Library Mystery Tour
Ephraim Williams trading card, used as the invitation to the 2006 and 2007 mystery tour.
The library hosted a mystery tour during orientation for first-year students from 2003-2007. On the tour, students work in groups and use the library collections and services to solve a mystery that is related to the College's history.
Each year librarians created a new mystery story and looked for new ways to make the event more engaging for students. For the 2006 event, Reference and Web Services Librarian Nick Baker created a video to serve as a humorous introduction to the activity and the role of reference librarians. The video was loaded on library computers during the event and also on YouTube.
In 2007 the mystery story used the library building project as the back-drop to the mysterious disappearance of Ephraim Williams' watch from the College Archives. Nick Baker created a film-noir styled introductory video starring himself as the reference librarian/detective and Jodi Psoter as the archivist/female in distress. The acting talents of professors Christopher Bolton (Asian Studies), Denise Buell (Religion), and Arafat Valiani (Sociology) were also showcased as they gave a clue to the mystery via QuickTime videos that played on computers located in the stacks.
Inspired by the example of Carleton's librarians, Nick Baker also created librarian trading cards to show the friendly and fun-loving side of librarians. A special Ephraim Williams trading card was used as the invitation to the mystery tour.
For more information about this program, contact , Reference and Instruction Librarian.