Bookmark This: “The Galveston Chronicles”

"The Galveston Chronicles" (Rozlyn Press, 2012) by Audra Martin D'Aroma

Our friends over at ShelfLife@Texas sat down with University of Texas at Austin alumna Audra Martin D’Aroma (English, ’99) to chat about her new novel The Galveston Chronicles.

D’aroma’s book follows four generations of women in Galveston whose lives are molded by one of nature’s most destructive forces from the great hurricane of 1900 (the deadliest in U.S. history, taking between 6,000-12,000 lives) to Ike in 2008 (the second costliest in U.S. history).

An excerpt from the interview:

How did you develop such a strong love for Galveston and hurricane culture?

When I was younger, my grandparents had a vacation house on the West end of Galveston and we spent a lot of time there. It was way less developed back then. I think Galveston is a really fascinating place because it has an interesting mix of characteristics that make for strange bedmates — a Victorian aesthetic mixed with an existential, end-of-the-world feeling.

I was also fascinated just how much the island lives in the shadow of the 1900 Storm. In that way it is almost polar opposite of its neighbor Houston, where I come from. We take pleasure in tearing down any signs of our history and starting over while Galveston at some point made a decision that it was better to be defined by a tragedy than to risk having no identity at all.

You can read the full interview with D’Aroma at ShelfLife@Texas.

“Bookmark This” entries feature book news from around The University of Texas at Austin. 

LIFT Announces Call for Proposals


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The Longhorn Innovation Fund for Technology (LIFT) is a fund of approximately $500,000 that is awarded by the Research & Educational Technology Committee (R&E) to innovative academic technology projects that leverage technology to improve quality of instruction, create a differentiator for attracting higher caliber students to the University, or to create a competitive advantage to the University in attracting sponsored research.

The R&E Committee recently announced the call for proposals for funding in fiscal year 2012-2013.  LIFT funding is intended to provide one-time seed money for innovative academic technology projects that leverage information technology in order to improve quality of instruction, create a differentiator for attracting higher caliber students to the University, or result in a competitive advantage to the University in attracting sponsored research.  Awards are generally in the range of $75,000 – $125,000.

Libraries, University Benefit from Dell Agreement

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The University’s latest agreement with Dell provides the highest level of discounts via the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) contract for any UT Austin Dell purchase regardless of quantity.

Discounts are now based on the total annual volume of UT Austin purchases rather than the number of units being purchased on an individual order, making prices lower regardless of the number of units ordered or the time of year of the purchase.

Given the large installed base of Dell computers at the Libraries, this agreement will be very helpful as we manage the life cycle of our technology resources.

Enterprise Data Storage Project Complete

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On April 2, Information Technology Services (ITS) launched their new “bulk storage” offering to our campus.  This service is significant because it represents the first occurrence of a service that has been designed for campus departments and specifically architected for “high availability” and recoverability within a UT Austin data center.

ITS purchased a little over 1 pedabyte (PB) of storage – that’s 1,000 terabytes (TB) for use by departments and it is sure to become an essential resource for the library.

The Libraries is already one of the largest customers in the ITS data center and this service will be one that we evaluate carefully before making substantial storage purchases in the future.

Chican@ Artists Take Over

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For its tenth annual salute to Latino culture occurring this evening, “¡A Viva Voz!” aims to wake audiences up with a couple of artist provocateurs.

Nao Bustamante and Ricardo Domínguez create works that draw upon new media and information technology to inform and provoke dialogue on Latino cultural and political issues.

The performance artists will present their work at the Benson Latin American Collection in Sid Richardson Hall, from 7-9 p.m., tonight, Thursday, April 12. The event is free and open to the public.

Nao Bustamante’s work employs video installation, visual art, filmmaking and writing, but she is perhaps best known for her absorbing and sometimes outrageous performance art (such as faking her way onto The Joan Rivers Show as a “stunt exhibitionist” in 1992). Popularly known for her appearance in the Bravo Network television show “A Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” she has also exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival and the Kiasma Museum of Helsinki. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Ricardo Domínguez is a co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater, a group who developed Virtual-Sit-In technologies in 1998 in solidarity with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. His recent projects include the Transborder Immigrant Tool, a GPS cellphone safety net tool for crossing the Mexico/U.S border and “Drones at Home,” an exhibition on drones, drone economies and art. Domínguez is also an associate professor in the Visual Arts Department at Univeristy of California-San Diego.

“You know this already: I am insatiable when it comes to books”

Gehard Werner.

The University of Texas Libraries remembers an important scientist, insatiable library user and the source of the above quote — Gerhard Werner.

Gerhard’s first retirement was in 1989 when he left an extensive academic career as a medical doctor, dean, professor and researcher. Gerhard then began his second phase where is spent the next 5 years as Chief of Staff at Veterans Hospital in Pittsburg. His third retirement phase was as Research Scientists with Motorola here in Austin. This is where we all first met Gerhard and as if this wasn’t enough, soon he was also an adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.  Until his recent death at 90 he studied complex adaptive systems, nonlinear dynamics and the conceptual foundation of neuroscience.

Gerhard’s wide ranging interests meant that he could regularly be seen in almost all of the libraries on campus at one time or another.  His most likely venues were Life Science, Engineering, Physics Math Astronomy and PCL.

Gerhard was known and loved as a heavy libraries user. At the time of his death he had over 21 books checked out and 9 items on hold. What’s even more amazing is that he had requested over the last few years he requested that we purchase over 70 titles. We never denied him. Best of all he came to check them all out. What a feat. He was an intellectually and physically active man—he’d walk to any library on campus, carrying a stack of books and he’d always stop to chat.

His wonderful smile is evidenced in all his photos but particularly in the one taken at his 90th birthday.

Here are a few specific memories of Gerhard:

From Nancy Elder—Life Science Librarian

“Probably my favorite memory is of Gerhard popping in with a stack of books, saying he had to stock up for the weekend. I used to tease him about how much he could carry. I think Christmas was his least favorite time, because it would be “too many days” with no library to go to. He would really stock up before the holidays!  The most remarkable thing was all of us thought he was “our” library user. Wherever I went on campus, there he would be:  at PCL, at PMA, at Engineering and, seemingly, every day at Life Science. Not a week went by that he didn’t have a request for one of our New Books. The lack of a new book shelf at PCL was one of his longtime frustrations.

When it came to requesting books, Gerhard was unfailingly polite and appreciative. Never demanding, always asking with a please, for my birthday, for Christmas or “just one more request”. Once the book came in, he was always here first thing to check it out, sometimes commenting on the quality at return. His interests were so wide-ranging and his appetite so unquenchable, I could never pigeonhole what he would be interested in. As he said himself “I am insatiable when it comes to books.”

I’ve grown accustomed to Gerhard at my door, just waving or stopping by for a comment, several times a week; always cheerful, just happy to find yet another book to read.  We will miss him at the door, at the desk to check out books, sharing tales of his conference travel, always on the track of a new author, new book or new idea.

From Susan Ardis—Engineering Librarian

“Gerhard was a wonderful library user. His impish delight in getting a book from the collections or one that we’d ordered specifically for him will always be remembered. What I liked best about Gerhard is that he always recognized library staff on campus–even if we were “out of our uniform location.” We all knew, just from what he borrowed that he had wide ranging interests and epitomized a lifelong learner who values libraries and books.

His smile, jaunty wave and enjoyment of libraries and books will forever remain with me. I saw him on campus two weeks ago getting a book on hold and he smiled and waved.  He was one of a kind; he was one of the best.

From Larayne Dallas—Engineering Librarian

Several years ago he called one morning to apologize because  he wouldn’t be able to return an overnight  book  he had checked out  9am. He wanted to explain why “ I had to take my wife to the emergency room.” My response  was  “Oh Gerhard—don’t  worry about it. Return it when you can.” He was in later that morning to return the book and report all was well with his wife and say “you have to be very tough to be old.”

From Molly White —PMA

Molly shares with us two emails from Gerhard that aptly demonstrate why he was so loved by the Libraries.

I received an email from him requesting a book purchase on a Saturday, and replied that I would rush order it on Monday.  Here is his reply:

Working on weekends is not good for your health !!!

This is what the Doctor says –

Thank you,

Gerhard

And here is another email:

Dear Molly,

On account of the libraries being closed today (Sunday), I suffer from withdrawal symptoms…

To alleviate my suffering would you please consider the following:

We do have in PMA the 2000 edition of the book by Didier Sornette, Critical Phenomena in Nature.

There is now a new edition available (2003) of which I currently have a copy on loan through ILL.

The new edition is significantly expanded and has also some new chapters.

Would you consider ordering a copy ? (published by Springer) It would be very helpful.

Thank You

Gerhard

Susan Ardis is Head Librarian at the McKinney Engineering Library. 

Lessons Learned: SX 2012 Edition

Photo by Flickr user Our HoliDaze.

After the crowds have left and the cacophony of another SXSW has subsided, it’s time for reflection. So the ALA Membership blog over at American Libraries invited a bevy of librarians – among them our own Anna Fidgeon and Cindy Fisher – to comment about their impressions and insights on attending the interactive portion of the festival.

Apparently, there was actually some productivity at the Drinkup.

Where Ya Headed?

Texas, 1839. Thomas Gamaliel Bradford. PCL Map Collection.

Ars Technica has written about a great new map resource website (Old Maps Online) with a rather unique user interface, one that allows the user to zoom in on an area à la Google Earth, and providing a selection of different types of enlargeable maps related to the selected area. The site was conceived through a a collaboration between The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at The University of Portsmouth, UK and Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland, and utilizes maps from the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Czech Republic’s Moravian Library and the San Francisco Bay Area’s David Rumsey Map Collection.

Not overlooked in the article, our own PCL Map Collection gets a mention:

Having such a large collection of cartographic history in one place and accessible by anyone with a browser is extraordinary enough. But it’s not the only online map collection of note. The University of Texas’s Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection has been a familiar online companion from the early days.

Speaking on Tongues

“Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners” (Free Press, 2012)

Our friends over at the ShelfLife@Texas blog have an interview up with UT grad Michael Erard, author of “Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners”(Free Press, 2012), whose study of linguistics led him to investigate hyperpolyglots.

Erard introduces as the pinnacle example of multilingualism Giuseppe Mezzofanti – a 19-century priest who allegedly spoke 72 languages – to reflect on the predispositions and genetic quirks that make grasping language easier for certain people.

From the Q&A:

Why do some people pick up multiple languages so easily?

One reason is that they’ve already picked up multiple languages – they have a lot of knowledge about the basic patterns they’ll see in a grammar, and they know a lot about how they learn. (That is, if they’ve learned languages from a lot of different families.)

You can read the full interview with Erard here.

Libraries Salutes Award Winners

Andrés Tijerina with Anthony Grafton.

Congratulations to Dr. Andrés Tijerina, University of Texas Libraries Advisory Council Member and UT alum, for receiving the American Historical Association’s Individual Equity Award.  Dr. Tijerina is a renowned scholar of Texas history and a professor at Austin Community College.  His latest publication is a chapter in Still the Arena of Civil War: Violence and Turmoil in Reconstruction Texas, 1865-1874, edited by Kenneth W. Howell.

Frank Andre Guridy

Additionally we congratulate Dr. Frank Guridy for receiving the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s Wesley-Logan Prize for his first book, Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and African Americans in a World of Empire and Jim Crow.  Dr. Guridy is an associate professor of history and director of the Warfield Center for African and African-American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

UT Libraries