Renovation Update: Carrels Depart...and Letters Arrive!

We have been waiting for months for these two things to take place, and, of course, they occur virtually simultaneously... such is the sense of humor of the universe!  (Luckily the carrels did not knock over Lonnie's ladder! Look to the end to get that one.)

Farewell to our old, clunky carrels who have served us well over the years, but are just too large for our cozy space.  Here are a couple of shots from before they left (notice old computers on the left getting ready to leave as well):

And the movers arrived, broke them down and moved them out to surplus:

Aaaaand...voila...gargantuan SPACE!!!  Woo hoo!!

And in the middle of all of this amazing transformation, there was another exciting event taking shape right outside our door...letters....morphing...into....

Lonnie puts the letters in place over the door...

Ta Da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (and no ladder/carrel collisions - yay!)

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

Here is a shot Melvina took, yes I'm just a tad excited:

What a transformational day in the Harold Schiffman Music Library!!!

More to come soon (yes, there is furniture arriving next week - knock wood)!

Reference Shift = SPACE!!!

OH WOW!  Look at all the space!!!  This is what happens when you listen to interior architects and put into action what they suggest.  And thanks to our amazing employees, David (planner and shifter), Lauren and Alaina!!!  And those amazing movers!!!  And thanks to our excellent colleagues in Jackson Library for all the carts so we could manage the shift!  WOO HOO!!  Can you tell I'm excited???!!!

Here are Lauren and Alaina moving books so that the movers can move the shelves:

And another view (note blurriness due to speediness!!):

Here are the shelving sections and their departure:

The shifting of the sctions that were left was a little interesting. 

Can you say musical shelves?  Ha ha!

Almost the new configuration!!!

Aaaaaaaand, putting the books back, thank you Alaina and Lauren!

And the new configuration!!

And LOOK AT ALL THE SPACE!!! WOO HOO!!



Colors...colors!! A beginning...

Yesterday an addition to the Harold Schiffman Music Library occurred:  Colors!  One of the exciting elements of our renovation which was inspired by the Patrick Lee Lucas' Interior Architecture Third Year Studio Class (more on them soon!).  Here are some photos of the beginnings.  More to come (of course!).

First application of Robust Orange - woo hoo!

Second application of Robust Orange...can you stand the drama???

Third application (yes, yours truly is doing this) - James is taking the photo.

New periodicals wall (before) - oh, and James and Lauren (and empty reference shelves and book carts)

Competition between Aged Wine (left) and Concerto (right). 

Aged Wine Won (say that five times fast!). Nicely done, James!

Yes, Sarah made a mess with Concerto!

Lauren and David (note his t-shirt color) and James and the colors.

Again!  Colors make us happy!

UNCG Music Library Becomes The Harold Schiffman Music Library

A new name is huge!!  An event to celebrate our new name and our generous benefactors is happening on October 5, 2012 from 4PM - 6PM in the Music Building at UNCG. The building that houses The Harold Schiffman (WOO HOO!) Music Library.  Come on by for the fun if you are around on the 5th.

Here is a photo of Harold from 2005 that accompanied an article written by Barry Miller and posted here and there.  He graciously agreed to let me repost it here.  Thanks, Barry!

The celebration on October 5 will include a world premiere performance of choral music by Harold Schiffman as well as his fanfare.  The unveiling of the name as well as the face lift happening right now in the library itself will also be highlights of the event.  Stay tuned for more details! 

Here is the article:

Harold Schiffman and Jane Perry-Camp have made a $2 million planned gift to UNCG. The university’s music library will be named for Schiffman, a Greensoro-born composer.
The couple’s gift will provide music scholarships and support the University Libraries. A naming ceremony for the music library is planned for September [now October 5].

“During my childhood days,” Schiffman says, “the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now UNCG) was very important, even crucial, to my development as a musician. I attended many concerts and even had some performances of my music there. Now, UNCG has become a home for my musical archive, and I am truly grateful for the wonderful care for it from the staff of the Jackson Library and the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.”

John Deal, dean of the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, says, “This generous bequest from Harold Schiffman and Jane Perry-Camp, along with their previous gifts to the Jackson Library, constitute the largest gift to the School of Music, Theatre and Dance since its inception in 2010 and to the School of Music since 2001. The scholarship endowment component will provide financial assistance to hundreds of future music students. It is truly a transformational gift. We are tremendously indebted to Harold and Jane for their generosity.”

Dean of University Libraries Rosann Bazirjian says, “I am thrilled to receive this very generous gift from Dr. Harold Schiffman and Dr. Jane Perry-Camp. The gift will allow the University Libraries to acquire, provide access to and preserve scores, manuscripts, musical collections and other materials of importance to researchers and scholars. We cherish this gift and the opportunities it provides to grow our very special and unique collections that can be shared with students and scholars. To recognize and provide a legacy for their generosity, the Music Library will now be named The Harold Schiffman Music Library. The University Libraries are also the home of the Harold Schiffman Archive and the Egon Wellesz Contemporary Music Archive, both previously given by Harold and Jane.”

Party on, y'all!

Renovation Plans Revealed by Ritch!

Long time no post...but this will be changing along with many things...

Here in the Harold Schiffman Music Library at UNCG we have lots to celebrate!  More on the name change soon (thank you, Harold and Jane!!), but first heads up on the Renovation!

Library employee Lauren Ritch has made an AMAZING display showing the before and after set ups.  Here are some photos so you can see what I mean.  Explanations under the specific photos. Thanks, Lauren!

As you can see, Lauren named the display appropriately: Changes in the Library.  Now a little more detail...starting with how things are now:

The BEFORE set up:

Lauren took photos of shelves, furniture, the music desk and created a "bird's eye" view of the library.

She even took photos of our offices:

OK, then comes the next part:

After the various phases of the renovation are done - before classes start (as the plan stands right now), here is what the library will look like (again, if you were a bird):

We are reducing and rearranging the Reference shelves, moving the Periodicals to a new area which will have some "comfy" chairs (and new shelves), removing the old, clunky carrels and replacing them with new, more space-efficient carrels (two kinds!) and putting "comfy" chairs in the main study space as well.

(And there is going to be....color!!  Lots of this is thanks to the input from Patrick Lukas and his IAR class - more on that soon)

Here is another view of this most excellent display (did you notice the colors of the words BEFORE and AFTER?). See the new orientation of the shelves near the entry?  See the new furniture?  We're excited to see this happen in reality!

Don't let this posting keep you from coming to look at our wonderfully communicative and creative display.  Thanks again to Lauren Ritch for her visionary labors!

Stay tuned...more to come!

p.s. There are other things happening in the lower portion of the library as well (though that is out of the scope of Lauren's display).  We are rearranging the location of LP shelving, adding some LP listening, and moving some graduate carrels down there (and some other furniture as well).

The Amazing Library

Part I:  You've got nothing better to do.

by Kat Clift, Music Library Intern

Face it.  The internet has finally run out of pictures of cats.  Robot Unicorn no longer spikes your adrenaline.  Even that picture of the man squatting on the top of a statue of a pigeon has failed to give you a smirk.

Might as well face it, you're addicted to lolcats.

When the witty computer box in your room has run out of things your friends haven't sent you on facebook, it's time to try something new. Why not an adventure in the music library?

Wait! Stop! Hold on!

I know your mouse went toward that familiar red X in the top corner, but hear me out! You'll thank me for this when it gets you a date.

Today, several websites are shut down in protest of the SOPA/PIPA acts, the most notable of which are: Google, Wikipedia, Vimeo, and there are many others.  If passed, these worse-than-four-letter words will pretty much destroy the internet as we know it. So, for 24 hours, your internet experience will theoretically be hindered in a similar way to what it would have been like to be in the dark ages.

Don't panic, though, I'm not saying that you won't be able to find something to do in the meantime, but it might be kind of lame.  Compare said lame website/game/[censored] to several petabytes of music and dvds, biographies of great musicians (classical to rock to probably even dubstep!), and more!

You would be able to check out any kind of sheet music for almost any kind of ensemble you could dream of.  Books upon books of the greatest literature, and some of the worst, relating to music and art. You can even check out scores of those great symphonic works you heard on Fantasia when you were little and see what everyone is playing! 

Sure, you say, that stuff is what libraries are supposed to have!

However.

There's plenty of stuff you wouldn't expect libraries to have.

Shh.. do you smell something?

Certainly I'm not going to tell you all of it; that's for you to discover on your own. I can, however, give you a few of the treasures I've found while rummaging through the stacks with no goal in mind.

That door people disappear through by the checkout desk? Sure they come back, but if you've never been down there, some of the greatest recordings ever done are just waiting for someone to dust them off and become inspired. 

Have you gone to the very back of the library yet? We have different sized items back there, including miniature scores and enormous scores.  Ever seen an enormous score? They look like this. 

This is Lauren; She works here!  She's teeny, and the score is huge!

There are even storybook versions of composers lives, ready to be presented to your cousin's daughter for the next holiday.  Imagine presenting them with the life of Brahms in a friendly, imaginative way, while keeping the accuracy of the investigation discovery channel.

Because when they were this age, they couldn't even pronounce unrequited. .

Maybe you're not convinced.  Didn't I mention this getting you a date? Oh, it can. You may as well use all of this to your advantage, right?

Imagine this.  You wander over to Tate Street Coffee, for once without your laptop because you can't do much with it right now.  As you sip your overpriced latte, you listen to a piece by Schubert that you streamed from the library's online databases, all the while turning the pages of the score.  Someone stops and asks "What's that you're listening to?" And you regale them with the name of the piece and how Schubert's romantically tragic life has really caught your attention recently.

Now compare that with you, sitting on your laptop, clickety clacking, looking at pictures of cats with your ear buds in, but no sound, as you crunch into your brownie. Just like everyone else.

Which one would you want to go out with? And really, what kind of person starts a conversation at the coffee shop about that cat picture they found on the internet? ;) 

See also these links regarding SOPA/PIPA (take a minute and please sign the petition!):

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

http://vimeo.com/31100268

Occupy the Library!!

Music Library Employee, Liane Elias, has created THE coolest display in the Music Library.  These photos don't do it justice, so come on by to see her delightful creation!!  Thanks, Liane!!

Solidarity!!

Occupy, lots of different reasons!!

Googlicious?

Scores in tents!  Or intense scores?

Boo!