Exploring the American Dream, Past and Present - University of ...

From the Director…Bringing Users and Knowledge TogetherIt is a pleasure to announce the start of planning for the renovationof the Hesburgh Library. The University has selected ShepleyBulfinch Richardson and Abbott, a renowned Boston architecturalfirm with numerous awards for design excellence. The firm hasdesigned many research libraries including the recent expansionand renovation of Perkins Library, Duke University, where thedesign “repositions the library as the centerpiece of a dynamiclearning and research community, creating a balance of spatialtypes and environments that will support the University’s evolvingneeds and uses.” As we plan for the renovation of the first and secondfloors of the Hesburgh Library, we too have an unprecedentedopportunity to redefine the teaching, learning and research environments in the Libraries. Inthis issue, Denise Shorey, associate director for User Services, introduces some of the ways inwhich we will transform the physical library (see page 3). In the end, the integration of libraryresources, services and users in revitalized spaces will enhance support for the University’sgoals of offering an unsurpassed undergraduate experience and becoming a preeminentresearch university.The convergence of new technologies for delivering information and the “beautiful bones”of the building allow us to think creatively and plan, not only for the present, but also in anticipationof future needs. We can reconfigure spaces so that, for instance, humanities scholarshave a digital laboratory where they can explore resources and contribute to scholarship at thehighest level. We can take advantage of new principles of pedagogy and new modes of learningby designing many types of spaces for learning, whether collaboratively at tables, socially inhighly visible areas, over a cup of coffee, or in quiet spaces for reflective work. We can createeasy and clear access to services -- designed around users’ needs and with their input -- as wellas to resources and collections, using this opportunity also to highlight our special collections.Very importantly, we can use this opportunity to rethink ourselves as an organization, reconnectingdepartments and locating them where they are most effective, both for users and theenhancement of internal communication and our working environment.Our continuing commitment to excellence is exemplified by what happens today toenhance student learning and faculty research through library collections and access to knowledge.In these pages, we have highlighted some of the Libraries’ most distinguished collectionssuch as those supporting Latin American and Irish Studies. Although perhaps less visible ina physical sense than are the print collections, immediate desktop access is provided by theLibraries to the content of 45,000 journals as well as to thousands of books and other materialsowned or licensed in digital format. Recognizing the impossibility of purchasing all content,we have, over the last several years, significantly expanded library services to provide what aresometimes referred to as “just-in-time” collections. In response to individual requests fromstudents and faculty, the Libraries obtain specific content for them. Often, the requested itemis delivered to the requestor’s desktop within two to four hours! Based on disciplinary needsand with everyone being served, the library collections and timely delivery of content, actingtogether, enrich the intellectual experience of students, faculty and all who come to NotreDame. Carol Brach, engineering librarian, speaks to the success of this new program in thisissue (see page 6). We will continue to enhance access to content and expanded timely desktopdelivery, thereby ensuring the premier user experience.The library faculty and staff bring talent, knowledge and an exceptional commitment toexcellence in creating library services and collections at Notre Dame. Through our work togetherwe will move forward with vision and confidence to create an even richer learning, teaching andresearch environment throughout the Hesburgh Libraries system.Jennifer A. YoungerEdward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh LibrariesACCESS STAFF & CONTRIBUTORSMary C. McKeown EditorAccess Editorial Committee:Katharina J. Blackstead ChairElaine K. GriffenRobert L. KusmerMary C. McKeownThe Editorial Committee thanks thefollowing contributors to this issue:Carol BrachEngineering LibrarianPascal CalarcoHead, Systems DepartmentGay DannellyAssociate Director, Resources andCollection ServicesStephen M. HayesEntrepreneurial Spirit EndowedBusiness LibrarianAlan KriegerTheology/philosophy librarianEric MorganHead, Digital Access andInformation ArchitectureBen PancieraRare Books LibrarianGeorge RuggCurator, Special CollectionsRobert SchmuhlWalter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joyce Chair inAmerican Studies and JournalismCharles E. SchnurDirector, Regional DevelopmentDenise ShoreyAssociate Director for User ServicesJennifer A. YoungerEdward H. Arnold Director of Hesburgh LibrariesNewsletter writing, design, and photographyby Agency NDDid You Know?This semester has brought the replacementof light bulbs and ballasts in everylight in the tower (floors 4-14) of theHesburgh Library. The initiative is partof the University’s campus-wide sustainabilityeffort.Energy use has been cut in half, but theamount of light has remained the same.Lighting will be addressed separately forthe first and second floors, where widerrangingrenovation plans are now takingshape (see the Director’s column).Notre Dame’s Office of Sustainabilityestimates that the changeover in thetower generates annual energy savingsequivalent to taking 1,800 cars offthe highway.2

News…An Endowment at the Competitive EdgeStephen Hayes, Entrepreneurial Spirit Endowed Business Librarian.The Hesburgh Libraries and students ofbusiness, including undergraduates andgraduate students at the Mendoza Collegeof Business, are among the beneficiaries ofa distinctive gift that Notre Dame receivedthis year from a generous—and anonymous—Domer.This benefactor says he wanted to makea special expression of his gratitude toNotre Dame for the education he receivedand for the “vast professional alumninetwork which has helped me immensely invarious business and professional communities.”As a result, the Libraries now havean “entrepreneurial spirit endowed businesslibrarian” position supporting the everincreasingneeds at Mendoza and at thecollege’s Mahaffey Business InformationCenter (part of the HesburghLibraries).The endowed businesslibrarian position carries nobenefactor’s name, but it doesreflect the anonymous donor’srecognition of changing timesin the professional world, wherehe says “information is power”and there is a torrent of dataavailable.“Librarians are unsungheroes to a certain extent,” saysthis unsung benefactor, whodecided to bestow funding that would helpboth the Libraries and business students. “Ifelt it was important to do something withrespect to business students who need tobe able to process a tremendous amount ofinformation” as part of “a practical approachto business education.” For motivated studentsteamed with a highly skilled guide tothe universe of facts and databases, “it canbe a very collaborative situation,” he pointsout.The generous individual behind thenew position is anonymous, but the holderof the new position is not. He is StephenM. Hayes, the former “business serviceslibrarian,” who has overseen the MahaffeyCenter since it opened in 1995 and who hasbecome known at Mendoza as an expertin and teacher of what he calls “competitiveintelligence.” He has also been partof teams teaching case studies in businessresearch and a new “research challenge”initiative for undergraduates.Hayes calls the endowment of abusiness librarian position “visionary,”recognizing and nurturing a connectionbetween the development of entrepreneurialskills and the mastery of informationthat supports good judgment. This collaborativeapproach to research goes waybeyond merely “answering a question”with the limited knowledge gleaned froman Internet search engine.The endowment will immediatelysupport the expansion of the Libraries’business resources in support of Mendoza’saspirations. Hayes says he will beinvolved in a number of collaborationsto stay at the cutting edge of corporateresponsibility, sustainability, and the roleof information in those pursuits as theyare conducted in the realms of corporations,entrepreneurship, and academia. Anendowed business librarian can contributeto “producing the best-quality students aswell as moving the College forward andthe University forward in support of itsmission.”Bringing Users and Knowledge Together: renovation of library spacesRemember This…• The Hesburgh Library has been slated for renovation for years,and “phase one” involving the lower level is completed. “Phase two”involves the first and second floors, and it will entail substantialstructural updating following a year or so of input from users. Expectthe physical changes to begin in earnest in 2010.• The first and second floors are each about two acres in size. Thespace should be used with maximum effectiveness and efficiency,especially in the context of all the library’sother floors and the other resources—including computers—that students andscholars can use in their research aroundcampus.• Various kinds of spaces provided withina library (beyond merely shelves of books)have become more important as studentshave experienced learning that is morecollaborative, technologically enabled,independently focused, or open to entrepreneurialinteractions.Denise Shorey, associate director for UserServices, leads the Hesburgh Libraries’renovation initiative.Consider This…• Different kinds of “learning spaces” and working environmentsallowing various forms of usage—collaborative groupings, one-on-onestudying, casual and open to interaction, quiet privacy.• New approaches to “service points” where staff members areon duty to help users—instead of the reference, circulation, andreserved-book desks, maybe consolidate the desks and departments,create an “information commons” meeting multiple needs.“The renovation is goingto be much more thansimply the replasteringor structural rethinkingof the building. It’s goingto help us ask, What’sthe role of the library?It’s going to enhanceour role in a visible andtangible way.”—Denise Shorey•Encouraging interdisciplinarityand user-friendly access to specializedmaterials, designatingspaces for research of both thefree-wheeling and intense kinds.•Being imaginative with spaceslike the main concourse on thefirst floor as a thoroughfare thatallows people to be easily drawnmore deeply into the library.3

Resources…Civil War Letters: Words of Perseverance for Posterity“. . . I tell you dear Father rather thangive up this struggle I am willing to spendthe balance of my days on the tentedfield and suffer the last drop of blood torun from my veins…. I hope every manin our illustrious country will resolve togive the last cent he is worth in defense ofhis home and fireside, hisfamily altar and the gravesof those who have gone totheir resting place ….”Rufus Alexander Barrier20 April 1863The struggle Barrieralludes to is, of course,the American Civil War;his “illustrious country,”the Confederate Statesof America. The passagecomes from a letter writtenwhen Barrier was a captainin the Confederate army,commanding Company Hof the 8th North CarolinaInfantry Regiment, nearPetersburg, Virginia. It isone of a remarkable groupof 123 Civil War manuscriptletters presented to the HesburghLibraries’ Department of Special Collectionsby Beverly O’Grady (SMC ‘63),who with her husband Robert O’Grady(ND ‘63) has long been a prominentbenefactor of the Department and theUniversity. Beverly O’Grady is in fact aDouble portrait in uniform of the principal authors of the Barrier FamilyLetters, Rufus (left) and William Barrier. The child is Luther Moose, thebrothers’ nephew. The original of this image is now lost.great-granddaughter of Rufus Barrier; theletters were preserved as a group by fourgenerations of the Barrier family, of Mt.Pleasant, Cabarrus County, North Carolina,before arriving at Notre Dame in2007. The Barrier Family Letters are nowthe cornerstone of the O’Grady-BarrierCollection, an ongoing effortaimed at supplementingSpecial Collections’ existing,largely Northern, Civil Warmanuscript holdings withitems of Southern origin.Since 2004 the O’Gradys’generosity has allowed forthe acquisition of more than200 Confederate manuscriptgroups and other primarysources, making this a newarea of strength within theDepartment.Most of the Barrierletters were written eitherby Rufus Barrier (1836-1876) or by an older brother,William Lafayette Barrier(1834-1864), during themen’s years of service in theConfederate States army. TheExploring the American Dreamcontinued from page 1The Prochaskas’ gift arises from anappreciation of their own roots in this“nation of immigrants” and a desireto use the American Dream as a lensthrough which people today can understandeach other’s visions and valuesbetter, says Dannelly. Students are hungryfor this understanding, and Notre Damehas a growing number of courses aboutgroups—from the Irish of yesterdayto today’s Hmong people of SoutheastAsia—whose journeys speak volumes,and the Prochaskas want to facilitate suchstudies.“There’s a lot of potential for thisendowment enabling the Libraries tosupport the kinds of classes that are dealingwith immigrant issues,” Dannellysays. Financial support is going first tocollaborations between the Libraries andthe College of Arts and Letters, whichmay lead to new collections, courses,summer experiences, or speaker eventsin the social sciences and humanities.How will the Libraries take fullRobert Schmuhl, Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joycechair in American Studies and Journalism, directsthe John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics &Democracy.advantage of the breadth of the topic andthe many potential choices of resources?“We’re trying to get our hands aroundthe concept,” Dannelly says. Likely firststeps will include acquisitions of DVDsand newspapers showing “slices of life” inAmerica. A collection of historical U.S.newspapers, many of them detailing theimmigrant experience, has already beenpurchased.“The concept of the American Dreamhas multiple meanings, mythically andrealistically,” says Robert Schmuhl,Walter H. Annenberg-Edmund P. Joycechair in American studies and journalism.“Understanding those meaningswithin their historical and contemporarycontext requires both a variety of perspectivesand a multitude of sources. TheProchaska Endowment is a significant,most welcome, first step for faculty andstudents at Notre Dame—and the wider4

addressee is usually their father, MathiasBarrier, in Mt. Pleasant. Rufus Barrierwas a farmer by vocation, who enlisted inthe 8th North Carolina Infantry in 1861and served for the duration of the war,ultimately rising to lieutenant coloneland command of the regiment. WilliamBarrier was a dentist, who from 1861until his mortal wounding in May 1864served in Company F, 1st North CarolinaCavalry—one of the storied cavalry regimentsin the army, veterans of more than160 engagements under J. E. B. Stuartand other commanders. Each brother’sletters cover the full period of his militaryservice, and so provide a relativelyseamless account of his long years in thefield.Many factors contribute to the Barrierletters’ importance as a researchresource. Confederate letters are far lesscommon than Northern ones—especiallygroups of this size, preserved in theirplace of origin, and never subjected tothe disruptive influences of the market.Both brothers served in famous,hard-fought regiments—indeed, Rufuscommanded such a regiment—and theletters certainly do not lack for significantmilitary content. Notable in thisregard is an 11-page letter of WilliamLafayette Barrier describing the battleof Gettysburg (where William receiveda saber wound to the head in the greatcavalry fight of 3 July 1863). Both brothers’writings are literate, and more than alittle opinionated. Indeed, Rufus is capableof considerable rhetorical vehemence,whether directed at “King Abe” and the“yankeys” or at Southern politicians andspeculators who might undermine theefforts of the soldier in the field. And asa North Carolinian, he has little love forhis near neighbors to the south, countrymenthough they be:The whole air [of South Carolina]is thickened with myriads of sand fliesmusquetoes nats and various otherinsects that are entire strangers toanything I have ever seen. If ever youimagined yourself in the land of Egypt inthe days of Pharo when the locusts wereturned loose upon him then you can forma feint idea of what we have to suffer hereon James Island in the mighty kingdomof South Carolina. If I were able I shouldcut a canal around the whole state andfloat it off to some unknown southernocean. (24 March 1863).Just as the Barrier letters werepreserved intact over the generations,so too were the envelopes in which theletters were sent. These envelopes—whichstudents of postal history call covers—supplement our knowledge of the letters,to be sure, but they are also importantin their own right, as postal and culturalartifacts. Most bear Confederate stampsand postal markings; some are embellishedwith patriotic images—a commonpractice, North and South, early in thewar.Once received, the Barrier letterswere deacidified in the Libraries’Preservation Department, to halt thedeterioration of the paper. Those in needof repair were mended by the conservator,Liz Dube. Digital images of theentire collection were then made, in theDepartment of Special Collections, underthe supervision of Sara Weber. Futurework will involve the mounting of thesescans on the Web, accompanied by textualtranscriptions, like those Civil Warmanuscripts currently accessible on theSpecial Collections Web site atwww.rarebooks.nd.edu/digital/civil_war/index.shtml.By George RuggCurator, Special Collectionsacademic community—to come to termswith this fundamental ideal and yearningat a critical time,” says Schmuhl.The plan for studying the AmericanDream is still taking shape, and inputfrom faculty and students will help toguide the Initiative’s agenda. That agendais likely to expand beyond the College ofArts and Letters to include a much widerrange of courses and research opportunities,from business to science and beyond.One of the many ways in whichthe Prochaska gift complements NotreDame’s mission and goals is the interdisciplinarityof the subject matter. Thatis a win-win for the campus communityand the Hesburgh Libraries, whose workspans virtually all realms of knowledgeby design. “The Prochaska Family Initiativewill let us bring together interestfrom a number of departments acrosscampus,” comments Dannelly.Newly Dedicated Collection A Boon to Prepare EducatorsThe University’s distinguished missionin preparing future teachers receiveda substantial boost this year from theestate of Michael Pressley, the foundingchairholder of the Notre DameChair in Catholic Education.The estate gifted to theHesburgh Libraries Pressley’sentire educationallibrary—a collection of some15,000 volumes spanningthe psychology, sociology,spirituality, and theology ofeducation. The collection wasdedicated on July 13, 2008,in the Hesburgh Library.Pressley, a professor of psychologywho died in May of 2006, wasthe first director of the Master of Artsin Teaching Program in Notre Dame’sInstitute for Educational Initiatives. Theinstitute’s best known initiative is theAlliance for Catholic Education (ACE)program training young people asteachers in Catholic schools.ACE’s new master’s degreeprogram in Catholiceducational leadership isanother one of the initiativesbenefiting fromthe generous Pressleybenefaction—one of thegreatest private collectionsof Catholic educationalbooks in the country.Plaque in Hesburgh Library honors thelate Michael Pressley, whose estate donatedhis library of resources for the study ofeducation.5

Innovations...Bringing Users and Knowledge Together: a search and discovery tool to build communityRemember This…• The Hesburgh Libraries have an effective,user-friendly online catalog currentlyintegrated into their website. But analysisis constantly under way to keep up with newgenerations of technology and new possibilitiesfor connecting users with resources.As reported in the spring 2008 edition ofAccess, Notre Dame has been participatingin a multi-party project to develop a nextgeneration search and discovery tool. Butthe University has not staked everythingon the timing and quality of that project.Earlier this year, the Libraries purchaseda system called Primo, deemed to havesignificant long-term potential. It may serveas an alternative for or supplement to otherproducts being developed, and it will usherin some immediate gains when it is phasedin around March 2009.• Underlying the new interface will be amore comprehensive index than is currentlyavailable. It will combine the library listingsfrom Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College,Holy Cross College, Bethel College, and theKresge Law Library. It will start out as acompilation of roughly 3.5 million items fromthose institutions, with more being added,such as collections of manuscripts, graduatestudent dissertations and theses, andarchival collections.• With a single search interface to discoverand access all these different materials, varioussmall but valuable collections, previouslylittle-known or hard to find, “will be muchmore visible to the community” because ofthe new online accessibility, says PascalCalarco, who manages the Primo implementationproject together with Mark Dehmlow.He says the hope is that “more of the collectionswill get used,” thus making researchand study more efficient and cost-effective.Pascal Calarco.“We don’t wantit to be very jarring.We’re not going totake the currentformat away….We’ll make thistransition as seamlessas possible.”—Pascal CalarcoConsider This…• The new system being launched nextyear will be suitable for expansion into newcapabilities. We anticipate including accessto the University of Michigan’s growing onlineinventory of digitized books—an inventorybeing compiled in connection with thebroader global-library vision of Google. Wealso will be adding the records of the Centerfor Research Libraries in Chicago, a richresearch collection of which the HesburghLibraries are a member.• More intuitive searching will make it morelikely that the user will find something relevanton the first page of results generatedby the new system’s search engine.• As the system evolves, userswill be able to write their ownreviews appended to items listedin the catalog. Users will be able tochoose their own category namesor keywords to apply to particulardocuments, making searches moreintuitive and less reliant on libraryterminology.Bringing Users and Knowledge Together: “Just-in-Time”The “literature” needed by a student orscholar seeking help from the EngineeringLibrary might be a Japanese patent or a Europeanbuilding code standard or an obscureU.S. government report, just as easily as itmight be a book or a journal article. Many ofthe library users’ needs are urgent—perhapscrucial input as a research grant applicationdeadline approaches—and many are noteasy to locate by using the library catalog,databases, and other full-text resources.These are among the good reasons tohave a specialized, on-site library with aknowledgeable staff serving the engineeringcommunity, but they’re also good reasons forthe Hesburgh Libraries to have invested ina multi-faceted and state-of-the-art infrastructurefor interlibrary loans and electronicaccess to the full text of e-journal articles,says engineering librarian Carol Brach.Amid a growing research agenda for allsegments of the campus community, includingundergraduates, the Engineering Library’sannual requests for interlibrary loans andother engineering documents have morethan doubled in ten years, from 1,166 to2,343. The library staff’s technology-relatedskills and the automated capabilities of newsystems and library services have combinedto generate very fast responses to library users’requests.Response time for interlibrary loans, usingthe new system called RapidILL, is no morethan 24-48 hours, often much less. Ten yearsago, Brach recalls, there were often much longerlag times, even though fulfillment effortsincluded partnering with engineering-specializedvendors. “Then, we were working with apaper-based system, combining fax and hardcopy delivery via mail.”By participating in RapidILL, Notre Damehas combined forces with members of theAssociation of Research Libraries (ARL), sosome facility somewhere can nearly alwaysfulfill an engineering (or other) requestquickly, by providing a digital scan of a paperor article. Those who request documentsare notified by email that their documentis ready, and they can download it from theLibraries’ website. It’s called, colloquially,“just-in-time” delivery.“Interlibrary loan has been completelyreinvented,” says Brach. “This has helped usto become a success story.”But Brach notes that the human touchcan speed responses to an even higherdegree. A library specialist reviews each RapidILLrequest to make doubly sure that thedocument is neither part of the Hesburgh Libraries’resources nor available online. Somedocuments may be instantly downloadablefrom a website but at a cost. Such purchasesare funded by the Chicago Rivet FoundationLibrary Collection in Engineering in Memoryof John A. Morrissey, a Hesburgh Librariesendowment.Today’s technology and the well-informeduse of it are saving money and enhancingresearch at Notre Dame, says Brach, andresource sharing provides the key. “The EngineeringLibrary can now provide rapid accessto articles from journals we don’t have inour collection alongside instant access toour subscribed journals, most of which areelectronically based.” Nowadays Brach says,obtaining the resources and services of theEngineering Library can be a bigger pluswithout a bigger place.6

Kudos...Transitions...Reference librarian Jessica Kayongo hasbeen accepted as a Fellow in the Associationof Research Libraries’ Leadership andCareer Development Program (LCDP) for theclass of 2009-2010. LCDP is an 18-monthprogram which prepares midcareer librariansfrom underrepresented racial and ethnicgroups to take on increasingly demandingleadership roles in ARL libraries.Congratulations to Marcy Simons who, after20 years of service to the Libraries in stacksmanagement, circulation and reserves, hasbeen appointed head of Access Servicesat Ball State University. Simons earned herMLS from Indiana University-Purdue UniversityIndianapolis in 2008.Joseph W. Thomaswas presented withthe 2008 Rev. Paul J.Foik, CSC, Award atthe President’s Dinneron May 20. The awardis given annually inrecognition of exemplarycontributions bya Notre Dame librarian.Thomas serves as head of TechnicalServices, the largest unit within the KresgeLaw Library. Recognized as an “excellent administrator,a very knowledgeable librarianand a terrific colleague,” Thomas is playinga critical role in the Law School building andrenovation process. He has been active inthe American Association of Law Librariesand is past chair of both its Technical ServicesSpecial Interest Section and the PriceIndex Advisory Committee. Thomas alsoserved for three years as editor of TechnicalServices Law Librarian.The Hesburgh Libraries’ online catalog, orOPAC (online public access catalog), waslisted as an example of best practices for“search interface, including retaining searchkeys and searched terms” in “Revitalizingthe Library OPAC: Interface, Searching, andDisplay Challenges” by Jia Mi and CathyWeng, Information Technology andLibraries, March, 2008, pp. 5-22.Congratulations to the members of theLibraries’ Screen Design Committee whomanage the catalog interface.Head of Access Services, Sue Dietl,retired in June after more than 33years of service to the HesburghLibraries.Melodie Eiteljorge, senior administrativeassistant in the Hesburgh Libraries’administrative offices, retired in Aprilafter 20 years of service to the Libraries.Kenneth Kinslow accepted the newposition of resource delivery librarianin July. As a member of the newlyconfigured Resource Access & Delivery(RAD) Department, Kinslow will beresponsible for future developmentand innovation of interlibrary loanand document delivery services. Hehas served the Libraries as supervisorin the Interlibrary Loan unit and mostrecently as acting head of the ResourceDelivery Department. He earned aPh.D. in American literature from theUniversity of Notre Dame and an MLSfrom Indiana University.Andrea “Andy” Langhurst has joinedthe Hesburgh Libraries as licensing/serials order librarian in the ElectronicResources & Serials Access Department.She comes to Notre Dame from GEGlobal Research in Niskayuna, New Yorkwhere her position entailed licensing,copyright, e-resources support and budgetmanagement. Langhurst earned herMLS degree from the University of Iowa.Collette Makjoined theHesburgh Librariesin August as headof the ResourceAccess & Delivery(RAD) Department.Mak comesto Notre Damefrom INCOLSA (Indiana CooperativeLibrary Services Authority) where shewas director of Library Products. Shehas a BA and MLS from the Universityof Michigan.The HesburghLibraries’ fifth librarian-in-residenceis Phuongkhanh“Khanh” Nguyen.Nguyen earnedher MLIS in June2008 from San JoseState University. In2005 she was awarded a stipend fromthe ARL Initiative to Recruit a DiverseWorkforce and a Spectrum Scholarship.She holds an associate’s degreein library technology from Santa AnaCollege and an undergraduate degreein economics from the University ofCalifornia, Irvine. The focus of herresidency, which began September 1, isemerging technologies.Jennifer Parkerhas been appointedarchitecturelibrarian, effectiveAugust 1. Parkerwas art and architecturelibrarianat the Universityof Colorado atBoulder. She received her MLS from theUniversity of Maryland in 2003, andholds a BA in art history from CaliforniaState University, Long Beach and anMA in art history from the Universityof VirginiaDenise M. Shorey has been appointedassociate director for User Services,effective July 14. Shorey has held librarypublic service positions at several academicinstitutions, including Princeton,the University of Southern California,and most recently at Northwestern Universitywhere she was instrumental inthe design and implementation of theirInfoCommons. In addition to her MLSfrom Rutgers University, Shorey has aBA in language and linguistic studiesfrom the University of the West Indies,Mona, Jamaica, and a graduate diplomain international relations from the Universityof the West Indies, St. Augustine,Trinidad and Tobago.7

Hesburgh Libraries of Notre DameNotre Dame, IN 46556News from theHesburgh Librariesof Notre DameOn Exhibit…Freedom of Christ and Freedom to Read:The Index of Prohibited Books sincethe EnlightenmentAugust 22 to December 19, 2008Open to the publicThe Christian Church’s impulse to censorwhat it felt to be dangerously incorrectcan be traced to the Acts of the Apostles.The first official condemnation of specificbooks dates back to the fifth century.The rise of printing and the Reformationpresented the Roman Catholic Churchwith a new challenge in the 16th century.Doctrines contrary to papal teachings were produced muchmore frequently and disseminated much more rapidly. Inresponse, bishops began to produce lists of authors whoseworks could not be printed, sold, or owned anywhere withintheir dioceses. Wishing to bring these scattered lists undercentralized control, the Vatican instituted its Index LibrorumProhibitorum or Index of Prohibited Books.The exhibit traces the birth and development of the Indexfrom the 16th century into the modern era, culminating inits abandonment in 1966, with an emphasis on the last twocenturies. There are examples of prohibited books in severaldifferent subject areas. Several pamphlets from the CatholicPamphlet Collection have been reproduced to demonstratehow the principles of the Index were deployed to encourageAmerican Catholics to avoid indecent films and books, bothfiction and nonfiction.The display of a broad range of examples of prohibitedworks illustrates the nearly impossible task of delineatingwhat may be harmful to the morals of an individual reader.It should also be noted that nearly all of the works displayedwere collected and housed by Notre Dame, even as they wereprohibited. In this light, the abandonment of a structured listof prohibited works in favor of a more general admonitionthat faithful Catholics should avoid books that may be harmfulto their spiritual development seems inevitable.By Ben PancieraRare Books librarianA Web Portal OpensWide for Catholic ResearchScholars who study the Catholic Church are expectantly watchingthe virtual “construction site” where a project team led by theUniversity of Notre Dame is building a major research portal onthe Internet.The “Catholic Research Portal” can be found in its nascentform through the Catholic Research Resources Alliance atwww.catholicresearch.net, but its hoped-for emergence in 2009as a significantly expanded collection of information will be abig boon for students of Catholic intellectual life, Catholic socialteaching, and more.“The aim of the Portal is to create greater access to rare,unique, and infrequently held research materials drawn frommany different institutions—as wide a sweep of institutionalholdings as we can gather,” says associate librarian Alan Krieger,who is one of several representatives of the Hesburgh Libraries onvarious committees assembling the Portal.Jennifer Younger, the Edward H. Arnold Director of HesburghLibraries, chairs the project’s board of directors. Thatboard comprises key library officials from eight Catholic universities,including Boston College, Catholic University of America,Georgetown, Marquette University, St. Edward’s University, SetonHall University, and the University of San Diego, alongside NotreDame.Notre Dame librarians’ extensive involvement is “an exampleof how the Hesburgh Libraries help fulfill the University’s mission,”says another Notre Dame representative, librarian EricMorgan. The Portal will make a difference by making research onvarious Catholic subjects easier, he says—not always by makingdigitized versions of scholarly resources available with a click, butat least by describing the hard-copy collections held at variousinstitutions and pointing scholars toward locations they might nothave thought of.Those developing the Portal foresee an increased visibilityand sharing of an array of resources from many more institutions,including colleges beyond the current eight, seminaries,organizations with Catholic resources, and religious orders. Thecontent will span official Church documents, scholarly works andrecords of relationships with the secular world relevant to variousdisciplines. The resources Notre Dame has added to the collectioninclude papers of 19th century convert and Catholic intellectualOrestes Brownson, for example.Hesburgh LibrariesACCESS: News from the Hesburgh Libraries of Notre Dame (ISSN 0743-2151) is published semi-annuallyand is distributed to the University community. It is available by subscription upon written request.www.library.nd.eduwww.library.nd.edu/advancement/Access.shtml