Gayle Baker

It’s always a challenge for faculty to stay on top of the advancing technology in their fields. That’s especially true for those who work in libraries.

Professor Gayle Baker, the electronic resources coordinator for UT Libraries, said the technological advances in her field are growing more and more complex each year.

“Publishers of electronic resources are coming out with mobile apps and special-purpose widgets to add to browser toolbars,” she said. “They also are creating new electronic resources, including scanned images of centuries-old documents, as well as collections of streaming videos.”

It’s Baker’s job to stay current on electronic resources for faculty and students, and then make sure they know how to use them.

“More than anyone, Gayle is responsible for the excellent electronic resources available to UT faculty and students,” said Steve Smith, dean of the UT Libraries. “She leverages her deep knowledge of scholarly databases to bring the very best library resources to our campus scholars.”

Baker also brings her vast experience to bear on research. She has been a key partner in a recent study of return on investment in academic libraries.

Baker became interested in library science as a graduate student at The Ohio State University in the early 70s, though that course of study wasn’t offered at the time. She earned a master’s degree in computer and information science and later earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of Alabama. She came to UT in 1990 as the science and technology coordinator, where she supervised science and technology librarians in Hodges Library. She’s been the electronic resources coordinator since 1993, when librarians performed the vast majority of database searches in the libraries at UT and the cost of access was based upon the amount of time connected with the database and the number of records with citation. There were very few databases of newspapers at the time, and none of scholarly journals.

Baker has served on UT’s Research Council and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Project COUNTER, an international initiative serving librarians and publishers by setting standards for recording and reporting online usage statistics.

When she’s not in the library, Baker and her husband spend their weekends on their farm in the Cumberland Gap area of southwest Virginia where they grow vegetables and hay and raise cattle.

Thura Mack

Thura Mack has been working in libraries since she was in high school. As a student worker, she was assigned to work with an outreach librarian who delivered books on tape for the blind in the community.

“Since I was close to graduating from high school, she made me promise that I would go to college to become a librarian one day,” said Mack. “She provided the coaching to make sure that I had a plan for my education and professional success. I think she would be proud that thirty-three years later, I am still a librarian and now have a role as a coordinator for outreach services.”

Mack is the coordinator of community learning services and diversity programs for UT Libraries. She holds a master’s degree in library science from UT and has worked at the university since 1980.

Since 2003 she has been a member of the Life of the Mind committee, helping to select the common reading book for each year’s incoming freshmen. Mack is currently working with colleagues on the Big Orange STEM Symposium (BOSS), an outreach project for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mack and her team are working with UT’s Outreach and Engagement Council, the L&N STEM Academy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and high schools from around the state.

“In my mind, BOSS is a success story because it has generated interest, collaboration, and enthusiasm in the community and has intellectual promise beyond the program itself,” said Mack. “We hope to make a huge impact in the lives of these high school students and encourage them to pursue their passions at UT.”

“Thura is an expert at community building,” Smith said. “She gives tirelessly of her time and talents to high school students and to faculty colleagues, always thinking of what will benefit the community and the library profession.”

Smith said Mack also has been key to the success of the library’s Diversity Residency Program, a program that enhances the ethnic and cultural diversity of UT Libraries by bringing recent library and information science graduates into the library for work experience.

“Thura is a committed advocate for diversity and one of the best mentors I have ever seen,” Smith said.

In her free time, Mack enjoys spending time with her daughter Niyia, who lives in Los Angeles, and traveling to visit other family members. She also works with toddlers and the elderly at her church.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

The race will begin at 9:00 a.m. in Circle Park. Registration is available on the day of the race from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. The UT Graduate Student Senate is sponsoring the event.

The UT Graduate Student Senate has hosted the race since 1992. Proceeds from the event will help the libraries buy electronic resources, books, equipment, and other critical items for students.

The Knoxville Track Club will manage the finish line and compile race results. An awards ceremony will follow.

For more information, visit the UT Libraries website.

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CONTACT:

UT Graduate Student Senate (865-974-2377, gss@utk.edu)

The reading will be in the Hodges Library Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Laken recently published her second book, the short story collection Separate Kingdoms. The stories are set in the United States and Russia and were partially inspired by her travel and work in Eastern Europe.

Her first novel, Dream House, was named one of the Best Books of 2009 by Kirkus Reviews and one of the Top Ten Best First Novels of 2009 by Booklist.  It was based on her experience with renovating a house that had been the site of a homicide.

Laken teaches creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She previously taught at the University of Michigan. She has also worked in Moscow; Prague; Krakow, Poland; and Madison, Wisconsin.

Her work has been featured in Ploughshares, the Missouri Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Writer and the Chicago Tribune.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For more information contact Marilyn Kallet, director of UT’s Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, writer in residence at UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).

For more information about Valerie Laken, visit her website.

Upcoming Writers in the Library events will feature:

• March 11: T Cooper, novelist and author of Real Man Adventures
• April 8: Adam Prince, a UT graduate and author of the short story collection The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men
• April 15: Poets Marilyn Kallet and Arthur Smith, both UT English professors
• April 25: Winners of UT’s creative writing awards

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C O N T A C T :

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)

Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)

Luckily, students (and faculty and staff) won’t have to look far to find some fun respite to the chaos:

Ice Cream, Massages and More

UT Libraries’ “De-Stress for Success” events begin tomorrow, December 5, and continue every weekday through Wednesday, December 12.

Some events students can enjoy are:

• December 5—Student Assessment of Instruction System (SAIS) “Chill Out” ice cream social, noon to 2:00 p.m. Have a cool treat while completing your online instructor evaluation forms in the Commons.
• December 6 and 7, 10, 11, and 12—Student Health Center’s promotion of healthy eating and study habits, noon to 2:00 p.m. December 6 and 7; 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on December 10, 11, and 12.
• Daily—Chair massages from the Knoxville Massage Therapy Center 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
• Ongoing events include cartoons, games, and coloring books in one of the library’s viewing rooms.

Steve Smith, dean of libraries, encourages students to take a break from the long hours of studying.

“We want to boost our students’ success and keep them healthy at the end of what, for many, is a long and taxing semester,” he said.

All the events are free and will be held in Hodges Library.

Visit www.lib.utk.edu for more information.

Animal Therapy

“Research shows that petting an animal lowers blood pressure and stress hormones,” said Karen Armsey, program administrator of Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee, or HABIT.

HABIT is a group that brings medically and behaviorally screened animals to places where people need comfort.

HABIT will bring its furry companions to soothe frazzled students in Hodges Library (part of its De-Stress for Success events) and Scripps Convergence Lab on the fourth floor of the College of Communication and Information.

See the animals in Hodges Library:

• December 5 and 6—From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• December 7 and 10—From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• December 11—From 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• December 12—From noon to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

See the animals in the Scripps Lab:

• December 6, 7, 10 and 11—From 10:00 a.m. to noon

For more information, visit the HABIT website.

Hot Chocolate and Popcorn

The McClung Museum in Circle Park will hand out free hot chocolate and popcorn from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, for students taking finals in its lecture hall and any other students who want a breather and a snack.

“As a campus museum we get students in our doors every day for class, and we really want to make a point to better interact with them,” said Abby Naunheimer, the museum’s weekend program coordinator. “We want to celebrate with and congratulate the students for a job well done as they leave for the holidays.”

The snacks will be handed out at the entrance of the museum.

Visit mcclungmuseum.utk.edu for more information about the museum.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

The Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project at the UT Libraries has released the new Database of the Smokies (DOTS), a free online bibliography of Smoky Mountains material published since 1934, the year the national park was established.

The database contains searchable records of books, scholarly and popular journal articles, government and scientific reports, theses and dissertations, maps, digitized photographs, and travel guides. Wherever copyright restrictions permit, citations are linked to scanned copies of the published item.

View the database online.

The database is intended to complement Terra Incognita: An Annotated Bibliography of the Great Smoky Mountains, 1544–1934, which is scheduled for publication by the UT Press in summer 2013. With the Smokies database and Terra Incognita, researchers will have access to a wealth of published material documenting over 400 years of human activity in the Smokies and surrounding region.

Together, Terra Incognita and the Database of the Smokies will be the most comprehensive bibliography of the Great Smoky Mountains ever compiled.

Research expedition on Mount LeConte with L. R. Hesler (far left) and Stanley A. Cain (far right) in front row and Aaron J. Sharp in back row (far right), circa 1935.

“We are very excited to be able to offer this resource to the public,” said Anne Bridges, co-director of the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project along with Ken Wise. “Not only will it provide information on research, but we hope it will be the springboard to new research.”

The database currently contains about 2,000 citations focused on the fields of biology and ecology and includes research publications of former UT botany professors Aaron Sharp, Stanley Cain and L. R. Hesler. In addition to early studies of Smokies biology, the database contains citations to published material from the areas of history, psychology, genealogy, archaeology, economics, tourism, environmental studies, geology, literature, cultural studies, and park management.

In the future, the curators of the database will add links to digitized photographs from the UT Libraries’ online collections and to other content freely available on the Internet.

The project team began working on the database in May 2011 using Drupal, an open-source platform for managing content. Drupal’s crowd-sourcing feature will allow database users to become contributors, as well, by identifying new publications and uploading citations. The Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project will continue to update the online database with new content.

To learn more about the Great Smoky Mountains Regional Project, visit the UT Libraries website.

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CONTACTS:

Ken Wise (865-974-2359, smokies@utk.edu

Anne Bridges (865-974-0017, smokies@utk.edu)

Zagajewski’s appearance is part of UT’s Writers in the Library series. He will participate in an informal chat at 2:00 p.m. in 1210-1211 McClung Tower. His reading begins at 7:00 p.m. in the Hodges Library auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

Written a year and a half before the attacks, Zagajewski’s “Mutilated World” became a memorable statement about the tragedy. Critics say it is one of the best-known poems of recent years.

Zagajewski was born in 1945 in Lvov, a predominantly Polish city that became part of Soviet Ukraine shortly after his birth. His family, which had lived there for centuries, was forcibly repatriated to Poland when he was an infant.

Zagajewski has said “Mutilated World” was about a trip he took with his father through some of the Ukrainian villages that the Polish people had been forced to leave.

“This was one of the strongest impressions I ever had,” he was quoted as saying in the Daily Beast. “There were these empty villages with some apple trees going wild. And I saw the villages became prey to nettles; nettles were everywhere. There were these broken houses. It became in my memory this mutilated world, these villages, and at the same time they were beautiful. It was in the summer, beautiful weather. It’s something that I reacted to, this contest between beauty and disaster.”

Zagajewski was a major figure of the Polish New Wave literary movement of the early 1970s and the anti-Communist Solidarity movement of the 1980s. Today, he is considered to be one of the leading poets of Europe.

His books of poetry in English include Without End: New and Selected Poems, Unseen Hand, and, most recently, Eternal Enemies. In 2004 he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 2010 he was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Zagajewski teaches in the Poets and Poetics program at the University of Chicago.

He lives in Krakow, Paris, and Chicago.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund.

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C O N T A C T :

Marilyn Kallet, director of the Creative Writing Program (974-6947, mkallet@utk.edu)

Christopher Hebert, writer-in-residence at UT Libraries, (974-5401, chebert3@utk.edu)

He was appointed by Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett to a three-year renewable term.

The council oversees library services that benefit all Tennesseans and advises the Tennessee State Library and Archives on long-range plans for programs and activities.

The state library collects and preserves books and records that have historical and documentary value. It also supports Tennessee’s Regional Library System; provides construction funding, library materials, continuing education, and technology assistance to the state’s public libraries; and encourages resource sharing across the state.

One ongoing project of the state library that benefits Tennessee’s colleges and universities is the Tennessee Electronic Library, an online collection of research resources made available free of charge to Tennessee residents.

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CONTACT:

Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, mrudolp2@utk.edu)

A team of UT librarians and staff implemented the program this fall, which displays a map along with book information and its location when someone searches for a book in the library’s catalog. The map pinpoints not only the floor, but also the specific shelf range where a book is housed. It also provides directions for getting there.

“Ever since we moved into this building, it’s been a challenge for anybody to find books in our stacks—even our staff,” said David Atkins, associate professor and head of the library’s department for resource sharing and document delivery. “Now, instead of saying, ‘go to the third floor and good luck,’ we can actually send (library users) a copy of the map.”

StackMap works on personal computers and mobile devices. It can be accessed via the library’s homepage. At the top of the page under Books Plus, enter the book title and it will display a location and a map. StackMap does not display online materials, books in the Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine and Music libraries, or in Hoskins storage.

The stacks occupy the third through sixth floors of Hodges Library.

The library staff pursued StackMap as a result of feedback from library users.

“In surveys, a common complaint from students, faculty, anybody, was they had a hard time finding anything,” Atkins said. “A person would sometimes take twenty to thirty minutes just to find one book in the stacks.”

The library staff has now connected a book’s call number to a map through the technology of a small company in Palo Alto, California.

The project was a year and a half in the making. Atkins first learned of StackMap at an American Library Association Conference. Several universities use the program, including Appalachian State University in North Carolina and the University of Toronto in Canada.

Library staffers are tracking usage of StackMap. They anticipate usage will jump around midterms.

Atkins thanked students in particular for speaking up about the need for a better search function in the library. If they had not, StackMaps might never have happened.

“I encourage students to keep the good ideas coming,” he said.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

The Commons, which encompass the second floor of the library, have been under renovation since the summer.

The updated space will feature enclosed group study rooms. Some of the rooms will have interactive smart boards.

More group study spaces “is one of the enhancements students asked for,” said Rita Smith, the libraries’ executive associate dean.

Mediascape furniture—U-shaped tables with monitors that will allow students to connect their computers into the table and work together on a project at the same time—will be available throughout the Commons.

The Commons will feature a larger zone that is dedicated to tutoring and academic support. It’ll include the Student Success Center, the Writing Lab, and the Stats Lab.

A second door will also be added to Starbucks, a popular destination for many students.

To reduce inconvenience to students, library staff wearing “Ask Me” buttons have been greeting library users at the second floor Melrose entrance where most people enter the Commons.

There also has been plenty of signage to direct patrons to relocated library services.

“We realize it’s stressful for the students,” Smith said. “We’ve been sensitive to the fact that it can impact their work and we don’t want that to happen.”

For more information, visit library.utk.edu/news.

Mason will read from her works at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 12, in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Nine other writers will read from their works during the fall semester. For the complete list, visit the library’s website.

“As a novelist who teaches writing and literature, I know that experiencing literature can be life-enhancing,” said Allen Wier, a UT professor of English who arranged Mason’s visit. “The opportunity to be present when a writer reads from his or her work reminds us of how essential the art of storytelling is, and has been in almost all cultures since the emergence of speech.”

Mason, a Kentucky native, is the author of five short story collections, five novels, a memoir, and three works of nonfiction. Her first book of fiction, Shiloh and Other Stories, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the American Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Her memoir, Clear Springs, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the top award in the field of journalism. Mason also has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The New York Times has praised Mason’s books for having “delineated a New South reeling from the dislocations of contemporary life” and for her “radar-sharp knowledge of her characters’ inner lives, (and) her interest in the longings for emotional connection.”

Mason’s most recent novel, The Girl in the Blue Beret, was one of last summer’s three “hot literary books” recommended by USA Today.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by UT Libraries and the UT Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund.

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CONTACTS:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, mrudolp2@utk.edu)

Starting Monday, April 30, and continuing through Monday, May 7, members of the Knoxville Massage Therapy Center will be offering free chair massages in the Commons area on the second floor. Therapy dogs from Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee (HABIT) will also be on hand to help soothe frazzled nerves.

A room stocked with games, sketch pads, and comics will provide a welcome diversion for students cramming for exams at the library. Those students who wish to express their angst in writing will be able to record their thoughts on the “graffiti walk,” a long sheet of butcher paper running the entire length of the library’s main hallway floor.

There will be an ice cream social at the beginning of that week, which the library has dubbed “De-Stress for Success.”

All activities are free to students. For a full schedule of events and activity times, visit the UT Libraries website.

“The UT libraries are trying to help students relax and recharge,” said Libraries Dean Steven Smith. “Students spend many hours in the library, so we have a unique opportunity to help students engage with campus life and forge the personal connections that are as essential to academic success as books and computers.”

The library, the UT Office of Alumni Affairs, the UT Parents Association, the School of Information Sciences, and the Graduate Student Senate are sponsoring the visits from the Knoxville Massage Therapy Center and HABIT.

Anyone interested in sponsoring the “De-Stress for Success” events should contact the dean’s office at libraryfriends@utk.edu or 865-974-0055.

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CONTACTS:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lalapo@utk.edu)

Martha Rudolph (865-974-4273, mrudolp2@utk.edu)

Readings from the winning works will take place in the John C. Hodges Library auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, April 16. The event is free and open to the public.

Prizes were made possible by the English Department through the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, endowed by the same long-time UT English professor for whom UT’s main library is named. First-place winners received $500, second-place winners received $300, and third-place winners received $100.

This year’s judges were humanities librarian Christopher Caldwell and award-winning novelist Jeanne McDonald.

Here are the 2012 winners:

In the fiction category:

First prize: Adam Prince, “Bruises and Baby Teeth”
Second prize: Tawnysha Greene, “A House Made of Stars”
Third prize: Michael Levan, “Stara Baba”

In the poetry category:

First prize: Michael Levan, “I Lose More Each Day I Spend in This Town”
Second prize: Joshua Robbins, “Ars Poetica”
Third prize: Darren Jackson, “We Are Late to Love”
Honorable Mention: Anna Laura Reeve, “Another One of My Poems Bears”

Both first-place winners are already published authors.

Adam Prince’s first collection of stories, The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men, will be published in May 2012 with Black Lawrence Press. Stories from the collection have appeared in The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, and Narrative Magazine among others. Prince will receive his doctoral degree at the end of this school year and then serve as the 2012-2013 Tickner Fellow at the Gilman School in Baltimore.

Michael Levan earned his master’s of arts from the University of North Texas and master’s of fine arts in poetry from Western Michigan University. In May, he will receive his doctorate in English and Creative Writing from UT. His work can be found in recent or forthcoming issues of Mid-American Review, Fifth Wednesday, Southern Indiana Review, New South, Harpur Palate, and Third Coast.

Renovations will begin immediately following this semester’s final exams and continue for several months.

This major construction project on the busiest floor of the campus’s main library will inevitably entail some noise, dust, and temporary relocation of services. However, renovations will be done in stages for the least disruption.

The pay-off for some temporary inconvenience will be an updated facility that improves the Studio and provides more group study spaces, more natural light, and new mediascape furniture (technology-enabled collaborative workspaces). Services will be better organized, grouping academic consulting in one area and all equipment checkout at a single service point. The Research Assistance Desk will relocate to a highly visible spot just inside the main entrance to the library.

For more information on construction projects happening around campus visit conezone.utk.edu.

The event will be 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Thursday, March 29, in the Jack E. Reese Galleria of the John C. Hodges Library. Faculty books will be on display at the reception.

To RSVP, contact Patty Boling at 865-974-6600 or boling00@utk.edu.

The Office of Research and the UT Libraries are sponsoring the event.

For a full list of books authored or co-authored by current faculty, visit quest.utk.edu/books.

The Libraries acquired more than three hundred early printed Bibles and other rare books from the collection of the late Naseeb Shaheen, a noted Shakespeare scholar and professor of English at the University of Memphis for forty years.

The reception begins at 6:00 p.m. in the Jack E. Reese Galleria. At 7:00 p.m., Renaissance scholar Hannibal Hamlin will speak on “Shakespeare and the Bible.” Selected Bibles will be on display in Special Collections.

The Shaheen Antiquarian Bible Collection includes almost one hundred English Bibles dating from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries when the Christian scriptures were first translated into the vernacular languages of Europe. These early printed Bibles, along with psalters, prayer books, and homilies included in the collection, were used by Shaheen in his studies of the Bible in literature.

Shaheen was an internationally known authority on Shakespeare’s use of the Bible. He assembled his collection of early printed Bibles to assure that he was working from the exact texts available to Shakespeare. His collection of pre-King James Bibles was one of the largest in the world.

Please RSVP with number of guests to libraryfriends@utk.edu or 865-974-6600.

The 3:30 p.m., February 28, screening will be at Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1015 Volunteer Blvd. Guided group discussions will take place at 5:30 p.m.

Another screening will take place at 6:30 p.m.

Both showings are free and open to the public, although the first is geared toward teens.

“Miss Representation” exposes how mainstream media portrayals of women and girls contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America—and arms the viewer with a new perspective. It uses stories from teenage girls and interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists, and academics like Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson, and Gloria Steinem.

The documentary covers some challenging topics. Parents and group leaders are advised to preview the trailer before making plans to attend.

Seating is limited to 150. Anyone planning to bring a group of ten or more, or anyone needing disability-related accommodations, should contact Rachel Radom, rradom@utk.edu or 865-974-6107, as soon as possible.

The screenings are sponsored by the YWCA, the Feminist Action Collective, the UT Libraries, Department of Sociology, College of Social Work, and the Center for the Study of Social Justice.

The UT Graduate Student Senate is hosting the twentieth annual Love Your Libraries 5K Race. Proceeds from the event will help the libraries buy electronic resources, books, equipment, and other critical items for students.

The race begins at 9:00 a.m. in Circle Park. Registration is from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.

The Knoxville Track Club will manage the finish line and compile race results. An awards ceremony will follow the race.

Preregistration is $20 if postmarked by February 25. UT students and Knoxville Track Club members will receive an additional $5 discount if they preregister.

Registration after February 25 and on race day is $25.

This is the twentieth year of the race. The Graduate Student Senate hosted the first one on Valentine’s Day in 1992.

For more information or to download a registration form, visit lib.utk.edu/5k.

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C O N T A C T :

UT Graduate Student Senate (865-974-2377, gss@utk.edu)