Wednesday, May 27, 2015

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday--Big Eyes by Leah Gallo

Big Eyes, a film directed by Tim Burton, has rejuvenated interest in Margaret and Walter Keane whose art was adopted by a popular culture movement from the mid-fifties to the mid-sixties. Burton recalls the mass-produced images of posters and wall art that he encountered as a child in suburbia simply identified as "Keane," featuring woeful looking children with big eyes as if haunted by an awful truth. Their images did reflect a fraud. Walter Keane was not their creator; Margaret was the artist.

The book Big Eyes by Leah Gallo provides a companion narrative to the film and covers selecting cast members, creating sets, designing costumes, and recording the music. It also includes 86 plates of Margaret's paintings.

The DVD of Burton's 2014 film was released in 2015 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. It is 105 minutes long and chronicles Margaret's solitary journey as an artist despite her clandestine role.

Both book and DVD are currently at the browsing display of new additions on Floor 3 of the Ort Library. Additional details are given with the following links:


DVD

Book



Friday, May 22, 2015

Summer 2015 Library Hours

The Library is open during the summer. Summer hours begin on Tuesday, May 26, 2015. Hours are listed below. Any delays, closings, or changes to hours will be sent out via email to the campus community. Hours are also available online: http://libguides.frostburg.edu/libhours. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact the Library Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.
SUMMER HOURS
*Summer Hours begin Tuesday, May 26, 2015

  • Monday - Friday // 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
  • Saturday // CLOSED
  • Sunday // 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday // June 3 - The Library will open at 12:30 p.m. due to a staff training.
  • Friday // July 3 - Closed for the observance of Independence Day.

*Closings, holidays, extended hours, and any schedule adjustments are listed below. 
CLOSINGS, DELAYS, AND HOLIDAYS:
*Regular semester hours for Fall 2015 will begin on Monday, August 31, 2015.

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

What I'm Reading Wednesday: Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane

In Neil Gaiman's adult novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the narrator arrives in his childhood hometown in Sussex, England to attend a funeral and takes a break between the funeral and the wake to visit the neighborhood in which he group up. He finds himself at the farmhouse at the end of the lane where he once knew an 11-year-old girl named Lettie Hempstock and her unusual mother and grandmother. Though Lettie is not there, he finds himself sitting on a bench by her pond revisiting some traumatic and difficult to explain events from his childhood.

The narrator, who remains nameless throughout the novel, begins to remember a fantastical story of other worlds, light and dark, mythological creatures, and strange magic. Fans of Gaiman's novel Stardust will appreciate the masterful storytelling, humor, and truth in The Ocean at the End of the Lane. At 181 pages, it is a quick but worthwhile read.

If you are interested in checking this out for yourself, you can request this item from the Ort Library catalog here: 
http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004292077.
Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and log in using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

Use the hastag #whatimreadingwednesday to post your own book reviews online. We would love to see what you're reading!

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Featured Online Resource: The People's Law Library of Maryland


When researching legal matters on your own.  A recommended first stop is The People's Law Library of Maryland, provided by the Maryland State Law Library.


Justice Gavel
Rector, Tori. "Wooden Justice Gavel and Block with Brass" Creative Commons license CC BY-SA 2.0.


The goals of the People's Law Library are to:
  • Connect people to people,
  • Figure out procedures, and
  • Learn more about various legal topics.

You can contact a person for help using the District Court Self-Help Resource Center in person, by phone or  with live online chat. The "Get Help" page provides links to services for locating an attorney or other person who can assist you.

The "How Do I" box at the left provides links for learning how to find court and legal forms, prepare for court, and more.

The list of topics on the home page provide additional information on topics such as bullying in schools, traffic court, and landlord/tenant disputes.

Keep this site in mind as a first stop for legal self-help.  If in another state, check for their State Law Libraries to see if they offer a similar service.  (Of course, always consider talking to a professional for very serious matters!)

Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.
 

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

What I’m Reading Wednesday: North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants by Ernest Small



BLOG POST WRITTEN BY AMBER HARRISON

North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants by Ernest Small has arrived in the Ort Library.  This gorgeously vibrant item is filled with loads of photographs and information to inspire gardeners and plant aficionados everywhere.  The book is filled with fascinating information on native plants – what they look like, uses for, with extensive bibliographies located at the end of each plant entry.  If you are dying to learn more about a certain type of native plant listed in the book, the author has kindly made it easy for you.  

Be sure and check out the “Curiosities of Science and Technology” sections also located within each plant entry.  These sections highlight the unique facts about native plants.  For instance, Cranberry is the state fruit of Wisconsin and Massachusetts.  Dwarf Glasswort thrives in soil water that has 3 times the saltiness of the oceans.  Native peoples used Golden Chia in their eyes as medicine to remove foreign particles such as sand or dirt.  Vole and field mice would collect the Hog peanut and store them in their nests for over winter.  Native peoples, such as the Delaware tribe, would then raid the nests as an easy way to collect the plant.

This fascinating and well researched book also contains sections dedicated to how to prepare the plant as food – “Culinary Portraits”.  With sections called “Specialty Cookbooks” detailing where to get useful recipes.  Sections titled “Prospects” tell how these native plants can potentially be adapted to fit new uses for our times.  Besides gardeners and plant lovers, North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants is a recommend read for people interested in history, sustainability, trivia buffs, and chefs looking for the next “new “ thing!  

If you are interested in checking out this great book for yourself, you can request this volume from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004540441 . Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and log in using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. 

If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.  We hope to see you soon!

Thursday, May 7, 2015

New Library Displays for May - Celebrating The Empire Strikes Back



The Ort Library announces a new display for May 2015. The library is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the release of The Empire Strikes Back. The displays cover the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. 

It highlights facts about the movie, resources available in the library on Star Wars, and includes many different materials from the library staff's personal collections. Stop by to look at all the displays through the end of May.

We would like to thank Ort Library Staff members Charles Courtney, Amber Harrison, Virginia Williams, Lisa Hartman, and Theresa Mastrodonato for the use of items from their collection of Star Wars Materials for the displays on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: She Who Tells a Story

She Who Tells A Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World by Kristen Gresh is a fascinating compilation of the work of twelve renowned women photographers from throughout the Arab world. There are more than 100 photographs reproduced in this volume, accompanied by essays, stories, and personal narratives from and about the photographers and their work. The photographs highlight the changing landscape of the Arab world by documenting mostly everyday people, experiences, and environments.

The photos vary widely in style and composition. Some are manipulated with color and wild effects. Several are stark, and some are purposely blurred. Still others contain elements of humor. Those of Nernine Hammam from Egypt are surreal, almost dreamlike. She digitally layers and manipulates the images of soldiers and tanks, inserting backgrounds of mountains, flowers, Japanese silkscreens, even vintage postcards. The colors are vibrant, the subjects often smiling from atop their tanks, holding guns. Art and war are combined into something striking.

The photos of Gohar Dashti from Tehran, Iran, are family portraits of life in the Middle East. The subjects are often shot doing everyday things like watching television, hanging laundry, having tea, but the normality of their actions is juxtaposed against backgrounds of tanks, laundry on barbed wire, house walls made of sandbags illuminating the harshness of the reality of living in a land often torn by war and protest. Dashti's photos are muted and beautiful and offer up a sort of social commentary in their simplicity.

If you are interested in seeing these photographs for yourself, you can request this volume from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004349400.
Click on "Availability", then click on the yellow "Request" button, and log in using your last name and 14-digit Library barcode number on your ID. If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

Use the hastag #whatimreadingwednesday to post your own book reviews online. We would love to see what you're reading!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Poetry Reading by Jane Satterfield

Jane Satterfield read selections from her three published collections of poetry in the east wing of the Lewis J. Ort Library on April 30. The Frostburg State University Center for Creative Writing hosted the event as part of its 2015 spring reading series. Satterfield teaches writing at Loyola University in Baltimore.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Featured Online Resource - The Writer's Guide to Government Information

There are many resources available for locating government information, but for a different point of view, you might be interested in checking out The Writer's Guide to Government Information.

This guide was written by Daniel Cornwall, a librarian with the Alaska State Library and the University of Alaska in response to fiction writers' need for information to supplement their stories. 

While this resource can be very useful to writers wanting to expand on a particular topic, it is also simply a great resource to learn about subjects that may be of interest to you!

Some categories of information on the guide include:
  • Military history
  • "What if your story isn't set on Earth?" (astronomy, space habitats, etc.)
  • World of espionage - background and tools
  • Faking one's own death
  • "Kids have problems too - kidnapping"
 So, whether you're striving for quality information in your novel, or would simply like to browse some interesting online resources from the government, you might want to take a look!


Every week, the Ort Library brings you a new and outstanding resource from the Web or from one of the library's databases. To get an archive of all FOR entries, click here. Also, you can suggest a website that provides well-organized access to useful info.





Friday, May 1, 2015

Group Study Rooms and Individual Study Rooms Available in the Ort Library



As we get closer to final exams, the Ort Library would just like to remind you that we offer five (5) group study rooms for groups of 3 or more people. Each study room is equipped with a computer and large screen monitor. Three (3) group study rooms are available on the 5th floor and two (2) group study rooms are available on the 2nd floor. 

To access a group study room, please stop by the Circulation Desk on the 3rd floor of the library to check out a key. Your group can utilize the group study room for two (2) hours. At least three (3) members of your group must come to the Circulation Desk to check out the key.

In addition, three (3) group study carrels are available on the 5th floor of the library. These are open computers/tables for use and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.  

Finally, just an additional reminder that four (4) individual study rooms are available for student use on the 5th floor of the library. These rooms are always unlocked and you do not need a key to access them.  The individual study rooms can be found at the end of the floor closest to the Chesapeake Dining Hall. If you take the elevator to the 5th floor, you would go to the left and they would be at the end of the stacks. The rooms that are available for use are 514(A), 515, 519(G), and 522(C).