and philanthropist Dave Eggers (left) talks with Special Collections conservator Erin Hammeke while getting a tour of the Verne and Tanya Roberts Conservation Lab. Eggers is the author of numerous award-winning books, including Zeitoun,What Is the What, and A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. He was on campus to deliver the Weaver Memorial Lecture on November 10. The lecture is hosted every other year by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, T’72, a former member of the Library Advisory Board. The event was co-sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center.
