Contact: Melissa Reifert
September 28, 2007

Wampler Library’s Upcoming Events, Resources at MECC Open to Community

The Wampler Library on the campus of Mountain Empire Community College has something for everyone, from avid readers to music lovers, from art enthusiasts to historical researchers and genealogists. The library is open to both MECC students and community members. Area residents who may not have stopped by in awhile have some good reasons to make a long overdue visit. For locals who have never experienced all the Wampler Library has to offer, now is the perfect time to take a first-time trip.

On the library’s schedule of upcoming events is a highly-anticipated series of banned book discussions. The series, Brown Bag Book Discussions, will begin on October 4. Guests are encouraged to bring lunch, and join MECC employees and community members to discuss banned folktales, specifically Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1988) by Alvin Schwartz.

“The Brown Bag Book Discussions were actually a suggestion of a library patron,” says Michael Gilley, Director of Library Services. “GAIN Program Tutor Coordinator Susan Bolling, who uses the library quite a bit and is a big reader, said she would love it if we had a book club. Director of Student Services Lisa Butcher recommended the idea of “banned books” for the first series of discussions.”

The banned book discussions will continue all year with titles and dates including The Color Purple by Alice Walker on November 1, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck on December 6, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain on January 10, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut on February 7, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee on April 3. All discussions will be held from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursdays.

The library is also offering a new resource of interest to music lovers. Patrons may now gain access to all online music listening databases from Alexander Music Press. Alexander Street’s Music Online: Listening brings more than 160,000 tracks of music, and includes features such as a classical music library; the Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries; African American Song with 50,000 tracks of jazz, blues, gospel, and other forms of musical expression; and American Song, allowing listeners to hear and feel music from almost every element of American life.

For local historians and genealogists, the Wampler Library is especially unique. Most area newspapers and some national publications are available on microfilm. Visitors can retrieve a specific article or photo from newspapers with years including the Coalfield Progress (1935-2006), Knoxville News Sentinel (1935-2005), New York Times (1851-1998), The Post (1890-2006), Powell Valley News (1922-2006), Richmond Times-Dispatch (1851-1998), Roanoke Times (1890-2005), Saturday Evening Post (1963-1995), and Scott County Virginia Star (1922-2005).

“The newspapers on microfilm are a good resource that people won’t find at other libraries in southwestern Virginia,” states Gilley. “I think it makes our library special. We have some magazines on microfilm, too.”

Other unique aspects of the Wampler Library include the Slemp Gallery and the college archives, both located on the premises. The gallery regularly showcases a variety of different art such as photography, paintings, and student work. MECC houses the history of the college in the archives, dating back to 1972. Gilley is considering the possibility of completely digitizing the archives by scanning all documents and photos, and storing them on electronic databases.

“Someone in the community might have had a relative that worked here at some point in time,” he says. “There is a good chance that there may be photos of that relative in our archives.”

All MECC students with a college I.D. may use resources in the library, while other individuals who wish to gain access to these resources must simply obtain a library card with a code. For more information, contact Gilley at (276) 523-7468 or mgilley@me.vccs.edu, or visit the Wampler Library website at www.mecc.edu/library/.

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