LILLINGIUNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign Library

Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

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THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY FRIENDSAT URBANA-CHAMPAITHE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY FRIENDS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

W. S. Merwin Archive Placed atof UI LibraryThe archive of eminent American poetW.S. Merwin has joined the researchholdings of the UI Library. Thecollection of primary source materialfrom a poet hailed as this generation'sCarl Sandburg is currently beingcataloged for official addition to thecollections.

The purchase for $185,000 wasapproved by the UI Board of Trusteesin May and funded through thecooperation of several University units.Library Director of CollectionDevelopment Carl Deal said: "Wecould not have brought the Merwinpapers here with our usual resources,"he said. "The John Needles ChesterFund and the various units whichcontributed to the purchase haveincreased the Library's researchresources in poetry immeasurably."

Major funding for the acquisitioncame from the Chester Fund (see box);other contributors were Library Friends,the University Library, Research Board,College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,School of Humanities, Department ofEnglish, and the English departmentallibrary.

W.S. (William Stanley) Merwin isacknowledged to be one of America'spremier poets today. He won thePulitzer Prize in 1971 for his book ofpoems The Carrier of Ladders. He hasbeen honored with many other awardsas well, including the P.E.N. TranslationPrize and the Bolingen Prize in poetry.

Mr. Merwin is also an acclaimedtranslator and a playwright. He haspublished translations of the Frenchepic Song of Roland and the classic ElCid. The Library purchased a group of

The John Needles Chester FundAcquisition of the Merwin archive offers aperfect example of the long-term benefitsof alumnus John Needles Chester'sgenerosity. According to provisions of hisestate, income from the John NeedlesChester endowment, which was etsablishedin 1980, is to be used for acquisition ofexceptional items to enrich the culturalresources of the University of Illinois. Unitsfrom the two UI campuses compete forfunding each year.

The Chester Fund previously enabled theLibrary to acquire a number of important

A photograph of the poet from the Merwin archive, taken by Melissa Mia Hall in November1982. Merwin is currently at work on a new book at his residence in Hawaii.

manuscripts and personal papersrelating to translation work fromMerwin two years ago. English LibrarianMelissa Cain noted that the Merwinarchive will also complement resourceson contemporary American writers, andis a suitable companion to the Library'sCarl Sandburg papers.

The remarkable feature of the papersin the archive is the scope and detail.Included in the archive are manyunpublished poems, notes, drafts,revisions, re-revisions, galley proofswith author's corrections,

celestial atlases (see page 5). Now, it hasfunded over half the purchase price of theunique archive of W.S. Merwin.

"The Library-and by extension, theUniversity, state and nation-is veryfortunate to benefit from the foresight ofMr. Chester," said Joan Hood, Director ofLibrary Development. "By recognizing thespecial and particular needs of the Librarywhich can only be met through privatesupport, the Chester Fund has made theacquisition of this outstanding asset areality."

correspondence, and more. Nothing inthe written sequence of the poet'screativity appears to have beendiscarded. Merwin's handwriting, whichhas been termed minuscule, covers thebacks and fronts of all kinds of paper-whatever was at hand when inspirationstruck.

Merwin scholar Cary Nelson,associate professor of English at UI, isamazed at the wealth of material in thearchive. "It appears to be a completerecord of Merwin's writing since 1946,"he said. "For example, hard evidencecan be found here for the claims manyscholars have made about Merwin'svocabulary at different points in hiscareer." Mr. Nelson is gettingacquainted with the newly acquiredpapers while preparing a special exhibitof Merwin's work. He expects to usethese unique resources for research onthe genesis of Merwin's poetical styleand philosophy.

Mr. Merwin will visit campus inOctober to present the fall Friendsprogram honoring acquisition of thearchive. His lecture and poetry readingswill inaugurate dedication festivities forthe Library's new stack addition.

vol. 6, no. 2Summer 1984

ISSN 0192-5539

graphic courtesy of John Kincheloe, Univ. of Virginia Library

Revealing the Hidden Resources of AfricanaThe collections of Africana in the UILibrary are among the finest in NorthAmerica. Africa is the central focus ofthe Library's most recent internationalacquisition program, established in1969, and collections are especiallystrong in a broad range of Europeanjournals that include articles on Africafrom the 19th-century rise ofcolonialism to the present.

Holdings on the sub-Saharan Africannations include approximately 47,000books, 2,200 journals, 45,000 maps, and4,000 microforms. This huge collectionis distributed by subject matter andformat among the 38 departmentallibraries and the Library's bookstacks.

The Africana Reading Room, locatedin the Main Library, Room 328, is acentral focus point for the diverseholdings of Africana. Bibliographies forthe Africanist and current issues ofnumerous African journals are housedin the Reading Room, as are numerousother important reference aids,including a pamphlet file arrangedalphabetically by country and topic.Recently, five microfiche readers havebeen added to aid access to themicroform materials.

To identify and locate the Library'sdispersed Africana, the Reading Roomprovides many reference sources,including national bibliographies. Theseare supplemented by other tools, suchas guides to official publications ofAfrican governments and guidescompiled by the Library of Congress.Book catalogs for other majorcollections of Africana throughout theworld are also kept in the ReadingRoom. Directories, guides todissertations relevant to African studies,publisher's catalogs, and a number ofAfrican telephone directories completethe reference collection.

The Reading Room adjoins theoffices of Africana bibliographer YvetteScheven, who oversees the Library'sacquisitions in the field. Students andresearchers who need help in findingjournal articles, books or microformscan make an appointment with Mrs.Scheven for assistance in locatingmaterials.

Mrs. Scheven has compiled threeguides to complement published

reference aids: "Bibliographies forAfrican Studies, 1970-75," andsupplements for 1976-79 and 1980-83. Inaddition, her unit issues AfricanStudies: Selected Library Acquisitions, aquarterly newsletter that lists by subjectnew books on Africa added to theLibrary's holdings. A number of otherpamphlet titles, issued as needed,supply important research informationfor scholars seeking access to the wideresources of Africana.

Three departmental collections are ofparticular interest to Africanists: theMap and Geography Library, theNewspaper Library, and the UniversityArchives. The Map and GeographyLibrary contains an extensive collectionof maps on African countries among itsholdings, as well as an excellentcollection of the Area Handbook series.The Newspaper Library receives andretains current issues for nine majorAfrican newspapers. The UI Archiveshouses many large collections withimportant African components,including the American LibraryAssociation archive and the well-knownAvery Brundage collection, whichincludes correspondence for 1955-74 onall aspects of sports in Africa. There arealso substantial holdings on SierraLeone. In addition, about 1,000 titles onthe European exploration of Africa arekept in the Rare Book Room.

The Africana collection may behidden among the miles of shelves ofthe University Library's holdings, but itis nevertheless a magnificent collectionwith enormous research potential. Withthe advantages of a centralized AfricanaReading Room and the bibliographicservices of Mrs. Scheven, the Librarycan boast with pride of improvingaccess to its materials while maintainingthe subject integrity on which thecollections' classification has beenbased for over a century.

ExecutiveCommittee NotesAfter serving as president of the LibraryFriends for the past two years and asboard member for six years, I havedeveloped a great appreciation for ourLibrary, the Library staff, and themembers of the Friends ExecutiveCommittee.

Often we take for granted the manybenefits derived by the students,faculty, community, and residents ofthe state and country from this greatresource. Not only are we proud tohave the largest publicly-assistedresearch library in North America, butthe fact that the Library is the secondheaviest lender of books indicates thatwe are reaching out and benefitingapproximately 125,000 off-campusindividuals.

In departing the position ofpresident, I want to recognize SaraBalbach and Jack Harlan, who will alsobe ending their terms as members ofthe Executive Committee. Great stepsforward by Friends have been madepossible by the dedication of theExecutive Committee members. Inparticular, I want to recognize theofficers and committee heads:Ron Bates, Vice President and Develop-

ment Committee;Art Robinson, Treasurer;Chuck Flynn, Program Committee;Mary Rhoades, Volunteer Services

Committee; andBob Futrelle, Five-Year Plan Committee.

The coming year for Friends presentsthe opportunity for new leadership andideas on the Executive Committee. Newofficers are: Ron Bates, President; CarlWebber, Vice President; and ArtRobinson, Treasurer. We are alsopleased to welcome the following newindividuals to the Executive Committee:Samuel Gove, Donald Korkowski,Morris Leighton, and Anne ColwellTryon.

To our many Friends, I want to thankyou for your encouragement andsupport during the past year. As welook forward to the opening of thesixth stack this fall, it is exciting to bepart of this growing and changingUniversity resource.

-Edwin A. Scharlau II

friendscriptAppears quarterly in April, July, Oct.,and Jan. Editor: Linda Hoffman. Officeof Publication: Library Friends, 227Library, Univ. of Illinois, 1408 W.Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801.(POSTMASTER: Send Form 3579 tothis address.) Second-class postagepaid at Urbana, Ill.

From theLibrarian's ViewBy and large, the libraries that we knowhave been organized on the models ofindustrial society. As that model ofsociety and the theoretical and practicalideals of effective management change,so, too, will the organization andmanagement of libraries. Those qualitycontrol teams, those theory Ys andtheory Zs, the management byobjective, the management by example,the participatory organization-all ofwhich one hears of in the businesssector-have their counterparts withinthe library. It seems there are somerelatively obvious changes coming inlibrary organization and management.In fact, they are already here. The waywe adapt to them and the skills andcreativity by which we integrate thelocal necessities and requirements withthose trends will to a large degreemeasure our successes as librarians.

In a time of economic recession, atime of emphasis on the human quality,a time of high technology, we have tolook forward to the ever-increasingemphasis on smaller units. That smallerunit may be within a large shoppingmall or central library, or it may be aphysically decentralized branch ordepartment of the library. Smaller unitsseem to be the inevitable result of thekinds of changes- technological,economic, and social-that we areseeing all around us. Since this is asociety which will pay higher prices forthe extra convenience of the 7-Elevenand convenience food stores ratherthan save money on the efficiencies ofthe centralized A&P and othersupermarkets, the same trend will beaffecting libraries.

The idea that centralized libraryservices should be emphasized becausethey may in some theoretical masssense be able to answer more referencequestions or catalog more books orkeep more hours open downtown or inthe main library of the campus seemsto me to fly in the face of societaldemands. The electronics provide adistance independency where thecatalog, order file, and periodicalcheck-in files are no longer usable onlyat their physical location. They areusable anywhere there is a terminal. Infact, there is no physical presence of anonline catalog as we now know it; it issimply a series of electronic andmagnetic impulses stored on some disksomeplace. When you are close to ityou may have even less access thanwhen you are far away. This fact, too,inevitably destroys one of the greatimperatives of present organization,that is, the need to group around files.

-Hugh C. AtkinsonUniversity Librarian

Judaica Donor HonoredMr. Michael Fain (right), whose fatherBenjamin Fain recently donated animportant Judaica collection (described inthe spring issue of Friendscript), visited theLibrary to accept a certificate of appreciationfrom Library Friends for the gift. Attendingthe Rare Book Room reception for Mr. Fainwas Paul Weichsel, mathematics professorand a faithful patron of Mr. Fain's Chicagobookstore, whose efforts were instrumentalin bringing the collection to Illinois. MichaelFain remarked that his father, who has nowretired, considered books the great passionof his life and was happy that his collectionhad found a good home at the UI Library.

The Library is Looking...For biographies and other books aboutAbraham Lincoln written for children.The Library's Lincoln Room houses animportant collection of materials by andabout Lincoln, established with theHarlan Hoyt and Henrietta CalhounHorner memorial gift. Children's booksand school texts, however, are difficultto obtain because of the typically roughtreatment they receive. If you have anyschool or story books about Lincoln,and/or related items you can donate tothe collection, please call.For funds to purchase the 5-volume set,Tonko Bakukokutsu (Archaeology ofthe Bakukokutsu Cave of the Tun-Huang Caves) for the Asian Library. Thisrichly illustrated work, a jointpublication project of HeibunshaPublishers, is one of a series ofpublications about the magnificentCaves of the 1000 Buddhas. Havingalready acquired the 100-volume setreproducing the manuscripts found inthe Tun-Huang Caves, the Asian Libraryis anxious to obtain a $600 donation forthis important complementary work onthe archaeological discoveries of one ofthe caves.For Clio Medica: A Series of Primers onthe History of Medicine, by E.D.Krumbhaar. Published by AMS Press inNew York, this 22-volume set isconsidered basic to research in thehistory of medicine, and would be animportant asset in serving HealthSciences Library patrons. Illinois is oneof the few American universitiesoffering a medical scholars program(M.D./Ph.D.), and the Health SciencesLibrary seeks a $340 donation to acquirethis key resource on historical aspectsof medicine.If you can help the Library with adonation or gift, please contactDeborah Smith Olien, FriendsCoordinator, 227 Library, 1408 W.Gregory, Urbana, IL 61801 (telephone217/333-7480).

The Benefits of MembershipAs a Friend of the University of IllinoisLibrary, you receive:* Special circulation and stack privileges for

Library materials" Friendscript, the quarterly newsletter* Non Solus, the annual bulletin* Invitations to exhibits, lectures and

receptions* A 30% discount on University of Illinois

Press publicationsThe Friends welcome everyone interested inthe continued excellence of the Universityof Illinois Library. There are now over 1000members of Library Friends.

YES, I/We wish to become mem-bers of the U of I LIBRARYFRIENDS

O University Librarian's Council at UIUC:$5000 0 Sponsor: $100

D Life: $1500 0 Subscriber: $50o Benefactor: $1000 0 Contributor: $25o Patron: $500 0 Student: $5

Please make your check payable toUniversity of Illinois Foundation/LibraryFriends, 224 Illini Union, 1401 W. Green St.,Urbana, Illinois 61801. All contributions aretax-deductible.

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Getting Together with Friends

A Look at This Spring's Friends ProgramsThe Friends spring program presented by UIProfessor of Plant Genetics Jack Harlan,"Romance and Sex in Ancient Egypt: TheLettuce and the Sycomore Fig," was wellattended by a highly entertained group.Held April 10, his illustrated lecture (below)was accompanied by an exhibit in the RareBook Room of some of the Library'sholdings in ancient Egyptian art and culture.Mr. Harlan joined guests at the receptionpreceding the afternoon program andchatted with UI Librarian Hugh Atkinson andSchool of Art and Design Director EugeneWicks.

Korean CollectionGift Augments HoldingsThe Korean Research Foundation inSeoul, Korea, recently donated to theUl Library a large collection of currentKorean-language publications. Througha matching fund agreement, the gift isvalued at $15,000.

The Asian Library and the Universityappreciate the Foundation's generouscontribution. Professor Peter Schran,director of the UI Center for East Asianand Pacific Studies, noted that thefaculty and students of the University'sAsian Studies programs will longtreasure the collection as a symbol offriendship between the two nations.

The gift collection includesapproximately 1,000 volumes. AsianLibrarian Bill Wong points out that theLibrary's Korean-language materialsnow number over 3,000 books, whichrepresents only a tiny fraction of itstotal Asian holdings, but constitutesone of only ten or so researchcollections on the subject in the UnitedStates.

Volunteers of Friends were honored fortheir efforts at a special program April 19 inthe atrium of the new Veterinary MedicalSciences Building. University Librarian HughAtkinson and Volunteer Services chairpersonMary Rhoades (below) cited each volunteerfor his or her contributions and presentedspecial gift sets of notecards in appreciation.Mr. Robert McNabb, proprietor of VillageAntique Shop in Bondville, spoke to thegroup about aspects of repairing andrefinishing antiques (right). A book exhibitdisplayed some of the many titles availablethrough the Library on the topic, includingChamberlain's Open House in New England,which Mr. McNabb cited as "among the firstbooks I borrowed from the Library in 1947."

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Reaching for the StarsThe UI Library's impressive collectionon the history of astronomy is anotherexample, like the acquisition of theMerwin archive, of the benefits of theJohn Needles Chester endowment fundprovisions. A Chester Fund award ofover $45,000 to the Library has enabledacquisition of a series of major celestialatlases. As a group, these worksconstitute one of the premier researchcollections of its kind in the UnitedStates.

William Gray Potter, AssociateProfessor of Library Administration andAssistant Director for Acquisitions andCirculation, said of the purchases: "TheChester money has allowed us tostrengthen our collection tremendouslyin the area of celestial atlases and thehistory of astronomy. Combined withour existing holdings and with thepurchase of Flamsteed's Atlas Coelestisand Historia Coelestis, we now holdmost of the important [such] worksfrom the 17th and 18th centuries."

Eight major rare works in the historyof astronomy were acquired with theaward and are now held with theLibrary's history of science collectionsin the Rare Book Room. They includeJulius Schiller's Coelum StellatumChristiantum, a folio atlas published in1627 that replaced the traditionalcelestial figures with Christianmotifs-for example, the signs of thezodiac with the twelve apostles.Perhaps the rarest item is John Bevis'sUranographia, a celestial atlas that wasnever published because the publisherwent bankrupt and the engraved plates

were seized by the Court of Chancery.A few sets of impressions made fromthese plates survived, and wereassembled and sold.

Mr. Potter noted that while theseatlases are beautiful books, they alsoserved as tools to astronomers. Thetraditional figures used to represent thevarious constellations were largely usedfor mnemonic purposes and to assist inthe charting of newly discovered stars.Johann Bode's 1801 atlas is the last greatcelestial atlas to use representation ofcelestial figures. After Bode,improvements in measuring andplotting stars required more scientificand less picturesque star atlases.

Friends will recall that the 1729 AtlasCoelestis by John Flamsteed with itscompanion volume, Historia Coelestis,was purchased with Library Friendsfunds to commemorate acquisition ofthe Library's sixth millionth volume.Flamsteed's publication is considered tobe the major celestial atlas of the 18thcentury. The Chester Fund grant hasallowed the Library to build on thebase set up by the Friends gift.

Other titles acquired with the grantinclude: Johann Bayer's Uranometria(Augsburg, 1603); Johann GabrielDopplmayr's Atlas Coelestis(Nuremberg, 1742); two editions ofFlamsteed's Atlas Celeste (Paris, 1776and Lisbon, 1804); and Pardies's GlobiCoelistis (Paris, 1674).

With auspicious support and notablebeginnings, the Library's holdings inrare works of astronomy's early stageswill be an important resource toscholars in the field.

ApologyFriendscript recently reported on donations

to the Library in response to requests in"The Library Is Looking." Unfortunately,mention of the gift by Constance McGill,Champaign, was omitted. Mrs. McGilldonated items for the music collections,including 13 books, 15 choral octavos, 5anthologies, 7 methods books, and apamphlet. The editor regrets the omission.

Quotables(Editor's note: John Cribbet will return this fallto a full-time teaching appointment in the Uni-versity's College of Law after serving the UIUCcampus as Chancellor since 1979. His strongsupport of the University Library has made himan eloquent spokesman for the Library and itsmany Friends.)

t t The University of IllinoisLibrary lies at the heart of adistinguished University-not onlyphysically but intellectually. There areno truly great universities without largeand sophisticated libraries, and we canbe proud that the University of Illinoisranks along with Harvard and Yale inthe size and quality of its collection.Books contain not only the record ofthe past but the keys to an unchartedfuture. It is in the libraries, laboratories,and classrooms that the nextgeneration, under the guidance of thepresent, seeks understanding,knowledge, and I hope, an occasionalglint of wisdom as we struggle with theproblems of a free society. The past isprologue, and that prologue isrecorded in the interstices of themillions of volumes that foresightedacademic leaders have provided for ouruse.

Not only is the Library a vastmonument to the priority which societyhas given to education, but it is a"working laboratory" for those who arededicated to the pursuit of knowledgein every area. The present generation istruly "unchaining" the books andthrough the miracle of computers ismaking information available to all whoseek to tap this rich lode of man'sexperience.

The Library is a principal asset inattracting and retaining our world-classfaculty, and we intend to make everyeffort to maintain and strengthen thiscritical resource of the University ofIllinois. ) )

_ -0-1

Mr. Potter compares the traditional representation of the constellation Cygnus in Bode's 1801atlas with the Christian figure used in Schiller's 1627 work.

CalendarExhibits

Through September 7"Luther und Buchproduktion." Rare BookRoom.July 1-31"The Los Angeles Olympic Games of 1932."University Archives.July 9-31"Nobel Prize Winners with a Connection toUIUC." Friends Case and Main Corridor, UILibrary.July 16-September 7"Selected Notable Acquisitions, 1983/84."Rare Book Room.August 1-31"National Socialist Propaganda Literature: 50Years after Adolf Hitler Inaugurated theThird Reich." University Archives.August 20-31"The Afro-American World." Main Corridor,UI Library.September 1-30"200 Years of Newspaper Publishing."University Archives.September 1-30"ALA and the Development of FinancialSupport for Library Activities." Friends Caseand Main Corridor, UI Library.September 12-October 11"Merwin's Other Career: The Archive at theUIUC Library." Rare Book Room.October 1-31"History of the Library." Friends Case andMain Corridor, UI Library.October 1-31"Elections, 1884 and 1984." UniversityArchives.October 12-Midwest American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies exhibit. Rare Book Room.To continue indefinitely.

EventsSeptember 6Fall meeting, Library volunteers. Coffee andorientation, including slide presentation,"The Library: Heart of the University," 9:30a.m., Rare Book Room. Tour, new Librarystack addition, immediately followingprogram. Public welcome.

friendscriptUniversity of Illinois Library Friends227 Library1408 W. GregoryUrbana, Illinois 61801

October 10"Reformed City Republic, Center of LateHumanism and Capital of Bookprinting;Basel in the Second Half of the 16thCentury." Hans R. Guggisberg, professor,University of Basel, speaker. Lecture, 7:30p.m., 407 Levis Faculty Center. Sponsored bythe Swiss-American Historical Society andcosponsored in part by the UI Library. Publicwelcome.October 10Formal opening of the W.S. Merwin archive:"Poems and Translation." Readings andcommentary by W.S. Merwin. Receptionimmediately following program. Sponsoredby Library Friends. Public welcome. LibraryFriends will receive invitations by mail.

October 11Dedication, UI Library stack addition. 10:30a.m. Governor James Thompson, UIPresident Stanley 0. Ikenberry, UIUCChancellor Thomas Everhart, UniversityLibrarian Hugh C. Atkinson, speakers.Library Friends will receive invitations bymail.

Donation HonorsHarry GrayThe UI Alumni Club of Greater NewYork has come up with a good idea.

Members of the group recently votedto make a $50 gift to Library Friends tohonor one of their own, Harry J. Gray.Mr. Gray, who is Chief ExecutiveOfficer of United Technologies, Inc.,received his bachelor's degree from UIin 1941, his M.S. in marketing in 1947,and has been active in UI alumniactivities in the New York area formany years.

Mr. Paul Mcllvaine, president of theclub and a member of Friends,explained that the donation seemed amost appropriate way to recognize Mr.Gray's many contributions to the UIalumni group and his strong record ofsupport for the University-not least asa member of the UI FoundationCabinet for the Campaign for Illinoisand of Presidents Council.

Harry Gray, an active supporter of theUniversity, was recently honored withLibrary Friends membership.

Director of Library Development andPublic Affairs Joan Hood noted: "suchcontributions are a valuable source ofsupport for the University's outstandingLibrary. This is an ideal means ofhonoring the special achievements ofalumni."

Alumni clubs in other areas mightwell consider the double advantage ofsupporting their alma mater's Librarywhile providing appropriate recognitionto special members.

Volunteers Honored

Two Friends volunteers werehonored during NationalVolunteer Week at theChampaign-Urbana UnitedWay breakfast on May 8.Maryann Bitzer and DonnaFollmer were cited for theirspecial efforts and countlessvolunteered hours of serviceto the Library's collections.

Second-class postage paid in Urbana, IL

Stewart Howe FoundationCarlyle E. Anderson, President2425 Lincoln StreetEvanston, IL 60201