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Dr. D. Moody Smith speaks in the York Room, Oct 29th, 12:30pm

Luba Zakharov — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:36:32 +0000

Please join us for a special event in the York Room on October 29 at 12:30pm to hear Dr. D. Moody Smith talk about working in the library as a student, ‘back in the day.’ Dr. Smith is the George Washington Ivey Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School and is a recipient of the “Library Student Library Worker Hall of Fame” which is an honor bestowed on some graduates of Duke who, as students, worked in the Divinity School Library. This list also includes the Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, founder of the Faith Trust Institute and an ordained pastor of the United Church of Christ, and Dr. Jerry Campbell, President and Professor of Theological Bibliography at Claremont School of Theology and an ordained elder of The United Methodist Church. This final event will close this year’s Theological Libraries Month celebration. The winner of the 2009 ‘Why I Should Come to the Divinity School Library’ contest will also be announced. A light lunch will be served.

Contest: “Top Ten Reasons Why” (Deadline, Sunday, Oct 25th)

Luba Zakharov — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:45:57 +0000

What is your favorite reason to come to the Divinity School Library? Let us know by entering our contest here. Winners and prizes will be announced after Dr. D. Moody Smith’s remarks at the Library Workers Hall of Fame event on October 29th at 12:30pm.

Here are some entries from years gone by to get your creative juices flowing:

“Someone told me that there’s a hundred dollar bill hidden in one of the books.”

“Studying in the York Room will let you get to live out your fantasy of being one of the Harry Potter characters and attending Hogwarts!”

“Stanley Hauerwas said so.”

“I’ve always liked mazes.”

Enter as many times as you like.

Good luck!

What do librarians do in the summer?

Luba Zakharov — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:08:11 +0000

We take the ‘comfortable shoe’ stereotype to task by wearing sandals with sweaters to offset the air conditioned temperature in the stacks and the triple digit heat index outside.

We put away books.

We work on projects whose end seems nowhere in sight, remembering the words our mentors told us: “library work is like emptying the ocean with a teaspoon.”

We wonder why we’ve decided to do this for a living.

We prepare for the summer heat with linen and hemp clothes using wrinkled as an excuse to stay cool.

We find the books you’ve lost.

We stay current, learning new tools that will give you better access to our collections.

We wear our hair differently.

We prepare to teach workshops in the Fall and Spring.

We walk the stacks.

We creatively team together on projects like shifting books to make room for new ones, checking to see that the online record, the LC classification system and the barcodes match.

We work with patrons who come to us in smaller groups.

We bend our brains around theology by reading new ways of knowing faith. This keeps us sharp and ready to tackle the kinds of questions we hear from you.

We get our cars tuned up or repaired.

We eat lunch.

We go to summer conferences.

We take vacations, leave the country, inhale salty ocean breezes and wait for you to come and study in the library.