Banned Books Week

It's Banned Books Week. Celebrate your freedom to read by checking out one of the 10 most challenged books of 2008:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Reasons: Anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint and unsuited to age group.

2. His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman. Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint and violence.

3. TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

4. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz. Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint and violence.

5. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya. Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit and violence.

6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but Stephen Chbosky. Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, suicide and unsuited to age group.

7. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

8. Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen. Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group.

9. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

10. Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper. Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group.

New Database Announcement

From Brian Hubbard, Head of Reference:

Ely Library is pleased to announce the addition of Biography Resource Center: African Americans to our array of electronic resources. The database is available on and off-campus from our Quick Links list accessible from the Library Home Page.

Biography Resource Center: African Americans provides nearly 30,000 narrative and thumbnail biographies about notable African Americans from the respected Gale sources available in the Biography Resource Center. Biographies include notable African American figures such as Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Harriet Tubman, Usher, Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods, W.E.B. Du Bois, and many others. Also included are more than 42,000 full-text periodical articles, websites, and recent update news briefs. Users can search on name, personal facts such as birth/death dates and place, occupation, and gender, or combine criteria to create a targeted custom search.

The database provides access to the biographies in almost 60 volumes of six Gale reference sources:

Contemporary Black Biography
Notable Black American Men
Notable Black American Scientists
Notable Black American Women
St. James Guide to Black Artists
Who's Who Among African Americans

In addition to essays that provide key biographical facts and summaries of individuals' lives and careers, search results also yield:

Links to nearly 250 vetted web sites
Approximately 2,000 portraits
More than 42,000 full-text periodical articles from nearly 300 magazines

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

A fabulous SlideShare Presentation:

A Teacher's Guide To Web 2.0 at School

View more documents from Sacha Chua.