Archive for April 2005
March 2005 | Main Page | May 2005
April 25, 2005
UT Libraries Celebrates Students
Three events in April celebrate student artists
As the semester winds down, students feel more pressed upon to complete projects and prepare for exams. To honor the creative efforts and hard work of UT's students, the UT Libraries has taken time to dedicate three events during the last week of April to the achievements of student artists on campus: Writers in the Library, Student Art in the Library, and the Recycled Video Contest Festival.
On Monday, April 25, Writers in the Library concludes their Spring 2005 lineup with readings by Jessica Weintraub, Brad Tice, and Casie Fedukovich, all winners of the John C. Hodges Graduate Writing Prizes. Weintraub won first place in the fiction contest for her story Base Pairs. Tice won second place in the fiction contest for his story How to Become an American Boy and first place in the poetry contest for his poem "Arabesque." Fedukovich won second place in the poetry contest for her poem "Dichotomy of Fur and Feather."
Monday, April 25 also marks the date of final selections for Student Art in the Library, a new juried exhibit of student art to be presented in Hodges Library. More than 75 submissions were entered into the contest, and the exhibit will be installed in June.
On Wednesday, April 27, the Recycled Video Contest Festival will begin at 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library Auditorium. Films of the contest winners and finalists will be viewed. The contest is the culminating event for the Environmental Semester in the Libraries. All films have an environmental theme, and were created using public domain footage from the Prelinger Archives.
"The Libraries are always a little busier near the end of the semester," Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries, said. "I'm pleased the Libraries can hold these events in honor of our students, and I hope students can take some time from their busy schedules to celebrate the works of their classmates."
Posted by Laura Purcell at 03:15 PM in Press Releases
April 21, 2005
UT Libraries Changes with the Times
Libraries to Close Duplication Unit
When the Duplication Unit first opened at Hodges Library, there was sometimes a line out the door of patrons and staff waiting to use the machines.
"There were rails that wound from the entrance door to the wall, and people would line up, like you do at the movies," Jim Everett, Duplication Supervisor, said. "And then it wasn't just photocopies, we duplicated audio cassettes for Special Collections and the Music Library. We were very busy. But changes in technology have changed the nature of our work," Everett, who has worked in Duplication for 18 years, continued.
At the end of the day on Friday, May 6, Duplication will close its doors to the public permanently. While the Libraries will still provide photocopy machines in Reference, Reserve, Periodicals, and on each stack floor, high-end features such as collating and stapling will no longer be offered.
Anyone who needs help with a copy machine, to buy a copy card, or to use a transfer voucher to make copies should go to the Circulation desk for assistance.
With the increase of electronic resources and e-reserves, more library patrons are printing, rather than copying, the materials they need. As fewer patrons make fewer copies, it is no longer cost-effective for the Libraries to maintain Duplication in its current form. Staff who currently work in Duplication will be reassigned to other areas of the library that have increased demand, such as digital production.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 01:40 PM in Library Facility Updates
April 14, 2005
James Agee Collection finds new home at University of Tennessee Libraries
The Special Collections Library at the University of Tennessee is the new home to one of the largest collections of James Agee materials. The collection, spanning nearly 15 linear feet, includes letters, fragments of stories and screenplays, and poetic scratchings written by Knoxville's native son. Deedee Agee, James Agee's daughter, and her husband, Paul Sprecher, head of the James Agee Trust, brought the materials to Knoxville on April 12, just before the start of the James Agee Celebration at UT.
"These materials are from the family household, that just didn't happen to get caught up in other collections," Sprecher said. By depositing the materials at UT, the family hopes the materials will be more available and useful to scholars.
One of the most unique items is a brown spiral notebook Agee used as a journal, writing in his "miniscule, unreadable handwriting," Deedee Agee said. Some of the material from this notebook and others is contained in James Agee Rediscovered, edited by Michael Lofaro and Hugh Davis and recently published by UT Press.
"This is a goldmine of information for Agee scholars," Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries, said. "It compliments the Agee materials we already own so well. We're pleased the family has chosen UT, and we look forward to being good stewards of the collection."
Currently, the materials are contained in a variety of file boxes and need to be arranged and organized so scholars can find what they need. Special Collections staff will process the collection this summer.
An exhibit of the Libraries' James Agee Collection is currently on display at the Special Collections Library, and will remain open until August. For more information about the exhibit, visit their exhibit Web page.
For information about viewing the collection, contact Aaron Purcell, University Archivist, at 865-974-0048. The Special Collections Library is located in Hoskins Library, 1401 Cumberland Avenue, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 12:36 PM in Press Releases
April 06, 2005
One Stop at the Library -- From Initial Research to Finished Product
More of the software students need is now available on library workstations. Microsoft Office has been added to all library computers with NetID access.
Everything students need to complete an assignment, from initial research to finished product, is readily available in the library. Reference tools, digital resources, network access -- and now students' favorite software applications -- are all available on one desktop.
After students complete their research, they can type a term paper in Word, organize and analyze data in Excel, and design a classroom presentation in Powerpoint without leaving the library.
An additional 165 workstations in the Hodges, Map, and Music libraries are now configured with Microsoft Office 2003 Pro. Workstations at the Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine Library (where there is less access to computer labs than on the main campus) have included Microsoft Office for some time, and it has been very popular with students.
Helping students integrate these applications into a seamless workflow is just one more way the UT Libraries support the needs of the 21st century student.
Posted by Martha Rudolph at 03:25 PM in Good News, Library Facility Updates
April 04, 2005
One-man show pays tribute to famed native son
R.B. Morris channels James Agee in The Man Who Lives Here is Loony
As part of the James Agee Celebration, the University Libraries' own writer-in-residence, R.B. Morris, will pay tribute to his fellow Fort Sanders resident in his one-man show The Man Who Lives Here is Loony on April 10 at 7 p.m. and April 11 at 8 p.m. at the Ula Love Doughty Carousel Theatre. The event is free and open to the public.
"The mere attempt to examine my own confusion would consume volumes." ~James Agee
Adapted from the tormented life and renowned works of Agee, The Man Who Lives Here is Loony gives audiences an inside view of the lengths Agee took to develop the “participatory narrative” of which he was known, especially in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
"As a whole part of 'psychological education' it needs to be remembered that a neurosis can be valuable; also that 'adjustment' to a sick and insane environment is of itself not 'health' but sickness and insanity." ~James Agee
Morris and his one-man show faced copyright difficulties in the 90s, and the video version of the play has only been publicly shown once at the Bijou Theatre in 1992.
For more information about the play or about the James Agee Celebration, visit the Web site. The James Agee Celebration is made possible by the University of Tennessee, Tennessee Arts Commission, the Knoxville News Sentinel and WUOT-FM radio. Key community partners include the City of Knoxville and Knox County governments, libraries and schools, the Arts and Cultural Alliance, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, the Dogwood Arts Festival and the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation.
For more information about R.B. Morris, Writer in Residence, UT Libraries contact him via phone or Web at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu, or visit his Web site: www.rbmorris.com.
Posted by at 05:16 PM in Press Releases