Scandinavian Women of Mystery - Today

We are delighted to host two public events on Monday, October 8th,  focused on the contributions women writers have made to Scandinavian crime fiction.

At 4:00 pm in Confer 127, Dr. Kerstin Bergman of Lund University will present a lecture, "The Women Strike Back: The Rise of Women Crime Writers in Sweden, 1997-2012." Bergman is an internationally-recognized expert on the genre.

At 7:30 pm in the Interpretive Center, Helene Tursten (Swedish author of the Irene Huss series) will be joined by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis (Danish authors of the Nina Borg series) for a panel discussion with Glenn Kranking and Barbara Fister. Yes, Virginia, there will be refreshments.

Gustavus Community Publications

Publications written or edited by faculty, staff, and friends of the Gustavus community and owned by the library have been compiled into a convenient list that can be found on the library's webpage.

Beyond The Girl: Three Days With Scandinavian Women Crime Writers

We're excited to host four mystery writers - Helen Tursten and Kristina Ohlsson from Sweden, Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis from Denmark - and a noted Swedish critic, Dr. Kerstin Bergman of Lund University, from October 8 - 10 (the week after the Nobel Conference). In addition to meeting with classes, our visitors will be involved in several free public events.

On Monday, October 8th, at 4pm in Confer 127, Kerstin Bergman will give a talk, "The Women Strike Back: The Rise of Women Crime Writers in the Sweden 1997-2012." This talk will survey the rise of women as mystery authors and

Also on Monday, at 7:30 pm in the Interpretive Center, there will be a panel discussion with the authors and Kerstin Bergman, followed by a book signing.

Read on for more information about the speakers and events, including appearances in Minneapolis. This event is funded by the library's Scandinavian Studies endowment and the Scandinavian Studies Department with support from the Embassy of Sweden and Sisters in Crime.

Banned (or more appropriately - Challenged) Books Week

Celebrate Banned Books Week, September 30 through October 6 by participating in Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library’s Virtual Read Out. You are invited to record a short video reading from a banned or challenged book and post the YouTube link to the Library’s Facebook page. 2012 marks the 30th year of Banned Books Week. In that time more than 11,000 books have been challenged including many classics and new favorites.  For more information on the Read Out.

Image from: mjlaflaca

Welcoming Royalty to Gustavus

As Gustavus is busy preparing to welcome Their Majesties King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, check out this new display that showcases their previous visits to our campus.  The “Swedish Royalty Visits Gustavus” display features artifacts and articles from the King and Queen’s last three visits.  Swedish Royalty has visited Gustavus for the United States’ Bicentennial, to unveil a sculpture, and to rededicate Nobel Hall.  Before the King and Queen of Sweden arrive to dedicate the West Mall and celebrate the sesquicentennial, visit this exciting display located on the main floor of the Library near the reference section!

Music Scores & Vinyl Records Move

You can now find the music scores on the third floor of the library located near the music book collection.

The Music Library that was in the Fine Arts Building was closed in June in consultation with the Music Department.  We worked out a plan to integrate music library collections into the main library, and then with the help of Physical Plant we moved the collections over this summer. 

If you are wondering how they got those huge shelves up to the third floor, they were brought in through the third floor window.

The vinyl albums can be found on the first floor in the Audio-Visual area. There are listening stations with record players located nearby. 

Around 2700 vinyl albums were retained that had institutional significance and ones that support our jazz collection.  Remember that around 1600 of those albums are being digitized and over half can already be heard through our library catalog with on-campus access.

We are pleased that the music collection is even more accessible to everyone on campus.

VERY EXCITING NEWS!!!!!! Water bottle filling stations have been installed on each floor of the library. Located near the restrooms on each floor. There are still water fountains that work and are located also on all 3 floors on the south end of the building!!!

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

The reading in common book is taking an exceptional upswing in notoriety as the author, Wes Moore, will be on campus on Sept. 11, 2012. The Kendall Center has kindly donated two extra copies for campus and these can be borrowed from the library reserve shelves for 30 days.

Sort New Acquisitions by Collection

Our  New Acquisitions page will now allow you to sort by the collection code. You will appreciate this new feature if you want to find our newest DVDs, children's books or Special Collections, etc.

Thanks to Jessie Twaddle and Billy Visto from GTS.

Free Vinyl Records

Free Vinyl Records: mostly classical albums, some operas, world music, folk and traditional genres. Fine Arts Building, Room 319 (Lund Music Library). May 10th -11th: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm. May 14th -17th: 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Books in Bloom: May 4-6, 2012

Amid all the Honors Weekend activities, don't forget to stop by the library for Books in Bloom, sponsored by Gustavus Library Associates.

View beautiful floral arrangements by designers and florists that interpret a selected book, film, or other academic resource within the library. Tour the library, enjoy the flowers, and take some time to learn more about our friends, the Gustavus Library Associates.

Research Paper Prize

Have you written a paper you're proud of? Does it demonstrate excellence in the use of sources? It may be the next winner of the Patricia Lindell Research Paper Prize.

Papers must have been written within the past two academic years. They can be on any subject, but should demonstrate the excellent use of source material.  Only one submission per student will be accepted, so pick your favorite. Winners will be announced next fall. The prize carries a $400 award.

To submit, send paper copies to Barbara Fister, Library, or attach an electronic document to an email to fister@gustavus.edu. Please include your permanent address so we can contact you next year.

Deadline: May 23rd.

photo courtesy of foreverdigital

Time for Tea

Gustavus boasts many wonderful attractions and this Thursday will be another celebration. Help us acknowledge our Gustavus authors at GUSTAVUS AUTHOR TEA. This event will be in the Courtyard Cafe at 3:30pm on Thursday, April 26. It will highlight the following authors: Elizabeth Baer, Bob Douglas, Kathryn Christenson, Barbara Fister, Paschal Kyoore, Karl Larson, Sun He Theresa Lee, and Joyce Sutphen. This event is sponsored by the Book Mark and Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library.

Books in Bloom: Author Event

We're having a special Author Event during Books in Bloom this year. Several authors will be present on the afternoon of Saturday, May 5 to sign books and greet guests in the GLA Reading Room.

Come visit with the authors (all of whom have a book being interpreted as a bloom), and enjoy light refreshments from 11am-2pm.

• Joyce Sutphen, beloved Gustavus professor and Minnesota's Poet Laureate.
• Kent Nerburn, author of the recent Reading in Common selection, The Wolf at Twilight.
• Gustavus: 150 Years of Images & Stories author Dave Kenney.
• Author T.F. Wiklund and illustrator Marilyn Brown, creators of The Christmas Pony.
  

Celebrate Spring: Come to Books in Bloom!

Join us Honors Weekend (May 4-6, 2012) for Books in Bloom, sponsored by Gustavus Library Associates.

Books in Bloom features books, films, or other academic resources within the library interpreted through floral arrangements by designers and professional florists. Curious about how that's done? Check out the slide show of last year's event.

Come enjoy the blooms and learn more about our friends, the Gustavus Library Associates.

Library Love - National Library Week Style

For those of you on Twitter, the @yourlibrary folks are putting on a contest - 6 word stories about libraries. #nlw6words

My favorite: Books are family. Library is home.

Also, more library love from my comrades-in-spirit at the Office of Letters & Lights, which runs National Novel Writing Month, among other awesome writing events.

For those of who work libraries on a daily basis, it's inspiring to be reminded that so many people in the world love & value libraries.

National Library Week Medallion Hunt

To start your quest, find the reference desk!

In honor of National Library Week, the library is hosting a medallion hunt. From April 11th-13th, stop by the reference desk for a clue to send you off on the hunt. Prizes for our winners!

Open Library Ebook Loans

As ebooks become more popular, libraries and publishers have entered into new and often contentious relationships over ebook loans. Public libraries, in particular, face significant limits. Unlike the usual experience, libraries have to pay lots more for ebooks than they do for printed books. Apart from having to invest a lot of money into setting up a lending platform, two major publishers won't let any of their books be loaned in digital format, two won't let libraries loan recently-published ebooks, one deletes ebooks after 26 loans, and one charges libraries three times as much as individuals - all for books that can only be loaned to one person at a time.

Academic libraries are in a different situation. Publishers are more willing to let libraries purchase access to ebooks, but there are many different platforms, and many of them are lumbered with technology that is not convenient to use. Until we have more demand for ebooks and suppliers can provide us with easier-to-use systems at an affordable price, we aren't hurrying to add lots of ebooks to the collection.

Except that Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive had this intriguing idea . . . and we signed up.

In a nutshell, the non-profit Internet Archive has started an ebook lending library that offers a new approach to ebooks. Member libraries donate books that are scanned using the Internet Archives' home-grown scanners. The digital files can be borrowed by anyone at the member libraries in either PDF or ePub format. (EPub is the standard format used by Nook and other readers, but not by Amazon's Kindle, which uses its own proprietary format.) To borrow a book, you have to create an account with the Open Library and you need to be on campus, so that your Gustie credentials will be recognized by your internet address. When a book is digitally checked out by anyone at a member library, it's unavailable to others until it's returned.

The books in the Open Library collection are not ones that are in high demand. You won't find the latest bestsellers here, or academic books published recently on hot topics. We wanted to be part of this effort mainly because the folks at the Internet Archive are pioneering a model for ebook loans that we think is interesting - and we can be part of it at no cost to us other than a donated book.

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.