Tag: Library
Before, During, and After
One person’s BEFORE is another person’s AFTER.
New and Current Students
Last year’s entering students will have very different memories than what this year’s entering students will encounter. Take, for example, the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library.
Students coming to college for the first time last year came BEFORE library renovation and experienced the full spring semester DURING that process. When they arrived in the fall, the library was new to them, but operating as “normal.” In the spring, the building was closed and they had to search out the Nellie Wilson Lounge to find the “library in exile.”
Students who are now Juniors and Seniors are about to have their moment of feeling like old-timers as they regale Freshmen and Sophomores with their stories of the library as it was BEFORE.
Students from the 1970s
Students from the early 1970s remember before, during, and after the wraparound addition which provided more space for more collections and office space for library staff and classrooms.
Emeritus Club
Emeritus Club members (those who have graduated from WVWC at least 50 years ago) remember before and during the building of the original Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library. Some remember the excitement of the dedication of that building in 1953.
This week the Emeritus Club gathered for the last of their summer luncheons and were treated to a tour of the renovated library. They were amazed. They were excited. They were proud. They were also a bit nostalgic as they told stories of times when talking and eating were not permitted in the library!
They ended their tour by standing at the foot of the stairs and singing the Alma Mater, some with misty eyes. They were remembering their time and experiences with love and gratitude while also sharing their excitement for current students. Almost a kind of blessing. It was a beautiful and emotional moment.
Perspective of Time
We see the world in terms of our own perspective of time.
This can give us appreciation for growth and excitement for the future.
Our shared experiences connect us even (and maybe especially) when things look different than they did before.
New opportunities. A new normal.
Fall 2019
Within the week, I will be meeting My First Year Seminar students for the first time. They will experience only the new.
They will hear stories about the old from those who knew it (including those who just arrived last fall.)
They will probably consider the new door as being the main door. To many of us, it is a marvel to be able to enter from both sides of the building!
They will regularly get lunch, or make themselves a milkshake or Keurig coffee at the new self-service micro store while others will look back with nostalgia on the Cafe Libros. Some Emeritus tour members this week were horrified at food (or even chewing gum) in the library at all.
The library has always been at the heart of academic life – the laboratory where students explore and apply what they learn in the classrooms. Research is done and papers are written there. It has also been the place where people gather as a community of learners. Many have found it a convenient place to meet and talk and get acquainted. It is a center for building Community as well as individuals.
Yes, there are still books (print and electronic) and access to many information sources and reserve items. Yes, there are librarians to guide and teach and help students find what they need. Yes, the building is different and redesigned.
The library is ready to build more people.
Transformation
In the fall of 2012, the room in the back on the first floor of the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Library, the Upshur Reading Room, was beginning to be used for programs. Both campus and community members gathered to be informed, to be inspired, and to have discussions.
Like the Town Squares in the olden days, it was a place for people to come and find information and to discuss it.
One particularly inspirational evening in the autumn of 2012, Dr. Robert Rupp came to the library to give a lecture about candidates for an upcoming election. And we had quite a crowd.
But, the backdrop was not great – with open walls back to where journals were stored blocked off by a series of filing cabinets.
On the cabinets were stacks of papers, microfilm boxes, and dead plants.
Not exactly the kind of thing we were proud to show off on the evening news reports – and the press did come.
The Library was inspired…..to have a more appropriate and visually appealing place for these programs. Funding from the Friends of the Library made it possible to install a partition between the Reading Room and the periodical storage area. Filing cabinets and dead plants were removed.
In consultation with Professor Ellen Mueller, a professor in the Art Department from 2012-2017, we received submissions for the creation of a mural. She included the project as part of an assignment for the class. Several wonderful designs were submitted, and we chose a design by Spencer Kinnard.
Director of Library Services, Paula McGrew
Click here to see a time lapse video of Spencer as he creates his masterpiece.
His design placed the Greek Philosophers in the center, scientists and medical leaders in the upper right corner, philosophers and religious readers in the lower right, artists and musicians on the lower left, and writers on the upper left.
This is generally where books on those topics are located in this library. Genius!
His tag line is:
- Despite everything we have learned, questions linger and remain.
- Who are we?
- Where are we going?
- And, what will tomorrow bring?
One thing tomorrow brought was a beautiful and meaningful transformation of the space. Be sure to stop by and take a closer look at it the next time you are in the library. (p.s. there is a cheat sheet mounted on the wall so that you can identify all of the people on the mural).
Be sure to check out the DreamersAndGiants website!