Commemorations will begin on Wednesday, March 5 at 3 p.m. with the opening in the Library Lobby of “The Evolution of Information.” The exhibit will spotlight the changing nature of information in the 100 years since the Humboldt Normal School was founded in 1913. From the books of old to today’s e-journals, the HSU Library has provided the foundation of scholarly research for a century. The opening will include refreshments and door prizes.
The Library will screen a “Midday Matinee” of locally-originated film shorts on Friday, March 7 at noon in Library Room 114. Two of the films are by alums: “Ugliest Fountain in the World (Without a Doubt)” by Jensen Rufe (Theatre Arts ’99) and “The Harriers” by Dean Munroe (Theatre Arts’70) and David Phillips (Theatre Arts’69). The third short, “Arcata from Dawn ‘til Dusk,” is by HSU Professor of Theatre, Film and Dance Ann Alter.
Also on Friday March 7, at 3 p.m., Barbara Curiel, HSU Professor of English and of Critical Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies, will read selections from her latest, prize-winning book, Mexican Jenny and Other Poems, about the experiences of Latina women. The reading will take place in the Library Fishbowl, Room 209, and copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
The Centennial event series will resume on Wednesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. with “A Look Back at the HSU Library” by Centennial Speaker Joan Berman in the Library Fishbowl, Room 209. Berman will introduce “The Evolution of Information,” featuring photographs and objects from the Library’s Special Collections. She will discuss the Library’s rich history and developing future as its academic, cultural and research methods shift through time. Her Fishbowl presentation will move to the Library Lobby for a guided tour of the exhibit. A librarian at HSU for more than 40 years, Berman became head of Special Collections in 1997.
The Library will host an Undergraduate Research Symposium on Thursday, March 27, and Friday March 28 at times and a location to be announced. The symposium will showcase undergraduate student research and projects currently in progress on campus. Details are available from College of Arts, Humanities and Social Studies Librarian Chris Salvano at Chris.Salvano@humboldt.edu.
A second “Midday Matinee” of films from the Library Vault is slated for Friday, March 28 at noon in the Fishbowl. These are selections from the archival videos in Special Collections, many of them recently digitized through the California Light and Sound Project (https://archive.org/details/californialightandsound).
The March 28 screenings will feature campus departments, students and faculty, spanning the decades of Humboldt State’s first century. The encore showing will be the HSU Centennial Documentary about the university’s people and spirit, directed by alum Benjamin Bettenhausen (‘07, Physics). Refreshments will be served.
The Library Centennial series will conclude with an off-campus community reception on Friday, March 28, at 7 p.m. at the Humboldt Bay Aquatic Center in Eureka to honor HSU English faculty member Jim Dodge, the 2013/2014 HSU/College of the Redwoods Book of the Year author of Fup. Fup is the story of an eccentric mallard with a fondness for moonshine on a farm in the hills of western Sonoma County. Refreshments will be served.