Novelist and short story writer Karen Joy Fowler will close this year’s Jack Ridl Visting Writers Series on Wednesday. The Seattle Times interviewed Fowler during her 2007 visit to the area. When asked about the setting of her debut novel Sarah Canary in the Puget Sound region, Fowler provided insights into the research that is often necessary before one is prepared to write. You’ll find Sarah Canary, and other works by Karen Joy Fowler, shelved adjacent to the Reference Desk on the first floor of Van Wylen Library. Works by all of this year’s visiting writers are there, too. We hope you’ll take a moment to browse the selection and borrow as you wish.
The Pulitzer Prize
The winners of the Pulitzer Prize were announced this week, and I am happy to say that you can find most of these titles in the college libraries. We have the winners for fiction, biography, general non-fiction, and poetry. We have additional works by the winners for drama and poetry and many items by and about Bob Dylan who was awarded a special citation. Modern technology has made it very easy to read the journalism winners from your computer. Find the newspaper on our journals list and follow the link to an online version of the paper where you can search for the writer’s name. Spend your valuable reading time on the good stuff.
Connection: Disability Awareness Week
This is Disability Awareness Week at Hope College. Numerous events are planned, including a wheelchair basketball game between members of Hope’s men’s basketball team and the Grand Rapids Pacers at the Dow Center on Wednesday, April 9th at 7:00. Read more about wheelchair basketball and the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, known for being “every bit as competitive as the NBA,” in a 2005 Sports Illustrated column.
The library’s Disability Resource Room will be open on Thursday, April 10th between 10:00 and 11:00. Stop in to see technologies that assist visually impaired people read printed texts. Among the pieces of equipment in the Disability Resource Room is a Kurzweil Reading Machine. Kurzweil was, and is, a leader in optical character recognition. New technology in this area allows a photo of printed text taken with a cell phone to be translated into spoken words instantaneously. Read more about this new technology in a 2008 article in PC Magazine Online.
For more information on these topics and others related to Disability Awareness Week, please contact the Reference Desk.
Wondering about Taxes
Everyone has filed their tax return, right? Taxes are as old as the bible and as inevitable as death. But have you ever wondered about taxes? The library is a good place for those of us who just wonder about stuff. “For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization” is a good read if you are interested in the history of taxation. If we have to pay them every year we might as well learn more about them…if you don’t have end of semester projects to prepare, that is.
Browsing through Moodle
The library has acquired some new titles about Moodle. “Using Moodle“, “Moodle Teaching Techniques“, and “Moodle:E-Learning Course Development” are all available for three week checkout from the Browsing Collection on the first floor of Van Wylen. There might be a waiting list, so place a hold, or ask how, if you would like to see any of these items.
Fun with Science
Today’s look at what is on the library shelves was inspired by April Fool’s Day. From the lists I have seen of famous foolishness, it would seem that scientists are not always the serious, eyes on the slide kind of people one might assume them to be. My favorite example of this behaviour is “The Journal of Irreproducible Results”, a science humor magazine which we stopped getting in 1993, but is still on our shelves. The spoofs and parodies of scientific concepts have not gone out of date and make a good study break. We also have “The Best of the Journal of Irreproducible Results” which is a book compilation from the journal.
Connection: Illinois Chamber Music Festival Performers and LehrerDance Visit Hope College
Performers from the Illinois Chamber Music Festival will be performing at Hope on Thursday, April 3rd (press release). This summer, they will perform and teach at Illinois Wesleyan University which provides biographical information of interest. The first image above is of cellist Tanya Remenikova, member of the faculty at the University of Minnesota School of Music, working with a student at the Illinois Chamber Music Camp.
Friday, April 4th and Saturday, April 5th Hope College will host LehrerDance (press release). Discover more about LehrerDance at the company’s web site. The second image above is of a LehrerDance company member.
Women in Music
Today is the birthday of Diana Ross. The people at Guiness World Records have declared her the most successful female music artist of the 21st century. Although we have only one example of her work in our collection you can read about other women in music at the Music Library in the Nykerk/Wichers complex. And I would appreciate it if you would comment here on which of her other recordings we should own. Seriously! The only thing that comes up when you search “Supremes” in our catalog is about the court.
Connection: Tenth Annual Cesar Chavez Celebration
The Tenth Annual Cesar Chavez Celebration is Wednesday and Thursday of this week. Events are described in the Hope College press release. Dolores Huerta, co-founder with Chavez, of the United Farm Workers of America, gave an interview to the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy in 2006 in which she reflects on the successes and continued work of the UFW and related movements. Paul Chavez, Cesar Chavez’s son, gave an interview to NPR’s Travis Smiley in 2004 on his father’s life and legacy. Join the celebration this year as we remember Chavez and his dedication to worker, civil, and human rights.
Connection: Lecture by Wildlife Biologist Dr. Rolf Peterson
One week from today, Monday, March 24, 2008, wildlife biologist Dr. Rolf Peterson will be speaking in the A. Paul Schaap Science Center at 4:00. Read more about Dr. Peterson and his research in the Hope College press release.
In 2005, Peterson co-authored “Monitoring and Habitat Analysis for Wolves in Upper Michigan” in the Journal of Wildlife Management. A concise and informative article on Peterson’s many years of research on the UP’s wolf population appeared in National Wildlife magazine in 2000.
For assistance locating additional articles and other information sources on Peterson, his research, and UP wolves, please visit the Reference Desk.