DECEMBER 2010
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Happy Holidays from the Libraries!
December is a joyous season at the Smithsonian, with brightly decorated trees
in the museums, holiday music, special food in the cafeteria, and holiday
parties throughout the Institution. At the Smithsonian's Big Staff Party, I
and other senior administrators don aprons and reindeer antler bandeaus to
serve staff with eggnog and hot apple cider. While we welcome Baasil Wilder
to our staff, we are also bidding a fond farewell to Lucien Rossignol, Head of
the History and Culture Department, who is retiring after nearly four decades
of service. Lu's loyal service to the Institution and our library users is an
excellent example of what the Libraries' contributes to the excellence of
Smithsonian research and education programs. Bon voyage, Lu, and enjoy a
well-deserved opportunity to do what YOU want to do!
— Nancy E. Gwinn, Director
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Homemade Cookies Celebrate the Season
The Smithsonian Libraries staff wishes you a merry holiday season! We
commemorated the end of the year by hosting our annual Cookie Exchange Party
in the Smithsonian Castle. Libraries employees from across the system gathered
to demonstrate their holiday baking skills. Although plenty of cookies were
consumed at this joyful event, many more found their way to the homes and
families of our staff.
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Adopt-a-Book
Need a last-minute gift idea? The Libraries Adopt-a-Book program is your
answer! Go down in Smithsonian Libraries history by helping
add to our collection
or preserve books and manuscripts for our future.
Purchases can be made online and are tax deductible. Join us in building and preserving our
collection for future generations.
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Baasil Wilder Joins SIL staff
The Libraries welcomed new "roving" librarian Baasil Wilder in late November.
Baasil joins us from the Chesapeake Public Library in Chesapeake, Va. where he
was a reference librarian and reference department manager. He will primarily
spend his time in the Anacostia Community Museum Library,
National Museum of the American Indian Library,
and the National Postal Museum Library. Baasil
earned his MSLS from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is a
graduate of West Point and a nine-year veteran of the U.S. Army.
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Libraries Staff Attend BHL China Meetings
Martin Kalfatovic and Keri Thompson attended Biodiversity Heritage Library
(BHL) meetings at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Beijing, China in November 2010. The meetings took place over three
days and covered scanning workflow, operation of the Internet Archive Scribe
machine, and technical standards for ingesting BHL-China materials into the
BHL portal site.
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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Pop-Up Video
Pop-Up Video: Thanks to everyone who came out for Ellen G.K. Rubin's talk, A
History of Pop-up and Movable Books: 700 Years of Paper Engineering on
November 10. To view her lecture, click here.
Birds of America
Birds of America: Director Nancy Gwinn was quoted in a recent article in the
Wall Street Journal, "Stalking a Masterpiece," about the upcoming December 9
auction sale in London of a copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America. The
Libraries is losing its copy, which has been on loan for the last over 15
years from the National Audubon Society. In 2009 Audubon officials mentioned
that the Society was planning to sell its set privately.
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