Monday: St. John's Bible

St. John's Bible joins Samford Library

The Saint John's Bible is a monumental work capturing the spirit, scale, materials and techniques of the great medieval European bibles, while bringing them into the present with a New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) text.

This exceptional new addition to Samford's collection is the culmination of more than 40 years of research and artistic labor by Welsh artist Donald Jackson and a host of theological advisors and craftspeople. This amazing work was graciously donated by Samford Faculty members Dr. Jeff and Lori Northrup.  

Please join us Monday, 10:30am, for the reception. 

A $25 Target gift card will be awarded to a Samford student from the National Library Week entry box. See here for ways to enter.

This year National Library Week is all about how Communities matter @ your library. Gifts to the University Library provide valuable opportunities for enhancements to existing library resources and services. Developing and maintaining a scholarly library and center for learning now and in the future is a long-range enterprise that requires a wide base of support to ensure preservation of and access to key information resources for scholarship. The Samford University Library has been the beneficiary of many generous gifts through the years that have enabled it to provide additional key resources that significantly enhance our offerings that nurture persons learning and knowledge in direct support of the mission of the institution.

This week we highlight five gifts: ALFA Presentation Room; The Saint John's Bible, Heritage edition; The Pilgrim's Choice and other hymnals; C.S. Lewis and other fictional works; and the Hellenic Scholars' Library.

Free Stuff? Love Your Library!

National Library Week

comes to Samford University Library!

April 15-19

On each day, we'll highlight a different cool thing in the Library AND draw for one of many gift cards:

Target, iTunes, the Food Court, and a $50 Amazon card!

You can enter multiple ways:

• Fill out an entry form at the Library Circulation Desk on the 1st Floor
• Comment on our daily blog entries
• Retweet or Share our daily National Library Week stories
• Check in at one of the Library events
• Create a board for our Living In... a Book display and post it to Twitter or Pinterest, tagged #SULibrary (Polyvore is an easy way to get started)

You can enter once per method, and your entry will stay in the drawing box until the end of the week... or you win! You don't have to be present to win, but we'd love to see your smiling face!

For more information about all National Library Week events at Samford, visit the Event Page on the Library Website and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. 

We can't wait to see you next week!

Marliese Thomas
User Engagement Librarian

Blessed Is the Name

"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"

 As we begin this (mostly) sunny Easter weekend, we have also been doing some Spring cleaning. 

You'll notice a new display by the Mace of a beautifully illuminated Bible. 

This is the St. John's Bible, a seven-volume work of art in ancient illumination, calligraphy, and modern sensibilities, all to glorify the Word of God. 

The image above is from Luke 23, the Crucifixion. The St. John's website describes it, saying:

"The use of gold conveys the idea of God manifesting himself in His divine love for humanity, represented by the crowd below. Luke’s gospel recounts that darkness covered the earth for three hours, indicated here by the night sky, and that the curtain of the temple, shown as shreds of purple, was torn in two. The contrast of pain with the glory of gold relates this image to current theological discussions concerning the meaning of the Crucifixion in the contemporary world."

Watch for more features from the newest addition to the Samford Family over the next weeks.

Hosanna in the Highest. Save me, Lord. 

Have a wonderful Easter holiday, 

Marliese Thomas

User Engagement Librarian 

Quiet Study

Trying to Study?

Grad students have an extra option for quiet study during midterms - Rooms 233/234/235
These rooms have been set aside for contemplation of your notes and texts, since noise carries so well in this room.
*Please note, the National Pan-Hellenic Council will be using these rooms for an event from 6-9 PM on Tuesday.

Here are other ways all patrons can take advantage of our building during Midterms:

• 3rd Floor remains a quiet place, and groups can always look into a group study room. 
• Headphones are available for check-out at the Circulation Desk. 
• The Library and Computer Lab will remain open until 2 AM through Wednesday, March 13th. 
• If you see patrons getting a little giddy and giggly, feel free to ask them to keep it down or find a group room. You can always bring concerns to the person at the Ask Us Desk and Circulation.

We aim to create an environment where you can excel, by working together or individually.

Thanks!
Marliese Thomas
User Engagement Librarian

Extended Hours For Midterms

March 11-13, 2013

We're open until 2 AM!

Photo by Holocene View

You asked; we answered. With the popularity of extending Library hours during Finals, we are also going to stay open late during Midterms - March 11-13. All regular library operations will be available until 2 AM, including Ask Us Chat, reference, study rooms, and circulation services. 

Special Collections and the Academic Computing Lab on the ground floor will follow normally posted operating times.

National Grammar Day

There are those who would argue that the only thing drier than an actual grammar book would be a history of the grammar book, but since it’s National Grammar Day today, we down here in Special Collections thought we’d try it anyway.

The earliest English grammar books were often not written in English, but in Latin. It wasn’t until the 18th century that English grammars (as they are known) started being written in English. These early grammars were devoted to explain English constructions to a world where Latin was still being commonly used. In fact, it was believed by many that English didn’t have any unique rules of grammar, but that the Latin rules were perfectly sufficient for understanding the rules of English. Modern Latin scholars would not agree.

Needless to say, as the England’s empire spread around the globe, there was a new need to teach English to non-Native speakers who didn’t know Latin either. The new grammars were styled as informative education textbooks, intended to help the poor, non-English speakers, children and, of course, women understand the complicated beast that is the English language.

This all brings us rather neatly to Lindley Murray. Murray was a lawyer who, in his spare time, wrote English grammar books. It is for his grammar works that he has gone down in history, as the books were used long after his death in educating students in the English speaking world. 

The Special Collection is lucky enough to hold several different editions of Murray’s books, including his English Exercises which was first published in 1797. The Special Collection has an 1814 and an 1866 edition, which are very nearly identical. The book contains exercises “Designed for the Benefit of Private Learners, As Well As for the Use of Schools” and promises to provide instruction on the “Defects in Punctuation, and Violations of the Rules Respecting Perspicuity and Accuracy.”

Sentences such as “A great proportion of human evils are created by ourselves” and “Flattery, whose nature is to destroy and deceive, should be avoided as the poisonous adder” were used in the exercises to instruct morally as well as grammatically. I suspect I’d have paid more attention in English class if those had been the sorts of sentences I was instructed to work with.

Murray was one of several educational reformers of his day. His books were used into the 20th century, along with those of the famous William Holmes McGuffey whose readers and spellers were the backbone of education in the United States for almost a century. We have a bunch of those as well, but they’ll have to wait for another blog post.

Until then, we in the Special Collection remain willing to be more flexible about defects in punctuation than Murray would approve of.

Rachel Cohen
Archivist and User Services Librarian
Special Collection Department