A Treasury of Du Bois' Writings

As we begin this last week of Black History Month it is with great excitement that I blog about one of the library's most recent acquisitions. The Oxford W.E.B. Dubois is a 19-volume collection of writings by one of the great minds of the 20^th century. These works are on display in the library foyer, and all of these volumes are now available for checkout.

One thing I learned about this author and scholar while working with these books over the past week is that he was also a fiction writer. I have always associated Du Bois with titles such as The Souls of Black Folk, yet five books in this group are works of fiction.

Here's the complete list of works that comprise the Oxford Du Bois collection:

• The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1896)
• The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (Harvard Ph.D. thesis, 1896)
• The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
• John Brown (1909)
• Quest of the Silver Fleece ( 1911)
• The Negro (1915)
• Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (1920)
• The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America (1924)
• Dark Princess: A Romance (1924)
• Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880 (1935)
• Black Folk, Then and Now: An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race (1939)
• Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept (1940)
• The World and Africa; and, Color and Democracy (1945, 1946)
• In battle for Peace: The Story of my 83^rd Birthday (1952)
• The Ordeal of Mansart (Volume I of The Black Flame trilogy, 1957)
• Mansart Builds a School (Volume II of The Black Flame trilogy, 1959)
• Worlds of Color (Volume III of the Black Flame trilogy, 1961)
• The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of its First Century (1968)

Check out a few photos of the Du Bois collection, as well as our main Black History Month display, on our Flickr.

Photos by Tiffany Walker

Gale Databases

As you may already know, we've been experiencing problems with our gale databases. The databases themselves are readily accessible, but when you click on links to content, print, email, etc., you are often taken to a logged-off screen.

We're trying to get this issue resolved, but until we do, please know that you have on-campus access to most of these databases through the Alabama Virtual Library. Click here to go to the AVL's list of databases.

(Gale databases include: Gale General OneFile, Gale Virtual Reference, Professional Collection, LegalTrac, General Reference Center Gold, Informe, Student Edition, Expanded Academic ASAP, Opposing Viewpoints, Academic OneFile, Literature Resource Center, Business & Company Resource Center, Contemporary Authors, Scribner's Writers Series, Twayne Authors Series, Biography & Geneology Master Index, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Health & Wellness Resource Center, Kids InfoBits, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Business Index ASAP.)

Notes on a Refrigerator Door

We've recently acquired a magnetic poetry kit for the library's staff refrigerator, and it is providing a great deal of amusement and inspiration. Some of the profound and not-so-profound creations to date include:

She illustrated volumes
beneath the curly sea.

Discovering language
is difficult
but haunting

Teach a dog to smell a man
as if to judge character

Question truth &
use wisdom.

We're collecting these gems and will post further selections here from time to time.

New Browsing Book: Haunted Halls

If you've been tracking the new additions to our Browsing Collection you may have noticed this one, Haunted Halls: Ghostlore of American College Campuses. This new volume by author and folklorist Elizabeth Tucker mentions one of Montevallo's most famous ghosts, Condie Cunningham.

Notwithstanding the tragedy of Ms. Cunningham's death, we were proud to see one of our own make it into this fascinating book. It's now available for checkout at your campus library.

Also available on our blog, Alan May's 2006 series of ghost-related posts and more.

Valentine's Day Book: My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories, from Chekov to Munro

Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides) has recently compiled an anthology of 26 short stories by authors such as William Faulkner, James Joyce, Guy de Maupassant, Mary Robison, Eileen Chang, and Alice Munro. In an interview, Eugenides remarks, "The first thing you confront when you compile an anthology like this is the painful obligation to exclude wonderful work. The only way I could sleep at night was to remind myself it was for a good cause (the proceeds go to a non-profit organization, dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write). How did I choose? the way people choose their mates: for intelligence, beauty, humor, and a sense that they'll be around for the long haul."

He regrets that he was unable to get permission to include Annie Proulx's famous story, Brokeback Mountain. As one reviewer of the book states, "I recommend this collection with the notice that one not expect happily-ever-afters...some of the stories are disturbing, thought-provoking, and heartbreaking."

The title of the collection is taken from a poem by the Latin poet Catullus, 84 BC. A suitor jealously contemplates his lover's devotion to her pet sparrow and her period of mourning its death.

Carmichael Library owns many sources of Valentine inspiration. Several books titles that might motivate you to celebrate the day:

The Fifty Greatest Love Letters of All Time PN6140.LZ.A15
The Book Of Love: Writers and Their Love Letters PN6140.L7 B58
The Faber Book Of Love Poems PN6110.L6 G67

Or take a look through our dvd collection...West Side Story, Brokeback Mountain, A Man and a Women, Annie Hall, Last Tango in Paris...many choices representing the uplifting, poignant, sentimental, outrageous, sad experiences in which we humans get entangled.

Birthday of Sir James Murray

Today is the birthday of Lexicographer Sir James Murray. According to The Writer's Almanac, Murray "was born in Denholm, Scotland (1837). He was the president of the Philological Society in London, and in 1879 he became the editor of a 10-year project called the New English Dictionary (later known as the Oxford Dictionary). When he died in 1915, more than 30 years after he started work on it, Murray had compiled roughly half of the entries in the Oxford English Dictionary."

We offer access to both the print and online versions of this resource. Come to the Library and check out the print OED in our Reference Collection or click here to access the OED Online.

The OED contains definitions, etymologies, alternate spellings, and early quotations and time-lines for words in English.

Search the Carmichael Catalog from Your iGoogle Page

If you're a user of Google's personalized web portal, iGoogle, you may be interested in our new Catalog Search gadget. The gadget is just another way to search the Carmichael Library catalog with the same basic options that you'll find on our home page.

Installing the gadget on your iGoogle page is simple and takes less a minute. Once you're logged in to your Google account point your browser to the library's Catalog Search gadget page. Once there, choose the Add it now button. You can begin using the gadget right away: simply click the Back to iGoogle home link at the top or bottom of the page.

Black History Month Bibliography 2008

Today begins Black History Month. For the fourth year, Carmichael Library brings you this bibliography, which is only a sample of the available resources on the civil rights movement and modern African-American history. For more resources, use our Ask a Librarian link or check with us at the Ask Here desk.

Ref. indicates a non-circulating reference book. Video and DVD indicate video recordings. CD indicates an Audio CD or a CD-ROM. Browsing books are located on the Main Floor. All other items can be found on the Second Floor in the Circulating Collection.

Angelou, Maya. And Still I Rise. New York: Random House, 2001. CD PS3551 .N464 A8 2001

Bailey, Richard. They Too Call Alabama Home: African American Profiles, 1800-1999. Montgomery, Ala.: Pyramid, 1999. Ref. E185.96.B25 1999

Boyd, Herb. We Shall Overcome. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, 2004. Browsing E185.61 .B774 2004

Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. E185.61 .B7914 1989

Branch, Taylor. Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998. E185.61 .B7915 1998

Branch, Taylor. At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Browsing E185.61 .B67 2006

Burns, Ken. Jazz. N.p.: PBS DVD, 2000. DVD ML3506 .B87 2000 v.1-10

Burstein, Nanette. On The Ropes. N.p.: Fox Lorber Films, 2000. DVD GV1133 .O5 1999

Chappell, David L. A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2004. Browsing E185.61 .C5435 2004

Cosby, Camille O. and Renee Poussaint, eds. A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak. New York: Atria, 2004. Browsing E185.96 .W43 2004

Dickson, Sandra. Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power. South Burlington, Vt.: California Newsreel, 2005. DVD E185.615 .N36 2005

Dyson, Michael Eric. Between God and Gangsta Rap: Bearing Witness to Black Culture. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. E185.86 .D94 1997

Dyson, Michael Eric. I May Not Get There With You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Touchstone, 2001. E185.97.K5 D97 2001b

Dyson, Michael Eric. Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. BP223.Z8 L573338 1995

Estell, Kenneth, ed. The African-American Almanac. Detroit: Gale, 1994. Ref. E185 .A2515 1994

Fallin, Wilson, Jr. The African American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm. New York: Garland Pub., 1997. BR563.N4 F27 1997

Fallin, Wilson, Jr. Uplifting the People: Three Centuries of Black Baptists in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007. Browsing BX6444.A6 F35 2007

Felix, Antonia. Condi: the Condoleezza Rice Story. New York: Newmarket Press, 2002. Browsing UA23.15 .F45 2002

Gast, Leon. When We Were Kings. N.p. : PolyGram Video, 1997. DVD GV1132 .W445 1997

Gates, Henry Louis. The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Country. New York: Free Press, 2000. E185.96 .G38 2000

Gates, Henry Louis. The Future of the Race. New York: Knopf, 1996. E185.86 .G377 1996

Gates, Henry Louis. Wonders of the African World. N.p. : PBS Home Video, 1999. Video DT14 .G3852 1999 v.1-3

Gaillard, Frye. Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2004. E185.93 .A3 G35 2004

George, Terry. Hotel Rwanda. N.p.: Metro Goldwyn Mayer Home Entertainment, 2005. DVD PN1995 Hotelrw 2005

Hampton, Henry. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years. N.p. : PBS Home Video, n.d. Video E185.61 E84 1995 v.1-7

Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2001. Ref. E185.H326 2001

Hine, Darlene Clark. Black Women in America. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. Ref. E185.86 .B542 2005

Horne, Gerald. W.E.B. Du Bois: An Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood, 2001. Ref. E185.97.D73 W164 2001

Lee, Spike. 4 Little Girls. New York : HBO Home Video, 2000. DVD F334.B69 A24 2000

Lee, Spike. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. N.p.: HBO Video, 2006. DVD HV636 .L8 W496 2006

Lerner, Murray. Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue. N.p. : Eagle Eye Media, 2004 DVD ML419 .D39 M56 2004

Marberry, Craig. The Spirit of Harlem: Portraits from America's Most Exciting Neighborhood. New York: Doubleday, 2003. Browsing F128.68 .H3 M29 2003

McWhorter, Diane. A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968. New York: Scholastic, 2004. Browsing E185.61 .M39 2004

McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama. The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Browsing F334.B69 N449 2001

Moore, Carroll. The Art of Romare Bearden. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2003. DVD ND237 .B43 A4 2003

Naslund, Sena Jeter. Four Spirits: A Novel. New York: William Morrow, 2003. Browsing PS3564 .A827 F68 2003

Nelson, Stanley. The Murder of Emmett Till. Alexandria, Va.: PBS Home Video, 2003. DVD F350 .N4 M87 2003

Newman, Richard. Go Down Moses: A Celebration of the African-American Spiritual. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1998. ML54.6.N495 G6 1998

Norrell, Robert J. The House I Live in: Race in the American Century. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. E185.61 .N879 2005

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. Browsing E901.1.O23 A3 2006

Obama, Barack. Dreams From My Father. New York: Three Rivers, 2004. Browsing E185.97 .O23 A3 2004

Ogletree, Jr., Charles J. All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown v. Board of Education. New York: Norton, 2004. KF4757 .O35 2004

Packer, Z. Z. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. New York: Riverhead, 2003. Browsing PS3616.A335 D75 2003

Palmer, Colin A., ed. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas. Detroit: Macmillan, 2006. Ref. E185 .E54 2006

Pollard, Sam. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. San Francisco: California Newsreel, 2002. Video E185.61 .R57 2002

Preminger, Otto. Carmen Jones. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2001. DVD PN1995 Carme 2001

Reasoner, Harry. CBS Reports: The Other Face of Dixie. N.p. : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2002. DVD LC212.522 .S6 C377 2003

Sampson, Henry T. Blacks in Black and White: A Source Book on Black Films. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1993. PN1995.9.N4 S2 1993

Schaap, Jeremy. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler’s Olympics. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. GV697.O9 S33 2007

Shakur, Tupac. The Rose That Grew from Concrete. New York: Pocket, 1999. Browsing PS3569.H3234 R6 1999

Spielberg, Steven. Amistad. Universal City, CA: DreamWorks, 1999. DVD PN1995 Amist 1999

The Speeches Collection, Volume 1. New York: MPI Home Video, 2002. DVD PS668 .S644 2002

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report, Volume 1-5. New York: Macmillan/Grove, 1999. CD DT1945 .S56 1999

Washington, James Melvin, ed. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986. E185.97.K5 A25 1986

West, Cornel. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon, 1993. E185.615 .W43 1993

X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine, 1992. E185.97.L5 A3 1992

Compiled by Jason Cooper and Jared Mims 02-05, updated with assistance from Patsy Sears 2-08