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Scheduling a chat with Gretchen Gfeller at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library isn’t too tough -yet.
“Now that we’re a rock band, you’ll have to call our agent for the interview next semester,” she said, laughing. She’s referencing The Renewals, the library’s newest way to connect with students.
Gfeller, the library’s Web and public relations specialist, teamed up with a group of Fogler staff members, two students and The Maine Channel to create a music video promoting the library’s easy-to-access resources. The finished product, titled “My Library,” appeared on Fogler’s Web page last week.
The age of YouTube and iTunes inspired Gfeller and company. “What if people could, like, download music about the library? Because we do tutorials and . students come, and I think they’re helpful, but they may not be the most fun thing all the time,” she said. “But if we could get a message across by using a medium that is like second nature and a lot of fun . make a student smile, but also take away a possible impression of the library, to me, that’s good for everybody.”
Sophomore Erin Keim laments in the opening lyrics: “Oh woe is me, I have so many papers due / Where will I find the info that I need? / Is there a place where all my cares can disappear? / Where can I go and know that I’ll succeed?” Faithful friend Cassie Alley answers in song, showing her the way to Fogler Library, the first stop for academic remedies.
Sound cheesy? It is – in a charming, informative way. “We wanted it to be fun, funny,” Gfeller said. “We wanted people to see things and laugh and play and look. But we also wanted it to be information about the library to be solid and open and helpful.”
With lines like “In the Oakes / You can drink lattes and Cokes / Take a break and just take time to socialize / Easily,” the balance is reached with style.
The video features Keim and Alley on lead vocals, Gfeller on drums, and library employees Larry Corbett on fiddle, Kjerste Christensen on recorder, Albie Dunn on ukulele and Tom Jones on keyboard. “These guys that play the musicians are really good. Because a lot of people think it’s sort of faked, but it isn’t. They really, really know how to play,” Gfeller said.
The Renewals saw the opportunity as an avenue to tap into new media to reach out to students. “We’re always trying to find different ways to connect with students . [and] move away from any stereotypes they might have that we’re not open and friendly,” Gfeller said.
Jones, likely the most experienced musician of the group, having performed “on a riverboat for a number of years,” according to Gfeller, did a “rough sketch-out” of the lyrics before the members met as a group. They then began piecing together how to represent the many sections of Maine’s largest research library, working “very much like any musical group,” she said.
“My Library” was originally intended to modify a “more up-to-date, well-known tune and immediately ran into copyright issues.” The talented crew ended up combining older, non-copyrighted cuts from the 1920s and ’30s, as well as a chunk of Irish folk ballad “Danny Boy.” The final product is a catchy, upbeat, show tune.
“I . said, ‘I want to do a quote-unquote music video. I want it to look like a music video, I want to have that little signature thing in the corner and all that.’ [The Maine Channel] jumped at the chance,” Gfeller said.
“They had been talking about it for months and months. They were really well-prepared,” said David Nickerson, executive producer of The Maine Channel. The channel used their new Steadicam for the first time on the project.
Gfeller was confident in Nickerson’s abilities from former work on an advertisement for the library’s “laptops to-go” program. “I told him, ‘you know, I want to get a band together,’” she said, laughing and noting Nickerson may have been skeptical at the beginning. A band of librarians?
“It was sweet. They were out, you know, with their drum set and stuff,” Nickerson said. “It was weird to walk out and see that, but everybody has a smile on their face. It was awesome.”
The Renewals recorded as a live group in The Maine Channel’s recording studio, with two hours spent on the audio and several Friday sessions filming the video on the steps of Fogler and inside the library’s stacks.
“My Library” is only the beginning for Fogler’s musical act. “We’re not going to go away,” Gfeller said. “We are going to produce at least one more in the spring.”
Gfeller hopes The Renewals’ single is “something that’s kind of a giggle to watch, but that you come away from thinking, ‘Oh yeah, that’s that place up on the second floor where I can do this or I can do that.’”
The video is available at library.umaine.edu/podcasts/renewals.htm and will stream in a higher-quality form on The Maine Channel’s soon-to-come Web site overhaul.
