Welcome back Kate Pitcher!

It seems like only yesterday that the staff at Milne Library was celebrating the birth of little Silas Goodrich, Collection Development Librarian Kate Pitcher's second son. The entire family, including big brother Griffin, are thoroughly enjoying their growing clan and life is busy and wonderful.

We welcome Kate back from maternity leave and surround her with lots of support as she jumps right back into the swing of things by leading the library's first Faculty Luncheon. As the librarian in charge of book budgets and the lofty task of diversifying and balancing Milne Library's collections, Kate and her fellow library colleagues will host an informal lunch for faculty, comprised mostly of Department Chairs and Library Representatives, on Wednesday April 7 between 12-1:30. Topics to be discussed include scholarly publishing initiatives, material budgets and departmental allocations and a working document of collection development guidelines.

We are so happy to have Kate back in the library!

“From Normal to Extraordinary” Exhibit Seeks Contributions

Milne Library will be hosting the exhibit, “From Normal to Extraordinary,” a retrospective on Geneseo’s proud tradition of educating educators, during the College’s Summer Reunion, to be held July 9-11, 2010,. The exhibit will feature artifacts, ephemera and photographs that span College’s 139-year history, from its beginnings as the Wadsworth Normal and Training School through the SUNY years.

Alumni and other interested persons are invited to loan exhibit items such as mementos, keepsakes or photographs that will help to tell Geneseo’s story, particularly as it relates to teacher and librarian education. Contact Liz Argentieri, Special Collections Librarian, at argente@geneseo.edu or 585-245-5194.

Celebrating Tom Greenfield's New Encyclopedia

In case you were unable to attend the event on Thursday, February 18th, Milne Library hosted a reception to celebrate the publication of Dr. Tom Greenfield’s newly-published work, Broadway: An Encyclopedia of Theater and American Culture. Published in December 2009 by ABC-CLIO, Inc., the two-volume set features contributions from several Geneseo faculty.


The crowd of nearly 50 attendees was comprised of students, faculty from several departments, President Dahl and Provost Long. Milne's Director, Ed Rivenburgh, opened with the promise of this being the first of many future events focusing on and promoting faculty scholarship. He also mentioned the new digital projects being worked on, and that Associate Director Cyril Oberlander and Special Collections Librarian Liz Argentieri were at that very moment attending a Thoreau conference gathering ideas about digitizing SUNY Geneseo's Walter Harding's collection.

Sue Ann Brainard, Instruction Librarian and author of five entries to the encyclopedia then introduced Dr. Greenfield, who graciously and humorously thanked every one who worked on the project. He pointedly thanked Ms. Brainard and another librarian from the Performing Arts Library in New York City Public Library, for their enthusiasm, saying that, "whenever I asked either one of them a research question, they would get back to him with 6 more sources than I needed, and they kept working on a question even after I was done with it."

In his appreciation, he relayed how "he was the envy of all his academic friends from other institutions, who were amazed that the library was doing this." The reception was completed with the cutting of the cake, conversation and many congratulations.

The books are currently available for in-Library use and located in the Author's Hall upstairs in Milne. Stop by the Reference desk and we'll help you find it.

Congratulations, Tom and all the contributors!

Heavens Above podcasts available

Missed any of the lectures or events surrounding Milne Library's heavens above: photographs of the universe from the Hubble Space Telescope exhibit? No need to worry! The "Heavens Above: Lectures" podcast is available via the Heavens Above website and features all of the exciting programming from this special exhibit. Go to http://heavensabove.geneseo.edu and click on the podcast link to subscribe.