Talking in the Library

Short Cuts: Listen to the puppets

Hey folks - this is Banned Books week! If you are new to this, Banned Books Week "is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment."* So stick it to the haters out there and read something someone who doesn't know you says you shouldn't.

Here are my recommendations:

Beloved by Toni Morrison
Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

You can find more books that have been banned or challenged on the American Library Association's Banned Books Week site. Have a favorite book that's been banned or challenged? Share it with us in the comments!

* From The American Library Association

-- T.L. Coleman

Short Cuts is a series from K-State Libraries' Instruction Team providing library and research tips and tricks for undergraduates. Please feel free to share our articles and ideas with classes and colleagues - just give us credit!

Shout out to Dr. Les Hannah

Last week was Community Cultural Harmony Week at K-State. If I had been on the ball, I would have posted something about it before instead of after the event. Obviously, I am a slacker who will do better next year. Feel free to remind me.

Why am I posting about something that happen a week ago? I subscribed to K-State's YouTube channel and noticed that someone kindly recorded and uploaded the lecture "Media Myths and Stereotypes about Native Americans" given by Dr. Leslie Hannah. Dr. Hannah is an Assistant Dean/Associate Professor of English in  our awesome College of Technology & Aviation. For those of you new to K-State, they are just down the way a wee bit on I70 in Salina, Ks. 

I really wanted to go to this, but sadly had a conflict. I know, you thought I was paid to act smart and be funny. They expect me to work too. It's wrong, but that's what happens when you don't negotiate your contract. I'm learning to deal with it :-) Now I have the opportunity to watch it and so do you. Check it out.

Shout out to Dr. Hannah

Short Cuts: Coolest Class in Hale

Remember last week when you were working up on the fourth floor of Hale and suddenly a librarian came by with a bunch of people? Or when you were trying to print on the second floor and you had to walk around some people with clipboards standing in a circle?

Wondering the heck is going on in Hale?

Well, you probably were witnessing a super fabulous library class/tour.  Students enrolled in University Experience or Orientation to Education are required to take the class but did you know that anyone can join in the fun?

Though we gear the class toward those specific students, the class is full of super duper helpful information for all patrons. You are totally more than welcome (and invited!) to take the class also. Oh, did I mention it was FREE?

How do you do that? Well, you need to go to our homepage and click on the Classes and Tours link. You will see a calendar and a list of courses at the top of the screen. Click on the Sign Up for Library Tour link and you will be taken a new screen where you can select the date and time of the class you want to attend (and register for the class). It’s that easy!

What kind of fantabulous things will you learn in a class/tour? Well, part of that is top secret and you’ll just have to take a class/tour to learn that stuff but I can tell you that we cover basics about searching for a book, how to get help, cool information about our website, and of course the super awesome tour.  If you think that sounds interesting (which I think it does), go register for a class today before they fill up!

-- M.E. Fritch

Short Cuts is a series from K-State Libraries' Instruction Team providing library and research tips and tricks for undergraduates. Please feel free to share our articles and ideas with classes and colleagues - just give us credit!

Audiobook recommendations?

I'm a huge audiobook fan. I tried books on tape years ago and wasn't impressed. The narration was so so and it seemed like so many of the books were abridged. That's not the case anymore, so if you weren't impressed in the past, I would recommend trying them again. 

This may seem weird, but I pick all my audiobooks by narraror instead of author. A good narrarotor is like a good storyteller. Most of what I listen to are books I've read before. Hearing them read by someone makes the story new again. 

I get 90% of my audiobooks from the State Library of Kansas' "Audiobooks, Music, and More!" website. I don't know if that is the official name, but I like to call it that. All you need is a Kansas Library Card. You can get that at your local library or online. While they don't have everything, I think the selection is great. You can download stuff to iPods or other such devices. And the best part is that everything is free. FREE! Yay!

Here are some of my favorites:

Susan Ericksen-In Death series by J.D. Robb

Stephen Colbert-I Am America And So Can You by Stephen Colbert

Stephen J. Dubner-Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

Michael F. Roizen & Mehmet Oz-You: The Owner's Manual by Michael F. Roizen & Mehmet Oz

Johanna Parker-Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris 

I'm always on the lookout for a new audiobooks. If you have any recommendations, please share!

New Leisure Reading Books

Here are the newest additions to our Leisure Reading Collection.  What are you reading these days?

Title links will become active as titles arrive.

Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express: 404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less by Mark Bittman

Royal Flush by Rhys Bowen

Hot Pursuit by Suzanne Brockmann

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Rain Gods by James Lee Burke

Two of the Deadliest: New Tales of Lust, Greed, and Murder from Outstanding Women of Mystery edited by Elizabeth George

Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop by Lee Goldberg

Burn by Linda Howard

Fire and Ice by J. A. Jance

Storm Cycle by Iris Johansen

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella

Cherry Bomb by Joe Konrath

Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini

Black Hills by Nora Roberts

The Defector by Daniel Silva

Undone by Karin Slaughter

The Penny Pinchers Club by Sarah Strohmeyer

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells

Get Real by Donald E. Westlake

Short Cuts: Helping us help you

I'll give you a second to wrap your mind around that one.

Done? Okay.

Many of you probably know about (and use, and love) our Ask a Librarian services. Those include getting exceptionally friendly and awesome help at the Help Desk on the 2nd floor, by phone, by email, by text, and by instant messaging. We even have a chat widget that you can click on to speak with us directly. Try it - it's fun!

Unfortunately, technology still isn't 100% perfect 100% of the time. I mean, it's almost 2010 and I still haven't gotten that government-issued hovercraft I've been waiting on. So, sometimes, we'll have a glitch or two that make our chat widget stop working for a bit. Never fear - you can always contact us by phone, by email, or in person during our service hours. And if you're trying to use the chat widget and have been waiting a few minutes for a response, please give us a call. We might not even know there's a problem yet. If we do know there's a problem, we'll try to tweet it on our homepage, under the heading "The Latest."

We really love to help, so we greatly appreciate anything that you can do to help us help you.

-- J.M. Dale

Short Cuts is a series from K-State Libraries' Instruction Team providing library and research tips and tricks for undergraduates. Please feel free to share our articles and ideas with classes and colleagues - just give us credit!

Farmers Market outside of Hale Library

I love the farmers market. I've tried growing edible things in the past, but failed miserably. The earth hates me and I hate it. It's sad, but I'm over it. Now I rely on the farmers market for my fresh and local produce. If you too are interested in local produce and can't wait until the next Manhattan Farmers Market, I suggest hitting the Willow Lake Student Farm stand outside of Hale Library. They set up every Tuesday around 11 am and are open until 3 pm or when they run out of stuff.

Watch this to learn more about their operation.

2009 MacArthur Geniuses announced--I'm still not one

The other day, my phone didn't ring.  Not unusual, but this time it didn't ring because I am, once again, not a MacArthur Genius.  Well, the MacArthur Foundation refers to them as Fellows, but we all know these folks are geniuses.  Consider Dr. Mahadevan.  He uses math to answer questions like, " how cloth folds when draped, how skin wrinkles, how flags flutter, how Venus flytraps snap closed."

I think I might be developing a crush on math.

The author Edwidge Danticat joined the MacArthur Genius ranks this year, too. Her name may be more familiar to you as she wrote, Krik? Krak!,  The Farming of Bones, Brother, I am Dying, and Breath, Eyes, Memory.  

For me, the absolute coolest thing about the MacArthur Fellow program is that it rewards people who are just doing what comes naturally to them. The geniuses aren't contorting themselves to meet particular requirements. For the most part, they are going about their daily lives, making paper by hand, analyzing poverty and developing interventions, and investigating unsolved murders from the Civil Rights era. Then, one day, probably in September, the phone rings and someone says, "Guess what?  You're a genius and we're going to give you $500,000.  No strings, just keep doing what you're doing."

I wish my phone would ring.

Short Cuts: Five to Follow

Surfing the web for research to use in your paper can get a bit messy and confusing. No matter how interesting a site may be in your opinion, you can’t just use any random site that you find; there are certain rules you have to follow. If you find a site that you want to use as a source in your paper, you need to check to see if it is credible and relevant first.  Luckily, as students who have taken an Expository Writing course here at K-State can tell you, there is a simple and thorough technique that will help you with that decision:  “The Big Five” criteria for evaluating sources.

One of my favorite places to go to find answers for citing sources and evaluating websites is the English Department (I’m sure this is partially connected to the fact that I teach over there). One of the textbooks used in the English department, Writing Communities and Identities, explains how to evaluate websites by using “The Big Five” - criteria that you can use to verify that your website can be used as a credible source. “The Big Five” include:

• Authority: Identify the author or sponsor of the website and the publisher to ensure its credibility;
• Accuracy: Locate the contact information for the author or sponsor of the website to make sure the information can be verified;
• Objectivity: Determine the author or website’s purpose in order to clarify if the information is unbiased and able to be used in your paper;
• Coverage: Decide whether or not the article or site’s information is thorough and comprehensive;
• and Currency: Identify the date the article or site was produced to verify the information as current.

Once you have determined that the website is credible, thorough, relevant, and current, you can move on to the next step of actually using the information as a source in your paper. But remember that though a website passed “The Big Five” test, you still want to check with your teacher about the use of internet sites as sources. As I have mentioned before, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

For more information, check out Diana Hacker's Tips for Evaluating Sources.

-- M.E. Fritch

Short Cuts is a series from K-State Libraries' Instruction Team providing library and research tips and tricks for undergraduates. Please feel free to share our articles and ideas with classes and colleagues - just give us credit!

Short Cuts: Ask Dave!

Q: Hey Dave!  After seeing Twilight I was totally hooked; I finished Breaking Dawn later that week and since then I’ve been tearing through vampire books and movies all summer.  But after reading Dracula and watching a season and a half of True Blood I find myself confused.  What are vampires like, really?

A: There’s an obvious answer here, but I’m going to avoid it for the moment.  The Chinese nailed the true vampire physiology with the Jiang Shi, more commonly called hopping vampires  Jiang Shi are corpses animated by souls that have not moved on which hop about killing living creatures and consuming their chi.  They are characterized by their long white hair, greenish skin, and their odd means of ambulation.  It is commonly believed that rigor mortis makes normal walking impossible, hence the hopping.  They don’t sulk or write poetry, and they neither burn nor sparkle in the sun.

I’m kidding of course, though the myth of the Jiang Shi is not my creation – in fact it’s far older than any of our modern vampire myths.  The trouble with nailing down a single definition of how vampires work (or, for that matter, ghosts, werewolves, dragons, unicorns, hecatoncheires, etc.) is that they’re mythical and thus subject to the mutations of our collective psyche (Translation – they’re not real.  We made them up.  Edward Cullen will never love you, because he’s fake).  For one of the best works on the transformative nature of vampires, check out Nina Auerbach’s Our Vampires, Ourselves (GR830.V3 A92 1995); from Lord Byron to Anne Rice it explores the vampires role as a cultural mirror reflecting our darker nature.

So, none of them are what vampires are really like, and all of them are exactly what vampires are really like.  That said, one could argue that there’s a limit to how far a myth can be stretched before it no longer resembles itself.  I mean a vampire that doesn’t fear wooden stakes or sunlight has more in common with a mosquito than Dracula, right?