| Faculty and Staff Christmas Reception and Open House December 19, 2007; 9-11 a.m. in the Reading Room |
| Spoken Among the Trees: A Display featuring Jeff Gundy's new book of the same title will be up January 7-10, 2008. |
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Faculty Workshops in the Library: |
| Library Book Sale Mark your calendars! April 1-4, 2008. |
Justin King said that when he got the job at Musselman Library, he felt very fortunate.
Starting as a Sophomore with Musselman Library, Justin has worked the last two and a half years with Carrie Phillips, Archives and Special Collections Librarian, in the University Archives and Mennonite Historical Collections.
With a major in history and plans to attend Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, working in these collections seems to fit him well. Justin often sorts through documents for the University Archives and one set of documents he enjoyed were issues of the Wit from the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s.
Justin remembered seeing various political cartoons and articles about the Gulf War. “It’s interesting to see what was of concern to the students then . . . the Wit used to be a lot more political than it is now,” Justin said. Justin also has the opportunity to see many photographs from Bluffton’s past. “Working with the photos is an interesting way to connect with Bluffton’s past and Mennonite history.” Justin said he had thought about writing an honors thesis about Bluffton’s history, but decided not to do the thesis due to other obligations. “Maybe I’ll write my dissertation on Bluffton,” Justin said. With plans like this, perhaps this academic year won’t be the last we see of Justin.
Brittany Roth also works at Musselman Library in the University Archives and the MHC. Brittany gets a lot of exposure to Bluffton history with her work in organizing and filing photographs. “There’s a section on the campus scene with pictures of the buildings and residence halls. It’s interesting to see what the campus looked like—to see the progression from then to now.”
As a volleyball player for Bluffton, Brittany feels a connection when looking at some of the sports pictures. “There’s a lot of difference between some of the older uniforms and what we wear now. The material was all cotton with a hand-stitched beaver on them; the football helmets were worn with just a chin strap, the basketball shorts were to their knees” Brittany said.
As we were walking out of the processing area for special collections, Brittany picked up a photograph that appeared to be circa 1980’s. We spoke a bit about it, and then I noticed there were no purple uniforms in it—only a green uniform and a blue uniform. I assumed it was not a Bluffton picture. “It probably is.” Brittany said. “Bluffton used to wear blue.” According to Carrie Phillips, Bluffton athletic uniforms were blue until 1998. Obviously, Brittany’s work experience in the library has been about a lot more than simply books!--Bethany Woolf
