Annual Student Library Research Awards - 2010-2011

Joey Sauthoff, with one of his advisors,
Prof. Paris Peet.

Rebecca Rotz with her advisor,
Dr. Freddy Siahaan.

Each year as a part of the University’s Celebration of Student Research Conference, two students who have made excellent use of library resources in their research project are singled out. This year’s library scholars were Joey Sauthoff and Rebecca Rotz. These students were honored on April 19, 2011 during the keynote address which was given by Dr. Diane Husic, Professor of Biology at Moravian College and immediate Past President of the Council of Undergraduate Research.


At the ceremony, Dr. Kirk Moll, Library Department Chair, awarded Honorable Mention and a check for $50 to Rebecca Rotz, Junior, Mathematics and Economics Major, for her research project “Factors Influencing Retirement Status (Retirement: When Will I be Ready?)” Moll presented a check for $100 to the First Prize Winner Joey Sauthoff, Senior, Criminal Justice and Interdisciplinary Arts Major, for his research projects “Scenic Designs of ‘Expecting Isabel’” and “Directing ‘An Inspector Calls.’” These awards were generously funded by Berk Laite, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Library Department.

After the ceremony both Sauthoff and Rotz displayed their research in a poster session. Sauthoff was advised in his research by Ship faculty members Prof. Paris Peet (Music and Theatre Arts) and Dr. Michael Pressler (English). Rotz was advised by Dr. Freddy Siahaan (Economics).

The Research Conference is an annual celebration of student research held each spring. This year approximately 500 students entered and displayed their research.


Students interested in applying for the 2011-2012 Award schould contact Dr. Kirk Moll - KAMOLL at ship.edu

Get Summer Library Help

August is here and the semester is quickly going by. It is not too late to get some help finding some good library sources for your paper or speech. Please stop by the library "Ask Us Anything" desk to sign up for a quick, 15 minute appointment. You can also get quick help online at http://ask.library.ship.edu/

Little Red Schoolhouse featured on Public TV

Karen Daniel (SU Archivist)



Shippensburg University’s Little Red Schoolhouse will be featured on television. The Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC) produces Humanities on the Road, a television series that airs on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN).

The purpose of the series is to provide public access to the talent from the PHC’s Commonwealth Speaker’s Bureau and to showcase non-profit organizations that host the tapings of the programs. In this case, viewers from all over Pennsylvania will learn about our Little Red Schoolhouse and SU’s dedication to education.

This is happening because in July, 2006, I received an email from Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of Education and History at New York University. He was writing a book about the history and legacy of the one-room schoolhouse and was interested in the history of the schoolhouse on our campus. He had read an article in a 1974 Phi Delta Kappan that described the Potato Point School, which was moved from its original site and reconstructed here in the early 1970s.

According to the article, both President Gilmore Seavers and his predecessor, Ralph Heiges, worked hard to raise money for the project. Alumni contributed substantial donations of funds and equipment for the restored schoolhouse. Dr. Zimmerman wanted to know if the SU Archives had any files on the project, especially what it meant to those who contributed to it. I sent him scans of correspondence, memos, records of donations, brochures, news releases, news clippings, and photos. His research resulted in a book, Small Wonder : the Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory, published by Yale University Press.

One example of how the author used archival material is a reference to a letter from Howard Etter, the last teacher in our schoolhouse, to Al Mason, our Alumni Director in 1973.

In November, 2009, a representative of the PHC invited me to apply to be the site for Jonathan Zimmerman’s program on one-room schoolhouses. The application was successful, and Shippensburg University was selected from more than 75 organizations. The episode was taped before a live audience at 11 a.m., Saturday, April 30. Dr. Zimmerman’s spoke about why and how the little red schoolhouse became an American icon.  PCN-TV will broadcast the episode to 3.3 million households next fall.

For more information contact Karen Daniel at KADANI at ship.edu.

Old Main's Original Weather Vane

Karen Daniel (Ship Archivist)
In 2006 I got an email asking about Old Main’s original weather vane. The SU Foundation was thinking about developing some materials based on it. I discovered that the original weather vane was replaced during the renovation of Old Main in the early 1980s. A booklet requesting gifts, published by the Old Main Advisory Council states, “The present four-foot weather vane will be replaced with a beautiful 16-foot copper and brass weather vane including 12-inch diameter copper ball and a brass weather vane with 1871 stamped onto it.” In the booklet, Old Main, published in 1985 to celebrate the renovation, Charles Loucks writes, “A new brass and copper weather vane now tops off the tower… In keeping with the Classical Revival style…they [the Venturi architects] also gave the cupola its high-flying ‘1871’ weathervane.”

No one knew what had happened to the original weather vane. Then one day in 2009 Lance Bryson showed me a weather vane in the basement of Horton Hall. He thought it was the original Old Main weather vane, and I set out to determine if it was. And, indeed, it was, according to old photographs. The weather vane Lance found is four feet tall, with block letters N S E W. It was apparently hand-made of welded metal, which may be copper. There is a bullet hole in the fletch of the arrow. The weather vane shows the wear-and tear of 90 years out in all weather, since it was probably mounted on the cupola of Old Main when the building was first remodeled in 1895.

Now the weather vane is here in the Library and Learning Center where it will eventually be on display. People have always needed to know which way the wind blows to help make their plans. Our institution’s original weather vane will remind us that Shippensburg University continues to help us chart our course into the future.



For more information contact Karen Daniel at KADANI at ship.edu

Cook Edits New Book

Dr. Doug Cook (Instruction Librarian) has co-edited a book with Dr. Lesley Farmer (Professor at California State University Long Beach) entitled Using Qualitative Methods in Action Research: How Librarians Can Get to the Why of Data (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2011).


More info about the book.

Library Hours Term V - July 11 - Aug 11

Library Hours -Term V –

Monday through Thursday, 7:30 am – 9:00 pm


Friday, 7:30 am – 4:00 pm

Saturday – Closed



Starbucks Summer Hours


Monday through Friday, 7:30 am - 3:00 pm

Lower Level Refurbishment

by Associate Library Dean, Barb Rotz

Empty shelving signals exciting changes coming to the lower level of Lehman Library. Throughout the 2010-2011 academic year library faculty and staff have evaluated collections, removed duplicate content, and shifted remaining bound periodicals and microfilm in anticipation of a major refurbishing of the northeast side of the lower level. Throughout the summer months work will proceed to paint walls, install new carpet and provide new furnishings that will offer students a variety of group and individual study options. Eighteen computers will be added in this area as well, allowing additional access to library resources and student documents on shared drives. Thanks to support from the Student Senate, a casual area will include a new popular reading collection which will feature current fiction and best sellers.

Work on the lower level will be completed during the summer and the area will be ready for students and faculty when they return to campus for the 2011-2012 academic year.