Book Sale Scheduled for April 4 & 5

It's that time! Time for the Annual Book sale! The annual Friends of the Library Book Sale will take place this year on Thursday, April 5, 2001 with a special pre-sale for members of the Friends on April 4. The presale will be from 5pm-7pm on Wednesday, April 4, and the sale will be 10am-5pm on April 5. From 4-5pm on April 5 will be our "bag sale" When we sell books at the bargain price of only two dollars for a full grocery bag.

This is a popular event that raises hundreds of dollars every year for the Library. Please come out and support this sale. If you have any books to donate to the sale, please bring them to the Van Pelt Library (either drop in the orange drop box in the foyer or bring to the circulation desk), or give us a call and we'll come and pick them up. Any quantity of books accepted! We also accept videos, CDs, and software. To arrange a pick up, please call Dana (906-487-2149; dlrichte@mtu.edu) or Terry (906-487-2113, treynold@mtu.edu.)

Support Needed for Lounge Project

For many students and faculty the Library is our on-campus home. The books are there, the web is there, . . .. if only you could get a cappuccino! Well, with the help of the Friends and Library staff your wish may soon come true. The Friends are working with Library staffers to design and construct a lounge on the first floor of the Van Pelt Library. This area will be attractively redecorated and a self-service cappuccino machine will be installed. The Friends are providing the initial financing, but we are looking for donors to assist with this effort. The expected cost is $8,000. If you are interested in supporting this project, please contact us (Faith Morrison, fmorriso@mtu.edu, 906-487-2050) or send your check for any amount to the Friends (address on the back). Help us to make our Library a truly welcoming and comfortable place and the heart of the campus.

Board Members Elected at Annual Meeting

On October 26, 2000 the Friends held their annual meeting at the MTU University residence. Neil Davis, the author of the recently published "Quotations from Bathroom Walls," read from his book and discussed the motivation for his work. A lifetime of collecting worthy readings has led him to publish numerous works.

During the business part of the meeting, four directors were elected to the Friends board: Udaya Kalluri, June Hawthorne, George Love, and Dana Richter. June, George, and Dana have been on the board for some time, while Udaya, a graduate student in forest science at MTU, is new to the board. Also at the annual meeting Dee Vincent was elected chairman of the Friends, Peck Cho was elected vice chairman, and Erin Minne' was voted secretary. Treasurer Terry Reynolds was re-elected to that position. The board of the Friends gained another member in December when Renee Yaek was appointed to an open position on the board; she will serve until 2002. Renee is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society that has helped with the book sale for several years.

Welcome aboard, everyone! A complete listing of Friends board members and their terms of office may be found on our website, http://www.lib.mtu.edu/friends/friends.htm.
 

The Friends: What have we done?

by Terry Reynolds, Treasurer, FVPL

The Friends of the Van Pelt Library have now been in existence for almost 6 years. Operating with the limited funds that we have raised from donations, membership fees, the annual book sale, and blanket and note card sales, we have undertaken a series of small projects designed to improve the Library's holdings, activities, and physical plant. Over the years these small projects have mounted up, and it is perhaps time to review just what we have accomplished.

In the area of collection improvement, the Friends have supported three projects. We initiated the popular book collection, which is a collection of current, popular fiction and non-fiction books that we rent from an outside vendor and which are made available for loan to Van Pelt patrons. A nice feature of this program is that the Library gets to retain a certain percentage of the volumes before returning the rest. The Friends also use a portion of the proceeds of their annual book sale to support the paperback loan collection, located next to the circulation desk and heavily used by students for recreational reading. Finally, the Friends supported expansion of the Library's collections of American Indian and African-American books.

The primary programmatic activity the Friends have supported in the Library is the Archives Speakers' Series. We've done this in two ways. First, the Friends provide the refreshments for those attending the series. Second, the Friends have annually supported several grants to scholars wishing to use the Van Pelt's Copper Country Archives and Historical Collections. As part of their visits, travel grant award winners are asked to present a talk on their research in the Archives Speakers' Series. Finally, the Friends' have also supported several local history grants in recent years, designed to encourage local groups to use the collections. The displays and programs resulting from these grants do not usually occur in the Van Pelt Library, but in local communities and schools. Thus they contribute towards diffusing the benefits of the Van Pelt Library to the broader community. Erik Nordberg, the Library's archivist, has worked with the Friends to make the travel and local history grants work effectively.

The Friends over the years have also contributed to improving the physical aspects of the Library - even retaining an interior designer to provide low cost ideas for improving the physical layout of the Library's entry area. Our first construction project involved expanding the number of group study rooms in the Library - important to Michigan Tech's students as team projects become more and more part of the curricula of various programs. In our early years the Friends elected to make conversion of some of the Library's old carrels into group study rooms a priority, undertaking some of the physical labor ourselves. Since our funds were insufficient to do the project, various members of the Friends (especially Nancy Fisher) sought out other groups to share or assume expenses for the conversion. Ultimately, the Friends and the groups enticed into supporting the project with us (the Senior Class of 1997 and the Patent and Trademark Office of MTU) converted and equipped six group study rooms. These have been extensively used almost from the day they were opened.

More recently, the Friends provided funds for improving the appearance of two of the most visible areas of the Library on the first floor. In 2000 the Friends provided a new computer and new furniture for the reference area and matching furniture for the on-line catalog area. Finally, the Friends have now taken the first steps towards creating a lounge area in the Library in the northeast corner of the first floor. Details of that project will appear in the next newsletter.

Our funds are limited, but by attacking one small project at a time, the Friends have made a significant contribution towards improving the Van Pelt Library's physical appearance and broadening its programmatic outreach. The longest journey begins with a single step. We have taken a fair number of those steps.
 

2001 Local History Grant Awards

by Erik Nordberg, MTU Archivist

The MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2001 Local History Grant program.

The first of this year's awards was presented to the Lake Linden-Hubbell Public School in support of an exhibit exploring the history of the area currently used as the Lake Linden public park and campground. The exhibit will highlight more than a century of milling operations of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, which built its first mineral processing plant on the shores of Torch Lake in 1868. The $200 grant will underwrite duplication of historical photographs and purchase of construction materials for an exhibit kiosk in the park. Students in the school's Michigan History class will conduct research in September and the exhibit will be dedicated with a public presentation in October. The project will utilize collections at the MTU Archives and the Houghton County Historical Society.

A second grant of $100 was presented to the Chassell Historical Organization in support of an exhibit documenting Chassell's important lumbering history. The Sturgeon River Lumber Company, which moved to the area in the 1880s, was the impetus for the founding of Chassell. The company later changed owners to become the Worcester Lumber Company and the timber industry continued to provide social cohesion as well as economic dominance in the community. Little remains of the extensive land and marine developments made by this important local industry. The grant-funded research will lead to a small permanent exhibit at the Chassell Heritage Center.

The Local History Grant program is designed to support local projects that utilize the collections of the MTU Archives. Proposals were required to have a public history component and the support of a local non-profit or governmental agency. The Friends of the Van Pelt Library provide financial support for the program. This year's awards committee consisted of Larry Lankton from the MTU Social Sciences Department, George Love of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, and Erik Nordberg, representing the MTU Archives.
 

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MTU Archives Announces Research Travel Awards

by Erik Nordberg, MTU Archivist

The MTU Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2001 Research Travel Award program. The program is designed to provide support for travel, food, and lodging to carry out research using the collections of the MTU Archives. The Friends of the Van Pelt Library provide financial support for the travel award program for the Library and Archives of Michigan Technological University.

Two projects were selected from a total of ten submissions, the largest number of applications in the program's four-year history. The first of this year's two $600 awards will be presented to Roger Burt, Professor of Mining History at the University of Exeter in Devon, England. The award will support his research examining the role of fraternal organizations in international socio-economic networking during the nineteenth century. In particular, Burt hopes to focus his research trip to Michigan on the Copper Country's Masonic groups and the International Order of Odd-Fellows, examining how they have supported local community structures, created networks for the promotion of business, and aided the diffusion of business information. Fraternal organizations were also important support networks for immigrants relocating to the Copper Country, providing an international referral service for housing, employment and social fraternity.

The second of this year's awards is to be presented to Timothy O'Neil, an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Central Michigan University. The travel grant will support O'Neil's research into the legal and political career of Copper Country lawyer and judge Patrick H. O'Brien. The son of an Irish miner, O'Brien was born near the Phoenix mine in Keweenaw County and eventually left the area to obtain a law degree. He returned to Laurium in 1899 and became one of the region's pioneer personal injury lawyers, confronting unsafe working practices in the local mining industry. Enjoying great personal popularity locally, O'Brien was elected to the Houghton County Circuit Court bench in 1911, a post he held for more than a decade. His sympathies for workers' rights and dedication to the rule of law were severely challenged during the district's bitter labor strike of 1913-1914.

The two award recipients plan to visit Houghton before the end of this summer to conduct research in the collections of the MTU Archives. Both researchers also plan to make public presentations about their research while they are in Houghton.

This is the fourth annual cycle for the MTU Archives Travel Award Program. Previous awards have supported research into the development of company housing at Hecla Location near Calumet, the role that Irish immigrants have played in Lake Superior mining communities, and the adoption of the English language by European transplants to Michigan's Copper Country. This year's awards committee consisted of Larry Lankton from the MTU Social Sciences Department, Terry Reynolds of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, and Erik Nordberg, representing the MTU Archives. For further information about the awards program or about the collections of the MTU Archives, call 906-487-2505.
 

MTU Archives
Upcoming Seminars

Monday, April 9, 2001 4:00pm
Kathryn Eckert, former state historic preservation officer,
Sandstone Architecture of the Lake Superior Region

Roger Burt, Professor at Exeter University, Devon, England
Fraternal Organizations in International 19th Century Socio-Economic Networking, date TBA

Timothy O'Neil, Professor at Central Michigan University
The Legal and Political Career of Patrick O'Brien, date TBA

For more information call 906-487-2505.
 

Econo Foods Receipts

Keep those receipts coming in!

Last year the Friends of the Van Pelt Library collected Econo receipts that totaled $30,361.11. As a result, Econo Foods donated 1% of that total, or $303.61, to the Friends to support the purchase of computer equipment for the Library. Although this is a modest amount, with a bit more effort we could generate far more substantial sums. For example, the Finlandia University Library (formerly Suomi College) generated over $1100 in donations!

We need your help! Please collect your receipts from Econo Foods and send them to us. We will take care of getting them to Econo. Please send your receipts by intercampus mail to either Faith Morrison (chemical engineering) or Terry Reynolds (social sciences). Want to help more? Put out a collection box in your area and encourage your coworkers to bring in their receipts for our Library. In addition to the drop off box in the Information Technology Department (basement EERC) and in the Administration building, there are now boxes in the chemical engineering office (203 Chem Sci) and at the Library circulation desk. Every little bit helps. Thanks to everyone who is collecting receipts for the Friends.