Book Jackets and Google Previews in the Library Catalog

If you've used the library catalog recently, you might have noticed that it's gotten a bit more colorful. We're now displaying book jackets (courtesy of Google Book Search) and links to the Google Book Search page for some books. From the Google Book Search page, you can click on the "Preview this book" tab at the top of the page to view a digital scan of all or part of the book. You can also use Google Book Search to search for a word or phrase within the book.

Spring Semester Events Hosted by the Libraries

This spring, Evenings @ Burling continues to showcase the talents of Grinnell students and community members. Please join us as we enjoy their fiction, poetry, and music!
February 11, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Bill Rudolph will read from his poetry.

Rudolph, former president of the Iowa Poetry Association and Christa McAuliffe Fellow, earned his MFA in Poetry Writing from Vermont College—where his mentors included Roger Weingarten, Leslie Ullman and Mark Cox; he has also studied under Edward Hirsch at Breadloaf and Jane Mead at the University of Iowa. His poetry has appeared in The Nebraska Review, Rosebud, Quarterly West, Rattle, The Comstock Review, The English Journal, The South Dakota Review, The Briar Cliff Review, The University of Iowa’s 100 Words, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Byline, and other journals. He teaches literature, writing and humanities in Grinnell, Iowa, where he lives with his wife, Paula, and their two children.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library

March 4, Wednesday night at 7 pm—co-hosted with the Faulconer Gallery—Open Mic night for fiction, poetry, and music.

Join the Grinnell College Libraries and the Faulconer Art Gallery for an evening of literature and music. Read from your own poetry and fiction or that of a favorite author or poet; perform music that you've written yourself or any piece that you've been working on. Share your literary and musical passion in a beautiful setting with other members of the college and the community of Grinnell. Come early for refreshments. If you have questions or want more information, contact Tilly Woodward [woodward] or Liz Rodrigues [rodrigel].
Location: Faulconer Gallery

April 8, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—Grinnell students Amanda Gotera ’09 and Molly McArdle ’09 will read from their latest literary work.

Amanda Gotera, a senior anthropology major from Cedar Falls, Iowa, has curated children's writing for the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, worked on sea turtle conservation in Mexico, and directed the KDIC news program "Listen Hear: Stories from Grinnell." She is currently working with audio files for a Mentored Advanced Project on experimental ethnographies.

Molly McArdle, a senior English major from Washington, DC, recently published a collection of short stories titled Amenities: Four Stories of Clifton Terrace with the Grinnell College Press and is a frequent contributor to the Grinnell Review. A graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, she received an honorable mention in the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts Recognition Competition. She was also winner of the Parkmont Poetry Festival Contest and a third place winner of the Horowitz Playwriting Competition. This past summer, she was awarded a Mentored Advanced Project for work in fiction.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library

April 14, Tuesday night at 7:00pm—The students of John Domini’s Craft of Fiction class will read from the work they have been writing throughout the semester. Come enjoy their work and support their efforts.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library


April 21, Tuesday night at 7:45pm—The students of John Domini’s Creative Nonfiction Seminar will read from the work they have been writing throughout the semester. Come enjoy their work and support their efforts.
Refreshments will be served.
Location: first floor, Burling Library


May 6, Wednesday night at 7:45pm—co-hosted with the Faulconer Gallery—Open Mic night for fiction, poetry, and music. See description above for more details. Location: Faulconer Gallery

The Role of the Spiritual in the Civil Rights Movement

Friday, February 27; 4:15 PM
Burling Library IIF Computer Lab

During the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., recognized the need for a means to unify the diverse communities who were participating in the protests. They turned to the Negro spirituals that had helped their ancestors survive the lash and the deprivation of slavery now to help supporters withstand the attacks and jailings as they marched for equal rights.

Researcher and soprano Randye Jones will discuss and demonstrate how this American folk music was used to bring together Northerner and Southerner, rich and poor, black and white, together in a common cause.

The program is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to bring their singing voices to lift up in song. Light refreshments will be served.

Jones, who serves on the Burling Library staff, regularly lectures and performs works discovered in her research of the spiritual. Most recently, she launched an Internet radio station, Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music, that focuses on recordings by African American singers and composers of classical vocal music.

For more information, call 3365 or email Randye Jones at jonesran@grinnell.edu.