The Agenda - Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Author: Matt Badessa

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – November 2020

    One of America’s Most Celebrated Writers Meets More than 300 Readers on Zoom

    On September 27, Connie Wu organized a special Meeting Author and Book Discussion event on Zoom. Ha Jin, an award-winning writer and a professor of the Department of Literature and Writing at Boston University, joined the virtual event from his home. Even though it was 9:00 on Sunday night, almost bedtime for many people, 288 accounts logged into this Zoom session. Because many accounts were joined by couples at the same time, at least 300 people shared a literary feast brought by Professor Jin.

    Ha Jin has published more than 20 books, and has won almost all literary awards in English writing: Flannery O’Connor Short Story Award, Hemingway Foundation/Pen Club Award, Guggenheim Scholarship, National Book Award, PEN/Faukner Award, Asia Society Award, Townsend Fiction Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2012), PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Remote Center Literature Prize, etc. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006.

    Ha Jin shared his view on writing and knowledge on international literature. He also answered many questions from audiences with his wisdom and insight.

    The session lasted until 11:00 p.m. All attendees were attracted by Ha Jin’s literary accomplishment and charming personality. Many attendees expressed their appreciation of the evening. Three Rutgers professors who participated in the session say: “It was such a wonderful and enjoyable virtual event”; “Ha Jin is a truly rich mind, a profoundly humble and outstanding gentleman”; and “he is an admirable, honest, great writer!”

    Submitted by Connie Wu

    New Brunswick Librarians Play Key Role in New Ithaka Report

    Understanding the many constituencies that make up an academic library’s patrons is a formidable task. Scientists utilize resources quite differently from artists, and even scholars within a specific discipline like the humanities may have divergent practices and expectations depending on their academic niche and experience of library services at previous institutions. In the Fall of 2018, under the auspices of Ithaka S+R and the Modern Language Association (MLA), New Brunswick Libraries began a qualitative study of the information needs of faculty in languages, literature and cultural studies at Rutgers University—New Brunswick. The study was conducted by Triveni Kuchi, James P. Niessen, and Jonathan Sauceda. The purpose was to examine the research practices of faculty in a particular field, namely languages and literature, to identify what resources and services scholars currently use and wish they had access to at Rutgers. A report was completed in the Fall of 2019 and made available on the Scholarly Open Access at Rutgers repository (SOAR).

    In addition to Rutgers University, thirteen other university libraries across the United States and a team from MLA participated in the languages and literature study. A capstone report that analyzed and combined all the information and findings from individual reports was published by Ithaka S+R on September 9, 2020.

    Check out the MLA report on “Language and Literature Research in Regional Comprehensive Institutions” and Ithaka S+R’s blog post about the study.

    Full reports are available from:

    Cooper, Danielle, Cate Mahoney, Rebecca Springer, Robert Behra, Ian G. Beilin, Guy Burak, Margaret Burri, et al. “Supporting Research in Languages and Literature.” Ithaka S+R. September 9, 2020. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.313810.

    Kuchi, Triveni, James P. Niessen, and Jonathan Sauceda. “Research practices of scholars in literatures, writing, and cultural studies: a qualitative study of faculty at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.” October 31, 2019. https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/t3-2ydq-5h89.

    Submitted by Triveni Kuchi

    “Book Women” Delivered Library Books on Horseback during Great Depression

    Did you know? In the depths of the Great Depression, groups of librarians known as the “book women” loaded up their horses with books and journeyed deep into the Kentucky mountains to deliver reading material to the state’s poorest, most-isolated communities. Read more in this article from Southern Living.

    Submitted by Marty Barnett

    Librarians and Archivists Join Universitywide Society and Pandemic Initiative

    More than two dozen faculty and staff from the School of Arts and Sciences and other schools across Rutgers University have joined forces to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and research and collaborate on projects that address the global health crisis.

    Francesca Giannetti, Erika Gorder, and Christie Lutz are part of one of the sub-topic working groups called Digital Humanities: (NJ) Oral History, Libraries and Archives. This subgroup is comprised of archivists, librarians, public and oral historians and others interested in public humanities methods and engagement. They are exploring methods to preserve, through archival and oral historical documentation, some of the ways in which teaching and learning shifted in response to the pandemic.

    Submitted by Christie Lutz 

    No Power? No Problem

    There are a many negatives for RUL resulting from the pandemic, but today is an unusual plus.  With the North half of College Avenue Campus experiencing a power outage, our “distributed library faculty and staff” are able to continue to provide services in spite of the power outage. It strikes me that a “positive” story would be possible under these circumstances. (Pun intended 🙂)

    Submitted by Tim Corlis

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – September 2020

    Updates to Rutgers Editorial Style Guide 

    University Communications and Marketing has developed and maintains the Rutgers Editorial Style Guide as a tool for communicators at the university. Approximately once a year, the guide is revised to keep it current with changes at Rutgers and with editorial style guidelines used by educational institutions, media outlets, and other organizations that focus on the use of language in contemporary times.

    The guide can assist in drafting university communications that are consistent, clear, inclusive, and accurate. The revised guide and a quick reference sheet can be found at: https://communications.rutgers.edu/resources/editorial-style-guide.

    The guide includes the following additions and updates.

    Addition of words to the Preferred Spellings section:

    •     teleconference
    •     telehealth
    •     telemedicine
    •     videoconference
    •     Webex

    Change to capitalization of the word “Black” when referring to race or ethnicity.

    Removal of hyphen in the word “African American” when used as an adjective. All uses are now open and unhyphenated.

    Removal of hyphen in 3D (and 4D). All uses are closed to avoid awkward constructions in phrases such as 3D-printed face shields. 

    Ermira Publishes New Poems

     I would like to share this great news about a new publication of my poetry in the United Kingdom. I feel so honored to have three of my poems—”Love for my Homeland,” “A Winter Night in New York,” and “Yearning Sweet Home”—published in the international anthology On the Road by the literary magazine The Poet on July 15, 2020. As EIC Robin Barratt said: “On the Road, the anthology of poetry on travel, is probably the largest international anthology ever published. 121 poets. Vol 1 & Vol 2.”  

    Retiree Publishes New Book

    In this book by Ron Jantz, the reader will learn about the emergence of Anabaptism in the Reformation of the sixteenth century.  The Anabaptists embraced the core principles of nonconformity and nonresistance and endured much persecution in the Netherlands and Switzerland.  Menno Simons left his comfortable life as a Catholic priest and organized various factions to become what we know of today as the Mennonites. This narrative history will impart an understanding of how a little known group of Mennonites migrated through the countries of Western Europe, ultimately to bring a unique way of life to the Great Plains of America. The book has been published by Wipf & Stock Publishers (https://wipfandstock.com/living-in-the-world.html).

    Digital Exhibition: Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti

    The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is pleased to present the virtual exhibition, Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti, which features the work of two exiled Venezuelan artists whose art responds to the country’s political turmoil of the last decade.

    The work of Castillo and Ordosgoitti carries a distinctly feminist form of social protest, relying on performative acts and activating the body in daring ways so as to challenge, not only the current political regime, but also heteronormative patriarchal culture and canonical Venezuelan aesthetics. In Venezuela’s economic heyday, geometric abstraction and architectural modernism were regarded as emblems of progress and prosperity. They eclipsed profound economic inequality and worsening social problems. As conditions deteriorated, abstraction was thrown into crisis, but Venezuela did not have a strong tradition of protest art. It was the task of artists in the twenty-first century to forge new directions. Castillo and Ordosgoitti do so by presenting a strong female body and imbuing her with agency, revealing a conviction in the power of art to effect social change.

    NJ Digital Newspaper Project Wins NEH Grant

    The NJ Digital Newspaper Project was awarded a $251,536 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue its work as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program into 2022. The project will contribute 100,000 pages of digitized historical newspapers to the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America website. Caryn Radick is project director and Tara Kelley is co-principal investigator.

    CURCA Digital Collection

    Held each year in April, Research Week at Rutgers University-Camden celebrates research across the university. The week features multiple events that highlight the research contributions of students and faculty, including the Annual Faculty Research Fellow Lecture, the Graduate Research and Creative Works Symposium, and the Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA). This digital collection features posters presented at the annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (CURCA). CURCA aims to recognize and showcase the high-quality original research and creative work produced by undergraduate students in the Camden College of Arts and Sciences and University College-Camden.

    New Online Resources from SC/UA

    We have a new resource in SC/UA, our Digital Resources LibGuide, which brings together all of our scattered digital resources in one place for the first time, so it is intended to serve as a one-stop shop for our current and growing digitized resources in SC/UA that support teaching and research. It also includes digital resources at Rutgers outside of SC/UA, and outside of Rutgers, that we refer to regularly in our work with patrons and instructors. We will continually add to this guide as we digitize more material. https://libguides.rutgers.edu/scuadigital

    We also added another first for us–a dedicated section of our website aimed at RU and other faculty as well as K-12 instructors who want to teach with SC/UA materials: https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/scua/teach

    -submitted by Christie Lutz

    REALM Project Information Hub

    As libraries and museums around the country begin to resume operations and reopen facilities to the public, there is need for clear information to support the handling of core museum, library, and archival materials.

    OCLC, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle are conducting research on how long the COVID-19 virus survives on materials that are prevalent in libraries, archives, and museums. The project will draw upon the research to produce authoritative, science-based information on how—or if— materials can be handled to mitigate exposure to staff and visitors.

    To achieve these goals, the REALM project will:

    • Collect, review, and summarize authoritative research that applies to materials commonly found in the collections and facilities of archives, libraries, and museums
    • Ongoing consultation and engagement with a project steering committee, working groups, and other subject matter experts from archives, libraries, and museums
    • Laboratory testing of how COVID-19 interacts with a selection of materials commonly found in archives, libraries, and museums; and identifying methods of handling and remediation
    • Synthesize the above inputs into toolkit resources that support reopening and operational considerations
    • Share project information and toolkit resources through the project website and amplified by member associations and support organizations that serve archives, libraries, and/or museums.

    ­-submitted by Tim Corlis

     

  • Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook

    Rutgers University Libraries to Screen Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook
    Followed by Panel of Experts
    National Voter Registration Day
    Tuesday, September 22, 7 pm – 8:30 pm

    “When you deprive people of the right to vote, the vote being the very fiber of this wonderful quilt we call a democracy…When you begin to tear away the threads, saying this person can’t vote, that person can’t vote…the next thing know, you will not have a democracy.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

    The Rutgers University Libraries (New Brunswick) are observing National Voter Registration Day, September 22, by airing the documentary film Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook, an award-winning documentary that exposes the nefarious tactics used to suppress the vote and serves to spark discussion on the actions needed to protect our democracy. This event is part of a fall series to encourage campus-wide dialogue about the 2020 election. The American Issues Institute, producer of the film, will host the RU screening via its Zoom Webinar platform for a week prior to the screening, then from 6 – 7 pm on September 22, followed by a panel discussion from 7 – 8:30 pm about the issues. We encourage students, faculty, staff and community members to join the conversation.

    Discussion panelists will include:

    • Mac Heller and Tim Smith, the film’s producers
    • Lorraine Minnite, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Department Chair at Rutgers Camden and expert on voting rights. Author of The Myth of Voter Fraud, and Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of American Voters
    • David Greenberg, Professor of Media Studies and History, Rutgers-New Brunswick and author of a forthcoming book on John Lewis
    • Christabel Cruz, director of NEW Leadership® at the Center for American Women and Politics.
    • Chenjerai Kumanyika, Assistant Professor, Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers, Peabody winning producer of Uncivilpodcast and social justice advocate
    • David Goodman, Vice Chair, Andrew Goodman Foundation

    Following the event, the library will provide a link to a recording of the session and make it available to the Rutgers community.  It’s an opportunity for all of us to energize students, faculty and staff at this critical moment in our nation’s history when we’re isolated from each other but eager to join in discussions about the issues that will shape our collective future.

    Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, says of RIGGED, “I cannot think of a better moment for this powerful film. It reinforces the reality of voter suppression, which I think so many more Americans have begun to recognize and understand.”

    To register to watch the video and participate in the Zoom event, click here.

    To learn more about Election 2020, see the Library’s new LibGuide, produced by Sherri Farber and Nancy Kranich.

    For more information, contact Nancy Kranich, nancy.kranich@rutgers.edu

    RIGGED Trailer – 2 mins.
    https://vimeo.com/296045604 

    Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook – with Jeffrey Wright (NOV 2019)
    70 Minutes
    https://vimeo.com/371681258
    password: rigged

  • Communications Department Site Overhaul

    One of my projects for the summer was transferring the Communications Department site off the old apps.libraries platform and over to the new Staff Resources site. It is now located here: staff.libraries.rutgers.edu/communications.

    On the site you will find a variety of useful resources, from logo files and presentation templates, to flyers and signage, to style guidelines, to helpful tips and tricks. You may be particularly interested in the new Event Planning Guide (updated with a section on best practices for online events!) and the downloadable Zoom/WebEx backgrounds.

    Please have a look around and let me know what you think. I’m always looking for feedback on improvements and suggestions for new content. Thanks!

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – July 2020

    Antiracism is the practice of identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures, and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.
    Antiracism LibGuide 

    A new guide created by Katie Anderson highlights resources for research on antiracism with a focus on sources that are available at Rutgers.

    Antiracism is the practice of identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures, and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.

    Included in the guide are recommended authors, ebooks, and reading lists; background information on the Black Lives Matter movement; links to podcasts and media; and other antiracist resources. It also features a section with historical material on Rutgers alumnus Paul Robeson, the namesake of Paul Robeson Library who is remembered for his antiracist activism.

    To learn more, visit https://libguides.rutgers.edu/antiracism.

     Summer SAPAC

    Summertime, and Summer SAPAC is here in its shorts and flip-flops to give you a low-key forum to share your research, practical solutions, and fizzy ideas with your fellow RUL librarians, or at least their virtual avatars and disembodied heads.

    Got a research project, at any stage of development, that you would like to share with a friendly audience? Did you miss a chance to present at an in-person conference this spring? Would you like to organize a panel discussion?  Perhaps you’d like to share your knowledge on a professional development topic, or workshop an idea you’ve had about how we’ll provide services next year? Maybe try something out in a smaller and less formal group before taking it to an NBL-All or RUL Faculty Forum?

    If so, the Scholarly and Professional Activity Committee wants to know! We’re looking for presenters for the rest of the summer. We don’t need to limit ourselves to once a month, so the more the merrier. We anticipate scheduling these at lunchtime early in the week.

    Please send your title, abstract, and top three preferred dates to the committee members below. We’ll schedule and announce them as they come in!

    Janet Brennan Croft, co-chair till June 30
    Bart Howard Everts, co-chair till June 30
    Fobazi Ettarh, 2019-2022
    Laura Costello, 2018-2021
    Amy Kimura, 2018-2021

    Upcoming Workshops

    Media and Ebooks FAQ Drop-In Session
    Online via WebEx
    Robeson Library
    7/1/20 8:00 a.m.–8:30 a.m.

    Media and Ebooks FAQ Drop-In Session
    Online via WebEx
    Robeson Library
    7/1/20 3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

    Digital Collections for Reading, Teaching, and Research
    Online via WebEx
    Robeson Library
    7/13/20 1:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.

    Course Reserves FAQ
    Online via WebEx
    Robeson Library
    7/14/20 1:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.

    Antiracism Resources from the Library’s Collection
    Online via WebEx
    Robeson Library
    7/16/201:00 p.m.–1:30 p.m.

    RefWorks, Endnote, and Zotero: Which One Should I Choose?
    Online via Webex
    7/22/2010:00 a.m.–10:45 a.m.

  • In Conversation with Diane Biunno

    Diane Biunno is metadata archivist for the Institute of Jazz Studies.

    Diane Biunno joined the Libraries as metadata archivist for the Institute of Jazz Studies back in February. Here, we catch up with her to learn more about her experience and what she has been working on since the shift to online-only service.

    Tell us a bit about your background prior to coming to Rutgers.

    Prior to joining the team at the Institute of Jazz Studies in February 2020, I served as a project archivist at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) in Philadelphia. At HSP I worked on several projects including the Hidden Collections Initiative which was a grant funded project to improve the accessibility and discoverability of archival collections housed at Philadelphia-area small repositories. As part of the initiative, I helped staff and volunteers at local historical societies, ethnic organizations, and religious institutions better arrange, describe, and care for their collections. I enjoyed working on this project because it gave me an opportunity to get to know members of the local archival community and their amazing collections.

    Before coming to Rutgers, I also worked on several innovative digital projects that were focused on improving the discoverability of archival and special collections materials. For example, I served as a digital project assistant at Penn Libraries for the Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis
    project, an initiative to digitize and make freely available all the known medieval manuscripts in the Philadelphia region. In addition, I was a digital project associate for the Historical Images, New Technologies Project, which explored how to better describe archival visual materials using TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) markup. Through working on these projects, I learned a great deal about metadata standards and formats, as well as, digital preservation and digital project management best practices.

    I received my B.A and Ph.D. in Italian from Rutgers University and my Master’s in Library & Information Science from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    What have you been working on during the quarantine?

    I’ve been working with my colleagues at IJS to copyedit and publish the approximately 200 finding aids that the IJS created last year. A finding aid is document that describes an archival collection and helps guide researchers in using the collection. The IJS finding aids will be published online and made accessible to the general public and researchers, with the goal of helping our patrons better understand our collections and how our materials can meet their research needs.

    What does the process look like?

    Before beginning the process of copyediting the finding aids, we quickly realized that we needed a style guide to ensure that all finding aids would be edited according to the same capitalization, punctuation, and grammatical guidelines. Unfortunately, there isn’t a standard style guide for archivists, so we decided to create our own and base it on the Chicago Manual of Style, a style guide widely used in academic publishing.

    Next, we created project workflows, as well as spreadsheets for keeping track of the project’s progress. We made sure to keep the project style guide, spreadsheets, and other documentation in a shared folder that was easily accessible to everyone working on the project. Most importantly, used software tools that allow us to easily track changes to documents and to view the edits of our coworkers in real time.

    How far along are you and what are the next steps?

    At this point, we are halfway through the project and have published approximately 110 finding aids. We’re moving at a steady pace and hope to wrap up the project in a few weeks.

    While working on the project, I began thinking about how the IJS might use Wikipedia to help guide researchers and the general public to our collections. Because patrons use Wikipedia as a starting point to find general information on a topic, as well as, additional resources, I’ve begun adding links to the institute’s finding aids in the “External Link” section located at the bottom of Wikipedia entries. For example, at the bottom of the Benny Goodman Wikipedia entry, I’ve added a link to the IJS finding aid for the D. Russell Connor collection of Benny Goodman audio recordings. Moving forward, I hope to add additional links to our collections and explore other ways to make our finding aids and collections more broadly accessible to the public.

    Where can people learn more?

    People can visit the repository page for Institute of Jazz Studies to view the finding aids that we’ve already published. https://archivesspace.libraries.rutgers.edu/repositories/6

    People can also check out the IJS Facebook page for more information about events and other news: https://www.facebook.com/InstituteJazzStudies as well as the institute’s page: https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/jazz

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – May 2020

    NBL’s virtual stressbusters LibGuide.
    Real Stress, Virtual Busting

    In lieu of physical events this finals season, New Brunswick Libraries have developed a virtual stressbusters LibGuide. Visit it to check out their virtual escape rooms, puzzles, tours, crafting activities and much more! Kudos to Rose Barbalace for her work organizing this resource for our students during what is surely an extra stressful time.

    NBMSA Takes the Scene Online

    On their Facebook page, the New Brunswick Music Scene Archive will be featuring a series that invites donors and other supporters to share what music they’re listening to and/or performing during this time, what their favorite NBMSA item is, and if they wish, share a related photo. This is a way for us to stay connected with our community while SC/UA is closed and we can’t accept physical donations. Kicking off the series this week will be former SC/UA public history intern Rachel Ferrante, who as part of her internship helped maintain the NBMSA social media presence and solicited donations via her work at 90.3 The Core and involvement in the New Brunswick basement scene. She also designed the NBMSA Facebook page logo!

    Congrats Ying!

    Congratulations are in order for Yingting Zhang, who has been asked to serve on the Medical Library Association’s 2022 National Program Committee. Her three-year term begins June 1.

    Introducing New Jersey’s Historical Newspapers

    A round of applause to Jacob Paul for his work editing the New Jersey Digital Newspaper Project’s latest promotional video. Way to go, Jacob!

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  • This Month in the Agenda – March 1982

    That’s Special

    Anticipating the physical and programmatic merger of the Department of Special Collections, University Archives, and the Records Management Program later this spring, University Librarian Hendrik Edelman has asked Ruth Simmons to serve as coordinator.

    Funds for the renovation of the New Jersey Room, staff offices on the B Floor and stack space on the BB Floor of Alexander Library have been received from the Board of Trustees and the University Administration. It is expected that all physical changes will be completed by this summer.

    The Agenda 4, no. 9 (March 1, 1982)

    Brenda in Charge

    Brenda Johnson has been named Head, Document Delivery Services/New Jersey Reference Services effect March 15. In this new position, Brenda will manage the interlibrary loan borrowing and lending service, provide assistance in bibliographic verification and location, and maintain liaison with unit reference librarians at RGL libraries and at other state, national, and international institutions.

    The Agenda 4, no. 11 (March 15, 1982)

    Wine and Dine

     

    Camden Gets the News

    IN/FORM is a group of databases which include items published in the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News; the major Philadelphia daily newspapers. IN/FORM provides full text access to these papers and permits searching on words/phrases in the complete text, and searching on fields such as headlines, bylines, and a limited set of descriptors and delimiters.

    The Agenda 4, no. 12 (March 22, 1982)

    Hey, Watch It!

    FROM THE PRESERVATION OFFICE

    No Scotch tape should be used under any circumstances to attach notes to the covers of books. Please place your memo concerning the book inside the front cover.

    The Agenda 4, no. 13 (March 29, 1982)

  • Quick Takes on Events and News – March 2020

    Bishop Lecture Returns

    The 34th annual Bishop Lecture will feature photographer and author Barbara Mensch, who will speak about how she was inspired by Special Collections and University Archives’ Roebling Collection to create her recent book In the Shadow of Genius: The Brooklyn Bridge and Its Creators (Fordham University Press, 2018). Mensch, who has lived alongside the Brooklyn Bridge for over 30 years, will illustrate her talk with striking photographs, including some taken deep inside. During the reception following the talks, guests will have the opportunity to purchase signed copies of the book.

    Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. RSVP here

    Gendering Protest on Display at Douglass

    The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities is pleased to announce the two-person exhibition, Gendering Protest: Deborah Castillo and Érika Ordosgoitti, which features the work of exiled Venezuelan artists whose art responds to the country’s political turmoil of the last decade.

    Gendering Protest will be on view from January 21 to April 3, 2020, in the Mary H. Dana Women Artists Series Galleries, Douglass Library. The exhibit is curated by art historian and curator Tatiana Flores, associate professor in the Departments of Latino & Caribbean Studies and Art History, Rutgers University. To accompany the exhibition, CWAH will publish a comprehensive online catalog.

    On Wednesday, March 25 at 5 p.m. in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room, Douglass Library, there will be a reception in honor of the artists followed by an artist’s lecture from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.

    Virgilio Papers Now Online

    Nicholas Virgilio was instrumental in popularizing haiku poetry in the United States and his own poetry received international acclaim. Except for a brief stay in Texas and service in the Navy, he lived in Camden his entire life. In 1962 he discovered a collection of haiku poems in the library at Rutgers University in Camden. A year later, his own first haiku works were published; he continued writing up until his death in 1989.

    This collection contains some of his haiku, including multiple versions of some of his better known poems, showing the development of his work. There are also drafts of correspondence, primarily concerning arrangements and publicity for his work and appearances. The collection includes thousands of unpublished and therefore never before seen haiku.

    Latino Oral History

    Krista White’s Digital Scholarship as Modular Pedagogy (DSMP) initiative is co-sponsoring an event with Newark Public Library about their Latino Oral History collection, which has been a featured collection used by students in the DSMP courses.

    Working Title: Latino Oral Histories: From Start to Finish.  With panelists:

    • Yesenia Lopez – managing an oral history project
    • Vanessa Castaldo – after the interview (transcribing, indexing, editing, etc.)
    • Juber Ayala – accessibility/ promoting the collection
    • Interviewee (tbd) – experience of being interviewed
    • Potential moderator: Dr. Katie Singer

    The program will be accompanied with a digital tour of our oral history collections and audio clips from some of our interviews.

    Date and location: Wednesday, April 1, Newark Public Library, 6:00–8:00 p.m. in Centennial Hall. 6:00–6:30 reception (light refreshments served), 6:30–8:00 p.m. program, community question and answers. Free and open to the public.

    More Published Poetry

    Congratulations to Ermira Mitre, whose English poetry was recently published in the literary magazine Mediterranean Poetry in Sweden.

    LOVE FOR MY HOMELAND

    I love your playful style, Albania,
    since I was a baby; still a gentle child,
    plunged myself blissfully, on your gusty roads,
    where my dream altered into a butterfly,
    chasing my shadow toward avant-garde.

    I love your prodigious Adriatic Sea coasts,
    the belly laugh of love, coiling on roses,
    melodious sounds, dance steps, moccasins,
    the echo, the zest of the flattering dances,
    the capricious sorceress of the wild tribes,
    unfolding the vivacity of the artifice.

    …

    Read the full poem here.

    Vote for Adriana

    Adriana Cuervo is running as a 2020 candidate for Council of the Society of American Archivists. “We are at a critical juncture where different constituencies within the profession are championing diverging views on the future of the Society, and this is the time where SAA’s values will provide the grounding to move into what our profession will look like in the years to come,” she said. Learn more here.