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Written on: June 25th, 2009 in Reviews
The Korean War began with the invasion of South Korea by the Communist-led North and the beginning of the United Nations “police action” to restore the independence of the South. Three months later, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed into the peninsula and began clashing with the predominantly American troops making up the bulk of the U.N. forces.
You can view an incredible set of digitized maps of various phases of the conflict at this U.S. Army Center for Military History webpage, and click here for a public domain collection of photographs from the War. Other downloadable resources from the U.S. CMH include chronologies and posters, and a list of Medal of Honor recipients.
You can find a large number of books about the Korean War in the Delaware Library Catalog. Click here for a full list of books, although the Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam and the Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea by James Brady are particularly well regarded general histories of the war.
The Korean War never actually ended, of course. The U.S. Army still maintains substantial forces in the Korean peninsula, and the stalemate in which the active conflict ended is still a significant factor in current U.S. foreign relations.
Written on: June 24th, 2009 in Reviews
I think that my personal knowledge of English vicarages and country homes comes from Miss Marple, and though I don’t have any first hand experience of Hawaii I feel like I know plenty about the Island State from watching reruns of Hawaii Five-O.
This makes me think about how much we can learn from the type of genre fiction that is most often categorized as merely entertainment.
On (gen)re-flection, mysteries and thrillers can be a unique form of access to foreign lands and foreign cultures- there are incredibly good, entertaining reads out there that also vividly portray the geography and everyday lives of nations that most people will never visit.
How many people knew all that much about Botswana before McCall-Smith’s Precious Ramotswe mysteries? They are thoroughly enjoyable, enormously popular, and are brought alive by the author’s obvious love for the country and its people, with vivid depictions of how the intersection between traditional culture and modernity plays out in this one dusty nation.
Eliot Patison’s Inspector Shan mysteries, while thrilling and tragic, are also rich with ethnographic details about Tibetan folkways, from agriculture and diet to spirituality.
There are mysteries set in the slums of India such as The Case of the Missing Servant, by Tarquin Hall, which portray the intersection between the “New India” and the ancient caste system, a well as the well-regarded “Inspector Ghote” series by HRF Keating.
If you’re interested in exploring the world AND enjoying a gripping read, Linda Bertland’s School Library Resource Website has links to other great lists for mysteries set in foreign countries, organized by region.
Written on: June 23rd, 2009 in News
Last year, the fight to save the Philadelphia libraries was the big news in libraries. As befits that fair city, the campaign was a bare-knuckle street fight, with daily rallies, political maneuvering, and direct action.
On Friday, Governor Strickland of Ohio announced a budget that included the elimination of as much as $200 million of library funding over the next two years- potentially equaling a 50% cut in most public library funding.
In Ohio, the revolution has been digitized. Over the weekend, an huge number of websites were created or overhauled to publicize the budget issue and to encourage library patrons to contact their legislators:
The “Save Ohio Libraries” website
The Toledo Library homepage
The Columbus Public Library website today
The campaign has also encompassed social media to an unprecedented degree. Comments on Governor Strickland’s Facebook page now almost exclusively concern the library issue, with a new comment from an Ohio voter every couple of minutes, all stating their support for libraries and opposition to the cuts. Twitter is also seeing an incredible amount of posts in support of Ohio Libraries, with supporters using the site to drive supporters to sites where they can register their opinion, contact their state and local legislators, and publicize the issue within local and national media.
Good Luck, Ohio-ans! With this amount of passion and commitment, all things are possible!
Written on: June 23rd, 2009 in News
Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:
All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs
Written on: June 23rd, 2009 in News
A blog that is mostly about books can hardly let the birthday of the typewriter go unremarked!
“Christopher Latham Sholes’ machine was not the first typewriter. It wasn’t even the first typewriter to receive a patent. But it was the first typewriter to have actual practical value for the individual, so it became the first machine to be mass-produced…After receiving his patent, Sholes licensed it to Remington & Sons, the famous gunmaker. The first commercial typewriter, the Remington Model 1, hit the shelves in 1873.”
Written on: June 22nd, 2009 in News, Reviews
This week’s New Yorker magazine includes a lengthy profile of the prolific author Nora Roberts. You can see current issues of the New Yorker, along with hundreds of other popular magazines (including Consumer Reports) online through EBSCO’s MasterFile- log in to the Delaware Library Catalog with your library card and PIN, then select “Research Databases/EBSCO” to access all of the subscription resources available to your and every other library card holder.
Here are a few nuggets from the profile- Roberts sounds like a fascinating character:
If you have a Delaware Library Catalog card, you can also click here to read reviews and read-alikes from EBSCO’s NoveList book review website (although there are enough Roberts/Robb books to keep most voracious readers busy enough not to need an alternate!)
Written on: June 19th, 2009 in News
In a conversation last week, my coworker Patty reminded me that at least a couple of times a year, everyone should switch over to Route 9 for their commute between New Castle County and Dover. It takes a while longer, and is about 15 miles longer, but it’s still a beautiful change of scenery- and a nice change to see a landscape where human economic and social structures have integrated with rather than overwhelmed the natural landscape.
Route 9 is a designated Coastal Scenic Byway, recognized for its variety and beauty- there’s a good article about driving Rt. 9 here. A dirt road until the early part of the twentieth century, Rt. 9 was the main transportation and economic artery of the State until the development of Rt. 13, which began as a two-land highway in 1924 and ten years later became the first divided highway in the world, revolutionizing the State’s commercial life by allowing easy access to the northern markets for agricultural crops.
Mention of choosing between Rt. 1, Rt. 13, and Rt. 9 also presents an excuse to mention Google Books’ new service: full text embedded viewing of books scanned through their mass digitization program. Here’s a nice local example that you can read in full text without leaving this website:
Written on: June 16th, 2009 in News, Reviews
Much of the world is transfixed at this moment by the upheavals following the recent Iranian election, by the apparent paradox of a popular demand for democracy, with women as some of the strongest voices heard, within a fundamentalist, autocratic system.
The Iranian regime is justifiably demonized by most Western governments, but the history of Persia/Iran is long and not especially receptive to simplistic analysis. Here are a few well-reviewed titles available from the Delaware Library Catalog about Iranian history, politics, and culture with an emphasis on the late 20th Century and the emergence of the fundamentalist revolutionary regime:
And here are some more general listings of books available on various related topics:
Much of current American analysis and understanding is informed by our experiences with the hostage crisis. These are a couple of good books on that subject:
Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden
Taken Hostage, by David Farber
And a complete listing of books available on the hostage crisis.
UPDATE: Web Resources of Interest
Written on: June 16th, 2009 in News
June 16th will always be Bloomsday- the day on which Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses ate, drank and adventured around Dublin.
Libraries and literature lovers around the world celebrate Bloomsday by recreating or reading about events from Bloom’s hyperactive day. If you can’t make it to Dublin to reenact Bloom’s peregrinations in person, The Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia has events scheduled today.
(and yes I said yes I will Yes.)
Written on: June 16th, 2009 in News
This striking, WPA-inspired image was featured in the March 1933 issue of Publishers Weekly, at the height of the Great Depression. The NPR blog recently published this story about the issue, showing a remarkable resemblance in reader preferences, library use, and the publishing industry between then and today. Escapist romances, gripping adventure tales, and broad prescriptions for the economic health of the nation were as popular then as now, with library circulation reaching new heights in both periods.
Today’s Baltimore Sun published yet another in a long line of stories about people turning to their libraries as a resource for employment resources- attendance at the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s programs has doubled, along with the city’s unemployment rate this year.
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