The Library of Virginia Newsletter
September 2014


CoSA Rising Star Award Goes to the Kaine E-mail Project Team

A team at the Library of Virginia has put Virginia’s state archives on the forefront of open government in the modern age. With the innovative Governor Tim Kaine Administration E-mail Project, a dedicated group of archivists and information technology professionals has earned Virginia the distinction of having the first state government archives in the United States to make the e-mails of a previous governor’s administration freely available to the public online. This effort, which ultimately will place online in an organized, searchable database all of the archival records identified in the 1.3 million emails transferred from the Kaine administration, has received the Council of State Archivists Rising Star Award, which acknowledges “outstanding contributions by individual staff members or teams to their state archives and constituencies.”

The lead project team consists of Roger Christman, senior state records archivist; Susan Gray Page, digital archives coordinator; and Kathy Jordan, digital initiatives and web services manager. Providing logistics and support to the project were Ben Bromley, state records archivist; Rebecca Morgan, digital collections systems engineer; Paige Neal, state records archivist; Jason Roma, web developer; and Anita Vannucci, former records and information management coordinator.

Representatives of the team received the award at the joint annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists/National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators/Council of State Archivists in Washington, DC, on August 14. This outstanding team not only won the award, but their nomination packet was deemed so professionally put together that the CoSA Board hopes it will serve as a model for other states to emulate in the future.

About the Council of State Archivists’ Awards Program:

CoSA’s awards program was expanded in 2013 to highlight outstanding people and projects in the nation’s state archives. Awards are presented at CoSA’s annual meeting each summer. CoSA is deeply committed to the positive impact made by state and territory archives in documenting government, preserving history, and securing rights. CoSA’s efforts to advance and promote this impact are critical elements of its work.

For more information on CoSA and the awards program, nomination form, guidelines, and deadlines, please visit www.statearchivists.org/awards_program/index.htm.

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The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Announce 2014 Art in Literature: Mary Lynn Kotz Award

The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are pleased to announce the winner of the second annual Mary Lynn Kotz Award for art in literature This unique award recognizes an outstanding book in fiction or nonfiction that demonstrates the highest literary merit as a creative or scholarly work on the theme of visual artists or art. Categories include works of journalism, poetry, fiction, biography, history, and museum exhibition catalogs.

This year’s finalists for the Art in Literature Award are: Arts and Crafts Embroidery by Laura Euler, The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo by Carolyn Kreiter Foronda, The Melancholy Art by Michael Ann Holly, Labyrinths: The Art of the Maze by Franco Maria Ricci, and Balthus: Cats and Girls by Sabine Rewald.

The independent panel of judges selected The Embrace: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda as this year’s winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award. The winner will receive the award on Friday, October 17, 2014, in the Pauley Center at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at a presentation exploring the relationship between literature and the visual arts. For tickets to the Kotz Award presentation, visit http://vmfa.museum/programs/adults/talks-lectures/.

“This award recognizes the love affair between authors and the art that inspires them,” said Sandra G. Treadway, Librarian of Virginia. “The visual artist and an acclaimed poet Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda’s The Embrace embodies the almost mystical connection between the written word and art. The Embrace paints with words the unconventional passionate relationship of Rivera and Kahlo.”

Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda served as the 2006–2008 Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Mary Washington College, now the University of Mary Washington, and a masters of education, a masters of art, and a doctorate from George Mason University, where she received the institution’s first doctorate. In 2007, both universities gave her the Alumna of the Year Award.

A lifelong educator and abstract painter, she has published six books of poetry and co-edited two poetry anthologies. Her poems have been nominated for six Pushcart Prizes and appear throughout the United States and abroad in magazines such as Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Mid- American Review, Hispanic Culture Review, El Quetzal, Poet Lore, and An Endless Skyway, an anthology of poems by U.S. State Poets Laureate.

“We are delighted to partner with the Library of Virginia on this award that celebrates the best of new international writing on the fine arts and we are particularly pleased that it is named in honor of a great Virginian writer," said Alex Nyerges, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

The Art in Literature Award is named in honor of author and journalist Mary Lynn Kotz, a longtime contributing editor for ARTnews magazine, who has built a career interviewing, researching, writing, and lecturing about art and artists—among them Georgia O’Keeffe and John Cage. Her critically acclaimed book Rauschenberg/Art and Life (Abrams) balances deft observations of craft with a biographer's chronicle of the American artist. Through her tireless service to cultural institutions and initiatives, including many in her beloved Virginia, Kotz has shown a lifelong commitment to making the arts a vital and illuminating presence in our society.

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Say Cheese! Library of Virginia Joins Instagram

Hanger Artificial Limb

The Library of Virginia has recently expanded its social media presence to include an Instagram account. Instagram is an online, mobile photo- and video-sharing social network. Users take photos within the distinctive square frame, apply optional digital filters to them, and share. The images can be shared to the Instagram network itself, as well as to larger social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Though it is primarily a mobile medium meant to be accessed through a smart phone or tablet, all of our images can be accessed on the Instagram website (http://instagram.com/libraryofva).

Through Instagram we’ll show behind-the-scenes conservation efforts and exhibition preparation work, outreach activities from our travels around the state, events here at the Library, and glimpses of things deep within our collections. Selected images will appear on our Twitter and Facebook pages. We’re also considering future Instagram contests and tie-ins with our programs and exhibitions. We hope that this platform will help us connect with new users.

We want to see your Library of Virginia–related Instagram images. Tag them with #thisisLVA or #libraryofvirginia. We can’t wait to see LVA through your eyes!

—submitted by Sonya Coleman, IT Services

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Library of Virginia Building to Undergo Joint Repair

It is hard to believe, but the “new” Library of Virginia building has been open since January 1997, and the time has come for some repairs to the building’s exterior. The sealants used to waterproof the joints between the stone and metal panels that form the “skin” of the Library of Virginia building have begun to fail. The Department of General Services has secured a contractor to replace the sealants in all of the joints on the Broad Street facade of the building. The major effort has begun and will take approximately 90 days to complete. The other three sides of the building will be addressed in the future using lessons learned from this stage.

During the repairs the Library will remain open to the public. The contractor’s personnel will work from platforms called swing stages suspended from cables anchored at the roof. Signage, barricades, and protective shelters will be used at the sidewalk level as needed. The Broad Street entrance and handicapped ramp will be open and accessible at all times during construction.

As the Library undergoes repairs, renovation is also occurring on the Library’s neighbor across Broad Street, the Ninth Street State Office Building, parts of which date to the early 20th century. The building was constructed as the Hotel Richmond, one of the city’s first high-rise buildings and an epicenter for Richmond and Virginia politics. The work includes restoration of the exterior terra-cotta masonry and the replacement of existing windows with high-quality insulated historic replica windows. Weather permitting, the exterior renovation will be complete in six months.

—submitted by Jim Davis, Facilities Director

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Brotherhood and Bluffton Win 2014 Jefferson Cup

The Jefferson Cup Committee is pleased to announce its selections for this year’s awards. The 2014 Jefferson Cup Award for Older Readers went to A. B. Westrick for Brotherhood. The 2014 Jefferson Cup Award for Younger Readers went to Matt Phelan for Bluffton: My Summer with Buster Keaton. Brotherhood offers a glimpse into the enormous social and political upheaval of the period immediately following the Civil War. Judges felt that Westrick wrote of “a complicated chapter in history with empathy and balance.” Bluffton, set in 1908 Minnesota, features a small town, future comedian and actor Buster Keaton, a young boy, and a visiting vaudeville troupe. Judges cited this gentle coming-of-age story for its focus “on finding personal paths through youth into adulthood and the friendships that can develop along the way.”

The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson and Seeing Red by Kathryn Erskine were selected as honor books for older readers. The President Has Been Shot! is an engaging, fast-paced narrative coupled with archival photographs, making this a compelling read. Seeing Red tackles social justice and shows that even young people can change history. Captured History, published by Compass Point Books, was named a Series Worthy of Note for providing “children with a contextual visual reference to significant periods in American history.”

For younger readers, The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman and Voices of Pearl Harbor by Sherry Garland were selected as honor books. The Matchbox Diary “weaves a magical tale”in answer to the question, “What is a diary?” Voices of Pearl Harbor brings history alive in this story told through the voices of those who were directly and immediately affected by the attack. National Geographic Readers received the Series Worthy of Note designation for young readers for its “captivating photographs and illustrations and easy-to-read format.” The series is an excellent introduction to biography and nonfiction for young readers.

Presented since 1983, the Jefferson Cup honors a distinguished biography, historical fiction, or American history book for young people. The Jefferson Cup Committee’s goal is to promote reading about America’s past; to encourage the quality writing of United States history, biography, and historical fiction for young people; and to recognize authors in these disciplines.

The committee has nine members: a chairperson (selected by the previous year’s committee), one person from each Virginia Library Association region (total of six persons) selected by the current chair, the past chair of the previous year’s Jefferson Cup Committee, and the chairperson or outgoing chairperson of the Youth Services Forum. All committee members are members of VLA.

–submitted by Martha Cole, Chair of the 2014 Jefferson Cup Committee

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Spears Is Featured Author at September 17 Books on Broad Event

Sway

The Library has a fair number of published authors on staff, including the Librarian of Virginia, the deputy librarian of Collections and Programs, the director of Public Services and Outreach, and staff members past and present. But these Library of Virginia authors gained their good reviews pursuing all matters historical.

Library of Virginia Foundation staffer Kat Spears goes in a different direction with the September release of her debut young adult novel, Sway. Spears has a starring turn at the Foundation’s September 17 Books on Broad event, a monthly program started when she was manager of the Virginia Shop at the Library of Virginia. The program includes a reception (5:30–6:00 PM), book talk (6:00–7:00 PM), and book signing (7:00–7:30 PM).

Sway, published by St. Martin's Griffin, has been raking in good reviews and earned a coveted starred review in Publishers Weekly. Readers have called it engrossing, compelling, hilarious, and charming.

Her next novel, Flat Back Four, will be released in spring 2015 by St. Martin's Press.

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New Library Professionals Celebrated at Commencement Ceremony

Sandra Treadway and Kevin Smith

The Virginia Cohort of the University of North Texas College of Information celebrated its 2014 graduates on August 9 during the commencement ceremony held in the Main Branch Auditorium of the Richmond Public Library. The ceremony celebrated the accomplishments of 24 graduates of the program.

Guests, students, and faculty members were welcomed by Dr. Phil Turner, professor emeritus at UNT. Kevin Smith, president of the Virginia Library Association and director of the York County Public Library, gave the salutatory remarks. Librarian of Virginia Sandra G. Treadway was the convocation speaker. The student commencement speaker, selected unanimously by her fellow students, was Teressa DeDomicis. The common theme in all three speeches was exploring new things and learning as an ongoing process.

The University of North Texas College of Information will offer its unique American Library Association–Accredited MLIS Program to a fourth cohort of students this January. This program combines two four-day institutes at Old Dominion University with award-winning online courses to provide an MLIS experience tailored to the individual student.

The program is limited to 30 students from Virginia and West Virginia. At least 20 scholarships of $2,000 will be available to students in the program.

“I am excited to be the director of the UNT/ODU Virginias MLIS program,” said Dr. Maurice Wheeler, associate professor at UNT.

–submitted by Cynthia Church, Library Development and Networking Services

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