Meet Adrienne Graham

Between Spring and Summer semesters, the blog will be on vacation, returning May 30, 2012.  In the meantime, please browse our previous entries to see the resources and events we’ve had to share.  Enjoy the break!

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Adrienne Graham, Decatur campus librarian

Hi, I am Adrienne Graham.  I grew up going to my school library and the neighborhood public library on a regular basis. I always enjoyed reading while growing up but had never thought of pursuing a career in libraries.  I graduated from Pennsylvania State University and worked for the City of New York in the Department of Probation.  I married and moved to Virginia.  I had children which brought me back to frequenting the library.  Having a child caused me to reflect on my future and the future I wanted for him.  That’s when I discovered you could actually go to school for library science.  I bet you’re surprised to hear that too!  I have been working in libraries for close to eighteen years now.

I received my Masters degree in Library Science from St. John’s University.  Yes, that’s right–I am originally from New York.  New York City is a fabulous place in which to grow up.  I had the opportunity to see great plays and performances in theaters on and off Broadway, see beautiful creative art work in museums, and experience  unique and varied architecture from around the world.  I even studied ballet for few years at Dance Theatre of Harlem.  I played acoustic guitar and, for short time, an electric one.  I was forced to play classical piano from the ages of ten to sixteen.  I must confess I did develop a love for the music, especially Tchaikovsky.  I felt a true desire to be a drummer, but my mother was not having any of that in her house!  I also have a Masters degree in Education Management from Strayer University and have taught elementary and middle school.  So I know firsthand what it feels like to balance family, work and school.

My hobbies when I’m not in the library are reading, dancing, cooking, theater, music, and watching old movies on TV.

Working in libraries, and especially at GPC, has given me the opportunity to learn something new each and every day.   I sincerely applaud the efforts of our students and hope that I can help them achieve their academic goals (my children both attended college at Georgia Perimeter their first two years).  The students are what make GPC the best place to work.  Look forward to seeing you in the library.

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Images from Vaughan Nelson, licensed under Creative Commons, and Adrienne Graham, used with permission.

Library PAWS Program Brings Therapy Dogs to GPC

The Clarkston campus library is piloting a program this year to bring much-needed stress relief to GPC students, faculty and staff during final exams. Therapy dogs and their handlers from the READing Paws ® program will be stationed on the 3rd floor of the Clarkston campus library April 30-May 2. Exact schedules vary from day to day, so complete schedule details, along with other information about the dogs, resources on animals as therapy, and more, are available on the Library PAWS research guide.

Therapy dogs have been successfully utilized in college and university libraries across the United States for stress relief. GPC joins the ranks of such prestigious educational institutions as the University of North Carolina, Yale University Law School, and the University of Wisconsin (among many others) to provide this service.

The therapy dog handlers from the READing Paws ® program kindly donate their time, so the costs of this program are minimal for the college, but the benefits should be huge for students, faculty, and staff. Here are some of the furry friends who’ll be featured at the library April 30-May 2:

Annie

Nellie

Freckles

Nanuk

For more information, please see the official GPC press release or contact Amelia Glawe or Pat Leamon, Clarkston librarians.

~Amy Eklund, Library PAWS committee member

Stress Management with Library Resources

As the semester draws to a close, many assignments will be due soon.  But don’t let the stress get to you!  There is lots of information about stress management available to you through the library.

You can find many books on stress management through the library catalog.  A classic in this field, Full Catastrophe Living, is part of the libraries’ collection.  The author, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, is a former professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and  an authority on using mindfulness in stress reduction. This book covers an 8 week stress management program incorporating gentle yoga, meditation and mindfulness practices.

While Dr. Kabat-Zinn approaches stress management from a mindfulness perspective, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, a neurologist at Stanford University, discusses it from a biological perspective in his book Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.  Dr. Sapolsky’s work focuses on how stress affects the body’s ability to fight off diseases, get a good night’s sleep and age healthily.  He also covers how stress affects memory — an important part of studying for finals!

Or maybe it’s just tests that stress you out.  Test anxiety is common and there’s a lot you can do to set your mind at ease.  The libraries have several books on test anxiety and how to overcome it.

The GPC Personal Counseling department “offers confidential personal counseling to assist students with personal, developmental, or psychological concerns related to their academic progress and personal growth.”  They offer a list of virtual resources, including some on stress management and test anxiety, to help students, and answer frequently asked questions on their department website.

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Photos in the post are by Alan Cleaver and albertogp123 and are used under Creative Commons licensing

Townsend Prize for Literary Fiction

On Thursday, April 26, in the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Day Hall, the winner of the 2012 Townsend Prize for Fiction will be announced.  The Townsend Prize, which began in 1981, is named for Jim Townsend, the founding editor of Atlanta magazine and the associate editor of Atlanta Weekly Magazine.  Sponsoring organizations include The Southern Academy for Literary Arts and Scholarly Research at Georgia Perimeter College, The Chattahoochee Review, Georgia Center for the Book, The Atlanta Writer’s Club, and the Marcus Jewish Community Center.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden, where the Townsend Prize award ceremony will be held on April 26, 2012

The keynote speaker for this year’s award is celebrated short story writer and novelist Ann Beattie.  Her work has appeared in four collections of “PEN/O’Henry Prize Stories” and in John Updike’s The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Ms. Beattie is currently the Edgar Allan Poe Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. She also won the PEN/Malamud Award for achievement in the short story form (2000) and the Rea Award for the short story (2005).

The events for the evening of the Townsend Prize for Fiction celebration are as follows:

• Tour of the Atlanta Botanical Garden (self-guided): 5:00-6:30pm
• Books sales and signing with Townsend Prize-nominated authors: 6:30-7:00pm
• Reception with jazz band & catered buffet:7:00pm-7:30pm
• Keynote address by author Ann Beattie and Townsend Prize Award: 7:30pm-8:30pm

Tickets to the celebration for the Townsend Prize for Literary Fiction are now on sale for $40 and include parking at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.  GPC faculty and staff and the general public may purchase tickets online at this link: https://giving.gpc.edu/townsend.

A view of the Atlanta skyline and the Fuqua Conservatory& Orchid Center from the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Great Lawn

The finalists for the 2012 Townsend Prize are:

• Daniel Black, “Perfect Peace,” St. Martin’s Press
• Lynn Cullen,  “Reign Of Madness,” G.P. Putnam’s Sons
• Ann Hite,“Ghost On Black Mountain,” Gallery Books
• Joshilyn Jackson, “Backseat Saints,” Grand Central Publishing
• Collin Kelley, “Remain in the Light,”  Vanilla Heart Publishing
• Thomas Mullen, “The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers,” Random House
• Andrew Plattner, “A Marriage Of Convenience,” BkMk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City
• Josh Russell, “My Bright Midnight,”, Louisiana State University Press
• Joseph Skibell, “A Curable Romantic,” Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
• Amanda Kyle Williams, “The Stranger You Seek,” Bantam Books

The GPC libraries have many books by these authors.  Be sure to check out the library catalog to see if the book you are looking for is available!

-Amelia Glawe

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Photographs in this post are by Devindra Hardawar and boxercab and are used under Creative Commons licensing.

What Students Have to Say about Movies

Remember the Titans

Last fall I surveyed some students about the movies they watch. On the survey form, I asked them to list three to five of their favorite movies. Then, I asked them to list the three worst movies they’d ever seen. Nine students responded to the survey. I was very surprised that I ended up with a list of forty-five favorite movies with NO duplications! This says to me that there’s a great deal of variety in people’s movie tastes. One movie, Dumb and Dumber, made both the best and worst lists!

Some of the favorite movies fell into the “classics” category, such as The Color Purple (“I love all old black films that give you an idea of how history was in the past, or movies in general that tell a history of the past.”), The Godfather (“This dark drama is metaphor for every dysfunctional family.”), Out of Africa, and The Sound of Music. Star Wars. Steel Magnolias, Schindler’s List (“It is a terrible and beautiful portrayal of humans at their most depraved and transcendent.”), and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory were also named.

All Dogs Go to Heaven

Maybe these two comments sum up the emotional factors that go into our feelings about movies: “All Dogs Go to Heaven has been my favorite film since birth. My mother would sit me in front of a television with a bottle and wouldn’t hear a peep from me until it was over. I enjoy every single song, and as I matured, I love the dialogue.” Or this one: “Remember the Titans might be my all-time favorite film. It teaches about overcoming racial, physical, emotional and mental adversities. The movie also teaches perseverance, which is something I practice in my life.”

Now, onto the worst movies. Two movies and their sequels were noted twice as really bad movies. These are Saw (“It’s scary that people love to see other people suffer, fiction or not, it’s sick.”) and Scary Movie. Black Swan, Bruno, The Hills Have Eyes, Hot Tub Time Machine (” . . . jumps out because I paid money to see it in the theater and it was awful. And I like a lot of bad comedies.”), and Norbit also made this list. Other criticisms of worst movies included corny jokes, lewdness, the movie not matching its advertisements, and incomprehensible themes.

For more on this topic, take a look at the feature films college students are watching on Swank’s Top 100 list. At GPC we strive to offer movies to suit all tastes. We have popular titles, romantic comedies, dramas, children’s movies, documentaries, and some television series. Use the GIL catalog to find your next favorite movie.  [Images from imdb.com. Quotes used with permission.]

~Sherry Durren

Meet Pete Bursi

Pete Bursi once rode a camel. He was only about six at the time, so he doesn’t remember much about it. But apparently his mom, dad, and two older sisters thought it was a good idea to hoist their little fellow onto the back of a wild beast at a county fair in upstate New York. While Pete’s childhood included several other harrowing moments, such as getting lost at Disneyland, getting stuck on a ride on another visit to Disneyland, and getting off at the wrong bus stop on his first day of school, most of his early years resembled a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting.

Pete Bursi, Dunwoody campus librarian

Eventually, Pete earned a B.S. degree in Secondary English Education from the State University of New York College at Oneonta and an M.L.S. degree from the State University of New York at Albany. Pete enjoys telling people the story of how the library school at SUNY Albany was actually started by Melvil Dewey after a dispute over admitting women to the program led to Dewey’s departure from Columbia University. Although not a competitor, Pete arrived in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics. About a month after the games ended, Pete was offered a part-time librarian position at (then) Dekalb College in Dunwoody. A short time later, Pete landed a full-time job with the Dekalb County Public Library system. For the nearly two years he worked at the public library, however, Pete continued to work part-time at the college, and when a full-time position opened up in the Fall 1998 semester, Pete applied and was hired.

Pete has always loved libraries, and he still remembers some of the lessons his elementary school librarian, Mrs. Foster, taught him. One of Pete’s favorite things about libraries is the hidden gems one can discover in the stacks, but the best gem he ever discovered in a library was his future wife, who came in for a job interview in the spring of 2002. (In case you’re wondering, yes, she got the job!). Since then, Pete and his wife have been blessed with two children who – although they don’t actually know it yet – are both proud members of the FLOA (Future Librarians of America) Association.

One of the things that attracted Pete to the library profession was the teaching aspect, and this serves him well in his current role of library instruction coordinator at the Dunwoody Campus.  Pete truly enjoys being a librarian, and he is committed to promoting the profession. Along those lines, Pete recently became a mentor in the Association of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section Mentoring Program. Also, Pete likes to do his best to convince folks that in the Internet Age, despite what some people believe, libraries and librarians are more relevant than ever. [editor's note: Pete recently wrote an award-winning paper on this topic!]

In addition to spending time with his family, Pete enjoys sports, music, and movies, and two of his favorite places in the world are Montreal and Yankee Stadium. Some of Pete’s favorite books that you can find in a GPC library or your local public library include: The Catcher in the Rye; Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning; and Catch a Fire: the Life of Bob Marley.

March Is Women’s History Month!

“As Americans, ours is a legacy of bold independence and passionate belief in fairness and justice for all. For generations, this intrepid spirit has driven women pioneers to challenge injustices and shatter ceilings in pursuit of full and enduring equality. During Women’s History Month, we commemorate their struggles, celebrate centuries of progress, and reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the rights, security, and dignity of women in America and around the world.” — President Barack Obama,  Presidential Proclamation – March 1, 2012.

Women’s History Month first became a national celebration in March 1982, originally designated as “Women’s History Week.”  In 1987, the National Women’s History Project petitioned for a full month dedicated to women’s history and since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have issued annual proclamations naming the month of March as Women’s History Month.

This year’s Women’s History Month theme is “Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment.”  The biggest stride made for women in American education is Title IX of the Education Codes of the Higher Education Act Amendments.  Passed in 1972 and put into action in 1977, this law states that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

The National Organization for Women (NOW) has studied the impact of Title IX on education and athletics, and found that in 1972, women earned 7% of all law degrees and 9% of all medical degrees.  By the year 2000, women earned nearly half of all doctoral degrees.  In athletics, before Title IX, one in 27 women played high school varsity sports, and by the year 2001, one in 2.5 women did.  However, there is still much progress to be made, as women remain underrepresented in traditionally male fields and recieve fewer scholarships and lower budgets than their male counterparts in sports.

There is a rich variety of women’s athletic teams here at GPC including women’s basketball, women’s soccer, and women’s tennis.  The women’s basketball team has recently announced that they are headed to the national tournament for the sixth  time in eight years!  The tournament will be aired March 20^th-March 24^th in Salina, Kansas and video will broadcasted online.  For more information, visit the GPC Athletics homepage and click on “Game Webcasts.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, Clarkston Campus Inter-Club Council Committee is holding a luncheon for “Women on the Rise,” which will be held March 21^st from 2:30 – 4:30pm.  For more information please contact Martaya Hopkins.  You also can find more information on Title IX and Women’s History at GPC Libraries.

- Sheeji Kathuria

Photo credit: Kymberly Janisch, used under Creative Commons licensing.