David Vann Reading

November 7th, 2011 by John Hawk No comments »

The Gleeson Library is pleased to sponsor a faculty reading on Tuesday, November 15 when it welcomes David Vann, University of San Francisco Associate Professor in the MFA in Writing Program, who will read from his recent works Last Day on Earth: A Portrait of the NIU School Shooter (University of Georgia Press, 2011) and Caribou Island (Harper, 2011). Vann is also the author of Legend of a Suicide (University of Massachusetts Press, 2008) which won 10 prizes, including the Prix Medicis in France and the Premi Llibreter in Spain. Legend of a Suicide was on 42 “Best Books of the Year” lists including The New Yorker Book Club and The Times Book Club. David Vann is a current Guggenheim Fellow and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.

The program begins at 5:00 on Tuesday, November 15 in the Donohue Rare Book Room, located on the third floor of the Gleeson Library. Light refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase. The program is free and open to the public. All are welcome to attend. For further information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Special Collections & University Archives


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Another Sister Under the Eaves

November 7th, 2011 by Larry T. Nix No comments »



As I indicated in my previous post, on Monday of last week I visited the public library in Merrill, WI designed by the architectural firm of Claude & Starck. It is one of a group of libraries referred to as the "seven sisters" because they share a common style and similar ornamental friezes under their eaves. On a trip to St. Louis on Friday of the same week I passed by the exit for Rochelle, Illinois which is home to another of the "seven sisters", and I stopped to take a look. A postcard of the library (now the Flagg-Rochelle Public Library District) along with a couple of photographs I took are shown above. As with the Merrill library there is a significant expansion which has been tastefully integrated with the original building. A website about the Claude & Starck prairie school libraries cites a publication by library director Barbara Kopplin titled "Sisters" Under the Eaves written in 1989. Kopplin notes that Claude & Starck provided a basic design and offered a variety of option for their prairie school buildings. Options included bay windows, ornamental friezes, fireplaces, and leaded windows among others. The library in Rochelle opted for all of the options.

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One of Seven Sisters in Merrill, WI

November 2nd, 2011 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
Current photo of T.B. Scott Free Library, Merrill, WI
Vintage postcard of T. B. Scott Free Library, Merrill, WI
Distinctive frieze common to "seven sisters"
My wife and I installed the exhibit "Andrew Carnegie's Wisconsin Library Legacy" early this week at the T. B. Scott Free Library in Merrill, Wisconsin. The exhibit is sponsored by the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center. This year is the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Carnegie library building in Merrill. A major addition to the building was completed in 2001. The integration of the older building with the new addition has been done remarkably well. The original Carnegie building was designed by the architectural firm of Claude & Starck in the Prairie School style pioneered by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. The Claude & Starck firm which designed over 40 libraries employed the Prairies School style in a number of them. Seven of those library buildings have been referred to as the "seven sisters" because they share as a design element an ornamental frieze designed (or based on a design) by Sullivan. Wisconsin is the location of four of the seven sisters (Barron, Evansville, Merrill, and Tomah). The others are located in Rochelle, IL, Detroit Lakes, MN, and Hoquiam, WA. The T. B. Scott Free Library has conducted a number of activities to celebrate the centennial of its building during 2011. On Nov. 6, Ellsworth Brown, Director of the Wisconsin Historical Society will make a presentation at the library titled "Andrew Carnegie: The Great Library Benefactor's Life & Mission". It's really great to have the Carnegie exhibit in a Carnegie library building. The exhibit will continue through the end of the year. (This post is also being published on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center Blog)

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leveling up with gene yang at san francisco public library

November 1st, 2011 by david silver No comments »
great looking event - and extra credit opportunity for intro to media studies students - at san francisco public library:


saturday, november 5, 1-2:30 pm.
latino/hispanic community meeting room b
main library, lower level

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WI Library Hall of Fame to Induct 7 on Nov. 3

October 31st, 2011 by Larry T. Nix No comments »
Ginny Moore Kruse, WI Library Hall of Fame Inductee
As Chair of the Steering Committee of the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center, one of my most enjoyable activities is to participate in the selection of new inductees into the Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame. For 2011 the Committee has selected seven individuals to receive this honor. They are Norman D. Bassett (1891-1980), Orilla Thompson Blackshear (1904-1994), Daniel Steele Durrie (1819-1892), Gilson G. Glasier (1873-1972), Ginny Moore Kruse (1934-), Walter Mcmynn Smith (1869 – 1938), and Ella T. Veslak (1897-1996). Their induction into the WLHF will take place during the Awards & Honors Banquet at the Wisconsin Library Association Conference in Milwaukee on November 3. These seven inductees will join twenty-two other individuals who have previously been inducted into the WLHF. Ginny Moore Kruse, Director Emerita of the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, is the only living person to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. Kruse served as director of the CCBC from 1976 to 2002. In that capacity she was a state and national champion for quality library literature for children and for intellectual freedom. While Director she founded the CCBC's Intellectual Freedom Information Services.  She is an advocate for children’s literature that reflects the multi-cultural nature of our society.
 
More information about each of the inductees can be found by clicking on the link to their name.

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