The Buzz in Digital Collections

Steenbock Library, in cooperation with UW Digital Collections, is pleased to announce its sweet release of "Historical Bee and Bee-Keeping Literature" from the Charles C. Miller Memorial Apicultural Library.  Newly-digitized as part of this project are 11 serial titles in bee-keeping from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   

The initial collection of this bee-keeping literature was donated to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1922, with a stipend for its continued support, by enthusiastic admirers of Charles C. Miller who had mentored many a bee-keeper through example and scholarship.  Once housed in Agriculture Hall and then Steenbock Library upon its completion in 1969, many of its texts have since been transferred to the Department of Special Collections where there are descriptive finding aids to the collection.  A list of publications that were documented by WPA workers as part of this collection in 1936 can be found via links from the library catalog. The collection was also featured in an article for the Friends of the Libraries Magazine in 2004. 

Merging of Collections; Closing of Biology Library

UW-Madison Libraries are planning for additional efficiencies in library services, resources, and operations in the face of the state budget situation. In order to respond to this situation, the Libraries are 'reorganizing staff and services, merging print collections, consolidating duplicate service points and assessing user needs,' according to General Library System Director, Ken Frazier.

One step is the integration of the Biology Library into Steenbock Library. Beginning with the end of the spring semester, the print collection (journals and books) will be transferred from the Biology Library to Steenbock.

Some of the rare history-of-science materials will be transferred to the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library. Reserves services (print and electronic) will be absorbed by Steenbock Library.

Librarians Kathryn Maloney and Amanda Werhane will attend to providing support to the Departments of Botany and Zoology. Library services such as campus document delivery, reference and instruction, Interlibrary Loan, and access to the print collections will remain available during and after the merger.

The Libraries have also offered the expertise of its staff to assist the College of Letters and Science and the Departments of Botany and Zoology as they explore options for re-purposing the current Biology Library location.

The mission of UW Libraries remains unchanged, Frazier adds.

"We will continue to provide exemplary information services designed to support the teaching, learning, research, and outreach mission of UW-Madison," he says. "The efficiency measures being put in place will enable us to meet the needs of this great public research university."

Adapted from original post, 4/26/2011, Library Communications

The Yellow Wall-paper

A traveling exhibition from the National Library of Medicine, The Literature of Prescription: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Yellow Wall-Paper" will occupy the lobby of Memorial Library until May 21, 2011. The exhibition examines how women’s entry into public and intellectual life had been restricted by theories, promulgated by medical professionals, of feminine weakness. Gilman’s short story, "The Yellow Wall-paper" (first published in 1892), remains a strong indictment of these particular medical and social conventions with a protagonist driven to madness by a prescribed "rest cure".

The exhibition has inspired several related exhibits in campus libraries.

Descriptions of related exhibits follow below:

The William B. Cairns Collection of American Women Writers 1650–1940, located in the Department of Special Collections, Memorial Library (9th Floor), boasts a number of works by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Steenbock Library has a small complementary book display featuring material from its collection on both domestic science in the nineteenth century and the history of wallpaper. The exhibit is available for viewing outside of Room 240 through May 21.

Ebling Library for the Health Sciences has a book selection in its 2nd floor study area displaying modern books on mental health issues in women, including some titles on postpartum depression. It also features a reprint of "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and a bibliography of the selected titles. Books on similar subjects from the nineteenth and early twentieth century are available by contacting Micaela Sullivan-Fowler. The display is at Ebling until May 21.

For more information about the traveling exhibition in Memorial Library, visit its page on the National Library of Medicine Website.

Bee a Reader

Of late, Steenbock Library has provided staff and library users an opportunity to observe bee behavior (and specifically, “absconding behavior”, where the colony, pulsating around its queen, moves to a new hive).

How appropriate, then, that the library maintains a collection of titles suitable for apiarists, among other bee culture enthusiasts. A selection of titles includes the following, among many others:

Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture / Ross Conrad

The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us / Bee Wilson

Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping / Dewey M. Caron

If your interest lies in a taste for honey, consider:

Bees and Honey: From Flower to Jar / Michael Weiler; translated by David Heaf

Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind / Stephen Buchmann with Banning Repplier

Honey: From Hive to Honeypot: A Celebration of Bees and Their Bounty / Sue Style; illustrations by Graham Evernden.

Speak with your librarians for assistance locating these and other titles.

Of related interest, the Charles C. Miller Memorial Apicultural Library or “Miller Bee Collection” is housed in Special Collections, Memorial Library. Most titles are listed in the MadCat catalog and some have been digitized. A list of titles in the Miller Bee Collection is also made available in Special Collections.

Note: For anyone alarmed by photo, above, and concerns for safety approaching the library building, campus experts are notified of these events and dispatched to collect bees—with cautionary tape to conserve area and to redirect those approaching the building to an alternative route.

Voices and Visions (April 14)

In conjunction with the broadcast of the PBS series, “We Shall Remain” (first episode to air, Monday, April 13, 8:00 PM, WHA-TV), College Library will host Voices and Visions, a program featuring personal stories, discussion and reflection with faculty members, Roberta Hill, Richard Monette and Patty Loew. The program will be held in the Ethnic Studies Collection Room (Room 1193), College Library, Tuesday, April 14 (5:30-7:00 PM).

The Voices and Visions program is free and open to the public. Supporters include the General Library System, Wisconsin Public Television, American Indian Studies Program, Wunk Sheek , American Indian Student Academic Services, and Wisconsin Historical Society.

Odd Wisconsin

If you have ever thought Wisconsin to be a curious place (as I often do), then the new exhibit opening at the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum (on the Capitol Square) is for you!

The Odd Wisconsin exhibit features a collection of Wisconsin artifacts and fifty displays exploring the history—from college pranks to spiritualist séances—engaged in by its residents.

Take a sneak peek at what you will see!

The exhibit opens October 3.

Museum location: 30 N. Carroll Street on the Capitol Square
Museum hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Admission: adults ($4.00); children ($3.00); families ($10.00)

And, of extra note, the museum is planning some fun tie-ins with Halloween week (see the Calendar of Events).

Additionally, keep up-to-date on Odd Wisconsin with its blog. There is also a book, authored by Erika Janik, available from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press and area public libraries.

Digital Leopold

UW Digital Collections is pleased to announce that diaries and journals from the Aldo Leopold collections are now available online.

The project to digitize the University Archives’ complete collection of Leopold materials is being done through a grant awarded to the Aldo Leopold Foundation by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

The diaries and journals consist of US Forest Service diaries and miscellany from 1899-1927, hunting journals from 1917-1945, and shack journals from 1935-1948. Browse this collection.

Other pieces of the Leopold collection will be coming online during 2008, with the next installment anticipated to be Leopold’s correspondence—mostly during his UW years from 1933-1948.

Finding Aid to the Aldo Leopold Papers

The Scientist's Eye: Dialogues between Art & Science

An exhibition of artist and rare books from the Kohler Art Library and Special Collections (Memorial Library) will be on display until February 16 at the Kohler Art Library.

The exhibition, co-curated by art history graduate students Amy Noell and Beth Zinsli, juxtaposes historic texts in the sciences with artists’ books--in often lovely, fascinating and thoughtful ways.

Kohler Art Library hours

Of related interest, visit the art library's online exhibit of artists' books.