Author: dorner
Primary Sources: Records of the Children’s Bureau, 1912-1969
The Library has recently acquired Records of the Children’s Bureau, 1912-1969, which consists of reports, speeches, correspondence, and research materials from the Children’s Bureau, the first federal agency dedicated entirely to protecting the welfare of children and families. The documents in this collection span the years from its creation in 1912 through 1969 and originate from the administrative files of bureau staff members, including the bureau’s chiefs throughout the years: Julia Lathrop, Grace Abbott, Katharine Lenroot, Martha Eliot, and Katherine Oettinger.
Primary Sources: American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection
The Library recently acquired the complete digital archive of the historical periodicals held by the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). The collection exists as a series of five databases created from 6500 American periodicals published between 1691 and 1876. The collection also contains titles in more than two dozen languages including French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, and more. The series can be searched together or individually.
Primary Sources: Papers of President Theodore Roosevelt Now Online
The Library of Congress has announced that the papers of President Theodore Roosevelt have been digitized and are online at https://www.loc.gov/collections/theodore-roosevelt-papers/. The collection includes over 276,000 documents, many of which were previously reproduced on microfilm. It includes “personal, family, and official correspondence, diaries, book drafts, articles, speeches, and scrapbooks, dating from 1759 to 1993 with the bulk of material from the period between 1878 and 1919.”
News: Improved PDF retrieval in Zotero
When downloading article citations from databases the Library subscribes to, Zotero will download a PDF of the article if it is available (as long as you have your preferences set for it to do so). Zotero has recently announced an enhancement that makes it easier to locate PDFs when they aren’t available in the database. It can now search Unpaywall, a database of open access articles. It will also perform this search if you add an item to your library using its identifier. For existing items in your library, you can choose the “Find Available PDF” option in the item context menu. (Note that “Find Available PDF” will only be shown if the item has a URL or DOI, because URL-based lookups require one of those two things and Unpaywall requires a DOI).
To use the new feature, update to Zotero 5.0.56 and update the Zotero Connector to 5.0.41.
Event: Bancroft Library Roundtable: Education as the Project of Freedom: A Study of the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project, 1968-76
The Bancroft Library Roundtable will take place in the O’Neill Room of The Faculty Club at noon on Thursday, October 18. Joanne Tien, doctoral candidate, Education, UC Berkeley, will present Education as the Project of Freedom: A Study of the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project, 1968-76.
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Educators and activists have long debated the relationship between constructivist pedagogical approaches — which emphasize the autonomous, self-directed construction of knowledge from a learner’s experience — and the cultivation of explicit political values that challenge systems of oppression. Joanne Tien will discuss her research on archival material at The Bancroft Library and how teachers and students in the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project (BESP) navigated this ideological tension. A public educational program that existed from 1968 to 1976, BESP sought to incorporate the goals of both the Free School and Black Power movements. This historical case study sheds light on the dilemma with particular clarity because the Free Schools represent one of the United States’ most radical experiments in constructivist learning, just as the Black Power movement promoted one of its most heightened efforts to challenge systemic oppression.
We hope to see you there!
José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez, Michael Maire Lange, and Kathi Neal
Bancroft Library Roundtable Coordinators
News: Zotero connector not supported by Safari 12
If you are a Zotero user who prefers using Safari, be aware that Apple is discontinuing support for Safari extensions distributed directly by developers. Because of this, you will not be able to install the Zotero connector in Safari 12. Find more information about this on the Zotero site, as well as a possible workaround.
News: California Young Book Collector’s Prize
Faculty: take this survey and the Library will donate to the UC Berkeley Food Pantry
The UC Berkeley Library Faculty Survey
Oct. 1-31, 2018
To more effectively serve you, the UC Berkeley Library is partnering with national research organization Ithaka S+R to conduct a survey of all faculty. The results will help the Library set priorities and design services to best align with your needs.
Each respondent has a chance of winning one of five $100 prepaid Visa cards, and the Library will donate $2 to the UC Berkeley Food Pantry for every completed survey.
How to take the survey: Faculty received an email on Oct. 1
Details: ucberk.li/survey-FAQ
Trial: Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War (British government documents)
Now trialling: Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War
Ends: Wednesday 31st October 2018
Provides 144,000 pages of British government secret intelligence and foreign policy files sourced from The National Archives U.K. Content which is only available elsewhere by visiting the National Archives in London.
Contains nine file series which span four major Twentieth-Century conflicts – the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, the early years of the Cold War and the Korean War. Includes multiple search and filter options and a series of essays written by the resource Editorial Board of academic experts that contextualize the material and highlights key themes.
Please note: The My Archive and the Document and Citation Download functions are not available on this trial edition of Secret Files from World Wars to Cold War. Documents can be viewed using the image viewer function.
Send your feedback to Jennifer Dorner – dorner@berkeley.edu
$1 Book Sale — Homecoming, October 13
$1 BOOK SALE
Homecoming at UC Berkeley
Saturday, October 13
9am – 3pm
303 Doe Library
Saturday, October 13
9am – 3pm
303 Doe Library
The 4,500+ books on the shelves of 303 Doe will be offered for $1 each. Most books are fresh – that is, they have not been offered for sale before. You will find some surprisingly attractive books in the room. I hope that many move from the Library’s shelves to yours.
The Doe Library building will open at 9am on the day of the sale. The best place to wait, if you plan to arrive in advance, is at the main (North) entrance to Doe. Right at 9am I’ll walk up to room 303 with those who have been waiting in line. I’ll ask that everyone maintains his or her place in the line.
Scanners are permitted for those who require an electronic second opinion. Hoarding books for subsequent leisurely review, however, is not.
Thank you for your interest, and we hope to see you there,
Dirk Kennedy