Renew I-Share Books Lake Forest College Donnelley and Lee Library Ask Librarian Hours Interlibrary Loan

The Newsletter of the Office of Library and Information Technology

Library Hosts 2nd Annual
Lake Forest Literary Festival


Scope of the kaleidoscope of events
April 5 - 7 of this year, Level 2 of the Donnelley and Lee Library was transformed into "performance spaces" using "inventive and creative configurations" for activities such as shadow plays with screens. Davis Schneiderman, director of the the 2nd Annual Lake Forest Literary Festival, noted that 110 participants came from off-campus and were appropriately impressed with the ambience and technology of the Library's space, which reflected very positively on the College as a whole.

An exponentially larger event than was held last year, the footprint for this year's program increased at least four-fold, expanding from one room on the Lower Level of the Library last year, to four classrooms and hallways on the bright upper level. This occurred primarily because this year's event enfolded Notre Dame University's own second literary festival, &Now, which also seeks to "showcase contemporary conceptual art."
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
Participation by a variety of players was essential for a successful melding of media. Along with English professor Davis Scheiderman, Art professor Tom Denlinger was at the heart of this interactive book fair, and both were aware of the technologies to be employed. LIT's Academic Technology Specialist, Karen Blocker, is not only the Manager of Media Services, but also conveniently holds an advanced degree in English, thus allowing her to be particularly sensitive to the overarching goals for the three days.
Karen saw the festival as a "celebration of contemporary aesthetic practice in its most inventive forms: writing, visual, and multimedia art.The bringing together of these innovative writers and artists also brought up issues of presentation equipment for 100 presenters with 49 individual technology setup requests."
Level 2 east windowsTwo months previously, the planning began with Tom and Karen, continuing with almost daily communications regarding 16mm projectors, data projectors, duel projectors, slide projectors, DVD and VHS players, Karaoke equipment, microphones, extra speakers, boom boxes, laptops, channel speakers, and a portable PDA system with Flash, Java, QuickTime, Shockwave and Internet access for simultaneous presentations in different locations over the three days. Karen, together with Ray Closs, Media Services Assistant, oversaw 20 student employees who assisted with this massive outlay of technology resources.
Future Fest
Next year's Literary Festival will be a little less stressful for Media Services, as it will be scaled back to one day and will not have participation from Notre Dame. However, as Karen recalls, "And then three days later we went right into the Symposium," which most likely will be the case again next year.

If you are interested in planning an event in one of the Library's classrooms, contact Linda Day at x5210 to reserve a room.
Contact Media Services at x5070 to arrange for the use of equipment or technology.