“The idea that GLBT literature is confined to GLBT characters and therefore of limited audience interest represents interconnected misconceptions.” Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Literature. Readers probably recognize gay and lesbian authors Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. But many might be surprised that classics by Herman Melville and William Shakespeare are also considered as having GLBT themes. Stop in and see our display–you just might find you’ve read more GLBT literature than you think!
October Book Display
Todd Library presents “Issues in Autism/Asperger’s Syndromes” as the focused theme for October 2009. As recently as the early 1960’s, you could hardly find a book on the subject of Autism in order to do research, but not so today! With the increase in diagnosis, comes the rise in our knowledge and literature on the the subjects. Come check out our collection which includes electronic resources as well, for those of you who want to stay home and do your research.
Banned Books Week-Featured Author
Is Big Brother watching? For Banned Books Week we are featuring George Orwell. Both 1984 and Animal Farm have long histories of censorship and challenges. Visit our display and learn about book censorship, Orwell and how issues like the Great Firewall of China and police cameras are seen by some as “Big Brother is watching.”
E-serials Cleanup Complete!!!
Due to the removal, by publishers, of e-journals that were once available through our online databases, our catalog had accumulated a large number of “orphaned” e-journal records. These titles were previously accessible by way of Ebsco A to Z at the time they were added to our collection, but have since been removed from the A to Z knowledge base primarily due to changes in licensing agreements between publishers and our various vendors.

Until now there had not been an easy way to monitor the removal of titles from Ebsco A to Z, nor to adjust our holdings to accurately reflect the A to Z data as of a given date. Thanks to some Sirsi API magic and a series of SQL queries, we are now able to systematically compare our catalog holdings with the A to Z knowledge base and update our local holdings accordingly. What does this mean to library users? No more dead e-journal records! If a journal record exists in our catalog, then it can be accessed through the Todd Library. If the journal has an “electronic” item associated with it, then it is available in at least one of our full-text resources and can be accessed by clicking the “Search for Full Text using Ebsco A to Z” link in the detailed display for that journal.
This initial cleanup resulted in the removal of some 5000 dead e-journal item records from our catalog.
Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read will once again be observed in the Todd Library the last week of September. This annual American Library Association event reminds Americans to not take our freedom to read for granted. Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. Launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries, more than one thousand books have been challenged since its inception. 2009 marks its 27th anniversary (September 26 through October 3). Dare to visit the Todd Library to check out a banned book!