Fun

Category: Fun

Zoom Extras for Winter Term from your Seeley G. Mudd Librarians

Your librarians and library staff want to stay connected with you, whether you’re able to come into our spaces or not. To that end, we’re offering multiple opportunities to hang out via Zoom, either to work together academically or to casually chat and see one another.

Please join us at any or all of these weekly events!

Sundays from 4 pm to 8 pm
Virtual Mudd: Open Study Hall

Meet your friends in the Mudd to study, virtually! The motivation you need to get to work and a reference librarian ready to assist. You’ll have the option to break-out into group study spaces, perfect for collaborating with your group or connecting with your friends.

Join our virtual study hall here.

Wednesdays from 7 to 7:30 pm
LU Reads with Spiritual and Religious Life and EDST 270: Why Read Children’s Books?

Brew some tea, grab a blanket, and cozy up to enjoy being read to by some of your favorite folks on campus. We love to read and we’d love to read to you! All ages are welcome. Learn more about the books and readers on the LU Reads guide.

We’ll read to you here.

Fridays at 4 pm
Fiber Arts and Chat

Grab a craft project, an art project, a puzzle, your knitting, or, just come to hang out and chat.

Get crafty and chatty with us here.

We miss having so many of you in our building, and we look forward to seeing you on Zoom! Reach out if you have any questions.

Meet Your Reference Librarians: Lina Rosenberg Foley Edition

By now, many of you have reached out to our reference librarians by email, phone, chat, our web form, and now, our reference kiosk.

We provide solid research assistance, as well as help with navigating our wide array of electronic resources.

Have you met Lina? If so, you’ll know she is enthusiastic about helping you and supporting your academic success.

She is also our University Archivist, so she loves providing our community with access to the wealth of primary sources and interesting historical ephemera that she carefully curates.

Read on to learn more about this multi-passionate Reference Librarian-slash-University Archivist-slash-all around wonderful person (and alumna)!

Lovely Librarian Lina

Undergrad Major: Environmental Studies (from this fine institution!)

Favorite Book: Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

Favorite Hobby: Anything outside- camping, hiking, mountain biking

Favorite Database: Artstor, because not only can you find a bunch of things from the Archives and the Wriston Art Galleries, but also art and architecture from around the world. 

Pets: Only the squirrels in my backyard

Best part of being a Reference Librarian: Learning something new because of a question someone’s asked

Anything else: Vote! Register to vote, and get your friends and family to do it too- it’s easy and quick, and your civic duty.

National Library Week 2019!

Celebrate National Library Week, April 7-13, with your friends in the Mudd Library!

Tuesday, April 9th: Say thanks to our amazing student workers on National Library Workers Day!

Wednesday, April 10: Ask a question at the reference desk between 6-9 pm, get a cookie! Planning on attending? Invite a friend with our Facebook event!

All Week: Tell us what you love about the Mudd Library, or all libraries! We’ll have a National Library Week Notes box set out for your library love notes.

Poster describing National Library Week events: Tuesday, April 9th: Say thanks to our amazing student workers on National Library Workers Day! Wednesday, April 10: Ask a question at the reference desk between 6-9 pm, get a cookie! All Week: Tell us what you love about the Mudd Library, or all libraries!

The Web Turns 30

By Jill Thomas, Director of Technical Services

Do you know the name Tim Berners-Lee? Well, the idea that he came up with 30 years ago on March 12 touches us almost every minute of every day – he invented the internet!

Thirty years ago, Tim Berners-Lee was working at CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research/Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) and thought it would be great if he could link and access information across computers. By November 1990, his idea had become, “[a] web of information nodes in which the user can browse at will” as he stated in his formal proposal written with his CERN colleague, Robert Cailliau, titled World Wide Web: Proposal for a Hyper Text Project. By Christmas of 1990, Berners-Lee and Cailliau had implemented key components such as html, http, and URL, and created the first Web server, browser, and editor.

On April 30, 1990, CERN released the first version of the WWW software into the public domain and made it freely available to anyone to use and improve. Today, half of the world’s population is online and there are close to 2 billion websites. Openness has always been a part of CERN’s culture. Today CERN continues to promote open sharing of software, technology, publications and data through initiatives such as open source software, open hardware, open access publishing, and CERN’s Open Data Portal.

Today take a moment to thank Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau for their imagination and their drive to communicate just a little easier with their colleagues.

Collaborative Science Fiction Display in the Mudd

This term the Mudd Library has partnered with professors from around campus to create a display celebrating science fiction!

The display is meant to highlight several winter term science fiction courses currently underway.

Chloe Armstrong is teaching Science Fiction and Philosophy, Amy Ongiri is leading a class called Queering Science Fiction Film, and Jason Brozek is heading up a weekend retreat to Bjorklunden to study War and Science Fiction.

Below we’ve shared science fiction recommendations from professors across disciplines. Our library display, located on the first floor, includes many of these recommendations, and more!

Jason Brozek from the Government Department recommends:

Starship Troopers (1997) – This is right up there with Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove as one of the best military satires of all time.

Battlestar Galactica (the rebooted series, 2004-2009) – One of the most powerful TV representations of issues like dehumanization, torture, terrorism, and civil-military relations.

The Forever War by Joe Halderman (1974) – The plot is about humanity traveling light-years to fight an interstellar enemy, but this book is really about how the experience of war fundamentally changes the people who fight it.

Amy Ongiri from Film Studies recommends:

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler

Octavia’s Broodedited by Walidah Imarisha

Peddle Zombies by Elly Blue

Our Reference and Learning Technologies Librarian Angela Vanden Elzen recommends:

Star Trek

Dr. Who

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Monica Rico from the History Department recommends:

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. It explores the historical and philosophical issues raised by time travel in a sophisticated way, but it’s also a book that, at its heart, is about friendship, compassion, and loyalty.

Martyn Smith from Religious Studies recommends:

Elon Musk, Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tesla, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Claire Kervin from Environmental Studies recommends:

Maddaddam Trilogy by Margaret Atwood

Victoria Kononova from the Russian Department recommends:

The Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky 

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky

Chloe Armstrong from the Philosophy Department recommends:

“Imposter Syndrome” by Mari Kurisato, in Love Beyond Body, Space and Time, an Indigenous LGBT Sci-fi Anthology, edited by Hope Nicholson

Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Please come in and visit our display if you are on campus!

We hope you will consider reading or watching some science fiction, and that you live long and prosper, too!

Mudd Gallery Exhibit: Future Humour

 

Future Humour runs until November 20.

We love the Mudd Gallery! Having an art gallery in the library is a beautiful partnership, and one that truly embodies the essence of a liberal arts education.

Future Humour features digital photography captured in New York City and Appleton.

Supporting our students is an incredibly significant component of our mission, so it makes sense for us to offer space that allows burgeoning student artists the opportunity to curate, organize, and host their own gallery openings and exhibits.

It’s also a great resource for students working hard in the library, slogging away at their academic work. The gallery allows a meaningful, fulfilling, thought-provoking avenue through which to relax, unwind, and shift or gain perspective.

The Mudd Gallery’s latest exhibit is Future Humor by Yifan Zhang.

The artist shares color photography captured in New York City and in Appleton, creating a vibrant and interesting opportunity to compare and contrast these locations.

Zhang states, “Humour is elegant innuendo. Future Humour represents unforeseen conditions. I will let the images speak for themselves.”

The Mudd Gallery is located on the 3rd floor of the Seeley G. Mudd Library.

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Summertime Mudd!

Summer is here and it’s time to enjoy the Mudd in a whole new way. The Library transforms over summer break, as most of our students are away and the busy bustle of the academic year has subsided.

Cool down and take a load off in the Kruse Room on the fourth floor.

Of course, you’ll find an industrious student or professor or two huddled around a laptop, but for the most part, it’s fairly quiet around here.

This peaceful, settled atmosphere allows our resources and spaces to appear in a whole new light.

Here are some ideas to help you make the most of summer in the Mudd:

Relax with our popular magazines.

  • Come to our coffeehouse sessions! This is a summertime Mudd must!
  • Enjoy the air conditioning while catching up on local, national, and international news with our large selection of newspapers or popular magazines.
  • It’s finally time to binge watch your favorite TV series! Or, some popular or classic movies. We’ve got a ton of documentaries and musicals, too. Browse the DVDs in the media center, or check out our streaming resources (You’ll need to log in).
  • Make an appointment to FINALLY check out the Archives.

    Board games are on the 2nd floor. We have video games, too!
  • Challenge your family or your nemesis to a game night! We have both video and board games for check-out, or, stay and play!
  • Wander around the building to appreciate our art. Pay homage to The Katie while you’re at it.
  • Find a fabulous summer read! Stop by our coffeehouse on Wednesday, July 12 for our recommendations. Or, peruse the third floor for the latest and greatest in popular fiction and young adult or graphic novels. Of course we have poetry and classic literature, too, as well as some really compelling nonfiction.
  • Contact a reference librarian and ask for a peek at some of the rare books in our special collections.
  • Soak up the scholarly atmosphere while developing historical perspective and appreciation in the Lincoln Reading Room.
  • Come and introduce yourself to the staff and faculty who call the Mudd home. We enjoy getting to know members of the campus community and this is a great time of year to catch us with a few moments to talk about our work, the library’s offerings, and how we can best serve our community.

Lovely art, natural light, and cozy chairs.

Summer is here and so are we! We strive to make this library a welcoming, comfortable, peaceful, productive space, and we encourage you to make the most of it, regardless of the time of year.

Whether you’re reading, researching, or relaxing, we’d love to hear how you’re using the Mudd this summer!

See you soon.

Student Research in the Library: Sierra Parker

We are so grateful when our hard-working students take time out of their busy schedules to share what they’re up to in the library!

Sierra Parker has been spending an awful lot of time in her student office this term. The Linguistics and Russian Studies major is from Michigan’s Upper Penisula and will be graduating in June. Sierra plans to attend graduate school to study communication disorders after taking a year or two off to work with FoodCorps (a branch of AmeriCorps that helps start school gardens and educates kids about healthy foods) or the National Park Service.

Sierra, what are you researching?

I am researching aphasia, a language disorder.  People with aphasia lose the ability to find words and/or use them coherently.

More specifically, I am looking at how aphasia was studied by two Soviet psychologists: Alexander Luria and Lev Vygotsky. I am interested in what they believed about aphasia, as well as the chain of thought that led them there.

What are you hoping to learn or gain from this research?

I am fascinated with how people with aphasia experience the world. I am hoping to gain some insight by learning more about conceptions of aphasia that differ from the modern Western approach.

Why do you think this research is important?

I believe it is always important to step into someone else’s shoes (in this case: people with aphasia, Vygotsky, and Luria) and try to see the world from their point of view. Also, Western histories of aphasiology tend to overlook the groundbreaking work done by Vygotsky, Luria, and other Russian/Soviet psychologists.

How did you become interested in this line of research?

I took the class Brain & Behavior, which introduced me to aphasia. As someone who has always been interested in language, I was stunned by the implications of losing it. I instantly wanted to know more about the disorder, as well as the lives and minds of those who live with it every day.

What library materials and resources have been the most useful to you in pursuing this research?

The library created a research guide specific to my senior seminar, which has been extraordinarily useful. The PSYCInfo database has been helpful, as well as the fact that the library owns four volumes of Vygotsky’s Collected Works!

What would you like your fellow students to know about the Mudd Library?

Apply for an office! They are a big help, especially if you are planning on using many books from the Mudd’s collection.

Also, do not be afraid to ask the librarians for help. That’s what they’re there for!

Thanks, Sierra. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. See you around the Mudd.

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Fiber Arts in the Library

Do you enjoy knitting, crocheting, and other fiber arts? Along with members of the library staff, the Lawrence University Fiber Arts Club will be meeting in the library on Tuesdays and Thursday at 5 p.m. All members of the Lawrence community who are interested in joining in a group of fiber arts enthusiasts are welcome!

So all of you avid and novice knitters, crocheters, brocheters, embroiderers, needle workers, etc., bring your yarn, thread, needles, hooks, fabric, and whatever else (or just your curiosity for learning a new craft) and join in!

When & Where: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on the first floor of the library.

Spread the word!

Summer in the Mudd Library

Your friends in the Mudd Library are here for you this summer! Summer library hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Here are some ways the library can help you out:

  • Doing research or want to learn more about library resources? Our reference librarians are on call 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday all summer. Ask us!
  • Did you know that current students, faculty, and staff who are off campus are welcome to submit interlibrary loan article requests over the summer? Our system delivers these to you electronically, wherever you are!
  • Those who are on campus or in the Appleton area may request interlibrary loan books, which will be picked up from the Mudd Library (as usual).
  • Of course- circulation, ordering, and all of your other favorite library services are available over the summer as well!
  • Details for our annual summer coffeehouse series will be posted shortly! Lots of great resources and information from previous summer coffeehouses are available on our guide.
  • Looking for something fun? The library has a great collection of popular novels and non-fiction, movies and documentaries, and games and puzzles to keep you entertained this summer.

As always, be sure to ask us! We’re happy to help!