Curtis
Laws Wilson Library Trivia
"Outside of a dog, a book
is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx
"A university is just
a group of buildings gathered around a library."
- Shelby Foote
"A library is not a luxury
but one of the necessities of life."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"For him that stealeth
a Book from this Library, let it change into a serpent in his hand and
rend him. Let him be struck with Palsy, and all his Members blasted. Let
him languish in Pain crying aloud for Mercy and let there be no sur-cease
to his Agony till he sink in Dissolution. Let Bookworms gnaw his Entrails
in token of the Worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his
final Punishment, let the flames of Hell consume him for ever and aye."
- Curse Against Book Stealers, Monastery of San Pedro, Barcelona
"Librarians are almost
always very helpful and often almost absurdly knowledgeable. Their skills
are probably very underestimated and largely underemployed."
-Charles Medawar
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
-Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
"Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient
saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are
preserved and reposed."
--Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
"Library.
Here is where people,
One frequently finds,
Lower their voices
And raise their minds."
-Richard Armour
"Information is the manager's
main tool, indeed the manager's "capital," and it is he who
must decide what information he needs and how to use it. "
- Peter F. Drucker
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
- T. S. Eliot
Who was Curtis
Laws Wilson and why did we name the library after him?
Wilson w
as
the Dean of the Missouri School of Mines from 1945 through 1963. During
his administration the size of the campus more than doubled, the number
of faculty more than tripled and number of support staff went from 147
to over 800. He has been described as hardworking, well organized, efficient
and fiscally conservative. There are also rumors that he was not the most
popular of deans and was put in place by the UM administration to make
sure that the Missouri School of Mines did not break away from the University
of Missouri system. The Library building was unnamed from the time of
its original dedication in 1968 until it was named in memory of Dean Wilson
in a Founder's Day dedication ceremony in March of 1978.
Library
Artwork:
Einstein - the bust of Einstein in front of the Circulation Desk was sculpted by local artist Louie Smart. It is a bronze casting that was donated to the University by the Friends of Einstein. It is rumored that you can raise your IQ by ten points for two hours by touching your forehead to his. This is unproven, and generally frowned upon by the library staff.
St.
Patrick - Rudy Torrini,
a St. Louis artist, chose to depict the saint in bishop's garb with his
foot on the snake to clearly identify him as St. Patrick, the
patron saint of engineers. It is eight and a half feet tall and is
sculpted of plaster with a simulated bronze coating. The piece was presented
to the university by the St. Pat's
Board in October of 1970. It was originally to be housed in the library
until the construction of the University Center was complete and was to
be transferred there. We still have him, but think he would look great
in the new Havener Center.
Astrolabe 1999 - This
14 foot in diameter work was commissioned by the library and installed
as a finishing touch to the library renovation project in 1999. Jefferson
City-based artist Thomas Schulte took his inspiration from the astronomical
instrument, the astrolabe. Schulte's sculpture reflects both the Arabic
origins and complex geometric patterns of the astrolabe with its graceful
curves and interlocking forms. It is a celebration
of interrelationships between the artistic and the technical, as well
as the history and the future of science and technology.
What is an astrolabe, anyway?
An Astrolabe is measuring device perfected by the Arabs in the 9th century.
The device can serve several functions, but were most commonly used to
measure the position of celestial bodies, for navigating at sea and surveying.
Early astrolabes consisted of a base plate, or mater; a rete, a disk that
rotated on the mater around a center pin; and an alidade, a straight rule.
Gauges on the astrolabe indicated positions of the moon, sun and stars
at various times.
What is that funny red robe on the second floor, and why did you frame it?
The cap and gown belonged to distinquished UMR alumnus Mervin J. Kelly, who went on to become president of Bell Labs. Kelly wore the gown at a ceremony where he was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Lyon in France.
Engineer Jokes:
To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
An engineer was crossing a
road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss
me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess."
He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket.
The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back
into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week." The
engineer took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it
to the pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn
me back into a princess, I'll stay with you and do anything you want."
Again the engineer took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into
his pocket. Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told
you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll be at your beck and call. Why
won't you kiss me?" The engineer said, "Look I'm an engineer.
I don't have time for a girl friend, but a talking frog......that's cool."
Most people believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features.
Two engineering students were walking across campus when one said," Where did you get such a great bike?" The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want." "The second engineer nodded approvingly, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit."
A pastor, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, "What's with these guys? We must have been waiting for 15 minutes!" The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such ineptitude!" The pastor said, "Hey, here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with him." "Hi George say, what's with that group ahead of us? They're rather slow, aren't they?" The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind firefighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The group was silent for a moment. The pastor said, "That's so sad. I think will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist buddy and see if there's anything he can do for them." The engineer said, "Why can't these guys play at night?"
What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers? ---Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets.
Library jokes:
IFLANET Library Humour
Curtis Laws Wilson Library - Circulation