Gleeson Library Associates

The Gleeson Library Associates work to develop the resources and services of the Gleeson Library | Geschke Center, the Donohue Rare Book Room and the Thacher Gallery at the University of San Francisco. The Associates also present cultural programs at the University and raise funds for support of the Library.

Membership in the Gleeson Library Associates helps to support the University’s mission of lifelong learning. The Associates provide resources that make possible exhibitions, lectures and special events for members, students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the University. Members receive announcements, keepsakes and invitations to programs and special events sponsored by the Associates.

The Gleeson Library Associates value each and every membership. Please become a member today. For more information, please call (415) 422-2036.

Past Programs

Andrew G. Jameson on The Seven Wonders of the World: Ancient and Modern

Public Program:
October 8, 2009, 5 pm
Donohue Rare Book Room

Peter Maravelis on San Francisco Noir

Public Program:
April 23, 2009
Donohue Rare Book Room

Peter Maravelis reads from his award-winning series of original noir anthologies, Vol. I, and the recently published Vol. II.

"San Francisco is a town made for noir. Long before Hammett’s muse seduced him with fog and mist to pen The Maltese Falcon, European explorers and Christian missionaries had already laid the groundwork for the genre…with the release of the first volume of San Francisco Noir, we brought together a team of seasoned writers to compose original works that gave the reader a sinister sense of the city…we now have returned with a collection of classic reprints…which reveal a town riddled by inequity from its very beginning…Perhaps the finest vestiges of this town will someday be found in this handy little volume of pulp…" Peter Maravelis, from the Introduction

Nick Kanas on Mapping the Heavens from Antiquity to Today

April 2, 2009

With the construction of the International Space Station, and with new plans for manned missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, there is a renewed interest in how the heavens have been charted. Nick Kanas will trace the history of celestial cartography— comparing the role of constellation maps and cosmological maps.

This will be a broadly sketched tour, showing how different civilizations have captured their view of the heavens — from the stellar images of ancient China, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India— to the true sky maps of Europe in the golden age of pictorial celestrial cartography of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Nick Kanas, M.D., is a UCSF psychiatrist working with NASA on the effects of space travel on astronauts. He has been a collector of star maps for over twenty-five years. His book Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography was published in 2007 by SPRINGER/PRAXIS.

A Talk with Leonard Pitt

On February 28, 2008 Leonard Pitt discussed his second and most recent book, A Small Moment of Great Illumination, a journey of discovery of Valentine Greatrakes, a 17th century Irish healer. The book is "endlessly fascinating and great fun, full of literary intrigue and unexpected pleasures" (June Sawyers, American Library Association).

The Gleeson Library Associates celebrates fifty years!

"The genius of The Gleeson Library is two-fold. On the one hand, it is a general collection of extraordinary comprehensiveness. On the other hand, it enjoys special collections equal to any in these United States."

Kevin Starr,
California State Librarian Emeritus

The Gleeson Library Associates celebrated their fifty years of support for the Gleeson Library/Geschke Learning Center on October 28 with a keynote address by Dr. Kevin Starr on the "Treasures of the Donohue Rare Book Room." Other activities celebrating "A life lived in the world of books," and the work of Fr. William J. Monihan are planned throughout the year.

Sir Thomas More Medal

On May 20, 2007 antiquarian bookseller Bernard M. Rosenthal became the 34th recipient of the Sir Thomas More Medal. Collector and GLA Fellow, William P. Barlow Jr. presented the medal. An address by Mr. Rosenthal followed the presentation of the medal. 

The Millennium Crisis

On January 25, 2007 The Gleeson Library Associates presented a thought-provoking evening with Dr. David Caploe.

Even before 9/11, the U.S. and the rest of the world have been enmeshed in a structural crisis, a period of political, economic and cultural instability whose distinguishing—and disturbing—hallmark has been an on-going deterioration in the levels of public discourse all over the globe.

David Caploe has given numerous talks about various aspects of this crisis under the sponsorship of the Princeton Club of Northern California, the Harvard Club of San Francisco, the Peace and Justice Studies program at USF, and San Francisco State. He holds an honors BA in Social Theory from Harvard, as well as an MA in Political Science and PhD in International Political Economy from Princeton. He is the author of several works, including Middle East 101: Thirteen Things Everyone Should Know About the Middle East and the blog, Grok Your World.

Steel Frames: Eyewitness Accounts of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire

On May 11, 2006, at the Gleeson Library Associates Annual Meeting the Daughters of Charity, Province of the West, gave a presentation and read from the book Steel Frames: Eyewitness Accounts of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire (2006). Historian Kevin Starr has written "this superbly edited and beautifully designed book makes available little known eyewitness accounts of the catastrophic events of April 1906. Reading these reports, one gains new respect of the intelligence and courage of the Daughters of Charity of that era."

A Concise History of Lying

On April 27, 2006, Dr. Maureen O'Sullivan, Professor of Psychology at the University of San Francisco gave a presentation on "A Concise History of Lying." Dr. O’Sullivan has served as a consultant to the F.B.I., has served as a commentator for ABC Television and has studied with Paul Ekman on the question of detection.