What Did You Really Do for the Holidays and Why?

Now that we've survived the end-of-the-year holidays and head into a new year and a new college term, what better time to reflect on customs, manners, food, drink, and celebration? The following social histories bring perspective to fundamental aspects of our lives which we usually take for granted.

What are good manners, anyway? How does our culture establish rules of civility in public life, business relations, and personal relationships? "A Short History of Rudeness :Manners, Morals and Misbehavior in Modern America" takes a look at how we get along--or don't.











Thinking about all the food you've eaten recently? "Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils, and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal" isn't just for Culinary Arts students. Maybe you ate more than you should have over the holidays and you took all that food for granted. Learn its history, how it gets to our tables, and the business behind everyday foods like corn flakes, citrus fruits, and even canned olives, for example.




Barbara Ehrenreich takes a look at the social history of partying in "Dancing in the Streets". From cave paintings to rock concerts humans like to get together in the pursuit of collective joy, often through dance. Today it isn't happening so much and she examines what we're missing.






Explore the history of your holiday customs with "Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals". We didn't always celebrate holidays this way in America and our customs are continuing to change.



Tom Standage maintains that every epoch has had its signature beverage. Whether it's wine, beer, or Coca Cola there is plenty to learn both about the drink and the era which produced it and why.

Happening Saturday

ASUCC (UCC's Student Government) hosted a "Study In", December 5, for UCC students to prepare for Finals Week--beginning on Monday.














Staff were there to organize and help.




















Tutors were in attendance.

Faculty came to tutor, too.

Students showed up!

Pizza was served to keep the intellectual faculties fueled.

Saturday Study @ the Library!

Duh Duh Duh! Finals are upon us, but if you need a place to brush up on those test notes or polish your final papers to a shine, you'll want to come to the UCC Library this Saturday!

ASUCC is sponsoring a Student Study-In at the Library from 11am -7pm on Dec. 5 (Sat.), with free snacks, beverages, and tutors provided! There will even be a few librarians hanging about if you need help with paper sources!

Keep in mind, the Library will also be open an extra hour on Fri. Dec. 4th (until 6pm) for those of you who want to get a little extra studying in before the weekend hits.

See you at the UCC Library!

The Library Is Open Late!

Need somewhere to study up for those upcoming finals? The UCC Library will be open 7:30 am - 6:00 pm Friday, Nov. 20th and Dec. 4th, so come on in and make the most of your time!

The library will be CLOSED Nov. 26-29 for the holiday.

photo by TonyVC, Flickr

Library Lab Has Re-emerged!!

The library lab is back! 44 new computers are up and running in the library lab.

Laptops Available for Student Use in the Library

The library has 16 laptops available for use inside the library by students. Students need a student ID with a Fall 09 sticker to check out a laptop.

Library Open, No Computer Lab

Here's the view of the open seating area and library lab. Everything has been moved to make way for 12 posts and scaffolding, while ceiling repairs continue. Take a look. Over the last week various upgrades to the library's electrical system have required the library to close on short notice. The campus phone system has been periodically disabled while other campus repairs take place, so we can't always respond to your phone messages as soon as we wish we could.

UCC LIBRARY CLOSED THURSDAY, SEPT. 17

Repairs continue at the library. The building will be closed and without electricity on September 17. We expect to open again on Friday September 18, from 8 am to 4 pm. The computer lab, HelpDesk, and open study area will still be closed.

LIBRARY COMPUTER LAB IS CLOSED

In preparation for significant repairs to the ceiling of the library the computer lab has been removed until further notice. The repair work is expected to take several weeks and may require closing the library building. Call 440-4640 for our daily hours to make sure we are open and able to offer the services you need.

UCC students with a student ID and Fall term sticker can check out a library laptop for use in the library. At this point we're all hoping for the work to be completed by the beginning of Fall term on September 28th.



Thank you!

The Musicians Behind the Music

Check out some of the recently added titles to the music section (781. . . .) of the library. Ask the staff to point you in the right direction. Over the last few months we've added biographies about Etta James, the Carter Family, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Lester Young, Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Jelly Roll Morton, Neil Young, Robert Johnson, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, and Johnny Cash.

Congratulations Graduates!

And have a great summer. . .

Can Magazines Change the World?

It's too easy to overlook UCC's relatively tiny collection of print magazines. The low wooden stands in the middle of all the tables and hubbub are home to the current issues of 100+ titles -- current events magazines, peer-reviewed journals, and a handful
of "leisure reading" rags fill the rack. Also tucked in among these offerings are
a few publications designed to investigate the world we take for granted.

Mojo is focused on rock and roll; look for articles on the rock gods and godesses alongside introductions to new music and musicians, and how the music changes and stays the same. Orion examines our world where people and nature intersect. Ode aims itself at "intelligent optimists" and promotes ways to a healthier body, soul, and planet. Adbusters gets in your face to shock you into thinking about the downside of consumerism and the upside of a paradigm shift.

Even with a few thousand magazines and journals available through UCC library's online databases, sometimes it can be inspiring to pick up a paper magazine, particularly one designed to alter the way you look at the world.

We Have Winners!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out a library user survey over the last three weeks. We accumulated 147 surveys. Amy tabulted the results and compiled all of the helpful comments that were made. As you may recall, along with the survey we also offered students the chance to win a $25 UCC Bookstore gift certificate. Under the watchful eyes of three library staff members, UCC's own Patty Lamoureaux pulled 15 winners out of the box. Congratulations to all of you who picked up your gift certificate.

Thanks again to everyone who filled out a survey and entered the drawing.

N.pag., Medium, Italics: The New MLA and You!

It happens every ten years or so, and for thousands, their lives are never the same. No, we’re not talking about solar eclipses, the national census, or even snow in June…it’s time for a new MLA!

Just like our favorite software or fashions, the Modern Language Association ‘s (MLA) citation style has updated to reflect new resources available, as well as changing trends in humanities writing. The very first MLA guide (only one page long!) was published in 1951. Today, the Modern Language Association’s Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is 290 pages long, and covers everything from articles (a, an, the) to Yahoo!

While much of the style is the same as the 6th edition you might be familiar with—yes, papers must still be written in 12-point font with 1 inch margins rather than 18- or 20-point, sorry term paper assignees—but there have been some significant changes as well, particularly with citations for electronic formats.

Here are the highlights:

• Italics—Chaos! Rioting in the streets! Peanut butter and pineapple on the same sandwich! Both the APA (American Psychological Association) and the MLA have managed to agree on something—all book, magazine, newspaper, website, and database titles are now italicized, not underlined.

• Web resources (databases and open websites)—Web addresses are no longer required for citations of online resources…unless they are. The language on this requirement is particularly squishy, so here’s the direct quote:

“In the past, this handbook recommended including URLs of Web sources in works-cited-list entries. Inclusion of URLs has proved to have limited value, however… You should include a URL as supplementary information only when the reader probably cannot locate the source without it or when your instructor requires it” (182).

• N.pag.—While this looks like it might be some trendy slang, it is actually the new abbreviation for citing items with no page numbers.

• Medium—Is that source you’re citing a dead tree (paper) publication, or dependant on the will of the internet connection? Now all citations are to have a marker at the end indicating their publishing medium. The two big ones are “Print” and “Web” respectively.

• Fuzzy Kitten Clause—all creators of Works Cited lists are required to spend at least 5 minutes immediately after completing their citations cuddling the cutest, fuzziest kitten they can find. If you are allergic to cats, the Handbook points out that hypo-allergenic pets make a good substitute, but iguanas are not really acceptable. Completing this task will help dispel the majority of the irritation caused by following the rest of the new style requirements. (Happy April Fool’s!)

And there you have it! If you have questions about citing a source, the librarians are here to help— feel free to drop in with any questions! For more details, check out our new handouts for the MLA style, or grab a copy of the 7th edition handbook at the UCC Library!

Nooks and crannies of the library collection #2

It's hard NOT to judge a book by its cover, when the cover of the book includes a title that's hard to forget. These four books about unusual ways of thinking about history, specifically European history, may tickle your fancy as you stroll through some of the more remote parts of the library collection.

No matter what you think of your own neighbors and neighborhood, you surely would be grateful to avoid what the folks of pre-industrial England (1600-1770) endured: small pox, rotting refuse in the streets, roaming pigs and dogs, carcasses in ditches, moldy food, poor air quality. . .not to mention the noise. With chapters about "Ugly", "Itchy", "Grotty", and "Gloomy" and accompanying illustrations Hubbub is an enlightening survey of English city life that will surely leave you feeling better about the 21st century.


This next item may not be safe for work, it is filled with so much filth. The filth of Shakespeare's London. But this is filth of a different sort. . .One glance at the chapter titles and you'll know whether or not this is something you want to explore and whether or not you want to know just how incredibly naughty Shakespeare plays really are. If you dare to know what sexual escapades Desdemona and Iago--or all sorts of other Shakespeare characters--are really discussing, take a peek at the pages of
Filthy Shakespeare. The author, Pauline Kiernan, holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, where she taught for many years. She's sure to make you blush.


And you'll just keep on blushing right on into the next century in City of Laughter : Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London. From the very first pages you'll be reading about "Lady Worsley's Bottom", a divorce trial, salacious color prints sold for a shilling, and a romp through a colorful history of "sex, bodies, and scandal". The author explains, "this is a book about the stories, jokes, and satirical exposures that later Georgian English people found funny. . .It focuses, not on the polished wit upon which the politer people prided themselves, but on their malicious, sardonic, and satirical humour: a peculiarly English humour if you like. . ." Perhaps this could lead to the historcial underpinnings of Monty Python's Flying Circus?


And now for something completely different. Or maybe not. Amy Butler Greenfield's A Perfect Red : Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire begins with the discovery by Spanish conquistadores of an extraordinary RED in the great marketplaces of Mexico in 1519. Butler, whose own grandfather and great-grandfather were dyers, then traces the history, influence, meaning, politics, and pirates of cochineal, "the legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities."

1498 People in the UCC Library

On February 18th, June Davies from UCC Community Relations, walked into the library with a camera just in time to take a few pictures to capture the moment.

If you were the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary in our reference collection (and you were a book with eyeballs), here's what you would have seen:





















Meanwhile, the view from the hand-crank pencil sharpener looked like this:


The wireless printer saw it this way--














Whether from the shelves amongst the literary criticism
















or over by the computer lab . . .



. . .things were hopping.

(1498 people passsed through the library doors that day according to the gate counter.)

Nooks and crannies of the library collection #1

Climate change, global economic meltdown, corrupt politicians, wars. . .If the news about contemporary civilization has you down, how about investigating some highly evolved civilizations of the past?

The UCC Library has recently added some new titles about old places and peoples. Did you know that the Irish neolithic tomb, Newgrange, is older than the Great Pyramid of Giza? It was originally built around 3,000 B.C. As the sun rises on the winter solstice, a beam of sunlight pierces the dark passageway of Newgrange and lights up the inner chamber. Although currently residing in our "New Books" section, these two books will soon move to 936.15 in the back of the library.


Around a thousand years later the mysterious Stonehenge was completed. Who built it and at what effort? Archaeologist Anthony Johnson reexamines 250 years of fieldwork and speculation of this prehistoric site, explains the geometry, and lays out the rationale for this monumental landmark in his book "Solving Stonehenge".

"Stonehenge Complete" is a third edition of a classic. Even though 20,000 visitors gather at midsummer dawn, as this new edition explains, "they are in error: although Stonehenge is indeed astronomically oriented, it is not aligned on the midsummer sunrise at all." Our Stonehenge books hang out near Newgrange. Look for them in the stacks at 936.2.



Finally, take a look nearby (932 W) at "Genesis of the Pharaohs: Dramatic New Discoveries Rewrite the Origins of Ancient Egypt". Archaeologist Toby Wilkinson argues that ancient Egyptians were semi-nomadic herders and not settled farmers. The book has dozens of illustrations, including 25 in color.

Personal Finances, the New Year, and You

Are you one of the many who's New Year's resolution involves keeping better track of your finances? If so, or if you just like money in general, you might find these links from Library Journal of the best personal finance education and assistance websites and books useful!

Thrift for Tough Times: personal finances (LJ Jan. 2009)