Michael Jackson: "Gone Too Soon"

"Like A Comet
Blazing 'Cross The Evening Sky
Gone Too Soon

Like A Rainbow
Fading In The Twinkling Of An Eye
Gone Too Soon

Shiny And Sparkly
And Splendidly Bright
Here One Day
Gone One Night..."

(lyrics to "Gone Too Soon," a song Michael Jackson wrote for Ryan White, a young boy who passed away from AIDS, and performed at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Ball to call attention to AIDS research and the need for a cure)

I'm going to assume that none of my blog readers have been living under a rock for the past few days, and that you all know that Michael Joseph Jackson died last Thursday at the age of 50. When I heard, I must admit that I found his age (while still tragically young) to be only slightly less startling than his death.

Michael Jackson couldn't be 50. Michael Jackson couldn't be dead.

My first thoughts when I heard the news weren't of his legal and financial woes, or the increasingly bizarre spectacle his life had become over the past quarter-century or more. I thought of a well-loved and well-played cassette recording of Thriller, illegally recorded off the album by my fourth-grade classmate (I hope there's a statute of limitations for song piracy). I was already a huge fan of "Beat It," and when I saw the "Thriller" video for the first time I was both amazed and pleasantly creeped out. Our school librarian even screened the video for us in the library viewing room. A teacher showed us a tape of his performance on "Motown 25," so in retrospect I suppose it wasn't just us kids who were enthralled with Michael!

Love him or hate him, Michael Jackson's impact on the music industry, particularly on the music video industry, cannot be denied. His mark on popular culture is indelible.

The King of Pop is rightfully eulogized on the blog for Pop Culture Universe, one of our library databases. Go check it out. And while you're there, peruse some of the linked articles, from "The Modern Dance, 1977–1985" from 100 Albums that Changed Popular Music to "The Jackson Five" from Historical Dictionary of the 1970s.

RIP, Michael, and thank you for sharing your music with us. You will be missed, but never forgotten.

New database! Latino Literature!

I mentioned it yesterday, so I thought I'd better tell you a little more about it! Yes, we have more new databases available than just the dramatic ones. Latino Literature is also from Alexander Street Press, and looks to be a really good resource. It contains more than 105,000 pages of poetry and fiction (and yes, there are currently 380 plays too--there will be over 450 when the collection is complete).

There are some works from the 19th century, but most offerings date from the Chicano Renaissance (1960s and '70s) to the present. The works are presented in their original language: English or Spanish, although when the author produced the work in both languages, both are included. Chicano, Puerto Rican and Cuban authors are well represented, and the collection includes writings by Argentineans, Dominicans, and other Central and South Americans as well. Supplementary materials are included when feasible--such as playbills, book covers and photographs--and are linked to the texts. There are even some rare recordings of theatrical performances. Approximately a third of the collection is rare or previously unpublished.

These works reflect a variety of immigrant and intercultural experiences, the challenge of identity and the struggle for economic, social and political advancement.

And for our final act: Twentieth Century North American Drama

Hello again! I hope you've found this tour of our new drama databases interesting, and maybe checked out a few plays along the way. Today we're going to wrap up this series with our final new drama database from Alexander Street, Twentieth Century North American Drama.

This database contains works by selected authors from Black Drama, Asian American Drama and North American Women's Drama, as well as from Latino Literature (another new database we have), among many others. Currently the collection includes the full text of 1,530 plays by 223 playwrights. It is hoped that when complete the collection will contain hundreds of plays which have never before been published. A special effort has been made to include works by LGBT playwrights, as well as plays drawn from the Jewish theatre, American Indian theatre, and other groups which may have been traditionally underrepresented in mainstream theaters or anthologies.

Major playwrights featured in this database include Sam Shepard, Marsha Norman, Robert Sherwood, Edward Albee, Tony Kushner, Tennessee Williams, Susan Sontag, Susan Glaspell, David Mamet, Langston Hughes, Christopher Durang and many others. The intent is to include the full body of work for each major author.

This database will be useful for students of literature and theatre and also for students of film, as many of the plays included here have been adapted for the screen. In addition, the editors intend to include a number of plays with particular social emphasis, such as the "people’s theatre" exemplified in performances by The Living Theatre and The Open Theatre. This should make the collection of interest for students of history and popular culture as well.

Like the other databases we've been talking about this week, Twentieth Century North American Drama contains not only plays but also detailed production information, photographs and ephemera. Of course, all of these databases are heavily indexed and searchable.

That's it for the drama database show! Stay tuned to see what else is new at the Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center at Reinhardt College!

And now we present: Black Drama, Second Edition!

Black Drama, Second Edition is the fourth of our new drama database series from Alexander Street Press. This database contains the work of more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. 1,379 plays are published here in their entirety. More than 25% of these plays are published here for the first time, including some by such notable writers as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Alice Childress, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, among others. Many other works included here are rare or out-of-print.

The collection, covering works from 1850 to the present, contains works from the Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939) and writings from the Harlem Renaissance period, as well as works from the Black Arts movement of the sixties and seventies and plays performed by the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BARTS), The Negro Ensemble Company, and other companies. Detailed production information is included, along with photographs and playbills.

Playwrights featured in this database come from many parts of the world, including Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, the West Indies and the UK. Their topics and tones vary widely from musical comedy to domestic dramas. While social issues are strongly represented, they include slavery, civil rights, desegregation, colonialism and African history, and reflect a wide range of ideologies.

The database's editorial advisor is noted playwright and historian James Vernon Hatch, who was the curator of the Hatch-Billops collection of black drama, a not-for-profit research library in New York.

Raising the curtain on Asian American Drama

Hello all, I'm here to tell you about yet another of the awesome drama databases we have available from Alexander Street Press. Asian American Drama contains 252plays by 42 playwrights of Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Persian, and Malaysian descent. About half of these plays are being published here for the first time. As with the other drama collections from Alexander Street, this database includes detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more, as well as a selection of posters, playbills and other ephemera.

This collection will cover the works of Asian American playwrights from Sadakichi Hartmann in the late nineteenth century to contemporary artists like Philip Kan Gotanda, Elizabeth Wong, and Jeannie Barroga. The introductory note to this collection quotes Maxine Seller in Roles of Ethnic Theater: "Just as the lodge, the saloon, or the church did, the theatre provided a place where immigrants who often lived in cramped and dismal tenements could meet one another and enjoy being together."

Of course literature and theater scholars can benefit from this collection, but it should be of use to students of the social sciences as well. Asian American theater is said to focus on the lives and struggles of Asians in North America more so than on cultural traditions of Asian homelands. Through these works, students can gain a different perspective on historical events such as the construction of the railroads in the nineteenth century, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Vietnam conflict. Users of this database can also get an Asian American perspective on social issues such as integration, assimilation and cultural identity.

Now playing: North American Women's Drama

North American Women's Drama is another one of our new databases from Alexander Street Publishing. This resource should be of particular interest to our Gender Studies students as well as our Theatre students, especially when you consider the questions put forth by scholars Helen Krich Chinoy and Linda Walsh Jenkins in Women in American Theatre (cited in the database): Is there a feminine sensibility in theatre, and if so, is it the result of nature or nurture? Do female directors approach their tasks in a different way from male directors? Do women playwrights have something to say as women, not just as individual artists?

This database contains more than 1,500 plays by more than 300 playwrights. Over 30% of the plays are published here for the first time (bringing to mind another question: are women and their achievements underrepresented in the theatre)? The collection starts with colonial playwrights Mercy Otis Warren and Susanna Haswell Rowson and continues up to the present, with such luminaries as Beth Henly, Marsha Norma, Susan Glaspell, Gertrude Stein, Zora Neale Hurston, Susan Sontag and Nora Ephron, among others. Like Alexander Street's other drama databases, it includes detailed production information as well as posters, playbills and other ephemera. Brava.

Presenting "North American Indian Drama!"

As promised, here is a preview of one of our newest databases, North American Indian Drama.

You might assume that North American Indian Drama is just a subset of mainstream American and Canadian drama: plays written by people who just happen to be of indigenous North American descent. In her introductory essay to the collection, editorial advisor Christy Stanlake refutes that assumption, making the persuasive argument that Native American drama is a unique and dynamic field of theatre. It grows out of the storytelling tradition, and addresses themes of reclaiming identity, revising history, revisiting oral traditions and healing communities. She cites playwright Diane Glancy, saying that "Native Drama [is] a new Native American oral tradition told with what it is not, the written word, then returned to what it is by the act of the voice."

Stanlake points out that the 172 plays in this collection, written by 33 indigenous North American playwrights, are both secular and intertribal. While many plays are informed by tribal spirituality, they are not part of specific religious observances, and their elements are rarely exclusive to one particular tribal nation or region but reflect universal themes across Native America. Within these constructs, the plays vary widely in scope and production. Some are appropriate for small venues, and some are better mounted by large companies. More than half of the plays are published for the first time in this database. Some works dramatize traditional creation stories and other elements from oral tradition, and some center on contemporary issues such as the search for tribal and individual identity, life on and off the reservation, struggles for political sovereignty, and the clash or blending of cultures.

When complete, this database will contain the full-text of 250 plays, along with playbills, posters, and other ephemera, as well as production information. The plays are indexed to be fully searchable among a number of fields. One of Alexander Street's stated goals is to include over 100 plays which have never before been published, and I personally am hoping that this database will heighten the profile of Native American drama so that more of these will be produced worldwide. In addition, this database includes five issues of the Native Playwrights’ Newsletter, documenting the work that is being done in the field with commentary, news, reviews, production photographs and even the publication of more plays.

I predict that this database will see a lot of use at Reinhardt College this year. Bravo!

Drama in the Databases...coming soon to a blog near you...

I apologize for missing a few days on the blog. You see, I was just overcome by all the drama.
No, not the drama in my life--the drama in the databases!
I'm excited to tell you about some more of the great new resources your library has added to the collection! We have FIVE new drama databases from our friends at Alexander Street Press: North American Indian Drama, North American Women's Drama, Asian American Drama, Black Drama - Second Edition, and Twentieth Century North American Drama. These aren't just synopses of plays. These databases contain thousands of plays by hundreds of playwrights, including many plays which have never before been published.
Over the next few days, I'll be lifting the curtain here on these new sites, so be sure to be watching!

Praeger Security International now available

Praeger Security International, from Greenwood Publishing, is now available on our home page. We currently have it on a trial basis, but my boss informs me that we'll have full access to it starting in July! That should be good news for those of you who may be interested in Reinhardt's planned Homeland Security programs. (Click here for some more information about that).

PSI bills itself as a "one-stop source" for information about terrorism and security, with information on such important and "hot-button" topics as information security, energy security, human trafficking, counterinsurgency, natural disasters, military reform and law enforcement. The database contains over 600 books, adding approximately 70 titles a year. Some resources are actually uploaded to the database before the print versions hit store shelves. There's also a news feed from external sources, so you can link to top stories on other sites (that's how I ended up on military.com the other day).

There are 1,000 primary documents accessible through the database. There's also a comprehensive chronology of terrorist incidents from 1968 to the present. The site is updated with weekly commentary by scholars and experts in the field.

PSI promises to deliver "in-depth analysis of the security issues that threaten to destabilize our world."

The Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center is always seeking out new and useful resources for our students, faculty and staff, and I think PSI is going to prove to be a very interesting addition to our database collection!

Another post from the Serials Stacks.. Atlantic vs Atlantic

I noticed something funny today when putting the latest issue of The Atlantic on our shelves. The July/August issue for 2008 has the headline: "Is Google Making Us Stoopid?" The current issue, July/August 2009, asks the question on its cover: "Is Google Actually Making Us Smarter?"

Food for thought in both cases!

The current year of The Atlantic can be found on our shelves, or you can read it (and previous years) online in one of the following library databases: ABI/INFORM Complete, Academic Search Complete, MasterFile Premier, and Religion & Philosophy Collection.

And speaking of Stephen Colbert...

As I was researching another trial database, Praeger Security International in preparation for a future blog, I followed a link to an outside Web site and came across this article about Stephen Colbert's visit to Iraq. I thought you might find it interesting.

Update on Research Starters!

Hello again,
There are so many things in the works here at the library that I can't wait to tell you about. We have a lot of exciting events planned for the "Year Of." As soon as an official announcement is made, I can clue you in on it, but trust me, you will not want to miss them. We have some things in the works for local history and genealogy, and an exciting gift that we will be able to display soon! As soon as I can tell you something, I will!

In the meantime, we have some exciting new databases that I'll be telling you about in the next few days.

I'll start with a couple of trial ones that we'll have available for a limited time. I recently told you about Research Starters: Sociology, that we have available this month. Well, Business and Education students are in luck, too. We've added Research Starters: Education and Research Starters: Business to our trial databases. (You can find links to the trial databases on the lower left side of our library homepage).

Like Research Starters: Sociology, the other Research Starters sites are designed to provide a starting place for your research. Research Starters: Education, drawn from the Education Research Complete and Academic Search Premier databases, contains overview information on 500 topics with links to key articles in Ebsco databases. The articles are sorted among 24 categories, each containing between 10 and 35 topics. Research Startes: Business is based on the Business Source Complete and Academic Search Premier databases, and articles are sorted among 19 categories, each containing between 10 and 40 article topics.

In other words, these databases practically do the first steps of your research for you by alerting you to articles relevant to your chosen topics. In addition to the topic overviews, there is an abstract and a bibliography for each article, as well as suggestions for further reading. You'll find keywords, a glossary of terms and concepts, and for many articles, you'll find information on alternate viewpoints. They won't write your paper for you (sorry) but they can help get you on your way. These databases are available through September, so take advantage of them while they're here!

Stephen Colbert "Newsweek" on our shelf: no joke!

Hello!
One of my major duties here at the library is checking in the latest periodicals and putting them out on the shelf. When I saw the current issue of "Newsweek" this morning, I knew there would be some of you who'd want to hear about it. Yes, that is satirist Stephen Colbert on the cover, in his role as guest editor for this edition.

Leaving aside for the moment any personal opinions one might have about the direction "Newsweek" has been taking (an emphasis on columns and features over hard news), the Colbert issue is a first for the magazine. In the editor's note at the beginning, Jon Meacham explains how the idea came about and also presents an overview of exactly where in the magazine Colbert got to insert his character's voice. (Hint: if you're having trouble distinguishing "Newsweek"'s usual style from satire, Colbert's contributions are signed with his name). Colbert has his own "Letters" page, for example, and took over the Conventional Wisdom slot (giving himself an "up" arrow for stunning the publishing world with his guest-editing stint, while giving "Newsweek" a "down" arrow for "handing reins to journalistic Kevorkian.)"

According to Meacham, Colbert agreed to the project (Meacham specifically refrains from calling it a "stunt") in order to bring attention to the war in Iraq. (Colbert is doing his show from Baghdad this week).

Colbert fans should also note that Stephen Colbert's book, I am America (and so can you), is in our Leisure Reading section.

New Sociology database available through the end of June

From now until the end of this month, Reinhardt students, faculty and staff have access to a new database, Research Starters-Sociology, available on a trial basis from Ebsco Publishing. You can find our trial databases at the bottom of the left-hand side of the library home page.

Research Starters-Sociology is drawn from two other databases, SocIndex with Full Text and Academic Search Premier.

Have a paper due in Sociology, but have no idea where to begin? Research Starters is designed to do just what the name suggests. It provides a starting place for students' research. The articles are broken down into 26 categories, each containing 4 to 35 article topics. Categories include Educational Sociology, Family and Relationships, Social Issues & Public Policy, Race & Ethnicity, Research Methods and Sex, Gender & Sexuality, among others. Research Starters includes an abstract for each article, a list of keywords, an overview explaining the topic's relevance to sociology and possible applications. Many topics include differing opinions on the subject. There is a glossary of terms used in the article with which the student may not be familiar. Bibliographies and suggested readings can point the way to further research.

Again, this database is only available this month, so make use of it while you can! As always, please let us know if you find any of our trial databases particularly helpful.

This Date in Literary History

On June 4, 1940, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter [PS3525.A1772H4 1953] by Carson McCullers was first published.

McCullers, a native of Columbus, Georgia, was only 23 when this, her first novel, was published to critical acclaim. She went on to write three more novels, numerous short stories, a play and several poems, as well as an unfinished autobiography she dictated from her deathbed.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter tells the story of a year in the life of five misfits living in a small, unnamed Southern town in the late 1930s. One, a deaf-mute named John Singer, becomes a sounding board for the other four: a young girl who, as the author did, aspires to become a classical pianist; a lonely widower who owns the local cafe; a would-be socialist agitator; and an African-American physician struggling to maintain his dignity and find his place in the community. As the lives of the major characters intersect in the small town, they confide their secrets to the one man who cannot hear them, as he longs for the one friend he has with whom he can communicate.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was adapted into a movie in 1968, starring Alan Arkin as Singer. McCullers herself didn't get to see the film; she died of a stroke in September of 1967. More recently the book received another honor which revived its popularity and its place on the best-seller lists: it was a 2004 selection for Oprah's Book Club.

You can find the book on the third floor of the Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center.

(Source: NoveList)

Database spotlight: NoveList

Hmm, what should I read today?

Actually, I have a huge stack of books I want to read, and sometimes I read more than one at a time. Right now I'm on the last book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and have also just started his From a Buick 8. It's the age-old dilemma of working in a library--surrounded by wonderful books, and no time to read them. But when I'm looking for something new to read, I get suggestions from my friends. And now, I have a new source for book recommendations. It's NoveList.

NoveList, a product of Ebsco Publishing, is going to be great fun for me! With its help I can waste time at work browse through hundreds of thousands of fiction titles, as well as what the site calls "readable nonfiction" titles. There are book reviews and recommendations for all age levels. You can search by author, title or series, and even by plot elements. I've already used NoveList to find fashion and science books for my daughter and truck books for my son, who's obsessed by anything on four wheels. I'll also be using it to suggest books to our patrons. Did you know you can enter the name of an author and find others with similar works? My to-read list grows exponentially with every visit to the site. Author biographies and book discussion guides will be a help to both literature students and teachers. Education students take note: there's a section just for teachers, with ways to connect books with various areas of the curriculum. There are even lesson plans to correlate with many picture books.

I wish I'd found this site sooner. Reinhardt folks, you really owe it to yourselves to check NoveList out!

“Turn Coat” turns the tables on Harry Dresden

Before I give you my latest book review from the Leisure Reading section, I have to confess a “guilty pleasure” of mine. I’m addicted to urban fantasy novels. In case you’re unfamiliar with the genre, urban fantasy takes elements of fantasy (such as magic, wizards, vampires, werewolves, fairies, etc) and puts them in a contemporary setting, usually a modern city such as Chicago (Harry Dresden’s beat). Some of the tension in the stories often comes from the desire of the supernatural creatures to conduct their business out of sight of the average person and keep their existence a secret from the wider community. Popular novels for young people such as the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer are considered by some to fit the definition of urban fantasy, as are the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton, the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, and my particular favorites, the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files.

Turn Coat is the eleventh and most recent Dresden Files novel, and while it is an outstanding read, I think newcomers to the series would be better served by starting with the first novel, Storm Front. It would be best to have some grasp of Harry’s world before reading Turn Coat, because this is the book that turns everything upside down.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a private investigator, and the only wizard listed in the Chicago phone directory. One of the aspects of this series that I love is the way Butcher infuses his fantasy with good old-fashioned elements of noir mystery. Harry Dresden’s been described by critics as a cross between Spenser and Merlin, and his world as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” written by Philip Marlowe. As most private-eye books do, Turn Coat starts with a knock on the door. This time it’s not a client at his office, but one of his worst enemies who’s shown up at his home, badly injured and wanted by the authorities. This particular individual, a wizard named Morgan, has hounded Dresden for years, searching for evidence against him to turn over to the wizards’ White Council. But now it’s Morgan who has been accused of treason against the wizards’ governing body. The sentence is death, and Morgan looks very guilty indeed. Will Harry help his old enemy to clear his name? Is Morgan guilty? Can Harry find the real “turn coat” and uncover the conspiracy at the very heart of the White Council? And can he do so without bringing himself under suspicion?

Well, of course I’m not going to tell you the answers to all those questions and spoil the fun. I will say that regular readers of the series will be pleased to see the return of several recurring characters, and some minor characters fleshed out in this novel. There’s plenty of action, suspense and betrayal, as the Black Council (whose existence has been officially denied by those in charge) is revealed, and the scene is set for a major confrontation between the forces of good and evil. There are a couple of pretty nasty new monsters introduced into the mix as well. I would recommend this series both to fantasy buffs and to mystery readers with a taste for the supernatural, and long-time fans of Harry Dresden will not be disappointed in his latest outing.

Other urban fantasy novels in our Leisure Reading section include The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison, From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (this series has been adapted for television as HBO’s True Blood) and The First Death by Laurell K. Hamilton, a Marvel Comics-produced graphic novel that’s a prequel to the Anita Blake series.