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Notes & Quotes
A New Academic Year!
by Mary Lou Neighbour, AV Librarian
“The thinker dies; but his thoughts are beyond the reach of destruction.
Men are mortal; but ideas are immortal.”
Walter Lippmann, journalist, in “A Preface to Morals,”
1929.
“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold
weather becomes frozen;
even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”
Leonardo da Vinci, in Notebooks, 1508.
Welcome to the new academic year! We, in the Libraries, have had a busy summer, with a number of projects getting underway. We are pursuing these in order to provide better service to students, faculty, staff, and the community. Our staff have been extremely active!
For the first time in over ten years, a major inventory of the print collection of The Brendlinger Library is in process. We are verifying that every book is in place on the shelves and in the catalog. This project will stretch into next year, but it has been moving along smoothly. Thus far, we have inventoried over 27,000 volumes in the Sweitzer, Reference, and Juvenile collections as well as about a third of the main print collection. The remainder will be completed next summer.
In addition, a comprehensive review of periodicals has begun with the Periodicals Committee examining ways to receive more of our periodical subscriptions online. Also, an assessment of Library services is being planned for this coming year. When we invite feedback on our services, we hope that you take the chance to let us know what we are doing well and where we need to improve. And finally, a library liaison program is being established, whereby librarians will be liaisons to all of the divisions and areas on campus.
We also have two new faculty librarians to introduce to the College community.
Lawrence Greene joined The Brendlinger Library staff in the spring semester as Archives and Special Collections Librarian. As such, he is in charge of the College Archives as well as records management for the institution. Soon, he, also, will be organizing and making accessible the Choral Society’s archives and, eventually, he will be handling Betzwood archives items. You also will see Lawrence on the main floor of the Library when he is on the reference desk three to five hours a week, where he truly enjoys helping students.
Lawrence has a BA in history and religion from Cabrini and a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh. Previously, he was the archivist for Morristown and Morris Township Public Library in New Jersey. He and his wife, Kelly, and son, Thomas, have moved to Lansdale. His interests include history and music. He also works to raise awareness about cystic fibrosis.
Lawrence is very happy to be here, as he wants to be part of an academic library and have access to the resources of a large institution. He is working to bring the College archives into the 21st century with the eventual digitization of some of the important documents and papers. If you have any records related to the College which you would like to donate to the archives, Lawrence will be happy to accept and evaluate the items. You can reach him at X7352 (215-619-7352). Likewise, if you have any questions regarding records management, feel free to contact him. For our part, the Library staff are pleased to have Lawrence on staff. We find him so very pleasant, approachable, and competent, and he has already whipped the records management and archives areas of the Library into much improved shape!
Kate comes to us from Upper Dublin Public Library where she was the head of adult reference. Prior to that, she was a general reference librarian for the Chinatown branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Prior to that, she was a freelance sound recordist.
Kate has worked on numerous public broadcasting productions in the Philadelphia area as well as producing two of her own films. Kate has an interest in African art history, particularly modern folk art forms. Her film, “Darkness into Light,” was shot in Ikot Ekpene, Nigeria among the Ibibio peoples. It records the practice of making memorial tombstone sculptures of people who are deceased. Contact with a local man in Nigeria, who spoke about dreams he had experienced of his dead father, led Kate to another film she has completed, “Wandering Still,” which explores the dreams people have about loved ones who have died. In addition to working in AV, Kate will be doing coursework at Temple on film and video archives starting in January and, soon, she will be volunteering at the archives at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.
Kate’s other interests are varied: the material culture of South Asia; pin hole photography; exploring the New Jersey Pine Barrens; reverse glass painting; and, of course, films. She particularly likes eccentric comedies such as those directed by Wes Anderson and Preston Sturges. She also loves to travel. This past year Kate, with her husband and daughter, visited Japan, and, in recent years, she has been to Trinidad and Tobago and India. Next, she wants to visit North Africa and Tunisia.
You will see Kate in the AV Library and occasionally at the reference desk on the main floor of the Library. She is particularly happy to move into the College’s academic work setting, which combines nearly all of her areas of study and interest. She is looking forward to the intellectual exercise of cataloging AV materials to make them accessible to all Library users. She also has expressed the desire to contribute to the Library and College in any ways that she can. We, in the Library, feel very fortunate to add Kate to our staff. Please stop by the AV Library to meet her. We are sure that you will find Kate very warm, affable, interesting, capable, and charming – a real asset to the College.
Welcome, Lawrence and Kate!
