Joseph Watson– A few weeks ago I mentioned an ambitious art project that a few students were intending to present in the Main Library. Well, Sally Hatfield ’09 and Katy Laird ’09 have pulled it together! Check out http://www.yourmiddleburycanvas.com/ and stop by the Harman Periodicals Reading Area to see it in person.
Submitted by Joseph Watson
Display space in the Atrium is now fully booked for the rest of the Spring Term.
Recent displays have been:
Upcoming displays will be:
We’re also serving as a location for comment boxes, collection boxes, promotional posters, etc.
Working with the students to schedule and and install these displays is quite a challenge. As always, some of them have thier acts remarkably together and others, not so much. For instance, we’ve been approached by a student who would like to do an interactive work of art in the building later in the semester… she would have a web cam pointed at the piece, work on it, and take suggestions from people watching the web cam on what to do next. This might materialize into something really cool, or might fizzle into nothing. While we do all we can to assist the students, it’s really up to them to pull it off.
I recently learned that students who want to sell anything on campus must first get a permit from CCAL. See go/lis?display for more information.
Submitted by Joseph Watson
“Our roofs don’t leak.” That’s what the architects said in a meeting with library staff when the plans for the new library were first presented. Somebody in the audience noticed that much of the library was covered with a flat roof and pointed out that there was a history of flat roofs failing in the harsh New England climate. Their concern was met with firm assurances from the architects that they knew what they were doing and the roof would not leak.
Well, here we are.
Since the Main Library opened in 2004 we have had more than 20 water incursions. Four of them were from leaky pipes or malfunctioning HVAC equipment, which is bound to happen with new construction. The worst of these was when a part in a cooling unit in the server room broke, flooding the raised floor almost to overflowing. Five of them were from groundwater rising up and flowing in, which, hopefully, is a very rare event. Fortunately only the floors got wet. Twelve of them were from roof leaks, sometimes persistent ones. A particularly tedious leak started on the upper mezzanine on the north side of the building in the spring of 2006. For two years water intermittently dripped through the ceiling, ruining drywall and carpet, and distracting students studying nearby. Roofers were finally able to fix the leak in the summer of 2008.
Library materials have gotten wet only twice. The first time was when the building was new and window seals above the atrium failed allowing water to flow in around the window, travel along the sloped ceiling, and then drip down onto the art books. That leak was fixed and hasn’t recurred.
The second time books got wet was on Friday night, January 30, 2009. Just as the building was closing, a student stopped at the Circulation Desk and said there was water leaking onto book shelves on the upper level. Kellam Ayres investigated and acted to save the day. She informed Facilities Services who deployed “on call” personnel who were conveniently already on campus. Kellam worked with them to remove the wet books from the shelves, cover the effected book stacks with plastic in order to divert the water, and place buckets under the drips. (Pictured above.) She then set the wet books up to air dry. We in Preservation really appreciate the efforts of colleagues like Kellam who follow procedures and carefully ensure that damage to the collections is minimized. THANK YOU KELLAM!!! The leak continues to drip on and off. Facilities Services, who are also frustrated by these problems, had a roofer here this week to try to locate the source and they were unable to. We’ll be keeping an eye on this leak and will be on the look out for others.
When conditions indicate threats such as heavy rains in warm weather or a snow covered roof with light rains in cold weather, I routinely inspect the upper level for leaks during the weekdays and Circulation Staff members do the same in the evening and on the weekends. We’ve been lucky that all parts of the building are pretty heavily traveled so leaks have always been discovered fairly soon after they start.
Each library Circulation Desk has an Emergency Manual in which procedures are outlined. These manuals can be consulted when something goes wrong. The portion on reacting to water leaks is excerpted below.
“Water Damage
1. Stop flow of water. As needed call Facilities Management: x-5472 (If Facilities Management is closed, call security x-5911 to reach “on call” facilities workers.)
2. As the situation requires, protect items not yet wet by covering with plastic or relocate them to a dry area. Turn off, unplug, and cover any computer equipment with plastic to protect it from water damage. (Supplies are located in closet next to 135.)
3. Until setting them up to dry:
Do not open wet books.
Do not separate single sheets.
Do not remove covers.
Do not disturb wet file boxes, prints, drawings, and photographs.
4. Notify the Circulation Desk Supervisor, who will in turn notify the Disaster Team particularly the Preservation & Processing Manager. The Disaster Team is responsible for preparing a plan of action. See contact information on page A-3 and call them at home as needed.
For more information on recovery from a water incursion see Section E”
Submitted by Joseph Watson
BOOK SALE
Many thanks go out to the folks at the Main Lib Circulation Desk for helping with the book sale last week! We made just over $1,500. We sold about 75% of the items that had accumulated to be discarded. About another 15% went for free at the end of the sale and about 10% remained to be recycled.
Every now and then we consider other ways to get rid of our discarded materials. There are some services that accept discarded books and forward them to charities. There are some web sites that will accept books, sell them for you and give you a percentage of the profit. But in order to use these services we would have to sort the books, pack them, and in some cases pay for the shipping. To get ready for a book sale here all we do is set the items aside as they’re discarded and when we have enough, we put them out for people to take them away, sometimes in exchange for money. It’s quick and and easy and requires much less staff time to manage than the other options we’ve explored. Plus people in the College community seem to enjoy buying the items!
Submitted by Joseph Watson
Here is an example of the kind of photo that will be on display.
LOS ANGELES/ July 1960 U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Mass., makes his way through a crowd of supporters and journalists as he arrives for the Democratic National Convention. Kennedy turned back challenges by former Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson and U.S. Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, D-Texas, who accepted the vice presidential nomination. (AP)
For more information you can visit http://www.ap.org/americanpresident/#
PRESS RELEASE
Media contact: Blair Kloman
802-443-5483/bkloman@middlebury.edu
Oct. 20, 2008
IMMEDIATE
Middlebury College Library to host Associated Press photo exhibit of American presidents Nov. 4-25
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ― “The American President,” an exhibit of more than 80 compelling news photos from the Associated Press (AP) spanning the past 60 years, will be on view at the Middlebury College Library from Tuesday, Nov. 4, to Tuesday, Nov. 25. The display shows American presidents at war and at ease, in victory and in defeat, confronting national crises and facing personal scandals, running for office and leading the country on the world stage.
Amid the extraordinary voter interest in the 2008 race for the White House, the new exhibit helps illustrate one constant in the ever-shifting media landscape. The coverage of the White House by AP reporters and photographers has been the dominant source of presidential news across the United States and around the world.
“We’re especially pleased to host the AP’s American President exhibit at this time, since it coincides with one of the most important national elections in recent memory. These photos of our past presidents capture the human side of those who have served, not just the formal face of the presidency. As with all of our work in the library, we hope the exhibit will encourage not only reflection, but also action,’ said Dean of Library and Information Services Michael Roy.
The exhibit features a number of the AP’s Pulitzer Prize-winning images, including Paul Vathis’ view of John F. Kennedy conferring gravely with his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, at Camp David after the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961; Ron Edmonds’ rapid sequence documenting the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan; and White House photos taken during Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment battle. “The American President” also includes memorable shots from the AP Images photo library, which contains more than 10 million film and digital images, and pictures taken in this year’s run for the White House by Senators Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama.
According to exhibit organizers, the college will be hosting the full photo exhibit with the 16 panels as well as a looping video on a monitor. In order to include the two presidents who were born in Vermont, the college library organizers are preparing two additional panels with photos of Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur to augment the display.
Exhibit hours will coincide with library hours, available online at www.middlebury.edu/academics/lis/about/hours_maps/hours_lib/. For more information, contact Middlebury College Preservation and Processing Manager Joseph Watson at 802-443-5487 or jwatson@middlebury.edu.
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