OSU Libraries

The Oregon State University Library Faculty Association invites all interested colleagues and friends to attend the first presentation of the 2012/2013 Seminar Series on Friday, October 12, 2012 from 10:00-11:30am. Moving from Institute to Network: Reflections on the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute chronicles a two-year project including the culminating event, the OSU-hosted Oregon Tribal Archives Institute held August 19-24, 2012. Made possible by a two-year Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) grant, the Institute was designed to address the need for in-depth archives and records management training for Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes to support and facilitate the preservation of the cultural sovereignty of tribal nations through their archival collections and records.

Natalia Fernández, Oregon Multicultural Librarian, Tiah Edmunson-Morton, OSU Libraries’ Instruction and Outreach Archivist, and Larry Landis, Special Collections and Archives Research Center Director, collectively the Institute Planning Committee, will discuss the grant process, conducting site visits with all nine tribes’ records and archives personnel,  creating needs assessment reports, designing a needs-based curriculum and planning a week-long conference. The committee will also reflect on the Institute itself and share future plans.

The presentation will take place in the Willamette Industries Seminar Rooms on the third floor of the Valley Library (VL 3622).

Please contact Uta Hussong-Christian, uta [dot] hussong-christian [at] oregonstate [dot] edu, with any questions.

The Valley Library is launching a new study room reservation system.  It goes live on Monday September 17.  No advance room reservations will be taken on the old system from September 14 – September 17.  You can still make a booking at the circulation desk for immediate use. Thank you for your patience as we switch to a new booking system.

Special Collections & University Archives Research Center announces the first Resident Scholar lecture of the 2012-13 academic year, which is scheduled for Wednesday, September 5th at 2:00 in the Willamette Room (3rd floor of the Library).  We are proud to welcome our Resident Scholar, Dr. Pnina Abir-Am of Brandeis University.  

 Title: "Pauling's Boys" and the DNA Structure Mystery

Abstract: The talk inquires into the possible role of Pauling's close associates, widely known as 'Pauling's Boys', in Pauling's brief and puzzling engagement with DNA structure, 1951-1953. Based on archives opened since the 50th anniversary of this discovery, as well as recent SCARC acquisitions, most notably the Jack D. Dunitz Papers, the talk sheds new light on this still incomprehensible episode in the history of science. The talk is based on a chapter in a forthcoming book, DNA at 50: Memory, History, and Politics, which benefitted from NSF, NIH, and OSU Libraries sponsorship.

On the speaker:  Pnina G. Abir-Am has been a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center since 2007. Prior to that she held research and teaching positions at Johns Hopkins, UC-Berkeley, the University of Ottawa, and CNRS-Paris. She holds a Ph.D. from the French University of Montreal and an M.Sc. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, both in the history of science.

 Pnina has published widely on the history of molecular biology, public memory, women in science, and science policy.  For example, she was the first to establish the impact of the Rockefeller Foundation on the rise of molecular biology with several case studies from the 1930s, including Pauling's. (Social Studies of Science, 1982 & 1984)  More recently, she has become interested in dramatizing the history of science and is currently looking for collaborators on a play focusing on Pauling's involvement with protein and DNA structures, among other preoccupations, in the 1930s and 1950s.

A recent OSU Spotlight blog post features Special Collections & Archives Research Center student assistant Hannah Mahoney, who describes how her recent internships and the basic archives course taught by SCARC faculty Tiah Edmunson-Morton and Larry Landis earlier this year have helped to shape her career path.  http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/spotlight/2012/08/27/from-past-to-present/