Life at Hogwarts University rolls on as we settle into September. This weekend, test your wits against those of your peers at the Harry Potter trivia night in Herrick Library on Saturday, September 12th, starting at 8:00 pm. Work in teams to fight for the glory of victory–as well as some pretty sweet Harry Potter themed prizes. (If any of you have seen the participants in the scavenger hunt walking around with their exciting loot, expect more of the same from this event!)
For those of you who want to keep up with your Hogwarts studies: Haven’t gotten enough Herbology lessons yet? Come take Herbology 101 with Alfred University’s own Professor Sprout: Dr. Cheryld Emmons, Professor of Biology, who specializes in plant breeding, genetics, and the phenology and biodiversity of local flora. Herbology 101 will be a hands-on workshop in which participants will learn how to identify plant species. The lesson will be held at 4:00 pm this Sunday, September 13th, in the Scholes Library second floor classroom.
Hope to see you there!

Hogwarts University classes are in session! We wound up having more people than could fit in the room for our first talk of the series with John D’Angelo; if you missed it, you can still join on this week. We’re having back-to-back Herbology (I’m assuming with the Hufflepuffs). First up, Kevin Ferst is speaking on Thursday evening on the topic of “Counteracting Spells Using Classic Chinese Herbal Formulas.”
From his description:
We will investigate several spells from the world of Harry Potter through the prism of Chinese Medicine and offer up classical Chinese formulae as the antidote.
He has already mentioned several very interesting parallels between Chinese herbal medicine and spells in the world of Harry Potter, so I’d encourge everyone to come!
The talk will be held at 7:30 in the seminar room in Herrick Library; library workers at the circulation desk will be happy to direct you if you’re not sure where to find it. Stay tuned to hear about our second Herbology class this Sunday!

The opening reception was a blast! Thank you to everyone who showed up. If you couldn’t make it, there are still Hogwarts acceptance letters (including our full schedule of events) available at the Scholes front desk, and you can come see the exhibit anytime.
You can also come to our first lecture tomorrow! Dr. John D’Angelo will be speaking on the topic of “What If Magic Were Real?” From his talk description:
With rare exceptions (like polyjuice potion), potions with the capabilities of those in Harry Potter exist in real life. Other forms of “magic,” such as summoning spells, the Imperius Curse, and even flying are not 100% fiction. Together, we will journey through some descriptions and explanations of some of the “magic” that surrounds us daily, and which we rarely notice.
The talk will be held at 7:30 in the upstairs classroom; library workers at the circulation desk will be happy to direct you if you’re not sure where to find it.
Come begin your Hogwarts education!

Be sure to come by the Scholes Library this coming Tuesday, September 1st, for the official Harry Potter’s World opening reception!
Come see the “Harry Potter’s World” exhibit that’s traveled here from the National Library of Medicine, the curious items from our collections that we’ve pulled out of Special Collections to accompany it, and the Harry Potter themed displays we’ve put up in the entryway. Come meet members of the Quidditch Team and learn about what they do, grab your own Hogwarts acceptance letter (if you don’t have one already), and, of course, eat food.
Delicious, Harry Potter themed food. We’ll have butterbeer, chocolate frogs, cauldron cakes, fruit jellies, and much more.
Hope to see you then!

We are officially accepting submissions for the juried “Harry Potter’s World” art exhibit, to be hosted in the Scholes Library’s pop-up gallery!
Students, staff, and community members are all welcome to submit their artworks for consideration. We’re being fairly flexible with the theme here, so exercise your creativity in the way you see fit! You may want to submit a work of art that literally depicts something from the world of Harry Potter, of course–there’s so much visually interesting material to choose from. Perhaps you have an idea for an alternate cover design for one of the books; there are many other examples that might provide inspiration. But maybe you want to get more conceptual with it, and that’s great, too! There are all sorts of fascinating themes, such as invisibility, metamorphosis, alchemy, or flight.
Whatever you choose to create, we just ask that you bring it to the Scholes Library with the submission form by October 1st. You can read the official information–and get the submission form–on our libguide, here: http://libguides.alfred.edu/content.php?pid=674228&sid=5585884
Hope to see some interesting works coming in soon!

This Saturday, a group of incoming freshmen familiarized themselves with the campus in a new and challenging way–by tracking down horcruxes in the Horcrux Scavenger Hunt, the first event of the Harry Potter’s World series.
Arranged into five (randomly named) teams–The Bludgers, The Grangers, The Snapes, The Broomsticks, and The Lupins–these students raced each other around Alfred University, using a set of seven clues to track down the hidden horcruxes, based on the magical artifacts from the sixth and seventh Harry Potter books. To get credit for finding each horcrux, they had to take a picture of the entire team with it and send it to the hogwarts@alfred email account. From where we sat at mission control on that beautiful sunny day, it looked like a blast! Ultimately, the Broomsticks took first place, with the Bludgers and Snapes coming in close second and third respectively.
In the order in which the horcruxes were found in the original books, we present to you the horcrux hunters of Alfred University:

Tom Riddle’s Diary

Tom Riddle’s diary was turned into a Horcrux while he was still at Hogwarts, sent back to Hogwarts castle by Lucius Malfoy, and destroyed beneath the dungeons of the Hogwarts castle. We hid ours on the front doors of Steinheim Castle, where it often proved a challenge for team members to squeeze themselves in for the selfie.

Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring

From the creation of the Resurrection Stone in the 13th century to its placement in a gold setting as it was passed down through the family, Marvolo Gaunt’s ring was a piece of jewelry with a lot of history. We decided to hide it next to the book Jewelry Through the Ages in the Scholes Library.

Salazar Slytherin’s Locket

This turned out to be the trickiest one by far! In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Dumbledore and Harry finally succeed in retrieving a locket from the cave where Voldemort hid it (at great cost), they discover that it’s a fake, and that a note has been left by someone who switched it out with the real horcrux, intending to destroy it. We wanted to add in some of that sense of crushing despair, so put our own note from “R.A.B.” up on the swimming pool doors, directing students to follow yet another clue to the real locket.

And hopefully, a sense of great elation when teams actually found the real locket on the Powell Campus Center.

Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup

There’s always time for a good pun, right? Harry, Hermione, and Ron have to break into Gringotts bank to retrieve Helga Hufflepuff’s cup. We told students to go looking by the BANKs (you see?) of Kanakadea Creek; specifically, the back of the Village Bandstand!

Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem

Never let it be said that library events are all about sitting around and reading! Tom Riddle found Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem in an Albanian forest, so these students had to trek all the way up to the trailhead at the edge of the woods.

Harry Potter

The Brick has had the words “Platform 9 3/4” painted on it all summer (maybe longer?), so obviously it had to be a hiding place. We decided to stick the Harry Potter horcrux under the old arch to bring to mind passing through the brick wall at the station.

Nagini

This horcrux has found you! (And how unfortunate for you that it has.) We tucked Nagini in the stacks at Herrick, near the book Snakes in Question.

Congratulations to our winners, and to all the participants! Students: if you see the sweet Harry Potter swag they won and would like your own, keep an eye out for future Harry Potter’s World events. Events like, the trivia night, for instance, or the art exhibit, might involve some similar prizes…