Another busy month here in the University Archives and Special Collections. This month not only saw the return of Special Collections Librarian David Bindle from his sabbatical leave–it also saw the beginning, continuation, and/or culmination of a number of major projects:

1. The Printed Matters Now art show went up on July 21st, and is (sadly) ending today. The show consisted of a variety of prints produced by University of Saskatchewan artists and alumni artists, as inspired by materials in the University of Saskatchewan’s Archives and Special Collections. The show was well received, and the participating artists will be gifted with suites of prints later this month in the spirit of an art-exchange. If you were not able to catch the show–don’t worry! All prints will also remain available for perusal at the University Archives and Special Collections, along with the materials used to inspire the artists.

2. Progress is being made on our Courtney Milne project, which will make thousands of his works available online. Not only is our number of scans now up to approximately 46, 314  but we have seen this month the body of the website come to life, thanks to Steve Brecker. Thanks also to Karim Tharani, John Yobb, Mike Moore , Craig Harkema, Joel Salt, and of course Leesha, our tirelessly working summer student for all of their contributions to this project. Although our work is still far from done, we look forward to seeing what the finished product will look like with all of the data uploaded and the front end complete.

3. We have also made huge progress on a project being spearheaded within the archives by Patrick Hayes in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the First World War. Tentatively titled RememberUS, the finished website will feature hundreds of pages of documents from that period, reflecting the effect of the war on campus, on the city, on the province, and worldwide. Beth Richert has been working with us for the past several weeks, digitizing these important materials, and has done an amazing job at collecting an array of images that effectively form a snapshot of the War from a variety of perspectives.

In association with this project, the University of Saskatchewan will be honouring the students, faculty, and staff who fought in the First World War on August 7, 2014 at 11:00 am with a Program and Plaque Unveiling at Convocation Hall

Always wondered what was going on in those committees your colleagues were part of? Wonder no more. Check out the annual report for the Learning and Development Committee, the Year in Review for the Circulation Users Group, and the annual report and plan report card for the Client Relations Committee. All are available under the committees’ links on the library intranet.

Here at the Education & Music Library, we have been working on defining designated zones for quiet study. We identified the back corner of the Library (beside the Historical Textbook Collection) as the best area for this and developed posters to notify library users that the space is meant for quiet study only.

You may recognize Becky (our student casual) has agreed to be the model in the poser!

Another option for quiet study in our branch are the bookable group study rooms. Other areas of the library can be used for group work projects.

All things considered, June was sort of a crazy month for us here at UASC. Although we haven’t seen the volume of researchers we see during the school year, the visitors we have had have been looking at a great many things in great depth. It is always exciting to get involved, even peripherally, in these massive research projects.

For those of you who haven’t had a chance to see it, the Kenderdine Art Gallery exhibition about the man himself, Gus Kenderdine, is still on–and will be until August first. A large number of materials from the University Archives and Special Collections are on display there, giving a glimpse into the private life of one of Saskatchewan’s best known artists.

In other news, we have been in the news again this month. First, the Neil Richards Collection of Sexual and Gender Diversity was featured in Bridges this month. The article highlights that, thanks to Neil Richards, the University of Saskatchewan is now home to “the largest collection of media pertaining to LGBT issues in Canada”. As someone who works closely with this collection, I can say I am constantly impressed by Neil Richards’ creativity and initiative in hunting down unique, high quality and frequently quirky items to add to this highly significant accumulation of works.

Also, our own Cheryl Avery and Dee Gibson were featured on Shaw television earlier this month in an interview given on the ongoing Printed Matters exhibition and the accompanying art show which will be taking place from July 21st to August 1st. The opening will be held on Thursday July 24, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.

Finally, it is with sadness that we say farewell to Jill Crawley-Low whose time with us ends on July 1st, as she moves on to act as head of the Health Sciences Library during the sabbatical leave of  Susan Murphy.  Jill has achieved much in her year here, setting procedures in place which will lead to greater productivity and efficiency within the unit for years to come. We will miss her eagerness to tackle new challenges, her incredible skills of organization, and her comforting presence.

On the flip-side, of course, we are excited to welcome back David Bindle, returning from his one year sabbatical leave! I am personally looking forward to the opportunity to work more closely with David, as he left for sabbatical shortly after I was hired on at the University Archives and Special Collections.

This week the Dean’s Office gathered over lunch at Boffins to thank Ken Ladd for his leadership over the last 17 years (14 years as Associate Dean and 3 years as Acting Dean/Director) and to wish him well on his well-deserved administrative leave.

We will all greatly miss Ken’s wisdom, expertise, leadership, generosity, and of course, his sense of humour. Ken, we thank you for your dedication to the University Library and we wish you health and happiness in the year ahead.

I have captured all of my notes from the presentations I attended at WILU on my blog.  Click here if you want to learn more: http://whatilearnedinlibraryschooltoday.blogspot.ca/search/label/WILU%202014. 

I have included two fun pictures of Carolyn and I that were tweeted!

In preparation for the launch of the Courtney Milne website, the University Archives and Special Collections has spent the past year (and more) since the acquisition of his materials scanning slides for a truly massive online database.

To date, between the two Braun slide scanners we have set up in UASC and Digitization, as well as with up to five flatbed scanners being used by staff, and particularly by our summer students, we have managed to scan a grand total of:
. . .. and counting!For anyone who is interested, this is what a 100 slide slide scanner looks like:

It makes joyous chatty, whirring, whining, grinding noises that Patrick (on the other side of this orange divider) loves, and we are all now well able to speak and understand the language of “Scanner” .

Lately, we have hit a happy patch where most of what we are scanning consists of pictures Milne took in Hawaii. Every morning, switching out the hundred slides for a hundred fresh slides is like taking a mini-vacation, peering at the beautiful world through Milne’s talented eye. A few examples of our most recent vicarious explorations: