LGBTQ Pride Month

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month. 

You can celebrate by reading one of \”The 25 Best LGBT Novels of All Time\” according to the Advocate magazine. 

1. Giovanni\’s Room by James Baldwin
2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
3. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
4. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
5. Maurice by E.M Forster
6. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
7. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
8. Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
9. Zami by Audre Lorde
10. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
11. The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal
12. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
13. City of Night by John Rechy
14. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
15. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
16. A Boy\’s Own Story by Edmund White
17. Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
18. Fun Home by Allison Bechdel 
19. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
20. Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta
21. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
22. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
23. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
24. Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
25. Faggots by Larry Kramer

A hyperlinked title above means that the book is in our collection, click on the link to find its location. 
You can request to borrow items not in our collection through our interlibrary loan service. 

Librarians

Did you know that not everyone who works in a library is a librarian?

Librarians are required to obtain a Master\’s of Library and Information Science before they can be employed.  This degree can cover a variety of courses (such as information organization, information classification, and information systems) and specialties ( archives, computer science, children\’s literature and more).  Their responsibilities can range from creating summer reading programs to cataloging library items to marketing the library.

Below are some of the different types of librarians.

Public Librarians.  There are 116, 867 public libraries in the United States. Most of these libraries require a card for you to check out books and other items.  Cards can usually be obtained by bringing in proof that you reside in the geographic area  the library serves. Public librarians manage libraries, order books, determine when damaged or irrelevant items are removed from the collection, plan and hold reading programs and public events, oversee budgets, track statistics, answer questions, help people with research, and more.

                                                         Image from Pixabay.com

School Librarians. School librarians include librarians at K-12 public and private schools. Many school librarians are required to have teacher certification, and to teach in a classroom for three years.  This requirement can vary by state. This is in addition to having a Bachelor\’s degree and a Master\’s degree. Some of a school librarian\’s duties include assisting students with research, managing the library budget, planning programs, evaluating and acquiring new resources, and teaching classes.

                                                                Image from Pixabay.com

Academic Librarians.  These can include law school librarians, a third of whom have a law degree. It also includes librarians at community colleges and four-year universities.  Many academic librarians have a second Master\’s degree.  Many colleges and universities require their librarians to pursue a tenure track. Requirements for this track can include teaching a for-credit information literacy course, doing research, and publishing in journals. Academic librarians can also help students, staff, and faculty with research, and are often members of university committees.

Image from Pixabay.com

Special librarians.  These are librarians who don\’t fit into other categories.  These can include media librarians, corporate librarians, government librarians, solo librarians who work in small libraries, and more.

Image from Pixabay.com

Curious about the world of libraries? Check out the American Library Association website, or look up more information about library-related professions at the Occupational Outlook Handbook website.

Searching Scholarly Databases

All of us have been in that situation as an undergraduate student — where we have found ourselves lost in the maze of research when needing to locate a peer-reviewed article. We then arrive to the realization that the World Wide Web does not in fact possess the solution to all our academic problems. Well I’m here to tell you it does not have to be that way if you are an active Tarleton student. Tarleton Libraries provide access to multiple databases. They are even organized by subject, labeled as “Subject Guides” on the library home page (www.tarleton.edu/library). Many of these databases are scholarly databases and include peer-reviewed sources.

Where are scholarly databases located? 

Scholarly databases can be found among those listed at the “Databases A-Z” link on the library home page.

Scholarly databases deal only with published information, therefore resources are characterized by authority and trustworthiness. Such databases have features that allow the user to search by publication type, date, language, document format, scholarly/peer-reviewed status, and more.

Various times a year, the Dick Smith Library hosts database sessions to help students learn how to navigate scholarly databases. To learn about these sessions, stay tuned to the library calendar found in the library home page, or follow us on social media. We encourage you to attend and learn about effectively searching scholarly databases. Information seeking skills are worth acquiring, they will not only lighten the load in your journey to academic success, but they will prove to be useful in your professional and personal lives as well.

by Yeidi Rios

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. You can celebrate by checking out these titles from our library.

Becoming American, Being Indian: An Immigrant Community in New York City by Madulika S. Khandelwal.
\”In her fascinating account of Indian immigrants. . .[the author] explores the ways in which their world has evolved over four decades\” from publisher. 

Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America by Ji-Yeon Yuh. 
\”Since. . .1950, nearly 100,000 Korean women have immigrated to the US as the wives of American soldiers. Based on extensive oral interview and archival research [this book] tells the stories of these women\” – from publisher. 

Colors of Confinement: Rare Kodachrome Photographs of Japanese American Incarceration in World War II ed. by Eric L. Muller. 
\”. . .showcases 65 stunning images from this extremely rare collection of color photographs, presented along with three interpretive essays by leading scholars…\” – from publisher.

Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans by Jean Pfaelzer. 
\”. . .exposes a shocking story of ethnic cleansing in California and the Pacific Northwest when the first Chinese Americans were rounded up and purged from more than 300 communities by lawless citizens and duplicitous politicians\” – from publisher. 

From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the United States by Haiming Liu. 
\”. . .takes readers on a compelling journey from the California Gold Rush to the present, letting readers witness. . .the evolution of many distinct American-Chinese iconic dishes from chop suey to General Tso\’s chicken\” – from publisher. 

Japanese Americans: The History and Culture of a People ed. by Jonathan H.X. Lee.
\”This book provides a comprehensive description of the complicated and rich story of the Japanese American experience. . .\” – from publisher.


Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America by Karin Aguilar-San Juan. 
\”Explores how Vietnamese refugees and immigrants retain their identities in the United States\” – from publisher. 

A New History of Asian America by Shelley Sang-Hee Lee.
\”. . .a fresh up-to-date history of Asians in the United States from the late eighteen century to the present\” – from publisher.

Soundtracks of Asian America: Navigating Race Through Musical Performance by Grace Wang.
\”Explores how Asian Americans use music to construct narratives of self, race, class, and belonging. . .\” – from publisher. 

Typical American: A Novel by Gish Jen.
\”. . .a darkly humorous account of Chinese immigrants encountering America\” – from Publishers Weekly.

Authorship and Copyright

When you create a work, you own the copyright. However, if you submit that work for publication typically you agree to give up your copyrights to the publisher. Depending on the wording of the agreement you sign with the publisher, you may not have the right to:

  • post your work on your personal website,
  • archive your work in a repository,
  • or (if you\’re a teacher) distribute multiple copies of it to your classes over multiple semesters.
If you plan to submit an article to a scholarly journal, then it\’s a good idea to find out what rights that journal allows authors to retain. SHERPA RoMEO is a website that \”aggregates and analyses publisher open access policies from around the world.\” It contains information on over 2000 journals, and classifies them based on how restrictive they are on author rights. 

SHERPA RoMEO\’s classification system. Green is most lenient, and white is most restrictive. 

One option an author has to retain some rights is to negotiate with the publisher. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is an international organization that \”works to enable the open sharing or research outputs and educational materials in order to democratize access to knowledge.\” SPARC encourages authors to add the SPARC Addendum to any contract they sign with a publisher. This addendum allows the author to retain some of their copyrights. 
If you have questions about copyright, then you should check out the library\’s copyright information web page or email your question to [email protected]. 

World Book and Copyright Day

World Book and Copyright Day takes place on April 23 in many parts of the globe. It\’s a day that promotes reading and publishing that\’s been celebrated worldwide since 1995 but goes back to the late 1920s in Catalonia. It is sponsored by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

You can find out much more information about World Book Day, including their mission to get more books directly into the hands of children and young people at https://www.worldbookday.com/
The website also includes many resources and book suggestions on what to read!

Keep Up With Us Through Our Social Media

Did you know that you can follow the library on a wide variety of social networks?

The blog that you\’re reading right now has hundreds of entries dating back to 2007.  
Subjects run the gamut from library resources to glimpses of Tarleton history.

This is still the world\’s largest social network, with over a billion users worldwide.  
The Tarleton Libraries have been on it since 2009.  
Keep up with the latest news and events by liking our page.
A screenshot of the library\’s Facebook page.
Flickr is a free photo sharing service.  
Though it may not be as popular as it once was,
 it\’s still a terrific destination for hobbyists and professional photographers alike.
You can also find sample pictures from various camera models. 
The Tarleton Libraries have over four thousand pictures on the site. 
Our account is filled with great pictures that we didn\’t have room for 
in our other social media posts. Our account is like a giant photo album.
The Tarleton Libraries\’ Flickr page.
Instagram has over 77 million users.  Our Insta account has great pictures and videos 
that will give you a quick \”snapshot\” of what we\’re doing. 
For example, the three pictures below, from left to right, feature:
  • a call to donate on Giving Day
  • a picture of some of our great student workers, for Student Worker Appreciation Day
  • some of our library employees wearing teal shirts for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
A screenshot of the library\’s Instagram account.
We have over 1800 followers on Twitter, the microblogging service. 
Following us on Twitter is a great way to get bite-sized library news, 
tips for succeeding at Tarleton, and maybe even a re-tweet if you 
mention the library (don\’t worry, we\’ll ask your permission first).
A screenshot of the Tarleton Libraries\’ Twitter account.

Our YouTube account is a great place to go for library tutorials.
A screenshot of our YouTube account.
If you\’ve never tried Pinterest, think of it as a collection of online bulletin boards, organized by subject.  Some of our boards include:
….and lots more.
A screenshot of our Pinterest account.
We hope you\’ll join us by following one or more of our social media accounts.  By the way, the best place to get research help is still our Reference desk. You can also call  (254) 968-9249 for the Stephenville campus, or (817) 968-3315 for Texan Hall in Fort Worth. Lastly, you can email us at [email protected].

A Grassburr Love Story

Our special collections and archives staff has being going through all the print copies of the Grassburr yearbooks (also online) that we have, to figure out which ones we should keep.  We came across two from 1933 that have an interesting story and connection.  Click on all images throughout this post to view them larger.

The first book belonged to James Byron \”Mississippi\” Gregory, who graduated from Tarleton in 1933.  Besides his name and nickname inside the front cover, we found a couple loose items – his diploma, and a valentine.

Here\’s the inside of the valentine.  It is signed simply, \”Jo.\”

Another yearbook from 1934 belonged to a Josephine \”Jo\” Coleman, who listed her address inside the front cover as 4709 Pershing in Fort Worth.  It had an envelope pasted inside the front cover, with a handwritten paper titled \”Advice for girl\” (with some pretty bad puns) folded inside it:

Paging through Byron\’s yearbook to the page with Jo\’s picture, among the many signatures there is \”Yo te amo. Jo,\” next to journalism major Josephine Coleman\’s name and picture.  Yo te amo is, of course, Spanish for \”I love you.\”  Jo served as a proofreader on the J-TAC.

Further on in Byron\’s yearbook (on the blank page opposite the beginning of the Athletics section), Jo wrote a long message to \”my darling\” Byron, including these sentences:
\”You are a part of Tarleton – it will never be complete without you.  Tarleton gave me a lot of things – things both in and out of books, these things I shall never be able to forget.  You are the most important.\”
Paging through Jo\’s yearbook to the page with Byron\’s senior picture, you can see he was from Thaxton, Mississippi (hence the nickname), and majored in Agricultural Education.  He was a member of the Hired Hands club, the Glee Club, the basketball team, and the \”T\” Association.  To the right of the picture, he wrote this message for Jo:  \”just a crazy boy what\’s very fond of you.  Try to love Mississippi a little bit always.\”

Byron\’s yearbook included a number of loose items tucked among the pages, including these photographs.  They may not all be from his time at Tarleton.  Unfortunately none of the photographs has any identifying information, although the headshot is clearly of Byron.  There was also a calling card from Jo (whose given first name was actually Mary), with a handwritten note wishing him a happy birthday.

There was also a paper John Tarleton Agricultural College pennant (scanned here against the reverse side of Byron\’s diploma, to provide adequate contrast).

Jo\’s yearbook had a number of glued-in items, particularly clippings from the J-TAC newspaper.  There weren\’t as many loose items, but one was a negative, which I scanned to produce this lovely image.  It wasn\’t immediately clear if this was Jo, though.
There was another loose item proved to be significant – a graduation program for the 1930 class of W. C. Stripling High School.

What was Stripling High School from 1927 to 1937 is now Stripling Middle School in Fort Worth.  The school is just a few blocks from Jo\’s Pershing street home address.  A little more searching turned up Josephine\’s picture in the high school\’s 1931 yearbook, and it looks just like the picture of the graduate above.

According to his obituary in the July 30, 1998 Fort Worth Star Telegram (page 8), James Byron \”Mississippi\” Gregory was born December 18, 1910, in Thaxton, Mississippi, one of 13 children.  After graduating from Tarleton in 1933, he attended what was them Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State) in Stillwater.  (He is in their 1934 and 1935 yearbooks, and also attended the 1934 summer session).
In the 1940 Census, Byron and Jo are living in Idabel, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, and are listed as married.  J. B. (Byron) is a county agent and has had five years of college.  Josephine (Jo) has one year of college, so it appears she did not return to Tarleton after the 1932-1933 school year.  In 1935, Byron was living in Stillwater and Jo in Fort Worth, so they must have married sometime between 1935 and 1940.
Byron served in the Oklahoma National Guard, and then joined the Army, serving in World War II.  He and Jo lived in Texas, Germany, Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, and Taiwan during his service, according to the Alumni J-TAC.  He retired from the military in 1962 as a colonel with the Army adjutant general\’s office in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. After retirement, he became a real estate broker and retired again in 1982.  He died July 27, 1998, in Fort Worth.  

Mary Josephine \”Jo\” Coleman Gregory was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on March 13, 1913, the oldest of two daughters.  She died October 21, 1994, in Fort Worth.  The couple is buried in Greenwood Memorial Park in Fort Worth.
They had no children, and Byron was a Diamond Century Club member in the 1996-97 Tarleton Alumni Association, so that is perhaps how these two lovebirds\’ yearbooks ended up back at Tarleton.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Eighteen years ago, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center established April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) in order to raise awareness of sexual assault instances, harassment, and abuse and to educate others on how to prevent it. 
Since then, college campuses have joined the cause of raising awareness and prevention by holding gatherings, spreading the need for consent, and providing a platform where survivors can be heard. 
Tarleton\’s Student Counseling Services has created a Sexual Assault Awareness Month Resources web page that is filled with various resources pertaining to being an active bystander, consent awareness, and other helpful resources.
Student Counseling Services is also hosting a variety of events, both on Tarleton\’s campus as well as within the Stephenville community, to help raise awareness. These include:
  • April 2nd  SAAM Kickoff
    • What: Learn about SAAM, grab swag, and learn how to be part of the solution during the SAAM Kickoff.
    • When: 11AM – 2PM
    • Where: TSC Dining Patio.
  • April 9th  Guest Speaker
    • What:  CL Lindsey presents on \”Sex and the Law\”, consent, and more.
    • When:  6PM – 8PM 
    • Where:  TSC Ballrooms.
  • April 11th  Stop The Silence
    • What:  Hear local speakers, listen to survivor stories, and show your commitment.
    • When:  5:30PM
    • Where: Cowboy Capital Plaza
  • April 24th   Denim Day
    • What:  Join the International protest by wearing your jeans to show your support for  survivors.
    • When:  All Day
    • Where: On campus and online


Library Display 

    Lastly, the Dick Smith Library has created a small display of books pertaining to sexual assault awareness. This display is located on the Upper Level, near the Copy Room. Feel free to check any of the books out to read at your leisure. Other resources can be found in our databases and catalog as well.

    If you need assistance in finding resources, be sure to contact us at [email protected] or 254-968-9249.

    

    Historical New York Times

    Headline from April 15, 1865,
    the day after the assassination

    The New York Times newspaper has been in continuous operation since 1851. If you\’re looking for primary sources on a significant event in US or world history after that year, then the New York Times probably has an article about it.

    The Dick Smith Library has access to the historical New York Times from 1851 through 2014 via the ProQuest database, which can be found here.

    When you first open the database you\’ll see the basic search screen. If you know the exact title of the article you\’re looking for, then this screen might work for you. If not, then you should click on the advanced search link.

    Basic search screen.

    The advanced search page gives you the ability to search with multiple key words connected with Boolean operators, search within a specific date range, and select the type of document you\’re looking for (article, advertisement, etc.).

    Advanced search screen

    If you need any assistance using this, or any other library resource, then be sure to contact us at [email protected] or 254-968-9249.

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