Access the Catalog from your Smartphone!

The Libraries are proud to announce that our users can now access the online catalog from their smartphones. Our tech gurus have developed a site that’s much more phone-friendly and will allow you to answer a number of library-related questions on the go just by bookmarking this site: http://vaslibmobile.vassar.edu/. If you REALLY love the library, you could even make it your phone’s home page! Below are just a couple of the queries you could query for immediate satisfaction.

Query: Does the library have a copy of Dave Egger’s Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius?

EggersAnswer: Why, yes! And it’s available!

Eggers2How about something more personal, like: I think I have a few books that are waaaay overdue. I wonder if I can renew using my phone.

My acct

Answer: Yes, indeed! Just click on the “My Account” button, log in using either your email i.d. or your barcode, and voila! My acct 2

Of course, this site doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of our full online catalog or our homepage, but it will get you some quick answers when you’re out and about or even just wandering through the stacks wondering if you have the right call number. So, bookmark it today and enjoy!

Maria Mitchell and her Students

August 1st marks the 195th anniversary of the birth of Maria Mitchell, famed astronomer and educator. Much has been written about Mitchell’s public life and career, so we won’t take up more space here recounting that. And much has been written about how Mitchell nurtured her students and served as an inspiration for successful careers in the sciences for several Vassar graduates, so that is not new information. What is new is our expanded access to how students felt on a very personal level about Maria Mitchell – made possible by the digitization of a large section of the diaries and letters housed in Vassar’s Archives and Special Collections. Below are excerpts from some of those materials.

Miss Mitchell I admire more than I do any woman here, she is tall, has grey hair which she wears done up in two little knobs on each side of her head, that look as if they would be curls sometime, the rest is in a black chenile net drawn up on top of her head just as Emma’s is. She being a Quakeress always wears black and grey, and her whole appearance never alters a particle. She is a noble woman.
– Martha S. Warner to her mother, October 1865

Maria Mitchell portrait, n.d.

Maria Mitchell portrait, n.d.

Miss [Mitchell], I do love so much, it will always be one of my happy memories that she kissed me good bye – when I had reached home at last – of course it was a very ordinary thing – but then I did not expect it from her. She would have done it to any of her class of course as she did to me.
– Sarah L. Blatchley to Isabel Treadwell, 28 December 1865

Maria Mitchell and her Father, n.d.

Maria Mitchell and her father, n.d.

Maria Mitchell came up to our room the evening, she is very pleasant, her father enquired particularly about all our family and asked if you Father did not teach once, and after I told him that you had not, would hardly give up the idea but what you had, it seems quite like home, to go over there, they are so pleasant and social.
– Abigail and Caroline Slade to their parents, 21 January 1866

Mariah Mitchell and her first astronomy class, 1866

Mariah Mitchell and her first astronomy class, 1866

I think everything of Miss Mitchell. She is just as good as she can be, so very smart and yet perfectly simple in her manners. I went over to the observatory the day after I got here and rec’d a very warm welcome from Mr. Mitchell, a very cordial one from Miss Maria. He said he had inquired ever since college began of any one that might know when I was expected. I staid an hour or more and shall go again in a day or two.
– Mary Woodworth to her mother, September 1868

Vassar Observatory, 1879

Vassar Observatory, 1879

Almost every night some of us go out star gazing. Passers by would think us crazy from the frantic manner in which we rush about shouting “I know what that is.” “Oh! what is that name?” and the constant repetition of some names as, “Capella, Capella.” Last night we learned three new names, and fortunately have remembered them. We find Prof. Mitchell perfectly charming, as she has always been reported to be. One night we went over to ask her some question and were treated to fine large pears. Think we shall go again.
Julia M. Pease to “Carrie,” October 1873

It’s Reunion 2013: Come to the Library!

We’re so excited to welcome back our alums this weekend. There are so many fabulous events planned it will be hard to choose among them, but don’t forget to stop by the Library! Using the card catalog , ca 1975Come in and visit with the Lady Cornaro, sit in your favorite study spot, and see all the changes that have happened since you left. Did you use a card catalog when you were here? Did the librarians all wear cardigans and glasses? Well, there is still a remnant of the old card catalog in the building (see if you can find it!), and we do still wear glasses and sweaters. Well, some of us do – it’s chilly in here and contacts are annoying! But many other things have changed, so come on in, chat up a librarian or two, and take a walk down Biblio-memory Lane. And if you get a chance, drop in on one of our official presentations. Ron Patkus will be talking about the Special Collections Adopt a Book Program, and Gretchen Lieb will be talking about her archival research on the lives of Lucy Maynard Salmon and her partner (and librarian!) Adelaide Underhill.

ADOPT A BOOK – CONSERVING TREASURES IN THE VASSAR LIBRARYGeorgius Everhardus Rumphius, D‘Amboinsche Rariteitkamer, 1705
Friday, 3-4, Main Library, Special Collections

Presentation by Ron Patkus, Head of Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History, on the Adopt-a-Book Program, which provides conservation treatment for fragile and damaged items in the Archives and Special Collections Library.  Come to see some of our ailing treasures and hear more about how we plan to preserve them for Vassar’s current and future scholars.

 

LUCY MAYNARD SALMON AND ADELAIDE UNDERHILL: LIVES OUT OF THE ARCHIVE
Lucy Maynard Salmon and Adelaide UnderhillSaturday, 3-4, Rocky 203
A presentation by Gretchen Lieb, Reference Librarian, featuring selected materials that focus on the partnership between Lucy Maynard Salmon and Adelaide Underhill, two important women in the early years of Vassar College, and the way that their relationship informed, shaped and sustained their work and their lives.

GENERAL HOURS

Thompson Memorial Library / Archives & Special Collections

libcomp combo

Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon

Art Library

art lib combo - Copy

Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, 9:00 am – 12 noon

Music Library

Music combo shorter

Friday, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
CLOSED on Sunday