I N T H I S I S S U E

2 Student Spotlight

3 Remembering Katherine Anne Porter

4 Unraveling History’s

Mysteries

6 Inspiring Students

AS LIBRARIES NATIONWIDE move from using spaces primarily for print col-lections to spaces that are devoted to services, we at the University of Maryland are similarly preparing to transform environments. “Space-planning initiatives are de-signed to keep the library an integral part of the university,” says Associate Dean Gary White, “and to emphasize the important role that libraries play in research, teaching and learning at the University of Maryland.” Librarians and staff have worked dili-gently during the past year to study and develop recommendations for transform-ing these spaces and services to better serve our faculty and students, while at the same time updating and creating new learning spaces that are aesthetic, func-tional, and flexible. A goal is to expand this same “com-mons” concept already in place in the high-ly popular Terrapin Learning Commons, a technology-rich collaborative environment on the second floor of McKeldin Library.

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Transforming SpacesThe changing nature of library environments

ILLUMINATIONKNOWLEDGE for the 2Ist CENTURY at the UNIVERSITY of MARYLAND LIBRARIES Summer 2014

McKELDIN LIBRARY RECONCEIVED

Our future goals:

Enhance student study spaces to increase the number, utility and diversity of student study spaces

Consolidate public service points to simplify delivery of services and allow for greater cross-training of employees

Create an inspiring and attractive main entrance to improve the visitor experience for prospective students and their par-ents and to contribute to “Maryland Pride”

Donor support helps us achieve our transformative space goals. To find out more about making an impact, contact Heather Foss,University Libraries Director of Development, at 301.314.2579 or hfoss@umd.edu

QUIET STUDY SPACE. Architects envision a quiet study area in the rear of McKeldin’s first floor. Funding for the renovation has not been approved by the university because of tightened budgets.

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Dear Friends,

The University Libraries are all about change. As I look toward completing my tenure as dean, it’s gratifying to reflect on all we have done to better serve our us-ers. Many of the improvements have come in the form of upgraded technologies or innovative public services. This issue of Illumination highlights some interesting exam-ples, from boosting our green initia-tives to digitizing important works of Katherine Anne Porter. And yet, there’s much left to do to improve the public spaces in many of our libraries. McKeldin Library, for example, is a beloved building on campus and we must now find a way to respect that his-toric centrality while making it func-tional for the digital age. Over the next several years, we hope to make incremental updates to ensure the future of McKeldin Library, and in so doing, contribute powerfully to student success at Maryland. We hope that many of you reading this will take part in these projects as visionaries, friends, volunteers, and donors. We’ll update you as prog-ress unfolds. Have an enjoyable summer! Thank you,

Patricia A. Steele Dean of the Libraries

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Annie HendrickA JUNIOR studying graphic design, Annie Hendrick has been a student employee in the Office of the Dean and the Office of External Relations at the University of Maryland Libraries since the summer of 2013. In her job as office assistant, she has designed a number of invitations and brochures, often creating stun-ning visual pieces from only a basic concept. “We greatly appreciate Annie’s positive attitude and get-it-done ap-proach,” says Director of Development Heather Foss. “She has helped to staff

You are receiving Illumination be-cause you have recently attended a Libraries event or supported us with a gift. To be removed from our list or to help our sustain-ability efforts by requesting the electronic version only, please email Kristy Robb, Development Coordinator, at 301.314.5674 or email libraries@umd.edu.

Going GreenTHE UNIVERSITY of Maryland recently received a STARS Gold Rating in recognition of its sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. STARS, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, is a pro-gram that measures and encourages sustainability in all aspects of higher education.  We’re proud to have contributed, in small measure, to this achieve-ment. The University Libraries have had a sustainability committee and a sustainability officer since early 2011 and are actively contributing to the university’s “green” culture. Thirteen library units participate in the uni-versity’s “Green Office” program,

which promotes mindfulness about recycling and responsible energy consumption. We also: l PROVIDE compostable or re-

usable serving containers and utensils at staff functions, thereby minimizing landfill-bound trash

l OFFER water-bottle filling sta-tions in several of our libraries as part of a campuswide effort to minimize the use of disposable plastic bottles

l ENCOURAGE campus members to reuse items through a free ex-change program

many donor-related events and is unfailingly pleasant and respectful in her interactions with students, staff, and donors alike.”

Your Name Here

DONATED IN HONOR OF

Be one of the first to leave an electronic

legacy at the University of Maryland Libraries

with your very own digital bookplate

Make a contribution to the

Legacy Bookplate Fund by visiting us at

ter.ps/bookplate

S T U D E N T S P O T L I G H T

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Remembering Katherine Anne Porter in Letters and LifeKATHERINE ANNE PORTER afficionados gathered recently in Hornbake Library to learn about a new digital archive of the author’s correspondence and hear four of her friends share Porter recollections. Dovetailing with a literary conference in Washington, D.C., the evening symposium featured an open house in the Katherine Anne Porter Room which houses her pa-pers and memorabilia, a presentation by Liz DePriest and Trevor Muñoz on the creation of a digital archive of her let-ters to her family members, and reminiscences by people who had personal relationships with Porter. Mary Winslow Poole shared childhood memories of Porter, who was a boarder in her home during World War II. Poole’s mother was a portrait artist struggling to raise her young children while her husband was serving overseas. Porter lived with the family and formed friendships with the artist and her children. Poole and her brother, John, presented to the University Libraries a portrait her mother had painted of Juan Ramón Jiménez, a former professor in UMD’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese who won the Nobel Award for Literature in 1956. Jane DeMouy is a writer and Porter scholar whose book, Katherine Anne Porter’s Women: The Eye of Her Fiction, examines Porter’s perspectives on femininity and the role of women as portrayed in her fiction. DeMouy befriended Porter after completing her doctoral dissertation. As Porter’s health was failing, DeMouy spent many hours vis-iting her, reading to her and even bringing her cat for visits to the cat-loving author. Ted Wojtasik is a novelist and visiting faculty member of English and creative writing at St. Andrews University in North Carolina. His friendship with Porter also began at the end of her life. During their relationship, they shared interests in literature and writing and discussed and shared books. At the conclusion of his remarks, Wojtasik donated to the Libraries Porter’s annotated copy of Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews: Third Series that she had given him more than 35 years ago. E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. shared the story of how he met Porter, looking her up in the phone book after read-ing what he felt were unfair criticisms of her novel, Ship of Fools. They developed a close friendship and eventually he became her lawyer and the executor of her estate. Information about the archive of letters can be found at ter.ps/digitalkap. To support the Katherine Anne Porter Endowment, please visit ter.ps/givekap.

TOP: Portrait of Nobel-winning poet Juan Ramón Jiménez by Marcella Comès Winslow donated at the event by her daughter, Mary Winslow Poole, and son, John Winslow. ABOVE: E. Barrett Prettyman Jr. reads an inscription to him in one of Porter’s works. BELOW LEFT: Liz DePriest enjoys the Katherine Anne Porter Room before her presentation. Behind her, Rosemary Winslow, sister-in-law of Mary Winslow Poole, views photographs of Porter. BELOW RIGHT: María Walsh, Porter scholar Professor Darlene Harbour Unrue, and Unrue’s writer daughter Jane in the Porter Room before the program.

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INSIDE THE VAULT

EVERY THURSDAY MORNING of 2013, Curator of Literary Manuscripts Emerita Beth Alvarez and University Archivist Anne Turkos started the day at the Riversdale House Museum to help the museum staff and officers of the Riversdale Historical Society discover hidden treasures among a previously un-known cache of documents covering multiple generations of the Calvert family. Riversdale was the home of Charles Benedict Calvert, the founder of the Maryland Agricultural College (the original name of the University of Maryland), and thus a place of very special meaning for the university.

Unraveling History’s Myste riesThe “Thursday Gang” Inventories the Calvert Cache

Historians and museum staff alike had long believed that no extensive written record of Charles Benedict Calvert’s life and accomplishments existed since only scattered docu-ments had previously been available, so the discovery of this amazing grouping of more than 7,000 docu-ments covering multiple generations of the Calvert Family was particularly remarkable.. The materials came to light after the 2010 death of Rosalie Eugenia Stier Calvert Ray, the only child of two of Charles Benedict Calvert’s grand-children. When Mrs. Ray’s residence was emptied, her grandson Matt Ray took possession of a trunk filled with old papers that she had stored in at-tics and basements over the years. Faced with the enormity of examining thousands of documents, Ray loaned them to the Riversdale Historical

RIVERSDALE is a restored plantation home built between 1801 and 1807. Construction was begun by Henri Stier, a Flemish aristocrat, and was completed by his daughter Rosalie and her husband George Calvert, grandson of the fifth Lord Baltimore.

UPPER RIGHT: The roster of the original students at the Maryland Agricultural College.

BELOW: The contents of the recently discovered trunk.

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Museum; and Patrick Gossett and Howard Menaker, President and Vice President of the Riversdale Historical Society, respectively. As they worked, the six encoun-tered 19th-century handwriting dif-ficult to decipher and shared exciting finds, such as the receipt for the suit in which Charles Benedict Calvert was married; the accounting of funeral expenses for Charles Benedict’s wife, Charlotte, solving the mystery of her burial site; documentation of the con-struction and furnishing of Riversdale in the early 1800s; and correspon-dence concerning the legal and finan-cial affairs of the Calvert descendants fathered by George Calvert with Eleanor Beckett, an enslaved woman. “To be part of such an endeavor is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for an archivist,” Turkos said. “It’s extremely

Unraveling History’s Myste riesThe “Thursday Gang” Inventories the Calvert Cache

Alvarez agrees. “Working on this project provided a fascinating window into 19th-century life. Vivid portraits of Charles Benedict Calvert and his son George Henry Calvert emerged from the correspondence and financial documents we invento-ried. The papers also provide insight into Maryland political and economic life of the times.” Registrar Jennifer Flood has merged and edited the “Thursday Gang’s” spreadsheets enumerating the contents of the 17 boxes and four drawers, and now the museum staff and the historical society must decide upon the next steps for the project. Whatever the ultimate fate of these pieces of history, both Alvarez

and Turkos deeply appreciate the chance to have been a part of this adventure into the past. Riversdale Museum Director Edward Day noted the importance of their contribution: “At Riversdale, we always welcome collaboration with the university whether it be through the School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning, Department of History, or in this case, the University Libraries. I believe that it was this connection that made the project special. The exper-tise that Anne and Beth provided can-not be overstated—the project simply couldn’t have been undertaken, let alone completed, without them.”

“To be part of such an endeavor is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for an archivist,” Turkos says. “It’s extremely rare these days to encounter such a large quantity of 19th-century documents that are still in private hands.”

Society in 2012 to assess the quality and quantity of the family papers. Alvarez and Turkos were part of a team of six individuals who inven-toried the documents one by one, recording the date, contents, creator, recipient, document type, subjects, and physical condition on spread-sheets. The “Thursday Gang,” as they came to be known, also included Barbara Hornbake Angier, University of Maryland alumna and daughter of R. Lee Hornbake, for whom Hornbake Library is named; Jennifer Flood, Registrar for the Riversdale House

rare these days to encoun-ter such a large quantity of 19th-century documents that are still in private hands and have not been previously made available to scholars. What made this find all the more remarkable was the vast number of docu-ments that related to Charles Benedict Calvert. We have learned so much more about our founder through this project.”

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THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES and the university’s Gemstone Program, a division of the Honors College, partnered in April to award prizes to three student teams for their research projects. Funded generously by Michael Rosenzweig (‘65, ‘70, ‘74) to recognize his in-laws Donald and Katherine Buxton, the top award went to students researching the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. A panel of judges selected the winning team after three sophomore-level student teams pre-sented their research progress at an inaugural ceremony in early April. The Friends of the Libraries funded two additional awards. Students in the Gemstone pro-gram work together on a single project for three years—first select-ing the research topic, then working with a mentor, expert and librarian to advance their hypotheses and refine their conclusions, and finally report-ing on their findings. Gemstone is a multi-disciplinary, four-year research program for selected honors under-graduates of all majors.

New Award Honors Gemstone Students

Because projects are self-funded, students from the winning team will use the $2,000 award to advance their research goals, not to underwrite a well-deserved celebration or pizza party. The bulk of the budget, team members say, will be used to care for the laboratory mice they’ll use to test insulin and TZD (a diabetes drug) to try to target a point in the “insulin signaling pathway” that contributes to Alzheimer’s disease pathology. “We started from square one,” says Shannon Morken of her 11 team-mates, whose majors range from neurobiology and chemistry to public policy and business. The team worked every night until 5:00 a.m., slept a few hours, went to class and kept on going. The hard work paid off in their first place award. Says team member Kelles Gordge, “We’re college stu-dents. We’re pros at deadlines.” Read more about the winning team and their research: http://teambrainblast.weebly.com

“Funded by a donor, the annual awards recognize student teams that demonstrate excellence in the research process.”

2014 Gemstone Team Awards FIRST PLACETeam Brain Blast$2,000The Donald and Katherine Buxton Award

ADDITIONAL HONORSTeam HAPTIC$1,000

Team M.U.S.I.C.$1,000Sponsored by Friends of the Libraries

Team Brainblast (inset) presents its research.

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Transforming Spaces, continued from pg 1

Research Commons McKeldin Library, 4th Floor

Planning for the Research Commons has begun in earnest. We have now transformed the previous Asian Studies Collection space into what will become a traditional “reading room” for study and contemplation. The Research Commons will partner with the FIA (Future of Information Alliance), which shares its office space on this floor, and will also develop in partnership with the Graduate School, Office of Research, Division of Information Technology, and the Honors College, among other units.

Science Commons Engineering & Physical Sciences Library

Science librarians studied and bench-marked other premier institutions and have developed a services model for the future to support the STEM disciplines. Recently, we have begun work to plan for the integration of a campus computer lab/classroom into the ground floor of EPSL and have developed a space plan for the entire library.

Media Commons Hornbake Library

Similarly, a task force has been work-ing over the past year to develop models for offering spaces and ser-vices for media creation and related services. The team is developing a services model that includes easy-to-use media creation tools and staff support, and will launch prototype services this coming academic year.

Architects re-envision McKeldin’s entrance (below) as a grand gateway with clear navigation to popular services.

www.lib.umd.edu

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6131 McKeldin Library

College Park, Maryland 20742-7011

libraries@umd.edu

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Beyond the Battle: Bladensburg Rediscovered

ON AUGUST 24, 1814, the armies of a fledging nation

and a great empire fought just outside the little town of

Bladensburg, a battlefield located about three miles from

the university’s campus. The United States lost to the British

that day, and the outcome was the humiliating capture and

burning of its new capital city Washington. This exhibit and

symposium explores Bladensburg as an historic center of

commerce and culture that should be remembered for its

significance “beyond the battle.”

E X H I B I T I O N Opens August 2014 Hornbake Library Gallery

S Y M P O S I U M Sat., October 11, 2014

A public event featuring presentations by university scholars,

community researchers and other experts

Old mill near Bladensburg, Maryland, 1861