It’s early morning, and a heavy fog lingers across the Upper Valley. From across Lebanon, sixth graders start arriving at school, knowing they’ll soon leave for Hanover to explore the history of the written word at Dartmouth Libraries Rauner Special Collections Library. Inside Rauner Library, staff start their workday.

The C. Dwight Lahr Lecture Series, sponsored by Dartmouth’s Department of Mathematics, is an annual event bringing together the Upper Valley and Dartmouth communities to engage with mathematics and hear from diverse experts in the field. Established in 2020, the series honors Dr. Lahr’s legacy and commitment to inclusivity and diversity.

This Fall Term, we continue our rich tradition of library and community co-curated exhibitions. On view through December: “Disappearing: An archive of land loss in coastal Louisiana,” “The Fragile Testament of Erosion,” and “From Vision to Reality: The Appalachian Trail from Then to Now” offer unique perspectives and meaning in their respective histories and landscapes. Individually and as a collective, they highlight what it means to preserve and protect our much-loved landscapes while acknowledging the realities of climate and human impact.

This year is the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s 100th anniversary overseeing the protection and management of the world’s longest hiking-only footpath. To commemorate this incredible milestone, we partnered with the ATC to curate an extra-special Fall Term exhibition that helps tell the Trail’s grand story. “From Vision to Reality: The Appalachian Trail from Then to Now” is a retrospective that pieces together the founding vision, how the trail came to be, and how it connects to Dartmouth and local A.T.

What book comes to mind as impacting you the most during your time at Dartmouth, and why? When we asked this year's graduating library student workers that question, the results were as unique and special as they are. In this exhibit, we highlight 13 of the 28 students who submitted selections, with some sharing what their chosen book means to them. Sometimes intimate and personal, other times philosophical or pragmatic, their words offer you a peek into their world, reflecting their time at Dartmouth.

How far would you go to find a copy of a long-out-of-print book written by a family member? For Sreevalli Sreenivasan, Th’17 and current Thayer PhD candidate, she looked worldwide before giving up hope. Then, on a whim, while searching for PhD-related resources through Dartmouth Libraries, she put in a request for the Libraries to find it. To her pleasant surprise, they did. 

In November 2024, Dartmouth Libraries collaborated with the William Jewett Tucker Center to create a pilot Meditation, Prayer, and Reflection Nook on the north side of Baker Stacks 5, just over the bridge from Berry 3 in Baker-Berry Library. The nook is open to anyone, regardless of their religious affiliation, who would like to use it for silent reflection, meditation, or prayer.

Within the hallowed halls of Rauner Special Collections Library reside artifacts, ephemera, books, and papers that capture the social, historical, cultural, and economic moments of their time. Over the years, these works have launched research projects, sparked discoveries, and been integral in the creation of new knowledge. Whether you visit Rauner Library with the gentle curiosity of someone hoping to browse a particular subject, or you come with a particular item in mind, you'll leave a witness to history.

We are awash with data. Eighty percent of that data is unstructured, and that number is growing between 55 and 65% annually. Case in point, in 2022, 500 hours of video content were uploaded to YouTube every minute. Much of this unstructured data is text or “natural language” data, and accounts for approximately three-quarters of all recorded digital data. “Text” includes, but is by no means limited to, websites, blogs, social media posts, research papers, news articles, and transcripts.

Dartmouth Libraries has a rich tradition of library and community-curated exhibits. This Winter Term, we debuted four unique exhibits, each demonstrating what one might discover about a “place,” and the power and allure of it. On view until mid-March, these exhibits invite you to discover artful, historical, social, intellectual, and cultural narratives within each.