The University of Vemont Libraries: Bailey/Howe Library

Imagine waking up one day in your own personal terrarium, where everything you do and say can be seen by anyone passing by. Sound scary? In a world of Web cams, social networking sites, and GPs-equipped phones, your dorm walls may be more transparent than you realize.

The University of Vermont Libraries present a lecture and book-signing by Burlington-based attorney and computer forensics expert Frederick Lane, about the challenges emerging technologies pose to one of our most controversial rights, on Wednesday, November 18th at 4:30 PM, in Billings North Lounge.

Lane’s American Privacy: The 400-Year History of Our Most Contested Right will be officially released by Beacon Press on November 23, 2009 and was recently selected as the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression’s book of the month.

Lane is the author of numerous books and articles on issues of intellectual freedom, including freedom of speech, privacy online and in the workplace, the impact of technology on our rights and liberties, and the separation of church and state. His work has been featured on Nightline, 60 Minutes, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

“Is there anything more fundamental to human freedom than the right to privacy, to be able to live your life as you wish without the scrutiny or the interference of bullying authority?” asks legendary historian and activist Howard Zinn. “Frederick Lane’s book confronts us with this largely invisible threat, magnified by modern technology, and challenges us to defend our most basic rights.”

The presentation is free and open to the public.

Refreshments will be served. For more information, please call 802-656-9980 or e-mail selene.colburn@uvm.edu

See Billings on a campus map.

Find information on visitor parking at UVM.

TOOLS FOR MANAGING AND FORMATTING CITATIONS

• Looking for a better way to keep track of your sources for research projects?
• Ever wished there was a tool that could properly format your citations for you?

Help is here! UVM students now have several programs available to help track sources and cite them properly in research projects. Come to one of our workshops and learn how to:

• Choose the program that’s right for you.
• Save citations from the Library Catalog and Library Databases.
• Insert properly formatted citations into your paper.

DATE, TIME, & PLACE

• November 12 (Thursday): 4-5pm, Bailey/Howe Room 123
• November 17 (Tuesday): 4-5pm, Bailey/Howe Room 123
• November 18 (Wednesday): Noon-1pm, Bailey/Howe Room 123
• November 18 (Wednesday): 4-5pm, Bailey/Howe Room 123
• November 19 (Thursday): 4-5pm, Bailey/Howe Room 123

No registration required. Just show up!
Questions, contact: Daisy Benson.

Dancing in the dark : a cultural history of the Great Depression by Morris Dickstein

“The gloom of the Depression fed a brilliant cultural efflorescence that’s trenchantly explored here. Dickstein surveys a panorama that includes high-brow masterpieces and mass entertainments, grim proletarian novels and frothy screwball comedies, haunting photographs of dust bowl poverty and elegant art deco designs.” –Publishers Weekly

Listen to an interview with Dancing in the Dark author Morris Dickstein

Divas on screen: Black women in American film by Mia Mask

“This insightful study places African American women’s stardom in historical and industrial contexts by examining the star personae of five African American women: Dorothy Dandridge, Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Halle Berry.” –Publisher’s information

Watch Halle Berry in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge:

Long past stopping : a memoir by Oran Canfield

“Juggled between an endless succession of friends, relatives, anarchist boarding schools, libertarian commune dwellers, socialist rebels, and born-again circus clowns, Oran Canfield grew up viewing the inconsistencies of the world with a wary eye. The son of Jack Canfield—the motivational speaker and creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul—Oran is intensely self-conscious and reserved, but his life won’t seem to leave him alone.” –Publisher’s information.

Watch Oran Canfield talk about Long Past Stopping, via a prayer hotline:

Our noise : the story of Merge Records, the indie label that got big and stayed small by John Cook, with Mac McCaughan & Laura Balance

“Freelance reporter Cook and Merge cofounders McCaughan and Ballance trace the history of the North Carolina–based record label that started in a bedroom and now releases some of indie rock’s biggest names. While some of the label’s artists may be beyond the scope of the casual music fan, bands like Magnetic Fields, Spoon and Arcade Fire demonstrate how vital Merge is to the indie rock landscape.” –Publishers Weekly

Check out the Merge Records website.

Sinister yogis by David Gordon White

“Marketed as a clear path to self-realization, mind expansion, and taut abs, yoga is also perceived as an ancient and unchanging Indian tradition based on the revelations of benign and limber sages. But this modern conception of yoga derives from nineteenth-century European spirituality, Sinister Yogis reveals, and the true story of yoga’s origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and much more entertaining.” -Publisher’s information

More about David Gordon White

What else but home: seven boys and an American journey between the projects and the penthouse by Michael Rosen

“Michael Rosen’s seven-year-old son Ripton one day decided to join a pick-up game of baseball with some older kids in the park. At the end of the game Ripton asked his new friends if they wanted to come back to his house for snacks and Nintendo. Over time, five of the boys—all black and Hispanic, from the impoverished neighborhood across the park—became a fixture in the Rosens’ home and eventually started referring to Michael and his wife Leslie as their parents.” –Publisher’s information.

Watch members of the Rosen family read excerpts from What Else But Home:

When the rains come : a naturalist’s year in the Sonoran Desert by John Alcock

“John Alcock knows the Sonoran Desert better than just about anyone else, and in this book he tracks the changes he observes in plant and animal life over the course of a drought year. Combining scientific knowledge with years of exploring the desert, he describes the variety of ways in which the wait for rain takes place—and what happens when it finally comes.” –Publisher’s information

Read an excerpt of When the Rains Come

[John Dewey at UVM in 1949; courtesy of Special Collections]

The American philosopher, educator, and UVM alumnus, John Dewey, was born in Burlington, Vermont 150 years ago on October 20, 1859. Widely recognized as the “father of progressive education,” Dewey’s works investigated the relationship between democracy and education and the centrality of the student in curriculum.

Bailey/Howe Library is home to a wealth of resources on John Dewey’s life and work, including over 150 books by and about Dewey (which can be located via the library catalog).

Bailey/Howe’s Special Collections houses the John Dewey Papers, which include research materials and photographs compiled in conjunction with Dewey’s 1949 visit to UVM, marking his 90th birthday, as well as correspondence with John Dewey and his family. Additional progressive education collections include the papers of Theodore Brameld, Paul Nash, and Kenneth D. Benne – all scholars of the philosophy of education – and the records of Vermont’s Prospect School, which contain hundreds of examples of student work.

[Student work by "Virginia," from the Prospect Center Archives; courtesy of Special Collections]

For more information on John Dewey, see the Center for Dewey Studies, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

University of Vermont Libraries are pleased to announce the addition of Reaxys, a web-based search and retrieval system for chemical compounds, bibliographic data and chemical reactions.

Reaxys provides access to the content from Beilstein, Gmelin and the Patent Chemistry database and replaces the existing CrossFire service.

Features include:

* Synthesis planner to design the optimum synthesis route
* Multi-step reactions to identify precursor reactions underlying synthesis of target compounds
* Additional search capabilities such as the ability to generate structure query from names or phrases
* Search result filters by key properties, synthesis yield, or other ranking criteria
* Results visualization
* Similarity search
* Transformation analysis

For more information about this resource, see http://www.info.reaxys.com/.

Chemistry Set, by unloveablesteve, used in accordance with the Creative Commons license.

Two events in Bailey/Howe, on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, will commemorate the National Day on Writing.

The Writing in the Disciplines Program will celebrate the past and present of writing-across-the-curriculum at UVM at its National Day on Writing open house. The open house will honor Professor Emeritus of English Toby Fulwiler, Director of the UVM Faculty Writing Project from 1984 to 2002, with a dedication and reception from 12 to 1:30 pm. Exhibits will also highlight the work of faculty who attended the 2009 WID Institute, as well as writing produced by UVM Writing Center tutors. Please RSVP for the reception at http://events.uvmctl.info/.

Bailey/Howe Library presents Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts: Witnesses from our Written Past, an exhibit displaying early book-making techniques with 12th to 17th century materials from the library’s Special Collections. Colorfully illustrated books and manuscript leaves will illustrate numerous styles of writing, mostly in variations of Gothic script. The exhibit explains the process of manuscript production and copying in scriptoria at medieval monasteries and universities. It will be open through the fall semester in the Bailey/Howe library lobby and Special Collections area. A reception to open the exhibit will be held in on October 20 at 4:30 p.m.

The National Day on Writing, organized by the National Council of Teachers of English, draws attention to the remarkable variety of writing produced by writers in all walks of life, and celebrates the importance of writing in personal, professional and civic lives. Galleries and activities throughout the week will showcase writing in the UVM community, highlighting academic and creative approaches to writing.

See a full list of National Day on Writing events at UVM.

Megan’s Present/Hand by Aeioux, used in accordance with Creative Commons.

The UVM Libraries now subscribe to British History Online, a digital library featuring sources documenting the history of the British Isles (England, Scotland, and Wales), from the 11th through the 19th centuries.

Topics include religious, legal, educational, cultural, parliamentary, regional, and urban history. Materials can be browsed by subject, place, time period, or source.

Sample documents such as 16th and 17th century journals from the House of Commons, historical diaries, and early maps of London can be located through browsing or keyword searching.

British History Online was created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust.

“Midsummer–The Bonfire” [illustration] appears in The Everyday book, Or a guide to the year: Describing the Popular Amusements, Sports, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to the three Hundred and Sixty-Five days, In past and present times, by William Hone, 1826. Retrieved via A Clipart History.

The UVM Libraries now provide electronic access to Climate Policy, an interdisciplinary journal devoted to presenting high-quality peer-reviewed research and analysis of international policy issues raised by climate change. Works investigate climate policy through a variety of disciplines, including science, economics, environmental studies, political and social science, and ethics.

A recent issue looks at emissions trading in a variety of industries and countries. Sample articles include Wolfgang Sterk and Joseph Kruger’s “Establishing a transatlantic carbon market” and Erik Haites’ “Linking emissions trading schemes for international aviation and shipping emissions.”

Icelandic Weather by Zanthia, used in accordance with the Creative Commons license.

The Libraries photographed over fifty new models (including members of the budding UVM Quidditch team) for our Ask campaign at the Activities Fest on 9/9/09. We had a great time basking in the sun, eating hot dogs, and meeting new models, as well as catching up with some old friends.

We’ve posted the new photos to Flickr and uploaded copies of some advertisements previews to our Facebook group. Go ahead and tag your friends.

We’ll be doing more photo shoots later in the semester and will have details about those soon. Info can be found here or on the UVM Libraries fan site on Facebook.

As always, feel free to ASK us anything!

Asst. Dean of Libraries and Learning Resources Group Peter Blackmer shares some of his recent favorite readings from the Bailey/Howe Library collection. Peter is pursuing his third advanced degree at UVM, in history.

Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by John Dittmer
Dittmer challenges the persistently popular notions that the struggle for civil rights happened at a national level. This book refocuses on unfamiliar Mississippi towns and counties, and the everyday citizens as agents of social change. Portraits of common folks resisting commonplace bigotry and finding ways to build networks of common goals bring this history to life. Amidst the horrors of the last days of legalized segregation there are incredibly hopeful people. This book makes me want to go to Mississippi and eat roadside barbecue.

The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence by T. H. Breen
Breen’s argument is that commercial networks between England and the American Colonies, established prior to 1776, became a means of politicizing rebellion. The Commercial Revolution of the 18th century created and relied upon a vast network of exchange whereby English goods – china, fabrics, and manufactured goods – were distributed to the 13 American colonies. The network gave a common experience to otherwise independent northern and southern economies. After the French and Indian Wars, when the English crown imposed new taxation on colonists, this commercial network of exchange was readymade distribution for a new political resistance. Boycotts of English goods galvanized colonists across geography and social standing. Breen’s book helps flesh out a picture of American independence, beyond the compelling political arguments to the necessary mechanisms of social cohesion and identity.

A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States by Jill Lepore
Lepore’s book is a set of fascinating portraits of Americans of the Early Republic, who argued for, and attempted to create a democratized language for the new United States. Noah Webster’s Americanization of English spelling – “shoppe” versus “shop”, “colour” versus “color” – created new a kind of accessibility of literacy that the “the King’s English” never attempted or even concerned itself with. The chapters on the Native American known as Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee alphabet, and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, an early educator of the deaf and a pioneer of American Sign Language are other examples of what Lepore argues as the ways in which language, letters, and symbols created a new American culture. This book is particularly meaningful to me because the school founded by Gallaudet, The American School for the Deaf, is where my 14 year old niece is an eighth grade student.