The BSC Library will observe these hours during the Easter holiday.
Regular hours will resume on Monday, April 1.
Even when the Library is closed, you can access the ODIN catalog and our databases 24/7.
Even in northern climes like ours where winter seems to wear out its welcome, there comes a day when you can start getting your hands in the dirt. Even if you only have a little space, gardening is possible.
“This exciting guide layers practical gardening fundamentals with creative solutions that encourage thinking outside the pot. Maybe this means repurposing a shipping pallet to create a colorful vertical garden of nasturtiums and lobelia. Or simply seeing walls, rafters, railings, and everything in between as fair game. You’ll also learn how to tackle unique challenges, like windy conditions when gardening several stories above street level, and how to care for plants and troubleshoot with the best of them.
From design basics to essential plant picks, Small-Space Container Gardens proves you don’t need a yard to have a garden. For anyone who wants more green in their life, it’s time to get out there and start growing.”
The Problem with Wikipedia – one executive’s experience
What the Research Shows
According to research published in the Public Relations Journal (April 17, 2012), the academic quarterly of the PRSA, “sixty percent of Wikipedia articles about companies contain factual errors.” Marcia W. DiStaso, Ph.D., co-chair of PRSA’s National Research Committee and assistant professor of public relations at Penn State University, conducted the research.
In addition, the survey found that a gap exists between public relations professionals and Wikipedia regarding the proper protocol for editing entries.
“When respondents attempted to engage editors through Wikipedia’s “Talk” pages to request factual corrections to entries, 40 percent said that it took “days”to receive a response, 12 percent indicated that it took “weeks,” and 24 percent never received any type of reply. According to Wikipedia, the standard response time for corrections requests is between two and five days. In addition, only 35 percent of respondents were able to engage with Wikipedia, either by using its “Talk” pages to converse with editors or through direct editing of a client’s entry. Respondents indicated that this figure is low, partly because some fear media backlash regarding making edits to clients’ entries. Survey participants also expressed a level of uncertainty regarding how to properly edit Wikipedia entries.” (Public Relations Tactics, p. 4)
The Take Away
Sources
Cyprus has been in the news this week because of money matters … perhaps that has made you wonder about this place and want to know more.
“On a Mediterranean island divided, a man finds peace in a time of perilous unrest in this stunning memoir
In 1953, as the British Empire relaxes its grip upon the world, the island of Cyprus bucks for independence. Some cry for union with Athens, others for an arrangement that would split the island down the middle, giving half to the Greeks and the rest to the Turks. For centuries, the battle for the Mediterranean has been fought on this tiny spit of land, and now Cyprus threatens to rip itself in half.
Into this escalating conflict steps Lawrence Durrell—poet, novelist, and a former British government official. After years serving the Crown in the Balkans, he yearns for a return to the island lifestyle of his youth. With humor, grace, and passable Greek, Durrell buys a house, secures a job, and settles in for quiet living, happy to put up his feet until the natives begin to consider wringing his neck. More than a travel memoir, this is an elegant picture of island life in a changing world.”
Check it out! Beyond Library Walls Digital Collection
What are the chances? That’s what Visiting Writer Melanie Hoffert asked in a wonderful essay (How I Broke My Chuck Klosterman Curse) that was published in Publishers Weekly (January 26, 2013).
Melanie Hoffert grew up on a farm near Wyndmere and went to high school with Chuck Klosterman, another North Dakota author. What are the odds that two writers would spring from this tiny farming community?
As a BSC Visiting Writer, Hoffert will be speaking and reading from her work on Thursday, March 21, at 8 p.m. in the National Energy Center of Excellence Basin Electric Auditorium 304. Don’t miss this event!
We also have Hoffert’s new book at the BSC Library — Prairie Silence: a Memoir. Check it out!
Put this on your must read list …
Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief, which was adapted for the screen in the movie Adaptation, has turned her attention to writing about a 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library. Ultimately, 400,000 books were destroyed and the crime was never solved.
Orlean’s new book does not yet have a title or announced publication date, so while you’re waiting for her new book, take the time to explore her other books. Orlean is a very good writer and her subject matter tends to be quirky and oh-so-interesting.
Among the Susan Orlean books at the BSC Library are:
The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup: My Encounters with Extraordinary People
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere
Rin Tin Tin: the Life and the Legend
Trying to make sense of a complex topic? It may be true that a picture is worth a thousand words …
DNA: a Graphic Guide to the Molecule that Shook the World
by Israel Rosenfield, Borin Van Loon, and Edward Ziff
“With humor, depth, and philosophical and historical insight, DNA reaches out to a wide range of readers with its graphic portrayal of a complicated science. Suitable for use in and out of the classroom, this volume covers DNA’s many marvels, from its original discovery in 1869 to early-twentieth-century debates on the mechanisms of inheritance and the deeper nature of life’s evolution and variety.” — Amazon
Check it out!
Find it in the Library’s eBook collection from EBSCOhost
Check out these stairs! Don’t you love them? Wouldn’t it be fun to do something like this when we create our own new learning commons (AKA library)?
Want to see more great ideas that incorporate books and art and buildings?
Here you go: Books on Buildings: 20 Bookish Murals from Around the World
The winners of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards for publishing year 2012 were announced in Boston on February 28. They include:
Fiction
Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (Ecco)
Nonfiction
Andrew Solomon, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (Scribner)
Autobiography
Leanne Shapton, Swimming Studies (Blue Rider Press)
Biography
Robert A. Caro, The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 4 (Alfred A. Knopf)
Poetry
D. A. Powell, Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys (Graywolf Press)
Criticism
Marina Warner, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights (Belknap Press: Harvard University Press)
If you’re looking for something good to read, check out this list of all past winners and finalists.
The National Book Critics Circle was founded in 1974 and honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature. It encourages and raises the quality of book criticism in all media and creates a way for critics to communicate with one another about their professional concerns.
The Library will observe these hours during Spring Break: 
Regular hours will resume on Monday, March 18.
Even when we are closed, the Library’s ODIN catalog and Databases are available 24/7.
Have a wonderful Spring Break! Stay safe and come back refreshed.
Read it! Read it! 