The Library and Lamson Learning Commons is pleased to extend its hours for Finals Week!
The Commons Cafe will keep its regular schedule during Finals Week.
The Library celebrates the life of writer Kurt Vonnegut with a display of reading material and articles in the Reference Area. Vonnegut, a World War II veteran and author of such books as Slaughterhouse-Five, was the voice of counterculture during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Norman Mailer called him “our Mark Twain.”
Kurt Vonnegut died last month in New York City at the age of 84. Read one obituary on his life and accomplishments.
The Library and Lamson Learning Commons welcomed PSU President Sara Jayne Steen and area families for a storytime reading event in April. President Steen read old favorites like The Cat in the Hat and well as newer titles. Child Development and Family Center Teacher Bob Gannett and Outreach Librarian Anne Kulig were on hand to entertain as well.
Everyone enjoyed the refreshments and a little alone time in the stacks.
Several families from Plymouth and Holderness also applied for their FREE library cards during their visit. Permanent residents of both towns are invited to come and register for their cards at the Main Level Information Desk during regular library hours.
Lamson Library will celebrate the Investiture of President Sara Jayne Steen with a Community Open House on Saturday April 14th from 10 am to Noon.
Tour the newly renovated Library and Lamson Learning Commons, bring the children for storytelling with President Steen in the Tower Room, and visit the Michael J. Spinelli Center for University Archives and Special Collections. Plymouth and Holderness Residents may apply for their free library cards at the Information Desk.
The Commons Cafe will be opened from 9 am to 1 pm serving Starbucks coffee, and other complimentary refreshments will be served in select locations.
All are welcome!
Pictorial Illusion: The Graphic Art of Rachel Gross
Lamson Library January 31 – March 16, 2007
Opening Reception January 31, 4 – 6 p.m.
Vermont printmaker, Rachel Gross, has this to say about her work:
“I have always been interested in the narrative possibility of pictorial illusion. The images of furniture, interior spaces, and details of floral wallpaper and upholstery patterns, create a surreal, dream-like atmosphere. The ghost-like images are reminiscent of plans or blueprints, implying a future manifestation, while at the same time they are traces from a past event.
Time is also an important part of the process. When making the etchings the process of scratching, scraping, sanding is literally embedded in the plates. The linear images in many of the panel pieces are made by tracing from photographs onto the panels using a type of carbon paper made out of powdered pigment. The resulting image is a record of the activity of tracing.
In much of the work the sense of space alternates between depth and flatness through the layering of linear elements. This flat/deep dialectic is underscored by the illusion of depth in the drawings and paintings versus the concrete nature of the wooden panels and shaped etching plates. The rounded corners of the surfaces themselves suggest desktops, mattresses, or old television screens. These surfaces become like containers for human activity and design, psychological spaces on which to project visions for the future and memories of the past.”
The Library and Lamson Learning Commons is commemorating World AIDS Day with a display of two AIDS Memorial Quilt panels and related artwork from New England artist Laurence Young.
In 1987, a small group of strangers in San Francisco sought to create a fitting memorial for those who had died of AIDS and to help people understand the drastic impact of the disease. Their work served as the foundation of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Nearly 20 years later, the Quilt contains over 44,000 individual 3-by-6 foot memorial panels and serves as a powerful visual reminder of AIDS in the world.
The two pieces of artwork on display entitled “Our Son” and “Icon,” are from a larger body of work which was created in 1995. The works were presented as a one person exhibition entitled, “The Color of Loss” and was held at the Matrix Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts that same year. Each collage is made up from pieces of older works creating a background and history of the artist and his work, perhaps indicating a former self. A painted image was then imposed over the montage of drawings and paintings, bringing the viewer back to the present.
Laurence Young’s artwork and the Quilt panels will be on display at Lamson from December 1 to December 8, 2006. The campus and town community are welcomed to view the exhibit during regular Library hours.
The Library and Lamson Learning Commons has begun to offer displays of student art work. The first exhibit, located on both sides of The Commons Cafe, features the work of Rebecca McCormack ‘07, a senior Art major.
Rebecca describes her artwork entitled “162″ below.
There are a million ways to paint. Some paintings are more about what you are painting than how you are painting it. However, this group of 162 paintings is almost completely about process. During the spring semester of 2006, I chose to set a few rules for my process. I decided that each painting would be six inches square, on paper with acrylic paint. These choices allowed me to bring my work with me everywhere because it was small and acrylic paint dries fast.
After that, there were a million more choices to make. I painted almost everyday. Usually I would paint more than one square at a time. Some would start as just one color, then I would go back to them later—others stayed that way. I used string, leaves, plastic canvas and many other materials to change the marks I could make. Some pieces started out as six-inch squares. Others were cut down from larger pieces into my chosen size. In order to keep moving forward and make my work interesting, I needed to find new ways of manipulating the paint on the paper.
As I worked, people would look through the ones I had decided were finished. My favorite discovery was that everyone had a favorite. People sometimes liked the same one but for completely different reasons. There were ones that I didn’t care for, but I left them the way they were because someone really loved it. Even after 162 pieces, I still don’t know. . . . How much can be done using only paint on a six-inch square?
Would you like to display YOUR artistic efforts? For more information, contact Tamara White at twhite7@mail.plymouth.edu
Many on campus may have noticed the Leave No Trace (LNT) title and logo flashing on electronic billboards and cluster screensavers across the campus, most particularly in the Lamson Learning Commons.
As the Learning Commons was being developed, many of us had concerns about what the arrival of a Café and a loosening of the restrictions on food and drink in the library might mean to the overall cleanliness and appearance of the building. The Leave No Trace ethic tied in nicely to recent campus initiatives such as last year’s Go Green campaign through the Student Activities Office and Green Computing initiatives started by Facilities Services. The ethic also speaks specifically to our shared expectations that we and our guests make every effort to keep our Commons and campus clean. Other library efforts, such as our Electronic Reserves process, complement the ethic of LNT to tread lightly and conserve resources.
Please help us spread the message about Leave No Trace. Use the waste and recycle bins located throughout the building and help us keep our Learning Commons and our campus clean and beautiful.
You can now do research and help a good cause! The Information Desk at the Library and Lamson Learning Commons has a drop off basket where you can drop off toiletries as part of Hunger & Homelessness Week, November 12-17.
The University is collecting NEW regular and travel sized toiletries such as shampoo, toothpaste, soap, moisturizer, etc. for the Bridge House and the Voices Against Violence safe house.
For more information, contact Anne Kulig, Outreach Librarian, at 535-2833 or annek@plymouth.edu.
Another Halloween season has come and gone. Once again, the Lamson Learning Commons student technology assistants gathered for their annual Halloween party to celebrate the season and get into the spirit of the holiday.
PSU students have always acted in the spirit of the holidays, though. Below is a picture of another PSU Halloween from years gone by, compliments of Spinelli Archives.
