Memorial Service for Mary Seagle

A memorial service for Mary Seagle, who served as a library assistant at Carmichael Library for about 10 years, will be held Wednesday, January 5^th, at 4:00 p.m. at Carmichael Library. Mary passed away New Year's Day. Friends and colleagues will be invited to share their memories about Mary at the service. Her daughter said Mary's work at the library "was precious to her. Working with the students, library staff, faculty, UM staff and others was her life."

Memorial gifts may be made to Carmichael Library or to the American Cancer Society.

The library will open Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. and will close to the general public at 3:00 p.m. prior to the memorial service.

2010 Women's History Makers Breakfast

The 2010 Women’s History Makers Breakfast will take place tomorrow, March 30^th from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. in the Montevallo Room of the Anna Irving Dining Hall. Tickets are required but free and can be picked up from the Office of Multicultural Affairs (6023). Deadline for ticket pickup is March 29th by 5:00 p.m.

Three women will be honored tomorrow morning including Carmichael Library's own Barbara Belisle. The 2010 Women’s History Makers Breakfast honorees are:

Dr. Judy Merritt
Jefferson State Community College
On December 1, 1979, Judy was appointed President of Jefferson State Community College. This appointment marked the first time a woman had been appointed as president of a two-year college in Alabama.

Barbara Belisle
University of Montevallo
On the first day of classes in 1967, Barbara Belisle walked into Montevallo High School; the first African American to teach there.

Alyce Manley Spruell
Spruell and Powell, LLC
Alyce Manley Spruell is the 2009-2010 President Elect of the Alabama State Bar and will be the first woman to head the state bar

For more information contact Robert L. Robinson, Coordinator of Multicultural Affairs by phone at 6023, or by e-mail at robinsonrl@montevallo.edu.

Adam Kamerer Gets Caught Reading

Photo and graphics by Joel Bullock

Adam Kamerer joined the Carmichael staff as a Reference Assistant in May of this year. His appearance on our blog marks the first time we've featured a member of the library staff in our Get Caught Reading segment. Adam, 24, graduated from Montevallo in May 2008 with a Bachelor's degree in History with a minor in Writing. Adam worked as a student assistant at the circulation desk during his undergraduate studies. Adam describes himself as an avid supporter of independent artistry, especially the Weblit movement. Adam himself is a Weblit author who publishes most of his writing on the Web under the pen-name Gabriel Gadfly.

We caught up with Adam before a shift at the Ask Here Desk.

Carmichael Library: What are you reading?

Adam Kamerer: World War Z by Max Brooks

Carmichael Library: Why did you choose this book?

Adam Kamerer: I'm a big fan of zombie culture. Movies, books, games, you name it. Max Brooks is one of the more well-known authors in that niche and his book World War Z is a collection of anecdotes from survivors of a fictional zombie apocalypse -- the characters come from all walks of life: soldiers, Buddhist monks, Girl Scout counselors, even an unscrupulous Colombian transplant surgeon.

Carmichael Library: We know it's a strange question to ask one of our own, but how do you use your campus library?

Adam Kamerer: Aside from a paycheck? [laughs] Actually, I use the library a lot even when I'm not on the clock. I don't have internet access at my apartment, so the free WiFi is a big help, and I like checking out the DVD collection. As a writer, I've found the reference collection and various academic databases really helpful -- if I need to check a fact (with more accuracy than Wikipedia provides), I can usually find a text in the reference collection to help me out. I used one just the other day to look up some info about some Jewish folk myths.

Stay tuned for another edition of Get Caught Reading coming soon!

Librarians Gone Wild: Our Trip To The Cahaba Lilies 2009

Yesterday, several members of Carmichael Library's faculty and staff escaped the confines of the stacks. Though armed (with walking sticks), they were not considered dangerous, and the suspects were soon rounded up and returned to their posts by the afternoon.

Every year, the library crew takes a trip out to the Cahaba River to see the lilies bloom. The swift currents made it difficult to actually get out to the lilies this time, but a few of us managed to brave it and Gloria Beasley snagged some great photos for us to share with you.

About The Cahaba Lily

Hymenocallis coronaria (Cahaba Lily or Shoals spider-lily) is a species of the genus Hymenocallis, native to the Southeastern United States. It is an aquatic perennial flowering plant found only in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Within Alabama it is known as the Cahaba Lily, outside of that state it is known as the Shoals spider-lily because it requires a swift, shallow, water current and direct sunlight to flourish. The plant grows to about 3 feet (0.9 m) tall and develops from a bulb that lodges in between rocks in the shoals. It blooms from early May to late June. Each fragrant flower blooms for one day. (source)

From left to right: Michael Price, Amanda Melcher, Gloria Beasley, Rosemary Arneson, Joel Bullock, Adam Kamerer, Joie Molden, Brian McConnell, Mary Seagle

Happy Holidays!

Wednesday is the day the Library staff throws its annual holiday extravaganza for our student workers. It's our way of thanking our students for their hard work and many contributions to the library. When I came to Montevallo in 1999, the Library staff told me that I was to bring the cheese ball. Apparently, the previous director had always made this particular cheese ball, and the staff really liked it. So I tracked down the recipe, and I've made the cheese ball ever since.

This cheese ball is always a hit. I think it has a lot to do with the quantity of cream cheese and butter that go into it.

Curious? Here's the recipe!

2 8 oz packages of cream cheese -- it's okay to use low fat, but the non-fat will not set up properly

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

Soften the butter and cream cheese at room temperature. Mix them together thoroughly. Blend in 1 cup of chopped dates and 2 or 3 tablespoons of brandy. Roll into a ball and refrigerate overnight.

Before serving, roll the ball in 1/2 to 1 cup toasted almonds.

Serve with crackers.

Enjoy!

Heatherly, Hanbury Interviewed for Shelby County Reporter Story

With less than three and a half hours until our Spooks in the Stacks event tonight, what better time to read a story about UM's ghosts? Amy Gordon of the Shelby County Reporter interviewed Carmichael Archivist and Reference Librarian Carey Heatherly for a timely feature story. Also quoted is our Archives student assistant Dallas Hanbury.

This story appeared in the Reporter on October 29, 2008.

Notes on a Refrigerator Door

We've recently acquired a magnetic poetry kit for the library's staff refrigerator, and it is providing a great deal of amusement and inspiration. Some of the profound and not-so-profound creations to date include:

She illustrated volumes
beneath the curly sea.

Discovering language
is difficult
but haunting

Teach a dog to smell a man
as if to judge character

Question truth &
use wisdom.

We're collecting these gems and will post further selections here from time to time.

Scenes from the Academic Success Fair

Here are a few scenes from last week's Academic Success Fair in front of Main Hall.



President Williams meets with library faculty and staff at our booth.



Patsy, Amanda, and Gloria greet students at the library booth.



A student gathers information at the library booth.



Rosemary talks up library services at the Academic Success Fair.

Once again, there's a lot more to see at our Flickr page!

Pitzer College offers YouTube class

A few weeks ago, Alan posted the story about wikis being used in the classroom in lieu of the traditional textbook. Today, the Associated Press published a short piece about another Web 2.0 technology that's being used to teach. Here's a sample.

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Here's a dream-come-true for Web addicts: college credit for watching YouTube.

Pitzer College this fall began offering what may be the first course about the video-sharing site. About 35 students meet in a classroom but work mostly online, where they view YouTube content and post their comments.

Class lessons also are posted and students are encouraged to post videos. One class member, for instance, posted a 1:36-minute video of himself juggling...

...Class members control most of the class content and YouTube watchers from around the world are encouraged to comment, [professor Alexandra] Juhasz said...

The AP piece includes a link to the group Learning from YouTube, where students are posting their content for the class. Naturally, I had to go there and find the short video described in this story. This clip has the grainy, garage-band quality of a lot of user-generated video content, but it turns out that the guy and his friend are pretty talented jugglers! I also like the music used here:



On another note, you may have noticed that our own Charlie Conway has now joined our list of blog contributors. As many of you know, Charlie has a critical eye for movies. He'll be sharing some of his notes on our popular DVD collection here. Check back soon to read his dispatches from the Ask Here desk.

Finally, I wanted to mention that we have about a dozen pictures to share from this week's Academic Success Fair. With all that's been going on, time for photo editing has been in limited supply. I hope to have these posted sometime next week.

Join us at the Academic Success Fair

Carmichael Library faculty and staff will be at the Academic Success Fair tomorrow--that's Wednesday, September 12^th--from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The fair takes place in front of Main Hall, not far from where we met many of you at the recent Information Fair and Back-to-School Bash. This is the first year for the Academic Success Fair, which is being coordinated by Student Support Services, and we're very much looking forward to being a part of it.

There will be a dozen booths in all and ours will be stocked with smiling faces and plenty of our popular @ bookmarks. We'll also have a selection of books on college life for you to enjoy. Finally, we'll be offering students the chance to be a part of our Get Caught Reading campaign. See you at the fair!

Welcome!

Welcome, new students and faculty, and welcome back to those of you who'd been away for the summer! We are pleased to welcome two new colleagues to the library's staff as well. Charlie Conway, a Music major and President of the Philosophy Club, is our new Public Services Assistant. You'll find him on duty at the Ask Here desk in the evenings. Gloria Beasley, an Art major, is our new Circulation Manager. She starts her job on Monday, August 27. Talk about jumping into the deep end!

If you've followed this blog over the summer, you know we have added JSTOR to our list of databases. JSTOR provides online access to the complete runs of 119 distinguished scholarly journals in the arts and sciences. We added this service in response to your comments on last spring's LibQual+ survey.

Sometime this fall, we'll be replacing all the computers on the main floor of the library with new machines. Again, we are doing this because we had so many comments about our dated equipment on the LibQual+ survey.

We have some great new books in the Browsing Collection and some wonderful films on DVD. Stop by and have a look. We're looking forward to working with you this year.