Matt Dilworth

Matt Dilworth

How Can We Discover Who We Really Are?

How Can We Discover Who We Really Are?

“We who are born in America absorb our images of self and culture basically through western eyes… Under such circumstances, how can we possibly discover who we really are?” – David Henry Hwang  May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (http://asianpacificheritage.gov), an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments Asian Pacific Americans have contributed to the nation.   The library has several books on the subject, such as Version 3.0 Contemporary Asian American Plays, Extraordinary Asian Pacific Americans, and Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture, and also has several other resources to assist you in learning more about these fascinating cultures.  Excellent plays written by Asian Pacific Americans are located in the Asian American Drama database.  You can learn about Asian Pacific culture … Continued
Streaming Video You Can Use

Streaming Video You Can Use

We all enjoy using YouTube and other streaming video sites like it.  It’s a great source for amusing movies of cats or music videos or kids waving sticks around like they’re in a Star Wars film.  But wouldn’t it be great if this powerful tool could be used for your classes?  Well, you’re in luck.  IU East subscribes to hundreds of high quality academic streaming videos that you can use as sources for your papers, in oral presentations, or just to learn.  First, go into IUCAT at http://www.iucat.iu.edu.  Click ‘Guest Access’.  Then, on the right side of the screen, click ‘DVD/Video Search’.  On the main part of the screen, put a check in the box for ‘streaming’ (it defaults to … Continued
E-Book Publishers

E-Book Publishers

If you’ve been keeping up with the news in the publishing world, you may have heard that Penguin Press has just withdrawn support for their e-books from libraries.  Now, of the ‘Big Six’ publishers, only Random House still makes e-book content available for libraries to lend.   Does this mean that the library will no longer be able to support e-books?  What if e-books end up almost entirely replacing print books?  Where will that leave you?  Well, first, the problem – while serious – almost entirely affects popular literature.  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Twilight books, James Patterson and John Grisham novels – interesting, current books, but not the kind of books that scholars use.  So, while you might … Continued
Blackout

Blackout

If you tried to use the Internet on Wednesday, you may have noticed that a lot of your favorite sites, like Wikipedia, were down.  Even Google changed its logo with a big black ‘censored’ bar.  All of those outages were in protest of legislation before the U.S. Congress, which could change the laws on how the government deals with stolen content on websites, known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, HR 3261) in the House of Representatives and PIPA (Protect IP Act, S 968) in the Senate.  Opponents claim that this proposed legislation is too intrusive, that it will eliminate a lot of good content and chill new attempts at innovation and online speech.  They say that the burden of … Continued
Celebrate!

Celebrate!

The winter season is a time of celebrating across many cultures.  As always, your campus library has plenty to read to learn about these celebrations.  Books like Chase’s Calendar of Events (REF D11.5.C48 2012) and e-books such as We Are What We Celebrate: Understanding Holidays and Rituals or Holidays On Display offer excellent information, as do reference sources like Britannica Online.  And databases with strong religion sections like JSTOR offer numerous excellent articles about these and other holidays.    Some of these celebration around the world you may like to discover include: Bodhi Day (Buddhist) celebrates the day that Buddha achieved enlightenment.  It is on December 8th. Boxing Day (secular) is a gift-giving holiday that is sometimes merged or replaced … Continued