The Circulation and Access Services Team put together a display highlighting the summer season with pictures of original art and literature. Please stop by. The books are available to purchase or can be checked at the Circulation Desk on the first floor.
The Scholarly Side of Mad Men
If you’re a fan of the AMC television series Mad Men, you’re probably anxiously awaiting the season premiere, coming up this Sunday. Mad Men isn’t just a television show, though – it’s also a great excuse to do a little independent historical research and gain a deeper, more scholarly understanding of America in the 1960s.
One of the reasons the show is so compelling is that the writers and producers pay very close attention to historical detail, and they often incorporate references to real-life events into the fictional characters’ lives. For example, you might remember the Drapers’ maid Carla listening to a radio broadcast of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eulogy for four young girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham bombing, or Pete Campbell’s father dying in the American Airlines Flight 1 crash of 1962. So over the next few days, why not indulge your Mad Men madness by immersing yourself in the 1960s? The Weinberg Memorial Library can help!
- If you want more information about a historical reference made on the show, you might want to use our e-book version of The Historical Dictionary of the 1960s (edited by James S. Olson) to fill in the holes. And you can also use our Credo Reference tool to search for encyclopedia or dictionary entries about any historical event.
- To get a feel for 1960s print advertising, try browsing through the Historical New York Times – the Library’s subscription means that University community members can access this database for free. You can also find digitized 1960s issues of Life Magazine online, courtesy of Google Books.
- For insight into Betty Draper’s life as a desperate housewife, you’ll definitely want to read Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique. If you’re more interested in the working girl characters of Peggy Olson or Joan Holloway, request Helen Gurley Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl via PALCI E-Z Borrow for a glimpse at 1960s-style dating.
- Richard Yates’ novel Revolutionary Road is a famous portrayal of marriage in the 1950s, which might help you understand why the characters struggle to deal with the changing expectations of the 1960s.
- Season 4 will take place starting in November of 1964 – the month that Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. The Weinberg Memorial Library has several books about Johnson’s presidency that you can browse – and you might find Theodore White’s The Making of the President, 1964 worth a read.
- The Library also has copies of several books that Mad Men characters have mentioned (or have been seen reading) over the past three seasons – like Frank O’Hara’s Meditations in an Emergency, Leon Uris’s Exodus, David Ogilvy’s Confessions of an Advertising Man, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and Mary McCarthy’s The Group.
- If you need to catch up on Seasons 1, 2, or 3, you can borrow the DVDs from our colleagues over at the Albright Memorial Library.
If you’re looking to do more in-depth research on the 1960s, you’ll definitely want to visit our collection of history-related scholarly databases. And don’t forget, if you need help, you can always ask a librarian. Happy viewing!
Resources will be unavailable 7/9-7/10
Due to the construction of a new Data Center in Alumni Memorial Hall, substantial modifications to electrical services will require downtime affecting nearly all Information Resources services. The power shutdown will begin at 11 p.m. on Friday, July 9, and end at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 10.
Internet service, e-mail, ResNet and all enterprise services such as Banner will not be available during the power shutdown. Users outside of our campus will not be able to reach online services with the exception of our emergency website. Cisco Voice over IP telephones will be functional during the maintenance window. Please plan accordingly. Let us know if you have any questions or if we can help you out in any way!
Recycling in Style
You might have seen in one of our earlier posts that the Weinberg Memorial Library recently started a Green Team. We’ve wasted no time getting started on making the Library a more sustainable place to study and work.
This month, the Library purchased new WedgeCycle recycling bins to encourage our patrons to separate their recyclable paper, bottles, and cans from other non-recyclable waste. We’re hoping that the bright colors (blue for bottles & cans, green for office paper, brown for trash) and clear labeling will remind everyone to think before they toss.
You’ll find our new recycling bins on each floor of the Library. We’ve put them in what we think are the most convenient locations for students – so if you see someone about to throw away a plastic bottle or a stack of office paper, please remind them to look for the recycling station instead of the trash can!
Hours for July 4th Weekend
The 4th of July is upon us, and this means limited hours in the Library for the holiday weekend:
Saturday-Monday, July 3rd-5th the Library will be Closed.
We will reopen at 8 am on Tuesday, July 6th, and resume our regular hours.
Enjoy the festive weekend! Happy Independence Day!
(Photo courtesy of Flickr user Why Tuesday? under a Creative Commons license.)
PaLA Awards Nomination Deadline Quickly Approaching!!!
Come August 15th it’ll already be too late to nominate your favorite librarian for an award, so it’s best you do it now!
Submission Deadline: August 15, 2010
Categories:
- Distinguished Service Award: Highest award the associate gives. It may be awarded annually to one person in recognition of exceptional meritorious service to libraries of the Commonwealth.
- Certificates of Merit: These are awarded to individuals making outstanding contributions during the last five years in Pennsylvania.
- Elected Official Award: This award may be given annually to an elected official or officials for exemplary support of library service in Pennsylvania.
- New Librarian Honors Award: Honors a librarian who has been in the profession fewer than six years. It recognizes the originality and inventive ability of a new librarian who devises new and improved methods in library service on a statewide or local level.
- Trustee of the Year Award: Presented to a public library trustee in recognition of outstanding leadership and service to library development at the local, system, district, and/or state level.
- Library Support Staff Recognition Award: This award is presented to a library that has consistently encouraged and supported participation in career development activities, particularly those of PaLA for the support staff in Pennsylvania libraries. Nominations should be in the form of a statement of the library’s activities. (A little clarification on this award: It is presented to a library not to a staff member. Does your library provide you with opportunities to develop your library skills through continuing education opportunities? Does your library allow you to attend PaLA conferences and Chapter Meetings as a Support Staff member? Does your library provide you with opportunities to take classes on library related activities or in areas which you can use on the job? Then tell us how that support helps you on your job and give a little recognition to your library.
Nominating is now easier than ever, thanks to the new online form.
2010 Award Nomination Form
Simply fill it out and click submit… It’s that easy!
A Greener Weinberg Library, Coming this Fall
Earlier this week, a group of Weinberg Memorial Library staff and faculty members took a break from our regular Library work to brainstorm about what we could do to make our Library more sustainable. We came up with a lot of great ideas, from water bottle refill stations to cutting down on paper memos. And there are even a few things that we’ve already started doing – our Physical Plant staff uses green cleaning products to keep the Library neat and shiny, and we’ve begun a switch to more energy efficient lighting.
At the end of the meeting, we formed the first ever Weinberg Memorial Library Green Team. Sixteen members of the Library staff and faculty volunteered to participate, and those members represent nine of the Library’s different departments: Administration, Archives, Cataloging, Circulation, Digital Services, Media, Reference, Serials & Acquisitions, and Systems. We also hope to have a representative from Student Government join us.
Throughout the next few months, the new Green Team will be starting to implement our ideas. Check back here at Infospot @WML for the latest news, and please comment if you have any suggestions for us!
P.S. If you’re interested in what’s happening with sustainability on the University of Scranton campus, take a look at the University’s Task Force on Sustainability web site.
Pennsylvania academic librarians gather in Scranton
Yesterday, the University of Scranton campus welcomed the Pennsylvania Library Association‘s College & Research Division for its annual conference. Academic librarians from all over the state (even as far away as Pittsburgh) came to the DeNaples Center to learn from their peers and discuss new ideas.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Information Commons in the Wild: Lessons from the Field.” Dr. Scott Bennett, Yale Librarian Emeritus and a Library Space Planning consultant, served as the keynote speaker and led conference participants in discussing the philosophy and purpose behind the information commons design model.
In the afternoon, a panel of librarians (Don Smith, Katherine Furlong, Sally Kalin, and Anu Vedantham) shared experiences with creating information commons at their respective institutions (the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Lafayette College, Penn State, and the University of Pennsylvania). We’ve posted a few photos of Scott and the panel on our Flickr page.
Many thanks to our speakers and all of the librarians who survived I-81 traffic jams to participate! And special thanks to our own Bonnie Oldham, PALA-CRD’s chair elect, for all of her work coordinating the event.
Internet Outage on Campus Early Next Week
Just a quick heads up to our students taking summer classes. Next Monday, June 14th at 11 pm there will be a planned Internet outage on campus while network maintenance occurs. It will last until the following morning, June 15th, at 6 am. From the campus IT Department:
During the service outage, on-campus users will not have access to Internet sites and services and users outside of the campus will be unable to reach University of Scranton sites and services. The University of Scranton maintains an alternate Web site to ensure that external users can continue to get some essential content.
This could affect access to the Library’s databases during that window of time, so please plan accordingly!
Distinguished Author Book Discussion
Did you enjoy the films National Treasure or The Da Vinci Code? Are you fascinated reading about Alexander the Great, Nicholas and Alexandra, Napoleon, or other historical figures? Have you wondered how authors combine research, adventure, and storytelling?
The works of Steve Berry, who will be awarded the 2011 Royden B. Davis Distinguished Author award on March 19, 2011, combine these elements. Read one of his books and come talk about it with others. The Weinberg Memorial Library will be hosting this event in room 305 from 12:00noon to 1:00pm on Wednesday, July 28, 2010. Bring your lunch. Cookies and drinks will be provided. If you’d like to participate or want more information, contact Bonnie Oldham. Call x4000 or e-mail oldhamb3@scranton.edu