Some of the first students to study in the newly renovated Scholars Commons
It has been an exciting summer in the Z. Smith Reynolds Library. We transformed dated spaces into collaborative and productive areas to support teaching, research and learning. On the fourth level of the Reynolds Wing, the newly refinished Scholars Commons overlooks the Atrium. Every productive and ergonomic seat has access to power and related technology.
On the sixth level of the Wilson Wing, you will soon find a whole new suite of services and spaces available. The Digital Scholarship suite offers training and project space along with our terrific Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication librarians. The Teaching & Learning Collaborative (TLC) also moves in with new training and teaching space. We also hope you will take advantage of our new faculty lounge to find a quiet spot to check email, catch up on a journal article or visit with a colleague. We will be holding an open house later this semester to welcome you to these new spaces.
ZSR constantly strives to improve our spaces, our services and our partnerships. TLC joins the Writing Center, Information Systems and Starbucks as the ZSR partners who help us fuel your needs for teaching, research, learning and (occasionally) caffeine. Please continue to let us know what you need to support your work, and we will do our best to make sure that ZSR delivers!
Tim Pyatt
Dean, Z. Smith Reynolds Library
This fall, ZSR will offer weekday Zotero workshops geared to faculty. In addition, encourage your students to attend one of the Zotero workshops on Sunday afternoons. Two Sunday sessions will be preceded by “The Right Way to Cite,” which will take students through the basics of MLA eighth edition, APA sixth edition and Chicago 17th edition citation formats. If you have students who need more extensive help citing sources, please recommend these back-to-back sessions.
The ZSR Library and the Humanities Institute are co-sponsoring two upcoming programs on digital humanities. Join us for Building a Dataset with HathiTrust on October 18 and Building in Scalar: Teaching and Scholarship on November 16.
In the final weeks of the semester, the library will once again host sources, [citations] & cocoa. These drop-in research sessions help meet the high demand for personal research sessions at the end of the semester, while still offering individual assistance to students.
Events at ZSR this fall include the Library Lecture Series, Undergraduate Research Day and A Spooky Night in Special Collections & Archives.
Library Lecture Series Welcomes Kirt Gonzales
Kirt Gonzales, Your Life Has Value. Thursday, October 5, 4-5 p.m., ZSR Library Auditorium (Room 404, Reynolds Wing).
A Spooky Night in Special Collections & Archives
Special Collections & Archives will host a special Ghost Reading on October 30 from 5-6:30 p.m. featuring spooky poetry and scary stories. Hear guest readers, partake of refreshments, make gothic-themed buttons and feel free to join in and read some selections yourself!
Location: Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625, Reynolds Wing)
To see more, read our Fall Events Roundup.
In 1917, the United States Congress approved a resolution declaring war on the German empire, and Americans suddenly became active participants in the Great War raging in Europe. The First World War was a watershed event in American and world history, and ZSR Special Collections & Archives commemorates the war’s 100th anniversary with an exhibit drawn from its large collection of WWI materials.
The fall exhibit, titled Testaments of War: World War I in Literature, Art, and Memoir, focuses especially on the effects of the war and its aftermath on the artistic, literary and print culture of the U.S. and Europe. Posters and propaganda produced during the war contrast with post-war illustrations, photographs, memoirs and fiction detailing the actual experience and lasting trauma of those who lived through the war.
A highlight of this exhibit is a collection of materials from the papers of Laurence Stallings. Stallings enlisted in the Marines shortly after his 1916 graduation from Wake Forest College, and he was wounded in the Battle of Belleau Wood. He was one of the most influential and prolific chroniclers of the WWI soldier’s experience. In the mid-1920s, his Broadway play What Price Glory sparked controversy and rave reviews. He also wrote the screenplay for the early King Vidor film The Big Parade, an autobiographical novel titled Plumes and many other works based on his wartime experience. The Stallings papers, donated to ZSR Library by his children, are a valuable resource for historians and literary scholars. The collection includes wartime correspondence and extensive material on Stallings’s career as an author and journalist.
During this anniversary year, many Wake Forest classes are utilizing our WWI collections. Special Collections & Archives is also collaborating with the Piedmont Opera for a reception at ZSR Library in September and pop-up exhibits at performances of the WWI opera Silent Night in October.
View the exhibit Testaments of War: World War I in Literature, Art, and Memoir in the Special Collections & Archives Research Room (Room 625, Reynolds Wing) through January 31, 2018. To schedule a visit for a class or other group, or for more information on our WWI collections, please contact us at x6175 or archives@wfu.edu.
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If you ever have comments, complaints or kudos about the library and its services, please let me know.
For ways to support the library and its mission, please see Giving to the Library.
