Read or Be Read

The Ross Pendergraft Library is now accepting volunteers to be a book for the 2016 Human Library on November 1st & 2nd.  Volunteers will be a living, breathing ‘book’, telling their personal stories about facing prejudice, discrimination, disability, and other hardships beyond their control to interested readers in a one-on-one setting.  The Human Library is an international movement that allows readers to ‘check-out’ a human book for a 30 minute conversation.  The readers listen to the personal stories and have time to ask questions.

The program is designed to promote understanding and compassion within a diverse community and to help break down barriers to communication.  As a book, you will have an opportunity to tell someone about the ways in which you have been stereotyped or misunderstood based on your race, sexual orientation, religion, profession, country of origin, gender, veteran status, or more.  Some of the books we have signed up so far include Environmental Activist, Homeschool Mom, and Drug Addict.

The goal is to have meaningful conversations about difficult subjects in a safe, one-on-one setting.  If you are interested in signing up to be a book, use our volunteer form: http://libguides.atu.edu/humanlibrary/bookform

For more questions about the program, contact Sherry Tinerella at stinerella@atu.edu or call 479-964-0571.    More information, including program details and instructions for coordinating classroom visits, will be available as the event date draws near.

‘Freedom Riders’ Screening

Please join us Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center as we present the documentary film Freedom Riders, an event that is free and open to the public. This film is part of the series Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The event will take place in room 300B.

In addition to the screening, Arkansas Tech alum Barbara Lackey, a 1960 graduate of Horace Mann High School in Little Rock, will share her experiences on life in the natural state during the civil rights movement and on her experience as a student at ATU.

For more information, please contact us at askalibrarian@atu.edu or call us at 479-964-0569. You may also contact Luke Heffley at 479- 964-0546.

History of Headstones

Join us  this Tuesday night, April 5th,  at 7:00 P.M. in room 300B of the Ross Pendergraft Library & Technology Center for a special presentation on the history of cemetery headstones.  Guest speaker, Holly Hope from the Department of Arkansas Heritage, will share her extensive knowledge of cemeteries and headstone symbolism found on graves from around the state.  Learn all about graveyard symbols like lambs, broken branches, clasping hands, and weeping angels this Tuesday night at the library.  This event, presented by the Ross Pendergraft Library and The Department of Arkansas Heritage, is free and open to the public.

Mt. Holly Cemetery, from Arkansas Historic Preservation Program website

Find It Today

The Library is hosting a small celebration of our new discovery tool today from 11:00-2:00, with special instruction sessions occurring each half hour in RPL 300 North.  Join us for cookies, punch, and a little introduction to our new search tool, Find It, now featured on our homepage: http://library.atu.edu/

find it

Use Find It to search scholarly articles, books, ebooks, and DVDs in one place.  Narrow search results with left-hand filters by type, location, full-text, and more.  This interface replaces our library catalog, and indexes all of our Proquest database content, most of our Ebsco content, Web of Science, Jstor, and more.  Our native database interfaces are still available on our A-Z Databases page, but to get quick results in one search, give Find It a try.  We believe this will be a much simpler tool for beginners to find academic resources, but it will also be a more convenient tool for the research pros to quickly find and filter the results they need.

star wars

The Find It tool also includes access to your library account, so you can check on what materials you have currently checked-out, items on hold, or if you have any messages from the Library.  Sign-in with your Tech Username and Password to save searches or add items to an ‘eshelf’ for later browsing and viewing.  If you are off-campus, you will need to sign-in to view search results from Ebsco or Web of Science, since these databases require authentication, even for searching.  If you are on-campus, however, you will automatically see these results.

Drop by today at 11, 11:30, or every thirty minutes until the last session at 1:30 to learn a little more about the interface (or to simply grab some cookies in the library lobby).   There will also be PRIZES at the demos!  Come for the cookies, punch, and prizes–stay for the knowledge bombs.

 

Atom Age Apocalypse

If living in close proximity to a nuclear power plant has made you paranoid of atomic, mutated arthropods, you won’t want to miss Mike Bogue’s presentation entitled, “Atom Age Apocalypse: Mutants, Monsters, and Mushroom Clouds.”

The presentation will be on November 12th, in Ross Pendergraft Library, Room 300 at 7:00 P.M.

Picture of Them! DVD cover

Mike, an alumnus of Arkansas Tech University, will present a tribute to the 1950’s science fiction movies that inspired the works of such film-making giants as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

Mike worked on the Russellville Campus of Arkansas Tech University from 1993 to 2011, and is currently Coordinator of Student Success on the Ozark Campus.  His work has appeared in Scary Monsters Magazine, G-FAN, Castle of Frankenstein, Wonder, Space & Time, The Lookout, and Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs. the World.  He lead a speaker’s panel at the 2014 national G-Fest (Godzilla) convention in Chicago, IL.  He also recently published a book titled Atomic Drive-In (also available at the Library).

If you want to start preparing for the lecture (or the apocalypse / giant reptile attack), the Ross Pendergraft Library has a selection of 1950’s science fiction movies waiting to grab you:

picture of The Blob's DVD cover

Or, if you want to view in bulk, the Sci-Fi Classics collection features 50 classic, science fiction movies on 12 discs.  Remember, all our DVDs have relocated to the first floor for easier browsing.

For more information about the presentation or our film collection, contact the atomic librarians from outer space at askalibrarian@atu.edu or 479-964-0569.

Human Library

From November 3rd to November 5th, the Ross Pendergraft Library, in cooperation with the Department of Diversity & Inclusion, will host three page-turning presentations to introduce the Arkansas Tech community to our new Human Library program.

  • November 3rd: “Four Blacks at Tech” by Barbara Lackey
  • November 4th: “My Disability Doesn’t Define My Ability” by Bshaer Alharazi
  • November 5th: “Zack, the Deaf Trans” by Zack Stone

All presentations will begin at 10:00 am in RPL 326.

The Human Library program, now an international movement, allows readers to check out a human “book” at designated times for a 30 minute conversation, including 10 additional minutes for questions.  The books are living, breathing people who have overcome challenges of prejudice, social injustice, stereotypes, or disability.  Readers are encouraged to ask the book questions and have meaningful conversations about difficult subjects like race, gender identification, disability, sexual orientation, or religion.   The ultimate goal is to help people learn about the life and experiences of an individual who may have been stereotyped, misunderstood, or avoided, in an effort to promote greater understanding and compassion in our communities.

Drop by our presentations to learn more about our Human Library, or check out a human book today.  They are available for one-on-one conversations or smaller classes (up to 15 students) to allow for a more casual and safe environment.  Call 479-964-0571 or sign up for a time-slot at the Reference Desk to reserve one of our books.  You can also send us an email at askalibrarian@atu.edu to request a time or ask additional questions about the program.

Become more well-read about life—check out a book from our Human Library today.

human library

Thursday Night Frights

Join us at the Ross Pendergraft Library and Technology Center this Thursday, October 29th, at 7:00 PM for “Haunted Sites at Arkansas Tech University,” a lecture showcasing spooky stories and folklore surrounding historic buildings on campus.  Our guest speaker, Shelle Stormoe, serves as the Education Outreach Coordinator at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.  She will not only discuss haunted sites here at Tech, but also other ghost stories from campuses around the state.

The lecture will take place in room 300 South.  For more information, call 479-964-0569 or email us at askalibrarian@atu.edu

rpl1a

Thursday Night

On Thurday, take a break from campus and head over to Russellville City Hall where our good friend and local celebrity author, Slade Dupuy, will help unveil the new Pope County Library System logo.  Slade has been with the library for a number of years as the Administrative Assistant to the Director.  A graduate of Tech with a degree in International Studies, he is also the author of the popular science fiction novel, Colorblind, which is available on the Library shelf here, on the Pope County Library shelf, and on Amazon.

He will be at Russellville City Hall on Thursday, October 16th, from 5-7 P.M.  For more information about the event or the Pope County Library System, visit http://www.popelibrary.org or call their number at (479) 968-4368.

On Sept. 9th

We’re having a Brown Bag “Munch & Learn” Workshop on basic library databases at Baztech 202, between 11-1. Drop in at any time for show-and-tell on the top 3 library databases , and win fabulous door prizes!!! Bring a lunch, bring a friend, and bring an appetite for instruction.

baby hamster eating a cucumber by saqopakajmer-d6nxs6p

“Tasty, tasty knowledge…”

For more delicious facts about this event or others, contact your friendly neighborhood librarians at askalibrarian@atu.edu.  You can also LIKE us or FOLLOW us for more news and events throughout the semester.  See you Tuesday!

Film on Tuesday

Could you get on the bus?  In 1961, a group of  people, both black and white, decided to travel through the segregated South on a Greyhound bus challenging Jim Crow laws prohibiting racial mixing.  Their radical strategy?  Walk through the door of a “white’s-only” establishment and sit together.

Their fearless idealism and commitment to non-violence in the face of arrests, brutal mobs, and attempted murder challenged America to see the inhumanity of segregation and pushed the Civil Rights Movement to the forefront of national conversation.

On Tuesday, April 22nd at 7:00 p.m., join our conversation about the Civil Rights at the screening of the PBS documentary, The Freedom Riders.  Before the film, Barbara Lackey (Horace Mann HS-LittleRock ’60, ATU ’68) and Dr. V. Carole Smith (Russellville HS ’65), will also discuss their life experiences in the River Valley and beyond.

Even if you can’t stay for the film, you won’t want to miss opening panel discussion for a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear history from the people who lived through it right here in the River Valley.  There will be a short break after the discussion before the movie begins.  You can also find the film at the library or online for viewing at home.

The film is the last of our Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle series produced in partnership with the National Endowment for Humanities and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, created to encourage public conversations about the changing meanings of freedom and equality in America.

For more information about this film, the panel discussion, or the Civil Rights Movement, give us a ring at 479-964-0569 or send us an email at askalibrarian@atu.edu.