The Coffeyville Explosion of Oct. 18

An unknown man delivers a package to be sent by train from Coffeyville, Kansas, but before the package is put on the train it explodes killing two people. Various groups accuse each other of the deed which is cussed and discussed through the local media for weeks. Finally the State Legislature appoints a committee to hear witnesses and view testimony trying to sort out just what happened.

Sounds like a plot for a TV movie on events taking place within recent years, doesn't it?

No... The event took place in Coffeyville, Kansas on October 18, 1888 and the legislative report was issued in 1891.

The State Library of Kansas' KGI Online Library has just added an 1891 legislative committee report on the 1888 explosion in Coffeyville, Kansas. Take a look at the short blog article and look through the transcriptions of testimonies and other evidence at:

http://kslib.info/Blog.aspx?IID=210#item

The blog article includes a link to a digitized pamphlet at Kansas Memory (Kansas Historical Society) issued by Populists shortly after the explosion.

Have a great weekend!

Bill Sowers

Bill Sowers
Kansas Documents and Cataloging Librarian
State Library of Kansas
Bill.Sowers@library.ks.gov
visit the KGI Online Library!!
http://kslib.info/KGI

House Bill introduced to eliminate Due Process for Community Colleges and Tech School teachers

From a librarian at Johnson County Community College last week.

FYI:

To all colleagues at 2 year institutions:

This information was circulated earlier today directed to our teaching faculty. While not encouraging, I am passing this awareness on to all of you. Likely, some may already know about this.


House Bill introduced to eliminate Due Process for Community Colleges and Tech School teachers.

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/hb2531/


Could be an interesting spring.


JR

Public Health Emergencies information links

The National Library of Medicine has a branch devoted to Disaster Health Information. We have just spent the last two weeks organizing information around three public health emergencies, Flint Water Crisis, Aliso Canyon Methane Leak, and the Zikka Virus. Please share this information with whomever you think would benefit from these resources. thank you!

Zika Virus Health Information Resources:https://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/zikavirus.html

Aliso Canyon/Porter Ranch Gas Leak: https://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/…/aliso_canyon_gas_leak.pdf

Lead in Flint, Michigan Water System:https://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/FlintLeadWater.pdf


From Siobhan Champ-Blackwell via the Libraries Step Up (in time of crisis) Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/libcrisis/182122078813529/?notif_t=group_activity

…brig

--
Brig C. McCoy
Network Services Manager
Kansas City, Kansas Public Library
625 Minnesota Ave
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
913-279-2349, Phone
816-885-2700, Cell
www.kckpl.org

Librarians can teach you this... and probably have.

Search Tips 1 to 10 from The Guardian

Spring Semester begins soon. The books are in the library...

I read a lovely review of a newish book this afternoon. The book is The Givenness of Things: Essays (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015) by Marilynne Robinson. The review was written by Richard Cox in his blog Reading Archives and the Academy.

Robinson states, “Open a book and a voice speaks. A world, more or less, alien or welcoming, emerges to enrich a reader’s store of hypotheses, about how life is to be understood” (p. 15). Now faculties are sometimes loath to assign books because students often will not read them. “Now we are more inclined to speak of information than of learning, and to think of the means by which information is transmitted rather than of how learning might transform, and be transformed by the atmospheres of a given mind” (p. 28). What, we might ask, are we losing in all this?

I am inspired by this life on this campus, and want to know that learning still takes place here. Come! Come to the books! Listen to the voice that speaks. Listen and learn...

Butler Libraries Open House to Start the Season

Bookface Winner!

The students ran a contest to drive interest in our social media platform, and we have a winner! What a great face!



Thank you, Nelson! ..and Avery, too :-)