Brown University Library News

The Brown University Library is pleased to announce that it has partnered with the Office of the Dean of the College to offer the second annual Undergraduate Research Awards. These awards recognize students who have undertaken projects that make extensive and creative use of library collections. Two winners will be selected from a pool of applicants. Recipients will be honored at a reception, where they will be asked to give a short presentation on their research and will be awarded a cash prize of $750. “We hope to build on last year’s success and to encourage more students to apply this year,” said Harriette Hemmasi, Joukowsky Family University Librarian. “The Library plays a central role in connecting undergraduates with the books, journals, and web-based resources that they need to conduct their research. We know that students are busy with school and extracurricular commitments, but we hope that they will take a minute to submit applications and receive well-deserved recognition for their hard-work. Our staff is available to answer any questions that students may have. This is a wonderful resource for undergraduates and a great opportunity to highlight some of the impressive scholarship they produce.” Applications must be submitted by 5:00 P.M.., February 15, 2008 and all materials should be submitted as a package. Applications may be submitted electronically to Library_Award@brown.edu. Winners will be announced on April 2, 2008. For more information visit: http://dl.lib.brown.edu/libweb/ugresearchaward.php.

Daniel Siegel ’57, proprietor of M& S Rare Books Inc., has donated three titles from his private collection to Brown University. The items include a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, a first English language edition of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, and John James Audubon’s The Quadrupeds of North America.

Each of the books includes details that add to their value and importance to scholars and researchers. The edition of Gatsby contains an inscription from the author to T.S. Eliot in which he writes “For T.S. Elliot [sic]/Greatest of Living Poets/ from his entheusiastic[sic]/worshipper/F. Scott Fitzgerald/Paris Oct./ 1925.” There are also notes in the margin, most probably from Eliot. The Wittgenstein features annotations and corrections in the text by the author himself. The Audubon, comprising some 155 color plates, is unusual in that it retains its original printed wrappers.

“Dan has done a wonderful thing for scholarship at Brown,” said Harriette Hemmasi, Joukowsky Family University Librarian. “We are indebted to him for giving so generously from his personal collection. Beyond their obvious historical and scholarly value, the little details in these books are a large part of what makes them so special. For instance, Fitzgerald was a notoriously bad speller as evidenced by the errors in his note to Eliot where he even misspells the author’s name. This helps to humanize authors in ways that are not immediately apparent in their written work, giving us a richer understanding of them as artists, thinkers, and individuals. I am confident that each of these works will contribute meaningfully to research and writing here on campus.”

“I was very pleased that five years after I gave to Brown the extant original manuscript of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Dan and Kathy Leab gave their fine collection of first editions of Orwell to Brown,” Mr. Siegel commented. “This sort of synergy is the plea and the wish of all donors, and I hope that my present gifts, representing three entirely different areas of book collecting, will have a similar affect in the next few years.”

A long-time supporter of the Library, Mr. Siegel contributed to the renovation of the John Hay Library in 1979, underwrote the publication of a guide to Special Collections at Brown in 1988, and donated the manuscript of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to the Library in 1992. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Library for over a decade, serving as the organization’s first chairman of the Acquisitions Committee. In addition to his philanthropic work on behalf of Brown, Mr. Siegel owns and operates Providence-based M&S Rare Books and M&S Press, which specializes in new annotated editions of important works in American thought and reform, chiefly from the 19th century, and also published a limited edition facsimile of the manuscript of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Since 1938, Friends of the Library members have been advocates for the Brown University Library. The Friends of the Library acquire rare books and manuscripts for Brown’s collection, support web-based programming, and sponsor symposiums and discussions that bring a diverse group of journalists, academics, scientists, artists, and specialists to campus.

For more information visit:http://www.brown.edu/Facilities/University_Library/friends/index.html.
Image: Daniel Siegel ’57

By Marielle Segarra
Posted: 1/23/08
Students returning to campus this week will see the benefits of “MyJosiah,” an addition to Josiah, the University’s online library catalog. The new features will allow users to save searches, spell check and improve word search results, among other changes, said Bonnie Buzzell ’72, senior knowledge systems librarian.
The library implemented the changes on Jan. 7, but the site is a “work in progress,” Buzzell said. “The functionality is there, but it needs a lot more work before it can become something we’re truly proud of,” she said as she explained Josiah’s new features to a room full of librarians at the Rockefeller Library.
Some of the new features already in place include a change in Josiah’s appearance, more available links on the homepage and the ability to save both searches and a list of books that have been checked out, she said.
Buzzell also said the program will undergo further changes and will look different when finished.
“The implementation of many of the functionalities are in place, but we’re still working on the presentations,” Buzzell told the Herald.
Also, students and librarians will find more accurate search results. For example, in the future, when searching for books, students may be able to select an option that allows them to block books they have already checked out from their search results, though Buzzell isn’t sure when the change will be made. Buzzell said she hopes to have most changes fully developed by the end of the month.