Celebrating Gustavus Authors

Today - Thursday, April 28th - the Book Mark and Library will once again host the annual Author Day Tea. This year, we are celebrating the publication of books by Deb Pitton (Education), Thia Cooper (Religion), Mark Bjelland (Geography), and two long-time friends, Dennis Johnson and poet John Rezmerski.

Please join us if you can in the Courtyard Cafe at 3:30 for good conversation about new books and refreshments.

photo courtesy of vincent-t.

Drum Roll! Fanfare! Strike up the Band!

The Library's music CD collection is available for listening anywhere on campus through links in the library catalog. After several years of planning and digital conversion, listeners have access to our growing CD collection, including liner notes, without the need of checking out materials from the library! With this addition we now have three collections of streaming music available. The subscription databases Jazz Music Online and the Naxos Music Library are available through the database lists. To start listening to the Library's Online Music, go to the catalog, search "online music" and limit the search to sound recordings. (Of course, other more specific searches can be run as well.) This collection is limited to on-campus use only.

Library Hours for Easter Break:

Thursday, April 21: 8:00 am - 4:45 pm; Good Friday, April 22 through Easter Sunday, April 24: Closed. Monday, April 25: 8:00 am - 1:00 am.

Music Library Hours for Easter Break:
Thursday, April 21: 8:00 am - 3:30 pm; Friday, April 22-Sunday, April 24: Closed. Monday, April 25: 10:30 am - 8:00 pm.

Library Design Contest Winner!

We are honored and excited to unveil our new library design. Congratulations to Abby Huff, our creative contest winner!

Here's an excerpt from a Q&A with Abby:

Why did you decide to enter the contest?

When I first heard about the contest, I thought it would be a fun opportunity. I’m interested in advertisements and how they work. For me, having the chance to create a design is really exciting. I’ve designed a few logos before for various groups, and have enjoyed the process. So I thought it would be good to put my interests and talents to use for Gustavus and the library.

What was your inspiration?

I wanted to make something that symbolized the learning that takes place through the library. That was my main goal. The tree is used a lot to symbolize growth and knowledge and is also visually elegant, so it worked well. Having the tree sort of growing out of the book shows the library as a cultivator of knowledge, or a foundation that nurtures and supports a learning that continues to grow.

A Place for Learning and Living: The Gustavus Library

Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library is one of the busiest places on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College. Students use the space for many purposes including group meetings, classes, projects, quiet and noisy studying, research, casual dating, and socializing. In part, we aim to make the library a common space where students feel welcome, but our primary goal is the promotion of learning. This has been a constant since at least the 1950s. We strive to make changes that address student concerns so that the library remains, as one faculty member from the music department stated, “the biggest classroom on campus” and, in my opinion, the most enjoyable.

A century ago students lacked the robust and vibrant learning library of today. In those days, the facility was crammed onto the 2nd floor of Old Main, and students only had access to the following resources.

While most readers of this blog know of no other Gustavus library, aside from the one previously mentioned, there were several earlier facilities where learning and student centeredness were not always the primary goals because of either philosophy or space limitations. The following is a reverse chronology of libraries on our current campus.

2nd Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library, 1972-ongoing. Construction costs totaled $2.8 million. The walkway connecting the library to the Student Union was built during 1981.

1st Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library, 1948-1972. When built, the facility had capacity for slightly more than 100,000 volumes. Study spaces included amazing views of St. Peter and the Minnesota River Valley. Even though the facility seemed impressive, planners failed to anticipate one monumental problem. It opened during a period of massive collection development when both book and periodical collections grew at previously unprecedented rates. In a period of less than 25 years, the building became obsolete. Overcrowding necessitated the building of the 2nd Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library. Today, the building is named the A.H. Anderson Social Science Center and seems rather odd since most of the offices and classrooms are in spaces created for the storage of books and journals.

 

Commerce Hall, 1889-1897 and 1920-1948. This building housed the school’s commerce department and was located just south of Old Main. It was built in 1887 and demolished circa 1960. Shortly after being erected, plans were developed for an expansion to the building’s rear for the inclusion of a library. The addition was built and the library moved into the space, but overcrowding remained a problem.

Old Main, 1876-1889 and 1897-1920. The library was located on the 2nd floor during the 1897-1920 period.

To see additional pictures of past library facilities, please view the following link - http://tinyurl.com/5tsp6kb.

Come to Books in Bloom!

Join us Honors Weekend (May 6-8, 2011) for Books in Bloom, sponsored by Gustavus Library Associates.

Books in Bloom features floral arrangements by designers and professional florists that will reflect a selected book, film, or other academic resource within the library. Enjoy the blooms and learn more about our friends, the Gustavus Library Associates.

What You Were Searching

Did you know that Academic Search Premier is brought to you by the Minitex library network and the Electronic Library for Minnesota?

Did you know that in 2010, members of the Gustavus community conducted 48,178 searches for articles in Academic Search Premier?

Top 5 journals in all Ebscohost databases with full text viewed by Gustavus users in 2010:

1. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology - 988 views
2. Christian Century - 428 views
3. American Journal of Public Health - 400 views
4. Economist - 385 views
5. Developmental Psychology - 355 views

For more updates and tips on our e-resources collection, visit the E-Resources Informer.

Evidence-Based Optimism

We in the library are all about primary sources, fieldwork, and the careful weighing of evidence. Some days ago the appearance of a significant number of red-breasted fowl (n=lots) in close proximity to the Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library caused us to hypothesize that spring was, indeed, near. Today we present further evidence, found just outside the library's front entrance.

We feel, therefore, it is appropriate to conclude within a reasonable margin of error (weighting our results with our latitude and historical weather patterns) that spring has most likely sprung.