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#BigBendCCBookChallenge September 2020: Mattias : A Gentleman in Moscow

09/04/2020
profile-icon Rhonda Kitchens


FROM: Mattias Olshausen
BOOK:  A Gentleman in Moscow
AUTHOR: Amor Towles

Cover of a book called A Gentleman in Russia

 

This book is about a Russian count, Alexander Rostov, whom a
Bolshevik court sentenced to permanent house arrest in 1922.
The catch is that Rostov is living in an upscale hotel near the Kremlin. He spends the next 30 years of his life there, witnessing a great societal change from a unique vantage point.

A Gentleman in Moscow is an excellent read for the times we live in. It serves as a reminder to make the most of one's circumstances,
rather than to live in bitterness or regret. Perhaps the most central
theme, though, is the value of unexpected and unlikely friendships.
Rostov's open and accepting nature is the greatest asset in his
confinement, as it leads him to establish close relationships
with the hotel's employees, an inquisitive nine-year-old guest,
and even a Soviet commissar. I recommend this book to
anyone who needs a break from the news and wants to believe in the best in humanity.


 

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Black History Month

 

TO DO

Defending Diverse Voices: Four Best-Selling Authors Talk Banned Books

"Ms. Classroom wants to hear from educators and students being impacted by legislation attacking public education, higher education, gender, race and sexuality studies, activism and social justice in education, and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Cue: a new series from Ms., ‘Banned! Voices from the Classroom.’ Submit pitches and/or op-eds and reflections (between 500-800 words) to Ms. contributing editor Aviva Dove-Viebahn at adove-viebahn@msmagazine.com. Posts will be accepted on a rolling basis."

 

Book Bannings Targeting Black Authors and Perspectives Are Skyrocketing Books by Black authors are being disproportionately banned at an alarming rate.

"Black literature has long been a target of censorship efforts in America, with coordinated efforts spanning back to at least the Harlem Renaissance. However, the current mania infecting anti-Critical Race Theory adherents has created a new wave of book bannings targeting Black authors, characters, and perspectives.

“Black writers have been feared for precisely their ability to highlight the injustices of American society with clarity, lyricism, and urgency.” – ACLU Massachusetts

SIGN THE PETITION

 

Build or Support a Little Free(dom) Library 

THIS PHILADELPHIA NONPROFIT IS BRINGING ATTENTION TO BANNED BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS WITH LITTLE FREE(DOM) LIBRARY. From Blavity.

"The nonprofit Visit Philadelphia, “the region’s official leisure tourism marketing agency,” has joined forces with Little Free Library to bring locals and tourists to the Little Free(dom) Library to celebrate Black History Month. According to Penn America, Black authors have been at a disadvantage when it comes to reaching a wide range of readers since over 30 states have removed certain books penned by Black authors. To help keep Black history and storytellers alive, the Little Free(dom) Library has made these forbidden books available in 13 locations throughout Philadelphia until Feb. 28. In addition, 1,500 free books will be given away at one of the pop-up book stands."

 

Unite Against Book Bans organization.

Toolkit for action. 

 

ISSUE

Book Bans: An Act of Policy Violence Promoting Anti-Blackness By Dr. Phelton Moss / NAACP 

"What is more violent, as evidenced by the books they are banning, they choose to censor the teaching of the factually accurate history of Black people. These violent acts are rooted in an un-yielding legacy of racism, prejudice, oppression, and anti-blackness."

 

PEN America 

Research & Reports on book bannings. Page includes a TAKE ACTION button. 

PEN America tracks all book bans in libraries and classrooms across the U.S. in our Index of School Book Bans, updated for the 2022-2023 school year. What is PEN Ameica? "PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
 

How African-American Museums Are Navigating Book Bans

"According to Vedet Coleman-Robinson, executive director of the Association of African American Museums (AAAM), cultural institutions are stepping in to fill the gaps with uncensored and community-oriented programming."
 

10 Banned Black Books You Should Be Reading.Essence Magazine. 

More than 1,600 books were banned in 138 school districts across 32 states between 2021 and 2022, according to a report by PEN America. The vast majority of challenged and banned books feature BIPOC or LGBTQ+ characters, discuss gender, sexuality, and race in America, or are written by Black and POC authors.

 

A Database Every Day In May

 

The Library has doubled its digital holdings.  in May, we are going to share a Database A Day to share the wonderful new holdings!

How do you find these databases?  Go to the Library. Select Databases A-Z. Find them by subject or title. 

May 1: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection | EBSCO


"Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection is an essential full-text database for psychologists, counselors, researchers and students. It provides hundreds of full-text psychology journals, including many indexed in PsycINFO. It offers particularly strong coverage in child and adolescent psychology and counseling.
-Nearly 480 full-text journals
-More than 290 full-text journals with citations in PsycINFO 
-Anthropology
-Emotional and behavioral characteristics
-Mental processes
-Observational and experimental methods
-Psychiatry and psychology
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection provides access to hundreds of full-text journals and offers particularly strong coverage in child and adolescent psychology and various areas of counseling." - From EBSCO​

VIDEO:

 

May 2:  African American History Database

Covering more than 500 years of the African-American experience, African-American History offers a fresh way to explore the full spectrum of African-American history and culture. Includes articles, sharable slideshows, videos, primary sources, and more—that provides a study guide for a particular subject or era. -- From Infobase

Subjects covered include:

    • Abolitionist Movement
    • Underground Railroad
    • Emancipation Proclamation
    • Great Black Migrations
    • Harlem Renaissance
    • Civil Rights Act of 1964

 

Eras covered include:

    • Africa, Colonization, and the Slave Trade: Beginnings–1819
    • Compromise and Conflict over Slavery: 1820–1860
    • The Civil War and Reconstruction: 1861–1876
    • Segregation, Migration and the Beginnings of Protest: 1877–1928
    • The Great Depression and the New Deal: 1929–1940
    • World War II and the Start of Desegregation: 1941–1954
    • Civil Rights Protest and Progress: 1955–1971
    • Expansion of Opportunities: 1972–Present.

VIDEO:

 

May 3:  Gale in Context: World History

"Gale In Context: World History reaches back to the ancient world—and forward to today's headlines—to deliver a chronicle of the people, cultures, events, and societies that have formed the history of the human race. A range of topics such as Aztecs, Industrial Revolution, Silk Road, the Buddha, Space Race, and more provide a wide perspective across the globe. Rare primary sources, reliable reference, and multimedia content are aligned to curriculum and put this vast subject into context for students. World History is cross-searchable with Gale In Context: U.S. History for users with access to both resources."-From Publisher

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May 4:  Vocations and Careers | Gale One File

"OneFile: Vocations and Careers provides access to journals and magazines that aid users in researching a vocation, finding an appropriate institution of learning, job searching, and maintaining a career. The database offers hundreds of current and applicable periodicals, from general career guides to highly specialized industry journals."- From Publisher

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May 5:  Legal Collection | EBSCO

"Containing full text for hundreds of the most respected scholarly law journals, Legal Collection is a valuable database of information on current issues, studies, thoughts and trends of the legal world.

Legal Collection offers information centered on the discipline of law and legal topics including criminal justice, ethics, federal law, international law, labor and human resource law, medical law, organized crime and the environment." - From Publisher.

VIDEO:

 

May 6:  Health Source: Nursing Academic | EBSCO

"Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides researchers, allied health professionals, nurses and medical educators with access to full-text scholarly journals focusing on many medical disciplines. It provides indexing, abstracts and full-text for hundreds of nursing and allied health journals, many of which are peer-reviewed. "

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May 7: Gale Access - One Link to All Gale Databases

"It’s important that today’s researchers access complete, credible, and up-to-date content. From student favorites like Gale’s In Context suite to our flagship InfoTrac databases, we offer dozens of powerful research platforms to put vetted sources right at your users’ fingertips."

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May 8: EBSCO eBooks - Better than EVER!

"EBSCO eBooks are online versions of print books that your library has either purchased with a perpetual license or via an annual subscription. eBooks that are owned will be available to the library in perpetuity, with provisions being made for long term access and preservation. eBooks available via subscription are renewed annually for the library to retain access. EBSCO eBooks are available from all major academic publishers in virtually all academic disciplines."-From Publisher

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May 9: Diversity Studies "Culture in the Global Community" | Gale

"A must-have for social science, history and liberal arts coursework, the Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily.

Exclusive features, including Topic Finder,and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

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May 10:  Core Math & Science Skills | PrepStep | EBSCO

"A must-have for social science, history and liberal arts coursework, the Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily. Exclusive features, including Topic Finder,and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

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May 11: eHRAF (Human Resources Files) World Cultures

"eHRAF World Cultures contains ethnographic collections covering all aspects of cultural and social life. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords." - From Publisher

 

VIDEO:

 

 

 

May 12: American Indian History | Infobase

 

"Offers fast access to more than 15,000 years of culture and history, covering more than 600 Native American groups, through tablet/mobile-friendly videos and slideshows, images, biographies of key people, event and topic entries, primary sources, maps and graphs, and timelines. With a user-friendly interface, this award-winning database allows for an interactive, multifaceted look at the indigenous peoples of the Americas. An important feature is full cross-searchability across all the Infobase history databases for an even more comprehensive view of history." From Publisher

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May 13:  Articles First - Not Full Text - Use to Request Full-Text Articles
 

Use this to request articles you cannot find in full text. "The ArticleFirst® database describes items listed on the table of contents pages of individual issues of over 12,000 journals, describing one article, news story, letter, or other item from a journal." From Publisher.

VIDEO:

 

May 14: Biography in Context | Gale

 

"Gale In Context: Biography is an engaging experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people. Organized into a user-friendly portal experience, it merges Gale's authoritative reference content, including Lives & Perspectives, with periodicals and multimedia. Users can browse to find people based on occupation, role, or historical period, or search based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender, as well as by keyword and full text." -From Publisher

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May 15: Britannica Encyclopedia Academic

 

"Online Encyclopedia. Explore the fact-checked online encyclopedia from Encyclopaedia Britannica with hundreds of thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos, and images." From Publisher

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May 16: Computer Source | EBSCO

 

"Computer Source EBSCO is a full-text database covering computing, technology and engineering disciplines." From Publisher

 

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May 17: Environmental Issues & Policy | Gale
 

"Gale OneFile: Environmental Studies and Policy answers inquiries about environmental concerns with coverage journals and reference content from Delmar and diverse perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policymakers, and corporate interests." - From Publisher

 

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May 18: eHRAF Archeology| Yale

"eHRAF Archaeology focuses on in-depth descriptive documents of archaeological traditions from around the world. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords." From Publisher

 

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May 19: Points of View | EBSCO

"Containing resources that present multiple sides of an issue, this database provides rich content that can help students assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues and develop analytical thinking skills."--From Publisher

 

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May 20: Poetry and Short Story Reference Center | EBSCO

"Poetry & Short Story Reference Center is a rich full-text database of hundreds of thousands of classic and contemporary poems, plus thousands of short stories, biographies, essays, lesson plans and learning guides. It also includes high-quality videos and audio recordings from the Academy of American Poets and other sources."- From Publisher

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May 21: Legal Information Reference Center | EBSCO

 

"Legal Information Reference Center is an online database designed to assist the general public in legal matters of all kinds. It includes exclusive full text for many top consumer legal reference books, as well as thousands of legal forms." - From Publisher

 

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May 22: Google Scholar Set Up To Find BigBendCC Full Text

Our link in Databases A-Z sets you up for a full-text search. Look for BigBendCC Full Text in the right margin. "Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites."- From Publisher

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May 23: Biomedical Research | EBSCO

 

"Biomedical Research Database is designed for doctors, research scientists, students and clinical specialists, Biomedical Reference Collection: Basic Edition provides full-text, indexing and abstracts for top biomedical journals. It covers a range of subjects, including medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and pre-clinical sciences.:-from Publisher

 

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May 24: Business Insights : Global | Gale

"Overall, Business Insights: Global is a good resource for both undergraduate and graduate business-school students. The site offers plenty of unique features, such as the six-item comparison, and an impressive number of graphing and data-conversion options. Case studies add extra depth. Gale Business Insights: Global is recommended to libraries serving business-school students."-From Booklist

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May 25: Statistical Abstract | Proquest

 

"Published annually by the federal government since 1878, the Statistical Abstract of the United States is the best known statistical reference publication in the country, and perhaps the world. You’ll find it behind nearly every reference desk in U.S. libraries as the authoritative go-to source. Librarians value the Statistical Abstract as both an answer book and a guide to statistical sources. As a comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States, it is a snapshot of America and its people."-From Publisher

 

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May 26: General Science | EBSCO

 

"General Science EBSCO: This database provides full-text articles from a wide range of publications — from specialized to general interest periodicals — covering science-related questions, topics and subjects."- From Publisher

 

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May 27:  Gardening, Landscape, & Horticulture | Gale

 

"Gale OnFile: Gardening and Horticulture serves horticultural enthusiasts of all levels with more than 3.6 million articles from more than 100 journals, as well as more than 20 reference titles from Delmar, including Handbook of Flowers; Foliage and Creative Design; Computer Graphics for Landscape Architects; and more. Exclusive features, including Topic Finder, InterLink, and a mobile-optimized interface, support and enhance the search experience." - From Publisher

 

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May 28:  AGRICOLA

"Containing bibliographic records from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Library, AGRICOLA provides millions of citations relating to the field of agriculture. Citations are comprised of journal articles, book chapters, theses, patents, software, audiovisual materials and technical reports to support agricultural research." From Publisher. To find full text that's available in this extensive records, select Linked Full Text on the left.

 

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May 29:  Family Studies Abstracts | EBSCO

 

"With bibliographic records covering family dynamics topics, Family Studies Abstracts is an excellent source for family studies researchers. Scholars can access unique content and highly regarded works. Subjects include: Divorce , Family therapy. Marriage, and Family dynamics." - From Publisher. To find full text, use LINKED FULL TEXT to the left of search results.

 

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May 30:  Faculty Select | EBSCO Trial Until June 30, 2020

 

We only have a trial on this until June 30.! "EBSCO Faculty Select empowers academic libraries to directly support textbook affordability efforts. Through a single interface, faculty can search and access quality open textbooks, Open Educational Resources (OER), and request access to unrestricted library e-books from top academic publishers. By leveraging free open materials and low-cost library-licensed resources, faculty can transform their courses and reduce the cost burden for students. " By Publisher

 

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May 31:  New York Times 1980-Current | PROQUEST

 

"The New York Times (sometimes abbreviated as the NYT and NYTimes) is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership.[6][7][8] Founded in 1851, the paper has won 130 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper.[9][10] The Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S.[11] Nicknamed "The Gray Lady",[12] the Times has long been regarded within the industry as a national "newspaper of record".[13] The paper's motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print", appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page." From Wikipedia

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