Hutchins Library News Blog

This week is National Library Week, a week where we celebrate libraries, the professionals who work in libraries, and the valuable role of libraries in society. This week, and always, is a good time to read a book or two, especially if you got it from a library. You can also encourage others to get a library card. For our campus community, in addition to having access to Hutchins Library and its resources, you can also get a library card with Madison County Public Library. Just make your way down to the Berea branch, show your Berea ID, and you can get a public library card.

To help celebrate this week, I have put together a small list of books that feature in some way libraries and librarians. These books are available in our collections. If you need assistance, you can always stop by the Reference Desk. Books are listed in no particular order.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Call Number: Stacks 027.479 O714L 2018

ISBN: 9781476740188

Publication Date: 2018-10-16

On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was 'Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous: it reached 2000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library--and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present--from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as "The Human Encyclopedia" who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves. Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean's thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books--and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist's reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever.

 

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; Lucia Graves (Translator)

Call Number: Stacks 863.64 Z17sxg

ISBN: 9781594200106

Publication Date: 2004-04-12

"I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time..." Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

 

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco; William Weaver (Translator); Richard Dixon (Translator)

Call Number: Stacks 853 E19nxw

ISBN: 9780151446476

Publication Date: 1983-06-09

 Italy, 1347. While Brother William of Baskerville is investigating accusations of heresy at a wealthy abbey, his inquiries are disrupted by a series of bizarre deaths. Turning his practiced detective skills to finding the killer, he relies on logic (Aristotle), theology (Thomas Aquinas), empirical insights (Roger Bacon), and his own wry humor and ferocious curiosity. With the aid of his young apprentice, William scours the abbey, from its stables to the labyrinthine library, piecing together evidence, and deciphering cryptic symbols and coded manuscripts to uncover the truth about this place where "the most interesting things happen at night." First published in 1980, The Name of the Rose became an international sensation, beguiling readers around the world with its mix of history, humor, and intellectual heft.

 

Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (Preface by); Andrew Hurley (Translator)

Call Number: Stacks 863 B732cf

ISBN: 9780670849703

Publication Date: 1998-09-01

Jorge Luis Borges has been called the greatest Spanish-language writer of our century. Now for the first time in English, all of Borges' dazzling fictions are gathered into a single volume, brilliantly translated by Andrew Hurley. From his 1935 debut with "The Universal History of Iniquity," through his immensely influential collections Ficciones and The Aleph, these enigmatic, elaborate, imaginative inventions display Borges' talent for turning fiction on its head by playing with form and genre and toying with language. Together these incomparable works comprise the perfect one-volume compendium all those who have long loved Borges, and a superb introduction to the master's work for those who have yet to discover this singular genius. Come for "The Library of Babel" and stay for the rest of his stories.

 

BiblioTech by John Palfrey

Call Number: Stacks 020.285 P159b 2015

ISBN: 9780465042999

Publication Date: 2015-05-05

Libraries today are more important than ever. More than just book repositories, libraries can become bulwarks against some of the most crucial challenges of our age: unequal access to education, jobs, and information. In BiblioTech, educator and technology expert John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible -- by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online. Not all of these changes will be easy for libraries to implement. But as Palfrey boldly argues, these modifications are vital if we hope to save libraries and, through them, the American democratic ideal.

 

Library by Matthew Battles

Call Number: Stacks 027.009 B336L 2015

ISBN: 9780393351453

Publication Date: 2015-07-27

Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarian and Harvard metaLAB visionary Matthew Battles takes us from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries and on to the Information Age, to explore how libraries are built and how they are destroyed: from the scroll burnings in ancient China to the burning of libraries in Europe and Bosnia to the latest revolutionary upheavals of the digital age. A new afterword elucidates how knowledge is preserved amid the creative destruction of twenty-first-century technology.

 

Where Are All the Librarians of Color? by Rebecca Hankins (Editor); Miguel Juarez (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 027.709 W567 2015

ISBN: 9781936117833

Publication Date: 2016-01-20

This book offers a comprehensive look at the experiences of people of color after the recruitment is over, the diversity box is checked, and the statistics are reported. What are the retention, job satisfaction, and tenure experiences of librarians of color? The authors look at the history of librarians of color in academia, review of the literature, obstacles, roles, leadership, and the tenure process for those that endure. What are the recruitment and retention methods employed to create a diverse workforce, successes and failures? Finally what are some mentoring strategies that work to make the library environment less exploitative and toxic for librarians of color?

 

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

Call Number: Stacks 027 M277L 2006

ISBN: 9780300139143

Publication Date: 2008-04-29

Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. “Libraries,” he says, “have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been seduced by their labyrinthine logic.” In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the meaning of libraries.   Manguel, a guide of irrepressible enthusiasm, conducts a unique library tour that extends from his childhood bookshelves to the “complete” libraries of the Internet, from Ancient Egypt and Greece to the Arab world, from China and Rome to Google. He ponders the doomed library of Alexandria as well as the personal libraries of Charles Dickens, Jorge Luis Borges, and others. He recounts stories of people who have struggled against tyranny to preserve freedom of thought—the Polish librarian who smuggled books to safety as the Nazis began their destruction of Jewish libraries; the Afghani bookseller who kept his store open through decades of unrest. Oral “memory libraries” kept alive by prisoners, libraries of banned books, the imaginary library of Count Dracula, the library of books never written—Manguel illuminates the mysteries of libraries as no other writer could. With scores of wonderful images throughout, The Library at Night is a fascinating voyage through Manguel’s mind, memory, and vast knowledge of books and civilizations.

 

You Could Look It Up by Jack Lynch

Call Number: Stacks 028.709 L987y 2016

ISBN: 9780802777522

Publication Date: 2016-04-21

"Knowledge is of two kinds," said Samuel Johnson in 1775. "We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." Today we think of Wikipedia as the source of all information, the ultimate reference. Yet it is just the latest in a long line of aggregated knowledge--reference works that have shaped the way we've seen the world for centuries. You Could Look It Up chronicles the captivating stories behind these great works and their contents, and the way they have influenced each other. From The Code of Hammurabi, the earliest known compendium of laws in ancient Babylon almost two millennia before Christ to Pliny's Natural History; from the 11th-century Domesday Book recording land holdings in England to Abraham Ortelius's first atlas of the world; from Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language to The Whole Earth Catalog to Google, Jack Lynch illuminates the human stories and accomplishment behind each, as well as its enduring impact on civilization. In the process, he offers new insight into the value of knowledge.

 

Down Cut Shin Creek: the pack horse librarians of Kentucky by Kathi Appelt; Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer

Call Number: Stacks 027.076 A646d

ISBN: 9780060291358

Publication Date: 2001-04-24

It's 4:30 in the morning, and the "book woman" and her horse are already on their way. Hers is an important job, for the folks along her treacherous route are eager for the tattered books and magazines she carries in her saddlebags. During the Great Depression, thousands lived on the brink of starvation. Many perished. In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration under his 1933 New Deal initiative. The WPA was designed to get people back on their feet. One of its most innovative programs was the Pack Horse Library Project of Eastern Kentucky. Thoroughly researched and illustrated with period photographs, this is the story of one of the WPA's greatest successes. People all over the country supported the project's goals. But it was the librarians themselves -- young, determined, and earning just $28 a month -- who brought the hope of a wider world to people in the crooks and hollows of Kentucky's Cumberland Mountains.

 

The Library by Andrew Pettegree; Arthur der Weduwen

Call Number: Stacks 027.009 P499L 2021

ISBN: 9781541600775

Publication Date: 2021-11-09

Perfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age.   Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children's drawings--the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world's great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes--and remakes--the institution anew.    Beautifully written and deeply researched, The Library is essential reading for booklovers, collectors, and anyone who has ever gotten blissfully lost in the stacks. 

 

Reading Rooms by Susan A. Toth

Call Number: Stacks 820.803 R287

ISBN: 9780385412919

Publication Date: 1991-03-01

America's foremost writers celebrate our public libraries with stories, memoirs, essays, and poems.

 

 

 

 

Once again, the HOP (Hispanic Outreach Project), out of CELTS (Center for Excellence in Learning Through Service), brings us the beautiful and traditional display for Dia de los Muertos. The display can be viewed during regular library hours, and it will be open through the first week of November 2024. It is free and open to the public.

HOP provided the following statement and description of this tradition:

Dia de los Muertos

October 31st-November 2

Dia de los Muertos brings families together to remember, honor, and celebrate deceased loved ones. This day is celebrated in many Latin American countries. Dia de los Muertos is NOT the equivalent of Halloween.

Families build altars to honor their ancestors. These altars are filled with pan de muerto (bread for th dead), favorite foods of the loved ones, beverages (including alcohol), sugar skulls, incense (aromatic tree resin that is burned to produce incense), toys, and candles.

The flower associated with Dia de los Muertos is the marigold (Cempasuchil). Paths are made with marigold petals to guide the souls to the altar.

October 31st: The souls of children (angelitos).

November 1: The souls of adults.

November 2: The souls depart.

If you need reference and research assistance, you have some options:

• You can visit the Reference Desk during the library's regular hours.
• You can contact us via phone at 859-985-3109.
• Via email at reference@berea.edu
• You can use our online virtual chat. The widget is available on the library website.

If you need in-depth reference and research assistance, you can schedule an appointment with one of the professional librarians. You can use the "Schedule an Appointment" link on the library website.

To schedule the appointment, use the form under "Schedule an Appointment."

• On the form, you can choose a specific librarian, or you can just schedule with any librarian based on availability.
• The request form will ask for your name, your e-mail address, and for you to describe your question and/or assignment. The more information about your question and/or research need you provide, the better the librarian will be able to prepare for the appointment.
• Once you confirm the appointment,  you get a confirmation e-mail, and the librarian gets a prompt for their calendar.
• Usually you can do appointments virtually via MS Teams or in person. Do check this availability as not all librarians offer both options.
• An appointment typically lasts about 30 minutes, but can go up to an hour depending on student need and topic complexity. 
• You can schedule multiple appointments if needed. In fact, for upper level classes, multiple meetings with a reference librarian are common.

When preparing for an appointment, the librarian will put together various materials to help the student. These can include reference books, other books, and articles popular and academic. We strive to teach students how to do research and empower them to answer their question. We also work to provide them with materials to get them started, so they can walk out of the appointment with some materials in hand. Librarians are also able to help with things like finding statistics, using government documents, and accessing other materials. We can also help you narrow down a topic and come up with research strategies to help you with the research process.

The one thing the librarians cannot do is read your paper, proofread it, or anything related to the writing process. If you need help with your writing we will suggest that you visit Writing Resources (link to their website, which includes their calendar) and schedule an appointment with them.

By the way, faculty and staff can also schedule research consults if they need help finding and accessing the resources the library offers.

September 15 to October 15 is National Heritage Hispanic Month in the United States. The month is a celebration of the efforts, achievements, and contributions of Hispanic Americans. The time period is significant as it coincides with the independence day celebrations of many Latin American countries.

To help celebrate, here is a selection of books by Hispanic American writers available at Hutchins Library. Links go to the library catalog record. If you wish to find more materials please feel free to visit the library reference desk or use the chat widget on the library website (available during library regular hours).

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Call Number: Young Adult S211i 2017

ISBN: 9781524700485

Publication Date: 2017-10-17

A "stunning" (America Ferrera) YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.  Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.   But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role.   Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.   But it's not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister's story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

 

 

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Call Number: Young Adult M843go 2020

ISBN: 9780525620778

Publication Date: 2020-02-18

The Mayan god of death sends a young woman on a harrowing, life-changing journey in this dark, one-of-a-kind fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.  The Jazz Age is in full swing, but Casiopea Tun is too busy cleaning the floors of her wealthy grandfather's house to listen to any fast tunes. Nevertheless, she dreams of a life far from her dusty small town in southern Mexico. A life she can call her own.  Yet this new life seems as distant as the stars, until the day she finds a curious wooden box in her grandfather's room. She opens it--and accidentally frees the spirit of the Mayan god of death, who requests her help in recovering his throne from his treacherous brother. Failure will mean Casiopea's demise, but success could make her dreams come true. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City--and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld.

 

 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Call Number: Young Adult M843me 2021

ISBN: 9780525620808

Publication Date: 2021-06-15

 An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes "a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror" (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find--her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.      Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom.   Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.    And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

 

 

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Call Number: Fiction R995e

ISBN: 9780439120418

Publication Date: 2000-10-01

Esperanza thought she'd always live a privileged life on her family's ranch in Mexico. She'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home filled with servants, and Mama, Papa, and Abuelita to care for her. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California and settle in a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard work, financial struggles brought on by the Great Depression, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When Mama gets sick and a strike for better working conditions threatens to uproot their new life, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances--because Mama's life, and her own, depend on it.

 

 

 

Vampires of el Norte by Isabel Cañas

Call Number: Young Adult C213va 2023

ISBN: 9780593436721

Publication Date: 2023-08-15

 Vampires, vaqueros, and star-crossed lovers face off on the Texas-Mexico border in this supernatural western from the author of The Hacienda. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters--her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago. Believing Nena dead, Néstor has been on the run from his grief ever since, moving from ranch to ranch working as a vaquero. But no amount of drink can dispel the night terrors of sharp teeth; no woman can erase his childhood sweetheart from his mind. When the United States invades Mexico in 1846, the two are brought abruptly together on the road to war: Nena as a curandera, a healer striving to prove her worth to her father so that he does not marry her off to a stranger, and Néstor as a member of the auxiliary cavalry of ranchers and vaqueros. But the shock of their reunion--and Nena's rage at Néstor for seemingly abandoning her long ago--is quickly overshadowed by the appearance of a nightmare made flesh. And unless Nena and Néstor work through their past and face the future together, neither will survive to see the dawn.

 

 

Harvest of Empire by Juan Gonzalez

Call Number: Stacks 973.046 G6427h 2011

ISBN: 9780143119289

Publication Date: 2011-05-31

A sweeping history of the Latino experience in the United States- thoroughly revised and updated. The first new edition in ten years of this important study of Latinos in U.S. history, Harvest of Empire spans five centuries-from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American popular culture-from food to entertainment to literature-is greater than ever. Featuring family portraits of real- life immigrant Latino pioneers, as well as accounts of the events and conditions that compelled them to leave their homelands, Harvest of Empire is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the history and legacy of this increasingly influential group.

 

 

 

An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

Call Number: Stacks 305.8009 O778a 2018

ISBN: 9780807013106

Publication Date: 2018-01-30

An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history, arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Scholar and activist Paul Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress as exalted by widely taught formulations like "manifest destiny" and "Jacksonian democracy," and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms US history into one of the working class organizing against imperialism. Drawing on rich narratives and primary source documents, Ortiz links racial segregation in the Southwest and the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the twentieth century, to May 1, 2006, known as International Workers' Day, when migrant laborers-Chicana/os, Afrocubanos, and immigrants from every continent on earth-united in resistance on the first "Day Without Immigrants." As African American civil rights activists fought Jim Crow laws and Mexican labor organizers warred against the suffocating grip of capitalism, Black and Spanish-language newspapers, abolitionists, and Latin American revolutionaries coalesced around movements built between people from the United States and people from Central America and the Caribbean. In stark contrast to the resurgence of "America First" rhetoric, Black and Latinx intellectuals and organizers today have historically urged the United States to build bridges of solidarity with the nations of the Americas. Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights. 2018 Winner of the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award.

 

 

 

Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar; Héctor Tobar

Call Number: Stacks 305.868 T628o 2023

ISBN: 9780374609900

Publication Date: 2023-05-09

 In Our Migrant Souls, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Héctor Tobar delivers a definitive and personal exploration of what it means to be Latino in the United States right now. "Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States, and also one of the most rapidly growing. Composed as a direct address to the young people who identify or have been classified as "Latino," Our Migrant Souls is the first account of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity. Taking on the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture, Our Migrant Souls decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and gives voice to the anger and the hopes of young Latino people who have seen Latinidad transformed into hateful tropes and who have faced insult and division--a story as old as this country itself. Tobar translates his experience as not only a journalist and novelist but also a mentor, a leader, and an educator. He interweaves his own story, and that of his parents' migration to the United States from Guatemala, into his account of his journey across the country to uncover something expansive, inspiring, true, and alive about the meaning of "Latino" in the twenty-first century.

 

 

If you want to learn more about National Hispanic Heritage Month and Latinos in the United States, here are a few online resources:

 

• President Biden's 2024 Proclamation of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
• National Hispanic Heritage Month federal portal, a "collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration."
• The Facts for Features article for National Hispanic Heritage Month from the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Via the Library of Congress blog, some ideas on "celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Primary Sources." This is a good resource for school teachers.
• You can also check out the Latin X research guide from the Library Of Congress.
• The National Archives also has a collection of resources and photos for Hispanic Heritage Month.

 

 

Amanda Peach, Associate Library Director, is pleased to announce the following.

Monday, September 16: Tonight's Cup Library Open House at 7pm is just the beginning of two awesome weeks of events at Hutchins Library!

We hope you will join us for one (or more) of these events.

Upcoming Events in September at Hutchins Library:

Monday, 9-16-24, 7-8 pm: Cup Library Open House: Check out a handcrafted mug to use for the semester while enjoying a warm drink and sweet treat

Tuesdays, weekly, 5:30 - 7:30 pm: Dungeons and Dragons: all experience levels welcome in room 103

Saturdays, weekly, 4-6 pm: Fighting Video Games Club in room 103

Tuesday, 9-24-24,11:45 am-12:45 pm: Reading Local: Lunch & Learn The Occupational Folklife of Rural Public Librarians In Kentucky: A Presentation on Summer URCPP Fieldwork by Sree P.S. with Emily Hilliard

Wednesday, 9-25-24, 7 pm - 9 pm: Banned Books Reading: Celebrate your freedom to read! Listen to guest readers or read yourself while enjoying snacks, swag, and giveaways like tote bags & free books
 

Looking ahead to October:

• Thurs. Oct. 3, 7 pm: YA Lit Book Club
• Wed. Oct. 9, 7-9 pm: Ghost Stories
• Thurs. Oct. 10, 7pm: Scrapbooking Night

Welcome to another edition of From Our Shelves, where I give you a short review of a book from our collections that I have read and hope you may consider reading as well. This week we are featuring Every Book Its Reader by Nicholas Basbanes. The book is arranged in 12 chapters, and the idea for the book comes from a 1963 exhibition at the British Museum celebrating five centuries of the written word. If you are a bibliophile, you will probably enjoy the book very much. More casual readers will find a pretty broad history of books that somehow had an impact on society and/or spurred some change. This book will give you a look at the power of books and reading. Basbanes considers the following premise about studying reading and readers as a field of study:

"A basic premise each follows is the idea that it is readers, not just authors, who give meaning to texts, and that there is value in knowing how individuals through history respond to them" (117). 

If you want to learn more and/or check the book out, you can find the library catalog details below. If you want find other books like this one or for other topics, you can always visit the library's reference desk.

Every Book Its Reader by Nicholas A. Basbanes

Call Number: Stacks 028.9 B297e 2005

ISBN: 9780060593230

Publication Date: 2005-11-29

Inspired by a landmark exhibition mounted by the British Museum in 1963 to celebrate five eventful centuries of the printed word, Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a lively consideration of writings that have "made things happen" in the world, works that have both nudged the course of history and fired the imagination of countless influential people. In his fifth work to examine a specific aspect of book culture, Basbanes also asks what we can know about such figures as John Milton, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Adams, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Henry James, Thomas Edison, Helen Keller -- even the notorious Marquis de Sade and Adolf Hitler -- by knowing what they have read. He shows how books that many of these people have consulted, in some cases annotated with their marginal notes, can offer tantalizing clues to the evolution of their character and the development of their thought. Taking the concept one step further, Basbanes profiles some of the most articulate readers of our time -- David McCullough, Harold Bloom, Robert Fagles, Robert Coles, Helen Vendler, Elaine Pagels, Daniel Aaron, Christopher Ricks, Matthew Bruccoli, and Perri Klass among them -- who discuss such relevant concepts as literary canons, classic works in translation, the timelessness of poetry, the formation of sacred texts, and the power of literature to train physicians, nurture children, and rehabilitate criminal offenders. "Basbanes has a deep and abiding passion for books -- a joyful addiction," Dan Smith wrote in the Toronto Star of Patience & Fortitude, characterizing his body of work as "part travelogue, part scholarship, and all story." The tradition continues with Every Book Its Reader.

In 1970, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson proposed the idea of a nationwide environmental teach-in, and he recruited Denis Hayes to be the national coordinator. That first event became known as Earth Day, and the event has been observed ever since on April 22. Today communities in the United States and around the world engage in actions to focused on nature and environmental issues. Today the observance is coordinated by EarthDay.org.

Here is a selected list of resources that may be of interest.

Some books from Hutchins Library. You can find these and other books searching the library catalog.

The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair by Denis Hayes

Call Number: Stacks 363.7 H417o 2000

ISBN: 9781559638098

Publication Date: 2000-02-02

Everyone talks about the weather but no one ever does anything about it. Sadly, that old joke is no longer true. A large body of increasingly compelling scientific evidence is telling us that many things we do -- from the kinds of cars we drive to how we heat our homes -- are directly affecting our global climate in unprecedented and alarming ways. But what can any one person do about this vast, global problem? Help fix it! And it doesn't have to be a do-it-yourself project; we citizens and stewards of the earth can unite in greater numbers and power than ever before.In The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair, Earth Day leader and renewable energy expert Denis Hayes tells us how changes in individual, local, and national energy choices can slow or even stop the dangerous build-up of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, while at the same time saving us money, helping the economy, creating new jobs, and enhancing human health. A how-to home improvement guide for the planet, the book: describes the problem of global warming today as well as its likely effects in the future considers the sources of energy available to us, and explains why one of them is the Earth's best hope offers dozens of ways to painlessly reduce your own energy use provides action steps to affect the world's energy use and help change policy tells where to go for further help and more information The first Earth Day in 1970 helped launch the modern environmental movement. Rather than waiting for elected officials to take action to address environmental abuses, environmental maverick Denis Hayes and his compatriots took the lead in bringing the subject to the forefront of American consciousness. Through three decades, the idea of Earth Day has flourished, and now more than ever, individuals need to take matters into their own hands and create change from the ground up and from the whole earth down. As citizens and consumers, we hold a vast capacity for improving our environment and leaving a bright legacy for our children. For seasoned green veterans and environmental newcomers alike, The Official Earth Day Guide to Planet Repair is the must-have book for the next century.

 

American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau by Bill McKibben (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 820.936 A5115 2008

ISBN: 9781598530209

Publication Date: 2008-04-17

As America and the world grapple with the consequences of global environmental change, writer and activist Bill McKibben offers this unprecedented, provocative, and timely anthology, gathering the best and most significant American environmental writing from the last two centuries. Classics of the environmental imagination, the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring - are set against the inspiring story of an emerging activist movement, as revealed by newly uncovered reports of pioneering campaigns for conservation, passages from landmark legal opinions and legislation, and searing protest speeches. Here are some of America's greatest and most impassioned writers, taking a turn toward nature and recognizing the fragility of our situation on earth and the urgency of the search for a sustainable way of life. Thought-provoking essays on overpopulation, consumerism, energy policy, and the nature of nature, join ecologists - memoirs and intimate sketches of the habitats of endangered species. The anthology includes a detailed chronology of the environmental movement and American environmental history, as well as an 80-page color portfolio of illustrations.

 

Silent Spring Revolution by Douglas Brinkley

Call Number: Stacks 333.72 B858s 2022

ISBN: 9780063212916

Publication Date: 2022-11-15

New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. With the detonation of the Trinity explosion in the New Mexico desert in 1945, the United States took control of Earth's destiny for the first time. After the Truman administration dropped atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, a grim new epoch had arrived. During the early Cold War years, the federal government routinely detonated nuclear devices in the Nevada desert and the Marshall Islands. Not only was nuclear fallout a public health menace, but entire ecosystems were contaminated with radioactive materials. During the 1950s, an unprecedented postwar economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world's leading hyperindustrial and military giant. But with this historic prosperity came a heavy cost: oceans began to die, wilderness vanished, the insecticide DDT poisoned ecosystems, wildlife perished, and chronic smog blighted major cities. In Silent Spring Revolution, Douglas Brinkley pays tribute to those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long Sixties: Rachel Carson (a marine biologist and author), David Brower (director of the Sierra Club), Barry Commoner (an environmental justice advocate), Coretta Scott King (an antinuclear activist), Stewart Udall (the secretary of the interior), William O. Douglas (Supreme Court justice), Cesar Chavez (a labor organizer), and other crusaders are profiled with verve and insight. Carson's book Silent Spring, published in 1962, depicted how detrimental DDT was to living creatures. The exposé launched an ecological revolution that inspired such landmark legislation as the Wilderness Act (1964), the Clean Air Acts (1963 and 1970), and the Endangered Species Acts (1966, 1969, and 1973). In intimate detail, Brinkley extrapolates on such epic events as the Donora (Pennsylvania) smog incident, JFK's Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Great Lakes preservation, the Santa Barbara oil spill, and the first Earth Day. With the United States grappling with climate change and resource exhaustion, Douglas Brinkley's meticulously researched and deftly written Silent Spring Revolution reminds us that a new generation of twenty-first-century environmentalists can save the planet from ruin. Silent Spring Revolution features two 8-page color photo inserts.

 

Natural Visions by Finis Dunaway

Call Number: Stacks 333.7209 D897n 2005

ISBN: 9780226173252

Publication Date: 2005-11-15

Walden Pond. The Grand Canyon.Yosemite National Park. Throughout the twentieth century, photographers and filmmakers created unforgettable images of these and other American natural treasures. Many of these images, including the work of Ansel Adams, continue to occupy a prominent place in the American imagination. Making these representations, though, was more than a purely aesthetic project. In fact, portraying majestic scenes and threatened places galvanized concern for the environment and its protection. Natural Visions documents through images the history of environmental reform from the Progressive era to the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, showing the crucial role the camera played in the development of the conservation movement. In Natural Visions, Finis Dunaway tells the story of how visual imagery--such as wilderness photographs, New Deal documentary films, and Sierra Club coffee-table books--shaped modern perceptions of the natural world. By examining the relationship between the camera and environmental politics through detailed studies of key artists and activists, Dunaway captures the emotional and spiritual meaning that became associated with the American landscape. Throughout the book, he reveals how photographers and filmmakers adapted longstanding traditions in American culture--the Puritan jeremiad, the romantic sublime, and the frontier myth--to literally picture nature as a place of grace for the individual and the nation. Beautifully illustrated with photographs by Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and a host of other artists, Natural Visions will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in American cultural history, the visual arts, and environmentalism.

 

The End of Eden by Thomas Rain Crowe; Robert Johnson (Artist)

Call Number: Stacks 333.7 C953e 2008

ISBN: 9781893239807

Publication Date: 2008-01-01

The essays of Thomas Rain Crowe combine with the stirring illustrations of Robert Johnson to produce a prophetic vision of the world in which we live -- a vision of what we have and what we stand to lose through our careless disregard for the Earth and its finite resources. Crowe shows us the means by which we may save ourselves and our planet.

 

 

For the Health of the Land by Scott Russell Sanders (Foreword by); Aldo Leopold; J. Baird Callicott (Editor); Eric T. Freyfogle (Editor)

Call Number: Stacks 333.951 L587f

ISBN: 9781559637633

Publication Date: 1999-09-01

A collection of previously unavailable essays by environmentalist Aldo Leopold, building on the tradition of ethical land use and developing the concept of land health and the practical measures landowners can take to sustain it. Containing over 40 short pieces arranged in a seasonal almanac form along with longer essays arranged chronologically, each piece is introduced and set in context by the editors.

 

Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman

Call Number: Stacks 363.705 F911h 2008

ISBN: 9780374166854

Publication Date: 2008-09-08

In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America's surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world's middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is "hot, flat, and crowded." Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green. This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America. In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation's greatest natural resources. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.

 

 

Storming the Wall by Todd Miller

Call Number: Stacks 304.873 M651s 2017

ISBN: 9780872867154

Publication Date: 2017-09-12

As global warming accelerates, droughts last longer, floods rise higher, and super-storms become more frequent. With increasing numbers of people on the move as a result, the business of containing them--border fortification--is booming. In Storming the Wall, Todd Miller travels around the world to connect the dots between climate-ravaged communities, the corporations cashing in on border militarization, and emerging movements for environmental justice and sustainability. Reporting from the flashpoints of climate clashes, and from likely sites of futures battles, Miller chronicles a growing system of militarized divisions between the rich and the poor, the environmentally secure and the environmentally exposed. Stories of crisis, greed and violence are juxtaposed with powerful examples of solidarity and hope in this urgent and timely message from the frontlines of the post-Paris Agreement era.

 

The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells

Call Number: Stacks 304.28 W195u 2019

ISBN: 9780525576709

Publication Date: 2019-02-19

 It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible--food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An "epoch-defining book" (The Guardian) and "this generation's Silent Spring" (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it--the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation--today's.

 

 

Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich

Call Number: Stacks 363.738 R499L 2019

ISBN: 9780374191337

Publication Date: 2019-04-09

By 1979, we knew nearly everything we understand today about climate change--including how to stop it. Over the next decade, a handful of scientists, politicians, and strategists, led by two unlikely heroes, risked their careers in a desperate, escalating campaign to convince the world to act before it was too late. Losing Earth is their story, and ours. The New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to Nathaniel Rich's groundbreaking chronicle of that decade, which became an instant journalistic phenomenon--the subject of news coverage, editorials, and conversations all over the world. In its emphasis on the lives of the people who grappled with the great existential threat of our age, it made vivid the moral dimensions of our shared plight. Now expanded into book form, Losing Earth tells the human story of climate change in even richer, more intimate terms. It reveals, in previously unreported detail, the birth of climate denialism and the genesis of the fossil fuel industry's coordinated effort to thwart climate policy through misinformation propaganda and political influence. The book carries the story into the present day, wrestling with the long shadow of our past failures and asking crucial questions about how we make sense of our past, our future, and ourselves. Like John Hersey's Hiroshima and Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth, Losing Earth is the rarest of achievements: a riveting work of dramatic history that articulates a moral framework for understanding how we got here, and how we must go forward.

 

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes; Erik M. Conway

Call Number: Stacks 174.95 O669m 2011

ISBN: 9781608193943

Publication Date: 2015-02-26

Featuring a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore, Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. "Important and timely. We ignore this message at our peril."--Elizabeth Kolbert Merchants of Doubt has been praised--and attacked--around the world, for reasons easy to understand. This book tells, with "brutal clarity" (Huffington Post), the disquieting story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. The same individuals who claim the science of global warming is "not settled" have also denied the truth about studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it. Merchants of Doubt rolls back the rug on this dark corner of American science. Now with a new Foreword by former Vice President Al Gore, and with a new Postscript by the authors.

Want to do some more research on Earth Day or other environmental and nature topics? You can use one of our periodical databases. You can find our databases from the library website going under "Electronic Resources." You could try the following databases to find articles popular and scholarly:

• GreenFile
• Agricola
• Science Direct
• J-Stor

From the web, in addition to the links above:

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Earth Day page.
• The National Geographic Society Earth Day page.