Rare Books and Manuscripts Preconference Scholarship

I was notified on Friday that I'd been awarded a scholarship to attend the 48th Annual Rare Books and Manuscripts (RBMS) Preconference From Here to Ephemerality: Fugitive Sources in Libraries, Archives, and Museums from June 19-22 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Here's a brief description of the conference:

This will be the first time that an RBMS Preconference will explore the theme of ephemera in libraries, archives, and museums. Ephemera collections have traditionally been neglected by institutions and have been underutilized by scholars; they provide unique challenges in cataloging, preservation, and access. The goals of the Preconference will be to explore these issues, and to uncover the value of building and using ephemera collections to their full potential.

There will be five plenary sessions, encompassing: ephemerality; the scholarly uses of ephemera; dealers' perspectives on ephemera; collecting and collectors of ephemera; and the care and management of ephemera collections in institutions. The sixth and final plenary session will be a wrap-up of the entire conference. Plenary speakers include internationally renowned scholars, collectors, and library and museum curators. In addition to the plenary sessions, there will be twelve short papers further developing aspects of the theme, and nine seminars offering a more practical or case-study approach to the topic."

It's a great scholarship but it doesn't cover all my expenses so I'm still trying to find some other sources of funding before deciding whether or not I'll accept.

UPDATE: I received a generous stipdend from Emporia State University SLIM and have accepted the scholarship.

Sebastian C. Adams' Chronological Chart on Display

This is currently being exhibited at the Oregon State Library. Sebastian C. Adams was an Oregon pioneer and resident of Salem. He created a twenty-one foot scroll entitled A Chronological Chart of Ancient, Modern, and Biblical History which was a best seller in the 1870's. It presents the history of the world from its Biblical beginnings until the mid 19th century utilizing a richly illustrated timeline.

This scroll is in the tradition of historical timelines popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. Copies can be found in 73 U.S. libraries including those at Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. It was printed in 1871 and then updated and reprinted twice more, in 1876 and 1878.

A photo replica is what is being shown at the Oregon Stat Library along with a second framed copy of a later edition. There's an extensive article in the Salem Statesman Journal .

Staff Appreciation Week

It's staff appreciation week at LBCC and on Monday Jorry and Richenda gave me a card and lovely pot of pink flowers. I've also been invited to the staff luncheon which will be held on Wednesday.

Trip to Oregon State Library

When I began working at the Oregon State University Library Archives I told them about my work at the Oregon State Library last summer. They weren't aware of the OSL special collections or of their photo collection and so Karl contacted Merrialyce and made an appointment for the Southern Willamette Archivists and Curators (SWAC) to meet with her and see it, inviting me along. Of course, I said yes. There were eight of us. Merrialyce gave us a history of the Special Collections Department at the Oregon State Library as well as descriptions of the different photograph collections.

Northwest Archivists Conference

John and I will be going to the Northwest Archivists Conference , Dynamic Archives: Preserving the Past and Speaking to the Future, which will be held in Moscow, Idaho on May 17-19th.

Archives Project

I began and finished a project in Archives last week for Erika, pulling letters dealing with budget, political, and labor problems written by university researchers working on finding ways to use latex from Russian dandelions to make rubber during World War II. See this article for more information about this process. I found it fascinating reading. There were a number of letters dealing with the problem of getting gas to travel and also with finding housing when visiting Washington, D.C. There were even a few little snippets of personal information--the birth of a daughter and a couple of lame jokes.

I'm now in the middle of a project for Larry. This one involved adding html-encoded finding aids to the Northwest Digital Archives database.

Oregon Library Association Conference in Corvallis

I went to the Oregon Library Association Annual Conference held in Corvallis and had a wonderful time learning new things, seeing old friends, and meeting new ones. I attended sessions on Googilization, Preparing for Generational Shifts in Library Volunteers, and Oregon History through Oregon State Documents, among others. The top photo is of April, one of my Emporia State University classmates, in front of her poster. The one below is of Michael, another of my classmates, who was one of the presenters along with Camilla and Bryan, on Getting Caught Up in Web 2.0. T And the third photo is of Lori and Perri, our Emporia advisors (I think Perri had just spotted someone she knew when I snapped the photo which explains the expression on her face.)

Extreme Altered Books

This is a photo of a traditionally altered book (click on it to see it in more detail). And here and here you'll find photographs of extreme altered books. Warning: This is not for lovers of books who are faint of heart. One poster described it as "finding artfullness in mangled corpses".