News: December, 2003 - Vol. 8, No. 2
Table of Contents
Preserving French-Canadian heritage
MCCLPHEI members visit
Interim library dean Ann Montgomery Smith hosted the November meeting of the 29 library directors who constitute MCCLPHEI, the Massachusetts Conference of Libraries in Public Higher Education Institutions. Smith is president of the group. Following the meeting, the visitors enjoyed a tour of the library that focused on recent enhancements in technology services such as the Mobile Computing Lending program, the second floor reference suite and wireless technology capabilities.
Library Associates to offer Holiday Concert,
Dec. 14
Pianist Jonathan Yoken will perform works by Bach, Chopin, Ravel and Debussy in a holiday concert to be held 2 p.m., Dec. 14 at UMass Dartmouth.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Recital Hall (Room 153) of the Visual and Performing Arts Building (Group VI).
Parking is in lots 8 and 9. For more information, call 508-999-8335.
Yoken graduated from Brandeis University in 2002 with a B.A. in music and psychology. While at Brandeis, he studied piano with Evan Hirsch and chamber performance with Judith Eisenberg. Currently, he is continuing his piano studies with Evan Hirsch and also studies music theory and composition with Martin Boykan and Eric Chasalow.
Yoken has played the piano since the age of seven and started writing music when he was nine. He studied piano with Lillian Andrew from 1987 to 1994 and with Stephen Massoud from 1994 to 1998.
The concert will include Bach’s French Suite No. 3, Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3, Ravel’s Prelude and Debussy’s La Plus que Lent.
The event is sponsored by the UMass Dartmouth Library Associates, a community-based group that supports the University Library through fund raising and special events.
Architectural Web site
The John R. Foster House, Clinton, MA
Combining pastime with profession, librarian Bruce Barnes has created a web site about Stick Style architecture that features photographs, history, and detailed bibliographic references for the serious researcher.
Barnes created the site to serve as a guide to Stick Style, an important but relatively rare style in American Victorian architecture dating from 1860-1890.
Stick Style buildings are noted for a number of unique features united by the use of "sticks": flat board banding and other applied ornamentation in geometric patterns that adorn the exterior clapboard wall surface. Similar to their European counterparts, many Stick Style buildings have asymmetrical floor plans with steeply pitched slate roofs topped by iron cresting.
Barnes owns the Samuel H. Cook House, featured in the New Bedford section of the site, and has spent many years researching the style and the period in order to restore the exterior and the interior of his own home. He is also president of the New Bedford Preservation Society.
Barnes photographed most of the buildings himself, traveling throughout Massachusetts and to Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.
"In addition to the photographs and descriptions of the buildings, I wanted to create a scholarly reference guide that offered in-depth and varied resources beyond the same half-dozen sources I kept running into when I started researching the style," said Barnes.
Barnes started working on the web site this spring so that it would be available to students in the university's American Architecture class, taught this fall by art history professor Thomas Puryear.
Although the Stick Style can be considered a celebration of wood frame construction, there are many brick homes that legitimately fall into the classification. Barnes said that the Mark Twain House in Hartford, constructed of brick, is considered an exemplar of the style.
Archives receives videotapes that preserve French-Canadian heritage
In an effort to preserve some of the cultural heritage of the French-Canadian community in New England, UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Professor Mel Yoken recently donated a collection of videotaped interviews to the University Archives.
The 22 videos capture the reminiscences of 25 older adults of French-Canadian heritage who moved from Canada to various parts of southeastern New England as youngsters, or who had immigrant parents.
Matt Leavitt and Dawn Lyons, students in an upper-level independent study French course, completed the project under Prof. Yoken's supervision.
"I have always had a strong commitment to oral history as an extremely important element in preserving the legacy of our elders, whether they be Franco-Americans, Québécois or French," said Yoken.
"The views, opinions and recollections of these senior citizens are invaluable and must be recorded and preserved for posterity alongside equally important archival collections and historical research. We must hear their stories not only to preserve the past but also to inspire and encourage younger people to continue and strive for a better world."
Subjects for the interviews were chosen for their significant life stories and for their contributions to their communities, and included teachers, business people, artists and world travelers. The two students identified their subjects, familiarized them with the interview process, and then conducted the interviews on tape.
The interviews range in length from fifteen minutes to over an hour. A number of the interviews were conducted in French, and each interviewee was encouraged to answer in French as much as he or she felt comfortable doing so.
Yoken said that this project is the most recent in a series of oral history projects he has supervised; he plans to donate more tapes to the University Archives over the next few months.
Retirements
The library will bid farewell to several valuable employees who will be retiring at the end of the year. We'll miss these cherished colleagues and wish them happiness in their new pursuits.
· Joyce Gilson, secretary for the Library Dean's office since 1993, retired following a total of 27 years of university service. During her tenure, Joyce worked 14 years with Dr. William Wild, dean of administration and university president.
· Associate librarian Pearl Szatek, head of cataloging, will leave in December following 20 years of service to the library.
· Lucille Fernandes, interlibrary loan coordinator, departs after 24 years of service to the library. Lucille worked in the Reserves department before joining ILL in 1984.
· Charles Chenard, audio-visual technician in Access Services, has also retired. He had been with the university since 1986.
Staff news
Paige Gibbs, reference librarian and head of the Information Services department, is serving a second term as president of the Special Libraries Association's Rhode Island chapter. She has also recently been appointed archivist for the Engineering Libraries division of the American Society for Engineering Education. Her responsibilities will include preserving the division's paper records as well as maintaining its electronic archives.
Access Services librarian Catherine Fortier-Barnes donned a new flashing blue sorcerer's hat to entertain children from the UMass Dartmouth Child Care Center in a pre-Halloween story time. Catherine read a selection of seasonal tales, such as The Vanishing Pumpkin, to 15 pre-schoolers from the Center. She has been offering the annual event for the children for more than a decade.
"I think this year's story time was one of the best we've ever had," Catherine said. "The kids gave me their full attention. I would say the flashing light on my hat was definitely a factor."
The children had a snack at the library and were given treat bags to enjoy later.
