Dead Man Walking

Want to get informed about the death penalty debate? Check out the library’s latest display of books, videos, and government documents on this controversial issue in the lobby.

Our display coincides with the USF College Players’ performance of Dead Man Walking this weekend, Friday, December 11 and Saturday, December 12, at 8pm in Studio Theater (Lone Mountain). Admission is free. This production is part of the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project. Since 2003, over 170 high schools and colleges in the U.S. have produced the play and led campus-wide discussions and events to call attention to the debate.

Additional resources on the death penalty are available on the School Theatre Project site as well as information about how to take action.

The library owns Dead Man Walking, the Pulitzer Prize nominated book by Sister Helen Prejean, and the DVD of the feature film.

 

Obituaries and history

Last week, on World AIDS Day, the GLBT Historical Society and the Bay Area Reporter, the local glbt newspaper, released a database of obituaries of persons who died of AIDS. Looking through it is like looking at a time capsule.

I moved to San Francisco in 1983 and like so many gay men of my generation, I remember throughout the 80’s and 90’s reading the BAR’s obituaries each week, sometimes seeing someone I knew, sometimes just reading about all of these lives intertwined here in San Francisco.

I’m sure many people here at USF will look up people they knew. Two people connected to the USF library I thought of were Brooks Liston, who worked in the Law Library, and Steve Corey, who was the Rare Books Librarian here at Gleeson.

Looking through these obituaries, the database really captures a moment in time and helps us remember so many people whose lives touched ours.

 

Library Hours for Intersession and Spring 2010

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.
-  Proverb from Guinea

Click Here to view Gleeson Library/Geschke Center Hours for Intersession and Spring 2010

 

The Geography of a Thanksgiving Meal

Where does your Thanksgiving dinner come from?

Linda Zellmer, Government Information and Data Services Librarian at Western Illinois University, has used data from the 1997, 2002, and 2007 Census of Agriculture to develop a set of maps showing where the foods consumed at the traditional Thanksgiving dinner (e.g., turkey, cranberries, squash, and green beans) are grown. Amaze your Thanksgiving guests with answers to such questions as which state produces the most cranberries or which state has the fewest turkeys.

Or perhaps you want to have a locally grown Thanksgiving? For information about local foods, see Gleeson Library’s Sustainable Food guides.

Find out more about Gleeson Library’s government information collection by visiting our homepage or contacting Carol Spector (the Government Information Librarian) at csspector@usfca.edu.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Take our survey! Study Zones @ Gleeson Library

Greetings!

We want your feedback regarding the study zones that we launched at the beginning of the semester. As you probably know, different areas of the library are “zoned” as either conversation, quiet, or silent.

How do you think these zones are working? Do you think they’re clearly defined? Take our survey and let us know!

(Click the image to enter the survey)

We’ll run the survey until the end of the semester. Over winter break we will analyze the results and make changes to the zones if necessary. Your feedback is valuable to us, so let us know what you think!

 

USF Book Club: Love Life by Ray Kluun

Greetings! The next book club selection is Love Life by Ray Kluun, translated from the Dutch by Shaun Whiteside.

We will meet on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 from 12 noon – 1 pm in Kalmanovitz Hall, Room 265. Bring your lunch and tell your friends — the book club is open to the whole USF Community.

To get a copy of the book, request it through Link+. Gleeson Library is purchasing a copy but we haven’t received it yet.

From what I understand, this novel, set in Amsterdam, is dark and gritty — it tells the story of a man coping with his wife’s terminal breast cancer, so at times he is despicable but the story is told with probing honesty. I hear it’s beautifully written and is a page turner — the book club member who suggested it read it in 3 days!

To read full reviews, check out the book’s Amazon page.

Check it out and join us for a lively discussion. You don’t need a background in literary criticism to join us. You just have to like books

UPDATE: The Gleeson copy has arrived! If you want it, click “request” on its record in the catalog.

 

The World at our Doorstep– with a photo contest

Here at the library we’re proud to co-sponsor USF’s celebration of International Education Week 2009. Now in the lobby we’re featuring film, recent fiction and poetry by international newcomers to the Bay Area and across the U.S., in honor of IEW and our international students.

You might have already spotted photos from the IEW photo contest around campus or on Facebook. You can view them online here and on the monitor in the library lobby as well. The campus community is invited to vote for the three that best depict international education and cultural exchange. Cast your vote online or in Parina Lounge when it’s transformed into the USF World Village next Tuesday, Nov. 17 from noon to 2 p.m. Voting will be open through Tuesday at 2. The photo contest winners will be announced at the fabulous Culturescape. Don’t miss it!

Photo by Rob Guillen

 

Darwin’s Originality and Its Consequences

A display to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species.”

We have selected for display a number of books that demonstrate the pervasive influence of Darwin’s theory of natural selection on a broad range of disciplines.  No single researcher has matched his impact on the natural and social sciences; on politics, religion and philosophy; on art and cultural relations.

We have recently ordered a number of newer books on the topic and they will be continually added to the display until it is removed.

The display will up be up until the end of November.   Please visit the display (near the Gleeson front desk and the entrance to the Thacher Art Gallery), browse and/or checkout the books and and say hello to Charles.

 

Printing on the RBR Handpress

On Wednesday, November 11^th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. the Thacher Gallery and the Donohue Rare Book Room will hold an opening reception for the exhibition “Eric Gill, Iconographer: Engravings from the Albert Sperisen Collection.” During the reception there will be an opportunity to print on the Rare Book Room’s 1854 Albion handpress, once owned by the firm of Hague & Gill. Students from the Art + Architecture course Printmaking I will assist guests who wish to print a broadside keepsake featuring an Eric Gill image and quote. There is nothing quite like pulling an impression on an antique handpress. To experience the art and craft of letterpress printing, please visit the Donohue Rare Book Room during the opening reception. For more information, please call (415) 422-2036.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room

 

New Digital Collection: Eric Gill Prints – updated

In conjunction with the Thacher Gallery exhibition: Eric Gill: Iconographer, the Gleeson Library has digitized the wood engravings in the Eric Gill collection from the Donohue Rare Book Room and made it available online to USF community.  Nearly 400 digitized images are included in the Printing and Graphic Arts Collection and available for view on the Gleeson Library Digital Collections website.   The site offers tools to zoom in and out of the image to view minute details.   You can search across the collections for specific items.  Due to copyright restrictions,  the images are only accessible to  USF IP addresses, but the records associated with the images are all available to the general public.

We’re actively expanding our digital collections, so check back often for new content!

Read more >> Options >>

 

GAO Reports

Looking for in-depth analysis of a federal program you’ve heard about in the news? Then you’ll be really pleased to discover the reports issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. Sometimes referred to as the “congressional watchdog,” GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

Some recent GAO Reports include:

Operation Iraqi Freedom: Preliminary Observations on DOD Planning for the Drawdown of U.S. Forces from Iraq GAO-10-179, November 2, 2009

Federal Student Aid: Highlights of a Study Group on Simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid GAO-10-29, October 29, 2009

Climate Change Adaptation: Strategic Federal Planning Could Help Officials Make More Informed Decisions GAO-10-175T, October 22, 2009

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Employment Discrimination: Overview of State Statutes and Complaint Data GAO-10-135R, October 1, 2009

Biofuels: Potential Effects and Challenges of Required Increases in Production and Use GAO-09-446, August 25, 2009

Health Insurance: Enrollment, Benefits, Funding, and Other Characteristics of State High-Risk Health Insurance Pools GAO-09-730R, July 22, 2009

Many of these reports are in Gleeson Library’s catalog, “Ignacio.” You can also find them on GAO’s website.

Find out more about Gleeson Library’s government information collection by visiting our homepage or contacting Carol Spector (the Government Information Librarian) at csspector@usfca.edu.

 

Can scary be scholarly? You decide!

Jane Austen with zombies.

Photos by Rob Guillen

Frankenstein’s monster living on in the twenty-first century.

Abraham Lincoln, vampire hunter?

And then there are the classics: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the legendary Golem of the Prague ghetto, the heroic tale of Beowulf and Grendel.

So-called “genre literature” is often the subject of debate in the academy. Mysteries, romance, science fiction, children’s books – all are sometimes stigmatized though often studied by literary snobs and scholars. The emerging genre or sub-genre of “monster lit” is no exception. Some may sniff but there are college courses and lots of erudite criticism of books that feature monsters.

Whatever your take on the question, monster books and movies are definitely a lot of fun! So check out the Library’s collection, featured this month in the lobby.

Here’s a list of some of the books and DVDs we’ve gathered.

I can hardly wait for Little Women with werewolves!

Vlad the Impaler

 

Photo Contest for International Education Week

To kick off USF’s celebration of International Education Week 2009, USF students, staff, and faculty are invited to enter the IEW photo contest.  Last year we had two fabulous entries from Gleeson Library staff! To enter, send a photo from your experiences abroad to usf.iew@gmail.com by Friday, October 30th. Include a brief (one or two sentences) caption explaining or describing the photo circumstances.

Co-sponsored by Gleeson Library along with International Student and Scholar Services, the ESL program, Residence Life, the Center for Global Education, and Bon Appetit, the IEW theme this year is “The World At Our Doorstep.”

Photo contest entries will be posted around campus and the campus community will vote on the photo that best depicts aspects of international educational or cultural exchange . You can see last year’s photos on the IEW@USF Facebook page. And here’s a taste of Culturescape, the signature event of International Education Week to be held on Friday, November 20 this year.

 

APA Publication Manual Sixth Edition Corrections

The American Psychological Association (APA) recently published a new, sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. You can find a copy of the manual at the library reference desk, on course reserve, and in the Gleeson library online catalog.

Shortly after the new edition was released, news began to circulate about errors in the manual. You can read more background on the errors here and here.

APA Style issued a set of corrections [PDF document] late last week.

Mary Lynn Skutley, Editorial Director, APA Books wrote in a recent email:

We realize that, by listing all corrections in one document, we created a sense that all were significant errors.  While any error is regrettable, that is not the case.  To clarify this, we have reposted the corrections according to category.

You will see that, of the 188 APA Style rules, two errors were made.  You will also see that, of close to 1,000 examples that illustrate various style rules in the book, 36 errors were made, and half of these have been corrected [emphasis added] in the form of new sample papers and posted on the internet where they are available for download.

While many who have purchased copies of the new Publication Manual are less than pleased with the first printing of the sixth edition, there is no indication that APA will publish a revised edition anytime soon.

Gleeson has printed copy of the corrections, and the document is available at the reference desk.

 

USF Book Club: Olive Kitteridge

Greetings! The USF Book Club will discuss Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout on Tuesday November 17, 2009. We will meet in the seminar room of Gleeson Library (room 209) from 12 noon – 1 pm. Bring your lunch and tell your friends!

Olive Kitteridge is a short story cycle where all the pieces are about Olive Kitteridge, a “redoubtable seventh-grade math teacher in Crosby, Maine,” and work to create a full tapestry that illustrates her life, but each piece can stand alone. It is very popular right now so make sure to order it soon!

How to get a copy: you can try requesting it through Gleeson Library’s free service, Link+, although the book is very popular and may not be available. Try requesting it through this link, this link, or this link. If you successfully request it, the book will be delivered to USF within about 4 business days. Also, you can put a hold on one of the Public Library’s copies. (They currently have 10 copies but are processing at least 30 more.)

“Anyone who gets in Olive’s way had better watch out, for she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. She forces her husband, Henry, the town pharmacist, into tactical retreat; and she drives her beloved son, Christopher, across the country and into therapy. But appalling though Olive can be, Strout  manages to make her deeply human and even sympathetic, as are all of the characters in this “novel in stories.” Covering a period of 30-odd years, most of the stories (several of which were previously published in the New Yorker and other magazines) feature Olive as  their focus, but in some she is bit player or even a footnote while other characters take center stage to sort through their own fears and insecurities. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also supplies gentle humor and a nourishing dose of hope. People are sustained by the rhythms of ordinary life and the natural wonders of coastal Maine, and even Olive is sometimes caught off guard by life’s baffling beauty.” –BookList

Hope to see you there!