Volume 4, Issue 3 
Students: share your work this spring

The library's annual display of student work will begin in May. Take this opportunity to present your work to a general audience. It's simple: design a poster highlighting your work (this doesn't have to be a major project; use anything interesting you've been doing recently) to be included in the 2017 display, opening May 12. To get an idea of the range of styles and topics, see past posters archived on our website. Just email us a 14x14-inch pdf of your poster by May 1, and we'll cover the printing and mounting costs.

We especially need a motivated student to take on a leadership role in organizing the event, which traditionally includes a casual opening night gathering at the library. Contact us for submission guidelines or to volunteer.

 Garden Lovers' Book Sale April 7 and 8

Enhance your home or office library as you support the Miller Library and enjoy gathering with plant lovers. Join us for the Miller Library's twelfth annual Garden Lovers' Book Sale, set for April 7 and 8, 2017. As usual, the two-day sale features a ticketed Friday night party (where early birds get the widest selection) as well as a free public sale Saturday from 9 to 3.

Our inventory this year spans a wide range of garden and ecology-related topics. The small sampling of recent and antique books pictured here gives some idea of that range, with reference works on propagation, pruning, and botany alongside practical books on vegetable gardening. As usual, Pacific Northwest topics and authors will be well-represented.

Seeds on Ice by Cary Fowler
reviewed by Brian Thompson

In this morning’s edition of “The Seattle Times” (February 24, 2017), I was interested to see an Associated Press article by Matti Huuhtanen about an “Arctic ‘doomsday’ seed vault.” This refers to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that is also the subject of a new book in the Miller Library, Seeds on Ice.

The Miller Seed Vault, located in the Douglas Research Conservatory, is the largest of its kind in the Pacific Northwest and preserves more than 320 rare plant species from Washington. By comparison, the Svalbard Vault has over 4,000 species of food or agriculture crops from around the world. For most species, the vault also protects many, many selected varieties.

This book tells the short history (it opened in 2008) of the Svalbard Vault, its operations, and its location in the far north of Norway (with many stark and beautiful photographs). It also tells the chilling story of its first withdrawal by an agricultural research institution in Syria, that fortunately sent seeds to Svalbard just before hostilities erupted in that country. Fortunately, those withdrawn seeds are now being grown outside of Syria to replenish the original stock.

New to the Library