The Library’s Blog

If you are curious about what books folks on campus collect and why, look at the display behind the reference desk (in our new display case). Professor Jennifer Horwath, for example, and her fiance Kurt collect books about the Arctic, building on a collection Kurt’s father  began. Professor Sharon Varallo collects books by Eugene McCarthy because she used to work for him. Professor David Crowe collects first editions of Tim O’Brien (of The Things They Carried fame). I contributed children’s classics illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. I can’t neglect to include my husband’s (Owen) favorites–Oxford Classics, those small, compact, thin-papered books. If you see one of those in a used bookstore, snag if for me. –Margi

If you visit the 2nd floor very, very soon, you might see that we love cupcakes. Each of the stitched books in the current display by the front door is open to artwork by Marta McDonald who has a love affair going with cupcakes, too. She likes to incorporate sayings into her work as well, such as “You can’t have your cupcake and eat it, too.” Take a look at her luscious stitched cupcakes. Maria Ford, one of our extraordinary student workers, is an artist, and in her display for convocations she mounted the saying ”Food for Thought” and then created a tray of cupcakes out of cut paper. That’s it, I told her, I’m baking cupcakes and bringing them to work on Monday for the staff. Don’t you wish you worked here? 

We are very happy to have our regular website back today–although we’re grateful to Shawn Beattie in ITS for creating a temporary website yesterday!

And now no one will miss a single opportunity to see our “cover” photo for Naked Came the Librarian!  

Carla

Today, at 4:00 p.m. at the south end of 2^nd floor of Tredway Library, the Institute for Leadership and Service, Latinos Unidos, the Multicultural Programming Board, and the Office of Diversity Services at Augustana College present the lecture  ¡Viva la Vida! Frida Kahlo and Mexican Folk Art by Jesús Pastor, Mexican Folk Art Promoter, Ministry of Culture of the State of Guanajuato.   Following the lecture you are invited to a reception at Casa Latina (3416 9 1/2 Ave.) to see the new mural painted by Latinos Unidos and Mr. Pastor.

Naked Came the Librarian is a serial novel by members of the Tredway Library staff.  The title may give you some pause, cause you to giggle, or just wonder what the heck kind of coffee we’ve been drinking over here! 

So here’s the historical background on serial novels with titles starting “Naked Came the…”  In 1969, staffers at Newsday magazine were horrified by the quality of their modern-day literature, and vowed to write “the worst sex novel ever.”  The staffers created Naked Came the Stranger and published it under a pseudonym, Penelope Ashe.  The book went on to become a best seller, though it was never clear whether that popularity came because of the book itself or because people found out what the Newsday team had done. 

As a sort of satirical homage to that novel, a number of collaborative serial novels have been published using “Naked Came the …” as the title.  Naked Came the Manatee was published in the Miami Herald and included Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry, and Elmore Leonard as authors.  Naked Came the Phoenix was a mystery spoof and featured chapters by Anne Perry and Nevada Barr. Other collaborations, like Naked Came the Farmer and Naked Came the Plowman, were published by local newspaper writers or writing groups, first in newspapers and later in book form. 

While the Tredway Library in no way guarantees that our writing will be up to the level of Dave Barry, Nevada Barr, Carl Hiaasen or any other professional writer, we thought that creating an e-book would be a fun way to participate in Augustana’s Year of the Book Celebration.  In other words, nudity isn’t necessarily a component of the book … but you’ll have to read a new chapter each month to find out if anyone gets naked … or if this whole experiment is just the library staff getting giddy on way too much sugar and caffeine from Brew by the Slough.  

~Resources consulted in creating this summary include American Journalism Review, Booklist and Editor & Publisher. 

Naked Came the Librarian:  Chapter One

By Margi Rogal, Reference Librarian and Liaison to Fine and Performing Arts

My name is Aurelia Wintergarden. I spent my childhood correcting people’s pronunciation and spelling of my name. For a while, I signed my school papers with the name “Jennifer,” the prettiest and most ordinary name I could think of. “Aurelia” means “golden” in Latin, my mother told me; she said that “Aurelia Wintergarden” reminded her of moonlight on snow. Nice, but parents should remember that their children have to live through middle school.

Aurelia Wintergarden was just a little too strange for middle school boys to handle. They called me Aurora Borealis.

This fall, Sarah Horowitz joins the Tredway Library as the Special Collections Librarian for rare books. Special Collections is located on the first floor of the library, and is open to anyone who is interested. Come down to visit, see the collections, and meet Sarah!

Sarah  grew up in Olean, a small community in Western New York State. She completed her undergraduate education at Carleton College (Northfield, MN), where she majored in English, minored in Spanish, and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Based on internships and summer work at the Smithsonian Institution and the Robert Lax Archives at St. Bonaventure University, she decided to pursue a career as a librarian, with a special interest in special collections.

Sarah graduated with a MLS and a specialization in rare books librarianship from Indiana University (IU) in May 2007. While at IU she received the Margaret I. Rufsvold Graduate Fellowship for “superior potential in the field.” Her research has focused mainly on virtual reference services and the Kelmscott Press. She has previously worked in the IU main library’s reference department, as well as at the Lilly Library, Indiana’s renowned special collections library.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Sarah is an active dancer with an interest in ballet, ballroom, and swing. She also enjoys cooking and baking, listening to public radio, traveling, and, of course, reading.