Thursday, September 30, 2010

Why Should Academics Blog?

HNN wants to know:

Why Should Academics Blog?

HNN welcomes your comments.
You do not have to register to participate in this poll for the first two weeks; after that, registration is required. We do ask all readers to abide by our civility guidelines whether they register or not.

To participate in our poll simply drop down to the bottom of this page and click on the word "Comments."



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Monday, September 27, 2010

iPad and Archaeology

The Apple site has an interesting overview of how the iPad cane be used for fieldwork at Pompeii. Are there other examples?

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Ancient Rome and Google Street View

The BBC has a short video on Google Street View and ancient Rome (click here).
Google's Street View programme, which takes photographs of public roads and puts them online as a navigation tool, has an ambitious new project, to capture the archaeological sites of Rome.
A team has already photographed the Colosseum with their hi-tech camera system and are now working on the Roman Forum.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Yale seeking a Classics Librarian

Classics Librarian
Classics Library
Yale University
Phelps Hall, 344 College St
New Haven, CT
Rank:  Librarian I-III

Schedule:  Full-time (37.5 hours); Standard Work Week (M-F, 8:30-5:00)


The University and The Library
The Yale University Library, as one of the world's leading research libraries, collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to and services for a rich and unique record of human thought and creativity. It fosters intellectual growth and is a highly valued partner in the teaching and research missions of Yale University and scholarly communities worldwide. A distinctive strength is its rich spectrum of resources, including more than 12.5 million volumes and information in all media, ranging from ancient papyri to early printed books to electronic databases. The Library is engaged in numerous digital initiatives designed to provide access to a full array of scholarly information. Housed in the Sterling Memorial Library and twenty school and departmental libraries, it employs a dynamic, diverse, and innovative staff of over 500 who have the opportunity to work with the highest caliber of faculty and students, participate on committees, and are involved in other areas of staff development.  For additional information on the Yale University Library, please visit the Library's web site at http://www.library.yale.edu/.

The Classics Library

The Classics Library, located adjacent to the Department of Classics, serves the research and instructional needs of the Department’s faculty and students, as well as the entire Yale community. For more information, please visit online at http://www.library.yale.edu/arts/classics.html.

Position Desc-ription
Reporting to the Director of the Arts Library, and in concert with Sterling Memorial Library’s Classics subject specialists, the Classics Librarian provides leadership for building print-based and online collections, provision of on-site library services, and library research education in support of the Classics Department’s academic program. Instills the highest service standards and administers the department's resources to provide excellent services. Fosters a creative, collaborative, and team-oriented work-environment; and facilitates communication and coordination among other units of the Library. The Classics Librarian plays a lead role in maintaining the Classics Library's web pages, facilitating design, and content planning. Working collaboratively with Library and systems staff, the Classics Librarian initiates new projects and explores innovative technologies to improve services as appropriate. Contributes expertise to improve coordination of service procedures, and understanding of reader expectations.

Responsibilities
Plans, monitors and evaluates services of the Classics Library including: information services, document & Library Shelving Facility materials delivery, interlibrary loan, electronic and print course reserves, stacks maintenance, security and facilities maintenance, annual inventory, and the Classics Library web site.  Supervises and coaches 5-8 student assistants; establishes, monitors and incorporates performance indicators to assess and improve the quality of services provided to the department; and participates in general planning for future programs and services of the Classics Library.  Provides general oversight of the Classics Library web site including: facilitating design and content planning in coordination with other librarians and Yale Classics Library constituencies; routine maintenance; and coordinating with the Library Access Integration Services (LAIS) Dept. for web technology support and implementation of centrally developed standards.  Works with vendors or other on-campus units that support Library operations, such as photocopying, print management, facilities maintenance, and security.  Participates in the delivery of Classics reference and research education services.

Contributes to the development of system-wide policies and procedures, and continues to be professionally active both at Yale and in the field.  May participate in and contribute to library long-term planning and is professionally active in library, scholarly, and/or academic organizations. Represents the Library and the University in the academic and professional community by serving on various committees and task forces.  May be required to assist with disaster recovery efforts.  May be assigned to work at West Campus location in West Haven, CT.

Qualifications
Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited program for library and information science and advanced degree in classics or related disciplines; or an equivalent combination of relevant experience and education. Appointment to the rank of Librarian II requires a minimum of two years of professional experience and demonstrated professional accomplishments appropriate to the rank, as well as ongoing engagement in professional development, research, or services. Appointment to the Librarian III rank requires at least five years of professional experience and demonstrated professional accomplishments appropriate to the rank. 

Experience and success in supervising and leading in a unionized and diverse staff team environment.  Excellent analytical, organizational, management, customer service, oral and written communications, and interpersonal skills.  Experience with web design and development and electronic information resources.  Ability to effectively build partnerships and promote the benefits of change in an academic culture that often values ambiguity, diversity of opinion, and historic precedent.  Ability to work both independently and collegially in a demanding and rapidly changing environment and to effectively build partnerships and promote benefits of changes. 

Preferred: Demonstrated ability with HTML and XML; reading knowledge of two or more Western European languages.

Salary and Benefits
We invite you to discover the excitement, diversity, rewards and excellence of a career at Yale University. One of the country's great workplaces, Yale University offers exciting opportunities for meaningful accomplishment and true growth. Our benefits package is among the best anywhere, with a wide variety of insurance choices, liberal paid time off, fantastic family and educational benefits, a variety of retirement benefits, extensive recreational facilities, and much more.  Applications consisting of a cover letter, resume, and the names of three professional references should be sent by creating an account and applying online at www.yale.edu/jobs for immediate consideration - the STARS req ID for this position is 11002BR.  Please be sure to reference #11002BR in your cover letterReview of applications will begin immediately and continue until position is filled.

Background Check Requirements
All external candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle and credit checks based on the position desc-ription and job requirements. All offers are contingent on successful completion of a background check. Please visit www.yale.edu/hronline/careers/screening/faqs.html for additional information on the background check requirements and process.


Yale University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.  Yale values diversity in its faculty, staff, and students and strongly encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minority groups.



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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Bookplates of Scholars in Ancient Studies

This posting originated on The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution: A collaborative project intended to focus ideas and thoughts on the history of the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago, and was first posted there on 2/14/08, and was updated on 2/28/08 and 3/14/08. Since it has now gone beyond the mission of that blog, starting August 13, 2008, I'll maintain it here in more neutral territory. It was updated on September 22, 2008 with the addition of twenty bookplates collected by Peter Pamminger and Kirsten Konrad. It was updated again on March 24, 2009 with the addition of the ISAW Vermeule bookplate. Updated September 28, 2009 with the addition of van der Meulen, Yoshida and Dorman. April 30, 2020: Konrad and Pamminger's monograph Exlibris von Ägyptologen is now available.  Updated 9/7/10 with the addition of Gurney and Evans. Updated 9/17/10 with the addition of Nilsson]




When I was Research Archivist- Bibliographer at the Oriental Institute (1983-2005) I began, in a vague and undirected way, to collect scans of bookplates of scholars of ancient Near Eastern Studies. The primary focus was on those which appeared in volumes in the collections of the Oriental Institute. When the OI History blog began in the winter of 2008, it seemed an appropriate place to illustrate this small collection. When that blog entry appeared, correspondents began to send me information on other bookplates and copies of their own, when they had them. I hope this trend will continue, and I urge those of you who have a personal bookplate, or who have examples of scholar's bookplates in your own books or in books accessible to you will send them along for inclusion in this collection.

The study of the Bookplate, or Exlibris, is an interesting topic. See here, and here, and here, for instance. I suggest in particular, that those of you interested in the subject might like to consult Antike im Exlibris 2 Griechenland im Exlibris, and, Antike im Exlibris. Teil 1, Aegypten im Exlibris. A copy of the latter is in the Research Archives. See also the Egyptological (or Egyptomaniacal) bookplates in the collection of Lewis Jaffe at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie


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This is the very plain bookplate of the collection known as the Director's Library. Traditionally this was the collection housed in the Director's Study. The core of the Director's Library was the collection of James Henry Breasted (see the bookplate below). Much of the Director's Library was absorbed and integrated into the Research Archives in the early 1970's. Almost all of the remainder of it (with the exception of the Director's Study collection of publications of the Oriental Institute) was absorbed by the Research Archives during the directorship of William Sumner when the Study was renovated and restored.





This is the personal bookplate of James Henry Breasted. The design used on the bookplate is the same as that used on Ulric Henry Ellerhusen's tympanum over the doorway to the Oriental Institute (and seen also here and here in architect's models, with a variant design here). I am not sure whether the bookplate or the tympanum design were the original iteration of the idea, but the existence of variants of the tympanum rather suggests that the architectural version was first.

See also
The Tympanum within the Arch on the Doorway to the Oriental Institute at The Oriental Institute: Fragments for a History of an Institution.



The bookplates illustrated below are from book in the collections of the Research Archives. Some were acquired through purchase, others by bequest.





Hans Bernhard Ambrosius Abel





Sidney Edward Bouverie Bouverie-Pusey





S. R. Driver and Godfrey Rolles Driver





Ernst Herzfeld
Biographical Sketch of Ernst Emil Herzfeld




Gustave Jéquier
Gustave Jéquier, 1868-1946






Georg [Christian Julius] Möller





Charles Francis Nims






Keith Cedric Seele









Wilhelm Spiegelberg
Wilhelm Spiegelberg (* 25. Juni 1870 in Hannover; † 23. Dezember 1930 in München) war ein deutscher Ägyptologe. Er trat durch seine maßgeblichen Forschungen über demotische Papyri hervor





Walter Wreszinski



and finally...








This bookplate was presented to me when I left the Oriental Institute in June 2005. It was (I think) thought up and designed by Tom Urban, using Mark Garrison's drawing of Persepolis Fortification Seal 1, (Cat.No. 182, pp. 272-274, Pl. 100c-e in Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Volume I: Images of Heroic Encounter, by Mark B. Garrison and Margaret Cool Root).

This bookplate doesn't strictly speaking belong in this compilation, because no book in the Research Archives carries it. I guess this means I'll need to make a donation to become legitimate.




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Since the initial posting, I have had several interesting responses, both in the comments on the blog, and offline. The following bookplates have been brought to our attention by correspondents [February 28th 2008]:





James Henry Breasted's bookplate altered to identify books in the collection donated to the Research Archives by Gregory Areshian [Courtesy of Foy Scalf]







Armas Salonen [Courtesy of Bob Whiting]





Silvin Kosak Created by the Slovene painter and sculptor Andrej Ajdic [Courtesy of Silvin Kosak]






Edda Bresciani Scanned from: La tradizione degli ex libris nella provincia di Lucca. 103 esemplari stampati dalla tipografia Biagini di Lucca. Forte dei Marmi 29-30-31 luglio 1994, printed by: Tipografia Biagini, Lucca 1994. [Courtesy of Giuseppe Del Monte]



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Since the revised posting, I have had additional interesting responses. The following have been brought to our attention by correspondents [March 14th 2008]:





Louis Herbert Gray [From a book in the Research Archives. Courtesy of Foy Scalf]


Peter Lacovara [Courtesy of Peter Lacovara]


Herbert Lockwood Willett (1864-1944) [From a book in the Research Archives. Courtesy of Foy Scalf]

[Alan M. May - whose collection is now in the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University]

[Dows Dunham - some of whose book were in the collection of Emily and Cornelius Vermeule, now in the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University]


Emily Dickinson Townsend Vermeule, Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule III




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The following set of bookplates was collected by Peter Pamminger and Kirsten Konrad, with whose very kind permission they appear here. They have been studying Egyptological bookplates for a number of years. They presented a talk on a small collection of 11 examples at the 2004 Egyptological meeting in Mainz. They are planning a 2009 exhibition at the Gutenberg Museum at Mainz.





Henri Asselberghs





Friedrich Wilhelm Bissing





Fernand Bisson de la Roque





Hans Bonnet







Warren Royal Dawson






Philippe Derchain





Adolf Erman






Prinz Johann Georg von Sachsen







Fritz Hintze






Jozef Marie Antoon Janssen






H. O. Lange






Maria Pouline Mogensen







Siegfried Morenz






Oliver Humphrys Myers






Herbert Oster







Eugène Revillout






Joachim Spiegel






Břetislav Vachala






Alexandre Varille








Walter Wreszinski




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Each of the following trio of bookplates appears in books in the Oriental Institute Research Archives







Peter Dorman


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The following pair of bookplates were scanned courtesy of Diane Bergman Griffith Librarian, Sackler Library.

John Evans



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The following bookplate was scanned and provided by Christophe Hugot from the collections of the Bibliothèque des sciences de l’Antiquité, Lille.  He has written a very nice description of the bookplate and its owner.


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