NBA Finalists … And We Don’t Mean Basketball

Looking for a good book?  The 2010 National Book Award finalists were announced on October 13.

Fiction

• Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon
• Great House by Nicole Krauss
• So Much for That by Lionel Shriver
• I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita

Non-Fiction

• Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
• Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq by John W. Dower
• Just Kids by Patti Smith
• Secret Historian: the Life and Times of Samuel Steward by Justin Spring
• Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: an Education in War by Megan K. Stack

Poetry

• The Eternal City by Kathleen Graber
• Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
• By the Numbers by James Richardson
• One with Others by C. D. Wright
• Ignatz by Monica Youn

Young People’s Literature

• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
• Dark Water by Laura McNeal
• Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

State of America’s Libraries

What’s happening in America’s libraries?  Check out  the 2010 State of America’s Libraries report released by ALA (American Library Association). 

If we zero in on academic libraries, we find these highlights:

• Thriving in the Age of Google – “Even in the age of Google, academic libraries are being used more than ever.”
• More and more resources start with an ‘e-‘ — ebooks, eaudiobooks, and other eresources
• Staffing trends — “In the face of budget reductions, academic libraries have reduced spending on resources to protect staff, operations, and services, according to the Library Journal, and many libraries have frozen recruitment and are leaving vacancies unfilled.”
• Advocacy matters … In watching potential legislation, issues of critical interest include community college libraries as potential grant recipients, public access to archived publications, and the Google book search settlement.

Check it out!

The Culture of Reading

I’m used to reading print books, magazines, journals, and newspapers, but really, the format doesn’t matter to me.  I’ll read anything from the back of a cereal box to a digital format on a gadget. 

Why?  Because reading is crucial for lifelong learning and I believe in the culture of reading.   I’m a reader and readers read.  Period.

Still, the revolution in reading and the new formats present challenges to libraries and librarians.  That’s why I was interested in ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point,  a virtual conference on the evolving concept of the book in a digital world.  

Through presentations and discussions:

• Librarians and library administrators learned about current best practices for library ebook collections and explored new and evolving models for ebook content discovery and delivery.
• Publishers and content creators learned how to effectively identify and develop the right content offerings for each segment of the relatively untapped library ebook market.
• Ebook platform vendors and device manufacturers learned just what libraries need and want in this rapidly changing environment.

Viva la revolucion!   

— Marlene Anderson, Director of Library Services

Storytelling Time

Storytelling Time: Native North American Art from the Collections at the University of North Dakota was edited by Arthur F. Jones and Lucy Annis Ganje and published by Hudson Hills Press earlier this year.

“This unique work examines the co-history of UND, founded in 1883, with the development of its Native North American art collections.  Editors and UND art professors Jones and Ganje … explore the importance of Native art to the university and how this art (primarily regional) is used as a tool for education.” (Choice, September 2010, p. 75)

Want to see this beautiful book for yourself?  We have a copy at Oversize E98 .A7 U55 2010.  Check it out!

The Hollywood Librarian

At the NDLA Conference in Grand Forks last week, I got to see the documentary film, The Hollywood Librarian.  It was terrific!  It made me laugh, it made me cry, and mostly, it made me feel proud to be a librarian.

We’re ordering a copy for our library.  Libraries are WAY cool.

— Posted by Marlene Anderson, Director of Library Services

Read Out!

Erin Price reading from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

We may have started a new tradition at the BSC Library — a Read Out! for Banned Books Week.  On Monday, September 27, two BSC students and four BSC employees read selections from books that have been banned or challenged in these United States.

• Dan Rogers kicked off the event by intoning a list of banned books and their authors.
• BSC President Larry Skogen shared an excerpt from Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Gary Gugel shared several poems from A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
• Erin Price read from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• AnnMarie Kajencki shared an excerpt from Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Tim Deviley read from Jack Kerouac’s On the Road
• Janelle Masters wrapped up with a reading from our 2008 Campus Read book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Intoning the list of banned books

A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein