New Displays

The library workers have been hard at work creating a display and a bulletin board using materials from the library's Government Documents collection. Thanks to Jane Switzer, Louise Lobo, and Jonathan Osborne for all their hard work.

If anyone is interested in materials from the Government Documents collection, please see a staff member for assistance.

Have a great day!

Government Document Depository

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone.

Lambuth University is a Government Documents Depository. LU receives approximately 27% of the documents available from the GPO (Government Printing Office). Lambuth became a Federal Depository for Government Documents in 1967. This is another excellent resource that the library provides for its students, faculty, and staff. Patrons can search government documents using the library catalog or go to the depository website by clicking on the link. The Depository web site is: http://www.lambuth.edu/academics/library/GovernmentDocuments.html. Electronic access to documents is available as well as a wide range of documents on paper. Please see a library staff member if you have any questions about the Government Documents collection.

What can you find in the Government Documents collection?

Some of the interesting things you can find in the collection:
-procedures used in the selection and seating of juries
-published papers of the U.S. Presidents
-2000 Census
-access to the U.S. Constitution
-links to statistical resources
-read the proceedings from what happened yesterday in the U.S. Congress
-government documents pertaining to the Iraq War and terrorism

"A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives."-James Madison

Word of the Day: insufferable (adj)-incapable of being endured; intolerable.

Answer to the previous trivia question: Malcolm X

Today's trivia Question: On this day in 1537, what monarch declared St. Valentine's Day an official holdiay?

Tribute to Langston Hughes

The answer to the last trivia question is: Langston Hughes

Hughes was a leader in the Harlem Renaissance. An activist and poet, Hughes was also a playwright, novelist, and newspaper columnist. His first piece of jazz poetry, When Sue Wears Red, was written while he was still in high school. Hughes attended Columbia University and managed to maintain a B average. He left Columbia and finished college at Lincoln University where he earned a B.A. The poet was award a Litt.D. in 1943 and a second honorary doctorate would be awarded to him in 1963 by Howard University.

Langston Hughes spent time during the early 1920s in Paris as a part of the black expatriate community. Hughes died on 22 May 1967 from complications after abdominal surgery related to prostate cancer. He was 65 years old.

His works include:
The Crisis (1921)
The Weary Blues (1926)
Not Without Laughter (1930)
Shakespeare in Harlem (1942)
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1958)
Short Stories of Langston Hughes (published posthumously in 1996)
Famous Negro Heroes of America (1954)
and
Mule Bone with Zora Neale Hurston (1931)

Word for the Day: arrant (adj)-notoriously without moderation

Trivia Question for the Day: Who said, "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."?

The Library Celebrates the Harlem Renaissance

Throughout the month of February, we celebrate Black History Month. On display in the library are the works of many of the creative minds of the Harlem Renaissance. In the early 1900s, particularly 1920-1945, the movement began to flourish in Harlem, a section of New York City. This African-American cultural movement, the Harlem Renaissance, also became known as "The New Negro Movement." More than a literary movement, the Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression.

The main factors contributing to the development of the Harlem Renaissance were African-American urban migration, trends toward experimentation throughout the country, and the rise of radical African-American intellectuals. Not only did the Harlem Renaissance transform African-American identity, but it also transformed American culture in general. Never before had so many Americans read the thoughts of African-Americans and embraced the African-American's community productions, expressions, and style.

The wealth of talent includes: writers, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes; painters, John T. Biggers, Romare Bearden, and Palmer Hayden; and entertainers, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Eubie Blake, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Jelly Roll Morton.

Although the Harlem Renaissance is widely known as a period of flourishing creativity, the Harlem Renaissance also helped lay the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. Many black artists coming into their own creatively after this movement would take inspiration from the Harlem Renaissance.

Come by the library and see the display on the Harlem Renaissance; the display contains books and films from the 1920s-1945. Thanks to Jane Switzer and all the student workers for their hard work in creating the display.

Trivia Question: What leader of the Harlem Renaissance asked, "what happens to a dream deferred?" and wondered "does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?" The answer to this trivia question will be on the next blog entry.

Answer to previous trivia question: Bill Gates was fourteen years old when he founded the company.

Word of the Day: restive (adjective) resisting control; unwilling to yield or adjust.

The Library is hosting a book talk/signing on Wednesday, February 7 at 12:15. Please come and spend some time with author and Lambuth alumni, Lisa Nuchell Spivey, as she discusses her book, Everything Her Heart Desires.