Computers

Computers. Super important here at Coe and I'm glad the library has so many. Last semester, my computer was broken so I spent a LOT of time in the library at one of the computers. The library also seems to be immune to whatever seems to be going on with Coe's wi-fi (most of the time). Even though the library isn't open all day, there's usually a good bet that you can use a computer when you need one. ~Angela A.

Adventures of working at the library

When I first started working at the library last year I thought I was going to be very productive and get a lot of homework accomplished while working at the Circulation Desk. The opposite could not have been truer. Instead of working on my academics at work I learned a lot of other new things, most importantly improving my social life. When I walk into the library I always see a friendly face and that is what I love about Coe College; there is always a friend wherever I go, whether it is at the library, in the cafeteria or workout.
Working at the circulation desk there is never a dull moment, there is always someone to greet when someone walks in the door or say bye to when leaving. I am constantly learning new things about books and authors because everyone likes to share a story about their favorite book or author when checking a book out. There is always something to explore when shelving books or dusting. Sometimes when I am straightening the books on the shelves or doing inventory I pull out an interesting book just take a few minutes to read the back out of curiosity.
People not only come to the library to study and do their homework but some people come to the library to be social. I have seen many friends sit in a study room or at a study table chatting or playing card games. I have also seen people napping at a desk or sleeping on a couch. Many people bring food into the library as a snack; I have even seen Jimmy John’s and Pizza Hut being delivered here for dinner. There is always something interesting going on in the library and a great place to be! ~Taylor W.

Hidden Nooks and Crannies of SML

While working in the library, I have come to know the building's secrets pretty well. I’ve learned that the top floor is kept at just above freezing practically year round, the Whipple sticker means that this book is brand new, and where to find the Grant Wood paintings. But what I have found most useful and interesting is the kept secret study areas found abundantly on each floor.

Working from the bottom up, the basement level holds not only a hidden space but a wonderful asset. The Archives are found down the main stairs and to the left. Here I have found not only some of the comfiest armchairs the library has to offer but an irreplaceable asset in Rob DeSpain, and his knowledge of Coe College and its past students. The next floor up contains the most abundant overlooked spaces. In the Joanne M. Pochobradsky Reading Room, located to the right of the main staircase when entering through the main doors, caters to both the groups and the individual. In this wing of the library there is both a medium-sized room for group meetings tucked behind the shelves of magazines, and a L-shaped couch positioned perfectly in front of a large window and is made complete with lamps to read by. Next time you go to the second floor seek out these other hidden study spaces, specifically the two smaller galleries found to the left and right of the Perrine Gallery. There are plenty of comfy leather armchairs, illuminating golden light to read by, and the doors can close so you can control the sound. The largest hidden secret of the library would have to be the illusive third floor. Few people realize that this top floor even exists because it can only be accessed by the side staircases. The noise level is kept at a chilling whisper and is the perfect spot if you need to hunker down, focus, and get stuff done.

So go out at explorer these mysterious niches the library has to offer and good luck with your studies! Katie K.

Time Away

These last couple of semesters I have spent less time in the library, and more time over in Dows keeping up with art projects, as well as in Eby and the Racquet Center for track. But now every time that I am here things look different and even new. As I walk from computer to printer I see these paintings that I must have seen a hundred times and stop to re-examine them. While I am putting books back on shelves one catches my eye and I open it to see what it’s about, and catch myself reading it later that night. I have worked here for 3 and a half semesters, and am realizing how awesome it is to see all the new faces come in and ask questions, the stillness of the 11pm to 1 am shift, and excitement of finding a book that I will read(not just for class). I remember just starting this work study job thinking that this could be an awful job, but now I barely think of it as a job at all, I come to Stewart Memorial Library because I work here, but I stay because I just don’t want to leave. Gordon R.

More notes from a Circ worker...

My name is Bellamy and I’m an Elementary Education major at Coe. This is my second year working at the library and I love it. This semester I’m taking a class on children’s literature that requires me to read and bring in a selection of children’s books to class every Friday. I’ve been able to find all of my literature selections for this class from the children’s section of the Coe library. This area is located in the basement of the library and houses picture books on one side and chapter/young adult books on the other. At first I wasn’t sure if the library’s children section would have enough of a variety for all of different types of genres that I had to obtain. But now it’s halfway through the semester and week after week, I’ve been able to find great quality children’s literature books. The children’s section in the library may appear small, but there’s lots of great material!

Check out new displayed journal titles

Take time to see the Art work in the Library

One of my favorite parts of working in the Library is the art. While walking around shelving books, or counting students, or even just sitting at the desk I see these pictures and am still amazed. This will be my second year working at the Library and I it is like the pictures are always changing and I am finding new ways to look at these works. After a long day of class and soccer it is relaxing coming to work just so I can look at the extensive amount of art this building holds, and try to interpret it from my understanding.~~~~Gordon

Notes from a Summer Worker Chapter 2

What I did in the Library this Summer
This summer, my coworkers and I have been working primarily on two projects. The first of which is transcription. Transcription is listening to accounts of the flood of ’08 and rendering it in on archival paper that will be stored in the library’s archives. I have had two individuals that I have transcribed. The first was a fantastical man who had traveled the country and the world performing in a show in which he dressed as a woman and performed comedic acts. He finally settled in Cedar Rapids, only to have his home flooded and his sequined costumes tarnished by the Cedar River’s bloat. With the help of his neighborhood, the community came together and repaired a broken morale. The second transcription assignment is about one of our own fellow Coe Students. She was a nursing student during the time of the “Epic Surge” and worked at St. Luke’s and lived there when her apartment was flooded. During the spring and summer of 2008, not one person was unaffected in some part by the flood.
The second project is that of digitizing students’ honors theses from past years. Currently, students are expected to submit a digital copy of their thesis, but in years past this was not the case. In order to preserve their hard work and showcase Coe’s intellect for future Kohawks and curious minds, we have been scanning the theses and making them accessible online.

What you look forward to in the school year
The school year is going to be the busiest yet for me. It’s bittersweet to be approaching my last year here at Coe College, but I have plenty of events and projects to assure that I don’t coast through it. I am heavily involved with Coe Human Rights Advocates here on campus (inquire if interested, friends!). We have a gala scheduled for the fall that will benefit a non-profit dedicated to eradicating the presence of anti-personnel mines whose purpose has longer expired through mine-dogs. The dogs are able to discover mines through scent, and humans are able to disassemble them. There will be a sampling of area restaurants’ appetizers to lure in community members and Kohawks to pledge their support. My school year will also include various activities and conferences that I will attend with fellow Coe College Democrats. There is no off-season in politics. Whether it’s the ice-cream social(ist), or hosting a speaker, there will be plenty to do. On the academic side, I will be focusing on writing my honors thesis about religious resurgence in politics in Turkey and India (which I expect to have a throng of faithful devotees to my writing. Or my advisor. Or just me). Regardless, it shall be written and bound and contain my blood, sweat, tears, and the stains from too many midnight espressos. In what free time I have left, it will be spent with my Tri-Delta sisters, doing weird things. Whether it is doing head stands in the hallway whilst listening to sitar music during tour season, crafting until glitter coats our lungs, or shopping with the money that I just do not have, we will make time for each other and treasure the little time we have left. ~~~~Shanel

Library Book Sale

Oct 10 and 11

9am-4pm

Located in the Winifred Cone Gallery

All proceeds go to the Brian Schappert Endowment

Notes from a Summer Worker Chapter 1

1) Contradictory to popular belief, circulation workers have a lot to do in the library over summer. My coworkers and I have been biding our time with regular circulation work on top of some special projects. A special project that has been going on for the duration of the summer is transcribing interviews about the 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids. Once completed the transcriptions will be placed into archives and be accessible for students. Eventually, we hope to have everything in the archives on the Internet. We are working towards that with not only the transcriptions but scanning student theses as PDF documents as well.

You may be thinking okay so you’re busy with work but does anyone ever come into the library? The answer is yes, not as many as there is during school but people still visit the library. This summer Coe was the host to several programs for children in the community. One program was College for Kids that has two-week sessions, twice during the summer. The library was the host of several of the classes this program offered. The second program Coe hosted was Reading Camp where children in the community came to campus to improve their reading. As you would suspect, that was a busy time for the library! Coe was also involved in Iowa Private College Week and of course the library was one of many tour stops.

As fun as this summer has been at the library, I know we are all looking forward to having students back on campus. Even though we have had visitors throughout the summer, there is nothing like the Kohawks!

2) This is my last year at Coe. For the school year I am looking forward to seeing all of my fellow Kohawks back on campus. Instead of missing home, I am the opposite in that I miss school. Not necessarily the homework and test part, but having my Coe family on campus. The summer always seems too long with everyone away. Is there some way we could have everyone stay on campus for the summer and not have to have class?

I am also looking forward to recruitment this fall. From what I gather there is another big class of Kohawks coming in. We could possibly get thirty new members! It is amazing to see how fast Tri Delta has grown since my time here. As a freshman we only had 38 members and now we are in the sixties. I am excited to get to know these new members and continue to get to know the existing members. Yes, this is somewhat of a plug for Tri Delta but what I am most excited about for Delta is our philanthropic events for St. Jude. As a national organization we made the goal of raising $15 million in 5 years. Well we have finished our third year at $14.2 million! I can’t wait to get my fellow Kohawks involved in our events for fundraising.
~~~Kallie

Save the Date!!!

Library Book Sale Thursday, Oct.10 and Friday, Oct.11.

Productivity

The study rooms are really nice to be able to work, by yourself or with a group, without any distractions. It's also helpful because if you need a book, you're already in the library! And, my personal favorite, you don't feel like people are staring at you and silently judging you. That's always a plus. So use the study rooms! Be productive! Yay, productivity!~~~~Angela

Super Study Days

Whenever my friends and I have a big project to work on, we'll commandeer a study room all day for Super Study Days. It helps us focus to be in the library and away from any noise or other distractions. We get a lot accomplished since we have such easy access to books, computers, and (thank goodness) the printer. The library sometimes also provides a nice curfew; since they kick us out at 1 AM, we know it's time to go to sleep. ~Angela

View from the Circ Desk

As a student at Coe there is a good chance thar you visit the library regularly, but do you really know what it has to offer you? I was recently given the privelege of working at the circulation desk, which gave me the opportunity to learn more about the library. I have learned that the people that work here are very willing to help you with anything that you may have a question on, but you have to be the one to take initiative. Right now I personally take full advantage of the AV department in using movies for class but also for pleasure. My most recent watch was A Beautiful Mind, which was for class but also a movie that I wanted to see but have never gotten the chance. I also am in the process of writing a research paper over Paris, and will most likely be asking the people who work at the reference desk to assist me in finding useful information over the topic. Also the library gives you many online options to use, one that I frequently use for my major is psYchARTICLES, which gives me a variety of scholarly articles to use for papers and projects. Overall we have many resources that you should take advantages of to help with your success in college.~Rachel

Whipple Browsing Area

Many Coe students use the library to study, check-out materials for class, read items their professors have put on hold, and request books and articles using the interlibrary loan system. What they often forget is that Stewart Memorial Library has a large variety of newly released books to read for pleasure. These books are located in our Whipple Browsing Area right as you enter the library across from the circulation desk. This area is full of books for all ages that are current releases. Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, John Sandford, John Grisham, and Marjane Satrapi are a few popular authors who have multiple works located in our Whipple section. If you are looking for some popular children’s books we also have those as well. A few of my favorites in the Whipple section are The Princesses of Iowa by Molly Backes and Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick. If you want a break from homework and are looking for a good book to read check out the Whipple Browsing Area at the library this weekend.

Megan

Working in the library

There are many reasons that working for the Coe Library is an enjoyable job, the flexible hours, the ability to do some homework between tasks, and being able to say hi to your friends as they come in to print something out or to study. But there are two main reasons that I love it here; being able to help someone out when they need something and learning the layout of the library that I wouldn’t have known so well otherwise.
With the shelving, book searches, and shelf reading that I do for the circulation desk I have gotten to know where things are in the library. As a result of that it is pretty easy to help someone out if they are looking for a specific book or a subject in the library. Whether I am looking for books to read just for fun (the Whipple section) or looking for books for a class, working at the library has helped me have a better idea on where to start.
Ashley Kupka

Books!!!!

             My favorite thing about working at the library is seeing just what an extensive collection of books that it has to offer. Although I had spent time studying in the library last year (before I had a job at the circulation desk) I hadn’t taken advantage of using the books for various research products. I think one of the reasons why I didn’t do this is because I went to an extremely small high-school that didn’t have a very extensive collection of books. They had always encouraged us to use the library in high-school, but most of the time they just didn’t have enough books for me to find what I was looking for.

            So this year, after I got the job at the library and started doing tasks like shelving and inventory, I was amazed by the multitude of different book topics that the library housed. Even now, four months into the job I still get shocked that there are shelves and shelves of books on a single topic. So last month when I had a big research paper due for Chemistry, instead of only using online sources I checked the library database and was able to find tons of books about my topic. They were very helpful tools for my paper and I’m glad that I now go to a school that has a great library!~Bellamy, Circulation Student

Marvin Cone and his legacy at Coe College

Ever wondered about the art galleries that are bathed in sunlight, right inside the front doors of the library? The paintings in these galleries belong to Marvin Cone, a native of Cedar Rapids who graduated from Coe College in 1914 and was on faculty at Coe from 1919 to 1960. In fact, Cone started the Art Department at Coe! He began as a French professor and established the Art Department in 1934.

Marvin Cone is known as one of the most important Iowa artists, as was his close life-time friend, Grant Wood. Grant Wood is known most famously for his “American Gothic.” The Winnifred M. Cone galleries, named after Cone’s wife, feature 60 works of art by Marvin Cone. You can read more about the artworks in the library here.

Marvin Cone is also currently being featured at a solo exhibition at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art; the show is up until January 20, 2012. You can find out more information about the exhibition here.

Pictured above: “Old Quarry, Stone City”, 1936, oil on canvas

--Laura, Head of Audiovisual

Upper Reading Room

 When I was a first year, it was difficult to get into the swing of appropriate study methods. In high school I always studied at home at the dining table, never in a library. Depending on what time of the day you are studying, Coe's library can be a very distracting place. It took probably the whole first semester to learn how to use the library to my advantage. It was a long semester of trial and error; studying at a table with other people, listening to music while studying, facing a window while studying, etc. None of those methods worked for me. I found that the best way for me to use the library is the second floor reading room. In those cubbies, I am removed from distraction and most of the time it is silent. There are plug ins in each cubbie so I am able to charge my laptop while working. I also believe it is the best spot to pick up WiFi in the library! ~Kallie

Resources (sometimes overlooked) in the Library

• First Floor East Side Computers: It never fails students will be gathered around the west end printer furiously grabbing papers the printer spits out at mad intervals, but there is another printer steps away. Use the east printer and save some time!


• The Reference Desk: It's these people's jobs to help you find information. They actually enjoy searching out a book for your research paper due tomorrow that you might have neglected. Bonus--if you procrastinate a little less and start thinking about that paper a few weeks in advance, they can help you get resources from other libraries across the country: articles, DVDs, books, you name it.


• The Isolated Computers on the Second and Third Floors: These computers are there to help you find resources here in the library. Go to the website and search the catalog. The call number will be present and voila! Numbers on the shelves will help guide you to that elusive book.


• The Books!: I see students scrambling all the time, struggling to find scholarly articles on Ebsco for a project, when there are countless resources right here. There are books on almost every subject! The library isn't just a place for studying and hanging out. It houses a wealth of information you may find helpful. ~Shanel