The library will have extended hours during exam week that are as follows:
Happy studying!
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
Looking for some visual effects for your posters or just a fun study break? In addition to pop-up books and teaching materials, the curriculum library on the second floor of Van Wylen is also home to two Ellison die cut machines. Ellison die cut machines use dies to punch shapes, letters, numbers, and nearly anything else you can think of out of paper.
While the Ellison die cuts may be located in the curriculum library, anyone is welcome to use them. The cuts they make are great for posters and projects for class but can also be used for a variety of craft projects, including cards, signs, or simply a study break craft. Colored paper is available for purchase at the Media Desk.
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
Ambrose Video has over 1200 streaming educational videos in their archives, and, for the next month, Van Wylen library users have access to three complete Ambrose collections. During this trial period, you can stream all 37 of the BBC productions of Shakespeare’s plays, six hour-long episodes tracing the history of Christianity from its beginnings to the modern day, and a six episode series detailing Western art history. The trial expires on December 30.
This is one of the library’s first explorations of streaming video subscriptions. We would appreciate your feedback on the contents, quality and usability of this service, as we decide if this would be a worthwhile investment. Please send your comments to askalibrarian@hope.edu. You can also browse a list of Ambrose’s complete offerings to see what other series are available from this vendor. Let us know if there are other titles that would be of interest to you.
Van Wylen will once again be holding a collecting drive to benefit the Community Action House from November 22nd until finals week. The Community Action House provides a variety of social services to those in need in the greater Holland area.
This year, the Community Action House hopes to collect 150,000 pounds of food, personal care products and 2,500 items of winter weather clothing in their annual holiday drive. Donations of the following will be accepted at the library:
Spaghetti sauce, rice, canned fruit, sugar, flour, canned meats, canned vegetables, spaghetti, boxed dinners, cereal/oatmeal, ramen noodles, canned or dried pinto beans
Diapers (size 4, 5, or 6), baby wipes, laundry soap, dish soap, shampoo and conditioner, deodorant, feminine care products, cleaning liquids, toilet paper, bar soap, paper towels.
You can drop your donations off at the display on the 1st floor of Van Wylen.
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
Van Wylen will have reduced hours over Thanksgiving weekend that are as follows:
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
From Noon to one on Monday, November 21st, HopeCAT and access to databases through the proxy server may be unavailable due to the IP address change. Access to databases through the A – Z list (on campus only) will still be available.
Historic newspapers are an excellent primary research source. Van Wylen has access to several historic newspaper collections, including the New York Times (1851-3 yrs ago), the Times of London (1785-1985) and the Chicago Tribune (1849-1985). These websites provide full text and full image archives of old newspapers that can give you insight into what it was like to live through historic events.
Because the archives of these papers go back so far, it’s helpful to search with narrow terms. Searching just “John F. Kennedy” in the New York Times archives, for example, gives you over 128,000 results. If you limit these results to articles published in 1963, just over 2000 articles appear. You can further limit your search by adding other context keywords or by limiting to specific types of documents, such as articles, editorials or letters to the editor, to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
It is also important to keep historic terminology in mind while searching. A search for the term “African-American” in the Chicago Tribune from 1856 to 1872 brings back one result, whereas a search for the term “negro” in the same date range brings back over 7500 results.
If you’re interested in more of a popular culture primary source, consider looking through archived issues of Harper’s Weekly. This database groups issues together by historic time period, such as the Civil War or the Gilded Age, which can help guide your research. Unlike newspapers, Harper’s contains many fictional or literary works that can give you a different perspective on what it was like to live during those time periods.
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
On Nov. 14, poets Jennifer Grotz and Adam Zagajewski will come to Hope College for the final Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series reading of 2011.
Grotz has lived in the United States, Poland and France, and these experiences have influenced her poetry. To date, she has published two collections of poetry. Cusp, available to Hope users as an e-book, deals with a sense of middleness. Her newest collection, The Needle, reflects her Polish and American backgrounds by exploring the poetry traditions of these countries.
Zagajewski was born and raised in Poland and has since become one of the country’s most famous contemporary poets. He has released several collections of poetry over the past 39 years. He has also written a memoir and two prose collections and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010.
Both poets will read some of their work at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre. A jazz performance will precede the readings.
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
Van Wylen’s annual fall book sale will begin on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 8 a.m. The sale will take place on the first floor of the library and will include a variety of items such as books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes and LP records. You can purchase items with cash at the circulation desk during the library’s normal hours.
On November 5th, hundreds of freshmen and sophomore women will present a show unlike any other: the Nykerk Cup competition. This year will mark the 77th installment of the Nykerk, and though tradition is an important part of the event, much has changed since the first event in 1936.
Originally, a group of women on campus in the 1930s wanted to have a “match of muscles” to complement the already-established Pull. Dr. John Nykerk, founder of the college’s music department, offered a competition in song, play, and oration as an alternative to the strength competition. The first competition took place on March 16, 1936 and featured two plays, two speeches, one song performed by a trio of freshmen women and two piano solos performed by a sophomore woman.
Nykerk evolved in the following years and eventually moved from February or March to November so that the competition could coincide with Family Weekend. Male students became involved in 1939, though the concept of a morale boy as we know them today did not come about until the 1970s. For about 20 years, Nykerk was held at the Women’s Literary Club on Central Ave. but moved to the Civic Center in 1956.
The Joint Archives has a collection of historical items related to Nykerk. Programs, photos, and recordings from past competitions are here. Play scripts, song music and speech transcripts dating back to 1989 can be found in the file as well. There is also a Nykerk scrapbook, which includes photos and memories from the 2003 competition through last year’s Nykerk. There is also a digital collection of historic Nykerk photographs available in Content DM.
— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger
