Today’s new books, if you subscribe to the RSS feed, have topics ranging from 9/11 to China being wealthier than the United States to stress to the social stigma attached to unmarried parents. That’s why I’m rejecting my social obligation to deliver incredibly pertinent information, and hitting you up with something a lot more important in today’s uncertain global economic climate:
Adorableness.
Check out that cover! Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Meg Fox and Helen Oxenbury is absolutely lovely. Maybe you have young children. Maybe you’re going into Early Childhood Education. Maybe you just need a pick-me-up from nostalgia. It has been a long while, most likely, since you’ve read a book like this for independent pleasure, but that doesn’t make it any less adorable.
You know, we have a fairly sizable collection of children’s books. If this doesn’t do it for you, hit up some Dr. Seuss.
Reassurance. The lack thereof. Here I am no the second floor of a building, in my office. Chilling out. There’s at least one floor above me. Only 5 books were new for today. And what’s the only interesting one? Why Buildings Fall Down. Are you serious? This gem covers a range of collapses, from manmade cotastrophies to nature’s wrath on buildings. It even has a section about, and I’m quoting the back of the book, “one of the most fatal structural disasters in American history: the fall of the Hyatt Regency ballroom walkways in Kansas City”.
If you need something more uplifting, read co-author Mario Salvadori’s other book Why Building’s Stand Up. No, for real, that’s a real book.
I’ve seen both sides of the online class. I’ve never been a teacher of an online course, but my colleagues past and present are active parts of this. I know from many past conversations that teachers worry their students are phoning it in on the other side of the computer, if they’re even sitting at the desk at all. I know that students have a long list of complaints about how they’re either wasting their time or not engaged. Both sides end up frustrated with software.
But here’s something I’ve also seen: Both sides end up getting mad and often don’t share what could be done.
Please, if you are on either side of this situation, look at a book like today’s BotD: Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction by Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson. I believe that online learning and incorporating Web based material into learningto be potentially fantastic opportunities. With a breakdown in communication, though, the class loses value. When the students can’t visually express their displeasure or the instructors unable to visually assess interest, positive changes are harder to come by. Teachers: check this book out and get some ideas. Students: check this book out and don’t be afraid to give your teacher some suggestions.
File this under “Secret Lives of Librarians”. I spent a brief time in the video game industry, and while the games Iworked on weren’t be-all-end-all titles, they faired well, and the people I worked with were phenomenal. I was in a bottom rung position but having the best time of my life, and the only way to go was up. But, fate came knocking, and while I went on to library school, some of my best friends are still making games.
But maybe you’re interested in getting into the business. Maybe you want to do level design, or make physics engines, or do character models. Sound? Maybe you want to test? Oversee production? Or maybe there’s even an avenue outside of direct contact with the creation of games, like video game journalism
Paid to Play: An Insider’s Guide to Video Game Careers is by David S.J. Hodgson and Bryan Stratton. They’ve highlighted 50 careers that exist within the video game industry, and have included portions of over 100 interviews with other industry professionals. It is a great book to truly gauge the options out there, and the comics are all done by the folks at Penny Arcade. So, maybe take some classes here, do some research, and see if there’s a spot for you in the industry.
My Sophomore year of college, I had a roommate who dropped out because he played Madden 2002 all day (this was new at the time.) I went away for the weekend, came back, and had already been given a new roommate. As I walked in, he looked at me nervously and said “Hello I’m Ryan have you checked your e-mail you should,” just like that, no pause. “Um.. Alright.”
This is an excerpt from that e-mail, which I will never delete.
Hi, I’m being moved into your room this weekend (Saturday
morning around noon I’ll be bringing my stuff by van…)
I thought I’d e-mail you and let you know a few things about
me and some of the stuff I have which I can bring with.
[…]
I enjoy lots of different things, I like movies, my favorites
include Dancer In The Dark, The Crow, Interview With The
Vampire, Lord of the Rings, Indochine (a French film), and
many others. I also enjoy music, and my tastes range greatly
but usually include everything except extremely hard rap and
twangy country. I also like playing on my computer and
hanging out with friends.
[…]
Another important thing to tell you is that I am a
homosexual. If you have any concerns about this, please let
me know, I will not be offended if you just ask me straight
out.
I look forward to living in Garner [our dorm’s name] and to being your
roommate… please let me know about what stuff I should move-
in with.
Now, what I didn’t know at the time was that Ryan was chased out of his old dorm because someone found out that he was gay (the guilty party was expelled). What Ryan didn’t know is that I’ve had extended family members who have been out since before I understood the concept of sexual orientation.
But that’s a pressure I won’t understand, and a persecution many have to face. And if I support my friends and family, I should probably learn more about how one goes about approaching an issue of equality. So when I see a book called The Lesbian and Gay Movement: Assimilation or Liberation? by Craig A. Rimmerman, I imagine it is time for a self-education. This takes on the different movements and issues as a collective, trying to discuss two different viewpoints: Is being accepted part of assimilating oneself into the mainstream, or is it to liberate their rights from oppression? Ideally, the end goal is to make issues a non-issue in society, but the angle one uses when getting their point across is of great inerest and debate.
The book focuses on the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy and the military ban of “outed” homosexuals, the AIDs epidemic, and same-sex marriage. It is a book with fully cited sources, and unlike many works about Gay Rights, focuses more on opposing camps of Gay Rights advocates than it does of a pro- or anti- rights stance. I’m not saying you’ll get all the answers, but maybe you’ll get a better shot at the different questions.
Banned books usually make us think of inappropriate library materials at middle schools, maybe intense subject matter at high schools. Yet one would think a library on a college campus is immune; after all, this is where free thinking is encouraged.
That’s why I was surprised last spring when a patron demanded that the Billington Library ban a book. The book, Mapplethorpe, contained nude images along with other photographs.
She complained that children shouldn’t have acess to it.
I urged her to put that in our suggestion box.
But what I really wanted to say was, “Hello? Earth to crazy lady: this is a college library not childrens’ story hour at Borders.”
Materials at college libraries differs from those at public libraries because our primary charge is to provide materials that support courses. That matierial provide is selected to provoke thought, expand minds and facilitate discussions. Librarians work with instructors to procure material that enhances the required and suggested texts students purchase.
Sometimes that material is ugly, violent, sacrilegious or even naked.
If you can’t find material in a college library that offends you, then they aren’t doing their jobs.
So today’s Book of the Day is a real upper! Let’s take a look!
AAHH!!!! New book! New book! New book!
YES! Thank goodness. I can’t takeanymore nuclear scares.
I’d much rather get my fashion on with A cultural history of fashion in the twentieth century : from the catwalk to the sidewalk. It is 177 pages of designs, designers, and the integration of innovation into daily wear. Certainly this is more uplifting than the first choice, plus I truly can respect someone who can go through this book and point out shifts in cultural asthetic paradigms… I see pretty pictures for the most part. But at least it can be enjoyed on both levels.
Hey! It is Deaf Awareness Week! If you’re on campus, I recommend you check out the following:
MELANIE MCKAY CODY
Hudson Auditorium, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
3:30-5 p.m.
Melanie McKay Cody will give a presentation, Cultural Identity. Cody, a Deaf American Indian, has been employed with the Kansas State Department of Education as a linguistic specialist. This fall, she will be a professor at William Woods University, Fulton, Mo.
There’s more on campus. And because of this week’s event, I’ve got a book for you:Day by day : the chronicles of a hard of hearing reporterby Elizabeth Thompson. It is what it says it is: Thompson’s account of the life of a hard-of-hearing journalist brings awareness to people functioning, living with identity over disability, and interacting in the world.
Other events are taking place on campus, including a documentary showing at 7pm tonight, Audism Unveiled.
A lot of things go wrong in the tech world. Web pages crash. Microsoft ads are created on Apple computers. You know how things can be. One thing that might confuse you are the 4 entries for what appears to be the same book coming into the RSS Feed of new items. Think again! Actually, that’s a multi-volume set, The Encyclopedia of Global Warming & Climate Change, and it is here to ROCK YOU. Or at least sway you to a greener life.
I actually think this book is perfect. Somewhere between policitcal gobbledygook and activist buzzwords, you may be lost on what the issues are, the arguments mean, and the definitions of the terms thrown around. No matter how you feel on the issue, it can’t hurt to keep up on what people are fighting about.
You’d never know it looking at me: I’m a fairly large dude. I do, however, run. I try to throw down a half hour on a treadmill at a fairly fast pace, and considering that my surroundings are pretty lackluster, I’m left to my own thoughts to keep me from falling asleep and pulling a Kool-Aid Man through the back of the gym.
But, man, do I get to thinking. I think I’ve dissected about thirty rock albums, as well as debated over who was a better wrestler, Animal or Hawk, both from the Legion of Doom (Hawk, if you’re curious). And of course, interspursed is the serious life stuff.
Its that awkward flow of information that frames What I Talk About when I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami. This memoir is a jumble of thoughts centered around the author’s long-distance running hobby adopted in adult life. Haruki manages to squeeze out a life story, constantly hinting at what might make the most subtle instance or object a significant answer to a greater of life’s mysteries. Next time you let your mind drift off as your physical world slips into monotony, consider your surroundings, your life, and think about giving this book a once-through.
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