SLIDE

Overview:

The “finished product” of this project will be a short film.  The film will combine a recording of you reading your poem, and a montage of 35mm slide images.  All you have to do is write and record your poem, pick your slides, and we’ll do the rest!  Follow the detailed directions below.

Directions to Poets

Either e-mail Lisa or come to any one of the upcoming Rooftop events on our calendar to choose 3-5 art slides. Using your chosen slides to inspire your writing, compose a poem of 25 lines or less. You do not have to use all of the slides you have chosen. You must return all slides! Your typed poem should include 1) your name 2) your e-mail 3) your phone number and 4) title/call number of each slide.

After writing your poem, you will need to come to the library to submit and record you reading your poem. Please contact Lisa Forrest forresla@buffalostate.edu to set up a recording time. This should only take a few minutes. Recording must take place before March 16^th. Your recorded voice will be imposed onto digital versions of your slides, so you will need to indicate 1) the order that you wish your slides to appear and 2) where you want the slide changes. Simply number the slides at the top of the printed poem, and write the corresponding number where you wish your transitions to take place.

For example…I am using 3 different slides for my poem. At the top of the page, I indicate the order I wish them to be utilized:

1. Pirate N6447.M87

2. Here, Sir Fire, Eat! N6447.M87

3. The Swimming Pool N6853.M33

In the poem, I indicate where I want my slide changes by placing the corresponding number at the appropriate transition point:

(1) This is a small space

easily committed to memory

(2) constant melodies

give me pause

alone where I (3) sleep.

YOU MUST RETURN THE SLIDES when you come in to submit and record your poem.

A reading to celebrate the project will take place on April 11^th at 4:00 pm in Butler Library 210.

The project will be on display in the library for the month of April. Thanks for participating! Questions? Contact Lisa Forrest forresla@buffalostate.edu or Dennis Reed reeddj@buffalostate.edu

Blogging for Writers

This week! 

January 31st, 4:00 pm
WORKSHOP
Web 2.0 for Writers
with Ken Fujiuchi

Butler 314 – Are you interested in using online tools, such as blogs and wikis, to promote your creative writing? Join us in discovering emerging technologies that you can use to collaborate with other writers, and promote and archive your work

February Rooftop Events!

February 9th
READING
Ellis Avery

6:30 pm, Butler 210 – Ellis Avery is the author of THE TEAHOUSE FIRE, a novel set in the tea ceremony world of 19th century Kyoto, due out this winter from Riverhead Books, and THE SMOKE WEEK, a prose-poem account of post 9/11 Manhattan (Gival Press 2003).

February 14th
OPEN MIC
Cupid’s Arrows and Literary Darts

4 pm, Butler 210 – Convene all ye broken hearted! Join us in Butler Library 210 for an afternoon of waxing poetic over sweethearts won and lost. Poems of unrequited love are especially encouraged. Sweet treats will be served to salve thy bitter heart. Visit the Butler blog to find out about our online sonnet contest!  Dealine for the sonnet contest is February 9th!

2007 Buffalo Small Press Book Fair

The Buffalo Small Press Book Fair is a regional one day event that brings together booksellers, authors, bookmakers, zinesters, small presses, artists, poets, and other cultural workers (and enthusiasts) in a venue where they can share ideas, showcase their art, and peddle their wares.

In addition, poetry readings, performances, discussions, and related lectures are scheduled to go on throughout the day. Check out our schedule of events.

The 2007 event is scheduled for March 31st, from noon until 6pm.

http://www.buffalosmallpress.org/

LiBQual+ 2006: The Library’s Response

Library staff has been busy the past year working on ways to improve the library’s services and appearance. As many know, the national web-based library survey called LibQual+ was re-administered last spring (March 27 through April 14, 2006). Developed by the Association of Research Libraries, it is a tool for measuring library users’ perceptions of service quality and identifying areas for improvement. The results of the 2006 LibQual+ survey were very positive and encouraging and showed we are on the right track. However, there were certain areas identified by respondents that needed improvement. In response the library has:

• Reduced the cost of printing (with the help of USG)
• Purchased comfortable furniture for lounge areas in the library
• Created more quiet study areas for students to use
• Using focus group discussions (and with future usability studies) began evaluating the effectiveness of the library’s website
• Held training for library staff for improving customer service
• Upgraded the computer workstations throughout the library
• Continued to add quality full text online databases and journal collections

The 2006 LibQual+ survey had an increased response compared with the 2003 survey: there were 568 respondents or those who completed the survey as opposed to 422 respondents for the 2003 survey; a 34.6 % increase. Amy Rockwell, Assessment Librarian, and Al Riess, Reference and Electronic Database Librarian, analyzed and compared the results of the 2003 and 2006 surveys, scoured the over 400 written comments generated by both, and met library staff in October 2006 to present and share in detail the surveys’ results. This forum allowed us to not only share how well we are doing, but also to identify and discuss areas needing improvement and elicit comments, ideas, and suggestions from library staff. In comparing the two years we administered the LibQual+ survey, we found that in virtually all categories for almost all survey questions, we exceeded minimum expectations in 2006 as measured against 2003, and came closer to desired levels of service quality in 2006 as compared to 2003. Some of the things the library has done since the 2003 survey which might account for this improvement include:

• Opened StudyQuad, a 24 hour computer lab in the library with over 50 computers, both PC and Mac, all connected to a scanner, printer, and photocopier. This area also includes wireless access, public plug-in ports for laptops, and two group study rooms with dry erase marker boards.
• Created an Information Commons, where patrons benefit from united service points (circulation, reference, and help desk in the same general area), and more visible reference librarians
• Purchased modern equipment (computers, printers, scanners, etc.) for the library
• Developed significant full text and online database and periodical collections

A document with the analysis of results of the 2006 LibQual+ can be found at: http://www.buffalostate.edu/library/docs/LibQual_2006_Analysis.pdf.  If you have any questions concerning this document, please contact Amy Rockwell or Al Riess.

- Amy Rockwell, 1/25/07

Featured Database: Early English Books Online

Early English Books Online

(description below taken from the EEBO Web site)

From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave’s Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing’s Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection and the Early English Books Tract Supplement. Libraries possessing this collection find they are able to fulfill the most exhaustive research requirements of graduate scholars – from their desktop! – in many subject areas, including: English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science.

2/14 Rooftop Open Mic and Online Sonnet Contest

Rooftop Reading for 2/14 POSTPONED due to inclement weather. Congratulations to Kym Venditti, winner of the online sonnet contest! And THANK YOU to all those who participated.

The Rooftop Poetry Club presents:
Cupid’s Arrows and Literary Darts
Valentine’s Day Open Mic & Online Sonnet Contest

Convene all ye broken hearted! Join us in Butler Library 210 on February 14th at 4 pm for an afternoon of waxing poetic over sweethearts won and lost. Poems of unrequited love are especially encouraged. Sweet treats will be served to salve our bitter hearts.In addition to the Valentine’s Day open mic, we are pleased to announce our online sonnet contest! Reply to this blog post with your finished sonnet. The poem can be about anything you like, but should follow these guidelines for composition. The winner will be announced at the February 14th reading. Read on for an example of a sonnet, and more contest details.

To those who loved and lost their sweethearts bright,
Who wailed their lamentations to the rain;
Who spilled love’s ink upon the heartless night,
Here is your chance to profit from your pain.A contest we will hold upon the Web!
Be sure to enter quick, fall not behind;
A sonnet in the style of those long dead;
Of five iambic feet and fourteen lines.Some English faculty will judge your song,
So count your words, their stresses and their feet.
Our judges know when what you write goes wrong;
The winner will receive a prize most sweet.Submit a merry rhyme wrought from your tears.
Direct your weary mouse below–click here.