Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Discussion Group Minutes - 2006 Annual

From WESSWeb

WESS Classical, Medieval, Renaissance Discussion Group ALA 2006 Annual Conference, New Orleans June 24, 2006

Attending: Laura-Dale Bischof (University of Minnesota): Kate Brooks (Indiana University); Paula Mae Carns (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana); Virginia Cole (Cornell University); Karen Green (Colombia University): Thomas Izbicki (John Hopkins); Jennifer MacDonald (Saint Louis University); Shawn Martin (University of Michigan); George Paganelis (California State University, Sacramento); Kathyrn Paoletti (Casalini Libri)

Paula Mae Carns (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) ran the meeting.

Meeting opened at 1:30

Agenda I. Presentations

George Paganelis, curator of the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection, University Library, California State University, Sacramento presented "The Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection and Hellenic studies in the Western United States."

The Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection is the premier Hellenic collection in the western United States and one of the largest of its kind in the country, focusing on Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. The Collection had its origins in meetings that took place over 20 years ago when a group of prominent Greek Americans came together to discuss the then paucity of academic programs for the study of post-Classical Hellenism in the US and Europe. As a result of these meetings, in 1985, The Speros Basil Vryonis Center for the study of Hellenism was established. In 2003, the Center moved to California State University, Sacramento, where there is a Center for Hellenic Studies, and was renamed after its chief benefactor, Tsakopoulos. Today the Collection boasts roughly 70,000 items, including monographs, journals, rare books, microfilms, and ephemera with particular focus on Modern Greek authors. A number of the Collection’s items are held by few American libraries. The Collection has a manifold mission: to support the Sacramento State curriculum; to promote the Collection as resource for global scholarship and study; to work collaboratively with similar collections and institutions; to promote campus and community awareness and use of the Collection though lectures, conferences and cultural activities; and to raise funds to further develop the Collection. As the Collection’s first and sole curator, George Paganelis, is busy cataloguing the Collection’s unprocessed materials, acquiring new materials (mostly through travels to Greece), fundraising, reference, instruction and outreach. To contextualize the importance of the Tsakopoulos Hellenic Collection, George gave an overview of Hellenic studies in the western United States. Few universities offer programs or courses in post-Classical Hellenism, making the program and the Collection at California State University, Sacramento unique and important.

For further information visit the Collection’s website at http://www.library.csus.edu/tsakopoulos/

Jennifer MacDonald, Special materials Cataloguer, at the Vatican film Library at the University of Saint Louis, gave a presentation "The Vatican Film Library."

The Vatican Film Library was created in 1950 through the efforts of Fr. Lowrie J. Daly, S.J. (1914-2000) and with financial support of the Knights of Columbus. A Jesuit institution, Saint Louis University made a perfect home for the Library. The Library’s primary mission is to facilitate the research of scholars by microfilming all the Greek, Latin, and Western European vernacular manuscripts in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana also known as the Vatican Library. Between 1950 and 1957 the project captured on microfilm roughly 12,000,000 manuscript pages comprising 30,000 manuscripts. Since 1957 the Library has continued to microfilm on a smaller scale and at present holds approximately 37,000 of the Vatican Library's manuscript codices or three-quarters of the manuscripts in the aforementioned language groups plus additional languages. Today the Vatican Film Library is an important research center for scholars in medieval and Renaissance studies and publishes a journal (Manuscripta) and hosts an annual conference(Saint Louis Conference on Manuscript Studies) in the fall. The Library offers scholarships. For more information, visit their website at http://www.slu.edu/libraries/vfl/events.htm. As one of two cataloguers Jennifer works very hard at providing detailed catalogue records of the Library’s holdings. She and her colleague use AMREMM, a subgroup of RBM cataloguing. At present on a small fraction of the Library’s films receive full catalogue records. Jennifer has much work to do! Perhaps Jennifer’s most interesting tidbit—in that it was unexpected—is that many European scholars, including Italians, travel to Saint Louis to use the Library! The format of the materials allows them to pursue the manuscripts more quickly. Jennifer didn’t say so, but I imagine that the helpfulness and friendliness of the staff also makes the trip worthwhile.

II. Business Those present reelected Paula Carns as chair of CMR