Homecoming Book+Art exhibit (belated report)

IMG_9439Oops! The weeks since Homecoming (October 24-25, 2014) have blown by in a flurry of Library activity. It just dawned on me that I failed to write a follow-up to our 2nd Annual Book+Art exhibit.

The idea behind Book+Art is that books not only inspire artistic creation, they can also be the medium for that artistic creation.

The growing popularity of the “book as art, art from books” trend has been documented in a number of recent publications, including Art Made From Books by Laura Heyenga (Chronicle Books, 2013), a fascinating account, which is available for checkout from the Library.

This year’s exhibit was a bit smaller than last year, with only four submissions. But all the entries were very creative and cleverly designed (see photos below–click to enlarge). Bethany Fitzgerald won the $25 Amazon gift card in a random drawing open to all entrants.

User Services Librarian, Anne Reever Osborne expressed appreciation to this year’s participants: “Thank you for your participation in this Homecoming Event sponsored by Welshimer Library.  The submissions received were representative of the great talent that Milligan College students and faculty have in creating new works of beautiful art with gently used books!”

Director of Library Services, Gary Daught envisioned Book+Art as a Fall semester creative event in the Library to complement the Spring semester’s Edible Books Festival–which will celebrate its 5th anniversary in Spring 2015.

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Robert Milligan exhibit and book reading in the Library

He Still Speaks

The P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library and Milligan College Archives and Special Collections is especially pleased during this 2014 Homecoming season to present an exhibit entitled Celebrating Robert Milligan’s 200th Year. Robert Milligan, whose name graces our college, was born on July 25, 1814. He was a preacher, author, teacher and professor, influencing many with his scholarship on Christian reform.

Josephus Hopwood (1843-1935) was a student at the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky, where he studied under Professor Robert Milligan. In 1875, Josephus and his wife, Sarah, served as administrators at the Buffalo Male and Female Institute. In 1881, Hopwood chose to rename the school Milligan College, after his beloved professor.

The exhibit, displaying photographs, manuscripts, and publications of Robert Milligan’s personal and professional life, has been curated by Lindsay Kenderes, Information Resources Librarian and College Archivist. The exhibit can be viewed at the back of the main floor of the Library during open hours. Many of the items in the exhibit are from the Robert Milligan Research Collection, donated by Clinton J. (Class of 1995) and Adele M. (Class of 1996) Holloway.

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Accompanying the Robert Milligan exhibit is a book reading and signing by Clint Holloway, author of He Still Speaks: A Literary Biography of Robert Milligan (2014). Clint wrote his book out of a sense that there was a need for people to know more about this man. “Who was this person of whom it was said he was the ‘best and purist man I have ever known,’ and who so clearly exemplified the Christian liberal arts?”

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Holloway identifies four themes in which he believes Robert Milligan “still speaks” to us today: He was a ‘servant leader’ long before that term entered into common parlance; he was a champion of the Bible; he was irenic (a peacemaker) in the face of many large egos in the movement; and he was a defender of the under-represented in the church.

Clint will be reading from his book in the Library (main floor) on Saturday, October 25 at 2:30 p.m. Following, he will be making his book available for sale ($10, $5 for students) and he will be on hand to autograph copies. Light refreshments will be served.

Calling all book lovers and artists for the 2nd Annual Book+Art exhibit!

Book+Art 2014

The Library is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Book+Art exhibit as part of Milligan College’s 2014 Homecoming festivities (October 24-25). We are calling on all Milligan book lovers and artists to participate!

Submissions are invited from students, faculty, staff, and their family members. The exhibit challenges you to re-imagine books as both the inspiration and the medium for your art. There are no other limits. The Library will provide free discarded books on a cart located in the Welshimer Room (on the Main Floor) for you to use as raw material, or you can find your own books from used bookstores and second-hand shops.

Need ideas? Just do a Google Image search for “Book Art.” One up-and-coming book sculptor is Kelly Campbell Berry, who graciously provided the photo of one of her book sculptures for our poster above. Kelly has some amazing pieces on her online gallery. You can also see our write-up from last year’s exhibit.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, October 24 at 1:00 PM. Please include your name and the title of your piece. (More than one submission per artist is acceptable.) The exhibit will continue through Homecoming weekend and into the following week. The Library will hold a drawing, and one lucky artist will win a $25 Amazon gift card.

We’re moving to a new Library online catalog and resource login system: What you need to know

We had an active and busy summer in the library. One of the projects we were working on–which actually began earlier in the spring–is a planned migration to a new library management system and online catalog. We are almost ready to go live. If all goes well, we will switch over to the new system–called OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS)–on Tuesday, September 2, 2014.

It is not important to bore you with a description of the staff-side functionality and features of WMS, though we do hope the new system will enable us to serve you better. Instead, I want to describe the most important features of the new online catalog and how they differ from our current catalog. I also want to tell you about a new resource login method that is accompanying this change.

MCSearch is not changing!

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The first thing you need to know is that MCSearch, our single search box library information resource discovery tool will not change significantly as a result of this migration. Our library catalog holdings will continue to be searchable as they are now in MCSearch. Holdings will simply be drawn from the new system.

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