This week, we spoke to two staff members at Pitts who work behind the scenes to ensure that you can find the books you need: both in our online catalogue and on the shelves! You may know that our first recommender, Armin Siedlecki, Head of Cataloguing, is an expert in reformation material—he’s curated the past several reformation-themed exhibitions and is responsible for cataloging countless rare book materials over his many years at Pitts.
Armin has just finished listening a series of lectures by Ken Albala, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, who teaches courses on the Renaissance and Reformation, Food History, and the History of Medicine. This particular lecture series is on the cultural history of food, and Armin says it “was absolutely fascinating”! The series is part of the Great Courses program, but is also available for free as a podcast. Armin highly recommends this enlightening and tasty listening experience!
You’ve probably seen our second recommender at the circulation desk or moving rapidly around the building! Jenny Vitti, Reserves and Stacks Specialist, is responsible for making sure all your required class readings are where they should be and for making our stacks pristine.
This summer, Jenny is taking Emory Scholarly Communications Librarian Melanie Kowalski’s pilot course on Copyright Support for library staff. The group is reading two chapters from Permissions, A Survival Guide: Blunt Talk about Art as Intellectual Property by Susan M. Bielstein. Jenny says Bielstien’s work “is fun and witty and engaging,” so she’s reading the entire book (which is quite slim)! Jenny says “it’s a great book to read for anyone who intends to use other people’s art in their own scholarly wo
rk.”
Jenny’s summer “to read” list also includes Death in the Choir by Lorraine V. Murray. Lorraine worked at Pitts Theology Library for years and is nowpart of our volunteer program. The book is the first of three murder mysteries – set in a Catholic church! – in the Francesca Bibbo series by Lorraine.