Have you ever wondered what Emory faculty and staff are reading? Emory Libraries Student Ambassadors (ELSA) reached out to several dozen faculty, administrators, and staff across the Emory campus to bring together a wide selection of our community’s favorite books. Employees were each asked to recommend one book, all of which were brought together in a display in Woodruff Library in April and May. The collection featured a wide range of books – from memoir to fantasy to nonfiction – but all the books had one thing in common: each one was personally recommended by someone on Emory’s campus. See the full list of recommendations (PDF). Check out some favorites of the Emory community, from the Emory Libraries or your local library!
Faculty and staff recommended books that challenged, entertained, and inspired them. Peter Wakefield, director of undergraduate studies in the Institute for the Liberal Arts, called his recommendation, “Cassandra at the Wedding” by Dorothy Baker, “a little known but electrifying book about interpersonal family relationships. Unforgettable, and something I would want everyone to have the pleasure of reading.” Kim Collins, art history subject librarian, recommended Susan Cooper’s “Over Sea, Under Stone,” which Collins’ grandmother gave her as a gift when she was in the 4th grade and is a book that “has a special place in [her] heart.” She shared: “I had my kids read the entire series when they were young and then promised myself that I would re-read ‘Over Sea, Under Stone’ at the beginning of every summer to remind myself of the beauty of free-time and the childish love of exploring.”
The “From the Bookshelf of . . .” exhibit included several shelves worth of print books and numerous digital titles. Each print book was visibly labeled with the name and job title of its recommender in a tea-bag shaped tag so that library patrons can easily find the recommendation of their favorite professor, advisor, or mentor. Posted book cover images next to the exhibit featured QR codes that could be scanned to access e-book versions of several books, including the recommendation of Emory President Greg Fenves, “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro. “A lot of students don’t know about Emory’s vast collection of e-books, so it was important to us to highlight this awesome resource,” notes Nava Klopper, one of ELSA’s lead ambassadors.
While the collection is focused on the book recommendations of Emory faculty and staff, it was important to ELSA members that students were part of the exhibit. Nava Klopper, shares that “ELSA’s mission is to connect students with the library, and we take special care to ensure that all of our work meets that goal. We hope that with this collection, students will be introduced to new favorite books, some of which their mentors loved when they were our age.” As an additional interactive element of “From the Bookshelf of…,” ambassadors created a space for library patrons to write and hang up their own book recommendations. Recommendations included books like Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s “Shadow of the Wind,” described by an anonymous library patron as “Barcelona in the 1950s meets old books meets mystery,” and “Throne of Glass” by Sarah J. Maas, which a patron said “taught me how to be stronger and more secure.”
Curating “From the Bookshelf of…” involved the work of over a dozen dedicated students who brought their creative and leadership talents to the project. Ambassadors contacted more than 100 faculty and staff members to garner recommendations for the collection and ensure that as many disciplines and departments at Emory as possible were included in the recommendations and exhibit. Ella Abend designed custom bookmarks celebrating the collection, and Emilio Rosas Gutiérrez and Daliya Wallenstein created the display signage and collection posters. Ambassadors collaborated with Russ Peterson, head of instruction and engagement at Emory Libraries, to hold a “reading party” on Apr. 11, where students were invited to take time to read for pleasure. ELSA also worked with library staff members like Chris Palazzolo (social sciences librarian and head of collection management), John Klingler (exhibitions designer/preparator), Christian Hill (graphic designer), and Natalie Heimerle-Warthan (access services senior specialist) to bring the collection to life.
—by Ansley Langham, ELSA board secretary, class of 2025