New Faces in RRC

Welcome to Beth McGonagle

Spring Water Colloquium

"Bear in Mind" Digital Exhibit

HR ALERT

Current Listings

Courtesy Listing

New Faces in Research, Reference and Collections

We are thrilled to announce that Harrison Dekker and Paul Hamburg have joined the Research, Reference, and Collections (Doe/Moffitt Libraries) staff.

Harrison is the Data Services Librarian, a new position that he will be building and imagining with the help of libraries across campus and the UCB Data Center. Harrison learned to love data through his experience as the Business and Economics Specialist with the State Library of North Carolina and as a Programmer/Analyst at the North Carolina State Data Center. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Harrison is no stranger to the Berkeley campus, where, as a teenager, he could frequently be spotted skateboarding the walkways and "buildering" the walls." Harrison is the proud father of a four year old son, Hayden, and supportive husband of "a terminal graduate student."

Paul Hamburg is our new Librarian for the Judaica Collection. He comes to us with a wide variety of experiences both within the library world as well as in other spheres. Paul received his BA in History from UCSD and after a period of graduate study at the Center for Medieval Studies in Toronto and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, lived on Kibbutz Be'erot Yitshak in Israel where he grew citrus fruit and raised calves. He also pursued a lifelong interest in music, studying piano and organizing a music appreciation seminar for members of kibbutsim all over the country. Returning to the United States, he received his MLIS from South Hall in 1991. Subsequently, Paul was Reference and Research Librarian for the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance, Executive Director of the Holocaust Center of Northern California, Rare Books Cataloger and Special Projects Librarian at the University of Miami. Most recently, he held positions as Projects Manager for Hebrew Retrospective Cataloging for Library Associates in Beverly Hills as well as Adjunct Lecturer in Medieval Jewish History at the University of Judaism. He is married to Rabbi Mimi Weisel.

Please feel free to contact either of these two new librarians and welcome them to our UCB community.

Amy Kautzman
Research, Reference and Collections

Welcome Beth McGonagle!

Please join me in welcoming Beth McGonagle to the Bancroft Library as part of the Administrative Office team. Beth grew up in a small town in Connecticut before attending Villanova University in Pennsylvania on a lacrosse scholarship. After graduating with a degree in finance, she traveled across the US, ultimately settling in the Bay Area. Beth brings many talents to the job. Her work experience includes office management for an alternative special ed high school in western Massachusetts, executive assistant to the director of eight rural health clinics in northern California, and grant writing for an environmental restoration contractor in the Presidio. She recently completed a year of post-graduate study in studio art, and enjoys painting, ceramics, sewing and yoga.

If you haven’t already had the pleasure, please stop by the Admin Office and introduce yourself. You will find Beth at the helm of our Reception Desk or supervising several organizational projects already underway.

Cynthia Hoffman
The Bancroft Library

Spring Water Colloquium

The Water Resources Center Archives presents

California Colloquium on Water
Spring 2003
University of California, Berkeley

Receptions: 4:45-5:30pm at the Water Resources Center Archives, 410 O'Brien Hall.
Lectures: 5:30-7pm in 105 North Gate Hall.

February 11
Droughts and Deluges of California's Past Millennium
Scott Stine
Professor of Geography & Environmental Studies
California State University, Hayward

March 11
Water in Landscape Heritage Conservation & Design: Lessons from the Taj Mahal
James Wescoat, Jr.
Professor of Landscape Architecture
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

April 8
The Water Matrix: A Quantity to Quality Transition in the New Century
James Morgan
Goldberger Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, Emeritus
California Institute of Technology

May 13
The Environmental History of Tulare Lake
William Preston
Professor of Geography
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

For more information, contact the Water Resources Center Archives at (510) 642-2666 or waterarc@library.berkeley.edu, or check out the web site: www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/. To view a PDF of the Colloquium brochure, go to http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/WRCA/ccow.html.

"Bear in Mind" Digital Exhibit

The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley is pleased to announce the launching of a new digital exhibit, Bear In Mind: The California Grizzly at The Bancroft Library.

This virtual presentation re-creates an exhibit held at The Bancroft Library from August 23 - November 26, 2002. More than 150 items relating to the history of the California Grizzly are presented in ten themes. In addition, the web site includes a virtual map of some twenty-seven examples of Grizzly Bear art and statuary in and around the Berkeley Campus.

A number of people contributed to the original exhibit and this digital presentation. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Susan Snyder, Brooke Dockter, and Erica Nordmeier. Their combined talents have created a truly unique resource for all those interested in California history.

One of the state's most visible and enduring symbols, the California Grizzly adorns the state flag and seal, and is UC Berkeley's longtime mascot, celebrated in song and story. The California Grizzly also serves as a fitting microcosm for the study of California history from the 1700s to the present. Through the lens of time, one can view the brutality, ignorance, romance, guilt and "re-definition" that characterize our treatment of this icon of California history.

Highlights of the exhibit include:

• A letter describing the 1887 shooting of the last known grizzly in the Yosemite area. Its pelt later was sold to UC Berkeley, where it remains in carefully-controlled storage.
• A John J. Audubon illustration of two grizzlies, based on descriptions by explorers Lewis and Clark
• The campus's recently-acquired original manuscript of Hittell's 1860 landmark biography, "The Adventures of James Capen Adams," or "Grizzly Adams." It contains several hundred handwritten pages and records Hittell's personal interviews with Adams in the 1850s. Adams hunted and trapped grizzlies and kept some as pets. He even trained bears, such as his "pet," Ben Franklin, to walk with him down San Francisco streets.
• Writings by naturalist John Muir about the grizzly. Muir also wrote about the hunter who killed the last grizzly near Yosemite in 1887 and gave the pelt to painter Thomas Hill.
• William H. Davis' memoirs of the pre-Gold Rush abundance of grizzlies in the Bay Area.
• An interview for Hubert Howe Bancroft (founder of The Bancroft Library) with hunter George Nidever, who said he killed more than 200 grizzlies in the 1840s and 1850s. A paper used by Nidever for bear target practice also will be on display.
• A 1772 map and diary by Franciscan monk Juan Crespi that detail grizzly sightings along Strawberry Creek, which runs through UC Berkeley.

William E. Brown, Jr.
Associate Director, Public Services
The Bancroft Library