»Welcome to John Buchtel, new Head of the Special Collections Research Center

The Georgetown University Library is pleased to announce the appointment of John Buchtel as the new Head of the Special Collections Research Center. Dr. Buchtel comes to us most recently from Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries, where since 2004 he has served as Curator of Rare Books and had responsibility for the promotion, development, and care of the rare book collections in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, the George Peabody Library, and the John Work Garrett Library. Prior to that he was Curator of Collections at Rare Book School, an independent institute for the history of books and printing based at the University of Virginia.

Buchtel earned his doctorate in English from the University of Virginia, writing on “Book Dedications in Early Modern England and the Literary Patronage of Henry, Prince of Wales (1594-1612).” His research has been published in Teaching Bibliography, Textual Criticism, and Book History, edited by Ann Hawkins; in Book History, the journal of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing; and in the forthcoming Prince Henry Revived: Image and Exemplarity in Early Modern England, edited by Timothy Wilks. He has lectured on curatorship, book collecting, the history of the book, and other topics at the National Library of Medicine, Rare Book School, the National Arts Club in New York, and other venues. He has curated exhibitions on education in the Renaissance, on the value of collecting multiple editions, and most recently on the popular reception of Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre. Buchtel is active in the Bibliographical Society of America, the Grolier Club, America’s leading association of book collectors and bibliophiles, and the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. John Buchtel joins the Library on January 14.

»Lauinger Library Wireless Network Improvements

University Information Services and the Library are working together to install a new wireless network in Lauinger Library that should dramatically improve performance. Using the latest standards, the new network will be much faster and will have far more access points distributed throughout the building. Installation of the new wireless network, originally expected to be complete and operational by the beginning of Spring semester, will take somewhat longer. The backbone network is currently being upgraded, after which the wireless access points will be installed to complete the project. To minimize disruption, signs will indicate on which floor work is being done each day.

Go to http://uis.georgetown.edu/connecting/airhoyawireless/index.html for detailed instructions on using the wireless network.

»Library Spring 2008 Hours are available here.