BOM for November

BOM--Book of the Month for November
How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'N' Roll
Elijah Wald Oxford University Press 2009 ML 3477 W35

Wald decided that putting the Beatles in the title was just about enough; outside the intro and the last chapter, Wald isn't writing to make any argument about the Beatles or their effects on rock 'n' roll.
He instead gives an interesting look at popular music in the early
20th century, the life of a professional musician before the rise of records and radio, and the interaction of genres of music such as Blues, Country, R&B. It's a very worthwhile history of American music, 1900-1960.

Reference Librarian Jeff Maehre publishes in College Teaching

Ort Library Reference and Instruction Librarian Jeff Maehre is the author of "What It Means to Ban Wikipedia: An Exploration of the Pedagogical Principles At Stake."

The essay appears in the Fall Issue of College Teaching, an interdisciplinary journal devoted to communication between faculty.

Maehre argues against teaching faculty making a priori prohibitions of information from Wikipedia in student work. He argues that doing so promotes a product-based pedagogy and cuts against critical thinking and against a holistic approach to source evaluation.

This is Maehre's first academic essay. His fiction has appeared in Story, Cutbank, The Northwest Review, and Phoebe and is forthcoming in Backbone Mountain Review.

Here's a link to an electronic version of the essay through FSU's databases, which will require a log-in.

Spanning the Centuries at the Ort Library

Be sure to check out the FSU history display located on the 3rd floor of the Ort Library. The exhibit was created for the "Spanning the Centuries" program held during Parents Weekend, as part of "Passport FSU." Highlighting the exhibit are such artifacts from the past as a FSU freshman beanie (remember those?), the first Nemacolin yearbook from 1935, and a photograph taken at the Groundbreaking ceremony of Old Main, in 1898. Other items of interest include a photograph of E.D. Murdaugh, first principal of State Normal School #2 (as FSU was known at the time), and a photograph of last principal and first president, John Dunkle. The exhibit also showcases items representative of present day FSU, such as the 2009 yearbook, and in person (or in cat, as the case may be) until October 14th, Bob E. Cat. Come in and say hello to Bob!

If You Ban Them, We Will Read Them

Banned Books Reading, Sept. 29

On a third floor teeming with the energy of students working and generally being collegiate nearby, we co-hosted, with the English Department and Sigma Tau Delta, the English Department's honors society, a reading of books that have been challenged, banned, or removed from book stores, libraries, schools. This was part of the American Library Association's 18th annual Banned Books Week.

Students and faculty read selections from contentious texts such as Brave New World, Beloved, Han Nolan's Dancing On the Edge, Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, and Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, banned from the Laytonville, CA school district in 1989. Laytonville's chief industry: lumber.

The mood was jocular and effervescent. There were cookies.

To learn more about Banned Books Week, book challenges, and intellectual freedom, see:

Banned Books Week.org

The Nation's Blog post on BBW

Wall Street Journal: Not a big fan of BBW

Book Of the Month for October

B▫O▫M Book of the Month for October
IN ROOMS OF MEMORY Hilary Masters
PS 3563 A82I525 (currently "new titles" display)

Masters, noted essayist and fiction writer and son of Edgar Lee Masters, has crafted this volume of essays concerning his incomplete relationship with his father, the craft of writing, and travel.
From "My Father's Image:
So what I am left with is secondhand, abbreviated,
and possibly just a paste-up at that, while what
is missing is the sensual aura of the man: the
smell and feel of him, the handling and warmth
of him on a cold morning, the rub and texture
of his ordinary stubble.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review profiles Masters