The Library will be open from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2009.

BookTalk at BSC 2010 will focus on Iran.  With Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi as the Campus Read selection, Roxana Saberi visiting campus on April 20, 2010, and Iran being so much in the news, it seems appropriate to learn more about this country.

“Strange Times, My Dear”

The theme, “Strange Times, My Dear,” is inspired by Ahmad Shamlu’s poem, ”In This Blind Alley,” which was written in response to the Islamic revolution.  Each stanza ends with the line, “Strange times, my dear.”

The Books & the Discussions

BookTalk discussions will be held at the BSC Library from 1 to 3 p.m. and are free and open to all.  The books can be borrowed from libraries or purchased from local booksellers.

Caspian Rain: a Novel by Gina B. Nahai                                                       

Sunday, January 10, 2010 – Discussion leader: Arlene Gray

Caspian Rain received rave reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.  Publishers Weekly said, “… Nahai explores the struggles of an Iranian family in the tenuous decade before the Islamic revolution … a poignant tale of a ‘damaged family.’”

The Bathhouse by Farnoosh Moshiri                                                               

Sunday, February 7, 2010 — Discussion leader: Suzanne Kramer-Brenna

The Bathhouse won the Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction and is based on interviews with Iranian women who were imprisoned in the early days of the Islamic revolution.  The story’s central character is a 17-year-old girl, arrested and imprisoned because of her brother’s involvement with leftist politics.  In a starred review, Booklist said, “Written with the simple authority of an oral deposition, packing the punch of All Quiet on the Western Front, this is a gripping, harrowing story of personal courage and endurance.”

Iran Awakening: One Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Life and Country by Shirin Ebadi       

Sunday, March 7, 2010 — Discussion leader: Dr. Daphne Ghorbani

This book is a memoir by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.  Ebadi was a judge in Iran until the Islamic Revolution forced her demotion.  Unlike many of her contemporaries, Ebadi chose to stay in Iran and work from within for human rights in fundamentalist Iran.   

BookTalk is funded by the BSC Library and a grant from the BSC Foundation.

• Title:  NDSU Visual Art Faculty Exhibition
• Show Dates:  October 26 – November 20, 2009
• Location:   Gannon Gallery/BSC Library
• Reception:  Thursday, November 19, 2009,  4:30-7:00 p.m.

BSC welcomes our neighbors to the east from North Dakota State University by showcasing faculty artwork in the Gannon Gallery/BSC Library.  NDSU faculty works include paintings, ceramics, drawings, photography, mixed media, and literature.

Please join us for the reception at the Gannon Gallery/BSC Library and meet Kent Kapplinger and Michael Strand from NDSU’s Visual Art Department while you enjoy complimentary refreshments.

This event is free and open to the public.

— Posted on behalf of Andrea Fagerstrom, Gallery Director

The BSC Library has trial access to these databases through November 13, 2009. Try them out and let us know what you think. Should we become subscribers? Your feedback will help us decide.

• American History in Video – Currently includes 1,000+ titles and is continuously growing, with complete videos and synchronized, scrolling, searchable transcripts. This rich, online collection is the only source for the complete online newsreel streams of United News and Universal Newsreel; important documentaries and series from The History Channel®, PBS, and others; and archival footage. Teaching tools include custom clip-making, shareable playlists, course folders, and more.

• History Reference Center (find link on Library’s Databases (Articles & More) page; click on EBSCOhost Research Databases, then choose History Reference Center) — Includes nearly 57,000 historical documents; more than 77,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 1,620 full-text reference books, encyclopedias, and non-fiction books; more than 113,000 historical photos & maps; and more than 80 hours of historical video.

• MLA International Bibliography + MLA Directory of Periodicals (find links on Library’s Databases (Articles & More) page; click on EBSCOhost Research Databases, then choose MLA International Bibliography and MLA Directory of Periodicals) – Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), includes almost 60 titles from J-STOR’s language and literature collection as well as links to full text, over 2.2 million citations, over 4,400 journals and series, 1,000 book publishers, and nearly 11,000 subject names and terms. Subject coverage includes: Dramatic Arts, Folklore, Language & Linguistics, Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism.

The Library’s TR Kiosk was officially dedicated on Sunday, October 11, 2009.  On hand to share remarks about the project were BSC President Larry Skogen, DSU President Richard McCallum, and DSU Theodore Roosevelt Scholar-in-Residence and BSC Distinguished Scholar of the Humanities Clay Jenkinson.

Left to right: Larry Skogen, Richard McCallum, Clay Jenkinson

You are invited to stop by to use the TR Kiosk and visit the Theodore Roosevelt Center online.

The BSC Library has added Credo Reference to its suite of database products.  Credo does for reference publications what many other databases do for journals and magazines – it aggregates the content and makes it searchable.  Currently, you can search 3,261,517 full-text entries in 426 reference books through Credo. 

You can also execute searches of the ODIN library catalog, Academic Search Premiere, and Britannica Online Academic Edition via Credo.  In addition, there are links to BSC’s Library blog, Databases (Articles & More) page,  Finding Information page, and Ask a Librarian page. 

The gadgets are cool, too.   Unsure how to pronounce a word?  Try the pronunciation gadget.    

To learn the fine points of using Credo so you can make the most of its potential, take the online tours, use the help screens, or talk to a BSC librarian. 

Credo Reference is a very robust resource.   Check it out!

Bismarck State College has a new way to learn about Theodore Roosevelt with a kiosk computer portal in the BSC Library. The grand opening and dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Center kiosk is set for 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 11, immediately after the “Conversations at BSC” humanities event earlier that afternoon.

Kiosk users will be linked directly to the Theodore Roosevelt Center Web site.

The Theodore Roosevelt Center is a project of Dickinson State University (DSU) and part of its Theodore Roosevelt Initiative. The center is dedicated to increasing the visibility of Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota, exploring his life as a cowboy and rancher, and preserving and interpreting Roosevelt’s immense output as a writer and statesman.

BSC President Larry C. Skogen, DSU President Richard McCallum, Theodore Roosevelt Center Director Sharon Kilzer, and Clay Jenkinson, Theodore Roosevelt scholar-in-residence at DSU and BSC Distinguished Scholar of the Humanities, will be on hand for the festivities.

The event is open to the public and refreshments will be served.  Join us!

Check out this Crash Pad puppets video on ALA’s Banned Books Week site. 

“Chad, Rustle, and Mooch, the Crash Pad puppets, misinterpret the meaning of Banned Books Week, trying to throw some books with objectionable content–including Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Joy of Cooking, and the phone book–out of the library, until Herb points out the error of their ways.”

Banned Books Week - September 26 – October 3, 2009

The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, The Color Purple, The Bible, The Call of the Wild, Brave New World, Of Mice and Men, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Koran … What do these books have in common?  All have been banned or challenged by groups or individuals seeking to have them removed from classrooms or libraries.

Last week at the North Dakota Library Association annual conference, I had the pleasure of listening to a keynote address by John Berendt, whose book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, was the subject of a challenge at Beulah High School last fall.  Mr. Berendt reminded librarians of the importance of what we do to promote and defend the right to read.  He also talked about the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the “quiet censorship” that goes on under that act.

Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment.   It highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.

We invite you to stop by the BSC Library to see our Banned Books Week display and to check out a book … Maybe even one that’s been banned.

• What:  BSC Alumni Art Exhibition
• Show Dates: September 21 – October 21, 2009
• Location: Gannon Gallery/BSC Library
• Reception: Wednesday, September 30, 2009, 4:30-7:00 p.m.

This dazzling display of artwork was created by Bismarck State College & Bismarck Junior College Alumni and is a “must-see” stop when you are on campus.  Alumni works include paintings, ceramics, drawings, photography, sculpture, and literature. 

Please join us at the reception on Wednesday, September 30, 2009, from 4:30-7:00 p.m. at the Gannon Gallery/BSC Library so you can meet the artistic alumni while you enjoy complimentary refreshments.

This event is free and open to the public.

Posted on behalf of Andrea Fagerstrom, Gallery Director