‘White Like Me’ Author Speaks Today

Just a reminder (ripped straight from announcements here):

Diane Kappen, adjunct associate professor, psychology, will facilitate the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Book Club discussion of “White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son” by Tim Wise from 2 to 4 p.m. today. The group will meet in the In-Focus Dining Room, Commons Building.

“White Like Me” is available in the JCCC Bookstore. The book discussion is free and open to the public.

In addition, Tim Wise will speak at JCCC on Feb. 17. The first program runs from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in Craig Auditorium. A second, in Yardley Hall, runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. A reception precedes the presentation from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Carlsen Center Lobby.

Book of the Day Goes Back to the Middle East

One argument you here about certain Middle Eastern countries is that their citizens have no influence due to their authoritarian government.  Political Participation in the Middle East hopes to change your perspective by showing how participating through trade organizations, through activism, or a number of other organized or informal ways has actually allowed members of these countries to play an active part in government, despite perceptions of their structure.  It isn’t a pro- or anti- authoritarian argument, but rather a way to see things a bit closer than we may be used to viewing them.

Back of the Class: Week 1

The depth of my originality sticks to “of the” ilk.

This is the first of at least weekly posts about the class I’m now taking at JCCC, and more specifically, what the library can offer in expanding the value of the class.

I’m currently enrolled in an Interior Design class, and the very first day, we went to the library to learn about several databases which can assist you.  Due to the generality of “first days”, today’s post is quite general as well.

Most of the information covered in the librarian presentation is available on this LibGuide. In addition to the LibGuide, keep in mind that we still get products.  Take, for example, this gem:

Opportunities in Interior Design and Decorating Careers is a book that was added just today that came across the New Item RSS feed. Much like other disciplines taught at JCCC, we’re constantly developing the collection for users with up-to-date and relevant materials.  Unfortunately, we take a pass on purchasing textbooks, but nobody’s perfect.

Plug In Your Car for the Book of the Day

Long ago, I lived next to a high school shop teacher.  The only cool thing about that was that he loved to tinker, and did so with electric vehicles.  His first was an uncomfortable folding chair welded to a flat platform on 4 wheels.  Under the chair sat a car battery, and buttons rested under the natural spot to rest your feet, one button on each side.  When you pressed both buttons, you went straight.  Just the right, you’d turn right, and left turned you left.  It was a pretty neat toy for his son, and he didn’t have to buy a Power Wheels.

Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Seth Leitman is a big more complicated than welding a chair down.  This book goes through the steps of creating your own electric engine, converting a gas-powered vehicle to support an electric engine, and also weighs pros and cons (such as safety vs. vehicle weight and speed) in trying to get your vehicle greener.  Of course, I don’t know if my shop-teacher neighbor was really concerned about going green (the guy had two trucks and an SUV), but were I into mechanics, it would probably be fun to convert a vehicle just to say I did.

Your Book of the Day is Down in the Water

So our system for adding new books to the catalog is back on track, and our catalogers (cataloggers?  I think those are lumberjack librarians…) have added about seventy new books for me to peruse.  So today’s book, we’ll go with something timely.

plane

Ah, yes.  Flight and American Airports.  Luckily, one of the many books that’s been waiting to reach you patrons is Terminal chaos : why US air travel is broken and how to fix it by George L. Donohue (and friends).

They’re seasoned veterans in the commercial flight industry, and take the time to break down the problems of increased flight demand, safety concerns, lost luggage, and airplane safety.  Moreover, our complacency with the lack of safety.  Yes, the plane landed in water last week.  Yay.  For real.  Good.  I’m happy, and you should be, too.  However, no one seems to be letting go of the feel good side of the story and realize that you don’t have to take this.  Lazy legislation and complacency from the public have left airlines a lot more dangerous than they should be, and this book shows how this can be addressed, and in a timely manner nonetheless.  Hopefully, before March, as I’ve got a plane to catch.

Yes We Can… Update the Blog

Happy Inauguration Day! Just a quick technical update from the library’s digital projects. One of our systems has been down for a couple weeks, preventing a feed of new books from coming in our RSS feed.  Since there’s been no new arrivals, we haven’t had any Books of the Day to write about.

Also, since class started on a Wednesday last week, our new project, based on a Tuesday class, hasn’t happened yet.  But! after tonight, I should have some experiences to share about what I learn and what the library can do to reinforce my experience.

Either way, exciting stuff, and sorry for the delays!  We’re not gone, we’re just slow recovering from the holidays.

We Return: Book of the Day

As you’re all busy, for sure, with new activities in a new year, I’m sure we haven’t been too awfully missed.  But! we are back, and the first Book of the Day for 2009 is: After the Taliban: Nation-Building in Afghanistan by James F. Dobbins, a former ambassador for the USA to the European Union.

I don’t think its much of a secret that the United States isn’t all that popular in a lot of places due to the last 8 years and decisions the government has made in regards to war in other nations.  Dobbins discusses his role in re-establishing a government once the Taliban was taken out of power in Afghanistan.  Why is the opinion of Dobbins important?  He’s a guy who has helped rebuild Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and he’s not afraid to tell you how the U.S. War cabinet shot itself in the foot (figuratively, not like Plaxico Burress) and broke down over Afghan issues. It is a straight forward account of a man doing his job.  It just so happens that his job affects at least two nations and all of their members.

End of Year / Holidays / Something to Look Foward To

Congrats to all of our students who survived finals, and a happy holidays wish to everyone.  I hope that this brief time off is treating the JCCC community well (and everyone else, too, of course!)  Next semester, you will see these updates get back to regular, as well as an exciting new feature.

While the feature doesn’t have a name yet, it will be a twice-a-week feature which follows me through a new experience:  I’m taking a class here at JCCC!  It isn’t uncommon for faculty to take classes, but I hope to show students and staff how the library can enhance your classroom experience, provides numerous resources for students, and can better enrich the general learning environment on campus.

Here’s hoping I do OK: It’s been a couple years since I was in school. I’m actually nervous about all of the can’t-find-my-class, hope-I-make-friends, hope-I’m-not-late stuff that everyone goes through.  It’s pretty exciting for me, and I hope I can use the experience to paint the library in an appropriate, positive light.

Michael Phelps and His Book Won’t Help You Swim Fast

I used to give atheletes a lot of flack for seemingly always needing a co-writer for their memoirs.  But hey, if you’re that freakishly good at one thing, you’ve got a good shot at being not that great at a few things.  It might as well be a permission slip, being that freakishly good:  free pass on 2 social skills and 1 basic talent.  I’d say writing a book is probably a heavier weight than any of the given passes, so I’ll let it go.

So what do we know about Michael Phelps?  He swims fast.  He eats a lot of food.  His book, No Limits: The Will to Succeed, co-written with Alan Abrahamson, discusses how he’s set himself up with the desire to push himself that much harder, as well as the relentless training he puts himself through.  This book just made it to our McNaughton Collection, so it is advisable to check it out sooner than later.

A Sobering Book of the Day

The mass killings carried out by the Nazi party and their allies during World War II are horrific.  The impact certainly overshadowed other mass killings carried out by regimes in the 20th Century, but Benjamin A. Valentino is out to make sure these tragedies and their lessons do not go unnoticed.  His book, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century, looks at all of the different places where, by his definition, at least 50,000 people are killed in a 5 year period. A brief list of mass killings:

  • Soviet Union
  • China
  • Cambodia
  • Nazi Germany
  • Armenia
  • Rwanda
  • Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
  • Guatemala

And there are probably more.  This book provides a new look at the brutality of the 20th Century, but contains lessons one should remember.