Category Archives: middpoints

New video tutorial from the Library!

Top Tips for Starting Your Research

Our newest video tutorial offers students some helpful tips for those moments when they feel stuck in their research, or are just not sure what to do next. There’s no need to struggle in silence! Middlebury College Librarians are here to help with all research problems.

Refer students easily with the go link go/TopTips/, or see all of our current video tutorials at go/videotutorials/.

Summer Reading Display Results!

Thanks to all who shared their favorite Summer Reading Displaybooks from this summer! We had an interactive display in the atrium last week to learn what the Middlebury community read while they were away for the summer.

The display may be over, but you can still view the list of titles (below) and how to access them on campus! We will also add some titles that weren’t already in our collection.

Thanks for participating! Comment below if your favorite book hasn’t made the list.

List of Titles from Summer Reading Display:

2018 Clifford Symposium Library Display

The 2018 Clifford Symposium starts today! Come to Davis Family Library to see our display of related works, including titles noted in The Origin of Others and other works by Toni Morrison.

Also find a multimedia presentation of original audio of Toni Morrison reading from her (then still unpublished) novel Song of Solomon, while teaching at the Breadloaf School of English in 1977. Thanks to Special Collections for providing this recording and related photographs!

Change to the Circulation Desk hours

Starting Tuesday, September 11th, the Circulation Desk in the Davis Family Library will close a half hour before the building closes. There are no changes to the operating hours of the building. A reminder of the change will be made each night before closing on the PA system. This change is only for Davis; Armstrong will not be affected.

MiddMedia and Muskrat are being replaced with Panopto

After a period of review and evaluation, Middlebury College adopted Panopto, a new service for creating, storing and sharing video. Panopto has been used since June 2017, with more than 1100 users and 5000 hours of video stored on it currently. In addition, Google Drive and Office 365 offer the ability to store and share video files, at no charge to us. To support these new products, and to reduce operating expenses, ITS needs to decommission MiddMedia and Muskrat, two older systems for storing and sharing video files. Both MiddMedia and Muskrat are less user friendly and lack the functionality of Panopto, Google Drive and Office 365.

  • On December 1, 2018 we will turn off the ability to store new files in MiddMedia and Muskrat.
  • You will have time until June 1, 2019 to migrate files from Muskrat, and until January 1, 2020 to migrate your files from MiddMedia. We expect most people will be able to migrate videos on their own, but those with more than twenty files can contact us for support.
  • Muskrat videos will remain available in read only mode until June 1, 2019 when we will decommission Muskrat.
  • MiddMedia videos will remain available in read-only mode until January 1, 2020, to comply with data retention policies for courses. On January 1, 2020 we will decommission MiddMedia.
  • For information on how to migrate your files, please visit this page: Move Your Files From MiddMedia to Panopto.

Exhibit of early printed books opening June 14th in the library

Special Collections’ summer exhibition, In the Footprints of the First German Printers: 1450-1500, retraces the expansion of printing in Europe. The exhibit follows the German pioneers who initiated and spread the historical evolution of the art of bookprinting and developed a tradition that transformed the world of learning.

All but one of the books featured were donated by Helen and Arthur Tashiera, Californian benefactors of Middlebury who summered in Vermont. In 1946, they generously gifted forty-three printed books from the infancy of print, primarily from Italy and Germany. (The other book on display was a gift of Middlebury alumna Ruth Hesselgrave, class of 1918.)

Woodcut print from the Nuremberg Chronicle depicting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt. The Nuremberg Chronicle was produced in 1493, a lavishly illustrated retelling of the history of the world. Middlebury’s copy is in German and was donated by Ruth Hesselgrave, class of 1918.

Each book contains the history of the early evolution of printing. By studying the materials of the covers, pages, inks, the page layout implemented, the hand-painted additions to the printed text, we learn about how the first printers’ processes developed and how readers’ interpretation of texts evolved. (And that’s without even reading them!) 

In the Footprints of the First German Printers: 1450-1500 was curated by Marie Théberge (P ’10) and designed by Mikaela Taylor (’15) with additional support by Danielle Rougeau and Rebekah Irwin. It will be on display in Davis Family Library atrium (main level) and Harman Periodicals Reading Area (lower level) from June 14th through September 30th.

fat ‘n’ hairy: ways i’m failing the patriarchy

a banner announcing the fat 'n' hairy display

From April 16th- April 23rd, Chellis House-Women’s Resource Center will be hosting an interactive display in the Davis Family Library atrium called “fat ‘n’ hairy: ways i’m failing the patriarchy.” The display includes a variety of library materials and first-hand accounts from community members listing the ways they are failing the patriarchy. For more, read below.

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Celebrating Multiracial Heritage

a multicolor banner

In honor of Multiracial Heritage Month, student group Mixed Kids of Middlebury (MKM) has organized a multimedia display of works created by and featuring multiracial individuals, interracial couples and interracial families. Come to the Davis Family Library atrium from Monday, April 2nd through Monday, April 9th to see it. Three students of multiracial heritage respond to questions about representation and identity below.

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