National Book Awards Finalists for 2013

The National Book Award began in 1950 when a consortium of book publishing groups sponsored the 1st annual National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The goal was to enhance the public's awareness of exceptional books written by fellow Americans and to increase the popularity of reading in general. The event has now become the most important event on the literary calendar.

Today the National Book Awards are sponsored by the National Book Foundation and continue to recognize the best of both established and emerging writers. They recognize achievements in four genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People's Literature. The winners, selected by five-member, indpendent judging panels for each genre, receive a $10,000 cash award and a crystal sculpture.

The National Book Award Finalists are announced in October and the National Book Award Winners are announced in November. For more information on the National Book Awards, go to http://www.nationalbook.org.

Come check out the National Book Award Finalists display at the Al Harris Library! When the 2013 winners are announced on November 20, the display will be updated with winner information.

Emily Dickinson Archive

An open-access website for the Manuscripts of Emily Dickinson has just been made available for use by Houghton Library at Harvard University.
     The archive makes high-resolution images of Dickinson's surviving manuscripts available in open access, and provides readers with a website through which they can view images of manuscripts held in multiple libraries and archives.
     Only a handful of Dickinson's poems appeared in print during her lifetime and none under her own name; those few poems were sent to publishers by friends, and she did not have an opportunity to review them before they were printed. At her death in 1886 Dickinson left behind a wealth of writings that had never been printed: hundreds of manuscript poems in her personal effects, and hundreds more poems and letters sent to her correspondents.
     Dickinson’s manuscript page is the focus of Emily Dickinson Archive. A search of the full text or first line from a poem produces images of all the manuscript versions of the poem.

 
     This archive is an amazing resource that provides for scholars an opportunity to closely study the work of this great American poet.

Celebrating Our Freedom to Read

Many libraries, including the Al Harris Library, will be celebrating Banned Books Week and the freedom to read during the week of September 22-28. Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.  For more information on banned and challenged books, go to the American Library Association's web page on Banned and Challenged Books. 

Come to the Al Harris Library and see our display of just some of the hundreds of books that are banned or challenged in the United States each year.  Let's  celebrate our freedom to read! 

Celebrating William Faulkner

Nobel Prize winning American author William Faulkner was born on September 24, 1897. This year we honor the 116th anniversary of his birth by paying tribute to his artistry as an award-winning author, teacher, and Southern gentleman.

During the years of 1957 and 1958, Faulkner served two terms as Balch Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia. Tapes of his lectures were recorded by two member of UVA's English department. With Faulkner's consent, the professors kept an audio record of the lectures. The result is our gain since we have access to this audio archive through a site called Faulkner at Virginia. In addition to the audio archive, the site includes essays, news articles, photographs, and other interesting materials related to the work of this great American author. All of these resources are available for exploration.

Take a look at the book on the display, Ledgers of History: William Faulkner, an Almost Forgotten Friendship, and an Antebellum Plantation Diary, written by Sally Wolffe.  Wolffe's book details a special friendship of Faulkner's with a fellow Mississippian named Dr. Edgar Wiggin Francisco, Jr. Dr. Francisco shared with his friend the content of the diaries of his great, great, grandfather, a pre-Civil War era plantation owner.  It is believed that significant ideas and characterizations from these diaries were used as source material for Faulkner's novels and short stories.

Take a look at the works of William Faulkner and appreciate his monumental genius and creative artistry.

National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30-day period.

Take a look at the collection of books written by Hispanic authors that are part of the display.  Find something to read and enjoy as part of this celebration.

Information Creation!

SWOSU Libraries is dedicated to providing our patrons with the best information available, but a library is not just about providing information, a library should also strive to help patrons produce their own creative and scholarly content.

To this end we have a number of digital cameras, video cameras, audio recorders, webcams and other equipment available to facilitate this goal. The devices in this display are available for check out. 

Just ask for assistance at the circulation desk!

In our media creation room we have many other devices that can be used within the library. These range from state of the art to the hard to find! This equipment includes: A flatbed scanner, a digitization scanner, 2 VHS to DVD recorders, a CD duplication unit, LP Record to CD recorders, Audio Cassette duplicators, and a typewriter.

If you are interested in creating a more involved media project requiring HD video creation or green screen photography, make an appointment for a session in our new Media Studio, located in the basement level of the Al Harris Library! 

Make an appointment to use the SWOSU Libraries Media Studio! 

Read the World

One of the great pleasures of the written word is that it allows us to see, feel and experience worlds we may not know. The act of reading makes the unknown known and the strange familiar.  The authors represented in this month’s display come from Nigeria, Mongolia, St. Lucia, Mexico, India, Japan and Peru. On display are the works of Mario Vargas Llosa, Chimamanda Adichie, Nuruddin Farah, Jiang Rong, Derek Walcott & others.  They represent myriad voices, styles, translations, genders and nations. The books in this month’s display are a small sampling of the world literature available in the Al Harris Library. If there are commonalities that bind them all, they can be found in the writers’ shared love of story and belief in the power of language. 

Read the world, find yourself.