Tutt Library News

Library News

Construction Update: Windows are going in. Walls are up and Internal walls are in place. Bathrooms are tiled.

Library Update: In addition to providing library services for the last two blocks of this academic year, the staff is meeting and planning for the move back into Tutt Library. Nothing will change until after the end of block 8. 

Staff offices and service points will move after commencement at the end of May. The collections will also start to move then and last into the summer. 

Check back for more details as the time draws nearer.

See the Library Renovation Page for up to date news, pictures, and Tweets.

Tutt Library Tenth Annual Haiku Contest

procrastinating?
put your daydreams to good use
send us a haiku

In celebration of National Poetry Month and National Library Week and our wonderful Colorado spring and being mere months away from  moving into our shiny new space, Tutt Library is once again seeking your original, library-themed haiku (and senryu)! Please submit no more than 12 entries in the box at the reference desk (or email them to tuttref@coloradocollege.edu) by April 30^th.  Winners will receive fabulous prizes and their haiku will be creatively immortalized.

 Some people will tell you that you should stick to seventeen syllables per haiku, and we agree with those people.  More importantly, use your imagination!  Embrace your poetic nature!  And incite your friends to enter too!

Don't know the difference between haiku and senryu? Want to know more about these ancient poetic forms? Well, this is a library -- we can help! 

The online Oxford English Dictionary defines haiku here and senryu here.
 
Tutt Library has books of haiku by Basho, Shiki, Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser, and Jack Kerouac, among others - and you can find thousands of examples of and scholarly articles on haiku in Granger's, JSTOR, MLA Bibliography, Humanities International Complete, and more, via our English Subject Guide.
 
We hope all this haikuphilic information serves as an inspiration for you to get started writing your own!

Hot Docs: Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda online

There was much discussion about President-elect Trump using executive orders and presidential memorandums to fulfill his campaign promises. Some presidents haven't made great use of this ability.  Harrison issued none. And up until FiIlmore, the most issued by a President was 18 or less. FDR signed the most, 3,728, many more than and other president. Only 2 others past the 1000 mark: Wilson and T. Roosevelt. Since Kennedy, issuances have numbered between 166 (G.W. Bush) to 381 (Regan) for entire terms of the president.

 

As of March 29th, President Trump is at 46. To find out what they are visit Presidential Actions at the WhiteHouse.gov site which lists all his executive orders and presidential memos.

 

(Both executive orders and presidential memos are directives issued by the executive branch. The main difference between the two is presidents typically cite their legal authority in executive orders, but not in presidential memos.)

 

For past executive orders and presidential memos check in the TIGER catalog.

 

Mending Party: How to Fix Torn Pages

It’s Spring Break, the perfect time for a little sprucing up of our collection! Earlier this week, the Creekside team hosted another Mending Party. This time, we worked on pages.

Why pages? When repairing a book, we follow an order of operations. First, we make any repairs to the “text block,” the printed pages. Second, we work on repairs to the “case,” or cover. Finally, repairs are made where the text block and the case attach. So, pages are the perfect place to start building book-mending skills. Additionally, tears and torn-out pages are very common in library books.

Why do pages tear?

• Age: Paper becomes brittle over time. Ever wonder why expensive paper is advertised as “acid-free?” Acids break down paper fibers, causing them to yellow and become brittle. Acid-free papers have a longer lifespan. Books printed before the 1930’s used particularly acidic paper processes, so they are prone to tearing and breakdown.
• Use: Pages tear when books circulate. This is simply the nature of a circulating collection!
• Sticking material in books: Pages tear when inappropriate materials such as post-it notes, pencils, rulers, etc; are tucked into library books.

 

Torn book with mending materials

 

How to fix torn pages:

Materials:

To fix a tear, you can use either glue or archival tape. Using tape is easier, though it runs the risk of making the repair stronger than the page around it, leading to more potential tears. We’ll outline both methods below.

For glue, make sure you are using an acid-free, transparent adhesive. PH neutral PVA works well.

For tape, choose an acid-free mending tape. We use filmoplast P, which is a tape made from very thin paper. Though it may be tempting, never use packaging tape or non-archival clear tape. Non-archival tape can ruin the page.

Using archival tape:

1. Align the tear. Pay attention to how the tear was made, and realign the tear so that the paper fibers match up. At the Mending Party, we called this “getting in the mind of the tear.”
2. Prepare your tape. Most tears do not require the full width of a piece of tape, so we cut the tape in half and used thinner strips. Try not to touch the sticky part of the tape—the oil from your fingers makes for a messy repair.
3. Press the tape onto the tear. Use short pieces of tape in order to match the curves of the tear.
4. If the tear runs to the edge of the page, cut off any extra tape rather than folding it over.
5. Run a bone folder (or credit card) over the tape to smooth it.

Mending with archival tape makes the tear practically invisible. Can you see it?

Using glue:

1. Align the tear. This is especially important while using glue, as you want to put the glue only on the parts of the tear that touch each other.
2. Place a piece of waxed paper behind the page you are repairing. This will prevent you from accidentally gluing your book together.
3. Brush a thin layer of glue onto the overlapping area of the tear.
4. Press down lightly to fuse the paper together. Wipe off any extra glue with a light cloth (cheesecloth works well).
5. Place another sheet of waxed paper on top of the repair and close the book to let dry.

Mending a tear with glue and waxed paper

Of course, if your book is from a library, it’s best to let the experts handle any repairs. Still, mending torn pages can come in handy to fix up used books or repair your own collection.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Mending Party! We had a great time learning how to bring torn pages back to life.

Women's History Month @ Tutt

Celebrate Women's History Month with a good book or two! Mimi Wheatwind has put together a great display on themes like women in the American West and women in labor. Come check it out in Tutt Library's lobby.

 

 

Celebrate African American History at CC

Tutt Library celebrates African American history at CC! Come check out the new display. We started with CC materials courtesy of Special Collections, and pulled books from the historical American West and education history. Our display case can only hold so many books -- for hundreds more, see the online catalog Tiger.

 

Thanks to Mimi Wheatwind for the great book display, and thanks to Jessy Randall in Special Collections for the clippings!

 

Tutt Construction From Inside and Up High

Here are some exciting photos taken on or around January 31, 2017 and show the progress of the construction inside and at the top. This gives you an idea of what the views will look like from Tutt Library once the construction is done.

Photos taken by a CC staffperson who declined to be credited. Thank you photographer! Click for larger images.

Half Block Box Making Party - Results!

The first rule of book mending is “do no harm.” Sometimes, library books come into the Preservation Department that are irreparable, or require repairs that could eventually cause more damage. When those books are also irreplaceable, or of historical interest, we need to find a way to keep them in our collection. What can we do with those books? Put them in boxes!

An archival box offers a book protection from further damage. To ensure the most protection, archival boxes must be made to the precise dimensions of a book. This means archival boxes are often quite expensive, especially when outsourced. Fortunately, Tutt Library’s Cataloging Coordinator, Clare Trissel, was willing to teach interested library staff how to make high-quality archival boxes in-house!

Over Half Block, we had a box-making party. We met at our Creekside location, where most of Tutt Library’s collection is temporarily housed during renovations. Creekside is also the current home of the Preservation Department. It was nice for the Creekside staff to have company in our new workspace! After a great demonstration, some head-scratching, and a few good laughs, we have several lovely archival boxes to show for our efforts. Thanks, Clare!

 

Didn't know that Tutt Library had a Preservation Department? You do now! Madalyn Rilling, Preservation & Retrieval Specialist, evaluates and repairs dozens upon dozens of books every block. Repairs range from the simple -- torn pages, broken spines etc; -- to the extensive -- such as the books shown here, which now can be returned to the shelves thanks to the attendees of the first Book Box Party!

 

Book Retrieval 101

For more details about requesting books from Tutt Library and to see instructions and the schedule go to How to Get Books During the Renovation.

Where are the books?

The Creekside Facility was built for the temporary housing of a large portion of Tutt Library’s collections during the remodel of the library building. 

Getting books and other library materials is easy; here’s how it works:

Search the Tiger Catalog. Check the location; some things are still in the Tutt and Seay libraries. Those you can get yourself.  If the location is Creeside, click the big red button at the top of the TIGER record and follow the screens to submit the request.

Creekside staff print out the request forms and pull those items from the shelves. Those materials are placed into bins and driven over to Tutt Library. (That CC van driving through the Quad may be delivering your requests)

Circulation staff then process the items and send out email notifications that the requested items are now availability for pick up.  You check out your requested items at the circulation desk. When you return checked-out items, they are packed into bins and taken back to Creekside to be re-shelved and are then available to be requested again.

Tutt Library renovation is rolling along!

Here are a few photos from the end of Half Block, on a gorgeous Colorado day. The Bridge between Tutt North and Tutt South is now mostly gone, and you can see Pikes Peak peeking through with its snowy cap. A new set of stairs is up, but still open on one side and you can see the hard-working construction folks trooping up and down the steps.

Click on an images for a larger version