Monday, July 23, 2007

Your Favorite Professor's Dissertation? Say What...!!

Ever wonder what your favorite professor's dissertation was about? What subject once fired that youthful academic passion (or perhaps in some situations and more pragmatically, what topic presented itself as the most expedient ticket to getting that holy grail ... the Ph.D!)

You can go to Carmichael Library's database WorldCat Dissertations and Theses. Enter your professor's name. (You can check UM's Bulletin listing of faculty for the correct name and degree granting university.) It may be a revelation to find out what your mentor spent years pondering and researching.

David Callaghan focused his research lens on the subject Representing The Vietnamese: Race, Culture, and the Vietnam War in American Film and Drama

Stephen Higley richly described with a wealth of detail The Geography of the "Social Register" (Upper Class, Class Status)

Paul Mahaffey's topic was "Dark-eyed Coras": Re-defining the bi-racial female in the nineteenth and twentieth century American Novel

Never one to be Eclipsed, Michael Patton philosophized on Nihilism, Thought, and Personhood: An Ontological Study

Ruth Truss unreservedly examined The Alabama National Guard From 1900-1920 (National Guard, World War I)

Clark Hultquist frankly publicized advertising a la francais with his dissertation French Advertising: The Price of Dreams: A History of Advertising in France 1927-1968.

Steve Parker gamely addressed adolescence with Early Adolescent Male Peer Cultures: The Importance of Organized and Informal Sport (Organized Sport)

Jody Landers, with great composure, wrote: "Nine Forty-Eight" for Large Orchestra ... pretty sharp!

For those of you contemplating a dissertation topic, the database WorldCat Dissertations and Theses is a way to explore previoiusly researched subjects. A keyword search, for example, will retreive the titles of dissertations written concerning that theme.

To view a list of theses written by graduate students at UM, go to our Catalog and click on the Subject search: type University of Montevallo-Thesis and seventy seven items should be retrieved.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Summer Happenings at UM; Free Music Downloads

Just because it's summer doesn't mean there isn't a lot going on in Montevallo.

The Public Relations office recently announced the publication of the 2007-2008 Undergraduate Bulletin. Paper copies will be available in most campus offices, including here in the library. Also, the Bulletin is available electronically on the UM website.



















Jill Wicknick has reminded the UM community about the campus' new recycling program. Dr. Wicknick has worked with the UM Environmental Club to make this service available to everyone in Montevallo. Click on the chart above to see what's accepted at the drop-off point, or check out the official press release to learn more about this program.

Jay Cofield has been busy working with his MC215 class this summer. Dr. Cofield's class is producing a summer newscast for the campus community. You can watch the newscast on the university website via Google Video.

Finally, a bit of news from the publishers of one of my favorite Carmichael Library databases. From the publishers of Classical Music Library this new program will pique the interest of music lovers across campus. Alexander Street Press is now offering free downloads of selected works! Here's a few details from a recent press release:
The program is simple: Every week or two, we select a work from Classical Music Library and make it freely available for download. You can select the format you would like (either MP3 or WMA), and then download the tracks onto your personal computer, transfer them to iPods and other MP3 players, or burn them onto discs. These tracks are DRM-free, so you are able to listen and share as much as you like.

To get started, go to http://musicdownloads.alexanderstreet.com/promo/ and follow the instructions. You can start downloading music immediately, and can sign up for email alerts letting you know when new music becomes available.
The first selection for this exciting new program is Mozart's Don Giovanni. Keep in mind that the free download isn't limited to highlights or selected arias. This is an authoritative recording of the entire opera available for download at the link above.

Sign up for updates on your free downloads today. Happy listening!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

JSTOR

The library now subscribes to JSTOR Arts and Sciences I! This database includes the backruns of 119 e-journals in 15 disciplines. To check out JSTOR, click here, or go to "Databases by Name" in the "Find Articles" box on our home page and find the JSTOR link.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Dolls featured in Shelby County Reporter


The library's collection of WPA dolls are the subject of Catherine Legg's Community Columnist article in the July 11, 2007, Shelby County Reporter. The article includes information on the history of the dolls, which were made by the Alabama Visual Education Project during the Great Depression. The Alabama Visual Education Project was headquartered in Birmingham, and it made a number of visual aids for use in schools and libraries.


The dolls wear costumes of different countries and historical periods. Several of the library's dolls are on display on the main floor.


Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Harbert Writing Center Summer II Term Hours

The Harbert Writing Center is open for Summer II Term:

Monday-Friday 12:30 - 3:30 PM

HWC offers one-on-one assistance to writers at all stages of the writing process. The Center also offers computers for composing and revising papers, as well as grammar handbooks and MLA, APA and Chicago style books.

The Center is located in Room 311, Comer Hall

For more information visit HWC online: http://www.montevallo.edu/hwc/















Photo taken by Salt Lake Community College Writing Center. Creative Commons license.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

New Audio Books for July

Whether your interest is readings from American poets, scintillating biography, or a good murder mystery, there's something for you in our latest batch of downloadable audio books. Here's a sampling of what's now available through our library catalog:

O Jerusalem, by Laurie King (1999). It's 1918. Nineteen-year-old Mary and her fiftysomething mentor are forced to flee England to escape a deadly adversary. Sherlock Holmes' well-connected brother Mycroft sends them to Palestine to do some international sleuthing. Here, a series of murders threatens the fragile peace.

Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, From Cocaine to Foie Gras, by Jeff Henderson (2007). Barely old enough to drink legally, Henderson was clearing $35,000 per week as one of the most successful cocaine dealers in San Diego. But when he was 23, he was indicted on federal drug trafficking charges and sentenced to almost 20 years. Hardheaded, Henderson held firmly to his gritty street morals--until the day he was assigned to wash dishes in the prison kitchen. He immediately took an interest in food preparation and eventually determined that when he was released, he would become a chef, no matter what.

Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, by Irwin Kula with Linda Loewenthal (2006). Renowned Rabbi Irwin Kula explores and celebrates seven of our deepest desires. He opens the spiritual toolbox of Jewish wisdom--it has much to teach about the ambiguities and uncertainties we all encounter--and takes us on an excursion into our age-old questions, merging ancient wisdom and stories with contemporary examples and insights. Whether it's a woman struggling with a breach in her marriage, a child wondering about the tooth fairy, or Moses yearning for answers in the story of the burning bush, Yearnings offers a broader perspective to enrich our search for meaning.

Spoken Arts Poetry Collection, Volume II: 100 Modern American Poets Reading their Poems (2007). The most important anthology of American poetry ever recorded, this essential document is now available in three volumes from Recorded Books, digitally remastered with introductions and brief poet biographies. This volume includes works from the following poets: Yvor Winters, Oscar Williams, Langston Hughes, Theodore Spencer, Ogden Nash, Countee Cullen, Merrill Moore, John Holmes, Richard Eberhart, Robert Penn Warren, Stanley Kunitz, Kenneth Rexroth, W.H. Auden, Theodore Roethke, Paul Engle, Winfield Townley Scott, Elizabeth Bishop, J.V. Cunningham, Kenneth Patchen, Brother Antoninus, Hy Sobiloff, Karl Shapiro, John Frederick Nims, Delmore Schwartz, Muriel Rukyser, Barbara Howes, Randell Jarrell, John Berryman, Owen Dodson, Kean Garrigue, Ruth Stone, Hollis Summers, John Ciardi, Peter Viereck, John Malcolm Brinnin, and Robert Lowell. (The library also has Volume One of this series.)

All Together Dead, by Charlaine Harris (2007). Betrayed by her vampire beau, Sookie discovers a potential new lover in the devilishly handsome shapeshifter Quinn. But affairs of the heart must take a back seat to the summit. Perhaps the most important item on the docket is the dwindling power base of the vampire queen of Louisiana, who is in a difficult position following extensive hurricane damage. As behind-the-scenes deals are struck, Sookie must decide which side she's on--and the wrong decision could spell catastrophe.

Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson (2007). The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe.

Carmichael's collection of over 1,500 downloadable audio books are available to all UM students, staff, and faculty. Instructions on how to access the audio books are available on our website.

Happy listening!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

"Navigation," by Misty Bennett


"Navigation," by Misty Bennett
Originally uploaded by carmichaellibrary

You won't want to miss our latest exhibition of faculty art, Misty Bennett's series of oil paintings entitled "Navigation." Professor Bennett's work is located in the northeast stairwell between the main and second floors.

In other art news, we have now cataloged the Prints and Poems 2006-2007 portfolio. It is housed in our Archives, NE 42 .M66 2007. As with all of our materials in the Archives, those wishing to view the folio must make arrangements with the Reference Department.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Wild Thing; SwampThing; Do the Right Thing; Where the Wild Things Are; And Now Presenting--- LibraryThing.com!

Social Web Networking for Bookworms?

LibraryThing (http://www.LibraryThing.com/) is a website that allows you to create a quality online catalog of your customized personal library. Simply enter words from the titles or the authors of books you own and the LibraryThing search engine pulls and displays books that match your descriptive data from 78 libraries around the world, (including the Library of Congress and Amazon.com) You can view your catalog of items instantly and sort them as you wish -- authors, for example, or tags that you specify like "books about SKA music" or "novels set on college campuses." Participants can catalog for free up to 200 books. The social aspect of the site is that you can discover shared favorites, swap recommendations, and learn about the collection of other members (however, privacy protection limiters are certainly available) Not only is there a Book Suggester search mode, there is a Book Unsuggester ... books that members suggest you steer clear of based on your posted taste.

The site was created by Tim Spalding, student of Greek and Roman litertature and a web developer and publisher based in Portland, Maine. Spalding states on the LibraryThing website that his site is in permanent beta development so that he can continue to enrich it with features such as reviews and links to retail book stores.

Several related sites you might explore are:
http://www.bibliotravel.com/ a free online resource for identifying books set in distinct locals. (Lonelyplanet.com does a nice job with books and film recommendations for the traveler.)
http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/ and companion http://www.thisonenext.com/search is a recommendation service for cds, dvds, and books not just based on former purchase data but on expressed preferences in a created profile.

Patsy Sears

Monday, July 02, 2007

Independence Day Holiday

Here's a quick reminder that the Library will close tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5:00 pm for the Independence Day holiday. We'll reopen on Thursday, the 5th at 8:00 am. Good luck to all Summer I students during this finals week!


The view today over the Radney Memorial fountain looking toward King House through heavy rain.