Veteran's Day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month...

Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.

According to the Library of Congress (from the American Memory Project), "the Allied powers signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France on November 11, 1918, bringing World War I to a close. Between the wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both world wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars."

In Flanders Fields

by Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Honoring our Veterans.

National Book Awards Finalists Display

Come and check out the National Book Awards Finalists display at the Al Harris Library! When the 2011 winners are announced on November 16, the display will be updated with winner information.

Sponsored by the National Book Foundation, the National Book Award winners are selected in four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. The National Book Award began in 1950 when a consortium of book publishing groups sponsored the 1st annual National Book Awards Ceremony & Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Their goal was to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans and to increase the popularity of reading in general. If you would like to find out more about the National Book Awards, please go to http://www.nationalbook.org/.

Photography Display

It is difficult to imagine a world without photography. We wouldn't have family photographs, movies, or a driver's license with our worst possible mug shot.

The ancient Chinese and Greeks used a camera obscura to form images via a tiny pinhole, but no one figured out how to save a permanent image until around 1816. Frenchman Nicephore Niepce combined the obscura with photosensitive paper to create the first permanent photograph.

The first photograph to contain a human was a photograph of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris taken by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1839. It was actually a busy street scene with people and horse-drawn carriages. However, since it took almost twenty minutes to take the photo, only one man standing still getting his boots shined actually made it into the finished photograph.

Come by the Al Harris Library on campus to take a look at the current display on photography. The display shows a few famous photographs, a timeline history of photography, and a plethora of books, CDs, and VHS tapes on almost every aspect of this subject. Also included is a scenario of what photography may be like in 2060.

Cyber Security Awarness Month, Oct. 2011

"The Internet is a shared resource and securing it is our responsibility." The theme for this year's Cyber Security Awareness Month describes the need for every Internet user to be mindful of dangers, such as identity theft, and to always use appropriate precautions to prevent becoming a victim. See the display at the front of the library for books you can check out that will inform you of the many issues and solutions in Cyber Security.

American Routes ~ Oklahoman JJ Cale

American Routes ~ JJ Cale and Cedric Watson

J.J. Cale came up in the clubs of Tulsa, Oklahoma playing everything from Western Swing to Rock 'n' Roll. He even wrote songs that became hits for his friend Eric Clapton. But it was in the recording studio where he found his true calling. American Routes speaks with J.J. about his career as a guitar man, songwriter and studio wizard. Visit with American Routes Web Radio and hear the history of Oklahoma Music.

Strengths

The book display on "strengths" provides several books about positive psychology.  SWOSU will be starting the "StrengthsQuest" program from Gallup, Inc. soon.  Finding your talents and developing your strengths provides the path to excellence in life and work.  The Strengths program is all about helping students, faculty and staff achieve academic, career, and personal success.

List of Talents

When a person takes the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment, he or she may download a report that identifies their top five talents.  Talents are the ways in which your naturally think, feel and behave.  However, most people have not recognized their talents and often wander in life with little focus.  So, the Strengths program provides a starting point for a person.  Once a person knows his or her top five talents, the goal is to add skills and knowledge to turn those talents into strengths.  You were born with talents, but strengths are earned.  A strength is defined as the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific task. Finding and developing your strengths is the desired outcome of the StrengthsQuest program.  So, check out this library display today and find out about your strengths - your path to excellence in life and work.

The Blues

The blues, along with jazz, of which it is an essential part, is one of the most significant US musical forms of the twentieth century. Emerging in the rural South around the turn of the century and first recorded in the early 1920s, the musical form’s characteristic feature is of a direct lyrical confrontation with the joys and hardships of individual existence.

A literary and musical form…a fusion of music and poetry accomplished at a very high emotional temperature…these are different ways of describing the same thing. A gigantic field of feeling…that’s a way of describing something enduring, something that could be limitless. How much thought can be hidden in a few short lines…how much history can be transmitted by the pressure on a guitar string? The thought of generations, the history of every human being who’s ever felt the blues come down like rain.

-Palmer, R. (1981). Deep Blues. NYC: Penguin.

The Al Harris Library is hosting a new display on Blues Music. Stop by, take a look, take a listen.