Hutchins Library News Blog - Library Homepage at Berea College

Hutchins Library is pleased to announce that during the month of February, and to honor Black History Month, we will feature a solo art exhibit of Dr. Valeria Watkins' work. The exhibit will run throughout the month of February. It can be viewed in the library's center wall on the main floor. The exhibit can be viewed during regular library hours.

This event is free and open to the public.

In addition, the public is invited to a reception with the artist on Friday, February 9, 2018. The reception will run from 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm, and it will be held in the gathering area in front of the center wall. Light refreshments will be provided.

Dr. Watkins has provided the following statement to accompany the exhibit:

"Welcome to Black History Month and this 2018 solo exhibit. It consists of 15 new Abstract Acrylic Paintings. I have added oil pastels to some of the images and they are identified as multi media.

The title of this series is, “Challenges to the Personal”. I work hard at stepping outside the frame of my personal idea of what is correct and incorrect to allow the colors to find their own boundaries and connections. My process begins with meditation. It is from that space of stillness that I first engaged the creative process and I maintain this stillness until there is a finished canvas.

The more I spend time painting, the more I feel the energy of the combinations of colors and the rhythm they create when combined. And I fall in love all over again. I don’t see images and I don’t try to do… something. My intention is to allow my intuition to be my guide from beginning to end.

Thank you for viewing this work. I hope you will be inspired to discover the artist within you.

Enjoy, Dr. Valeria"

Some photos from the exhibit:

Wide view Valeria Watkins Solo Display 2018

Wide view of display.

Watkins "Waking Up" Painting 2018

Painting entitled "Waking Up."

Watkins "Blue Invasion" Painting 2018

Painting entitled "Blue Invasion."

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April 6 to April 12 2025 is National Library Week. Here are some books about libraries and librarians

This week is National Library Week, a week where we celebrate libraries, the professionals who work in libraries, and the valuable role of libraries in society. This week, and always, is a good time to read a book or two, especially if you got it from a library. You can also encourage others to get a library card. For our campus community, in addition to having access to Hutchins Library and its resources, you can also get a library card with Madison County Public Library. Just make your way down to the Berea branch, show your Berea ID, and you can get a public library card. To help celebrate this week, I have put together a small list of books that feature in some way libraries and librarians. These books are available in our collections. If you need assistance, you can always stop by the Reference Desk. Books are listed in no particular order. 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The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Lucia Graves (Translator) Call Number: Stacks 863.64 Z17sxg ISBN: 9781594200106 Publication Date: 2004-04-12 "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time..." Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love. 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Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (Preface by); Andrew Hurley (Translator) Call Number: Stacks 863 B732cf ISBN: 9780670849703 Publication Date: 1998-09-01 Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, brilliantly translated by Andrew Hurley. From his 1935 debut with "The Universal History of Iniquity," through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display Borges' talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language. Together these incomparable works comprise the perfect one-volume compendium all those who have long loved Borges, and a superb introduction to the master's work for those who have yet to discover this singular genius. Come for "The Library of Babel" and stay for the rest of his stories. BiblioTech by John Palfrey Call Number: Stacks 020.285 P159b 2015 ISBN: 9780465042999 Publication Date: 2015-05-05 Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible -- by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal. Library by Matthew Battles Call Number: Stacks 027.009 B336L 2015 ISBN: 9780393351453 Publication Date: 2015-07-27 Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard metaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new afterword elucidates how knowledge is preserved amid the creative destruction of twenty-first-century technology. Where Are All the Librarians of Color? by Rebecca Hankins (Editor); Miguel Juarez (Editor) Call Number: Stacks 027.709 W567 2015 ISBN: 9781936117833 Publication Date: 2016-01-20 This book offers a comprehensive look at the experiences of people of color after the recruitment is over, the diversity box is checked, and the statistics are reported. What are the retention, job satisfaction, and tenure experiences of librarians of color? The authors look at the history of librarians of color in academia, review of the literature, obstacles, roles, leadership, and the tenure process for those that endure. What are the recruitment and retention methods employed to create a diverse workforce, successes and failures? Finally what are some mentoring strategies that work to make the library environment less exploitative and toxic for librarians of color? The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel Call Number: Stacks 027 M277L 2006 ISBN: 9780300139143 Publication Date: 2008-04-29 Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. “Libraries,” he says, “have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been seduced by their labyrinthine logic.” In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the meaning of libraries. Manguel, a guide of irrepressible enthusiasm, conducts a unique library tour that extends from his childhood bookshelves to the “complete” libraries of the Internet, from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the Arab world, from China and Rome to Google. He ponders the doomed library of Alexandria as well as the personal libraries of Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, and others. He recounts stories of people who have struggled against tyranny to preserve freedom of thought—the Polish librarian who smuggled books to safety as the Nazis began their destruction of Jewish libraries; the Afghani bookseller who kept his store open through decades of unrest. Oral “memory libraries” kept alive by prisoners, libraries of banned books, the imaginary library of Count Dracula, the library of books never written—Manguel illuminates the mysteries of libraries as no other writer could. With scores of wonderful images throughout, The Library at Night is a fascinating voyage through Manguel’s mind, memory, and vast knowledge of books and civilizations. You Could Look It Up by Jack Lynch Call Number: Stacks 028.709 L987y 2016 ISBN: 9780802777522 Publication Date: 2016-04-21 "Knowledge is of two kinds," said Samuel Johnson in 1775. "We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." Today we think of Wikipedia as the source of all information, the ultimate reference. Yet it is just the latest in a long line of aggregated knowledge--reference works that have shaped the way we've seen the world for centuries. You Could Look It Up chronicles the captivating stories behind these great works and their contents, and the way they have influenced each other. From The Code of Hammurabi, the earliest known compendium of laws in ancient Babylon almost two millennia before Christ to Pliny's Natural History; from the 11th-century Domesday Book recording land holdings in England to Abraham Ortelius's first atlas of the world; from Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language to The Whole Earth Catalog to Google, Jack Lynch illuminates the human stories and accomplishment behind each, as well as its enduring impact on civilization. In the process, he offers new insight into the value of knowledge. Down Cut Shin Creek: the pack horse librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt; Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer Call Number: Stacks 027.076 A646d ISBN: 9780060291358 Publication Date: 2001-04-24 It's 4:30 in the morning, and the "book woman" and her horse are already on their way. Hers is an important job, for the folks along her treacherous route are eager for the tattered books and magazines she carries in her saddlebags. During the Great Depression, thousands lived on the brink of starvation. Many perished. In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration under his 1933 New Deal initiative. The WPA was designed to get people back on their feet. One of its most innovative programs was the Pack Horse Library Project of Eastern Kentucky. Thoroughly researched and illustrated with period photographs, this is the story of one of the WPA's greatest successes. People all over the country supported the project's goals. But it was the librarians themselves -- young, determined, and earning just $28 a month -- who brought the hope of a wider world to people in the crooks and hollows of Kentucky's Cumberland Mountains. The Library by Andrew Pettegree; Arthur der Weduwen Call Number: Stacks 027.009 P499L 2021 ISBN: 9781541600775 Publication Date: 2021-11-09 Perfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age. Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children's drawings--the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes--and remakes--the institution anew. Beautifully written and deeply researched, The Library is essential reading for booklovers, collectors, and anyone who has ever gotten blissfully lost in the stacks. Reading Rooms by Susan A. Toth Call Number: Stacks 820.803 R287 ISBN: 9780385412919 Publication Date: 1991-03-01 America's foremost writers celebrate our public libraries with stories, memoirs, essays, and poems. ...

"Challenges to the Personal" -- Dr. Valeria Watkins Solo Art Exhibit at Hutchins Library in February

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"Challenges to the Personal" -- Dr. Valeria Watkins Solo Art Exhibit at Hutchins Library in February

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