Library News

Category: Library News

The Year of The Beatles at the Mudd Library

Year of The Beatles displayIf you’ve visited the Mudd this past week or so, you may have noticed a semi-permanent exhibit titled “The Year of the Beatles.”  This coming year we will document the 50th anniversary of the rise of the Beatles’ fame in the United States beginning in the fall of 1963 and ending September 4, 1964 with their first and only appearance in Wisconsin.

Artifacts will include reproductions of documents, such as the program from the 1957 garden fete of St Peter’s Church, Woolton, Liverpool, the studio log book documenting the Quarrymen’s first professional recording in 1958, as well as contemporary items, including 45s and LPs and Beatles memorabilia and also scrapbooks complied in 1964.  There will also be some groovy events on campus such as speakers, presentations, and maybe even a trivia contest.  Keep watching for updates!

We’ll be documenting each of the library’s exhibits all year long on our Year of the Beatles Flickr photoset. We’ve also created a Beatles Pinterest board, containing images of Beatles-related materials available at the Mudd Library.

Summer 2013 Coffeehouse Series

Coffeehouse
Susan Goeden shares one of her favorites, The Good Earth by Pearl Buck at the 2012 summer reads coffeehouse session.

This Wednesday, July 10, marks the first of our summer 2013 coffeehouse sessions. Join us, and share your favorite summer read. Don’t have a suggestion you’d like share? Come to hear the Mudd Library staff share our favorites! Coffee and delicious refreshments, as well as fun bookmarks, will be available for all attendees. The session will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 10:45 a.m.

Take a look at the other exiting sessions that will be offered throughout the summer:

July 24: Lux!  More Lux!

Lux, a digital repository of scholarly and creative work produced by Lawrence students, staff, and faculty, is now one year old.  Join us as Erin Dix and Colette Lunday Brautigam tell us about recent additions to Lux, including Harrison Symposium papers, archives of The Lawrentian, and faculty publications.  Birthday cake is a distinct possibility.

August 7: Lawrence in the Civil War

At the start of the Civil War, Lawrence University was 14 years old.  Join university archivist Erin Dix to explore the ways in which Lawrence faculty and students participated on the front lines and coped with the effects of the war at home.   This will be a reprise of a presentation given in January – if you missed it then, join us this time around!

August 21: It’s A Visual, Audio, Video World

Your website, publication, blog, or course material would benefit from the addition of some media, but where to begin?  Come and discover sources for legally-acquired sound and images; Antoinette Powell and Colette Lunday Brautigam will lead us.

All coffeehouses will begin at 10 a.m. and last until 10:45 a.m. Coffee and some variety of yummy refreshment will be provided at each session. All Lawrence faculty and staff are welcome to attend.

Visit our coffeehouse guide for more details and to learn about past coffeehouses.

Introducing: The Katie

Upon entering to the Mudd Library, you may notice a 50 foot long boat hanging above the reference collection. The boat (named Katie) was used by the Milwaukee-Downer College crew team. After it was discovered in a barn by Will Evans ’13, a group of Milwaukee-Downer alumnae raised funds to have it refinished to then be displayed somewhere on the Lawrence campus. The selected location, above the Mudd Library reference collection, is right outside the Milwaukee-Downer room. This special collections room contains a number of important artifacts from Milwaukee-Downer College.

To learn more about how the Katie came to be in the Mudd Library, take a look at our webpage. To see just how we got this boat into the library and hanging from the ceiling, see our photo set.

Canine Therapy 2013

Getting stressed out by end of term projects, papers, and pending final exams? To help you relax, we’ve scheduled our annual Canine Therapy event for Monday, June 3rd from 2-3 pm. For those of you who have not yet attended one of these events, Mudd Library and other Lawrence staff and faculty bring their beloved dogs to the library plaza to share some pets and snuggles with stressed-out students.

So, no matter how stressful you fear your finals week will be- remember that you’ll have the unconditional love of a sweet puppy to make things better.

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.

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.

Winter Break Library Closure

Have you been planning on stopping by the Mudd Library to do some research, to take a look at the new Lincoln exhibit, or to check out some movies? Make sure to do so by this Thursday. The library will be open this week Monday through Thursday, from 8 am to 5 pm. Beginning Friday December 21st, the library, along with the rest of the campus, will be closed through January 1st. We will reopen with our regular hours on January 2nd.

All of us at the Mudd wish you the happiest of holidays and best wishes for an excellent 2013.

Roger Dale Kruse Room

Thanks to a generous gift from Judge D. Michael Lynn, LU class of ’65, the library has a beautiful new space. The Roger Dale Kruse room is a place for quiet study and reflection, as well as a meeting space for students, classes, and student organizations interested in diversity issues. The room was named in honor of Judge Lynn’s late partner.

The art hung in this room is from the personal collection of Mr. Kruse, and includes Post-Impressionist paintings by French artists. A special collection of books has been added to this room, pertaining to diversity and social justice. Additional artwork and books, as well as audiovisual resources will continue to be added to the room’s collection.

For more pictures, including some from an early phase of construction, take a look at the library’s flickr page.

Next time you’re in the library, head up to the fourth floor and take a look at this wonderful space.

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!