Febuary's Smithsonian magazine has an article on journalist & Coe grad William L. Shirer (’25), marking the 50th anniversary of his most notable book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (which won the National Book Award 1960). Shirer became well known as a correspondent covering Mahatma Gandhi and India’s independence movement and for his broadcasts from Berlin during World War II. His book Berlin Diary, is based on his personal journals he kept while on assignment and were smuggled out of Nazi Germany. In addition to these three titles he published a number of other books, including The Nightmare Years which was made into a movie (which we have in AV). Check out the article, the movie and then come down and talk to Sara about the William Shirer collection in the archives.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
WELCOME MARCUS!
Marcus Huhe isn’t actually new to the library, he has been working in the library’s interlibrary loan office for over three years, but he is our new spring intern.
Marcus will be spending time in all of the departments learning the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes: just how do those books get on the shelf, who really orders all those great movies, and how the heck do I find information for my research paper. To learn the answers to all these questions and more, Marcus will work in each department spending a total of 130 working hours in the library.
Marcus’s first few weeks were spent in Technical Services with Hongbo & Jeff, where he was given a brief overview of what happens on the library servers (that’s what makes our catalogs and databases run). He was also given a couple of projects to give him hands on experience using the worldwide database OCLC as well as the library local operating system Horizon. Next on the agenda for Marcus is the magic and mysteries behind the scenes in the Audio-Visual department. Thanks for all your work in tech services, keep up the good work!
Marcus will be spending time in all of the departments learning the ins and outs of what goes on behind the scenes: just how do those books get on the shelf, who really orders all those great movies, and how the heck do I find information for my research paper. To learn the answers to all these questions and more, Marcus will work in each department spending a total of 130 working hours in the library.
Marcus’s first few weeks were spent in Technical Services with Hongbo & Jeff, where he was given a brief overview of what happens on the library servers (that’s what makes our catalogs and databases run). He was also given a couple of projects to give him hands on experience using the worldwide database OCLC as well as the library local operating system Horizon. Next on the agenda for Marcus is the magic and mysteries behind the scenes in the Audio-Visual department. Thanks for all your work in tech services, keep up the good work!
Friday, January 27, 2012
Find out about new films from @CoeAV!
Wondering which new films have recently arrived at the library, but it's a bit too cold to make the trek to find out in person? Sign up for twitter updates from the Audiovisual Department at @CoeAV! Click here to head over to AV's twitter feed.
--Laura, Head of AV
1851
From the Archives…
Does 1851 sound familiar to you? Perhaps you noticed it on the Coe seal or on the large stone sign at the corner of campus? In 1851 Williston Jones, Coe College’s founder, opened his home to Cedar Rapids youth with the intention of preparing them for the ministry. Two years later, during a trip to New York, Jones took to the pulpit to raise funds to send his students to seminary, and found a man with another idea. Daniel Coe was willing to give Jones 1500 dollars if he started a school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Are you curious about what happened next? Coe has several historical accounts telling the story of Coe’s beginnings including an account on Coe’s website, the Writing Center’s website on the first 100 years of Coe College, a digital exhibit on Coe’s founders and of course the Coe College Founders Papers in the archives.
~Sara
Does 1851 sound familiar to you? Perhaps you noticed it on the Coe seal or on the large stone sign at the corner of campus? In 1851 Williston Jones, Coe College’s founder, opened his home to Cedar Rapids youth with the intention of preparing them for the ministry. Two years later, during a trip to New York, Jones took to the pulpit to raise funds to send his students to seminary, and found a man with another idea. Daniel Coe was willing to give Jones 1500 dollars if he started a school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Are you curious about what happened next? Coe has several historical accounts telling the story of Coe’s beginnings including an account on Coe’s website, the Writing Center’s website on the first 100 years of Coe College, a digital exhibit on Coe’s founders and of course the Coe College Founders Papers in the archives.
~Sara
Thursday, January 26, 2012
What's Up Front Right Now
While the library is a wonderful place to study, research and get help from librarians, the library offers some leisure choices. The Whipple Browsing area is filled with best sellers and current interest books with such authors as Stephen King, James Patterson and Tami Hoag. There is also a display of on the first floor for Black History Month. And for something completely different, stop by the circulation desk and help us finish the puzzle.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Interesting web site
Just read a positive review of this website in the College and Research Libraries News (yes, another one of those boring journals we continuously read for current happenings in the library world. Boring to those outside of the library). "Business and Human Rights Resource Centre" http://www.business-humanrights.org/Home can be used for many disciplines; business, politics, sociology, and health for starters. This site, updated hourly, reports about the positive and negative impacts that businesses around the world have on human rights. I did a search for Keystone and was disappointed that only 2 articles came up about the current debate over that pipeline and both backed the environmentalist attitude toward it. Then I did a search for Coca-cola and was pleased at the number of hits there. The first article told of how the Century bottling company in Uganda had their employees tested for HIV and then those that were positive received treatment. A good thing as Martha would say. It was the hope of the reviewer, Maureen James, University of Arkansas-Little Rock, that "this site may also motivate companies to be accountable in their dealings with humans and the environment."
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Chinese New Year Celebration at the library
Yesterday (Monday, Jan. 23) was the Chinese New Year of 2012, the Year of the Dragon. The library staff has been busy decorating and preparing food since then. We are going to host a Chinese New Year Party in the library this afternoon for the Chinese students at Coe College. There are 15 Chinese students currently, and the library is one of their favorite places to go on the campus. Since they couldn’t celebrate the most important holiday with their families in China, we hope that they feel less homesick in the library this afternoon. Come join us, the Chinese New Year Party is waiting for you.
Monday, January 23, 2012
New Arrivals in Fisher Music Library...
Those of you interested in 20th and 21st century classical music may want to audition these new CDs in Fisher Music Library (Marquis Hall 105):
John Cage Complete Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano - Boris Berman, pianist
On February 13, Guest Artist, Patricia von Blumroder will perform the complete John Cage Sonatas and Inludes "LIVE" in D-K Auditorium. So it would be good to listen to those Cage pieces that feature prepared piano in the performances. Cage specifies that bolts, wedges and erasers be placed at specific locations for special effect that transform the piano, as we know it. These pieces were written in 1946 to 1948 and were very controversial at the time.
Other new CDs that arrived today are:
Xenakis - Metastasis
Elainie Lillios - entre espaces
The Fogg Project - Ryan Fogg, pianist
Four Cds by former Cedar Rapidian, and faculty member @University of Michigan, Michael Daugherty: Raise the Roof; Metropolis Symphony;Rout 66; Fire and Blood
In addition, our own Professor of Bassoon, Greg Morton plays on his "Wizards Finale" CD of double reed music.
Check them out!!!!!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Nuremberg Trials Project and Visualising China Websites
A few websites that I wanted to share with you that were reviewed in my latest round of CHOICE cards (reviews done of books, databases, and other resources done by those in academia and libraries.) These sites both received positive reviews from their respective reviewers, so they would both be considered a great place to go for information on their highlighted topics. So, let's take a look.
One site is the Nuremberg Trials Project, put out and maintain by the Harvard Law School Library. Launched in 2003, this site contains great primary source documents, both written documents and photographs, relating to the Nuremberg Trials of former Nazis after World War II. Covering Cases 1, 2, and 4 of the trials, Harvard Law School has made these digitized resources available for free online at http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Harvard is currently trying to raise funding to digitize their holdings relating to the other Nuremberg Trial Cases, but they have made a great start with over 32000 documents available online.
The other website is Visualising China, from the University of Bristol, UK (hence spelling "visualising" with the letter s.) Launched this past July, the website is an open-access image resource where one can find digitized photos that span 100 years of Chinese of history, from 1850-1950. With more than 8000 images available, users have the option to search and browse the collection in a variety of ways, including allowing them to view images with geotagged map results. The university has plans to expand upon the project by digitizing the rest of their own collection along with several other prominent collections from throughout the UK. Highly recommended by the CHOICE reviewer, you can find the site with its wealth of primary source material at http://visualisingchina.net.
One site is the Nuremberg Trials Project, put out and maintain by the Harvard Law School Library. Launched in 2003, this site contains great primary source documents, both written documents and photographs, relating to the Nuremberg Trials of former Nazis after World War II. Covering Cases 1, 2, and 4 of the trials, Harvard Law School has made these digitized resources available for free online at http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu. Harvard is currently trying to raise funding to digitize their holdings relating to the other Nuremberg Trial Cases, but they have made a great start with over 32000 documents available online.
The other website is Visualising China, from the University of Bristol, UK (hence spelling "visualising" with the letter s.) Launched this past July, the website is an open-access image resource where one can find digitized photos that span 100 years of Chinese of history, from 1850-1950. With more than 8000 images available, users have the option to search and browse the collection in a variety of ways, including allowing them to view images with geotagged map results. The university has plans to expand upon the project by digitizing the rest of their own collection along with several other prominent collections from throughout the UK. Highly recommended by the CHOICE reviewer, you can find the site with its wealth of primary source material at http://visualisingchina.net.
From the Archives...
The archive’s second largest collection (the first being the Coe Collection) is from William L. Shirer. Shirer graduated from Coe in 1925. He borrowed money from President Gage and used it to high tail it out of Iowa and the United States. He took a cattle boat to France where he found a job on the copy desk of the Paris Tribune. He stayed in Europe until December of 1940. During his 15 years there he covered Gandhi, got married, broke into radio, had a daughter, and covered Hitler’s rise to power.
[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="180" caption="William L. Shirer's CBS press pass"]
[/caption]
Back in the United States he continued as a radio correspondent for the Columbia Broadcasting System until 1947 when he found himself blacklisted. Shirer didn’t much like McCarthyism (it reminded him too much of Nazi Germany) and didn’t care much for toeing the line. After a short stint with another radio station he took to writing. This would lead to his best seller “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, which is still read by serious WWII scholars today.
Shirer’s collection includes an extensive diary spanning over 70 years (1919-1993), his manuscripts, his correspondence, and his lectures along with boxes of publications and newspaper clippings covering the 20th Century and its many turbulent events.
~Sara
[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="180" caption="William L. Shirer's CBS press pass"]
[/caption]Back in the United States he continued as a radio correspondent for the Columbia Broadcasting System until 1947 when he found himself blacklisted. Shirer didn’t much like McCarthyism (it reminded him too much of Nazi Germany) and didn’t care much for toeing the line. After a short stint with another radio station he took to writing. This would lead to his best seller “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, which is still read by serious WWII scholars today.
Shirer’s collection includes an extensive diary spanning over 70 years (1919-1993), his manuscripts, his correspondence, and his lectures along with boxes of publications and newspaper clippings covering the 20th Century and its many turbulent events.
~Sara
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Library Supporting MLK Day Event
Last night, over 40 Coe members gathered in Kesler Auditorium to participate in a movie showing, Do the Right Thing, and students/faculty panel discussion in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The event was hosted by the Committee on Diversity. The library helped set up the movie showing and presented a table display during the event. The display included photographs, newspaper clips and other archive materials on Dr. King’s campus visit in 1962, and the AASEO's (African American Self Education Organization's) activities on campus during the civil rights movement of the 60's and 70's.
Thank you to everyone who helped with the event and attended last night. It was a success!
Thank you to everyone who helped with the event and attended last night. It was a success!
SOPA, and how it will (possibly) impact your day tomorrow
As some of you might know, several websites will be blacking out tomorrow as a protest against SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act," a bill currently under consideration in the US House of Representatives. Although there will be a number of smaller websites shutting down for the day, here's the list of larger websites that are planning shutting down Wednesday, January 18.
- Wikipedia
- Mozilla
- Failblog, rest of the Cheezburger Network
- Boing Boing
As you can see, some of the sites listed receive pretty heavy traffic, especially Wikipedia as it consistently ranks in the top 10 most visited websites on the Internet. The library's staff wanted to make sure that everyone understands the blackout is internet-wide, and not just an issue at Coe. If you want to read more about SOPA and how it could impact your daily life online, here's a great explanation I found: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/.
-Katelyn, Head of Reference
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