Views Newsletter of Friends of the Van Pelt Library
Volume 2, Number 4, December 1997

Contents

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Patricia Van Pelt Guest Speaker at Annual Meeting
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Fun Books at the Library
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Six Study Rooms Open
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Board News
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Book Sale
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Notecards for Sale
bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Quote of the Month

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Patricia Van Pelt Guest Speaker at Annual Meeting

Patricia Van Pelt was the guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, held at University House on October 16. In her talk, Van Pelt focused attention on a few 20th century writers who chose to set their work in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The tone of her talk was set with quotations from Howard Frank Mosher's North Country, one from Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River" and the other from Robert Traver's (John Voelker) Anatomy of a Murder. Among the writers she spoke of besides Hemingway and Voelker were Mildred Walker, who for a while lived in Big Bay and obviously used that community as the background for her novel Fireweed; Lauri Anderson whose book, Ernest Hemingway's Trout, "is a series of interrelated stories of his own life and Hemingway's"; Jim Harrison, whose novel Farmer deals with making a choice between "the family farmstead in the U.P. and the wider world, between the solid and familiar and new horizons"; and Jane Piirto, a U.P. writer who like so many other writers has had to leave her "spiritual home," but finds "its tough, individualistic, no-frills life and beauty an inspiration." Van Pelt ended her talk with a poem from Watermarks: Poems From the Coast of the Keeweenaw by Barbara Simila. Van Pelt introduced us to writers many of us had not known, and we thank her for her excellent talk. Van Pelt is the owner of Northwind Bookstore at Eagle Harbor, MI. 

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Fun Books at the Library

This year the Friends designated $1,000 to support leasing of bestsellers and other popular books, both fiction and non-fiction, for the library.

The Popular Collection books are shelved on the first floor of the library, next to the Foundation Collection and the New Book area, and are available for a two-week loan with a one-week renewal. Some of the initial collection of 100 books have arrived and have already been checked out by eager students and faculty. Additional books will arrive monthly. Watch for a list of the books on the Library's web page. A few of the initial titles are Angela's Ashes, Brain Droppings, Deja Dead, Into Thin Air, and Underworld; authors include Frank McCourt, Carl Sagan, George Carlin, Kathy Reichs, Jon Krakauer, Maya Angelou, and Don DeLillo.

The Popular Collection books may be checked out by anyone with an MTU ID or a Van Pelt Library courtesy card. For more information, contact the circulation desk at 487-2507. 

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Six Study Rooms Open

Six library study carrels have been renovated into study rooms through the efforts and fundraising of the MTU class of 1997, the MTU Trademark Liscensing Committee, and a loan from President Thompkins. The project initiated by the Friends of the Library cost an overall $20,000, plus the volunteer work of the Friends.

All of the carpeted rooms located on the 2nd and 3rd floors include a dry erase board, four comfortable chairs, a large table, windows, and newly installed coat racks. Acoustical wall covering protects library patrons from any noise that results from group discussions. Six plaques dedicated to the sponsors of the study rooms were purchased by the Friends. These plaques can be seen mounted on the wall next to each room.

The study rooms can be reserved by groups of three or more for a period of three hours, and unreserved rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis. These study rooms provide an excellent place for students to work in small groups or tutor without creating a disturbance. The coveted dry-erase boards facilitate group discussions and are useful in ordinarily paper-consuming work, such as deriving equations and drawing free-body diagrams or resonance structures. Suzanne Lee, a 3rd year chemical engineering major, comments about the rooms, "They have made studying in the library much more enjoyable." These rooms saw heavy use during and before finals week, but have already been occupied during the first week of the term. 

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Board News

Do you have a soft spot for books and libraries? Would you like to be more involved in the community? The Friends of the Van Pelt Library are looking for board members. Board meetings are held on the third Thursday of each month from 4:00-5:30 in room 301 of the Van Pelt Library. Board members serve on committees to plan fundraising projects, including the book sale. Board discussion includes generating ideas to benefit the patrons of the Van Pelt Library.

If you are interested in checking out the board, please call Kim Hoagland at 487-2113 (or hoagland@mtu.edu) or come to a board meeting. All are welcome.

At its regular meeting on November 7, the board of the Friends elected the following officers for terms of one year: Kim Hoagland, chair; Sally Brozzo, vice-chair; Joe Fass, secretary; and Terry Reynolds, treasurer.

At the December board meeting, Joe Fass came to his senses and decided he could not continue as secretary, so the board elected Rebecca Fitzgerald to take his place.

Many thanks to last year's officers: Faith Morrison, June Hawthorne, Joe Fass, and Nancy Fisher, who contributed so much to the organization. Faith, June, and Joe continue to serve on the board.

Board of Directors (1997-98)
Sally Brozzo (1999)
Joe Fass (1998)
Rebecca Fitzgerald (1999), Secretary
June Hawthorne (2000), Vice-Chairman
Kim Hoagland (1999), Chairman
Karen Hubbard (1999)
George Love (2000)
Erin Minne (1999)
Faith Morrison (1999)
Terry Reynolds (2000), Treasurer
Dee Vincent (1999)
Fred Dobney, University Provost, ex officio
Phyllis Johnson, University Librarian, ex officio

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Book Sale

April 14 5-8pm
FRIENDS ONLY!
April 15 10am-7pm
OPEN TO ALL!
at the MUB

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Notecards for Sale

The Friends' notecards, which reproduce historic photographs of the Copper Country from the collections of the Copper Country Archives, have been selling well. Our thanks to the following stores, which carry them:

Country Shop, Copper Harbor
North Wind Books, Eagle Harbor
Copperworld, Calumet
The Gift Shop, Calumet
Leo's Drugs, Calumet
Houghton County Historical Society, Lake Linden
Lake Linden Drugs, Lake Linden
Quincy Mine Hoist, Hancock
Einerlei, Houghton
Windigo, Houghton
Seaman Mineral Museum, MTU
Einerlei, Chassell
Da Yoopers, Ishpeming

bluex.jpg (4567 bytes) Quote of the Month

You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any good unless you are raised and live in a library every day of your life.       - Ray Bradbury


Return to Friends of the Library Home Page

Direct questions or comments to Board Secretary, Faith Morrison, at fmorriso@mtu.edu
Copyright 1998 J. Robert Van Pelt Library, Michigan Technological University
Last revised: February 7, 1999