Library Offers Campus Subscription to Chronicle of Higher Education

For those Friends who don't read Inside Rensselaer, I'm posting the notice Friend and member of the Board of Directors of the Friends Meg Gallien included in the latest edition of the Institute's bi-weekly newspaper.  Meg is the Alumni News Editor.

Through the support of the Friends of the Folsom Library, the Rensselaer Libraries have renewed a site license to the daily online version of The Chronicle of Higher Education, which allows the campus community access to the newspaper at no cost.

“Given The Chronicle is ‘the’ news service for higher education, I think this is a wonderful service,” said Bob Mayo, director of the Rensselaer Libraries. “Providing a site license saves money to those who were paying for a subscription but, perhaps more importantly, provides access to the many who did not have a subscription.”

This is the second year that the Friends of the Folsom Library has underwritten the cost of an institutional subscription to The Chronicle. The Friends is a service organization comprising Rensselaer faculty, staff, alumni, retirees, and interested community members dedicated to enriching the collections, services, and events provided at the Folsom Library. 

 

When I manned the Library's information table this month at Rensselaer's Annual Benefits Fair and Staff Appreciation Day event, several faculty and staff who stopped by said they are so pleased that Friends is providing free online access to this valuable publication.  And those who were just learning about it said they were definitley going to enlighten members of their departments since their current paper subscriptions are quite costly and now unnecessary.  One person told me this was the biggest and best piece of information he received at the benefits fair.  That made my day.   

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

Lunch & Learn for November

Lunch & Learn

Co-sponsored by
Friends of the Folsom Library

and
The Rensselaer Retirees Forum

 

Friday, November 9    

   12:00 noon to 1:00 pm   

Folsom Library Fischbach Room

Chuck Boylen

 

           Free!       

       Everyone is welcome!  

     Bring your lunch or purchase one at the Library Cafe.      

     Dessert will be provided.



Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

Upcoming Lunch & Learn Programs

Here are the programs scheduled for the next few months.

• November 8

Darrin Fresh Water Institute on Lake George

       Chuck Boylen, professor of biology and Associate Director of the Darrin
       Fresh Water Institute in Bolton Landing, has promised to talk about
       either the problem of invasive zebra mussels in Lake George or
       the Darrin Fresh Water Institute and some of the work performed
       there. One of Chuck's graduate students may join him.  



Zebra Mussels

Photo courtesty of NYS Department of Environmental Conservation

• December 7

       RPI Athletic DirectorJim Knowlton will present “Athletics at RPI--An
       Inspiring Story!” Jim plans to start off with a quiz (with prizes!) to
       see how knowledgeable the audience is about Rensselaer's athletic
       programs.  In case one of the questions is "What percentage of our
       students participate in some form of organized athletics?" the answer is
       70%.  Pretty surprising, don't you think?
 
       Please note:  This program will take place on the first Friday of the
       month rather than the second.

• January

       No program is planned and the Retirees Forum will not meet.

• February 8

       Rensselaer County Historical Society Curator Stacy Pomeroy Draper will
       talk about "The Great Fire of Troy."  Stacy sent me this photo.  The
       burnt district is in the foreground. The many-spired building on top of
       the hill was the Troy University, which later became St. Joseph's
       Seminary.  After it was razed, the Folsom Library was built on the site.

       This year (2012) marks the 150th anniversary of the fire.


Aftermath of The Great Fire of Troy (1862)

Image courtesy of the Rensselaer County Historical Society

      

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library
 
 
      

Lunch & Learn for October

October's program should be very appealing to students. 

“How Are You Using Linkedin?  What’s New, What Works and Why Should I Care?”

Linkedin currently counts over 175 million professionals as members and continues to grow at a rate of 2 new members every second.  It is widely acknowledged as the leader in the professional space of social networking and has attracted members from the executive suite of every single Fortune 500 company.  Linkedin is now being used as a primary recruitment tool by 85 of the Fortune 100, and is also used by RPI.

Linkedin is becoming the first destination for so many of us in the beginning of a professional relationship.  What are you telling the world with your profile?  Unlike Facebook, where the line is still pretty clear as to how that site applies to today’s professional, Linkedin is becoming, and has become for many of us, an occupational necessity.  It is where people go to be found and, more and more, it is where companies and recruiters go to find talent. 

If you have to be on Linkedin then what should you do to make sure that you are representing yourself appropriately?  How can you build a profile that promotes yourself and your employer in tandem and in good taste?  The purpose of this session is to address these questions and give some suggestions and guidance on the use of Linkedin for busy professionals in today’s world.

Tom Whalen has been using Linkedin since early 2005 after a Silicon Valley alumnus of RPI told him   “…this thing is going to be huge.”  Seven years later he is one of the best linked members of the RPI community, as measured by the number of his 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd degree RPI Linkedin connections that he keeps within his network.  After seven years with the Office of Institute Advancement, Tom is now the Director of MBA and MS Career Resources at the Lally School of Management and Technology, a position that he has held since November of 2010. 

 

Friday, October 12

12:00 noon - 1:00 pm

Folsom Library Fischbach Room

Free!

Everyone is welcome!

Bring your lunch or purchase one at the Library Cafe.

Dessert will be provided.

 

Adrienne Birchler

Coordinator

Friends of the Folsom Library

New Exhibit on Signs, Seals, and Symbols of Rensselaer

Visit Folsom Library for a new exhibition exploring the signs, seals, and symbols designed and used by the Institute’s offices and students throughout the Institute's  history.  Assistant Institute Archivist Jenifer Kuba has assembled quite a few visual materials--pins, medals, key chains, stamps, paperweights, and documents that carry the various seals and symbols. As Jen explains, "The Institute’s logo or official seal, school colors, phrases, school letters, and the name 'Rensselaer' communicate its presence to students and communities. We see how Rensselaer communicates through material culture--pins, medals, official events--but student traditions and alumni pride make up a slightly different aspect of the Institute, one which embodies the internal culture of student life and courses of study. The exhibit places the Institute in historical context by examining the visual material it has created since its advent."

After viewing the exhibit, feel free to visit the Fixman Room on the third floor to see more Rensselaer signs, seals, and symbols and to say hello to Jen. 

 

 

 

 

Adrienne Birchler

Coordinator

Friends of the Folsom Library

Online Exhibit Worth Checking Out 

There is a informative and attractive online exhibit that this year's intern in Institute Archives and Special Collections, Amber J. D'Ambrosio, spent a lot of time on and deserves your attention. It's about the many performance spaces RPI groups used over the years before EMPAC was erected.

One thing I discovered is that the building that housed the library before it moved into its present building--the chapel that is now the Voorhees Computing Center--was under consideration to be transformed into a performing arts center.  Wouldn't that have made a divine dwelling for the performing arts! 

View the exhibit, Dim the Lights...Performance Spaces at Rensselaer at  http://www.lib.rpi.edu/dept/library/html/Archives/gallery/performance_spaces/index.html  
You'll be glad you did.


Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

May's Lunch & Learn

                       "Amateur Radio:  A Beginning"
                              Presenter:  Brandon Graham '12

                                      Friday, May 11
                               11:30 am to 1:00 pm
                       Folsom Library's Fischbach Room

It's not often that we ask a student to do a Lunch & Learn presentation, but senior Brandon Graham is very articulate and impassioned when it comes to talking about something that interests him.  And radio communication is one of those topics.  (Geology is another, and if he were to be around next semester I'd ask him to talk about his explorations of some of the Southwest's grand rock formations.)

Brandon will give an introduction into the exciting world of radio communication.  Amateur (ham) radio has evolved over the last 100 years from the use of primitive spark gap to vacuum tubes to solid state transceivers, morphing from the original digital mode of Morse code to capabilities such as streaming video, email, GPS integration, satellite communications, Moon bounce, or simply talking with a microphone. 

For Brandon, "Amateur Radio was a starting point into several technical hobbies.  Beginning with Radio Controlled Model Warship Combat and then later interests in communications, amateur radio introduces a wide range of technical skills that have been with me throughout my time at RPI and in my many activities.  Emergency Communications, Go kits, digital modes, mobile car systems, antenna building, and transmitter hunting are my primary passions with ham radio."  He also feels that amateur radio is "an avenue to explore many technical fields of practical engineering."

Brandon is a senior geology student at Rensselaer who came here with a passion for many activities.  Boy Scouts, Model Warship Combat, amateur radio, target shooting, and service all influence his understanding of how the world is constructed.  With academic interests in glacial geology and geomorphology, Brandon incorporates his many activities into how he perceives the field with which he works.  He is active in several campus organizations, including W2SZ Amateur Radio Club, in which he has served as president this year; Alpha Phi Omega; Rifle Club; Phalanx; and Sigma Gamma Epsilon.  His future endeavors include working with the New York Geologic Survey, summer field camp in Yellowstone, and grad school.

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire Entertainingly Told in Twelve Episodes

One day last week, I was checking out the recently acquired DVDs on the shelves where we display the newest ones that come in.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that we now have the 35th anniversary edition of one of my favorite series that was broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre back in the '70s--I, Claudius.  I loved the series when it was first shown in 1977 so much that I watched it when it was rerun a few years later. I'm now watching it for a third time.  Although the series is a stage production, it's still as riveting today as before. The acting, dialog (I get a kick out of the black humor), and writing are superb.  The sets aren't as lavish as those you'd see in a drama today, but the tale of ambition, debauchery, intrigue, and outlandishness behavior more than make up for the lack of sophisticated backdrops.

For those of you aren't acquainted this epic BBC series, it spans the history of the Roman Empire from rulers Augustus, who came into power after Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC, through Nero.  The story is mainly told by Claudius in the latter years of his reign.  He was thought by many to be the Claudian dynasty's fool because he stuttered, had a pronounced limp, and was socially awkward. But Claudius was no fool; he was very knowledgeable and learned early to "play the fool" in order to stay alive while other unfortunate family members died at an young age. His ambitious grandmother, Livia, was evil personified. She had no qualms about offing her own children and step-grandchildren and instigating the banishment of other relatives in order to ensure her older son, Tiberius, succeeded her husband, Augustus, as emperor. One of my favorite lines refers to Livia: "They say a snake bit her once--and died."

The series, which won an Emmy and numerous other awards, is based on two novels by Robert Graves.  I read the first book, I, Claudius (1934), several years ago but not the sequel, Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina (1935).  (I just checked it out of Folsom Library and plan to start it as soon as I finish Cloudland, an intricately wroven and moving murder mystery by Joseph Olshan that I have a feeling is going to keep me up tonight.) 

I'm sure Graves took poetic license and fabricated some of the story (and of course the dialog), but I read that he did spend a lot of time researching this period in Rome's history. Some of the crazy things that happened in the series probably did happen in some form or another.

I want to thank lnformation Technology Librarian Matt Benzing, who is on the library's Collection Development Committee, for suggesting the library purchase this excellent historical drama.


Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of Folsom Library

A Note from a Friend

Longtime Friend Steven Smith, who lives in Camden, Maine, e-mailed me last week and said I could share this with all of our Friends:

Hello Adrienne,

"Related Tidbit" Department:  I frequently log onto the website of The Guardian in London. I noticed this morning that Anne Enright's novel The Forgotten Waltz is one of five on the Guardian Bookshop's bestseller list for this week.

Here's the link to The Guardian: 

http://www.guardiannews.com/  At upper left on the paper's home page, there's a tab you can use to toggle between the U.S. and UK. editions.

Steven

Thanks, Steven.  I have The Forgotten Waltz and want to read it before going to hear Anne Enright speak on April 18th, but I've got to finish reading Granville Hicks' Small Town before this Friday.  That's the day Bob Mayo is presenting the Lunch & Learn program on Hicks. And then there's Jodi Picoult's latest, Lone Wolf, I'm dying to get to.  So many books to read and not enough time! 

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

Author Anne Enright on Campus April 18th


As Friends has done in the past, the group has contributed $250 toward the McKinney Writing Contest, Rensselaer's annual writing competition administered by the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication. The contest is open to all enrolled undergraduate and graduate students, and monetary prizes are presented to the winners. What's also nice is that the awards are bestowed upon the winners by a well-known writer at the awards ceremony. 

 

This year's awards will be presented on Wednesday, April 18th, in the Biotech Auditorium, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. The guest writer is Anne Enright, who won the 2007 Man Booker Prize for her novel The Gathering.  She also has published essays, short stories, a non-fiction book, and several other novels. The Irish author's writing explores themes such as family relationships, love and sex, and Ireland's difficult past.  Her latest novel is The Forgotten Waltz (2011). Enright will read from one of her works at 8:00 pm and then award prizes to this year's contest recipients. A reception will follow.  The reading/ceremony is free and open to the public.

Again this year, Friends is covering one-half the cost of the first 100 softcover copies of the McKinney Contests author/speaker's books sold in the campus bookstore (during regular store hours) to enrolled students, staff, faculty, and Friends.  Enright's The Gathering and The Forgotten Waltz are the books for sale.  Enright will be available to sign them after the ceremony.  For more information, see http://www.llc.rpi.edu/pl/mckinney-contest-speaker.

      Dr. Samuel P. McKinney

I didn't realize this, but in doing a little research I discovered that the McKinney contest has been occurring every year since 1941, thanks to Dr. Samuel McKinney who graduated from the Institute in 1884.  After his retirement from medicine, the good doctor became interested in what Rensselaer was doing in the liberal arts area.  Because he felt that more should be done to recognize Rensselaer students' communication skills, McKinney established an endowment in honor of his deceased wife that would provide acknowledgement and monetary awards to students who exhibited talent in various writing genres.  Since the beginning, faculty in the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication have overseen and judged the contest.


Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

April's Lunch & Learn

Lunch & Learn

Co-sponsored by Friends of the Folsom Library

and the Rensselaer Retirees Forum

 

“Granville Hicks: 

The Man, His Books, and the Controversy”

Presenter:  Bob Mayo

Rensselaer Library Director Bob Mayo will give a talk on novelist, literary critic and biographer Granville Hicks (1901-1982), who served as an Assistant Professor of English at Rensselaer from 1929 until his controversial dismissal in 1935. He continued to live in nearby Grafton until the late 1970’s.

The talk is complemented by a Folsom Library exhibit on Hicks. For more information on the exhibit, see http://www.lib.rpi.edu/documents/admin/hicks.pdf

Friday, April 13 
12:00 to 1:00 pm

Folsom Library Fischbach Room

Free! Everyone is welcome!

    Bring your lunch or purchase one at the Library Cafe.

Dessert will be provided.




Just a few of the many books written by Hicks and one written about him.




Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

All Things Dutch, An Upcoming Lecture on Campus


I just learned that this Friday, March 23, Rensselaer professor Bram van Heuveln is going to talk about his home country Holland.  If you're interested in All Things Dutch, you'll hear about the culture, customs, and "other curious behavior from the Netherlands," along with a few things about our local Dutch history that you may not know, such as the correct pronunciation of Rensselaer!

 
The program is being presented by the Office of International Programs in room 3502 in the Rensselaer Union at 12:00 noon.

I hope to see some of you there!

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

Granville Hicks Exhibit

A Granville Hicks exhibit is on display at the Folsom Library. Hicks (1901-1982) was a prominent author, literary critic, and early socialist. He was an Assistant Professor of English at Rensselaer from 1929 to 1935 when his dismissal became a controversy over academic freedom. On display are his books, NYTimes reviews of his books, photos, documents associated with his dismissal and a recording of a portion of the 1946 nationwide radio program, America’s Town Meeting of the Air, featuring Hicks debating with fellow author Charles Jackson on the topic “Would You Rather Live in a Small Town or a Big City?” 

The exhibit was assembled by library director Bob Mayo.  All of the books on exhibit are from Bob's personal collection, but the library has copies for circulation, thanks to the generosity of longtime Friends member Ken Hoffman '73.

Adrienne Birchler

Coordinator

Friends of the Folsom Library

Board Changes

Ray Lutzky ’02, Chair of the Board of Directors of Friends of the Folsom Library, proudly announced to the board today the election of Rick Hartt ’70 to serve a two-year term on the board. The board voted electronically, and it was unanimous. Rick, former Director of the Rensselaer Union for nearly 33 years, will serve a two-year term. I’m confident that I can say we all look forward to working with him.  Welcome aboard, Rick!



Ben Hunt ’11, Rick Hartt ’70, & Mike Spitz ’11 at farewell reception for Rick inMarch 2011
Photo by Travis Cano





Dennis Fitzgerald '61

Additionally, the board reluctantly has to say good-bye to Dennis Fitzgerald '61.  He's been a member of the Friends board since 2006.  Dennis, who completed over 31 years of transit management at the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) in Albany, served nearly 23 years as CDTA’a Executive Director, making him one of the longest tenured CEOs in the transit industry. Dennis either chairs or is a member of several committees, panels, and boards and unfortunately found it necessary to resign from the Friends board due to a scheduling conflict. He will be missed, but I know I’ll see him at a future Friends event; Dennis has always been a big supporter of Friends and our programs. Thanks for your service, Dennis!

Adrienne Birchler
Coordinator
Friends of the Folsom Library

February's Lunch & Learn:

Lunch & Learn

Co-sponsored by Friends of the Folsom Library

and the Rensselaer Retirees Forum

  "Moving Toward the Light – One Family’s Journey into Solar Power”

Speaker:  Jim Evans, Director, Multimedia Services

What do you do when you want to offset your carbon footprint but don’t have the room to plant 34 acres of trees?  You do the next best thing and install 50 photovoltaic panels.  The result—elimination of about 287 tons of carbon pollution, generation of about 1104kWh of power each month, and a dramatic reduction in your electric bill.  Join us to see what it took and how the Evans family did it.

Friday, February 10 ~ 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm

Folsom Library Fischbach Room

Free! Everyone is welcome!

    Bring your lunch or purchase one at the Library Cafe.

Dessert will be provided.