Gleeson Library wants your help celebrating National Poetry Month! We are currently accepting submissions for our 2nd annual Faculty & Staff poetry reading.  The reading will be on Thursday, April 29, 2010 from 5:30-7 pm in the Rare Book Room (3rd Floor) of Gleeson Library.

Last year’s NPM event was a success: we asked five of our favorite USF poets to read a selection of their work in the library, and they did…to a very good crowd.  This year we are looking to make the event even more diverse and inclusive so we are opening it up for submissions. If you are a USF Staff or Faculty member and are interested in participating, please email the selection committee (gleesonpoetry@gmail.com) the following information:

The deadline to submit is March 17, 2010.

Please understand the number of readers on the program will be limited and the selection committee is seeking a diverse representation of USF faculty and staff. We anticipate not being able to accept all applicants. Decisions of the selection committee are final.

Thank you! We look forward to reading your work.

Sincerely,

The Gleeson Library Poetry Selection Committee
gleesonpoetry@gmail.com

“To the people of Haiti, we say clearly, and with conviction, you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster and recovery. And through it all, your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So today, you must know that help is arriving — much, much more help is on the way.”

– President Barack Obama, January 2010

Four weeks of Library fines and fees collected at the Gleeson Library in conjunction with generous donations from Library patrons  netted $4,144.00 which is being donated to the people of Haiti (via Jesuit Refugee Service:  http://www.jrsusa.org/).

A week ago, the Library was honored to receive a sweet letter from a young person named, Lizbet, a fourth-grader at a Bay Area school who, as part of a class project, wrote us for a USF pennant.  The Gleeson Library staff, always touched by a sincere, handwritten letter, immediately jumped at the chance to send this young person a USF pennant, and some assorted goodies for her classmates, including some stuffed animals and some sweet goodies.

We thought Lizbet, her fourth grade class, and her teachers, might appreciate a photo of the Gleeson staff who sent the package, and to put a face to Librarians and Library Assistants everywhere who, daily and without much fanfare, are often the first line of communication between our occasionally intimidating academic halls, and the real world.  We hope Lizbet and her classmates may always appreciate the hard work of Librarians, Library Assistants, and all associated with the stewardship of knowledge, and will always remember us when they visit their own local libraries, both today, and when they, themselves, enter into colleges and universities.  We also commend their hardworking teachers and school staff, who, in these crazy times (economic and otherwise), (and in my personal opinion) embody the admirable gift of commitment to our young people in a political culture which often forsakes them.

We sent these two photos of our staff to Lizbet and her class.  They show only a small number of our dedicated librarians, staff, and student workers, here at our marvelous library, Gleeson.

Gleeson Library Staff hold a pennant being sent to 4th Grader Lizbet, in a Sonoma, California grammar school.

More Librarians, Staff, and Student Assistants