Illustration: Darwin, C. R. 1871. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray. 1st edition. Volume 2. Reproduced with permission from John van Wyhe ed., The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

When was the last time you got a good look at a Neandertal’s skull? Well check out the Georgia State University Library’s Exhibit on “Darwin’s Impact.” This display is part of the university’s commemoration of the 200^th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150^th anniversary of the first publication of On The Origin of Species. Placed in our display case on Library North 1, across from Saxbys Coffee,  this exhibit highlights works in the library’s collection that show the expanse of work Darwin has inspired: from the obvious disciplines of anthropology and biology to art, psychology, literature and philosophy. This exhibit has three distinct components: the books in our collection, an online Darwin research site and a display of five molds of fossil skulls, tracing the evolutionary process of human origins.

Firstly, the exhibit draws attention to 14 books in our vast collection of Darwin related material, pulled by our subject librarians in the fields of art, anthropology, history and biology. We have listed the book titles together with their location in the building, along with their call number. We also paired each title with a unique illustration from one of the publications of Darwin’s original works. These amazing illustrations were reproduced with permission from John van Wyhe editor of The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. His site is another fantastic resource for researching Darwin and his impact.

In fact, it was such a great source that we included it in our own research guide to Charles Darwin and On The Origin of Species. The online guide includes even more Darwin related resources in our collection, a video interview with Dr. Sean Carroll and a calendar of Darwin related events both on campus and across the world. Dr. Carroll (a professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics at the University of Wisconsin) gave a Darwin related lecture on campus earlier this semester, so if you were unable to attend that event, this is an excellent way to hear about how molecular biology provides profound evidence in support of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. As with all of our research guides, there is a convenient chat window embedded on the page, in case you need to contact a librarian with any questions.

Finally, Dr. Frank L’Engle Williams, Professor of Anthropology at Georgia State University was kind enough to loan us a set of five fossil skull molds. Each of these stunning molds demonstrates a different stage of evolutionary development and Dr. Williams provided us with a short description of each of their significance.

So if you are interested in researching Darwin further for one of your projects, or even if you just want to look at some cool skulls, please stop by the exhibit and participate in our celebration of Darwin’s Impact and his anniversary! As always, we welcome your feedback!

]]> http://homer.gsu.edu/blogs/library/2009/11/18/darwin%e2%80%99s-impact-%e2%80%93-a-georgia-state-university-library-exhibit/feed/ 0 http://homer.gsu.edu/blogs/library/2009/11/10/new-browsing-books-on-library-north-1-6/ http://homer.gsu.edu/blogs/library/2009/11/10/new-browsing-books-on-library-north-1-6/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:58:18 +0000 Daryle http://homer.gsu.edu/blogs/library/?p=15597 Kindred in death / J.D. Robb.

Under the dome : a novel / Stephen King.

Googled : the end of the world as we know it / Ken Auletta.

A Christmas blizzard / Garrison Keillor.

Che : a graphic biography / Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon.

Eating animals / Jonathan Safran Foer.

Rainwater / Sandra Brown.

Paul McCartney : a life / Peter Ames Carlin.

Anita Blake, vampire hunter. Guilty pleasures / writer, Laurell K. Hamilton & Jonathon Green ; adaptation, Stacie Ritchie & Jess Ruffner-Booth ; artists, Brett Booth & Ron Lim ; colorists Matt Moylan … [et al.] ; letterers, Bill Tortolini with Simon Bowland.

SuperFreakonomics : tales of altruism, terrorism, and poorly paid prostitutes / Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner.

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of species : a graphic adaptation / story by Michael Keller ;art by Nicolle Rager Fuller.

The humbling / Philip Roth.

True blue / David Baldacci.

McNaughton Audio Books

I am the new black [sound recording] / Tracy Morgan ; with Anthony Bozza.

ATLANTA – Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Susan Faludi will lecture at Georgia State University Nov. 2 about gender, media, popular culture and political life in the contemporary age.

Her lecture, titled “Losing Ourselves in the 21st Century,” is part of the Hellen Ingram Plummer Lecture sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences. It will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Speaker’s Auditorium, and is free and open to the public.

An exhibition of a similar theme is on view in the Georgia State University Welch School of Art and Design Gallery through Nov. 19. It showcases performative media by emerging, U.S.-based women artists and was inspired, in part, by a talk Faludi gave on issues of gender in a post-911 world.

“Many young women learn about feminism, and post-feminism, via popular culture and media coverage,” said Susan Richmond, assistant professor in the GSU School of Art and Design and curator of the exhibition. “We felt it would be beneficial to all of our students to hear from someone who has studied media culture extensively, and who argues persuasively for the need to challenge the credibility and motivations of mainstream news sources.”

Faludi is the author of “Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man” and “Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Her most recent book, “The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America” examines the outpouring in the media, popular culture, and political life following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Faludi’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Nation, among other publications. Her talk at Georgia State coincides with the National Women Studies Association Conference in Atlanta the week of Nov. 12-15.

“Over the past two decades, Susan Faludi has bridged journalism and scholarship in women’s studies to produce astute analyses of the shifting terrain of masculinity and femininity in the United States,” said Susan Talburt, director of the Women’s Studies Institute at Georgia State.

“Her studies of the ‘backlash’ against feminism, changing constructions of masculinity and the post-September 11 nostalgia for ‘real’ men and women illuminate important elements of the contemporary cultural politics of gender in this country.”

The Plummer lecture is the College of Arts and Sciences’ annual endowed lecture, featuring noted scholars, scientists, artists and performers who have made notable contributions to their fields of achievement and to society at large. The lecture was endowed in 1999 in honor of late Atlanta arts patron Hellen Ingram Plummer.

In relation to this event, the Georgia State University Library has several of Susan Faludi’s books, including Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. Also, the library has created custom bookmarks for the “Losing Ourselves in the 21st Century” exhibition at the Welch School of Art and Design. Each bookmark lists a different book in our collection related to the exhibition. You can find them at the gallery or by contacting our Arts Liaison Librarian, Nedda Ahmed.

I am the new black / Tracy Morgan ; with Anthony Bozza.

The Scarpetta factor / Patricia Cornwell.

Look at the birdie : unpublished short fiction / Kurt Vonnegut.

Why AC/DC matters / Anthony Bozza.

The vintage caper / Peter Mayle.

What the dog saw : and other adventures / Malcolm Gladwell.

McNaughton Audio Books

Pride and prejudice and zombies [sound recording] / by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.

One change that I find confusing is the way APA says to cite a full-text article found in a subscription database. If you think the answer is easy, take a look at the flow chart that APA posted on their APA Style Blog: 

Once you figure that out, make sure you check the 16 page errata supplement that was just released for the 1st printing, which includes corrections of typographical errors, errors in content and problems with sample papers in the book.

Correcting a Style Guide is a short article in the October 13, 2009 edition of Inside Higher Ed.   Over fifty comments have been posted in response to the article, and many people (including librarians) are demanding free replacement copies for the 1st printing of the manual that they purchased (it doesn’t sound like any of these demands have been met as of yet).  The University Library owns several copies of the 6th edition 1st printing – should we paste the errata supplement in the books, or somehow alert users to go online and try and find the corrected pages?

MLA anyone?

To support this event, the Georgia State University Library has created an online research guide on Darwin. This guide features Darwin related books in our collection, a video about how molecular biology provides profound evidence in support of Darwin’s evolutionary theory, as well as useful links to researching Darwin. It also features a calendar of events listing the lectures on campus, as well as links to various other calendars of Darwin anniversary events around the globe.

The next lecture in the Darwin’s Impact series will be by Sean Carroll, professor of Molecular Biology & Genetics from the University of Wisconsin. Professor Carroll speaks at 4:00 pm on October 26, 2009 in the Speakers Auditorium at the Student Center.

 Dr. Martha Ackmann will talk about her book on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m. in Gaines Chapel, Presser Hall at Agnes Scott College. The lecture is free and open to the public. No ticket is required.

Reception and Book Signing will follow in Rebekah Scott Hall, Woltz Reception Room. Need more info? Call 404-471-5277.

McCain Library gratefully acknowledges the support of the Georgia Humanities Council, the Minter Family Foundation, the Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association and the Georgia Center for the Book.

The conference features a round table discussion between Geoffrey Bennington, Peggy Kamuf, Thomas Keenan and Gayatri Charkravorty Spivak. The Georgia State University Library has items from all of these scholars in our collection. They can be found by following each named link above.

The conference website explains more about the roundtable, as well as providing a program and information about the location.

From the About section on the conference site:

What does it mean to practice comparative literature? When we speak of a discipline that is intrinsically interdisciplinary, how do we understand its limits, articulate its purpose, and constitute its objects? These very questions apply to the humanities in general—itself a heterogeneous constellation of disciplines, each representing not only its own knowledge but its own way of asking questions. From what position can this multiplicity of knowledges comprising the humanities ask the increasingly urgent question of its own self-definition?

Constellations aims to negotiate this critical task of self-definition by bringing the questions of comparative literature and the humanities together. We hope to produce well-informed perspectives on comparative literature within the broader context of the humanities. But we also hope to ask the question of the humanities from within the fold of comparative literature—not only because it is one of several loci in the humanities where interdisciplinary work is done, but because its emphasis on language has produced strategies for negotiating between opposed, even irreducible forms of thought and knowledge.

Emory Professor Lynne Huffer is extending an invitation to a lecture and reception to launch her new book, Mad for Foucault: Rethinking the Foundations of Queer Theory (Columbia University Press).  The book launch is being held in connection with her Life of the Mind lecture, “Why Is Sexuality a Moral Experience?”   The lecture will be short, and will include a conversation with Elizabeth Wilson, Professor of Women’s Studies.

“Why Is Sexuality a Moral Experience?”
A lecture by Lynne Huffer, with Elizabeth Wilson, in celebration of
Mad for Foucault: Rethinking the Foundations of Queer Theory

Tuesday, November 3rd, 4 pm
Jones Room, 3rd floor Woodruff Library
Emory University

Reception and book signing to follow the lecture.

For more information about the book, please go to the Columbia University Press web site at:
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14918-1/mad-for-foucault

The Georgia State University Library has two of Professor Huffer’s two other books in our collection. Another Colette: the question of gendered writing and Maternal pasts, feminist futures: nostalgia, ethics and the question of difference.

Dr. Laderman’s well-reviewed and provocative new book proposes that religious life in the U.S. cannot be confined to expressions of faith in the five great religions, but must be expanded to include quasi-religious phenomena as practiced by devotees of film, music, sports and celebrity. The book argues for a more dynamic understanding of spiritual fulfillment and examines how various manifestations of popular culture provide followers with avenues for answering life’s biggest questions.

Laderman’s new book, as well as several others are located in the Georgia State University Library’s collection. Check here for their locations, call numbers and checkout status.

A prolific author and commentator on culture and society, Dr. Laderman serves as chairperson of Emory’s Department of Religion, and is also editor of the new online religion magazine, ReligionDispatches.org

The author will conduct a book signing after the talk, and books will be available for sale.

Directions: http://www.uuca.org/newcomers/directions-to-uuca

For more information on the event, contact Ann Levine, 404-248-1055 or alevinewv@comcast.net

Trotsky : a graphic biography / by Rick Geary.

Aya, the secrets come out / Marguerite Abouet, Clement Oubrerie ; [translation by Helge Dascher].

McNaughton Audio Books

Nocturnes [sound recording] / Kazuo Ishiguro.

The year of the flood[sound recording]:a novel / Margaret Atwood.

Due to recent cuts in the library budget, it was necessary to reduce the size of our browsing collection. In order to continue to make leisure reading easy for all of our patrons, we have started a brand new Book Swap program!

The new Book Swap bookshelf is located near the circulation desk in Library North, where patrons can now exchange donated books. Checkout is not required for books on the book swap shelf and these books do not have to be returned. Book donations are encouraged.

Are you a Eudora Welty fan?  If not, you could be!  The 100th anniversary of her birthday is Monday, April 13, 2009.  To help celebrate, the University Library’s Special Collections & Archives has an exhibit of rare books, manuscripts, artifacts, and audio recordings for your viewing and listening pleasure.

“Winning Hearts”:  A Eudora Welty Centennial Exhibition
University Library Special Collections Department
Library South 8th floor
April 8-16
9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Monday-Friday

Featuring rare books, manuscripts, and artifacts from the Rare Book Collection

Read the full press release.

(originally posted by Bernie Sloan to the COLLIB Listserv)