Blast from the Past: Old Library Due Date Cards

While we’ve been upgrading our non-fiction collection, not only have we found some old and unread books, but we’ve also discovered lots of MBA Alumni names signed on the due date slips of these books. Below is a picture of a due date slip for a book by Gerald Johnson called The Supreme Court.

Among the names listed as having checked it out from 1971 to 1989 are:

B. Matthews (probably Bill Matthews, class of 1973, who went on to Rhodes College and is now a dentist in Nashville)

Selma Ridgway (who worked in the Junior School)

B. Freeman (probably Criswell Freeman, 1972 graduate, who graduated from Vanderbilt and is now a prolific author)

Joe Calvin (a 1980 graduate of MBA who is now a lawyer in Birmingham)

Lee Vaughn (graduated in 1986, went to SMU, and now works for Vaughn Manufacturing Co. in Nashville)

Brad McKinney (1981 graduate whose address is listed in Franklin)

Jonathan Reeve (1990 graduate who’s listed as having some role at TennCare, while more recently working at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

What a group!

Blast from the Past: Old and Departing Library Books

This Fall, Head Librarian Angela Klausner is on a mission to upgrade the Library’s print collection, especially non-fiction. Well, she’s found some treasures back in the stacks. One in particular that’s getting lots of laugh and attention is a small hardback book from 1942 called Top-Notch Table Tennis by Emily M. Fuller. Take a look at a few of the book’s pictures below. Also, in the back of the book is a sleeve for a due date slip with an old list of MBA Library Rules. Number 4 reads “Two cents a day is charged for each book kept overtime.” Well, if we kept that policy, I think students now wouldn’t hesitate to hold onto their library materials!

A couple of pages of this essential ping pong book

Did athletes wear pajamas as uniforms in the 1940’s?

Is that THE Ginger Rogers? Yes.

New iPad Apps for 2011-2012

The 20 iPads that the MBA Library acquired last Spring are already loaded with great educational and fun applications for students and faculty to use inside and outside of the classroom. Here’s a list of what we’ve purchased since the beginning of school:

– Pottery Sculptor
– The Oregon Trail
– MetalStorm
– StumbleUpon
– Dragon Dictation
– Battleheart
– Geometry Wars
– Lane Splitter
– You Don’t Know Jack
– Rdio
– Showyou
– Slacker Radio
– Adobe Color Lava for Photoshop
– ArtRage
– Adobe Photoshop Express
– OmniSketch
– Atomix Mag
– SkyGrid
– GQ
– WIRED
– Golf Digest Magazine
– iReddit
– Ars Technica
– Fragger
– Scrabble
– Hulu Plus

Flying Off the Shelves: What’s Hot in the MBA Library Right Now

By Students:

Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan (second in a new series by the author of the Percy Jackson books)

The CHERUB Series by Robert Muchamore (hit series for boys from the UK)

The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner (final book The Death Cure just came out)

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (trilogy based on Alice in Wonderland)

This is a Book by Demetri Martin (hilarious series of drawings)

The Warlock by Michael Scott (fifth book in a series called The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel)

The Enemy by Charles Higson (another thriller from the UK)

By Faculty:

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Bossypants by Tina Fey

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Influential Teacher Reception 2011

On September 18, 2011, MBA and the Patrick Wilson Library played host to over 200 students, parents, siblings, and former teachers during its 5th Annual Influential Teacher Celebration. The event held each Fall celebrates former teachers of students new to MBA. Each student identifies an important teacher in their former middle or elementary school, and that teacher is invited to a short program in the Theater and a celebration in the library. This year, each student hand-picked the new book they wanted to donate in honor of their chosen teacher, so it was a particularly special occasion that celebrated good teachers and reading. Below are some pictures of students, teachers, and the event.

Christopher Owen with Rodney Jones from Franklin Road Academy

Jack Brandes with James Parsons from Meigs Magnet School

Jacob Coffey with Ms. Kimberly Vondohlen from Blackman Middle School

Chad Mitchell with Ava Cozart from Mt. Juliet Middle School

Thomas Neff and Jack Benson with Ensworth’s Jason Maxwell

Matthew Dobson and George Harwell with Ensworth’s Bev Roberts

Awards Season – Keep Track of the Winners

Three major awards or awards lists have come out recently, and, in case you missed it, we wanted to keep you in the loop. We love watching new books and authors get celebrated, and we also look for titles to add to our collection.

Hugo Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (announced on August 20, 2011)

BEST NOVEL – Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)

BEST NOVELLA – The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)

BEST NOVELETTE – “The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)

BEST SHORT STORY – “For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)

BEST RELATED WORK – Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Tara O’Shea (Mad Norwegian)

BEST GRAPHIC STORY – Girl Genius, Volume 10: Agatha Heterodyne and the Guardian Muse, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Lev Grossman

 

2011 Nobel Prize for Literature – Swedish Poet Tomas Transtromer
– read some of his poems here

Nobel Prize Winner Tomas Transtromer

National Book Award Finalists

FICTION
Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn

Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife

Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic

Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision

Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones

NON-FICTION
Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism

Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution

Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention

Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout

POETRY
Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split

Yusef Komunyakaa, The Chameleon Couch

Carl Phillips, Double Shadow

Adrienne Rich, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve: Poems 2007-2010

Bruce Smith, Devotions

YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE
Franny Billingsley, Chime

Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy

Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again

Albert Marrin, Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy

Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now

What’s New at the Patrick Wilson Library

A New School Year,
A New Head Librarian,
And the Library’s been changing and same-ing in lots of ways.

What have we been up to?

– Renovating and repainting the building.
– Bought a new coffee machine (whew)
– Weeded all of our VHS tapes and cassette tapes and replaced them with brand new DVDs and CDs
– Cleaned up our Magazine archives
– Brought our Library fish, Cicero and Cataline, back from summer break
– Added at least 20 new Apps to our iPads
– Gave our Web Page a whole new facelift (thanks to Ed Gaffney for his help)
– Got Tom a new chair!
– Started teaching the brand new 8th grade Research and Communication class during 8th period
– Finished creating our Great Books Collection with the help of Samuel Lester
– Started a big push with all Academic Departments to conduct research projects using our new research guides called LibGuides

– Hosting Faculty Snacks during Break in the Anne Potter Wilson Room with book displays for faculty reads and professional development books
– Creating a Mobile App for the Library

– Added over 500 new items to our collection

– Created topical displays for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 (along with an assembly announcement) and the visit of Ron White, a Civil War historian, to campus

– Next Up? The famous Library Halloween Party…

Moments from the 2011-12 Year So Far

Dying to know what the MBA Library’s been up to since last year? Well, here’s a pictorial introduction to some of the many scenes we see every day at the Library.

The Library gets some new makeup

Repainting the Library over the summer

Over 180 Apps?! Yup.

Quick, let’s look like we’re being productive.

Does this thing have Twitter?

Homework: The Cause of and Solution to All of Life’s Problems

Read, Red, Read

Digital technology – touching the future.

MBA History? I thought it all started when Montgomery Bell built this school with his bare hands.

Students in the Archives Room distracted by the old yearbooks

Old yearbooks with old pictures of teachers? Why yes.

Mr. Merideth and Mr. Smyth enjoying the Library Coffee

Tom Boysen: Assistant Librarian, Head Tennis Coach, English Teacher, Bearded

The Amazing New Head Librarian: Angela Klausner

Marcus Luttrell, author and “lone survivor,” visits MBA

At the Father-Son Dinner on Tuesday night, former soldier and national hero Marcus Luttrell spoke about his experiences as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan. While recounting the main story from his tell-all book Lone Survivor, Luttrell held the attention of the MBA Community for over an hour, afterwards signing copies of his book for an additional hour. The campus was abuzz on Wednesday with conversation about this rugged individual and his speech (as well as the great father speeches given by Seniors at the dinner).

MBA Celebrates Women’s History Month in March

All-Boy School Libraries like the Patrick Wilson Library know the importance of recognizing notable women in history and the advancements of women in the United States. This month, we’ve been reminding students that March is Women’s History Month by having contests, now popular among patrons in the Library, that require students to guess the identity of notable women based on images posted at the circulation desk and on display shelves. Curious to see if you could guess who’s depicted in these images? Below are a few samples: