Feb 26: I have been out of touch for the last couple of weeks. My mother had a stroke on the 15th and I was in LaGrange with her until she passed away on the 24th and then remained for the funeral on the 27th.

I did take some time on the 26th to visit the new Frank and Laura Lewis Library at LaGrange College. (My brother is a chemistry professor there and introduced me to two of the professors who were extreamely welcoming and helpful.) Loren Pinkerman, Director, gave me a wonderful tour of the facility. The Electron Resources Librarian, Mary Lou Dabbs gave me a virtual tour of the resources she deals with and graciously helped me with some problems I was having with a couple of projects. The most popular area of the library is the coffee house/study hall that is open often when the library itself is closed. It is a friendly comfortable place for students to gather and work together - something that is stressed for lower school libraries as well. I could really see the reality of this idea working in this space. The library also offers other comfortable reading areas on each of the three floors as well as private study/conference rooms. The classroom/lecture halls are equiped with all the latest technology and Dr. Pinkerman eagerly showed me how some of them functioned. But dispite the technology, which included electronic books that could be borrowed, I was pleased to see thousands of books on the shelves with room for growth and a large archival room which contained artifacts along with primary source written materials. Both Dr. Pinkerman and Mary Lou agreed that these would always be an important part of the library. (2 hours)