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The Library Welcomes James Murdock
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James Murdock joined the Library in September as the Digital Scholarship Services Manager within Integrated Technology Services. Prior to Brown, James served as the Carnegie Corporation of New York’s Director of Digital Strategies. In this role, he oversaw the development of online tools to disseminate the work of the foundation and its grantees—including the complete overhaul of Carnegie’s website, which re-launched on July 27, 2015, as well as the creation of a digital storytelling platform and mobile apps.Before joining Carnegie in 2013, James was The New York Public Library’s Director of Multimedia Content. There, he and his team designed cutting edge mobile, social, and video tools—such as the award-winning iPad app Biblion—to showcase NYPL’s special collections as well as build online communities around the library’s educational programs. In previous positions at NYPL, where he began serving in 2008, James was the Audio/Video Manager, in charge of setting production guidelines for filming some of the library’s more than 55,000 public programs each year. He also belonged to the digital strategy team that re-launched nypl.org in 2010.
Since 2011, James has served on the board of the nonprofit FilmShop, dedicated to building a community of independent filmmakers and transmedia producers in the New York area and beyond. James’s early career included ten years as a print, radio, and video journalist. He was the news editor of the leading design journal Architectural Record; a freelancer for American Public Media’s Marketplace; and an associate editor of the real estate journal Commercial Property News. He also co-authored the textbook Serving LGBTQ Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.
James earned a Bachelor’s degree from Brown, where he double-majored in Architectural History and Urban Studies, and received his Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he concentrated in magazines and radio.
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Updates from Around the Library | September 2015
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As a new semester begins, here are a few updates from the Library:
- Over at the Hall-Hoag Collection Blog, Jordan Jancosek began her tenure with a post on “cat lovers against the bomb.”
- Check out some of the Library’s new eresources.
- The Image Collections Blog’s latest post is on maps (only available to the Brown community).
- Curio takes an in-depth look at stereoscopy.
- The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection talks about the wounded of World War I.
- The latest from CDS is on using Zotero.
- If you’re on social media, check for Library updates on: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Exhibit | US Comedians on Stamps and the Process of Creating a Stamp Design
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This stamp exhibit at the Anne S. K. Brown Military in the John Hay Library features a set of U.S. stamps that were produced in 1991 called U.S. Comedians on Stamps. The idea for these stamps started in 1981 when Howard Paine, the coordinator for the Stamp Committee, proposed doing some adventurous things, like seeing some of the great caricaturists design stamps. In particular, he suggested having Al Hirschfeld create caricatures of celebrities.
Paine’s idea became a reality on August 29, 1991, when Postmaster General Anthony M. Frank dedicated a booklet of stamps featuring Hirschfeld caricatures of famous 20th century American comedians. This stamp issue was the first of 25 issues depicting caricatures of show business personalities created by Hirschfeld specifically as stamp art. Four of the Hirschfeld stamps, shown above, are on display in the exhibit.
(Fun fact: In 1945 Hirschfeld’s daughter Nina was born, and from that year on he always hid the name Nina in his drawings.)
The exhibit also depicts the process of creating a U.S. stamp by showing Hirschfeld’s drawing, the overlay with the name and postage rate of the stamp that was superimposed over the drawing, and the final stamp itself.
The Brown University Library is home to several stamp collections, including the Knight Collection, the Peltz and Morriss Collections of Special Delivery stamps, the George S. Champlin Memorial Stamp Collection of International Issues, and the Robert T. Galkin Collection of First Day Covers.
Click here for more information about Special Collections at Brown, including the stamp collections.
Dates: September 10 – October 31, 2015
Time: Open to the public 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Friday
Location: Anne S. K. Brown Military Gallery, John Hay Library, 20 Prospect Street, Providence
