Women are Not the Problem, but the Solution

October 1 and 2 at 9 PM
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
by Maro Chermayeff, Jamie Gordon, and Mikaela Beardsley
Presented by POV Documentaries with a Point of View

The library staff recommends "Half the Sky" to the Goodwin Community.

A landmark series based on the book by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide follows six celebrity activists as they travel to six countries and meet inspiring, courageous individuals who are confronting oppression and developing real, meaningful solutions through health care, education, and economic empowerment for women and girls.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide aims to amplify the central message of the book — that women are not the problem, but the solution — and to bolster the broad and growing movement for change.

POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 300 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues.


The book is available in the library.
Source: Independent Lens: A Film Festival in Your Living Room (POV)

BANNED BOOK WEEK SEPT. 30-OCT. 6

The Hoffman Family Library promotes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them.

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.

The American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) promotes awareness of challenges to library materials and celebrates freedom of speech during Banned Books Week. This event is observed during the last week of September of each year. Banned Books Week 2012 will occur September 30 through October 6. See the library page for information and resources from the Hoffman Family Library.

A list of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted to librarians and teachers across the country is available on the library page and in the library. For more about books challenged as well as information about classic novels that have been challenged and/or banned, please see the library staff..

The Fall issue of Diversity & Democracy highlights current research on the connections between civic engagement and student success, defined broadly across a range of outcomes. It shares civically engaged programs and related educational strategies that yield student success by a variety of measures. Issue highlights include:
Leveraging multiple degrees of achievement
Linking high-impact learning with high-impact community engagement
Impact of civic engagement on psychosocial well-being
New results from the diverse learning environments survey
High-impact practices: Promoting participations for all students

Standing ovation for English Majors Please

Let's hear it for all those English majors everywhere (including me)!

Of the six broad curricular categories tracked by the National Center for Education Statistics, the humanities easily grew the most between 1985 and 2010, increasing its share of total degree students by 26 percent. English remains the largest discipline in the fastest-growing sector.

 With the rise of English as the undisputed language of the world economy and the dominant language of global cinema, literature, and the Internet, the discipline has claimed a significant place in practically every university system in the world.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education September 17, 2012

Book of the Week: The Oath by Jeffrey Toobin

The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

In his new book, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, Toobin describes how the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision and the Affordable Care Act ruling from this year show how the Constitution is being reinterpreted — and how Supreme Court precedent is being quickly overturned.

"It used to be that what it meant to be a conservative on the Supreme Court was respect for precedent and slow-moving change," Toobin says. "What's so different about the Roberts court is the way they are burning through many of the precedents they don't like."

The president for the next four years will have an opportunity to solidify the direction of the Roberts court. Put this book on your reading list! It was recommended by Paul LaRocca, Associate Professor of Humanities.

October is Information Literacy Awareness Month

Great news!  Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed a proclamation declaring October to be Information Literacy Awareness Month!There are now 10 states that have proclamations:  Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Texas.

This proclamation is a result of efforts by library directors in the state and members of the Connecticut Library Association.Congratulations to Carl Antonucci - co-chair Connecticut Library Association Legislative Committee - Director of Library Services Central Connecticut State University; Jay Johnston - co-chair Connecticut Library Association Legislative Committee - Executive Director Farmington Libraries; Carl  DeMilia - President Connecticut Library Association - Director of Library Services New Milford Public Library who led this successful effort!

The Home Encyclopedia

The Homer Encyclopedia

Editor/Author: Editor: Finkelberg, Margalit
Publication Year: 2011
Publisher: Wiley
Category: literature

Represents the first comprehensive reference work encompassing the world and artistry of Homer, the historical and cultural background of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homeric scholarship, and Homeric reception from antiquity to the present.

This encyclopedia is now available full text in the Credo Reference Database.

Credo Reference New & Updated Titles

Latest Additions from Credo General Reference Database

Credo's General Reference collection continues to grow each month and now has over 600 titles. The following well-regarded titles were recently added.

•           The Italian Renaissance State, Cambridge University Press

•           International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, Gale

•           The Homer Encyclopedia, Wiley

They have also updated many  titles to the latest available editions. The following updates title were recently released. Expect more soon!

•           CIA World Factbook, OECD

•           The Wisden Archive of Cricketers' Lives 2012, John Wisden & Co. Ltd.

•           The Hutchinson Chronology of World History, Helicon

•           The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Helicon

CONSTITUTION DAY WITH THE NAVIGATOR

 

The Navigator stopped by to help us celebrate Constitution day! 

America's Constitution: A Biography

 On Display in the Library
America's Constitution: A Biography                                                         
KF4541.A87 2005

In America’s Constitution, one of the most accomplished constitutional law scholars, Akhil Reed Amar, gives the first comprehensive account of one of the world’s great political texts. Incisive, entertaining, and occasionally controversial, this “biography” of America’s framing document explains not only what the Constitution says but also why the Constitution says it.Amar is a member of the Yale Law School faculty.

SEPTEMBER 17: CONSTITUTION DAY

September 17 is recognized in the United States as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. The purpose of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is to commemorate the creation and signing of the supreme law of the land and to honor and celebrate the privileges and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship for both native-born and naturalized citizens. Federal law requires that all schools receiving federal funds provide  educational opportunities for their students on September 17 of each year. At Goodwin College, we call it Constitution Week since we extend our commemoration to more than one day.

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention met for the last time to sign the document they had created. All Americans are encouraged to observe this important day in our nation's history.. Celebrate Constitution Day this year by learning something about the Constitution that you didn't know before. There will be many opportunities throughout the week.

Here is the link to the Constitution LibGuide that Cynthia Clynes, Goodwin Reference Librarian, created for faculty and students: 

http://goodwin.libguides.com/aecontent.php?pid=377827&sid=3096081. It will also be available on the library page and Twitter.

Re-examining the Constitution: CQ Researcher

"The 225th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution finds Americans in a less celebratory mood than they were during the Bicentennial a quarter-century ago. The Constitution's intricate system of checks and balances and separation of powers is sometimes blamed for the political gridlock in Washington. Some of the basic structural features are also viewed as outmoded, such as the Electoral College, equal representation for each state in the Senate and life tenure for Supreme Court justices. And many conservatives and libertarians, including the Tea Party movement, complain that the federal government has taken on powers beyond what the Constitution was intended to allow. Simmering discontent on both the left and the right has led to efforts to force Congress to call a convention to propose constitutional amendments. Public opinion polls indicate, however, that most Americans view the Constitution favorably."

This is the introduction to the September 7th CQ Researcher report entitled " Re-Examining the Constitution: Are Major Changes Needed?" CQ Researcher is available through the Hoffman Family Library. Please contact the library for user name and password.

Human Body Systems DVD Series

We had the series in VHS format, which was used until it wore out. We have been waiting for the series to be available in DVDs.  

“The Human Body: Systems at Work” DVD Series is now here! The series is highly recommended by Debra Rajaniemi, Associate Professor of Science.

 

Seven DVDs:

Your Immune System

Brain and Nervous System: Your Information Highway

Digestive System: Your Personal Power Plant

Skeletal System: The Infrastructure

Circulatory System: The Plasma Pipeline

Muscular System: Your Inner Athlete

Respiratory System: The Inner Athlete

arXiv: Free Online Server for Scientists and Students

General Information About arXiv

arXiv.org (formerly xxx.lanl.gov) is a highly-automated electronic archive and distribution server for research articles. Covered areas include physics,mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences,quantitative biology, and statistics. arXiv is maintained and operated by the Cornell University Library with guidance from the  arXiv Scientific Advisory Board and the arXiv Sustainability Advisory Group, and with the help of numerous subject moderators.Users can retrieve papers from arXiv via the web interface.Listings of newly submitted articles in areas of interest are available via the web interface.
Access with this URL:  http://arxiv.org/.

Source: Science September 7

How Not to Blow it With Financial Aid!!

A special section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday, "How Not to Blow It With Financial Aid", outlines the common mistakes parents and students make when seeking help with college costs. Students and parents need to know what hurts your chances of landing financial aid. They cover some of the biggest mistakes families make in the aid process.

The Wall Street Journal is in the library every day with important information that you need to know.

University Copyright Update

The publisher plaintiffs who accused Georgia State University of copyright infringement in a lawsuit over course e-reserves aren’t happy with the outcome of that case. On Monday they said they would appeal a federal judge’s decision, handed down in May, that was largely a win for the defendants.
Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press USA, and SAGE Publications said that the decision had left them “no alternative but to appeal, to protect our authors’ copyrights and advocate for a balanced and workable solution” to the challenge of accommodating both copyright and fair use.

The case,  Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Becker et al., has been closely tracked by publishers, librarians, and fair-use advocates.In her May ruling, Judge Evans found only five instances of copyright infringement by Georgia State out of 99 claims originally advanced by the publishers. In August she rejected the plaintiffs’ “highly regimented” request for injunctive relief, and ordered them to pay legal fees for both sides. She required the university only to maintain copyright policies consistent with her May 11 ruling.

The Association of American Publishers, along with the Copyright Clearance Center, bankrolled the lawsuit. This is an important case that will affect how we in education do business in the changing world of electronic publishing. Stay tuned.

Points of View Database News

Welcome to another academic year! We have new content on Points of View Reference Center (PoV) and Points of View Debate Blog. More updates are on the way. 

New Content - On Points of View Reference Center, you'll find articles about "Arab Spring," "Conspiracy Theories," and the "Transportation Infrastructure." Transportation dominated as the 2012 National Debate Topic, and summoned lively debate this summer at the National Forensics League annual tournament. 

The debut topic on Points of View Debate Blog this year is gun violence, focused primarily on the recent tragedies in Aurora, Colorado, at the Empire State Building, and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. These events have dominated news coverage and relate to many significant debates in the U.S., including gun control, racism, psychology and the media.