Ohrstrom Blog » Library News

Holiday Greetings from Ohrstrom Library

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:00:57 +0000

A message from Library Director Kevin Barry:

Dear SPS Community,

Just a reminder that Ohrstrom Library is open Thursday December 15th and Friday December 16th from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Beginning on Saturday December 17th the Library will be closed through Monday January 2nd.

Come by, browse and borrow some recreational reading, listening, or viewing to enjoy during your well-deserved break. Also remember that while you are away, you may still access all of Ohrstrom Library’s ebooks and subscription databases by logging into vpn.sps.edu using your SPS user account.

We would love to see you before you leave, and many, many thanks for being such a warm and supportive Library community.

Sincere best wishes and happy holidays from all of us at Ohrstrom Library.

Holiday Hours

Wednesday, December 14	7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 15	8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Friday, December 16	8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17 – Monday, Jan. 2	CLOSED
Tuesday, Jan. 3 – Wednesday, Jan. 4	8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, January 5 – Regular Hours Resume	7:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.

As always, you can see the Library hours HERE, or by clicking the link in the menu at the top of the page.

Image courtesy of greyhound dad under this Creative Common license.

New Archives Exhibit: In Celebration of Cricket

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:00:05 +0000

A new archives exhibit is in place in Ohrstrom Library and a new online exhibit is now available through the Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives. A selection of photographs are on display in the library on the upper level display cases located in the lobby. These photos from the archives collection outline the history of the sport of cricket at St. Paul’s School, and the continuing tradition of Cricket Holiday.

Last Thursday saw the announcement of the fall term’s best known and most anticipated surprise, Cricket Holiday, but it is possible that only a few students are aware of the history of the sport that brought it into being. The archives photo display, accompanied by excerpts from Arthur Stanwood Pier’s book, St. Paul’s School 1855-1934, helps to illustrate the strong tradition of cricket at St. Paul’s School.

Additionally, an online exhibit, called In Celebration of Cricket, provides further information gathered from researching the details of specific photographs using the resources in the St. Paul’s School archives. Fourteen images have been selected for the exhibit from the thirty-two photographs that have recently been digitized and added to the archives online database from the archives collection.

Next time you are in the library take a few minutes to view the physical exhibit, and click through the link below to view the online exhibit as well.

In Celebration of Cricket

Accessing eBooks at Ohrstrom

Lura Sanborn — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:00:12 +0000

Ohrstrom Library provides access to an ever-growing collection of eBooks. The library currently has 86,000+ eBooks available, all with unlimited simultaneous user access.

There are two methods of locating eBooks: using the online catalog or by visiting any of the library’s individual eBook collections available on the library’s eBook page.

Library eBook collections are viewable on most versions of the following: PCs, tablets and hand-held devices.

This short video tutorial describes accessing the libraries eBooks and demonstrates two of the library’s current collections:

As always, when accessing the library’s digital collections when off the grounds, please log in with your SPS user credentials to: vpn.sps.edu

Please feel free to contact Lura Sanborn (lsanborn at sps dot edu) with your question(s) about the library’s eBook collections.

Welcome Back to Ohrstrom

Lisa Laughy — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:05:06 +0000

Welcome to students just beginning their St. Paul’s School experience, and welcome back to those of you with familiar faces. The crisp excitement of the new school year is in the air, eagerly blowing across Lower School Pond and up the steps of Ohrstrom Library. There will be much that is reassuringly familiar when you come into the Library, but you will also discover much that is refreshingly new.

New and exciting this year is the addition of eReference to the Ohrstrom Library’s collection which will allow for online access to hundreds of dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks and guides. Several hundred new eBook titles have also been added, and a new database, NBC Learn, opens an electronic gateway to thousands of historic and current event videos, images, newsreels, and broadcasts.

Unchanged is the commitment of the Ohrstrom Library staff to providing the best academic resources possible to St. Paul’s School students, faculty and staff. Welcome back to your library.

Welcome ASP: It’s Summertime!

Lisa Laughy — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:07:43 +0000

Welcome to the 54th Session of ASP!

St. Paul’s School founded the Advanced Studies Program in 1958 to provide talented New Hampshire public and parochial high school juniors with challenging educational opportunities, and use of the Ohrstrom Library is integral to this enriching experience. The staff of Ohrstrom Library welcomes ASP faculty and students and hope that you enjoy and take advantage of its collections and services this summer.

Did you know?

The ASP went co-ed in 1961 (10 years before SPS).
The ice-cream machine in the Upper is provided by the ASP.
In its early years, the ASP was primarily focused on math and science, offering such courses as: biology, calculus, chemistry and physics.
The evening door count at the library is at its highest during the ASP.
Man and Media, a pre-cursor to today’s Mass Media course, was taught by author, and former SPS and ASP faculty member, Richard Lederer.
College Counseling services were added to the ASP in 1979.
In a green effort, the school dining hall went trayless in 2006 – beginning with that year’s ASP class.
The former Rector, William R. Matthews, Jr., SPS ’61, is also a former ASP faculty member.
Despite the flood of May 2006, the ASP still ran, but without access to Hargate or Ohrstrom Library.
There are currently over 10,000 ASP alumni!

What else was going on in 1958? The American singing group, The Jamies, the doo-wop duo of Tom and Serena Jameson, released the single “Summertime, Summertime” for Epic Records, which reached #26 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

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Happy Anniversary Ohrstrom!

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:23:23 +0000

Leather bookmark created for the dedication of Ohrstrom Library

It was twenty years ago this week that Ohrstrom Library was officially dedicated and welcomed into the St. Paul’s School community. The Spring 1991 Alumni Horae article described the dedication ceremony this way:

With moments of high ceremony, with inspiring speeches, and with good fellowship Ohrstrom Library was dedicated over the weekend of April 20-21, 1991. Open to students at the start of the winter term, the Library represents the “love and labor of many” who contributed imagination, thought, time, effort, and financial support during some six years to make this remarkable building possible.

Fittingly, all constituencies were represented in the Chapel of SS. Peter and Paul on Sunday, April 21, during the blessing of the Library by the Right Reverend Douglas Theuner, Bishop of New Hampshire. Holding symbols of their activities —blueprints, plans, minutes of meetings, hard hats, and a full range of Dewey Decimal system volumes —were representatives of the architects and builders, the Library Review Committee, the library staff, and the Library Association.

The February 1992 issue of School Library Journal featured an article about the process of bringing the dream of Ohrstrom Library to reality. Ohrstrom’s head librarian at the time, Rosemarie Cassel-Brown, described her experiences this way:

Looking back over the years of planning and our first year in the new building, I can think of many special moments: the trustees’ meeting at which the decision to build a new library was made; the unveiling of Robert Stern’s design; the ground-breaking ceremony in the spring of 1988: the thrill of seeing the new building take shape across the pond from the old library; and, the inauguration ceremonies and celebrations in the spring of 1991.

If I were to single out one experience I would not have missed for anything, it would be the challenge and the joy of being part of a team of people dedicated to the common goal of creating this uniquely beautiful new library for a great school. The level of mutual trust and regard and the growing appreciation of one another’s perspectives, talents, and responsibilities was remarkable and, I would venture to say, quite unusual.

I think it is fair to say that the collaborative spirit that was instrumental in bringing Ohrstrom Library to St. Paul’s School continues to be part of the daily experience in the operation of the library.

Read the full Alumni Horae article HERE.

Read the full School Library Journal article HERE.

New Archives Exhibit: The Early Libraries of SPS

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 19:33:03 +0000

Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives is featuring a new online exhibit: The Early Libraries of St. Paul’s School. The exhibit features thirteen photos from the archives collection of the different locations that have served as libraries over the years, leading up to the construction of Ohrstrom Library.

It was twenty years ago, on April 21, 1991, that Ohrstrom Library was dedicated, and this exhibit celebrates the strong tradition of enthusiasm and support for libraries at St. Paul’s School that has continued uninterrupted from its beginning in 1873 to the present time. This online exhibit is based on a similar exhibit now on display in the upper level lobby exhibit cases. Browse the online exhibit and take a few minutes the next time you are in the library to see the display.

New Archives Exhibit: The Form Plaques of SPS

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 17:13:16 +0000

As promised on Ohrstrom Blog just prior to March break, a new Archives online exhibit is now available on the Ohrstrom Library Digital Archives: The Form Plaques of St. Paul’s School: John Gregory Wiggins.

Eighteen images have been selected as the focus of the exhibit. Each image includes a description of the symbols employed in the plaque design and is written by the carver of the plaques, John Gregory Wiggins. In addition to the individual entries in the exhibit you can take a quick overview of the plaques by viewing a slideshow of the images. The exhibit offers a great introduction to this School tradition, and helps to decipher some of the interesting imagery used to depict aspects of St. Paul’s School history.

A more detailed description of the Form plaque tradition begun by Fourth Rector Samuel Smith Drury and Wiggins can be read HERE.

You can also view a complete list of Form plaque images available on OLDA by clicking HERE.

Take a few minutes to browse through this latest addition to the OLDA collection and learn more about the history of the plaques that adorn the dining halls in the Upper.

New on OLDA: Form Plaque Photos

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 18:47:17 +0000

The Ohrstrom Library Digital Archive – OLDA for short – has some new images available from the SPS Archives for online viewing. A series of photographs have been digitized featuring forty-two of the Form plaques on display in the Coit Upper Dining Hall. The first nine plaques from the Forms of 1859 through 1867 have been added to the website this week and include descriptions of the symbols present in the designs as described by the carver, John Gregory Wiggins.

Click HERE to see the images.

Wiggins was a teacher at St. Paul’s School from 1912 -1916, until he left to pursue a full-time carving career. Counted among his many ecclesiastical commissions are the carvings he created for the New Chapel – including the allegorical animals that adorn the pews in the choir room. Wiggins began carving Form plaques in 1921 and over the years he designed and carved the plaques for the Forms of 1858 through 1953. These include all the plaques on display in the Coit Upper Dining Hall and the colorful heraldic shield plaques in the Upper Cloister.

More images will become available on OLDA over the next few weeks, and a selection of the images will be collected into an online exhibit with more detail on the history and tradition of the plaques. Over time, images will be added of plaques carved by other artists that continued the tradition after Wiggins.

In addition, you can follow the process of the creation of the Form plaque for the Form of 2011, as documented in the SPS Form Plaque Project blog and SPS Form Plaque Project Facebook page. This project is the result of the Form of 1973 Mentor Fellowship awarded to me last spring, and I will be carving the plaque over the summer that will be displayed in the Coit Middle Dining Hall when completed. Over the next few years I will be carving additional Form plaques for the missing years going back to 1991 so that a cherished school tradition begun ninety years ago by John Gregory Wiggins can continue into the future.

Curious About Kindles?

Lisa Laughy — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:00:50 +0000

by Sandra Chauvin – Circulation Librarian

Come on down to Ohrstrom Library to check out our Kindle 2. Click HERE to access the online catalog entry, and then click on the “Catalog Record” link to see a complete list of current titles available on the Kindle.

If it is already checked out, log onto My Account and place a hold on it.

If you are interested in the Kindle and would like to recommend that a specific title be added to its contents, you can place an online acquisitions request by clicking HERE and select Other for Item Type and specify that it is for the Kindle. If approved, the title will be added to our Kindle.

The Kindle can be checked out for one week and renewed if there are no holds on it. See the Circulation Desk for more detailed information and policies.