Fun

Category: Fun

National Library Week and More!

Beginning Sunday, April 14th and lasting through Saturday April 20th, the Mudd Library will be celebrating National Library Week! We have planned a variety of exciting events. Stop in to celebrate with us!

  • Library Student Worker Appreciation Day: Say ‘thanks’ to our library’s excellent student workers. Tuesday, April 16th
  • Make Your Voice Heard! Take part in a quick usability survey about the library’s new website. Pizza and beverages for all participants. Wednesday, April 17th, 6-8 pm.
  • Get a cookie for asking a question at the reference desk Thursday night from 6-10. Yes, may I have a cookie will suffice.

Take part in the following fun events all week long:

  • Enter in our annual Haiku contest for a chance to win an Amazon gift card.
  • Tell us why you love the Mudd Library.
  • Check out our display of staff favorites. We’ll be adding new favorites all week- so check back frequently.

As if Library Week wasn’t enough fun, members of the Mudd Library staff have also been helping to plan the following events around campus and in the community.

  • The Fox Cities Book Festival lasts from April 17th through April 24.  A variety of festival events are scheduled to take place on the Lawrence campus. Take a look at the festival website for more information.
  • Women and Identity in Gaming Symposium, hosted by the Lawrence University Gaming Club, will be held on April 20th on the Lawrence Campus. This day-long event will feature discussions, activities, and presentations from two fantastic guest speakers. See the Women and Identity in Gaming website or Facebook page for more information.

Meet the Staff: Holly Tuyls

For our most recent ‘Meet the Staff’ feature, we’ve interviewed Library Secretary, Holly Tuyls. Holly manages a wide variety of tasks here at the Mudd. These tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting in organizing and setting up for many library events, recording the minutes at library meetings, taking care of a variety of paperwork and making sure it gets to the correct department, and spreading cheer and goodwill.

How long have you been working at the Mudd Library?  Since April of 2012.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

I love the fact that my responsibilities include a wide variety of tasks; when I get tired of working on spreadsheets, I can water the plants, or count the copy machine money, or do some writing. Also, I am so lucky to have the privilege to work with such intelligent, hilarious, and interesting people.

Share something you’ve done at work that has made you especially proud.

I enjoy making seasonal displays which show off the variety of our available materials, especially the non-academic stuff. Upon declaring October ‘Scary Movie Month,’ I collected and showcased our scary movies, and it was really fun to watch how quickly they got checked out and what titles seemed to be student favorites.

Where did you get your degree? I graduated magna cum laude with an English degree from an amazing institution called Lawrence University in little old Appleton, Wisconsin.  Maybe you’ve heard of it?

What are your hobbies?  I love to read, cook, garden, and do yoga.  I occasionally and intermittently practice the piano as well.

What’s the last book you read that you couldn’t put down?  Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes, which explores alternatives to living on the planet in a creative, rather than consumptive, way.

What are your favorite bands or performers?  Hmmm.  This is a tough question.  I love all types of music and tend to get very obsessive about a performer for a spell, and then move on to the next. Ryan Adams, Neko Case, and Bright Eyes are always favorites. I love seeing live music. This past summer I brought my daughter to Minneapolis to see her first ‘real’ concert: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

List your favorite blogs and/or magazines. I love Bust!  Available in the Mudd on Level A!  I also enjoy Yoga Journal and Yoga International. Blogs I love include The Art of Non-Conformity, Zen Habits, and becoming minimalist.

What groups and/or organizations are you active in (on or off campus)?

I dabble in all sorts of things. We foster kitties for Orphan Animal Rescue.  We’ve done some work in the SLUG garden, helping to build the hoop house.  I take part in a weekly group meditation and flutter about the community taking yoga classes.

Tell us about your family.  My daughter is 12.  She sings in Lawrence Academy’s Girl Choir.  She also plays the piano and spends a lot of time reading.  She is currently big into a manga and anime series called ‘FullMetal Alchemist,’ and also spends a lot of time imagining.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers? As an alum, I can’t stress enough the amazing powers possessed by our reference librarians. While working toward my degree, I would approach the desk with trepidation and the feeling of not wanting to bother anyone.  These presumptions are so far from the truth! The reference librarians are there for the express purpose of helping students learn to engage in quality research, a skill that is of utmost importance as students advance in academia and in the world at large. When in doubt, go to the reference desk!

Mindfulness

In an effort to support the Lawrence community in their quest for wellness, we invite you to to come to the library and check out some of our new mindfulness resources. We have two audiobooks, Mindfulness for Beginners and Guided Mindfulness Meditation, and one book, Full Catastrophe Living all by Jon Kabat-Zinn. You can find them on the New Book Shelf.

Mindfulness is a conscious effort to be aware of your present experience or moment and accept your thoughts or emotions in a way that is non-judgmental. It is said to be useful for people dealing with stress, chronic pain, or anyone hoping to improve their happiness and well-being.

Psychology and psychiatry started paying attention to mindfulness in the 70’s. Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American doctor, opened the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program at the University of Massachusetts in 1979 after seeing Thich Nhat Hanh at a retreat. He recognized that mindfulness could be useful in treating patients with chronic illnesses. His program received interest from many people both healthy and ill, and has grown over the years. He’s written several books on the subject.

Here is the man himself explaining the what mindfulness meditation is: Jon Kabat-Zinn explaining Mindfulness Meditation.

Meet the Staff: Amanda Lee

This installment of ‘Meet the Staff’ brings us deep into the hidden recesses of Technical Services, located on the East end of the library building, just beyond the Media Center. There, amidst vast piles of the latest titles to grace the Mudd,  you will find Amanda Lee, our Acquisitions Assistant, who orders and receives all of our new materials. She is also available to help faculty assess and improve the collection to better serve the voluminous intellectual needs of the university.  This is a hefty task, which Amanda fulfills with grace and aplomb.  She’s been known to brave the mean streets of Appleton to painstakingly accrue faculty-requested materials as quickly as possible. Amanda is also a compassionate animal lover; in fact, in lieu of wedding gifts for their recent nuptials, Amanda and her husband selflessly requested donations for the local Humane Association.  We are so glad to have this driven, talented Acquisitions expert here at the Mudd.

How long have you been working at the Mudd Library? Since March of 2005 – almost 8 years!

What’s your favorite part of your job? Seeing all of the material that comes into the library; it’s really interesting to see what professors and students are studying.

Share something you’ve done at work that has made you especially proud. I’m proud every time someone thanks me for getting a book into their hands quickly.

Where did you get your degree? From UW Green Bay, an English degree with a Creative Writing emphasis.

What are your hobbies? Reading, writing, and running.

What’s the last book you read that you couldn’t put down? IQ84. I love Haruki Murakami.

What are your favorite bands or performers? It depends on the day!  The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, The Ramones, The Cure, Opeth, and on and on and on.

What groups and/or organizations are you active in (on or off campus)?  I try to take food or supplies to the Fox Valley Humane Association every couple weeks.

Meet the Staff: Susan Goeden

Today we are starting a new feature to help you better get to know the knowledgeable, helpful, and friendly staff of the Seeley G. Mudd Library. Our first featured staff person is Susan Goeden, who works back in Technical Services as the cataloging assistant.
What exactly does a cataloger do, you may ask? Susan enters a data record for every book and DVD that is ordered by, or donated to, the library into the library catalog. You can occasionally find her searching the library stacks in the midst of a cataloging project. Read on to get to know a little more about Susan.


How long have you been working at the Mudd Library?
I started at the Mudd as the library secretary in December of 2009, and have been the cataloging assistant since January of 2012.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
Having the opportunity see each and every new book and DVD that comes into the library, as well as the chance to stay abreast of what’s new in the publishing world.
Share something you’ve done at work that has made you proud.
I created comprehensive procedure manuals for both the library secretary and cataloging assistant positions. [Note from Holly, the current library secretary: These arduous tasks have benefitted not only Susan in her work, but have served to support the cohesiveness of the entire library and have ensured that all of her successors will be up for the difficult challenge of filling her shoes.]
Where did you get your degree?
I earned a BA in Economics from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
What are your hobbies?
I enjoy knitting, cooking, and reading (historical fiction, especially). I also admit to an office supply addiction.
What’s the last book you read that you couldn’t put down?
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.
What are your favorite bands or performers?
Yo-Yo Ma, Dar Williams, and Jack Johnson.
List your favorite blogs and/or magazines.
I love magazines. The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and cooking magazines are at the top my list, but, really, I’ll read anything.
What groups and/or organizations are you active in (on or off campus)?
I am the scholarship advisor for the Lawrence chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta. I belonged to the sorority as an undergrad and wanted give back with the little free time I have. It is a lot of fun to spend time with the girls- especially since I live with all boys [see below]. I also volunteer for the Appleton North High School Booster Club.
Tell us about your family
I have been happily married for 21 years to Eric, a manufacturing operations management consultant, and have two sons in high school, Gunnar and Travis.

We hope you have enjoyed “meeting the staff” of the Seeley G. Mudd Library. Stay tuned for our next installment.

Upcoming Library Events

The Mudd Library will be hosting a variety of fun and interesting events through the end of the term. From genealogy to video games- there’s something for everyone!

Professor Erica Scheinberg will talk about the 30th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s, Thriller.

October 18th: Tenth Library Mid-Term Reading Period Smash Bros. Tournament and Opening Gaming

  • Join us for our tenth Smash Bros. tournament and open gaming event! In addition to Smash Bros., we’ll also have open gaming Halo or Mario Kart as well as board games. In celebration of this milestone, we’ll have cake and extra prizes. Open gaming and warm-ups start at 6:30 pm, tournament begins at 7 pm.

October 25th: Things Worth Knowing: Haunted Lawrence

  • Learn about eerie happenings around campus. With Archivist Erin Dix.

November 1st: Things Worth Knowing: I See Dead People: Exploring Geneaology

  • Presented by Music Librarian Antoinette Powell, the library’s foremost forebear fanatic.

November 8th: Things Worth Knowing: Thriller at 30

  • November marks the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s super-smash album. Learn more about the music and MJ from special guest, Professor Erica Scheinberg.

All Things Worth Knowing events begin at 4:30 pm and take place on the first floor of the library. For more information on past topics, take a look at the guide.

We hope to see you at one, or all, of these events!

National Carry a Tune Week

You may be able to carry on, Carrie Nation and karaoke, but you may not be able to carry a tune. Even so, check out National Carry a Tune Week, October 7-13, 2012. This is all about tunes American in origin from 2001 or before, like the one Paul Simon wrote (ask your grampa,) so don’t be expecting to hear any of those non-American tunes.

“National Carry A Tune Week is held annually near the birthday of America’s first tune composer, William Billings, born in Boston, Massachusetts on October 7, 1746.” Of course.

There’s also an “online event” associated with this celebration which is a little foggy but supposedly involves sending in 10 tunes of your choice and possibly winning a CD, but we’re sure all will become clear next week.

Political Cartooning: The Guide!

Want to know more about last week’s Things Worth Knowing topic of political cartooning? The library maintains a guide just full of information relating to each weeks’ topic.
Whether you’ve attended the event or not, this guide will give you plenty of useful information that can be found on the web, or in the library’s resources. Every past Things Worth Knowing event is indexed in this guide. For example, the page for our political cartooning session contains links to library resources, such as Harper’s Weekly, and Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Editorial Cartoons, as well as links to a variety of web resources, such as The National Cartoonists Society website, and the Pulitzer Prize list of the best in editorial cartooning.

This week, we’ll be discussing the work and life of film great Joseph Francis (Buster) Keaton. Join us, Thursday, October 4th, at 4:30 pm, on the first floor of the library.

Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Muddwyn On September 19, the piratical crew of the good ship Seeley G. celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day. For the 10th year in a row, these hearty swabbies welcomed landlubbers aboard for a rollicking day of “Avast!” and “Ahoy” and “Scurvy Dogs!”

Even if you missed the day itself, you can see some photos of the decked-out Rrrrreference desk and some piratical magnetic poetry and you can still enjoy the piratized Library homepage.

For even more fun, you can get yourself a pirate name, translate into pirate, and even knit like a pirate!

Avast!

Room With a View

porta pottyThe Mudd has outsourced its, you should pardon the expression, sanitary functions. This summer the happy roof workers who are enjoying the 90 degree weather will give it a go, so to speak. After the faculty and students return in the fall they will revel in the continuous stream of fresh air and the spectacular views while visiting the upper-reaches of the Mudd. And they will literally be able to answer the call of nature while answering the call of nature.