6th Annual Edible Books Festival adds literary taste to “Marvelous Monday”

Posted on April 12, 2016 by Gary Daught

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When we scheduled the 6th Annual Edible Books Festival at the P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library for Monday-Tuesday, April 11-12, 2016, we had no idea of a delightful coincidence — that it would fall on Marvelous Monday (a.k.a. “Wonderful Wednesday”), the student-led Spring day of celebration at Milligan College. Edible Books is always a great event on its own. But combining with Wonderful Wednesday this year (the day of which is not known until the morning of) added an extra special dimension. As Library Director Gary Daught put it, this year’s Edible Books Festival added “literary taste” to Marvelous Monday.

That pun was intended. Edible Books Festival invites edible entries from the Milligan College community (students, faculty, staff, friends of Milligan, etc.) on book-related themes. This year we had 15 entries, including a creative project submission from a Humanities student, and a group submission from the Psi Chi Psychology Honor Society. Throughout the day on Monday the community cast votes among the entries for the Funniest/Punniest (hence the aforementioned), Most Creative, and Overall Favorite. Around 200 votes were cast. Early on Tuesday morning library staff also sampled from the entries to award the Tastiest. The winners (awarded gift cards for Dunkin Donuts) are:

Tastiest: Biscuit Finds a Friend by John Jackson

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Funniest/Punniest: Much Ado about Nothing by Sarah Lindsay

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Most Creative: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Alicya Suit

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Overall Favorite: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Destanie Clemons and Linda Sweeney

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For the remainder of Tuesday the community is invited back to the library to sample tastes from all the entries. Yum!

Milligan College Library’s Edible Books Festival, first held in 2011, is modeled on the International Edible Books Festival, which was first held in 2000. Special thanks to festival organizer Instruction and Research Librarian Mary Jackson, who commented: “It is hard to believe that this was our 6th Edible Books Festival. I think it was one of our best. The quality and variety in the entries was exceptionally high this year. It continues to be a real highlight to my year and very popular with the Milligan and wider community.”

Annual February Madness Library Pen Tournament

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Anne Osborne

On February 1, 2016 the annual February Madness Library Pen Tournament commenced once again. Now in its 5th year, the tournament draws participation and engagement from across the Milligan College community. Participants compete in a friendly 32 player single elimination bracket competition via Milligan Library’s social media accounts. The color scheme that wins the championship round of February Madness becomes the library promotional pen in the next academic year.

In the past, the pen color was chosen by library staff and then distributed throughout the year during library orientations and other campus events. The first pen distributed in 2009 was eco-friendly with a cardboard barrel and a wooden pocket clip. Unfortunately, it proved unable to hold up to the rigors of academic use and was discontinued in favor of a more durable, brightly colored, plastic model in subsequent years. In 2011 ideas were exchanged on ways to engage students and the Milligan community to connect via the library’s new Twitter and Facebook accounts. Jeff Harbin, User Services Librarian at the time, came up with the idea of having a tournament that would mimic the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament but would occur toward the beginning of the spring semester and involve choosing the annual library pen color from 32 various color combinations. Anyone who wanted to participate in February Madness would “like” the Milligan College Library Facebook page and “vote” for their favorites during a 2 week period in early February. New pens arrive in March. The tagline “It’s Your Library!” was added along with the library’s website address in 2015.

This year, after much campaigning and record breaking voting that increased the library’s following on Facebook to well over 550, the 2016-17 pen is Burgundy/Silver. The new pens have arrived and are in distribution at both the P.H. Welshimer Library and the Seminary Library.

All who participated in the tournament were entered to win a Target or Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards. The lucky recipients this year were Mitchell Hancock, Shae Judge, and Jackson Lenoir (pictured). Congratulations!

Thanks to the Milligan community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends for making this a fun way to get through the February snow and cold.

Art piece by Milligan alumna graces the Library

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Gary Daught

The P.H. Welshimer Memorial Library has received a wonderful gift in the form of an art piece by Milligan College alumna Krista Knudtsen (2014). The multi-part three dimensional piece is called “A Life of Its Own.” Krista, who currently works as Multimedia Specialist in the Public Relations and Marketing Office, created the piece for her senior show as a Milligan College Fine Arts major. The piece was purchased by retired professors Lee and Pat Magness, who graciously donated it to the College as an on-going source of inspiration. “When Lee and I saw this work in Krista’s senior show, we were struck with how vividly it expressed the power of books. We immediately thought, ‘This work needs to be in the Milligan Library where it can speak to students and invite them to enter the world of books and then take flight themselves.'” The piece has been installed for indefinite display in the Reference area on the Library’s main floor.

Library Director, Gary Daught asked Krista about her inspiration, the message she was wanting to communicate (including her choice of title), and a bit about the construction and materials she used in the piece. “I love books, and I love hands. I love how we use these things to tell stories. I have often heard authors say that during their creative process, their stories adjust as their characters develop. This reminds me that the creative process is organic and produces new and even unexpected life, which I think is indicative of the spiritual element of creativity. I titled the piece ‘A Life of Its Own’ to indicate the energy, animation, and humanity found in both the absorption of a story and in the process of creating art.”

Krista mentioned being inspired by the Freedom Sculpture, a public monument in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania created by Zenos Frudakis. “I like the way the sculpture relays a powerful concept through a simple sequence of actions captured in the piece. My piece also sought to tell a story by using a sequence to visually communicate a story.”

“The books are volumes of an old encyclopedia from around 1900 that I found in a used book store. Using them in this piece was like using an existing information resource to tell a story in a new way. The hands are resin casts of my own hands that I made using a casting medium called Alginate. The hands are folding pages from the books into origami birds that then fly away freely.” Krista’s piece was masterfully installed by Maintenance Mechanic, Bruce Cakebread.

The subject of Krista’s piece is certainly apropos for the Library–both in terms of its medium and its message. Gary Daught said, “Krista’s piece reminded the Library staff of our annual Book+Art Homecoming event, which encourages the re-imagination of books as the inspiration and medium for art. Of course, the bigger message is that books empower the creation of new knowledge, which has the ultimate goal of setting people free. This is why libraries exist. I am so pleased her art is here in the Milligan College Library so it can continue to tell the story to everyone who uses this space.”

Thanks Jake for bringing your holiday and chill’n spirit!

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Gary Daught

Here’s a big Thank You! to Jake the Therapy Dog and his owner/trainer retired Milligan College Biology Professor Dr. Julia Wade for visiting the Welshimer Library during Fall Semester Finals Week. Jake has been visiting the Library every semester since Fall 2013, bringing a welcome calming influence to potentially stressed-out students. This year, Jake was in a special holiday mood, and he was keen to show this off as students also stepped away briefly from their studies to take advantage of the Library’s puzzle and coloring stations in the Welshimer Room.

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Late Reports: Second Floor “Quiet Zone,” Banned Books Week, Open Access Week, and 3rd Annual Book+Art Homecoming Event

Posted on December 8, 2015 by Gary Daught

Fall 2015 has been a very busy semester in the Library, and now it’s almost over. Before it totally escapes my attention, I want to briefly report on a number of significant events that I failed to write about earlier.

“Quiet Zone” established on Second Floor

Welshimer Library appreciates the social nature of learning. At the same time, we encourage students, especially study groups, to be aware of and respect others around them by moderating volumes. However, sometimes “social” can get pretty noisy. Often students just want to come into the Library to study quietly by themselves. (Quiet…in a library? What a novel thought!) Responding to survey comments from students complaining that sometimes the Library gets too noisy, we have dedicated the entire book stack area on the Second Floor as a “Quiet Zone.” Although there are still some group tables in this space, the majority of the seating here is single-seat study carrels (20) and two-seat tables in (5) carrel “offices.” If you are looking for a little extra quiet while studying in the Library, we encourage you to check out the “Quiet Zone.” Photo: Our User Services Librarian, Anne Reever Osborne welcomes users into the Second Floor “Quiet Zone.”

Banned & Challenged Books Week, September 27-October 3

Libraries and librarians are committed to the principle that everyone has the freedom to read. This is really the message of Banned Books Week, an annual national event that was first launched in 1982. We understand that not every book that is published is appropriate for all audiences or age groups, and that the content of and subject matter addressed in some books–even works recognized as great and important literature–may be offensive to various people for various reasons. The Welshimer Library uses good judgment, and we are conscious of our context when selecting books for the collection. However, as a basic professional principle, we do not judge what our patrons can and cannot read. Rather, we encourage readers to engage all published works and the ideas they contain with critical discernment while developing a profound appreciation for what it means to have the freedom to read. Photo: The display for Banned Books Week in the Welshimer Library included titles from our collection that have been censored, or the content had been challenged for various reasons (noted on accompanying book tags).

Open Access Week, October 19-25

“Open Access” is a relatively new scholarly communications publishing model that seeks to remove access and reuse barriers to academic and research literature (particularly journal articles). Typical barriers include publisher-imposed paywalls, expensive subscriptions, and restrictive copyright and licensing terms. The catalyst for the open access movement was the development and growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In the age of print, publishers entirely controlled the scholarly communications system because of the high costs involved in the printing and physical distribution infrastructure. But the World Wide Web has provided a relatively low cost and democratized platform for publishing and dissemination of research literature. Scholars now have an alternative method for regaining control of their intellectual property while enhancing prospects that their research writing, vetted through peer-review, will be widely discovered and read. (Scholars typically do not write articles or monographs for money. They write to build reputation. Consequently, they can be motivated to consider open access.)

The Welshimer Library and the Seminary Library is becoming more intentional about promoting open access. This year we participated in the 8th Annual International Open Access Week, October 19-25 to inform the Milligan College community about our local efforts. We offered a workshop on three days (October 19-21). Library Director, Gary Daught described what open access is and shared about the Library’s supportive participation in a new international publishing platform initiative called Open Library of Humanities. Information Resources Librarian & College Archivist, Lindsay Kenderes (photo) and Digital Resources & Web Development Specialist, David Baker (photo) then demonstrated the Milligan College Library’s new digital repository platform for capturing community developed scholarship, called MCStor.

3rd Annual Book+Art Homecoming Event, October 23-24

Welshimer Library has two annual events designed to involve creative participation from the Milligan College community–the Edible Books Festival, held in the Spring for the last five years, and a newer Fall event held during Homecoming, called Book+Art. This year, Book+Art marked its third year.

Book+Art invites entries from students, faculty, and other Milligan community members that draw inspiration from books and use books as the medium for the creation of works of art. This year we had 20 entries, including significant participation from Dr. Jil Smith and a number of her Occupational Therapy students. All participants were entered into a random drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. This year, the winners were three OT students (Chelsea Davis, Kandace Hanna, and Jordan Piper) who collaborated on a single piece, called “The OT Octopus: 8 Helping Hands.” Photos: “The OT Octopus” and several other entries from this year’s Book+Art event.