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Publication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2024-01-01) Mani, Nandita S.Publication Bookmark: The Magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries 2022(2022-01-01) Connare, CarolPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2023-01-01) Connare, CarolPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2021-01-01) Connare, CarolChanges great and small are happening at the libraries this semester. For one thing, our students are BACK and the libraries are OPEN! And, as the old saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder—we're so glad to welcome students back into the library buildings. Whether they're settled in for many hours to focus, create, and collaborate, or stopping by the Procrastination Station to grab a coffee and pick up a 3D print from the Digital Media Lab, students make the library the scholarly hub that it is, and we have never been more grateful for them. This is also my first semester as interim dean of libraries, and being open is at the heart of my vision for the libraries. We are open to change—to reexamining the past and continuously reinventing our future. Our doors are open: both physically and digitally, welcoming in a global community that sees itself reflected in our collections, spaces, services, and—most importantly—our workforce. Our collections are open: to reevaluation, and to being examined through the critical lens of scholars shaping an understanding of the world around them. Our minds are open: to reimagining scholarship, to breaking the barriers of conventional academic publishing, to helping to amplify marginalized voices in the knowledge creation process. Our hearts are open: to new possibilities, to new prospects, and to a better shared future for our society. As I write this, we are participating in International Open Access Week, devoted to sharing resources that are digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. This year’s theme, “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity,” aligns nicely with both my vision for the libraries and our deep and abiding commitment to positive social change. Activities are taking place around the globe, including our keynote, featuring UMass Amherst professors Ethan Zuckerman and Martha Fuentes discussing the future of libraries. Their insights on the vital roles libraries play in the creation, preservation, and transmission of knowledge for the betterment of society—and the need to increase access to this knowledge by the removal of barriers—will shape the conversation going forward and inform how we recognize and approach inequities in our own community. Commitment to open education is one that extends directly to my own practice as an instructor. My syllabus contains an open education statement, and this practice is now being adopted by others in the College of Education. I'm also proud of my work on the Museum in a Box initiative featured on page 6—this is another way to bring our collections freely to the community. As interim dean, I am thrilled to be able to support the development of an open science curriculum for K-12 students, using the libraries’ streaming falcon cam and a GIS map of falcon data, both supported by donors to the Library Sustainability Fund. With winter ahead and COVID still with us, we are reminded to keep a sense of humor. “I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter: it has made the world human and lovable, despite all its pain and wrong,” said W. E. B. Du Bois. I hope you’ll join us in person or virtually in February when we celebrate the birthday of Du Bois… and his wisdom. And laughter. Sarah Hutton Interim Dean of LibrariesPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2019-01-01) Connare, CarolThe library as a physical and virtual space for discovery is on the front line of education. Today, teaching and learning are multimodal, using combinations of speech, text, video, images, illustration, and other media, in the classroom and online, to engage learners. The Libraries must respond in equally revolutionary ways, and this magazine gives a glimpse of the kinds of things we do to support students and faculty, thanks to the generosity of donors. Simon Neame Dean of UMass Amherst LibrariesPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2020-01-01) Connare, CarolIn line with the UMass Amherst Libraries’ mission, some of our most important work as an organization this past year has been affirming that Black Lives Matter. Staff created a Library Guide featuring resources on race and identity, including new books, articles, films, and other materials to support both personal and academic research and inquiry. We marked the 40th anniversary of the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers coming to UMass by documenting on film scholars’ thinking on the relevance of Du Bois’s work today. In this issue, we for the first time publish “Platform for the Progressive Party,” a piece of writing by Du Bois that shows how Americans 70 years ago were fighting for freedom. We are looking closely at our own practices within the Libraries, to see what we need to change to live our values. I am deeply grateful for the collective wisdom of staff at every level throughout the Libraries who guide our work. All of our services have been available online since March, and the Libraries opened over the summer for contactless pickup and printing, as well as by appointment for activities that need to occur in person, like using archival materials and retrieving of 3D printed objects. It is a testament to the creativity and dedication of library staff that we were able to successfully pivot to remote work while providing all the high-quality services our students and faculty depend on. We have learned significant lessons from our experience working outside of the physical confines of our building and away from our physical collections. Fortunately, our librarians have been adopting and teaching others about digital resources for 30 years, and are experts in these fields. We have learned that our work providing access to information is more important than ever. In this issue of Bookmark magazine, you will find many examples of how our work continues, such as welcoming new staff, supporting students, working with researchers and historians, bringing in new collections, making sure our resources are accessible to all, and even documenting the campus experience of the pandemic.Publication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2018-01-01) Connare, CarolBy the time you read this, the fall semester will be complete for 5,050 of the most academically accomplished class ever to enroll at UMass Amherst. Early in the semester they were roaming the footpaths in safe clusters as they looked for classrooms and discovered dining halls, making friends along the way. By winter break, they’ll be old pros, thanks to myriad websites, apps, tours, and gatherings to help them make the most out of college. The effort to make first year students feel welcome has a long history. The 1932-33 Freshman Handbook of the Massachusetts State College refers to several mandatory meetings of freshmen for “organized singing and cheering,” educational talks, and the non-compulsory wearing of the maroon and white beanie. The handbook is chockful of good advice, like: First, don’t be discouraged if things do not seem to come your way; you are on your own now and you will have to go after what you want to get. Second: you are in college primarily to study: remember that extra-curricular activities, even though a large part of college life, should not take too much of your time. Third: uphold the standards of Mass State: fight hard but fair under all your competition, and support the honor system in all your scholastic work. Be friendly towards everyone on campus and observe especially the traditional custom of greeting fellow students with a familiar “Hi.” However, pick your real friends carefully. Above all, bear in mind that you will get out of college life only as much as you put into it. The handbook came to us from Friend of the Libraries Paul Murphy ’73, who enjoys hunting for antique UMass memorabilia. Proffered by the Christian Association for every entering freshman, the sleek, leather-bound volume includes a campus map, a daily calendar, information about fraternity/sorority rushing, student government, clubs, campus history, and much more. This particular handbook belonged to Clement R. Purcell and contains handwritten notes which offer some details about him: he hailed from Winchester, Mass., and on campus he lived in South College. By the signatures on his autographs page, it appears he had three good mates: Harold A. Midgley, Lewis C. Gillett (“Lew”), and Arthur Stuart (“Art” )(the only one with a record of graduation, in 1936, was Lew). According to the class schedule Purcell handwrote in blue ink, Thursday was his heaviest day, starting with Horticulture at 8 a.m., followed by English, Chemistry, Military, and then Physical Education, without a break, through to 4:15 p.m. In the daily calendar, Purcell recorded the scores of football games, perhaps those he attended. The two final games of the season (Coast Guard Academy and Tufts) are not noted; the last thing in Purcell’s hand is the word “vacation” penciled in the two days before Thanksgiving (which was then held on a Friday). Then—nothing. Purcell passed away in Winchester in 2002, at around the age of 90. The university has no record of him, either as a student who withdrew or an alumnus, which isn’t unusual. From the scant evidence, one could surmise that Purcell didn’t return after the Thanksgiving break. Perhaps, as for many students of the time, the Great Depression impacted his education. The initial feeling of having the volume in one’s palm is that it is nearly the exact, size, shape, weight, and thickness of a cell phone. Like their smart device counterparts today, students carried these handy sources of information and inspiration, wherever they went. Another striking characteristic is its gender-ancient text — as in its very title. Most universities including UMass have replaced the gender-binary terms freshman and freshwoman with the inclusive “first-year student.” The handbook’s advice is all about developing the character of the university man despite the fact that women had been students at the College for more than three decades by the year this was printed. Of note, too, are the references to spirituality and difference. The Student Health Service advised freshman to “practice equanimity and optimism.” While the publication was put out by the Christian Association, it describes opportunities for all sorts of religious life in Amherst, and shares the Association’s ultimate tenet: “That love as taught and practiced is the true basis of personal attainment and of desirable group relationships, and is the effective power for overcoming evil and transforming human life.” While modes of messenging have evolved from paper to digital, character is still a goal of education at UMass Amherst. The freshmen of the Class of 1936 were encouraged “to stand for tolerance versus intolerance, to stand for service rather than selfishness.” The Class of 2022 first-year students were welcomed by messages across campus proclaiming UMass’s commitment to “Building a Community of Dignity and Respect.” The tag line “honor differences, see the humanity in everyone” is as relevant to our mission today as it was 86 years ago. Carol Connare Directory of Development and Communication UMass Amherst LibrariesPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2018-01-01) Connare, CarolSwimming Downstream One hundred and fifty years ago, W. E. B. Du Bois was born a free black man in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. From those beginnings, he changed the world. For the anniversary of his birth, University of Massachusetts Press has released a new edition of Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk (page xx). In 1909, a few years after the book was originally published, W.D. Hooper, then Chair of the Department of Classics at University of Georgia wrote to Du Bois that “many of us feel most deeply the pathos of your own position.” Hooper tells Du Bois that “my skirts, at least, are clean” —that he has never wronged anyone of Du Bois’s race and has trained his children in respect, yet still he feels powerless, “I cannot break away,” writes Hooper. He asks Du Bois to look “as leniently as you can on feelings which have been made part of us, and we must labor together in all ways to lighten the gloom.” Du Bois answers Hooper personally five weeks later, writing “you and I can never be satisfied with sitting down before a great human problem and saying nothing can be done. We must do something. That is the reason we are on Earth.” A highlight of anniversary efforts has been with the people of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, an ambitious band of volunteers and organizations committed to lifting Du Bois to his proper place of prominence. By the time Du Bois was born in 1868, “GB” as it is commonly known, was a gilded age getaway on the banks of the 150-mile-long Housatonic River, where big-city bankers and industrialists built summer mansions. It had typical New England roots, settled by colonists in the late 1600s after violent clashes ousted resident peoples. Its original inhabitants, the Mahican Indians, called Great Barrington Mahaiwe meaning “the place downstream.” The sesquicentennial of Du Bois’s birth has inspired Great Barrington – “the place downstream” from the manufacturing metropolis of Pittsfield -- to embrace Du Bois anew. In addition to exhibits, performances, and colorful Du Bois banners lining Main Street, there are plans to illuminate his legacy in lasting ways throughout town, from naming streets to opening an interpretive center. Last fall, the Libraries helped officials display the first-ever images of Du Bois. The permanent exhibit “Let Freedom Ring: A Gallery of Du Bois Images” opened in the Town Hall Gallery this year. The centerpieces of the exhibit are six enlargements of the original typewritten pages of Du Bois’s 1930 address, “The Housatonic River,” delivered for the annual reunion meeting of Searles High School from which Du Bois graduated 46 years earlier. The Houstanic, he wrote, is the river of his boyhood, the one he swam across like “every real Great Barrington boy.” Du Bois decries that like many cities, Great Barrington has let its Housatonic become a sewer; he urges citizens to instead to be like Cambridge, with its parks along the Charles. Du Bois advises to go beyond mere beautification: “a river must be … the spiritual center, perhaps the very freeing of spirit which will come from our attempt…to restore its ancient beauty and make it the center of the town, of the valley, and perhaps who knows, of a new way of civilized life.” Taking care of the river is, to Du Bois, taking care of what connects us. Great Barrington has always been the place downstream from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, whose early grist and lumber mills gave way to a century of wool industry dominance, and all of their associated effluents. The date of Du Bois’s address was around the time General Electric starting dumping PCBs into his beloved Housatonic. Like all change, cleaning the Housatonic has proved complicated and taken longer than many, including Du Bois, had hoped it would; the refusal to do nothing has made all the difference. We salute the people of Great Barrington as they rediscover the rushing river of intellect that is their native son. Though complicated and a long time coming, the movement by the townspeople of Great Barrington is what Du Bois would have us do— taking care of what connects us all. Carol Connare Director of Development and Communication UMass Amherst LibrariesPublication Bookmark: The magazine of the UMass Amherst Libraries(2017-01-01) Connare, CarolWelcome to the inaugural issue of Bookmark, the annual magazine published by UMass Amherst Libraries. This library is YOUR library. We are a public library open to every citizen of the Commonwealth, in addition to being an academic research library for the university’s flagship campus. Inside this issue, we introduce you to students, librarians, faculty, and friends who are impacted by the library and are part of our broad community. From national issues, such as the meteoric rise of textbook costs to one of the most unique collections ever acquired by the Library to what kinds of three-dimensional objects are being printed in our Digital Media Lab, we hope this publication inspires you. We invite you to visit us in person or on the web to discover all we have to offer. Many thanks, and please let us know what you think! You can drop me a line at dol@library.umass.edu. Simon Neame Dean of UMass Amherst Libraries