New Displays for September in the Ort Library

The Ort Library is pleased to present 4 new displays in the Ort Library for September. The first display, located on the 3^rd floor highlights the resources that the library offers to students, faculty, and staff. The display showcases resources from reference, government documents, special collections, print magazines/journals, and books that can be checked out. This display will provide an opportunity to learn about the resources that your library offers.

The second display, also located on the 3^rd floor, highlights some of the foreign language literature books that the library has in its collection. The display showcases books in French, Spanish, German, and Russian. For example, the library offers The Count of Monte Cristo in French, but also offers an English translation of the work.

The third display, located on the 4^th floor, highlights four 20^th Century American artists whose books are located in Special Collections. The artists are Georgia O’Keeffe, Maurice Sendak, Norman Rockwell, and Andrew Wyeth. The display also provides a short biography on each of the artists.

The fourth display, located on the 5^th floor, celebrates Constitution Day (September 17^th). The theme for this year’s display is Life. Liberty. Freedom. Prosperity. The display highlights how the Constitution has played a part in the United States embodying life, liberty, freedom, and prosperity.

The displays will be up through the end of September.

Fall 2015 Library Hours

The Library will begin regular semester hours on Monday, August 31, 2015. Fall 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.

Regular Semester Hours:

Monday - Thursday // 7:30 a.m. - 12:00 Midnight

Friday // 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday // 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Sunday // 1:00 p.m. - 12:00 Midnight

Labor Day Weekend Schedule:

Saturday, September 5 // CLOSED

Sunday, September 6 // CLOSED

Monday, September 7 – Labor Day // 1:00 p.m. – 12:00 Midnight

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend edited by Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan

What-I’m-Reading-Wednesday: The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend edited by Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan

Vampires have been all the rage for a while now. The blockbuster Twilight series was just the latest trend in vampires in the modern consciousness. Everyone knows the story Dracula by Bram Stoker and many more know the vampires from Anne Rice. Even now there are several shows on television with vampires as the main characters, The Originals and The Vampire Diaries.

In this book, the editors take a scholarly look at the historical view of the vampire. The book contains 16 scholarly chapters on the history of vampires.  The book is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the vampires through the lens of Western European culture.  One chapter provides evidence for vampires in Norse-Icelandic Saga literature. The chapter provides the original Norse/Icelandic saga and then translates this into English for the reader. The vampire-like creature was called the Draugr.

The second part of the book looks at possible medical explanations for vampires including lack of medical understanding for some common diseases that we know existed at the time prompted people to believe in vampires. The third part of the book looks at female vampires in literature and how they have been portrayed. Finally, the last section of the book looks at how vampires have been viewed in countries outside of Europe including Mexico, Japan, and Russia.

Each chapter has a bibliography and some have information for further reading if one is interested in learning more about vampires in literature. If you want a scholarly look at the vampire myth then The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend is for you.

This volume is available to request from the Ort Library catalog here: http://catalog.umd.edu/docno=004455910. Click on “Availability,” the click on the yellow “Request” button.  Log in using your first name and 14 digit library barcode from your ID.  If you need assistance, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301 687-4395.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins by Andrew Cockburn

Author Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s magazine, built his reputation as an expert on governmental and military affairs covering the U.S. and Soviet arms race and occasional clashes of the Cold War.  Although his latest book, Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins, focuses on the current “drone war” in the Middle East and Africa, Cockburn shows how the current state of affairs in the U.S. military has its roots in both the decades-long conflict with the U.S.S.R. and in some cases, lessons learned (or not learned) during WWII.

Kill Chain opens in 2010 with a case of mistaken identity during a U.S. drone strike that resulted in numerous civilian deaths.   From this tragic but compelling episode, Cockburn takes the reader back to the 1940’s when U.S. bombers were striking daily against Nazi Germany in an effort to “bring the Reich to its knees.”  He shows how much of the conventional wisdom about air power at the time was gradually disproven, and then summarily ignored as the United States government became entangled by the “Military-Industrial Complex” that President Dwight Eisenhower so famously warned of in his farewell address.   (Fun fact I learned while reading this book:  In the original draft of his speech, Eisenhower had labeled the thing to be feared as the “Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex” but decided to remove the word “Congressional”, stating later that he was already “…taking on the military and private industry.  I couldn’t take on Congress as well.”)

As the Cold War escalated, ended, and then was replaced, (first by the War on Drugs, and then later the War on Terror) Cockburn demonstrates how the U.S. government has continuously invested more and more money on high-tech weapons (such as drones) that are often not only unwanted, but in some cases dangerously flawed.

Kill Chain is available on the New Arrivals shelf in the Library’s main lobby, or by requesting it through the Library catalog here. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

**Post written by Charles Courtney

Featured Online Resource: National Immunization Awareness Month Resources

Since August is National Immunization Awareness Month, the following resources are available to help you become informed about immunizations.

Schmidt, Judy / CDC. A girl receiving a vaccination  shot 

from her doctor. Creative Commons Universal (CCO 1.0).

• CDC Vaccines and Immunization - Provides an overview of vaccination topics and questions.
• The Journey of Your Child's Vaccine (CDC Infographic) - Provides information on how vaccines are initially tested and monitored.
• National Public Health Information Coalition National Immunization Awareness Month Toolkits provide links to information resources for various age groups and related concerns about immunizations.
• CDC Parents: Vaccines for you Children - Page includes information about benefits as well as side effects of vaccines and resources to help parents make the best decision for their children.
• CDC Preventing Seasonal Flu With Vaccination - Page provides an overview of the seasonal influenza vaccine as well as links to additional resources about the benefits, side effects, and guidelines for receiving this vaccine.
• HealthyChildren.org - National Immunization Awareness Month - Page includes information by age group, historical information, and a helpful infographic from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
• American Academy of Pediatrics - National Immunization Awareness Month - Page provides information by age groups, links to additional resources, and includes a link related to Vaccine Safety which also provides an Autism Fact Sheet which addresses concerns about a link between the MMR vaccine and Autism.
• MedLine Plus - Immunization - Consumer health information and resources related to immunizations.
• Maryland Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene, Center for Immunization - Immunization resources as well as Back to School Immunization Requirements.
• Allegany County Health Department, Immunization Clinic - Includes walk-in  hours and overseas travel immunizations.
• World Health Organization - Immunization - Provides links to fact sheets and other resources on international immunization issues.

This is only a small list of the information that is available on this topic.  Please use and share the information above, but also feel free to continue your research with library resources as well as online information from other reliable organizations and government agencies.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: When Paris Went Dark by Ronald C. Rosbottom

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940-1944 by Ronald C. Rosbottom is a compelling narrative of the lives of Parisians during "les années noires". Inspired by his time in the city during his undergraduate years, Rosbottom meticulously researched this dark time in order to provide what he calls a "tactile" history of the period, or a portrait of how everyday Parisians lived, worked, loved, and raised families in a city no longer their own. Much has been written about the occupation of Paris across the decades, and many aspects of life during this time have been shrouded in silence and mystery due to the controversial nature of the occupation. Rosbottom's research included interviews with those still living who were in Paris during this time period, and he astutely mined their stories for details not often shared in other similar histories.

Rosbottom lays out the chronology of the invasion and occupation from the beginning, including brief explanations of the events leading up to the occupation. The painstakingly detailed preparations of the Germans, their deep knowledge of the architectural, structural, and social layout of the city, and the experiences of previous failed attempts to take the city in earlier times all factored into the creation of an almost seamless takeover. Many fled the city prior to the occupation, but those who stayed, whether due to lack of resources needed to leave, or because they felt a devotion to the city and their French heritage, were presented daily with great ethical questions related to their interactions with the occupiers. Rosbottom separates those who "collaborated" from those who merely lived in a state of "accommodation" in order to survive. This distinction is essential in understanding how the Parisians viewed their own existence during this time, and to some extent in how the history of this era has long affected interpretations of France's role in the war.

When Paris Went Dark is available on the Library’s “New Arrival Shelf” in the main lobby, or you can place a request for this title directly from the Library's catalog here. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

What-I'm-Reading-Wednesday: The Battle of Midway by Craig L. Symonds

The Battle of Midway is part of an ongoing series from Oxford University Press entitled “Pivotal Moments in American History.”   Author Craig Symonds states in his introduction, “there are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and dramatically as it did on June 4, 1942.  At ten o’clock that morning, the Axis powers were winning World War II…An hour later, the balance had shifted the other way.”  

Symonds begins the story of that shift on Christmas Day in 1941 with Admiral Chester Nimitz arriving at Pearl Harbor to take command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet – a fleet that was still reeling (and in some cases, still burning) from the Japanese surprise attack just a few weeks before. 

Roughly the first half of the book covers the people, background, and events that led both the American and Japanese fleets from Pearl Harbor to their fateful rendezvous north of Midway Island six months later.   Symonds focuses not only on the opposing commanders, but also the many behind-the-scenes players who ultimately contributed to the battle’s outcome.  The second half of the book narrates in detail the battle itself, including addressing several “controversies and legends” that have arisen and in some cases persisted in previous historical accounts.  

The Battle of Midway is available on the Library’s “New Arrival Shelf” in the main lobby, or you can place a request for this title directly from the Library's catalog here. Click on the "Availability" link on the catalog record, then click on the yellow "Request" button. Log in using your 14-digit Library barcode number (located on your University ID), and your last name. You will then be able to select your pick-up location. The Library will notify you via email when your book has arrived for pick-up. If you need assistance with this process, please contact the Circulation Desk at 301-687-4395.

**Post written by Charles Courtney