Welcome Week

Category: Welcome Week

Welcome Week 2022

Students from an open house waaaay back in 2014. A love of donut holes never changes.

We’re so excited to welcome new students to Lawrence University and the Mudd Library! Take a look at our schedule open hours and fun events for the week:

Monday, September 5

  • The library will be open from 10 am to 3 pm (Labor Day hours)
  • Visit us at the Services Fair in the Warch Campus Center between 11 am and 1 pm
  • Families and guests, need a place to relax? Stop by the Mudd for our Parent Drop-In between 1 pm and 3 pm

Tuesday, September 6-Friday, September 9: Library Hours are 8 am to 5 pm

Wednesday, September 7

  • Welcome for Waseda students from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm (updated from 11 am)

Thursday, September 8

  • Library Open House 1 pm to 3 pm: All new students should be sure to stop by for all kinds of fun giveaways, treats, games, crafts- and library tours happening on demand. Get to know your library and classmates on the most fun day of the year!

Saturday, September 10: Library Hours are 10 am to 4 pm

Sunday, September 11: Library Hours are 11 am to midnight (school year hours resume)

Want to get a head start in getting to know your Mudd Library? Take a look at the Learning About the Library guide! Still have questions? Ask us!

(post updated on 9/7/22 to include library hours)

Welcome Week 2020 and the Mudd

We are so excited to welcome new students to Lawrence University! Even though things look a lot different than in previous years, we’re just as eager to meet our new Lawrentians!

The Mudd Library building isn’t open over welcome week, but your (soon-to-be) friends from the Mudd are available to help you learn about the library, university, and have some fun while you settle in!

Welcome Week Schedule:

Thursday, September 10, 4-5 pm: Game Time with the Mudd Library!
Join us for a Zoomified version of the super fun game Bring Your Own Book. All you need to do is bring a book and join us! This “game of borrowed phrases” asks you to “grab a book, and then quickly skim to satisfy the chosen prompt… with the most entertaining phrase” (from game box description).
Join the Zoom gathering here!

Friday, September 11, 3-4 pm: Book Chat and Fiber Arts with the Mudd Library
Join us to chat about a favorite book you’ve read recently, a favorite show you’ve binged (or responsibly watched), a movie you’ve loved, a game you’ve played- or share a fiber arts project you’re working on! Feel free to share, or just come to listen and learn about some fun new things!
Join the Zoom gathering here!

Available All Week!
Library Reference Chat 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday

Ask us anything! We can help you get a head start on how to access course reserves, request to have a book sent to you in campus mail, search the library catalog, browse databases, find streaming music, figure out whom to contact for what, and so much more!
Ask here!

BFFs: Students, Success, and the Seeley G. Mudd Library
This welcome video narrated by our library director Peter Gilbert is especially for parents of new Lawrentians. Learn about the many ways in which your friends in the Mudd Library provide the services and resources to help your students succeed!
You can view the video now!

Virtual Campus Resources Fair: The Mudd Library
Learn about the many ways the Mudd Library can help, and all the fun ways your new library is different from other libraries you’ve used in the past with this introduction video, narrated by reference librarian Gretchen Revie.
You can view the video now!

We also have a whole lot of introductory videos to help you get acquainted with the Mudd Library and the many helpful services we offer! To accommodate COVID-19 restrictions and safety precautions, we’ve made many of these services available remotely! Take a look at the Learning About the Library guide for this informative collection!

We’re excited to get to know all of our new students- and want you to get to know us! Helping you is why we’re here!

Mudd Library Welcome Week 2019

Your friends in the Mudd Library are so excited to welcome new students and their families and friends to Lawrence for welcome week! We’ve already been having fun meeting with student athletes and summer institute students, but have even more exciting stuff planned for welcome week.

Monday, September 9

Visit us at the Campus Resources Fair in the Somerset Room of the Warch Campus Center: 11:30 am – 1 pm

Parent Library Lounge, Relax in the Mudd: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Welcome, parents! Stop by the Mudd Library any time between 1 and 3 pm and take a load off. Make yourselves comfortable, wander around, grab a magazine or newspaper (in front of the circulation desk), relax in the Milwaukee-Downer Room, use the wireless, sip some coffee or tea. Enjoy our library!

Thursday, September 12

Happy Lawrentians from last year’s open house.

Welcome to the Mudd! Open House: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm: Stop by the Mudd and meet the people who can help you succeed. Not only can you find out about the library (both online and offline), take a tour, and enjoy some food–you can build with Legos, make origami bookmarks, play games, and more! It’s both fun and educational, and you can’t beat that.

Friday, September 13

Explore the Mudd! Sessions beginning at 1:30 pm, through 4:30 pm: All of us at the Mudd Library welcome you to Lawrence! We provide services, materials, and staff that will support your academic and personal interests and we want you to get off to a good start with these short programs designed to provide quick, basic introductions to what’s up in the Mudd.

  • What’s the Mudd? (30 minutes): The library here has some major differences from other libraries, public and school, that you’ve used before, so there’s lots of new stuff to learn. More importantly, however, we want you to feel at home here. This session will introduce you to the way the library is organized, the kinds of things we provide, and the ways the library connects with you and your work. Sessions will begin at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30
  • Scores and CDs and Streaming, oh my! (30 minutes) Finding music in the Mudd can be an adventure. Learn some tips and tricks to make your life easier as you navigate through the Library’s extensive collections of scores and recordings. Sessions will begin at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00
  • Tour the Mudd (30 minutes) Take a walking tour of the building with a friendly librarian and find out what’s where: collections, study spaces, places to get help, and more! Tours will begin at 1:30, 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, 3:30, 4:00

During Welcome Week, the library will be open from 8 am – 4:30 pm Monday – Friday, from 10 am – 4:30 pm on Saturday, and 11 am – 4:30 pm on Sunday. School year hours begin on Monday, September 16th.

Be sure to stop by anytime over welcome week (or during the school year) to ask a question or just say hi to your new friends in the Mudd Library. Remember, we’re here to help you succeed!

Welcome Week 2018 Events

Image of a map on display and Welcome Week, one of our favorite weeks of the year, is coming up soon! We’re hosting or taking part in all kinds of events to welcome new students along with families and friends to campus.

Below is a lineup of the major events! In addition to these, we’ll also be meeting with sports teams and Waseda students!

Tuesday, September 4th

Resources Fair, 11:30 am to 1 pm (Campus Center): Be sure to visit your soon-to-be friends from the Mudd Library at our table.

Parents, Family & Friends Library Drop-In, 1 pm to 3 pm: While new students are off doing activities, come to the library and make yourselves comfortable, wander around, grab a magazine or newspaper, relax in the Milwaukee-Downer Room, use our wireless, and sip some coffee or tea. Enjoy our library!

Thursday, September 6th

Welcome to the Mudd Open House, 9 am to 12 pm: Stop by the Mudd and meet the people who can help you succeed. Not only can you find out about the library (both online and offline), take a tour, and enjoy some food—you can build with Legos, make origami bookmarks, play on the Wii, and more! It’s both fun and educational—and you can’t beat that.

Friday, September 7th

Getting to know the library presentations and tours, beginning at 1:30. Get off to the best start by learning all about what the Mudd Library can do to help you succeed. Each session will last approximately 20 minutes. Come to as many as you’d like!

  • 1:30 pm, What’s the Mudd
  • 1:50 pm, Tour the Mudd
  • 2:00 pm Scores and CDs and Streaming, oh my!
  • 2:30 pm, What’s the Mudd?
  • 2:50 pm, Tour the Mudd
  • 3 pm Scores and CDs and Streaming, oh my!
  • 3:30 pm, What’s the Mudd?
  • 3:50 pm, Tour the Mudd
  • 4:00 pm, Scores and CDs and Streaming, oh my!

Read the whole schedule on the Welcome Week events page. Want to know more about the library, visit our welcome students page.

Welcome the Lawrence University, new students! We’re looking forward to meeting you!

 

5 Things I Wish I Knew About the Mudd Library as a Freshman

Mudd buildingIn this entry from 2014, Lawrence student (now alumnus) and library fan William Gislason took the time to write another excellent post for our blog. Here, he imparted some wisdom he’d gained about the Mudd Library after he had spent much of his summer here in a student office.

5 Things I Wish I Knew About the Mudd Library as a Freshman by William Gislason Class of 2015

The summer before my senior year, I got to know Lawrence University’s Mudd Library on a whole new level. Amazingly, Lawrence hired me to build an iPad app for the trails of Björklunden— that’s right, sometimes Lawrence actually pays you! Along with the job, I got an office of my very own in the Seeley G. Mudd Library. After spending day after day in it, I’ve learned a thing or two about this building and I’ve come to realize that our library is actually one of the best places on campus! Here’s a list of 5 things I wish I knew about our library when I was a freshman.

1. There is a place for any mood
Whether you want to hang out with friends surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the first floor or have some peace and quiet on the fourth floor — there’s a spot for you. When serious work needs to be done on a paper, check out the study carrels along the windows of the silent third and fourth floors. When you need to meet with a group, try reserving the meeting rooms on the second and third floors (fully equipped with all you need to practice a presentation or write out a complex differential equation). Of course, if you just want to meet up with some friends while getting this week’s Italian homework out of the way, there are plenty of large group tables throughout the first and second floors always littered with groups of laughing students.

2. Movies and Music?
Anyone who thinks the Mudd Library is only filled with books is missing out. Every student has access to thousands of albums – new and old. You want The Beatles? They’ve got The Beatles. You’ll graduate long before you have a chance to listen to half the free music you’ve checked out. Of course, you can’t forget about the movies. When you and your “LUMOS” friends (Lawrence University’s Magical Organization of Students) decide you need to watch all 8 Harry Potter movies over Reading Period, you know where to go. And did I mention the viewing rooms? Let’s say you need to watch 2001, A Space Odyssey for your Film Studies class. You can actually check it out from the library and watch it away from the distractions of campus on a big screen TV!

3. Themed (Curated) Rooms
I’ll bet you didn’t know that Lawrence University has an Abraham Lincoln themed room where anyone can go to study and keep a bronze bust of Honest Abe company. How about an antique room devoted to the legacy of Milwaukee-Downer College that is filled with ancient books that bears an eerie resemblance to the library in Hogwarts (particularly after your Reading Period binge). And did you know about a small bare white room called the Mudd Gallery that serves as a pop-up gallery for a diverse array of art student’s projects. Within a week, the room will switch from delightful exhibit on typography to a grungy cavern showing beautiful, yet slightly disturbing, music videos for some of our campus’s rock bands on repeat. All of these room exist in Mudd Library and are open to students for study, contemplation, or artistic expression.

4. The Best Book Recommendations
The library is always filled with a plethora of librarians and student workers who love books. Each worker is surrounded by all genres of books and is bursting with recommendations about any subject. Looking for a collection of short stories? They just read a great one! How about a World War Two memoir? Their friend just recommended one. A book on how to write html/css code? They can show you exactly where all your options are.

5. The best part of the Mudd Library: FREE BOOKS!
Do you realize that throughout your four years at Lawrence you will never have to pay for a book? Aside from some classes’ mandatory textbooks, any book you want is free! Think of the possibilities! Even if the unthinkable happens and they don’t have the exact book you want, you can easily order it through Interlibrary Loan. Currently, I have checked out a book on the ecology of Door County, a book on Wisconsin’s geography, the film Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman, and the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (if you are also a Joyce fan, don’t worry, they have 3 more copies).

The Mudd Library can easily become anything you need it to be: a quiet study carrel, a meeting spot for friends, the hub of your cultural pursuits, or a home away from home. My best advice is to make full use of our library during your time at Lawrence. You’ll quickly understand why we all love it so much.

Are you interested in writing a guest post? Contact Angela Vanden Elzen with ideas.

5 Things I Wish I Knew About the Mudd Library as a Freshman

Mudd buildingLawrence student and library fan William Gislason took the time to write another excellent post for our blog. In this post, he imparts some wisdom he’s gained about the Mudd Library after spending much of his summer here in a student office.

5 Things I Wish I Knew About the Mudd Library as a Freshman by William Gislason Class of 2015

The summer before my senior year, I got to know Lawrence University’s Mudd Library on a whole new level. Amazingly, Lawrence hired me to build an iPad app for the trails of Björklunden— that’s right, sometimes Lawrence actually pays you! Along with the job, I got an office of my very own in the Seeley G. Mudd Library. After spending day after day in it, I’ve learned a thing or two about this building and I’ve come to realize that our library is actually one of the best places on campus! Here’s a list of 5 things I wish I knew about our library when I was a freshman.

1. There is a place for any mood
Whether you want to hang out with friends surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the first floor or have some peace and quiet on the fourth floor — there’s a spot for you. When serious work needs to be done on a paper, check out the study carrels along the windows of the silent third and fourth floors. When you need to meet with a group, try reserving the meeting rooms on the second and third floors (fully equipped with all you need to practice a presentation or write out a complex differential equation). Of course, if you just want to meet up with some friends while getting this week’s Italian homework out of the way, there are plenty of large group tables throughout the first and second floors always littered with groups of laughing students.

2. Movies and Music?
Anyone who thinks the Mudd Library is only filled with books is missing out. Every student has access to thousands of albums – new and old. You want The Beatles? They’ve got The Beatles. You’ll graduate long before you have a chance to listen to half the free music you’ve checked out. Of course, you can’t forget about the movies. When you and your “LUMOS” friends (Lawrence University’s Magical Organization of Students) decide you need to watch all 8 Harry Potter movies over Reading Period, you know where to go. And did I mention the viewing rooms? Let’s say you need to watch 2001, A Space Odyssey for your Film Studies class. You can actually check it out from the library and watch it away from the distractions of campus on a big screen TV!

3. Themed (Curated) Rooms
I’ll bet you didn’t know that Lawrence University has an Abraham Lincoln themed room where anyone can go to study and keep a bronze bust of Honest Abe company. How about an antique room devoted to the legacy of Milwaukee-Downer College that is filled with ancient books that bears an eerie resemblance to the library in Hogwarts (particularly after your Reading Period binge). And did you know about a small bare white room called the Mudd Gallery that serves as a pop-up gallery for a diverse array of art student’s projects. Within a week, the room will switch from delightful exhibit on typography to a grungy cavern showing beautiful, yet slightly disturbing, music videos for some of our campus’s rock bands on repeat. All of these room exist in Mudd Library and are open to students for study, contemplation, or artistic expression.

4. The Best Book Recommendations
The library is always filled with a plethora of librarians and student workers who love books. Each worker is surrounded by all genres of books and is bursting with recommendations about any subject. Looking for a collection of short stories? They just read a great one! How about a World War Two memoir? Their friend just recommended one. A book on how to write html/css code? They can show you exactly where all your options are.

5. The best part of the Mudd Library: FREE BOOKS!
Do you realize that throughout your four years at Lawrence you will never have to pay for a book? Aside from some classes’ mandatory textbooks, any book you want is free! Think of the possibilities! Even if the unthinkable happens and they don’t have the exact book you want, you can easily order it through Interlibrary Loan. Currently, I have checked out a book on the ecology of Door County, a book on Wisconsin’s geography, the film Wild Strawberries by Ingmar Bergman, and the novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce (if you are also a Joyce fan, don’t worry, they have 3 more copies).

The Mudd Library can easily become anything you need it to be: a quiet study carrel, a meeting spot for friends, the hub of your cultural pursuits, or a home away from home. My best advice is to make full use of our library during your time at Lawrence. You’ll quickly understand why we all love it so much.

Are you interested in writing a guest post? Contact Angela Vanden Elzen with ideas.

2014 Welcome Week Library Events

Library Open HouseFor the first time in forever- the library will be full of students!*

We have some fun events planned for new students and their parents during Welcome Week. Come to the library for any or all of these events, or just stop by to check out some novels, movies, or video games. The library will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week, 10 a.m to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Visit our table at the services fair
Tuesday from 1-4 in the Somerset Room of the Warch Campus Center
Stop by our table to learn about the services the library offers our students, our collections, and meet some of our awesome staff.

Parent Drop-In at the Library
Tuesday September 9, 1:30-3:30
Parents, need a place to read the paper, get some coffee, and charge your phones? Stop by the library to relax and talk with the Mudd librarians about how we can help your students succeed.

Library Open House Party
Thursday, September 11, 9 a.m.– noon
Come for the doughnuts and coffee, stay for the games, tours, library giveaways, crafts, and friendly librarians. We also have a mountain of prizes that were donated from downtown businesses.

We’ve also put together an informative welcome page for new students to help you learn all about the Mudd Library.

*We apologize to those of you who will now have the Frozen soundtrack stuck in your heads for the remainder of the day.