Feature Story

Faculty, Library collaborate on Collegium projects

Posted on March 18, 2013 by The University of Chicago Library

Library contributes expertise, collections, technology, and spaces to support Neubauer Collegium global, humanistic research

How can the methods of “big science” contribute to the humanistic understanding of music, speech, and other audio expressions? How will an online, interactive environment allow scholars to explore a complex corpus of texts?  What does it mean to be a scholar at war?

In a major milestone, the Neubauer Family Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago has selected an inaugural cohort of 18 ambitious faculty research projects that tackle these and other complex questions through cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Through its research initiatives and robust program of visiting Collegium Faculty Fellows, the Neubauer Collegium will unite scholars in the common pursuit of ideas of grand scale and broad scope, making the University of Chicago a global destination for top scholars engaged in humanistic research while also pioneering efforts to share that research with the public.

Seethaphone label

Vairla (kamachu) maralukonnadira. [Bangalore, India]: Seethaphone, [n.d.] In Kannada language. Seethaphone Company made gramophone records popular and accessible to the middle classes through their very low prices. The company was in business from 1924-1957.

The Neubauer Collegium was founded in June 2012 and is named in honor of Joseph Neubauer, MBA’65, and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer. Their $26.5 million gift to the University is among the largest in support of the humanities and social sciences in the institution’s history.

Together, the 18 projects engage teams of faculty from 17 departments in the humanities and social sciences, as well as the Chicago Booth School of Business, the Divinity School, the Law School, the Pritzker School of Medicine, and the Oriental Institute—teams of faculty who had fewer opportunities for serious, sustained collaboration before the establishment of the Neubauer Collegium. The University of Chicago Library is collaborating with faculty on three of these inaugural projects by providing staff expertise, access to current collections and resources, services as a repository, and technical support. 

“The Library is proud to be collaborating with UChicago faculty and their international colleagues to support groundbreaking research and teaching efforts with worldwide impact,” says Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian. “We’re very pleased to be working with faculty to develop cutting-edge technical approaches to advancing humanistic research.”

Further, the Library is supporting collaboration with the Neubauer Collegium by providing Regenstein Library’s Room 203 as temporary office space for the Neubauer Collegium, as well as five faculty studies for use by associated visiting scholars. 

The three Neubauer Collegium projects that the Library is participating in directly include Audio Cultures of India: New Approaches to the Performance Archive; A Worldwide Literature: Jāmī (1414-1492) in the Dar al-Islam and Beyond; and Iraq’s Intelligentsia Under Siege: 1980-2012.
 

Audio Cultures of India: New Approaches to the Performance Archive

Principal Investigators

Philip V. Bohlman, Mary Werkman Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Music
Kaley Mason, Assistant Professor, Department  of Music
James Nye, Bibliographer for Southern Asia
Laura Ring, Cataloger and Assistant Southern Asia Librarian

Gramophone Co poster

A poster by the Gramophone Company from a private collection. Circa 1910s. Printed Calcutta?

Project Summary

An exploration of how the methods of “big science” might elucidate and facilitate the humanistic understanding of music, speech, and other audio expressions, the one-year Audio Cultures of India project will deploy data mining and computational pattern analysis techniques more common to the physical and biological sciences to produce a sound history of modern India. Drawing on vast digital corpora already hosted at the University of Chicago Library, this project will bring together faculty, students, and staff from music, anthropology, the Computational Institute, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Library to identify and experiment with new methods for using scientific technologies to process large digital humanities databases. The dense performative culture that characterizes India will receive special attention in an attempt to develop a comparative framework for understanding historical interrelations in the aural world—a sound history of modern India.

Library Involvement

Over the past few years the Library’s Southern Asia Department has developed a special collecting focus on early audio materials from the South Asian subcontinent. Previous initiatives have resulted in presentation of extremely rare audio recordings from the Linguistic Survey of India via the Digital South Asia Library as resources open for scholarly use at dsal.uchicago.edu/lsi/; presentation of The Record News at dsal.uchicago.edu/books/trn/; creation of a collection of early gramophone records at the Roja Muthiah Research Library in Chennai, India; and assistance in development of the Archive of Indian Music in Bangalore, India. In addition to collecting, preserving and providing access to its vast and growing collection of audio resources from India, the Library will maintain a website that will disseminate the results of two workshops associated with the project.
 

A Worldwide Literature: Jāmī (1414-1492) in the Dar al-Islam and Beyond

Primary Investigator

Thibaut d’Hubert, Assistant Professor, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations

Project Collaborator

Alexandre Papas, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) / Centre d’Études Turques, Ottomanes, Balkaniques et Centrasiatiques (CETOBAC), Paris

Jāmī, Tuḥfat al-aḥrār

Courtesy of the BnF – Jāmī, Tuḥfat al-aḥrār, Bnf supp. persan 547, fol. 17.

Project Summary

This one-year seed project aims to develop and articulate a long-term research agenda that would fill a massive lacuna in modern scholarship on transformative intellectual trends in the post-classical Muslim intellectual tradition by studying the reception of the works of polymath ‘Abd al-Rahmān Jāmī (1414-1492), one of the most widely read authors in the Eurasian continent between his lifetime and the early modern period. Ambitious in its theoretical aims and grounded in creative philological approaches, this project endeavors to provide answers to crucial questions largely neglected by Islamic historiography. Seed funding will afford the principal organizers the opportunity to develop a coherent plan that would bring visiting scholars to campus to catalyze a cross-disciplinary conference and prepare a digital collection and searchable corpus of Unicode texts comprising Jāmī’s works along with the Indian commentaries published by Naval Kishore in the nineteenth century.

Library Collaboration

The Library’s James Nye and Laura Ring are collaborating with  Professor d’Hubert on the development of the online interactive corpus of Jāmī’s South Asian commentaries to support the teaching and research activities of the project. The corpus will include rare lithographed editions. Scans of the original books and searchable Unicode versions of the texts will be linked to assist scholars in studying the paleographic and codicological features of the originals, as well as other philological features highlighted by computer-generated analytical tools. Introductory notes on the value and nature of each text written by project participants will also be included. 

Such an online, interactive environment will allow scholars to creatively explore a complex corpus of texts, the conventions of which remain to be systematically analyzed. It will also give project participants the opportunity to use their knowledge and skills to introduce the larger public to a highly codified, immensely rich, and barely known commentarial tradition.

The Library’s leadership of the Digital South Asia Library has provided a rich base of practical experience for collaborating in preparation of the Jāmī corpus. The Southern Asia Department’s close linkages with the British Library, National Library of India, and other international libraries holding early editions of Jāmī’s works will enable the collection of copies of all required texts.
 

Iraq’s Intelligentsia Under Siege: 1980-2012

Primary Investigator

Tom Ginsburg, Professor, Law School

Principal Research Assistant

Matthew Schweitzer, undergraduate, The University of Chicago

Project Collaborators

Iza Hussin, Professor, Political Science
McGuire Gibson, Professor, Oriental Institute and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
Saad Jawad, Senior Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics
Catherine Lutz, Director of the Costs of War Project, Brown University
Daniel Meyer, Director, Special Collections Research Center
Dahr Jamail, Producer, Human Rights Department, Al Jazeera

Project Summary

Three decades of war and external pressure in Iraq have led to the decimation of its university system and its intellectuals. What does it mean to be a scholar at war? Is humanistic inquiry during wartime possible? How has this downfall of Iraq’s domestic university-level intellectual class—professors and university researchers—affected the country’s social, military, and political spheres? These questions form the core of a yearlong analysis of Iraq’s intellectual landscape since the start of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, carrying the narrative through the sanctions period and 2003 invasion to the present day. The destruction of Iraq’s academic class has been an underreported yet grave phenomenon that holds serious implications for the country’s—and the region’s—future. This project represents an effort to capture this history through first-hand accounts, by interviewing Iraqi university professors and research in Iraq and in diaspora, to establish an audio archive of these stories at the University of Chicago Library’s Special Collections Research Center, and to publish an analysis on the demise of Iraq’s intellectual class.

Library Contribution

Research undertaken by this project will create a broad-ranging body of historically important documentation. These unique materials will have continuing significance as a record of the experience of Iraqi intellectuals and as an invaluable resource for future scholarship and policy analysis. In order to preserve and extend access to the project’s original content, the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library will house the printed transcripts of more than 100 oral histories collected from Iraqis and western policymakers. Special Collections will also accession and preserve in the Library’s digital repository the digitally recorded interviews and other electronic materials collected by the project. 

Supplemental print and digital files documenting the development of the project will be added to this archive as the research and writing proceeds. Once the project’s programs and research are completed and the published book has been issued, the archive of the Iraqi intellectuals project will remain as a permanent historical resource. The personal narratives gathered from Iraqi professors and western officials will support investigations by future researchers, teachers, and students. In addition, these unique records will enhance the University’s Middle East collections, one of the premier collections in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies in the world, and facilitate collecting of additional materials on modern Iraq and the Iraq War.
 

Global Impact

“The Library is so many things for us at the Neubauer Collegium,” says David Nirenberg, Director of the Neubauer Collegium. “It is a beacon that attracts our fellows and collaborators from all over the world.  Its collections rank among our most important research instruments. And it is also a key partner in making the results of those researches available globally. How fitting that, throughout these first years of the Neubauer Collegium’s existence, we call the Library home.”

“The University of Chicago Library has long served as a meeting ground for international scholars,” says Nadler, “and participation in the Collegium allows us to continue this tradition of providing resources and spaces while collaborating in the development of new approaches to cross-disciplinary scholarship.”

Women’s zines make life an open book

Posted on February 4, 2013 by The University of Chicago Library

‘D.I.Y. Autobiography’ exhibition highlights new collections of Chicago zines

The zine Taenia Pisiformis, or, Our Tapeworm, or, The Most Grossest Three Months of my Life has earned a special place in the heart of Sarah G. Wenzel and in the winter exhibition she curated, My Life Is an Open Book: D.I.Y. Autobiography.

Cover of "Taenia Pisiformis, or, Our Tapeworm"

Kristen Romaniszak, “Taenia Pisiformis, or, Our Tapeworm, or, The Most Grossest Three Months of my Life” 2005. Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library.

“It’s the form that makes Our Tapeworm my favorite,” says Wenzel, the University of Chicago Library’s Bibliographer for Literatures of Europe and the Americas and one of the founders of the Library’s new zine collections. Created by zinester Kristen Romaniszak, Our Tapeworm has long, narrow pages that mimic the shape of the eponymous parasite at the story’s center. The item’s comics format, focus on personal experience, and apparent production process—hand-drawn and hand-lettered pages photocopied and stapled together—make it typical of a number of the zines on display in the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery from January 14 to April 13, 2013.

Zines, as the exhibition explains, are self-published, hand-made, self-distributed, non-commercial works.  Primarily produced in small print runs on inexpensive photocopier paper, they tend to be idiosyncratic in topic, appearance, or both.  

The range of topics covered by zines is large. Some cover music, others activism, and a great many explore personal life. My Life is an Open Book focuses on perzines (personal zines) produced by women from the 1990s to the present and acquired by the Special Collections Research Center over the last two years, as a decision was made to build new Chicago-focused zine collections at the Library.  Exhibition cases explore the physical form and production of zines, life writing, family ties, communicating narrative wordlessly, and “seeing ourselves as others see us.”  Accompanying the zines are other items from Special Collections, such as Michel de Montaigne’s Essays, which provide historical precedent for these contemporary autobiographical works.

The birth and history of zines is tied to the availability of inexpensive photocopying.  Although the term zine was inspired by science fiction fanzines of the 1940s and after, as Wenzel explains, contemporary zines were first created in the 1970s and took off in the 1980s as part of the punk counterculture.  The first punk zines, Wenzel says, were “very male—focusing on punk culture, music and radical causes.” These were soon followed by a wave of women’s zines emerging from punk women’s riotgrrl culture. Women’s voices have been prominent in zine culture ever since.

Why collect zines?

Some might be surprised to find an academic research library such as the University of Chicago’s collecting zines, but to Wenzel, who began collaborating with the Special Collections Research Center to do so two years ago, they are a logical extension of collection development work that was already underway. 

Buzz #3 cover

Corinne Mucha, “Buzz. No. 3: Stories of Superpowers, Smiling Sloths, Inferior Aliens, and Clocks that Stretch Time, Among Others” 2009. Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library.

“We started collecting poetry chapbooks,” Wenzel says. “Sometimes the line between chapbook and zine is thin. And zines are a terrific record of what’s happening below the surface of contemporary publishing. We can use them to understand what is happening with outsider art and alternative publishing. During a period when it has become harder and harder to publish commercially, they seem particularly important.”

 “We’re interested in documenting Chicago publishing, and zines are a vibrant manifestation of a publishing tradition that is flourishing in Chicago,” explains Alice Schreyer, Assistant University Librarian for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Special Collections. The Special Collections Research Center is already the home of graphic arts, printing, and publishing collections such as the archives of Chicago-based printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company and of Harriet Monroe’s renowned Poetry magazine.

Wenzel now collects every zine with a Chicago connection that she can, through a standing order with Chicago’s well-known comic and zine store Quimby’s and by attending events such as the Chicago Zine Fest, which will hold its 4th annual event at Columbia College on March 8 and 9.  She also occasionally acquires zines from outside Chicago that she finds particularly aesthetically interesting.  And Schreyer is involved as a member of the Caxton Club in organizing this year’s Caxton Club/Newberry Library Symposium on the Book, which will focus on “Outsiders: Zines, Samizdat, and Alternative Publishing” on April 6.

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor Hillary Chute and others in the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality have already expressed interest in the Library’s growing zine collections, and Wenzel imagines that, over time, they will be useful to those studying sociology, politics, autobiography, underground publishing, and history. Chute, who had an opportunity to review the nucleus of the collection before it was cataloged, responded that “What I’ve seen of the collection does a great job of aggregating Chicago-focused work in a way that is a real representative sampling, and shows the range of different formats and themes.”

As Chute notes, several themes are prominent in the collection, including music, activism, and archiving. “Especially for zines about Chicago history, the activist-oriented work is fascinating and conveys real information, too; these are historically and socially relevant,” Chute wrote. “The activist zines that also have a historical bent—or actual pamphlets from earlier periods—are particularly compelling and will be of interest to a range of students.”  

Artistic intentions

Although zines are self-produced in small runs and do not look like traditional literature or art books, the featured zinesters in the exhibit consciously choose to create stories and visual narratives that provide interesting artistic opportunities, that connect personal lives with broader themes, and that engage audiences in artistic or critical dialogues with their work.

“I look at stories as a found object—something I can manipulate and disguise in order to make something new” explains Corinne Mucha, whose exhibited zines include Buzz, I Hate Mom’s Cat: and Other Tails, and My Alaskan Summer.  “While my work may still have some ‘tell-all’ qualities, I’m not really interested in the confessional nature of autobio comics. Writing stories about your life is another way of taking control of them. . . . It’s another kind of magic trick—an old tire torn apart, twisted up to look like a snake.  It’s not a tire anymore, but it’s not really a snake either.  It’s something else entirely, and whatever personal experiences the reader brings to the table can help make it something new.” 

Zine cover: The Fish & the Monkey

Marian Runk, “The Fish and the Monkey,” 2009. Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library.

Another featured zinester in the exhibition, Marian Runk, writes that she chooses her form to take advantage of “the power of the specific to indicate the universal,” as well as the zine’s ability to engage her audience.

 “I am drawn to incorporate cartooning—essentially a process of simplification and reduction—into my work,” Runk explains. “As the details of a face or environment are reduced, so the opportunity of the viewer to identify with a character or locale may increase.  I seek to further bridge the distance between my work and diverse audiences by focusing on the basic unit of one person relating to another, which when multiplied and placed into context, begins to get at the narrative of a place or community. . . . Whether by aversion or affinity, I hope to move my audience beyond mere visual pleasure and into the realm of emotional and critical engagement.”

Events celebrating the exhibition

To celebrate the exhibition, raise awareness of the new zine collections among researchers, and give zinesters and audiences an opportunity to engage one another directly, the Special Collections Research Center will be hosting an opening event on February 22, beginning with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and then readings by zinesters including Grace Tran, Danny Resner, and Carrie Colpitts at 6:30 p.m..  This event is free and open to the public.

On February 27, Hillary Chute will speak to the Library Society at the Special Collections Research Center, offering a brief history of different contemporary forms of autobiographical practice, from zine-making to autobiographical comics to photography and filmmaking.  Professor Chute will assess the rise of formats like comics and zines to address the self, offering a history of their emergence, and suggesting how they conceptualize the self, as well as how they are taking their place in the academy.  Prior to Chute’s 6:45 p.m. lecture, Sarah G. Wenzel will give a 5 p.m. tour of the exhibition.  The lecture and tour are free and open to the public.

On March 7, librarians will host a Make-a-Zine workshop for UChicago students from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts in room 028. Refreshments will be served.

Associated web exhibit

A great many images from the zines on display in the gallery can be seen in an associated web exhibit.

Kuali library systems project wins Mellon grant

Posted on January 28, 2013 by The University of Chicago Library

UChicago Library and peers developing open source Kuali OLE software for research libraries

The Kuali Open Library Environment received a $750,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an open, community-based library software system. OLE was launched in 2009 in part from a $2.3 million grant from the Mellon Foundation and is designed to help libraries manage and deliver an ever-increasing number of digital resources and collections.

The Kuali OLE (pronounced Oh-LAY) project was founded by a partnership of research libraries, including the University of Chicago Library, Indiana University (lead), Duke University, North Carolina State University, University of Florida, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Lehigh University and Villanova University.  The collaborating institutions have pooled resources and expertise along with generous investments from the Mellon Foundation to develop this next-generation system.

University of Chicago Library staff members have played an integral role in the development of Kuali OLE since the design phase in 2008 and continue to do so by developing specifications, participating in software development, undertaking migration planning, providing subject specialist expertise, and testing systems. Twelve UChicago staff members currently serve in leadership positions and as subject matter experts on the Kuali OLE team and dozens more are participating in working groups supporting development activities. 

“Kuali OLE is developed by academic librarians for academic libraries and is tailored to meet the expanding needs of our users,” said Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian at the University of Chicago and member of the OLE Board. 

“Participating in the development of Kuali OLE allows its library developers to implement new standards and technologies as they evolve,” explained James Mouw, the University of Chicago Library’s Associate University Librarian for Collections Services, who serves as a member of the Kuali OLE Functional Council and treasurer of the OLE Board.  “We are making the system flexible and extensible to manage information about our large and growing print collections while also providing the infrastructure to manage and deliver electronic resources, providing a full range of services to Library users in a rapidly changing information environment.”

The University of Chicago and Lehigh University will be the first implementers of the inventive solution platform for academic libraries later this year.  At UChicago, Kuali OLE will replace the Library’s current integrated library system, Horizon, which has been in use since 1995. “The University of Chicago is proud to be an OLE early implementer because we are eager to enhance our own library business processes by using the flexible framework that OLE provides while helping our OLE partnership to develop a sure path to OLE implementation for like size research libraries,” said Nadler.

Development of a new UChicago catalog that will interface with Kuali OLE

Kuali OLE is intentionally being designed to function with a wide range of user interfaces chosen by various individual libraries. In addition to working on the Kuali OLE team, UChicago Library staff members are now developing a new catalog—the user interface that will allow faculty, students and others to access the full range of the library’s resources, including those that will be stored and managed by the Kuali OLE infrastructure, as well as Special Collections finding aids and archival and other collections.   

The new catalog will be based on the open source program VuFind, originally developed at Villanova University.  It is being tailored to meet the needs and preferences of local users based on interviews and testing with UChicago faculty and students. For more information about the development of the new UChicago Library catalog, visit the Library news site.

“We are especially pleased that by implementing OLE and VuFind we will be providing both a business system and a patron access module that are open source—planned, designed, governed and owned by the library community,” said Mouw.

Grant support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

“Collaboration among universities is essential for this decade, and the libraries are leading with the Kuali OLE Project,” said Brad Wheeler, Indiana University’s vice president for information technology and CIO and chair of the Kuali Foundation Board. “We remain grateful to the Mellon Foundation for their first visionary investment in the Kuali Financial System in 2005 and yet again this investment for the libraries.”

In March 2012, the Mellon Foundation also made a grant of $499,000 to North Carolina State University that allows Kuali OLE to partner with JISC Collections (United Kingdom) to create an open Web service that provides electronic resource information on a global scale.

About Kuali

The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping educational and non-profit institutions solve problems through approaches that benefit from collective action and coordination.   Software offered via Kuali in addition to Kuali OLE includes Kuali Finance, Kuali Coeus for Research Administration, Kuali Student, Kuali People Management, Kuali Mobility, and Kuali Ready.  Kuali software is available, without fee, for anyone to use or modify under the Educational Community License.

For more information on Kuali OLE visit http://kuali.org/ole

For Indiana University’s news release about the Mellon grant visit http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/23726.html

Book a Room pilot for group studies begins Jan. 7

Posted on January 4, 2013 by The University of Chicago Library
Group study sign for new room booking system.

If you see this sign on the door of a room, you can book it on behalf of your group using the new Book a Room system.

Student groups looking for a place to work together on problem sets or to cram for that daunting midterm exam should find the task a bit easier this quarter, thanks to the Library’s new Book a Room system. The online system, currently in a pilot phase, allows UChicago students, faculty, and staff to view available group studies and to book a room in advance, on behalf of two or more users.

By introducing a room booking system, the Library hopes to make it easier for groups to find spaces to study and work together collaboratively, in keeping with its commitment to creating and sustaining an environment supportive of scholarship. While the Library has long offered spaces designated for collaborative work, students have reported difficulty in knowing when and where they can find an available room. The new system will make doing so a much simpler task and will, for the first time, allow groups to book a room in advance.

How it Works

Book a Room allows groups to reserve a room up to 7 days in advance for up to 2 hours per day. Groups may choose from among 16 group studies in Regenstein and 7 group studies in Crerar. In addition, Regenstein’s 5 library classrooms, which are intended primarily for formal instruction, may be booked by groups outside of regular teaching hours (after 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday).

Example of the Book a Room grid displaying available rooms

The Book a Room display. Available timeslots are green; booked timeslots are blue. Group names are listed under “Confirmed Bookings” on the left.

Only current UChicago students, faculty, and staff may book rooms, though other groups are welcome to use rooms on a first come, first served basis as long as the room has not been booked. Groups who have booked a room need to bring a confirmation email as proof of their booking in order to ask another group to vacate a room.

The Book a Room system is available online via any Internet browser and via mobile devices. In addition to booking rooms, users can view information about each room, including seating capacity, amenities, and location, as well as photos of the rooms and maps of their locations. Group names are also displayed, allowing users to find a room their group has already booked.

For more information, see How to Book a Room and the Library’s Policies on Room Use .

A group study in Crerar Library

One of the many group studies bookable by groups using the new Book a Room system.

Pilot Phase

The Library is currently offering Book a Room as a pilot during Winter and Spring Quarters 2013. Library staff will review use of the system and solicit feedback from users to evaluate the service going forward.

To see what rooms are available, visit Book a Room at rooms.lib.uchicago.edu.

Custom library instruction for science courses

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Jennifer Hart at Crerar Science

The physical sciences librarians at the Crerar Library are pleased to provide in-person instruction sessions on the use of our resources and on the literature research process for your class research assignments. If you are teaching a course where students need to use library resources to write a research paper or find background for a special project we are ready and willing to tailor a library instruction session around your students’ needs and your course objectives.  In addition we can also provide specialized online library guides for a research paper or project.

Instruction sessions are taught by a librarian and may take place in either your classroom or in an instruction room within the library.  We can provide lecture style presentations for small to medium sized classes, or hands-on search training for groups of up to twenty students.  Sessions can be scheduled during a laboratory session or outside of regularly scheduled class times.  We can also create custom course library guides to help students with their library research.  Call us at 773-702-7715 or email Andrea Twiss-Brooks (geophysical sciences, chemistry, history of science and medicine) at atbrooks@uchicago.edu, Jenny Hart (mathematics, computer science, statistics) at hartj@uchicago.edu , or Barbara Kern (astronomy/astrophysics, physics) at bkern@uchicago.edu if you would like to explore having a library session or a specialized library guide to accompany your course.

Below is a description of a recent instruction session that was provided by Andrea Twiss-Brooks for Principles of Stratigraphy (GeoSci 283).

Exploring the Literature of Stratigraphy

Slide from GeoSci 238 presentation Fall 2012

Stratigraphy is an area of study that requires delving into a variety of types of scientific literature.  Both print and online resources are important to stratigraphy and not every resource is easily discovered using Google.  The Library offers a wealth of resources, and a short session can help students feel more comfortable in tracking down specialized information.

I worked closely with Professor Susan Kidwell to develop a 45 minute instruction session designed to introduce students to the diverse set of resources that comprises the literature of stratigraphy.  The students also had to complete a “laboratory” assignment in which they were to locate stratigraphic information using library resources.  For example, one part of the assignment was to use GeoRef database to find articles on a topic such as Pennsylvanian conglomerates in Illinois.  During the librarian led session (which counted as part of a laboratory period), the students learned about different types of resources:  print and online fieldtrip guidebooks, geologic maps, databases of articles in geology and paleontology, and stratigraphic lexicons.  Levels of discoverability and indexing, how different types of resources are reviewed for scientific accuracy, whether or not copies are easy to find in the library or through interlibrary loan services, and details of coverage for specific localities for each resource type was also discussed.  We explored the use of databases and other tools in more detail, including demonstrations of keyword and cited reference searching.  Tips on finding full text of articles through the Library’s FindIt! linking tool, where to go on the Library’s website to find more information, and tools for managing references and creating bibliographies were also presented.  Following the session, the students had access to a customized library subject guide for their course, which they could consult as needed during the rest of the course.  A link to the guide (http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/geosci283) was included by the instructor in the Chalk course site as well as on the Library’s subject guide for Geophysical Sciences.

‘Swiss Treasures’ exhibition closes Dec. 14

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Special Collections Research Center
Liber Psalmorum

Liber Psalmorum, Medieval Bible in Latin and German, ca. 1200. Courtesy of Martin Bodmer Foundation in Cologny (Geneva)

Situated in the heart of Europe, Switzerland has long been a center for Biblical studies and transformative contributions to Judeo-Christian culture. The exhibition Swiss Treasures: From Biblical Papyrus and Parchment to Erasmus, Zwingli, Calvin, and Barth explores the importance of Swiss religious influences across a range of traditions and historical personalities. Papyri, parchments, first editions, early printings, and modern manuscripts represent treasures in Swiss institutions that link these and other religious thinkers to the philosophical, theological, and political movements that have shaped the modern world.

The rare historical treasures on display from September 21 to December 14 in the Special Collections Research Center Exhibition Gallery have been gathered from seven distinguished Swiss archives and libraries: Basel University Library (Basel), State and University Library (Fribourg), Abbey Library of St. Gall (St. Gall), Central Library (Zurich), the Martin Bodmer Foundation (Cologny), Karl Barth Archive (Basel), and Library of Geneva (Geneva). The exhibition also displays a rare volume from the Special Collections Research Center of the University of Chicago Library.   

Among the manuscripts shown in the exhibition are texts of the Psalms from the Epistle of Jude (fourth century); fragments of the world’s oldest Vulgate version of the Gospels (fifth century); and leaves from one of the few remaining examples of a Samaritan Pentateuch (ca. 1495-96).

Novum Instrumentum

Novum Instrumentum Omne, first printed Greek New Testament edited by Erasmus, 1516. Courtesy of Basel University Library – Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel

Among the printed texts on display are an early printed edition of the Talmud (1578); the first New Testament to be printed in Greek (1516); and the first printings of Bibles in German and French, which were based on the original Hebrew and Greek and overseen by the reformers Zwingli (1530) and Calvin (1535). Some of the rare books on exhibit feature illustrations that are among the finest examples of Swiss printing in the sixteenth century.

The exhibit also displays archival treasures from the twentieth century, including a handwritten draft of the Barmen Theological Declaration (1934), a testimony to the anti-Nazi struggle within Protestantism from the hand of one of its leaders, Karl Barth.

This unique display of rare historical treasures from Swiss institutions was brought together to mark the joint annual meetings in Chicago of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion, held in November 2012.

Preserving endangered Urdu periodicals

Posted on November 2, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

British Library awards UChicago £52,247 grant to preserve endangered Urdu periodicals

The University of Chicago has been awarded a £52,247 grant from the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme, funded by Arcadia, for the digitization and preservation of 60 rare and endangered Urdu language periodicals. With the grant, digital images of magazines and journals will be produced at the Mushfiq Khwaja Library and Research Centre in Karachi, Pakistan, and made available through the University of Chicago Library and the British Library, giving scholars access to a significant archive of the most important Urdu periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Ṣalā’e ām cover image

Ṣalā’e ām, a highly influential periodical, was published from 1908 through 1929 from Delhi. It is held in the Mushfiq Khwaja Library and
Research Centre.

“Without a doubt, Urdu periodicals published between the 1870s and 1940s are of critical importance for anyone doing research in the humanities or social sciences concerning the Urdu-phone populations of India and Pakistan,” says Professor Emeritus C.M. Naim, who taught Urdu in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

Urdu was the lingua franca in much of the subcontinent during the 19th century and Urdu periodicals provide a broad spectrum of writings on a range of important issues in South Asia through the 19th and 20th centuries, making their preservation invaluable for scholars of the language and the region.

“Thanks to the easy technology and low cost of litho printing, the only accepted form for Urdu script texts across South Asia, Urdu weeklies and monthlies began to appear in the 1870s,” Naim explains. “It was in the periodicals that all major modern writers and political and social figures made their debuts and gained popularity. And it is only in the periodicals that we can discover the full extent of many literary and political
controversies that are only now beginning to gain the attention of scholars.”

A panel of internationally recognized Urdu scholars, including Naim, will select the periodicals to be archived. The selected titles will be preserved by creating high-resolution digital page images.

Humāyūn cover image

Humāyūn was a prominent monthly literary magazine produced in Lahore from 1922 and continuing into the 1950s.

The Mushfiq Khwaja Library and Research Centre, which is owned and managed by the University of Chicago Library on behalf of a consortium of U.S. research libraries, houses one of the finest collections of Urdu periodicals in the world, making it an ideal location for the project. James Nye, University of Chicago Library Bibliographer for Southern Asia and Principal Investigator for the project, acquired the collection for the consortium. He noted that “this project is a testament to what is possible through the University’s collaboration with our colleagues in Pakistan and India. The teamwork will benefit scholars around the world through free access to invaluable primary research resources.”

Nasir Javaid, the Mushfiq Khwaja Library and Research Centre Executive Director, will lead digitization activities in Pakistan. As a byproduct of the project, best practices for conservation and digitization will be disseminated to collaborating institutions across Pakistan and India.

Digital images will be archived by the British Library and the University of Chicago Library, and disseminated via the Digital South Asia Library and the HathiTrust Digital Library. Digital and paper copies of the periodicals will be cataloged and made visible via OCLC’s WorldCat and the South Asia Union Catalogue.

For more information about the Endangered Archives Programme, visit http://eap.bl.uk/.

UChicago, NU launch UNCAP archives website

Posted on October 8, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

UNCAP archives website launched by University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library

The University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library are pleased to announce the launch of an innovative collaboration to support research in primary archival sources.

Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project (UNCAP), http://UNCAP.lib.uchicago.edu/, is a freely available web site that delivers hundreds of finding aids representing strengths of the archival collections of the University of Chicago Library and Northwestern University Library.

Ida B. Wells portrait (photograph)

Ida B. Wells-Barnett wearing “Martyred Negro Soldiers” button, ca. 1917-1919. Ida B. Wells Papers, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Through the new UNCAP web site, researchers can search across collections and institutions for information on a broad range of topics: African American history and culture, theater, jazz, urban sociology, journalism, Native Americans, modern poetry, anthropology, African studies, literature, criminology and legal studies, art and photography, medical history, and the Manhattan Project.

UNCAP extends and expands the success of Mapping the Stacks, an initiative launched in 2005 by Jacqueline Goldsby, a scholar of African American studies. In January 2007, Mapping the Stacks became part of UNCAP, which was funded through September 2010 by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon foundation. The UNCAP site provides archival finding aids created during the Mellon grant for collections at a group of Chicago institutions: the University of Chicago, the Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature at the Chicago Public Library, the DuSable Museum of African American History, the South Side Community Art Center, and the Chicago Defender.

UNCAP is now being substantially expanded through the joint efforts of Northwestern University Library and the University of Chicago Library. UNCAP finding aids represent the extraordinarily rich array of archival collections at Northwestern and the University of Chicago. Among the highlights now accessible through the UNCAP web site are:

Northwestern University Library — UNCAP Highlights

The Melville J. Herskovits (1895–1963) Papers document the life and research of a seminal American anthropologist. Herskovits was the founder of Northwestern’s famous Library of African Studies, which now bears his name. Numerous other important archives in UNCAP, e.g. the papers of Lorenzo Dow Turner and Dennis Brutus, are central resources for students of Africa and the African diaspora.

John Henry Wigmore (1863–1943) was on the law faculty at Northwestern from 1893 until 1929. His “Treatise on Evidence” (1904–05) was probably the most heavily cited law text of its day. The Wigmore Papers are one of several important archives in the field of law and criminology, among which is Northwestern’s extensive Leopold and Loeb Collection, which includes hundreds of pages of original transcripts from the confessions, the psychiatric evaluations, and both original ransom notes from this famous 1924 murder case.

Several finding aids open to students and scholars the history and activities of the Northwestern University Settlement Association, founded in 1891 to provide social services, educational programs, referrals, and emergency relief to a poor immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s near northwest side.

Finally, Northwestern’s strengths in theatre and the performing arts are represented by finding aids to the papers of the great Chicago director Frank Galati, winner of nine Jeff Awards, and Winifred Ward (1884–1975), founder of The Children’s Theater of Evanston, one of the pioneer theaters for children in America, which she led for 25 years before retiring in 1950. The guide to the Papers of Viola Spolin, the godmother of Chicago improv, will be added to UNCAP later this year.

University of Chicago Library — UNCAP Highlights

After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, World War II Manhattan Project scientists organized a campaign to control nuclear weapons and assure civilian control of nuclear energy. Archival collections from this scientists’ movement include records of the Association of Los Alamos Scientists, Association of Oak Ridge Scientists and Engineers, Association of Pasadena Scientists, Association of Cambridge Scientists, Atomic Scientists of Chicago, and Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists. Archival files of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists document emerging views of scientists on the technological and social impact of nuclear policy.

Sun Ra and His Arkestra, Jazz in Silhouette

Sun Ra and His Arkestra, Jazz in Silhouette, Saturn LP 5786, 1959. Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra Papers, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Chicago jazz and poetry are also represented. The John Steiner Collection includes letters, publications, photographs, and other material about Chicago jazz musicians, groups, clubs, and recording companies. The Alton Abraham Collection of Sun Ra Papers documents the career of Sun Ra and his Arkestra with manuscripts, business records, printed ephemera, artifacts, photographs, album art. Poet, critic, and teacher Ralph J. Mills, Jr. (1931-2007) is represented by a collection that includes letters, manuscripts of his writings, and poetry publications. The papers of Michael Anania (born 1939) document his career as a professor, poet, novelist, and editor. The records of the Poetry Center of Chicago (founded 1973) preserve the history of an influential non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing broader access to poetry through poetry readings, public events, and educational programs.

The papers of Ida B. Wells, (1862-1931), the notable American civil rights leader and anti-lynching activist, include diaries, photographs, clippings about her many political and social achievements, and the manuscript of her autobiography, Crusade for Justice. The papers of Julius Rosenwald, progressive philanthropist and businessman, trace his influential role in supporting rural schools for African American, higher education at the Tuskegee Institute and Howard University, urban social welfare reform, and World War I civilian relief efforts.

A select group of UNCAP collections have been digitized, allowing researchers to click on links in finding aids and view digital scans of the original content. Among these, the Dr. Harry and Dr. Ruth Morris Bakwin Soviet Posters Collection presents vivid images of political posters, many promoting Stalin’s First Five Year Plan (1928-1932) to develop heavy industry in the Soviet Union. The Middle Eastern Posters Collection provides graphic depictions of the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iran-Iraq War, and mine safety programs for civilians in Afghanistan during the 1980s.

List of indentured servants on board the Vigor, January 30, 1785. Slavery and Indentured Servitude Collection, Special Collections Research Center, The University of Chicago Library

Marking the launch of UNCAP, Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian at the University of Chicago says, “UNCAP offers an effective new tool for students, teachers, and researchers to explore a rich range of historical collections located in Chicago. Finding aids of the University of Chicago and Northwestern University are now jointly accessible through searches in the same database, accompanied by guides to unique historical materials from the Harsh Collection, DuSable Museum, South Side Community Art Center, and Chicago Defender. We look forward to working with Northwestern in continuing to expand this valuable collaborative resource.”

Sarah Pritchard, Dean of Libraries and Charles Deering McCormick University Librarian at Northwestern University, says of UNCAP, “UNCAP represents an important new vehicle for scholars at each of these major universities to discover the archival riches of the other—as well as at their own institutions and several neighboring institutions. Collections of original archives, even in this digital age, are largely unique, physical, complex, and place-bound resources for making new discoveries. UNCAP ‘UNCAPs’ them for a whole generation of students and scholars.”

For additional information on the content of UNCAP archival collections, please contact:

Jeffrey Garrett
Associate University Librarian for Special Libraries & Director, Special Collections and Archives
Northwestern University Library
jgarrett@northwestern.edu

Daniel Meyer
Director, Special Collections Research Center & University Archivist
University of Chicago Library
arch@uchicago.edu

For technical information on the UNCAP database and finding aid encoding, please contact:

Charles Blair
Director, Digital Library Development Center
University of Chicago Library
chas@uchicago.edu

‘Transcending Tradition’ exhibit extended

Posted on September 21, 2012 by The University of Chicago Library

The international exhibition Transcending Tradition: Jewish Mathematicians in German-Speaking Academic Culture opened in the U.S. on October 4, 2012 with a celebration at the John Crerar Library from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. 

Felix Hausdorff portrait

Felix Hausdorff became a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn during the Weimar Republic and was active as a philosophical novelist and man of letters. Copyright: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bonn, Nachlass Hausdorff. Used with permission.

Transcending Tradition presents the life and works of Jewish mathematicians in Germany. Spanning a period of 150 years, it documents their emergence from segregation into the academic limelight, recalls their emigration, flight or death after 1933, and illuminates their lasting legacies.

The exhibition highlights the key role of Jewish mathematicians in German-speaking academic culture before 1933 – in teaching and academic research, in professional organizations and throughout mathematical culture, from academic to popular. A wealth of pictures and documents trace many moving lives: young researchers who helped shape modern mathematics and physics, scholars who went beyond mathematics and made their mark in literature or philosophy, and the story of the most important female mathematician of the 20th century. It explores the places and historical contexts and presents the actors and their contributions with scholarly precision and a compassionate eye for individuals and their fates.

Designed by a group of seven historians of mathematics in cooperation with the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and the German Mathematical Society, the exhibition was displayed in Israel before coming to the U.S.

Noether and friends

Emmy Noether (1882-1935; pictured center) was a Göttingen mathematician of great distinction. Like all other Jewish mathematicians, Noether was expelled from her university after the rise of the Nazis to power. She emigrated to the U.S.A., where she taught at Bryn Mawr College until her death in 1935. Copyright: Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach. Used with permission.

The October 4 opening celebration will begin at 5:30 p.m. with remarks by Judith Nadler, Director and University Librarian, The University of Chicago; Robert J. Zimmer, President, The University of Chicago; Silvan Schweber, Professor of Physics and Koret Professor of the History of Ideas, Emeritus, Brandeis University, who will speak on “The Bethes and German Jewish Culture”; Robert A. Fefferman, Dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences, the University of Chicago; Christian Brecht, German Consul General to the Midwest; and Moritz Epple, Professor of History of Science, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.  A reception and viewing of the exhibition will follow from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Individuals planning to attend the opening celebration are encouraged to register at http://uchic.ag/transcend-trad by September 26 if possible.

The exhibition runs through Spring 2013, at the John Crerar Library, 5730 S. Ellis Avenue, Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It and related events at the University of Chicago are sponsored by the University of Chicago Library, the Chicago Center for Jewish Studies, the Division of the Physical Sciences, the Department of Germanic Studies, the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and the Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago, the John Crerar Foundation, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe Institut, Deutsche Telekom Stiftung, and the Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics. Further support has been received from the Leibniz Prize funds awarded to Wolfgang Lück.

For more information about associated upcoming lectures by Hanna Holborn Gray, President Emerita and Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the University of Chicago, and Sander Gilman, Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry at Emory University, visit  tt.lib.uchicago.edu.  For further information about the international exhibition, visit www.gj-math.de

Hilbert with friends

From left to right: Alfréd Haar, Franz Hilbert, Hermann Minkowski, unknown, Käthe Hilbert, David Hilbert, Ernst Hellinger. Göttingen was considered the mecca of mathematics in the early 20th century. The city achieved its international renown largely due to the influence of David Hilbert and Felix Klein, as well as many other significant Jewish mathematicians and physicists. More than a few of Hilbert’s 73 doctoral students were Jewish, including Otto Blumenthal, Max Dehn, Felix Bernstein, Ernst Hellinger, Alfréd Haar, Richard Courant, Hugo Steinhaus, and Jacob Grommer. This extremely productive period came to an abrupt end with their exclusion and expulsion after 1933.

3/6/2013 update: The exhibition’s stay at Crerar Library has been extended into Spring 2013.

Rare Chinese texts spark collaboration

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Susie Allen, The University of Chicago

The United States is home to many important pre-modern Chinese texts, from the only surviving copy of some volumes of a 15th-century Encyclopedia, the Yongledadian, to the Sequel to Yuanxiang qijiu shiji, an unpublished manuscript of a poetry collection from the Qing dynasty held at the University of Chicago Library. The University of Chicago’s collection of Chinese rare books alone comprises some 10,000 volumes.

Detail from “Xing jun ji xiang yi tu,” roughly translated as “Prophecies for Success in Military Campaigns,"

“Xing jun ji xiang yi tu,” roughly translated as “Prophecies for Success in Military Campaigns,” was written and drawn in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). It is held at the University of Chicago Library. (Photo by Sherry Byrne)

Yet not enough is known about how scholars use these collections, the preservation needs of the materials, or what preservation efforts are under way across the country. According to Yuan Zhou, curator of the Library’s East Asian Collection, scholars from China and the West need more ways to share expertise and to learn from each other.

So this May, Zhou and Prof. Edward Shaughnessy organized a conference at the University of Chicago’s Mansueto Library to provide a forum for scholars, collection curators, and preservation specialists from China and the West to collaborate and share their knowledge of pre-modern Chinese materials. “Texting China—Composition, Transmission, Preservation of Pre-modern Chinese Textual Materials” also provided a rare opportunity for scholars of Chinese texts to present alongside library curators and preservation specialists from leading institutions in China, Taiwan, the United States, Canada, and Europe.

The Mansueto Library was an especially fitting choice of location for the conference, according to Library Director Judith Nadler. The new library, with its cutting-edge preservation facilities, Nadler said, “is both a symbol and the realization of the commitment to preservation and access to global resources that support scholarship worldwide.”

The event was held in honor of Tsuen-Hsien (T.H.) Tsien, Professor Emeritus in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, who made what Nadler described as a “remarkable contribution to the study and preservation of China’s literary heritage” during his lengthy career at UChicago. The event was a reunion of sorts for Tsien and several of his students, who now head the East Asia collections at top universities throughout the United States and returned to Chicago to celebrate the work of their former teacher.

“A needed collaboration”

“I went into this conference thinking there were major differences in the things that needed to be done with Chinese books and with Western books,” says Shaughnessy, the Lorraine J. and Herlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies. He was encouraged to discover that the knowledge gap was significantly smaller than he initially thought.

A Dunhuang manuscript scroll that contains three fragments of Buddhist sutras was initially appraised by the UChicago Library and determined to date back to the ninth century. An expert from the National Library of China, who has studied numerous similar pieces at his own institution, examined the manuscript during the conference. He has suggested the piece dates back to the seventh century. (Photo by Michael Kenny)

The fundamentals of preserving and conserving Western and Chinese materials are very similar, although early Chinese materials often use types of paper and ink, and binding methods that are less familiar to conservators trained in the West. “Even though the science is the same, the format is different,” explains Shaughnessy.

Preservation of early texts is vital to the work of scholars like Shaughnessy, who studies the cultural and literary history of the early Zhou period. He is currently at work on a survey of recently excavated examples of the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) an ancient Chinese text used for divination.

During the conference, all participants reaped the benefits of their counterparts’ expertise. For example, the Library holds a Dunhuang manuscript scroll that contains three fragments of Buddhist sutras, thought to date back to the 9th century. An expert from the National Library of China, who has studied numerous similar pieces at his own institution, examined the manuscript and suggested the piece was even older than it was initially appraised by the Library. Judging from the paper and calligraphy, he dated the piece to the seventh century.

In addition, Zhou and a delegation of experts from the National Library of China visited the Field Museum to examine a Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.) rubbing of the Lanting Xu, a collection of poetry inscribed by master calligrapher Wang Xishi. Based on his expertise with early royal families and collectors’ seals, Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director of the National Library of China, was able to verify the authenticity of the rubbing, and proposed that it may be the oldest existing copy of the Lanting Xu.

Edward Shaughnessy, the Lorraine J. and Herlee G. Creel Distinguished Service Professor in Early Chinese Studies, speaks at the “Texting China” international symposium at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library Special Collections Research Center held in May. (Photo by Jason Smith)

This kind of interchange is exactly what the conference was designed to promote. “Everyone agreed it was a needed collaboration,” Zhou says. In fact, the conference was the first of its kind in the United States that brought together an international assemblage of scholars who use the entire span of pre-modern Chinese written materials in their research with librarians who care for these materials to discuss their making, dissemination, and preservation.

“Texting China” also came in the midst of significant efforts to broaden the study of China at the University of Chicago. In addition to the creation of the University’s Center in Beijing and the Confucius Institute, two leading experts on China, historian Kenneth Pomeranz and comparative literature scholar Haun Saussy, have joined the faculty as University Professors.

“A legendary figure”

The conference provided an opportunity to honor Tsien, whom Zhou described as a “legendary figure” in his field. Tsien, 102, came to the University in 1947 and went on to become the curator of the East Asian collection. He also taught at UChicago’s former library school and in East Asian Languages and Civilizations.

The “Texting China” international symposium celebrated the life’s work of Tsuen-Hsien (T.H.) Tsien, Professor Emeritus in East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Library Director Judith Nadler described Tsien’s work as a “remarkable contribution to the study and preservation of China’s literary heritage.” (Photo by Jason Smith)

In addition to his work at Chicago, Tsien is known for his heroic efforts to protect China’s literary heritage in World War II. During the Japanese occupation of China, Tsien risked his life to help smuggle more than 100 wooden crates of rare books from the National Library of China to the United States.

The fruits of Tsien’s effort to protect Chinese rare books were on display at the conference, as scholars from UChicago and elsewhere discussed their work on pre-modern Chinese texts. Donald Harper, the Centennial Professor of Chinese Studies, discussed his study of the provenance of the Chu Silk Manuscript, now held by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. Yuming He, Assistant Professor in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, presented her work on global consciousness in the Ming Period.

Only a beginning

During this two-and-half-day conference, 23 presentations were delivered, followed by two roundtable panel discussions. The scholars and librarians from China and the West exchanged their research findings in studying pre-modern Chinese texts, shared their experience in preserving and conserving these materials, and discussed issues of mutual concern.

Yuan Zhou

Yuan Zhou, curator of the Library’s East Asian Collection, and co-organizer of the “Texting China” symposium. (Photo by Jason Smith)

In an era when many are forecasting the death of the physical book, Shaughnessy found it especially meaningful to have scholars present alongside the librarians who care for the materials they study. “As the significance of the digital age has really dawned on scholars of all stripes, I think it’s impressed itself upon them that we really need to know [about] the media that carries this information,” he says.

Zhou says he was heartened by the collaboration that took place at the event. In this regard, “this conference is only a beginning,” Zhou says. He and Shaughnessy hope to eventually develop an exchange program with the National Library of China that would allow preservation specialists in the East and West to work together. Other conference participants proposed assessing the preservation needs of pre-modern Chinese texts, creating an international digital registry of these materials, undertaking more collaborative digitization projects, assessing educational needs and developing a curriculum to meet them, and fundraising to support preservation efforts.

“These materials need to be preserved,” Zhou says. “The conference brought people a higher awareness of such need, and [it] shows that colleagues from the West and China are very willing to work together and pursue this shared goal.”

A University of Chicago news release