Friends Table at the Community Bazaar

From Thursday, September 27th to Saturday, September 29th, Friends of Axe Library will have a table at the Community Bazaar at Meadowbrook Mall. Besides memberships, the Friends will sell leftover books from the Children’s Book Festival, donated paperbacks and our new edition of A Closer Look, a history of the PSU campus written by Ms. Shannon Phillips and Mr. Randy Roberts, curator of Special Collections. Proceeds will support the Friends’ ongoing activities, which include an expansion of the film collection and the upcoming Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture (10/9/07; 7PM) and Faculty Author Reception (To be announced.). Come and see us. Many good bargains will be available. We would also welcome book donations.

Many thanks.

Jane Victor - Axe Library

What’s Friends of Axe Been Up to Lately? (Or...More News Is Good News)

Well, as you all know by now, we are all very busy working to improve the collection and services of Axe Library. Here is just a brief list.

1. Children’s Book Festival, March 31st, 2007 – The Friends earned quite a lot of funds at our book festival last month. We hope to invest it in our 10th annual DeGruson Memorial Lecture (see below) as well as our new edition of A Closer Look.

2. Outstanding Friends Group Award – Awarded to us by Friends of Kansas Libraries on March 5th, 2007 for outstanding achievement in 2006. On April 11, a representative will be picking up a certificate and a $100.00 check at the Kansas Library Association Tri-Conference in Topeka.

3. A Closer Look, 2nd ed. – A much improved version of our campus history. New pictures, new text, new maps, new entries and much, much more. Due out in May, the books will sell in the Library for $5.00.

4. Community Bazaar – Friends of Axe has reserved a table at the Fall Community Bazaar. From September 28th to September 30th we will be selling donated paperbacks and leftovers from the Children’s Book Festival at cut rate prices.

5. DeGruson Memorial Lecture, October 9, 2007 – 7PM in the Special Collections Dept. Refreshments to follow. Dr. Sharon Neet, scholar in SEK History will deliver a lecture on the fascinating Girard publisher Emanuel Haldeman-Julius and his contributions to the culture of Southeast Kansas. Never heard of him? Well, come and find out. You won’t regret it. It’s our tenth anniversary lecture, so, it’s going to be great!


Need more detail? Check out our Summer 2007 online newsletter!

Exciting Year Planned by Friends of Axe

Friends is planning such a busy and action packed year that for a full round up you will just have to read our Spring, 2007 edition of A Chat Between Friends. However, since we know that our readers are typical 21st century academics and are always on the go, we are giving you a quick peak on the pages of our blog. Here goes:

Fundraisers:

Children's Book Festival:
To take place on Saturday, March 31st, from 11:30 AM to 4PM in the east lobby of Weede Gymnasium. Authors from all over the United States, Australia and England have donated samples of their work usually signed and frequently decorated with a small drawing or a note. All books discounted at least 25 percent.

Community Bazaar:
If you can't make it to the Children's Book Festival, come to the Community Bazaar. From Thursday, April 6th to Saturday, April 8, Friends of Axe Library will have a table there and will be selling memberships, leftover books from the Children's Book Festival and donated books (usually paperback) sold at a discount and ranging in price from $.10 to $5.00 depending on the condition.

A Closer Look, by Shannon Phillips and Randy Roberts:
Due to popular demand, Friends has decided to publish a second edition of its famous publication A Closer Look. To those of you who have ever looked at a campus building like McCray and wondered whom it was named after and what they did, here is an answer to your prayers. The first edition only dealt with named buildings. But the second edition has added works of art, unnamed buildings and other places of interest. It will be on sale (price, $5.00) at both of our fundraisers as well as in the library. Watch our blog for availability.

10th Annual Gene DeGruson Memorial Lecture
The tenth year always being a watershed event for most lecture series, the Friends has decided to invite back one of our most special friends. Dr. Sharon Neet, professor of history at the University of Minnesota at Crookston, is returning after a six year hiatus. Dr. Neet is an expert in the history of Southeast Kansas' most famous Socialist newspaper The Appeal to Reason as well as in the colorful personalities who published it, wrote for it and shaped that history. Last time she was here in 2001, she spoke about J.A. Wayland, the brilliant and controversial Socialist philosopher and publisher who founded the Appeal. This year, on October 9, 2007, she will speak about Mr. Wayland's successor, Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, one of the founding fathers of the paperback industry in the United States. Mr. Haldeman-Julius printed the famed Little Blue Books series, which, at the time of his death in 1951, had put 500,000 paperback copies of literary classics as well as controversial literature about birth control, workers' rights, religion, philosophy, history, etc. in the hands of working people, school children, housewives, prisoners and political agitators throughout the United States. Come and learn more about this extraordinary personality on October 9, 2007 at 7 PM in the Special Collections Department of Axe Library.

More will follow. Thank you for your attention.

-JV