Category Archives: Events

Celebrate the new “Commons” — music, games, prizes!

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Commons-blog-3Don’t you just love the new Commons? UT students do. Come find out what the buzz is all about: join us to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated Commons in the Hodges Library.

The campus community and the public are invited to a Street Fair — featuring music, games, and prizes — to be held from 2:30 to 4:30 pm, Thursday, February 7, in the Commons on the 2nd floor of the John C. Hodges Library (1015 Volunteer Blvd.). Remarks by the UT chancellor, provost, dean of libraries, and assistant vice chancellor/CIO will take place at 3:30 pm.

Prizes to be given away at the event include two 23-inch ultra-sharp monitors, a printer, cell phone accessories, a laptop backpack, VolPrint cards, and Starbucks gift baskets.

Our Library Friends are invited to join us at 4:30 p.m. in the Mary E. Greer Room, 258 Hodges Library, for a reception and guided tours of the Commons.

The Commons, a collaboration of the UT Libraries and Office of Information Technology, brings together all the tools students need to succeed: technology, research assistance, even tutoring and advising services. It’s where students go to collaborate on projects, consult a librarian, create a video, or just catch up with friends. The Commons is a lively social gathering place, open 24 hours a day and offering comfortable, inviting furnishings—even a coffee shop.

This year the Commons underwent extensive renovations under the direction of McCarty Holsaple McCarty, the original architects, 25 years ago, of the current John C. Hodges Library. They have adapted our stately legacy space to meet the unique needs of UT’s 21st century scholars.

Please join us on February 7 to see why UT students find the Commons so exciting.

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Book Club to Discuss Author’s Transsexual Journey

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RealManA writer’s transsexual journey will be the topic of the next Common Ground Book Club. T Cooper’s Real Man Adventures will be the subject of discussion on Tuesday, February 19, at 4:30 p.m. in the Culture Corner, first floor of Hodges Library.

Real Man Adventures is a collage of letters, essays, interviews, artwork, and conversations exploring what it means to be a man. T Cooper maintains a sense of humor as he takes us through his transition into identifying as male — even publishing the letter he wrote to his parents to inform them that he “wasn’t their daughter anymore.” It’s a brash, wildly inventive, and comic exploration of the paradoxes and pleasures of masculinity.

The UT Libraries’ Common Ground Book Club reads and discusses books that treat international and intercultural themes. Read the book now and join the February 19 discussion led by dean of libraries Steve Smith.

Copies of Real Man Adventures are available at the UT Bookstore. Read selected chapters on Amazon.com.

T Cooper will read from his works at Writers in the Library later this semester. Join us for his reading on March 11. More at library.utk.edu/writers.

Adam Ross at UT’s Writers in the Library, Jan. 28

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AdamRossAdam Ross will read at UT’s Writers in the Library, Monday, January 28th, 7 p.m. in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

Adam Ross’s debut novel, Mr. Peanut, a 2010 New York Times Notable Book, was also named one of the best books of the year by the New Yorker, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the New Republic, and the Economist. Stephen King said of Mr. Peanut, “The most riveting look at the dark side of marriage since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . . . It induced nightmares, at least in this reader. No mean feat.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ross’s short story collection, was included in Kirkus Reviews and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of 2011. The book is described as “a darkly compelling collection of stories about brothers, loners, lovers, and lives full of good intentions, misunderstandings, and obscured motives.”

Adam Ross lives in Nashville with his wife and two daughters. Ross was from 1999 to 2003 a feature writer and special projects editor for the Nashville Scene, the city’s alternative weekly. His column, Mondo Nashville, covered the city’s local oddballs and off-kilter luminaries. His cover stories ranged in subjects from the city’s porn king, Al Woods, to race relations, to interviews with homegrown movie star, Reese Witherspoon. He also wrote extensively on books and film. Ross’s nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Book Review, the Daily Beast, the Wall Street Journal, and the Nashville Scene. His fiction has appeared in the Carolina Quarterly and Five Chapters.

The author will also hold a Q&A session for all interested students, 2-3 p.m., Monday, January 28th, in 1210 McClung Tower.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

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Puente to Speak on Diversity Recruitment in Libraries

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4408756693_b54f963875_mMark A. Puente, Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), will visit the University of Tennessee Libraries to discuss ARL’s diversity recruitment programs. The university community and library professionals are invited to his talk on Tuesday, February 5, at 2:30 pm in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium (1015 Volunteer Blvd., Knoxville, TN).

Puente directs ARL’s Leadership and Career Development Program (LCDP) and Research Library Leadership Fellows program (RLLF). The LCDP is an 18-month program to prepare mid-career librarians from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups to take on increasingly demanding leadership roles in ARL libraries. Applications to LCDP have doubled in the four years that Puente has led the program.

Puente has presented at regional and national conferences on topics such as networking, minority recruitment strategies, diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and residency programs in academic libraries.

Puente has been actively involved with diversity and leadership issues since the beginning of his library career. He was a 2003 ALA Spectrum Scholar and has been actively involved in the coordination of and programming for the Spectrum Scholar Leadership Institute since his scholarship year. He is also a graduate of the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians and the Knowledge River Program at the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona. The Arizona program seeks to recruit Latinos/Hispanics and Native Americans into the field of librarianship.

He also participated in the UT Libraries’ own diversity recruitment and career development program. He was a member of the 2005-2007 class of Diversity Librarian Residents. Members of the UT community may remember Puente from the Music Library. In addition to his master’s in information and library science, Puente holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice performance.

More further information, contact Megan Smith at msmith93@utk.edu or 865-974-6903.

Love Your Libraries 5K Race, March 2

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SponsorBar2013The UT Graduate Student Senate is proud to announce the 21st annual Love Your Libraries 5K Race to benefit the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries. We hope you will join other UT library supporters for this event.

The 5K race will take place Saturday, March 2, 2013. Registration is from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. in Circle Park on the UT campus. The run begins promptly at 9 a.m.

The Graduate Student Senate hosted its first race to benefit the UT Libraries on Valentine’s Day in 1992. Proceeds from the race assist the libraries in purchasing much-needed electronic resources, books, equipment, and other items critical for student success at the University of Tennessee.

The Knoxville Track Club will manage the finish line and compile race results. An awards ceremony will follow the race. Awards will be given to the Top Three runners overall, 1st Masters (40+) and 1st Grand Masters (50+), male and female — as well as in several age-group categories. The Best Team (organization with most registrants — must pre-register), Fastest Team, and Fastest UT Runner (UT student, faculty, or staff) also will be recognized. Race t-shirts are guaranteed for pre-registered runners, and shirts will be distributed as supplies last on race day.

Pre-registrations must be postmarked by February 22. Download the Registration Form here. Please be sure to make your check payable to the “Graduate Student Senate.”

Whether a serious competitor or jogger or just an enthusiastic bystander, we invite you to Circle Park on Saturday, March 2, to show your love for the UT Libraries.

For more information, contact the Graduate Student Senate (gss@utk.edu or 865-974-2377).

“Through A Soldier’s Eye” Photographs at Hodges Library

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“Through a Soldier’s Eye,” a video slide show of photographs made by veterans, will be exhibited on the second floor of Hodges Library throughout the week of November 12-16.

Last year, art professor Baldwin Lee began collecting photographs made by active duty military and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. He established a website, www.soldierseye.com, to which soldiers could upload their photos. As Lee notes on the website, “What may, in the eyes of a soldier, seem to be nothing more than snapshots of unimportant events and places can often be astonishing images when seen by an audience with no knowledge of what it is like to be a soldier. Taken by insiders, these pictures provide a clearer and more accurate description of life in combat as opposed to the clichéd photographs made by outsiders for the media.”

The idea for the project originated when one of Lee’s students, Trent Frazor, asked for help making prints from digital photographs he had made while serving in Iraq. “The photographs he made in Iraq were totally unanticipated, not because they showed the horrific side of combat, but rather they showed a grace and dignity of everyday life as a Marine in Iraq,” Lee says. “When the genre of war photographs is cited, there is the automatic assumption that the photographs will describe dread and terror of battle. Instead, Trent’s photographs described an aspect of life in the military that is largely unknown and unseen by the public. His photographs showed how his world was enlarged and changed by the experiences to which he had been subjected. If photographs such as these can be seen by a broad audience, not only will the understanding of the life of a soldier be increased but also our appreciation for what they have done.”

Lee is sharing the soldiers’ photographs through exhibitions, web publication, and possibly a book. The project was sponsored by the University of Tennessee School of Art, the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy, and the Center for the Study of War and Society.

Lee’s commitment to the project stems partly from his appreciation of his father’s war experiences. “Due to private reasons, among which is modesty, many soldiers do not ascribe a great deal of value to the pictures they have made. My father, a veteran of World War II, served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters. He was an army engineer who took part in the Normandy landing on D-Day and also in the Battle of Okinawa. As is the case with many who have served, he underplayed his participation in the military. He thought that it was what he was supposed to do.”

Baldwin Lee is a photographer who received his bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his master’s degree from Yale University. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of the City of New York, Haverford College, University of Michigan Art Museum and University of Kentucky Art Museum. He has taught in UT’s School of Art since 1982.

The community is invited to drop by the Hodges Library to experience Iraq and Afghanistan through the eyes of our veterans.

Honoring Our Veterans

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Sunday, November 11, is Veterans Day, the day our country honors and thanks all who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The University of Tennessee will continue to honor our veterans with several events throughout the month.

Now through November 9

    Sign the board — Faculty, staff and students who are also military veterans are invited to drop by 209 Student Services Building anytime between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to sign a board commemorating Veterans Day. The board will be displayed on campus during the National Day of Remembrance on November 12 and at other times throughout the year. The project is a joint effort of Veterans at UTK, the student group for veterans; the Center for the Study of War and Society; and the UT Office of Veterans Affairs, part of the Office of the University Registrar. For more information, contact Regina Lewellyn at 865-974-1500 or rcoving1@utk.edu.

November 12-16

    “Through a Soldier’s Eye,” a video slide show of photographs collected from veterans, will be exhibited on the second floor of Hodges Library. Professor Baldwin Lee, working with the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy and the Center for the Study of War and Society, has been collecting photos from soldiers and assembling them into an exhibit. The photos also may be published as a book.

    Volunteers Say Thank You — Faculty, staff and students will be given red, white and blue sticky notes to write a “thank you” message to veterans. Those notes will be posted to a six-foot, two-dimensional model of the word “Volunteer” located on the second floor of Hodges Library. Messages honoring veterans also can be tweeted using the hashtag #ThanksUTVeterans.

November 12

    National Day of Remembrance, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., South Lawn Ayers Hall. The Veterans at UTK student group is in charge of this event, in which the names of veterans who have given their life in military service will read.

    Moment of Silence and “Taps,” noon — A moment of silence will be held and the Ayers Hall chimes will play “Taps.” This is the first year for this commemoration.

November 14

    Medal of Honor Speaker, 10:00 a.m., Carolyn P. Brown University Center Ballroom. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Col. Bruce Crandall will share his story of heroism. He flew 900 combat missions in Vietnam and helped evacuate many wounded troopers before he was severely wounded himself.

    The Things They Carried discussion at the Common Ground Book Club ” 11:30 a.m., in the Commons on the second floor of Hodges Library. The book, written by Tim O’Brien, is a series of stories about a platoon of American soldiers in Vietnam.

November 30

    Sixth annual Native American Heritage Night, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. The event will pay tribute to veterans with an emphasis on the involvement of Native Americans in the past and present. It will feature two speakers, Tom Holm from the University of Arizona and Richard Allen of the Cherokee Nation. Both are Vietnam veterans. The event also will include musical performances from the Eastern Band Cherokee Northern Drum Group, Awohali, and a traditional Cherokee dinner provided by the Calhoun family of Cherokee, North Carolina. $20 per person; $10 for veterans and free for students.

David Madden at UT’s Writers in the Library, Nov. 12

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David Madden will be the featured author at UT’s Writers in the Library on Monday, November 12th, 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.

A novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, and critic, Madden is a prolific writer in all genres. His novels include Cassandra Singing, Bijou, The Suicide’s Wife, Abducted by Circumstance, and Sharpshooter: A Novel of the Civil War. His latest book, London Bridge in Plague and Fire, brings to life the Old London Bridge, which began construction in 1176 and was eventually dismantled in 1834. In the novel, a young poet who lives on the bridge uses his imagination to resurrect the bridge’s architect and the life of the bridge itself, which was one of the wonders of the world.

Madden has compiled and edited numerous collections of stories and is the author of academic volumes on James M. Cain, James Agee, and Carson McCullers. His stories have been reprinted in college textbooks and twice in Best American Short Stories. His best-known novel, The Suicide’s Wife, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and made into a CBS movie. He may also be familiar to students of creative writing for his Pocketful series on fiction, poetry, drama, and essays.

David Madden is a Knoxville native and a graduate of the University of Tennessee. He earned an M.A. at San Francisco State and attended Yale Drama School on a John Golden Fellowship. Writer-in-residence at Louisiana State University from 1968 to 1992, Director of the Creative Writing Program 1992-1994, Founding Director of the United States Civil War Center 1992-1999, he is now LSU Robert Penn Warren Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus.

The author will also hold an informal Q&A session for all interested students, 3-4 p.m., Monday, November 12th, in 115 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

Read a review of London Bridge in Plague and Fire at Chapter 16: a community of Tennessee writers, readers and passersby (brought to you by Humanities Tennessee).

Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

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Internationally Acclaimed Poet Adam Zagajewski at UT

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Internationally acclaimed poet Adam Zagajewski will read at UT’s Writers in the Library on Wednesday, October 31, at 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Adam Zagajewski is widely considered to be one of the leading poets of Europe. Born in 1945 in Lvov, he was a major figure of the Polish New Wave literary movement of the early 1970s and of the anti-Communist Solidarity movement of the 1980s. Zagajewski is himself a survivor of history’s nightmares, and following the tragedy of 9/11, one of his poems, “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” published in a special edition of The New Yorker, became a touchstone for our traumatized nation.

His books of poetry in English include Without End: New and Selected Poems, Unseen Hand, and most recently, Eternal Enemies. In 2004 he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 2010 he was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

He lives in Krakow, Paris, and Chicago.

The author will also participate in an informal chat with students, 2-3 p.m., in 1210-1211 McClung Tower.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For further information contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, Writer-in-Residence, UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

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Reception for New Library Faculty

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Dean of Libraries Steve Smith invites the campus community to join him in welcoming new library faculty to the campus. A welcome reception will be held on Wednesday, October 31, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the Jack E. Reese Galleria, first floor of Hodges Library.

Our new library faculty are:
· Robin Bedenbaugh, Research Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Library Marketing and Communication
· Kris Bronstad, Research Assistant Professor and Archivist for the Modern Political Archives
· Chris Caldwell, Assistant Professor and Humanities Librarian
· Sojourna Cunningham, Research Assistant Professor and Diversity Librarian Resident
· Ingrid Ruffin, Research Assistant Professor and Diversity Librarian Resident

If you have questions, please contact Megan Smith (msmith93@utk.edu). We look forward to seeing you on the 31st.