It's finals week, and things have quietened considerably. Fewer students, fewer faculty, still plenty of staff as we begin to scurry about the work of the interregnum.
That's why I had time to finish Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. In truth, this is probably the sixth or seventh time I've read it, which does help the 846 pages go by much more quickly. The story helps; it's rich in detail and offers endless newness with each reading. It's a pseudo-historical chronicle of England in the early 19th Century and the renaissance in English magic that occurs in that period, thanks to the effort of the two competing magicians mentioned in the title.
Yes, it's a fantasy work at heart, but so superbly executed that you hardly notice that you're reading anything other than a fascinating account of the life and times of Jonathan Strange and his teacher-turned-nemesis Mr. Norrell, as both work to bring dignity back to the practice of English magic by battling Napoleon at Waterloo and socializing with the day's peerage. Along the way, they fall afoul of a mad fairy who takes advantage of their early-on carelessness to entrap the wife of a significant member of the House of Lords and all-out abduct Jonathan Strange's wife, which precipitates the book's crashing end. In the middle of it all, they must navigate a suspicious government, a fickle public, and underhanded toadies with their own agendas. All of it is written in this wonderfully archaic nineteenth-century style that almost makes you feel as though you're actually reading a contemporary account.
The book is filled with innumerable footnotes referring to nonexistent academic documents, conventional-wisdom anecdotes about fairies and magicians, and truly fascinating historical background about an England that almost sounds like it could have existed.
Now, moving on.
This will be the last blog post for a little while -- I'm taking a break for Christmas and New Year's. We'll be returning on January 8 with an eye toward the Spring semester. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little bit about good movies to watch over Christmas break.
I'm not talking about stuff like A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, or Christmas with the Kranks. Those flicks are all playing on pretty much an infinite loop on most family-oriented cable networks until December 25.
The funny thing about holiday breaks is that, during the period just before and after Christmas, one usually finds oneself at loose ends. When you have a couple of weeks of nothing to look forward to, it's easy to take up residence on the family couch and start ordering takeout from your mom's kitchen. When you slip into that period of holiday ennui, you need something to watch that doesn't have snowflakes swirling around a network logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.
One of the best ways to occupy all that time is through the judicious application of movie marathons. Trilogies, series, TV shows on DVD, anything that's at least six hours long. Those films have to be exceptionally absorbing or exceptionally ridiculous to be worth the time, so the following should not be taken too seriously. Here goes:
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
C'mon. Who doesn't love the Lord of the Rings movies? Lush scenery, expansive battles, beautiful people, and a bona-fide epic storyline tying it all together. Peter Jackson demonstrated his love of monumental scale and created one of the best book-to-movie adaptations of all time. Never mind that The Return of the King has about 12 endings stitched together; Sam and Frodo's bromance makes it all worth it.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1, 2; Grindhouse: Death Proof, Planet Terror
I lump both Kill Bill and Grindhouse together because they're both part of a similar oeuvre. One could argue that flicks like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs fit into this group, but they were earlier movies by Quentin Tarantino, so don't quite partake of that 21st-Century violence-and-horror sensibility. The Kill Bill movies are gleaming and slick, a fantastically-narrated achronological revenge narrative in which a pregnant blushing bride (who works as one of the world's greatest assassins on the side) has her wedding interrupted by her coworkers' killing spree, taking the lives of her groom, the preacher, the preacher's wife, a few of her friends, and a few of his. The incident puts her in a coma and she wakes up four years later with her womb empty and her head filled with rage, and proceeds to go on a bloody rampage until she fetches up against her former boss and lover: Bill.
True to form, the Kill Bill films are bloody, clever, violent, and beautifully-done. On the other hand, the Grindhouse films are somewhat different. Done in the style of 1950s-era B-movies, they're grainy, scratched, and stuttery ... most of the time. Both films were helmed by different directors, but with significant roles for both in each. Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof tells the story of a homicidal stuntman who enjoys killing young women with his specially-reinforced car, until he comes up against a group of beautiful -- but exceptionally bloodthirsty -- women. This film has some of the most fantastic driving scenes I've ever seen, winding through the hills of Tennessee as the hunter becomes the hunted.
Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror, however, is a different beast, and far closer to the B-movie archetype; a shadowy group of scientists tries to sell their biological weapon to the Army in a deal that goes spectactularly bad. The weapon is released, an entire Texas town gets transformed into cannibalistic, pus-oozing zombies, and the only hope lies with a one-legged stripper and her estranged lover, a felon/undercover Federale who should not be permitted near a gun.
El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Three of Robert Rodriguez's early films, this trilogy spans a period in the life of El Mariachi, an innocent Mexican mariachi player who falls in love. A lot. The first woman he falls in love with turns out to be involved with a local drug cartel, and is killed for her troubles. This incident sends El Mariachi on a lifelong trajectory of vengeance against the rapacious cartels that proliferate in Mexico. Yes, more killing, violence, and rage, but the trilogy focuses much more on El Mariachi himself and his attempts to regain his innocence. Set against the backgroup of the most beautiful Mexico you've ever seen, it's a deep examination of what makes us human and what can cause us to lose that humanity.
Star Wars: Episodes I-VI
Yes, all six episodes. It'll take you a couple of days to get through. It's worth it, though; even though the more-recently-made Episodes I-III are distinctly inferior to the older Episodes IV-VI, watching all six in sequence will give you a much better idea of what George Lucas was trying to do with his space opera. It isn't all ray guns and funny-looking aliens -- it's a work that tried to measure up to the likes of The Thorn Birds or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a generational saga that tried to be epic in its scope but instead ended up being a biography of Anakin Skywalker: his rise, his fall, his final redemption. The whole saga probably would have been better had it picked one -- generational epic or focused biography -- or the other. Still, it's a good try, and you see plenty of flashes of greatness, especially as you work your way toward the final episodes.
Heathers, Clueless, Mean Girls
Lest you think I'm all about explosions, death, murder, and war, here's a good collection of three movies to watch in sequence. They're unified only by their genre: teen high-school mean-girl comedy. Why do I recommend this? It's a great way to start thinking about how times have changed. Heathers was released in 1988, Clueless in 1995, and Mean Girls in 2004. Heathers is the story of a popular girl with a heart and her unfortunate tryst with a sociopath, and the tragedy that results. It's chock-full of dark humor ("Heather, what is your damage?") and will have you laughing at the teen sociopath's attempts to rationalize his actions using some faint echoes of Randian Objectivism. Unless you believe in it, in which case, it's got a sympathetic character you can root for!
Clueless takes you into the life of an affluent-but-shallow girl and the unreal world she inhabits, which is shaken by the advent of a grunge-chic chick from the East Coast. There's plenty of goofy humor (the movie that launched a thousand "Whatevers") and most of the high school depicted is populated by stereotypical sketches, but a film like this says much more about the culture that produced it than the one it portrays. The same is true about Mean Girls, although it is much closer to the reality of contemporary high school, mixed in with the snappy comebacks one more typically sees in sitcoms. Still, the ending gives you that "we met the enemy and he is us" moment that can often act as a valuable reality-check.
Anything by Mel Brooks: Spaceballs, History of the World Part I, Blazing Saddles, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Producers, Young Frankenstein
One of the original Hollywood spoofers, Mel Brooks has a longstanding reputation for lampooning popular culture in his movies. Most of the humor is juvenile, the acting isn't great, and the special effects are pretty hit-or-miss ... but they're funny! Brooks doesn't take moviemaking very seriously, so don't expect to get absorbed into a whole new world or anything -- a film camera smashes a medieval stained-glass window, a spaceship radar dish gets jammed with raspberry, the most insulting of all jams, and a German woman with a lisp discovers the truth about black men -- but all of his movies are immensely entertaining.
Popular wuxia films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hero; House of Flying Daggers; Kung Fu Hustle
Wuxia is sort of a genre of Chinese historical martial-arts films. Not "historical" in the literal sense; although many of those movies are loosely based on historical accounts and/or stories, the operative word here is "loosely." They're more like period pieces, which may or may not strive for plot consistency over historical accuracy.
With that said, all four films are generally kung-fu love stories. The first three are serious and set in actual historical periods that cover around 2,000 years of Chinese history, ranging from the Warring States period (around 400 BCE; Hero) to the Qing Dynasty (sometime in the late 18th Century; Crouching Tiger), stopping in at the decline of the Tang dynasty (859 CE, to be exact, for House of Flying Daggers). All three are beautifully filmed, using sweeping landscapes and some of the most amazing colors you've seen in a long time. The fights are especially well-choreographed and make heavy use of slow-motion filming, as well as lots of gravity-defying stunts.
The one odd duck in the bunch, Kung Fu Hustle, is a total spoof of the previous three. Set in Shanghai of the 1940s, Hustle is the story of a rogue who accidentally foments conflict between one of the city's poorest districts and one of its most notorious organized-crime syndicates. However, the poor residents of the district are much, much more than they seem -- as is the fool who got them involved in the first place. Underpinning the story is this sort of gleefully cartoonish sensibility, one that allows the harridan of a landlady run someone down on foot Roadrunner-style, only to be thwarted by an inconveniently-placed billboard, or the Number One Killer in the World and his taste for cheap pink plastic slippers. It's hilarious and one of the most absurd films I've seen in a long time. It serves as a great relaxant after the seriousness of Crouching Tiger, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers.
And ... that wraps it up. Have a good holiday, everyone!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
break time!
It's the last week of classes? Whoa. Uh ...
Whoa. When did that happen? It feels like only yesterday that we were schlepping a few tons of lemonades and goodies outside to greet the arriving freshmen and their families and doing our best not to sweat too much. Now here we are in December, it's the last week of classes, and pretty much everyone who matters on campus (i.e., students) is in the process of slowly slinking off to their respective holiday destinations. Of course, we've still got finals week, but who cares about those?
We survived!
I have to admit that this was my first full Fall semester. I arrived last November right before Thanksgiving, so honestly didn't see much of the onslaught all the other Library staff had just gone through. They warned me all through the past year, but honestly ... how busy could it possibly be?
I feel stupid. And tired. But good! We saw a lot of students in here over the last few months, taking full advantage of what we have to offer. We spent a few weeks bugging students, faculty, and staff alike to share their feelings about us, with interesting results. It seems people appreciate having us here, but are dubious about the building itself, which is a bit like an old warhorse that can't tell left from right (just try finding the bathrooms around here ... ). Not an unfair assessment, but the Fall semester has, so far, left us feeling pretty good.
Before I go on to describe what we'll be doing once the semester officially ends, I just had to plug another fantastic English book after last week's Origins of the Specious: Word Nerd.
Unlike Origins, Word Nerd's not a narrative text; it's actually a lot closer to an actual dictionary, albeit one that discusses surprising definitions and word factoids. For instance, did you know that the word "absurd" comes from Latin? Ab- is a prefix meaning "completely," while -surdus means "deaf!" Apparently, the original sense was "deaf to the truth" or "deaf to the voice of reason." It really makes sense -- in those times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, so tradition and, in some schools, education were passed on orally and retained strictly by memory. The ability to hear had a much bigger premium placed on it in that era than in our highly-visual times, so someone who could hear but refused to listen was seen as contravening prevailing norms -- hence, "absurd."
Mostly, Word Nerd's great for people who like esoteric words, like "pelage" for the "fur, hair, wool, etc., of a mammal;" funny usages, such as "cube" for "an extremely conservative person;" interesting origins, such as "urchin," which originally meant "hedgehog," "goblin," or "elf;" and plain useless stuff, such as knowing that "hesperian" can be used in place of "western," along with "boreal," "ortive," and "austral," for "northern," "eastern," and "southern," respectively -- but only if referring to the act of rising in any one of those directions!
It isn't the kind of book you'd actually read for pleasure, but it's pretty fun to skim through for word nerds, appropriately enough.
So what's happening with the Library and your librarians over the winter break? Plenty.
The Library
We've been busy getting people to take surveys so we can check up on how we're doing and figure out what people want this year. There have been a lot of results, so we'll be spending the break on getting those results together, figuring them out, and deciding how to respond to the feedback we've gotten so far. We'll also be planning our outreach to various groups before and during the Spring semester.
We'll also be losing one of our librarians next summer; Jane Rutherford is retiring. It's an exciting time for her! It's also an exciting time for those of us who are still going to be around; it's a great opportunity to reassess our priorities, examine how we're providing our services, and figure out how we can best meet everyone's needs in response to the changes that are going on around us.
We'll also be hard at work writing LibGuides for new courses as well as new and old resources. Last semester saw some strong LibGuides usage, and we're looking to build on that.
Diana Gates
Diana has three major projects for the Deaf Collection, which includes everything deaf-related. Out-of-print materials and foreign materials are going to be a big focus. She's also planning to continue the hunt for deaf people from the past and finding publications or productions to add to the collection, one of her favorite parts of the job, although it can be time-intensive. Another project involves contacting deaf schools to obtain copies of their yearbooks to fill in gaps in the collection. The third project is deciding which of 3000 u-matic videotapes should be preserved and transferred into digital format. And, of course, she plans to prepare for a new semester and focus on other tasks involved.
Laura Jacobi
Cleaning. Laura will be doing a lot of cleaning. Her files, the Service Desk area, the Library's Web site, call numbers 360-369 (social problems and services), and our standing orders, which are essentially things that we get on a recurring basis, like encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and bibliographies. Many of those are updated yearly and keep our Reference section full and up to date. However, these days, those items don't see much use, so we're reducing the money we spend on these and applying that money to other, more heavily-used services.
Laura's also responsible for scheduling librarians on the Service Desk; when the holiday period rolls around, people start taking time off, and things can get hopelessly complicated between all the subs, changing hours, and varying levels of student use. This necessitates making a new schedule from scratch once everyone's holiday plans are finalized. In addition to that, of course, we've got a whole new semester coming up, and individual librarians' schedules can change depending on new weekly obligations, student assistant availability, and operating hours, so an overall schedule for the Service Desk needs to be written for that, too. No shortage of stuff to do!
Jane Rutherford
More LibGuides, plus, as the Library's resident Web-based potentate, she'll be spending the break working on the Web site. She'll also be planning out a big meeting with the faculty in one of her departments to discuss the curriculum and materials to order. Through all of that, she'll also start the process of cleaning out her office, transferring data from her old computer, and generally getting ready to retire.
Patrick Oberholtzer
Patrick plans to order new items for his subject areas, which seem to be multiplying, in addition to weeding older, outdated books from his parts of the collection. Since a lot of what he does relates to math and the sciences, this seems like a good idea! He'll also be meeting with faculty in different departments to discuss changes in the curriculum and work on some LibGuides (one of our big projects for the break) for History & Government.
In January, Patrick's also heading to Boston for the ALA Midwinter Conference, an event eagerly anticipated by librarians everywhere. Unless, of course, it's in a place like Boston in a month like January ... but it's still exciting! He plans to attend workshops on assessing information literacy, next-generation catalogs, and providing reference services in the digital age. He'll also be trolling the exhibition floor for any new products and databases for the Library, focusing specifically on stuff relating to developing countries and biology.
Jim McCarthy
What am I doing? Mostly drinking rum-laced eggnog, dodging snowflakes, and looking for holiday-themed videos of kittens on YouTube.
Okay, maybe not. I am visiting my family for Christmas, though -- spending a few days in sunny Florida is, I think, just what the doctor ordered! I'll also be checking through my files, looking for missing books in my subject areas that may need to be replaced, getting ready to undergo another big weeding project from the parts of the collection relating to English and Linguistics, and writing LibGuides for some classes and the Literary Resource Center, a terrific database focused on literature and all related pursuits. It's seen a surprisingly good amount of use already for something we've only had for a month, but I plan to promote it to faculty and staff over break, along with a few other databases that should be used more heavily than they are. There are also a few existing guides that need to be revised, updated, and expanded.
I'll also be working on ordering new stuff, talking with faculty about shifting focus to certain parts of the collection, and doing a little work related to the Library's Web site. More on that later. Also planning out a few new displays for the Spring, and possibly setting up a few fun workshops, both early in the semester to get people's minds off the winter and later to help with the stress of getting ready for graduation or plain old all-around school-related stress.
Oof. Students are lucky. They get a whole freakin' month off. Still, we're better off than most corporate drones -- only in academia can one get at least a week off every year without cutting into their vacation time! We're all looking forward to the holidays and getting started on the behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't usually have time for in the middle of the semester, and when everyone comes back in January, there'll be some new stuff to look forward to!
Heck, it's the end of the semester. No Question of the Week this week or next. If you're leaving early, enjoy your break; if you're sticking around for finals, good luck!
Whoa. When did that happen? It feels like only yesterday that we were schlepping a few tons of lemonades and goodies outside to greet the arriving freshmen and their families and doing our best not to sweat too much. Now here we are in December, it's the last week of classes, and pretty much everyone who matters on campus (i.e., students) is in the process of slowly slinking off to their respective holiday destinations. Of course, we've still got finals week, but who cares about those?
We survived!
I have to admit that this was my first full Fall semester. I arrived last November right before Thanksgiving, so honestly didn't see much of the onslaught all the other Library staff had just gone through. They warned me all through the past year, but honestly ... how busy could it possibly be?
I feel stupid. And tired. But good! We saw a lot of students in here over the last few months, taking full advantage of what we have to offer. We spent a few weeks bugging students, faculty, and staff alike to share their feelings about us, with interesting results. It seems people appreciate having us here, but are dubious about the building itself, which is a bit like an old warhorse that can't tell left from right (just try finding the bathrooms around here ... ). Not an unfair assessment, but the Fall semester has, so far, left us feeling pretty good.
Before I go on to describe what we'll be doing once the semester officially ends, I just had to plug another fantastic English book after last week's Origins of the Specious: Word Nerd.
Unlike Origins, Word Nerd's not a narrative text; it's actually a lot closer to an actual dictionary, albeit one that discusses surprising definitions and word factoids. For instance, did you know that the word "absurd" comes from Latin? Ab- is a prefix meaning "completely," while -surdus means "deaf!" Apparently, the original sense was "deaf to the truth" or "deaf to the voice of reason." It really makes sense -- in those times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, so tradition and, in some schools, education were passed on orally and retained strictly by memory. The ability to hear had a much bigger premium placed on it in that era than in our highly-visual times, so someone who could hear but refused to listen was seen as contravening prevailing norms -- hence, "absurd."
Mostly, Word Nerd's great for people who like esoteric words, like "pelage" for the "fur, hair, wool, etc., of a mammal;" funny usages, such as "cube" for "an extremely conservative person;" interesting origins, such as "urchin," which originally meant "hedgehog," "goblin," or "elf;" and plain useless stuff, such as knowing that "hesperian" can be used in place of "western," along with "boreal," "ortive," and "austral," for "northern," "eastern," and "southern," respectively -- but only if referring to the act of rising in any one of those directions!
It isn't the kind of book you'd actually read for pleasure, but it's pretty fun to skim through for word nerds, appropriately enough.
So what's happening with the Library and your librarians over the winter break? Plenty.
The Library
We've been busy getting people to take surveys so we can check up on how we're doing and figure out what people want this year. There have been a lot of results, so we'll be spending the break on getting those results together, figuring them out, and deciding how to respond to the feedback we've gotten so far. We'll also be planning our outreach to various groups before and during the Spring semester.
We'll also be losing one of our librarians next summer; Jane Rutherford is retiring. It's an exciting time for her! It's also an exciting time for those of us who are still going to be around; it's a great opportunity to reassess our priorities, examine how we're providing our services, and figure out how we can best meet everyone's needs in response to the changes that are going on around us.
We'll also be hard at work writing LibGuides for new courses as well as new and old resources. Last semester saw some strong LibGuides usage, and we're looking to build on that.
Diana Gates
Diana has three major projects for the Deaf Collection, which includes everything deaf-related. Out-of-print materials and foreign materials are going to be a big focus. She's also planning to continue the hunt for deaf people from the past and finding publications or productions to add to the collection, one of her favorite parts of the job, although it can be time-intensive. Another project involves contacting deaf schools to obtain copies of their yearbooks to fill in gaps in the collection. The third project is deciding which of 3000 u-matic videotapes should be preserved and transferred into digital format. And, of course, she plans to prepare for a new semester and focus on other tasks involved.
Laura Jacobi
Cleaning. Laura will be doing a lot of cleaning. Her files, the Service Desk area, the Library's Web site, call numbers 360-369 (social problems and services), and our standing orders, which are essentially things that we get on a recurring basis, like encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and bibliographies. Many of those are updated yearly and keep our Reference section full and up to date. However, these days, those items don't see much use, so we're reducing the money we spend on these and applying that money to other, more heavily-used services.
Laura's also responsible for scheduling librarians on the Service Desk; when the holiday period rolls around, people start taking time off, and things can get hopelessly complicated between all the subs, changing hours, and varying levels of student use. This necessitates making a new schedule from scratch once everyone's holiday plans are finalized. In addition to that, of course, we've got a whole new semester coming up, and individual librarians' schedules can change depending on new weekly obligations, student assistant availability, and operating hours, so an overall schedule for the Service Desk needs to be written for that, too. No shortage of stuff to do!
Jane Rutherford
More LibGuides, plus, as the Library's resident Web-based potentate, she'll be spending the break working on the Web site. She'll also be planning out a big meeting with the faculty in one of her departments to discuss the curriculum and materials to order. Through all of that, she'll also start the process of cleaning out her office, transferring data from her old computer, and generally getting ready to retire.
Patrick Oberholtzer
Patrick plans to order new items for his subject areas, which seem to be multiplying, in addition to weeding older, outdated books from his parts of the collection. Since a lot of what he does relates to math and the sciences, this seems like a good idea! He'll also be meeting with faculty in different departments to discuss changes in the curriculum and work on some LibGuides (one of our big projects for the break) for History & Government.
In January, Patrick's also heading to Boston for the ALA Midwinter Conference, an event eagerly anticipated by librarians everywhere. Unless, of course, it's in a place like Boston in a month like January ... but it's still exciting! He plans to attend workshops on assessing information literacy, next-generation catalogs, and providing reference services in the digital age. He'll also be trolling the exhibition floor for any new products and databases for the Library, focusing specifically on stuff relating to developing countries and biology.
Jim McCarthy
What am I doing? Mostly drinking rum-laced eggnog, dodging snowflakes, and looking for holiday-themed videos of kittens on YouTube.
Okay, maybe not. I am visiting my family for Christmas, though -- spending a few days in sunny Florida is, I think, just what the doctor ordered! I'll also be checking through my files, looking for missing books in my subject areas that may need to be replaced, getting ready to undergo another big weeding project from the parts of the collection relating to English and Linguistics, and writing LibGuides for some classes and the Literary Resource Center, a terrific database focused on literature and all related pursuits. It's seen a surprisingly good amount of use already for something we've only had for a month, but I plan to promote it to faculty and staff over break, along with a few other databases that should be used more heavily than they are. There are also a few existing guides that need to be revised, updated, and expanded.
I'll also be working on ordering new stuff, talking with faculty about shifting focus to certain parts of the collection, and doing a little work related to the Library's Web site. More on that later. Also planning out a few new displays for the Spring, and possibly setting up a few fun workshops, both early in the semester to get people's minds off the winter and later to help with the stress of getting ready for graduation or plain old all-around school-related stress.
Oof. Students are lucky. They get a whole freakin' month off. Still, we're better off than most corporate drones -- only in academia can one get at least a week off every year without cutting into their vacation time! We're all looking forward to the holidays and getting started on the behind-the-scenes stuff that we don't usually have time for in the middle of the semester, and when everyone comes back in January, there'll be some new stuff to look forward to!
Heck, it's the end of the semester. No Question of the Week this week or next. If you're leaving early, enjoy your break; if you're sticking around for finals, good luck!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Using databases for personal research
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I met up with some friends and we ate, talked, played games, and just had an all-around good time.
Over the break, I also polished off The Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O'Conner and feel immensely smarter as a result.
The reason? I get yelled at from time to time for trying to flagrantly split infinitives, pronouncing "forte" as though it were an Army post instead of the French word it isn't, indiscriminately calling a spade a spade, refusing to be gobsmacked by a British accent, and finding prepositions to end a sentence with.
Hogwash, says O'Conner. Although she repeats a lot of stuff I already knew -- being an avid reader of blogs about linguistics, lexicography, orthography, and syntax, as well as a librarian specializing in that subject area, it's hard to avoid being saturated with descriptivism -- she does so in a very entertaining way, and also manages to reveal new information. For example, did you know that in spite of what some Londoners (*cough* Prince of Wales *cough*) might say, British English is not the "better" version of English? There is no better version, but if you were to seriously argue it out with an angry Mancunian, the truth is that a lot of so-called Americanisms are actually holdovers from before the Colonies split from the Crown.
You can thank Noah Webster for that -- he's the guy who compiled the first English dictionary on our side of the Atlantic -- and his competition with Samuel Johnson, who did the same over in England. Webster decided he'd prefer to maintain the more traditional orthography (like "theater"), while Samuel Johnson, being the radically progressive sort, decided to adopt the spellings that had emerged in recent decades (like "theatre"). The same is true with our "-ize" and their "-ise" -- ours is the older ending, while theirs is actually the result of various attempts to Latinize the English language by cutting up a bunch of French words and sticking them on the end of English words. This has continued even today, with "kerb" and "flat" being adopted by Britons over the more old-fashioned "curb" and "apartment."
Even more interesting is the difference between British and American accents. They pronounce things differently than we do, and the assumption is that their way is the more old-fashioned, the product of a thousand-year-old monarchy (give or take a Cromwell or two), while we're the upstarts. O'Conner blew me away here -- apparently the British pronunciation is newer than ours! After the Revolution, the English language was torn asunder, and, in Britain, began evolving away from the common form almost immediately. They lost the 'r' (in a debate which might have killed Percy Bysshe Shelley) and gained the broad vowel (like "pawth" instead of "pahth"), while ours stayed pretty much the same.
This means that we in the United States sound an awful lot like seventeenth-century Englishmen! I like to think that William Shakespeare himself might have felt at home in the Mall of America. Take a look at the book sometime -- it makes English sound much more like the fascinating language it really is.
Before we move on to today's main topic, I'd like to make a suggestion. It's getting close to Christmas, and it's one of those times of year when you may end up getting a bunch of new stuff. If you'd like to make room for it all, consider donating any extra books or movies to the Library. Just make sure any movies you bring are captioned or subtitled and that everything's in good condition. Check ALADIN Discovery before you bring it all in, though, and make sure we don't already have what you bring in. We'll still take it, but if it's not in better condition than what we have, it may go on the Book Sale shelf.
In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about more general research of the kind that you'd most likely use Google for: personal curiosity! Sometimes Gallaudet students, faculty, or staff want to research stuff just for their own edification, outside of class -- I know I do -- and they're more than welcome to do so with our databases.
Let's say you want to find out more about what's going on in Congress. Or the twinge in your knee after your last pick-up basketball game. Google's a pretty good place to go! However -- and this is a big however -- Google has its flaws and you have much better resources at your disposal when you're affiliated with Gallaudet as a student or faculty or staff member.
We'll take a look at the two examples (Congress, knee twinge) mentioned above and how you can use your affiliation with Gallaudet to find the best information available.
To start with: Congress. Most of what happens in Congress is public information and is avidly covered by news outlets and individual bloggers on the Internet, which means that lots of information can come easily to hand. However, searching for stuff on Congress can lead to getting drowned in political attack Web sites ('Ginny Brown-Waite, D-Fl: Does She Eat Babies? Anonymous Sources Say Yes'), fluffy news articles ('Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Opens Binghamton IKEA to Fanfare'), and the politician's own propaganda engines ('Press Release from the Office of Senator Max Baucus: Sen. Baucus Meets, Greets Foreign Heads of State').
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is genuine information about what's happening in the legislature. Still, it can take a lot of time to sift through a mass of conflicting and unreliable sources, when you just want real, unbiased reporting.
Fortunately, there's a solution: CQ Weekly. That's one of our databases, which you can find by going to "Databases by Subject" in ALADIN and clicking on the list item that says "Multi-subject:Articles/Dissertations." CQ Weekly reports on Congress: what issues are before the legislature, what senators and representatives are doing, fundraising status, all sorts of things Congressional. CQ also offers useful tools like appropriation charts, quick summaries of bills to watch, vote charts, and listings of current public laws, all of which offer frequent and regular updates. It's a beautiful thing.
CQ Weekly, incidentally, is one of a group of databases owned by CQ Press. We've also got access to CQ Researcher, which provides incredibly useful summaries written by seasoned journalists on the state of current issues in the United States and around the world. Both CQs are always worth checking out.
As for that pain in your knee ... well, it could be any number of things, right? Google brings up 7.21 million search results for "knee injury." Yikes. Now what?
Now -- and this should have been done before checking Google -- the first thing you should do is see a doctor and get it treated. Seriously. Quit self-diagnosing.
If, after you've seen a qualified medical professional, found out that it's being caused by damage to your meniscus, and begun treatment, you're still curious about why this sort of thing happens and other ways to treat it, head to ALADIN. Look for "Databases by Subject" and find the list item that says "Audiology/Human Biology/Medical Sciences" and take a look at it. There are a few good possibilities there; the most obvious-looking ones are both called PubMed (Central and Medline) and are run by the National Library of Medicine. Central is a full-text database, while Medline only collects citations, so if you're going to use either, go for Central. However, they're both extremely technical, so unless you're highly conversant with human biology and medicine, try CINAHL instead: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. This, too, can be technical, but for the most part, it's more practically applicable -- you can see articles listed about various types of meniscal injuries related to basketball and the most common treatments for them It's pretty nice!
If you're not looking for scholarly research about your knee, though, the National Library of Medicine also provides a free public resource named (confusingly) Medline Plus at http://medlineplus.gov. It's a terrific resource for the ailments that come as a result of day-to-day living.
You should bear in mind that our resources cover many topics and by no means are we limited to politics and orthopedics; it's always a good idea to take a quick look at our listing of databases in order to fully understand exactly what you do have access to. If you come across a database name that doesn't obviously denote its content -- ProQuest comes to mind -- ask a librarian.
In general, though, we do have an amazing amount of resources, both online and off. It really is to your benefit to take advantage of all you have available to you, even if it's for personal purposes rather than for school-related reasons. Using our databases in this way brings another benefit: it's practice. The more you use our databases, for whatever reason, the more you learn about how you can use them, and the better you'll become at performing academic research. Plus it makes your librarians feel good. Everyone wins!
Next week is the last week of classes, so everyone's going to be busy focusing on schoolwork. Because of that, we'll be doing a puff piece: What goes on in the Library after everyone's gone home for the winter break?
Question of the Week
I remember last winter, during break, the Library was open. Will that happen again this year? Also, I kind of freaked out when I tried to renew a book online and it said my record expired. Is this normal and why does it happen?
We will definitely be open during winter break, except for December 25-January 3, when we'll be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, our hours will be Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. You can certainly come in and check stuff out when we're open!
As for your record expiring, that is normal. It's built into the system as a consequence of our semester system -- all records are set to expire at the end of each semester, and are then updated at the beginning of the next semester after you've registered for classes and we know that you are, in fact, coming back. Just come on in, let us know if you'll be back in the Spring, and we'll fix you up.
Over the break, I also polished off The Origins of the Specious by Patricia T. O'Conner and feel immensely smarter as a result.
The reason? I get yelled at from time to time for trying to flagrantly split infinitives, pronouncing "forte" as though it were an Army post instead of the French word it isn't, indiscriminately calling a spade a spade, refusing to be gobsmacked by a British accent, and finding prepositions to end a sentence with.
Hogwash, says O'Conner. Although she repeats a lot of stuff I already knew -- being an avid reader of blogs about linguistics, lexicography, orthography, and syntax, as well as a librarian specializing in that subject area, it's hard to avoid being saturated with descriptivism -- she does so in a very entertaining way, and also manages to reveal new information. For example, did you know that in spite of what some Londoners (*cough* Prince of Wales *cough*) might say, British English is not the "better" version of English? There is no better version, but if you were to seriously argue it out with an angry Mancunian, the truth is that a lot of so-called Americanisms are actually holdovers from before the Colonies split from the Crown.
You can thank Noah Webster for that -- he's the guy who compiled the first English dictionary on our side of the Atlantic -- and his competition with Samuel Johnson, who did the same over in England. Webster decided he'd prefer to maintain the more traditional orthography (like "theater"), while Samuel Johnson, being the radically progressive sort, decided to adopt the spellings that had emerged in recent decades (like "theatre"). The same is true with our "-ize" and their "-ise" -- ours is the older ending, while theirs is actually the result of various attempts to Latinize the English language by cutting up a bunch of French words and sticking them on the end of English words. This has continued even today, with "kerb" and "flat" being adopted by Britons over the more old-fashioned "curb" and "apartment."
Even more interesting is the difference between British and American accents. They pronounce things differently than we do, and the assumption is that their way is the more old-fashioned, the product of a thousand-year-old monarchy (give or take a Cromwell or two), while we're the upstarts. O'Conner blew me away here -- apparently the British pronunciation is newer than ours! After the Revolution, the English language was torn asunder, and, in Britain, began evolving away from the common form almost immediately. They lost the 'r' (in a debate which might have killed Percy Bysshe Shelley) and gained the broad vowel (like "pawth" instead of "pahth"), while ours stayed pretty much the same.
This means that we in the United States sound an awful lot like seventeenth-century Englishmen! I like to think that William Shakespeare himself might have felt at home in the Mall of America. Take a look at the book sometime -- it makes English sound much more like the fascinating language it really is.
Before we move on to today's main topic, I'd like to make a suggestion. It's getting close to Christmas, and it's one of those times of year when you may end up getting a bunch of new stuff. If you'd like to make room for it all, consider donating any extra books or movies to the Library. Just make sure any movies you bring are captioned or subtitled and that everything's in good condition. Check ALADIN Discovery before you bring it all in, though, and make sure we don't already have what you bring in. We'll still take it, but if it's not in better condition than what we have, it may go on the Book Sale shelf.
In the meantime, let's talk a little bit about more general research of the kind that you'd most likely use Google for: personal curiosity! Sometimes Gallaudet students, faculty, or staff want to research stuff just for their own edification, outside of class -- I know I do -- and they're more than welcome to do so with our databases.
Let's say you want to find out more about what's going on in Congress. Or the twinge in your knee after your last pick-up basketball game. Google's a pretty good place to go! However -- and this is a big however -- Google has its flaws and you have much better resources at your disposal when you're affiliated with Gallaudet as a student or faculty or staff member.
We'll take a look at the two examples (Congress, knee twinge) mentioned above and how you can use your affiliation with Gallaudet to find the best information available.
To start with: Congress. Most of what happens in Congress is public information and is avidly covered by news outlets and individual bloggers on the Internet, which means that lots of information can come easily to hand. However, searching for stuff on Congress can lead to getting drowned in political attack Web sites ('Ginny Brown-Waite, D-Fl: Does She Eat Babies? Anonymous Sources Say Yes'), fluffy news articles ('Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, Opens Binghamton IKEA to Fanfare'), and the politician's own propaganda engines ('Press Release from the Office of Senator Max Baucus: Sen. Baucus Meets, Greets Foreign Heads of State').
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff is genuine information about what's happening in the legislature. Still, it can take a lot of time to sift through a mass of conflicting and unreliable sources, when you just want real, unbiased reporting.
Fortunately, there's a solution: CQ Weekly. That's one of our databases, which you can find by going to "Databases by Subject" in ALADIN and clicking on the list item that says "Multi-subject:Articles/Dissertations." CQ Weekly reports on Congress: what issues are before the legislature, what senators and representatives are doing, fundraising status, all sorts of things Congressional. CQ also offers useful tools like appropriation charts, quick summaries of bills to watch, vote charts, and listings of current public laws, all of which offer frequent and regular updates. It's a beautiful thing.
CQ Weekly, incidentally, is one of a group of databases owned by CQ Press. We've also got access to CQ Researcher, which provides incredibly useful summaries written by seasoned journalists on the state of current issues in the United States and around the world. Both CQs are always worth checking out.
As for that pain in your knee ... well, it could be any number of things, right? Google brings up 7.21 million search results for "knee injury." Yikes. Now what?
Now -- and this should have been done before checking Google -- the first thing you should do is see a doctor and get it treated. Seriously. Quit self-diagnosing.
If, after you've seen a qualified medical professional, found out that it's being caused by damage to your meniscus, and begun treatment, you're still curious about why this sort of thing happens and other ways to treat it, head to ALADIN. Look for "Databases by Subject" and find the list item that says "Audiology/Human Biology/Medical Sciences" and take a look at it. There are a few good possibilities there; the most obvious-looking ones are both called PubMed (Central and Medline) and are run by the National Library of Medicine. Central is a full-text database, while Medline only collects citations, so if you're going to use either, go for Central. However, they're both extremely technical, so unless you're highly conversant with human biology and medicine, try CINAHL instead: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. This, too, can be technical, but for the most part, it's more practically applicable -- you can see articles listed about various types of meniscal injuries related to basketball and the most common treatments for them It's pretty nice!
If you're not looking for scholarly research about your knee, though, the National Library of Medicine also provides a free public resource named (confusingly) Medline Plus at http://medlineplus.gov. It's a terrific resource for the ailments that come as a result of day-to-day living.
You should bear in mind that our resources cover many topics and by no means are we limited to politics and orthopedics; it's always a good idea to take a quick look at our listing of databases in order to fully understand exactly what you do have access to. If you come across a database name that doesn't obviously denote its content -- ProQuest comes to mind -- ask a librarian.
In general, though, we do have an amazing amount of resources, both online and off. It really is to your benefit to take advantage of all you have available to you, even if it's for personal purposes rather than for school-related reasons. Using our databases in this way brings another benefit: it's practice. The more you use our databases, for whatever reason, the more you learn about how you can use them, and the better you'll become at performing academic research. Plus it makes your librarians feel good. Everyone wins!
Next week is the last week of classes, so everyone's going to be busy focusing on schoolwork. Because of that, we'll be doing a puff piece: What goes on in the Library after everyone's gone home for the winter break?
Question of the Week
I remember last winter, during break, the Library was open. Will that happen again this year? Also, I kind of freaked out when I tried to renew a book online and it said my record expired. Is this normal and why does it happen?
We will definitely be open during winter break, except for December 25-January 3, when we'll be closed for the period between Christmas and New Year's. Otherwise, our hours will be Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. You can certainly come in and check stuff out when we're open!
As for your record expiring, that is normal. It's built into the system as a consequence of our semester system -- all records are set to expire at the end of each semester, and are then updated at the beginning of the next semester after you've registered for classes and we know that you are, in fact, coming back. Just come on in, let us know if you'll be back in the Spring, and we'll fix you up.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
It's all about RefWorks!
Here comes Thanksgiving and papers and finals and ...
Well, we'll focus on that in just a minute. First, I just finished Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six following the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery. Lengthy title notwithstanding, this book came to us after weeks of enthusiastic recommendations from various directions, and after reading it, I can understand why. At its root, it's a science-fiction (SF) novel, a genre which doesn't always get the respect it deserves in certain quarters. Some forget that fantastic writers like Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, HG Wells, Mary Shelley, Michael Chabon, and Kurt Vonnegut (to name just a few) were or are all SF authors. That's without including Isaac Asimov, who alone occupies 9 of the 10 major Dewey classifications (except the 100s, philosophy and psychology) and ... well, that's another post. The point is that the SF label isn't sufficient justification for dismissal.
Liberation is a good example of SF that works well as a piece of literature on a par with The Road or Oryx and Crake; as the title makes obvious, this is the story of an America crushed beneath the falling dollar and the flight of foreign investors, leading to the bankruptcy of the government and the total collapse of American society. This results in an landscape that's been peculiarly changed; after the initial flurry of riots and small wars dies down, people are more or less intact but incredibly poor, so they make do with the junk left over from their former lives.
Families take up residence in stripped station wagons and spin thread for textiles on wheels mounted on car axles, children gather junk from the shore and refashion various useful multitools to hawk on the streets, a single individual gathers all the information from around the country and sends it out in weekly digests via telegraph, fiber-optic cable, and the few remaining American-owned satellites, and other small-but-brilliant indications of the ingenuity and vibrance that's still left even after the death of the government. There's no real political organization larger than, say, Asheville, North Carolina, the last place on the continent south of Canada that's still free. Economically, though, most of the financial activity in the former United States is run by the Aardvark, a criminal-turned-king who rules from New York and runs most of the revived slave trade.
Enter the Slick Six: a band of thieves before the collapse who pulled off unimaginably huge heists using the members' strange skills at accounting, electronics, information dissemination, being charming, being smart, and killing people. One of them was shipped off to jail -- literally, on a prison ship somewhere in the North Atlantic -- before the end of society, and when he returns, he finds himself determined to bring the Slick Six back together and bring down the Aardvark and end slavery for the second time in American history. Whether he's successful or not, of course, is a matter of perspective. It's a narrative that reminds me strongly of Thomas Pynchon and other authors who can easily occupy an entire page with a single sentence that can take you halfway across the continent before you realize the subject's been changed.
It's highly recommended, especially if you're worried about the economy. It's pure speculation, of course, but it's still a terrific read!
After that lengthy synopsis and brief digression on the nature of SF and its awful treatment at the hands of literary snobs, let's focus on something more practical, especially as the semester winds down: RefWorks. I'm going to do this all in a Q&A format, mostly because I'm tired of writing long narrative posts and because there are several questions common to each student encounter with RefWorks.
What is RefWorks?
Why, that's simple. It's a bibliographic content management system!
By which I mean, of course, that it can store all the citation information from the articles, books, Web sites and other sources you come across while you're doing your research, organize all those articles, and then automatically create a "Works Cited" list for you to insert in your paper or project. Or a "References" list or whatever else is prescribed by the style manual you're using (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
Cue heavenly glow. Cue angelic choir. That's what I see in the faces of most of the students whom I introduce to RefWorks when I mention that last. It's crazy. I'll explain more about that later; suffice it to say that RefWorks does a lot of work for you while you're researching.
How do I find it?
Go to library.gallaudet.edu and look in the middle box in the top row on the page with a sort of burgundy/maroon-colored header bar that says "Research Help." You should see a link third from the bottom that says "RefWorks." Click on it.
Next, you'll see another page, this time with a bunch more links. This is the Library-RefWorks page. To go straight to RefWorks, just click the link at the top, the one saying "Link to RefWorks." However, if it's your first time, I do strongly suggest that you read the rest of the page.
Why? Well, we have two videos created by Jane Rutherford, one of our Instruction & Reference Librarians, that walk you through the fundamentals of using RefWorks; both videos are identical, one just has voice added. They are terrifically useful, and having them means I can skip the details here.
You'll also see a list of "Import Guides" along the right-hand side of the screen. These are important for two reasons. First, they relate to one of RefWorks' most useful functions, which is the ability to automatically transfer all citation information from the database articles of your choice right into RefWorks, saving you all the time it'd take to type a single reference into the online form provided by RefWorks. This is awesome.
Unfortunately, not all databases are created equal; each one transfers citations into RefWorks by different methods. This is the second reason why the import guides are important: they all include step-by-step instructions for getting citations into RefWorks for each database (including our catalog, ALADIN Discovery). Because of that, this is one window you'll want to keep open while you're doing your research.
Do I really need to create an account?
Yup. It's free, doesn't ask for much personal information, takes very little time, and is definitely worth it.
Okay, I kind of get what you're saying. But ... how do I really use it?
It varies according to your needs. Here's an example of the research process I'd use for articles by themselves:
Wow. It really does make a reference list for your paper.Well, we'll focus on that in just a minute. First, I just finished Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six following the Collapse of the United States of America by Brian Francis Slattery. Lengthy title notwithstanding, this book came to us after weeks of enthusiastic recommendations from various directions, and after reading it, I can understand why. At its root, it's a science-fiction (SF) novel, a genre which doesn't always get the respect it deserves in certain quarters. Some forget that fantastic writers like Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, HG Wells, Mary Shelley, Michael Chabon, and Kurt Vonnegut (to name just a few) were or are all SF authors. That's without including Isaac Asimov, who alone occupies 9 of the 10 major Dewey classifications (except the 100s, philosophy and psychology) and ... well, that's another post. The point is that the SF label isn't sufficient justification for dismissal.
Liberation is a good example of SF that works well as a piece of literature on a par with The Road or Oryx and Crake; as the title makes obvious, this is the story of an America crushed beneath the falling dollar and the flight of foreign investors, leading to the bankruptcy of the government and the total collapse of American society. This results in an landscape that's been peculiarly changed; after the initial flurry of riots and small wars dies down, people are more or less intact but incredibly poor, so they make do with the junk left over from their former lives.
Families take up residence in stripped station wagons and spin thread for textiles on wheels mounted on car axles, children gather junk from the shore and refashion various useful multitools to hawk on the streets, a single individual gathers all the information from around the country and sends it out in weekly digests via telegraph, fiber-optic cable, and the few remaining American-owned satellites, and other small-but-brilliant indications of the ingenuity and vibrance that's still left even after the death of the government. There's no real political organization larger than, say, Asheville, North Carolina, the last place on the continent south of Canada that's still free. Economically, though, most of the financial activity in the former United States is run by the Aardvark, a criminal-turned-king who rules from New York and runs most of the revived slave trade.
Enter the Slick Six: a band of thieves before the collapse who pulled off unimaginably huge heists using the members' strange skills at accounting, electronics, information dissemination, being charming, being smart, and killing people. One of them was shipped off to jail -- literally, on a prison ship somewhere in the North Atlantic -- before the end of society, and when he returns, he finds himself determined to bring the Slick Six back together and bring down the Aardvark and end slavery for the second time in American history. Whether he's successful or not, of course, is a matter of perspective. It's a narrative that reminds me strongly of Thomas Pynchon and other authors who can easily occupy an entire page with a single sentence that can take you halfway across the continent before you realize the subject's been changed.
It's highly recommended, especially if you're worried about the economy. It's pure speculation, of course, but it's still a terrific read!
After that lengthy synopsis and brief digression on the nature of SF and its awful treatment at the hands of literary snobs, let's focus on something more practical, especially as the semester winds down: RefWorks. I'm going to do this all in a Q&A format, mostly because I'm tired of writing long narrative posts and because there are several questions common to each student encounter with RefWorks.
What is RefWorks?
Why, that's simple. It's a bibliographic content management system!
By which I mean, of course, that it can store all the citation information from the articles, books, Web sites and other sources you come across while you're doing your research, organize all those articles, and then automatically create a "Works Cited" list for you to insert in your paper or project. Or a "References" list or whatever else is prescribed by the style manual you're using (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).
Cue heavenly glow. Cue angelic choir. That's what I see in the faces of most of the students whom I introduce to RefWorks when I mention that last. It's crazy. I'll explain more about that later; suffice it to say that RefWorks does a lot of work for you while you're researching.
How do I find it?
Go to library.gallaudet.edu and look in the middle box in the top row on the page with a sort of burgundy/maroon-colored header bar that says "Research Help." You should see a link third from the bottom that says "RefWorks." Click on it.
Next, you'll see another page, this time with a bunch more links. This is the Library-RefWorks page. To go straight to RefWorks, just click the link at the top, the one saying "Link to RefWorks." However, if it's your first time, I do strongly suggest that you read the rest of the page.
Why? Well, we have two videos created by Jane Rutherford, one of our Instruction & Reference Librarians, that walk you through the fundamentals of using RefWorks; both videos are identical, one just has voice added. They are terrifically useful, and having them means I can skip the details here.
You'll also see a list of "Import Guides" along the right-hand side of the screen. These are important for two reasons. First, they relate to one of RefWorks' most useful functions, which is the ability to automatically transfer all citation information from the database articles of your choice right into RefWorks, saving you all the time it'd take to type a single reference into the online form provided by RefWorks. This is awesome.
Unfortunately, not all databases are created equal; each one transfers citations into RefWorks by different methods. This is the second reason why the import guides are important: they all include step-by-step instructions for getting citations into RefWorks for each database (including our catalog, ALADIN Discovery). Because of that, this is one window you'll want to keep open while you're doing your research.
Do I really need to create an account?
Yup. It's free, doesn't ask for much personal information, takes very little time, and is definitely worth it.
Okay, I kind of get what you're saying. But ... how do I really use it?
It varies according to your needs. Here's an example of the research process I'd use for articles by themselves:
- Open RefWorks, sign in, and keep it open the entire time. Just leave it alone
- Open the Library's RefWorks page (with the links to all the import guides on it) and leave that open, too
- Get started on researching by picking a database
- After deciding which database you want to use, go back to the list of import guides and open the one for the database you're using. Leave it open while you're searching.
- Search and find whatever articles you'll need in that database
- Follow the instructions on the import guide to get all the citations you want to use into RefWorks
- Once the citations are in RefWorks, you get to decide what you want to do with the citations:
- Leave them where they are (RefWorks puts them into the 'Last Imported' folder)
- Put them into a folder specifically for this topic (you can create it before you start researching or do it at this point, using the Folders menu in the RefWorks menu bar)
- In RefWorks, open the menu named References and select "Add a new reference"
- You'll see a big form full of what seems like hundreds of blank fields. Don't worry about those -- just look at the top of the form
- Make sure that the right style is selected in View fields used by: drop-down next to the "Save Reference" button
- If you want to put the reference in a specific folder, select that in the next drop-down
- Now you'll need to figure out the Ref type. Fortunately, RefWorks' options are pretty straightforward; pick the one that applies
- When you pick the reference type, the form will automatically reload with green checkmarks next to certain fields.
- Fill in as many of the green-checked fields as possible
- Those are the fields that will be used in whatever reference type and style you picked
- If the information for a specific field simply isn't available (if your book has an author but no editors, for example), don't worry. A green check mark next to the field doesn't mean it's required, just recommended.
- Once you've filled in as much as you can fill in, click on "Save Reference"
- That's it.
- Click on Bibliography in the Menu bar
- Pick your style (APA 6th Edition, maybe)
- Pick the format you want the list to be in (usually "Word for Windows (2000 or later)")
- Pick the folder you want the references to come from
- Click on "Create Bibliography"
- A page will come up, saying something like "Formatting ... " Just wait.
- Then a download window will pop up. Save it to your computer first.
- Open it and make sure it's complete and nothing's gone horribly wrong (computers can be funny, huh? Real funny)
- Copy and paste away to your heart's content.
Yup. You okay?
Hello?
Wow.
Hello?
Well, anyway, it's a fantastic tool to have. It removes a lot of the strain involved in keeping track of large numbers of articles while you're working on your project or paper. And we provide it for free!
The only real downside to using RefWorks is the time it takes to learn a new way of doing things, figure out the interface, and get used to it all. Fortunately, it pays off big in the end.
If you have any further questions about RefWorks or could use some more in-depth training, feel free to get in touch with us to set up an appointment -- whether through e-mail at library.help@gallaudet.edu, via IM through library.gallaudet.edu, or by just plain old droppin' by.
That ends this week. This blog will be taking Thanksgiving off -- it could really use some turkey and stuffing -- so we'll see you again on December 4!
Question of the Week
What are your hours over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend?
Here they are:
Tuesday, November 24: 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Wednesday, November 25: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thursday, Thanksgiving Day: Closed
Friday, November 27: Closed
Saturday, November 28: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Sunday, November 29: 12 p.m. - 12 a.m.
Friday, November 13, 2009
a word about searching
Friday the 13th. Seems more appropriate for Halloween, but since that's on the 31st, I suppose that's out.
Let's see. I just finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, the fascinating mind behind The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Again, there's sort of a historical basis in World War II, although the influence of the war is, of course, more strongly felt in Kavalier & Clay. It's the story of a pair of Jewish cousins -- one of whom, Kavalier, is a Czech refugee from the Prague ghetto in the earliest days of the war -- who become the creative team behind some of the most popular comic-book series of all time. The novel chronicles Clay's struggle with his own private issues while Kavalier ranges across the world in an effort to exorcise his own demons, only to end up losing almost everything and everyone who matters to him. Love blooms and offspring get involved, and a surprise twist at the end leaves you wondering what happens next ...
It's a fascinating, well-written book, full of terrific details and absorbing episodes (the bar-mitzvah scene, where Kavalier moonlights as a stage magician only to have his show interrupted by a real-life supervillain, is a page-turner par excellence). It does run fairly long at somewhere between 530-550 pages, but it's worth every paper cut.
Now, I promised you some real meat. Let's start with with the second-most fundamental aspect of research (the most fundamental aspect is, of course, the research question).
The keywords. Keywords are, basically, the words you use to search for stuff in a database or search engine, like ProQuest or Google. However, most databases work differently from Google. I can't emphasize this enough. Most people just find a database and enter any old term or phrase, like, "How many deaf people live in the United States?"
First, most databases won't look for the answer to the question; they'll look for articles that have any of the words that appear in the question. You'll get 22,363 articles that have "states," "live," "people," "the," "united," "how," "deaf," "many," and "in" in the text of each article. Not helpful.
That's why keywords are important -- they isolate specific concepts and allow you to put them together in a way that gets you what you want. Most people already understand this, so they sit down and start entering any old word. While that strategy sounds just as good a way to start as any, I see a lot of people staring at ProQuest or America: History & Life with no idea what to search for, because they've used keywords that sound good, but now can't remember which ones they've already used, or can't figure out what other keywords might work.
Try this instead:
I'll tell you where to go: the Library. IM us through the chat widget on library.gallaudet.edu, e-mail us through library.help@gallaudet.edu, or -- this is usually the best way to get things done quickly -- come on in and ask for help at the Service Desk. We're all old hands at searching through databases and are always, always happy to help out.
Really, searching and finding information for your topic is probably one of the hardest parts of working on a paper or project, second only to actually writing your paper or putting your project together. Part of this is because it becomes difficult to keep track of all the articles you've found and want to use; most students tend to print out every single article, write the important information they need for references on top of the first page, then lug all of it around.
There's an easier way: RefWorks. It's awesome; I'll go into more detail about it next week, so be sure to tune in.
In the meantime, enjoy your weekend! I hear it may be the last warm-ish one we get ...
Question of the Week
Why can you only check out reserve items for up to 2 hours?
Why is the sky blue? Why is the sun yellow? Why does the Planck constant add up to 4.13566733(10) x 10-15 eVs? Well, that last one has an answer, so scratch that.
All facetiousness aside, though, reserve items have a time limit because that's the nature of reserve items -- they're on reserve because your professor wants them to be available to you when you need them. It's hard to accomplish that if we allow any students to check out a reserve item for more than 2 hours. That's also why those items can't leave the Library while they're on reserve. Everyone in a given class needs to have a fighting chance at those items, and the only way to accomplish this is to place some restrictions on their use and apply them evenly to everyone in the course.
This way, if a student really needs her professor's dissertation for class the next day, but it's unavailable, she can at least check ALADIN Discovery and see if it's due back soon enough for her to stick around and wait for it to be returned. In fact, I've seen some students check ALADIN Discovery, see that one of their classmates has checked out the book or movie they need, then literally search the Library for those classmates so they can ask to join the other student and use the item without needing to wait until the other student's done. It almost always works out pretty well.
Let's see. I just finished The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, the fascinating mind behind The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Again, there's sort of a historical basis in World War II, although the influence of the war is, of course, more strongly felt in Kavalier & Clay. It's the story of a pair of Jewish cousins -- one of whom, Kavalier, is a Czech refugee from the Prague ghetto in the earliest days of the war -- who become the creative team behind some of the most popular comic-book series of all time. The novel chronicles Clay's struggle with his own private issues while Kavalier ranges across the world in an effort to exorcise his own demons, only to end up losing almost everything and everyone who matters to him. Love blooms and offspring get involved, and a surprise twist at the end leaves you wondering what happens next ...
It's a fascinating, well-written book, full of terrific details and absorbing episodes (the bar-mitzvah scene, where Kavalier moonlights as a stage magician only to have his show interrupted by a real-life supervillain, is a page-turner par excellence). It does run fairly long at somewhere between 530-550 pages, but it's worth every paper cut.
Now, I promised you some real meat. Let's start with with the second-most fundamental aspect of research (the most fundamental aspect is, of course, the research question).
The keywords. Keywords are, basically, the words you use to search for stuff in a database or search engine, like ProQuest or Google. However, most databases work differently from Google. I can't emphasize this enough. Most people just find a database and enter any old term or phrase, like, "How many deaf people live in the United States?"
First, most databases won't look for the answer to the question; they'll look for articles that have any of the words that appear in the question. You'll get 22,363 articles that have "states," "live," "people," "the," "united," "how," "deaf," "many," and "in" in the text of each article. Not helpful.
That's why keywords are important -- they isolate specific concepts and allow you to put them together in a way that gets you what you want. Most people already understand this, so they sit down and start entering any old word. While that strategy sounds just as good a way to start as any, I see a lot of people staring at ProQuest or America: History & Life with no idea what to search for, because they've used keywords that sound good, but now can't remember which ones they've already used, or can't figure out what other keywords might work.
Try this instead:
- Get a blank sheet of paper
- Write your topic across the top -- "Colonialism in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island," for example.
- Take the important ideas out and split them up into different lists thus:
- Colonialism
- Robert Louis Stevenson
- Treasure Island
- Grab a thesaurus or find one online -- http://thesaurus.reference.com is a good one. We also have some more specialized thesauri for certain academic disciplines; ask at the Service Desk for help finding one if you need it.
- Use the thesaurus to figure out synonyms that might work. Although old Robert Louis and Treasure Island are fairly unambiguous, "colonialism" might have a few different synonyms:
- Imperialism
- Manifest destiny
- Expansionism
- Come up with a few different ways that these words could go together, using:
- AND (if you want both words in the article)
- OR (if you want one or the other of two words)
- Quotation marks (for exact phrases)
- Truncation marks (also known as wild-card searches; look for a link to something like "Search Help" in the database you're using -- it'll tell you if you can use asterisks, question marks, or other punctuation marks to find variations on the keywords you want)
- Parentheses (so you can group words together and make smaller searches within the larger search)
- Thus:
- "Robert Louis Stevenson" AND (imperialism or colonialism)
- "Treasure Island" AND (imperial* or colon*)
- In this case, the asterisks are truncation marks, which means the database will look for words like imperial, imperialism, imperialist, colony, colonial, colonialism, colonialist, colonization, colonized ... well, and so on
- Play around with different combinations
- Search.
- Search.
- Search.
- ... and search some more.
I'll tell you where to go: the Library. IM us through the chat widget on library.gallaudet.edu, e-mail us through library.help@gallaudet.edu, or -- this is usually the best way to get things done quickly -- come on in and ask for help at the Service Desk. We're all old hands at searching through databases and are always, always happy to help out.
Really, searching and finding information for your topic is probably one of the hardest parts of working on a paper or project, second only to actually writing your paper or putting your project together. Part of this is because it becomes difficult to keep track of all the articles you've found and want to use; most students tend to print out every single article, write the important information they need for references on top of the first page, then lug all of it around.
There's an easier way: RefWorks. It's awesome; I'll go into more detail about it next week, so be sure to tune in.
In the meantime, enjoy your weekend! I hear it may be the last warm-ish one we get ...
Question of the Week
Why can you only check out reserve items for up to 2 hours?
Why is the sky blue? Why is the sun yellow? Why does the Planck constant add up to 4.13566733(10) x 10-15 eVs? Well, that last one has an answer, so scratch that.
All facetiousness aside, though, reserve items have a time limit because that's the nature of reserve items -- they're on reserve because your professor wants them to be available to you when you need them. It's hard to accomplish that if we allow any students to check out a reserve item for more than 2 hours. That's also why those items can't leave the Library while they're on reserve. Everyone in a given class needs to have a fighting chance at those items, and the only way to accomplish this is to place some restrictions on their use and apply them evenly to everyone in the course.
This way, if a student really needs her professor's dissertation for class the next day, but it's unavailable, she can at least check ALADIN Discovery and see if it's due back soon enough for her to stick around and wait for it to be returned. In fact, I've seen some students check ALADIN Discovery, see that one of their classmates has checked out the book or movie they need, then literally search the Library for those classmates so they can ask to join the other student and use the item without needing to wait until the other student's done. It almost always works out pretty well.
Friday, November 6, 2009
October Library update
November. Already.
Let's segue from the shock of this realization (I've been here just about a year already!) right into a book I'm anxious to evangelize: Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives.
I have to admit, my expectations really weren't where they needed to be for this book; I'd thought it'd be an easy read, a fairly straightforward semi-autobiographical tale written by a Chilean poet living alternately in Mexico and Spain. I probably should have known better.
It's a pretty tough book, one that combines many, many different narratives to provide an equally large number of angles on two central characters, Arturo Belano (sort of the author's alter-ego) and Ulises Lima, a pair of poets who start a movement in Mexico only to see it splinter, its über-Bohemian members fracturing into various occupations and lives. Belano and Lima also go on their own search for the mysterious Cesarea Tinajero, a female poet from the 1920s whose influence is legendary but whose body of work is nonexistent. They split up very suddenly for unexplained reasons and leave on their own individual journeys across the world and through various revolutions in a pair of mazelike stories that range from the 1960s to the 1990s. Along the way, you get not only the sense of those two lives, but also the lives of the people they touched, from itinerant apple-pickers in the south of France to Israeli criminals to Austrian pickpockets to Mexican poets to Ecuadorian revolutionaries. The book ends with, first, an old-fashioned duel undertaken on a Spanish beach under the cover of night, and second, a young would-be poet who finally reveals what happened on Lima and Belano's search for Cesarea Tinajero and the ensuing tragedy that split up our two main characters and jump-started their adventures.
It's heady and I'm still thinking about it. It's easily one of the best books I've read all year.
In the meantime, let's see what's been going on around the Library for the past month while we've been doing our Halloween recommendations.
The big thing on my mind involves our printers. Both printers are now up and running, except for the two computers that have been disconnected from the printers altogether. We're still experiencing a few bumps -- people are reporting intermittent connections, sometimes with one or both printers disappearing from the computer altogether, and some are even reporting that just trying to print is crashing their browser window, both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Rest assured, we are working on it.
We've also been hosting workshops during Common Time. Our first workshop was last Thursday. Hosted by Sarah Hamrick, our Director of Library Public Services, the workshop discussed the various ins and outs of copyright, which is an important topic to understand in general, but especially in college, where students are prone to borrow other people's work (like video clips or photos) in their projects. Yesterday saw our second workshop, where I discussed different ways to find images that are both free of watermarks and less prone to copyright issues, which can be used in your projects without worrying about the potential legal implications.
Next Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., though, come to room 1225 on the first floor of the Library to see Diana Gates, our Deaf Collection Librarian, talking about deaf biographies and how to find them! Highly recommended for anyone who's working in Deaf Studies and related fields, as well as just plain curiosity-seekers. The following Tuesday, November 17, at the same time and place, come see Patrick Oberholtzer discussing various research methods for the Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences program!
We are busy.
We also have a pair of new displays up to replace our Halloween-themed displays. I strongly encourage people to check them out; one is devoted to novels from around the world, encompassing such various countries as Somalia, Mexico, and Ireland (including At Swim-Two-Birds, which is a really fun read). The other one is a collection of short-story anthologies; they're great if you want to read a good story without committing your time and energy to a full-length novel. We've got short stories covering science fiction, thrillers, graphic fiction (comics and stuff), horror ... heck, we've even got baseball short stories.
We're also hard at work setting up our new acquisitions budget for 2010. Now is a great time to let us know if there are any books you'd like us to get! We'll start buying within the next couple of months, and our wish list is getting long.
Especially let me know if there's any specific fiction you'd like to have available here! Popular fiction is pretty unpredictable and buying for that area can be hit-or-miss. We'd love to know what people want to read for fun, and we do depend a lot on personal recommendations. Please do feel free to let us know if you want a particular book, author, or series.
In the meantime, we're getting very, very ready for the Fall semester to begin winding down. Thanksgiving's coming up, and it's one of our busiest times as students get started on their final papers and projects and gear up to begin studying for exams. Then after it's all over, we'll be into the sweet, sweet oblivion of Christmas break ... when we'll stay open except for the week-and-a-half around Christmas and New Year's. I'll go into more detail about our break hours in a few weeks.
Now that you're updated on what's happening around the Library, we'll get back into some more meaty stuff next week, including some research tips. Keep an eye out!
Question of the Week
What's up with the Deaf Copy 1 room? You've mentioned it before and how I can only check things out for up to two hours and can't leave the Library? Why? What's its purpose?
I suppose you could see the Deaf Copy 1 room as sort of an ark of deaf-related materials. As has been mentioned previously in this blog, it contains the first copy of every single item you see in the Deaf Collection on the first floor of the Library (including films, periodicals, books, games, and other media), plus many more rare, one-of-a-kind items.
It's there because when people check something out, it sometimes gets damaged, broken, or outright lost. Our mission, in conjunction with the Archives, involves the collection and preservation of deaf-related materials, so the Deaf Copy 1 room ensures that we have access to a working, undamaged copy of all deaf-related items. This is why people cannot check out any materials from that room for more than 2 hours and those items can't leave the Library; we prefer to keep as much control over the whereabouts of all Deaf Copy 1 material in order to ensure its survival and to ensure that it's available for anyone who needs it and can't find it on the circulating shelves. Exceptions do occur but are extremely rare. Keep this in mind if you need something from that room and plan accordingly.
Let's segue from the shock of this realization (I've been here just about a year already!) right into a book I'm anxious to evangelize: Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives.
I have to admit, my expectations really weren't where they needed to be for this book; I'd thought it'd be an easy read, a fairly straightforward semi-autobiographical tale written by a Chilean poet living alternately in Mexico and Spain. I probably should have known better.
It's a pretty tough book, one that combines many, many different narratives to provide an equally large number of angles on two central characters, Arturo Belano (sort of the author's alter-ego) and Ulises Lima, a pair of poets who start a movement in Mexico only to see it splinter, its über-Bohemian members fracturing into various occupations and lives. Belano and Lima also go on their own search for the mysterious Cesarea Tinajero, a female poet from the 1920s whose influence is legendary but whose body of work is nonexistent. They split up very suddenly for unexplained reasons and leave on their own individual journeys across the world and through various revolutions in a pair of mazelike stories that range from the 1960s to the 1990s. Along the way, you get not only the sense of those two lives, but also the lives of the people they touched, from itinerant apple-pickers in the south of France to Israeli criminals to Austrian pickpockets to Mexican poets to Ecuadorian revolutionaries. The book ends with, first, an old-fashioned duel undertaken on a Spanish beach under the cover of night, and second, a young would-be poet who finally reveals what happened on Lima and Belano's search for Cesarea Tinajero and the ensuing tragedy that split up our two main characters and jump-started their adventures.
It's heady and I'm still thinking about it. It's easily one of the best books I've read all year.
In the meantime, let's see what's been going on around the Library for the past month while we've been doing our Halloween recommendations.
The big thing on my mind involves our printers. Both printers are now up and running, except for the two computers that have been disconnected from the printers altogether. We're still experiencing a few bumps -- people are reporting intermittent connections, sometimes with one or both printers disappearing from the computer altogether, and some are even reporting that just trying to print is crashing their browser window, both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Rest assured, we are working on it.
We've also been hosting workshops during Common Time. Our first workshop was last Thursday. Hosted by Sarah Hamrick, our Director of Library Public Services, the workshop discussed the various ins and outs of copyright, which is an important topic to understand in general, but especially in college, where students are prone to borrow other people's work (like video clips or photos) in their projects. Yesterday saw our second workshop, where I discussed different ways to find images that are both free of watermarks and less prone to copyright issues, which can be used in your projects without worrying about the potential legal implications.
Next Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., though, come to room 1225 on the first floor of the Library to see Diana Gates, our Deaf Collection Librarian, talking about deaf biographies and how to find them! Highly recommended for anyone who's working in Deaf Studies and related fields, as well as just plain curiosity-seekers. The following Tuesday, November 17, at the same time and place, come see Patrick Oberholtzer discussing various research methods for the Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences program!
We are busy.
We also have a pair of new displays up to replace our Halloween-themed displays. I strongly encourage people to check them out; one is devoted to novels from around the world, encompassing such various countries as Somalia, Mexico, and Ireland (including At Swim-Two-Birds, which is a really fun read). The other one is a collection of short-story anthologies; they're great if you want to read a good story without committing your time and energy to a full-length novel. We've got short stories covering science fiction, thrillers, graphic fiction (comics and stuff), horror ... heck, we've even got baseball short stories.
We're also hard at work setting up our new acquisitions budget for 2010. Now is a great time to let us know if there are any books you'd like us to get! We'll start buying within the next couple of months, and our wish list is getting long.
Especially let me know if there's any specific fiction you'd like to have available here! Popular fiction is pretty unpredictable and buying for that area can be hit-or-miss. We'd love to know what people want to read for fun, and we do depend a lot on personal recommendations. Please do feel free to let us know if you want a particular book, author, or series.
In the meantime, we're getting very, very ready for the Fall semester to begin winding down. Thanksgiving's coming up, and it's one of our busiest times as students get started on their final papers and projects and gear up to begin studying for exams. Then after it's all over, we'll be into the sweet, sweet oblivion of Christmas break ... when we'll stay open except for the week-and-a-half around Christmas and New Year's. I'll go into more detail about our break hours in a few weeks.
Now that you're updated on what's happening around the Library, we'll get back into some more meaty stuff next week, including some research tips. Keep an eye out!
Question of the Week
What's up with the Deaf Copy 1 room? You've mentioned it before and how I can only check things out for up to two hours and can't leave the Library? Why? What's its purpose?
I suppose you could see the Deaf Copy 1 room as sort of an ark of deaf-related materials. As has been mentioned previously in this blog, it contains the first copy of every single item you see in the Deaf Collection on the first floor of the Library (including films, periodicals, books, games, and other media), plus many more rare, one-of-a-kind items.
It's there because when people check something out, it sometimes gets damaged, broken, or outright lost. Our mission, in conjunction with the Archives, involves the collection and preservation of deaf-related materials, so the Deaf Copy 1 room ensures that we have access to a working, undamaged copy of all deaf-related items. This is why people cannot check out any materials from that room for more than 2 hours and those items can't leave the Library; we prefer to keep as much control over the whereabouts of all Deaf Copy 1 material in order to ensure its survival and to ensure that it's available for anyone who needs it and can't find it on the circulating shelves. Exceptions do occur but are extremely rare. Keep this in mind if you need something from that room and plan accordingly.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Patrick Oberholtzer's Halloween recommendations
Good grief. This has been the "fall" week -- a surprising number of trees have gone more or less bare on campus, and dead leaves are everywhere. Add on to that the annoying mist that kept coming down for most of the early part of this week, the weird temperatures (vacillating between "comfortable" and "chilly"), and the sheer anticipation everyone seems to feel for Halloween -- tomorrow! -- and you've got a recipe for a decently atmospheric horror novel. Or, at the very least, a mildly-amusing early-'90s teen flick.
Another thing to be scared of: Surveys! We're in the process of performing an intensive assessment of how the Library is serving its patrons, and are asking people to fill out surveys, either online (look at the top of library.gallaudet.edu for the green text that'll include a link to our online survey) or on paper (ask the Service Desk). Because we're going deep on this one, the surveys -- both on the Internet and in print -- will change on a regular basis, so keep checking back! We've also put up signs around all of our computers reminding people to fill out a survey.
Now for the main event; thanks to Patrick Oberholtzer, we now have the last list of Halloween recommendations in hand. He's a well-read guy with diverse tastes, so be prepared for a mishmash.
First up, we have The Haunting of Hill House and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
The haunting of Hill House is a major classic of horror literature. A paranormal investigator rents a huge, creepy old mansion, and invites some people to stay there in order to find scientific evidence of the supernatural. Unfortunately, he gets much, much more than he bargains for; the mansion is a member of that classic horror trope: Houses that are born bad. Everyone begins experiencing various supernatural events, but one woman encounters much more than the others, and ends up becoming possessed by the house itself. It's a very strange, very tense story.
Now, The lottery ... um, wow. It's not precisely a horror story in the traditional sense of the term, but ... well, I can't explain much more without giving away the ending; it's just that kind of story. It's about a town with a very interesting annual tradition. Let's leave it at that; just read it and you'll see what I mean.
The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (via CLS from George Mason, as well as around the Web; a listing of the stories can be found at Wikipedia)
Relatively obscure, but it's a fantastic collection of both volumes of M.R. James' Ghost stories of an antiquary. Written around 1904, it's all fairly old-school horror, with the really scary stuff left to the imagination, as is the case with most of the really good examples of the genre. James wrote these stories specifically to be spoken aloud, which makes them even weirder to read. One bonus, incidentally, is that his stories are now public-domain (he died in 1936; the 70-year mark passed three years ago), and online versions can easily be found, even through the Wikipedia article linked above. James's stuff shares some characteristics with H.P. Lovecraft, one of the greatest and most well-known writers of American horror, although Lovecraft's scary stuff is much more explicit (heard of Cthulhu, the tentacle-faced monster that lies in the sunken city of R'lyeh, dreaming? Lovecraft sicked him up) and much weirder. Start with his classic, At the Mountains of Madness, and go from there. I plan to bring my own copy along when I check out the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad tomorrow.
The Shining by Stephen King
Both the book and the original movie. We don't have a copy of the book, but we definitely have the original version of the movie, which is, by the way, REALLY CREEPY. Most of the obvious scares seem kind of hokey, especially since it's been imitated and satirized since it came out in 1980, but the atmosphere is anything but dated.
Let's summarize before I go gushing about the "atmosphere." A writer with a wife, a son, and a drinking problem gets a job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, this huge, beautiful ski hotel in the mountains of Colorado. Winters are harsh and the snow is deep, meaning the hotel gets completely cut off from the outside world for six months every year. Since it's such a large, expensive building and the weather is so extreme, it requires almost constant upkeep, so a live-in caretaker for the winter months is necessary. Unfortunately, the hotel hasn't had very good luck with caretakers; the isolation tends to drive them a little nuts, sometimes with tragic results, as in the case of the last guy who brought his family and ended up massacring them all. Still, our main character cheerily dismisses all of this as "just what he needs" -- a quiet place to work.
Unfortunately, things turn out to be extremely unquiet. Turns out there are other things living at the hotel, thanks to -- and this is another thing that's been copied endlessly in the years since the book was published, including by Stephen King himself -- an Indian burial ground underneath the hotel. In general, the movie is incredibly creepy mostly because of the hotel itself; most of the shots set in the building are performed in such a way as to lend the hotel its own character, and more than one film critic has said the hotel is the main character. It's a great movie, although not for the squeamish.
Okay, folks. That's all for this week. Next week, we'll return to our regularly-scheduled programming. Enjoy your Halloween! Go nuts, but be safe.
Question of the Week
I've been in the Library a couple of times over the past week, and I noticed that Printer 1 is out of order, two computers can't print to anything, and that Printer 2 doesn't seem to work. What's going on?
Yes, it has certainly been a crazy week for our printers. First, Printer 1 will not be out of order for long; it's a simple problem that can be solved easily. Expect to see it up and running within the next few days.
As for those two computers, we've noticed that our public computers in general are experiencing unusually heavy demand, most often from people who are working on assignments and projects, some of which require a lot of printing for various reasons. This is fine, but students and faculty who just want to find a book or article quickly are having a hard time just getting to a computer at all. To that end, we've disconnected those two computers from our networked printers. The rest of our computers, including those in the Deaf Library Study Center in room 1220 and the lab in 1404, are still able to print just fine.
... Except, of course, for when the printer doesn't work. Yes, that happened this week, and yes, it was an inconvenience, for which we heartily apologize. Apparently, the software drivers installed on all of our computers for Printer 2 were updated recently, which led to some network-connectivity issues. ITS was kind enough to send one of their very capable people over to fix the problem on our end, and all computers (except for the two discussed above) should now be able to play nicely with Printer 2. Then, once the issue with Printer 1 has been addressed, things should return to something sort of resembling what passes for "normal" around here!
Another thing to be scared of: Surveys! We're in the process of performing an intensive assessment of how the Library is serving its patrons, and are asking people to fill out surveys, either online (look at the top of library.gallaudet.edu for the green text that'll include a link to our online survey) or on paper (ask the Service Desk). Because we're going deep on this one, the surveys -- both on the Internet and in print -- will change on a regular basis, so keep checking back! We've also put up signs around all of our computers reminding people to fill out a survey.
Now for the main event; thanks to Patrick Oberholtzer, we now have the last list of Halloween recommendations in hand. He's a well-read guy with diverse tastes, so be prepared for a mishmash.
First up, we have The Haunting of Hill House and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
The haunting of Hill House is a major classic of horror literature. A paranormal investigator rents a huge, creepy old mansion, and invites some people to stay there in order to find scientific evidence of the supernatural. Unfortunately, he gets much, much more than he bargains for; the mansion is a member of that classic horror trope: Houses that are born bad. Everyone begins experiencing various supernatural events, but one woman encounters much more than the others, and ends up becoming possessed by the house itself. It's a very strange, very tense story.
Now, The lottery ... um, wow. It's not precisely a horror story in the traditional sense of the term, but ... well, I can't explain much more without giving away the ending; it's just that kind of story. It's about a town with a very interesting annual tradition. Let's leave it at that; just read it and you'll see what I mean.
The Complete Ghost Stories of M.R. James (via CLS from George Mason, as well as around the Web; a listing of the stories can be found at Wikipedia)
Relatively obscure, but it's a fantastic collection of both volumes of M.R. James' Ghost stories of an antiquary. Written around 1904, it's all fairly old-school horror, with the really scary stuff left to the imagination, as is the case with most of the really good examples of the genre. James wrote these stories specifically to be spoken aloud, which makes them even weirder to read. One bonus, incidentally, is that his stories are now public-domain (he died in 1936; the 70-year mark passed three years ago), and online versions can easily be found, even through the Wikipedia article linked above. James's stuff shares some characteristics with H.P. Lovecraft, one of the greatest and most well-known writers of American horror, although Lovecraft's scary stuff is much more explicit (heard of Cthulhu, the tentacle-faced monster that lies in the sunken city of R'lyeh, dreaming? Lovecraft sicked him up) and much weirder. Start with his classic, At the Mountains of Madness, and go from there. I plan to bring my own copy along when I check out the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad tomorrow.
The Shining by Stephen King
Both the book and the original movie. We don't have a copy of the book, but we definitely have the original version of the movie, which is, by the way, REALLY CREEPY. Most of the obvious scares seem kind of hokey, especially since it's been imitated and satirized since it came out in 1980, but the atmosphere is anything but dated.
Let's summarize before I go gushing about the "atmosphere." A writer with a wife, a son, and a drinking problem gets a job as the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, this huge, beautiful ski hotel in the mountains of Colorado. Winters are harsh and the snow is deep, meaning the hotel gets completely cut off from the outside world for six months every year. Since it's such a large, expensive building and the weather is so extreme, it requires almost constant upkeep, so a live-in caretaker for the winter months is necessary. Unfortunately, the hotel hasn't had very good luck with caretakers; the isolation tends to drive them a little nuts, sometimes with tragic results, as in the case of the last guy who brought his family and ended up massacring them all. Still, our main character cheerily dismisses all of this as "just what he needs" -- a quiet place to work.
Unfortunately, things turn out to be extremely unquiet. Turns out there are other things living at the hotel, thanks to -- and this is another thing that's been copied endlessly in the years since the book was published, including by Stephen King himself -- an Indian burial ground underneath the hotel. In general, the movie is incredibly creepy mostly because of the hotel itself; most of the shots set in the building are performed in such a way as to lend the hotel its own character, and more than one film critic has said the hotel is the main character. It's a great movie, although not for the squeamish.
Okay, folks. That's all for this week. Next week, we'll return to our regularly-scheduled programming. Enjoy your Halloween! Go nuts, but be safe.
Question of the Week
I've been in the Library a couple of times over the past week, and I noticed that Printer 1 is out of order, two computers can't print to anything, and that Printer 2 doesn't seem to work. What's going on?
Yes, it has certainly been a crazy week for our printers. First, Printer 1 will not be out of order for long; it's a simple problem that can be solved easily. Expect to see it up and running within the next few days.
As for those two computers, we've noticed that our public computers in general are experiencing unusually heavy demand, most often from people who are working on assignments and projects, some of which require a lot of printing for various reasons. This is fine, but students and faculty who just want to find a book or article quickly are having a hard time just getting to a computer at all. To that end, we've disconnected those two computers from our networked printers. The rest of our computers, including those in the Deaf Library Study Center in room 1220 and the lab in 1404, are still able to print just fine.
... Except, of course, for when the printer doesn't work. Yes, that happened this week, and yes, it was an inconvenience, for which we heartily apologize. Apparently, the software drivers installed on all of our computers for Printer 2 were updated recently, which led to some network-connectivity issues. ITS was kind enough to send one of their very capable people over to fix the problem on our end, and all computers (except for the two discussed above) should now be able to play nicely with Printer 2. Then, once the issue with Printer 1 has been addressed, things should return to something sort of resembling what passes for "normal" around here!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Jane Rutherford's Halloween recommendations
October seems to just be whizzing by. Already it's the 23rd, Halloween is next Saturday, and we've passed the midpoint of the Fall semester. Where'd all the time go?
Most of this month so far feels as though I spent it running around after people, books, and events. We're gearing up to start our next round of purchasing -- which means new books! If anyone has any requests, please don't be shy about speaking up; we're into giving people what they want.
In the meantime, I spent a little time talking with Jane Rutherford about Halloween. She claims not to be all that interested in Halloween (she's one of those people who insist on covering their eyes during the scariest part of horror movies, thus defeating the sweet, sweet purpose), but says that her favorite part of Halloween is the way all the kids dress up, both the cute costumes on the little kids and the ... weird costumes on the older kids. She also gets a kick out of the way trick-or-treaters ooh and ahh over the various trinkets and candy they see being dropped into their bags like they just got a million bucks, to say nothing of the candy that's left over afterwards.
To be honest, I kind of agree. Nothing's better than Halloween candy! Except maybe Easter ...
Anyway, as I said, Jane's not a big horror buff. She admitted to having only just read her very first Stephen King novel (Duma Key), and mostly prefers to read about Halloween itself. She specializes in, among others, education and children's literature, so bear that in mind as you read her list of recommendations -- they might come in handy for your own children!
Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History
A fun history of Halloween from the Druids through Colonial, Victorian, and 20th Century America.
All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween
Discusses Halloween (and similar holidays), including stories and activities.
Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (e-book)
A comprehensive history ranging from its Celtic origins in the night of Samhain all the way up to today's sugar-fest.
Holiday Readers Theatre
A cute play for Halloween, as well as others for different holidays.
The Holiday Dessert Book: Nearly 200 Delectable Treats for a Year of Celebrations
Basically a recipe book for desserts for various holidays, this includes some good Halloween treats!
Party Fun, for Holidays and Special Occasions; Parties for children
Ideas for Halloween parties, including activities and games.
Holiday Stew
A couple of cute poems about Halloween.
Life Doesn't Frighten Me
A poem by Maya Angelou, about scary things and accompanied with some amazing paintings.
The Spider and the Fly
Based on the poem by Mary Howitt, this book includes drawings that are not recommended for the arachnophobic.
Many thanks to Jane and her succinct summaries! Next week, we'll have Patrick Oberholtzer's recommendations. This is bound to be interesting. Enjoy your weekend!
Question of the Day
I'm a student in the UK. I plan to visit the US in a month or two, and I'll be working on a project about the history of deafness in France for university. I know Gallaudet makes a lot of resources available online, but some of what I need is only available in print. Would it be possible for me to come in and see if you have what I'm looking for?
Absolutely. The Gallaudet University Library has a great deal of resources that are, more often than not, only available here at Gallaudet. This isn't true just for American publications; we gather everything possible from all over the world. We'll have plenty for you to work with!
We do allow visiting researchers to use our resources -- both from the collection as well as access to one of our public computers upon request. If possible, just give us some advance notice so that we know you'll be coming in and asking to use our equipment.
In the meantime, you can save yourself a little time by looking through our catalog beforehand; just head to library.gallaudet.edu, and begin your search in the search box under "Shortcuts to ALADIN"; you'll be asked to log in, but there should be another, smaller link to "ALADIN Catalog." Clicking on that should allow you to continue searching without needing to log in. You can use it to compile a list of items you might want to look at immediately upon arrival, giving you just that much more time to perform your research. Many of our rarer items are in the closed stacks; you can always ask a librarian to retrieve it for you. Others may be found only in the Archives, which you can contact by e-mailing archives@gallaudet.edu.
Most of this month so far feels as though I spent it running around after people, books, and events. We're gearing up to start our next round of purchasing -- which means new books! If anyone has any requests, please don't be shy about speaking up; we're into giving people what they want.
In the meantime, I spent a little time talking with Jane Rutherford about Halloween. She claims not to be all that interested in Halloween (she's one of those people who insist on covering their eyes during the scariest part of horror movies, thus defeating the sweet, sweet purpose), but says that her favorite part of Halloween is the way all the kids dress up, both the cute costumes on the little kids and the ... weird costumes on the older kids. She also gets a kick out of the way trick-or-treaters ooh and ahh over the various trinkets and candy they see being dropped into their bags like they just got a million bucks, to say nothing of the candy that's left over afterwards.
To be honest, I kind of agree. Nothing's better than Halloween candy! Except maybe Easter ...
Anyway, as I said, Jane's not a big horror buff. She admitted to having only just read her very first Stephen King novel (Duma Key), and mostly prefers to read about Halloween itself. She specializes in, among others, education and children's literature, so bear that in mind as you read her list of recommendations -- they might come in handy for your own children!
Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History
A fun history of Halloween from the Druids through Colonial, Victorian, and 20th Century America.
All Saints, All Souls, and Halloween
Discusses Halloween (and similar holidays), including stories and activities.
Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (e-book)
A comprehensive history ranging from its Celtic origins in the night of Samhain all the way up to today's sugar-fest.
Holiday Readers Theatre
A cute play for Halloween, as well as others for different holidays.
The Holiday Dessert Book: Nearly 200 Delectable Treats for a Year of Celebrations
Basically a recipe book for desserts for various holidays, this includes some good Halloween treats!
Party Fun, for Holidays and Special Occasions; Parties for children
Ideas for Halloween parties, including activities and games.
Holiday Stew
A couple of cute poems about Halloween.
Life Doesn't Frighten Me
A poem by Maya Angelou, about scary things and accompanied with some amazing paintings.
The Spider and the Fly
Based on the poem by Mary Howitt, this book includes drawings that are not recommended for the arachnophobic.
Many thanks to Jane and her succinct summaries! Next week, we'll have Patrick Oberholtzer's recommendations. This is bound to be interesting. Enjoy your weekend!
Question of the Day
I'm a student in the UK. I plan to visit the US in a month or two, and I'll be working on a project about the history of deafness in France for university. I know Gallaudet makes a lot of resources available online, but some of what I need is only available in print. Would it be possible for me to come in and see if you have what I'm looking for?
Absolutely. The Gallaudet University Library has a great deal of resources that are, more often than not, only available here at Gallaudet. This isn't true just for American publications; we gather everything possible from all over the world. We'll have plenty for you to work with!
We do allow visiting researchers to use our resources -- both from the collection as well as access to one of our public computers upon request. If possible, just give us some advance notice so that we know you'll be coming in and asking to use our equipment.
In the meantime, you can save yourself a little time by looking through our catalog beforehand; just head to library.gallaudet.edu, and begin your search in the search box under "Shortcuts to ALADIN"; you'll be asked to log in, but there should be another, smaller link to "ALADIN Catalog." Clicking on that should allow you to continue searching without needing to log in. You can use it to compile a list of items you might want to look at immediately upon arrival, giving you just that much more time to perform your research. Many of our rarer items are in the closed stacks; you can always ask a librarian to retrieve it for you. Others may be found only in the Archives, which you can contact by e-mailing archives@gallaudet.edu.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Laura Jacobi's Halloween recommendations
What an interesting month it's been ... and we're still only halfway through!
Midterms are coming up and so is Homecoming. We at the Library are as prepared as we can be for the onslaught, and you should be too -- expect long lines, full computers, and a crowded Library.
In the meantime, to relax a little bit and think about things other than the next paper or test, here's a list of Laura Jacobi's Halloween recommendations. She admits to having a distinct lack of enthusiasm about "splatter," but she still has some great taste. Read on to find out more!
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Laura first saw this movie at age 10, and cops to being unable to turn out the lights in a room without immediately running out for weeks afterwards. The story -- the 1951 version, anyway, not the recent remake starring Keanu Reeves, which is awful on general principle -- consists of an alien and his arrival on Earth for mysterious purposes. His presence frightens the people of Earth, who quickly turn from fear to anger, calling for violence. The only people to befriend him discover that he's actually here because the human race has developed atomic power to go with our own destructive natures, raising concerns among the various races of nearby worlds, who fear that our species will soon spread our unchecked aggression into outer space and into their own neighborhoods. Predictably, Klaatu gets shot and killed, with ambiguous results. It's one of the greatest classic films of all time, combining a morality tale with gee-whiz (for 1951, anyway) science-fiction effects. You'll be discussing it for a long time afterwards.
It's also got close ties to Washington, DC -- this article from the Post explains it all.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The irredeemably odd tale of a quiet, amiable doctor with secrets who does a little experimentation that brings out his wild side. You all know it -- nice guy drinks a potion, becomes big, nasty, beastly guy. But that's not the whole story! First, Dr. Jekyll wasn't as nice a guy as most apocryphal accounts might claim; he had his own secrets. Second, the story doesn't end on a very happy note at all. I'd explain more, but that might take away from the real tragedy of the ending. In general, this story is both very spooky and extremely thought-provoking; it forces you to ask about the nature of good and evil, and how much of either actually resides in each human being. Is Mr. Hyde evil in himself, or is he just the physical manifestation of something that was already present in Dr. Jekyll? Are they truly two separate people, or only two sides of the same coin? Either way, it's an immensely absorbing read.
We've also got e-book and graphic versions, by the way! The graphic version looks kind of like a kids' book, but the art is amazing and the story very faithful to Robert Louis Stevenson's original tale.
The Exorcist
The book, not the movie, that is. Nobody needs a movie with a book like this, though -- it's scary enough. If you're not familiar with the story, it's about a young woman who is possessed by a demon and the priests who try to help her. Regan MacNeil, a young girl who lives in Georgetown (right here in DC!), suddenly experiences a violent change in personality. After several attempts at psychological intervention fail and the girl becomes more and more diabolical, her mother decides it's time to call in the heavy artillery: the Catholic Church. A couple of priests get called in, they do their best, a whole bunch of really awful stuff happens ... and the girl is saved in the end. It's a fantastic book with tons of local connections -- even to Laura herself; the book is based on actual events that transpired in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, just over the District border, where she actually worked in the local public library many moons ago! You can even search for the actual Washington Post article about it in ProQuest Historical Newspapers -- "Priest frees Mt. Rainier boy reported held in Devil's grip" by Bill Brinkley, August 20, 1949.
Our lack of the movie version might be for the best, though -- Laura characterizes it as "gross." Unless you're into that sort of thing, which means it might be time for a psychological intervention of your own.
War of the Worlds
Another terrific alien classic! You might know it as "that flick with Tom Cruise," but it was originally a story by H.G. Wells, written in 1898 about a bunch of aliens invading Victorian England. That alone makes it a worthwhile read. Think about it: aliens among, you know, monocles and petticoats. The story starts with our narrator in an observatory, looking at Mars through a telescope in just enough time to witness several explosions on the planetary surface. Before he knows it, a large thing has landed in a nearby park. It turns out to be a space-going cylinder that holds an alien, which comes out just long enough to find Earth's atmosphere relatively unpalatable and darts back in. Attempts to communicate with it are met with vaporization by heat ray. More cylinders start landing, and the aliens start building Tripods, giant three-legged machines. A Martian plant, known only as "red weed" (it was probably not smoke-able, sorry), starts growing all over everything and suffocating all Earth life.
Eventually, the horror ends when all the Martians die, overcome by -- and this is where you see the true flowering of H.G. Wells' scientific genius -- bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria, rather; similar to the stuff that gives you a cold. Terrific story.
It also, thanks to Orson Welles and his dramatic skills, spawned a huge controversy around New York City and outlying areas when an adaptation was read over the radio for Halloween in 1938. The story had been rewritten as a series of news bulletins, and led people to think an actual Martian invasion was in progress. You can imagine the results.
The Turn of the Screw
This novella by Henry James is one I can't believe I forgot about. I read it when I was much younger, and it made me a little bit wary of looking out the window for a while afterward. It's the story of a young woman who gets hired as the governess to two creepy children -- cute, but creepy -- at the country home of their wealthy uncle. As the story goes on, you begin to wonder if the governess isn't slowly coming unglued; she starts seeing two people walking around the estate, whom nobody else appears to see, doing things that nobody else appears to know about. She finds out that her predecessor had a lover, and that they both died under very mysterious circumstances after spending a lot of time around the kids. She starts to wonder if the people she sees around the estate are their spirits and if the children might have had something to do with this ...
That wraps up Laura's recommendations! Next up, we'll have Jane Rutherford, who'll be able to add some truly interesting stuff from our collection of books for younger readers (think Hugo Cabret).
Question of the Week
I was trying to find a book in ALADIN Discovery, but could only find a copy that was an "electronic resource." What's that?
That's an e-book. Basically, it's a full book that's been made available online. You don't need to go to the shelves to check it out or carry it around with you; it's available through the catalog anytime, anywhere with a working Internet connection. Some may be restricted in specific ways -- maybe only one person can look at it at one time, or you may only be able to read it for up to two hours at a time, and most of them will only allow you to print out a specific number of pages in a specific amount of time -- but they're tremendously useful. Most of them are searchable, and have a table of contents that you can use to navigate to specific chapters. If you know the exact page numbers, you can skip straight to those pages.
There are a couple of ways to get into an e-book through ALADIN Discovery: first, you'll see a link near the top of the record that says "Click here to access this book." If other libraries in the Consortium have the same e-book, you'll see several links in the same area, all reading either "Click here to access this book" or "Electronic book," all prefaced with two-letter codes. Ours is GA for Gallaudet -- that's the only copy you'll be able to access.
Another way is down at the bottom where you usually see call numbers and availability information. You'll see a line that says "Linked resources: An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view." Click on that link and you're in!
Incidentally, you may see another line below that saying "Access restricted to current Gallaudet University members--Login required." This is only true if you're off-campus; if you're on campus, you should be automatically logged in and you'll go straight to the book without logging in. If you're off-campus, you'll have to log in the same way you do for all of our other resources -- last name, Library barcode number or Gallaudet ID number, Institution: Gallaudet.
Midterms are coming up and so is Homecoming. We at the Library are as prepared as we can be for the onslaught, and you should be too -- expect long lines, full computers, and a crowded Library.
In the meantime, to relax a little bit and think about things other than the next paper or test, here's a list of Laura Jacobi's Halloween recommendations. She admits to having a distinct lack of enthusiasm about "splatter," but she still has some great taste. Read on to find out more!
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Laura first saw this movie at age 10, and cops to being unable to turn out the lights in a room without immediately running out for weeks afterwards. The story -- the 1951 version, anyway, not the recent remake starring Keanu Reeves, which is awful on general principle -- consists of an alien and his arrival on Earth for mysterious purposes. His presence frightens the people of Earth, who quickly turn from fear to anger, calling for violence. The only people to befriend him discover that he's actually here because the human race has developed atomic power to go with our own destructive natures, raising concerns among the various races of nearby worlds, who fear that our species will soon spread our unchecked aggression into outer space and into their own neighborhoods. Predictably, Klaatu gets shot and killed, with ambiguous results. It's one of the greatest classic films of all time, combining a morality tale with gee-whiz (for 1951, anyway) science-fiction effects. You'll be discussing it for a long time afterwards.
It's also got close ties to Washington, DC -- this article from the Post explains it all.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The irredeemably odd tale of a quiet, amiable doctor with secrets who does a little experimentation that brings out his wild side. You all know it -- nice guy drinks a potion, becomes big, nasty, beastly guy. But that's not the whole story! First, Dr. Jekyll wasn't as nice a guy as most apocryphal accounts might claim; he had his own secrets. Second, the story doesn't end on a very happy note at all. I'd explain more, but that might take away from the real tragedy of the ending. In general, this story is both very spooky and extremely thought-provoking; it forces you to ask about the nature of good and evil, and how much of either actually resides in each human being. Is Mr. Hyde evil in himself, or is he just the physical manifestation of something that was already present in Dr. Jekyll? Are they truly two separate people, or only two sides of the same coin? Either way, it's an immensely absorbing read.
We've also got e-book and graphic versions, by the way! The graphic version looks kind of like a kids' book, but the art is amazing and the story very faithful to Robert Louis Stevenson's original tale.
The Exorcist
The book, not the movie, that is. Nobody needs a movie with a book like this, though -- it's scary enough. If you're not familiar with the story, it's about a young woman who is possessed by a demon and the priests who try to help her. Regan MacNeil, a young girl who lives in Georgetown (right here in DC!), suddenly experiences a violent change in personality. After several attempts at psychological intervention fail and the girl becomes more and more diabolical, her mother decides it's time to call in the heavy artillery: the Catholic Church. A couple of priests get called in, they do their best, a whole bunch of really awful stuff happens ... and the girl is saved in the end. It's a fantastic book with tons of local connections -- even to Laura herself; the book is based on actual events that transpired in Mt. Rainier, Maryland, just over the District border, where she actually worked in the local public library many moons ago! You can even search for the actual Washington Post article about it in ProQuest Historical Newspapers -- "Priest frees Mt. Rainier boy reported held in Devil's grip" by Bill Brinkley, August 20, 1949.
Our lack of the movie version might be for the best, though -- Laura characterizes it as "gross." Unless you're into that sort of thing, which means it might be time for a psychological intervention of your own.
War of the Worlds
Another terrific alien classic! You might know it as "that flick with Tom Cruise," but it was originally a story by H.G. Wells, written in 1898 about a bunch of aliens invading Victorian England. That alone makes it a worthwhile read. Think about it: aliens among, you know, monocles and petticoats. The story starts with our narrator in an observatory, looking at Mars through a telescope in just enough time to witness several explosions on the planetary surface. Before he knows it, a large thing has landed in a nearby park. It turns out to be a space-going cylinder that holds an alien, which comes out just long enough to find Earth's atmosphere relatively unpalatable and darts back in. Attempts to communicate with it are met with vaporization by heat ray. More cylinders start landing, and the aliens start building Tripods, giant three-legged machines. A Martian plant, known only as "red weed" (it was probably not smoke-able, sorry), starts growing all over everything and suffocating all Earth life.
Eventually, the horror ends when all the Martians die, overcome by -- and this is where you see the true flowering of H.G. Wells' scientific genius -- bacteria. Pathogenic bacteria, rather; similar to the stuff that gives you a cold. Terrific story.
It also, thanks to Orson Welles and his dramatic skills, spawned a huge controversy around New York City and outlying areas when an adaptation was read over the radio for Halloween in 1938. The story had been rewritten as a series of news bulletins, and led people to think an actual Martian invasion was in progress. You can imagine the results.
The Turn of the Screw
This novella by Henry James is one I can't believe I forgot about. I read it when I was much younger, and it made me a little bit wary of looking out the window for a while afterward. It's the story of a young woman who gets hired as the governess to two creepy children -- cute, but creepy -- at the country home of their wealthy uncle. As the story goes on, you begin to wonder if the governess isn't slowly coming unglued; she starts seeing two people walking around the estate, whom nobody else appears to see, doing things that nobody else appears to know about. She finds out that her predecessor had a lover, and that they both died under very mysterious circumstances after spending a lot of time around the kids. She starts to wonder if the people she sees around the estate are their spirits and if the children might have had something to do with this ...
That wraps up Laura's recommendations! Next up, we'll have Jane Rutherford, who'll be able to add some truly interesting stuff from our collection of books for younger readers (think Hugo Cabret).
Question of the Week
I was trying to find a book in ALADIN Discovery, but could only find a copy that was an "electronic resource." What's that?
That's an e-book. Basically, it's a full book that's been made available online. You don't need to go to the shelves to check it out or carry it around with you; it's available through the catalog anytime, anywhere with a working Internet connection. Some may be restricted in specific ways -- maybe only one person can look at it at one time, or you may only be able to read it for up to two hours at a time, and most of them will only allow you to print out a specific number of pages in a specific amount of time -- but they're tremendously useful. Most of them are searchable, and have a table of contents that you can use to navigate to specific chapters. If you know the exact page numbers, you can skip straight to those pages.
There are a couple of ways to get into an e-book through ALADIN Discovery: first, you'll see a link near the top of the record that says "Click here to access this book." If other libraries in the Consortium have the same e-book, you'll see several links in the same area, all reading either "Click here to access this book" or "Electronic book," all prefaced with two-letter codes. Ours is GA for Gallaudet -- that's the only copy you'll be able to access.
Another way is down at the bottom where you usually see call numbers and availability information. You'll see a line that says "Linked resources: An electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click to view." Click on that link and you're in!
Incidentally, you may see another line below that saying "Access restricted to current Gallaudet University members--Login required." This is only true if you're off-campus; if you're on campus, you should be automatically logged in and you'll go straight to the book without logging in. If you're off-campus, you'll have to log in the same way you do for all of our other resources -- last name, Library barcode number or Gallaudet ID number, Institution: Gallaudet.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Diana Gates' Halloween recommendations
Another week closer to Halloween!
I notice that our display tables have seen quite a bit of traffic, which is always nice! One thing I've been wishing I could do was put up the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, but, of course, all four books have spent less than an hour total in the Library since February. They're checked out pretty much constantly, which helps our circulation figures but is inconvenient when you want to use them to draw people over.
Still, things are looking good and, of course, our librarians have been thinking hard about their favorite scary movies and books. Today, we'll be hearing from Diana Gates.
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
One of the best-known poets and writers of the macabre in American history, Poe is strongly associated with Virginia and Maryland. After being born in Boston, he grew up in Richmond and spent most of his adult life in Baltimore, where he died under mysterious circumstances and was buried.
Actually, his death was almost as strange as the stories he wrote; he was found wandering through Baltimore early one morning in October, delirious and wearing someone else's clothes. He died on October 7 -- 160 years ago this past week -- and nearly all the information on the medical investigation into his death was lost. Nobody's really sure what exactly it was he died from, why he was wearing another person's clothing, or what could have led to his wandering on that morning. Interestingly enough, one possibility that emerged soon after he died was "cooping": the practice of forcing someone to vote multiple times by drugging them into submission in order to rig an election. It sounds strange now, but was a popular theory for a long time after his death.
Whatever the cause of his death might have been, it remains unknown, which is fitting for the man who wrote stories like:
The Cask of Amontillado
A classic revenge short story in which our main character, having been insulted by his friend (how, we don't know -- the insult is never clarified), now plots his friend's death during Carnival, a time of celebration. The means by which he takes his revenge are truly horrifying: He lures his now-drunk friend into the catacombs below his house, chains him to the wall in an alcove, and slowly bricks up the opening.
The Tell-Tale Heart
This is the story that many people point to when they say that Poe invented detective fiction. In this story, the narrator kills an old man because he doesn't like the look in his eye. Really; the old man has a large blue eye that reminds the narrator of a vulture, slowly driving him mad until he finally kills the old man. After stashing the body under his floorboards and cleaning up the evidence, he gets a visit from the police, who say the neighbors reported some odd sounds. While the narrator is busy lying to the police, he discovers that he can still hear the old man's heartbeat under the floor. It grows louder and louder, making him crazier and crazier, until he finally confesses.
The Pit and the Pendulum -- Video by Patrick Graybill
A man who is captured by the Spanish Inquisition wakes up in a pitch-black room, where he discovers a pit in the middle of the floor while measuring out the perimeter of the room. What's in the pit? The story doesn't say, other than that water is involved. Still, he's so frightened that he blacks out and wakes up again, this time strapped to the floor so that only his head is capable of motion. He realizes that there is a very large and sharp pendulum swinging above him, coming closer and closer to cutting through his chest with each swing. He breaks free, but discovers that the walls have become red-hot and are moving inwards, pushing him closer and closer to the pit ...
The Black Cat -- Video by Patrick Graybill
This is the heartwarming tale of a man and his cat. He loves his cat very much. The cat is black. The man is an alcoholic. One night, unfortunately, this results in some truly horrible animal abuse, which leaves the cat without an eye. This changes their relationship; so much so, in fact, that the man, suffering in his guilt over what he's done to his cat, perversely kills it. That night, his house burns down, leaving the silhouette of a black cat on the one wall still standing. After the narrator moves his family into a new house, he discovers another cat very like his own, and brings it home. However, what he did to the previous cat only ends up poisoning his fondness for the new one, and, one day, the cat gets underfoot when he and his wife are going down to the cellar. He attempts to kill it (again), but his wife intercedes -- and he ends up killing her. He hides the body by bricking it up in the cellar, and discovers that the cat has gone missing. The police come investigating, and he nearly gets off scot-free, until, on the last day of the investigation, the police check the cellar and hear strange sounds behind one wall. They open it up to discover the wife's body -- and the cat, sitting on top of the corpse's head.
Still, all of his stories are tremendously creepy, and use all of the senses and all of the available details to set up a very finely-wrought universe of the strange and morbid. You can find all four stories (and many others, all equally terrific) in either Tales of Suspense or Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Incidentally, Baltimore is celebrating Poe's two-hundredth birthday all year, including the 160th anniversary of his death this month; you can find more information about the events being held here.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Another famous American writer Diana enjoys is Washington Irving, the guy who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. You might think you know the story, but here's what really happened, according to Irving: Ichabod Crane was a schoolmaster who came to Sleepy Hollow from Connecticut and fell in love with Katrina Van Tassel. Unfortunately, this put him in conflict with Brom Bones, who was also vying for Katrina's affections. Now, it was well-known that Ichabod was an extremely superstitious man, and there was a legend in the region that the woods were haunted by a Hessian soldier who had his head cut off during the American Revolution. One night, as Ichabod was on his way home from a party at the Van Tassels, he found himself pursued by a headless man on horseback. When the next morning came, he had vanished utterly from Sleepy Hollow, never to be heard from again, and Brom Bones ended up marrying Katrina Van Tassel. Although nobody knew what really happened to Ichabod, Irving noted that whenever someone was telling the story of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman, Brom Bones invariably looked very knowing.
Last of all is ... Deafula.
Yes. Deafula. The poignant tale of a human-vampire hybrid who must satisfy his lust for blood while seeking out his destiny, Deafula stands out as one of the very few (if not the only) deaf-produced vampire films created before the era of YouTube. Of course, it's also a hilariously cheesy movie, but who can resist the drawing power of a horror movie ... in ASL? We only have a tape available in our Deaf Copy 1 room, which means it can only be checked out for up to 2 hours and can't leave the Library -- but really, the Library's the best place to watch it; who has a VCR at home nowadays?
That wraps it up for this week. Many thanks to Diana, and we'll see you next week with some recommendations from the only local alien who could make a Xenomorph run for its life: Laura Jacobi!
Question of the Week
I'm a member of the faculty, and I'm looking for a place to give a test to my students. Does the Library offer any special testing areas where I can do this, and maybe a proctor, too?
The short answer is no. The only service we provide for testing is space -- you're welcome to bring your students here for a test (the study carrels by the big window on Kendall Green in the basement are especially good for this purpose), but we don't have a specific location in the Library for it, nor do we provide any proctoring services.
I notice that our display tables have seen quite a bit of traffic, which is always nice! One thing I've been wishing I could do was put up the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, but, of course, all four books have spent less than an hour total in the Library since February. They're checked out pretty much constantly, which helps our circulation figures but is inconvenient when you want to use them to draw people over.
Still, things are looking good and, of course, our librarians have been thinking hard about their favorite scary movies and books. Today, we'll be hearing from Diana Gates.
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
One of the best-known poets and writers of the macabre in American history, Poe is strongly associated with Virginia and Maryland. After being born in Boston, he grew up in Richmond and spent most of his adult life in Baltimore, where he died under mysterious circumstances and was buried.
Actually, his death was almost as strange as the stories he wrote; he was found wandering through Baltimore early one morning in October, delirious and wearing someone else's clothes. He died on October 7 -- 160 years ago this past week -- and nearly all the information on the medical investigation into his death was lost. Nobody's really sure what exactly it was he died from, why he was wearing another person's clothing, or what could have led to his wandering on that morning. Interestingly enough, one possibility that emerged soon after he died was "cooping": the practice of forcing someone to vote multiple times by drugging them into submission in order to rig an election. It sounds strange now, but was a popular theory for a long time after his death.
Whatever the cause of his death might have been, it remains unknown, which is fitting for the man who wrote stories like:
The Cask of Amontillado
A classic revenge short story in which our main character, having been insulted by his friend (how, we don't know -- the insult is never clarified), now plots his friend's death during Carnival, a time of celebration. The means by which he takes his revenge are truly horrifying: He lures his now-drunk friend into the catacombs below his house, chains him to the wall in an alcove, and slowly bricks up the opening.
The Tell-Tale Heart
This is the story that many people point to when they say that Poe invented detective fiction. In this story, the narrator kills an old man because he doesn't like the look in his eye. Really; the old man has a large blue eye that reminds the narrator of a vulture, slowly driving him mad until he finally kills the old man. After stashing the body under his floorboards and cleaning up the evidence, he gets a visit from the police, who say the neighbors reported some odd sounds. While the narrator is busy lying to the police, he discovers that he can still hear the old man's heartbeat under the floor. It grows louder and louder, making him crazier and crazier, until he finally confesses.
The Pit and the Pendulum -- Video by Patrick Graybill
A man who is captured by the Spanish Inquisition wakes up in a pitch-black room, where he discovers a pit in the middle of the floor while measuring out the perimeter of the room. What's in the pit? The story doesn't say, other than that water is involved. Still, he's so frightened that he blacks out and wakes up again, this time strapped to the floor so that only his head is capable of motion. He realizes that there is a very large and sharp pendulum swinging above him, coming closer and closer to cutting through his chest with each swing. He breaks free, but discovers that the walls have become red-hot and are moving inwards, pushing him closer and closer to the pit ...
The Black Cat -- Video by Patrick Graybill
This is the heartwarming tale of a man and his cat. He loves his cat very much. The cat is black. The man is an alcoholic. One night, unfortunately, this results in some truly horrible animal abuse, which leaves the cat without an eye. This changes their relationship; so much so, in fact, that the man, suffering in his guilt over what he's done to his cat, perversely kills it. That night, his house burns down, leaving the silhouette of a black cat on the one wall still standing. After the narrator moves his family into a new house, he discovers another cat very like his own, and brings it home. However, what he did to the previous cat only ends up poisoning his fondness for the new one, and, one day, the cat gets underfoot when he and his wife are going down to the cellar. He attempts to kill it (again), but his wife intercedes -- and he ends up killing her. He hides the body by bricking it up in the cellar, and discovers that the cat has gone missing. The police come investigating, and he nearly gets off scot-free, until, on the last day of the investigation, the police check the cellar and hear strange sounds behind one wall. They open it up to discover the wife's body -- and the cat, sitting on top of the corpse's head.
Still, all of his stories are tremendously creepy, and use all of the senses and all of the available details to set up a very finely-wrought universe of the strange and morbid. You can find all four stories (and many others, all equally terrific) in either Tales of Suspense or Great Short Works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Incidentally, Baltimore is celebrating Poe's two-hundredth birthday all year, including the 160th anniversary of his death this month; you can find more information about the events being held here.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Another famous American writer Diana enjoys is Washington Irving, the guy who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. You might think you know the story, but here's what really happened, according to Irving: Ichabod Crane was a schoolmaster who came to Sleepy Hollow from Connecticut and fell in love with Katrina Van Tassel. Unfortunately, this put him in conflict with Brom Bones, who was also vying for Katrina's affections. Now, it was well-known that Ichabod was an extremely superstitious man, and there was a legend in the region that the woods were haunted by a Hessian soldier who had his head cut off during the American Revolution. One night, as Ichabod was on his way home from a party at the Van Tassels, he found himself pursued by a headless man on horseback. When the next morning came, he had vanished utterly from Sleepy Hollow, never to be heard from again, and Brom Bones ended up marrying Katrina Van Tassel. Although nobody knew what really happened to Ichabod, Irving noted that whenever someone was telling the story of Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman, Brom Bones invariably looked very knowing.
Last of all is ... Deafula.
Yes. Deafula. The poignant tale of a human-vampire hybrid who must satisfy his lust for blood while seeking out his destiny, Deafula stands out as one of the very few (if not the only) deaf-produced vampire films created before the era of YouTube. Of course, it's also a hilariously cheesy movie, but who can resist the drawing power of a horror movie ... in ASL? We only have a tape available in our Deaf Copy 1 room, which means it can only be checked out for up to 2 hours and can't leave the Library -- but really, the Library's the best place to watch it; who has a VCR at home nowadays?
That wraps it up for this week. Many thanks to Diana, and we'll see you next week with some recommendations from the only local alien who could make a Xenomorph run for its life: Laura Jacobi!
Question of the Week
I'm a member of the faculty, and I'm looking for a place to give a test to my students. Does the Library offer any special testing areas where I can do this, and maybe a proctor, too?
The short answer is no. The only service we provide for testing is space -- you're welcome to bring your students here for a test (the study carrels by the big window on Kendall Green in the basement are especially good for this purpose), but we don't have a specific location in the Library for it, nor do we provide any proctoring services.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Halloween's coming!
It's October!
The air is crisp, the sky is blue, and there are even some trees beginning to change color. Halloween has been sighted on the horizon, and we're ready for it; both display tables at the Library have been stuffed full of books about scary things (a few vampires, some werewolves, a couple of witches, and a movie monster or two, to say nothing of Stephen King and Anne Rice) and scary movies (slashers, zombies, aliens ... the list goes on). We anticipate the scary movies will go quickly, but since they're only allowed out for three days and horror movies make up a significant portion of our popular DVD collection, there's plenty to go around! Come by and check it out sometime -- unlike most of the characters on the display tables, we don't bite.
For this month, we'll be doing some asking around the Library for our librarians' favorite Halloween books, movies, and activities, mostly because I love Halloween and I don't mind using this blog to evangelize the joys of rubber masks and cheap polyvinyl costumes. Since we'll be doing some book reviews as a matter of course, I plan to take a break from the whole "What did I read this week" thing.
Let's start with my favorite Halloween movies:
Hocus Pocus
When 17-year-old Max's family moves from sunny L.A. to frumpy Salem, Massachusetts, he figures he's in for an eternity of stultifying boredom. Little does he know that Salem is home to the notorious Sanderson sisters, three witches who were hanged in the 17th Century for various horrifying crimes. With the help of his school crush and his younger sister, he accidentally brings them back from the dead and must thwart their plan to consume the souls of all the kids in Salem. And it's funny. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy play the Sanderson sisters and it's way too much fun watching them bicker and butt heads with the 20th Century.
Halloween and Halloween II
THE classic Halloween horror flicks! A twisted guy in a hockey mask terrorizes teenage girls, but unlike most slasher movies, it's actually a foray into some seriously messed-up psychological territory. Halloween is also the film that jump-started Jamie Lee Curtis's career and was instrumental in setting the standard for slasher films today, along with movies like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.
Evil Dead and Army of Darkness
Both movies are part of Bruce Campbell's Evil Dead trilogy about Ash, a store clerk with some pals who head up to a cabin in the woods and experience some disturbing occurrences tied to a particularly evil-looking book they happen across in the house. The first movie culminates in some seriously weird-looking scenes at night in the woods and feature a demonic possession that still freaks me out every time I see it. The second movie involves some time-traveling and a massive battle against the Deadite Empire. It's both incredibly cheesy and unbelievably funny. Bruce Campbell is known for his skill at combining horror with hilarity, and both movies represent terrific examples of this.
Shaun of the Dead
A brilliant movie about an apathetic slacker who realizes he's in the middle of a zombie epidemic about three days after the first news reports start warning people to sever the head from the spine. He ends up leading his roommate, girlfriend, girlfriend's best friend, girlfriend's best friend's boyfriend who's actually in love with his girlfriend's best friend, mother, and distant stepfather to shelter in the local pub. A lot of people get torn apart and eaten along the way, but it ends on a heartwarming note when the world finds out that zombies aren't so bad after all. It's one of the funniest movies you'll watch all month.
Boy Eats Girl
Yet another walking-dead movie, but this one is unique: it's Irish! I know, Ireland isn't exactly very well-known for its film industry, but this movie is pretty unusual. For one thing, the main character is the first person to die. This might sound like a pretty short movie, if not for the fact that our main character doesn't stay dead. He doesn't even realize that he's not alive at first, in fact -- he just wakes up the morning after he dies and has no idea what happened and goes off to school, with predictable results. People get bitten and turn into zombies, or they get eaten and turn into something resembling hamburger. Either way, it's a really entertaining movie.
Psycho and Vertigo
No zombies in either one, unless you want to count Norman Bates's mother. Psycho is the story of a young fellow who runs a motel off the beaten path and has a few odd habits, most of which involve his problematic relationships with the opposite sex. One of the indisputable horror-movie classics, bar none. Vertigo, on the other hand, is much more of a psychological thriller and is, more frankly, just plain weird. A detective with acrophobia gets hired by a husband concerned about his wife's behavior; the wife appears to be possessed by her ancestor. After a suicide attempt or two, things start to really get strange, and the end of the film is more or less fitting. Sorry to be so vague, but it's hard to explain the plot without giving away a few surprises.
What with my actually being a librarian and all, I'm sure you're expecting me to recite a few hundred pages' worth of scary-book titles. The truth is, it's been a long time since I was scared by a book; I caught on to Stephen King's shtick fairly early on (although his Bag of Bones is still a pretty well-done creepfest), and Anne Rice is a little too flowery for my taste. Edgar Allan Poe can't be matched for sheer weirdness and horror -- "The Cask of Amontillado" still makes me shudder -- but he can be a little dense for some light reading; the same goes for Dracula. Frankenstein, on the other hand, is more tragic than scary. Instead, I'm going to suggest the only recent book that's managed to send chills up my spine: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
It's the story of a family that moves into a new house. The new house has something severely, severely wrong with it: It has an extra door. Normally, that'd just be an architectural quirk, except the door actually leads somewhere. This "somewhere" is hard to describe because most of this particular storyline after this point takes place in utter darkness. There are several different narratives in the book, all having something to do with the family's experiences, and the text itself gets experimental sometimes. There are plenty of fake footnotes citing documents that don't exist, whole pages blank except for a single word, other pages where the words spiral around the page, and other devices that can get kind of annoying after a while. I'm not fond of that part of the book, but when the story gets into the family's exploration of what's behind the door, it just gets creepier and creepier. You get to the point where you hope that blank walls stay blank, which sounds silly but makes sense after you read it. It's a fairly thick paperback book, so is a wee bit of a commitment, but one that pays off very, very progressively.
That covers my Halloween recommendations. Stay tuned for more from your local librarians!
Question of the Week
I was working on one of the computers on the first floor, and one of the librarians asked for my ID. That's never happened before. What's up with that?
First, don't take it too personally. We've been noticing an increase in the number of people unaffiliated with Gallaudet using our computers for reasons other than deaf-related research. We don't allow it, but it happens pretty often anyway; sometimes a student will have a friend visiting from out of town who needs to use the computer and will give that friend their username and password in order to use one of our computers. Other times, someone will be working on a public computer and see that someone else needs to get on but doesn't have a Gallaudet-assigned username and password, so will log on for them.
This is pretty bad for a couple of reasons: First, giving out personal information like that is a lousy idea; that username and password gives access to quite a number of other things besides an on-campus computer. Second, it ties up a computer that should be used by a Gallaudet student who actually needs to do some work.
So we've started to be more assiduous about adhering to our policy on computer use. If we find anyone who can't produce a valid Gallaudet ID card, is logged on under a different name, or otherwise does not belong here, they will be asked to leave immediately. From this point on, it will be necessary for you to have your ID on you at all times when using the Library.
The air is crisp, the sky is blue, and there are even some trees beginning to change color. Halloween has been sighted on the horizon, and we're ready for it; both display tables at the Library have been stuffed full of books about scary things (a few vampires, some werewolves, a couple of witches, and a movie monster or two, to say nothing of Stephen King and Anne Rice) and scary movies (slashers, zombies, aliens ... the list goes on). We anticipate the scary movies will go quickly, but since they're only allowed out for three days and horror movies make up a significant portion of our popular DVD collection, there's plenty to go around! Come by and check it out sometime -- unlike most of the characters on the display tables, we don't bite.
For this month, we'll be doing some asking around the Library for our librarians' favorite Halloween books, movies, and activities, mostly because I love Halloween and I don't mind using this blog to evangelize the joys of rubber masks and cheap polyvinyl costumes. Since we'll be doing some book reviews as a matter of course, I plan to take a break from the whole "What did I read this week" thing.
Let's start with my favorite Halloween movies:
Hocus Pocus
When 17-year-old Max's family moves from sunny L.A. to frumpy Salem, Massachusetts, he figures he's in for an eternity of stultifying boredom. Little does he know that Salem is home to the notorious Sanderson sisters, three witches who were hanged in the 17th Century for various horrifying crimes. With the help of his school crush and his younger sister, he accidentally brings them back from the dead and must thwart their plan to consume the souls of all the kids in Salem. And it's funny. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy play the Sanderson sisters and it's way too much fun watching them bicker and butt heads with the 20th Century.
Halloween and Halloween II
THE classic Halloween horror flicks! A twisted guy in a hockey mask terrorizes teenage girls, but unlike most slasher movies, it's actually a foray into some seriously messed-up psychological territory. Halloween is also the film that jump-started Jamie Lee Curtis's career and was instrumental in setting the standard for slasher films today, along with movies like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.
Evil Dead and Army of Darkness
Both movies are part of Bruce Campbell's Evil Dead trilogy about Ash, a store clerk with some pals who head up to a cabin in the woods and experience some disturbing occurrences tied to a particularly evil-looking book they happen across in the house. The first movie culminates in some seriously weird-looking scenes at night in the woods and feature a demonic possession that still freaks me out every time I see it. The second movie involves some time-traveling and a massive battle against the Deadite Empire. It's both incredibly cheesy and unbelievably funny. Bruce Campbell is known for his skill at combining horror with hilarity, and both movies represent terrific examples of this.
Shaun of the Dead
A brilliant movie about an apathetic slacker who realizes he's in the middle of a zombie epidemic about three days after the first news reports start warning people to sever the head from the spine. He ends up leading his roommate, girlfriend, girlfriend's best friend, girlfriend's best friend's boyfriend who's actually in love with his girlfriend's best friend, mother, and distant stepfather to shelter in the local pub. A lot of people get torn apart and eaten along the way, but it ends on a heartwarming note when the world finds out that zombies aren't so bad after all. It's one of the funniest movies you'll watch all month.
Boy Eats Girl
Yet another walking-dead movie, but this one is unique: it's Irish! I know, Ireland isn't exactly very well-known for its film industry, but this movie is pretty unusual. For one thing, the main character is the first person to die. This might sound like a pretty short movie, if not for the fact that our main character doesn't stay dead. He doesn't even realize that he's not alive at first, in fact -- he just wakes up the morning after he dies and has no idea what happened and goes off to school, with predictable results. People get bitten and turn into zombies, or they get eaten and turn into something resembling hamburger. Either way, it's a really entertaining movie.
Psycho and Vertigo
No zombies in either one, unless you want to count Norman Bates's mother. Psycho is the story of a young fellow who runs a motel off the beaten path and has a few odd habits, most of which involve his problematic relationships with the opposite sex. One of the indisputable horror-movie classics, bar none. Vertigo, on the other hand, is much more of a psychological thriller and is, more frankly, just plain weird. A detective with acrophobia gets hired by a husband concerned about his wife's behavior; the wife appears to be possessed by her ancestor. After a suicide attempt or two, things start to really get strange, and the end of the film is more or less fitting. Sorry to be so vague, but it's hard to explain the plot without giving away a few surprises.
What with my actually being a librarian and all, I'm sure you're expecting me to recite a few hundred pages' worth of scary-book titles. The truth is, it's been a long time since I was scared by a book; I caught on to Stephen King's shtick fairly early on (although his Bag of Bones is still a pretty well-done creepfest), and Anne Rice is a little too flowery for my taste. Edgar Allan Poe can't be matched for sheer weirdness and horror -- "The Cask of Amontillado" still makes me shudder -- but he can be a little dense for some light reading; the same goes for Dracula. Frankenstein, on the other hand, is more tragic than scary. Instead, I'm going to suggest the only recent book that's managed to send chills up my spine: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
It's the story of a family that moves into a new house. The new house has something severely, severely wrong with it: It has an extra door. Normally, that'd just be an architectural quirk, except the door actually leads somewhere. This "somewhere" is hard to describe because most of this particular storyline after this point takes place in utter darkness. There are several different narratives in the book, all having something to do with the family's experiences, and the text itself gets experimental sometimes. There are plenty of fake footnotes citing documents that don't exist, whole pages blank except for a single word, other pages where the words spiral around the page, and other devices that can get kind of annoying after a while. I'm not fond of that part of the book, but when the story gets into the family's exploration of what's behind the door, it just gets creepier and creepier. You get to the point where you hope that blank walls stay blank, which sounds silly but makes sense after you read it. It's a fairly thick paperback book, so is a wee bit of a commitment, but one that pays off very, very progressively.
That covers my Halloween recommendations. Stay tuned for more from your local librarians!
Question of the Week
I was working on one of the computers on the first floor, and one of the librarians asked for my ID. That's never happened before. What's up with that?
First, don't take it too personally. We've been noticing an increase in the number of people unaffiliated with Gallaudet using our computers for reasons other than deaf-related research. We don't allow it, but it happens pretty often anyway; sometimes a student will have a friend visiting from out of town who needs to use the computer and will give that friend their username and password in order to use one of our computers. Other times, someone will be working on a public computer and see that someone else needs to get on but doesn't have a Gallaudet-assigned username and password, so will log on for them.
This is pretty bad for a couple of reasons: First, giving out personal information like that is a lousy idea; that username and password gives access to quite a number of other things besides an on-campus computer. Second, it ties up a computer that should be used by a Gallaudet student who actually needs to do some work.
So we've started to be more assiduous about adhering to our policy on computer use. If we find anyone who can't produce a valid Gallaudet ID card, is logged on under a different name, or otherwise does not belong here, they will be asked to leave immediately. From this point on, it will be necessary for you to have your ID on you at all times when using the Library.
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