Once upon a time, there was a zombie who resided in Carnegie Hall! As a matter of fact, if you pay close attention, you can still see it peeping through the windows. We were lucky enough to capture a photo, and we would like a story to go along with the image of this mysterious creature! The contest will run through Sunday, Nov. 2, and on Monday, the winner with the quirkiest short story or caption will win a free t-shirt! To enter, please leave a reply under this blog post.
Happy Halloween!!

There’s Gold on the 3rd Floor of Scholes Library

Ever been up to the 3rd floor of Scholes Library? Nestled among the study rooms and various offices stands the home of The Archives of the New York State College of Ceramics.
The business of the College Archives is to collect, describe, preserve and provide access to the story of this important college.
From its humble beginnings as the “New York State School of Clay Working and Ceramics” to the college’s present status as a leader in materials research and fine arts education, a trail of documents and artifacts are collected and made available to researchers throughout the world.

Calls for access to this rich history extend well beyond local service to students, faculty and administrative offices. In this past year alone we have received inquiries from institutions such as the American Decorative Arts Unit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Dinnerware Museum in Cleveland Ohio, the Art and Architecture Libraries, University of Maryland, and Sotheby’s Twentieth Century Design Department.
The archives at Scholes is also busy working to serve independent scholars seeking access to records, papers, correspondence and photographic images for their books, lectures and genealogical studies.

This year, we have provided content from the letters of Charles Fergus Binns, biographical information on faculty and graduates past and present, information on manufacturing and artistic processes, copies of ceramic glaze recipes of notable faculty, gallery and exhibition records, and historical photographs.

At the same time, Scholes Archives Manager Verna Mullen is busy collecting and describing a steady stream of items donated to the collection and for our historical record.

This year we have processed items including Fosdick-Nelson gallery posters and cards, papers from the former Center for Environmental and Energy Research (CEER) at Alfred, papers from the former Center for Glass Research at Alfred, photographic transparencies of artist/educator William Parry, materials from the Schein-Joseph Int’l Museum of Ceramic Art and correspondence from renown ceramic artists Brother Thomas Bezanson and Sister Angela Fina.

This is just a brief synopsis of some the ongoing work of the College of Ceramics Archives during this past year alone. The Archives at Scholes Library holds the expected set of materials (yearbooks, catalogs, papers, correspondence, photos etc.) but is more than a repository for “stuff.” It serves a variety of important and influential communities whose purpose is to turn our “stuff” into meaningful stories and brings life and meaning to the work in our unique college.
If you have an interest in visiting the College of Ceramics Archives at Scholes Library, or have an informational need that we can address,

please feel free to contact Archives Manager – Verna Mullen at 607-871-2938 (mailto:mullenvc@alfred.edu).

Alfred University is quite focused in its commitment to preserve its rich history. The Archives at Scholes Library focuses exclusively on the history of the Ceramics College.
This is only part of the story of Alfred University. A fuller campus history is preserved in the remarkably rich Archives and Special Collections at Herrick Library. For information or access to that collection please contact Laurie McFadden, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, 607-871-2385 mcfadden@alfred.edu

Beginning this fall, you can print from a personal computer to a library printer without having to download any software or printer drivers! Below are step-by-step instructions. If you need assistance, ask for help at the library’s front desk.
1. Go to http://my.alfred.edu. On the left-hand menu, hover your mouse over “My Printing” and select “Status.”

2. Log into PaperCut using your Alfred University username and password. This is the same username and password that you use for AU email. Do NOT include @alfred.edu as part of your username.

3. After logging in, select “Web Print” from the side menu.

4. Click the link “Submit a Job” to get started with choosing a document to print.

5. Select the printer you’d like to print to. The three printers highlighted in the image below are the printers available in Herrick.  After selecting the printer, click the “Print Options and Account Selection” button to continue.

6. You will now be able to indicate the number of copies you’d like to print. Choose a number and place it in the box labeled “Copies.” Then click the button “Upload Documents.”

7. Select the file(s) you’d like to print by selecting the “Choose Files” button. This will open a dialog box where you can select your file(s). You can also see which file types are accepted for web printing. After selecting the files, click the “Upload & Complete “ button to start printing.

8. Your job should have been sent to the printer. PaperCut should display the status of your print job, as in the example below. Be patient for large files, which may take longer to print. To print another document, choose “Submit a Job” from this screen.

— Brett Arno and Ellen Bahr

Scholes Library is anxious to display and preserve a bit of history and is currently seeking donations to protect and display a most wonderful gift.
This past April, Scholes Library was honored to accept a donation of historic significance.  The gift is a rare, 2 volume text titled “Traité Élémentaire de Chemie,” (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry)  by Antoine Lavoisier (1793).
This title is of particular historical importance for several reasons, including its widely recognized place as “the world’s first textbook in Chemistry.”   Lavoisier is often referred to as “the father of modern chemistry” and is credited with developing the first experimentally based theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen.  Laviosier is also co-author of the modern system for naming chemical substances.   The donors are Alfred alumnus Roger Eiss (’64) and his wife Francoise Bourget.  A fuller story on this item donation and its history may be found here.
Scholes Library takes great pride in this acquisition and has pledged to protect it, display it and make it available to researchers.   To this end, the library has received a “matching gift” opportunity from an anonymous donor.  Should the library be successful in securing donation of $1,200+  for this purpose, our donor will contribute an equal amount allowing for the purchase of an archival quality display case to preserve our newest treasure.  A quality, environmentally protected casing will allow us to establish a permanent exhibition of the 2 volume set (and display its historically significant illustrations) within the Scholes Library Special Collections Area.

The end of the academic year is a good time for us to reflect on the many benefits of having student employees in the libraries. Graduation is a bittersweet time for us – we’re excited to see many of our students moving on to the next phase of their lives but we also know that their shoes are going to be hard to fill.
The benefits of having student employees in the libraries are many! It’s no exaggeration to say that we couldn’t maintain our current service levels and open hours without the help of student workers. Together, Herrick and Scholes Libraries are open almost 200 hours per week during the academic year. During any given semester, we employ nearly 100 students. In addition to staffing our front desks, students serve in a variety of other roles in the libraries, from preparing materials for circulation to doing data entry, assisting with projects, shelving, and much more.
The relationship between student workers and the libraries is symbiotic: students gain valuable work experience and we benefit in numerous ways from having them here. After all, most of our patrons are students, and our student employees are their peers. Natalie Skwarek, who supervises students at Herrick’s front desk, notes that, “because student workers are students, our patrons, who are also mostly students, feel comfortable approaching them with comments and questions.” Student employees frequently find creative and unconventional solutions to problems, and make suggestions for improving library services.
Because our student employees are here to learn, and not just to work in the libraries, we do our best to provide a supportive work environment. This means giving constructive feedback, and ensuring that each student has an opportunity to grow. Librarian Brian Sullivan, who coordinates Herrick’s front desk, says, “I believe in empowering student workers to come up with creative solutions to the various situations they encounter at the front desk. This gives them opportunities to build their problem solving and leadership skills while they are here.” 
Steve Crandall, Director of Herrick Library and Dean of Libraries, describes the libraries’ approach to student employment, saying, “We try to do everything we can to make it a real job, not just a way to collect work-study money. We make sure that the students know how important they are to us. We try to be clear about expectations and provide good training, infusing it with humor to make it memorable.”
Connections between the libraries and their student workers often endure beyond graduation. “The relationships we foster with our student workers can prove helpful in securing future employment,” says Dave Snyder, Access Services Coordinator at Herrick. Prospective employers regularly contact library staff for references and Snyder says that, because he works so closely with the students, he can often relay a story that illustrates a student’s positive character traits and capacity for growth.
As we move towards the start of a new academic year, we look forward to hiring a new group of students who will become part of this ongoing cycle. If you are an incoming student who is interested in working in the libraries, we invite you to stop by to see us after you’ve arrived on campus.
– Ellen Bahr

Avocado.  Bone ash.  Copper.  Egg whites.  Pumice powder.  Sumac.  Vinegar.  Walnut.

This isn’t some bizarre, arcane shopping list–it’s a sampling of just a few of the ingredients used by students in Kate Dimitrova’s Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts class.  A few more modern materials, such as newsprint and coffee, pepper the list, but for the most part the students stuck diligently to their incredibly difficult mission–to create their own illuminated manuscript pages using techniques and recipes from the Middle Ages.
Given the arduous process of producing their basic materials, much less designing and painting the actual illustrations, this was no small task.  Each student was given a scrap of vellum to start with, then was directed to medieval recipes for pigments, inks, and even tools–some of which the students made by hand, as in the case of a home-crafted brush with human hair.

When their works of art were complete, they were put into a display case here in the Scholes Library, and the students were given the opportunity to experience the next best thing to an original manuscript–high quality manuscript facsimiles.
A facsimile is a very detailed reproduction or replica of an original manuscript, in this case medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts.  Though the specifics can vary depending on the quality and completeness of the facsimile, an ideal manuscript facsimile reproduces every facet of the original, from the cover to the uneven and sometimes torn pages.  Facsimiles are valuable in that they provide the rare opportunity to experience the manuscript as it was intended to be experienced–not as a flat, disconnected projection on a wall, but as part of a whole work.
Patrons who wish to see facsimiles from our collection can contact me, Eva Sclippa, at sclippa@alfred.edu, for a list of available facsimiles and information on accessing Special Collections.  If you’d like to see the students’ beautiful work, it will be on display until April 30th, next to the reference desk–so be sure to get in before then!

What is AURA?  No, not aura, a distinctive atmosphere, or an energy field from a living being, but AURA.  AURA stands for the Alfred University Research and Archive.  It’s Alfred University’s own digital repository, a place to discover the past and inform the future.
  What is a digital repository?

• A means of storing and providing access to digital content (research, scholarship and documents of historical significance)
• Provides a stable, well-managed, permanent archive for digital scholarly and research materials of enduring value produced by faculty, staff, and students
• Supports research, learning and administrative processes
• Includes a wide range of content: research data, meeting minutes, newsletters, theses and dissertations, published articles, technical reports, conference papers, historical information, etc.

For example, this newletter of the Science Fiction Club, Lanruojifics, Fall 2002

What are the benefits of a digital repository?

• Content can be searched full-text, across all documents
• Allows the content to be shared locally and globally
• Allows wide and rapid dissemination of intellectual output, thereby raising awareness of Alfred University to a wider audience
• Stores and organizes the plethora of digital documents created on campus in one place, accessible from anywhere
• Supports a wide range of file types (text, images, video, data sets, etc.)
• Access to content can be restricted as needed
• Required for researchers applying for certain types of federal funding
• Usage can be tracked for statistical purposes

Why not just put this material into Blackboard?

• AURA makes content available to external audiences (open access availability)
• AURA’s content can be indexed by search engine harvesters (such as Google)
• AURA’s content is organized into collections and subcollections
• BlackBoard was designed as a course management system; not a document warehouse. It doesn’t allow for searching across documents and doesn’t manage collections or access to them as well as AURA does.

How can you help to build AURA?

• ·         Submit your club’s publications and meeting minutes for inclusion in AURA
• ·         Submit your publications and research to AURA.
• ·         Submit publications from your program, division, school and college.  Help us keep AU’s institutional memory strong in the digital era.

Want to check out AURA right now?
http://aura.alfred.edu
— Steve Crandall