Angela Vanden Elzen

Author: Angela Vanden Elzen

Antoinette Powell Named Lillian F. Mackesy Historian of the Year

Antoinette (pictured here with Nick Hoffman) talks about the Cleggett-Hollensworth family during the "Bicycling Through Local Black History" tour.
Antoinette (pictured here with Nick Hoffman) talks about the Cleggett-Hollensworth family during the “Bicycling Through Local Black History” tour. (Photo from the History Museum Facebook page).

Our very own Music Librarian and Associate Professor Antoinette Powell has been awarded the Lillian F. Mackesy Historian of the Year Award by the Outagamie County Historical Society!

Nick Hoffman, Chief Curator of the History Museum at the Castle, explained that Antoinette received this award for her “important work on the Cleggett-Hollensworth [and] Newman families, organizing the Tribute Concert, work on Stone of Hope, and the Third Ward website.  [Her] talents for research and storytelling have made all these projects especially credible and engaging.”

Here at the Mudd, we have long known about Antoinette’s talents for research and her dedication to local history. We’re delighted to see that she has been recognized in this way.

Please join us in congratulating Antoinette on this significant award!

Library Winter Break Hours & Services

Mudd Library in snow.Winter break is here! The Mudd Library will be open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. beginning December 1. We will be closed from December 20-28, and January 1-4.

Faculty, staff, and students who live in the Appleton area are welcome to check out library materials over break. Did you know that we have a large collection of popular movies and TV shows? You could also check out some popular fiction and non-fiction books- now that you’ll have some time for leisure reading. We also have video games, including Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 games. Prefer good old board games? We have a collection of family-friendly board games that were donated in conjunction with International Games Day.

Staying for December term? Our reference librarians will be on call from 8 a.m-12 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. for any research needs.Want to watch a movie with friends? Use one of our viewing rooms!

Teaching a class winter term? Get a head start on the term by bringing in your course reserves with plenty of time to spare. Don’t feel like filling out the blue and white reserve cards by hand? Use our electronic version!

Not on campus or in the Appleton area over break? The Mudd Library can still help you out! Most of our electronic databases can be accessed from off campus with a current Lawrence University log-in. Interlibrary loan services for articles only are also available for those off campus over break.

As always, ask us if there’s anything we can do!

Corinne Wocelka: “Because of her, Lawrence is a better place”

Corinne WocelkaThe library was very saddened to hear about the sudden passing of Corinne Wocelka, former Associate Professor and Director of Technical Services. Corinne retired from the Mudd Library in 2010 after 33 years at Lawrence. Her passion for public service and exacting standards were well-known in the library and across campus. Many of us also knew of her impressive skills at bridge, her devotion to the Packers, and her love of music. In light of that love of music, members of the library staff were willing to embarrass themselves by performing a dance in her honor at her retirement celebration.

Upon her retirement, Associate Professor and Library Director Peter Gilbert wrote about some of Corinne’s many contributions to Lawrence and to the library:

The director of technical services — the job that Corinne has held since 1985 — is responsible for acquisitions, cataloging, periodicals and government documents. In these last 25 years, each of those areas has undergone a massive shift in how the work is done as the world of information storage and retrieval has moved from paper to electronic. In fact, Corinne’s entire career at Lawrence — as circulation assistant, acquisitions librarian, and director of technical services — has been all about that core library value: helping people get the stuff they need for teaching and learning, no matter what the format.

One of the main signs of that shift was the transition from the card catalog to LUCIA, Lawrence’s online catalog. Corinne was, of course, a lead player in that transition — and the later transition from one vendor’s system to another. The number of details that are involved in shifts like that is just boggling, but Corinne managed to keep it all in her head (or on her desk). She also managed to keep library users in the forefront. Her priority was always to help make things easier for the reader. If you can find anything in the library, it’s because of Corinne’s efforts.

Another of the many reasons everyone loves Corinne is that it’s been her job to buy things for the library — and she was tireless in locating and acquiring materials for teaching, learning and research. Many, many faculty have praised her willingness to “go the extra mile” to help them get the books, music and videos they needed.

In addition to her excellent library work, Corinne has been an active participant in faculty committees. The Honors Committee, especially, has benefited from her high standards and attention to detail. Hundreds of students brought their honors papers to her and she responded with support and enthusiasm for even the most esoteric topics.

That support and enthusiasm extended throughout Corinne’s work at Lawrence. Whether it was creating records for the online catalog, searching for an obscure video or reading an honors paper about C. elegans, Corinne has focused her attention on the people.

When Corinne was promoted to associate professor, Dennis Ribbens, the library director, said about her, “Were she to leave today, there is no way I could replace her with only one person … Probably no one person knows more about the entire spectrum of this place than she … Because of her, Lawrence is a better place.”

Suffice it to say, both the library and the campus are better places because of her work and we’ll miss her. I’m sure, however, that her retirement travels will bring her occasionally back to the Mudd — and we’re glad of that.

A celebration of Corinne’s life will be held at her retirement community, Touchmark (2601 Touchmark Dr, Appleton) on Saturday, September 27th in the afternoon. More details will be added as they become available.

Update: The following memorial service details were published in her obituary in the Post-Crescent:

The memorial service for Corinne will be held at 4:00 PM on Saturday, September 27, 2014 in the chapel at TOUCHMARK ON PROSPECT, 2601 Touchmark Drive in Appleton, with Rev. Jane Anderson officiating. Family and friends are invited to gather at Touchmark on Saturday from 2:00 PM until the time of the memorial service. In lieu of flowers, memorials to Lawrence University are appreciated. Online condolences can be offered at www.wichmannfargo.com.

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.

Remembering the Humor of Fred Sturm

Fred SturmAll of us in the library were sad to hear of the passing of Fred Sturm, Professor of Music and Director of Jazz Studies and Improvisational Music. What Music Librarian Antoinette Powell remembers most about him is his sense of humor.

“Besides being an educator, composer and arranger, Fred was fun and he wasn’t afraid to display it in any setting.  There was the time he and Mark Urness signed up for the wedding registry on Amazon because they thought it would be a good place to let me know what CDs they wanted the library to buy.”

Professor Sturm was even able to transform something as dull as meeting minutes into something entertaining, in his Old West interpretation of a Conservatory Planning Committee meeting:

Conservatory Sodbusters Meetin’

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Present:  Marshal Black Bart Pertl, Sheriff Wyatt Stannard, “Dances With Wolves” Ament, Sundance Dreher, Hoss Sturm, Calamity Gu, Rowdy Jordheim, Annie Oakley Powell

I. Selection of recording secretary – Ah reckon it’s time fer me to put down the ol’ jug and start doin’ me some writin’

II. Approval of April 21, 2009 minutes – Black Bart threatened to shoot us all dead if we didn’t approve the gol-danged things.

III. Admission report Dances With Wolves Ament and his posse rounded up 87 flea bitten no good mule headed varmints.

IV. Swine Flu update  Black Bart said we gotta stop takin’ baths together on Saturday nights, stop steppin’ in cowpies, an’ quit chewin’ tobacckie or Doc Holliday’s gonna shoot us all dead.

V. Commencement Concert length Wyatt Earp Stannard’s tired of all that catterwallin’ and lollygaggin’ and said he’d hang anybody that dances on stage fer more’n 8 minutes.

VI. Signage on College Avenue You tenderfoots oughta be doin’ what I got planned down in Texas – Ah’m plannin’ to brand little dogies with promo like “Texas Tech’s OK Chorale 2-Night!!” and stampede through downtown Lubbock. Moooo!!

Meeting adjourned at high noon.WEE-HAH!!!, Rooster Cogburn Bjella 5.21.09

To read more stories, or to share your own, the university has set up a webpage dedicated to Professor Sturm remembrances. We’ve also set up a display in the library highlighting some of his accomplishments.

Summer Student Research in the Library: William Gislason

A great deal of interesting student research happens in the Mudd Library over the school year as well as the summer. William Gislason was kind enough to share a bit about the innovative project he has been working on in the library this summer. We were happy to help him out by providing a student office, research materials, and use of one of the library’s iPads. 

Will Gislason

My summer project – William Gislason

When I entered Lawrence, I had no idea what major I would choose much less what career options I was interested in. While in St. Paul, Minnesota, I held a series of odd-jobs during which I worked at a hardware store, a Christmas tree lot, a garden center, as well as a coffee shop. At Lawrence, I even assisted an Ecology professor with her research. I finally focused enough to choose Biology and Environmental Studies for my double major and I knew I would need a summer job related somehow to this field. As I reflect about my time at Lawrence before starting my senior year, it’s clear I’ve learned a lot from each position but I’ve realized that I’ve learned more in this past summer than ever I thought possible.

Over the past three months, I’ve had the delight of making my first iPad app. Under the direction of the Biology department’s Bart De Stasio and Alyssa Hakes and the Director of Björklunden, Mark Breseman, along with the assistance of Celeste Silling, I’m attempting to provide the visitors of Björklunden with much of the information about the area’s ecology one would learn in a guided nature tour. To accomplish this, I’m building an app that displays the visitor’s location upon a trail map along with the location of interesting ecological features. Pictures and information on these features can be accessed by simply tapping the feature on the map. I’ve been so fortunate to not only have an office in the library to use as a base of operations for the project but to have the literary resources of the library to learn about the geography, ecology, and natural history of Door County and Wisconsin.

Though this project involves long hours of coding I have learned a ton about photography, writing, design, and planning a user experience. I consider myself so lucky to have been given this opportunity by Lawrence University and I hope the app will be a simple, educational, and delightful addition to the many services for the guests of Björklunden. Starting this fall, we’ll have 3 iPads for visitors to rent from Björklunden to experience their own person tour of Björklunden. Be sure to check it out!

Final Summer Coffeehouse: Films from the Archives

Our final summer coffeehouse session is fast approaching. Don’t miss our special sneak peek of newly digitized short films from the Lawrence Archives!

Join us on Wednesday, August 13, at 10 am, as we share some recently digitized 16 mm films from the Archives. A public showing is planned for the fall, but attendees at this session will get a first look at two promotional films: A River, A College, A Town (1957) and This is Lawrence (1972). Not only will you be treated to an entertaining look into Lawrence’s past, but we will also provide popcorn and refreshments.

Coffeehouses are held in the reference area on the first floor of the library, and last for about one hour.

“Strength through Union:” Exploring the Consolidation 50 Years Later

A group of Milwaukee-Downer College students and faculty who transferred to Lawrence with the consolidation in the fall of 1964.
A group of Milwaukee-Downer College students and faculty who transferred to Lawrence with the consolidation in the fall of 1964.

If you know a bit about Lawrence history, surely you know about the consolidation between Milwaukee-Downer College and Lawrence College back in 1964. While the fact that it took place is common knowledge, not many know about the events leading up to the consolidation and why it took place.

Over reunion weekend, our Archivist, Erin Dix ’08, gave an excellent presentation about this consolidation- including how it continues to shape Lawrence University’s present and future.  She will be reprising this presentation on Wednesday, July 23rd at 10 a.m. in the Mudd Library. All are welcome and encouraged to come and learn about this fascinating period in Lawrence’s history. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Update: Did you miss the presentation or interested to learn more? Take a look at our guide for more information and a video of the presentation from Alumni Weekend.

Summer 2014 Coffeehouse Series

Announcing the 2014 Summer Library Coffeehouse Series! The Mudd coffeehouses provide an opportunity to come to the library, enjoy a snack, and learn something interesting.

Wednesday, July 9: Summer Reads
What is summer in a library without reading? Come to this popular session to hear about the library staff’s favorite summer reads, and please share yours with us!

Wednesday, July 23: “Strength through Union:” Exploring the Consolidation
2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the consolidation of Lawrence and Milwaukee-Downer colleges. Do you have questions about why or how the consolidation took place? Join us to learn more about the events leading up to the consolidation, about how it was carried out, and about how it continues to shape our present and future.

Wednesday, August 13: Special Sneak Peek: Films from the Archives!
A number of 16mm films from the Archives have recently been digitized, and we are so excited to share them! A public showing is planned for the fall, but attendees at this session will get a first look at two promotional films from the set: “A River, A College, A Town” (1957) and “This is Lawrence” (1972).

Coffee

Where and When?
All coffeehouse sessions will take place on the first floor of the Mudd Library. They 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 about this summer’s sessions and to learn about past coffeehouses.