BSC Library closed Dec.17 - Jan.1

The Birmingham-Southern College Library, along with the rest of the College, will be closed from Saturday, December 17, through Sunday, January 1. We will re-open on Monday, January 2, at 8:00 a.m.

Happy Holidays!

Extended Library Hours for Finals

The Library will be OPEN ALL NIGHT

before each Exam Day Final Exams will be on December 8, 9, 12, 14, & 15

(Reading Days are December 7 and 13)

Wed. Dec. 7 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Thurs. Dec. 8 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Fri. Dec. 9 – Open ‘til 10 p.m.

Sat. Dec. 10 – Open ‘til Midnight

Sun. Dec. 11 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Mon. Dec. 12 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Tues. Dec. 13 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Wed. Dec. 14 – OPEN ALL NIGHT

Thurs. Dec. 15 - Open 'til 10 p.m.

Library services end at 2 a.m.

(after 2 a.m. no check-outs; no reserves;

no copier or printer support; no paying fines)

Many thanks to SGA & Campus Police

for making these extended hours possible!

Another Important Date:

ALL Interlibrary Loan Books are due back on

Monday, December 12th.

BSC Carol Service

'Tis the Season.... for the annual BSC carol service!

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the carol service and is being held at Canterbury UMC.

The BSC Concert Choir, Southern Chorale and Alumni choir all participate in the annual College service of lessons and carols, featuring a variety of choral works for the season ranging from the renaissance to the present day.

Of special interest this year will be the world premiere of a work by London-based composer Eric Whitacre, in honor of this anniversary service. Compositions by BSC composers will also be a prominent feature of this special event.

When?

Friday, December 2nd at 7:30

Sunday, December 4th at 4:30

Where?

Canterbury United Methodist Church

350 Overbrook Road, Mountain Brook

Come get into the Christmas spirit and listen to great music from BSC's students and alumni!

Thanksgiving Break Hours

Hello, all! The Library's Thanksgiving Break hours are scheduled as follows:

Mon., Nov. 21 - 8:00am to midnight

Tue., Nov. 22 - 8:00am to 10:00pm

Wed. - Sat., Nov. 23 - 26 the Library will be closed.

Sun., Nov. 27 - 2:00pm to midnight

Also, don't forget to come by the library circulation desk to decorate a feather for our turkey! Gobble Gobble Gobble! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break!

Spring Awakening

Hello, all! 'Southern's theatre department is premiering their latest production, the musical adaptation of Frank Wedekin's play Spring Awakening, Nov. 17-19 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 20th at 2:30 p.m.

The Tony award-winning musical Spring Awakening deals with the issue of what it is like to be a teenager in a society where young people are supposed to be seen and not heard, and the shocking events of what can happen when adults don't listen to their children. A powerful indie rock musical score helps tell the story and draw a parallel between 19th century Germany and modern-day America and illustrates beautifully the pain and passion of growing up.

*Please be advised that this production is intended for mature audiences and contains strong language and adult themes. Student tickets are $10; Adult tickets are $20.

Tickets are available now at: http://www.bsc.edu/events/index.cfm and BSC Box Office Monday through Friday from 1 to 4:45 p.m. For more information, please contact the College Theatre Box Office at 226-4780.

Provost Forum: Michael Flowers and "Spring Awakening"

PROVOST FORUM

Michael Flowers, Professor of Theatre Arts presents

Spring Awakening, the Musical: Exploring the Passion and Pain of Growing Up, Then and Now

Tuesday, November 15

Common Hour

College Theatre Mainstage

Not knowing much about the play, I searched for reviews of it in the Library database Proquest Newsstand and I found this from the December 11, 2006 New York Times review of the play.

". . . In exploring the tortured inner lives of a handful of adolescents in 19th-century Germany, this brave new musical, haunting and electrifying by turns, restores the mystery, the thrill and quite a bit of the terror to that shattering transformation that stirs in all our souls sometime around the age of 13, well before most of us have the intellectual apparatus in place to analyze its impact. ''Spring Awakening'' makes sex strange again, no mean feat in our mechanically prurient age, in which celebrity sex videos are traded on the Internet like baseball cards."

"Mr. Sater, who wrote the book [based on the play by Frank Wedeland] and lyrics, remains faithful to the play's awareness that the discovery of sex can carry in its heady wake both salvation and destruction, particularly when it is coupled with ignorance. Mr. Sheik's music, spare in its simple orchestrations, lush in the lapping reach of its seductive choruses, embodies the shadowy air of longing that infuses the show, the excitement shading into fear, the joy that comes with a chaser of despair."

Come hear Professor Flowers talk about the play's significance and how he worked with the BSC actors to make this vision come alive.

You'll never have a better chance.

Hundreds and hundreds of books for sale this Homecoming Weekend in the Library lobby.

Paperbacks 2 for $1.00

Hardbacks $1.00 each

Friday & Saturday, November 11 & 12
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Photography Exhibition Reception

BSC's Durbin Gallery, known by students and the Birmingham community for hosting a wide array of art exhibitions by locally and nationally recognized artists, will be proudly displaying this year's Photography Exhibition beginning November 4 and lasting through November 30. The reception begins on Friday at 6:00, and for those students in need of EEIS credit, this is a prime opportunity to snag one! The exhibition will be on display Monday through Friday from 8:30-4:45. For more information on this and future exhibits, please visit http://www.bsc.edu/academics/art/durbin.cfm.

Elisa Massimino and Human Rights

On Tuesday, November 1, Birmingham-Southern College will find itself in a very privileged position. Elisa Massimino, President and CEO of Human Rights First, will be presenting "Human Rights and Leadership". For those who don't know, Human Rights First is an international non-profit organization and is one of the nation's leading human rights advocacy groups. Massimino began working for the organization as a staff attorney in 1991, and in 2008, she was named President and CEO. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and is a national authority on human rights law and policy. Her presentation begins at 7PM in Norton's Bruno Great Hall.

For more information about Human Rights First, visit http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/

BSC Library expands e-book collections

The BSC Library is pleased to announce an expansion of our electronic book collection. We have offered e-books for several years, and have made two substantial additions recently. Our collections include:

EBSCO eBooks (formerly known as NetLibrary) - around 50,000 e-books, including many academic titles published within the last 15 years. A number of the more recent titles are listed in and accessible from the library catalog; all are accessible through EBSCO's newly developed eBooks database.

ebrary Academic Complete - a subscription database of approximately 70,000 academic e-books in a variety of subject areas, primarily from 2000 to the present. None of these books are listed in the library catalog; rather, they must be accessed through the ebrary database.

Springer eBooks - a collection of 700 English-language e-books in the areas of business & economics, biomedical & life sciences, and behavioral sciences, published in 2011. All of these titles are listed in and linked to from the library catalog (which is the best point of access for them).

We have also completed a library guide explaining the ins and outs of these three e-book collections (their search pages, software requirements, viewing options, and check-out conventions), plus a few others we have access to. The guide is available at http://libguides.bsc.edu/ebooks. We welcome your questions and comments, as well as suggestions for additional freely available e-book collections to include in the last section of the guide.

Steve Laughlin

Books that go Bump in the Night

It's the library's favorite time of year again. . . Halloween! Halloween has been closely linked to librarians as their favorite holiday for years, in case you didn't know.

So to start the season off right, here's a list of 10 great books to read before Halloween:

*Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, by Nicholas Rogers

*Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory McGuire

*Interview with the Vampire, by Anne Rice

*The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

*The Best of Poe: The Tale-Tell heart, The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado and 30 others

*A Stir of Echoes, by Richard Matheson

*The Exorcist, by William Peter Blattey

*Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley

*The Shining, by Stephen King

*Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Our very own librarian, Craig Stewart, says his favorite Halloween books are from the Goosebumps Series. . . scary. His other Halloween interests consist of the movies; Halloween-Town (1&2), It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Hocus Pocus.

BSC Library Fall Break Hours

Hello, All! The Library’s hours for fall break are as follows:

Wednesday, Oct. 12: 8:00am-10:00pm

Thursday, Oct. 13: 8:00am-10:00pm

Friday, Oct 14: 8:00am-5:00pm

Saturday, Oct 15: Closed

Sunday, Oct 16: 2:00pm-midnight (We will resume the usual schedule).

Happy fall break!

Love Me Tonight with Dr. David Resha

The BSC Library and Media & Film Studies Program are presenting "Whoever You Are, I Love You: Love Me Tonight and the Integrated Musical" on October 11 at 7 PM in the Library Auditorium. Note the change of location!

The evening will begin with a screening of the 1932 movie Love Me Tonight, starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald and directed by "one of the most talented, creative filmmakers of all time", Rouben Mamoulian. The film also features songs from the legendary Rodgers & Hart, such as "Isn't It Romantic", "Song of Paree", and "A Woman Needs Something Like That". After the film, Dr. David Resha, BSC Assistant Professor of Media and Film Studies, will discuss different aspects of it, specifically the stylistic innovations and the conventions of the integrated musical.

This event is free and open to the public, and complements the exhibit "A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965" which will be on display in the BSC Library through October 21.

Regular library hours for viewing exhibit: Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to midnight Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Sunday 2 p.m. to midnight For more information, call 226-4742 or visit www.bsc.edu.

Crimes of the Heart

Come support 'Southern's opening theater season with the exciting drama Crimes of the Heart! The award-winning show will be in BSC's College Theater/Theater One October 6-9.

Tickets are now on sale for the 4 performances:

Oct. 6th-8th at 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 9th at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online here. General public tickets are $15 and student tickets are $10. For more information, contact the Theater Box Office at 226-4780.

Crimes of the Heart is a 1981 Pulizter winner and has also been awarded the Drama Critics Circle Award. It takes place in Hazelhurst, Mississippi, 5 years after Hurricane Camille.

Welcome to the wild and wacky home of the McGrath sisters, one of whom has just shot her state senator husband, the other of whom has returned home after a failed singing career in California, and the oldest of whom is turning 30 and wonders if her "shrunken ovary" is going to keep her from ever finding a husband. Oh, and don't mention their mother who hung herself beside their family cat. Crazy? Yes. Funny? Yes. Warm and full of the things that make families the things that we can't live with and can't live without? Absolutely! According the Pulitzer Prize Committee citation, Crimes of the Heart is "a play rich with wisdom about the way people respond to life".

-From the BSC Events Webpage

Drive By Press: Print Collection

The Drive by Press print collection is on display at BSC for only a few more days! The collection will close on Thursday, September 29th. Come see Drive by Press: Print Collection before it's too late!

The collection is on display at the Durbin Gallery of the Doris Wainwright Kennedy Art Center. Open 9:00am - 4:30pm.

What exactly is Drive by Press?

Drive By Press is a New York based company which has devoted itself to redefine promotional apparel and to connect brands with their customer for the past 6 years. Gregory Nanney and Joseph Velasquez, two artists and print-makers, created Drive by Press to share their enthusiasm for printmaking with people everywhere. Nanney and Velasquez sold their personal belongings in order to buy a 600 pound 14th century style machine, which they loaded into the back of their vehicle. Dubbed the kings of DIY printmaking, the duo have now worked over 500 events and traveled over 250,000 miles spreading ink and their style of guerilla art-making at events across America.

Contemporary Printmaking lecture during common hour on Thursday as well, Kennedy lecture room 10. *And join Drive by Press in the afternoon for printmaking in the back of their truck!

Have Press. Will Travel.

Two Exciting Cultural Credit Events!

When are these exciting events? *This Tuesday, September 27th, in Norton Theater. Dr. Vince Gawronski, BSC's Associate Professor of Political Science, will be speaking for Hispanic Heritage Month during common hour (11AM). Dr. Gawronski will be speaking on "the Push-Pull Factors of Migration for Mexicans and Central Americans to Alabama."

and

*This Wednesday, September 28th, also in Norton Theater. Mr Mutazz Al-Abd, Fulbright Fellow and BSC instructor of Arabic will be speaking from 4-5PM. His presentation is titled "Behind the Scenes: Stories from Tahrir Square."

Come listen and learn from BSC's own while getting cultural credits!

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is just around the corner! For those of you who don't know what that means, libraries and bookstores across the nation will be promoting challenged and banned books to draw attention to censorship and to celebrate the freedom to read.

Books are challenged every year, most of the time with good intentions, but often the censorship is blatant and over-the-top. The three reasons most commonly cited for banning books are "sexually explicit", "offensive language", and "unsuited to age group". More than 11,000 books have been banned or challenged since 1982, and there were 348 challenges reported in the last year alone, including Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. So join us next week (September 24-October 1) as we celebrate the freedom to read!

For more information on Banned Book Week, please visit the American Library Association website at http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

Constitution Day -- September 16, 2011

The U.S. Constitution was ratified on September 17, 1787. Every year around Constitution Day educational institutions across the United States teach students about the important history of the U.S. Constitution. This year the Birmigham-Southern College Library encourages you to learn a little more about the document that makes our government so preferable to the alternatives that are out there. The Library has created a research guide highlighting interesting information about the Constitution.

Please take a look at our Research Guide for Constitution Day.

Jewish American Songwriters Exhibit and Presentations

The Charles Andrew Rush/N.E. Miles Library presents

“A Fine Romance:
Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965” An American Library Association touring exhibit

Songs such as “As Time Goes By,” “It Had to Be You,” and “Over the Rainbow” have captivated generations of audiences and remain beloved musical icons of American popular culture.

The Exhibit runs Sept. 15 through Oct. 21, 2011 at the Charles Andrew Rush/N.E. Miles Library at Birmingham-Southern College

Sept. 15 at 11 a.m.—Opening program in Hill Recital Hall: “Quite A Fine Romance: Jewish Musical Roots in Early Broadway” A lecture and performance connecting many Tin Pan Alley songs to their roots in Jewish musical tradition by BSC Professor of Music Lester Seigel and BSC student performers. Reception and viewing of exhibition following in Library.

Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.—Film-screening and presentation in Norton Theatre: “Whoever You Are, I Love You: ‘Love Me Tonight’ and the Integrated Musical.” Presented by Dr. David Resha, Assistant Professor of Media and Film Studies. The discussion will cover stylistic innovations in the film and the conventions of the integrated musical.

Programs and exhibit are free and open to the public

The Library Guide created for this exhibit has some fun film clips.

Regular Library Hours for viewing exhibit:
Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to Midnight
Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
Sunday 2:00 p.m. to Midnight

For more information, call 226-4742 or visit http://www.bsc.edu/communications/news/2011/20110830-songwriters.cfm.

“A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965” was developed by Nextbook Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Jewish literature, culture, and ideas, and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The national tour of the exhibit has been made possible by grants from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the Righteous Persons Foundation, the David Berg Foundation, and an anonymous donor, with additional support from “Tablet Magazine: A New Read on Jewish Life” and the Seymour Gitenstein Endowment in Judaic Studies at BSC.

Library Closed for Labor Day

The Library will be closed for the Labor Day Holiday

Saturday, Sept. 3rd - closed

Sunday, Sept. 4th - closed

Monday, Sept. 5th - closed

The Library's regular hours resume on Tuesday, Sept. 6th.

Monday -- Thursday, 8:00 a.m. - midnight

Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, 2:00 p.m. - midnight

In 1894 Congress passed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday.

Labor Day poster distributed to war plants and labor organizations, August 2, 1942, Office of War Information (OWI). From the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Welcome, BSC Students! Welcome, Fall Semester!

The crickets sang in the grasses. They sang the song of summer’s ending, a sad, monotonous song. "Summer is over and gone," they sang. "Over and gone, over and gone. Summer is dying, dying." The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year - the days when summer is changing into fall - the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.

Summer is coming to an end on the Hilltop - but a wonderful fall semester awaits. Those of us who work in the library look forward to seeing many new and returning students over the next few days. We invite our new students to participate in the Library / ARC / IT orientation sessions on Monday, August 29 at 12:30 and 1:30, and also to view the "Top 10 library questions" asked by new students at BSC.

To our returning students we can simply say: Welcome back! We've missed you! Please stop by and check out a book or two (perhaps even a copy of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, excerpted above).

See you soon!

~ your BSC library staff

August awaits!

At the end of the day on August 1, the final exams for Birmingham-Southern's 2011 summer session will be over, and the college will enter a calm, quiet period... at least, on the surface! During this time, while faculty and staff prepare for the wave of incoming students, the library will be open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. We will be closed on the weekends.

Have a warm, wonderful August!

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

The winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was announced last week. According to the contest website, entrants are challenged "to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels." The contest takes its name from the Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, famous for beginning his 1830 novel Paul Clifford with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night."

The winning entry, from Sue Fondrie of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, reads as follows:
Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

For runners-up and winners in specific categories, see http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2011.htm.

Student art in the BSC Library

Jenny Young was selected as this year's recipient of the Library Art Purchase Award. Her digital archival inkjet prints, "The Other Side of the Mirror" and "White Light" (pictured below) were acquired by the BSC Library in May. They are on display on the ground floor of the library.

The BSC Library Art Purchase Award is funded through our used book sales, which enable the library to purchase at least one outstanding piece of art from the Juried Student Art Exhibition each year. We congratulate Jenny and thank her for making the library a more interesting place with her art!

NetLibrary moving to EBSCO platform

BSC currently provides access to more than 50,000 e-books via NetLibrary. If you have used any of these books, you may be interested to learn that NetLibrary will be moving to a new platform later this week; it will soon look much like other EBSCO databases. Important: if you have a NetLibrary account, your existing preferences, notes, holds, etc. will not be transferred to the new site, so please save any of your account information somewhere safe at your earliest convenience. Additional information may be found here. You can preview the new platform here.

Dr. Andy Gannon's Provost's Forum podcast now available.

The BSC Library is pleased to present Dr. Andy Gannon’s Provost’s Forum “It’s a Hard Life: Giant Freshwater Prawns in Search of Calcium,” recorded March 3, 2011. This is an enjoyable presentation on the variations in the calcium levels in freshwater prawns as they molt. The study of calcium levels in prawns has relevance to calcium levels in human bones. Dr. Gannon also offers insight into the trials and tribulations of a long term scientific study. We hope you enjoy the presentation.

The video/iPod version is Here, and the audio version is Here.

Steve Laughlin

Library closed for 4th of July weekend

The BSC Library will be closed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (July 2, 3, and 4, 2011) for the 4th of July weekend. We will reopen on Tuesday, July 5, at 8 a.m.

Happy Independence Day!

Summertime in the BSC Library

The BSC library is open for business this summer!

During BSC's summer sessions (through the month of July), the library will be open the following hours:

Monday - Thursday 8:00 am - 10:00 pm
Friday 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Sunday 2:00 pm - 10:00 pm
We will be closed for the long 4th of July weekend (July 2-4).

Stop by anytime for an air-conditioned break... and while you're here, take a moment to check out a book. Our latest acquisitions include titles that are

thought-provoking (The Myth of American Religious Freedom by David Sehat ~ BR516 .S43 2011),

enigmatic (When I am playing with my cat, how do I know she is not playing with me? by Saul Frampton ~ PQ1643 .F73 2011), and

inspirational (Sitting in and speaking out : student movements in the American South, 1960-1970 by Jeffrey Turner ~ LA229 .T87 2010).

Or if you're feeling digital, tap into the library's new ebrary database - where you can access more than 50,000 academic books online. There's bound to be something for you!

Enjoy your summer...

BSC Library Work-Studies Needed!

The Library needs summer work-studies! BSC students who are interested please contact Eric Kennedy at the Circulation Desk (205-226-4740) or send an e-mail to libcirc@bsc.edu. Students must be able to work a regular schedule during the summer class session, June 8 – August 1. Duties include but are not limited to checking out and checking in library materials, re-shelving returned materials, maintaining library collections, running errands, etc. Students must meet all eligibility requirements set by the BSC Financial Aid Office in order to participate in the work-study program.

BSC Library announces digitized student publications

We are pleased to announce that Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) completed its 2010-2011 digitization project by recently digitizing and making available three of our student publications. The first phase of the project covered the student yearbooks of BSC. All of the publications are freely available online Here for students, alumni, and friends of the College to view.

This exciting project was made possible through the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative – a Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized program that has made digitization easy and affordable for libraries and cultural institutions across the country -- and through the support of several friends of the College. Reference Librarian Steve Laughlin coordinated the digitization effort from the BSC side, insuring the completeness and accuracy of the scanning project and providing metadata for online retrieval.

Local funding was provided by anonymous donors and through donations given in memory of Mr. Chad Jones, Jr., BSC Class of 1988. Mr. Jones served as Vice President of Marketing & Communications for the BSC Alumni Board for two years, and was President of the Atlanta Chapter of the BSC Alumni group. He was employed in the marketing and communications industry.

Through the Collaborative’s partnership with the Internet Archive, all items were scanned from cover- to-cover and in full color. Readers can choose from a variety of formats, page through a book choosing the “read online” option, download the PDF or search the full text version.

“Digitizing the yearbooks and other student publications is easily among the most important developments that we've had in years,” according to Dr. Guy Hubbs, College Archivist. “Digitization makes BSC’s heritage available to everyone and allows our alumni and friends to reestablish their connections, not only with each other but with the College. I would like to continue with additional digitization projects as funding becomes available.”

The most recently digitized titles are Southern Academic Review, the complete run from 1987 through 2010; Compass, the complete run from 1999 through 2010; and Quad, 1940 through 2010. The Southern Academic Review (SAR) is published annually by the students of Birmingham-Southern College, with funding from the Student Government Association. SAR seeks to publish material of scholarly interest to the students and faculty of BSC and the editorial scope encompasses all disciplines.

Also digitized is Compass: A Journal of Leadership and Service at Birmingham-Southern College, which fosters an academic discussion of leadership and its purpose in the world. Compass publishes academic papers submitted by BSC students, faculty, and alumni. The publication is funded by the Student Government Association and Ronne and Donald Hess.

Quad: The Literature and Arts Journal of Birmingham-Southern College, was founded in 1940. Quad is funded by the Student Government Association and publishes creative work from the college community. Our digitization project includes many of the issues from 1940 thru 2010.

The entire 2010-2011 digitization project (yearbooks and student publications) totaled almost 26,000 pages. If you have any questions about this project or would like to make a gift to support the digitization of Birmingham-Southern publications, please contact the BSC Library at 205.226.4749, or libref@bsc.edu.

Dr. Bill Myers's Provost's Forum available (finally!).

The BSC Library is pleased to present Dr. Bill Myers's presentation: "John Dewey: Ethics as Precarious and Stable; or, How I Got to China." The presentation was recorded at a BSC Provost's Forum on April 26, 2011. It is an interesting discussion on the noted philosopher John Dewey's writings on ethics and other philosophical beliefs.

The auido/iPod version is Here, and the video is Here.

We hope you enjoy the recordings.

Steve Laughlin

Dr. Jane Archer's Provost's Forum now available.

The BSC Library is pleased to present Dr. Jane Archer's Provost's Forum talk, "So much depends upon distance": The Phenomenology of Space and Time in the Novels of Virginia Woolf. Recorded on March 22, 2011, the presentation is based on research conducted by Dr. Archer during her sabbatical.

The audio/iPod file is Here, and the video is Here. They may take a few moments to download. We hope you enjoy the presentation.

Steve Laughlin

Extended Library Hours and Other Important Dates

The Library will be OPEN ALL NIGHT before each Exam Day.

Final Exams will be on May 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

Thurs. May 5 – OPEN ALL NIGHT
Fri. May 6 – Open ‘til 10 p.m.
Sat. May 7 – Open ‘til Midnight
Sun. May 8 – OPEN ALL NIGHT
Mon. May 9 – OPEN ALL NIGHT
Tues. May 10 – OPEN ALL NIGHT
Wed. May 11 – OPEN ALL NIGHT
Thurs. May 12 - Open 'til 10 p.m.

Library services will end at 2 a.m. (after 2 a.m. no check-outs; no reserves; no copier or printer support; no paying fines). Please note that the Library does not open until 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Many thanks to SGA & Campus Police for making these extended hours possible!

Other Important Dates:

ALL Interlibrary Loan Books are due back on Friday, May 6.

For Graduating Seniors Only: BSC books are due back on Monday, May 9, and all fines must be paid by noon on Thursday, May 12.

Good luck with final exams!

Podcast of Randy Law's Provost's Forum on Terrorism now available.

The BSC Library is happy to present Dr. Randy Law's Provost's Forum presentation "Popular Representations of Terrorism and Political Violence in Odessa, Ukraine, 1905-08," recorded on March 29, 2011. Dr. Law does a fine job reporting on both the scholarly and fun aspects of his stay in Odessa, Ukraine during his sabbatical. We hope you enjoy the recordings.

The audio/iPod version is Here, and the video is Here. They make a few moments to download.

Steve Laughlin

Podcast of Civil War Lecture now available

The BSC Library is proud to make available the podcast of Dr. George C. Rable's lecture "Was the Civil War a Holy War?" Dr. Rable is the Summersell Chair of Southern History at the University of Alabama. Winner the Lincoln Prize and the Jefferson Davis Award, he is the author of God's Almost Chosen People: A Religious History of the American Civil War, and several other works.

The lecture was recorded on April 12th, and was sponsored by the BSC Library and the BSC Department of History.

The audio/iPod file is Here, and the video file is Here. These may take a few moments to download. We hope you enjoy them.

Steve Laughlin

BSC Library closed for Easter

The Library will be closed from Friday, April 22, through Sunday, April 24 for the Easter holiday. We will reopen Monday morning at 8 am.

Happy Easter!

Entrepreneurship Thursday!

The inaugural Stump Lecture in Entrepreneurship will be delivered during Common Hour on Thursday 21 April 2011 by Jeff Taylor, founder of internet legend Monster.com. This lecture, which will take place in the Bruno Great Hall in the Norton Campus Center is free and open to the public.

Taylor, whose ventures include Monster.com as well as Tributes.com, Eons.com, as well as a weekly radio show on Sirius/XM will be speaking as a part of the Stump Programs in Entrepreneurship here at BSC.

This Common Hour event is also eligible for ICE credit so be sure to be in the Bruno Great Hall this Thursday!

A Weekend Opera Experience

This weekend, the Departments of Music, Theatre, and Dance are featuring a triad of one-act operas on the College Theatre mainstage. The Impresario, Comedy on the Bridge, and Gallantry will be playing Friday 15 April at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 17 April at 2:30 p.m.

These operas take on a twist in setting, both in terms of time and place so be prepared for a fun time. General public tickets cost $20 while student tickets are $10. Also, for added benefit, the opera performances are eligible for ICE credit.

"Was the Civil War a Holy War?" by Civil War historian Dr. George Rable

Just a reminder about this exciting upcoming speaker (and cultural credit) at 11:00 am on Tuesday, April 12. Renown Civil War historian Dr. George Rable will be presenting "Was the Civil War a Holy War?" in the Munger Auditorium. Tuesday is actually the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War so there's no better time to go learn more about it. For the discussion, Dr. Rable will be drawing on some of the themes from his recently published book entitled God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Rable's books have won great critical acclaim including the Lincoln Prize and the Jefferson Davis award. He is also Professor and Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama. For more information on this event, please contact Dr. Guy W. Hubbs at (205) 226-4752.

Triple the Common Hour Events, Triple the Fun

Tuesday 12 April 2011 provides a wide array of option for those perusing Common Hour events.

First, hosted in the Munger Auditorium, is the speech "Was the Civil War a Holy War?" from Civil War historian Dr. George Rable. On this most auspicious of dates, the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War, Dr, Rable will be discussing the implications of religious faith in terms of coming to terms with the conflict: a major topic of his latest book God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Dr. Rable's credentials are impressive. He is currently Professor and Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama and has won multiple awards for his books--most notably the Lincoln Prize and Jefferson Davis award.

Also taking place during the 12 April Common Hour is a presentation by Dr. Larry J. Davenport, Professor of Biology at Samford University. 2007 Alabama Professor of the Year, Dr. Davenport writes the column "Nature Journal" for the quarterly Alabama Heritage on which his presentation will focus. He has also been recognized by the Alabama State Legislature for his work to preserve the Cahaba Lily.

Finally, in the Harbert Auditorium, the Business department is hosting Julie McLaughlin to lead a presentation entitled "Competitive Strategies in the Food Industry". All these events are eligible for ICE credit so hustle on down to one of the three locations next Tuesday and grab yourself a credit!

Phi Beta Kappa lecture: Explorations down the Silk Road

This Thursday during Common Hour Dr. Ronald Mellor will present his lecture "East Meets West: Encounters Along The Ancient 'Silk Road'". Dr. Mellor, Phi Beta Kappa's guest speaker, is a Professor of History at UCLA and author of numerous books centering around ancient religion and Roman historiography. This talk is being offered as a cultural credit.

John Dewey: Ethics as Precarious and Stable

Anyone with a spark of intellectual curiosity should definitely come hear Dr. Bill Myers discuss his writings on the ethics of John Dewey in the Norton Theatre at 11:00 am on Tuesday, April 5th. Dewey's pragmatic methodology revolutionized ethical thinking, and Dr. Myers is one of the nation's leading Dewey scholars. This is a Provost's Forum event and it will count as a cultural credit.

BFA II Exhibition

April 1 marks the opening of the second Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition of the semester. The Opening Reception will take place from 6-8PM in the Durbin Gallery of the Kennedy Art Center, with a cultural credit offered to all students. Student works will be on display through April 14, with gallery hours from 8:30AM-4:45PM.



Perhaps a student getting an early start on his senior project . . .

The Painter's Studio

by Jacob van Oost, the Elder, ca. 1666

Popular Representations of Terrorism and Political Violence in Odessa, Ukraine, 1905-1908

Ever wonder about the history behind all these terrorist-related events we read about in the news these days? Dr. Randy Law, associate professor of history, will be presenting at the Provost's Forum this Tuesday, March 29, at 11:00 am in the Norton Theatre. This common hour event will count for CEIS credit. Dr. Law is the History Department Chair and published a book entitled Terrorism: a History in the summer of 2009. Dr. Law travelled to Ukraine to continue his studies of terrorism on a Fullbright Scholarship shortly after the book was published. You can find out more about his experiences in Ukraine on his wife, Hannah Wolfson's blog at http://theunlitsea.com/.

If I could only tell you one thing...Dr. Susan Hagen

The BSC Library is pleased to present Dr. Susan Hagen's talk "If I could only tell you one thing...Maybe I'm a medievalist because I did not want to be a missionary" recorded March 9, 2010. It is an insightful talk on Dr. Hagen's decisions which led her to a teaching career here at BSC.

The video is located here and the audio is located here. We hope you enjoy the presentation.

Steve Laughlin

Enzymes & Evolution

Common Hour on March 24 (Thursday) offers an opportunity to attend a presentation given by renowned molecular biologist Dr. Leo Pezzementi. This Provost's Forum will examine the evolution of two enzymes, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE), which have important physiological roles. Dr. Pezzementi will also discuss a possible transitional enzyme which has characteristics of both AChE and BuChE and will explore its importance in vertebrates. Biology students familiar with AChE and BuChE will perhaps learn something new, and students of other disciplines will hopefully find this presentation accessible and entertaining.

Examining Virginia Woolf

Literature buffs, take note!

Dr. Jane Archer, Professor of English here on the Hilltop will be presenting a Provost's Forum about the British Author Virginia Woolf entitled "So much depends upon distance: The Phenomenology of Space and Time in the Novels of Virginia Woolf".

The presentation will take place during Common Hour in Norton Theatre on Tuesday, March 22, and should be perfect for those in need of a cultural credit.

Spring Break Hours

Spring Break is here!

The BSC Library hours during the break will be:

March 12-13 (Saturday-Sunday)
CLOSED

March 14-18 (Monday-Friday)
8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

March 19 (Saturday)
CLOSED

March 20 (Sunday) 2 p.m. - midnight
(regular schedule resumes)

Have a happy and safe break.

Stories in Music from the BSC Symphonic Band

At 7:30pm on 10 March 2011 the BSC Symphonic Band will host Great Stories, Great Music, a performance of narrative pieces in Munger Auditorium. The performance, conducted by the BSC Symphonic Band's leader J. Lynn Thompson is free of admission and qualifies for a cultural credit.

The pieces, written and narrated by members of the BSC Symphonic Band, are meant to impart not only a wonderful musical experience but also one of gripping narrative. Definitely be sure to come out and enjoy Great Stories, Great Music.

A hard life for prawns.

This Thursday, our very own Dr. Andy Gannon, biologist extraordinaire, will present the findings of the research from his most recent sabbatical. His presentation, entitled "It's a Hard Life: Giant Freshwater Prawns in Search of Calcium", will explore the ways in which freshwater prawns (a type of crustacean closely related to shrimp) store calcium, the mechanisms by which they obtain it, and perhaps most important of all, why on Earth do they need it? This Provost's Forum will be presented in the Norton Theatre during Common Hour on Thursday the 3rd of March. The best part? It's another opportunity for CEIS credit!

What if the BSC library doesn't have what I need?

What if the BSC library doesn’t have what I need? Our Interlibrary Loan department will round it up for you!! Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a service that enables our library to borrow materials, usually books and articles, from other libraries throughout the world. Through this service, the Birmingham-Southern College Library provides access to materials to support faculty, staff and students in their study and research. ILL requests usually take 2-6 days to obtain the materials. Forms for interlibrary loan requests are located at the Circulation Desk. Electronic versions of the forms are also on the Library webpage under “Request Forms,” and may be submitted electronically.

E-book database trials

As a member of the Network of Alabama Academic Libraries (NAAL), the BSC Library currently has trials to a number of e-book collections. In March, a trial to Films on Demand will be available as well. Click on the title of a collection to try it out - and let us know what you think! These databases are accessible from the BSC Library's list of Indexes and Databases under Database Trials.

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Springer E-books (trial is available through February 24)

This trial provides access to over 20,000 recent English language books in the following fields:

Computer Science
Engineering
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Medicine
Mathematics and Statistics
Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
Physics and Astronomy
Business and Economics
Earth and Environmental Science
Chemistry and Materials Science
Professional and Applied Computing
Behavioral Science
Architecture and Design


The platform allows an unlimited number of simultaneous users, and unlimited printing, saving (html or pdf) and sharing (e.g., through Moodle or interlibrary loan). E-books are are transferable to mobile devices and personal e-book readers (such as Kindles or Nooks)

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Ebrary ebooks (trial access is good through March 6th)

The BSC library has access to Academic Complete, a growing e-book collection spanning all academic subject areas.

(Please access the Database Trials page for a username and password).

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American Psychological Association E-books (trial is available through March 23)

These collections, grouped by copyright year, comprise scholarly and professional books published by the American Psychological Association

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SAGE Reference Online (trial access until the end of March)

SAGE Reference Online offers authoritative, interdisciplinary content. The platform hosts more than 300 handbooks and encyclopedias across the social sciences.

Birmingham-Southern College Digitizes Yearbooks

We are pleased to announce that Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) has recently digitized and made available the complete 96 volumes of student yearbooks. The yearbooks are freely available online HERE for students, alumni, and friends of the College to view.

This exciting project was made possible through the LYRASIS Mass Digitization Collaborative – a Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized program that has made digitization easy and affordable for libraries and cultural institutions across the country -- and through the support of an anonymous friend of the College. Reference Librarian Steve Laughlin coordinated the digitization effort from the BSC side, insuring the completeness and accuracy of the scanning project and providing metadata for online retrieval.

Through the Collaborative’s partnership with the Internet Archive, all items were scanned from cover- to-cover and in full color. Readers can choose from a variety of formats, page through a book choosing the “read online” option, download the PDF or search the full text version.

“It’s fantastic to see the yearbooks online!” says library director Charlotte Ford. “The ability to search each yearbook for names is especially useful. We hope the entire BSC community will enjoy having access to these digital resources.”

Titles included are Southern Accent, La Revue, The Gold and Black, The Pegasus, and The Southron. Years covered include the 1907 edition of the Birmingham College yearbook, The Pegasus; the 1915 through 1918 Southern University yearbooks, The Southron; and Birmingham-Southern College yearbooks from 1919 through 2009.

A second set of BSC publications will be digitized by early spring; an announcement will be forthcoming. If you have any questions about this project or would like to make a gift to support the digitization project, please contact the BSC Library at 205.226.4749, or libref@bsc.edu.

SPRING TERM 2011

Spring Term is here...
Welcome back!

Regular hours for the library are:
Monday - Thursday 8:00am - midnight
Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday 2:00pm - midnight

Keeping Up With An Interim Travel Project

Interim Term at BSC provides students with a great opportunity to explore subjects and even worlds outside their usual BSC curriculum. Some students get very creative and design and contract their own projects.

Over the years there have been some projects that have captured the imagination of the BSC community as a whole. Some of you may remember the BSC BBQ Boys who traveled the South and did their own "ethnographic" study of BBQ and its relevance to Southern culture. The Boys kept everyone up to date with their blog. Since not every BSC student has an opportunity to travel with these projects during Interim, blogging is a way for the students to share their experiences and observations.

One interesting project that's taking place this Interim is one with Coty Lovelady and Johnny Eckerd who are studying Southern Craft Art. They are keeping a blog of their travels and experiences and say that "For the month of January, we will travel the South and visit its Craft Artists, documenting their work and process. We will post interviews, photos, and videos of these artists for your enjoyment. We're letting the project take us where it will, but ultimately hope to illuminate a larger overall idea of Craft Art's position and significance in society, as well as the sheer raw talent of those who have devoted their lives to their art."

To get more information and see more photos from their trip, visit

Coty and Johnny's Craft Adventure Travel Blog http://craftartadventure.tumblr.com/

Photo of art glass from the Penland School of Craft, Penland, North Carolina

Interim term strikes again!

Welcome back, everyone!

For those of you who are on campus, the library will be open the following hours during the interim term (January 3 - January 28):

Monday - Thursday: 8:00am - 10:00pm
Friday: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Saturday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday: 2:00pm - 10:00pm

The library will be closed on Monday, January 17, for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

We look forward to seeing you during the month of January. Have a great Interim!