October 1, 2009
Banned Books
Banned Books Week is September 26-October 3, 2009. According to the American Library Association, books are banned for many noble reasons. Protection, primarily of children, from difficult ideas or information is the most common reason that books are censored.
Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird? Catcher in the Rye? The Grapes of Wrath?Any of the Harry Potter books? If so, you are guilty of reading books on the Banned and Challenged Books list.
Check out this list from the ALA site of Classic Titles that have found their way on to the Banned Books List:
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm
In honor of Banned Books week, why not choose one of the classic titles you have not read and subscribe to the following proclamation, in honor of intellectual freedom —the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular
Banned Books Week Proclamation
WHEREAS, the freedom to read is essential to our democracy, and reading is among our greatest freedoms; and
WHEREAS, privacy is essential to the exercise of that freedom, and the right to privacy is the right to open inquiry without having the subject of one’s interest examined or scrutinized by others; and
WHEREAS, the freedom to read is protected by our Constitution; and
WHEREAS some individuals, groups, and public authorities work to remove or limit access to reading materials, to censor content in schools, to label “controversial” views, to distribute lists of “objectionable” books or authors, and to purge libraries of materials reflecting the diversity of society; and
WHEREAS, both governmental intimidation and the fear of censorship cause authors who seek to avoid controversy to practice self-censorship, thus limiting our access to new ideas; and
WHEREAS, every silencing of a heresy, every enforcement of an orthodoxy, diminishes the toughness and resilience of American society and leaves it less able to deal with controversy and difference; and
WHEREAS, Americans still favor free enterprise in ideas and expression, and can be trusted to exercise critical judgment, to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe, and to exercise the responsibilities that accompany this freedom; and
WHEREAS, intellectual freedom is essential to the preservation of a free society and a creative culture; and
WHEREAS, conformity limits the range and variety of inquiry and expression on which our democracy and our culture depend; and
WHEREAS, the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year as a reminder to Americans not to take their precious freedom for granted; and
WHEREAS, Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Grace DohertyLibrary celebrates the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week, (Insert Dates Here), and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Grace Doherty Library encourages all libraries and bookstores to acquire and make available materials representative of all the people in our society; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Grace Doherty Library encourages free people to read freely, now and forever.
Adopted by the Grace Doherty Library
Danville, KY
Thanks to the Jovial Cynic at New Protest.org for the Banner!
http://newprotest.org/details.pl?495
September 15, 2009
A Very Potter (and Very Entertaining) Musical
This past weekend, my roommate and I couldn’t decide what to do. Partying really isn’t our thing, and we’re not too big on spending money, either. So like many college kids who have too much time to waste (or homework to procrastinate on), we resorted to YouTube, sure that we would find some entertainment. And we found it. A Very Potter Musical(renamed from the Harry Potter Musical after some copyright issues) held our attention and kept us laughing for a long while. Produced last year by the University of Michigan, this full-length musical was recorded and put on YouTube and is quickly gaining attention. It’s characters are captivating and hilarious. Voldemort is simply a lonely man who wants friendship: “I thought killing people would make them like me. But it just makes them dead.” And Malfoy is a semi-friendly boy who’s only purpose is to transfer to Pigfarts, a wizard school on Mars. With its many quotable lines and memorable characters, A Very Potter Musical is a winning choice for a weekend movie.
September 10, 2009
Winner of the Library drawing!
Hannah Colliver is the winner of the $100 gift certificate! Thanks to Hannah and to all first year students for filling out the Research Practices Survey. This survey provides library staff with invaluable insight into the research skills, preferences and needs of our incoming students. Stay tuned for the Spring transmission of this survey and you will have another chance to win!
September 1, 2009
New Printers in the Library
The library has new printers! Gone are the days when you had to wait endlessly for your print job to finish loading so that you could release it from the printer. There are a few new procedures, however, to keep in mind when you are printing in the library.
1. The username box will no longer pop up when you send a job to the printer. Just select “print” and go to the printer to swipe your card and release your print job. Your job will be identified by your Centre log in name (the first four characters of your username will be displayed in the list of pending print jobs).
2. If printing from a PC, make sure that you choose the Ricoh Library Printers from the drop down list. One Note (currently the default printer setting) will not allow you to print your material(s).
3. To print double sided, follow these steps:
- After choosing Ricoh Library printers to print your material(s), click on Properties.
- A box will pop up which says “Updating Now”.
- Once the box disappears from the screen, click on Properties again.
- Go to the Duplex drop down box.
- Select Open to Left from the drop down box.
- Click Print.
4. The library no longer has a color printer. For all color print jobs, please send these to the copy center via e-mail ann.king@centre.edu or suzetta.lynch@centre.edu
5. If you experience any difficulty with your print job(s), please let a library staff member know right away so that we can get the issue fixed for you.
July 16, 2009
iPhone Apps
Do you need some new apps for your iphone? Here is a link to an article from the Online College website which lists 100 Awesome iPhone Apps for Culture Snobs.
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/07/06/100-awesome-iphone-apps-for-culture-snobs/
July 14, 2009
Open Library
Open Library, an initiative sponsored by the Internet Archive and funded by a grant from the California State Library, seeks to develop one web page for every book. The project is “open” in every way. Open documentation, open programming, open wiki, etc. Since there are just a handful of programmers collecting and managing the project full-time, the hope is that interested parties will contribute. To read more about the project, check out this link: http://openlibrary.org/about
Take a look at the website, do some browsing, or add your own content here: http://openlibrary.org/
July 9, 2009
New Features in Academic Search Premier Database
Some helpful new features have been added to the Academic Search Premier Database.
Have you ever wished that you could add annotations to the articles you access and read in an online database? The new note taking function in Academic Search Premier makes it easy to jot down notes as you are reading a journal article online; these notes can then be saved and accessed again, as needed. To turn on the note taking feature, log in to the Academic Search Premier Database and click on the tab located at the top of your screen, titled New Features. From here, you can check the box under Note taking titled Try it!. Or, click go to this link: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/newfeatures?vid=2&hid=5&sid=ec6f888d-d565-4077-8870-3a71db048a60%40sessionmgr9
Another helpful addition to searching functionality in Academic Search Premier is the Zero Results Prevention feature. If your search generates zero results, a Smart Text Search will launch. The Smart Text Search will be indicated by the following: Note: Your initial search query did not yield any results. However, using SmartText Searching, results were found based on your keywords. Smart text searching enables the user to quickly and easily refocus a search and to find materials that would not have otherwise been returned with the original search query.
May 30, 2009
Technical Difficulties
If you read the post from yesterday, you probably noticed that there was a great deal of inconsistency in the font size, style and formatting. I have heard from an expert (Thanks, Keeta!) that copying and pasting from a word document can be problematic. My apologies for the unpleasant and unprofessional look of the post.
I will be looking at using clickers for instruction and assessment in the coming weeks. I am very excited about using these in my bibliographic instruction and also about possibly including training on these in some upcoming workshops. More to come on this later!
Have a great week-end!
May 28, 2009
New History Resource online
History Professsors and student researchers will be very interested in a new resource available on the library website. The library has puchased a new product, the 19th Century British Pamphlets Collection.
The 19th Century British Pamphlets Collection includes more than 20,000 of the most significant pamphlets from UK Research Libraries-UK here not referring to the University of Kentucky, but rather the United Kingdom;0)
To view these pamphlets, take a look at the JSTOR database, accessible through the library website. The pamphlets are also available via this link:
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/participate/other/britishPamphlets.jsp
A trial version of this product was available this past spring and was used by several students in World History courses. Primary documents are in high demand for this course, so the resource was very well used and well appreciated.
For more information on the product, take a look at this link:
http://www.jstor.org/templates/jsp/_jstor/templates/info/participate/other/britishHandout.pdf
Although the link to the pamplets in JSTOR indicates that this is a free trial, set to expire in June, the library has purchased the product and access will continue throughout the 09/10 academic year. Students of history often come to the reference desk looking for primary documents and we are thrilled to offer this wonderful resource!
Enjoy!
May 27, 2009
Library Centre
Congratulations to Lara Hebbeler, one of our graduating seniors, for suggesting the winning Blog name of “Library Centre”! Lara is the winner of a $25 grand prize. Thanks, Lara!!
The library is quiet today. After all of the recent buzz and hum of the last few weeks it is hard to adjust to the lack of activity in our building.
Although our students are gone for the summer, the librarians will be working on several projects in the coming months.
A faculty workshop on designing research assignments, finding and using materials in the library and developing a video or web-based assignment will be offered on June 18 and 19.
To read more about this workshop, or to sign up to attend, click here:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cGJWaDBWSTd0MGVYbi12RFN0Y1RMTHc6MA
Check out the blog this summer for information on what your librarians are up to and to find some tips and tricks that will be useful to you as you plan for your coming semester.
Happy Summer!