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Thompson Library gets down to business

Posted on | September 23, 2009 | 342 views |

By Julia Harris

What better way to kick off the grand opening of Ohio State’s grand academic library than with a lecture series devoted to the sharing and shaping of knowledge?

And who better to inaugurate the series than the university’s own president, E. Gordon Gee, who also is author of two books that address the role of academic libraries in higher education?

Well, according to Melanie Schlosser, chair of the Libraries’ Lecture Committee, no one.

“Dr. Gee seemed appropriate as a first choice, since we were kicking off a lecture series that would be drawing from OSU faculty,” Schlosser said.

“Also he has been incredibly supportive of the libraries all along, and we thought it would be nice to have him be the first person to speak in our new lecture series in our new building.”

The series, titled “Sharing Knowledge: The Global Information Society,” has been designed as a way to reconnect the library with the general campus community. The hope, according to Schlosser, is that lecture topics will draw in not just library staff and patrons but students, staff and faculty from other campus units.

“In the past, the lecture series has always appealed most to informational professionals,” Schlosser said. “This year we decided to do something different. With the reopening of the renovated Thompson Library, we wanted to celebrate our newly reclaimed position as the ‘heart of the university’ by presenting a lecture series that involves larger segments of the OSU population.”

Gee’s lecture will take place Oct. 9 at the Thompson Library, followed by an opportunity for questions and a reception. The next event, co-sponsored with the Prior Health Sciences Library, will be a panel discussion with a variety of publishers and researchers as part of Open Access Day on Oct. 21.

On Nov. 2, Richard Herman, the director of the Mershon Center, will give a lecture co-sponsored by the First Year Experience and the Buckeye Book Community. Then in January there will be a presentation by Lynda Hartel, assistant director of Prior Health Sciences Library, about digitizing medical records.

The last fully fleshed-out event — a panel discussion on “eDemocracy” — is on March 2. “My understanding is, it has to do with the way the Internet and changing communications in the digital environment have changed democracy and participation in government,” Schlosser explained. “It’s really been a game changer in the arena of political participation.”

Invited speakers include faculty from law, comparative studies and architecture, as well as staff from the Columbus Metropolitan Libraries.

For Schlosser, who is in her first year on the library’s lecture committee, all the work of pulling together the series will be worth it if she sees a stirring of interest across campus.

“We’re drawing speakers from all over OSU on a topic we think many people will be interested in, so I would consider it a success if we get a significant portion of our audience coming from outside the libraries,” she said. “That would feel like a huge victory to me.”

Thompson Library a busy place

The Thompson Library opened its doors Aug. 3 after a three-year renovation, and staff are greeting thousands of patrons and visitors every day.

Opening in the middle of summer quarter did not diminish interest in the library, with TV news crews at the doors just minutes after the 7:30 a.m. opening. Hundreds of summer quarter students quickly found favorite spots throughout the library, a pattern that continued throughout August and even carried over into the summer break.

In addition to patrons using the library, staff were providing non-stop tours to hundreds of visitors. Tour groups included current and prospective students, faculty, alumni, university staff, librarians, members of the central Ohio community, architects and leaders from other academic libraries.

The Thompson Library opened early on Sept. 5 so that fans attending the Navy game could have extra time to see the building. Similarly, the building stayed open later than usual for the USC game attendees. Thousands of people — including Navy and USC fans — took time to walk through the library.

The Thompson Library also has served as the site for a variety of special events during the summer months, a trend that will continue into fall quarter.  Heavy demands for tours also are expected to continue for the next several weeks.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to the ribbon cutting for the Thompson Library on September 24 at 4 p.m.

Journeys exhbit celebrates Libraries’ Special Collections

Visitors to the newly reopened library are already commenting on one of its signature additions: Gallery and exhibit space nestled between the two main atriums of the main floor.

The inaugural exhibit, “Journeys: Treasures from The Ohio State University Libraries Special Collections,” runs through Jan. 3 and includes a diverse sampling of items from special library holdings.

With choices ranging from cartoon art to medieval Slavic manuscripts to the papers and memorabilia of John Glenn, putting together a meaningful and cohesive exhibit was not a small task.

Gayle Strege, chair of the Exhibits Committee and curator of the Historic Costumes and Textiles Collection, compares the art of putting together an exhibition to the feat of creating a scholarly work. “The material in the exhibit is organized around a theme and then interpreted,” she said.

“And because there are so many things in the collections, it’s difficult to choose what you’re going to display. It’s a wonderful, creative opportunity, especially when so many of them don’t see the light of day.”

The committee chose the “journeys” theme as an organizing principle and chose objects that represent both personal and public odysseys, as well as the passage of and through time and space. Some of the objects on display are the flight jacket worn by John Glenn in 1998, the diary of Jesse Owens and a wind-up toy rocket ship from the 1950s.

What’s next in line after this exhibit?

“We’ve actually got exhibitions planned through 2013,” Strege said with a laugh. “There are always new and interesting things coming in, and this space is like an ad piece to let people know what breadth there really is here.”

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