Brown University Library News

[The following article appeared in the August 20 issue of the Block Island Times.] By Gloria S. Redlich Several dozen people gathered Tuesday afternoon, August 14, at the Island Free Library for an address by Harriette Hemmasi, university librarian of Brown University. The talk was sponsored by the Friends of the Island Free Library, the Brown Club of Rhode Island, and the Block Island Times. Describing her as a “visionary in how libraries function,” Fraser Lang, publisher of the Block Island Times, introduced Hemmasi to the island audience. He cited her distinction and breadth of responsibility in being the librarian at a major research university. Hemmasi began by drawing parallels between the large academic library that she works for and the island library. Comparing the John Carter Brown Library (JCBL), on the Brown campus and the Island Free Library, she said both began with their founders’ bequests and collections. The Brown family had amassed a significant collection of books, including Americana, which became the foundation of the JCBL at Brown. On Block Island, the late Lester Dodge left the bulk of his estate to the town of New Shoreham for the purpose of rebuilding the library. Hemmasi found it interesting that each institution retained artifacts from the homes of their founders, as well as documents and materials related to the founding families. … Block Island Times: Brown librarian discusses role of the modern library

The Brown University Library and the Department of Italian Studies are collaborating to bring the Garibaldi Panorama, one of the finest surviving examples of panoramic art, back to life in its entirety. Precursors to modern day motion pictures, panoramas were the 19th century’s most visceral form of popular entertainment. But for years the Garibaldi Panorama, a 4 ½ feet high, 273 feet long, double-sided watercolor depicting the life story of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, has lain dormant. After the late Dr. James Walter Smith donated this panorama to Brown University in 2005, library staff developed a plan to use the latest in digital technology to make this exquisite relic available to the world in a revolutionary way. Special funding enabled library staff to fashion a makeshift photo studio in the central gallery of the Ann Mary Brown Memorial, as they painstakingly unrolled the panorama — six feet at a time — in order to take digital photographs that would be later melded into a continuous image. Soon, Garibaldi, who played a major role in the unification of Italy, will be available to students, scholars, and virtual visitors via the fully digitized “moving” panorama.

… Garibaldi Panorama Comes to Life