HRAF staff updates and the new eHRAF World Cultures |
|
This month HRAF celebrated over 20 years of service from Marilyn Hentz, who has retired from her position as Comptroller. We are thankful to Marilyn for her dedication to HRAF and wish her a happy retirement. We are delighted to welcome Amanda Westcott who has joined the HRAF staff as our Office Manager. Our featured global scholar, Dr. Dominique Raby, first discovered the HRAF files at the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, and is now using eHRAF World Cultures for her current research on gender, violence and indigenous knowledge. Lastly, HRAF is pleased to announce that the highly anticipated launch of the new eHRAF World Cultures database is scheduled for August 15, 2022. If you have not yet had a chance to explore the new eHRAF World Cultures, we invite you to do so today, and we welcome your feedback.
|
|
HRAF staff members gathered recently for a party celebrating the retirement of Marilyn Hentz, who served as our Comptroller. Marilyn worked at HRAF for over 20 years. She played a crucial role as our liaison to Yale University for personnel matters, and our main contact for accounts receivable and payable. During her time of service, Marilyn planned and organized numerous and memorable events, including annual HRAF Board meetings.
For her well-deserved retirement celebration, Marilyn was able to enjoy a gathering planned by her colleagues and hosted by HRAF President Carol Ember at her home. Marilyn was presented with a framed certification of appreciation from the HRAF Board honoring her years of service. We thank Marilyn for her tireless dedication, and wish her all the best in the next chapter of her journey.
|
|
HRAF is pleased to welcome Amanda Westcott as our new Office Manager. Amanda is taking over the duties of Marilyn Hentz, who has retired after over 20 years of service. Amanda is now HRAF's contact for billing matters and general office management.
Prior to joining the team at HRAF, Amanda graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a B.A. in Studio Art and a concentration in sculpture. She has worked in various industries from beauty to automotive and manufacturing. Amanda has a strong administrative background and extensive bookkeeping experience, including accounts payable and receivable as well as assisting with audits.
She is interested in art history, archaeology, and learning about different cultures. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys films, art museums, and trying new foods.
|
|
The highly anticipated launch of the new look for our eHRAF World Cultures database is scheduled for August 15, 2022. The new database introduces a host of improved features and enhancements, including faster, smarter searching; additional search filters; user customization options; and Notebooks for saving, annotating and sharing search results.
All eHRAF World Cultures users from August 15 will see the new appearance. The switch will be automatic when authenticating through a member institution's library portal. At this time, there are no additional settings that librarians are required to modify in order for users to access the new database appearance. If anything changes, we will be in touch as soon as possible with an update.
Users will have the option to toggle back to the legacy version of eHRAF World Cultures. We expect to support the legacy version for at least the next full academic year in order to give faculty and librarians time to update any eHRAF-related teaching guides and resources.
To facilitate uninterrupted access for your library, feel free to provide us with any updated IP addresses or proxies for your institution. Please send any updated contact information for your librarian to help@hraf.org.
|
|
Dominique Raby is a professor of Anthropology at the Colegio de Michoacán in Mexico. In her Ph.D. program at the Université de Montréal, she studied gender representations and women's voices in Nahua (Aztec) ancient literature. Dominique also holds a BA degree in Classical Studies and Anthropology, and a MA degree in Anthropology from the same university. For her MA, she analyzed the ceramic of a pre-Aztec archaeological site. For the past twenty years, Dominique conducted research on gender, violence and contemporary women's knowledge in the Nahua Alto Balsas region in Mexico.
Dominique consulted the HRAF files for the first time while a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale (LAS, College de France, Paris) in 2004. The famous anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, founder of the LAS and its library, designated the HRAF files as "a documentation center for comparative ethnology".
For Dominique, eHRAF World Cultures was instrumental for her new anthropological research project, which was theoretically inspired by the recent resurgence of comparative ethnology.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
