Read a Banned Book!

In support of the right to choose books freely for ourselves, the American Library Association is sponsoring Banned Books Week (September 23 – 30), an annual celebration of our right to access books without censorship.Observed since 1982, this year marks Banned Book Week’s 25th anniversary. This event commemorates the most basic freedom in a democratic society—the freedom to read freely—and encourages us not to take this freedom for granted.

Since 1990, the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has recorded more than 7,800 book challenges. A challenge is a formal, written complaint requesting a book be removed from library shelves or a school’s curriculum. About three out of four of all challenges are to material in schools or school libraries, and one in four are to material in public libraries. OIF estimates that less than one-quarter of challenges are reported and recorded.

It is thanks to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, and students that most challenges are unsuccessful and reading materials like those listed below remain available on library book shelves:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Catcher in the Rye
• Catch-22
• Clockwork Orange
• The Color Purple
• The Da Vinci Code
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Harry Potter
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Of Mice and Men
• To Kill a Mockingbird

Check out these other sites:

• List of Banned Books Wikipedia
• Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2005 ALA
• Banned Books Online University of Pennsylvania Library
• Explore Banned Books Google
• Intellectual Freedom Basics ALA

History on the Internet

 Check out NetLibrary’s Ebook of the Month – History Highway. This guide to history sites on the web provides live links to all of the websites covered in this ebook. More than 3,000 Internet sites are divided into sections covering U.S. history, world history, and a wide range of sub fields including futurism, environmental history, Middle Eastern history and immigration history. Each listing includes a full description and live link to the relevant web site.

Access NetLibrary books from any JSRCC Library computer or Internet-accessible computer on campus. If you would like to access NetLibrary from off-campus, drop by your JSRCC campus library’s Reference Desk and a librarian will help you set up an account.

Good Reads!

Exciting new books have been arriving in our Library all through the summer.  Be sure to check out:

• Mezzatura: Fragments from the Common Ground, by Ahdaf Souef.
  “. . . an incisive collection of essays on Arab identity . . . that seeks to locate the Mezzaterra, or common ground. . .” BJ1481.M46 2006B
• Happiness, a History, by Darrin McMahon. What did it mean to people throughout history that humans have not always considered happiness an “inalienable right?” BJ1481.M46 2006
• The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, by Tim Gallagher “. . . And then it happened. Less than one hundred feet away, a large black-and-white bird . . . came out into the sunshine . . .We both cried out simultaneously, Ivory-bill!”
  QL696.P56G35
• The Discoveries, by Alan Lightman. This author always moves us into the world of science in surprising literary ways- his latest book takes us on a tour of the best ideas in twentieth century science! Q180.55.D57L54 2005
• Writers on the Air: Conversations About Books, by Donna Seaman. From the Chicago-based radio show, “Open Books,” interviewer Donna Seaman presents fascinating glimpses into the minds of diverse modern writers, including Chitra Divakaruni , Chang-rae Lee, and Julia Glass. PS225.S43 2005

Practice Tests Now Online!

Check out our new online service from Learning Express Advantage. Learning Express provides over 300 online practice tests and course series designed to help students succeed on the academic or licensing tests they must pass. Features of this service include:

• Interactive test-preparation and practice
• Targeted skill-building practice exercises
• Self-paced study tools
• Instant scoring and customized feedback
• Interactive career and job help with an online resume builder

Choose from a multitude of tests including:

• math, reading, writing, & vocabulary skills improvement
• ACT, SAT, & TOEFL test preparation
• U.S. Citizenship Exam
• Job and career test preparation

LearningExpressAdvantage is accessible from any JSRCC Library computer or from any Internet-accessible computer on or off campus. To set up your own personal account to use Learning Express on or off campus, drop by your JSRCC campus library’s Reference Desk or call us.