Watzek Library is open 11am - 7pm January 16 & 17 and closed Monday, January 18 for MLK Day. Regular Hours resume January 19. For more information on Library Hours, visit http://library.lclark.edu/lib/hours.htm.

Watzek's annual Food for Fines Drive, taking place December 10th-16th, offers you a chance to help the hungry while you take care of those pesky overdue fines. You'll earn up to $2 towards overdue charges for every can you bring to the Watzek Library Circulation Desk. Preferred items include peanut butter, canned fruits & veggies, soups, stews, canned tuna or chicken, macaroni & cheese, and other boxed grains & pastas (no ramen). Pet food, expired, and perishable items, along with glass containers, will not be accepted. All items will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank.

The 6th annual Watzek Rocks concert will be happening the first Thursday of Spring semester, January 21st, in Watzek Library. Watzek is currently seeking campus bands to participate in the show. Please submit CDs, MP3s, myspace links, etc to Nikki Williams at the Circulation Desk or circ@lclark.edu.

Kick off the new semester with a free rock concert Thursday, January 21 at 4pm in Watzek Library. Metal Shakespeare Company will be the headliner with Brainstorm and Israel Putnam el Americano at the 6th Annual Watzek Rocks!

David Shratter, Assistant Circulation Supervisor, recommends 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. "Bolaño astounds me. This novel, monumental in scale, can truly be seen as a monument to the hundreds of young women who have been murdered in a border town in Mexico.The murders are the central focus of the novel, and the author has found a way to bring a level of intimacy and respect to the victims who otherwise seem to be part of an invisible population of poor factory workers. Even though his subject is extremely disturbing Bolaño is remarkable in his ability to reveal the sublime quality that exists at life's source." --David Shratter, Assistant Circulation Supervisor

The Library Classroom is now open for group and individual study on nights and weekends. The hours are Monday through Thursday 6pm-8am, Friday 6pm-10pm, Saturday 11am-7pm and Sunday 9am through Monday at 8am. The Library Classroom is located down the hall to the right of the Reference Desk, just look for the signage outside. Come check it out!

Environmentalism has often focused on the bad things we do: fossil fuel burning, biodiversity loss, pollution—essentially, our whole unsustainable way of living on earth. And indeed our way of life may need to change, as recent crises ranging from climate to credit have suggested. But change is not just about doing less bad: we also need to reconstruct a larger vision of the good life in the midst of these crises to guide our hopes and our hard work. Environmental Affairs Symposium 2009 will recruit religious leaders, political commentators, economists, artists, and others working alongside environmentalists and environmental scholars in reimagining the good life and what it means for the crises we face today. The Environmental Studies department and Watzek Library invite you to read up on some of the issues that will be presented at the 12th Annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs: Reimagining the Good Life, October 27-29, 2009.

Poet and professor Mary Szybist, recipient of a 2009 Witter Bynner Award, will offer a reading alongside Michele Glazer on October 5 at 7 pm in Smith Hall.

Szybist, Assistant Professor of English at Lewis & Clark, is the author of Granted (2003), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. This year, she received one of two Witter Bynner Awards, selected by Poet Laureate Kay Ryan for the Library of Congress. She also recently received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Szybist earned her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Michele Glazer is Assistant Professor and Director of Creative Writing at Portland State University. She received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has published two volumes of poetry: Aggregate of Disturbance (2004) and It’s Hard to Look at What We Came to Think We’d Come to See (1997). She is the recipient of the Richard Hugo Chair in Poetry at the University of Montana, an Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

The reading is sponsored by the Library of Congress, Center for the Book, The Oregon Center for the Book, The Witter Bynner Foundation, and Lewis and Clark College. There will be a reception to follow the reading.