TML News and Notes: July 2011
Thursday, August 4
1:00 - 2:00 pm
Introduction to Searching CINAHL
Library Instruction Classroom, 2-012
Recent renovations in the original portion of the Tompkins-McCaw Library revealed a pleasant surprise from our architectural past.
Tompkins-McCaw Library originally opened in 1932, constructed and decorated in a popular Georgian revival style that hearkened back to the simple elegance and symmetry of high-style urban structures in Colonial Virginia. The main lobby of the building was situated at the site of today's Pastore Memorial Exhibit Hallway, forming a grand atrium extending to the second level and lit by an extensive quarter-paned skylight above.
A major addition wrapping around the original structure opened in 1974, and at this time the older part of the building was substantially altered. The main entrance was relocated to the new section, and the atrium was closed off, turning the second floor into a normal hallway and making room for new Group Study Rooms. The renovations also included adding a false ceiling to accommodate air conditioning ducts, surely a welcome addition for users of the older part of the library. Unfortunately, adding this modern amenity and additional space for a growing library and student population came at a cost to the original style of the building. The elaborate and careful plasterwork and moldings that had helped make the library a showpiece for the Medical College of Virginia in the 1930s summarily disappeared behind the acoustical tile, where it remained hidden for decades.
One of this summer's improvement projects for the building included a new dropped ceiling for the second floor Group Study Room area. When contractors removed the old dropped ceiling in this area, the original ceiling infrastructure was completely exposed for the first time since the 1970s.
We were delighted to see that, behind all the wires, tiles, ducts, fluorescent light fixtures, and sheetrock walls that have been installed in the interest of modern improvements, the original high-style top of the atrium is almost completely intact, right down to the Williamsburg Green paint so popular in the South just a few short years after John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Colonial Williamsburg restoration project had opened to the public.
For more information about this exciting discovery, contact Special Collections and Archives.
Tuesday, July 26
10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Sequence Similarity Search: BLAST
Sanger Hall, B1-020
Wednesday, July 27
12:00 - 1:00 PM
RefWorks
Sanger Hall, B1-020
Tuesday, July 19
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Library Orientation
Library Instruction Classroom, 2-012
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced a list of their "Ten Great Public Health Achievements, Worldwide, 2001-10." While major disparities continue to exist between low-income and high-income countries, some important progress can be seen in areas such as child mortality rate and access to safe water.
This report follows the release of a similar report for the United States in May 2011.
Wednesday, July 6
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Library Orientation
Library Instruction Classroom, 2-012
Tompkins-McCaw Library will be closed Saturday, July 2 through Monday, July 4 for the holiday weekend. We will reopen Tuesday, July 5th.
Have a safe & fun 4th!
