Howard Tilton Memorial Library 2016

01 U P D AT E

H O WA R D - T I LT O N M E M O R I A L L I B R A RY

PAULA BURCH-CELENTANO

Letter from the Dean

CONTENTS

Dean David Banush

1

HTML Dedication

2

Library Events

3

Workshops and Teaching

4

Strategic Directions

5

Library as Laboratory

6

Events and Exhibits

7

Events and Exhibits

8

Space Renewal

9

Notable Acquisitions

10

Louis Prima Collection

11

2016 By the Numbers

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Dear Friends, It’s my pleasure to update you on Howard-Tilton Memorial Library and its recent activities. As I think you’ll agree from perusing the items here, this is a very exciting time to be at Tulane. The opening of two new floors of the

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (p. 2) represents a critical juncture in the library’s recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. But even more importantly, these floors serve as a metaphor for a broader renewal of services

and spaces that will align the Library’s offerings with the needs of Tulane scholars and students, both today and tomorrow. We highlight a few such efforts in these pages.

Since my arrival at Tulane in September 2015, I have been impressed with the energy on campus and the potential for the library to contribute to and build on it. To guide our efforts, we have developed a new set of strategic

directions (more about the process on p. 5). The three central themes, Spaces, Services, and Stewardship, will focus our energies toward a common purpose: to support Tulane faculty and students with the intellectual and physical resources needed to succeed in the 21st century.

If you would like further information about the library, or how you could help all of Tulane by supporting it, please feel free to contact me at any time. You may reach me via email at dbanush@tulane.edu or by phone at

With best regards,

David Banush

Dean of Libraries and Academic Information Resources

FROM THE DEAN

504-865-5131. My mailing address is 7001 Freret St., New Orleans, LA 70118.

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Tulane President Michael A. Fitts, Darryl Berger, chair of the Tulane Board of Administrators, and Federal Emergency Manage-

ment Agency (FEMA) Louisiana Recovery Office director Mike Womack, joined Dean David Banush and Tulane student government representative Sarah Hostetler in making remarks at the

dedication ceremony for the new fifth and sixth floors of HowardTilton Memorial Library. The new floors, which opened in early

SABREE HILL

SABREE HILL

2016, replaced space lost in the basements of Howard-Tilton and

of Jones Hall where collections had formerly been kept and represent the culmination of the Library’s recovery from the aftermath

of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Tulane faculty, alumni, staff, stu-

dents, friends, and community members joined in the celebration.

The outdoor ceremony was followed by an indoor reception with tours of the new space. A highlight was the public debut of the

newly-restored “elephant” folio editions of John James Audubon’s

H T M L D E D I C AT I O N

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The Birds of America. Tulane’s copies of these volumes, printed be-

tween 1827 and 1838 in Edinburgh and London, were restored by a local conservator and are now housed in a custom-made display case on the sixth floor thanks to the generosity of the Stuart Rose Family Foundation.

Above: President Fitts speaks at the dedication.

Below: Guests admire the restored Audubon folio on display.

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is an integral part of the

Tulane experience, hosting a wide range of events and ser-

vices tailored to the needs of our students and the community.

In addition to our academic offerings, we also provide services geared towards helping students unwind during high-stress pe-

riods. This year, we began a new tradition of offering free pizza, cookies, fruit, and bottled water on one evening during exam

week. Students queued up in lines stretching out the door to enjoy the study break—a sure sign of success. The Library also

hosts gatherings that support Tulane’s teaching and research missions. One special event this spring was an exhibit highlighting

materials from the private collection and career memorabilia of gui-

tar legend Elías Barreiro, who from 1967 to 2012 was the head of Cervantes Fundación Hispanoamericana de Arte, Professor Bar-

reiro attended the exhibit’s opening and spoke about his musical legacy with students, faculty, and community members.

Above: The students flocked to the Library for pizza night.

Below: Elías Barreiro and Tulane guitar professor Javier Olondo.

LIBRARY EVENTS

the guitar program at the University. Held in collaboration with the

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One of the principal services the Library offers is instruction on

IACUC Animal Welfare Information Sessions

sions aimed at students, faculty, and staff, and provide assistance

In partnership with the Tulane Office of Research’s Institu-

finding and using trustworthy information sources. We offer ses-

for those needing help for a particular course or for their own

Instructors: Molly Knapp and Raquel Horlick

research projects.

with researchers who want to use animals in their experi-

ments to assist in identifying alternatives to animal testing.

Some new and noteworthy instruction sessions this year:

National Institutes of Health (NIH) Compliance

These workshops help ensure that Tulane students, faculty, and

Twenty-five sessions were conducted in the 2015–16 fiscal year. Tulane has developed a webpage called Animal Al-

Instructor: Keith Pickett

WORKSHOPS AND TEACHING

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investigators comply with policy guidelines and regulations of

ternatives that has been adopted by three other institutions (http://libguides.tulane.edu/iacuc).

the NIH, including data management options. The courses in-

Introduction to Patents

or extended and assist in getting results published.

In collaboration with Greg Stein and Jenna Matheny, li-

crease researchers’ chances of having funding proposals accepted

Hinari

Instructor: Elaine Hicks

tional Animal Care and Use Committee, librarians work

Workshops on Hinari, a program of the World Health Organization (WHO), were held in 2015 and 2016 at Tulane by

the Matas Library. Hinari compiles health journals for which

low- or no-cost access is provided by a consortium of publishers in an agreement with WHO. Sessions teach the use of Hinari

resources that may be used to provide access to health informa-

tion in developing countries, and is especially useful to visiting students/faculty and to those Tulanians who work or conduct research in the developing world.

From top: Keith Pickett, Elaine Hicks, Raquel Horlick and Hinari group.

Instructor: Raquel Horlick

censing associates at Tulane’s Office of Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property Development, 27 people from across

Tulane attended the inaugural session of our new Introduc-

tion to Patents workshop. Users learned general information about patents in the United States and how to access patent information from around the world.

In all, 296 course-based instruction sessions were held in 2015–16, with 5,253 attendees.

In October 2015, shortly after the arrival of Dean David Banush, the Library began a process of formulating strategic directions

to help guide its activities for the next three years. The process has been inclusive: using a general framework outlined by the

Dean and the senior leaders of the library, all staff participated

in a retreat on February 29, 2016 at the Lavin-Bernick Center on the Uptown campus to identify possible action items that fit

We received hundreds of suggestions from our librarians and

staff, which have been narrowed down to a number of highpriority action items, again with staff and librarian input. The

Library’s senior administrative team is putting the final edits on the plan, which will be distributed in the early part of the 2016/2017 academic year.

Library staff offer input on strategic directions at tbe all-staff retreat, February 29, 2016.

S T R AT E G I C D I R E C T I O N S

under the broad themes of Spaces, Services, and Stewardship.

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Courses Make Learning a 360-degree Experience

The Library became a new kind of learning space for Spring Semester 2016, as two courses—Professor Alison Truitt’s introductory anthropology course (School of Liberal Arts) and

Professor Kelly Grant’s management communications class (A. B. Freeman School of Business)—used the Howard-Tilton Memo-

rial Library as a laboratory for ethnographic research and

L I B R A R Y A S L A B O R AT O R Y

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communications strategies, respectively. Such partnerships with

Tulane faculty are a win-win; students gain real-world, hands-on experience in applying the things they learn in coursework, while the Library uses their insights to inform services and spaces go-

ing forward. The students also get insight into the services available to them at the Library. We hope to engage courses in other schools in the near future to build on these findings.

Above: Anthropology students in Allison Truitt’s course present their findings to library staff. Below: Students in Kelly Grant’s management communications class outline their recommendations.

uments the fascinating worlds of contemporary Guatemala. He has

graphic exhibit, John Edward Heaton’s Guatemala, from March 17

can nation, among the most historically rich and complex nations of

The Latin American Library (LAL) hosted a stunning phototo July 15, with an opening reception that attracted a wide audience

from the campus and local community. The exhibit debuted in the

fall of 2015 in Paris at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), the city’s main museum for photography, and the LAL

was the first venue in North America to host it. Heaton’s work doc-

spent 30 years immersed as a curious witness to this Central AmeriLatin America. Occupying the space between historical documen-

tary and fine art, Heaton’s stunning photographs capture the ironies and poignancy of Guatemala and its people with a penetrating gaze

that is nonetheless thoroughly engaged, sympathetic and not without a good dose of humor.

Left: A close-up of Heaton’s photographs. Right: Guests at the opening of the exhibit, March 28, 2016.

EVENTS AND EXHIBITS

John Edward Heaton’s Guatemala

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Shakespeare’s First Folio

The Library was pleased to help sponsor the only Louisiana stop of

the Folger Shakespeare Library’s First Folio! The Book that Gave Us Shakespeare tour of the United States. In addition to an exhibit in

Jones Hall to complement the primary displays in the Newcomb

Museum of Art, the Library helped coordinate traditional New Orleans jazz funerals for the Bard, both in his birthplace of Stratford-

upon-Avon and here on campus. The Stratford event was covered

by the BBC and other media outlets and was a highlight of the

commemorations in the UK and the US of the 400th anniversary of

Shakespeare’s death. English Department Chair Michael Kuczyn-

EVENTS AND EXHIBITS

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ski was the mastermind behind the entire adventure. Hogan Jazz

Archive curator Bruce Boyd Raeburn worked to put together the

top-notch bands for both events, and the generosity of the Stuart Rose Family Foundation made it all possible, along with sponsor-

ship from the Newcomb Museum of Art, the School of Liberal Arts, the Amistad Research Center, and several other local and national museums, libraries, and foundations.

Top: A first folio from the Folger Library’s collection. Bottom: New Orleans musicians performing in Stratford-upon-Avon, April 2016.

portunity to revamp some spaces now freed up on the lower levels. In the fall of 2016, we’ll return a large section of the second floor to study

space. We will also create a new graduate study space on the second floor in space formerly occupied by the microforms collection. This space will be restricted to graduate students by a card-swipe reader and will feature study carrels, lockers, and some lounge seating.

Above: Rendering of new study area on the second floor of Howard-Tilton.

Below: New graduate study space, second floor, Howard-Tilton.

S PA C E R E N E WA L

The opening of the new floors in Howard-Tilton has given us the op-

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N O TA B L E A C Q U I S I T I O N S

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Mérida Collection

Spratling-Taxco Collection

tion of over 3300 stereoscopic glass slides documenting daily

donors Jim and Penny C. Morrill consisting of 21 original draw-

The Latin American Library (LAL) acquired a splendid colleclife in Mérida (Yucatán) Mexico from 1910–1930s. The images were taken by a local medical doctor and photography aficio-

nado, Marcelo Martínez Palma (1873–1953). The collection

documents life in a sisal hacienda, local architecture, carnival and

other public celebrations in Mérida, family life, local inhabit-

ants from different social strata, as well as trips abroad to Cuba, France, England, Germany, and Austria, even including a visit to New Orleans in 1915.

The LAL also received a very special gift in kind from longtime ings, photographs and other rare items by renowned silver designer William Spratling. The collection will be included in the Library’s extensive Spratling-Taxco Collection, founded in 2004 thanks to a

substantial donation from the Morrills. Among the drawings is a sketch by Spratling depicting himself and his good friend and room-

mate, William Faulkner, on a trip to Europe. The previously unpublished drawing will be featured this fall on the cover of The Double Dealer, the literary journal of New Orleans’ Faulkner Society.

Left, two images from the Marcelo Martínez Palma Collection. Top Left: Carnival Street Parade, Mérida, Yucatán, México, 1913.

Bottom Left: Overseer, Sisal Hacienda, Mérida, Yucatán, México, 1920s.

Above Right: Self-portrait of William Spratling with William Faulkner, 1925.

Louis Prima Collection

Trumpeter, vocalist, bandleader, and composer Louis Prima was a

native New Orleanian who became an icon of jazz and American popular entertainment in the 1930s and continued to rise and adapt

to changing tastes and conventions through the 1960s, excelling in

traditional jazz, swing, rhythm and blues, and ultimately rock and roll. Donation of his papers to the Hogan Jazz Archive in Septem-

ber 2015 is a major event in jazz studies, the result of 20 years of negotiation with Gia Maione Prima, Louis Prima’s widow.

numerous sound recordings, photographs, films, musical scores

and sheet music, diaries and personal papers, correspondence, instruments, awards, and apparel.

The Gia Maione Prima Foundation will provide $7500 annually to be used in alternating years for research fellowships, scholarly

symposia, and concerts. The Foundation is also assisting with the digitization of graphic materials from the collection, which will be made available to researchers via computer work stations in The

Louis Prima Room, located next to the Hogan Jazz Archive space in Jones Hall.

Photos from the Louis Prima Collection.

N O TA B L E A C Q U I S I T I O N S

The collection spans every kind of material imaginable, including

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81,000

ELECTRONIC AND PRINT JOURNALS

760 984,362 ELECTRONIC BOOKS

649,000

4,519,565 PRINT VOLUMES HELD

2016 BY THE NUMBERS

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131,959

AUDIO RECORDINGS

VISITS

ONLINE DATABASES

45,383

LINEAR FEET OF ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS

25,706

FILMS/VIDEO RECORDINGS

900 1,168,748 519 22,300 43 GRAPHICAL ITEMS

WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES LEAD BY LIBRARIANS

FOR + SEATS STUDY AND RESEARCH

DIGITAL ASSETS IN TULANE DIGITAL LIBRARY IN

COLLECTIONS

H O WA R D - T I LT O N MEM O R IA L LI B R A RY 7001 FRERET STREET NEW ORLEANS, LA 70118

HOWARD-TILTON MEMORIAL LIBRARY ARCHITECTURE LIBRARY HOGAN JAZZ ARCHIVE THE LATIN AMERICAN LIBRARY LOUISIANA RESEARCH COLLECTION MATAS LIBRARY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES SOUTHEASTERN ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES