In his book Gay TV and Straight America Ron Becker places gay-themed American television in its political and cultural context, from Roseanne’s lesbian kiss and Chandler Bing’s “quality” to Queer Eye’s Fab Five. What might gay-themed programming tell us about television, politics, American culture, and ourselves?
“ . . . just come out of the closet and be openly gay already.”
—Elaine Benes on Seinfeld, February 11, 1993
Some students comment on how helpful our library instruction sessions are, while others seem disinterested.
Have you been part of a library instruction session? What did you like or dislike? What did you find particularly helpful in your research? Let us know your opinions so that we can improve our technique and content!
You can check out educational games and toys designed for the Montessori classroom, including Legumo, Senso and Frutty lotto games, Color Tablets and Coloretto, Animal Puzzles, Sound Boxes, and Thermic Tablets. These are shelved in the IMC near the 2nd floor Circulation desk. If you need help finding Montessori materials, Ask a Librarian.
The documentary Further Off the Straight and Narrow: New Gay Visibility on Television, 1998-2006 looks not only at how TV presents GLBT characters, but why—do TV shows featuring gay characters reflect a new social awareness and acceptance, or are they just a response to advertisers who want to market to the gay audience?
Further Off the Straight and Narrow is available as a DVD, shelved at FAMC-AV PN 1992.8 .H64 F87 2006 in the Fine Arts Materials Collection (FAMC). To check out anything shelved in FAMC-AV, ask for it at the 2nd floor Circulation desk.
Many students love to explore Archives and Special Collections to discover some of the rare and unique items there. If you’re interested in local history and more, check ‘em out!
What do you love about Archives? What do think needs improvement? The only way we can get better is if we hear from you!
If you are working with children and you need toy animal figures, you can check out museum-quality small vinyl animals from the Instructional Materials Collection (IMC). The Monterey Bay Aquarium Collection has 21 sea creatures in 1:40 scale, including whales, dolphins, sharks and a squid. The Wild Safari Sealife Sampler has 29 animals including penguins, manatees and a jellyfish. These and other toy animals are shelved in the Instructional Materials Collection, near the 2nd floor Circulation desk.
The documentary Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People challenges viewers to think critically about stereotypical Arab characters in Hollywood films– “from over-sexed Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and blood-thirsty terrorists.”
Reel Bad Arabs is available as a DVD, shelved at FAMC-AV PN 1995.9 .A68 R44 2006. To check out anything shelved in FAMC-AV, ask at the 2nd floor Circulation desk.
With the library’s addition a few years under our belt, we’re interested to know what you think of the place! Let us know what you love about the physical library, and what you think needs touching up!
We have many puppets, games and toys available to check out from the Library, in the Instructional Materials Center (IMC) located down a short hallway near the Circulation desk. Our most popular items are our high-quality hand and finger puppets, representing animals, children, a few fairy-tale characters and a couple of bugs. If you need help finding puppets, just Ask a Librarian.
Here at VSU we’re very proud of our MLIS program. Librarians have a long and distinguished history, and now up-and-coming librarians can find out all about it through Library Literature and Information Science Retrospective. This new database purchase adds to our already impressive collection of LIS databases. Check it out!
