A Bi-Weekly Update
10/22/10
Credo Reference Growing by Leaps and Bounds
Trexler Library’s Credo Reference online collection now numbers 500 well-regarded titles. Here are the titles added in the last month:
- American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present, Grey House Publishing
- From Suffrage to the Senate: American’s Political Women, Grey House Publishing
- Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopedia of Scandals, Power & Greed, Grey House Publishing
- The Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy, Princeton University Press
- The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook, Grey House Publishing
- Speakers of the House of Representatives, 1789-2009, Grey House Publishing
Talking about Malcolm Gladwell
On Nov. 10 at 4:30 p.m., Chaplain Peter Bredlau will lead a discussion in the library (Periodicals Reading Room) on Malcolm Gladwell’s bestsellers: Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers. This event is open to the public. If you’ve read any one or several of these titles, now is the chance to talk them through with other people interested in these provocative works and their author.
Publishers Weekly says of Gladwell’s book Blink: “Best-selling author Gladwell (The Tipping Point) has a dazzling ability to find commonality in disparate fields of study. As he displays again in this entertaining and illuminating look at how we make snap judgments-about people’s intentions, the authenticity of a work of art, even military strategy-he can parse for general readers the intricacies of fascinating but little-known fields like professional food tasting (why does Coke taste different from Pepsi?). Gladwell’s conclusion, after studying how people make instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts-and that less input (as long as it’s the right input) is better than more.”
Infomaniac Tip
The Living Room Candidate (http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/), from the Museum of the Moving Image, presents over 300 commercials from every presidential election since 1952. From the site:
“In a media-saturated environment in which news, opinions, and entertainment surround us all day on our television sets, computers, and cell phones, the television commercial remains the one area where presidential candidates have complete control over their images. Television commercials use all the tools of fiction filmmaking, including script, visuals, editing, and performance, to distill a candidate’s major campaign themes into a few powerful images. Ads elicit emotional reactions, inspiring support for a candidate or raising doubts about his opponent. While commercials reflect the styles and techniques of the times in which they were made, the fundamental strategies and messages have tended to remain the same over the years.”
Browse commercials by election year, type of commercial (e.g., biographical, children, commander in chief, fear), issue (e.g., change, civil rights, taxes, war).
Calendar of Events
10/22 Meditation. Open to the public. (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Trexler Library Rare Books Room.)
10/25 – 10/29 Banned Books Week at Trexler Library. Open to all Muhlenberg affiiliates. Six discussions held over the course of the week around various censorship themes. (Periodicals Reading Room.)
10/26 Fall Reflections. A conversation with Sarah Carlson, Brett Fadem, and Peter Bredlau on the need for reflection. Open to the public. (6:30-7:30 p.m. Fulford Room.)
10/29 Graphic Story Contest. Final day to submit entries.
10/29 Meditation. Open to the public. (5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Trexler Library Rare Books Room.)
11/1 Author Reception: Roland Kushner. (4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Fulford Room.)
11/3 Coffee and Copyright: “I Own My Own Work, Don’t I? Strategies for Retaining Copyright.” Open to the public. (4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m., Periodicals Reading Room.)
11/5 Novemberfest. Games and refreshments. Open to the public. (6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Level A Trexler Library.)
11/10 Peter Bredlau leads discussion on 3 books by Malcolm Gladwell. Open to the public. Read any one or several of these titles and join in the conversation: Blink, The Tipping Point, Outliers. (4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m., Periodicals Reading Room.)
