{"id":8256,"date":"2016-02-16T11:58:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:58:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/libnews\/?p=8256"},"modified":"2016-02-16T11:58:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:58:56","slug":"goodnight-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/goodnight-lights\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodnight Lights at the Sciences Library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SciLi\"
The Brown University Sciences Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You might not expect a university library to be saying goodnight at 8:30 p.m., with many students studying into the wee hours. But for a few weeks now, the Sciences Library has been doing just that. Only, it isn\u2019t saying goodnight to Brown students. It\u2019s saying goodnight to patients at Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

The Library joins a handful of other Providence organizations that flash their lights four times in succession for one minute at 8:30 p.m. each night, signaling \u201cgood-night-Has-bro\u201d to the children looking out the hospital\u2019s windows. Other participants in the initiative include the Biltmore Hotel, the Hot Club, and the Providence Steamboat Company. Known as \u201cGoodnight Lights,\u201d this initiative began when Steve Brosnihan, Hasbro\u2019s resident cartoonist and board member of the Tomorrow Fund for Children with Cancer, began flashing the lights on his bicycle as a way to wish goodnight to the children he had visited. He noticed that this simple act lifted the spirits of the children who saw the light, and lifted his spirits in turn.<\/p>\n

Brosnihan wanted to expand the program by involving organizations in buildings visible from Hasbro. The Sciences Library (known at Brown as the \u201cSciLi\u201d) is clearly visible from many patient rooms, making it a perfect fit for the program. Brosnihan explains, \u201cThe Library looks like a lighthouse from\u00a0Hasbro\u00a0Children’s Hospital as it is. I also love the idea of connecting Brown, whose [Warren Alpert Medical School] works so closely with [Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital] and with the kids who are hospitalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brown University Library and staff at the SciLi couldn\u2019t agree more. Currently, a security guard stands on the 14th<\/sup> floor of the Library and blinks a high-powered flashlight for one minute each night at 8:30. \u201cOn some nights, as soon as the signal is received we see lights flashing in the hospital windows in return,\u201d says Harriette Hemmasi, University Librarian. \u201cThe children wait for us and know the flashing lights are meant for them. It may seem like a small way of connecting but it\u2019s one way of letting the children know we\u2019re thinking of them and that they\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"View
View of the SciLi from Hasbro Children’s Hospital<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might not expect a university library to be saying goodnight at 8:30 p.m., with many students studying into the wee hours. But for a few weeks now, the Sciences Library has been doing just that. Only, it isn\u2019t saying goodnight to Brown students. It\u2019s saying goodnight to patients at Hasbro Children\u2019s Hospital. The Library … Goodnight Lights at the Sciences Library<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}