I just finished one of Cole Library’s new books, The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler. It fits into a genre called “geezer lit” by Harlan Coben, president of Mystery Writers of America.  This basically means that the main character is a senior citizen. The focus of the book may be on the issues of aging or aging may merely be an aside to the plot. Click here to take a look at Amazon’s Geezer Lit list.

In The Victoria Vanishes two eccentric, veteran detectives from the Peculiar Crimes Unit (PCU) solve the serial murders of motherly, middle-aged women while brooding over their own forgetfulness and a serious medical diagnosis. Twists in the story include a lost funeral urn, the eighteenth-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, the Knights Templar, the secret history of London pubs, and the discovery of an astounding religious relic. You don’t have to be a geezer to enjoy this mystery! It is a fun book. Click here for an enticing review from Bookreporter.com.

Agatha Raisin remains one of my favorite geezer characters, although she would quickly disagree with being called a geezer. Check out Cole Library’s Agatha Raisin items during Cornell’s spring break.

Check out the current art exhibit in the third floor gallery space (behind the reference desk) at Cole Library. Color abounds in the exhibits from Maria Schutt’s block six Studio Basic art class. The exhibit includes quilt ciphers based on Underground Railroad maps, Haiku poems and cyanotype cloth books, plus tunnel and pop-up books of legends. The library is fortunate to have a frequent rotation of displays from art classes, Cornell art collections, and special exhibits arranged by the art department.

When I learned from this display that quilts had coded information to guide slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad, I decided to dig into Cole’s collection to learn more about quilts, the abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad (did you know it went through Iowa?). See the display right behind the reference desk to learn more. If you see a book, video, or book on tape that interests you, we encourage you to check it out.

From the Academic Media Studio

I was going to write about this amazingly popular phenomena,  but there’s no need now that the college itself has begun to “tweet.”   To sign up as a follower, or just to see what it’s like, go to http://twitter.com/CornellCollege.  You’ll find updates in 140 characters or less—a type of social networking known as “micro-blogging.”  Note the number in the upper right which lets you know how many characters you have left for each post. Veterans of Twitter might want to look at the article 10 Features That Will Make Twitter Better.

Twitter is ubiquitous nowdays-—even used at academic conferences.  Heavy users may want the help of “TweetDeck” to sort all of the “information” coming at them from “Twitter.”  It’s an Adobe Air desktop application, in public beta. Learn more about by going to http://www.tweetdeck.com/beta.

Photoshop-less?

For those of you who don’t have Photoshop, can’t afford Photoshop, or want to support Open Source software & small enterprises, look at the list of 10 Excellent Open Source and Free Alternatives to Photoshop. The software includes something for all: Mac, Windows and Linux.

e-codices

The Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland provides access to 363 manuscripts from 16 different libraries (though the site will continue to grow).  Click on either  image to go to the site.  The manuscript pages  are beautifully photographed and available in a variety of viewing  sizes, and you can navigate the site/peruse the metadata in four languages: French, German, Italian or English.