In the News

In the News: Liberal Economic Backlash

Week of March 30, 2009

News Item: President Barack Obama’s administration has drawn fire from left-leaning economists for continuing to bail out banks with hundreds of billions in taxpayer money. Some observe how this is a continuation of George W. Bush’s administrative policies. Many of these economists had been supportive of Obama’s bid for the presidency in the lead up to the November 2008 election. Paul Krugman, 2008 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics; Joseph Stigletz, former World Bank Chief Economist; and Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration; among others, argue that greater spending on social programs and infrastructure will have a more positive influence on the economy in the long term than propping up banks destined for failure.

Contributed by James F. Tracy, Assoc. Professor, Communication and Multimedia Studies

Continue reading

In the News: Star Trek

Week of March 23, 2009

News Item: Many die-hard Star Trek fans go out of their way to collect anything and everything related to the science fiction television and movie series. There are action figures, comic books, trading cards, mugs, t-shirts, and even furniture based on the franchise that began in the 1960s. A recent story in the Home section of the New York Times highlighted the fascination that some Trekkies have for Captain Kirk’s U.S.S. Enterprise chair. These enthusiasts even go so far as to have sophisticated replicas of the chair built for their living rooms. The books below may not cover the architectural and interior design concepts of the Enterprise, but they do provide insight into the Star Trek phenomenon that continues to pervade American popular culture.

American Science Fiction TV: Star Trek, Stargate and Beyond
By: Jan Johnson-Smith. I.B. Tauris, 2005
Call Number: Available online through NetLibrary

Boarding the Enterprise: Transporters, Tribbles, and the Vulcan Death Grip in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek Series
Edited by David Gerrold et al. BenBella Books, 2006
Call Number: PN1992.77 .S73 B63 2006

Deep Space and Sacred Time: Star Trek in the American Mythos
By Jon Wagner and Jan Lundeen. Praeger, 1998
Call Number: Available online through Greenwood e-books
Continue reading

In the News: Singularity University

Week of March 16, 2009

News Item: In February MIT Professor Ray Kurzweil secured an agreement with NASA and Google to embark on “Singularity University.” SU will offer classes and research programs examining biotechnology, nanotechnology, and Kurzweil’s overall vision of a society where the “artificial intelligence” and decision making powers of computers will eventually surpass and replace similar capacities of humans. Especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, social scientists and self-proclaimed “futurologists” have assessed and ventured predictions on how automation and information technology influence economics, culture, and society. The establishment of SU provokes further concern about the present and future relationships between technology and society.

After the New Economy: The Binge…And the Hangover That Won’t Go Away
By Doug Henwood. New Press, 2003
Call Number: HC106.83 .H46 2003

The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
By Ray Kurzweil. Viking, 1999
Call Number: Q335 .K88 1999

Being Digital
By Nicholas Negroponte. Knopf, 1995
Call Number: TK5103.7 .N43 1995
Continue reading

In the News: Demise of Newspapers?

Week of March 9, 2009

News Item: The Rocky Mountain News, a daily newspaper from Denver, Colorado, published its final edition on February 27, 2009. Many papers across the country could face similar problems if potential buyers are not found, while others such as the Chicago Tribune are seeking bankruptcy protection. Also, the Christian Science Monitor will soon become a weekly paper, cease its daily print editions, and rely mainly on the Web as a means of publishing its news. Is this the end of traditional newspapers as we know them? (Democracy Now! reported on this topic last week)

 

American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media
By Neil Henry. U of California Press, 2007
Call Number: PN4888 .E8 H46 2007

Breach of Faith: A Crisis of Coverage in the Age of Corporate Newspapering
By Gene Roberts. U of Arkansas Press, 2002
Call Number: PN4867 .B674 2002 (At Jupiter – May be borrowed through ILL services)

The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst
By David Nasaw. Houghton Mifflin, 2000
Call Number: Z473 .H4 N37 2000
Continue reading

In the News: Coffee

Week of February 23, 2009

News Item: For many college students, coffee is the quintessential morning beverage of choice (or the mail afternoon and evening drink, if it’s finals week) . It’s easy to brew, easy to buy (thanks to the many java establishments on campus), and recent studies have shown that coffee may even help lower the risk of stroke. Just how popular is coffee in academic library holdings? See below….

 

Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival
By Daniel Jaffee. U of California Press, 2007
Call Number: HD9199. D442 J34 2007 or available online through NetLibrary

Buyer Be Fair: The Promise of Product Certification (DVD)
Directed by John De Graaf. Bullfrog Films, 2006
Call Number: HF1413 .B89 2006 (Media Center)

Changing Forests: Collective Action, Common Property, and Coffee in Honduras
By Catherine M. Tucker. Springer, 2008
Call Number: HD9199 .H6 T93 2008
Continue reading

In the News: Food Safety 2009

Week of February 16, 2009

News Item:  One year ago, In the News highlighted titles on food safety after 143 million pounds of ground beef was recalled from a California meat company. Since then Melamine was found in Chinese infant formula in 2008, and a Georgia processing plant was recently blamed for an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium found in peanut butter and peanut paste products. How safe is our food, and what is the FDA and USDA doing to eliminate future foodborne illnesses?

 

The Chemical Feast: The Ralph Nader Study Group Report on Food Protection and the Food and Drug Administration
By James S. Turner. Grossman Publishers, 1970
Call Number: HD9000.9 .U5 T83

Ensuring Safe Food: From Production to Consumption
By the National Research Council (U.S.) Committee to Ensure Safe Food from Production to Consumption. National Academy Press, 1998
Call Number: TX531 .C587 1998

Fast Food Nation (DVD)
Directed by Richard Linklater. 20th Century Fox, 2006
Summary: “When a marketing executive for a huge burger chain finds a nasty secret ingredient in their burger recipe, he goes to the ranches and slaughterhouses of Colorado to investigate and finds that the truth is sometimes difficult to swallow.“
Call Number: PN1997.2 .F3768 2007 (Media Center)
Continue reading

In the News: Equity in the Workplace

Week of February 9, 2009

News Item: President Barack Obama recently signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 which makes it easier for workers, regardless of race, age, and gender, to get the pay they deserve. Also, the New York Times reports that women are likely to take the majority in the labor force for the first time in U.S. history. However, this has more to do with the current recession rather than gender equity as men have been on the receiving end of at least 82 percent of recent job losses.

 

Age Discrimination in the American Workplace: Old At a Young Age
By Raymond F. Gregory. Rutgers UP, 2001
Call Number: KF3465 .G74 2001

The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream
By Phyllis Moen and Patricia Roehling. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005
Call Number: HD4904.25 .M638 2005

Cult of Power: Sex Discrimination in Corporate America and What Can Be Done About It
By Martha Burk. Scribner, 2005
Call Number: HA1426 .B845 2005
Continue reading

In the News: Labor Unions

Week of February 2, 2009

News Item: On January 30th, President Barack Obama signed three executive orders that would “level the playing field for labor unions in their struggle with management,” and undo Bush administration policies that heavily favored employers over workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently announced that in 2008 the number of U.S. wage and salary workers who were members of a union increased by 428,000 to 16.1 million, or 12.4 percent of the overall workforce.

Autobiography of Mother Jones
By Mother Jones. Arno, 1969
Call Number: HD8073 .J6 A3 1969

Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson
By Tom Sito. UP of Kentucky, 2006
Call Number: Available online through NetLibrary

Fighting Against the Odds: A History of Southern Labor Since World War II
By Timothy J. Minchin. UP of Florida, 2005
Call Number: HD8083 .S9 M56 2005

Continue reading

In the News: Independent Cinema

Week of January 26, 2009

News Item: The movie awards season is well underway in Hollywood with the Oscars traditionally serving as the culminating event. One day before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its 81st Best Picture statue in February, the industry will celebrate the best in independent cinema at the 24th Annual Spirit Awards. (Traditionally, American independent – or “indie” – films were usually produced outside of the mammoth Hollywood studio system.) Listed here are books related to independent cinema.

Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented American Independent Film
By Marshall Fine. Miramax Books/Hyperion, 2005
Call Number: PN1998.3 .C384 F56 2005

Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor
By Scott MacDonald. UC Press, 2008
Call Number: PN1999 .C335 M33 2008

Cinema and Culture: Independent Film in the United States, 1980-2001
By E. Deidre Pribram. Lang, 2002
Call Number: PN2993.5 .U6 P75 2002

Continue reading

In the News: The White House

Week of January 20, 2009

News Item: Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States on January 20, at which time he and his family will take up residence in the White House. The titles listed here provide various insights into the building located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. (As an aside: The Vice President and his family will move to Number One Observatory Circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory.)

America’s First Families: An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House
By Carl Sferrazza Anthony. Touchstone, 2000
Call Number: E176.1 .A68 2000

The Architecture of the West Wing of the White House
Published by the Executive Office of the President, 1995
Call Number: PREX 1.2:AR 2 (Government Documents)

Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White House: Memoirs of an African-American Seamstress
By Elizabeth Keckley. Dover Publications, 2006
Call Number: E457.15 .K26 2006
Continue reading