Jesse Whitton

Jesse Whitton

Three Women of Indiana’s Past: empowering change in education, housing & prisons

Three Women of Indiana’s Past: empowering change in education, housing & prisons

When one thinks of Indiana, thoughts may race from the Indy 500, grow to include cornfields and combines, then settle on limestone. The names Albion Fellows Bacon, Eliza Blaker, and Rhoda M. Coffin may not come to mind. Yet these three women were instrumental in laying the groundwork for how we perceive life in Indiana these days, whether it be housing, education, or correctional facilities. Albion Fellows Bacon (1865-1933) Thanks to the efforts of Albion Fellows Bacon (1865-1933), residents of Indiana had better housing options available to them in 1911. After two of her children developed scarlet fever, Albion went on a search to discover the source of her children’s illness and came across the riverfront slums in Evansville. Appalled … Continued
Get Educated on Education Databases!

Get Educated on Education Databases!

As we finish the 5th week of school, it’s not too late to plan for future assignments such as mid-terms and final projects. Education students have a lot on their plate with placements for field experiences, creating lesson plans, and making sure they are on track to graduate. The IU East Campus Library has a wide range of information resources that can help Education majors and others, in navigating research about education topics. Check out ERIC-EBSCOHOST, the Education Resource Information Center, that contains more than 1,194,00 records and links to more than 100,000 full-text documents pertaining to Education. Just look at the number of results you get from searching “kindergarten or preschool or early childhood education.” The Education Database by … Continued
LGBTQ Youth Literature

LGBTQ Youth Literature

Choosing a topic for my end of semester L390 Children’s Literature paper was a process of exploration. I chose to compare and contrast picture books with a common theme. I wanted a theme that dealt with current events so I focused on the 2012 elections.  With 3 additional States and the District of Columbia legalizing Gay Marriage (for a total of 9 states, http://gaymarriage.procon.org), I decided to examine children’s books that feature children with gay parents. So I turned to the IU East Library children’s book collection.  I located four books that were stories about gay parents: Daddy’s Roommate, Heather has Two Mommies, Gloria goes to Gay Pride, and And Tango Makes Three. A librarian also directed me to an … Continued
Ban it, burn it, bury it….but whatever you do, don’t read these books!

Ban it, burn it, bury it….but whatever you do, don’t read these books!

Each year hundreds of books are challenged. What does the word “challenged” mean? Challenged is defined as a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Whether the challenge is based on sexual explicitness, sexuality, racism, religious viewpoints, violence, offensive language, or many other issues, some of the these books are removed from circulation. Last year alone, 326 books were challenged. Perhaps some of your favorite books made this list. (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned)  This year marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week (http://www.bannedbooksweek.org). Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries.  Banned Books … Continued
Money can’t buy ya love…

Money can’t buy ya love…

…but it can buy us reliable resources to make your research more productive and easy (really!) It’s the time of year when invoices for databases and online reference sources fill the inbox so we wanted to share with you some of the “oldies but goodies” renewed for your continuing research pleasure.   Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context Information about current social and political issues includes pro/con essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, biographies of social activists, court-case overviews, statistics, podcasts and images. OV can help you research, analyze and organize a variety of data for research assignments, debates, presentations and more.   Biography and Genealogy Master Index Provides coverage of nearly 5 million contemporary and historical figures from authors to … Continued