Projects and Initiatives of the Special Collections
at The Ohio State University

Medieval Slavic Summer Institute (Hilandar Research Library)

From June 27 to July 25, ten participants in the 2011 Medieval Slavic Summer Institute (and the sixth such since 1999) participated in four weeks of daily three-hour lectures, additional practical exercises, and afternoon hands-on work with actual medieval Slavic Cyrillic manuscripts and other resources of the Hilandar Research Library. The 2011 MSSI was the first to be held in the “Jack and Jan Creighton Special Collections Reading Room” in what were enhanced, superb teaching and research conditions with original materials. For the first time, related materials in other special collections were also used.

The premise behind the MSSI is to use and share the unique resources at Ohio State to provide opportunities to graduate students to receive practical training and expertise in handling, reading, and understanding Slavic manuscripts, their component parts, tradition, and cultural significance. The Slavic Cyrillic manuscript tradition dates from the 9^th to the 20^th century.

The MSSI was conducted by Daniel E. Collins, Department of Slavic Languages and Cultures, and Predrag Matejic, Curator of the Hilandar Research Library, who presented lectures on “Readings in Church Slavic” and “Practical Slavic Paleography.” Additional guest and occasional public lectures were provided by professors of other universities, most of whom have themselves conducted lengthy research in the Hilandar Research Library.

While OSU graduate students, especially those in Slavic, Linguistics, and History are the most frequent participants, the MSSI was envisioned to also provide needed instruction and training to graduate students of other universities. The 2011 MSSI had guests from Michigan, Brown, Arizona State, and the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome. 

For more information on the Hilandar Research Library and the related Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, see http://cmrs.osu.edu/rcmss/.

"Picturing History: Editorial Cartooning in America, 1754-2011," an Ohio Humanities Council Summer Institute
(Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum)

August 1-5, 2011

Ohio 8th and 10th grade teachers will be exploring the history of American editorial cartooning at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum in August, 2011.   Jenny Robb and Lucy Caswell will serve as co-directors of the Institute.  More infomation is available on the Ohio Humanities Council web site, as well as a brochure listing other topics and locations. (The application deadline was May 2.)

Festival of Cartoon Art
(Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum)

The Festival, a celebration of cartoons and comics, took place October 14-17, 2010. 

About the Festival:
This was the tenth triennial Festival organized by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (formerly the Cartoon Research Library).  An academic symposium kicked off the Festival events.   Humor, Play and Indentity: Academic Perspectives took place on Thursday, October 14 at the Ohio Union and ended with a keynote address on George Herriman by author Michal Tisserand.  That evening, all Festival participants were invited to celebrate the 100th birthday of Krazy Kat at a special exhibition reception and birthday party.   

Creators who were scheduled to present at the Festival on Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16 included Steve Breen, Roz Chast, Tony Cochran, Jan Eliot, Matt Groening and Tom Gammill, Dave Kellett, Paul Levitz, Dan Piraro, Jen Sorensen, James Sturm, and Gene Luen Yang.  The Festival also featured a special tribute panel to Jay Kennedy, the late Editor in Chief of King Features Syndicate.  Kennedy was a collector and scholar who bequeathed his extraordinary collection of underground comics to the library.  Panelists included Brendan Burford, Bill Griffith, Matt Groening, and Patrick McDonnell.  

In addition to these events, Wexner Residency Award Recipient Art Spiegelman gave a special presentation on Sunday, October 17.

Two cartoon exhibitions were on display during the Festival.  Ireland of the Dispatch, a retrospective of the work of Billy Ireland, was held in the Exhibition Gallery of the spectacular and newly-renovated Thompson Library.  Scenes of My Infint-hood: Celebrating the Birth of Krazy Kat was exhibited in the Cartoon Library & Museum Reading Room Gallery.

Avant Writing Symposium (Rare Books & Manuscripts Library)

In Memoriam Thomas L. Taylor

August 19-21, 2010, the Thompson Library was invaded by an exciting horde of writers, scholars, artists, and others for the 2nd Avant Writing Symposium.  There were some 50 presentations, performances, papers, readings, installations, exhibits, and other events, and an untold number of observers, fans, scholars, and kibitzers.  Sponsored by The Avant Writing Collection and the Rare Books & MSS Library, with additional support from The Department of Spanish & Portuguese and The Center for Latin American Studies, the attendees and presenters came from all over the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere; all with a focus on various of the Avant Gardes active in the world today, primarily those using language in some form or other.  Events took place in the Thompson Library, at OSU’s Urban Arts Space, and at Skylab in downtown Columbus.   In addition to the presentations and performances, there were exhibits in the Thompson Library, and at Skylab, and a room dedicated to continual presentations of electronic and digital poetry and literature.

The previous Symposium, in 2002, was a huge success, and is still being talked about.  The 2010 symposium provided another great opportunity to learn about literary innovation and experimentation, avant garde writing, electronic and digital literature, multi-lingualism, visual poetry, performance poetry, Fluxus poetry and texts, collaborative writing, sound poetry, international networking, artist´s books, cut-up text, concrete poetry, found poetry, mail art, video poetry, and much much more.

For complete schedule and poster please see: http://library.osu.edu/find/collections/rarebooks/RBMSnews/avant-symposium/

Rare Books Academy (Rare Books & Manuscripts Library)

On July 13-15, 2010, the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library hosted its first “Rare Books Academy” for children. Fifteen students—from Columbus and as far afield as Morgantown, WV—enrolled and spent three days learning how manuscript books were made in the Middle Ages, how books were printed in the hand-press period, and how librarians and conservators today help to ensure that old and rare books will continue to survive for years to come. The students didn’t just learn things about the history of books, however; they also learned how to make their own manuscript and hand-printed products. They practiced the medieval technique of “pouncing,” a method of illustration in which the artist lays a picture on top of a piece of parchment, pricks holes around its outline piercing both the illustration and the parchment beneath, and rubs colored chalk over the pierced illustration that passes through the pricked holes onto the parchment to form dots that the artist then connects to complete the illustration. Students also printed their own sheets on hand-presses at the Logan Elm Press, experimented with calligraphy, learned how to bind their own manuscript booklets, and lent a hand in the Libraries’ conservation lab by treating old paper with a deacidifying spray-gun.

The students produced and bound their own sheepskin booklets, including pounced and free-hand illustrations, decorated initials, short stories and more. All fifteen booklets are currently being highlighted in a ten-day long “Rare Books Academy” exhibition in the Special Collections display area on the first floor of Thompson Library (through 1 August). Like the manuscripts and old books they’re modeled after, each of these booklets has its own unique qualities and charm that reflect the interests and preoccupations of their makers. More importantly, they all also embody  the thoughtfulness, creativity, effort—and fun—that goes into the design and use of books.

(more photographs of the event on our blog at: http://library.osu.edu/blogs/rarebooks/2010/07/22/rbms-hosts-first-rare-books-academy-for-children/)