Makoto Fujimura Lecture Adds New Dimension to Manifold Greatness

Picture 021On March 12, artist Makoto Fujimura presented a lecture on visual theology as part of the World Christians Lecture Series. Fujimura is an artist from New York who recently completed a project entitled The Four Holy Gospels, a work commissioned in light of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, in which Fujimura illuminated the four gospels through painting.

In his lecture, Fujimura explained the thought process that went into creating several of the large images included in The Four Holy Gospels. He also discussed visual theology, an area of theology that is rarely focused on, particularly in Protestant and Evangelical traditions. Fujimura argued that beauty does not have to be the opposite of function, and that because of our culture’s emphasis on the visual, we have a unique opportunity to combine the two. By having a theology through the arts, Fujimura believes we can affirm both our sensory knowledge and our rational knowledge.

Van Wylen Library has two copies of The Four Holy Gospels. It is currently included in the Manifold Greatness display on the first floor.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Rare Book Highlights: Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Bibles

In addition to the panels on the first floor of Van Wylen, several rare books from Van Wylen and Beardslee Library’s collections are on display as part of the month-long Manifold Greatness exhibit. Among these books are four interesting Bibles published during the fifteenth and sixteenth century.

Biblia Latina — 1479
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On loan from Beardslee Library of Western Theological Seminary, this 1479 Vulgate is one of the earliest in a series of “Fontibus Ex Graecis,” which are corrected Bibles in Latin that claim superiority over others. The Vulgate was translated into Latin by St. Jerome in the 4th century from Hebrew and Greek.

Novum Testamentum Annotationes — 1527Edited_Hope Manifold Greatness Exhibit - 07

This New Testament, acquired by Hope in 1888, is the second part of the fourth edition of Erasmus’s translation of the New Testament and contains his annotations explaining his translations. Erasmus’s New Testament translation played a significant role in the history of Bible translation, challenging the Vulgate and being used by Martin Luther and Tyndale in their work to translate the Bible into German and English, respectively.

Novum Testamentum — 1565Picture 013

This New Testament was the work of Beza and contains three side-by-side versions of the Bible. The left column contains the New Testament in Greek as edited by Beza, the middle column is Beza’s Latin translation of the New Testament, and the third column is a reprinting of the Vulgate. Beza also printed commentary below the Biblical text. This Bible was used by King James translators and Geneva Bible editors.

Geneva Bible — 1599

Picture 014The Geneva Bible had significant influence in creating the political and religious climate conducive to the translation of the King James Version of the Bible. This was the primary Bible of the 16th century Protestant movement and contained many marginal notes added by Reformers such as John Calvin and John Knox. It was the first Bible to use chapters and numbered verses. This particular edition of the Geneva Bible is sometimes called the “Breeches Bible” because of its translation of Genesis 3:7, which says that Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together “and made themselves breeches.”

These Bibles and several other rare documents are on display on the north end of the first floor. Feel free to look around anytime during normal library hours or during spring break hours from March 15 to March 25.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Alvarez Lecture Discusses Printing Errors

Picture 020On March 8, as part of the month-long Manifold Greatness exhibit and lecture series, Dr. Pablo Alvarez, Outreach Librarian and Curator at the Special Collections Library at the University of Michigan, came to Van Wylen to discuss the process involved in the printing of the King James Bible that contributed to errors in the first editions. Printing errors were an expected part of early printed books and a source of scholarly interest today.

Printing shops in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had a variety of workers, including young apprentices, compositors and correctors. While the compositors arranged the movable type to create words and sentences for printing, apprentices placed the individual blocks of type back into their appropriate cases. Similarities between the appearance of letters, such as “u” and “n,” often led to misplaced letters, which in turn created misspellings such as “aud” instead of “and.” Less stable spelling at the time also led to differences between printings. In addition to spelling errors, there were other misprints, such as that which is found in different version of Ruth 3:15, one of which reads, “She went into the city” while another reads, “He went into the city;” they were sometimes rooted in literal translations of the original Hebrew. Some of the later editions were printed quickly, which increased errors. In total, 387 errors appear in the first edition of the King James Bible.

The next Manifold Greatness program will occur in conjunction with the World Christian Lecture Series sponsored by Campus Minstries, when Makoto Fujimura will discuss his illustrations of the four gospels. The lecture will take place in Winants Auditorium at 4 p.m. on March 12.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Preaching the Manifold Greatness

Rev. Dr. Trygve Johnson, Dean of the Chapel at Hope College, presented the second lecture of the month-long Manifold Greatness exhibit and programing series on March 6. The lecture, entitled “Preaching the Manifold Greatness: Lessons from the Authorized Version” both provided a brief history of the climate that led to the creation of the King James Version of the Bible and offered five lessons that modern preachers can draw from the King James Bible. These lessons were as follows: to consider tradition as a servant to aid continued scholarship rather than as a master, to acknowledge the missional instinct in the King James Bible in order to preach in a way that is both understandable and challenging, to recognize that eloquence in preaching should comes as a byproduct of the aim for truth and accuracy rather than as the goal, to use the substance of style in the King James Bible to help discern the appropriate language to use for a situation, and to ultimately be committed to the Word as revealed through Christ rather than a particular version of the Bible.

Programing will continue on Thursday with a lecture on the printing of the King James Bible by Dr. Pablo Alvarez from the University of Michigan. The lecture will take place at 11 a.m. in the Granberg Room on the second floor of Van Wylen Library.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Restoration and Preservation of Family Treasures

1Edited_Family Treasures - 04Care and restoration of family bibles and other rare books was the topic of a workshop offered by the Herrick District Library Monday night. Approximately 40 people attended the hands-on workshop and were able to observe the cleaning and repair of several items from the Hope College Rare Book Collection.

Kari Miller Fenwood, of Kari Miller Restoration, spoke about the complexities involved in book restoration due to the variety of materials involved. She demonstrated using a variable speed hepa- filter vacuum, using a dry cleaning pad and talked about the pros and cons of cleaning with water.

2Edited_Family Treasures - 08Participants observed a few repair techniques they might try at home including repairing a page tear with rice paper and rice paste as well as a commercially available tape. She stressed the concept of reversibility and when the services of professional conservator should be considered. Several participants brought family bibles or other rare books and received advice on what level of restoration might be needed.

4Edited_Family Treasures - 18Participants were given several resources to help them assess their family heirlooms including Your Old Books, a guide sponsored by the Rare Books and Manuscript Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and the Care, Handling and Storage of Books webpage from the Library of Congress.

The workshop was part of a series of lectures and workshops offered throughout the month as part of the Manifold Greatness traveling exhibition at the Hope College Van Wylen Library.

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Manifold Greatness Opens with Lecture and Reception

Picture 003Van Wylen’s month-long hosting of the traveling Manifold Greatness exhibit opened on March 2 with a lecture from Dr. Marc Baer of the history department and a reception afterwards.

In his lecture, Dr. Baer explained the many political and religious factors that created an environment conducive for the translating and publication of the King James Bible. The Reformation and resulting movements of Protestantism led to a drive for bibles written in languages that all people could read. Several English bibles came into existence as a result, including William Tyndale’s translation and the Geneva Bible. Marginal notes in the Geneva Bible in particular contained sentiments that could easily be taken as anti-monarch, a point of concern for those ruling England during a time when religious tensions ran high. As a result, King James I of England held the Hampton Court Conference which led to the proposal for a new English bible, which in turn eventually led to the translation of the King James Bible.Picture 008

Several other Manifold Greatness events are scheduled for this week, including a workshop tonight at the Herrick District Library and two lectures. Complete details can be found on Van Wylen’s

Manifold Greatness site.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Visiting Writers Series: Nancy Eimers and Bill Olsen

The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series will continue on March 6 with readings from poets Nancy Eimers and Bill Olsen.

Eimers_photoNancy Eimers has published four collections of poetry in the past 11 years, three of which are available in Van Wylen Library. Several of her poems have also been published in literary journals. Her most recent collection of poetry, Oz, came out in 2011. She has received the Nation “Discovery” award, a Whiting Writers Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Pushcart Prize for her writings. She is currently a professor of creative writing and contemporary poetry at Western Michigan University and also teaches in the MFA Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Olson_photoBill Olsen is also a professor of creative writing and contemporary poetry at Western Michigan University and a teacher in the MFA Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Olsen has released five collections of poetry, including Sand Theory, which came out last spring. Many of his poems are also available online. Olsen has received several awards, including a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship, a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, and the Texas Institute of Arts Award.

Eimers and Olsen will give readings of their works at the Knickerbocker Theatre at 7 p.m. on March 6. A performance by a Hope jazz ensemble will precede the reading at 6:30 p.m.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Manifold Greatness Exhibit to Open March 2

manifoldgreatnessheaderThe first floor of Van Wylen Library will soon be host to Manifold Greatness, the traveling panel exhibition portion of a larger project produced by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the 1611 King James Bible. Van Wylen is one of 40 sites chosen to host this exhibit.

“This is the only place the exhibit will travel to in all of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois,” Director of Libraries Kelly Jacobsma said. “I hope students take a few minutes to come and enjoy the panels as well as see some of the treasures that we have in the Hope College Rare Books collection.”

The exhibit and coinciding events will begin on March 2, when Dr. Marc Baer of the history department will present the opening lecture entitled Text and Context: Politics and Culture in the Britain of King James. In this lecture, Dr. Baer will explain how the broader Protestant Reformation and particularly the Reformation in Scotland and England came together to create the environment that led to the creation of the King James Bible. Dr. Baer’s lecture will begin at 3 p.m. in Winants Auditorium in Graves Hall. A reception and the formal opening of the exhibit will follow the lecture at Van Wylen Library.

Several other lectures and presentations will also take place throughout the month of March while the exhibit is on display at Van Wylen. A complete list of programming can be found on the library’s Manifold Greatness website. Additional information, including a large collection of audio clips, videos and images about the display are on the website for Manifold Greatness. There is also information in a Hope College news briefing.

To make room for the display, many items of furniture on the first floor will be temporarily moved to other locations in the library. This is an excellent opportunity for students who typically study on the first floor to explore the other four floors of the library .

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Crowdsourcing for Experiential Learning

Interested in getting some experience with scholarly exercises in your discipline? Or interested in exposing your students to more hands-on work in a field? Over the last few years, crowdsourcing projects have changed the ways in which laypeople can contribute to publicly available historical and scientific sources, particularly digitization projects. Advancing social media technology has made it increasingly easy for anyone with interest and an internet connection to become involved in research digitization projects.

What is crowdsourcing? Rose Holley offers a good definition and emphasizes how it is different than broader social media interactions. Crowdsourcing uses “social engagement techniques to help a group of people achieve a shared, usually significant, and large goal by working collaboratively together as a group. Crowdsourcing also usually entails a greater level of effort, time, and intellectual input from an individual than just socially engaging. […] Crowdsourcing relies on sustained input from a group of people working towards a common goal, whereas social engagement may be transitory, sporadic or done just once.” Just like composer Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir projects, it allows volunteers from around the world who have never met to contribute to a collective goal.

Wikipedia is probably one of the most well-known examples of crowdsourcing, where millions of anonymous users create and edit articles in an open web-based encyclopedia. In 2009, when expense reports by members of England’s Parliament revealed possible misappropriation of funds, the Guardian used crowdsourcing to recruit volunteers to pore through the almost 500,000 pages of documentation available. In the first 80 hours after release, readers worked through almost 170,000 documents. Many of you participate in a miniature version of crowdsourcing on a daily basis and may not even realize it. Have you ever filled out a web form where you are required to read and type out two words to prove that you aren’t a computer spamming the form? Turns out this reCaptcha technology is using the collective brain power of millions of internet users to help digitize books. Human eyes read and interpret the texts that computerized optical character recognition (OCR) cannot.

Though these are all more popular examples of crowdsourcing, over the last few years, there have been an increasing number of scholarly digitization projects that utilize crowdsourcing. Here are several notable ones:

Ancient Lives – This site allows you to help transcribe ancient Greek papyrus fragments discovered in the late 19th century. Even those without knowledge of Greek can participate, as they provide assistance with letter recognition. This work will help scholars process this collection of almost 500,000 fragments and identify the texts contained within.

Civil War Diaries and Letters Transcription Project – The University of Iowa Libraries are recruiting crowdsourcing assistance to transcribe their collection of Civil War primary sources.

Transcribe Bentham – The University College of London invites volunteers to help with the transcription of the unpublished manuscripts of Jeremy Bentham.

Papers of the War Department 1784-1800 – This online transcription project will increase the availability and searchability of this digital collection of documents once thought lost after a fire in the War Office in 1800.

Old Weather – Interested in history and the environment? This project enlists crowdsourcing volunteers in order to transcribe weather data from historic ship logs. This data can help scientists analyze weather trends and climate change over time.

Galaxy Zoo – In this project, you assist scientists in analyzing images from the Hubble telescope. The site guides you through a series of questions about the visual characteristics of each image, and your answers will help classify the galaxies that you see.

If you enjoy the science-oriented projects like Old Weather and Galaxy Zoo, check out other projects housed on the Zooniverse site.

Some crowdsourcing projects allow you to freely send your entries into the project, while others require a brief registration process. Worried that you might make a mistake? While these projects do depend on volunteers giving their best efforts, the same texts are usually viewed by multiple pairs of eyes, ensuring that there will be several opinions offered for each transcription/image.

Do you know of any other interesting academic crowdsourcing projects? Please share them in the comments!

— Jessica Hronchek, Research Librarian

Library of Congress Classification

library-booksEver found yourself confused in your efforts to locate a book in Van Wylen? Though many public libraries use the Dewey system to organize their books, Van Wylen uses the Library of Congress classification system that utilizes letters rather than numbers to begin call numbers. Most academic libraries use the Library of Congress system because it works well with larger collections.

Priscilla Atkins, one of the reference librarians at Van Wylen, created a LibGuide to help explain the Library of Congress system. In it, you can find information on how to read a call number, shelving order in Van Wylen, and a game to help you understand the classification system.

As always, if you ever need help locating a book, feel free to stop by the Research Help desk on the first floor.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger