Read as if Your Freedom Depended on it Because it Does!

Pop Quiz:

What do the books in the list below have in common?
a. all titles are italicized
b. all have authors
c. all are owned by the CSTCC library
d. all have been banned by someone at sometime

And Tango Makes Three by Richardson and Parnell
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner
Freedom Writers Diary by the Freedom Writers & E. Gruwell
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Thurston

Answer: You are right! Well, surely you didn't think we'd give you a quiz you couldn't pass. (Sorry, I didn't mean to call you shirley.)

Yep, that's right. Those innocent little titles listed above are just a drop in the bucket of censorship when compared to the big list that's posted at the American Library Association's site:

Frequently Challenged Books

This week, Sept. 27-Oct. 4, we celebrate the freedom to read as we recognize books whose mere existence has caused them to be removed, hidden, stolen, spurned, and/or burned because someone thought his or her opinion was worth more than your freedom.

Take a few minutes to stop by the library's book display to see a few of the banned/challenged books that we proudly exhibit. Hey, you might even be bold enough to check one out and read it!

Go ahead, you live in a free country, don't you?

Image credit to ALA

Library Classroom Now Open at Selected Times



The demand for computers has skyrocketed this semester as a result of increased enrollment and the addition of an online component for each class. Every public computer in the library (about 60 of them) is in use starting around 9:00 AM. Afternoons and evenings are less busy, but many times there is still a short wait.

We hope to alleviate some of the wait time by opening the library's classroom at times when we don't have other events scheduled. The times will vary each day, so as you enter the library, watch for a sign that will display the hours that the classroom is open.

Our request is that students use the classroom for coursework only rather than for checking email, playing games, social networking, shopping, and other non-academic activities. If you need help with software, just ask one of the staff or student workers at the Help Desk, located in the computer area of the library.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when using the classroom:

• Bring a flash drive or floppy disk to save your work. Any documents saved on the hard drive will be erased when the computer is turned off.


• Please don't bring in food or drinks.


• Plan your time so that you will be able to finish when we need to use the room.


• Turn off cell phones and keep talking to a minimum.
  

Thanks for your cooperation! We are glad to make this lab available to you.

One Book, One College: Common Reading Programs

Many colleges and universities across the U.S. have implemented reading programs for which students, faculty, and staff all read the same book--fiction, non-fiction, memoir, biography, history, science, classics, and bestsellers--a wide variety of categories. Sometimes called "Reading-in-Common," these programs involve people from all areas of the college in a dialogue about the selected material and enable interaction in ways that these groups might not have otherwise. (Read the results of one online survey of such programs.)

We have created a book display with books from the list compiled by Barbara Fister, librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota. Visit the website that Barbara maintains at: http://homepages.gac.edu/~fister/onebook.html to see a list with the names of the colleges and the books they selected. You might be interested in these choices, all of which are available for check-out from our library:

• Clemson University: One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash
• Howard Community College: Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver
• LaGuardia Community College: An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
• Niagara University: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• Southern Mississippi: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Spokane Community College: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• University of Alaska: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• University of Tennessee, Knoxville: A Long Way Gone by Ismael Beah
• York College: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

If you are interested in starting a similar reading program at Chattanooga State, add your comments to this blog or see one of the library staff. We will collect the names and contact information for those who would like to participate and plan a reading event for the spring semester.

Image credit to VJ Books.