March is Women’s History Month and Kanopy is celebrating with a new collection of documentaries by and about women. Check out some of their selections below.
As always, Kanopy films stream free for all current IWU faculty, staff, and students. You can find all these films and more right here.
One of the distinguishing features of The Ames Library is our expansive and ever-growing collection of artwork, which includes everything from Rembrandt etchings to art from graduating Wesleyan seniors. We are delighted to add ten prints from cartoonist Keith Knight to this collection.
You might remember Keith from his visit to campus in October 2018, during which he spoke about race and racism in the United States.
You can see the new prints, which feature quotes on race and social justice from figures like Nelson Mandela and Grace Lee Boggs, on the east side of the main floor.
Posted in Ames Highlights, Library News
Tagged art, artwork, black history, Keith Knight, social justice
If you’ve read Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt for the Summer Reading Program, then you may be interested in the following five books, selected by the author Susan Stryker. In a November 2018 interview with Five Books, Stryker explains how she made her selections. Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of a Fox is a retelling of the story of criminal Jack Sheppard (better known as Mack the Knife) as a transgender man, while I’ve Got a Time Bomb is an illustrated punk rock novel about “very non-normative sorts of trans lives.” Black on Both Sides looks at the intersection of blackness and transness. Histories of the Transgender Child explores “notions of the transgender child” that “[stretch] back to at least the early 20th century” and are “related to notions of emotional and physical plasticity or malleability that are intimately related to questions of race.” Trap Door is an “art-focused” book that documents trans people’s contributions to visual culture.
All five books are available through The Ames Library. (And if you’re not sure about how to find them on the shelf, just ask a librarian!)
Confessions of a Fox by Jordy Rosenberg: PS3618.O8323 C66 2018
I’ve Got a Time Bomb by Sybil Lamb: PS3612.A5449 I94 2014
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton: E-book
Histories of the Transgender Child by Julian Gill-Peterson: HQ77.95.U6 G55 2018
Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton: NX650.G44 T73 2017
Posted in Ames Highlights
Tagged new books, new resources, reading recommendations, transgender issues
From now until March 9th, The Ames Library is offering two new databases on trial, Periodicals Archive Online and Women’s Magazine Archive.
Periodicals Archive Online “makes the backfiles of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences available electronically, providing access to the searchable full text of hundreds of titles. The database spans more than two centuries of content, 37 key subject areas, and multiple languages.”
Women’s Magazine Archive is comprised of digitized “leading women’s interest consumer magazines” which are “scanned in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.”
Both trial databases will be available for the next 19 days and can be accessed through this link. (Trial databases are located on the right-hand sidebar.) If you are interested in seeing the library acquire either database on a more permanent basis, please share your thoughts with us in a comment here or email us at askames@iwu.edu.
Posted in Ames Highlights
“While the ceremony took place at Evelyn Chapel, the couple also visited several campus locations for photo opportunities, such as the Bates & Merwin Reading Room, also known as the ‘Beauty and the Beast Room’ because of its rolling ladder resembling the library featured in Disney’s animated classic.” (Source.)
Congratulations to Haley (Lower) Loyet ’16 and Cameron Loyet ’18!
For a limited time, you can explore The African American Experience, a database ABC-CLIO, for free. The database will be open access until February 19th. It documents black history and black culture from the year 500 to the present day, and is divided by topics such as the Antebellum, Rise of Jim Crow, and Black Power Movement.
If you’re ever interested in recommending a certain database for our collections, just email us!
Tagged Uncategorized
Please join us tonight for a special program from IWU alum Quita Verban Shier (’60), who will be speaking about Company K of the 1st Regiment Michigan Volunteer Sharpshooters in the Civil War. This all-Native American company is the subject of Shier’s recent book Warriors in Mr. Lincoln’s Army: Native American Soldiers Who Fought in the Civil War. Attendees will learn from the soldiers themselves as Shier reads from their letters home about the effects that the war and even the long absences from home had on their health and healing. The program will take place in Beckman Auditorium in The Ames Library from 6:00–7:00p.m, and is free and open to the public.
P.S. You can also check out Shier’s book from The Ames Library afterwards.
Image courtesy the National Park Service.
Posted in Ames Highlights, Library News
Tagged exhibitions, exhibits, Native history
Tonight, everyone! We’re hosting a screening of the 2018 film The Hate U Give with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The program will be held in Beckman Auditorium at the library at 6PM and will be preceded by a presentation of data about police shootings of black civilians and a discussion afterwards. Tell your friends, and we hope to see you all there.
“Based on the best-selling novel, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, who lives in two worlds: the poor, black neighborhood where she resides and the mostly white prep school she attends. This uneasy balance is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend by a policeman. Facing pressures from all sides, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.” (Source: http://ow.ly/miBp50kn4oT)
Don’t forget that tomorrow we’re hosting a screening of the 2018 film The Hate U Give with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion! The program will be held in Beckman Auditorium at the library at 6PM and will be preceded by a presentation of data about police shootings of black civilians and a discussion afterwards.
“Based on the best-selling novel, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, who lives in two worlds: the poor, black neighborhood where she resides and the mostly white prep school she attends. This uneasy balance is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend by a policeman. Facing pressures from all sides, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.” (Source: http://ow.ly/miBp50kn4oT)
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson, the first player to break the color barrier in baseball. His Major League debut occurred with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 and his career as a professional ballplayer lasted just over nine years.
Jackie’s tremendous accomplishments can only be fully understood if we are clear-eyed about the racism that white people, from fellow Dodgers to baseball spectators to the United States military, subjected him to throughout his life.
We invite you take to take a deeper look at Jackie’s life and career through our exhibit “Against the Most Tremendous Odds,” which will be up through February on The Ames Library main floor.
