Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Dean of University Libraries Rosann Bazirian  Rosann Bazirjian, Dean of University Libraries at UNC Greensboro for the past 11 years, has announced her retirement from the University, effective April 1, 2016.  Rosann first became Dean in August 2004 when she came to UNCG from Penn State. With her ability to see changes others might not have foreseen, the University has benefited greatly from her broad vision.  Among her many accomplishments: Dramatic enhancement of the Library’s spaces, including beautification of both the interior and (with such strong support from the Friends) the exterior of the building; creation of new collaborative learning spaces including the Learning Commons and Digital Media Commons, renovated space for Special Collections and University Archives, Electronic Resources and Information Technology, and the Music Library, which was named the Harold Schiffman Music Library during her tenure A strong commitment to diversity, including ...

This Thursday, October 8 at 4 p.m. , there will be a presentation by North Carolina’s current poet laureate Shelby Stephenson at UNCG in the Hodges Reading Room, Jackson Library 2nd floor. Shelby Stephenson Kathryn Stripling Byer We have also been informed that UNCG alum and former NC Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer will be in Greensboro on Monday, October 19 at 7pm at the Central Branch of the Greensboro Public Library.  

The Friends of the UNCG Libraries are pleased to announce that author Chris Bohjalian will be the guest speaker at their Annual Dinner on the night of March 22, 2016. More details will follow at a later date. Lincoln, Vermont’s Chris Bohjalian is the author of 18 books, most of which were New York Times bestsellers.  His work has been translated into over 30 languages and three times become movies. He has a new novel arriving in January, 2016, The Guest Room , a story of a human trafficking, a party gone horribly wrong, and a marriage in crisis. The paperback of his most recent novel, Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands , was published in May. His books have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post , the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , the Hartford Courant , the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel , Publishers Weekly , Library Journal , Kirkus Reviews , Bookpage , and Salon . His awards include the ANCA Freedom Award for his work educating Americans about the Armenian ...

University Archivist Erin Lawrimore has been appointed Vice Chair/Chair Elect for the Society of American Archivists' Committee on Public Awareness. She will take over as Chair for the 2016-17 year starting in July.

  Thursday, October 29: A Conversation with Emeritus Authors Ann Saab and Lollie White. 4 p.m. Hodges Reading Room Jackson Library 2nd floor, UNCG.  Alex Haley, author of Roots , once answered the question of why his novel became so popular.  "It came at the right time," he modestly replied. When is the best time to publish a novel?  When it’s ready, two recent novelists with long ties to UNCG might reply. Ann Saab Lollie White Ann Saab (History) and Laura (Lollie) White (English) are two retired professors at UNCG who have recently published novels after retiring from the classroom and other university responsibilities.  The Friends of the UNCG Libraries invite you to an afternoon conversation between the two at 4 pm on Thursday, October 29 in the Hodges Reading Room of Jackson Library on the second floor. Dr. Saab, now retired after a long tenure as a UNCG history professor and department head, is the author of Bathsheba’s Book: A Woman’s T...

Sarah Dorsey Louise Talma Sarah B. Dorsey, Head of UNCG's Harold Schiffman Music Library, is the recipient of the 2014-15 Women’s and Gender Studies Linda Arnold Carlisle Research Grant Award. Dorsey’s award supports her work on a biography of composer, pianist and pedagogue, Louise Talma (1906-1996), which she will complete while on Research Assignment during the spring semester of 2016. Talma was a pioneering American composer of the twentieth century. The second female composer to receive a Guggenheim fellowship, she was the first to win two consecutively (in 1946 and ‘47). She was the first American to teach with famed French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau. Thirteen years after receiving an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters for her three act grand opera ( The Alcestiad , written on a libretto by Thornton Wilder), Talma was finally invited to join the august institution in 1974, the first female composer so honored. The concert will ta...

Charlaine Harris, photo by D. Woldan Margaret Maron photo by Bob Witchger Note: The  audience will be limited to 125 persons.  There is no charge for the event, but those wishing to attend are asked to email Barry Miller at barry_miller@uncg.edu to assure their place for this unique program. What happens when Judge Deborah Knott meets Sookie Stackhouse?  Do vampires indulge in the products produced by alleged North Carolina bootleggers? Find out when authors Margaret Maron and Charlaine Harris settle down with their famous protagonists for a conversation at UNCG on October 22 at 7 pm in the Virginia Dare Room of UNCG’s Alumni House for the second installment in the Margaret Maron Presents Women of Mystery Series.  It is no accident, they say, that the visit is timed only a few days before Halloween. Margaret Maron and Charlaine Harris are both highly successful writers with legions of fans, and the appearances of their new books are always hi...