Are You a Fan of Carmichael Library?

If so, connect with us on Facebook!

Last week, we launched our new Facebook page, which is loaded with photos, useful web links, and general information about the library. What's more, you can interact with us there by adding your own links, photos and comments. This week we're asking our Facebook fans to sign off on the Discussion Board. Our question: What's on your summer reading list?

We've added two dozen student and staff fans in our first few days, and we're ready for more! Our Facebook page is a convenient way for you to keep up with what's new at your campus library.

University Web Site Access Restored

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the earlier problems with the UM web site appear to resolved. We lost access to the university web site shortly before 11:00 AM. The site was again working as of approximately 11:15. Thankfully, this outage did not affect the library catalog or access to full text journals, but it's never a bad idea to have these links bookmarked should we experience further problems.

As always, you can check our blog for any news we receive from Computer Services about planned down times.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Sexual Assault Awareness Month is a time for individuals and organizations to come together to raise awareness and to take action against sexual assault. Carmichael Library is teaming up with our partners in the Counseling and Career Center to present a collection of books and other resources in an effort to raise awareness among the UM community.

The following resources were selected by Kassie Doggett of the Counseling and Career Center:

• SafeHouse of Shelby County - www.safehouse.org Crisis Line: (205) 664-SAFE or 1-800 650-6522
• Crisis Center - www.crisiscenterbham.com Rape Response Line: (205) 323-7273 (RAPE) or 1-888-323-7273 (RAPE)
• Alabama Coalition Against Rape - www.acar.org
• Rape Abuse Incest National Network: The nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization - www.rainn.org
• National Sexual Assault Hotline - 1 (800) 656-4673 (HOPE)
  

Additionally, the following books may be of interest:

• After Silence: Rape & My Journey Back (1998) by Nancy Venable Raine
• Binge: What Your College Student Won't Tell You (2005) by Barrett Seaman
• The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence (1997) by Gavin de Becker
• I Never Called it Rape: The Ms. Report on Recognizing, Fighting, and Survivng Date and Acquaintance Rape (1988)
• Lucky (2002) by Alice Sebold
• Sex Without Consent: Rape and Sexual Coercion in America (2001) edited by Merril D. Smith

Finally, the Counseling and Career Center is partnering with the Office of Student Life and SafeHouse to host a sexual abuse awareness presentation entitled "Sexual Assault: What Women and Men Should Know." The program will conclude with a candlelight vigil this Wednesday, the 23^rd. This event begins at 7:00 PM in Harman Hall, Room 103. For more information on this event, call the Counseling and Career Center at 665-6262 or Student Life at 665-6565.

Related: Recognizing RAINN Day

Inman Majors at Carmichael Library

I was thrilled to be in the audience this past Friday afternoon to hear Inman Majors read from his hilarious novel Wonderdog (2004). Majors was in the library to deliver the Fiction Keynote Reading for this year's Montevallo Literary Festival. Congratulations to our own Alan May and the many other individuals who made this year's festival a success!

Montevallo Literary Festival, Friday and Saturday, April 18th and 19th

We're gearing up for the Montevallo Literary Festival which is this Friday and Saturday, April the 18th and 19th.

This years headliners include Barry Hannah, Claudia Emerson, Steve Harper, and Inman Majors

Also Starring:

Chad Davidson, Todd Dills, Susannah Felts, Wayne Greenhaw, Tina Harris, Pete McCommons, Aaron Parrett, Chelsea Rathburn, Philip Shirley, Jeff Weddle

Click here to see the Literary Festival's website, and schedule of events.

Find the Best Career @ Your Library

Among the 31 careers listed by US News and World Report as offering strong outlooks and high job satisfaction is the profession of librarianship! US News calls librarians "high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records." The work is fun, rewarding, and never boring, especially as the technology for finding and delivering information evolves.

Interested in checking out library work? We have some slots available for student workers for May and Summer terms, and it's not too early to put in your application for next year. Stop by the Circulation Desk on the main floor and ask for an application.

Find out more about librarianship and the other top careers at:
http://www.usnews.com/features/business/best-careers/best-careers-2008.html

Remembering the Titanic

It was 96 years ago today that the RMS Titanic sank while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The massive luxury liner struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage to New York City and sank less than three hours later. The accident, which is still counted among the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history, killed over 1,500 people and had profound implications for ship design, maritime regulations, and seafaring culture.

The display just beyond the library's foyer is the creative work of our technical services student assistant Tiffany Walker. At our display you can browse a selection of materials available for check out or read sections from the April 16, 1912 edition of the New York Times. You can also look at the paper directly online by using our link to Proquest Historical Newspapers.*

In pulling together these materials a few weeks ago I was struck at how this disaster still captures the imagination of millions, even after nearly 100 years have passed. I hope that some of you will be interested in further readings on this significant historic event.

* For more information on the historical New York Times, check out Alan May's previous post on the topic.

Montevallo Rocks the Vote

This news comes from the Office of Student Life:

The University Program Council (UPC) will sponsor “Rock the Vote,” Tuesday, April 15, at 7 p.m., at the McChesney Student Activity Center.

“Rock the Vote” engages youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. It harnesses cutting-edge trends and pop culture to make political participation cool, and mobilizes young people to create positive social and political change in their lives and communities. The goal of “Rock the Vote” is to increase youth voter turnout, with the intention of ensuring that young people take advantage of their right to vote.

“Rock The Vote” will feature hosts Rachel and Shane from MTV's Real World/Road Rules cast. They will give a breakdown of each presidential candidate. In addition, there will be a question-and-answer period, and a meet-and-greet and autograph session with the hosts at the end of the program.

Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to participate, let their voices be heard and obtain answers to questions they may have about the candidates and the political process.

Questions about the event? Contact Melvin Milton, UPC Coordinator, at Ext. 6565, or via e-mail at upcmontevallo@yahoo.com.

If you still have doubts that your vote counts, consider this: Rock the Vote has reported that the under-30 vote has quadrupled in Tennessee and tripled in Georgia when compared to the year 2000.

Remember that you can always pick up your voter registration form at the Ask Here desk if you haven't already registered for the November elections. Not sure if you're ready for the fall? Any questions about your registration can be answered by your county's Board of Registrars. A complete list is also available here at the library.

Also on the Web:

• Carmichael Library's previous Alabama Votes 2008 posts
• Black Youth Vote - from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
  
• Rock the Vote | Blog

New Audio Downloads Now Available

As always, your campus library is busy lining up plenty of quality audio content. If you've followed our blog, you know that Alexander Street Press, the publisher of Classical Music Library, has been making free music downloads available for a while now. The latest of these is Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. This recording features the Frenchman violin virtuoso Jean-Pierre Wallez in concert with the Luxembourg Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Classical Music Library has been giving away some terrific recordings this year and you can track all of them at the Alexander Street Music blog. Grab your free copy of the Bruch concerto in MP3 or WMA format from the CML free download page. It's available there through next week.

If our downloadable audiobooks are closer to your listening taste, I'd like to recommend a pair of our recent acquisitions. First, Redneck Riviera: Armadillos, Outlaws, and the Demise of an American Dream, by Dennis Covington is a read that's both harrowing and hilarious. Redneck Riviera is the true story of Covington's bizarre encounters with a lawless band of gun-toting swamp-dwellers in Central Florida who've illegally claimed the two-and-a-half acres of land he inherited from his father.

Second and lastly, I enjoyed The Summer We Got Saved, by Pat Cunningham Devoto. Tab and Tina, relatives of a founder of Ku Klux Klan, are whisked away to an interracial Civil Rights school one summer. There, they befriend both a black polio patient and the biracial daughter of a Yankee and a Civil Rights leader. Can the girls be saved from the racist traditions of their Alabama family?

3rd Photo of "Self Portrait"

Self Portrait #2

Self Portrait

Come to the library and see Devon Lilly's installment entitled "Self Portrait." I'll blog a couple more pictures before the day's end. "Self Portrait" is comprised of books that are representative of the artist, and the books in total are equivalent to the artist's body weight.

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. Come to the library and check out some poetry! We have several books on display at the "Ask Here Desk."

From the archives: "The Love Song of Martin Bormann," a poem and print from Of Desire, and the Circles of Hell: Selected Poems by Dwight Eddins; Illustrations by A. C. Sella; this is on display in a case on the main floor.

Also, check out the Academy of American Poets web site here. Today, in the "Poem a Day" section, they've posted a poem by Theodore Worozbyt, a Tuscaloosan whose book The Dauber Wings was published in 2006 by Dream Horse Press.

Library Closed Friday, April 4th

We received notice just under one hour ago that the university would close at 1:30 PM due to the threat of severe weather. Faculty and staff e-mail will also be unavailable after 2:00 PM today for a system upgrade.

Please stay tuned to local media for the latest on developing weather conditions. The library will be open tomorrow for regular Saturday hours at 10:00 AM.

Minor Work on Commons Computers

Update at 10:30 AM. We're back up and running!

This is just a quick dispatch from the Ask Here Desk to let everyone know that there will be no access to the public computers surrounding the Desk for just a few minutes. Computer Services staff are now working to upgrade some hardware. This work should be completed shortly and does not impact any other computers in the Library building.

Thanks for your patience as we upgrade our systems!

Who Gets Caught Reading?

With the one year anniversary of a popular blog feature now upon us, we bring you this special edition of Get Caught Reading. Tigger may not be a regular visitor to the library, but we recently learned that he is an avid reader.

In this photo, Tigger is reading The Singing Life of Birds: The Art and Science of Listening to Birdsong, by Donald E. Kroodsma. Tigger tells us that birding has long been one of his research interests.

Thanks to Joel Bullock for his clever Photoshop work here. Not that Tigger wasn't actually reading when this shot was taken. He was, honest! And lest you think that your campus library never has feline guests, take a look at this Carmichael classic from 2004. Warning: the following photo contains extreme cuteness.


Awwwwww.