Van Wylen Library

Just because you’ve entered college doesn’t mean you’ve left the world of standardized testing behind. Acronyms like MCAT, LSAT and GRE are just a few of the ones you could encounter if you plan on continuing your education to the graduate level. Fortunately, the library is able to provide you with preparation and practice resources through LearningExpress Library.

LearningExpress Library, a database Van Wylen has access to thanks to the Michigan Electronic Library Consortium, provides a large selection of learning centers with everything from elementary school level work to workplace skills improvement. Among these centers is the college student section. Here, you can access preparation materials for the GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MAT and PCAT. If you’re planning on applying to medical school, there are two MCAT practice exams to help you prepare for the actual exam. Note: to best use LearningExpress Library, you will need to register and create a personal username and password (NOT your 1Hope).

LearningExpress Library is also useful even if you don’t have plans to take a graduate-level entrance exam. The college student section also has downloadable ebook tutorials and online practice tests designed to help you with skills necessary for your undergraduate career and life beyond college, including science, grammar and personal finance.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

The display case near the computers on the first floor of the library currently houses a first-edition copy of George Sale’s The Koran; commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed. This text is a full-length English version of the Koran, the sacred text of Islam.Sale published the first edition of this text in 1734. According to an article in the July/August 2011 issue of Saudi Aramco World, Sale learned Arabic while translating the New Testament of the Bible into Arabic for Syrian Christians. The experience inspired him to write an English version of the Koran. Sale’s version is particularly unique because he translated the text directly from Arabic. Most previous English translations of the Koran came from French or Latin translations. The first edition of the book includes an introduction on the Koran, Christianity and Judaism along with an engraved map of Arabia, a plan of the Great Mosque of Mecca and three genealogical plates.

Thomas Jefferson once owned a second-edition copy of Sale’s translation of the Koran. He, like Sale, found the text to be useful in legal study. Jefferson’s copy is now in the Library of Congress.

Though the text is a translated version of the Koran from its original Arabic, it, along with other translations of the Koran, is commonly referred to as an interpretation rather than a translation. Because Muslims believe Muhammed received the Koran in Arabic, Arabic is the only language used for recitation and reading of the Koran.

Van Wylen’s copy of Sale’s translation came from Dr. William Elliot Griffis, who donated 700 books to Hope between 1880 and 1913.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Exploring Madonna’s rise to fame? Curious about the Coon Creek Girls? If you’re looking a place to start your research on popular music from the past century, the library has a new resource that will assist you. The Encyclopedia of Popular Music is an electronic encyclopedia with 30,000 entries on a variety of musical topics. The encyclopedia covers material from 1900 to the present day relating to musical groups, albums, music festivals and more. Artist entries also include a discography, complete with a five-star rating system. This encyclopedia is also searchable as a part of Grove Music Online.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

The Van Wylen Library extends a hearty welcome to new and returning students. We have spent the summer making the library an even better place to research, read, study and create or just hang out in the coming academic year.

Look for the new Center for Writing and Research, located on the library’s first floor. Whether you are writing for English 113, Senior Seminar, or some other course, CWR tutors are excited to help you reach your goals.CWR opens for business on Sunday September 4.

As always, the Research Librarians are ready to help you get started on projects and papers. Reference books now circulate for three days. You can stop by the Research Help Desk, chat online or make individual appointments.Check out the Ask a Librarian page for more information.

We have made several changes to the first and second floors.Look for computers, printers and MFPs in new convenient locations.

The library has implemented a new HopeCAT interface.New features include an updated look on mobile devices, sending call number information to your mobile phone and more.

Whether a poster, video or a memorable presentation, help with technology-based projects is available in the TechLab on the 2^nd floor. Computers in the TechLab have been updated to include Office 2010. New laptops and iPads are available for checkout for three hours at the 2^nd floor Media Services desk.

The Cup & Chaucer café has expanded its hours and menu offerings.You can now enjoy coffee and snacks most hours that the library is open from early morning to late night.The Cup & Chaucer is excited to be offering Simpatico straight trade coffee and Palazzolo’s Artisan Gelato.

Get your semester off to a good start by making the library a part of your regular routine.

The library is pleased to announce that we have acquired a collection of approximately 70,000 e-books from over 500 trusted academic publishers. The Academic Complete collection from ebrary contains a broad and deep selection of e-books in all academic subject areas. Ebrary recently added over 16,000 multidisciplinary e-books from Ashgate Publishing Group, Brill Academic Publishers, Harvard University Press, JohnsHopkins University Press, Oxford University Press, University of Chicago Press, University of Michigan Press, and other leading publishers. The ebrary interface is an improvement over some of the e-book interfaces we used in the past. Key features and benefits of the ebrary platform include:

• Several users can access a book at the same time (multi-user access)
• Available any time through any web-enabled device including the iPad
• Links to additional information in the library and on the web
• Notes and highlights that are automatically stored on a personal bookshelf
• Ability to copy/paste and print text with automatic citations and URL hyperlinks back to the source
• Personal bookshelves with moveable folders that can be shared with others
• Multiple options for searching, navigating, and browsing
• ADA 508c compliant content, text-to-speech, and other accessibility features

Some features require that a user create a personal log-in so that the system can save favorites, notes and highlights. We are told that the ability to download books to portable devices will be coming soon. You may access the collection from the Hope College Academic Complete web page which is listed in the A-Z Database list under both Academic Complete and ebrary. Records for each title are also in HopeCAT. For additional information on functionality you can check out one of these guides:

Please contact a librarian if you have questions.

Every year, the students who choose to spend their summer working at Van Wylen Library are treated to an outing as a token of appreciation for all their hard work. Summers in the library can be quite busy as everyone prepares for the coming year. Sample projects this year include:

• Rearranging the Reference area to make room for the new Center for Writing and Research
• Rearranging part of the 2nd floor to relieve congestion around the MFPs and book scanner
• Unpacking dozens of boxes of gift books. Some of the donated books date back to the 16th century.
• Working with faculty to identify grants and other sources of funding.
• Removing print journals from the collection that have been replaced by their electronic counterparts.

Of course, the students also attend to their normal duties, whether that involves processing new items, cataloging, providing reference assistance, circulation, computer help in the TechLab, gathering materials for binding, processing CopyWorks jobs, filling interlibrary loan/MeL requests, shelf reading, or many other tasks.

This year’s outing was a trip to the Saugutuck Dune Rides. As you can see in the following photos, a good time was had by all.

— Dave O’Brien, Head of Access Services

Many of you may have noticed the absence of Mathilde, the marble bust that resides next to the interior front doors of Van Wylen. This week Mathilde returned to her home after being restored and appraised by Kari Miller-Fenwood, Peter Fenwood, and Walker Glass, of Kari Miller Restoration. They carefully cleaned away years of accumulated grime and removed and restored some older repair work on the base. Mathilde is now installed inside a plexiglass case that will protect her from the elements.

Mathilde was created by esteemed 19th-century American sculptor Hiram Powers. Powers was born a farmer’s son in rural Vermont. Though he received only limited formal art training when he began working as a sculptor in his twenties, his natural talents allowed him to quickly gain a reputation as portraitist. He was launched on the Washington DC social scene by his bust of President Andrew Jackson. From there, he moved to Florence, Italy in order to further his artistic education.

A savvy businessman, he was able to maintain a successful studio through his portrait bust work and the popularity of his mythological busts and full length sculptures. The most famous of these was his Greek Slave, which caught the public sentiment at a time when abolition was hotly debated. He sculpted Princess Mathilde Bonaparte Demidoff, niece of Napoleon, in 1845. For more information on Mathilde, see this post.

Mathilde was given to Hope College by Maurice Kawashima. Mr. Kawashima also donated to Hope an exquisite collection of Japanese ceramics, many of which are on display in the library. See this earlier post for more information on Mr. Kawashima.

Matilda was acquired and owned by Richard Wunder. Wunder was an art scholar, connoisseur, and curator who worked at such established institutions as Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, the Smithsonian, the Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design and Christie’s New York office. He was a specialist in the work of Hiram Powers, writing three books on the sculptor, including Hiram Powers: Vermont Sculptor, 1805-1873. Van Wylen Library received all of Wunder’s materials and notes from his research on this book, as well as Wunder’s collection of other Powers collectables, such as books from Power’s personal library. Wunder also donated over 15,000 books from his own collection, primarily in the arts. Please contact Kelly Jacobsma (jacobsma@hope.edu) for information on using Wunder’s research collection.

— Jessica Hronchek, Reference and Instruction Librarian

Check out the library trial to ebrary Academic Complete ebooks during the month of June. Academic Complete includes instant access to more than 52,000 multidisciplinary titles from well known academic publishers and allows unlimited simultaneous access. If you have not experienced ebooks in a while, give this package a try. The advantages of ebooks include 24/7 inexpensive access to many books we do not own as well as the ability to search the full-text. If you create an ebrary account, you can highlight, take notes, and save titles to your virtual bookshelf. Printing is fairly straightforward and downloading should be coming later in the summer. You might check to see if anything on your fall reading list is included. If you are off-campus you can access Academic Complete from the library trials web page. If the library were to acquire Academic Complete, all of the records would be searchable in HopeCat. We would love your feedback on this ebook package.

— Kelly Jacobsma, Director of Libraries

This summer, Van Wylen’s reference department, in collaboration with Tracey Nally of the Sponsored Research Office, is piloting a new grant research service. Faculty members looking for grant funding for a specific project can now enlist the help of a research librarian. There is a form available on the faculty services page of the library website where you can describe your project and funding needs. The request is then sent to the reference department, where a librarian and student assistant will search for grants that meet your criteria using subscription databases like Foundation Search America and GrantSelect Plus.

“We realize that searching for appropriate grant sources is a labor intensive process.” says Jessica Hronchek, reference and instruction librarian. “By utilizing librarian research skills to locate possible grants and having student assistants help narrow down the list by eliminating non-eligible matches, we hope to assist faculty in this first step so that they can move forward in the application process.”

If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Hronchek (hronchek@hope.edu) or Tracey Nally (nally@hope.edu)

Kudos and congratulations to the Technical Services Team (Derek Broyhill, Gloria Slaughter and Brian Yost) for designing and implementing a new and improved HopeCat! The Beta version is now available from the library home page.

New features include a new improved interface that will look better on mobile devices, linking to reference sources and databases from catalog hit-lists and individual records, sending location information to mobile phones, favorites lists, new materials type icons, limiting to multiple locations in advanced search, and more.

Please try out the beta version and send your comments or questions to Derek Broyhill.

— Kelly Jacobsma, Director of Libraries