Unexpected Libraries

 

 When travelling, I find that libraries can be useful and attractive sanctuaries. They are usually quiet and comfortable places. More importantly, they have restrooms. Although Starbucks may have adopted an open access policy, I generally find that commercial establishments are not likely to welcome you and smile when you ask to use the facilities.

    Here are three libraries you don’t really need to visit since they are located in surroundings that are already peaceful and beautiful and fully equipped with plumbing. Given that you won’t need them and that they are not immediately obvious you are likely to overlook them. You shouldn’t. 

 VanDusen Botanical Garden

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Located in Vancouver, B.C. you will find this beautiful spot occupying over 50 acres. For more details visit this link. If it is raining heavily, seek refuge in the Library which is just past the gift shop.

1. Yosef Wosk Library and Resource Centre

"Founded in 1976, and relocated to the new Visitor Centre in 2011, the Yosef Wosk Library and Resource Centre is the largest public access botanical and horticultural library in western Canada.The library’s collection focuses on gardening in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, and covers a wide range of topics including gardening techniques, selecting and growing ornamental plants, native floras from around the world, vegetable and herb gardening, pruning and training, North American ethnobotany, butterfly gardening, native plant gardening, flower arrangement, plant hunters, garden history, pests and diseases, garden design, gardens to visit, horticulture in urban environments, botany and plant ecology, plant conservation, literature in the garden, garden art, organic gardening, environmental science and much more."

The library also displays art work and there are often guest speakers. As you know, I am a fan of periodicals and you will find in this library: The Fiddlehead Forum, Bulletin of the Fern Society and the Conifer Quarterly. Here is the link.

If you are really interested in such libraries and want to know if there is one in a city you are planning to visit see: The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries.

     The answer to the question, "Who is Yosef Wosk?" is not easily found on the site. But, one does find the answer elsewhere in Vancouver, over at Simon Fraser University. Dr. Wosk deserves a picture which is provided below:

    "Every great library has a circle of friends and supporters who help it grow and flourish.

Dr. Yosef Wosk exemplifies what it means to be a very good friend. He has supported hundreds of libraries—fledgling and established; urban and rural; public, private and academic—in British Columbia and around the world. Yosef, who is the director of Interdisciplinary Programs in Continuing Studies at SFU, was awarded the Keith Sacre Library Champion Award from the British Columbia Library Association in 2006 in recognition of his work with Libraries Across Borders.

     SFU Library has benefited greatly from Dr. Wosk’s philanthropy. In the 1990s, Yosef and his father helped bring a significant collection of Aldine books to SFU’s Special Collections and Rare Books.The Wosk-McDonald Aldine Collection consists of over one hundred rare 16th century tomes published under the imprint of Aldus Manutius. These books, which also feature beautiful bindings from the 16th to the 20th centuries, have added tremendous depth, quality, and tradition to SFU’s holdings."

                                           

 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

2. The Library at Crystal Bridges

This museum is located in Arkansas! It's still worth the trip. For a complete description see this link and also have a look at their blog. The library is a substantial one: "The Crystal Bridges Library features more than 50,000 volumes pertaining to American art and art history, plus archives containing personal papers and other artist ephemera, and access to several online resources. The Library provides the highest quality of access to resources and services, as well as commitment to the highest ethical standards for privacy, copyright, intellectual freedom, and preservation of information. The Library is located on the Museum’s third floor and is open during all Museum public hours."

    When I visited a while back, one of the exhibitions was: Fish Stories: Early Images of American Game Fish. Apart from the displays this book was found in the collection:

"Game Fishes of the United States, one of the largest and most spectacular of American sporting books, was printed in 1879 -1880 at the zenith of late 19th-century American chromolithography. The work, which is included in the Crystal Bridges Library collection, features 20 color plates based on the original watercolor paintings by well-known sporting artist Samuel Kilbourne, with text written by ichthyologist George Brown Goode, head of the fish research programs of the US Fish Commission and the Smithsonian.

“The collection in Fish Stories ranks among the most admired 19th-century color lithography and helps tell the story of American printmaking.” said Catherine Petersen, Crystal Bridges Library Director. “The exhibition provides a unique opportunity for art lovers, anglers, and families to explore distinctly American fish in their natural surroundings, many of which can be found in nearby rivers and lakes.”

     For my earlier post on the visit to Bentonville and Crystal Bridges see: Amazing Accomplishment(s)

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Located in Ithaca, New York, you have probably visited the virtual Macaulay Library if you are at all interested in birds.

"The Lab’s Macaulay Library is the world’s largest online archive of natural sound audio and video recordings. The Macaulay Library is the world’s premier scientific archive of natural history audio, video, and photographs. Although the Macaulay Library’s history is rooted in birds, the collection includes amphibians, fishes, and mammals, and the collection preserves recordings of each species’ behavior and natural history. Our mission is to facilitate the ability of others to collect and preserve such recordings and to actively promote the use of these recordings for diverse purposes spanning scientific research, education, conservation, and the arts."

3. The Adelson Library

This real library is worth visiting, particularly if the Lab is full of school children or if it is raining in Sapsucker Woods.

"The mission of the Adelson Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is to provide outstanding and innovative support for the Cornell Lab, and scholarly communities worldwide, by curating and disseminating contemporary and historical resources. It also serves casual visitors to the Lab's Visitors' Center, which is part of the Imogene Powers Johnson Center for Birds and Biodiversity at the Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary in Ithaca, New York. Prior to establishing the Adelson Library, the Lab of Ornithology had built a small reference collection containing approximately 200 volumes. Today the library houses more than 14,000 volumes and continues to expand in terms of both contemporary and historical literature, as well as other resources."

Factlet (1)

What's A GEE-GEE?

    A while back I posted about HEADLINES and provided examples of some that were funny, perplexing, incorrect, etc., so perhaps that is the reason I paused at this one: "Mustangs Brace for Balanced Attack From Gee-Gees." Here in Ontario it is not too difficult to figure out what it means, but those living elsewhere may be puzzled and I realized that I had no idea what a "Gee-Gee" is, other than it is attached to the teams playing for the University of Ottawa.

     Since you probably know and since the answer is easy to find I will say simply that it is an abbreviated way to refer to the school colours which are Garnet and Grey and fortunately the GG works in French, Grenat et Gris. 

     The professional football team in Ottawa is the REDBLACKS.  It is not uncommon, although it is rather unimaginative, for teams to be referred to by their colours. One finds, for example, the ALL BLACKS way down and under in New Zealand.  Choosing a colour for a name, one would think, allows the team to focus on the competition and avoid the controversy that has come to be associated with many team names which are now deemed to be unacceptable and inappropriate.

     Unfortunately, however, it is not that simple. Quite a while back a university team in an adjacent province chose the nickname of "Redmen" because of the red jerseys they wore. Perhaps they were somewhat shortsighted in not anticipating that the women on campus might someday form a team or perhaps they thought McGill Redwomen would work. 

     The choice of 'red" is now problematic. I understand that soon the students at McGill will have a vote to determine if the name needs to be changed. I am not sure if anyone has had the nerve to challenge the ALL BLACKS  for appropriating the colour or the haka.

Sources:
"Mustangs Brace for Balanced Attack From the Gee-Gees," Paul Vanderhoeven, London Free Press, Oct. 12, 2018.
"Indigenous Student Athlete Pushes McGill to Axe 'Redmen' Nickname," CTV News, Oct. 17, 2018.

Post Script:
     On the other side of the country, Simon Fraser University got into trouble even though the sports teams there are not named after a colour.  They are dubbed 'The Clan' (formerly 'The Clansmen').
     Although old Simon was born in Vermont his heritage was Scottish, hence the name. Now you are probably assuming that the team name is no longer acceptable because the chanting of it at games would traumatize some students who would be reminded of our horrible colonial past. But, it is more complicated than that and grammatical issues are involved as well as historical ones. When you name your team, be cautious about the colour choice and be aware of HOMOPHONES.
    SFU is involved in a bigger league, the NCAA, and there is concern that when the team travels to the south, the chant of "GO CLAN" might not sound right. I will conclude here with a source that explains it all. I have not checked to see what has happened.
"SFU Prof Says ‘Clan’ Team Name Should Change, Puts Student Athletes at Risk, Jon Azpiri, GlobalNews Sept. 24, 2017
"Holly Andersen, a professor with SFU’s department of philosophy, said the team name could offend some Americans who may associate The Clan with the Ku Klux Klan....
In a statement to Global News, Andersen said the team name “makes our competitors incredibly uncomfortable and puts them in a very awkward position.”

Apparently a student suggested that perhaps the teams should be called 'The Clams' to avoid embarrassment. Probably not. My suggestion - 'The Mussels' - would be better.

Bonus: 'Gee Gee' also refers to the first horse out of the starting gate. In this case, however, a Mustang won.

What's a Factlet?
     Almost daily I come across very interesting facts of which you are unaware and I thought it would be good for you and great for me if I just posted such information to avoid having to think and actually create content myself. This was going to be the first sample of what I was going to call a 'Factoid' which I thought was just a trivial bit of interesting information. But, I made the mistake of looking up the word which was coined by Norman Mailer back in the early '70s. Originally a 'factoid' was not something that was true, but rather information that was accepted as fact because it had been repeated or appeared in print. Given that there is so much 'fake news' around I thought it best to use the word suggested by William Safire so that you can be sure that the future factlets on this blog will be true trivia.
(For the source for this just see the Wiki entry for 'Factoid'.)

Some Good News For a Change

Amit Chakma Engineering Building

     I mention this because you may have missed it.  The Chancellor of Western University, Jack Corwin, surprised the president of that university by announcing that he is donating $5 million and asking that the new engineering building be named in honour of President Chakma. He remarked that: "Some of you may not know that Amit is also an engineer, and a faculty member here in Engineering,” Cowin told guests at the opening. “His passion for the profession and field makes this the perfect tribute to his time as Western’s President.”

     I also mention it because you may recall that I recently suggested in a post that when the names of people are attached to buildings, rooms, chairs, scholarships, etc., it would be good if we could quickly learn more about them. I would be surprised if my suggestion is considered and I would be even more surprised if anyone even read this blog. But, if anyone did want to know about more about the story behind the naming of the Amit Chakma Engineering Building, the source provided below would be the place to begin.

Sources: 

"Chancellor Donates $5M to Engineering, Honours, President," Cory Habermehl,  Western News, Oct, 12, 2018.
"New Engineering Building Renamed to Amit Chakma Engineering Building," Liam Afonso, The Gazette, Oct. 12, 2018.
"Officially opened today, the formerly named ThreeC+ Engineering Building will be renamed the Amit Chakma Engineering Building, announced Western University on Friday afternoon."

Post Script:

For my post about this subject see: Western University Names

This is not the first time a donor at Western has made a donation in honour of someone else. The Allyn & Betty Taylor Library is named for a former Chancellor and his wife and the donor was anonymous. That library does a good job of identifying those who have supported it. See "Supporters of the Allyn and Betty Taylor Library".

I have discovered a couple of other useful links in relation to names that appear on campus.
The International Centre for Olympic Studies identifies clearly the names related to the holdings in the ICOS archive. See the descriptions for the Brundage, Lenskyj and Worrall collections which is found here. 

For a list of Centres & Institutes on campus see here. At the bottom of the list one finds this sentence which is unclear to me: "* Please note some names reflect legacy naming conventions and do not conform to above-mentioned definitions."

MORE GOOD NEWS FOR WESTERN/IVEY
     As I was writing this it was announced that a $7 million gift had been received at Ivey and that there will be new 'Names' on campus that will need to be explained. See: $7-million Gift Creates John F. Wood Centre for Innovation in Business Learning," Western News, Oct. 16, 2018.

Aperçu #2

Historical Censoriousness

    We continue to topple statues and erase names from buildings and I suggested in an earlier post that we should, in most cases, hold our judgement in reserve.  The author of Aperçu #2 agrees:

" Yet we need to be charitable about the moral failings of our ancestors - not as an act of charity to them but as an act of charity to ourselves.  Our own unconscious assumptions and cultural habits are doubtless just as impregnated with bias as theirs were. We should be kind to them, as we ask the future to be kind to us."

Source: "American Prophet: The Gifts of Frederick Douglas," Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, Oct. 15, 2018, p. 82.

Post Script: My earlier suggestion is found in my own rather censorious post and year-end rant in which I quoted from The Whig Interpretation of  History.

“The dispensing of moral judgments upon people or upon actions in retrospect,” wrote Butterfield, is the “most useless and unproductive of all forms of reflection.”

LANDMARK BOOKS

      A while back the author Bill Bryson was asked a question, the answer to which provides me with an opportunity to discuss another Book Series. The question posed: “Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?”  

     Given that Mr. Bryson is so good at writing books one figures he will also be good at knowing which ones to read. Here is his answer: “I was completely devoted to an imprint called Landmark Books when I was growing up. I don’t know whether anyone remembers this series anymore, but they were nonfiction hardback books, on historical subjects, written for children or adapted from adult books. They made you feel that you were taking part in a grown-up activity but at a level that you could handle. A good deal of what I know about American history came from Landmark Books. I used to spend nearly all my pocket money on either Landmark Books or, if I was feeling rakish, Hardy Boys books. I am hugely indebted to both.”

     I did read some Hardy Boys books, but I was unaware of the Landmark ones and I know nothing about the current reading habits of children, assuming some still read. Still, given Bryson’s endorsement I thought it worth having a look at Landmark Books. (One has to remember, by the way, that he not only writes good books, he chooses good titles. A recent one, for example: The Road to Little Dribbling ( a path, by the way, down which a lot of gents my age seem to be heading)).

    Landmark Books were published in hardback by Random House during the 1950s and 1960s. They were works of non-fiction that were written for children by well-respected authors. Robert Penn Warren, for example, wrote one about the Alamo. I could go on and I was fully prepared to spend far too much time doing research about Landmark which would have resulted, at some far distant point in time, in a report that was far too long.

    It is the case, however, that one of the people who responded to Bryson’s answer is a professor of history at Furman University, who taught a course utilizing the Landmark Book series. He wrote an excellent account of Landmark which you can find here and which tells you all you need to know: See: “Generations Past: The Story of the Landmark Books,” David Spear, Perspectives on History, Oct. 17, 2016.

KIDDIE LIT

     Having been scooped by Professor Spear, I will turn our attention to ‘Kiddie Lit’, which is a slightly derisive term that was applied to those courses in a college curriculum which considered children’s literature. I recall that Western University has (or perhaps had) a solid collection of books related to children. They were, at one point, in the library of the Graduate School of Library Science, where it was realized that it would be a good thing for those aspiring to be librarians for children to know something about them. There is also a college of education which housed a good collection. As well, there is even material in the humanities library to support courses offered in the English Department. Now, much of this material is in a storage facility and clearly the collection(s) are strong. Among them, for example you will find these Landmark titles.
   

        A Baker’s Dozen of Landmark Books in the Western Libraries

 

Adams, Samuel Hopkins, General Brock and Niagara Falls. (1957)

Daugherty, James, The Landing of the Pilgrims. (1950)

Fehrenbach, T. R. The United Nations in War and Peace. (1968)
Hill, Ralph Nading, The Doctors Who Conquered Yellow Fever. (1957)
Holbrook, Stewart H., The Golden Age of Railroads.(1960)
Hume, Ruth Fox, Great Men of Medicine. (1961)
Kjelgaard, Jim, The Explorations of Père Marquette. (1951)
Lamb, Harold, Chief of the Cossacks. (1959)
Neuberger, Richard L., Royal Canadian Mounted Police.(1953)
Owen, Russell, The Conquest of the North and South Poles. (1952)
Reynolds, Quentin James, The F.B.I. (1954)
Walsh, Richard John, Adventures and Discoveries of Marco Polo. (1953)
White, Anne Terry. Prehistoric America (1951)

Sources:
Bryson's remarks are found in: "Bill Bryson: By the Book," New York Times, Jan. 14, 2016.  The letter from Professor Spear is found in the Jan. 29th issue.

Western does have sizeable collections of material relating to children. Apart from searching 'Childrens Literature' don't forget to look for the 'Ontario Textbook Collection". As well, see this specialized bibliography: An Evaluation and Comparison of the Children's Historical Collections at the London Public Library and in the Special Collections of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (UWO), Deanna C. Wolf.

It is not uncommon for institutions of higher learning to lower their focus to the little ones. See, e.g.
The Children's Literature Collection at the UBC.
The Margo Sandor Children's Literature Collection, U of T.
The Northeast Children's Literature at the Univ. of Connecticut.

The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida

(For the story of how it got there, see the chapter on "Obsessed Amateurs" in Nicholas A. Basbanes, A Gentle Madness...)

Post Script
Parental guidance is advised. If you are thinking of getting some of these books for your children you should be aware that some of those who were the biographical subjects in the Landmark series may have recently had their statues removed. You might also want to scrutinize these titles:

EMPTY ROOMS

     I have noted, perhaps too frequently, that many university libraries seem to be following the trend in domestic architecture of creating 'open concept' structures which are simply large open spaces (known in the library world as 'makerspaces') devoid of both character and books. Now some high schools seem to think this is a desirable development. The rather sensational headline in the local paper recently announced: "Saunders Unveils $1.6 Million 'Library of the Future'. Perhaps it should have read: "Saunders Unveils $1.6 million 'Big Room'. Here it is:

[The image disappeared. I will assure you, it was a large room with a very small number of books.]


Cabinets of Curiosities        

      I prefer a little clutter and think a good library should be full of books and, as well, be partially an archive and a museum containing lots of ephemera. Although what follows is not picturesque I find it preferable to the space above.





Prelinger Library
          That picture is from this article, "An Idiosyncratic Library Squirreled Away in SoMa," Ryan Kost, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 24, 2015 and the Prelinger Library is, indeed, idiosyncratic. It was started by two people interested in collecting material and the interest led to their marriage as well as the library. The collection is an eclectic one and, in part, it is provided by libraries that are essentially getting out of the library business. One of the founders notes that the Prelinger was started just as "libraries all around the U.S. were “under a lot of pressure in terms of how they used their space to serve their communities,” Megan says. This meant clearing out the very objects they’d been built to hold: books. Megan and Rick began to scan the lists of books being abandoned. The libraries would send them their way, so long as they were willing to cover the cost of shipping. Their collection grew, though selectively."

    It is an interesting story and you can read it at the Prelinger Library.