Pop Culture Universe, or The Database that Ate My Tuesday Afternoon

One of the perks of my job here at the library is the opportunity to explore different databases during my downtime. Maybe that sounds like about as much fun as balancing your checkbook? You might be surprised. Take Popular Culture Universe for example. It contains more than 300 full-text volumes of material covering pop culture over the last nine decades. Music, fashion, entertainment...if it caused a buzz anytime from the 1920s through today, there's a good chance you'll find it here. Need a catchy topic for your Marketing class? How about researching the way Madonna has reworked her image over the years? Need to find out about the way women's roles change during wartime? Why not look up Rosie the Riveter? You'll find serious and scholarly research on PCU; it's no TMZ or Perez Hilton-type gossip site. I especially like the overview page for each decade, with links to the major films, television series, books, music, plays, fads, products, discoveries, sports and news events. It would be a good starting point for any student who wanted to know what life was like during that time.

There is the danger of distraction, of course. Start researching one topic about the 1960s, and you may easily find yourself surfing the database for hours reading about "The Andy Griffith Show", for example. Just speaking from my own experience here. It's not a bad way to procrastinate!

You can take a virtual tour of the site here.

The Burgess Arboretum-- thanks Zach!

Are you aware of the Burgess Arboretum?

The Burgess Arboretum was built by former Reinhardt College President Dr. James Rowland Burgess, who served from 1944 to 1973. Dr. Burgess indexed more than 1,300 and planted more than 500 tree and shrub species across the College campus. You've probably seen labels on the trees around campus, identifying their species. Dr. Burgess labeled all the trees and shrubs and created an index map for the Arboretum, which is housed right here in the Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center.

In 2007, Zach White, Reinhardt horticulturist, and the Master Gardeners of Cherokee County and the Cherokee County Extension Service began working to restore the Burgess Arboretum. They've been reindexing all the trees and shrubs and planting new species, including a very exciting project to help reintroduce the American chestnut! Reinhardt College is one of the test sites approved by the Georgia chapter of the American Chestnut Society. The chapter is working to breed a version of the American chestnut that can withstand the chestnut blight that nearly wiped out the species in eastern North America during the early 20th century. At one time, about a quarter of trees in the Appalachian mountains were American chestnut; now the number of large surviving American chesnut trees in the region is probably less than 100. Maybe this project isn't exactly Jurassic Park for trees, but it's close!

This Thursday at 2 pm as part of the Spring Day festivities, they will be planting American chestnut seedlings at the site of the new American Chestnut orchard near the Fincher building. Go check it out! And also check out Zach's blog about the Burgess Arboretum. The Arboretum is scheduled to have a grand re-opening in October.

Speaking of Spring Day, look for the library's booth at the Athletic Center. I'll be there--and there will be cookies!

The Library's own Nahum Vigo-Fas, ladies and gentlemen...

YM Movie Today: The Syrian Bride

Today at 1:30 pm in the library Media Room, the Year of the Mediterranean program will show the 2004 Israeli film The Syrian Bride. Set in 2000, the film tells the story of Mona, a young Druze woman living on the Golan Heights (a contested area on the Israeli/Syrian border currently under Israeli control). She is engaged to marry a Syrian man. At the time this movie is set, there is a UN-observed demilitarized zone between the two countries. It is very rare for anyone to be allowed to cross the border. Mona's family has waited six months to obtain permission for Mona to leave the Golan, and once she crosses the border to marry her fiance, she will not be permitted to return. She will be separated from her family, unable even to visit them--and her future husband is a man she has never met.

The Syrian Bride won the Best Film award at the 2004 Montreal World Film Festival, the 2004 Best Screenplay award at the Flanders International Film Festival, the Audience Award at the 2004 Locarno International Film Festival, and the Best Film award at the 2005 Bangkok International Film Festival. Hiam Abbass, who plays Mona's unhappily-married sister Amal, was nominated for the Best Actress award at the 2005 European Film Festival.

John Hope Franklin 1915-2009

American history lost one of its most brilliant scholars yesterday with the death of John Hope Franklin. Best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, Franklin served as president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association. In 1995, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Franklin on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans, and on November 15, 2006, Franklin was announced as the third recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity.

John Hope Franklin was the author of over 20 books and was considered the leading African American historian. Not only did he chronicle history, he was involved in making history, having cowritten the brief the NAACP submitted to the Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education. This led to the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision ending the legal segregation of black and white children in public schools.

We have several books by John Hope Franklin in our collection, including From Slavery to Freedom [E185.F825], first published in 1947 and continually updated. Franklin's scholarship has had a tremendous impact on the fields of African American history and American history in general, and his work will continue to inform many generations to come.

Sequoyah Regional Library Staff visits

The Hill Freeman Library and Spruill Learning Center was honored with a visit today by the reference librarians from the Sequoyah Regional Library System. They were here for their quarterly meeting. Public Services Librarian Karen Preslock gave them a presentation on how to help job searchers make the best use of their resources, and then they took a tour of our facility. It was great to spend some time and exchange some ideas with our public library colleagues! If you're a resident of Cherokee, Pickens or Gilmer County, I highly recommend you pay a visit to your local library branch and see what they have to offer!

Visit Sequoyah Regional Library's Web site here.

COMPUTER LAB OPEN SUNDAYS!

We have great news for folks who want to use their weekends to get ahead on their classwork (since I know we don't have any people who wait until the last minute to do a paper that's due Monday, right?)

Through a special arrangement among the business school, IT, public safety and the library, the computer lab in Lawson 204 will be open on Sundays from 3 pm to 7 pm, with a possibility of the hours being extended until 11 pm later in the semester. The lab will be staffed by our own library student worker Jason Harmon.

According to library director Michael Martinez, this is an effort to open up more computers for student use, especially late in the semester when major papers become due. I've seen for myself the cutthroat competition for library computers during finals!

Martinez cautioned that this agreement is on a trial basis--meaning if enough students don't show up to take advantage of the computer lab's new hours, we won't be able to keep it open. So spread the word! The lab will be open Sundays for the rest of this semester, and if the program is successful, it will continue to be open Sundays in the fall.

(Just a reminder: there is no food or drink permitted in the Lawson computer labs).