The UT Libraries has a new website! Redesigned using the university’s new templates, our new site launched on the morning of Monday, August 12. The new site is sleek and easy to use, and will be up and ready to go for the students as they return for the fall semester. As part of the Libraries’ site, the Library Friends pages have been updated and redesigned as well.

Check it out at lib.utk.edu/friends or use the link to the Library Friends at the bottom of the Libraries’ main page at lib.utk.edu. New information and links will be up when the site is launched on Monday and will be added throughout the fall.

Each year the Libraries host an open house specifically for graduate students. It’s a great opportunity for students to meet the librarian for their subject area, learn about the library services that will support them, and get to know library faculty and staff. Last year the Library Friends hosted a table at the open house and introduced graduate students to the work that the Friends do to support the Libraries. We’re planning to do this again and need your help! Can you help to staff the Library Friends table on Friday, August 23, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm? Please contact Jeff Johnson (jjohnson@mhminc.com) or Erin Horeni-Ogle (ehoreni@utk.edu) today.

Also, would you be willing to underwrite graduate student memberships in the UT Library Friends, at $5 each? With a student membership, graduate students will receive the Libraries’ publications, e-newsletter, and invitations to library events. Last year one of our Library Friends sponsored student memberships, and it was a fantastic opportunity to engage students in conversations about supporting the UT Libraries. Great impact for a relatively low cost! Contact Erin (ehoreni@utk.edu) if you would be willing to sponsor student memberships this year.

Students in the dorms — or, for that matter, anywhere on campus — can now stream movies to their laptops, on demand. The free movie channel (movies.utk.edu) is available to anyone, as long as they’re on campus to access the wireless network.

Each month, a selection of twenty feature films is available on demand from any laptop or desktop computer. The movie channel is not available from off-campus, and is presently not available to tablet computers. The Volunteer Channel (UT campus cable 12) makes the movies available to televisions in UT residence halls on a rotating schedule.

Students are invited to visit the Libraries on Facebook to weigh in on new movie selections each month — www.facebook.com/utklibraries.

Alan S. Heilman, retired UT professor of botany, devoted 37 years to teaching generations of young biology students at UT. He devoted even more years to recording the miraculous structures of plants in his extraordinary photographs.

Heilman decided to partner with the UT Libraries to preserve and share his photographs of flowering plants, ferns, mosses, and lichens taken over more than sixty years. Several years ago Heilman began sorting through his slides, selecting what he considered his best shots, and bringing batches of color slides to Digital Library Production for scanning. The resulting collaboration is The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman, one of the UT Libraries’ digital collections available for viewing by all on the Libraries’ website.

Visitors to The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman will immediately notice the photographer’s particular fascination with the intricate forms of plants: many of his photographs are close-ups — even microscopic enlargements — of their subjects. Heilman’s experimentation with extreme close-up views even preceded his decision to study botany; it dates from his chance discovery, as a young high school student, of a hometown chapter of the American Society of Amateur Microscopists. Photomicrographs became one of Heilman’s passions, and extreme close-ups of pistils, stamens, and other anatomical structures of plants have continued to be one of his photographic specialties.

Heilman joined the (now defunct) Botany Department at the University of Tennessee in 1960 and taught general botany and plant anatomy until his retirement in 1997. He continues to pursue his photographic artistry and often can be seen at the UT Gardens, carefully staging his next shot.

Perhaps Heilman’s framing is so exact and his execution so perfect because he risks actual film in making his shots. Heilman has never owned a digital camera. Scanning performed by library staff is the only digital process used in creation of The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman.

Read more about Dr. Heilman’s artistry and technical process in the 2010-2011 Library Development Review.

The University of Tennessee Library Friends have begun a new tradition. Each year, gifts to the Library Friends, both large and small, will be pooled together to make a gift to the Libraries. This year’s gift is a rare 1725 first edition of Deo Optima Max, an important work on botany and medical properties of plants of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Libraries will celebrate and formalize the Friends’ gift with an event Thursday, March 14, at the John C. Hodges Library. Join us at 5:30 p.m. for a reception in the Jack E. Reese Galleria, followed by a lecture at 6:30 p.m. Botanist Ron Petersen will detail the significance of Deo Optimo Max. Petersen is an Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee. He has drawn international recognition for his research and knowledge of mushrooms, fungi and biology of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Deo Optima Max is the work of the renowned 18th century French naturalist Bernard de Jussieu. The unassuming little pamphlet (only four pages) is actually quite a rarity. One copy of the 1725 edition is located in the National Library of France, but there are no recorded copies of the first edition in America.

Deo Optima Max will reside in our Special Collections, where the showpiece will strengthen our existing collections related to Appalachia. Special Collections actively seeks material to support UT’s Great Smoky Mountains Regional Collection and the study of Appalachian history, culture, and natural history.

Future annual gifts from the Library Friends may be a rare book, funds to support a renovation to one of the libraries, or new technology that will move the library forward. Gifts will be celebrated each spring to show the Library Friends how their donations make a difference to the students, faculty, and UT community.

If educating the next generation ranks high on your list of cherished causes, you might wish to join the University of Tennessee Library Friends.

Within higher education there is much discussion of furthering “student success.” Indeed, new funding guidelines for Tennessee colleges and universities are predicated on measures of student success such as on-time graduation. Certainly, all of us wish for a successful outcome to each student’s investment of hard work, long hours, and precious family savings. But what can we actually do to promote college student success?

The UT Libraries is doing quite a lot. Beyond the traditional role of providing the best research resources and teaching students to use them discerningly, libraries these days have a tremendous impact on student success. The library is one of those spaces on campus where students make the personal connections that give them a sense of engagement in college life. In a recent survey of UT students, more than 70 percent of respondents said using the Commons in Hodges Library made them feel more involved in the university. That, certainly, can only have a positive impact on graduation rates.

In fact, the UT Libraries’ Commons will soon be even more appealing and more supportive of our students. Right now, the Commons is undergoing renovations that include making dedicated spaces for the Student Success Center and campus tutoring services, creating more group study areas, and adding exciting new technologies that students love. The library also has introduced new student support activities, such as bringing HABIT (Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee) therapy dogs to the library as a stress reliever during final exams.

The UT Libraries enables deep research, too, recognized as an innovator, even among larger and better-funded university libraries. Playing to its strengths, the Libraries invests a significant portion of its collections budget in electronic resources, acquiring specialized databases and digitizing collections that uniquely represent our region. UT Libraries now ranks 25th among publicly funded research university libraries, and is strategically positioned in UT’s journey to becoming a Top 25 public research university.

Every Tennessee citizen has a vested interest in the success of our college and university students. Today’s students are future business owners, engineers, teachers — they are tomorrow’s leaders. To guarantee student success and competitiveness, we cannot depend solely on state funding. We rely on our Library Friends to provide a margin of excellence.

By supporting the Library Friends, you will make a difference in the lives of Tennessee’s future leaders. Read more here about our new giving levels and new benefits of membership. The Library Friends keeps you informed and involved in UT Libraries programs and services.

If you are not currently a UT Library Friend, I invite you to join us. If you are already a Friend, please consider increasing your annual giving level to make an even greater impact on student success at the University of Tennessee.

Thank you in advance for your support. Your membership is an investment not only in the university’s libraries, but also in our campus, our community, and our state.

Linda L. Phillips
Chair, UT Library Friends