Library Newsletter - April/May, 2007 (rev.)
Vol. 11, No. 6
- A Word from the Director
- New Database Now Available: Film & Television Literature Index
- Battle of Ojinaga: Summer Display at the West Texas Collection
- Regular Summer Schedule/Hours
- ASU Library Joins NTIS/GPO/FDLP Pilot Project
- Libraries in The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Summer Reading Suggestions: Award Winners, "Bestsellers", and Others
A Word from the Director
Maurice G. Fortin, Library Director
One has to wonder when West Texas has a white Easter in April. Needless to say, I am sure others stopped and pondered the changes in weather over the last few years. Let's hope the moisture (in any form but hail) continues for the rest of this year.
The Library continues to work with Information Technology and the University's Administration on plans for remodeling the Library and the creation of an Information Commons on the First Floor. Here is the filename of a PowerPoint® presentation, available on the R drive, I gave to the Faculty Senate, the Student Senate, and the Staff Senate: R:\Library\IC Site Visits\Information Commons Powerpoint. The presentation provides floor diagrams and examples of some concepts we hope to incorporate into the project.
The Library's schedule for the summer months may be found on the next page. Please note the Library will be staying open to 11pm Sunday through Thursday evenings during both summer terms.
For your summer reading pleasure, you will find a list of new bestsellers and Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists on page 5. Also, remember the Library's Media Collection has extensive holdings of current and classic movies and documentaries to review for possible use in your classes next year. These items are available for check out. You can review these films and documentaries over the course of the summer as you make plans to revise your course assignments.
The University Library Committee (ULC) appointed a small subcommittee to examine the Library's Materials Budget allocation formula. This group met several times during the spring semester. The committee plans to continue this work in the fall and recommend a revised formula for use in FY 09. In the meantime, the Library will use the existing formula for FY 08 budget planning.
Elsewhere in this issue, you will learn about a new database added to the Library's collection of online resources, the summer display scheduled for the West Texas Collection, and a pilot project between the National Technical Information Service and the Government Printing Office which the Library has joined.
The Library Newsletter will return in the fall. May you all have an enjoyable summer.
New Database Now Available:
Film & Television Literature Index
The Library is pleased to add the databases Film & Television Literature Index to its collection of online resources available from both on and off campus.
Film & Television Literature Index is the definitive index to film and television literature. It is a bibliographic database that provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 300 publications, and selected coverage of 300 more, for film and television reviews, scholarly and critical analysis of cinema and television, and articles of popular interest about film and television. The database has been designed for use by a diverse audience that includes film scholars, college students, and general viewers.
Battle of Ojinaga:
Summer Display at the West Texas Collection
This summer the West Texas Collection will have a display on The Battle of Ojinaga during the Mexican Revolution. The display focuses on the historical importance of the Battle of Ojinaga within the complex history of the Mexican Revolution.
This particular exhibit is on loan from Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University, but has an Angelo State University connection. John Klingemann of the ASU history department researched and designed the display. A video clip, standing display panels, and artifacts are included.
For a little more information on the history surrounding the battle, read "Battle of Ojinaga Exhibit at the Museum of the Big Bend,"La Vista de la Frontera: Newsletter of the Center for Big Bend Studies, 15(1), p.5 (Spring 2002) http://www.sulross.edu/cbbs/docs/lavista/Volume_15_-_2002.pdf (Sul Ross State University).
(Picture: Villista soldier at Ojinaga, 1914. Reprinted from La Vista de la Frontera.)
Regular Summer Hours |
|
| Monday-Thursday | 7:30am – 11:00pm |
| Friday | 7:30am – 6:00pm |
| Saturday | 9:00am – 6:00pm |
| Sunday | 1:00pm – 11:00pm |
Summer Schedule |
|
| May 10 | 7:30am - 10:00pm |
| May 11 | Regular Spring Schedule |
| May 12-13 | CLOSED |
| May 14-15 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| May 16 | CLOSED for staff training |
| May 17-18 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| May 19-20 | CLOSED |
| May 21-25 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
(The West Texas Collection will be CLOSED May 21-25.) |
|
| May 26-28 | CLOSED (Memorial Day) |
| May 29-July 2 | Regular Summer Schedule |
| July 3 | 7:30am - 6:00pm |
| July 4 | CLOSED (Independence Day |
| July 5 | 8:00am - 6:00pm |
| July 6-August 10 | Regular Summer Schedule |
| August 11-12 | CLOSED |
| August 13-17 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| August 18-19 | CLOSED |
| August 20-24 | 8:00am - 5:00pm |
| August 25-26 | CLOSED |
| August 27 | 2007-2008 Schedule begins |
ASU Library Joins NTIS/GPO/FDLP Pilot Project
The National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and the Government Printing Office (GPO) have developed a pilot project to see how NTIS can participate in the depository library program by providing access to its electronic content. As a first step, NTIS worked with GPO to identify what NTIS content is not already accessible to depository libraries and to ascertain the percentage of overlap between the collections. The NTIS/GPO FDLP Beta Document Access & Retrieval Test (DART) System is a product of these collaborative efforts of NTIS and GPO.
Through the FDLP processes, individual libraries in the program will be able to request access to the NTIS online library and once in the system, will be able to search, find, and download documents to the library's workstation desktops. Angelo State University's Porter Henderson Library has joined the group of depository libraries involved in the beta test of the pilot project. The length of the beta will be determined by a variety of factors including usage, evolving requirements, impact on the parties, and other factors.
The National Technical Information Service serves the nation as the largest central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available today. For 60 years NTIS has assured businesses, universities, and the public timely access to well over 3 million publications covering over 350 subject areas. The NTIS mission supports the nation's economic growth by providing access to information that stimulates innovation and discovery. This is accomplished through two major programs: 1) information collection and dissemination to the public and 2) services for Federal agencies. In support of its mission NTIS maintains a permanent collection of approximately three million scientific and technical reports that are produced by or for Government agencies and that are useful to U.S. business and industry. Many of these resources have not been made available through the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP).
For more than 140 years, the Government Printing Office (GPO) has kept America informed by producing and distributing Federal government information products. Through the Office of Information Dissemination (SuDocs) programs, GPO disseminates the largest volume of U.S. government publications and information in the world. The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) is by far the largest and best known of the Office of Information Dissemination (SuDocs). Established by Congress to ensure that the American public has access to its Government's information, this program involves the acquisition, format conversion, and distribution of depository materials and the coordination of Federal depository libraries in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The mission of the FDLP is to disseminate information products from all three branches of the Government to over 1,250 libraries nationwide.
NTIS is exempt from FDLP obligations by the provisions of Title 44, United States Code, Section 1903 because its products and services "must necessarily be sold in order to be self-sustaining." NTIS receives no appropriations and must recover all its costs from sales. However, Ellen Herbst, Director of NTIS, announced at the Federal Depository Library Conference in October that NTIS is interested in exploring how it can participate in the depository library program by providing access to its electronic content.
The project includes access to bibliographic records for approximately 240,000 publications from 1964-2000 from the Automated Document Storage and Retrieval (ADSTAR) system. (GPO does not really know how many of these are fugitive documents (meaning they were not distributed as part of the depository program, although they should have been), but they believe that there are a substantial number.) Depository libraries will be able to download at no charge the electronic documents for which links are available and, in the near future, to purchase print, microfiche or CD/DVD copies from NTIS. Participation will be open to all depository libraries.
GPO and NTIS both expect that the pilot will validate the assumption that NTIS can participate in the FDLP with its electronic content without suffering an economic loss that would violate its legal requirements to be self-sustaining.
NTIS annually receives tens of thousands of new publications and technical reports. In addition to report literature, the NTIS collection includes periodicals, bibliographies, and other reference and research materials.These come from hundreds of government agencies and other organizations. The reports cover a wide range of topics in areas of the natural sciences (e.g., energy, chemistry, medicine, biology, environmental sciences, nuclear science, and technology) and the behavioral and social sciences (e.g., administration, library and information science, sociology, and business and economics).
If you would like to try some of your research in the DART system, or have need of other NTIS publications, please contact Janetta Paschal, Government Documents/Reference Librarian, at Janetta.Paschal@angelo.edu or (325) 942-2300, Ext. 230, for assistance.
Libraries in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Libraries and archives have been topics of several articles in issues of The Chronicle of Higher Education this year. A few examples are included below. Since a password is required to read some of these online, please inquire at the Reference Desk for assistance.
Interlibrary Loan
"What Goes Around", by Susanna Ashton.
A professor rarely noticed where the books she requested via interlibrary loan came from, until one day she got a big bill. (http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/03/2007031401c/careers.html)
"... I was on a Fulbright grant, spending an academic year in the city of Cork as a visiting scholar with the university's English department. I was there to help teach American literature on a blessedly limited basis ...
"The other part of my time was to be spent doing research on the life and work of John Boyle O'Reilly, a 19th-century Irishman ...
"As research often does, though, my project moved in unpredictable directions. It turned around at a moment when I came to appreciate something very special about my university privileges back home ...
"My realization came at the interlibrary loan desk. ... The librarian brought out 10 books for me, and I handed him my campus identification card, expecting I would check out the books, and that would be that.
"Instead, he asked me very pleasantly for 20 voucher tokens. ...
"It turned out that he was essentially asking me to pay about $200 in interlibrary-loan fees. ... [T]he university
"... I started to think a lot about American libraries and the privileges they offer scholars.
"... I should have been well aware of what a precious thing free or cheap interlibrary lending is for virtually every student, scholar, and recreational reader in the United States.
"But, like most academics, it had never occurred to me. If anything, interlibrary loan was always a necessity I faced with irritation, hating the prospect of filling out more forms.
"I have since learned that interlibrary lending isn't free at all but a gift paid for by every American taxpayer. The average American probably doesn't know it, but interlibrary lending in the United States costs somewhat more than what the University College Cork was charging to cover its expenses. The national average seems to be about $22 to borrow a book and $12 to lend one, according to statistics from the Association of Research Libraries.
"That adds up to a transaction cost of well over $30 for each volume. ... For the most part, libraries silently eat the costs.
"The significance of that sacrifice goes largely unnoticed. It isn't the sexiest line on a library budget. …
"Even more heartening is [Michael] Gorman's observation that interlibrary lending is ‘the only professional service I can think of in which the provider pays the cost.' The faith our libraries show in the ability of that service to somehow, someday, contribute to a greater good is remarkable, and yet usually goes unremarked.
"The greatest resource sharing our libraries practice is sharing their faith in us."
Archives
"In Jack Anderson's Papers, a Hidden History of Washington", by Scott Carlson.
A Chronicle reporter was on hand as the late Jack Anderson's biographer and children went through the investigative journalist's archive at George Washington University. Watch an audio slide show in which Mark Feldstein, the biographer, discusses the importance of the archive. (http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i28/28a01601.htm) The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2007, 53(28), pA16-A20)
Reference Services
"Are Reference Desks Dying Out?", by Scott Carlson.
"At the University of California at Merced's library, there is no reference desk and there never has been. The way reference services are delivered there would intrigue some and disturb others.
"Consider this example: On a recent weekend, a student asked Michelle Jacobs, one of Merced's librarians, how to get journal articles about child obesity for a political-science paper. Ms. Jacobs gave the student the information he wanted right away. For any reference librarian, this is business as usual — except that the student asked his reference question through a text message.
"And Ms. Jacobs answered the question from her cellphone.
"And when Ms. Jacobs answered the question, she was at a library conference in Baltimore, almost 3,000 miles from Merced. …" (http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i33/33a03701.htm)
Summer Reading Suggestions:
Award Winners, "Bestsellers", and Others
Since the 2007 Pulitzer Prize winners for Letters were announced this month, the compiler of this summer reading list wanted to see which of the winners and the finalists were in the Library's holdings. (Note: The HTML version of the Newsletter will include links to the RamCat record for these titles, allowing you to check on their availability.)
Pulitzer Prize Winner for History: The Race Beat: the Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) (Second Floor Stacks: PN4888.R3 R63 2006)
The Publishers Weekly review of The Race Beat called it a "gripping account of how America and the world found out about the Civil Rights movement … written by two veteran journalists of the 'race beat' from 1954 to 1965." The two journalists used an exhaustive base of interviews, oral histories and memoirs, news stories and editorials to "provide a fresh account of the black press's trajectory from a time when black reporters searched 'for stories white reporters didn't even know about' through the loss of the black press's 'eyewitness position on the story' in Little Rock to its recovery with the Freedom Rides … Although sometimes weighted by mundane detail and deadening statistics, the book is so enlivened with anecdotes that it remains a page-turner." (November 21, 2006)
In the April 16, 2007, New York Times piece on the Pulitzer winners, Roberts, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, said, "My span in journalism now covers a bit over 50 years, and I never encountered a story quite like this one. It was long-running, it had emotional impact and it was probably the most important domestic story of the 20th century."
Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist: Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005 (James T. Campbell. New York, Penguin Press, 2006) (Second Floor Stacks: DT12.25 .C36 2006)
Historian Campbell explores Africa's hold on the imaginations of African Americans and the incredible efforts to reconnect with that continent by diverse black Americans. In Booklist, reviewer Vanessa Bush wrote, "This is a scholarly but highly accessible examination of the pull of Africa and the ties that continue to bind Africans in the diaspora."
Pulitzer Prize for History Finalist: Mayflower: a Story of Courage, Community, and War (Nathaniel Philbrick. New York, Viking, 2006) (Bestsellers Collection: F68 .P44 2006)
National Book Award-winner Philbrick writes about what he terms, "a restorative myth of national origins," our most sacred national myth. In Mayflower he reveals the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic.
"Impeccably researched and expertly rendered, Philbrick's account brings the Plymouth Colony and its leaders, including William Bradford, Benjamin Church and the bellicose, dwarfish Miles Standish, vividly to life. More importantly, he brings into focus a gruesome period in early American history." (Publishers Weekly, May 9, 2006)
Pulitzer Prize Winner for Biography: The Most Famous Man in America: the Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (Debby Applegate. New York, Doubleday, 2006) (Second Floor Stacks: BX7260.B3 A67 2006)
Applegate tells the story of an immensely famous minister, abolitionist and public intellectual whose career was rocked by allegations of adultery that made nationwide headlines. He loved horses, shopping, art, books, classical music and more than a few women who were not his wife; this last weakness led to a celebrated scandal in New York as he faced legal proceedings for alleged adultery.
In her book, Applegate contends that by preaching a loving God instead of a wrathful one, Beecher repudiated the dour Calvinism of his youth and made happiness and self-fulfillment, rather than sin and guilt, the centerpiece of modern Christian ideology. Jon Meacham, in his review in The Washington Post's Book World, wrote, "For readers seeking the roots of the popular religion and popular culture of our own time, Applegate's resurrection of Henry Ward Beecher is an excellent place to begin."
In the April 16 New York Times Pulitzer Prize story, Applegate said, "I had never seen a religious figure who was so funny, irreverent, open minded and open hearted." The author of the June 27 review in Publishers Weekly wrote, "Applegate gives an insightful account of a contradictory, fascinating, rather Clintonesque figure who, in many ways, was America's first liberal."
Pulitzer Prize for Biography Finalist: Andrew Carnegie (David Nasaw. New York, Penguin Press, 2006) (Second Floor Stacks: CT275.C3 N37 2006)
Nasaw's work is another biography on the true robber baron, a ruthless and hypocritical strikebreaker who made much of his money through practices since outlawed, but who embraced philanthropy with the same energy and creativity as he did making money. He uncovered important new material among Carnegie's papers and letters written to others, but according to the reviewer in Publishers Weekly (October 24), "comes no closer than previous biographers to explaining how such an ordinary-seeming person could achieve so much and embody such contradictions."
The same reviewer also wrote that "[w]hile Peter Krass's Carnegie (New York, John Wiley & Sons, 2002) and Carnegie's own autobiography (Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie, Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1920) are more exciting to read and do more to explain his place in history, they also leave the man an enigma."
(All of the Carnegie biographies are shelved together in the Second Floor Stacks. Find Krass's biography at CT275.C3 K73 2002 and Carnegie's autobiography at CT275.C3 A3.)
Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction: The Road (Cormac McCarthy. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) (Bestsellers Collection: PS3563.C337 R63 2006)
The famously reclusive McCarthy won the Pulitzer for his "devastating chronicle of a father and son walking alone across a post-apocalyptic America, cold, dark and strewn with corpses and ash."
McCarthy's tenth novel, an Oprah's Book Club and Book of the Month Club choice, is set "in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is" (Dennis Lehane, review on Amazon.com).
In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "The Road would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty."
"There is an urgency to each page, and a raw emotional pull … making [The Road] easily one of the most harrowing books you'll ever encounter. ... Once opened, [it is] nearly impossible to put down; it is as if you must keep reading in order for the characters to stay alive. … The Road is a deeply imagined work and harrowing no matter what your politics." —Bookforum
"We find this violent, grotesque world rendered in gorgeous, melancholic, even biblical cadences. … Few books can do more; few have done better. Read this book." —Rocky Mountain News
"The love between the father and the son is one of the most profound relationships McCarthy has ever written." —The Christian Science Monitor
Pulitzer Prize Winner for General Nonfiction: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Lawrence A. Wright. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) (Bestsellers Collection: HV6432.7 .W75 2006)
Wright's The Looming Tower is a sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Publishers Weekly called The Looming Tower "one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism" and "an important, gripping and profoundly disheartening book" (August 2006).
A long-time resident of Austin, Texas, Wright spent five years investigating four principal characters he used to tell the story of the September 11 terrorist attacks: Osama bin Laden; Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mr. bin Laden's chief lieutenant; John P. O'Neill, the former head of F.B.I. counterterrorism in New York, who died in the World Trade Center attack; and Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former head of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency. His step-by-step description of the bombings of the embassies in Africa and the destroyer U.S.S. Cole "reveals that planning terror is a sloppy business, leaving a trail of clues that, in the case of 9/11, raised many suspicions among individuals in the FBI, CIA and NSA. Wright shows that 9/11 could have been prevented if those agencies had worked together" (Publishers Weekly).
Reviewer Karen Long, in The Plain Dealer, wrote, "Don't read The Looming Tower in bed. This book requires a straight spine and full attention ... The reporting is so good that it will matter in 100 years. Wright's determined, disciplined work has made his book indispensable." San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Tom Gallagher called The Looming Tower, "[a] page-turner ... encompassing religion, politics, economics and more." He continued, "If you've been meaning to sharpen your understanding of what all led up to September 11, 2001, then Wright may have written just what you've been waiting for."
"What a riveting tale Lawrence Wright fashions in this marvelous book. The Looming Tower is not just a detailed, heart-stopping account of the events leading up to 9/11, written with style and verve. [It's] a thoughtful examination of the world that produced the men who brought us 9/11, and of their progeny who bedevil us today. The portrait of John O'Neill, the driven, demon-ridden F.B.I. agent who worked so frantically to stop Osama bin Laden, only to perish in the attack on the World Trade Center, is worth the price of the book alone. The Looming Tower is a thriller. And it's a tragedy, too." –- Dexter Filkins, The New York Times Book Review cover.
"Lawrence Wright's integrity and diligence as a reporter shine through every page of this riveting narrative." —Robert A. Caro
"A towering achievement. One of the best and more important books of recent years. Lawrence Wright has dug deep into and written well a story every American should know. A masterful combination of reporting and writing." —Dan Rather
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction Finalist: Fiasco: the American Military Adventure in Iraq (Thomas E. Ricks. New York, Penguin Press, 2006) (Bestsellers Collection: DS79.76 .R535 2006)
Ricks, the Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post, has written a thorough and devastating history of the war in Iraq from the planning stages through the continued insurgency in early 2006, and he does not shy away from naming those he finds responsible.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote, "The main points of this hard-hitting indictment of the Iraq war have been made before, but seldom with such compelling specificity. … Ricks contends that, under Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith, the Pentagon concocted ‘the worst war plan in American history,' with insufficient troops and no thought for the invasion's aftermath." Tom Nissley, on Amazon.com, observed, "What makes his portrait particularly damning are the dozens of military sources – most of them on record – who join in his critique, and the thousands of pages of internal documents he uses to make his case for a war poorly planned and bravely but blindly fought."
"It is not an exaggeration, or at least not much of one, to say that with his new book, Fiasco, Thomas Ricks has changed the debate over Iraq. ... It may leave your hand shaking just a bit when you finish and put it down." – Slate.com
Bestsellers from The New York Times and Amazon.com … and "Others"
The God Delusion (Richard Dawkins. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2006) (Bestsellers Collection: BL2775.3 .D39 2006)
A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "[t]he antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins." The reviewer also observed that "[f]or a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind intelligent design. … He insists that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful without it."
Infidel (Ayaan Hirsi Ali. New York, Free Press, 2007) (Bestsellers Collection: DJ292.H57 A3 2007)
Anyone "with an eye on European politics will recognize Ali as the Somali-born member of the Dutch parliament who faced death threats after collaborating on a film about domestic violence against Muslim women with controversial director Theo van Gogh (who was himself assassinated)." Even before then, her attacks on Islamic culture as "brutal, bigoted, [and] fixated on controlling women" had generated much controversy. "In this suspenseful account of her life and her internal struggle with her Muslim faith, she discusses how these views were shaped by her experiences amid the political chaos of Somalia and other African nations … Apart from feelings of guilt over van Gogh's death, her voice is forceful and unbowed -- like Irshad Manji, she delivers a powerful feminist critique of Islam informed by a genuine understanding of the religion." (Publishers Weekly)
Ali's most profound conclusion is that the mistreatment of women is not an incidental problem in the Muslim world, a side issue that can be dealt with once the more important political problems are out of the way. Rather, she believes that the enslavement of women lies at the heart of all of the most fanatical interpretations of Islam, creating "a culture that generates more backwardness with every generation."
Anne Applebaum, in her The Washington Post's Book World review, wrote, "Infidel is a unique book, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a unique writer, and both deserve to go far."
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: a Novel (Lisa See. New York, Random House, 2005) (Second Floor Stacks:PS3569.E3334 S66 2005)
This Amazon.com bestseller, set in remote 19th-century China, details the deeply affecting story of lifelong, intimate friends (laotong, or "old sames") Lily and Snow Flower, their imprisonment by rigid codes of conduct for women, and their betrayal by pride and love. The author's in-depth research into women's ceremonies and duties in China's rural interior brings fascinating revelations about arranged marriages, women's inferior status in both their natal and married homes, and the Confucian proverbs and myriad superstitions that informed daily life.
"As both a suspenseful and poignant story and an absorbing historical chronicle, this novel has bestseller potential and should become a reading group favorite as well" (Publishers Weekly). Molly Connally (Chantilly Regional Library, VA), who reviewed the book for School Library Journal, wrote, "Even though the women's culture and upbringing may be vastly different from readers' own, the life lessons are much the same, and they will be remembered long after the details of this fascinating story are forgotten."
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Ishmael Beah. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007) (Bestsellers Collection:DT516.828.B43 A3 2007)
This gripping story by a children's-rights advocate recounts his experiences as a boy growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, during one of the most brutal and violent civil wars in recent history. The absorbing account goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare.
In his School Library Journal review, Matthew L. Moffett (Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA) described the book, writing, "The first two thirds of his memoir are frightening: how easy it is for a normal boy to transform into someone as addicted to killing as he is to the cocaine that the army makes readily available. But an abrupt change occurred a few years later when agents from the United Nations pulled him out of the army and placed him in a rehabilitation center. Anger and hate slowly faded away, and readers see the first glimmers of Beah's work as an advocate." He said the story is told in a conversational, accessible style, and called the book a "powerful record of war" and "a beacon to all teens experiencing violence around them by showing them that there are other ways to survive than by adding to the chaos."
The Publishers Weekly starred review of the book concludes "this memoir seems destined to become a classic firsthand account of war and the ongoing plight of child soldiers in conflicts worldwide."
"This is a beautifully written book about a shocking war and the children who were forced to fight it. Ishmael Beah describes the unthinkable in calm, unforgettable language; his memoir is an important testament to the children elsewhere who continue to be conscripted into armies and militias." —Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
A Man without a Country (Kurt Vonnegut. New York, Seven Stories Press, 2005) (Bestsellers Collection:PS3572.O5 Z473 2005)
Studs Terkel wrote, "Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family's legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism."
The Los Angeles Times reviewer observed, "[This] may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir."
With Vonnegut's death on Wednesday, April 11, A Man Without a Country will have to serve as this popular author's memoir and his last book.
"In a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this age -- or any age -- holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America's soul. From his coming of age in America, to his formative war experiences, to his life as an artist, this is Vonnegut doing what he does best: Being himself. Whimsically illustrated by the author, A Man without a Country is intimate, tender, and brimming with the scope of Kurt Vonnegut's passions."
"For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations ... this is what he is like in person." –USA Today
"Filled with [Vonnegut's] usual contradictory mix of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, humor and gravity." –Chicago Tribune
Modern Liberty: and the Limits of Government (Charles Fried. New York, Norton & Co., 2007) (Second Floor Stacks: JC585 .F7575 2007)
How has the modern welfare state redefined our notion of individual liberty? Are we free to express ourselves in speech, at work, or through sex? Arguing that equality is often the most potent rival of liberty, Charles Fried demonstrates how the dense tangle of government regulations both supports and threatens our personal freedoms. Richly illustrated with examples from contemporary life, Modern Liberty is vividly relevant to the experiences and needs of everyday Americans. This is Hayek's The Road to Serfdom* updated for a time when we have put fascist and Marxist tyranny firmly behind us but still confront kinder, gentler threats to our liberty. Armed with Fried's insights, readers will be better able to defend themselves against those on both the left and the right who would limit their liberty to promote virtue, equality, or the greatness of the nation. Modern Liberty has profound implications for the societies in which we live now. (From the publisher's description)
(*The Road to Serfdom. Frederick A. von Hayek. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, Second Floor Stacks: HD82 .H38 1944 and HD82 .H38 1945)
And finally there is Harry, as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last installment of the wildly popular Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. This long-awaited final Harry Potter novel is to finish the story of the teen-aged wizard studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Does Harry vanquish Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed his parents? Is Harry, or another beloved character, maybe Hermione Granger or Ron Weasley, killed in the end? Rowling has indicated that a major character will die, as did two others, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and (even more upsetting to some fans) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Maybe you have children who have devoured the first six books of the series. Maybe you yourself have read them all, too … secretly. If not, the Library has all of the earlier novels; some copies are in the Juvenile Collection, others are in the Second Floor Stacks. The call numbers of all of the novels in both collections begin with PZ7.R7968. You can also find DVDs of the first four Harry Potter films available for checkout in the Media Collection. Ask at the Media desk for DVDs 1816-1819.
The book will be released at midnight on July 21. Expect to see Harry Potter parties that night at some local bookstores.
Due to their inclusion of magic and wizardry, the Harry Potter novels are controversial in some circles, and occupy the top spot on the American Library Association's Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century (2000-2005). (See the complete list of challenged books on the ALA's web site: http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/topten2000to2005.htm.)