Category Archives: Special

CMLE, Special, Visits

Visiting the Stearns History Museum!

Gallery

We always enjoy visits to our CMLE members, and this visit was extra interesting! One of our members that is not a typical library is the Stearns History Museum. The Museum has an extensive archive and we were lucky enough to be shown around by archivist Jessie Storlien.

As you can see from these photos, she showed us a ton of cool information, and as a Stearns County native myself, I really appreciated seeing all the history available about this area. And it’s all available to the public, although if you have any questions or need to see the archives, the experts like Jessie are available to assist you. Other archivists at the Museum include Steve Penick, John Decker, and Heidi Heller.

As you can see from the photos above, there are all sorts of different resources available to the public. You can find your family history (if you are from this area you will see some familiar names!), scroll through microfilm, or check out an exhibition about the first people to ever live in Stearns County. Do you live on a family farm? Check out your eligibility for the Century Farms program! And one of St. Cloud’s early newspapers, Der Nordstern, is in German so you may want to keep your Google Translate handy!

It was exciting to see the archives where additional resources are kept, including photographs, oral histories, the Myron Hall collection, and even more maps! It was easy to see that there was a lot of work being done to make sure historical documents are preserved in a way that will allow them to be accessed in the future. We got to learn about some of the challenges that face archivists, like rapidly changing technology and processing donated materials.

On our way out, we stopped to visit the room for kids, which had some historical photos of children from Stearns County! We got to admire some beautiful quilts made by artists from the area, and of course enjoyed the grounds outside the museum.

If you have any interest in local or family history, I’d definitely recommend taking advantage of the Stearns History Museum! Keep in mind that the museum is open Monday –  Friday 10 AM – 5 PM,  and Saturdays too, from 10AM – 4 PM!

A huge thank you to Jessie for a fantastic tour and for sharing all of her knowledge!

Academic, Instruction, Resources, Services, Special

Librarians providing innovative resources for faculty, students

Public Library- the work of Leyton Public Library Service, Church Lane, Leytonstone, London, England, UK, September 1944 D22116
(From University of Chicago news,  By Andrew Bauld)

On-site research, teaching services benefit doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs

“For faculty, residents and medical students making their rounds at UChicago Medicine’s Center for Care and Discovery, the key is focusing on patient care. Although it may surprise some in the age of Google, one of the medical team’s new initiatives involves bringing a long-established source of knowledge on rounds: the librarian.

UChicago librarians are providing customized and innovative on-site research and teaching services at a variety of locations across campus, including the classroom, legal clinics and business incubators. They offer expertise in locating up-to-date, peer-reviewed and highly specialized information using a wide range of digital resources—all outside the library walls.

Debra Werner, a biomedical reference librarian, joins an internal medicine team at the Center for Care and Discovery once a week to help answer the array of clinical questions that arise where doctors see patients—from the efficacy of a new type of medication to the trajectory of a particular form of therapy. Continue reading Librarians providing innovative resources for faculty, students →

Academic, Conference, Services, Special

Announcement: Open Repositories 2018 – Bozeman, Montana, USA

Sign on southwest side of campus - Montana State University - Bozeman, Montana - 2013-07-09

Mary’s note: If you have not been to this area yet, I can tell you that it is absolutely beautiful! Bozeman itself is great, and has a wonderful public library; and the National Parks nearby are some of the most amazing places I have ever seen. If you are interested in this topic, consider attending. We have some scholarship money available to help defray costs!

Press Release:

“Bozeman, MT — Montana State University is pleased to announce the 13th annual Open Repositories conference June 4-7th, 2018 in Bozeman, Montana.

We are excited to host Open Repositories 2018 in this beautiful place. We encourage you to discover more about Bozeman, Montana State University, the state of Montana, Glacier National Park, and Yellowstone National Park as we plan for the conference.

Montana State University is a world-class research university tucked into a small mountain town just North of Yellowstone National Park. Home to both the rugged outdoors and exciting cultural activities downtown, Bozeman has something for everyone. The university is a mid-sized doctoral granting institution with a rich research enterprise, and the library is dedicated to repository innovation. OR2018 on the campus of Montana State University will be an invigorating educational meeting in the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains.

The annual Open Repositories Conference brings together users and developers of open digital repository platforms from higher education, government, galleries, libraries, archives and museums. The Conference provides an interactive forum for delegates from around the world to come together and explore the global challenges and opportunities facing libraries and the broader scholarly information landscape.

http://or2018.net

Holly Mercer

Associate Dean for Research, Collections, & Scholarly Communication and Professor

Director, Newfound Press

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

UT Libraries

611 John C. Hodges Library

1015 Volunteer Blvd.

Knoxville, TN 37996-0000

hollymercer@utk.edu

Materials, Resources, Special

Discover rare archives online from the Delaware Art Museum

Are you interested in archives, digitization projects, or art? Then you will definitely appreciate this news from the Delaware Art Museum!

Recently, they launched their new web-based platform which allows selections of their archival material to be viewed online. Some of this material includes “original letters from Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti to his mistress, photographs of artist and illustrator John Sloan in his studio, and scrapbooks chronicling the Museum’s history.”

Through the Delaware Heritage Collection, The Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives has digitized for free access some of their most famous collections, including the “John Sloan, Howard Pyle, and Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft, Jr. Pre-Raphaelite Manuscript Collections.”

There are currently 500 archival items available online, with more being added daily and plans for hundreds more to be added this summer. The museum is excited to reach more members of their audience and to be better equipped to handle research and reference requests.

Read more about this project here!

Books, General, Special

Librarian discovers rare page from medieval priests’ handbook

Books can hold all sorts of unexpected treasures, and this discovery is one of them!

At the University of Reading in England, special collections librarian Erica Delbecque discovered a page leaf that came “from a medieval priests’ handbook that had been printed by William Caxton, who introduced the printing press to England.” The paper had been “pasted into another book for the undignified purpose of reinforcing its spine.”

The page leaf is approximately 540 years old and was part of a handbook for priests written in Latin called  “Sarum Ordinal” or “Sarum Pye” which was used by priests for “instructions on what biblical readings to use and how to dress at Mass on different religious feast days for English saints.”

Read more about this discovery here!