The Campus with 2 Tornados

Sunday, March 29, 1998
A warm sunny day which turned out to be the 2nd time the college was under siege by nature's power. A tornado swept in and wiped out 90% of all windows on campus, demolished the Swedish house plus many other campus homes, ravaged St. Peter, and left the town with one casualty on that day. Gustavus campus was very fortunate that most of the students had already left for spring break the Friday before. The weeks and months ahead for Gustavus employees were filled with phone calling, debris pick up, repairing broken homes, returning to offices that were heavily damaged, or not returning to buildings at all that were deemed unsafe by FEMA. It was an event this blogger will never forget!

The tornado of Sunday, June 22, 1924 was equally as devastating for the town and college.


Fascinating fact is each tornado hit on a Sunday nearly the exact same time of day!

You can find more information about each tornado by reading the St. Peter Herald from the previous event dates in microfilm form at the library. Another way to find out information regarding the tornados is using the College Archives Manuscript Collection (CAMC) https://gustavus.edu/library/archives/college/

Reminder: with the warm spring weather it is advisable to "keep your eye to the sky" and beware of emerging weather changes.

Spring Break/Easter Recess Hours

Spring Break/Easter Recess Hours - Friday, March 30: 8:00 am - 4:45 pm; Sat. & Sun., March 31-April 1: CLOSED. Mon. -Thurs., April 2-5: 8:00 am - 4:45 pm; Fri. - Sun., April 6-8: CLOSED. Monday, April 9: 8:00 am - 1:00 am.

Steamed!

On Sunday night, just as many students were ready to start a marathon midterm study session and get serious work done on projects, something went wrong with the library's heating and cooling system. It got hot. Really hot - and we weren't able to get it fixed as quickly as we would have liked.

Our apologies for the tropical heat. We're working on ways to smooth out communication with the Powers that Be to ensure that problems like this get immediate attention. We know how busy Gustavus students are and want to be sure that the library is a good place to focus on academic work when students need to study - and we know Sunday evening is prime time.

Photo courtesy of Pete Lewis.

Hunger Games Trivia Night in the Library

Are you a fan of Suzanne Collin’s series The Hunger Games? Are you excited for the release of the movie? Come celebrate with Hunger Games Trivia Night at the library!

Join us Wednesday, March 21^st at 7:30pm on the first floor of the library. You and your friends will be forming Districts and fighting your way through rounds of trivia. At the end, members of the highest scoring District will compete against each other to select two Tributes—two people who will win tickets to the midnight premier of the Hunger Games movie at the St. Peter Cinema 5!

Sponsored by Faces of Folke and the Writing Center.

Library Star Students

Congratulations to Kexin Feng (Music Library) and Sam Opsahl (Circulation) on being chosen as the Library Star Students for spring semester!

Star Students are library student employees who have demonstrated superior performance in their departments. The library depends heavily on student workers and wishes to recognize those that go above and beyond the call of duty.

Stream music through our catalog

Did you know that you can stream music from anywhere on campus through links in the library catalog? There are over 3200 music CDs and LPs from our collection that we have digitized.

To listen to the library's digitized music in the catalog, click on the “Advanced Search” link and limit by “Digital Sound Online”. To find a specific title or artist, search as usual and click on the Online Access: Online access for Gustavus community. Campus use only.

There is more music to stream as well through our subscription databases Jazz Music Online and the Naxos Music Library. These are available under the "Articles" tab through the database lists.

Faculty: First Friday @ The Library

Faculty are invited to drop by for refreshments and conversation in the Gustavus Library Associates Reading Room (just past the reference desk on the main floor) this afternoon, March 2nd, between 1:30 and 3:30. The topic for this First Friday is Ebooks: what do you think of them? What impact might digital books have on teaching and learning? What are the implications for future scholarship? Will the future for books be open or pay per view? Will we have a future for books where sharing is disabled and privacy is not an option? Or does the digital shift offer new opportunities? Join us if you can for leisurely conversation and refreshments. 


Thanks to the Kendall Center for providing the treats.

photo courtesy of frankfarm