Van Wylen Library

Author Cristina García will be on campus on Thursday, Oct. 14 for the second installment of this semester’s Jack Ridl Visting Writers Series. Her visit will include a WTHS interview at 11:15 a.m., a question and answer session in the Herrick Room in DeWitt at 3 p.m., and a reading at 7 p.m. in the Knickerbocker Theatre.

The Critical Issues Symposium is starts today. This year’s topic, Good Food for the Common Good, has a wide range of implications including hunger, food production, politics, and religion.

The curriculum library, located on the second floor across from the Media Services desk, is a unique area in Van Wylen. While most of the library contains materials for college level research, the curriculum library contains a wide variety of things that may remind you of your elementary school days. Juvenile fiction ranging from picture books to the Twilight and Harry Potter series, educational games and teaching kits, an Ellison die cut machine, even puppets: all of these things are located in the curriculum library and are available to be checked out.

Though the curriculum library may seem geared towards education majors, any student may find it useful. A book binder, large paper cutter, and the Ellison die cut are all great for making projects or posters for a class. If you babysit for a local family or teach Sunday school in the area, you could use something from the curriculum library to entertain or help teach the children you’re working with. The curriculum library also contains textbooks that local high schools use, so if you’re tutoring a student in the area, you can access his or her textbook in Hope’s library.

The curriculum library is also a good place to go to study. “A lot of people like to study here because it’s a nice bright room out of the way with some activity but not too much,” said Jan Zessin, Media Services Supervisor.

The next time you’re looking for a new study spot or need help entertaining young children, don’t forget about the curriculum library!

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

 The Pull is a distinctly Hope College tradition that dates back to 1898. Interested in learning what has changed and what has stayed the same about Pull in the past 113 years? The Joint Archives of Holland contains a large collection of Pull memories, articles, and memorabilia dating back to the early 1900s. Here are some little-known facts about Pull:

– Pull was held on a Friday until 1993, and was once part of Homecoming activities.
– In 1974, the rope broke and Pull had to be rescheduled to the following Monday.
– Pull has been canceled four times: in 1918, 1943, and 1944 because of World War I and II, and in 1957 because of a flu epidemic on campus.
– Though Odd Year colors are traditionally maroon and gold, the classes of 1997 and 1999 wore silver and black instead.
– The traditional Pull shirts worn by pullers, moralers, and coaches did not appear until the 1970s.
– Local media often covers the Pull, but the Pull has also received national news attention more than once. The October 17, 1966 and September 2, 1996 issues of Sports Illustrated both featured articles on the Pull, and in 1997 USA Today ran an article on the 100th anniversary of Pull. The USA Today article is available through a search on LexisNexis and both Sports Illustrated articles are in the Joint Archives file or online here and here.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

The library is a fantastic place to go if you have things to print or copy. However, it is important to remember the environmental impact of the things we print. The two main library printers alone go through about five boxes of paper a week (that’s 50 reams, or 25,000 pgs!).

The next time you need to use the library’s printers, keep these five tips in mind:

1. If possible, don’t print

Some professors will send PDF files of articles or other reading for class. If you need to bring the article to class, the library’s printers are defaulted to print double-sided to reduce waste. If you just need to read the file, however, consider saving it to your computer instead of printing.

2. Remember to pick up what you printed

If you print something, pick it up from the printer right away. That way, if you have other things to do on the computer you won’t accidentally leave the library without your documents.

3. Make sure you only print what you need

Do you really need to print that last sheet of paper that only gives you the URL of a website? Considering e-mailing yourself the URL if you think you’ll forget it, and be sure to check the number of pages in the print preview before actually printing your document.

4. Don’t click print more than necessary

Printers, like any other technology, break down from time to time. Sending your printing job to an out-of-order printer multiple times won’t make your document print faster: it will only print multiple copies. If you accidentally send your printing job to the printer before realizing it’s not working, come back later and check the “Other People’s Printing” tray.

5. Recycle what you’re done with

The end of the semester is a while off, but when it rolls around, recycle the papers, articles, and handouts you’ve collected over the past 16 weeks instead of throwing them away. Recycling bins are all over campus. If you have trouble locating one, the blue bins by the printers on the first and second floor of the library are for paper recycling.

For more statistics on American paper use, check out this article from the database OneFile PowerSearch.

— Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger

Different stages of the writing process pose problems for different people. For some, trying to organize their research into a well-crafted paper is the hardest part of a writing assignment. For others, the rough draft is easy, but moving through rough drafts to a polished final draft is a challenge. Fortunately, the new Writing Corner, located on the first floor of the library just beyond the reference desk, can help at any of these stages.

The Writing Corner is a combination of the drop-in writing center the library had last year and the writing services formerly offered by the Academic Support Center. Their goal isn’t to simply be a proofreading service, but rather to help students become better writers.

“We don’t want to just ‘take the pen out of your hand’ and make corrections, but help you learn how to be a better writer,” Madelyn Clark (’11), a tutor at the Writing Corner, said.

There are two ways to use the Writing Corner. If you’re working on a paper and suddenly find yourself stuck, you can stop by the Writing Corner any time on Mondays to Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. or on Sundays from 7-10 p.m. If you know that you’re going to need help, though, you can also make an appointment to meet with a tutor at the Writing Corner for half an hour. Appointments can be made by calling the English department at x7620, e-mailing the Writing Corner at writingcorner@hope.edu, or by visiting the English department’s website and making an appointment through the calendar there.

Bethany Stripp, Library Student Blogger