The Patriot Spot

The Robert R. Muntz Library will feature the exhibit “The Great Bronze Age of China: An Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China” in the library’s reading room. The exhibit will run from July 7^th to August 8^th, 2008.

The exhibit is part of the traveling exhibit series provided by Humanities Texas, the Texas affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The exhibit provides an opportunity for the campus and the community to get a glimpse of the brilliant artistic achievements of the Chinese Bronze Age culture from its beginnings, around 2,000 B.C., to its final flowering in the second century B.C. The exhibit reveals the superb skills of ancient artists, and it enables us to learn about the religious, political, economic, and cultural aspects of a civilization which developed around the same time that Stonehenge in England was being built and that the principles of Judaism were being framed. With the upcoming Olympiad in Beijing, this exhibit is another way for us to learn more about China.

Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducts and supports public programs in history, literature, philosophy, and other humanities disciplines. Humanities Texas also supports various programs across the state such as lectures, oral history projects, teacher institutes, museum exhibitions, and documentary films. In addition, Texas Humanities circulates more than 5o exhibits, including the exhibit the library will be featuring.

The “Great Bronze Age of China” exhibit is free and open to the public. It can be viewed during library regular hours. For hours and information about the library, please visit our library website. For more information about the exhibit and other activities in the library, contact Angel Rivera, Outreach Librarian, at (903) 566-7165 or arivera@uttyler.edu.

As of 8:00pm Friday, June 27th, the Blackwell Synergy database will be closed down and over the weekend the content will be moved into the Wiley Interscience database.  During the move, the Wiley Interscience database will be unavailable.  Wiley Interscience should be back up by 8:00pm on Sunday, June 29th.  Most of the Blackwell Synergy content will be loaded by this time but there is some older content that will not be available right away but will be loaded in the next two weeks. A list of missing content will be available on Monday.

This move comes as a result of Blackwell Publishing, publisher of the Blackwell Synergy database being purchased by John Wiley & Sons, another publisher, some months back.  A brand new interface for the Wiley Interscience database will be rolled out some time in 2009.

Looking for IPA transcriptions and literal translations of songs and arias? The library is pleased to announce a new subscription to IPA Source.

With over 3,450 texts, IPA Source is the web’s largest library of International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions and literal translations of opera arias and art song texts.

IPA Source currently includes 2,924 Art Songs, 470 Opera Arias, 62 Latin Texts, 440 Composers, and 321 Poets. The database also includes MP3 recordings of various song and aria texts.

Doing some sociology, criminal justice, or other social science research? The library is pleased to announce a new subscription to SocIndex with Full Text:

With more than 1,918,000 records, SocIndex with Full Text offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. These include abortion, criminology & criminal justice, demography, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, political sociology, religion, rural & urban sociology, social development, social psychology, social structure, social work, socio-cultural anthropology, sociological history, sociological research, sociological theory, substance abuse & other addictions, violence and many others. It contains full text for 428 “core” coverage journals dating back to 1908, and 163 “priority” coverage journals. This database also includes full text for more than 735 books and monographs, and full text for 6,785 conference papers.

SocIndex with Full Text is found under the Find an Article (Databases) page and several of the Research/Subject guides including Sociology and Criminal Justice.

Starting today, the Library has launched a redesigned website. Please visit http://library.uttyler.edu to see the new design. Many of the services faculty and student are already familiar with are still here but be sure to visit the Research Guides at http://libguides.uttyler.edu/. We are using a product called LibGuides to implement our research guides. LibGuides allows for more interaction online as well as for a variety of new and exciting features to better help our students and academic community.

Faculty members can contact their Librarian Liasons (http://library.uttyler.edu/liaison_directory.html) if they have any questions or comments. They can also leave comments here on the blog for feedback.

We hope that you will visit the new website, and that it will become a destination that meets your research needs.

Here is a list of new additions to the Bestsellers Collection. Remember you can browse the bestsellers in the reading area of the library’s second floor.

Fiction titles:

• Christopher Bohjalian has published his 12th novel: Skeletons at the Feast. This time, he is writing about German refugees during World War II fleeing West as the Russian army advances on them. Marvin Minkler of The North Star Daily writes about this book, “Chris Bohjalian has written his finest novel to date, set against the brutal, waning days of World War Two in Eastern Germany….Skeletons at the Feast is Bohjalian’s masterpiece. The power of the narrative will stay with the reader long after it is put down. Inspired by an actual World War II diary the author read, it will stand as one of the best novels ever written about one of the most brutal periods in history.” The book’s call number is PS 3552 .O495 S58 2008.
• Dean R. Koontz is back with Odd Hours. The New York Times said of the book: “The nice young fry cook with the occult powers is Koontz’s most likable creation.” This book has the call number PS 3561 .O55 O3 2008.
• If you are in the mood for a love story, Jude Deveraux offers Secrets: A Novel. Cassandra Madden becomes the nanny for widower Jefferson Ames. Things become chaotic when shots ring out of Althea Fairmont’s house, the actress. What are the secrets keeping Cassandra and Jeff apart? Find out in this book with the call number PS 3554 .E9273 S43 2008. This is what Booklist had to say about the book: “Deveraux gives her fans a sweet love story filled with twists and turns as her heroine changes from victim to a woman in charge of her own destiny.”
• Maybe you feel like some short fiction. How about some short fiction with cops and criminals? Michael Connelly edits Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals and the Chase. This anthology features 19 new tales by various writers in settings from Hawaii to L.A. to the Civil War to the present day. Call number for this book is PS 648 .D4 M97 2008.
• If you want a global thriller, David Baldacci’s The Whole Truth may be what you seek. Nicolas Creel is the head of the Ares Corporation, the world’s biggest defense contractor. Dick Pender is the man in charge of managing Ares Corporation’s image. And that is just for openers. The book is listed under call number PS 3552 .A446 W48 2008.
• Jeffrey Archer pays homage to The Count of Montecristo in his new novel A Prisoner of Birth. Four high class friends decide to frame Danny Cartwright, a poor and illiterate fellow, for a murder he did not commit. Danny gets a 22 year sentence, but with some help he manages to escape to get his revenge. Time Magazine has praised Archer as “a master entertainer.” Find this book under call number PR 6051 .R285 P66 2008.
• Jodi Picault brings us Change of Heart: A Novel. When a convicted murderer wishes to donate his heart, it creates complications for the execution. Add to this that the person needing the organ donation is the sister of the victim he killed eleven years ago. Call number for this book is PS 3566 .I372 C47 2008.

Nonfiction Titles:

• Renowned author Kenneth C. Davis takes us on a new tour of American history in America’s Hidden History: untold tales of the first pilgrims, fighting women, and forgotten founders who shaped a nation. Did you know the story of the first real Pilgrims in America, who were wine-making French Huguenots, not dour English Separatists? Read about it here. Find Davis’s book under call number E 178 .D26 2008.
• Learn about one of the most famous movie companies of all time in The Pixar Touch: the making of a company by David A. Price. This is the company behind such hits as Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Even Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of Pixar, praises this book when he says, “It’s quite a story, and David Price has finally got it right, it’s details and the players. This is the definitive history of Pixar.” Find it under call number NC 1766 .U52 P75 2008.
• Bestselling science writer Mary Roach looks at the science behind sex in Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Roach, author of books like Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers has been called “the funniest science writer in the country” by Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker. Find Bonk under call number QP 251 .R568 2008.
• Arthur Herman writes about two of the greatest men of the 20th century and their rivalry, a rivalry that led to the end of an Empire and the birth of two new nations. Read all about it in Gandhi & Churchill : the epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the rivalry between Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi could hardly have been played for higher stakes. The future of British India hung upon the outcome of their 20-year struggle…. As one might expect from the author of To Rule the Waves, a fine history … Mr. Herman has researched Gandhi & Churchill meticulously and written it fluently.” Find this book under call number DA 47.9 .I4 H47 2008.
• Cokie Roberts, political commentator for ABC News, brings us the stories of American influential women in her new book Ladies of liberty : the women who shaped our nation. Find this book under call number E 176 .R65 2008.
• If you are a music fan, or you just want to read a biography, former Texas Monthly writer Joe Nick Patoski looks at the life of an American icon in Willie Nelson : an epic life. Library Journal’s review states that “Patoski infuses his biography of Willie Nelson with an encyclopedic knowledge of Texas history that deftly illuminates the depth of influence the land and people of Texas had in shaping Nelson.” This book’s call number is ML 420 .N4 P38 2008.
• Learn about the highest court in the land in The nine : inside the secret world of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin. The book surveys the court from the Reagan Presidency forward. Find it under call number KF 8748 .T66 2007.
• Finally, if you want a real life crime case that reads like a fictional thriller, then you may want to read Twisted triangle : a famous crime writer, a lesbian love affair, and the FBI husband’s violent revenge by Caitlin Rother. The book tells “the compelling true story of Margo Bennett, a married FBI agent whose jealous, vengeful husband, Gene Bennett, a former undercover FBI agent, kidnapped and attempted to murder her after she had a secret love affair with best-selling crime novelist Patricia Cornwell.” Pulitzer-winning journalist Marcus Stern praises it as follows: “Hitchcock wishes he’d dreamed it up. Capote wishes he’d written it.” Find this thriller under the call number HV 6250 .W65 R68 2008.

On Tuesday, April 29, 2008, the UT Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library held its Annual Student Poetry Awards. This was the library’s capstone even for National Poetry Month. The event took place at Braithwaite Auditorium. The keynote was delivered by the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate Mr. Larry D. Thomas. Following a reception and book signing, the event drew students and members of the community for a night of poetry and performance. We had 34 entries this year in the contest. The winners of the contest this year were:

1. Jesse Florendo for “Japan Sketch #1.”
2. Conor Herterich for “”Epitaph.”
3. Paige Hayter for “Ode to the Gardenia.”
4. Carly Thompson for “The Need for a Story.”

• And honorable mention to Jesse Florendo for “Frankenstein’s Creature Finds Solace.”

Local poet and friend of the library Anne McCrady (link to her blog here) was one of the judges for the contest. She also gave the introduction for Larry Thomas during the event. McCrady described Mr. Thomas as an inspiration to her and other poets. She also added that Mr. Thomas’s poetry comes from the heart of a visual artist. In addition, McCrady observed that Mr. Thomas sees the job of poet laureate as a gift to the people of Texas.

After the introduction, Mr. Thomas went right on with the poetry. He talked about himself, his writing, and then delighted the audience with selections of his poetry. Mr. Thomas took the audience on a tour of Texas from West to East with poems like “Wind,” “Neches River,” “Out of the blue,” and “Apricots.” After the reading, Mr. Thomas took questions and comments from the audience.

Next came the award ceremony. As part of the ceremony, the winners were asked to read their pieces. They delighted the audience with their craft and diversity of themes and images in their verse. Winners received a trophy and a signed copy of Mr. Thomas’s new book.

The library would like to take this opportunity to thank The Friends of the Arts and the members of the Texas Poetry Society for their generosity in making this event possible. Our thanks as well to Joseph’s for providing the hors d’ouevres. In addition, I took some photos of the event, which interested readers can see over in my Flickr page here.

The following books have been added to the Bestsellers Collection. Remember that you can come by and find some recreational reading in our Bestsellers Collection. The collection is located in the second floor in the reading area of the library.

If you are in the mood for some nonfiction:

• Steven Coll looks at a family with a story that in many ways is very similar to many American stories of immigrants and success in his book The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century. Mohamed Bin Laden is revered in Saudi Arabia as a great entrepreneur, a man who went from being a humble bricklayer to founder of his own company. In the West, he is better known as the father of Osama bin Laden. This is the story of the Bin Laden family and their fortunes. Call number for this book is CS 1129 .B552 2008.
• Daoud Hari, called David by his friends, is a translator who takes journalists into the dangerous zones in Darfur. Given that Sudan has outlawed journalists in Darfur, he constantly risks his life along with the journalists who travel there to report on the genocides. And then he was captured. Read his memoir The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur. The call number is DT 159.6 .D27 H38.
• The time period between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s was the golden time for comic books, which were the most popular form of entertainment at the time. Unfortunately, comics attracted the attention of certain guardians of order and decency such as church groups and McCarthyist politicians. One of the companies that suffered from the crackdowns was EC Comics, owned by Bill Gaines. However, Gaine’s legacy lives in places like Mad magazine. In many ways, the censorship battles with comic books foreshadowed later battles with rock and roll music. Read about the great comic book scare in David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. Amazon reviewer Anne Bartholomew says, “The rise of comics as a mode of expression, an outlet for entertainment, and, rather tragi-comically, as a target for censorship, couldn’t be more compelling in anyone else’s hands. In deft narrative strokes Hajdu creates a colorful, character-driven story of our first real–and lasting–counterculture (if the burgeoning popularity of graphic novels is any indication) and shows why we embrace it still.” You can find Hajdu’s book under call number PN 6725 .H33 2008.
• Kurt Vonnegut, who recently passed away in 2007, is considered to be one of America’s greatest writers. Many have probably read Slaughterhouse-Five. Now we get a new collection of previously unpublished writings on war and peace by this great author in Armageddon in Retrospect. The book features 12 pieces in fiction and nonfiction, including Kurt Vonnegut’s last speech. His son, Mark Vonnegut, provides an introduction. Find this book under call number PS 3572 .O5 A6.
• Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to lead a Muslim state. She was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996. In her quest for democracy, she returned to her native land in 2007. She was assassinated soon after. Madeleine Albright says of this book, “it is impossible to understand today’s world without knowing Pakistan; and impossible to understand Pakistan without reading this book. A courageous woman—tragically killed—speaks to us of reconciliation. We owe it to her—and to ourselves—to listen, comprehend, and act.” The book is Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and The West. Get it under call number DS 389.22 .B48 A3.
• The Kennedy assassination has been the subject of many books and conspiracies as well as conspiracy theories. However, here is one more conspiracy. Abraham Bolden was the first African American on the White House Secret Service detail. When he discovers that certain officials were withholding information from the Warren Commission and denounces it, he finds himself charged with conspiracy to sell government secrets and sentenced to prison. It becomes clear from narrative there was a conspiracy to silence him. Though it can read like a movie thriller, it is a real story. The book is The Echo From Dealey Plaza, and its call number is E 842.9 .B59 2008.

If you feel like reading some fiction, we have some new titles for you as well:

• Jennifer Weiner brings forth the sequel to her successful first novel Good in Bed (2001). The book is called Certain Girls, and it revisits Weiner’s character, the feisty Candace Cannie Shapiro. The story takes place 13 years later. Candace had written a steamy and sexual novel that was a success; the novel was a fictionalized account of Candace’s own life. Fast forward those 13 years. Candace now has a daughter, and she has been out of the spotlight for a while, writing science fiction under a pseudonym. All seems at peace until her daughter, now a teen getting ready for her bat mitzvah, finds the old novel and questions come to the surface. Certain Girls can be found under call number PS 3573 .E3935 C47.
• Mary Higgins Clark returns once again with another tale of suspense in Where Are You Now?, a tale that may seem reminiscent of many recent cases of missing college students. Charles MacKenzie, a senior at Columbia University, went missing ten years ago. He just walked out of his apartment without saying a word to anyone and vanished. What happened? The only hint is the fact that he does make one phone call every year: on Mother’s Day. All he says is that he is ok and then hangs up before his mother can ask any questions. When his sister decides to track him down no matter the cost, danger surfaces. Find this thriller under call number PS 3553 .L287 W53.
• Finally for now, we get a legal thriller. Linda Fairstein brings back Alex Cooper in her new novel Killer Heat. Cooper is working on trying a rapist that got off the hook ten years ago after a hung jury while trying to track down a serial killer. Library Journal praises this new book as “a scorcher of a crime novel —her hottest yet.” Find it under call number PS 3556 .A3654 K54.

Do you just need to come into the library and print a paper or other document?

We have now two small laptops set up behind the reference desk for express printing. Here are the details:

• Use these laptops for quick printing.
• Please limit your use for 10 minutes if other people are waiting.
• You need to log into Patriot AIR to use them. Click on the Internet Explorer Log-on icon, the follow the directions. It’s the same log-in you use for your PATRIOTS account. This is the same account you use for your campus e-mail and to log-in to the computers in the library or the computer lab.
• If you have not logged into PATRIOTS before, and your password expired, you need to go back to the Academic Computing Center (ACC) in the Business Building to have the password reset.
• Additional note: If you typed your paper on one of the library’s computers, keep in mind the library’s computers are equipped with the new MS Office 2007. If your computer at home does not have MS 2007, you may not be able to open a document. We recommend if you type here in the library, save your work as 97-2003 document to assure it is compatible. You can access this option when you click “Save As” to save your documents. In the long term, Microsoft does offer a compatibility pack. You may want to consider downloading it to your computer if you are using MS 2003 or older. Here is the link for the download. Do read all directions before downloading. We are providing the link for information purposes.

The University of Texas at Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library will extend its hours for five days during Spring Finals Week. This is to accomodate students preparing for finals. The details are:

• THE LIBRARY WILL REMAIN OPEN UNTIL 2:00AM SUNDAY MAY 4, 2008 THROUGH THURSDAY MAY 8, 2008.
• Only UT Tyler students with current student ID’s will be admitted during the extended hours. Security will check IDs as students enter. Please note that after midnight, those without proper IDs or not affiliated with the university will not be able to remain in the library.
• Students must bring correct change for copiers and vending machines. Note that change WILL NOT be made during the hours of midnight to 2:00am.
• Payment of fines WILL NOT be accepted during the extended hours.
• According to Jeanne Pyle, director of the library, “Starting at 10:00pm, the entire library will be designated a ‘quiet’ zone as we’ve done in past years. However, room 401 will be available for groups wishing to study without disrupting individuals studying. Even then, we hope that noise will be kept to a minimum in room 401.”
• FREE COFFEE. Yes, once again, we will provide free coffee, compliments of the library. Please note: FOOD WILL NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE BUILDING. However, covered drinks may be brought in.