Wiki article by WSU librarian

Click here to read “Wiki: A Tool for Teaching, Learning, Sharing and Collaboration” by Wendy G. Wu, an Information Services Librarian at Wayne State University‘s Shiffman Medical Library.  The article appears in the Guest Forum at the Informed Librarian Online.

Upcoming Events at Arab American National Museum

The Arab American National Musuem, a DALNET member library, will be hosting a book signing of American Crescent: A Muslim Cleric on the Power of His Faith, the Struggle Against Prejudice, and the Future of Islam and America by Imam Hassan Qazwini on March 5, 2008 from 6 to 7:30 PM.  Admission is free.  Click here for more information.

Additionally, the museum is displaying 25 works of Sari Khoury (1941-1997), a Palestinian artist and professor who taught at Central Michigan University for 30 years,  in the exhibit “Fragmentation & Unity: The Art of Sari Khoury.”  His works will be on display until April 27th.  Gallery talks about the exhibit will take place on March 2nd at 2 PM, March 14th at Noon, March 30th at 2 PM, April 11th at Noon, and April 20th at 2 PM. 

View more information about the exhibit here.

Look at the online-only companion exhibition here.

See the gallery exhibit guide (PDF) here.

Learn more about Sari Khoury here.

Read the Dearborn Press & Guide story here.

The Arab American National Museum is located at 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan.

Find Wellness @ Your Library

Have you used the library as a start on the road to healthy living? Share your story with Woman’s Day magazine! Do you have a story about using the resources at the library to positively impact your health? If so, send it to Woman’s Day magazine by May 11th, and it might be one of four selected to appear the in magazine.

Women 18 and over are invited to tell their story in 700 words or less and send it to womansday@ala.org Up to four stories will be highlighted in the March 2009 issue of Woman’s Day. For more information and to read the official rules, visit www.womansday.com/ala.

The initiative is sponsored by Woman’s Day and the American Library Association’s Campaign for America’s Libraries, a national public awareness campaign to promote the value of libraries and librarians.

 The March 2008 issue of Woman’s Day features four stories about how libraries helped women start their own businesses.  Click here to read the article.

DIA in the News

 The bulletin of the Michigan chapter of the Special Library Association features an article about the Detroit Institute of Arts Research Library and Archives.  Click here to view the bulletin (the article is on page 11).

MLC Technical Services Conference

 

If anyone is interested, the Michigan Library Consortium is hosting a Technical Services Conference at Lansing Community College on Tuesday April 15, 2008 from 9 AM to 3:30 PM.  Keynote speakers will be Karen Calhoun, Vice President, OCLC WorldCat and Metadata Services and Tim Spalding, creator of Library Thing.  Other presentations will be about workflow issues and RDA.  The cost is $99 for MLC members and $160 for non-members.  For the agenda and registration page, click here.

UGL Features Black History Month Display Featuring the Work of African American Artist Jacob Lawrence

In celebration of Black History Month, the Wayne State Library System and Art Collection are proud to present a text and visual display highlighting “The Legend of John Brown,” a remarkable suite of 22 silkscreen prints created by renowned African American artist, Jacob Lawrence, that are exhibited on the second floor of the David Adamany Undergraduate Library.

On view throughout the month of February, the display is located in the atrium of the UGL and was developed to provide a broader understanding and appreciation of this important work of art from the university’s permanent art collection.

In his lifetime Lawrence (1917-2000) produced works of art marked with a sense of the human struggle for dignity and the fight for freedom and justice. It was in his dramatic graphic biographies of abolitionists such as John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman that Lawrence combined his powerful visual language with the remembered stories of legendary civil rights figures he read while growing up in 1930’s Harlem.

The abolitionist leader and subject of this suite of prints, John Brown was found guilty of treason and murder in the first degree after his unsuccessful attempt to capture the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Brown was hung in Charles Town, Virginia in 1859. The death of John Brown further incited groups on both sides of the issue and in 1861 the Civil War began.

The display offers historical notes, illustrations and offers insights into the life and creative processes of the artist Jacob Lawrence; the convictions of abolitionist John Brown and the Detroit writer Robert Hayden who contributed his poem “John Brown” to the 1978 suite.

A handout will be available for visitors who wish to view the informational display as well as the entire suite of prints. The handout will include titles and wall locations for each print on the 2nd floor of the library.

This is an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) student project. Special thanks to Sara Quimby and Ian Chapp for their contributions.

Black History Month Events of DALNET Institutions

Minds on Freedom: Interactive musical and dramatic performance at The Henry Ford (20900 Oakwood, Dearborn), various times, Now through February 29 

Rosa Parks Exhibit at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University (5401 Cass, Detroit), 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday-Friday, Now through May 30

Shaping Identity: Workshop for educators at the Detroit Institute of Arts (5200 Woodward, Detroit), 5:30 to 7:30 PM, Friday, February 8.  Registration required ($10 preservice teachers, $15 members, $20 nonmembers)

“Honeydripper” directed by John Sayles at the Detroit Film Theatre (5200 Woodward, Detroit), 7 PM on February 8-9, 4 and 7 PM on February 10 ($7.50, $6.50 students, seniors and members)

Tour of African American Art Galleries at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 2 PM on February 9

Tanya (Touchdown) Dallas: Storytelling at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 2 PM on February 10

“The Tuskegee Airmen – They Fought Two Wars” at the Macomb Community College South Campus (14500 E. Twelve Mile, Warren), continuous screening of the documentary from 11 AM to 7 PM on February 11 (Free)

The Spirit of African-American Artists presented by Jane Strand of the DIA at the Macomb Community College South Campus, 12:30 to 1:30 PM on February 12

Annual E. Azalia Hackley Collection Concert at the Detroit Main Public Library (5201 Woodward, Detroit), 7 PM on February 12 ($30 reserved seats)

Randy Weston: Musical Performance at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 7 and 8:30 PM on February 15

LaKela Brown: Artist Demonstration at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1 to 5 PM on February 16

African Dance-Marygrove College Dance Company at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Noon to 1 PM on February 20

“Retrospective: Masterworks of Ousmane Sembene”: Screening of “Xala” at the Detroit Film Theatre, 7:30 PM on February 21 ($7.50, $6.50 students, seniors and members)

An Evening with Aku Kadogc and Jessica Care Moore at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 6:30 and 8 PM on February 22 (Free with admission)

“Retrospective: Masterworks of Ousmane Sembene”: Screening of “Black Girl & Borom Sarret” at the Detroit Film Theatre, 7 PM on February 22 ($7.50, $6.50 students, seniors and members)

Pyeng Threadgill: Musical Performances at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 7 and 8:30 PM on February 22

“Retrospective: Masterworks of Ousmane Sembene”: Screening of “Ceddo” at the Detroit Film Theatre, 7 PM on February 23 ($7.50, $6.50 students, seniors and members)

Brunch with Bach: Harlem Quartet at the Detroit Institute of Arts, 11:30 AM on February 24 ($30 includes brunch, $10 concert only)

Let My People Go: A Spiritual Journey Along the Underground Railroad at Marygrove College, 7:30 PM on February 29 and 2 PM on March 1 (General Admission $25)

For a full list of events, also go to freep.com/blackhistoryevents.

UDM Mobile Law Clinic for Veterans

The University of Detroit Mercy’s School of Law’s mobile law clinic will be touring the country offering legal assistance to veterans.  See the Detroit Free Press Article here. 

Visit the website here.

National Barcode Registry

NOTE: As of January 2017, the information in this article is dated and may no longer be accurate.

Does anyone remember GEAC?  Well, now they are Extensity, part of Infor, and they are still in the ILS business; the old GEAC ILS is now Vubis-Smart.

Did you know that this company is still in charge of keeping a national registry of barcode prefix assignments for libraries?  Did you even know that such a registry exists?  Until recently the registry was written down in a paper catalog in an office at the corporation. You can’t find this information online, so it is often hard to find, a secret to a few powerful people! Well, every library that automates in the US should sign up for a unique barcode prefix.  It’s simple and free.

Just call and tell them that you need to register for a library barcode prefix.

I think they finally got the list into a spreadsheet but it is still not online.  Sometimes they already have a number assigned for a library if the library has been around for a while, so you can always ask them to check first before giving you a new number.  They can also try and get you a number near other libraries that you may already have registered.

Hopefully, they will eventually create an online form for registry.  Maybe someday they will even do the library community the benefit of creating an online directory with this information.  For now though, it is still nice of them to provide a number to call with a nice individual to answer the phone.  Maybe this is what most people would prefer.