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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign Library

Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

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University of Illinois Library Friends at Urbana-Champaign

I New Endowmnent Createdfor Reference Library

The Library has announced the receipt ofa major gift from Gaylord and Dorothy R.Donnelley to create the Gaylord andDorothy R. Donnelley Library EndowmentFund to benefit the Reference Library.

The gift was received in the spring of1992 and qualified for a matching grantthrough the National Endowment for theHumanities Challenge Grant program. Mr.Donnelley died in the spring of 1992,causing the official announcement of thegift to be delayed until this spring.

"The importance of this gift is under-lined by the fact that inflation in the cost ofmaterials over the years and reduced statefunding for the Library have taken theirtoll over the last decade," wrote U of IPresident Stanley 0. Ikenberry to theDonnelleys in April 1992 to acknowledgethe gift.

"Your support and that from others givesus the opportunity to maintain theexcellence of our collections and services... Because the Reference Library is truly astate resource, your gift will benefit manyindividuals and businesses throughout theentire State of Illinois."

Mr. Donnelley was the former chairmanand president of the R.R. Donnelley & SonsCo., the world's largest commercial printer.

In addition, he was well known fornearly six decades as an active conserva-tionist, serving on the boards of nationaland international wildlife federations. Healso served on the boards of manyChicago-area civic organizations, rangingfrom the Chicago Urban League to theYMCA Advisory Board, and was alongtime member of the University ofChicago Board of Trustees.

The grandson of the founder of R. R.Donnelley & Sons, Mr. Donnelley grew upin and around printers and the printingbusiness, bragging once that he learned toset type when he was in third grade.

After receiving a bachelor's degree from

Yale University in 1931 and spending ayear at Cambridge University, he joined thefamily firm, learning the business from thebottom up. He became president of the com-pany in 1952 and board chairman in 1964.Upon retirement in 1975, he was namedchairman of the executive committee.

Although printing may have been in hisblood, Mr. Donnelley also was deeplydevoted to the outdoors, especially topreserving natural areas for recreation.

It was through his love of the outdoors,in fact, that Mr. Donnelley, while a studentat Yale, met and became a fishing partnerof a neighbor of his sister's in Wyoming-Ernest Hemingway, who was finishing hisnovel A Farewell to Arms at the time.

Hemingway later introduced Mr. Don-nelley to Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald, whoinvited the young Mr. Donnelley to spenda weekend at their place in Long Island.

In 1935, he married Dorothy Ranney,daughter of a family friend who servedwith Mr. Donnelley's father on theUniversity of Chicago board of trustees.The two found they shared a passion for

bird hunting, and Mrs. Donnelley became abreeder and trainer of hunting dogs at theirhome in Libertyville, Illinois.

Mr. Donnelley also had a strong interestin education and was associated withlibraries at the University of Chicago, YaleUniversity, and Cambridge University, aswell as the Newberry Library. He was acharter member of the Illinois Center forthe Book, serving on its board of directorsand long-range planning committee.

The U of I Library, however, was not wellknown to him until he visited in 1991.

"Your library is most impressive and Ilearned a lot that I did not know," he wroteto then University Librarian David Bishopin May 1991, after the trip. "You have greatresources, but like all libraries need moreand are hard pressed to keep up with allthe demands for your services."

The new Gaylord and Dorothy R.Donnelley Library Endowment Fund willbe used for acquisitions and services in theReference Library, a unit that answers morethan 80,000 questions every year.

Gaylord Donelly (right) with Engineering Librarian William Mischo during a visit to the library in 1991.

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Penelope Niven

Noted Sandburg BiographerPresents Spring Lecture

Nearly 100 Library Friends gathered inthe Gregory Hall auditorium April 15 tohear biographer Penelope Niven speakabout the subject that engaged herattention for fourteen years-CarlSandburg.

Entitled "Blood, Breed, Bones,Background: Writing Carl Sandburg'sBiography," the talk gave a glimpse of onewriter's odyssey from skeptic to believer asshe worked to produce the latest biographyof one of the country's most popularauthors.

Her book, Carl Sandburg: A Biography,was based on more than 50,000 letters,manuscripts, and other items in theLibrary's Carl Sandburg collection, as wellas on items still at the Sandburg home inNorth Carolina.

The book was published in 1991 and washailed as "a fine achievement" byPublisher's Weekly and as "an excellent,comprehensive biography [that] holds thereader fascinated" by Library Journal.

"I originally thought Sandburg was toopopular to last, so I came to him skeptical-ly," recounted Ms. Niven during her talk.

But being a North Carolina native, shedecided one day in 1977 to visit Sandburg'shome, Connemara (now a national historicsite), near Flat Rock, North Carolina.

"I saw in those twenty-two rooms booksfilled with markers," she remembered."You could just reach out and touch lettersfrom John E Kennedy, Ezra Pound, andmany others. This was truly a writer's home.I couldn't forget the spirit of the place."

Impulsively, she wrote a letter to theNational Park Service volunteering to sortthrough the papers still at the house.

"Had I not sent that impulsive letter, Iwouldn't be standing here today," shecontinued. "I spent most of that summeron my hands and knees looking underbeds, in files, in the safe, even in the ashesin the stove in the study."

What she found was more than 30,000items-"a treasure of evidence to docu-ment this thoroughly American poet,writer, and social critic."

She quickly arranged for these materialsto be transferred to the U of I Library,

which Sandburg himself had chosen in1956 as the repository for his papers.

Then began the slow work of digestingthe mountains of material available to her,which revealed many secrets of Sandburg'slife and career.

"There was an urgent imperative forearning his living because he knew his twodaughters, Margaret and Janet, who weredisabled, would need to be supported alltheir lives," she told the audience, "soevery decision after 1921 was based on this.He was frugal-people called him penuri-ous-but they didn't know about this."

The result, said Ms. Niven, was thatSandburg kept his full-time newspaper jobuntil he was fifty-four. He also spentsignificant amounts of time on the gruelinglecture and concert circuit-all at theexpense of his poetry-because these jobspaid more than his poetry ever would. "Infact," she added, "the first significantmoney he made from his writing wasn'tuntil he published Abraham Lincoln: ThePrairie Years, when he was forty-eight."

Although Sandburg moved to NorthCarolina in 1945, and had lived inMichigan before that, it was his Illinoisroots that formed the basis of his beliefsand his work.

"Sandburg got his unwavering faith inthe American people right here, in theheartland of Illinois..., and your librarycontains a record of not only that Sandburgexperience, but through it, of the Americanexperience," said Ms. Niven.

"He became a champion of people whodidn't have the words or the power tospeak for themselves. Other poets andmany critics dismissed him as too pragmat-ic or too political or too bound to the eventsof his day to survive as a legitimate poet.Yet the people who were his subjects, hisaudience, validated his poetry everywherehe went, and today it's wonderful to seethat he still holds the attention of thelistening audience."

Ms. Niven's trip to the Library was ahomecoming of sorts after the many hoursshe had spent in the Library working onthe biography.

It was also the occasion to see an oldfriend and colleague-George Hendrick,professor of English at the U of I and amember of the Library Friends board ofdirectors.

Said Ms. Niven at her talk, "So much ofthe work that was accomplished here at theCarl Sandburg collection is due to George,whose vision has guided and shaped thiscollection."

Ms. Niven again plans to spend manyhours at the Library as she works on herlatest project, a biography of photographerEdward Steichen.

Steichen's sister, Lilian, whom Ms. Nivencalled "an extraordinary woman," marriedSandburg in 1908. "Early on in my Sand-

burg research, I became convinced thatwithout Lilian Steichen, whose name youmay not know, you would surely not knowCarl Sandburg's name," she told theaudience.

Because Edward Steichen and Sandburgbecame close friends, the Sandburgcollection contains probably the largestcache anywhere of personal letters fromSteichen.

"Mrs. Sandburg's life was so luminousand compelling," Ms. Niven added, "soSteichen's biography will be hers as well."

"Carl Sandburg with luggage," reads the caption of thisdrawing by Gregory d'Alessio. From the new d'AlessioCollection of Sandburg items.

Quotables"Having worked in many research libra-ries in Europe and in this country oneighteenth-century books and manuscripts,I have begun to realize what a user-friendlyinstitution the U of I Library is, a situation Ihad taken for granted over the years. It is aunique characteristic of the entire U of ILibrary system, in particular the ReferenceLibrary. People really take time and show akeen interest in your most difficultbibliographical problems. Thanks a lot!"

Albert V. CarozziProfessor Emeritus of GeologyUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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I Library Receives TwoNotable Additions ofSandburg Material

Late last summer, the Library receivedtwo notable gifts of Sandburg material -seven boxes of books and memorabiliafrom Helga Sandburg Crile, Sandburg'sdaughter; and the manuscript and draw-ings for Mr. d'Alessio's 1987 book, OldTroubadour: Carl Sandburg with His GuitarFriends, from Gregory and Terry d'Alessio.

The memorabilia from Mrs. Crile includesuch Sandburg trademarks as his eye shadesand lap shawls, cigars, Civil War-era photo-graphs, and even a championship ribbonand name tag from Mrs. Sandburg's prize-winning goats.

The books include many works onLincoln and an early edition of Ibsen'sPillars of Society, bound by Helga Sandburgherself.

The Gregory and Terry d'Alessiocollection includes most of the handwrittenmanuscript and several typescript versionsof Old Troubadour, including the consider-able material that was cut before publication.

The handwritten manuscript is especial-ly notable for its colorful illustrations.

Also included are photographs ofSandburg playing guitar with AndresSegovia, photographs of Sandburg withsuch luminaries as Frank Lloyd Wright andMarilyn Monroe, and many originaldrawings by Mr. d'Alessio, a professionalcartoonist.

International AgricultureProfessor Establishes NewLibrary Fund

William N. Thompson, retired U of Iprofessor of agricultural economics, andhis wife Gerry have donated a major gift tothe Library to create the new Bill and GerryThompson Library Fund.

The fund will be used to enhance theAgriculture Library's well-known collec-tions on world food and agriculture.

"The Agriculture Library, and theLibrary in general, have always meant a lotto me...," says Professor Thompson aboutthe gift. "We thought, in view of ourexperience, we would place some empha-sis on things international because werealized that with resources so difficult toobtain, there is a tendency to withdrawfrom the world scene."

Says Interim University Librarian RobertWedgeworth about the Thompsons' gift,"The University Library is at a point in itshistory where this kind of gift is critical forits future because the capabilities of thestate are not as great as in the past. It'swonderful that those who have been the

beneficiaries of the Library continue toremember us and make it possible to passthose benefits on to the next generations ofstudents and faculty."

The experience Professor Thompsonrefers to is not your usual teachingexperience. Of course, he taught hundredsof students about farm management, andagricultural policy and development formore than twenty years, served as thedirector of the International SoybeanProgram (INTSOY) from 1973 to 1981, andwas director of the College of Agriculture'sOffice of International Agriculture from1978 to 1984.

But how many people have the chance tohelp found a land-grant university?

"In a sense, it was just the same kinds ofthings I was doing here on campus,"demurs Professor Thompson about his rolein creating Njala University College inSierra Leone in the early 1960s. "The onlydifference was that we were helping lessdeveloped countries create research andteaching programs."

Even John M. Gregory had a lessdaunting task than the Thompsons whenhe was given the job in 1867 of starting upwhat became the University of Illinois.Gregory had an entire year in which toarrange for buildings, students, and facultyHe could also call upon the resources of thebustling town of Urbana when he neededto purchase his living necessities.

Not so for Professor Thompson, whowas chief of the U.S.-funded project inSierra Leone, administered by the U of I.

"We got there in March of 1964,"remembers Professor Thompson, "andschool was set to open in September, butthere were no students, no staff, littlehousing. There was so much to be done,we didn't exactly work eight-hour days."

The government of Sierra Leone initiallyprovided some old agricultural researchbuildings and substations, which were"entirely inadequate," located approxi-mately 130 miles from the capital.

So, Professor Thompson and hiscolleague, Frank Klassen of the U of I'sCollege of Education, selected the firstgroup of students, developed courses andcurricula, built houses, set up electricgenerating plants, built libraries, and

created the infrastructure needed for acollege to exist.

Mrs. Thompson, meanwhile, foundherself running not just a household, but asProfessor Thompson puts it, "essentially ashort-order joint and hotel." Many people,they found, would stop and stay with thembecause there was no other place for them;some stayed for several days or evenweeks.

"One of the better roads came withinseven or eight miles of this university," hesays, "so we had all kinds of visitors fromthe capital city, who were curious aboutthis new development 'up country.'"

"I never had a lonely moment," addsMrs. Thompson, who enjoyed the enter-taining even though shopping for grocerystaples meant driving 130 miles into townand visitors meant boiling more water thanusual. "I boiled water all day, every day fordrinking and cooking," she remembers.

Based on this experience, Professor andMrs. Thompson began their globe-circlingexistence as Professor Thompson'sexpertise was put to use in Thailand,Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Peru, Zambia, andPakistan to set up or strengthen agricultur-al research and educational institutions."All of these were short jobs," he notes, "soI was usually teaching at least one semesterat home every year."

His international experience also led tohis appointment in 1973 as director ofINTSOY, which again necessitated travelall over the tropical and subtropical world.In 1978 he was appointed associate deanand director of international agriculture forthe College of Agriculture.

He officially retired in 1984, but cameback to work half-time on a university-sponsored project in Pakistan. "I was just akid when I retired the first time," helaughs. He retired fully in 1988, althoughhe still consults from time to time on thePakistan project.

"My experience in international univer-sities in other countries, as well as whatI've observed here, suggests that it's easierto get financial resources to build physicalstructures than it is to provide resources forthe personnel, equipment, books, andjournals that support strong programs,"Professor Thompson says about creation ofthe new endowment fund bearing hisname.

"That's why we decided to use ourpledge of support to help in assuring thecollection of books and journals and all themodern kinds of software the AgricultureLibrary needs."

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I Archives Receives MajorTheater History Collection

The University Archives has received amajor collection related to the history ofShakespearean performance practice andtheater practice in general.

The collection contains the personalpapers of Charles H. Shattuck, professoremeritus of English at the U of I, who diedSeptember 21, 1993.

Longtime readers of Friendscript mayremember Professor Shattuck from his longassociation with the literary magazineAccent, through which he developed alongstanding professional and personalfriendship with such writers as EudoraWelty, J.F. Powers, William Maxwell, andmany others.

But Professor Shattuck was known tomost of the world for his work in thetheater, particularly as related toShakespearean performance practice.

He was a pioneer in the use of GlobeTheater staging for Shakespeare's plays,using it as early as 1944. He also was theauthor of the two-volume Shakespeare on theAmerican Stage for the Folger ShakespeareLibrary (it's still considered the standardreference on the subject), and an eleven-volume bibliography of Shakespeareanpromptbooks, a subject on which he wasthe leading authority.

All of these activities are thoroughlydocumented in the new collection.

Perhaps most notable among the thousandsof items in the new Archives collection areProfessor Shattuck's research materials,such as photocopies of old promptbooks-the marked-up scripts showing cuts, stagemoves, and the like-from famousShakespearean productions of the late1700s and 1800s. Also heavily representedare Professor Shattuck's own promptbooksfor the more than sixty U of I productionshe directed of plays by Shakespeare,George Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder,Berthold Brecht, and many others.

Professor Shattuck became one of thefirst directors in the country to produceBrecht's works-so early, in fact, that inorder to produce The Threepenny Opera in1946, he had to keep up a running corre-spondence with Brecht's translator, writerand critic Eric Bentley, who had not yet com-pleted a good English edition. The corre-spondence, naturally, is in the Shattuck papers.

"If you find lines not making sense in thesongs, do something about it, " wroteBentley to Professor Shattuck in September1946. "Maja [Bentley's wife and co-translator] tells me that these typed copiesare inaccurate-that little words like 'not'have occasionally been omitted."

The production finally took place in late1946, the first non-professional staging ofthe work in the country. Wrote ProfessorShattuck after the performances, "It is

generally recognized that the productionwas a rare and unusual event in theAmerican theatre, and in our theater, andthe audience was glad to have seen it."

This was despite the fact that, as hewrote in his notes, the second act contained"the first brothel scene ever to be staged inthe theater at the University of Illinois."

As early as 1942, Professor Shattuckdecided to take up the challenge presentedin a book of John Cranford Adams to stageShakespeare's plays in the environment forwhich Shakespeare himself had written-the multilevel and multi-sided Globe Play-house. By 1944, the Globe set was in use.

In a 1954 speech at Hofstra University,Professor Shattuck noted, "...We can boast,I believe, that we were the first to take upthe challenge implicit in Mr. Adams' bookand to try it, and that we have been at it thelongest... [Globe staging] is a director'sparadise."

The Shattuck papers include not only aphotograph of the U of I's Globe Theatermodel (sporting a piece of Mrs. Shattuck'spetticoat as its flag, according to the papers),but also information on how the actual setwas adapted for the physical limitations ofthe U of I's Lincoln Hall stage.

After more than a decade of directingplays, however, Professor Shattucksuddenly changed direction. "All of asudden, he gave it all up and turned to

One of 38 pieces of original costume design artwork bynoted 19th-century Shakespearean actor W.C. Macready,obtained for the Library in 1958 by Charles Shattuck.

scholarship," remembers colleagueEdward Davidson, professor emeritus ofEnglish. "He had not been known beforeparticularly as a scholar, but now he turnedinto a very distinguished scholar. Iemphasize this because he tended to bemodest and would downplay his achieve-ments."

Principal among these achievements washis authoritative bibliography ofShakespearean promptbooks, a project thatgrew out of his desire to reconstruct earlyproductions based on the evidence foundin a director's working copy of a script.These he called "the well-springs ofVictorian tradition in staging plays," as hewrote to the Folger Library in early 1959. Itwas, as he wrote then, "...a subject muchgeneralized upon but little known."

After completing this massive project in1965, he went on to produce in 1976 thetwo-volume Shakespeare on the AmericanStage. For these works, he drew not onlyon promptbooks, but also on his extensiveclipping file of newspaper reviews andcopies of the correspondence of famousdirctors and actors, like Edwin Booth,dating from as early as as the mid-1800s.

These research materials are all part ofthe new collection.

All the while engaged in these endeav-ors, Professor Shattuck also continued asan editor of Accent. Although the Archiveshas long held some of his Accent-relatedmaterials, the new Shattuck collectioncontains letters from several authors eithernot represented or barely representedbefore. Many attest to the care and concernProfessor Shattuck showed to the writershe nursed along over the years.

For instance, here is longtime friend andformer colleague William Maxwell writingabout a visit from another Shattuck friend,Eudora Welty, in 1973:

"Eudora was here last week... and camehome to supper afterward. She said thatyou added a great deal to her happiness bycoming; that she had wanted all theimportant events in her life-like Accent-represented. I blushed, naturally. In mynext incarnation I am going to be amonkey, and then after that an armadillo,and then a hedgehog, and gradually workmy way back to being a human being, ofthe right kind."

Accent even invaded Professor Shattuck'stheatrical career-in the promptbook forhis 1943 production of He Who Gets Slappedare notes written on the blank backsides ofan Accent flier promoting a 1941 issue ofthe magazine.

"Charles Shattuck was a major factorhere in theater, particularly in relatingtheater to literature, and in literature itself,"says University Archivist MaynardBrichford. "This will be an importantcollection for researchers on the history ofthe theater."

"U

The capsicum family, from the New

Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary

of Gardening, donated by Betty Ann Knightrough the Library is Looking For.. column.

I Donors Respond to theLibrary is Looking For...Column

The Library's collections once again havebeen helped tremendously by the generosi-ty of the readers of Friendscript.

Since Spring 1992, nine readers donatedfourteen needed items in response to ourLibrary is Looking For... column.

Vernon E. and Trudy Lewis responded inSpring 1992 to a request from the Laborand Industrial Relations Library for Workand Family: The Complete Resource Guide andState by State Guide to Human Resources Law.Betty Ann Knight also responded in Spring1992 to a request from the City Planningand Landscape Architecture Library for TheNew Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary ofGardening.

The Summer 1992 issue brought twodonations, Fundamentals of PhotographyConservation for the Library and Informa-tion Science Library, from William W. andArline K. Lovett; and Cyclopolymerizationand Cyclocopolymerization from James 0.and Doris H. Corner, for the ChemistryLibrary.

A request in the Fall 1992 issue from theMusic Library brought a flood of offers.The original request, for The ChicagoSymphony Orchestra: The First 100 Years, wasdonated by Mrs. Camille C. Hatzenbuehler.Other donors agreed to alternate selections,including The Chicago Symphony Orchestra,the seven-videocassette set, from MichaelL. and Beverly A. Friese; The UnansweredQuestion: Six Talks at Harvard, from WilliamW. and Arline K. Lovett; and purchase ofdouble-bass materials, from the U of I'sformer double-bass professor Edward J.Krolick and his wife Bettye.

Also from the Fall 1992 issue, the Lovettsdonated the Guiness Encyclopedia of PopularMusic for the Music Library; Kenneth andDorothy Ebi donated funds for a printerand monitor for the Undergraduate

I

Library; and Vernon E. and Trudy Lewisfunded three more computer monitors forthe Undergraduate Library.

From the Winter 1992-93 issue, JohnGregg Jr. donated funds for both A Compil-ation of Rare Rhyme-Books and Tables for theAsian Library and two hand-held ultravio-let magnifiers for the Rare Book and SpecialCollections Library.

The Library sends its deepest thanks tothese generous Friends.

I New Database EasesAccess to MassiveNewspaper Collections

The Newspaper Library has created anew local database that makes it as easy astyping a word into the computer to find theone newspaper you need out of thousandsof titles.

"Ninety percent of our collection isuncataloged, so it's virtually inaccessiblethrough the online catalog," says the unit'shead, Jane Wiles.

Considering that the unit subscribes to450 current dailies and weeklies fromaround the world, and possesses around110,000 reels of microfilm backfiles, that's abig gap. What's worse, the unit's own cardcatalog lists only the titles and years for itsholdings-there's no cross-index bysubject, state, or language.

"A few years ago, we decided to createseparate handouts for current newspapersin English, current U.S. newspapers,English-language foreign newspapers,black newspapers, etc.," explains Ms.Wiles, "but that turned out to be veryexpensive. We had to continually updatethem, and that was very time-consuming.So now we're making the informationavailable on the computer instead."

The Newspaper Library decided to usethe database searching option of a softwareproduct called ILLINOIS SEARCH AID,

developed by U of I librarians WilliamMischo, Timothy Cole, and David Stern, tocreate the database. It took over a year ofintensive work by student employeeChristy Cramer, a senior from SouthWilmington, Illinois, to input the thou-sands of titles that now appear in thedatabase.

The effort has obviously been worth-while. Starting just this spring semester,users can walk up to the computer, enterimportant words, such as a city name or acategory like "black," and find out justwhat the Newspaper Library has to offer.The database will also tell whether the titleis on microfilm.

The response to the database has beentremendous, especially from undergradu-ates. "We've found the use of our 'alterna-tive' newspapers has gone up by about 50percent since we let people use thisdatabase," says Ms. Wiles."Undergraduates especially use these forclass when they have to provide differentpoints of view on a subject.

"And we've found that they don't evenwant to use the card catalog anymore, sowe've sort of created a little monster!"

The 'little monster' needs to do somemore growing, however. The unit still hasmore than 4,000 titles bound and wrappedin remote storage and an importantportfolio collection of pre-1870 singleissues and short runs, all of which have yetto be entered into the databases.

Also waiting to be done is entry of theunit's chronological catalog so that userscan see what's available for a given year.

The database currently is available in theReference Library and the shared researchroom of the Africana Reading Room andthe Afro-Americana Bibliographic Unit, aswell as in the Newspaper Library. Futureplans call for more general access through-out the Library, with eventual hookup tothe campus computer informationnetwork.

From the Obvious to theObscure, the ReferenceLibrary Can Find theAnswer

Enter the Library from its main entranceoff the quadrangle, go up the wood-linedstaircase, pass the display of the Abbevillefacsimile of Audubon's Birds of America,and you will enter what is arguably themost beautiful room in the entire building-the Reference Library.

With its two-story-high ceilings, its tallwindows inset with stained-glass repro-ductions of medieval printers' devices, andits walls of wood-framed bookcases, it's thekind of room that conjures up visions ofintent scholars quietly delving into themysteries of their research.

But there is a beauty to thisroom that goes beyond theobvious, for on those lovelybookshelves-and indeed on themany metal shelves and compu-ter terminals that fill up thecentral space of the room-canbe found the most comprehen-sive reference collection in thestate and one of the best in thecountry.

In this room, the usual Encyclo-paedia Britanicas coexist withencyclopedias from Denmark,Sweden, Greece, Germany, andseveral other countries. Theusual Webster's Unabridged-typedictionaries rub spines with thelikes of Persian-English, Alban-ian-English, and even Assyrian-English dictionaries.

And then there are thereference sources for subjects "Wolf-headeonly a specialized research Reference Litclientele might think of: AmericanTramp and Underworld Slang, theScience Fiction Master Index of Names, theBibliographie de France going back to 1810,even an index to every film review in TheNew York Times since 1913.

That's all in addition to the massivecatalogs of the Library of Congress andBritish Library, bibliographies fromnational libraries from all over the world,export guides, telephone and fax directo-ries from all over the United States and theworld, annual volumes of books in printfor countries around the globe, and literallyhundreds more.

So how does the professional staff of fivefull-time librarians, four part-time librari-ans, and ten graduate assistants manage toremember which of the unit's more than30,000 volumes or numerous electronicdatabases is the right one to use?

"I guess you need a certain amount ofcommon sense and intuition, but I think it's

basically a matter of knowing howinformation is organized," muses unit headJosephine Kibbee.

"For instance, if someone's looking foran address of an association, we knowthere are published directories of organiza-tions. Or if they're looking for a line inShakespeare or the Bible, we know there isa kind of reference book called a concor-dance, which analyzes a work line by line,and full-text databases. So we don't need toknow a title-we do need to know howreference books and databases havecollected and organized the information."

Sounds so simple, doesn't it? But take aquestion Professor Kibbee received a fewyears ago, and you quickly see referencework is for the most divergent of thinkers.

"Someone wanted to know the name of

d Monster" from the Norse tradition. From Mythology of All Races: Eddic, pairary's Collection.

the band that played on the Titanic," sheremembers, " so I checked in books andarticles on the Titanic, but found nothing. Iknew, however, that there is a genre oftrivia books, so I looked for that, but therewas no trivia book for the Titanic. Sofinally-because we hate to say no-I putthe patron in touch with a Titanic interestgroup."

It's that kind of service that has prompt-ed legions of U of I alums to call theReference Library for help even thoughthey might live in library-laden cities likeNew York or Washington, D.C.

"Libraries like Yale don't do telephonereference except for their own clientele,"she explains. "Then there are places like theNew York Public Library or the Library ofCongress. They are so big, you don't knowhow long it will take to get transferred tothe right place. We're not small, but we

have a less formidable bureaucracy and avery good collection.

"We even get calls from alumni abroadwho have returned to their home countriesbut still remember our services andcollection, so they call us."

But don't expect the reference librariansto do all the work for you-they have astrong interest in teaching what they call"library literacy."

"Undergraduates, for example, maycome in looking for biographical informa-tion, and they won't know there is a sourcethat covers what they're looking for,"explains Professor Kibbee. "So, instead ofjust handing them the biography, we showthem how to use biographical indexes toidentify which biographical dictionariescontain the material they need. This then

becomes a learning experiencebecause they now know that aparticular kind of sourceexists."

Even seasonedresearchers, like the U of I'sAlbert Carozzi, have benefitedfrom this kind of learningexperience. For the past year,this professor emeritus ofgeology has been trying toreconstruct the catalog of the1,000-volume library of thenoted eighteenth-centuryGenevan naturalist, Horace-B6nedict Saussure (1740-99).

Saussure's handwrittencatalog, although meticulous-ly kept even down to howmuch he paid for each itemand from whom, containedonly last names of authorsand shortened versions of

long titles. How was Vroressorrt of the Carozzi to find out the

complete information?"I used everything in the

Reference Library," he smiles as hedescribes his detective work. With helpfrom the reference librarians, his trail ledfrom national bibliographies from all overEurope to the catalogs of the Library ofCongress, Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris,and British Library catalog, even todictionaries of anonymous authors.

Then it was time to check his informa-tion with online bibliographic databaseslike OCLC and RLIN.

"That's where the quality of thesewonderful librarians comes in," he says."It's not easy to interrogate a computer-itall depends on how you make the entry.Believe me, it's a knot, but with the rightword, the information just pops out. Theselibrarians are just fantastic," he enthuses.

"I,.'

I Interim University LibrarianVisits Cuba

Interim University Librarian RobertWedgeworth spent several days in Havana,Cuba, during May in his capacity aspresident of the International Federation ofLibrary Associations (IFLA).

The purpose of the trip was to reviewarrangements for the 1994 IFLA GeneralConference, which is to be held in Havana.

The visit, he said, laid to rest anyquestions IFLA might have had about thequality of services available in Havana inlight of the ongoing U.S. embargo on tradewith Cuba and the withdrawal of financialsupport from the former Soviet Union.

What he found, says Mr. Wedgeworth,was two Cuban worlds-the world of thetourist and the world of the Cubans.

"Since the tourist industry is the majorway for Cuba to earn its foreign exchange,"explains Mr. Wedgeworth, "most of theresources go into attracting and servingtourists. That means food is rationed inCuba, gasoline is rationed in Cuba, forthese things go first to tourists, who areable to pay for them. The funds earned thengo to assist the general Cuban economy."

For the average Cuban, he says, theration means one roll per day becausebread is scarce, and milk is available onlyto children under the age of seven. In fact,there appears to be an epidemic of an eyedisease that doctors have attributed tovitamin deficiencies. "This is in a countrythat in general has enjoyed a very highstandard of health care for the averageperson," he adds.

"So, it was with mixed feelings that wewould meet all day with our Cubancolleagues reviewing arrangements for themeetings and social events, and then goback to our hotels in the evening for a largemeal, when we knew our colleagues hadlittle or no food to go home to."

Nevertheless, in his conversations on thestreet with people from all walks of life, Mr.Wedgeworth found few Cubans blamedtheir own government for the economichardships. "They blame the U.S. embargofor starving them and question whether theUnited States is willing to consider anyresolution which will not involve the totalsurrender of their autonomy," he says.

During his visit, Mr. Wedgeworth alsovisited several libraries, including theHavana Public Library and the library atthe University of Havana.

"The libraries are limited in the numberof new books they have available, especial-ly foreign books, but the librarians are welltrained, well educated, and continue toperform very well," he reports. "Theuniversity library lacks research materials,but it continues to provide reference andother services as it can.

"There is, of course, limited access to

new information technologies, but they aremanaging to get some microcomputers andsupplies for technical services. And theyhave access to Internet via Canada."

The Library is Looking For...$482 to purchase Judaism and the ColdWar in America for the Jewish Studiescollection. This 10-volume set of essaysdocuments the period during which a fullynative Judaism took shape in a a free society.

The Cold War, 1945-1991 for the Educationand Social Science Library. This three-volume illustrated, encyclopedic guidedocuments the rivalry between superpow-ers and profiles key figures and majorevents of the era. Cost is $250.

Also for the Education and Social ScienceLibrary, $270 to purchase Schools ofThoughts in Politics: Marxism, a two-volume set that provides a basis foranalysis of this influential political ideologyof the 20th century, including theory,history, ethics, and race and gender issues.

Joseph Conrad: Critical Assessments forthe English Library. This four-volume workcontains reviews, critical articles, letters,and documents pertaining to the work ofthis Polish-English novelist. Cost is $500.

$579 to purchase Pagemaker 5.0 for theMacintosh for the Africana Reading Room.The program is needed to help publishcourse guides and bibliographies on sub-Saharan Africa.

Funds to purchase a Gateway 2000computer for the Newspaper Library. Thecomputer will be used to support the unit'snew newspaper title database and forpublic service. Cost is $1295.

$230 to purchase the InternationalDictionary of Ballet for the Applied LifeStudies Library. This is a unique andfascinating work that offers an historicalperspective on ballet from the Renaissanceto the present.

Also for the Applied Life Studies Library,$130 to purchase Professional Sports TeamHistories, a unique four-volume set thatincludes lively essays on major-leaguebaseball, football, hockey, and basketball.

To donate any of the items mentionedabove, please contact Sharon Kitzmiller, theLibrary's annual funds development officer,at 227 Library 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana,IL 61801, or telephone (217) 333-5683.

From the InterimUniversity Librarian

The controversy last spring surroundingthe terms of the agreement under whichthe late Justice Thurgood Marshall gave hispersonal papers to the Library of Congressmay have prompted some of you tospeculate on what might have occurredwith such a gift to the University of Illinois.

It can be a very difficult decision forpeople with papers of value to decide toplace their private papers at the disposal ofresearchers by donating them to a library.There may be fears about confidentiality ofindividuals represented in the collection, orquestions about who retains copyright, orwhether access to the papers should bedelayed until certain people have died.Because this is a decision most individualsmake only once during their lifetime, it ishardly an area in which one acquires greatexperience.

That is why the Library's role should beone of counselor, reassuring the donor orseller of the research value of the paperswhile at the same time clearly outliningaccepted policies governing the availabilityof the material to researchers. If the donorand the Library agree to certain restrictionsor delayed availability, that should beclearly spelled out in the gift agreement.Likewise, if the donor wishes to beambiguous about certain limitations, thatshould be made clear in the agreement aswell.

The agreement between Justice Marshalland the Library of Congress is eitherambiguous or leaves to the discretion of theLibrary these important matters, makingthe actual intent or even the competence ofthe late Justice the issue of contention. Thisis troubling because it may lead otherpotential donors to try to be even moreexplicit and restrictive in their donoragreements than may be acceptable. Wemust not forget, however, that much ofwhat we know about how the public'sbusiness is conducted comes from researchby scholars into the private papers ofprominent officials after their death. That iswhy the Library undertakes its role asconselor with extreme care and precision.This is the best means of ensuring both thegoodwill of the donor and the Library'sobligation, to the research community.

From the New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionaryof Gardening.

I CalendarEXHIBITS

August

"Baseball: Ernie Westfield and the NegroLeague." Newspaper Library

"Music of Russia and the NewlyIndependent Nations of the Former SovietUnion." Music Library

"Rare Horticulture and Gardening Books."Rare Book and Special Collections Library

"Illustrations in Classroom Textbooks."Mueller Exhibit Case

September

"Baseball: Ernie Westfield and the NegroLeague." Newspaper Library

"The History of the Main LibraryBuilding." Main Corridor

"Resources for Medievalists." Rare Bookand Special Collections Library

October

"More Than Greek Letters: Fraternitiesand Sororities in Higher Education." MainCorridor

"Undergraduate Teaching Awards, 1993."Mueller Exhibit Case

"Resources for Medievalists." Rare Bookand Special Collections Library

SPECIAL EVENTS

September 30, 1993, 4 p.m. Third AnnualMortenson Lecture, presented by RobertWedgeworth on "The Heart of the Uni-versity: the Making of the Global Library."Levis Faculty Center, 3rd Floor, 919 W.Illinois St., Urbana.

September 29, 1993, 7p.m.-9 p.m.University Archives Open House, ArchivesResearch Center (Horticulture FieldLaboratory Building), 1707 S. Orchard Ave.,Urbana.

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I We Need Your HelpYou can ensure the UI Library's continuedexcellence by:

* Telling others about the Library Friends andencouraging them to join

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* Obtaining your company's or organization'sparticipation in a matching gift program

* Passing the information about LibraryFriends membership on in your newsletteror publications.

I The Benefits of MembershipAs a Friend of the University of Illinois Library,you receive:

* Special circulation and stack privileges forLibrary materials

* Friendscript, the quarterly newsletter

* Annual Report

* Invitations to exhibits, lectures and receptions

* A 30% discount on University of Illinois Presspublications.

The Friends welcome everyone interested in thecontinued excellence of the University of IllinoisLibrary. Today, more than 3,000 Library Friendsare dedicated to the support of the Library'scollections and services.

Library Friends BoardTodd L. Barlow, President, E. Phillips Knox,Vice President, Elaine S. Avner, Peter EColwell, Euline Eilbracht, Ralph T. Fisher,

Bernice H. Freeman, Susan Griffing,George Hendrick, Lorin Nevling, ElizabethP. Rogers, Elizabeth A. Sandage, Joy

Thornton-Walter, Marvin G. Weinbaum;

Ex-Officio, Robert Wedgeworth, Joan M.Hood, Sharon K. Kitzmiller, Jeff Unger,

Thomas B. Berns, Past President.

YES, I /we wish to become members of U of ILibrary Friends.

University Librarian'sCouncil, $5000Life, $3000Benefactor, $1000Patron, $500

Sustaining, $250Sponsor, $100Subscriber, $60Contributor, $35Student. $10

Please make your check payable to UI Founda-tion/Library Annual Funds, P.O. Box 3429,Champaign, Illinois 61801-9916. All contribu-tions are tax-deductible.

- Yes, I would like information aboutplanned gifts.

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Moving?Please let us know your new address so thatyou can continue to receive your copy ofFriendscript. Send your new address to theLibrary's Office of Development and PublicAffairs, University of Illinois, 227 Library, 1408W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801

address.) Second-class postage paid atChampaign, IL.

University of Illinois

Library Office of Development and Public Affairs

227 Library

1408 W. Gregory Drive

Urbana, Illinois 61801

Entered under second-class permitat Champaign, IL.

PATRICIA STENSTROM

LIBRARY & INFO. SCI. LIB.

306 MAIN LIBRARY MC 522

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