Category Archives: university of chicago library

New library building at The University of Chicago

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After I posted information about the latest issue of The University of Chicago Library’s newsletter, I found out that a new library building — not simply an automated storage facility as previously understood — is now being planned. The new library building will be realized with a $25 million gift and will be named The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library in honor of the donors. Joe Mansueto is founder of Morningstar, Inc. Check out drawings and links to more information here. Most of it will be underground, with the main visual clue to its location being a large dome sitting immediately to the west of the Regenstein Library where I used to work for a number of years. What’s interesting about this whole development is that U of C will hold a fairly distinct place among large academic and research libraries in that all physical collections will be housed on campus, whereas most other peer institutions have resorted to offsite storage. Oh and by the way, the new building was designed by Helmut Jahn. Pretty cool!

Spring 2008 issue of LIBRA from The University of Chicago Library

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I was glad to see the Spring 2008 issue of The University of Chicago Library’s newsletter, LIBRA, published this afternoon. This publication’s official audience is University faculty, students, and staff but it always provides an interesting glimpse into the Library’s workings and initiatives for those not affiliated with the University. This latest issue describes, for example, the reincarnation of the Eero Saarinen-designed D’Angelo Law Library into a 21st century space with emphasis on online resources and collaborative, inviting work space. This issue also contains an essay from Judy Nadler, director, that articulates her views on her participation in the Working Group for the Future of Bibliographic Control. This group’s work has been hotly debated and intensely scrutinized in the international library community so it is good to hear one representative’s perspectives about it. Another interesting article in this issue relates to a project called Project Bamboo, which I hadn’t heard about before.

Some cataloging history

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The other day I finally had a look at a site that I knew about for a while but had never visited: The Virtual Museum of Cataloging and Acquisition Artifacts, maintained by a library school professor (I think, at the Univ. of South Carolina). I entered the library profession in 1992 so a lot of this, you would think, would be unknown to me. Not so. At The University of Chicago, I well remember many such artifacts being used well into the mid-1990s and, for all I know, still being used today. I remember electric pencils, manual typewriters, the old Cutter-Sanborn tables, and much, much more. One of the things I vividly remember is the old, clunky integrated library system still in use there in the early days of my career: LDMS (stands for Library Data Management System). One of the things that will always stay in my mind when I think of LDMS were the copious staff notes made in serial records by a previous librarian there, Helen Schmierer. (I think Helen may still be active in the profession but I’m not sure where.) Then too, how can I forget the entirely paper-based serial record for active and inactive print subscriptions? And the large, clunky Dieboldt machine that housed the inactive journal subscription records? And the card catalog and the paper shelflist? And the many interesting old cards written in library hand? Yes, there were courses in library school that taught one how to write in “library hand.” And don’t forget the knowledge one had to have of various filing rules. Those were the good old days, may they never come again…

One thing I plan to do is add the link to this site to the list of things my students are to review this summer when I will be teaching Technical Services Functions online again at UIUC GSLIS.