Library News

The Syracuse University Library and University Archives have created a new digital collection of Carnegie Library images.

This fully searchable digital collection of Carnegie Library photographs includes over 200 images of the Syracuse University Carnegie Library from the 1905 ground breaking to the 2007 centennial. The collection includes images of the main Reading Room, interior rooms and spaces, the exterior façade, architectural detail, construction photos, as well as students and librarians. Photographs were selected from the Syracuse University Archives’ collection of campus building photographs and digitized by the Library’s Digital Imaging Services Center.

The Carnegie Library History web page features information on philanthropist Andrew Carnegie’s $150,000 donation to Syracuse University for the construction of the new library, which opened in September 1907. The page includes a history of the Library, timeline, historical news articles, and a link to leave a remembrance.

For more information on the project, please contact Mary DeCarlo at mmdecarl@syr.edu.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 2:09 PM | Permalink

A new exhibition, “A Goodly Heritage of Study: The Portfolio Club of Syracuse,” is now on display in Syracuse University Library’s Special Collections Research Center. Displayed are the archives of a still-thriving women’s study club that was formed in 1875 in Syracuse.

The Portfolio Club exemplifies a post-Civil War movement in which many thousands of middle-class women came together to educate themselves in a society that restricted women’s access to institutions of higher learning. This club began a few weeks after the Association for the Advancement of Women held a congress at the Wieting Opera House in downtown Syracuse. At these congresses, which took place in many American cities, Julia Ward Howe and other presenters encouraged women to form study clubs for self-culture.

Nine young women founded the Portfolio Club, with guidance from Mary Dana Hicks, their art teacher. Though they began with a focus on art, in the middle 1880s they expanded their scope to include literature, current events, history, performing arts and many other subjects. Members have met regularly from October through April since the club’s inception to read their papers on a topic assigned by each year’s president.

Syracuse residents and those long associated with SU will recognize the married names of many past club members, such as Mrs. Donald Dey, Mrs. William Nottingham, Mrs. E.N. Westcott and Mrs. Mildred Eggers. Among Portfolio guest speakers during the club’s first several decades were Judge Charles Andrews, Dean George Fiske Comfort, Howard Lyman, professors Sawyer Falk and Irene Sargent, Paul Paine, Douglas Petit, Katherine Sibley and SU Chancellor Charles Sims.

The exhibition, which emphasizes the years 1875–1950, includes annual program booklets, many of them finely crafted. Also on display are meeting minutes, clippings, photographs, film footage of a 1935 gathering and other club documents. The exhibition will be available until May 8 on the sixth floor of E.S. Bird Library. The sixth-floor gallery is open from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday–through Friday, except holidays.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 2:06 PM | Permalink

The Library will offer a number of RefWorks training sessions during the spring semester. RefWorks is an online citation management tool available to all SU students and faculty. Attend a session and learn how RefWorks can simplify and enhance the process of organizing research materials.

Hands-on sessions will include demonstrations of how to import and save citations, generate bibliographies, insert in-text references, and more. Sessions will be held in Room 046 on the lower level of E.S. Bird Library. No registration is required - drop-ins are welcome!

Sessions will be held on:
Friday, January 30 from 12:45 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
Thursday, February 5 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Wednesday, February 11 from 2:15 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.
Monday, February 1 from 10:35 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, February 24 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:20 p.m.
Tuesday, March 3 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Wednesday, March 4 from 2:15 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.
Tuesday, March 17 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m.
Friday, April 3 from 2:15 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.

For more details about RefWorks and a copy of the class schedule, please visit the library’s RefWorks webpage.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 9:05 AM | Permalink

The Library has released a beta version of a new Library website for trial and comment. The new site is available from on-campus locations at this time and will be available from off-campus in the near future. Visitors can make comments and suggestions via a survey form prominently located on the new site.

The graphical and navigational design of the site was based on Syracuse University’s new Website Design Style Guide. The design was also guided in large measure by input from users gathered during a series of feedback sessions held in the library and elsewhere on campus during the fall.

One of the most notable features in the beta website is a new integrated search tool. Based on user needs for better guidance in navigating the website, the new search was created to direct users to all types of information, regardless of its source or location. The federated search includes a broad range of "silos" of information (the catalog, e-journals, databases, SU Library website, SU digital collections, Google, etc.) and also leads to more advanced research tools.

Other features of the new site include: new top level and 2nd-level page navigation; an interactive Library map; real time Library hours; staff directory; tagging; session recording; bread crumbs; new photo and image content; and a tool showing availability of public workstation.

Some new features and content are under development and will be added to the beta site over the course of the spring semester. In addition to more content, other functionality that will be added includes: new subject pages using LibGuides program; Mybrary, which allows users to create a personalized Library webpage with their favorite resources, saved searches, feeds, etc (similar to iGoogle and MyYahoo); blogs and wikis, video content, and a room reservations tool.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 12:58 PM | Permalink

During 2008, Syracuse University Library acquired several data sets of potential interest to SU researchers who are researching the current financial situation. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, 2000-2007, which comprises every mortgage application made in the United States, and Government Sponsored Enterprises data, which includes all mortgages purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, 1993-2006, are now available via the web. The data for New York are available for online statistical analysis and data for the entire country are available for extract and downloading at: http://library.syr.edu/information/mgi/nds/resources/. Updated data will be added as it becomes available.
Please direct questions and requests for assistance to Paul Bern, phbern@syr.edu, 443-1352.

Posted by Pamela McLaughlin at 4:57 PM | Permalink