2010 Employee Recognition Awards

Many thanks to the Staff Advisory Council members Scott Howard, Cheri Daniels, David Powell, Julene Jones, Daniel Naas, and Interim Dean Birdwhistell.

2010 Winners of the Dean's Award for Outstanding Perfomance Front row L to R: Carolyn Sears, Bridgett Kidwell, and Kathryne LeFevre
with Interim Dean Terry Birdwhistell.

Service Awards

5 Years

Susan K. Smith
Jennifer Eskew
Genia Kempster
Adrianne Phillips

10 Years

Nancy Lewis
Jay Baker
Curt Miller (not shown)
Kitty Taylor (not shown)

15 Years

Benita Clarke
Terri Brown
Kevin Campbell (not shown)
Martha David (not shown)

20 Years

Pat Wilson

25 Years

Judy Sackett, Bev Hilton, Mike Howard, and Clay Gaunce

30 Years

Lewis Warden
Esther Edwards (not shown)
Rick Garrett (not shown)

35 Years
Shirley Greene (not shown)


45 Years

Judy Fugate
Bob Turner (not shown)

Winter Olympics Exhibit and Program

The winter Olympics are back! Special Collections is exhibiting a collection of winter Olympic memorabilia. The exhibit was enhanced with a kick-off program featuring two speakers: Tom Hammond and Jack Kelly.

Tom Hammond is a member of the UK Journalism Hall of Fame and sportscaster for nine Olympics. He has covered ice-skating for the last three winter Olympics, and spoke primarily of his experiences at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. He considers ice-skating to be the heart of the games and recognize the athleticism and skill required for ice-skating. Tom related several stories about the competitors, including those who won and those who didn’t win but gave their all while facing special challenges.

Jack Kelly, owner of the winter Olympic memorabilia and CEO of two Olympic festivals, spoke about his collection and experiences at all the Olympics he has attended over the years. The collection includes two Olympic torches, posters, pins and medals, programs, tickets, and other items, some of which date back to 1928. Jack began collecting around 1988 and has amassed a varied and interesting collection. He finds the winter Olympics more collegial than the summer games because they are smaller and encourage greater attendance. He provided a selection of Olympic pins for attendees to take.

After the program, people had the opportunity to have their picture taken with the speakers and the Olympic torches.

The exhibit will be on display through the month of April.

The Carl Howell Lincoln Postcard Collection

Renowned Abraham Lincoln historian Carl Howell brought some examples of his extensive collection of rare Lincoln-themed postcards to UK’s Special Collections Library. An opening reception was held on March 25th, with Deidre Scaggs introducing the speakers.

First up was UK History Professor Mark Summers who gave an entertaining lecture charting how the Lincoln legacy has evolved through time. Summers feels that Lincoln’s legacy today should be based foremost on the fact that he was able to preserve the union. The emancipation the slaves followed from the preservation of the union would not have occurred without it. Summers argued that if Lincoln had not preserved the Union the United States would have been two nations, both considerably weaker than the one we have now. As separate nations, the United States and the Confederate States would have been prey for European colonizers and certainly would not have been able to lend our support later to important causes such as World War I and World War II. Summers also touched on the many ways in which Lincoln has permeated our lives – from allusions of him in popular movies (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Ruggles of Red Gap) to appropriations of his image by corporate America (Lincoln automobiles, Lincoln insurance, Lincoln Logs).

Carl Howell spoke next about his hobby of deltiology, which is the study and collection of postcards. Howell, a graduate of UK’s Law School, began collecting postcards in the 1970’s. In those pre-Ebay days, collectors had to travel to postcard shows around the country to find and purchase their cards. Howell, who lives in Lincoln’s home county of LaRue, began early on specializing in Lincoln-themed postcards. Howell’s collection includes postcards with a broad range of subject matter from images of Lincoln’s presidency, his boyhood, his years as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, his assassination, and many other facets of his life and legacy.

Photo: Carl Howell with Deirdre Scaggs

UK Libraries Collaborates with ARL Partners

UK Libraries in collaboration three other ARL partners, UNC, Virginia, and the Ohio State University, will become the official United States archive of traditional (non-email) junk mail. The National Junk Mail Archive Collaborative (NJMAC) is the first focused attempt in the nation to collect, provide access to and preserve the everyday, everyman, ordinary experience of receiving junk mail.

In the next several months, the 4 universities will meet to sort out collecting responsibilities and selection methodologies. Deirdre Scaggs, along with Becky Ryder, have developed the basic categories for ingest:

1. Advertisements and catalogs
2. Charity/Donation requests
3. Insurance/credit card/home mortgage invitations
4. Materials not in “letter” or “package” formats, such as paper bags to fill with groceries, soap samples, event CDs, unsolicited gifts such as totebags or fleece blankets, etc.

To be eligible for the NJMAC, all junk mail must be received in a physical mailbox of some kind. The National Junk Mail Archive Collaborative will not include posted flyers, phone books left on porches or hang tag ads left on doors. The preliminary thinking is that two residences will be randomly selected from each county, each year, in the Commonwealth to supply the unopened mail. Once received in the Junk Mail Archive, the junk mail object (JAO), will be digitized, unopened, to document the style of delivery and the style of the message on the envelope or package.

Deirdre said that the JAOs will be processed according to DACS (archival processing standards) using Archivists Toolkit . Once accessioned and documented, student assistants will remove the contents of the JAO and enter information into the MYSQL NJMAC database. All sub-objects, such as personalized address labels, note pads, book marks, faux plastic credit cards, decals and other objects will be kept to together at the folder level. Once foldered, the JAOs will be kept in archival quality boxes, organized by county and date. Access to the contents will be through the NJMAC database.

Becky notes that the preservation of the various sub-objects, such as the nickels, dream catchers, address labels, key chains, ornaments, as well as the myriad of ink and paper formats will require special strategies to keep the JAO integrated, complete and authentic. “I expect that Kazuko will be making some very new-fangled containers for all this regalia,” Becky said. “The folders could get pretty bulky.”

“This is a feather in UK’s cap,” said Deirdre. “There will be storage challenges, for sure, but to be at the forefront of this dazzling new initiative, gives us energy to succeed.”

Doug Boyd has in an interest in collecting oral histories from random recipients of junk mail. Doug said, “I’d really like to record the reactions people have to receiving junk mail. What do they do with it? How much is kept? This is valuable research data for future Ponzi schemers.”

The first deposit into the National Junk Mail Archive Collaborative will occur on April 1, 2011.

Kazuko Goes to Washington

Kazuko Hioki was selected for the Florence Tan Moeson fellowship at the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. The fellowship provides funding to travel to the Library of Congress and also provides unlimited access to the pre-Meiji collection in the Asian Division which will enable Kazuko to continue her research on the Edo period books in the LC collection.

Her initial research began in 2003 and led to her publication in the Journal of the Institute of Conservation. Edo period (1603-1868) texts were almost exclusively produced by wood-block printing, on Japanese paper, and bound in side-stitched bindings with paper covers. The physical characteristics of an Edo book reflect its development, readership, and content, and it informs us about the society and culture.

The pre-Meiji collection of the Library of Congress holds over 4,800 titles of rare Japanese books from the Edo period, which is one of the most extensive of its kind in the world outside Japan. The collection includes broad subject matters from literature and history to science and rare military texts. The size and diversity of the collection will enable Kazuko to record an invaluable range of the books’ physical traits. In addition, since this collection is in better condition than those heavily handled in Japan, surviving examples of some delicate cover decorations can only be found in the Library of Congress’ pre-Meiji collection.

Congratulations, Kazuko, and enjoy your research!

Who Needs Corned Beef and Cabbage?

Green was the dominant color in the staff lounge as the Hospitality Committee celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with its annual Hot Dog Lunch. Who needs corned beef and cabbage when you can have chili dogs made with Dawn Gaye’s secret chili recipe? The cooks worked hard to keep up with the flow of hungry library staff that seemed to be enjoying both the food and the company. Included among the attendees this year was special guest Dawn herself, who after retiring last year “willed” her recipe to the Hospitality Committee.

Day of Love?

They say Valentine’s Day is a celebration of Love, but it looked like darker emotions were at play at the Hospitality Committee’s annual bake sale. Debbie Sharp and Sarah Vaughn seemed to be doing their best to do away with the “Mild-Mannered Librarian” stereotype. I guess chocolate has that effect on some people.

Aside from this isolated incident, the sale seems to have been a great success. The heart-shaped rice crispy treats were particularly popular, selling out in mere minutes.