SAVE FUNDING FOR NEH

We need to help protect federal funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and for Connecticut Humanities. Last week, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee sent a budget bill for FY 2014 to the full Appropriations Committee that includes a drastic 49% cut to NEH (and NEA) funding, which would come on top of a 19% cut over the past three years. This bill threatens the viability of the 56 state and territorial humanities councils -- including Connecticut Humanities -- which receive significant funding from the NEH.  

  

Before the full House Appropriations Committee votes on the bill, I urge you to contact your representatives, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, to thank them for their long-standing support for the NEH and Connecticut Humanities, to voice your opposition to cuts that would devastate the NEH and the state humanities councils, and to urge them to do all they can to keep these cuts from happening.   

The House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a markup of the FY 2014 Interior Appropriations bill for Wednesday, July 31, so it is essential that you not delay! 

Please use this link to send an electronic message to your representative.

 
http://www.congressweb.com/fshc

   

  

BOOKER PRIZE LONG LIST ANNOUNCED

The Man Booker Prize Long list for 2013 was announced last week by this year’s panel of judges.  The prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonweatlh or the Republic of Ireland. The winner of the prize receives £50,000, and, like all the shortlisted authors, a check for £2,500 and a designer bound copy of their books.

The Long List includes 13 novels:

Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki*

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw

Harvest by Jim Crace*

The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Kills by Richard House

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris

The Spinning Heart by Donl Ryan

The Testament of Mary  by Colm Toibin*

Transatlantic by Colum McCann

Unexploded by Alison MacLeod

We Need New Names by Noviolet Bulawayo*

*These books have been ordered. Transatlantic is owned by the library and has been checked out. The short list will be announced in September and the prize awarded in October. Last year’s winner was Hilary Mantel for Bringing Up the Bodies.

NEW SERIES BY RICHARD PAUL EVANS

The library has the first two books in the Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans.
The Prisoner of Cell 25 (2012)
Rise the Elgen (2013)

We also have the first book in Evens The Walk series. All three are highly recommended by members of the Goodwin community.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Space is intrinsically political. That is, it is a medium for the distribution of power, rights, fantasy, and pleasure. In an age increasingly dominated by issues of shortage, inequality, and the corporate manipulation of desire, space--and the city in particular--is the territory on which the struggle for good lives and good planetary citizenship must be waged."

By Michael Sorkin, Professor of Architecture and director of the graduate program in urban design at the City College of New York in Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books.

CONGRATULATIONS, CONNECTICUT RIVER!

The Connecticut River that we look at every day recently became the first National Blueway, thanks to a collaborative process through which the Department of the Interior and the four states of the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC) "prioritized conservation, recreation and restoration in the Connecticut River Watershed."

A Blueway is a designation that acknowledges how this river enriches so many aspects of our quality of life. CRWC is currently focusing efforts on water quality monitoring groups in the watershed. The website www.ConnecticutRiver.us allows river users to access bacteria date for sites along the river.

Source: Currents and Eddies Vol. 62 No. 2 Spring 2013

INTELECOM VIDEO CLIPS DATABASE

What is the INTELECOM Online Resources Network®?

It is a fully-hosted and searchable video on demand database designed to meet the growing demand for rich media in support of online, hybrid and face-to-face classes. Enrich instruction with curriculum aligned content from a respected name in instructional media development.

Why Use the INTELECOM Online Resources Network®?

It builds on best practices in content delivery and search logic to offer a reliable "streaming-as-a-service" content solution that is simple, affordable and easy to use. Enjoy best-in-class technology and broadband video without the server costs and hassles. No more tedious internet searches. No risk of copyright infringement.

Where is it?

www.goodwin.edu/library

Click on Faculty Services in the gray band above Hoffman Family Library.

From the dropdown menu, choose video database start using it!

We have a printed copy of the user guide in the library, but you can get that right at the site.

NEW TITLES IN EBRARY

We are pleased to announce the addition of over 1,100 new titles  to our ebrary subscription collection,  College Complete with DASH! (Data sharing, Fast)  from  publishers such as Wiley, AMADCOM, Packt Publishing, Nova Science and more.  Now with more than 31,100 titles, College Complete serves as a great basic academic collection.

NEW BOOKS

There seems to be a theme or two here.

All That is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity by Marshall Berman
Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education by Mike Rose
Designing the Creative Child: Playthings & Places in Midcentury America by Amy Ogata
The Fault is in Our Stars by John Green
Giving Kids a Fair Chance: A Strategy That Works by James Heckman
Giving Our Children a Fighting chance: Poverty, Literacy, and the Development of Information Capital by Neuman and Celano
Literacy for All Students: An Instructional Framework for Closing the Gap edited by Powell & Rightmyer
Meditations on a Hobby Horse and Other Essays on the Theory of Art by E. H. Gombrich
Reading With Meaning: Teaching comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller
The Rule of the Clan: What an Ancient Form of Social Organization Reveals About the Future of Individual Freedom by Mark Weiner

"American Students are a delight to teach."

 So says Terry Eagleton in an article in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. This what he says about American students:

"Generally speaking, American students are a delight to teach. Yet they are not always able to voice a coherent English sentence, even at the graduate level. Some of them are easy to mistake for Turks or Albanians who have only just arrived in America and are still struggling with the language. Only later does one realize that they grew up in Boston. They tend to tie themselves up in great chains of unwieldy syntax, overlain with a liberal layer of jargon. Disheveled syntax is true of both genders, but jargon is confined largely to the men. This is part of the painful demise of the spoken word in the United States.

Perhaps the real threat to freedom of speech in the United States is not to freedom but to speech. Perhaps the nation will end up free to say anything it likes while being incapable of saying it. Nor is logical precision a strength of American students. Many of them have had their brains severely addled by an overdose of media. Perhaps they should all have a compulsory first year in which they learn nothing but how to think and speak straight, ridding themselves of the language of texting as a clinic purges its patients of cocaine.

Despite all this, no more generous, open-minded, and enthusiastic group of students can be found in the world. American students tend to be courteous, responsive, cooperative, eager to acquire ideas and ready to criticize anything whatsoever, not least themselves. They are also the last group of students on the planet who are prepared to speak up in class."

 "No Self-Mockery, Please, We're American" by Terry Eagleton

The Chronicle of Higher Educatin

July 5, 2013 Volume 59, Number 4

B11-B13

The Chronicle is in the library periodical section, but it is also full text in the  MasterFILE Premier database.

Terry Eagleton is a visiting professor at Lancaster University in England, the National University of Ireland, and the University of Notre Dame.

Library Habits and Expectations of Younger Americans

Latest Pew Internet Study Reveals Library Habits and Expectations of Younger Americans

Younger Americans—those ages 16-29—exhibit a fascinating mix of habits and preferences when it comes to reading, libraries, and technology. Almost all Americans under age 30 are online, and they are more likely than older patrons to use libraries’ computer and internet connections; however, they are also still closely bound to print, as three-quarters (75%) of younger Americans say they have read at least one book in print in the past year, compared with 64% of adults ages 30 and older.

Source: 

From Pew Internet & American Life Project by Africa S. Hands
Resource Shelf, July 9

CHILD POVERTY RISING

Twenty-three percent of America's children are currently living in poverty, reveals the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2011.  This poverty rate is seven percentage points higher than it was in 2000.  Only three years have recorded higher child poverty rates dating back to 1965.  Child poverty rates are especially acute in major urban areas, with the following cities at the top of the list....

1.	Detroit	57.3%
2.	Cleveland	53.9%
3.	Buffalo	46.8%
4.	Cincinnati	45.3%
5.	Newark	44.0%
6.	Miami	43.8%
7.	Toledo	43.7%
8.	Milwaukee	43.0%
9.	New Orleans	42.2%
10.	Memphis	42.1%

“These numbers shame our nation,” says Curtis Skinner, PhD, director of family economic security at the National Center for Children in Poverty.” 

Sources: Exchange Every Day July 9  U.S. Census Bureau is great resource for national statistics.

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