Reference Point

John Fierst Assistant Professor Clarke Historical Library John Fierst was working at the James J. Hill Library in St. Paul, Minn., nearly 30 years ago when he realized it was necessary to make a more than 1,000-mile round-trip visit to Mount Pleasant, Mich. CMU's Clarke Historical Library had the exact information Fierst needed to completely develop his article – "Return to 'Civilization'" – about John Tanner for Minnesota History magazine. Tanner was nine years old when he was taken captive by a band of Saginaw Ojibway in 1789 and soon was sold to an Ottawa woman living in northern lower Michigan. Tanner's account of life as an Ottawa-Ojibway from 1790 to 1820 was published in 1830 as "A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner during Thirty Years Residence Among the Indians. " While much was documented about Tanner's earlier life, specifi c information about his later years that included controversies surrounding Tanner and his connections with Henry Rowe Schoolcraft and Abel Bingham is limited. "The biggest collection for me at CMU was the Abel Bingham papers, who today is the reference librarian and bibliographer in the Clarke. "The resources at the Clarke made the article happen." " says Fierst, Guided by his experiences utilizing the depth of information available in Clarke Historical Library – a leading resource for subjects including Ernest Hemingway, children's literature, and Great Lakes and Native American histories – Fierst says he is committed to providing scholars and patrons within and beyond the university the same level of assistance he received. "I love to have the students and scholars come to the library and get excited about the research," he says. Keith Clifton Associate Professor of Musicology School of Music It isn't enough for Keith Clifton to visit Park Library and sit at a study carrel to pursue his research interests of 20th century French Music and American Music. For many of his nearly 10 years at CMU, Clifton has reserved one of the library's 41 individual study rooms available to faculty, emeritus faculty, staff and graduate students. "With the library study room, I consider it my cocoon as a scholar, several scholarly projects I'm working on, from book reviews to articles and papers for conferences. It's quiet and secluded, so when I'm over here I get a lot of work done. " he says. "I usually have " In addition to providing Clifton personal time to focus on his work, many of the resources he needs are available through the library's interlibrary loan service – now Documents on Demand – and on-site collections including numerous music scores and the Betty A. McDonald Children's Literature Collection. 5 Clifton's interest in American song culminated in the 2008 book "Recent American Art Song: A Guide. fi rst to examine in detail post-1980 American classical song, has received positive reviews and is considered a standard reference source on its subject. " This book, the "When I worked on my book I was a very regular visitor to the interlibrary loan service, Clifton says. "There are a lot of materials at the library, but if there's something else I need they have ways to get it." " " He currently is researching 20th century French music for children, specifi cally French children's literature set to music such as "Babar" and "The Little Prince. "The children's collection is a wonderful resource, and I still am very impressed by the library's collections, " Clifton says. •

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