Banned Book: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Marion Slack, Reference Librarian, reads Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Neil Conrad, ILL Coordinator, Retires

Thank you Neil for 26 years of service to Henry Whittemore Library! Bonnie Mitchell, Director of the Library, presented Neil with a Commonwealth of Massachusetts citation signed by State Senate President Therese Murray and Senator Karen Spilka.

Celebrate Banned Books Week 9/24-10/2

Banned Books Week

The idea for Banned Books Week originated from a display of banned books at the American Booksellers Association Convention in 1982. Each year, library and publishing organizations “draw attention to the importance of the freedom to read, to publicize threats to this freedom, and to combat ignorance and misinformation.”  (http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=1482) Every three years, the American Library Association publishes the Banned Books Resource Guide http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2931 which lists over 1500 books that were either banned in local libraries or censored like: The Great Gatsby, the Harry Potter series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, To Kill a Mockingbird and more.

Support the First Amendment (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/) and your right to read! In the lower mezzanine of the Henry Whittemore Library, you can check out a display of books that were banned or censored. The curriculum library also has a display of banned children’s and young adult books.

Information online about Banned Books Week

From the Banned Books Week site:

• Report a book challenge, read about a book challenge http://bannedbooksweek.org/support.html
• Book bans and challenges map http://bannedbooksweek.org/Mapofbookcensorship.html

From American Library Association

• ALA’s Banned Books website: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm
• Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009 http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/21stcenturychallenged/2009/index.cfm
• Banned or challenged classics: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm
• Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century http://ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm

Resources from the National Coalition Against Censorship: http://www.ncac.org/Banned-Books-Week

“10 Ways to Celebrate Banned Books Week” from The New York Times: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/23/10-ways-to-celebrate-banned-books-week/

A blog post from Kenneth C. Davis: http://www.dontknowmuch.com/2010/09/banned-books-week/

Twitter feed from The Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association: http://twitter.com/oif

Research Methods Psychology Library Guide

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=55610549

Bibliophile’s Book Find: African American National Biography

Hello FSU Community! I am very happy to continue to introduce our new additions to the Reference Collection at the Library. The first resource of the Fall ’10 semester that I would like to introduce to you is the “African American National Biography”, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. This eight volume series was published by Oxford University Press in 2008.

This series offers biographies of over 4,000 historically significant African Americans. The series includes entries on both living and deceased men and women, from Esteban who was the first African to set foot in North America in 1528 to Serena Williams, famous tennis player born in 1982. The introduction to the series states (vol. 1, pg. xxxv) that the inclusion of living figures is an attempt to “capture the unprecedented contributions of African Americans since World War II, and especially since the civil rights era. Thus the AANB includes not only deceased twentieth-century figures like Mary McLeod Bethune, Louis Armstrong, Paul Robeson, and Florence Griffith Joyner, but also Colin Powell, Toni Morrison, Hank Aaron, Quincy Jones, Oprah Winfrey and Harry Belafonte.” However, this encyclopedia does not cover only the very famous. The introduction continues : “The sheer scope of AANB, […] enabled us to unearth stories of unheralded African Americans, many of whom had never before appeared in a biographical dictionary.” Some of these Americans include Lucy Terry, the first African American woman poet, and Margaret Charles Smith, who was a midwife that delivered over 3,500 babies between 1948 and 1976.

The entries in this series are listed alphabetically. Each entry includes the birth and (when applicable) death date of the person, as well as a brief overview of his or her life and contribution to society. Each entry concludes with a bibliography of outsides sources to find further information on the person. There are images of the person associated with some entries.

During my perusal of this exciting series, I discovered that Cool Papa Bell (vol. 1, pg. 344) was a baseball player from Mississippi who was “once clocked at twelve seconds circling the bases” and that he is “recognized as the fastest player to ever play the game.” Page 173 of volume 3 has a wonderful candid photo of Duke Ellington playing at the Hurricane Club in New York City in 1943. A description of the factors that influenced Martin Luther King Jr. to enter the Baptist ministry are described on page 103 of volume 5. Stop by the Library and browse through this series to find these and many other fascinating facts and photos.

This book can be found in the Reference Room, Room 118 of the Library. The call number for this book is Ref E 185.96 A4466 2008. It is shelved in the “New Reference Books” section. If you have any questions about this or any other resource, contact a Reference Librarian in person, by phone at 508-626-4654, by email at reference@framingham.edu or IM at fscrefdesk. If you would like to suggest a treasure in the library’s Reference Room, please email me at lwilson2@framingham.edu

LibLearn: Your Mobile Library

View the Library’s LibLearn presentation online through Docstoc here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=55093007

Constitution Day Resources

The Whittemore Library will be celebrating Constitution Day this Friday September 17th by:

• A looped PowerPoint slide show at the entrance of the library containing images relating to the Constitution.
• Facts on Constitution displayed on a bulletin board
• Web resources listed on this blog post
• Constitution facts “tweeted” on Friday through the library Twitter account
• A display of several books  on the Constitution available for checkout at the circulation desk.

Below are key web resources on Constitution Day.

You can locate information on the Constitution through our online reference collection called Credo Reference. For example, you can read the Constitution online available through The Columbia Encyclopedia. http://www.credoreference.com.fscproxy.framingham.edu/entry/columency/text_of_the_constitution_of_the_united_states

The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands provides resources to improve civic education and the understanding of democratic institutions. The Sunnylands Classroom http://sunnylandsclassroom.org/Default.aspx has a wealth of resources on the Constitution. On the website, you can access:

Dowloadable e-books: Understanding Democracy by John Patrick; Pursuit of Justice by Kermit Hall and John Patrick

Online Games:

• Executive Command
• Court Quest
• Constitutional Convention
• Being John Marshall
• Branches of Power
• First Amendment
• Lawcraft

Videos Online:

• Documentaries on Key Supreme Court Cases
• Mini Documentaries
• Conversations on the Constitution with Supreme Court Justices

Descriptions of the games and videos are located here: http://www.sunnylandsclassroom.org/ShowPage.aspx?PageId=12

At the library, we are making available  a 23 minute DVD documentary on a landmark case regarding jury selection titled Edmonson v. Leesvill Concrete Company. If you would like to borrow it and show it to your class, please email vgonzalez@framingham.edu.

Other Web resources:

National Constitution Center  http://www.constitutioncenter.org/ncc_progs_Constitution_Day.aspx

Resources for Constitution Day from Library of Congress  http://thomas.loc.gov/teachers/constitution.html

Free Federal Resources for Federal Excellence on Constitution Day  http://www.free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=19&toplvl=0&res_feature_request=1

Constitution Day resources from Federal Court’s Website http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/ConstitutionResources/ConstitutionDay.aspx

Resources for Teaching the Constitution from The New York Times http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/resources-for-teaching-the-constitution/?partner=rss&emc=rss

LibLearn: Keeping Current w/ Alerts and RSS

Access the PowerPoint slides here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=54637774

Download Audiobooks and E-books!

Where can you download poetry, listen to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and learn javascript? At your digital library!

Our digital media catalog is offered through Overdrive. Here are key links:

Digital Media Catalog – search for audiobooks and e-books. All you need is a library card, a computer, a program downloaded onto your computer!  http://digital.minlib.net/D28806D8-72AA-4BF5-B26F-901E41CADF6B/10/531/en/Default.htm

Quick Start Guide – Follow these steps or watch the flash-based media tutorial to learn how to download digital titles.
http://digital.minlib.net/D28806D8-72AA-4BF5-B26F-901E41CADF6B/10/531/en/Help-QuickStartGuide.htm

Flash-based Media Guide
http://digital.minlib.net/D28806D8-72AA-4BF5-B26F-901E41CADF6B/10/531/en/Tour.htm

Device Resource Center – look here to determine which devices you can download the digital titles (computer, smartphone, Mp3 player/iPhone, or e-reader).
http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/

Accessible EBooks for the Print Impaired
http://digital.minlib.net/D28806D8-72AA-4BF5-B26F-901E41CADF6B/10/531/en/LEAPInfo.htm

Still confused? Email vgonzalez@framingham.edu to get you started!

Cool Features of the New Lexis Nexis Academic