Get to Know Your Library

As part of our National Library Week celebrations, the library staff created a display detailing our last 25 years of service to the Sullivan community. Take a look:

Women's History-Personal Histories

Two remarkable women from two different generations can be found in these featured titles.

Healing Hearts: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon; 617.412 M195h

A cardiothoracic surgeon, who seeks to educate women about the importance of taking care of themselves and their hearts, writes an approachable memoir in which she details her roles as physician, wife, and mother. Magliato intersperses anecdotes from her personal life with emergency medical situations, and, without being heavy-handed, she doles out medical advice. Magliato discusses her struggles with issues affecting women professionals, such as sexual harassment and parenthood, with frankness. As she recounts her formative years and her training to become a doctor, she writes as if she is talking to one of her friends or her family members. One comes away from this memoir having an appreciation for life and for those who work to save lives.

The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor; 331.092 D748w

Though her name may have faded from all but the history books, Frances Perkins’ work as an activist and politician lingers into the 21st century. Perkins, President Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor and the first female cabinet member in U.S. history, was instrumental in securing an eight-hour workday, safer fire escapes, and Social Security. She also oversaw and/or implemented some of the New Deal initiatives like the Works Progress Administration. Kirstin Downey recounts the fascinating and challenging life that Frances had as the Labor Secretary and as a working mother with a husband who was institutionalized for much of their married life. In addition to synthesizing the facts of Ms. Perkins’ life, the author engages the reader in the person of Ms. Perkins; a woman who was down to earth despite her political position. For those who have an interest in U.S. history, labor relations, or women’s history, this biography delivers.

To check out one or both of these titles, come to the library and one of the librarians will be happy to assist you.

Women and the Right to Vote in the U.S.

Women’s Right to Vote: America’s Suffrage Movement by Katie Marsico

In this chronological account of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, Ms. Marsico details the events and the major participants involved in securing women’s right to vote. Though women could vote in some states, until the 19th amendment was ratified, there was no national law granting women’s suffrage. Even with the 19th amendment, African American women couldn’t vote until the Voting Rights Act was passed in the 1960s. The author highlights the less glamorous side of the struggle women faced, by talking about the arrest and forced feeding of some of the activists. The well-researched text is accompanied by black-and-white color photographs, which document the suffragists, their marches, and contemporary activists today.

To find out more information about this book, click here, and to learn more about women’s suffrage, legislation related to women’s rights, or women’s history, stop by the Sullivan Library and Learning Resource Center. One of the librarians will be glad to assist you.

Women History: A Cornucopia

The library received two journals with our mail today that featured women or women's issues in them.


The first journal, Newsweek, has Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on the cover. Inside the March 14th issue is an article about Secretary Clinton and her work with women and women's rights around the world. The most recent issue also highlights 150 women who shake the world.


In the second journal, T+D (Training + Development), writers Saudra Stroope and Bonnie Hagemann ask if women have made much progress in gaining executive leadership positions in corporate America. The article can be accessed through the Academic Search Premier database in EBSCOhost.

The library has both of these journals here in the periodicals section, and one of the librarians will be glad to help you locate them.


Newsweek, March 14, 2011
T+D, March 2011

Check the blog again later this week for more about women's history.

Women's History Month in the Library

March is Women's History Month, and to celebrate it the library has put up a book display featuring titles related to women and women's history.

Some of the titles included in the display are listed below, and to learn more about the book, just click on the title. If you want to check out any of these titles, please bring the title to the reference desk and one of the librarians will be glad to help you.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture
Creative Girl: The Ultimate Guide for Turning Talent and Creativity into a Real Career
Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat
Iron Butterflies: Women Transforming Themselves and the World

Here are some websites that provide more information about Women's History Month.

National Women's History Project
Women's History from the Library of Congress

Check the blog again next week to see more about women's history.

Paperback Exchange Wednesday

Paperback Book Swap at the Library

Wednesday, March 2nd (week 9)

Trade a paperback book for the chance to "dress down.”

Students, faculty & staff that donate a book to the Sullivan-Lexington library on March 2nd will earn the privilege of bypassing the customary Wednesday professional-dress requirement. Donated books benefit the library's free paperback swap, which offers light reading materials to the university community.

No Justice

Two authors illuminate how little justice African Americans received from the U.S. court system in the decades following the Civil War.

In this captivating true story, The Day Freedom Died, Mr. Lane tells about the horrific events that happened on Easter Sunday in Colfax, LA, in 1873 and the subsequent legal battles that ensued. In an attempt to defend the legitimate officeholders for the parish, between 50-80 African American men were brutally murdered by a mob of white men. The case against the murderers went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, but those who committed the massacre were acquitted and never punished for their actions.

In another equally disturbing title Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903, Mr. Goldstone details how the U.S. Supreme Court, through its decisions on specific cases and laws, failed to uphold the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. The case that involved the massacre in Colfax, LA, is covered in the book along with more well-known cases like Plessy vs. Ferguson. The author also discusses the impact that the Supreme Court’s decisions had on African Americans living in the South during this period.

Both of these titles can be found in the Sullivan University Library and Learning Resource Center, and a librarian will be glad to assist you in finding them. Click on the title of the book to find book reviews and other information.

The Day Freedom Died; 976.367 L265d

Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903; 342.7308 G624i

Civil Rights and a Teenager's Camera

In Margaret McMullan’s Sources of Light, a young lady named Samantha (aka Sam) uses a camera that her mom’s boyfriend gives her to create a visual portrait of life in Mississippi in 1962-1963. Sam and her mother are white, but, because of their support of the civil rights movement, they are threatened and attacked by those who oppose equal rights for African-Americans. The author touches on other themes besides civil rights, including single-parenthood, war, and coming-of-age relationships, and she weaves them in beautifully. Her characters and their reactions to their circumstances ring true because she grew up in Mississippi during the time in which the story is set.

This isn’t an easy book to read, but those who are interested in the civil rights movement or life in the South during the 1960s may want to borrow it from the library. It can be found in the library by looking for the call number JF M. If you want more information about the book or to read other reviews of it, click here to be taken to the library’s catalog entry. Please don’t hesitate to ask one of the librarians for help in locating the book or the catalog record. We will be glad to assist you.

Black History Month

The Sullivan Library and Learning Resource Center commemorates Black History Month with a book display featuring items from our collection. Please feel free to speak with one of the librarians if you want to check out one of the books on display, if you want more information about Black History Month, or if you want to find other books about African-Americans in our collection.

Here are links to some websites that focus on African American history.

Black History Month (Library of Congress)

The Black Past

Civil Rights Research Guide

From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Timeline

The March from Selma

Marching to Freedom: Linking Literature to Primary Resources

Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination

Check the blog in a few days to learn more about Black History Month.

What a Concept

Ms. Miles' Early Childhood students have created concept books for the Creative Enrichment class (ECE152), and their original works are on display in the library. Some of the topics featured in the concept books include: numbers, animals, and shapes.

What are concept books, and why they are important for young children? Concept books are designed to give information to young children about a specific subject or concept like shapes, colors, letters, and time. Reading concept books to young children teaches them about a specific subject and introduces them to new words, allowing them to develop their reading and language skills. (Vardell, 48, 239).

If you want to learn more about concept books the library has a great resource titled Children's Literature in Action by Sylvia M. Vardell; R 025.55 V291c. Here is a website that lists concept books for children. You can also visit the Lexington Public Library's site for tips on reading books with children.

Without further adieu, the library staff invites you to come and view the concept books created by students in ECE152.

Source cited: Vardell, S. (2008). Children's Literature in Action. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

The Oscars of the (Children’s) Book World

Yesterday morning the American Library Association announced the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and other children's book awards. These awards have been around for decades, and they are given to authors and illustrators for excellence in children’s literature.

The Sullivan University Library & Learning Resource Center in Lexington has some of the titles that either won or received an honor yesterday. If you want more information about the American Library Association’s awards click on the award. For more information about the individual books, click on their titles. You will be taken to the library’s online catalog that has reviews and other information about the books.

Caldecott Winner (this is given for excellence in illustration)

A Sick Day for Amos McGee written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead; JF S

Caldecott Honor Book

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein; JF S

Newbery Honor Book (the Newbery is given for excellence in writing)

Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus; JF P (see the previous blog post about this title)

Schneider Family Book Award (given for excellence in expression of the disability experience)

The Pirate of Kindergarten by George Ella Lyon; illustrated by Lynne Avril; JF L

The author Tomie DePaola won a lifetime achievement award. The library has several of his titles for you to borrow. Look in the children’s section for the call number JF D to see his titles.

You are more than welcome to borrow any of these titles; just come to the library and one of the librarians will be glad to assist you.

December Break Hours

What’s Happening at WhatstheBook?

Over the last eleven months the Sullivan Library and Learning Resource Center has tweeted 541 times on our Twitter account WhatstheBook. While we haven’t come close to Justin Bieber’s or Ashton Kutcher’s tweet volume, we tweet nearly every day from a book in the library’s collection. On the following day we provide the title to the previous day’s tweet, and we tweet from another book in the collection.

During the month of November we tweeted about the subject of food to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. Here are some of the tweets and the titles from which they came. We’ve also provided the call numbers for the books featured below in case you want to check them out from the library.

“Biting into a crunchy cornbread crust is just one of the pleasures associated with this treat.” Appalachian Home Cooking by Mark F. Sohn (641.5974 S682a).

“But then it was Thanksgiving, and my grandmother’s kitchen was ablaze in harvest color. . .” The New Thanksgiving Table by Diane Morgan (641.568 M847n)

If these tweets have piqued your interest, we invite you to follow us at WhatstheBook. In December we will be tweeting about such topics as: National Cookie Week (yum!), Christmas, Kwanzaa, the start of the Islamic New Year, and much more.

A Pleasant Surprise

When I first picked up the book Heart of a Samurai I wondered if I would like it because the cover, which had a whale and some fishermen on it, made me think of Melville’s Moby Dick, a book that I didn’t enjoy. To my delight, Preus’ story about Nakahama Manjiro, a shipwrecked young Japanese man who comes to the United States to start a new life, captivated me from the very beginning. Not only was the story of Manjiro full of adventure and history, I got a feel for what it might be like to move to another country and encounter the culture and people of that new land. From the well-realized settings to a character full of depth and life, this was a book that far exceeded my expectations. At the end of the book Ms. Preus included a wealth of information about the real Manjiro and his life in Japan and in the United States.

Publisher’s Weekly, a national book magazine, recently included the book Heart of a Samurai on its 2010 Best Books for Children list. The Sullivan University Library and Learning Resource Center has this well-written book about a remarkable young man, and anyone who is interested may borrow it from the library. Here is a link to more information about the book, and one of the librarians will be glad to help you find it on the shelf if you want to read it.