American Library Association Meeting now! Update 1

From the GLBTQ Roundtable:

 This is the 39th anniversary of the Stonewall Book Awards.  For the first time we will be presenting an award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.  That award will go to Nick Burd for his young adult novel "The Vast Fields of Ordinary", published by the Penguin Group. 

Authors of two honor books for that award will also be recognized at this event.  They are Marcus Ewert, who wrote "10,000 Dresses", published by Seven Stories Press, and Linas Alsenas, who wrote "Gay America: Struggle for Equality", published by Amulet Books.

The Barbara Gittings Literature Award will go to David Francis for his novel "Stray Dog Winter", published by MacAdam/Cage. 

The author of the honor book "God Says No", James Hannaham, will also be recognized.  His book was published by McSweeney's Publishing.

The Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award will go to Nathaniel Frank for his work "Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America", published by St. Martin's Press. 

Honor author Stewart Weisberg will also be recognized for his book "Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman, published by the University of Massachusetts Press.

More award winners!

Recipients of the Sophie Brody Award - 2010 (and prior winners)

2010
Jonathon Keats, The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six, Random House

Honorable Mentions:
Thomas Buergenthal, Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy, Little Brown;
Melvin Konner, The Jewish Body, Schocken;
Clara Kramer and Stephen Gantz, Clara’s War: One Girl’s Story of Survival, Ecco.

2009

Peter Manseau, Songs for the Butcher's Daughter, Free Press.

Honorable Mentions:
Ron Leshem, Beaufort, Delacorte Press;
A.B. Yehoshua, Friendly Fire: A Duet, Harcourt;
Arie Kaplan, From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, Jewish Publication Society.

2008
Nathan Englander, The Ministry of Special Classes, Knopf.

Honorable Mentions:
Shalom Auslander, Foreskin’s Lament: A Memoir, Riverhead Books;
Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Story, Norton;
and Joyce Antler, You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother, Oxford University Press.

2007

Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, HarperCollins.

Honorable Mentions:
Dara Horn, The World to Come, Norton;
Sandy Tolan, The LemonTree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, Bloomsbury;
and Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, Knopf.

2006

Avner Mandelman, Talking to the Enemy, Seven Stories Press.

Honorable Mentions:
Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch, St. Martin's;
Michael Lavigne, Not Me, Random House;
and Tom Reiss, The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, Random House.

6th Annual Book sale coming up!

Stop by Polk Library on April 13th and 14th for our book sale. Finally - Polk Library books you can keep! For cheap!

Book Sale 2010

Polk Library 6th Annual Book Sale


Dates: Tuesday, April 13th, 7:00am – 10 pm &


Wednesday, April 14th, 7:00am – 1pm


Location: 801 Elmwood Ave - UWO Campus (Enter on the mall side of the building - the sale takes place across from the check-out desk.)

**THOUSANDS OF BOOKS**


Most books are priced at 50 cents each or three for a dollar! Books from all subject areas, including:

Art

Classic Literature

Contemporary Literature

Education

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Foreign Languages

History

Philosophy

Religion

Social Sciences

And many treasures and surprises, including some videos, sets, etc.

There will also be some specially priced items to choose from. These books are a bargain, and priced to move. See you at the sale!

New Bloomers!

The new Amelia Bloomer list is out for 2010:  http://libr.org/ftf/AmeliaBloomer2010.htm

"In an effort both to alert readers to society's opposition toward women's equality and to highlight progress toward this vital goal, the 2010 Amelia Bloomer Project members selected 54 books notable for feminist content, quality of writing, and appeal to young readers. We applaud all the authors, editors, illustrators, publishers and others who have participated in their publication.  This bibliography is intended to highlight feminist books examining women’s history, those that celebrate women who have blazed trails, and those that describe problems and identify solutions for situations we face today.  We hope that all young readers will have an opportunity to experience the spectrum of feminism that these titles represent."

The Amelia Bloomer Project is part of the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association’s Social Responsibility Round Table.  The committee members are Angela Semifero, Marshall District Library (MI); Barbara Ward, (LA); Beth Olshewsky, Tulare County Office of Education (CA); Christie Gibrich, co-chair, Bowles Life Center Branch Library (TX); Dana Campbell, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library (OR); Jane Cothron, co-chair, Lincoln County Library District (OR); Jennie Law, John Bulow Campbell Library (GA); Laurene Zaporozhetz, Air Force Institute of Technology (OH); Maureen McCoy, Brooklyn Public Library (NY).

Convenience-by-proxy

For your convenience, Polk Library permits authorized patrons to check out materials for other patrons. Any patron who wishes to give another patron (their “proxy”) the authority to use his privileges may file a form at the circulation desk.

Two easy steps:

1. Go to the Polk website at the site listed and print off the Proxy form*, fill it out and return it to the Polk Circulation staff. http://www.uwosh.edu/library/pdf/proxypatron.pdf  This will enable your proxy patron to check out and pick up your items. 
2. The proxy must present his/her valid TitanCard and give your name when s/he wishes to check out materials for you. 

CAUTION: Proxies will be unable to check out materials if you or your proxy has outstanding library fees or overdue items.

*A department can submit a list of proxy patrons for an entire department by attaching a list of faculty members who wish to be included. Each faculty member’s signature must accompany this list. This would be handy for  graduate assistants, PAs, work study student workers and colleagues.

Some great sites to check out in 2010

The American Library Association's Eleventh Annual Best Free Reference Web Sites was released recently. Here are a few of the the highlights:

BBC Country Profiles

   "This site supplies information on the history, economy, and politics of countries and territories. Each profile includes an overview, map, facts, and current leaders. A media overview provides information on the press, television, radio, news agencies, and number of Internet users." - from the Best List 2009

The Blue Letter Bible

   "Containing 14 searchable versions of the Holy Bible, Blue Letter Bible offers an extensive insight into one of the world’s most popular books... Additional resources include charts, outlines, timelines, and maps, plus four streaming audio versions, are available from each passage’s page." - from the Best List 2009

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

   "This site is one of the fastest ways to find information about the exploitative practices of 4000 businesses worldwide, which would be difficult to locate by other means. Users can begin searching by company name, issue, country, or topic. Balanced coverage is provided via news, announcements, and special resources while providing responses from the accused companies." - from the Best List 2009

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

   "Sponsored jointly by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), this site provides select digital access to American newspapers from 1880 to 1910 and from mainly ten states." - from the Best List 2009

Online Conversion

   "This site boasts that one can “convert just about anything to anything else.” And with 50,000 conversions and 5,000 units, it has an impressive range. Sure, it has the popular conversions: length, temperature, speed, volume, weight, cooking, area, fuel economy, and currency. But it also contains measurements for women’s clothing sizes between countries, light-years, density, torque, horse height, meeting room size needed for attendees, gauge and much more."  - from the Best List 2009

Check out the full list for other best-of sites, including the American Presidency Project, PubChem,  and Lexicool