| by Mike Roy
As part of the College’s evolving response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the library is committed to helping faculty and students access the services and resources they need for their teaching and learning. Here are some changes that are planned, with the understanding that as the situation evolves, there may be further changes.
The Middlebury Libraries take seriously our responsibility to disavow racism in our country and in our work.
| by Terry Simpkins
Steps for Middlebury patrons to request physical materials from Middlebury College Libraries.
| by Kaitlin Buerge
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the Library’s frontline staff were forced to abandon their books and leave the circulation desk behind. While in exile from the building, collections, and people who normally keep them extremely busy, they pitched in to help Special Collections cross off items from our very long wishlist of projects.
| by Danielle Rougeau
College Archivist, Danielle Rougeau, shares her experience transcribing the journals of Pliny Fisk, Class of 1814.
Middlebury Special Collections and the Vermont Folklife Center have joined forces to make our old, archival collections new again. But we need your help.
| by Rebekah Irwin
Two centuries of portraits of Middlebury alumni portraits are available online for the first time. They’d love to meet you.
| by Kaitlin Buerge and Rebekah Irwin
Writers for The Middlebury Campus dig into digital archives
| by Katrina Spencer
By now, we hope that you’ve been able to establish some sense of stability, if even occasionally tremulous, despite having so much of what we understand about our college and higher education experiences intensely challenged over the last two months. As we approach the close of the 2019- 2020 academic school year, this last entry in the Words for Wellness series is especially for graduating seniors. In a culture that praises us for being chipper, upbeat and optimistic, let me introduce you to an audiobook in our Overdrive collection titled How To Be Fine. Not how to be great. Not how to be excellent. Not how to be thriving. How to be fine. We’ve all had to alter and adjust our expectations for an extended period of time and we’re not certain what we’ll return to once our collective “hiatus” comes to an end. If you’re looking for ways to maintain a sense of equilibrium, How To Be Fine is chock-full of testimonies and tips, and is a critical examination of the self-help book.
| by Katrina Spencer
Many thanks to The Middlebury Campus for sharing the Middlebury College librarians’ efforts to serve our community in the story linked below. The seven librarians in the research and instruction group meet regularly to talk about how we’re connecting community members with library resources. We’ve examined how our work has been affected by the pandemic. While the library is closed, we’ve been using both tried-and-true and experimental forms of communication to help researchers get what they need. To consult in real time with these research and instruction librarians, make appointments using our go links. For more information, see here.
| by Katrina Spencer
It’s been over a month since most students have left Middlebury. A broad array of normal campus functions have shut down and classes have gone fully online. These transitions, no doubt, are massive and can certainly make us feel justifiably destabilized. So for the second entry in our Words for Wellness series (click here for the first), we offer you a title that challenges us to rethink what is most important, the audiobook Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown.
