Word on the Street

News on comics and Dr. Frederic Wertham

Alexander Street's Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels continues to grow and garner praise from some of the most influential publications in the comics industry. Recently, comics editor Greg Urquhart spoke with ICv2 to discuss the creation of the online collection. You can read the full article here.

Libraries are also taking notice of the collection and using it to enhance there comic book collections. The Library of Congress boasts the country's largest collection of comic books, and they recently opened the personal papers of Dr. Frederic Wertham. Wertham, as you'll recall, authored Seduction of the Innocent, which paved the way for the Comics Code Authority and their ban on material deemed unsuitable for the public. A great article about Wertham and the Library of Congress was just published by Washington City Paper, and can be read here.

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is available to libraries and academic institutions worldwide. For more information, including a free trial and price quote, please contact [email protected].

National HBCU Week

This week has officially been designated National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week by President Obama. The proclamation is intended to raise awareness and support the efforts of the 105 HBCUs in the US. You can learn more by reading the official White House press release.

Today Alexander Street is attending the Howard University Faculty Open House, and all week we're offering free content that celebrates National HBCU Week. To see a video clip discussing Thurgood Marshall's education at Howard Law School under Charles Houston, and for future free content, visit our Facebook page and look for the Afternoon Snack.

Support public libraries

Cecil County Public Library in Maryland is making their My Library, My Lifeline logo freely available to increase awareness of the value of public libraries. You can download the logo and learn more on the CCPL Web site.

 

Head back to school with a free playlist

If you are a student, teacher, librarian, or faculty member preparing for another year of classes, why not head back to school with a free playlist from Alexander Street? Use the QR reader on your mobile device between now and October 15th to scan the QR code below. You'll then be able to enjoy a free streaming playlist on your iPhone or Droid while you plan for the new academic year.

You can also find a bonus QR code on the School Library Journal blog, which links to a free "Moon Landing" playlist.

ASP president on BookExpo America panel

The discussion panel "Tomorrow's Library in the World of Digits" was held on May 26th at BookExpo America in New York City. Panel members included Alexander Street president Stephen Rhind-Tutt, Nora Rawlinson of EarlyWord, Michael Santangelo of Brooklyn Public Library, Steve Potash of Overdrive, and Daniel Oblong of Sony Electronics. A complete list of panel members and links to their bios can be found on the Resource Shelf blog. A summary of the discussion by Paul Biba is available on TeleRead.com.

Celebrate Women's History Month with free access to Women and Social Movements

March is Women's History Month, and to celebrate we've made the popular online collection, Women and Social Movements in the U.S., 1600-2000, Scholar's Edition, freely accessible for the entire month.

To access Women and Social Movements, Scholar's Edition simply go to http://wass.alexanderstreet.com

A mainstay for women’s history research and teaching in universities worldwide, this online collection is edited by Professors Kathryn Kish Sklar and Thomas Dublin of SUNY Binghamton. It’s an extensive collection of primary historic documents, books, images, scholarly essays, teaching tools, and book and Web-site reviews.  

Women and Social Movements is one of the most heavily visited resources for women’s studies and for U.S. history on the Web.

Easily learn. . .

• How Did the Ladies Association of Philadelphia Shape New Forms of Women's Activism During the American Revolution, 1780-1781?
• How Did White Women Aid Former Slaves During and After the Civil War, 1863-1891?
• How Did Black and White Southern Women Campaign to End Lynching, 1890-1942?
• How and Why Did the Guerrilla Girls Alter the Art Establishment in New York City, 1985-1995?
• How Have Recent Social Movements Shaped Civil Rights Legislation for Women?  The 1994 Violence Against Women Act.

There are also more than 40,000 pages of full-text sources, including:

• Proceedings of all women's rights conventions, 1848-1869
• Proceedings of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 1874-1898
• Selected publications of the League of Women Voters, 1920-2000
• Notable American Women, the complete five-volume biographical dictionary
• The Collected Publications of federal, state, and local Commissions on the Status of Women, a digital archive with 90,000 pages of publications, 1961-2005

Please also be sure to check out the companion blog to Women and Social Movements, Women and Social Movements: The Online Discussion, where faculty discuss how they’ve made use of the online collection in the classroom, share syllabi, and exchange ideas.

Women and Social Movements is a 2004 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award winner. For more information on making this a permanent part of your library's holdings, please contact [email protected].

Remembering Claude Lévi-Strauss

By now you may have heard that French anthropologist and sociologist Claude Lévi-Strauss passed away on October 30th. Often called "the father of modern anthropology," Lévi-Strauss was an important structuralism theorist. His theories are presented in Structural Anthropology, both volumes of which are available in Alexander Street's online collection Social Theory. The complete text of Elementary Structures of Kinship is also available in Social Theory.

In addition to his own works, Claude Lévi-Strauss is discussed in the works of others, including Communication and the Evolution of Society by Jürgen Habermas and For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign by Jean Baudrillard.

Social Theory is available to libraries and academic institutions via annual subscription or a one-time purchase of perpetual rights. For more information, or to request a free trial, please email [email protected].

A Look Back to Inauguration Day 1861

We're celebrating the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States with a look back at the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. Enjoy two free downloads that offer a glimpse of what the 1861 inauguration was really like.

Taken from Images of the American Civil War is the photo seen here of Mary Todd Lincoln in her inaugural gown. With so much speculation as to what Michele Obama will be wearing today, you can compare the attire of each First Lady.

We've all heard of the similarities between Barack Obama and Lincoln, but even the preparations for their inauguration ceremonies have an eerie resemblance. The March, 1861 diary entry from Margaret Sumner McLean describes predictions that the Lincoln inauguration would not take place, the enhanced security surrounding Lincoln's arrival at the Capitol, and the preparations for a crisis. McLean also mentions how stunning Mrs. Lincoln looked in her ball gown, but notes that it was "the most unhappy day of her life." McLean's diary entry can be found in The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries.

Both of these items are available for free download at http://alexanderstreet.com/resources/featureditems.htm.

Celebrating Dr. King

To commemorate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King, Jr. Alexander Street is offering two free downloads from our online collections.

The "I Have a Dream..." button seen here is just one example of the type of material that will be available in our forthcoming title The Sixties.

Also available for download is an excerpt of Kenneth Bancroft Clark's chapter "The New Negro in the North" found in Unpublished Papers of Kenneth B. Clark found in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress. Read Clark's examination of Dr. King's style of leadership, and how he believes it was more effective in the South. Libraries that subscribe to Black Thought and Culture can read Clark's work in its entirety.

Download these free resources now.