Luther Authors

Alumni, Faculty/Staff, Luther College Press Collection

The Alumni, Faculty/Staff, Luther College Press Collection consists of published works by alumni and faculty/staff authors and is housed in the Rare Book Room, upper floor Preus Library. The collection includes books of original scholarship such as monographs on a single subject, textbooks intended for use at the secondary or college level, and works of fiction and poetry. Dissertations from Luther College faculty are also processed for this collection, both in print and microfilm formats. Published works of music as well as recordings of music performed and composed by faculty or staff are also part of this collection. Books of essays in which at least two Luther College faculty or staff have contributions and works illustrated by alumni or faculty/staff are also included here. Books published by the Luther College Press and books with a Luther College imprint are cataloged as part of this collection.

Guidelines for Acquisition

Examples of works included in the Alumni, Faculty/Staff, Luther College Press Collection are described in the previous paragraph. Works with a preface or introduction by Luther College alumni or faculty/staff are shelved in the main collection when acquired for the Library. Published works by alumni/staff and students associated with Luther College during its earliest years are especially desirable. Examples are books produced by the original Luther faculty and staff listed in Luther College Through Sixty Years and the scarce books written by early students such as the Norwegian-American linguist, Elias Molee, who studied at Luther College from 1863-1864.

Donations and Recommendations

The Luther College Library encourages any alumni who have written or created published works to determine if their works are already in Preus Library. Since descriptions of all books, musical scores, and media such as CD’s, DVD’s and videos in the library are contained in WorldCat Discovery, they can readily be discovered by anyone with access to the Internet.

Users may check WorldCat Discovery to see if their work(s) are already in the library. Users without Internet access who wish to learn if their works are in the Luther College Library can direct their inquiries to Freeda Brook at the Luther College Library, 700 College Drive, in Decorah.

Alumni wishing to donate their works or to notify the Library about titles they wish to recommend for this collection can send them to Brook. Ideally the Library would prefer acquiring two copies of those particular works which directly relate to the College’s curriculum so that one may circulate from the general collection while the other is shelved in the non-circulating Special Collections.

Acknowledgment and Appraisal

Internal Revenue regulations prohibit librarians from providing appraisals of donated materials. However, a letter of acknowledgement will be sent to the donor indicating the date the material was donated. (See the Policy for Gifts and Donations of Materials.)

Bookplates indicating the name of the donor are placed with the materials. In addition, the name of the donor is added to the catalog record along with the graduation year of alumni or the dates of service for faculty/staff.

If corrections need to be made to existing WorldCat Discovery records, Brook should also be notified.