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Art, Database Highlights & Trials, English, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, Music, News & Events

Video Streaming Database Trial: Digital Theatre+

During the month of February, the University of St. Thomas Libraries is conducting a trial for the Database Digital Theatre+. It includes videos of over 900 full-length productions, including Digital Theatre, BBC, Royal Shakespeare Company, Broadway Digital Archive, Royal Opera House, London Symphony Orchestra, as well as in-depth interviews with industry professionals including actors, directors, and all backstage staff: lighting technicians, fight coordinators, stage managers, et al.

To access to the trial click this link
Please send comments to Cindy Badilla-Melendez, Head of the Music & Media Collections.

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, English, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

American Plays

The Music and Media Collections at O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library has so many viewing categories to choose from! Be sure to visit us on the first floor and check out the many performances of classic American plays.

A Raisin in the Sun (1961) is the definitive adaptation of playwright Lorraine Hansberry’s powerful work, featuring the incomparable Sidney Poitier. A stellar cast (including Claudia McNeil) brings this drama to life in which an American family struggles against racism to achieve the American dream. This play is essential viewing.
PS 3515 .A515 R3 1999 DVD

Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey into Night (1962) follows the story of an American family torn apart by addiction and illness. It was the first film in history in which all four leading actors won Best Acting awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Katharine Hepburn, Sir Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Jr., and Dean Stockwell star.
PS 3529 .N5 L6 2004 DVD

Dustin Hoffman leads the cast of the 1985 adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. The drama centers on a Willy Loman, a traveling salesman battling demons of the past. Our DVD copy contains a feature-length documentary that takes a close look at the collaboration between Hoffman, director Volker Schlöndorff, and Arthur Miller himself.
PS 3525 .I5156 D4 2002 DVD

 

Sarah Pavey

English, Libraries, Media/Music Collections, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Science

Ambrose Video Collection

The Ambrose Video Collection has over 400 titles available for streaming for students, faculty, and staff at UST. It covers the subject areas of American history, American literature, world history, ancient history, geology, biology, theology, art, sciences, and all the Shakespeare plays that were produced by the BBC.

Below are a few suggested titles that show the broad range of media available from streaming through The Ambrose Video Collection:

Julius Caesar: Watch this classic Shakespeare play come to life through the work of BBC Productions. Julius Caesar is a highly ambitious political leader in Rome whose aim is to become dictator. Caesar is assassinated due to the plotting of Marcus Brutus and Cassius, who meet their inevitable defeat and plunge the country into civil war.

Glaciers: The most powerful geologic force on the planet – glaciers. Glaciers can dominate an entire continent or reshape a continent’s surface features in the blink of a geologic eye. All the spectacular mountain peaks that inspire us have been shaped by glaciers. This thirty-minute short documentary includes interviews with leading glacial experts from around the country.

Great African American Authors: 1761-1901: From pre-Revolutionary War poetry and sermons, to anti-Civil War slave narratives, to Jim Crow Era segregation and discrimination issues, the Civil Rights period, to the Black Artists movement and to the Black New Wave of the 21st Century, this breakthrough eight-part series, Great African American Authors, tells the amazing story of the evolution of the African American literary tradition in the United States. This first section celebrates authors born out of slavery and the African oral tradition who gave voice to the struggles of African Americans in the early days of this nation. Program one examines the beginning of African American Literature through the authors Jupiter Hammon, Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Booker T. Washington.

By Sophia Wolf

English, Libraries, News & Events, Services

3,344 lbs. of Food and Counting: UST Libraries Annual Food Drive

The UST Libraries just kicked off their 7th Annual Food Drive. Since the Library’s first drive in 2009, where we received 156 lbs. of food to last year’s donation of 927 lbs., the Library has donated a total of 3,344 lbs of food to local food shelves.

For the first 6 years of the program the Library emphasized the opportunity for library users to donate food in exchange for the forgiving of overdue library fines. A student could donate 1 can of food and the Library would then waive $2 of fines. Over the years the Library has forgiven a total of $6,836 fines.

However, over time we noticed that the vast majority of donors were either students, whole dorms, or staff and faculty, who just wanted to give food, regardless of any reciprocity.

2011_1In the fall of 2011 the Library was approached by the English Department to offer a mid-year food drive, in collaboration with their Common Context theme “Hunger”, which “focused on numerous aspects of hunger and scarcity on a global and local scale, but they also are designed to inspire the consideration of related dimensions of hunger including desire, longing and the struggle for justice.”

Since the inception of the food drive the Library’s primary interest was to offer students an alternative to paying for overdue fines and at the same time allow for the UST community to bless a local food shelf. We wanted to donate to food shelves that may be impacted by our campus and likewise may even serve some members of our institution. Since we started offering the program, we have donated to the Franciscan Brothers of Peace (’09, ’10, ‘11), Francis Basket Foodshelf (‘11), and Saint Paul Area Council of Churches (’13, ’14, ’15).

2013_FoodForFines

This year’s UST Libraries Food Drive started during Library Week, April 12th and will run until the end of the semester, May 31st.

We encourage any and every one to donate to this program, regardless of having overdue fines. Consider how fortunate our campus is, with the wonderful community that surrounds us, and give a little back today.

How many of the UST Libraries Food Drives have you donated to? We would love to hear your stories and how these drives may have affected you. #USTLibraries

Archbishop Ireland Library, Charles J. Keffer Library, English, Libraries, Library Week, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

National Library Week 2015!

ALA_NLW2015_336x280Since 1958, the American Library Association has chosen a week in April to celebration National Library Week. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.

National Library Week is April 12-18th this year, and the national theme is “Endless Possibilities @ Your Library.” UST Libraries will be celebrating from April 13-17th and have come up with a variety of programs and events throughout the week. We are excited to share it all with you!

Check out the schedule below or view our National Library Week website to learn more!

——————–

Special Events:

Monday, 4/13
OSF Booksale Grand Opening – 12:00pm in the OSF Leather Room

Tuesday, 4/14
Storytime for All Ages – 10-11:00 am in the OSF Reference Room (by Coffee Bene)
in conjunction with the UST Child Development Center & National Week of the Young Child

Thursday, 4/16
Caden10485847_285589934969998_4889919847079693104_nza (women’s a cappela group) – 12:00pm in the OSF Rotunda

Friday, 4/17
Katrina Vandenberg Poetry Reading – 7-8:30pm in the Great Hall
in conjunction with the Sacred Arts Festival, cosponsored by the English Department

——————–

Ongoing Events:

Booksales:

OSF Booksale
Noon-6pm, OSF Leather Room
4/13-17

Theology Used Booksale & Silent Auction
8am-10pm, Ireland Library
4/13-16, & 12noon on 4/17

Daily Trivia
Questions will be posted Monday-Thursday on the UST National Library Week website

6th Annual Food Drive
Back again for 2015, join with the rest of the UST community to donate non-perishable food items. Donations will go to the Emergency Food Shelf at the Saint Paul Area Council of Churches.

Library Post (Catalog) Cardsdesktop card
Take a break from your studies and design your very own Library Post (Catalog) Card. We’re sure your mother would love to hear from you and tape your latest creation to the family fridge!

What have Libraries made Possible for You?
Join the community discussion of this year’s National Library Week theme on the OSF Rotunda whiteboard, Twitter, Flickr, and other social media sites (viewable on our website, as well)

Database Highlights & Trials, English, Libraries, News & Events

Literature Online now includes MLA Bibliography

Literature Online
The Literature Online (LION) database now includes content from the MLA International Bibliography, making this a single-point resource for the study and teaching of literature in English. The fully integrated service combines the texts of over 357,000 works of literature with huge resources of criticism and reference. It lets users search across the two leading literary indexes – MLA and the Annual Bibliography of Language and Literature (ABELL) – and link directly to literary criticism and reference from an extensive collection of full-text literature journals.

The MLA add-on module provides over 2 million citation records of books and articles covering literary criticism, modern languages, folklore, and linguistics. Users will now benefit from full integration with the database and features such as:

  • Immediate access from MLA citations to full-text journal articles in Literature Online
  • Access to full-text articles via Open URL and JSTOR links
  • Integration with the extensive library of primary works, criticism, and reference sources in Literature Online

Researchers will be able to cross-search these bibliographies by keyword, title keyword, subject author/reviewer, publication details, journal, and publication year. Give it a try; you won’t be disappointed!

Art, Business & Economics, English, Latin America, Libraries, Modern Languages, News & Events, Science

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to campus, everyone! It was so fun to cheer on the class of 2018 as they marched through the arches yesterday, and today it’s great to see the Quad filled with smiling faces as we all reconnect and get geared up for a wonderful academic year.

We hope you had a fun summer! Things were busy around here at the library and, as usual, we have some fun news to share.

As you gear up for your fall research projects, remember to check out our handy Subject Guides – what I like to call handy “mini library websites” geared specifically towards your course and subject content (and I’m not making that up – we  work with your professors to make sure we have what you need to do your assignments!).

We’re also happy to report that Summon, our popular library search engine, has received an upgrade that we hope will make it easy to use.  Some highlights we’ve heard students liking already include: recommendations of subject specialists based on what you’re searching, automatic breakdown of content by type (like Google does), and more.  Check it out and let us know what you think! 

We’ve also added many more online resources, including these favorites of mine:

  • ASTM Standards and Engineering Digital Library – a collection of industry-leading standards and technical engineering information
  • Digitalia Hispánica – database of e-books and e-journals in Spanish and English, with access to some of the most renowned publishers in Spain and Latin America
  • Early English Books Online – primary source collection featuring English-language books, pamphlets, tracts and ephemera printed between 1473 – 1700
  • Literature Online (“LION”) – criticism and reference resources as well as full text of poetry, drama, and prose fiction from the 8th century to the present day
  • Nature – we have expanded our subscription to the journal “Nature” to include archives going back to 1987

And, of course, we have much more!

As I like to joke, you can stick a quarter in me and I’d go on and on about all of the wonderful resources we have here at the UST Libraries, but I know we’re all busy so I’ll stop here.  Instead, make an appointment with your favorite librarian today find out more about what we have to help you with your research today!

English, News & Events

Othello at the Guthrie

I want to alert the community to a presentation of Shakespeare’s Othello at the Guthrie Theatre. I’ve read it; I’ve seen it; I’ve heard it AND it doesn’t get old. This production is breath-taking. Certainly one of the best things I’ve seen at the Guthrie. And we have season’s tickets! We usually do our homework. Read at least a bit of it to prepare ourselves for the experience. The libraries have dozens of versions. And thousands of articles that discuss the play from every conceivable point of view. Every actor was believable and Yoakam did Iago in a most insidious way. But for me the two standouts were Peter Macon as Othello and Regina Marie Williams as Emilia, wife of Iago. Othello’s disintegration was visible through his whole body and Emilia – you could feel her horror for her role in the tragedy down to her finger-tips.  I recommend it to you all!

English, Libraries, News & Events, O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Poets Kirsten Dierking and Tracy Youngblom to read poetry on Wednesday, October 23 at 3pm

Anoka-Ramsey Community College instructor and former O’Shaughnessy-Frey library staff member, Kirsten Dierking has published her third book of poetry and will read at the University of St. Thomas, O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 3:00 pm.  Joining Kirsten is friend and colleague, Tracy Youngblom, who has recently published her first book of poetry and also teaches at Anoka-Ramsey Community College.  Book signing will follow the reading.

Kirsten Dierking

Kirsten Dierking

 About Kirsten:

During a writing residency at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts near the Mississippi River, Kirsten Dierking, a poet and humanities instructor at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, thought a lot about water and the changeable nature of time.  The result is “Tether,” her third volume of poetry, published recently by Spout Press, a Minneapolis publisher.
“I’m trying to capture those moments when time seems to slow and still; the spaces between waking and sleeping, the middle of a long, hot season, the feeling of floating on water,” she said. “But I’m also trying to understand those parts of our lives that flash by and how we face the relentless onrush of the future.”

The poems are grounded in “Minnesota” topics – winter, a vacation week at the cabin and the Mississippi River. Water is a strong theme in the book.
“I have poems about rivers, streams, lakes, the ocean,” Dierking said. “Part of this probably just comes from living in the land of 10,000 lakes. But I was particularly inspired by a writing residency and by working at Anoka-Ramsey. Both of these places sit right on the banks of the Mississippi. And I often get writing ideas when I’m out on the water paddling a kayak.”
Being an active artist helps Dierking bring a creative dimension into the classroom and demonstrates to students that contemporary art is being created now. “They see that poetry is not just something they are reading about in a textbook,” she said.   Dierking has taught humanities courses at Anoka-Ramsey Community College since 2004.   In 2011, Kirsten received the NEA’s Excellence in the Academy Award for the Art of Teaching, and in 2009 she received the Building Bridges Award in Education from the Islamic Resource Group of Minnesota.

Kirsten Dierking is the recipient of a 2010 McKnight Artist Fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for literature, a Loft Literary Center Career initiative grant and a SASE/Jerome grant.

Dierking’s two other books of poetry are “Northern Oracle,” (Spout Press, 2007), and “One Red Eye,” (Holy Cow! Press, 2001). Her poems have been heard on public radio’s The Writer’s Almanac and have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems, American Places and To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present.   “Tether” is available online through Small Press Distribution, Spout Press, at local bookstores or any bookstore, which can order it.
An interview with Kirsten Dierking:

Kirsten's 3rd book: Tether

Kirsten’s 3rd book: Tether

What is the title of your book?
K: Tether

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
K: Tether revolves around the changeable nature of time in our lives.

Where did the idea for the book come from?
K: Time, and the passing of time, becomes more important the older you get! I’m trying to capture those moments when time seems to slow and still; the spaces between waking and sleeping, the middle of a long, hot season, the feeling of floating on water. But I’m also trying to understand those parts of our lives that flash by, and how we face the relentless onrush of the future. These ideas are grounded in very “Minnesotan” topics – poems about winter, a vacation week at the cabin, the Mississippi River.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the book?
K: It took about 4 years to write the book, including early drafts and many subsequent revisions.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
K: Water is a strong theme in the book, I have poems about rivers, streams, lakes, the ocean. Part of this probably just comes from living in the land of 10,000 lakes! But I was particularly inspired by a writing residency at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts, and also by working at Anoka-Ramsey Community College – both these places sit right on the banks of the Mississippi. And I often get writing ideas when I’m out on the water paddling a kayak. Some of the varied things that inspired specific poems: standing on the prime meridian in Greenwich, thunder, the French Revolution, watching a boy fish Rice Creek.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
K: The publisher is Spout Press, they are a non-profit literary press headquartered in Minneapolis. Their books are distributed by Small Press Distribution (SPD).

What other works would you compare this book to within your genre?
K: I think one of the great things about poetry is that good poets have strong, unique voices, so comparisons are difficult. I do love Linda Pastan’s work, her connection to nature and time, and the succinct quality of her poems.

**********************************************************************

Tracy Youngblom

Tracy Youngblom

 About Tracy:

Tracy Youngblom earned an MA in English from the University of St. Thomas and an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. Her first full-length collection of poems, Growing Big, was published in September 2013 by North Star Press. A chapbook of poems, Driving to Heaven, was published in 2010 (Parallel Press) and was reviewed in The Georgia Review.
Individual poems, stories, and book reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in journals including Shenandoah, New York Quarterly, Briar Cliff Review, New Hibernia Review, Slate, North Stone Review, Aethlon, Potomac Review, Poetry East, Ruminate, Weave magazine, Emprise Review, Frostwriting, and others.
Tracy teaches English full time at Anoka-Ramsey Community College, lives with her husband and dog, and spends as much time as possible with her three grown sons.

More about Tracy:
Please visit these links to publisher pages with little blurbs about the books Tracy will be reading from:

http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu/poetry/titles/author.shtml?Youngblom

https://ourbooks.myshopify.com/collections/poetry/products/growing-big-1

All are welcome — reading is free and open to the public — refreshments will be provided.
We hope to see you Wednesday – October 23 – 3:00 – 4:00 pm — Great Hall on 2nd floor!
Questions? Please call Julie Kimlinger, 962-5014