News from the Mudd

Pianist Catherine Kautsky Concludes the 2013-2014 Convocation Series

Professor of Music Catherine Kautsky was chosen to speak as the recipient of Lawrence’s Faculty Convocation Award, which honors a faculty member for distinguished professional work. Her address, “Whispered Doubts and Shouted Convictions: What are These Composers Saying?” will explore the ways in whDSC02325ich composers speak through their music.

As the final convocation in the 2013-2014 series, the Honors Convocation publicly recognizes students and faculty for excellence in many different concentrations.  The convocation will be held Thursday, May 29 at 11:10AM, free and open to the public.  It will also be livestreamed here.

On display in the library is a selection of Kautsky’s work, along with other ensemble recordings.

Highlighting Lawrence’s Architecture

The newest display on the Mudd’s first floor features photos and information about the architecture and design of Lawrence University buildings.  The buildings featured are the design of architect George Mattheis, who has worked on the construction and remodeling of campus buildings from 1971 to his retirement in 2008.

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On display is information on Briggs Hall, Björklunden Lodge, the President’s house, and the Lincoln Reading Room (which can be found in the library). There are also many photographs to view. In addition to these buildings, Mattheis was instrumental in working on the majority of prominent campus buildings- especially the Seeley G. Mudd Library!

Make sure to stop by the display and to learn more about Lawrence’s architectural history!

Update: Miss the display? Take a look at our Flickr album, George Mattheis Architecture Displays, to see detailed images of the display content.

Meet the Staff, Student Worker Edition: Allison Wray

003 (Large)We are pleased to introduce Allison Wray, the library’s new Student Social Media Assistant! In the short while that she’s held this position, she’s impressed us with her skill and talent, and we are so grateful to have her social media acumen here at the Mudd. You may have already noticed that Allison has been writing some wonderful posts for this blog, and she is also helping us maintain all of our social media sites.  She recently shared with us that Lawrence students tend to use tumblr more than any other social media site; thanks to her insight, we’re now aiming to reach more of the Lawrence community through our tumblr page.

We’re looking forward to continued collaboration with Allison, who also shares her talents at the Circulation desk. Read on to learn more about this multifaceted and talented student worker.

What’s your major?

English, but I’m thinking about adding art history as well.

Where are you from?

West Bend, Wisconsin

How long have you been working at the Mudd?

Fall term of this year.

What’s your favorite part of your job?

I really like being a part of the “behind-the-scenes” work of a central campus spot. It’s so cool to see how the library operates!

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

I redesigned the theme on the tumblr page! It’s not awfully difficult, but I’m really glad with how it turned out. Designing a nice theme is very satisfying for me.

As a student, where is your favorite study/relaxation/hang-out spot in the Mudd?

I don’t usually stick to one spot, but as long as there’s a big window, I’m happy. I am a fan of the upper floors, though.

What are your hobbies?

Knitting, watercolor and oil painting, reading, sleeping, and binge watching television on Netflix.

What’s the last book you read that you couldn’t put down?

It’s been so long since I read a book for fun! I can’t name one, but I just started Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe and I’m excited to get into it.

What are your favorite bands or performers?

I really enjoy folk and indie music; some of my favorites are Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Laura Marling, and Johnny Flynn.

List your favorite blogs and/or magazines.

I really love Autostraddle.com and Nylon magazine.

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

I’m involved in Tropos (the literary magazine) and the Downer Feminist Council, and I adore both!

When will you graduate? What are your post-graduation plans?

2017. I don’t know yet, but I think I’d like to go to grad school for library sciences or museum studies.

 

 

 

Senior Experience Addresses Wisconsin Mine

For her senior experience project, geology major Steph Courtney ’14 decided to approach an issue that hits close to home.  In a series of four posters and tangible display accessories, Courtney explores the geology and hazards associated with GTac’s planned taconite mine near Mellen, Wisconsin.  The goal of the posters is to provide an information source about these topics because it is fairly difficult to find accessible scientific information from scientists in today’s political climate.DSC022381

In her project’s mission, Courtney states, “In my time at Lawrence, I’ve discovered that I have a passion for science public outreach, education, and communication.  Coupled with my interests in conveying information visually, I’ve found that one of the ways I most enjoy working on this passion is through museum-type displays, such as this one.  I’ve found a number of ways to exercise and refine that passion through LU-garnered opportunities, but feel that…public engagement and feedback is always helpful.”DSC022401

Courtney isn’t the sole part of the geology department who is addressing this topic, professors Andrew Knudsen and Marcia Bjornerud have been working on this issue as well, and collaborated with another geology student to write a paper about it.  In addition, Bjornerud has been working with the Bad River tribe and has testified to the state legislature about the planned mine.

Steph Courtney’s display can be viewed on the second floor of the Mudd Library through May 9th, 2014.  There will be a public reception (with snacks!) on May 4th from 3-5pm.

Alumni Librarians: Kirstin Jansen Dougan, ’95

Editor’s note: We invited Lawrence alumni who have gone into library work to share with us what they do and how they got there. Here’s another in a series.dougan_photo

Even as a small child, I loved the idea of investigating things—Harriet the Spy and the Hardy Boys were my heroes. By junior high, the idea of collecting information was extremely appealing. Crush on the new boy in school? Research! Where did he come from, what did his parents do, what kind of car did they drive? Silly, yes, but it carried over to school. I loved researching school projects (the writing, not so much). In high school, my youth orchestra director tasked me with being the group’s librarian, since he thought I was responsible and organized. I also started a love affair with technology—computers—especially.

By the time I got to Lawrence as a viola performance major, I was ready for the wonders that awaited me in the Seeley G. Mudd. When I wanted to learn the origins of a word, I went to one of the reference librarians (now director) Pete Gilbert. He showed me how to use the Oxford English Dictionary (just in print at that point). Shortly after that, my sophomore music history class had a session with the music librarian, the great Eunice Schroeder, and was assigned a follow-up scavenger hunt using the DOS based library catalog to find music materials. It was so much fun! The power to know how to search correctly and find what I needed—my investigative and information collecting tendencies were thrilled. If I remember correctly, one of the other students who did well on that assignment was Colleen Rortvedt, now director of the Appleton Public Library.

Sophomore year also saw me taking on the job as librarian for the LUSO. I loved the duties, ordering, marking, and organizing the music for each season. But I didn’t care for the deadlines and eraser bits that permeated my wardrobe. Since I knew I wasn’t likely to make a full-time living as a performer, and I wasn’t interested in teaching, I started wondering what else I could do with a music background and a love for information. I knew I didn’t want a job where I sat at a desk all day (no, librarians don’t do that!). I talked to Eunice, who suggested that working in an academic library would be a good fit. I was already taking German and French in addition to my music history and theory classes, lessons and such), so I kept at it until it was time to think about graduate school. I’m not sure I knew that I would need a second masters in music to be a good candidate for many academic library positions, but I knew I wasn’t ready to stop my viola education. So long story short, I went to grad school for viola performance and paid my way by being the orchestra librarian—still couldn’t get away from the eraser bits! After a year off to work in an office, in which I learned I really didn’t want to do that, I enrolled in UW Madison’s SLIS. Given the different paths my classmates had taken, I felt a bit conspicuous as one who had wanted to be a librarian early on. But I was fortunate to get various GA positions, first in the University Records Office (part of the Archives), then at College Library, and finally with the Digital Content Group, where my love of technology and data structures grew. Throughout I held an hourly position at the music library, working at the reference desk, processing archival collections, and other tasks.  I took several independent studies with the music librarians to supplement my classwork.

After graduating I stayed with the Digital Content group for a year and half, before taking a job as a music librarian at Duke University. I was responsible for reference, instruction, collection development, web site maintenance and staff supervision. After two years my boss retired, so I became the interim head for two years. I then left to take the job I have now as the Music and Performing Arts Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We are one of the largest libraries in the country and I love my job. I (along with the head of our branch library) do many of the same things I did at Duke, but in addition, librarians here are on the tenure track. This means that I also research and write articles. I focus on information seeking behavior in music and the tools used in music research, as well as the collections and services that connect these. My love of research and information gathering has come full circle.

by Kirstin (Jansen) Dougan, Class of ’95

National Library Week 2014!

Come celebrate National Library Week here at the Mudd from April 13-19! The festivities will begin Monday, some highlights include:

National Library Week 2014

  • Hidden prizes all over the library! Plastic eggs containing a slip redeemable a prize have been hidden around the library. Bring the egg to the reference desk to pick a prize!
  • Enter the annual Library Haiku Contest!
  • Library Student Worker Appreciation Day on Tuesday, April 15th- make sure to say thanks for all the hard work they do!
  • Ask a question at the reference desk, get a cookie on Wednesday, April 16th from 6-10 PM!
  • Tell us your favorite thing about the library, and see why the staff and students love it too!

Take a look at our Facebook album to see photos of the library staff sharing what it is that we love about working at the Mudd Library.

We hope to see you here!

Scholarly work of Lawrence Alumni: Joe Siegel ‘01

A bit about me, Joe Siegel (LU class of 2001)Joe Siegel

How do people learn to listen? It’s something that most people don’t even stop to think about. The ability to listen in our first language develops with little effort or explicit attention, but listening competency in a second language can be an arduous task, something that takes significant time and effort.  I’ve been interested in how listening ‘works’ for a long time, particularly in a second language, and I’m amazed by what an incredible ability it is. Biological, psychological, and auditory aspects combine to help us understand the aural messages we receive, and the communicative importance of listening, whether in a first or second language, makes it a fundamental tool.

I’m currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo, Japan. In the classroom, I teach courses on general English as a foreign language (EFL) with a specific focus on the development of aural abilities in a second language. Such skills include recognizing the beginnings and endings of words, parsing the speech stream into meaningful chunks of language, and confirming or rejecting predictions we make about what we hear. As a researcher in the field of applied linguistics, I’m interested to learn more about teaching methods and learning styles for second language listening. This work has included MA and PhD dissertations and grant-funded research supported by the Ministry of Education in Japan.

The liberal arts education I received at Lawrence was a great preparation for my career, since my particular area of research focuses on the intersection of biology, psychology, education, and foreign language teaching and learning. A number of classes I took at LU have had a great impact on how I go about research and academic writing. Freshman Studies was a wonderful interdisciplinary experience, and I benefitted from the challenges of relating different works, genres, and themes to each other. I remember one Freshman Studies teacher who gave us the autonomy to choose any two works we had covered during the semester and write a paper on any aspect that linked the two. What a fantastic assignment for freshman students! What freedom!

Creativity, analytic thinking, and the need for clarity of expression: all of these have been indispensable in the work that I do now.

I majored in English at Lawrence, and the comparative and close analyses of important works of literature have definitely prepared me to do background reading of academic works and to construct clearly-written yet sophisticated literature reviews for academic publications. The two independent studies classes that I completed at LU gave me the opportunity to set up, plan, resource, and execute small-scale projects on my own. These courses, which I completed in my junior and senior years, were practical bridges that allowed me to transition from work done purely for grades and research done in the ‘real world’ for the benefit of students, colleagues, and the language teaching field in general. Further, at Lawrence, I had chances to interact closely and collaboratively with professors, which gave me much-needed confidence and thick skin that I’d need when dealing with peer reviewers and editors working for journals and publishing companies, who can sometimes be a picky bunch.

Listed below are some of my main and more recent publications, mostly on topics related to second language listening pedagogy:

Siegel, J. (2013). Methodological ingenuity for second language listening. In J.  Schwieter (Ed.), Studies and global perspectives of second language teaching and learning (pp. 113-139). Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

Siegel, J. (2013). Exploring L2 listening instruction: Examinations of practice.  ELT Journal, 68(1).

Siegel, J. & Siegel, A. (2013). Empirical and attitudinal effects of bottom-up listening activities in the L2 classroom. ELT World Online, 5, 1-25, http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/.

Siegel, J. (2012). Second language learners’ perceptions of listening strategy instruction. Innovations in language learning and teaching, 7(1), 1-18.

Siegel, J. (2011). Thoughts on L2 listening pedagogy. ELT Journal, 65(3), 318-321.

Siegel, J. (2011). Learner development through listening strategy training. In K. Irie & A. Stewart (Eds.), Realizing autonomy: Practice and reflection in language education contexts (pp. 78-93). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

In the future, I plan to continue investigating current methodologies in language teaching and to develop and trial other alternative ways of teaching second language listening. I’ve also recently become more interested in pragmatic development, especially concerning university students who complete study abroad experiences.

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: Bruce Machart and Matthew Batt

As part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, Bruce Machart and Matthew Batt will present on the Lawrence University campus on Friday, April 11 at 4pm in the Pusey Room in the Warch Campus Center.

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Bruce Machart is the author of the award-winning novel, The Wake of Forgiveness (2010), and the collection of short stories, Men in the Making (2011), both published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Reviewers have called The Wake of Forgiveness mesmerizing, evocative, and a dazzling tale of retribution, redemption, and morality. The novel won the Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Prize for fiction and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association’s Reading the West Prize. It was also named to several “top ten title” lists for 2010.

Both of Machart’s books are available in the Mudd, and more information on the author can be found on his website and the Fox Cities Book Festival author page.

Matthew Batt is the author of Sugarhouse, tumblr_n3f5nrKijx1rhgrsso1_500a nonfiction account of renovating a Salt Lake City crack house and his life along with it. He’s the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the McKnight Foundation, and his work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He teaches creative writing at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and has lately been finishing work on a collection of essays and a novel set in Milwaukee.

Sugarhouse can be found in the Mudd Library, and more information on Batt can be found on the Fox Cities Book festival author page.

 

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: Shawn Sheehy

As part of the Fox Cities Book Festival, Shawn Sheehy will present on the Lawrence University campus on Thursday, April 10 at 4:30 in the Wriston Art Center.
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Shawn Sheehy is a pop-up book artist whose work is a unique blending of image, message, and structure. He combines paper engineering with his interest in biology and cultural evolution to produce limited-edition pop-up books. His artist books are inspired by the dynamic ecologies that operate in both wild and cultured environments. Counting on the Marsh: a Nighttime Book of Numbers, for example, is a book with a marsh environment for its setting, contains intricately constructed pop-ups, and uses the simple text of a counting story — all to create a work of art and science.

Sheehy’s work is featured in 500 Handmade Books Vol. 2, which can be found in the Mudd Library (Call Number: Z246 .A14 2013).

Visit Sheehy’s website and the Fox Cities Book Festival author page to see more images and information about his work!

 

Fox Cities Book Festival Authors at Lawrence: David Rhodes

JewelweedThe seventh annual Fox Cities Book Festival will take place in just a few short weeks. This festival celebrates the joy of literature by connecting readers with local, regional, and nationally-known authors. Book festival authors will be speaking at locations all over the Fox Cities during this week-long festival. This year, David Rhodes, Shawn Sheehy, Bruce Machart, and Matthew Batt will be speaking on the Lawrence University campus.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing a bit about these authors and their works.

David Rhodes, author of Jewelweed, will be speaking in the Warch Campus Center Cinema on Monday, April 7th at 6:30 P.M.

David Rhodes has received national acclaim for all of his novels, the most recent of which is Jewelweed (2013). This story centers on the small town of Word, Wisconsin, and a number of characters who are trying to come to grips with their problems and make their way in the community. A Booklist review described the work as a “many-faceted novel of profound dilemmas, survival, and gratitude.” A Chicago Tribune review called it “dazzlingly alive” and noted Rhodes is “a master storyteller of real people who live in our small towns.”

For more information about David Rhodes, take a look at his author page on the Fox Cities Book Festival website.

The Mudd Library owns a number of Rhodes’ works, including Jewelweed. Take a look at our library catalog.