Annual Author Dinner
Friends, members of the faculty, staff and community friends gathered
in the River Rooms on April 4 for the annual author dinner. Writer Alex
Marshall was our guest speaker, and Dr. Jeffrey Richards received the
Friends Outstanding Achievement Award, presented by Professor Alf Mapp.
For the past decade, Alex Marshall has focused on the physical and
social changes that have occurred in cities as technological and economic
forces wrench them into new shapes and forms. His talk at the dinner
focused on shared spaces in cities, and he discussed how these spaces
drive public policy and societal change. Marshall was a staff writer
with the Virginian-Pilot, where he covered politics, city hall, development,
crime and other beats. His research and experience has led him to formulate
innovative ideas – such as using transportation strategically
– to better shape and develop our urban landscapes. He is the
author of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and the Roads Not Taken (University
of Texas 2000).
Dr. Jeffrey Richards has been at Old Dominion University since 1992.
Reading a list of his many articles and publications is to see a survey
of early American literature. Richards' books include Early American
Drama, Mercy Otis Warren, and Theater Enough: American Culture and the
Metaphor of the World State, 1607-1789. His interests and expertise
range from Puritan writers and colonial women playwrights to Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe and Eugene O'Neill. At the core of all of
this is an abiding passion for exploring how American literature reflects
the soul of the nation.
Presidential Lecture in History
The History Department is happy to announce that this fall’s
Presidential Lecture in History will be delivered on Thursday, September
12 by Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith of Cambridge University, a leading
authority on the Crusades. Friends of the Library will be on hand to
support the lecture and to promote the Friends.
The title of Professor Riley-Smith’s talk is Islam and the Crusades
in History and Imagination, 8 November 1898 to 11 September 2001, which
he will give at 8 p.m. in the Mills Godwin Jr. Life Science Building,
Room 102.
At 2 p.m. on Friday, September 13 in Constant 1005, all faculty and
students are invited to attend a colloquium on his talk. Professors
Maura Hametz and Rowena Muzquiz, history, and Kurt Gaubatz, international
studies will open the event by offering their comments, and Professor
Riley-Smith will respond. The floor will then be opened to comments
and questions from the audience.
Born in 1938, Professor Riley-Smith was educated at Eton College and
Cambridge University, where he began to teach in 1972. Since 2001 he
has chaired Cambridge’s Centre of Middle East and Islamic Studies.
He is the author or editor of 15 books on the Crusades, including The
Oxford History of the Crusades (paperback, 1999). Among his most recent
short articles for a general audience are “Rethinking the Crusades,”
First Things (March 2000), pp. 20-23, which is online at
http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0003/opinion/riley-smith.html
The 25th Anniversary Literary Festival
September 30 – October 5, 2002
In his introduction to this year’s celebration, Festival director
Phil Raisor remarks, “In the Prologue to our first festival in
1978 – titled Arts Reunion – we said ‘No one has planned
it, but possibly Tidewater is becoming a true regional center for the
arts–a port in a different mold which encourages the development
of theaters, concert halls, studios, fine arts centers, exhibition galleries
and workshops. Perhaps, as in the Middle Ages and in the Free Republics
of the Renaissance, the community, both its residents and artists, is
accepting a very simple and universal idea: that every person is potentially
an artist, subject to the inspiration of another artist at work, and,
therefore, subject to the birth of creative effort’.
“This year we celebrate our past assoc-iations – with
the Associated Writing programs, President’s Lecture Series,
community and university co-sponsors, directors of previous festivals,
and individual performers. We also nurture an idea inherent in the
first, that of the interrelationship of the arts. Creativity often
takes from the old and makes it new, and the results of that transformation
open even more possibilities for future renovations. So looking back,
we see ahead. Today, our future is strengthened by partnerships with
New Virginia Review, Inc., Blackbird Magazine, and Port Folio Weekly.
With Verizon’s generous contribution, we are able, for the first
time, to provide support for the efforts of the Literacy community
in Hampton Roads.
Still, we know that the Festival is about the literary work and the
audience. In that nexus, where dreams, failures, and aspirations meet,
we hear and see what is deepest in others and ourselves. Each story,
poem, play, performance provides a fresh way for us to experience
the world. Re-awakened, redefined – how could we not be struck
that now is the time for us to make something new? That moment of
inspiration, rebellion, insight, when all walls are broken down and
the flow of creative energy rushes through – like the initial
Big Bang – is what we hope you leave with and come back to."
Highlights of the Festival:
Monday, 8:00 p.m.: "The Round Square: Readings in a Fluid Box," Featuring
the Old Dominion University Creative Writing Faculty
Tuesday, 12:30 p.m.: "Poem as Community, Community as Poem," Featuring
Universes: a New York group of performers who offer a high energy rendering
of poetry, hip hop, jazz and blues to tell stories of their lives and
the world they live in.
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.: An Evening of Translation and Performance, featuring
W. D. Snodgrass and Friends in a celebration of music, dance and poetry
to interpret works from around the world.
Thursday, 8:00 p.m.: The President's Lecture Series: Susan Sontag.
The novelist- playwright-essayist-director brings her con-siderable
knowledge and understanding of many art forms to bear on the idea of
the relationships between the arts.
Friday, 8:00 p.m.: Virginia Deep in the Bones Four of Virginia's most
honored poets -- R. H. W. Dillard, George Garrett, Henry Taylor and
Ellen Bryant Voight - will feature a 'poembake' celebrating their own
poetry.
Saturday, 8:00 p.m.: A Final Celebration A reading by 2000 Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn.
Annual Book Sale
The Library's Annual Book Sale will be held October 30, 31 and November
1, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day. There will
be a "sneak preview" sale for Friends members on Tuesday,
October 29, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Donations of books, sound recordings, and software will be accepted
at the Circulation Desk as of August 24. If anyone wishes to help with
the weekly book-sorting sessions, they should call Paul Showalter, Business
Reference Librarian, who is head of the Book Sale Committee this year.
He can be reached at 683-5908, or at the Reference Office at 683-4182.
Jean Major Retires
As many of you know, University Librarian Dr. Jean A. Major celebrated
her retirement from Old Dominion University in August. Her astute stewardship
of the University Libraries – including the renovation and expansion
of the Perry Library, and particularly with ever-tighter budgets –
is an extraordinary capstone to her career. In addition to managing
the challenging day-to-day operations and planning and implementing
new technologies, Jean found the time to research and write History,
Old Dominion University Library, which was published earlier this year.
From her service on the governing council of the pioneering Illinois
Library Computer System project in 1979 to the current steering committee
of Virginia's Virtual Library, Jean has played a key role in developing
the means to introduce new and better service made possible with skilled
use of technology. The University Libraries of ODU, which she has led
since 1992, are at the forefront in development of technology-based
services: Web-based instruction in library use, online reference service
to distance education learners, electronic reserves, Web-based exhibits
of special collections holdings, and faculty seminars.
Virginia S. O’Herron has been recruited as the Acting University
Librarian while a search for Jean’s replacement is undertaken.
Virginia has been with the University Libraries since 1993.
Fall Forum
Join mathematician Dr. John Adam and oceanographer Dr. Martina Doblin
for new, wonderful ways of looking at nature. Dr. Adam will talk about
his work examining math in nature. Dr. Doblin will talk about her research
and the resulting photomicrographs that illuminate her work.
Sunday, November 10, 2002
2:00 p.m.
Room 151, Perry Library
New Board Members
At the Annual Meeting on April 4, 2002, the Friends voted two new members
onto the Board:
Atsuko I. F. Biernot
Atsuko graduated from Old Dominion University with a B.A. in English
and a B. A. in History. She has worked as a Research and Education Director
at the Virginia Beach Maritime Historical Museum, and currently is Supervisor,
IPD Operations at Mitsubishi Chemical America, Inc.
Paul J. Homsher, Ph.D.
Paul is a Professor Emeritus at ODU and continues to teach biological
sciences on an adjunct basis. He is also active with the March of Dimes.
Welcome!
Fall Events at a Glance
- September 12, 2002 – Thursday
History Lecture: Jonathan Riley-Smith
8:00 p.m. Mills Godwin Bldg., Rm. 102
- September 30 – October 5, 2002
25th Anniversary Literary Festival
- October 3, 2002 – Thursday
President’s Lecture Series: Susan Sontag
8:00 p.m. Webb Center
- October 29, 2002 - Tuesday
Members’ Book Sale Preview
5:30 – 8:00 p.m. Perry Library
- October 30 – November 1, 2002
Library Book Sale Perry Library
10 .m. – 3 p.m.;5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
- November 10, 2002 – Sunday
Fall Forum 2:00 p.m., 151 Perry Library
