The Tournament of Books

The Tournament of Booksgets underway on Tuesday, March 9, 2010.

Have you read any of these? **books at Butler Community College library as of this date, Jan. 14

The 2010 Tournament of Books Shortlist
All books 30% off at Powells.com

**The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood
The Anthologist, by Nicholson Baker
Fever Chart, by Bill Cotter
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis
The Book of Night Women, by Marlon James
**The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Big Machine, by Victor Lavalle
Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
**Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel
**A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun
That Old Cape Magic, by Richard Russo
Burnt Shadows, by Kamila Shamsie
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, by Wells Tower
Lowboy, by John Wray

Teaching Writing Like the Harvard Profs Do

A colleague of mine, Marcel LaFlamme, librarian at Independence Community College, took writing instructors to his alma mater as reported in this Chronicle of Higher Education article:

January 10, 2010
A Community-College Professor Finds Inspiration at Harvard

Valuable College Courses

From The Simple Dollar Mailbag, Jan. 12, 2009:

What classes did you take in college actually give you value in your life today? Most of my classes seem either to be strongly tied to my field of study or a complete waste of time.
- Jim

My public speaking class had the potential to be valuable if I had taken it more seriously. Instead of really utilizing it to work on my public speaking – a skill I’ve used countless times since college, even though I didn’t expect to – I goofed off and treated it as an easy grade.

My technical writing class has popped up time and time again in various avenues of life. This, of course, could also be connected to the fact that I chose to become a writer.

I also found one class on information management to be really useful. I’m not sure this is a widely offered class, but it mostly focused on how to organize one’s personal information – making a good schedule, filing personal papers so they’re easy to find, organizing data, and so on.

In short, the classes that were useful were the ones that taught transferable skills. When I took them seriously, they were golden.

--

The Cost of Books (as Opposed to the Price)

From Shelf Awareness today:

Vivien Jennings, co-owner of Rainy Day Books, Fairway, Kan., told University News that after 35 years in the business, the lesson she "wants to share with readers is even cheap books can come at a high cost."

"The question of what do people perceive the future of the book is comes up fairly frequently at our author presentations," Jennings said. "People enjoy the convenience [of e-book technology] when they travel.... But what we are hearing from the readers is that they still prefer the reading experience with the book."

She predicted that the indie booksellers "who will still be in the book business in 2010 can't be just book people. They have to be really good business people. And they will have to be very, very connected to the community.... Business has been shifting for some time. Now, it is very much about relationships. There is a very high cost of cheap. And I think people are finally seeing it."

Dear Faculty

Literature comes in many forms: right now the book club I’m in is reading “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It’s in that hard-to-know-when-to-put-it-down form of letters...



January 11, 2010

Dear Faculty,

So glad you are back! Soon the students will return and we’ll get to working together again.

While you were away, I managed to get a Video database bought and it’s running now: American History in Video. The 2000 hours of newsreels and History Channel and A&E and such could keep you busy for a year. I have discovered you can embed sections into your online courses; so look for it on your pipeline home page, under the library tab at the top.

Ronda Holt, my lovely Information Technology Librarian, has the Oxford Reference, as well as the Grove Art and Music databases up and running. By the way, at 400,000+ searches, my online database use was up 32% this year. That was only exceeded by my book checkouts, up 35%. Twenty electronic books a day were checked out if you average the use over 365 days – which is why their use is approaching that of the monograph.

Please let me know what you think about my new library catalog. The presentation of material makes 'me' look beautiful. Which reminds me; look for Journal Finder this spring. It will allow you to click through directly to any article you find in any place on any database we own... a finding aid, if you will. Now that’s speed for you.

Oh, I’m very excited to announce the addition of library space in the 5000 building, very near the bookstore. Some of you Andover Faculty have peeked in...the “5000 Library Services” is a reading/reference room, staffed from 9 am to 7 pm Monday through Thursday, and 9 am to Noon on Friday, with all the services and resources I can possibly offer.

And finally, what brings me to write to you today is to announce a Library award to one of your faculty members who demonstrates the best use of the library in teaching and learning. I’m calling it called the The DEWEY Award: “Developing Education with an Excellent Library – Yours”

... also known as “Dream Educator Wisely Enthralls You in the library.”

You’ll be able to nominate your fellow faculty who demonstrate:

• innovative, consistent, effective use of the library in teaching
• program activities that bring students and/or the community into the library
• promotion, encouragement or support of the library and its resources and services
• contributions towards thoughtful, timely, and in-depth resource development

I’ll have everything posted on the website for you. The award will be made during National Library Week in April, and announced at the spring Institutional Development Day. The winner will receive:

• a $500 grant to select books for the library out of the library budget
• a $50 Barnes and Noble gift certificate to purchase books for self-inspiration presented in a lovely basket of goodies
• an appearance on library READ posters and bookmarks
• a permanent position in the library on the Award plaque listing all winners
• and a certain amount of publicity or notoriety

I can’t wait to see who wins!

Thanks again, dear faculty. Have a wonderful semester – I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Love,

Your Library

Elvis at 75

Elvis fans are all shook up for the King's 75th birthday

Elvis Presley would have been celebrating his 75th birthday today, and even though Elvis died over 30 years ago, fans are celebrating his birthday today with gusto. Graceland has an entire weekend of activities planned for the King's birthday including the opening of a new exhibit, but that isn't the only location Elvis fans are converging to celebrate. Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis' birthplace, is expecting a swell of visitors to the 15 acres they have made into a museum that includes his childhood home. Folks in Greenwich Village will be serving fried peanut butter with sliced banana sandwiches, and Elvis fan clubs from London to Paris to Tokyo will be hosting birthday events all weekend. In Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, fans are flocking to the annual festival celebrating Elvis' birthday aboard the Elvis Express, a train from Sydney to Parkes dedicated to the event. Activities here include the standard Elvis impersonators as well as impersonators of his wife Priscilla. Ten thousand people are expected to attend this year and while they are there they can enjoy dozens of concerts, Elvis look-a-like contests, an Elvis themed gospel church, and a street parade. For those fans who may want to celebrate with a little less polyester, a little more art - both the Grammy Museum in LA and the National Portrait Gallery are hosting wonderful Elvis exhibitions.

The first link will take users to a piece from the Washington Post that discusses Elvis' birthday and the museum dedicated to him in Tupelo, Mississippi. The second link will take users to an article from Voice of America news that reports on the Elvis celebration happening in Parkes, New South Wales. The third is an interview by the LA Times' Randy Lewis of photographer Al Wertheimer, which discusses the "Elvis at 21" exhibit of his photos currently at the Grammy Museum. The fourth link, also from the LA Times, leads to a selection of Wertheimer's photos from the exhibit. The fifth link will take users to a fun feature from NPR which had staffers choose their favorite Elvis song and describe why they chose that particular song; each NPR staff selection also provides the song in question for the visitor's listening pleasure. The sixth link leads to the homepage for the National Portrait Gallery's "Echoes of Elvis" exhibition, which highlights how the image of Elvis became a visual icon, portrayed in almost every form and medium possible. Last, for those user's who can't attend any of the events celebrating Elvis' birthday, a link to the Pocket Elvis application for their iPhone is provided. This app allows users to choose from more than 150 Elvis phrases performed by Elvis impersonator Mitch Benn.

Elvis fans mark 75th birthday at his beginning
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010800953.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Elvis Fans Flock to Australian Outback for Annual Festival
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/arts-and-entertainment/Elvis-Fans-Flock-to-Australian-Outback-for-Annual-Festival-80990917.html

Elvis, the young King
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-elvis-photos8-2010jan08,0,5003931.story

Selections from "Elvis at 21": Photographs by Al Wertheimer
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-elvis-grammy-museum-pictures,0,3892519.photogallery

Elvis Presley at 75: Songs We Love
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122312475

National Portrait Gallery: Echoes of Elvis
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/elvis/index.html

Pocket Elvis for the iPhone
http://www.macworld.com/article/145521/2010/01/pocketelvis.html



>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2010. http://scout.wisc.edu/


Happy Birthday to Rachel Ayers and Carla Bourne. May the King be present for you today!

Free (and legal) Documentaries

http://freedocumentaries.org/index.php

This site includes "Sicko" and "Bowling for Columbine" as well as "Supersize Me," all of which I've bought or considered for the library. Watch at your leisure, and note the copyright issue resolutions provided.

For further commentary, visit the Wise Bread blog for their take on the site.