Saturday Hours at the Library

Final Exam week is coming up for NDSCS, and we will be open from 1:00 - 5:00 on Saturday May 8. Stop in to complete your projects and study for those upcoming finals.

It's National Library Week

Every year, libraries join in National Library Week to celebrate our work and our belief in the importance of libraries to their local community, public, academic, or any other sort of library community. At MJ Library we are noting our connection to the LIFE values of North Dakota State College of Science, our home institution. Today the value is LEARNING. We believe that libraries, in many new changing forms, will always be a part of the collegiate experience.

Join us also to "Guess the Staff" - which favorite book belongs with each staff member.

ENG 292 now ENG 278

Are you interested in the Alternative Literature course? It has received final approval status and is now listed as ENG 278 for registration. We need a couple more students to sign up for the class to take place. Think of the fun of reading and discussing the kinds of books you like to read for your own, and getting a chance to learn about some areas of literature that are not mainstream literary works! Deb Dusek and Karen Chobot will lead the class into discoveries about new books and genres. We think you'll love it!

ENGL 292: Alternative Literature

Announcing a NEW literature course, a humanities elective, for Spring Semester 2010. Deborah Dusek and Karen Chobot will be teaching a class that centers on literature that falls outside the established, mainstream literature. We'll look at genres such as Detective Fiction, Science Fiction, regional literature, graphic novels of many forms, and others. We'll examine short stories, plays, poems, non-fiction and others. And there will be some interesting projects for groups and individuals.

The class meets Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 - 9:50 am.

Censorship, Intellectual Freedom, and Fahrenheit 451

The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is more than science fiction. It is a comment on how Bradbury sees possibilities in the future. He says, "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."

This issue will be discussed at a forum in the Fireside Lounge at the MSCTC campus in Fergus Falls, 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It is an event of The NEA Big Read and Fergus Reads, that the Mildred Johnson Library is participating with.

Join a panel of experts who discuss the issues presented in the book, join in the discussion or just listen. There will be a drawing for free books and refreshments.

The September Project

In 2005, two librarians, David Silver and Sarah Washburn, established The September Project for libraries across the country to commemorate the events of September 11 by celebrating and exploring the thems of democracy, citizenship, and patriotism. Around the world, libraries have been joining the project every year with a variety of September events that highlight the library's place in their community.

Mildred Johnson Library has participated in this every year by focusing on the First Amendment to the US Constitution and setting up events and displays that discuss censorship and the citizen's place in a democracy. We focus on Constitution Day, September 17, and Banned Books Week, the last week in September. The past two years we have enjoyed visits from the Traces Museum bus and its exhibits about prisoners of war, as well. This year we will be participating with the Twin Towns One Book Project in The Big Read.

You can see what other communities are doing at

http://www.theseptemberproject.org/

Labor Day weekend

Just to remind you that we are closed on Holiday weekends. We'll be open again as usual, Tuesday morning at 7:30.

Also, there will be some systems work on Sunday morning so the library systems may not be available. Try again after 1:00 pm.