Friday, May 29, 2009

weekend reads


just a few of the new books in the sociology division


garden in a small space...
The self sufficient-ish bible: an eco-living guide for the 21st century -
Andy and Dave Hamilton
363.7 H217


read with a child...
Rhe book whisperer - Donalyn Miller
372.6 M647

find the perfect cufflinks...
Rhe handbook of style: a man's guide to looking good
- Esquire magazine
391. 1 H326

and for all you alliteration lovers...
The towering world of Jimmy Choo: a glamorous story of power, profits, and the pursuit of the perfect shoe - Lauren Goldstein Crowe
391.413 C953

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

what is it those corporate agribusinesses don't want WSU freshman to know?

image source: Library of Congress Flickr Commons

Some news from the academic library world ...Washington State University announced last week that it decided to pull The Omnivore’s Dilemma - Michael Pollan's super popular book about "the ecology of the food humans eat and why"- from their required reading program for freshman. possible reasoning behind that one? pressure from corporate agribusiness, say some faculty members.

Well you could pick up The Omnivore's Dilemma from your local dcpl branch, if all the copies weren't already checked out! Place a hold on citycat and check out Pollan's latest: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Books on food and eating start around SOC 394!

Stop by MLK Library to check out a great article on the WSU controversy in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education - one of the many journals and newspapers we receive in the Social Sciences division. check out The Chronicle's blog post on it here!

UPDATE: Looks like WSU found a way to make it work!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

txt u l8r

image source: Library of Congress Flickr Commons

Check out this interesting NYTimes article on the psychological and physical effects of texting. bonus! the article features a Bethesda teen.

Something the article does not fully address is text message bullying. Text message bullying is highly prevalent in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and for some reason doesn't seem to get reported in the United States. Here is an article written by a teen on the subject.

Interested in reading up on the topic?

Cyber-bullying : issues and solutions for the school, the classroom and the home - Shaheen Shariff
371.58 S531

The mobile connection: the cell phone's impact on society - Richard Ling
303.4833 L755

Yourspace: Questioning New Media - Heather E. Schwartz
JUV 302.23 SCHWARTZ

need some more? here are some online resources on text bullying and cyber-bullying:
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html
http://www.cyberbullying.us/index.php

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Graduation speech of the year?



It's that time of year again- the kids are dressed in their caps and gowns shuttling the extended family from one ceremony to the next. what about the rest of us? Well, there is always dormstering! If you feel the need to reminisce on some post-graduation inspiration check out John Legend's speech to the upenn class of 2009 from monday may 18th.

Books on college education can be found starting at SOC 378 and books on commencement speeches at LIT 815.01 G733 and LIT 815.08 O59 (but look in the catalog under baccalaureate addresses because apparently we are stuck in the year 1900).

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

hearing of the week: gulf war illness research

Source: U.S. House of Representatives

House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Oversight Subcommittee
will have a hearing on Gulf War Illness Research

May 19 at 10 a.m.
334 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The hearing will include two panels of witness testimony
and the hearing will be available on webcast.

Memorial Day Book Display

Source: U.S. Veterans Administration

May 25th is Memorial Day. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. Initially, enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action.


The Social Sciences Division, has prepared an interesting book display to honor American military service men and women. The books include biographies, histories of the branches of the military, personal wartime accounts from World War II to the conflict in Iraq and works about women and minorities in the armed forces.

Please check out the book display on the 2nd floor of the East Lobby of the Martin Luther King Public Library.

For additional information about Memorial Day and local events please visit these websites:

Origins of Memorial Day
National Memorial Day Concert, May 24, 2009
National Memorial Day Parade, May 25, 2009




Monday, May 18, 2009

Robert C. Byrd, 91 and the Longest-Serving Senator in History, Hospitalized

Source: United States Senate

Robert C. Byrd the longest-serving senator in history was hospitalized, last Friday.

You can read more about about Senator Byrd on the following news resources:

Sen. Byrd hospitalized with 'minor' infection
Charleston Gazette, May 18, 2009
http://wvgazette.com/ap/ApTopStories/200905180266

Byrd ‘Responding Well’ to Treatment
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003119645
CQ Politics, May 18,2009

Senator Robert C. Byrd United States Senate site
http://byrd.senate.gov/

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A new kind of scout

source: nytimes

I remember fondly my years as a brownie scout- singing, camping, crafting, eating cookies. fast forward to 2009 and this is what the kids are doing.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

May is Jewish American Heritage Month


On May 12, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a proclamation declaring May Jewish American Heritage Month. This is an opportunity to celebrate the history, culture, and faith of Jewish Americans and their contributions to our Nation. The Social Sciences Division, of the DC Public Library has many books and resources on Jewish American Heritage, please search our catalog. Also, the Philosophy/Religion Librarian created a Jewish American Heritage book display outside the Social Sciences Division, in the East Lobby on the Second Floor.

There are many online resources available to learn more about Jewish Americans in the United States. Jewish American Heritage Month.gov is a portal and collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It includes personal accounts from Jewish Americans, digital exhibits and collections and special events in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area, during May.

Additional Local Resources:

B'nai B'rith National Jewish Museum
http://www.bnaibrith.org/prog_serv/museum.cfm

Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
http://www.jhsgw.org/

The National Museum of American Jewish Military History
http://www.nmajmh.org/

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/

hearing of the week

thanks to matt from arts and lit for bringing this to my attention --

Playwright Lynn Nottage will be hanging out on Capitol Hill today performing a monologue from her Pulitzer Prize winning work "Ruined." She will discuss her research and writing process for “Ruined,” a play which centers on a 'group of women who survived sexual and physical violence and now work and live in a canteen and brothel not far from the battle lines of the Congo civil war. The characters were based on real refugees Ms. Nottage interviewed after they had escaped the armed conflict.'

Confronting rape and other forms of violence
against women in conflict zones

Spotlight: DRC and Sudan
2:30pm
Room 419 in Dirksen Senate Building
Show up with ID by 2:15!

Can't make it to Dirksen? Supposedly being live-broadcast from here.

source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/women-of-ruined-to-speak-in-washington-about-rape/

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Girls Rock! Day Camp + MLK Jr Memorial Library = <3 <3

source: Jana Birchum/Getty Images

Calling all girls ages 8-18! Stop by the MLK Library's Children's room on Saturday 5/16 from 2-4. Learn about girls rock! day camp and try your hand at tons of instruments. We will have snacks, show clips from last year's 9:30 club showcase, and (hopefully) listen to a live band perform outside the library!

With a base in music education, Girls Rock! DC aims to create a supportive, inclusive and creative space for girls to develop their self-confidence, build community, stand up and rock out!

Check out www.girlsrockdc.org for more info and to download an application.

Some press:
“Girls Rock! D.C. Seeks Campers, Volunteers”, written by Amanda Hess for the Washington City Paper and NBC Washington.

“Girls Rock! D.C. Rocks Out at the Black Cat: The local music edcuation collective hosts a DJing class for local women”, Chelsea Bauch, The Onion April 1, 2009.

"‘Girls Rock’ Theme Rings in the New School Year”, Alyssa Best, The Huffington Post, August 20, 2008


Please stop by!

Is it gay marriage?

"Mrs. Littleton, while in San Antonio, Tex., is a male and has a void marriage; as she travels to Houston, Tex., and enters federal property, she is female and a widow; upon traveling to Kentucky she is female and a widow; but, upon entering Ohio, she is once again male and prohibited from marriage; entering Connecticut, she is again female and may marry; if her travel takes her north to Vermont, she is male and may marry a female; if instead she travels south to New Jersey, she may marry a male.”

the lines continue to fuzz

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

all the world's a stage book + film club

The May selections for the All the World's a Stage Book + Film club are great! Come pick up your copy of Tim Egan's The Worst Hard Time and finish up before the discussion at 7pm on 5/18 in room 221.

To go along with the book's theme, we will screen John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath at 6:30pm on 5/11 in the 2nd floor lobby. Please come by!

new soc books!



One big happy family - ed. Rebecca Walker
306.8509 O58

Sex, science, and stem cells: inside the right wing assault on reason - Rep. Diane Degette
363.9609 D317

Family properties: race, real estate, and the exploitation of black urban america - Beryl Satter
363.5999 S253

Flat broke in the free market: how globalization fleeced working people - Jon Jeter
306.3 J58

and shout-out to my dear friend Carey's fancy aunt....

Class with the countess - Countess LuAnn de Lesseps
395 L638

These are just 5 out of hundreds of new titles. Check them out before I do!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Immigration limbo

Interesting story this morning in the New York Times on a Chinese immigrant and mental illness. Perhaps they are looking into the issue further- this could easily become a series of articles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/nyregion/04immigrant.html

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Book Display

In celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the Social Sciences Division has a book display in the Great Hall of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library 901 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 related to the Asian/Pacific Islander experience in the United States, culture and biographies. Please stop by, to check out these books.

Also the social sciences librarian recently compiled a select bibliography of adult and children's materials on Asian and Pacific Islander history and culture. Also search our catalog: http://citycat.dclibrary.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/x/0/49 for books and other materials related to Asian/Pacific Islander Heritage.

Also check out these additional resources on the Internet:

Mayor Fenty's Asian and Pacific Islander American Heritage Month Celebration and Events http://newsroom.dc.gov/show.aspx/agency/apia/section/2/release/16833


Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month: Lighting the Past, Present and the Future
http://asianpacificheritage.gov/

Asian Pacific American Film, Inc.
http://www.apafilm.org/

Encyclopedia Smithsonian- Asian Pacific American History and Culture
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/History_and_Culture/AsianPacificAmerican_History.htm

Japan-America Society of Washington DC
http://www.us-japan.org/dc/

Library of Congress-Asian Division
http://www.loc.gov/rr/asian/

Our Story in History Bibliography Asian Pacific American History
http://americanhistory.si.edu/ourstoryinhistory/bibliography/searchresults.cfm?list=Asian

Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Film Series

The Social Sciences Division of the Martin Luther King Public Library during the month of May will present a series of films related to the Asian and Pacific Islander experience, in America. The film series will be presented in the East Lobby of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, East Lobby 2nd Floor 901 G Street. Please join us and learn more about Asian and Pacific Islander's experience with these award winning documentaries


Show times begin Thursdays at Noon

May 7, 2009
Chinatown Files (2005)
The Chinatown Files explores the legacy of McCarthyism on the Chinese American community. For the first time, seven men and women speak out on how they and their friends were investigated and persecuted by government agents during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the fifties. At the height of the hysteria, thousands of Chinese immigrants and American citizens of Chinese descent were investigated because of their ethnicity and alleged risk to national security (Not Rated 57 minutes)

May 14, 2009
Nation Within: The Story of America's Annexation of Hawai’i, 2007
This documentary tells the story of the annexation of Hawaii by the United States. It explains the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. (Not Rated, 90 minutes)

May 21, 2009
Unfinished Business: The Japanese-American Internment Cases. New York: Docurama, 1985. In the spring of 1942, more than 110,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry were uprooted from their lives and incarcerated in relocation camps. Their stories, along with those who refused to go, are told in this Oscar nominated film.
(Not Rated, 60 minutes)

May 28, 2009
Daughter from Danang (2002)
In 1975, as the Vietnam War was ending, thousands of orphans and Amerasian children were brought to the United States as part of "Operation Babylift." Daughter from Danang tells the dramatic story of one of these children, Heidi Bub (a.k.a. Mai Thi Hiep), and her Vietnamese mother, Mai Thi Kim, separated at the war's end and reunited 22 years later.