Genesius Guild Offstage, Boxed Up, Arrives in Special Collections

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Genesius Guild, student employees, theater

Special Collections student employee Annie Tunnicliff stands proudly by the tidy boxes that now house the Genesius Guild records.  Annie processed*  the collection as part of her History Senior Inquiry project, and also wrote a research paper contextualizing the Genesius Guild within the mid-twentieth century national growth in community theater.  Don Wooten, founder of the Genesius Guild, had amassed quite a wealth of scripts, costume and set designs, photos, scrapbooks, posters, etc., over the first 56 years of the organization.  Our thanks go to Don for gifting this collection, which will be open for research when spring term begins.  Annie’s favorite part of this endeavor: finding things she didn’t expect within the collection, like oversize poster art and membership rolls.

*Processing is a term archivists use to encompass a wide variety of tasks, which includes analyzing disorganized materials, recognizing existing order or establishing a new order for the collection, and describing the materials so that researchers have access to all the items that are housed in the special grey acid-free archival boxes.

Updated, March 27: The Genesius Guild Finding Aid is now online.

New Group Study Tables

7 new group media tables have arrived at the library.

Ever had a group project and tried to cram 6 people around one of the small computer carrels on 2nd floor? Have we got a treat for you!

Over the weekend, we had several group media tables installed in the library. At this point, we are just waiting for the screens to be mounted and the computer hook ups to be completed.

The new tables feature banquette seating and large screens for easy use by groups. They also have a location for you to plug laptops and tablets into the table so that if each member in your group has been working on a separate piece of the project, you can toggle between devices to discuss them.

We hope that this will allow groups to work together with greater ease, while also making it easier for single computer users to take advantage of the computers 1 and 2 person computer carrels on the north end of 2nd floor.

New Leisure Items Available

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leisure

There are several new additions to the library’s leisure collection of books and dvds.  The leisure collection is located on the 2nd floor.  You may check books in this collection out for 4 weeks; dvds have a 3 day checkout period.

Stop by and find something new to intrigue you!

New Items in Special Collections

Every fall, we post some information about a few interesting items acquired by Special Collections over the course of the past year. You can view any of these items by vising Special Collections, on the first floor of the library (open hours M-Th, 1-5, and by appointment).

[Book of Hours]. [France, probably Amiens: ca. 1450].
1 vellum bifolium, written in a single column with 27 lines in a humanist bookhand. The text is “For the Hour of None,” Psalm 118. Decorated with initial letters and line-fillers in gold, blue, and burgundy.

Meigs, Cornelia. Clearing Weather. Boston: Little, Brown, 1928.
Cornelia Meigs (1884-1973) was a Newbery Medal winning author (for her book Invincible Louisa, a children’s biography of Louisa May Alcott), who was born in Rock Island and grew up in Keokuk, Iowa. Meigs is a new addition to our collection of local authors. This title is a Newbery Honor book about ships and life at sea during the Revolutionary War era.  It has art-deco illustrations by Frank Dobias.

Reavis, L.U. A Pamphlet for the People: Containing Facts and Arguments in Favor of the Removal of the National Capital to the Mississippi Valley.  St. Louis, E.P.. Gray, 1869.
An uncommon, detailed, and “happily bombastic” (according to the bookseller description) argument in favor of moving the national capital to St. Louis. Reavis emphasizes the national importance of the Mississippi River.

Changes at the reference desk

Happy spring term!

As we anticipate the changes that the construction and completion of the Center for Student Life will bring over the next year or two, we will be updating our reference services to better reflect students’ needs.  The first such adjustment will be the addition of “on-call” hours to our usual schedule.

If you need research help and you don’t see anyone at the desk, don’t worry; we’re probably on call!  On-call hours will be M-F 10:00 a.m. – noon, and Friday 2:30 – 4:00 p.m; otherwise we’ll be at the reference desk as usual.  When we’re on call, you can reach us in the following ways:

Chat/IM: Use the “Ask an Augustana Librarian” chat box on the library homepage  

Text: Send a text to 563-223-TEXT

Phone: Call 309-794-7310

E-mail: Reach us at libraryinfo@augustana.edu

In person: Just ask at the circulation desk and we’ll be happy to help you!

On-call hours were determined based on when we’ve found that the desk is the least busy.  We’ve also noticed that students often prefer to seek out “their” librarian (whomever worked with their class, or the librarian assigned to work with their major) in her office, rather than approach the librarian at the desk.  By changing weekday morning and Friday afternoon hours to on-call hours, we hope to encourage these office visits and provide more personal attention.

Soon to come: We’ll be renaming the reference desk; libraries have used the term “reference desk” for many years, but unless you’re a librarian, you may not know what that means!  We’re thinking about calling it the “research assistance” desk.  What do you think?  If you have another idea, leave a suggestion in the comments!

–Anne Earel

Get ALiCat On The Go!

Get ALiCat on your phone!

Now you have an easier way to search the Augustana library’s catalog from your cell phone! The new ALiCat to Go mobile interface allows you to search the Tredway library catalog, check what your professor has on course reserves, and renew your materials.

To get there, set your web-enabled cell phone or mp3 player to http://m.carli.illinois.edu/vf-aug/

Check it out today!

~Christine Aden