ReMix
News from the
Stanford Libraries
Welcome to ReMix, News for Library Donors and Friends
Disaster Planning in the
Libraries
If we could choose between a major earthquake in the Bay Area and a
deadly pandemic, which would we prefer? As good stewards of the
Libraries' collections, we might say the pandemic appears the lesser of
the two evils. On the other hand, from every other point of
view, an intrinsically-local event like an earthquake sounds a lot
better than the disruption a vigorous response to a killer
disease would entail – to say nothing about mortality proper. Perhaps
fortunately, we don't get to make this sort of decision. We need to
prepare, operationally and emotionally, for both – as well as for
floods, fires, mayhem, and the like.
And so we do. The University has robust contingency plans for disaster,
and the Libraries fully participate in campus disaster planning,
training and drills. In principle, the Libraries' concerns are simple:
1) protect lives, 2) secure assets (buildings, collections and
technologies), 3) restore service operations after the crisis. We
would probably have the luxury of simply shutting down for a while
should the university suspend classes, unlike, say, campus dining or
medical services. On the other hand, our span of concern is wide, with
about 20 buildings,
possibly containing large numbers of readers, hundreds of staff, and millions
of objects to protect, as well as a service mission that may persist
even during forced closures. We have organized a range of response
functions, annoyingly obscured by acronym and initialism: departmental
ERTs evacuate buildings, which are evaluated by BATs, who report to the
IC at our DOC along with DiRTs (some of whom are SCERTs), all under the
command of the EOC, which operates according to ICS and NIMS and
coordinates with OES and FEMA. (The foregoing is a forced example, but,
once decoded, it is not quite nonsensical.) The Libraries' response
might also invoke preservation staff to mitigate collection hazards;
amateur radio operators to assure tactical communication; fail-over
sites to maintain online systems; Information Center staff to provide
remote, online reference service; or other specialized interventions.
Though we cannot predict the evolution of any given emergency, we do
forecast the quick and effective emergence of an organized response,
based on the prior training and voluntary engagement of dozens of
library staff members, to whom we owe thanks.
If – nay, when – disaster occurs, staff and readers will be able to
find information about library closings and
openings at the Library
Emergency Information Page within the Information Center (IC) site.
Disastrously,
Andrew Herkovic
Online Notable Acquisitions Page Debuts
SULAIR has launched a Notable Acquisitions website to acquaint faculty,
students, and other scholars promptly with new research materials. Online visitors may browse within three broad
fields of Humanities, Sciences and Engineering, and Social Sciences, or search
more narrowly in over twenty academic disciplines. Content and selections will be updated
regularly by our curators and subject specialists. The site has the secondary
benefit of providing timely recognition of the gifts which made these
acquisitions possible.
Both digital and printed or archival resources are featured. A too-quick scan
of the current version of the site hints at the breadth and uniqueness of the
highlighted acquisitions. In the
Sciences, for example, recent additions range from Safari Tech Books Online, with over 6,100 titles on computing
topics, to the expanded online edition of the Encyclopedia of Magnetic Resonance, to one of only 125 copies, printed in Kyoto, of Whales and Whaling in Japan, to the first illustrated edition
(1513) of Pliny's Natural History.
In the Humanities, new digital resources include 75,000 images of the
American Civil War from Alexander Street Press, and a database of sound
recordings, equivalent to more than 6,000 albums, in the Naxos record label
catalog. Religious Studies added a
printed edition of the Tibetan Tripitaka (a
Buddhist canon of scriptures) and an extensive collection of postcards mailed
from 1922 to 1959 by Christian missionaries working in Africa. The Art Library reports a catalog of Soviet
fine and applied arts exhibited in Paris
in 1925 and a superb facsimile of the Chudlov Psalter, a Byzantine illuminated
manuscript ca. 850 CE. Poetry is well represented by the papers of American
poet and literary critic Robert Pinsky; Robert Creeley's poetry manuscript
notebooks; and a collection of rare books of British verse printed in the
provinces, 1789-1839.
We invite ReMix readers to bookmark
and peruse regularly the Notable Acquisitions website, and of course to
examine these remarkable items at the Libraries.
The Libraries in Second Life
In 2006, the Stanford Libraries began building a
presence in Second Life, an online, 3D virtual world where content is built and explored
by individual "avatars." Widely used by
students, Second Life (SL) has become an important resource for outreach by
educational institutions and libraries, which comprise the fastest growing
component of the site. Staff and patrons
of the Stanford Libraries populate an entire island in SL, on which may be
found a variety of unique and shared Real Life (RL) exhibits. The Island Builders, a group of library staff volunteers,
recommends collections and builds displays there.
On the Libraries' island, there are buildings for research, general library
information, and limited Google books. The volunteers are currently adding digital images of manuscripts from Special
Collections. Among other exhibits,
there's a SL version of The First Hebrew
City: Early Tel Aviv Through the Eyes of the Eliasaf Robinson Collection (currently
on display in Green Library), with a live-feed video for virtual visitors. To visit the Libraries in SL, begin by
creating an avatar at http://secondlife.com
and downloading the program. The Island
Builders group members occassionally connect to SL to engage visitors in
conversation and assist them in navigation.
-Deni Wicklund, Manager SULAIR Tech Support
Workshop on the Riddle of an Ancient Chinese
Book
When born, the Yellow Emperor
(dynastic title Xuanyuan) could speak.
His countenance was dragonlike; his virtue that of a sage. He fought with the help of tigers, panthers,
and bears. He stopped the extraordinary
rains caused by his enemy. In the
twentieth year of his reign, brilliant clouds appeared; and he arranged his
officers by names taken from the clouds. In his fiftieth year, phoenixes, male and female, arrived.
This excerpt, condensed and adapted for ReMix
from notes and translation in Minford and Lau's Classical Chinese Literature, illustrates the narrative elements of
the legendary Bamboo Annals, possibly one of the earliest written historical
records of China. The chronicle, recorded on bamboo slips bound
together in rolls, ended with events of 299 BCE; soon thereafter, it was placed
in a royal tomb (just as, a millennium later, the Emperor Charlemagne is said
to have been buried with an illuminated manuscript). The manuscript, rediscovered around 280 CE,
was again lost, but not before copies were made, which survive in various
versions and quotations. The veracity of
these copies to the original, which if proven would shed much light on ancient
Chinese history, is the subject of controversy.
On the weekend of May 23-24, the East Asia Library will host a workshop on the
Bamboo Annals, focusing on chronology, texts and transmission history. Thirteen distinguished scholars from the U.S. and abroad, including representatives of
the National Library of China, the Institute
of Ancient Texts in Changchun,
Peking University,
and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will convene to
assess recent scholarship and to plan future publication of translations and
critical studies. Stanford faculty, students, staff and visiting scholars
wishing to participate should contact Dongfang Shao no later than May
19.
Exhibit Highlights Artistic Renderings of
Archaeological Fragments
Scattered and fragmented artifacts of antiquity have often inspired artistic
imagination and expression. The Art
& Architecture Library's latest exhibition of materials from its Locked
Stack collection, curated by David Platt, is entitled Elements of Interpretation: Intersections between Archaeological
Fragments, Art, and Audience. Highlights include William Gell's The
Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca (1807), a nineteenth-century souvenir
book from Pompeii,
and Arthur Evans's The Palace of Minos (1921-35).
The exhibit considers some of the different strategies that visual
artists have used in representing the fragmentary remains of the past: Does an
artist depict the artifact in its entirety or focus on particular elements?
Does an object require multiple, separate representations in the same work, or
will one suffice? The materials on display highlight how these different
approaches have addressed the interests of diverse target audiences, whether
these were amateur aristocratic enthusiasts, tourists, or modern professional
archaeologists.
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ReMix: News from
the Stanford Libraries provides highlights, news clippings, and notices about
Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources, which
comprises Libraries, Academic Computing, Residential Computing, Stanford
University Press, HighWire Press and Stanford Publishing Courses. ReMix is
published approximately monthly by the Library Development Office, only in
electronic form.
 The Bing Wing of Cecil H. Green Library |
Currently on Exhibit
The First Hebrew City: Early Tel Aviv Through the
Eyes of the Eliasaf Robinson Collection, through August 31 in Green Library’s Peterson Gallery and Munger Rotunda.
Elements of Interpretation:
Intersections Between Archaeological Fragments, Art, & Audience, Art & Architecture Library
Now on display near the south portal of Green Library:
-Erichsen Egyptian Collection in memory of Edna Kumpe Upton
-The Raubitschek Collection of Epigraphy and Papyrology
Upcoming Stanford Historical Society Events
Stanford Pioneers in Science, Paul Berg, Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, Emeritus, Department of Biochemistry, Wednesday, May 20, 7:30 pm, Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education. Free and open to the public. Click here for more information.
33rd Annual Meeting and Reception: 100 Years of Medicine at Stanford, Philip A. Pizzo, The Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professor for the Dean of the School of Medicine, Thursday, May 21, 4:15-6:45, Jordan Hall, room 40. Click here for more information.
Recently Published by Stanford University Press
New Views on R. Buckminster Fuller Edited by Hsiao-Yun Chu and Roberto G. Trujillo
Stanford Book Salon
Through the acadmic year, ReMix will list the current book being read and discussed by the Stanford Book Salon, a virtual book group for Stanford alumni and friends. ReMix readers are welcome to join the Salon and may do so here. Over the summer, ReMix
will post the Salon's recommended reading list.
This month's book is: Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel, hosted by Charlie Junkerman, Associate Provost and Dean of Continuing Studies.
SULAIR in the News
Library Exhibit, Symposium Highlight "The First Hebrew City"
Spring Issue of Speaking of Computers Online
New Website for the Monterey Jazz Collection
World Digital Library Aims to Promote Global Understanding
The Afterlife of Leland Stanford Jr.
Follow a Blog, Follow Muir
Saved Games: Preserving the New TV
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