flea | Entries tagged with classics

We are now 4 for 4 on nights in a row Dillo has peed in his bed. This is not a record I really wanted to break, you know?

In good news, I just had the marvelous idea to have grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner tonight.

Also, in I am such a geek news, I am totally excited about the research consultation about sophrosyne and temperentia and John Chrysostom I am having with a grad student at 9am today.

Dillo has a full-on, can't stop crying meltdown an hour ago. Over our refusal to take him to Chik-fil-A for ice cream right that second. I was sure we'd get dinner in him and get him to bed by 7.

Now he has peed, eaten, done a puzzle with me, and pooped, and is excessively cheerful, counting to 21, and looks poised to go on all night.

I meanwhile am exhausted.

Also, there is a Classics Librarian job open at Yale. Salary range $51-78K. Freestanding classics library of 32,000 volumes, position manages 5-8 students, union environment, liaison to the department, manages web pages, etc. And here I sit in Georgia, with a house, a spouse whom I trail, and children.

I'm thinking about starting a blog for professional purposes. In one way, this is an incredibly dumb thing to do - since even in the creaky realm of library blogs, which runs a good 2-3 years behind the regular computing public, blogs are starting to be sort of "over".

On the other hand, I have things to say, and saying them in public would help me force myself to bother articulating them and writing them up. And it could potentially be a positive thing in a professional development sense. Especially since there's no money for travel to conferences or anything.

My current thinking is to document my experiences developing into my (still relatively new) role as the library liaison to the classics department. I would review print reference works (as a way to acquaint myself with our collection), collect classics-related web sites and blogs, and comment on what resources work best for which patron groups.

What say y'all? Not worth it? If worth it, preferences for platforms? (Is it worth it to learn Wordpress - again could be a development opportunity?)

But in some ways I would love to, and I think I'd be reasonably competitive.

POSITION ADVERTISEMENT, PLEASE POST

COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT LIBRARIAN FOR THE BLEGEN LIBRARY IN ATHENS

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) invites applications for the position of Collection Development Librarian for the Carl W. Blegen Library in Athens. The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) is one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions dedicated to the advanced study of all aspects of Greek culture, from antiquity to the present day. Founded in 1881, the ASCSA provides graduate students and scholars from over 180 affiliated North American colleges and universities a base for research and study in Greece. The ASCSA operates two major research libraries in Athens (the Blegen Library and the Gennadius Library), supports archaeological research and excavations in the Ancient Agora of Athens, in Corinth, and elsewhere in Greece, and disseminates information about its research through an active publications program.

The ASCSA is a primary resource for American and international graduate students and scholars in Hellenic studies, from antiquity to the present day. The Blegen Library is a non-circulating library dedicated to the entire field of classical antiquity, with special emphasis on the language, literature, art, history and archaeology of Greece, with over 93,000 volumes, ca. 700 print periodical subscriptions, and ca. 400 electronic subscriptions. The library primarily serves a constituency of North American students and scholars, and there is a large group of international library users, including many Greek scholars.

Key responsibilities of the Collection Development Librarian of the Blegen Library are as follows:

* Undertakes the selection and acquisition of materials and the development of the collection in all languages and all formats.
* Classifies library resources in accordance with a unique classification scheme.
* Manages the Library's approval plans and publications exchange program.
* Provides research assistance to members of the American School of Classical Studies and visiting researchers who are library users.
* Works closely with colleagues to ensure timely and accurate cataloging and processing of materials.
* Advises the Head Librarian on all matters relating to collection development, maintenance and preservation and participates in the development of relevant policies

Position requirements:

* Advanced degree in classics or classical archaeology (PhD preferred).
* Appropriate experience in an academic research library highly desirable.
* Fluency in English and Modern Greek and knowledge of Ancient Greek and Latin as well as the languages of scholarly research (German, French, Italian, etc.)
* Familiarity with bibliographic tools available for researchers and knowledge of the American and European book trades.
* Demonstrated skills and experience in relevant information technology, including its use and management, and possessing a comprehensive understanding of the technology-driven information environment.
* Understanding of unique needs of a graduate research library and familiarity with current issues in academic librarianship.
* Strong organizational and communication skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.

The position is full-time. Salary commensurate with experience. Generous benefits package. Successful candidate will be expected to live and work in Athens, Greece.

Send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference to Karen M. Bohrer, Head Librarian, Blegen Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 54 Souidias Street, GR-106-76 Athens, Greece or email application to kbohrer@ascsa.edu.gr. Review of applications will begin on January 20, 2010 and will continue until the position is filled. ASCSA is an EO/AA employer. Website: http://www.ascsa.edu.gr.

Upon learning that my great-great-great-uncle John Henry Wheeler (1850-1887) was a professor of Classics, and having an office hour in the Classics department with no eager questioners, I poked around on the internet to see what more I could learn.

John Henry Wheeler was born to Melancthon Gilbert and Frances Cochran(e) Parkinson Wheeler in 1850. He attended Harvard and got his B.A in 1871 and his A.M. in 1875. He attended the seminar in Classics led by Basil Gildersleeve (my mother remarked that our next cat should be named Basil Gildersleeve) at the newly-founded Johns Hopkins University in 1877-1878. Another sometime attendant was M. Carey Thomas, who helped found Bryn Mawr College; see Ward W. Briggs, "Gildersleeve and M. Carey Thomas," American Journal of Philology, v. 121, n. 4 (2000), p. 629-635. He received his PhD in Bonn, Germany, in 1879. He appears in the Harvard Register for 1880 (courtesy of Google Books), listed as a tutor in Latin and Greek. He was a professor of Latin at Bowdoin College in 1881-1882, and then a Professor of Greek and department head at the University of Virginia from 1882 until his death in 1887. UVA has 4 boxes of his papers in their Small Special Collections Library, consisting of translations, including of Thucydides, and class preparation materials.

He had married Louise Fuller Johnson, of Newbury, VT, at a date I haven't yet discovered, and they had a daughter on July 21, 1885, who grew up to be the famous author Frances Parkinson Keyes, also wife of the governor of and then senator from New Hampshire. (http://www.catholicauthors.com/keyes.html) Apparently the family lived in James Monroe's house in Charlottesville (http://www.ashlawnhighland.org/), where Frances was born, and where John appears to have died on October 10, 1887 of a cause I have not seen mentioned. He was buried in his wife's family plot at The Ox-Bow in Newbury, VT, as was his daughter Frances when she died in 1970.

I am doing office hours in the Classics department - every Friday, 9:30-10:30 - and this coupled with my other outreach efforts to Classics have reawakened my long-dormant academic interests. If there are no students (or faculty) looking for help - today has been the most quiet I've seen it - I spend my time poking around the Classics and archaeology blogs and web resources, trying to update myself on where things have gone in the 8 years since I've been aware of things. I mean, last time I was actively doing archaeology, blogs barely existed, and the main classical archaeology web site was a collection of links maintained starting in about 1994 by Sebastian Heath at Michigan.

Turns out there are some interesting people - some of whom I know or have met, like Sebs and Charles Watkinson, others of whom I am one degree from, like Chuck Jones - who are thinking about the intersections of classical archaeology, publishing, libraries, and technology (Sebs is a technologist, Charles is a publisher, and Chuck is a librarian). It's very interesting, and it makes me say to myself, hey, this is an area I could have something to contribute to! So. Need to keep reading, and get up to date, and then think about a) sticking my nose out there in the conversation and b) connecting with the archaeologists I know here and elsewhere and bringing these ideas to them.

To rid myself of the earworm...

1. To the tune of "Frosty The Snowman"
Composed by a guy named Paul who was a grad student at Michigan in 1995.

Pauly-Wissowa,
Were a jolly pair of Krauts.
With a blah blah blah
And a blah blah blah
And some Altertumswissenschaft!

This went on for a long time. I don't remember any more.

2. To the tune of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive"
Composed by John Lobur of Michigan, in Athens, 1998-99.

Alcibiades
Well you can tell by the way I use my walk
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk
...
Ah, ah, ah, ah, Changin' Sides, Changin' Sides

It's a shame I can't remember any more, since this one was brilliant.

I got a call last night from an old friend from grad school, to tell me she'd defended her dissertation. She took 10 years, and was the second person in her class to defend. It got me thinking about my class...

In the fall of 1995 I entered a graduate program in Classics with 5 other people.
-T. was a Master's only student, in Latin. She didn't get her degree, and left in 1997 to teach high school Latin. She's still teaching in the same place, I'd guess succesfully and happily, though her web page has awful Flash animation.
-Z. was a PhD student in Hellenistic History. He didn't much get on with his chosen advisor, so left in 1997 after a Master's, returned to Greece to do his compulsory military service, and went on to to an M. Phil at Cambridge and a PhD at U. Washington. I'm not sure when he finished. He's now a lecturer at Newcastle.
-W. entered with a Master's, and defended his dissertation in Classical Archaeology in 2000. He was immediately hired at Wisconsin in a tenure-track position. Word is, he's returning to our alma mater in the fall. He's a great fellow, rather shy but very nice, not wildly creative but very solid, hardworking, nether a flake nor a jerk. Very mainstream, safe bet.
-B. enterested as a Master's only student in Classical Archaeology, but was successful and after her MA did a PhD too. She defended in 2001, and returned to Turkey, where she teaches in Ankara. She's doing very well - has a 2005 book with Oxbow and a 2005 article in Antiquity. She was always rather underestimated, as I think Mediterranean women can be; plus, she's not got a geeky/academic sort of personality (she's fun and laid-back), so I think people are surprised by her work.
-R. entered as a PhD student in Prehistoric Greek Archaeology. He defended his dissertation last week (TOTAL perfectionist; not at all a surprise that it took him 11 years.) He's been teaching on 1-2 year appointments since 2001, and is currently at Trent U. in Canada (his homeland). I hope that now he's done he'll be competitive for something more permanent. He does good work and is fun and nice to work with, but he undervalues himself and lacks confidence.

Then there's me; I left the program formally in late 2001, although until recently they still had me on their list of students for some reason. I guess my advisor had hope.

I don't think I made the wrong choice, though I do miss that life sometimes, and wish I was doing something more suited to my talents at the moment.