at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum
SUGARING SEASON 2008
In This Issue
From the Executive Director's Desk
America’s Membership Libraries Book for Sale
Salute to the Presidency in the Upstairs Gallery
From the Executive Director's Desk
Connecting The Unconnected
There was a time when a library’s principal purpose was to serve as a repository for books and information; as well as a place for quiet study, reflection and enlightenment. This was Horace Fairbanks’ vision when he established the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum in 1870, and to a large extent, this is still our vision. The information delivery or retrieval systems then in place (books, for the most part) have changed dramatically along with many other aspects of our lives. Audio books, recordings, large print volumes, and perhaps most dramatically, the availability and transfer of information and data through the Internet have radically changed the way libraries need to serve their patrons. These new technological innovations continue to shape and redefine the library as a valued community resource.
Applying for a job, doing research, getting and sending e-mail, banking, promoting community events, making purchases, getting tax forms, doing school-work–the list goes on–are everyday transactions made faster and cheaper, or possible at all, with the Internet. For most in the U.S. and in developed countries, high speed Internet is commonly available. While universally acknowledged to be a necessity in Vermont, unfortunately, these services are, too often, not yet available or affordable. They would be completely denied to many of our citizens if not for a less-than-adequate, uneven, statewide network of public access Internet provided by our public libraries.
This important tool is not a luxury. It provides a vital connection to the world for our citizens as well as for those who visit the state. But, it has created new demands on limited library resources and antiquated library facilities. Further, it has redefined the boundaries of library services, both for the providers and the users.
In truth, our libraries have been connecting people with rich histories, lofty concepts, great literature, music and art for generations. The avenues traveled today, however, have more traffic than ever before. Staying on the road is not always easy–or possible–without greater investment.
Irwin Gelber
Ongoing Events
March 12: Truth or Consequences Book Discussion Group – In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. 6:30 - 8:00 PM
March 17: Talk and Book Signing – Peter Thomson, author of Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal. 7:00 PM
April 2: Cooking with Shelburne Farms – Co-authors Melissa Pasanen and Chef Rick Gencarelli will share the story behind their 2007 New York Times Notable Cookbook and the growing “Eat Local” movement. Tasty samples from the cookbook and copies of the book will be available. 6:30 PM
April 5: Bella Voce Women’s Chorus of Vermont at North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury. The 2008 Athenaeum Award will be presented to Gwyneth Walker that evening. Tickets available at the door – $15 for adults, $12 seniors and students. 7:00 PM [Read more about it]
April 9: First Wednesday Program – An Evening with Thomas Jefferson with Clay Jenkinson portraying Jefferson.Note: This talk takes place on the second Wednesday of the month. 7:00 PM
April 13-19: National Library Week – Stop by for a visit to your library.
April 15: Reading and Book Signing by Stephen Huneck of his newest children’s book Sally Gets a Job and celebration of the Athenaeum’s new library card, designed by Huneck.3:30 PM
April 16: Truth or Consequences Book Discussion Group – The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter. 6:30 - 8:00 PM
May
7: First Wednesday Program – The Founders and the Problem of Democracy with Vic Henningsen. 7:00 PMMay 14: Truth or Consequences Book Discussion Group – A Million Little Pieces by James Frey.
6:30 - 8:00 PM
May 17: Annual Athenaeum Gala and auction of works from the Collection/Reflection project. 6:30 PM
June 4: Rescheduled First Wednesday Program - Forward From Here: Leaving Middle Age and Other Unexpected Adventures. Author Reeve Lindbergh talks about “leaving middle age, and other unexpected adventures,” from snapping turtles in the road to new revelations and new relatives in her family. 7:00 PM
June 25:
Lee Kinsey and
Stephen Sandy
July 2:
Judith Jones
July 16:
Maxine Kumin
July 30:
Jane Shore and
Julie Agoos
America’s Membership Libraries Book for Sale
Long before the establishment of public libraries in America, during the Colonial period and the early decades of the new Republic, thousands of “social” or membership libraries served as the primary venues for the circulation of books.
America’s Membership Libraries is a collection of essays providing individual histories of the largest surviving membership libraries, a composite portrait of this important movement in American library history. Although they sport different names - library society, mercantile library, mechanics’ institute, athenaeum - all of the institutions have played a significant role in the intellectual and cultural lives of their communities. The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is one of the institutions profiled in this book. Each chapter contains multiple full-color illustrations of the library it describes. The book is on sale at the Athenaeum. From Oak Knoll Press - Publisher’s Description
Have you ever wondered what makes Truman Capote’s, In Cold Blood such a compelling read? Why did Capote call this true crime story a non-fiction novel? Did you know that the highly regarded true story, The Education of Little Tree was written by an ex-Ku Klux Klansman? Did the Oprah-fueled controversy around James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces negate the message of this recovery memoir? Join fellow readers in a discussion of the truths and consequences in modern non-fiction writing.Copies of the books, and DVDs of In Cold Blood and The Education of Little Tree are available at the Athenaeum. You may also come with your own copy of the books. Any edition is fine. Call 748-8291 for more information.
Discussions will be held at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum from 6:30 to 8:00 PM on the following dates:
TopFinding a Book in the Library in 1871
Most public libraries arrange their books according to the Dewey Decimal Classification system (DDC). The name defines the origin (Melvil Dewey) and the operation (ten subject divisions). Dewey combined and improved upon existing classification systems in use in the late 19th century and introduced the earliest version in 1876. Since the Athenaeum opened in 1871 how were the books originally arranged on the shelves?
Prior to wide spread adoption of the DDC, libraries organized their collections as they saw fit. Some libraries placed books in a fixed location on the shelves, others shelved books alphabetically by title. Some libraries arranged books by subject. Each of these systems had limitations and there was no uniformity among libraries. Dewey’s system allowed books to be grouped by subject and to be placed in relationship to each other rather than in a fixed location on a shelf.
The Athenaeum Catalogues of 1875 and 1890 tell us something about how the books were arranged. They state: “Pains have been taken to render the classification by subject clear and serviceable” and, “The shelf-mark of each work is in the right-hand margin”. Shelves were identified with the letters A-S, with J omitted. The additional letters of the alphabet may have allowed for expansion of subject areas. Hawthorne’s, Scarlet Letter, for instance, was identified as G 336, with G signifying fiction and 336 being the unique number for this book. Dickens’ works were divided between the G and K shelves depending on whether they were published in the United States (G) or Europe (K). Books on sheep and cookery were found together on the I shelves. These examples give an introduction to the classification system in use when the Athenaeum opened. More in the next issue.
Bob Joly
As of April 1, the Athenaeum will have six new public access computers on the second floor. Two of the computers will be designated as “Email Express” computers that patrons can use for 15 minute sessions.
The Reference Room will have a new computer available for searching our catalog and doing research both online and via DVD and CD. Also on the first floor will be an additional public access computer workstation.
The Art Gallery will have a kiosk computer featuring presentations about the Gallery and other subjects of interest. The Children’s Library will also have an additional computer.
A grant from the Gates Foundation and a donation of hardware from the IBM Corporation made this expansion possible.
Formerly called Life is Short, this annual writing competition will be held during April. Entries will be accepted online, via email or you can download an entry form and mail it to us. All entries must give an insight into your life and be limited to 100 words or fewer. Three winners will be featured on the Athenaeum Web site and receive a prize.
Salute to the Presidency in the Upstairs Gallery
Our current exhibit features three large bronze bas-relief portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. These medallions were created by the noted American sculptor Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886 ). Brown’s work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The National Statuary Hall in Washington DC among many locations. Examples of Henry Kirke Brown’s work can be viewed at Artcyclopedia. A photograph of Brown, along with painters Henry Peters Gray and Asher B. Durand can be found at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art . Durand’s Landscape With Rocks can be seen in the Athenaeum’s Gallery.
These works are from the Athenaeum’s original art collection and are annotated in the Catalog of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum Supplement, 1890. Other works displayed are the Immaculate Conception, porcelain (13 x 10 ½ inches), after Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) and two large engravings on ecclesiastical subjects.
Collection/Reflection at the Gala
This year’s annual Gala will feature an auction of works by area artists called Collection/Reflection. We have asked artists to give contemporary expression to works from our permanent collection. The Argument by Thomas Waterman Wood, 1874, and its reinterpretation by artist Nicholas Piliero is shown below. Submitted works will be on display at the Athenaeum for several weeks prior to the Gala. The Gala will start at 6:30 PM on Saturday, May 17 at the Athenaeum.
On the North wall of Athenaeum Hall is an engraving on woven paper by Thomas Atkinson. It is a copy of The Prize Calf originally created by Sir Edwin Landseer. Sir Edwin Landseer was born in London, England on March 7, 1802 and became an eminent painter of animals. His career began at a very early age and his artistic genius was evident from the beginning, and was encouraged by his father. Today in the South Kensington Museum in London there are five drawings that he created by the time he was five years old.
As a young man he taught drawing to Queen Victoria who had a talent for sketching and watercolors. Landseer became her favorite artist. During his lifetime, Queen Victoria commissioned him to do several portraits of family members with their pets. One early work is Windsor Castle in Modern Times depicting Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the Princess Royal and Prince Albert’s favorite greyhound, Eos.
The artist was knighted by the Queen and received many accolades and medals for his work before his death in London in October, 1873.
Elaine Garrison
On April 5th, the Athenaeum Award will be presented to composer Gwyneth Walker. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, Walker has been pursuing a full-time career as a composer since 1982. Since that time she has composed over 160 commissioned works for orchestra, band, chorus and chamber ensembles.
The April 5th event with Bella Voce Women’s Chorus of Vermont will mark one of the premier performances of Walker’s cantata Lessons from the Sea, The text passages Walker selected for the cantata were taken from Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s book Gift from the Sea. The author’s daughter, Reeve Lindbergh, will join the performance as the narrator.
The Athenaeum Award honors Vermonters for their lifelong dedication and distinguished achievement in the arts and humanities. Walker was selected this year for her distinguished and prolific accomplishments in music.
The highlight of this year’s Library Week celebration at the Athenaeum will be the unveiling of the library’s new card designed by Stephen Huneck. All current Athenaeum members may replace their current card with this new one featuring Sally, Huneck’s black lab. Join us on April 15th and for a reading and book signing by Huneck of his new book Sally Gets a Job and the launch of our new library card.
The Athenaeum staff is developing another way to help our patrons find just the right book.
You can now have fun searching by Category. The Category button is located on the toolbar of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) and can be used from our Web site or from the OPAC computers at the library. We are currently working to expand and update this search tool.
Some of the categories available now have been developed around various collections donated to the Athenaeum. For example, Adopt an Author category contains all titles by authors that are adopted by our patrons. Every time one of these authors publishes a new book, it is added to the category. You can bet that if a patron is willing to support a particular author, the author may well be worth reading.
The same is true for the Adopt a Book category. The Heon Lincoln/Civil War category contains 637 titles of a special collection bequeathed to the Athenaeum by Gerald Heon. The Food in Literature category grew from our Taste of Books program. In recognition of Breast Cancer month we provide a Breast Cancer Resource Library category.
A patron requested that we develop a Vermont Authors category, which now contains 616 titles. We also added Set in Vermont and Set in New Hampshire categories. Recently, we have added and will be expanding, Notable and Award winning books with categories such as; Man Booker Prize Winners, Mystery Award Winners, National Book Awards Winners, Pulitzer Prize Winners, Orange Prize for Fiction and others.
So “check it out” and if you find something we have missed or have an idea for a new category we’d love to hear from you.
Shara McCaffrey
The Board of Trustees of the Athenaeum recently inducted Linda Fogg as a new member of the board.
Fogg, who lives in St. Johnsbury is the Director of St. Johnsbury Works!, the downtown development organization for St. Johnsbury. Previously, she worked as a plant manager for Procter & Gamble in the United States, Asia and Europe. Since moving to Vermont, she has worked in marketing, promoting and fundraising for Catamount Arts, Stevens School and Boxcar & Caboose Bookshop. She has also done consulting work with manufacturing businesses in the areas of quality control, customer service and human resources. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, gardening and reading.
SecondHand Prose
Now open at 1222 Main Street, selling used books year-round; operated by the Friends of the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum. Hours are Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday 10 AM-2 PM and Wednesday 2:30 -6:30 PM.
Mon. & Wed: 10AM to 8PM
Tues., Thurs., & Fri.: 10AM - 5:30PM
Sat.: 9:30AM - 4PM
Free wireless Internet access now available.
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at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum is published quarterly via email.Send your comments & feedback via email to newsletter@stjathenaeum.org. Our mailing address is: St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 1171 Main Street, St. Johnsbury, VT 05819