A Library is Lost at Leceister

    I have written about university libraries and noted that many are now getting rid of books and materials since they wish to be seen as much more than storage sites. Space is highly valued on most campuses and one can understand how various areas can be colonized by factions with more prestige and power - those in the administrative wing, for example.  Here is a case to consider. 

   Jillian Becker was born in South Africa and now, almost ninety years later, resides in California. During that period she wrote, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang and The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization. She also was a co-founder of the Institute for the Study of Terrorism which became the home of the books, papers and research material which had accumulated over the years. In 1993, the archive was bought by the University of Leicester. More recently when someone inquired about the collection, it could not be found. 

   Ms. Becker raised this question in an essay to which I will provide a link: "How Did the University of Leicester Manage to "Lose" the Institute for the Study of Terrorism's Archive? Her remarks are reasonable as are the replies from Leicester, which basically indicate they don't know what in the hell happened to the material. 

   There is probably no mystery involved. Priorities may have changed or space was needed and a clerk was told to dispose of all those papers in the stacks on the third floor. But, Ms. Becker does raise an interesting point in her concluding paragraph which is bolded below:

The loss of an archive, whether by negligence or decision, is a calamity. To lose it by negligence is barbarously callous. To discard it deliberately is an act of intellectual vandalism, the equivalent of book-burning. If, in either case, a university is responsible, the disgrace must leave a permanent stain on its reputation.

   I would have assumed in the past that such things were lost simply because no one cared much about them. Now one wonders if sometimes people care too much and choose to get rid of items they find distasteful, or which could be 'hurtful' to those who might stumble upon them. Becker also wrote a book about Sylvia Plath. Had she donated Plath material, might it still be around?

Source:
   The essay above is found on the website of  The Freedom Association which is a right-leaning, libertarian-type and Ms. Becker is a member. I don't think that matters in this case, but I thought I should mention it. 
The Bonus:
   Some more cheap advice. If someone from an "Advancement Office" at a university takes your money in exchange for your name being affixed to something on campus, or if a librarian agrees to accept your books, papers or artworks, don't assume they will be there a decade from now.

Libraries As Cabinets of Curiosities

 

   I have not said much about libraries lately, largely because there has not been much to say, especially about the university variety. The one in which I used to work is being emptied of books to make room for students and for other activities. There are many places to see active students on campus, but for books you may be better off going to the bookstore. Years ago the main library used to be full of both books and things and I think it was a more interesting place to visit, even for the students. 

  I thought about this at year's end and you will easily see why, from reading the headline and the few paragraphs provided:

"A Cabinet of Wonders Opens Wide: A Coco Chanel Ballet Slipper, Beethoven's Hair, Andy Warhol's Painted Ticket: Treasures at the New York Public Library Showcases Delights From Its Collections," NYT, Dec. 28, 2021. If you are not enticed by those objects, there are more:

"The exhibition, supported by a $12 million gift from the philanthropist Leonard Polonsky, is the culmination of more than three years of shopping the library’s epic closets, which hold more than 45 million manuscripts, rare books, prints, photographs, audio and film clips and other artifacts. Covering 4,000 years of history, it mixes big-ticket items (a Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare’s First Folio) and who-knew delights, like Andy Warhol’s painting of a Studio 54 ticket (inscribed “To Truman,” as in Capote).
Look through a display of the conductor Arturo Toscanini’s batons, suspended in space, and you catch a glimpse of a spotlighted case across the room holding “Political Prisoner,” a 1971 cedar sculpture by the African American artist Elizabeth Catlett. From the front, the figure — a woman with a Pan-African flag cut into her torso — looks exhilarated, regal. From behind, you see that her hands are chained.
The library, Kiely said, is really a “collections of collections,” whose own history is traced through the show. The core sections are heavy on treasures donated by the 19th-century philanthropist James Lenox, like an early 16th-century copper globe that includes one of the earliest cartographic representations of the Americas. (It’s also one of only two surviving Renaissance or medieval maps with the inscription “Here be dragons.”) 

UC DAVIS - Wine

  Some university libraries continue to collect and store and I was pleased that the Library at the University of California (Davis) is aspiring to be the "Greatest Wine Library in the World." The image above is from their "Amerine (Maynard) Wine Label Collection."

UC DAVIS - Food

  To choose the proper food to go with the wine there is now the "Chef Martin Yan Legacy Archive" at UC Davis. The archive "will include World-renowned celebrity chef Martin Yan’s collection of nearly 3,000 cookbooks, his first wok, thousands of photographs and other media." As well, there was a monetary donation to digitize and preserve the collection." Lest you think that UC Davis is only concerned with eating and drinking, you should know that it also has a well-ranked School of Veterinary Medicine. The daughter of a neighbour of ours went to the Equine Performance and Rehabilitation Center after graduating from Guelph. 

   If you are interested in research collections related to food and drink, revisit my long FOOD HISTORY post where you will find menus, recipes, cookbooks, etc. some of which are housed in Canadian university libraries (e.g. UBC and Guelph.) 

Some Canadian Content:

   The Ubyssey (the student newspaper at UBC) often runs stories about "Hidden Treasures" and the picture above is from one of them.  It is from the Chung Collection in one of the UBC Libraries: 

In the basement of the Irving K. Barber (IKB) Learning Centre, tucked in a corner behind multiple glass doors and a security desk, is a dim backroom that is curiously colder than the rest of the building. This is the Chung Collection, just one small portion of UBC’s vast Rare Books collection. With more than 25,000 items in this room alone, the Chung Collection fits more than a century of Canadian history into its tightly packed drawers and display cases.The walls of the Chung Collection gallery are lined with Canadian Pacific Rail advertisements ranging 1924 to the mid-1950s, most of which are the work of Saskatchewan-born Peter Ewert. Ewert’s stylized paintings of iconic Canadian sites, like this one of Lake Louise, gave tourists an idyllic image of the Canadian adventure they could embark one with CP rail. This 1942 ad for the Chateau Lake Louise depicts bathers lounging lakeside, in the shadow of the blue-tinted mountains.

Post Script: 
  There may still be a few items of interest to be found in the few remaining libraries up at Western, most likely in the "Archives and Special Collections" in the D. B. Weldon Library. I recall there were displays, in massive cabinets,  of the large "Jeffrey Stamp Collection", which still may be there and I did do a post about the "Gregory Clark Piscatorial Collection" which is in the Archives. See: Angling Books. Otherwise, you will now see mostly students when you visit the libraries, or empty spaces during the summer months.

The Bonus: Libraries as Kindergartens

   The situation could be worse. In one of the libraries at the U of T, you might see mainly kids. Providing "childminding" and space for students are not bad things, but they can be provided by others. This is what is going on in Toronto according to College and Research Libraries News:

"Time of one’s own: Piloting free childminding at the University of Toronto Libraries,"Jesse Carliner, Kyla Everall
Abstract
In March 2018, the University of Toronto (UT) Libraries opened its first family study space, which was very well received. In the years since the family study space opened, there has been a growth in research about student parents and how academic libraries can best serve them.In response to an increased awareness about the student parent population and their needs, the libraries piloted programming for student parents during the 2019-20 academic year, including free childminding sessions. We will discuss how we developed and launched the service, areas for improvement, and other considerations for libraries planning a similar program. Although in-person programming is currently paused at UT due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate further growth in services for student parents once we can resume regular operations."

Bob Dylan

 $300 Million Blowing in the Wind

   I paid passing notice to the fact that Bob Dylan recently sold his music catalogue to the Universal Music Publishing Group for an estimated $300 million. Maybe he needed the money, although I thought he had finally met with the Nobel Prize people and picked up that small cheque for about another million. The music business and the associated rights are too complicated for me, but I do suppose that we will now hear his melodies and lyrics in advertisements for such things as insurance and drugs. Perhaps President Trump will be able to use Dylan's tunes at his campaign rallies in 2024. To learn more, look for news stories in early December. For example: "Bob Dylan Sells His Songwriting Catalog in Blockbuster Deal: Universal Music Purchased His Entire Songwriting Catalog of More Than 600 Songs in What May Be the Biggest Acquisition Ever of a Single Act’s Publishing Rights," Ben Sisario, New York Times, Dec.7, 2020 or, "What Bob Dylan Selling His Music Catalog Does and Doesn't Mean," Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, n.d.

The Bob Dylan Archives

   I paid more attention about three years ago when around 6,000 personal Dylan items, including his old wallet from 1965 and Otis Redding's business card, were purchased and deposited in the archive at ----Are You Ready?--- the University of Tulsa. It is not in Minnesota where Robert Allen Zimmerman was born.  The city of Tulsa is home to George Kaiser and the Foundation bearing his name and he ponied up the reported $20 million for the purchase. He had already provided another $3 million to acquire for the University, the archives of Woody Guthrie. Apparently Mr. Kaiser is only marginally interested in either gentlemen. He is more interested in other things and gave $200 million for a park along the Arkansas River. If the border re-opens you will find the Bob Dylan Archive housed in The Helmerich Center for American Research at the Gilcrease Museum. It is predicted that, "So many people will be going to Tulsa," says the historian Brinkley. "Eventually, this will be one of the most important 20th-century literary and musical archives anywhere."

The Bonus:

  The University of Tulsa also has material from "One of the most influential man of letters in the twentieth century..." Edmund Wilson.  This collection even includes glass window panes inscribed by such individuals as Stephen Spender and Dorothy Parker.

His son is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Modern Languages & Literature at Western University and lives here in London, Ontario.

Sources:

   For more about George B. Kaiser see: "A Billionaire's Quirky Quest to Create a Mecca for Dylan Fans," Karen Heller,  Washington Post, Oc. 12, 2017.

The Bob Dylan Archive at the University of Tulsa. 

The Edmund Wilson Archive.

The Edmund Wilson Library.