Today is the birthday of Diana Ross. The people at Guiness World Records have declared her the most successful female music artist of the 21st century. Although we have only one example of her work in our collection you can read about other women in music at the Music Library in the Nykerk/Wichers complex. And …
Category Archives: What’s on Wednesday
Holy Week
Easter, Holy Thursday, Good Friday; when you search for any of these terms in the library catalog you will find that our shelves are not all under one roof. Students at Hope may use the library at Western Theological Seminary just as Seminary students may use Van Wylen. Easter is in the Curriculum library as …
The Feast of Saint Patrick
There are a lot of things to wonder about this week: what to do on spring break; what are the Ides of March; why does everyone want to be Irish on the seventeenth? Since I am Irish I am going to talk about that last topic. The Feast day of Saint Patrick is both a …
March Madness
What’s on the shelves this Wednesday? March madness of course. Did you know that the phrase “March madness” was first used in 1939 to describe the Illinois High School Association’s basketball tournament? The Association even registered the trademark. Lots of interesting information about basketball can be found on the library shelves. If you love biographies, …
Leap Day
Friday is the bonus day in 2008, the extra day, leap day. If you check on Wikipedia you will find a very succinct description covering several cultures telling you that the calendar is a complicated thing. If you want the backstory, perhaps a more detailed and readable explanation of how leap day came to be, …
The Academy Awards
The 80th annual Academy Awards will be presented this Sunday, hosted by Jon Stewart. You can both read about past awards and check out award winning movies at the library. Van Wylen is not Blockbuster, and doesn’t intend to be, but we have worked to improve our selection by buying prize winners and best reviewed …
Valentine’s Day and the Library
What’s on the library shelves this Wednesday? Good things for your valentine at no cost to you! Check out “Love Songs from the Movies” for background music, “English Love Poems” for some traditional verse, “Love Poems of Ovid” for a really classical approach, or “Nothing But You: Love Stories from the New Yorker” for a …
Lent and the library
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Forty days are set aside before Easter as a time of preparation. For some this might include extra devotions, prayers, fasting, or giving up favorite treats. Between the College and the Seminary we have many books about this season, but I would like …
A. J. Muste
There are several events scheduled this week to honor A. J. Muste, a minister and graduate of Hope College who spent his life as a peace activist. If you were unable to see “Flags of Our Fathers” or “Letters from Iwo Jima” at the Knickerbocker, you might want to check the dvd out from the …
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This week the nation celebrated a day honoring the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There are hundreds of books and videos in the library about the life of Dr. King, about his beliefs and political ideas, showing his speeches and sermons, and illustrating how his life has affected the lives of others. But did …