The news @ Western Libraries

As Western faces strenuous fiscal challenges,
it may help to remember that the institution has met and  surmounted such situations before, notably  in the mid-1970s. At that time, budgetary cutbacks resulted in invocation of the dread Reduction in Force (RIF) policy resulting in numerous lay-offs.

Western’s faculty engaged in vigorous debate with then-President Jerry Flora, a peppery leader with a distinctly confrontational style. Out of this environment came Up Western, a slim volume illustrating the viewpoint of the then-faculty union (AFT Local 2084) through cartoons and sharp caricatures of Flora created by faculty members Bob Balas and Bob Urso, professors of French and Art, respectively.

Balas, who taught from 1969 to 2001, passed away in 2006; Urso came to Western in 1969 and retired in 2008. Together, they created indelible images of the interactions between equally passionate parties at a pivotal moment in Western’s history. As Up Western demonstrates, a little humor at such times never hurts.

~Marian Alexander, Special Collections

On October 8, 2010, a representative of the fine facsimile publisher M. Moleiro, based in Barcelona, visited Special Collections while participating in the 2010 Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair. The M. Moleiro company specializes in the reproduction of codices, maps, and works of art usually made on parchment, vellum, paper, or papyrus created between the 13^th and 16^th centuries. Many national as well as major museum libraries hold facsimiles created by the company. Here, Jeanne Armstrong of the library faculty and Kathryn Vulic of the English department examine examples of Moleiro’s outstanding work.

A guide to the newly-processed Claude C. Hall Papers is now available online. Housed at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, this archival collection documents the work of Claude C. Hall (1896-1977) while employed with the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, during World War II. Hall worked for Seattle-based Pacific Huts, Inc., setting up pre-fabricated wooden structures that were used to house troops in Alaska during the war. World War II materials include a scrapbook and photographs documenting construction and use of Pacific Huts throughout the Aleutian Islands, a copy of The Battle of the Aleutians: A Graphic History 1942-1943 (written by Cpl. Dashiell Hammett and Cpl. Robert Garland Colodny), and a 1944 limited edition of This Is The Pacific Hut, describing the history and production of Pacific Huts. The collection also includes some of Hall's World War I papers, as well as a small selection of personal items.

Read the latest collection and program news from the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies.