Distinguished Professor Emerita Marilyn Stokstad gives $250,000 (CONTINUED to KU Libraries FROM FRONT PAGE)
Stuart Roberts named first Sanders Library Scholar By rebecca smith
project will be a fitting tribute to her support and her contributions to KU as a scholar and teacher.”
KU student Stuart Roberts is the inaugural recipient of a new scholarship designed to give students a glimpse into the world of librarianship.
Spencer Research Library has been dedicated to the preservation of the extensive collections of books, manuscripts, photos and other items since its opening in 1968. Stokstad hopes that her contribution to KU Libraries will encourage students and researchers to explore the collections that deepen our understanding of the vast histories of the world.
The Sanders Library Scholars Fund was established by former library dean, Bill Crowe, and by his late wife, Nancy Sanders, in memory of Nancy’s parents, R.W. and Dorothy J. Sanders. The fund provides graduate or undergraduate scholarships for students on the Lawrence campus who are working with a librarian mentor in the KU Libraries.
“Both the Spencer Museum of Art and the Kenneth Spencer Research Library have always felt like home to me,” said Stokstad. “As a medievalist-art historian, you need both a museum and library in which to do your work. At KU, we are fortunate to have world-class institutions in both cases.” Stokstad, a member of the KU Libraries Board of Advocates, has been a longtime supporter and advocate for KU Libraries, with deep ties to both Spencer Research Library and Murphy Art & Architecture Library. She previously established a generous endowment to support the art history collections at KU Libraries. The Stokstad Reading Room project will include an enclosed consultation/teaching space for small groups
THANK YOU TO OUR VOSPER SOCIETY MEMBERS We are extremely grateful to everyone who supported us in the past year by joining the Vosper Society, and we’d like to thank them all by name! Visit www.lib.ku.edu/vosper/ members to see the complete list from 2010. We’d also like to encourage you to join or renew your annual membership now for 2011. You can make a gift online at www.lib.ku.edu/vosper or complete and return the pledge card (inside). Supporting KU Libraries helps strengthen the University of Kansas in a unique and powerful way, by helping us maintain and enhance the intellectual heart of campus in the form of innovative projects, world-class collections and excellent service to students, faculty and researchers from Kansas and beyond.
Conceptual renderings of the reception desk (above) and entrance (right) to the planned Marilyn Stokstad Reading Room at Spencer Research Library.
within the reading room, a new central service point to make using the collections easier for visitors, and a new interior entryway. Infrastructure improvements include more power outlets and upgraded wiring, essential to 21st century researchers, and new flooring. Construction is slated for summer 2011, with completion anticipated by the start of the fall semester. “I am thrilled that Dr. Stokstad has chosen to support Spencer Library,” said Beth Whittaker, head of Spencer. “I hope this renovation will be the first of several major improvements to the building, retaining its historic character while allowing us to transform the way researchers, students and the public experience our outstanding collections.” Dr. Stokstad has been a generous donor to KU throughout her career. In addition to the libraries, she has supported the Spencer Museum of Art, the Hall Center for the Humanities, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Lied Center of Kansas. Made possible through a gift from Helen F. Spencer in honor of her late husband, Kenneth Spencer Research Library and its staff are dedicated to the preservation of diverse collections ranging from Kansas historical records to national political documents. The gift will be managed by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fundmanagement organization for KU. For more information on Spencer Research Library please visit: http://spencer.lib.ku.edu. v
Crowe said the fund would serve to give students of all backgrounds and interests firsthand experience in the field of librarianship.
“This scholarship is meant to expose selected students to some of the interesting roles of librarians, including many that take place behind the scenes.” - Bill Crowe
A University of Kansas Libraries publication for friends and benefactors
MAJOR GIFTS
Stuart Roberts. Photo by Claire Dooley.
“There are often a lot of misconceptions as to what librarianship entails,” said Crowe. “This scholarship is meant to expose selected students to some of the interesting roles of librarians, including many that take place behind the scenes.” Roberts, a native of Lawrence, is pursuing an undergraduate degree in English and classics. The scholarship helps to support Roberts in a student assistant position; he is working as editorial assistant to Beth Whittaker, head of the Kenneth Spencer Research Library. Whittaker is the is editor of RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Cultural Heritage. The announcement came in October 2010, during a celebration of Bill Crowe’s career on the occasion of his retirement from KU. Contributions may be made to the Sanders Library Scholars Fund in care of KU Endowment. v
Distinguished Professor Emerita Marilyn Stokstad gives $250,000 to KU Libraries By Dylan Derryberry
A generous gift from a retired University of Kansas faculty member and noted art history scholar will leave a major mark on the University of Kansas Libraries this year. Dr. Marilyn Stokstad, Judith Harris Murphy distinguished professor emerita of art history, has given $250,000 to KU Libraries to create a new interior reception space and remodel the reading room at Kenneth Spencer Research Library. The renovated space, to be named the Marilyn Stokstad Reading Room, will be more open, inviting and visible—key qualities at Spencer, where researchers spend most of their time in the reading room because the collections do not circulate and are preserved in closed stacks.
“Study of Marilyn Stokstad,” 2008, by Cody McLouth. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Murphy Art & Architecture Library.
“As a world-renowned author and researcher in her own right, Dr. Stokstad clearly understands the importance of Spencer Research Library not only for faculty and researchers on campus, but throughout the world,” said Lorraine Haricombe, dean of KU Libraries. “I am so pleased that Marilyn has chosen to support this effort, which will have such a positive impact on scholarly research. This (CONTINUED ON INSIDE FLAP)
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Film screening of “To Kill a Mockingbird”
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“At Home in Shakespeare’s Tragedies” Presentation and reception with Professor Geraldo de Sousa Reception and film screening of “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within”
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“...Dr. Stokstad clearly understands the importance of the Spencer Research Library not only for faculty and researchers on campus, but throughout - Lorraine J. Haricombe the world.”
“It is a great honor,” said Roberts. “I feel fortunate to be awarded this generous support which has been made possible by gifts from Bill Crowe and Nancy Sanders and many others. It is an exciting opportunity to work with and learn from my mentor, Beth Whittaker; I have learned a great deal about librarianship and the process of editing and publishing a scholarly journal in the field.”
Spring 2011
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John Tibbetts brings Hollywood insider interviews to KU ScholarWorks By sarah kanning
From Richard Attenborough (“A Chorus Line”) to Ed Zwick (“Glory”), in the course of the past 30 years, University of Kansas film professor, entertainment reporter and music scholar John C. Tibbetts has interviewed an incredible range and variety of directors, actors, writers and major Hollywood players and musicians. Now, with the help of KU Libraries and the KU ScholarWorks digital repository, more than 250 of those full-length video interviews will be available and freely accessible to teachers, students, scholars and film fans in “Over the Rainbow: The John C. Tibbetts Archive of Conversations in the Arts and Humanities (1980 – Present).” As an entertainment correspondent for CBS television and several radio networks, Tibbetts spoke with Oprah Winfrey
at the debut of “The Color Purple,” her first film role. He interviewed both Haing S. Ngor, the Cambodian physicianturned-actor who starred in the film “The Killing Fields,” and Dith Pran, the journalist Ngor portrayed in the film. Out of the 10 minutes or more of each interview that Tibbetts typically recorded, only 15 or 20 seconds might actually make the broadcast. But in the unseen footage, (CONTINUED ON INSIDE LEFT PAGE)
IN THIS ISSUE:
• Tibbetts donates silver screen memorabilia • Gift of Latin American collection adds rare materials to KU Libraries’ international holdings • Adopt-a-Journal program • Stuart Roberts named first Sanders Library Scholar