Summer 2008 (PDF, 1.1MB)
Dean's MessageAs I begin my third year at KU Libraries, I am reminded of how fortunate we are here at KU to see a groundswell of support from our friends and benefactors. Our most ardent advocates have helped lay the foundation for a world-class library system, and the new interest shown through the generous contributions of our recent donors ensures we will remain on an upward trajectory.
With that in mind, I am pleased to announce two new advancement projects at KU Libraries.
The first is our new Board of Advocates, which will serve as the chief volunteer group of University of Kansas Libraries. As advisors to the Dean, its members will assist in identifying human and financial resources necessary to promote and achieve the mission and vision of KU Libraries. We are currently recruiting an outstanding group of individuals committed to ensuring the Libraries has the private financial support necessary to meet the needs of our evolving campus. The board will meet for the first time this fall, and I look forward to sharing its progress in the next issue of Bibliophile.
The second new project at KU Libraries involves the opportunity to reconnect with the more than 7,300 KU alumni who worked in the library system during their time on campus. If you are part of this community, you know firsthand the role our libraries play on campus, in the city, throughout the state and beyond. Look forward to receiving an informative letter and opportunity to support KU Libraries through a financial contribution early this fall. We’ve featured a handful of our alumni in this newsletter, and I hope to continue to get to know more of you through our events and outreach activities in the coming year.
Thank you for your continued interest in KU Libraries. I look forward to sharing even more good news about gifts that make a difference at the University of Kansas in the months to come.
lorraine j. haricombe
Dean, KU Libraries
A strong library system means a strong university. Your gift to KU Libraries impacts people and programs throughout the campus. The following funding priorities reflect the Libraries’ critical mission on campus:
Collections
KU Libraries’ print and electronic collections support research and learning in every area of study on campus. Gifts to this area support building and processing collections in the social sciences, humanities and science and technology areas.
Increasingly, libraries rely on technology to manage, store and deliver services to patrons. Specific areas in need of support include servers, imaging equipment, scanners and instructional technologies.
With seven libraries across two campuses, facilities maintenance and improvements remain an ongoing priority. Your support ensures that facilities including Watson, Anschutz and Spencer Research Libraries will serve generations to come.
Librarians are the critical link between patrons and information. Gifts supporting professional development and training in new skills and expertise mean KU Libraries can continue to deliver top-notch support to campus people and priorities.
To support excellence at KU Libraries, visit www.kuendowment.org. Thank you for all you do to help KU and the KU Libraries.
The Mark Mangino Story You know his name. You know his face. You know his team.
You know Mark Mangino is considered one of the best coaches in college football.
But did you know the 2007 Coach of the Year does a lot to ensure KU students are as victorious in the classroom as they are on the field? Despite his visibility as a highly competitive coach, Mangino’s role as a generous advocate of the University of Kansas Libraries hasn’t been as evident. Until now.
Mangino, a self-described “voracious” reader, and his wife, Mary Jane, have pledged $10,000 to support enrichment programs at KU Libraries.
“I’ve always read—magazines, books, anything I can get my hands on. I’m constantly trying to learn new things—even now, even today,” said Mangino. “I have an intellectual curiosity—I needed to read to learn actively. I try to instill the same in our players.”
Mangino credits his approach to learning to his father Tom, a Pennsylvania native and one of the first in his neighborhood to attend college. Tom encouraged Mark to attend college as well, something that the coach admits to not taking seriously at first.
“I learned quickly that if you don’t do things right, there are consequences. Do it right, while you’re young, and you’ll have a better chance of success at life,” said Mangino, a 1987 graduate of Youngstown State. “If you don’t take care of your business, your life will be a struggle. If you can take care now—you have a great chance to be a success.”
Mangino credits part of his success to his father for introducing him, and later his two children, to reading at a very early age.
“When our children were small, maybe two or three or four years old, my parents would keep books on hand for them,” said Mangino. “My father told me and my children, ‘Knowledge is power.’ I tell our players—and my granddaughter—the same thing.”
Knowing his philosophy behind life and learning, it’s not surprising to find that Mangino is an ardent supporter of KU Libraries.
“The reason I decided to support the Libraries is that there isn’t an automatic alumni base to provide the funding it needs,” said Mangino. “No one graduates from the library, but everyone needs it. We had an opportunity to help out our students. The library is extremely important to Mary Jane and me.”
Mangino, like coaches around the United States, is charged—at least informally—with increasing the national profile of an already strong university. His team’s recent Orange Bowl win turned a spotlight on KU, and not just its athletic programs.
“Success of high profile athletic programs can have a major impact on a university,” said Mangino. “Athletics might not be the most important thing on campus, but it is the ‘front porch’ of an institution. There’s no reason academics and athletes can’t work together—there’s no competing agenda.”
In fact, KU Libraries is working closely with Athletics in a number of new projects. The joint READ poster campaign highlights coaching staff and student athletes as they promote literacy. The campaign has brought student athletes into elementary classrooms throughout the area, illustrating the correlation between reading for enjoyment and higher test scores.
Additionally, Libraries and Athletics teamed up to address the unique needs of incoming freshmen athletes through the NCAA Bridge program. The Libraries created a one-credit course, LA&S 292: Research Methods and Information Literacy, and delivered it to these athletes in an effort to encourage better academic preparedness and to facilitate the academic transition to university life.
This is just the start of what promises to be a mutually beneficial relationship on the KU campus. And as Mangino looks to the future of his program, his words ring true for more than just football.
“2007 is long gone,” said Mangino. “This is the beginning of a new challenge. We’ll start from scratch for 2008, and build block by block.”
Sandra Gautt (second from left) speaks with Deborah Dandridge (left) and KU students interested in the African American Experience archives at Spencer Research Library
A gift to KU Libraries will benefit scholars who study the African American materials in Spencer Research Library’s Kansas Collection.
The $30,000 gift, made by Sandra Gautt, an associate professor of education at KU, will support the Alyce Hunley Whayne Visiting Scholars Fund. The fund covers travel expenses for visiting scholars and graduate students conducting research of the collection.
Gautt, who served as KU’s vice provost for faculty development from 2002 to 2006, made the gift in honor of her mother, the late Alyce Whayne.
“Several years ago, my mother and I decided to donate our family papers and memorabilia to KU Libraries,” said Gautt. “This process helped me see the value of these items beyond a single family’s history. I began to understand that they showed how people lived at a certain point in time, and how that might be helpful to researchers.”
When her mother passed away, Gautt said, she struggled to find a proper way to memorialize her.
“I wanted a gift that had both longevity and impact,” said Gautt. “One day, as I was recalling how fond she was of sharing the story of our family history, I thought, ‘What better way to honor her than by making that history more accessible to scholars?’ ”
Deborah Dandridge, KU Libraries’ field archivist, said the African American Experience archives are one of the largest archival resources on the subject in Kansas.
“With more than a thousand manuscripts and photographs, these unique materials provide a wealth of historical information about leadership, social activism, education and business from an African-American perspective,” said Dandridge.
The collection represents items donated from communities across the state. It reveals how African-Americans achieved and contributed to Kansas history from the era of segregation through the post-1954 Brown vs. Board of Education years.
The gift will be managed by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
KU Librarian Susan Craig Receives Rare International AwardKU Librarian Susan Craig is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA). The Distinguished Service Award honors an individual of any country whose exemplary service in art librarianship, visual resources curatorship, or a related field, has made an outstanding national or international contribution to art information. The award is the highest honor available from the organization, which includes more than 1,000 members.
Craig, the only art librarian at KU, has been a member of ARLIS/NA since its inception in 1972.
“I am overwhelmed,” Craig said. “Throughout my career, my professional home has always been with ARLIS/NA. No matter where I’ve moved, it remained constant. When a body like that says ‘You deserve this award,’ it’s huge.”
According to ARLIS/NA, the award is reserved for those who show outstanding service, research, performance and/or publication in a manner consistent with the highest standards of the field. The award is given infrequently, and fellow ARLIS/NA members nominate winners.
Craig is the author of the award-winning eBook entitled “Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945),” which is available free online through KU ScholarWorks (http://hdl.handle.net/1808/1028). Craig began work on the book in 1981 after seeing an ARLIS/NA compilation of a state-by-state guide to artists that had no entry for Kansas.
“I was appalled,” she said. “Not only because I did not know much about Kansas artists, but because no one did.”
Craig, a native Kansan who was named head of KU’s Murphy Art and Architecture Library in 1981, felt a civic duty to explore Kansan artists and share the information with others. Her resulting work won the Worldwide Books Award for Electronic Resources in 2007.
“I naively assumed I’d spend a year assembling this dictionary,” she said. “Really I worked on it over the next ten.”
A new service desk will enhance the user experience and draw attention to new and existing resources at Watson Library.
The desk, which will be installed during the summer break, will replace the current, temporary desk on the main level of the library. This is the first phase in a concerted effort to improve staff visibility and create a warmer, more welcoming environment for library patrons. The improvements are being made in response to user needs expressed in a recent survey.
Lorraine J. Haricombe, dean of libraries at KU, said making patrons feel at home can lead to further engagement with library staff and services.
“Time and time again, research has shown a strong correlation between a positive change in the physical environment of a library and a dramatic increase in collection use,” she said. “The more comfortable our patrons are, the more likely they are to interact with our librarians and utilize our collections.”
Plans for Watson Library’s third floor, one of the highest traffic areas in the library system, include new carpeting, furniture and an expanded user workspace. The installation is funded by private and public monies earmarked for facilities. If you are interested in supporting this transformation through a private gift, please contact Rebecca Smith, public relations and advancement director, at rasmith@ku.edu or 785-864-1761.
LA&S 292 instructor Tami Albin works with KU’s student-athletes in this summer’s LA&S 292 Research Methods course, taught by Librarians Albin and Julie Petr.
LA&S 292 (and the Honors Seminar version, LA&S 492) will be offered this fall and is open to all KU students.
The KU Alumni Association’s 2009 Flying Jayhawks trip to the Celtic Lands will be hosted by Bill Crowe, librarian at KU, and will take place from May 3-14, 2009.
Traverse the Irish and Celtic Seas from the ancient Norman city of Rouen to Scotland’s historical capital of Edinburgh and cruise the coastlines of northern France, southern England, Ireland and Scotland.
Walk along historic beaches and explore the fortress of Mont-St.-Michel, before touring the leafy Scottish Highlands and the unique ports of Cork and Dublin. For more information, contact the Alumni Association at 785-864-4760.
by Dylan Sands
As a student at KU in the early 80s, Carleen Brice spent hours perusing the endless stacks in pursuit of lost books. More than 20 years later, Brice has found a book within herself. Her first novel, Orange Mint and Honey, was published in February.
Brice worked in Watson Library’s lost searches department while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in journalism from 1981 until 1985. After completing school, she moved to Denver to work for a public relations firm.
Brice recalled her times spent at the libraries with fondness.
“I absolutely loved my boss, Norma Bishop. She had a whole system for tracking down these lost books,” Brice said. “I also got to work with my best friend from high school who worked at the front desk.”
She said her coursework at KU prepped her for the business side of being an author. “I majored in advertising and that background serves me well as a professional writer,” she said. “The author is responsible for much of the promotion of the books, so it’s definitely good to have the background to know how to make it happen.”
Her new novel explores a strained mother-daughter relationship and their attempt to reconcile.
It takes a tremendous amount of teamwork to deliver outstanding service to a campus of more than 30,000. Fortunately, more than 300 student employees help KU Libraries meet the scholarly needs of faculty, staff and students each semester.
Each issue of Bibliophile will highlight one of the 7,300 University of Kansas alumni who worked for the Libraries while they were students on campus. Send us an update—we’d love to hear from you! Email Rebecca Smith at rasmith@ku.edu and let us know where you are now.
Bibliophile is published in print and online semi-annually by the University of Kansas Libraries for alumni, friends and benefactors. Printing is paid for with private contributions. Correspondence should be sent to rasmith@ku.edu or mailed to:
Bibliophile
502 Watson Library
1425 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence, KS 66045
Editor - Rebecca Smith
Design and editorial assistance – Sarah Kanning
Contributing writer – Dylan Sands
Editorial Board:
Lorraine J. Haricombe, KU Libraries Dean
Tami Albin , Jeff Bullington, Bayliss Harsh, Jana Krentz, Holly Mercer, Bill Myers, John Stratton, Sarah Goodwin Thiel and Sherry Williams.
Copyright © 2009 by the University of Kansas