Suzy Covey
Encyclopedia
Suzy Covey was a comics scholar. Born October 27, 1939, she died on October 17, 2007 after retiring in 2006 from the University of Florida
George A. Smathers Libraries
as a university librarian emerita. Her comics
scholarship examined intersections of comics, technology, and sound, including Internet studies and studies of the Comic Book Markup Language (a specialized XML
for encoding the images, text, and sound effects depicted in comics). In honor of her work with its comic collections, the Smathers Libraries renamed them the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in Special Collections in 2007.
Suzy Covey's comic studies scholarship was enhanced by her work with computers during the early days of the Internet and her scholarship on music, which followed her undergraduate music studies and her own work as a musician, where she played as a band member on the "Bruce Springstone: Live at Bedrock" parody record, released in 1982. The A-side features "Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones," (3:01) a parody of Springsteen singing the Flintstones theme; the B-side is a Springsteenesque arrangement of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (2:41) which is included on the CD collection Baseball's Greatest Hits
. The record sold 35,000 copies and received airplay on rock and college radio. Her musical experience and expertise, along with her technical skills led Suzy Covey to use early bulletin board systems (BBS) and Internet discussion forums to discuss music, comics, and technology. Her role in these discussions and in early Internet studies helped to support and focus her comics research. She studied at Florida State University
.
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
George A. Smathers Libraries
George A. Smathers Libraries
The University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries, is one of the largest university library systems in the United States. The system includes eight of the nine libraries of the University of Florida and provides primary support to all academic programs except those served by the Lawton...
as a university librarian emerita. Her comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
scholarship examined intersections of comics, technology, and sound, including Internet studies and studies of the Comic Book Markup Language (a specialized XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
for encoding the images, text, and sound effects depicted in comics). In honor of her work with its comic collections, the Smathers Libraries renamed them the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in Special Collections in 2007.
Suzy Covey's comic studies scholarship was enhanced by her work with computers during the early days of the Internet and her scholarship on music, which followed her undergraduate music studies and her own work as a musician, where she played as a band member on the "Bruce Springstone: Live at Bedrock" parody record, released in 1982. The A-side features "Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones," (3:01) a parody of Springsteen singing the Flintstones theme; the B-side is a Springsteenesque arrangement of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (2:41) which is included on the CD collection Baseball's Greatest Hits
Baseball's Greatest Hits
Baseball's Greatest Hits is the name of two different CD collections of songs and other recordings connected with baseball, released in the early 1990s....
. The record sold 35,000 copies and received airplay on rock and college radio. Her musical experience and expertise, along with her technical skills led Suzy Covey to use early bulletin board systems (BBS) and Internet discussion forums to discuss music, comics, and technology. Her role in these discussions and in early Internet studies helped to support and focus her comics research. She studied at Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
.
Presentations and Publications
- Presentation (listed as Suzy Shaw Covey) "Soldier to Cartoon: Springsteen as Depicted in Comics," Glory days, a Bruce Springsteen symposium sponsored by Penn State University, Sept. 10, 2005, Long Branch, N.J. (Available from MSU's Comics Collection and Listed in MSU's Comics Bibliography.) Conference web page.
- 2006 Comic Art Conference, "A. Why is Jack Smilin'? Data Mining XML-coded Comic Strips OR B. Heroes and Villains: The Golden Era of Comic Strip Advertising"
- Presenter University of Florida Comics Conference 2004: Simultaneity and Sequentiality, Beyond the Balloon: Sound Effects and Background Text in Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse, By Suzanne J. Covey
- Article in ImageTexT
- "The Internet as an Entertainment System," Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, October/November 1994, p. 9-11.
- The Administration of Library Owned Computer Files, Association for Research Libraries, 1989 (OMS SPEC Kit and Flyer, #159).
- "A Model MRDF Management Facility," co-author: Covey, III, William C.; Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science, 1989, p. 53-58.
- "CAI in Libraries: Using Microcomputers to Train Staff," Computers in Libraries, vol. 9, no. 12, December 1989, p. 27-33.
- "Using CAI to Train Library Staff on Microcomputers," Library Software Review, January/February 1998, p. 23.
- How to Search OCLC [computer-assisted-instruction program in IBM PC BASIC], co-author: McIntyre, Terrence D. Bethea, Sally Brook; University of Florida, 1984, 1985.
- COMCAT at UF: Final Report, University of Florida Libraries, 1976.
- Presentation "University of Florida Home Page and Academic Home Pages," Data Day Symposium, University of Florida, March 1995, Gainesville, Florida.
- Presentation "The Library/Librarian's Role in Campus-Wide Information Systems and Networks," Panelist (with S. Trickey, J. Corey, D. Canelas and D. Beaubien), UFLA, November 1993, Gainesville, Florida.
- "A Modern MRDF Management Facility," Presenter, contributed paper, ASIS National Conference, October 1989, Washington D.C..
- Presentation "VACUUM: Lotus 1-2-3 Templates for Student Time Cards and Payroll," RTSD Technical Services Administrators of Medium-Sized Libraries Discussion Group, ALA Annual Conference, June 1987, San Francisco, California.
- Presentation "Using Microcomputers to Train Library Staff," SCIL Conference and Exhibition, March 1987, Washington DC.
- Presentation "Microcomputers as Training Aids in Technical Services," RTSD Technical Services Administrators of Medium-Sized Libraries Discussion Group, ALA Midwinter meeting, January 1985, Washington DC.
External links
- Bruce Springstone, "Bedrock Rap/Meet the Flintstones"
- Bruce Springstone on Amazon.com
- UF Library Newsletter interview with Suzy
- Suzy's transcription/arrangement of Springsteen Cords
- The University of Florida's first web page, which Suzy helped design as part of the Campus Wide Information Systems by applying her technological knowledge of computing and her design knowledge from comics. She also served as the University's first webmaster, and the designer/programmer of an email list information consolidation named CyberLibrary.