Book Arts: Student Work Inspired by Special Collections Material

Curated by Claudia Sbrissa and Blythe Roveland-Brenton

St. Augustine Hall, 3^rd Floor

October 22 – December 3, 2012

Since 2005, Claudia Sbrissa, associate professor of fine arts, and Blythe Roveland-Brenton, archivist and special collections librarian, have partnered in an undergraduate project for a Book Arts class. The project, entitled “A Special Collection,” utilizes the library’s Special Collections as a source of inspiration and information. The assignment requires the students to research and figuratively deconstruct a book of their choosing. The end result is the creation of a unique book inspired by the University’s Special Collections.

During library visits, students have the opportunity to view and learn about a wide range of books from Special Collections – from incunabula (books produced during the first fifty years of the invention of printing) to art exhibition catalogs, from late 19^th-century Japanese crepe-paper fairy tales to Barry Moser’s Pennyroyal Caxton Bible published at the end of the 20^th century. The books feature novel cover material, multimedia inserts, and a variety of binding styles.

The items in this exhibition represent a small sample of the work created by students in the Book Arts class together with material drawn from Special Collections that inspired them.

 

Readings and Conversation with Caribbean Writers

St. John’s University is hosting two contemporary Caribbean authors, Diana McCaulay and Yolaine M. St. Fort, for an afternoon of readings, conversation, and book signing. Please join us for this special event on the Queens Thursday, April 19.

Diana and Yolaine will be on the Queens campus at the Belson/Finley Hall Law School Atrium, 4^th Floor from 1:45 PM –3:00 PM during the Common Hour for readings, discussion, and book signings of their works.

Lunch is included. Click here to RSVP.  Students can earn 4 MVP points for attendance at this event — remember to bring your STORMcards!

For further information about the event on the Queens campus, contact Mary Siconolfi at 718.990.1869 or email siconolm@stjohns.edu.

To complement this event, a special exhibition of “Notable Caribbean Authors” will open on Friday March 30^th on the fourth floor of the Queens Campus Library.  It features highlights of the life and works of Diana McCaulay and Yolaine M. St. Fort, along with the writings and edited works of other Caribbean writers, such as Jamaica Kincaid, Michelle Cliff, Merle Hodge and Erroll Hill.

Macaulay’s and St. Fort’s works are available now via reserve for loan at the Service Desk in the Library (St. Augustine Hall).

For more information about the authors or the event, please click HERE.

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This event is sponsored by sponsored by The President’s Multicultural Advisory Committee; The Office of the Provost; Division of Student Affairs; Committee for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS); University Libraries; Academic Affairs Committee (SGI); Haraya, the Pan-African Students Coalition; Caribbean Students Association.

In partnership with: Caribbean Cultural Theatre

 

In the Studio: An Exhibition Featuring Children’s Book Illustrations

An exhibition of original children’s book illustrations is on view at the Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery in Sun Yat-sen Hall from now through March 3^rd.  The main gallery features notes, sketches and books of eight contemporary illustrators.  This show is curated by Daniel Da Silva of the Fine Arts Department.

An ancillary exhibition draws from the St. John’s University Libraries’ collections and was curated by librarian/archivist Dr. Blythe Roveland-Brenton with the assistance of graduate assistants and interns, Gaetano Bello, Audrey Belanger, Joseph DeLorenzo, and Megan Margino.  The exhibition includes a selection of illustrated books from the Children’s Historical Collection of the Special Collections Department. They range in date from 1807-1923. A facsimile of the first picture book intended for children, John Amos Camenius’ Orbis Pictus (originally published in 1658) is also on exhibit.  The early texts, with their black and white woodcuts and engravings, exemplify the stern tenor of many children’s books before the mid-nineteenth century. By the later 19^th century, attitudes toward children changed as did printing technology.  Beautiful and colorful books illustrated by talented artists became abundant.

Also on view as part of the libraries’ exhibition, is a sample of Caldecott Medal winners from each decade.  Since 1938, the American Library Association has honored artists of the most distinguished American picture books with this award.  It is named for the nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott.  One of his books is part of the exhibition in the gallery.  The Caldecott winners on display are from the Libraries’ Youth Collection, housed on the fourth floor of St. Augustine Hall.

 

Banned Books Week – Exhibit and challenge

The Queens campus library is kicking-off “Banned Books Week” with a challenged book exhibit on the 4th floor of St. Augustine Library; the display cases feature the top 10 titles from the most-challenged books of 2010 and a sampling of the 20-most-challenged novels of the 20th century.

Copies of  some of the books that made these lists are also available for check-out as well; see the bookshelves behind the 4th floor information desk (where you will also find our “leisure reading” books, part of the McNaughton Collection.)

Tote and T-shirt, Challenge map and QR code for contest

The Libraries are also hosting a virtual  “Challenged Book Challenge” where we ask you to indicate the reasons why books made it onto these most-challenged lists.  Participants in the challenge can be entered in a drawing for either a “Free your mind, read a banned book” t-shirt or a “I read banned books” tote bag, just provide some contact information on the last question of the challenge (click picture at left for enlarged photo).

We will be posting answers to the challenge questions next week, on our Banned Book/Intellectual Freedom LibGuide,  and hosting discussions on banned books, intellectual freedom and the social justice issues surrounding information access over the following two weeks, so save the dates now: Thursday October 6, from 2-3 pm and Wednesday October 12, from 5-6 pm.   Discussions to be held in St. Augustine Library, Room 305; All readers and discussants welcome!

Caution: The 10 most-challenged books for 2010

Caution: top-most-challenged novels of the 20th century

 

New Exhibition: Crafting the Bible: From Scriptoria to Printing Houses

Crafting the Bible: From Scriptoria to Printing Houses

New Exhibition at Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery, Sun Yat-sen Hall

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Monday, April 4 – Monday, May 2, 2011

Leaf from a Paris manuscript Bible (circa 1310) Part of the Otto Ege Collection of Original Leaves from Famous Bibles, Special Collections, St. John’s University Libraries

Gallery Hours:

Tuesday – Thursday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Saturday Noon – 5 p.m.
Sunday and Monday: Closed

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Original Bibles, leaves, and facsimile editions from St. John’s University Libraries’ Special Collections Department constitute one part of the current exhibition in the gallery.  The works represent more than sacred and inspirational texts – they are historical artifacts and works of art. One gains a fuller appreciation of the development of the book in the form we recognize today through an understanding of the history of the production of the Bible.

The items on view span the eighth to the twentieth century, represent various techniques and materials, are in diverse languages, and were intended for an array of audiences. They range from one-of-a-kind manuscript Bibles written and decorated in monastic scriptoria, through the first printed masterworks by Gutenberg and his contemporaries, to modern private press editions. Among the highlights of the exhibited works from the University’s own collection are: a Bible printed in 1492 just prior to Columbus’ discovery of America; a manuscript Ethiopian Psalter in ancient Ge’ez script with its leather carrying satchel; the so-called “Gun-wad Bible” printed in 1776 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, few of which survived the Revolutionary War; a Bible for the Blind (1850) with raised Roman letters given to “indigent blind individuals” by the Bible House in New York City; and Barry Moser’s exquisitely hand-crafted Pennyroyal Caxton Bible published in 1999.

Additionally, a collection of individual leaves from famous Bibles (1121-1935 A.D.) is on display. The leaves were compiled and described by the late Otto F. Ege (1888-1951), Dean of the Cleveland Institute of Art, from incomplete and damaged Bibles he had amassed during his lifetime.

Special Collections holds numerous distinctive items available for study by students, faculty and other researchers. They were acquired over the course of the University’s rich history through purchase and as gifts from generous donors. More information about Special Collections can be found at http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/libraries/resources/collections/spec_coll.

Also on display in the gallery are reproductions of the Saint John’s Bible.  The original seven-volume illuminated manuscript took a team of artists and scribes over a decade to complete.  It was commissioned by Saint John’s Abbey and Saint John’s University of Minnesota.  For more details about the Bible and the project visit http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/.

Blythe E. Roveland-Brenton, Ph.D.

Co-curator of Crafting the Bible: From Scriptoria to Printing Houses

 

Roundtable Discussion: “Huck Finn without the N’Word? Editing or Censorship?”

Huck Finn without the N-Word?

Editing or Censorship?

 

Please join us for a lively Roundtable Discussion of the

2011 NewSouth edition of Mark Twain’s classic novel,

newly edited to eliminate the racial slurs.

How has the novel been changed?

Participating faculty include

Dohra Ahmad Jen Travis

Granville Ganter Caroline Fuchs

 

Tuesday, March 22^nd

12-1:30pm

Library Room 407

Everyone is welcome!

Come join the discussion!

For further information contact Caroline Fuchs at 718.990.5050 or fuchsc@stjohns.edu

 

World Social Communication: Vincentians, “Solutionaries” and Essayists needed

Image courtesy Vatican Radio Website

Social Communication has been squarely in the spotlight this week, starting with the Pope’s message on World Social Communications Day.  You can read his message “Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age” on the Vatican website, or you can listen to an interview with Archbishop Claudio Celli (who heads the Pontifical council for Social Communications) on the importance of the message on Vatican Radio. (1)

This emphasis on Social Communications  is a wonderful correlation with our call to “Be Vincentian” this week.  How is it that we reflect our Vincentian mission in our real-life and extended virtual worlds?  How can our studies, and the direction of our research, reflect a commitment to the most vulnerable, both in our local communities and around the world?  How do we use the Social Communications tools at our disposal to promote quality research and access to the information necessary to be active participants in our communities and world?

A couple of related stories bring these social communications & social justice issues to light.  Catholic Relief Service’s Fair Trade branch has posted a crowd-sourced “Request For Proposals” (via blog, Twitter and Facebook) calling on all “Solutionaries” to suggest proposals on how CRS should invest  up to $50,000 each “in action-oriented research and/or pilot initiatives to tackle the persistent questions” in development work.

Global Voices Online (a community blogging site funded by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Reuters and the MacArthur foundation among others) is reporting on the roles of, and blockages of, Facebook, and subsequently twitter during planning of “Day of Anger” protests in Egypt .  ***Update 1/28 *** Subsequently, CNET, (among several news sources) indicated that the Egyptian government shut down the mostly-state run internet service providers, and instructed all other ISP and mobile connectivity providers to suspend activity, prompting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests and to reverse the unprecedented steps it has taken to cut off communications.”

Image of precipitous drop in internet activity, as depicted by Arbor Networks -- click image to see graphic in original context

It also prompted Leslie Harris, president of the DC-based Center for Democracy and Technology to state: “This action is inconsistent with all international human rights norms, and is unprecedented in Internet history. ****

In an effort to answer this call to “Be Vincentian,” to be “solutionaries,” and to be “social communicators” in a positive way, the University Libraries & Friends of the Libraries are proud to sponsor the 2nd Annual Undergraduate Applied Social Justice Essay Competition, which seeks entries from among undergraduate researchers whose essays incorporate and/or inform a social justice dimension within the essayist’s chosen discipline.  In addition to encouraging these students to explicitly examine the social justice dimension of their research, with a faculty member as a mentor, the libraries are promoting the use of  a variety of scholarly resources (in both traditional and Social-media venues) which contribute to the creation and distribution of the student’s university-level research. Winning essayists receive a cash prize (1st = $500, 2nd=$300), and  the winning essays then become available as a social-web-scholarly resource to other researchers and the public through open-access publishing via this library blog. (2)

The first deadline for this year’s contest is fast approaching, this Monday Jan 31 Tuesday, February 22. If you are an undergraduate student, please consider writing or revising a paper, in conjunction with your mentor; if you are a faculty member, please notify those students you think would be interested in this contest. For application details, see the Competition posting.

(1) To discover how some other Vatican & Catholic news agencies make positive use of Social Web tools, you may want to visit this GDSJ Blog entry, or to learn more about Social Web tools in this LibGuide.

(2) We are pleased to report that the winning essays from last year garnered over 1300 blog views, and elicited many positive comments from readers outside the University community.

UPDATED:  deadline for application is 2/22, final submission due 3/15.

 

Critical Thinking and the Media — D’Oh!

We are very much looking forward to the next installment of the Academic Lecture series on Stereotypes in the Media, featuring Mike Reiss — Emmy-Award winning writer and producer of the Simpsons (among other comedy and animated series).  In addition to being entertaining, it should be a neat insight into the evolution of television as a medium, from someone who has been involved in shaping and poking fun at the medium for a few decades.

For folks interested in other groups and organizations that study media and act as watch-dogs for veracity in the media, check out the Information and Communication Ethics LibGuide

For more scholarly articles  on the impact that The Simpsons have had in Media , try the Communications and Media LibGuide, and do a search for “The Simpsons” (both words in quotation marks to avoid results where Simpson is an author)  in Communication and Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)

Search Results from Communication and Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)

or in Communication Studies: Sage Full Text (CSA)

Search results from Communication Studies: Sage Full Text (CSA)

 

Caribbean Writers in Conversation Exploring Cultural Complexities

St. John’s University is proud to host two contemporary Caribbean authors,  Marlon James and Tiphanie Yanique, for an afternoon of readings, discussion, and book signing. Please join us for this special event on the Queens and Staten Island Campuses on Thursday, October 14th.

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Join these celebrated authors  on the Staten Island campus on October 14th in the Spellman Cafe from 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM for readings and  discussion of their work, as well as a book signing.

James and Yanique will be on the Queens campus in the Little Theatre from 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM for readings, discussion and conversation.

A reception and book signing will immediately follow in D’Angelo Center, room 128.

Click here to RSVP for the Staten Island campus event. For more information about the event on Staten Island, contact the Office of Student Life at 718.390.4131.

Click here to RSVP for the Queens campus event. For further information about the event on the Queens campus, contact Mary Siconolfi at 718.990.1869 or email siconolm@stjohns.edu.

Students can earn 4 MVP points for attendance at this event — remember to bring your STORMcards!

To complement this event,  a special exhibition of “Notable Caribbean Authors” will open on Thursday, October 7th on the third floor of the Queens Campus Library.  It features highlights of the life and works of Marlon James and  Tiphanie Yanique, along with eight other Caribbean writers, including Nobel Prize-winning authors Derek Walcott and Sir V.S. Naipaul.

James’ and Yanique’s works, as well as copies of the books by the other featured authors, are available now for loan at the Service Desk in the Library (St. Augustine Hall).

Clear here to read more about Marlon James and Tiphanie Yanique or to get more details about the event by visiting the Caribbean Writers in Conversation Exploring Cultural Complexities event webpage.

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This event is sponsored by The President’s Multicultural Advisory Committee; The Office of the Provost; Committee for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS); University Libraries; Division of Student Affairs; Academic Affairs Committee (SGI); Haraya, the Pan-African Students Coalition; LASO (SI); Pan African Caribbean Student Association (SI)

In partnership with: Caribbean Cultural Theatre

 

Join the “Read It/See It” Discussion Group

St. John’s University Libraries invites you to join the

“Read It/See It!” Film Discussion Group*

Our first meeting will be held on

Thursday, September 23rd, 4:30 PM

Honors Commons (1st floor, St. Augustine Hall)

to watch and discuss Tobias Wolff’s

THIS BOY’S LIFE

Everyone is welcome! Membership in the “Read It/See It!” Discussion Group is open to all STJ students, faculty and staff. Copies of the readings will be on reserve and available for loan at the Service Desk on the third floor in the library (St. Augustine Hall). No registration is necessary.

Save these upcoming dates!

November 11, 2010: Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan (A Good Woman)

February 3, 2011: Helen Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road

April 7, 2011: Andre Dubus’ Killings (In the Bedroom)

Sponsored in collaboration with the Honors Program

All meetings will be held in the Honors Commons at 4:30—

For more information, contact Prof. Caroline Fuchs, Outreach Librarian, at x 5050 or fuchsc@stjohns.edu. To learn more about other STJ discussion groups, visit our blog: http://stjlibrariesbookgroups.wordpress.com/

*Door prizes available to members attending the Read It/See It Group