Happy Thanksgiving

One little tree still holding on
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

The Pesky library staff wish everyone a happy and restful Thanksgiving break. Eat a lot of turkey, go for a long walk and maybe curl up with a good book. See you back here on the Blog in 10 days

Orange you glad...

Orange you glad...
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

One of our staff members, a master at displays, recently put together a lovely display of orange to compliment the season titled, "Orange you glad you read?" Funny how a color can elicit different feelings – what would orange fall under? It is definitely a color of the season, and this autumn Byfield has been full of brilliant color. We are amazed here at the library how the colors are holding on well into November. If an orange cover piques your interest check out the list of titles on display. Happy Reading!

Flickring at MSLA

Our badges
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

We have returned from the MSLA (Massachusetts School Library Association) conference in beautiful Strubridge, MA. The Pesky Librarians presented a session on Flickr in the School Library. There were many interesting sessions and keynotes this year and it is always a pleasure to share ideas with fellow school librarians inbetween. It was a busy two days and today we catch up and do our post-conference Flickring.

It all began in Massachusetts

As the Thanksgiving season approaches, the history of Massachusetts seems to come alive. After all, the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymoth in 1621. Our current display "It All Began in Massachusetts" is filled with the history of Massachusetts; from the Brave Bostonians (973.311 MCF), The Mayflower (973.2 PHI), the Beanpot and Walden, the roots of American history begin here. For a complete listing of materials on display visit our photo in Flickr.

Faculty Seminar on Teaching and Learning - Dr. Scheintaub

Faculty Seminar on Teaching and Learning - Dr. Scheintaub
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Good teachers never stop learning. To prove the point, we had a group of teachers from the Governor's Academy meet in the Pesky Library during their lunch time to hear from their colleagues what they had learned at Conferences or Summer Institutes to improve their classroom instruction. Pictured here is Dr. Hal Scheintaub who discussed how he uses technology in his science classes. There was much sharing of innovative and successful teaching strategies. Lunch was served in the library to all participants who went away pleased with the whole experience.

Governor interviews the current Royal Thai Scholar

Governor interview in the stacks
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Each year, The Governor's Academy participates in the Royal Thai Scholar program. Our scholar enrolls as a senior and spends the year immersed in English language and culture before going on to college. Being chosen a scholar to study in the United States is very competitive. Only Thai students with an A average are eligible to take a nation-wide exam administered by the Civil Service Commission of the Royal Thai government. Once qualified, the students are matched to different scholarships based on the needs of the country and are directed into areas of study. For each year of school (through graduate levels) the scholar gives back two years of service to the sponsoring organization. Many become university professors, research scientists, or leaders in other special areas.
In addition to serving their country as both scholars and global ambassadors, these Royal Thai Scholars serve us well. We learn not only about the Thai culture but also of the determination to do well with the opportunity given to them. These students battle homesickness (many do not return home at all during the school year.) We are happy that each year's Scholar spends time studying and hanging out in the library.

BTW, if you missed our lack of posting yesterday, it was a Headmaster's Holiday and the Pesky Librarians celebrated it along with our students!

American Studies Web Quest

American Studies Web Quest
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

As the American Studies class was doing a Web quest on the Constitution in the Electronic Classroom, I was putting together the display on Massachusetts in the hall. Suddenly I heard “he went to Governor Dummer.” I knew she was talking about Rufus King who was one of the boys who matriculated from the Little Red Schoolhouse during the tenure of Master Samuel Moody. King left Byfield for Harvard, graduating in 1777 at the head of his class. He studied law under Theophilus Parsons (another illustrious Little Red Schoolhouse graduate of Moody’s) in Newburyport. His career in the law began and in 1783 he was admitted to serve before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He went on to serve as the Massachusetts delegate to the Philadelphia convention on the Constitution. He supported a strong national government with greater power belonging to the most populous states. After signing the Constitution he returned to Massachusetts and was a delegate to the state’s convention which ratified it. He served as a U.S. Senator from New York and as the ambassador to Great Britain. He had a long career as a Federalist. You can read more about the boy who studied here in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress or at the National Archives.

Always Teaching Always Learning

Faculty Seminar on Teaching and Learning - Ms. DeGrasse
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

The Library was the location for the second Faculty Teaching and Learning Seminar last week. Four faculty members shared projects and teaching strategies with fellow colleagues in the Bragdon Reading Room. It was a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and methods of teaching with fellow faculty and learn more about what happens in different classrooms. To see other photos from the seminar, visit Scenes from the Library in Flickr.

Satisfied Customers

The prize winners for "Best Costumes at the Halloweeen Dance" were none other than regular users of our library. We were so pleased (and amused) to see the creativity of our students. Maybe they got their ideas from the 391 (COSTUME) section of the library that we promoted in last week's BLOG. In any case, the students pictured here as "The Village People" are satisfied customers. Congratulations!!

Spooky Books

Spooky Books
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

A favorite quote of mine is Macbeth's "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes . . ." Whether I'm reading or movie watching, the anticipation of the macabre or the wickedness promised in a blurb or a review can be better than the actual unfolding of plot. To celebrate the day, the library pulled together a collection of spooky books and DVD's. A new title not there is on my kitchen table. I am in the midst of a quirky ghost story, The Dead Father's Club by Matt Haig. It's an update of Hamlet but it is not simply a retelling of the story. Main protagonist Philip has a wonderfully strong adolescent voice. Once again the ghost is selfish and the mother is rather silly but the other characters don't mirror the originals so closely. I am not really sure where it's going to end but, as I wait for trick-or-treaters tonight, I hope to find out!

Elvinson's Sculpture

Elvinson's Sculpture
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

Fine Arts Department Chair Geoff Brace recently brought this ceramic sculpture to its new home in the library. I remember back several years when the then senior Elvinson Corporan was starting it during AP Ceramics. He came to me researching hieroglyphics. I asked ceramics teacher Irina Okula for more info on it.

She replied, "Elvinson came to GDA never having touched clay.He took every ceramics class offered . In his senior year, he took AP Ceramics and worked on this large sculpture for a good part of the year. He started it in January and worked on it until June. As the date of graduation quickly approached, he would have Security let him in at 5:00 a.m. to work on it before his classes started. He also spent many late nights trying to complete it. He finished it, but not to his satisfaction so he came back the following summer and last summer to finish it. He spent three weeks this summer sanding it and glazing it. What a dedicated student! I love when he said he did not care so much for the outcome of the piece but that it was the process that he really loved. He constructed the form with large flat coils. He did research on Egyptian hieroglyphics and carved a beautiful poem in hieroglyphics about his family into the clay."

The library is so very happy to have this part of Elvinson with us. BTW, Elvinson is presently a senior at Brown studying buisness.

Admissions Open House at the Library

Saturday, October 27 was the Academy’s Annual Open House and we saw hundreds of people visit the campus to learn more about the Academy’s program. Situated at the heart of the campus, the library becomes a popular spot for families to explore. In addition to the families who came to visit, a few student groups lead by some of our upperclassmen strolled through the building as well. The library provided Moo cards to visitors as they entered the foyer with links to the library’s blog and library services.

Adopted Books from Parents' Weekend

Adopted Books from Parents' Weekend
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

As part of Parents' Weekend, the Allies operate a "book sale" in the library, offering the opportunity to place a donation bookplate in a book already selected by the library or a different book of choice. Sometimes parents make a donation and request that we purchase a specific title or subject area while others ask that we get requests from their children. Pictured are the specific books chosen from our collection. We have been busy putting orders into Amazon to fill requests. Parents were very generous this year and we are grateful. The money raised goes into a special account. As new reference materials come available in the spring and the library's budget is winding down, we know we have a source we can draw from.
We love when we open a book on the shelf, read the name on the book plate, and have memories of that past student pop up!

Halloween

There is still time to get yourself ready for Halloween. If you are not sure what to wear for a costume for the dance, the library is here to help. Under the heading COSTUME, in the card catalog, there are 25 books listed with the call number 391. With everything from ancient Egyptian and Roman costumes to fashions of the decades, there is sure to be something for every taste. Check us out.

The series begins

Red Sox
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

There is nothing like the anticipation of a National Championship being played in your home town. Tonight marks the start of the World Series, Red Sox versus the Rockies here in Boston. The library is ready to celebrate each win with our Red Sox display located center stage in the foyer. Besides an extensive display of books on the Sox, checkout the Official Red Sox website for up-to-date information on the series as it progresses. Time to play ball – enjoy the game!

The Civics Letter

Freshmen were busy in the library last week. As part of the Civics class, each student needs to select a topic to research for both a paper and a letter to the Congressional delegation from home. A course on writing the letter is among the library's courses on Classrooms on Elmstreet. The course walks students through finding the names and addresses of their Congressional delegation, selecting a topic, finding books in our library, using select databases (CQ Researcher, Opposing Viewpoints, and ELibrary,) effective Internet searching, and citing sources the MLA way. As Mrs. Brown worked with one class in the Electronic Classroom, Ms. Chase worked with another in the reference area. Students found the Pro/Con (REF 170) and the Taking Sides (REF 170) series as well as the Social Issues in America Encyclopedia (REF 361.97 SOC) especially helpful in reference.

Allies Book Sale

Allies Book Sale
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

During Parents' Weekend, the Allies raise money for library books by "selling" books to parents. Parents select specific books to have plates put in honoring a child's birthday or maybe honoring a teacher. We are grateful for their never-ending support.

magazines

While putting away magazines this evening I was again impressed with the wonderful assortment of periodicals to which we subscribe. The Pesky Library subscribes to well over a hundred magazine titles, many of which are academic journals used for research. But we also subscribe to magazines that have high appeal to our students and staff. Our head librarian does her best to honor student and staff requests. Some of our new titles this year are: Mental Floss, Beadwork, Wrestling, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Backpacker and Fine Gardening. HAPPY READING!

50 Years of Advertising

50 Years of Advertising
Originally uploaded by Pesky Library

We took a look at how ads evolved over the past 50 years. Using our issues of Time magazine, we copied cigarette ads and automobile ads. Car ads used phrase like "bound to be noticed" and "enjoy being looked at" along with words like "happiest" and "excitement" and "pride." The cigarette ads focused on taste and flavor. Gender roles really come through in both sets. (Virginia Slims are especially curious looked at today.) Stop by and take a look at the questions these ads raise. You can find a list of the books we have on marketing and being consumers here.

Sputnik 50 years later

This month marks the 50th anniversary of Sputnik. On October 4, 1957 Russians launched the first artificial satellite and in doing so, leapt ahead of the Americans in the race for space. The space race is often a topic our history students choose for their thesis papers and we have many books that have been recently added to the collection. A few of the titles on display include, Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the hidden rivalries that ignited the Space Race (629.4 BRZ), Live From Cape Canaveral: covering the space race, from Sputnik to today (629.45 BAR), and Space Race: the spic battle between America and the Soviet Union for dominion of space (629.409 CAD). Our Sputnik display can be found in the foyer of the library.

New YA

The Pesky Library Flickr page now has a set for New Acquisitions. Young Adult fiction titles were recently added to this set. We love to see these titles fly off the shelf and into the hands of our students. In Flickr you can view the Young Adult books added this fall and see the notes listed on many of the titles for further information. Other titles not highlighted by the notes include: Life on the Refrigerator Door (FIC KUI), M is for Magic (SC GAI), The Last Chicken in America (FIC LIT), Parrotfish (FIC WIT), American Youth (FIC LAM), Gifted (FIC LAL), and Territory (FIC BUL). We are excited to provide a new list of acquisitions as orders arrive along with a great visual that Flickr allows us to provide.

Laptops on the Move

I think all would agree that the laptops are our most popular service. We have five that students or faculty can check out to use within the library. Even when there are available desktops, students prefer the laptops to take to a quiet corner or a comfy chair. We have started documenting the places they go. Take a look at The Life of a Pesky Laptop.

Seniors

While the Juniors are busy researching their American History papers, the Seniors are focused on next year. There is a steady buzz of conversation as they visit colleges and return with new information. Many students began their search during Junior year or during summer visits to campuses everywhere. You can almost feel their anxiety now that the time has come to make decisions about where to apply. Most are looking forward to having the application process finished. Of course, then there is a new level of anxiety as they wait to hear about their acceptances. Senior year is a roller-coaster ride, but one that most students will say they enjoyed when they finally get off.

More on Lori Ehrlich and the Convocation

Lori Ehrlich was the Academy’s first Spirituality speaker of the year. Her speech centered on three cases which drew her into the environmental movement: the Salem Power Plant owned by P.G. & E, Erin Brockovich’s research into P.G. & E. and health issues in Hinckley, California, and the Wenham Lake Reservoir. If you want to read further, here are the websites she referenced in her talk. HealthLink has the list of what you can do to be part of the solution.

• HealthLink
• Her Truth and Progress Blog
• Wenham Lake Watershed Association
• Blanket the Globe
• Environmental League of Massachusetts
• Ceres

Also, the library has many books on environmental topics. Three of the newest are Feeding the fire : the lost history and uncertain future of mankind's energy addiction by Mark E. Eberhart, Moving mountains : how one woman and her community won justice from big coal by Penny Loeb, and Lights out : the electricity crisis, the global economy, and what it means to you by Jason Makansi.

What’s New in History

The library loves to share new book titles with students, faculty and staff just as much as we enjoy opening that new box of delivered books. Usually we pull together a list of the latest and greatest titles and will share this with the community, as well as post them to our Library Thing account. We are adding a new dimension to our “New Titles” list by taking a photograph of the newest books in a given category. Today we begin with new history titles. The full listing of new history books can be found with it’s photograph in Flickr. Stay tuned for other categories of new books in the coming weeks.

Life of a Book - from Selection to the Reader's Hands

Building the library's collection is my favorite professional task. I enjoy reading reviews, gathering suggestions from students and colleagues, or simply going to the Jabberwocky and filling my arms with books. There's nothing like the satisfacton involved in matching a reader to an author or a researcher to a text. BUT, selecting the books is simply the beginning of the books becoming part of the collection. Processing, being entered into the database and added to LibraryThing comprise many steps which different hands complete. We are more focused on the steps involved during the fall when we are adding many books (new and used) to support the Junior History thesis topics chosen. Curious one week about how many steps there really are, we created a step-by-step montage of what is involved. Take a look.....

Academy Alum Invented Wire Trap

The wire lobster trap was created by James M. Knott, Class of 1947. First used off the coast of Gloucester in 1957, the trap was found to be lighter out of the water but heavier in it. Water flowed more easily through the wire mesh than through the wooden slats so the traps stayed on the bottom during rough seas. As the years passed, the traps found more and more acceptance with lobstermen who discovered the traps required less maintenance and had a longer lifespan than the standard wooden traps. On exhibit is a wire trap given by Mr. Knott, articles outlining its invention, and books on lobsters and lobstering. The Gulf of Maine Aqaurium has some great information and pictures on lobsters and the history of lobstering. Visit The Lobsterman’s Page to learn more about the fishery and how the gear is handled.

First Settlers

Did you know that the Pescosolido Library is used for other purposes beyond student and faculty research and book borrowing? We have groups that meet here and use our facilities as well. This week, for example, “The Sons and Daughters of the First Settlers of Newbury”, a genealogical society, met in our Glass Room, a beautiful round room with large windows overlooking our athletic fields. Mr. Carl Panall, the husband of our head librarian, Ms. Susan Chase, is a member of this group, as is Peter Swift, a member of the GA staff. We are happy to accommodate groups such as these in our spacious facilities. The sole criteria for reserving a room would be that there is an educational purpose for the meeting. See you at the library!

Banned on Flickr

Banned Books can be found not only in libraries and bookstores, but on Flickr as well. We have recently discovered a Banned Books Week group where libraries of all kinds are adding their banned books photos. One of the Pesky Library favorites is from the Dayton Metro Library East Branch. The picture includes 99 of the top 100 banned books and they are still looking for someone to come up with the one title that is missing. Can you figure it out? Read the comments below the picture to see what people have guessed so far.

Banned Books Ahoy!

We celebrate our right to read freely this week, a right to cherish and not to take lightly. Book censorship has been with us in America (especially Massachusetts) since our earliest days. The first book was censored in 1650 on the grounds that it challenged Puritan doctrine and was heretical. As time went on "Banned in Boston" became a familiar phrase. According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, 2d ed, 1988, "During the 1920s the phrase banned in Boston became famous because the long-established Watch and Ward Society of the so-called Hub of the Universe was forever getting the city censor to ban books from sale. Many publishers actively sought to have their books banned in Boston because they knew the label would increase their sales in the rest of the country..." Now individuals challenge and hope to suppress books that they feel are subversive, especially to young minds. U Penn has a good overview of Banned Books On-line and the reasons for the challenges. Stop by the library and see if you have read any of the titles in our display. You might be amazed at what you find. Read a banned book today!

Bags all around

As part of their orientation freshmen received welcome bags from the library with supplies to help them as they embark on their first year at The Governor’s Academy. Juniors are the next group to receive bags as they embark in a different type of journey: the U.S. History Thesis paper. When Juniors attend their reference interview with a librarian, they will be given a thesis bag with supplies to help them as they research. The bag includes, a highlighter to help locate keywords, sticky notes to mark important pages, note cards to help create and outline, a first edition Pesky Library pen and pencil, and holding it all together is a clip and Moo card. The Moo card will give Juniors the address to the U.S. History Moodle page and library contact information.

Juniors: Step Two

Last week we shared with you in the Pesky Blog how the Junior American History classes were coming to the library for a preliminary introduction to their thesis research. The library has now begun individual reference interviews with each Junior. The interview allows students to further explore their topic to see what resources are available to them by searching OPACs and journal databases, conducting effective internet searching and taking note of citing sources. All of these resources have been pulled together and are part of the US History Thesis course in Moodle. Students can access the Moodle course from on or off campus. Ms. Chase has worked with a number of students this week and all of the librarians are looking forward to assisting Juniors over the coming months.

Favorite author

Do you have a favorite author? Someone who, when you finish his or her book, you feel sad that the characters are no longer in your life? Someone who, when a new book by the author is announced, you get excited at the prospect of a new story that you know you will love? Richard Russo is one of those authors for me. I feel that I know his characters like I know my relatives. His characters are just as quirkey and flawed and lovable as people we know in real life. While reading his stories I feel close to them and feel their joys and sorrows. He wrote Empire Falls, Straight Man and a short story collection titled The Whore's Child. I loved them all. His new book is titled Bridge of Sighs and has been well reviewed. I can't wait to get my hand on it.

A Job Well Done

Attempting to get the workroom organized (finally,) the librarians hauled shelving home from Sam's Club and spent a morning putting it together. It was a truly cooperative effort! Ms. Pinkham and Mrs. Brown are pleased and proud with the results!

To Our Great Surprise

Over the past two years the Pesky Library has plunged into the great wide world of Web 2.0, building on the Pesky Blog by creating a Flickr site for photo sharing, a del.icio.us account for sharing professional library links, and utilizing Library Thing to post new books. We have learned a great deal and continue to learn from those who are also out there posting with these tools, and we are connecting with libraries across the country and overseas. While browsing through the most recent edition of Library Journal, we were amazed to find the Carl A. Pescosolido (Pesky) Library mentioned in the article, “Tags Help make Libraries Del.icio.us” by Melissa L. Rethlefsen. The library was referred to for its use of tagging in Library Thing by adding call numbers to the book tags. With the many libraries out there plugging away and making the effort to connect users with these new tools, we were taken by surprise and felt honored to be mentioned among those who are using tags successfully. To read the complete article click here, you will need to scroll down through the table of contents to view the article. Who knows where the Pesky Library will turn up next!

The Junior Thesis at the Beginning

Students in U.S. History classes started exploring topics for their thesis papers with us today. Mrs. Brown introduced them to the Moodle class designed for this paper. She also refreshed their memories on working within our OPAC and with the Infotrac databases. She then brought them out to Reference, pointing out generalized resources to explore ideas and our resource stacks on specific topics. Ms. Chase and their teacher Mr. Delay helped enlarge upon the possibilities of some of their thoughts and ideas. Some students were raring to go and made appointments with the librarians for one-on-one instruction specific to their topics.

Library Thing

After entering new book titles into Library Thing this evening I was thinking about how our library borrowers might also use this service. Library Thing is an on-line tool that lets people catalog their own book collections, while at the same time learning who owns the same or similar titles, and even lets you "talk" to the books' authors. It is often described as the "mySpace for books" or "Facebook for Books". Check out Library Thing and experience a whole new world of book sharing from the comfort of your own computer. You can even buy a Library Thing T-Shirt.

Art in the Ol’ Barn

Students and teachers alike are taking advantage of each beautiful day we are given here in Byfield before the temperatures begin to dip down. Ms. Struck’s class found a lovely location for their sketching assignment today; a bit of sun, a bit of shade, the birds chirping, the chipmunks scurrying about the stone wall, it is a quiet, peaceful location. The stone you see behind the students has been there for hundreds of years: it is the foundation of the cattle barn from the original farm before the school was established. Ms. Chase mentioned the cattle barn to our new students during orientation, along with many other interesting facts and “things to see” around campus that are of historical significance. The area where the students are seen sketching is located just behind the library, it was nice to see people enjoying the space on such a fine day.

All's well at the Library

The year always starts with a rush at the library - processing the new books, putting displays together, preparing for orientation, greeting returning students, working with new faculty, resetting expired passwords, revisiting all those ideas which sounded great at the end of last year (are they still good?) And then, preparing for the U.S. History thesis process takes over. So, it was a clickable moment for me when I came around the corner and saw these toes with a laptop. I stopped and took a deep cleansing breath. Students are back in our lives and it's swell!

On the Road at 50

Jack Kerouac's seminal novel of the Beat Generation turned 50 0n September 5. The library celebrates with a display featuring a book taken from the original scroll, a couple of contemporary posters, some classic cars, and quotes from Kerouac. You can be "Present at the Creation", an NPR presentation which includes many multi-media links to Kerouac reading from his book or watch curators unroll the scroll.
Although I read the book and encountered the Beat Generation in high school, my loveliest encounter with On the Road came when I myself was on the road in England. A friend and I had traveled to a village in Norfolk to visit a neighbor whose husband had been transferred there. Leaving her, we started a Jane Austen pilgrimage, boarding a train at King Lynn’s station to make our way to Winchester. The tracks went along a canal populated by swans and behind community garden plots complete with dilapidated and tipsy sheds made with scavenged materials. When a young woman sat next to me, I was feeling the effects of being truly in a different place. She was on her way to take a job lettering signs for a traveling circus. She was excited to chat with an American and pulled her favorite book from a rucksack. Had I ever read On the Road, simply the best book ever written? So there I was, on an English road discussing a journey by an author who had lived not 30 minutes from my home. When I tried to tell her about my Austen road trip, she was uncertain who Austen was (but was very polite about my enthusiasm.) Message to me: there’s a literary road for each of us.

Ole! Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the library has a diverse collection of Hispanic authors on display originating from some of the twenty-one Spanish speaking countries in the world. Hispanic Heritage Month began in September 1968 and became a month long celebration from September 15 – October 15 in 1988. September 15 has been designated as the start of Hispanic Heritage Month as it is the day of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The United States celebrates the culture and traditions of those whose roots come from Spanish speaking countries during this month. Our display covers a wide range of authors originating from countries such as Chile, Peru, Spain, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Bolivia and more. For a complete list of the books included in this display, visit the Pesky Library’s Flickr page. In addition, there are many resources online to provide more information on Hispanic Heritage Month, of interest is the Smithsonian’s Hispanic Heritage Resource Library which provides a Latino Center with storytelling and a virtual photo gallery.

New Ways

Beginning this school year students are using the library in some new ways. For example we have installed the textbook, now called a kinetic book, for Ms. Kali Wilson's Honors Physics class on several of our computers. Students use this program in place of a traditional textbook. The students taking this class are comfortable with this new format and we are pleased to have these hard-working students in our library. The Pesky librarians will keep you posted on the many ways our students use the library in a feature on the Governor's Academy web page titled "In the Library today". It can be found under ACADEMICS-LIBRARY.

2007 Commencement Speaker's Moment of Courage Display

In his speech to students Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League New England Region Andrew Tarsy said "Hold yourself accountable. If you want to see racism disappear from the world, are you willing to interrupt small acts of prejudice and joke-telling when you see them? Even when it is uncomfortable and may cause you to lose a new friend? Your commitment will be challenged in a few short months." Little did he know on that May Sunday that he would hold himself to that same advice and be roiled in a controversy which would cause him to lose his job for a time and ultimately lead to change on the ADL policy on the Armenian genocide. The display uses chronological articles from the Boston Globe starting with Watertown's questioning their participation in the ADL's No Place for Hate program while the ADL fails to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Articles on this controversy from many different newspapers are available in a Google news search (try using ADL and either Armenia, Tarsy, or genocide for search terms.) A list of books used in the display are on In the Library Today .

Lost and Not Yet Found

Stuff accumulates in the library. The day starts chilly but turns warm and the morning's jacket is left on the back of a chair. Textbooks and notebooks are left behind on a table when their owners migrate to a workstation. When the lights flash to signal the library's closing, hats and mittens and umbrellas are overlooked as students quickly pack their bags and return to their dorms. As librarians clear the building, they scoop up these student belongings and place them in the Lost and Found bucket by the copier. As a last ditch effort to reunite these items with their owners, we have piled them on a table in the entry where they wait forlornly. So, if you are looking for something from last year, try the table. Things accumulating this year will go into the copy room.

Welcome Class of 2011

We were able to meet many new students last week during orientation as they toured the library and set up their e-mail accounts. We are looking forward to extending a welcome to the freshmen once again as we pass out bags with a few school supplies inside as they begin their studies. The bags displayed include first edition "Pesky Library" pens and pencils, a highlighter, note cards, post-it notes, a glue stick and are sealed with a Moo card and clip. The Pesky Library Moo cards provide students with the library’s e-mail and Moodle page address. We look forward to working with this new group of students and wish them much success during their time here at The Governor’s Academy.

The 2007-2008 Academic Year Has Begun!

Today marks the first day of classes at The Governor's Academy. The library worked with students last week for new student orientation. As part of this orientation, Ms. Chase provided a brief history of the Academy, highlighting those who made an impact on the formation of the school and then influenced changes in early America. On display was the recently conserved Document of Incorporation dated 1782.

For more pictures of the New Student Orientation, take a look at the Pesky Flickr page.