FASCINATING FACSIMILES

Ornaments of the non-holiday and perhaps more scholarly variety are currently on display at the Marriott Library until Jan. 9. Through an exhibit titled "Ornaments: Beautiful Books, Beautifully Reproduced," the library's Rare Books Division of Special Collections has gathered some of its best facsimiles from the classical, medieval, and Renaissance periods for public viewing.

"I think the viewer is going to be dazzled," says Madelyn Garrett BA'82 MA'90, curator of Rare Books. "There will be lots of gold illu-mination and painted decoration on books, the originals of which very few people will ever be allowed to see. There will be the facsimiles of books held by the Vatican Library, the British Museum, and the Huntington Library, to name only a few."

The exhibition's curator, Jennifer Bauman BA'87, assistant professor (lecturer) in the Department of Art and Art History, has pulled together facsimiles medical texts, artists' books of, herbals, religious works, and luxury productions. "When I realized what the Marriott Library owned, I was stunned," she says. A couple of exhibition highlights are The Book of Kells, a copy of the four Gospels that is currently held at Trinity College Library, and the Ellesmere Chaucer, the most complete version of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The facsimiles are always available for public use, and the Rare Books staff notes that faculty members find them particularly useful for teaching and research. Jerry Root, associate professor of languages and literature, brings his French medieval literature students to the library to spend a class session viewing The Romance of the Rose. "Before the printing press (mid-15th century), all written documents came to us in manuscript form, on parchment (animal skin), but students never get to see that," says Root. "Viewing the facsimile gives them a glimpse of the mode of production and of the material reality of a past culture. They see that it's written in an old French, that it's handwritten, and that there are images in the margins — illuminations — throughout. It gives them a broader sense of the medieval period."

"We try to keep in mind who is teaching — and what they are teaching — when we add to our collection," says Luise Poulton BA'01, associate curator. "If the library has a great facsimile collection, it's an attraction to faculty." And, as this exhibition indicates, to the casual observer, as well.

THE THREE R'S

No, not reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, but reduce, reuse, and recycle, the mantra of environmental aware-ness programs. ASUU (Associated Students of the University of Utah) would like to hear students — and faculty, staff, and administrators — repeating that mantra this year in order to improve recycling efforts on campus.

Campus recycling is voluntary, and includes paper, aluminum, and newspaper. Garth Peterson BS'68, associate director of plant operations, notes that all academic buildings have recycling containers in storage or copy rooms for office paper products. In addition, aluminum can recycling containers, donated by Coca-Cola, are located next to vending machines, and newspaper recycling containers are often located next to Daily Utah Chronicle bins.

While the amount of office paper recycled continues to grow — from 198 tons in 2000 to 202 tons in 2001, according to Peterson-the cost of recycling also continues to grow, as the University depends on a private company to collect the recyclables and ship them from the state. "In 2001, it cost $34.45 to send a ton of waste to the landfill," says Peterson, "and it cost $82.36 to recycle a ton of waste." Peterson, who has managed the limited recycling effort since its inception more than 10 years ago, believes recycling is the right thing to do but wishes there were more financial incentives to do it. Avoiding recycling by reducing paper usage "is the best thing," he says. "We use more paper since computers came along," he points out. "They didn't make us paperless at all."

Student Tiffin Brough, who organizes student recycling volunteers through the Bennion Center, agrees that reducing use and using recycled goods are important goals for the University. But she'd also like to see expanded and better coordinated recycling efforts across campus. "Students really support recycling," she says, noting that every floor of the residence halls has a recycling chair to encourage and manage the student efforts. Her "awareness campaign," organized in conjunction with two other student groups, Terra Firma and CARE (Conservation and Recycling Evolution), focuses on making recycling containers more visible throughout campus and encouraging more people on campus to begin recycling.

Independent recycling efforts occur throughout the University. For example, the Three libraries — the Marriott, Eccles, and Quinney — have jointly contracted with a private company to recycle cardboard, as well as donations of books and journals that can't be used by the libraries or sold at book sales. "Individual library employees have taken the initiative to provide recycling services for the libraries, including recycling plastics, aluminum cans, and Styrofoam, and composting coffee grounds," says Joan Gregory, a librarian at the Eccles Health Sciences Library. "These individual efforts are great, but what we need is a campus-wide recycling program." ASUU would agree.

Letters

Dear Editor:

I just received my Fall 2002 issue of Continuum and ran across a couple of things that really caught my attention.

Great article on the trees on campus, and the related article on Cottam's Gulch. As an architecture student (class of '55), it reminded me of the class on Intermountain Flora and Fauna taught by Doc Cottam. He used to call for the class to meet at the Ginko tree next to the biology building. The Ginko is unusual in that it contains both genders in one tree and has a very distinctive leaf. Doc Cottam also loved the great old trees off campus. On a tour with his students, I recall him looking up at a giant Black Walnut tree and, with tears in his eyes, saying, "If that doesn't do something to you, then there's something wrong with your soul." He had a great knowledge of the species of plants and was often challenged by students to identify unusual plants. He reluctantly admitted to being stumped once when the students brought in a tobacco plant. He is one of several instructors I still remember fondly even these nearly 50 years later.

The other article that caught my eye was the one on the marching band. I actually started at the U on what was called a "work scholarship" by not only playing in the band but receiving a small stipend for doing odd jobs required in connection with the marching band. What memories came back to me as the article painted a scenario of the marching band performing at a bitter cold, mid-February activity. I don't know if they still do it, but in those days the band was highly recognized for its "I Am a Utah Man" (to the tune of the French National Defile), played in a fast-tempo, high-stepping, script formation spelling out UTAH on the field.

Thanks for the memories.

George Gerald Tate BA'55 (now-retired architect), Las Vegas, Nevada