Diversity Lecture Series: Jeannette Walls

By Miriam Thompson
Reference/Access Services Librarian

On October 26th, Jeannette Walls, writer and journalist, will be the second speaker in the 2011-2012 Diversity Lecture Series.

Walls is author of The Glass Castle, a memoir of the nomadic family life of her childhood, which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 100 weeks. In 2000, Walls published the book Dish: The Inside Story on the World of Gossip. In 2009 her first fiction book, Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, based on the life of her grandmother Lily Casey Smith, was published.

She has also written for New York magazine (the “Intelligencer” column 1987-1993), Esquire (1993–1998), USA Today, and has appeared on The Today Show, CNN, Primetime, and The Colbert Report. She contributed regularly to the gossip column Scoop at MSNBC.com from 1998 until her departure to write full-time in 2007.

Currently, The Glass Castle has sold over 2.5 million copies and has been translated into 22 languages. It has received the Christopher Award, the American Library Association’s Alex Award (2006) and the Books for Better Living Award.

For more information Walls and her books, please see references below. GRCC students and staff may click the links to view. For further assistance contact your GRCC librarian at 616-234-3868.

References
Andriani, Lynn. “Truth in nonfiction … and fiction.” Publishers Weekly 24 Aug. 2009: 38. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
Kinsella, Bridget. “Media flocks to Scribner’s ‘Glass Castle’.” Publishers Weekly 7 Feb. 2005: 20. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.
Windolf, Jim. “A Secret of Her Own; Even as she made her name dishing celebrity dirt at New York and MSNBC.” Vanity Fair Apr. 2005: 184. General OneFile. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.

Happy Birthday, Pablo Picasso!

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

By Marcia Lee
Library Serials Specialist

Today marks the 130th birthday of Pablo Picasso. To celebrate, here are 10 facts you don’t may not know about Picasso:

1. His full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.
2. After moving to Paris in 1900, Picasso was so poverty stricken that he burned many of his paintings just to keep himself warm.
3. . In 1905, Picasso’s work began to pick up when Gertrude Stein exhibited his work in her apartment and it was there that he met Henri Matisse – who eventually became his friend & competitor.
4. Picasso’s first art exhibit was at age 13, in the back of an umbrella store.
5. Picasso made a cameo appearance in the movie Testament of Orpheus by Jean Cocteau.
6. In 1944, Picasso joined the French Communist party & went on to receive the Lenin Peace Prize.
7. Picasso’s varied influences motivated his different periods: blue, rose, African-influenced, Cubism, Surrealism and Classicism.
8. Picasso died on April 8th 1973, at the age of 91, in his home in France while entertaining guests at dinner.
9. Although Picasso’s paintings are probably the most widely known pieces of his, Pablo also dabbled in printmaking, sculpting, & ceramics.
10. Picasso was a ladies man! He was married twice, had 4 children with 3 different women, & countless mistresses during his lifetime.

The library has tons of other resources on Picasso, Matisse and their contemporaries in the Cubist, Surrealist and Modernism art movements.

Who Cares? Why Bother? Real Writing for Real People

Who Cares? Why Bother? display.

By Lori DeBie
Reference/Technical Services Librarian

“Who Cares? Why Bother? Real Writing for Real People” is an upcoming event on Octboer 26 & 27 sponsored by the GRCC’s School of Arts and Sciences and the Provost’s office.

The event will feature writing workshops from experts in all kinds of fields, such as social work, marketing, software development, and more. What your teacher told you is true: writing is a part of every job! Best-selling author Jeannette Walls will also speak on October 26 as part of the Diversity Lecture Series.

To support the event, the library has created a display with books on all types of writing: writing research papers, writing business proposals, writing for the sciences, writing children’s literature, and much more. Any books on the display may be checked out. For more information about the writing workshops on campus, or to register for the event, visit grcc.edu/whocares.

Windows 7 & Office 10 eBooks at the library

By Janelle Yahne
Library Circulation Associate

We have made it past one month into the new semester. Congratulations!

I am sure everybody noticed the upgrades to the computers around campus. All student lab computers were updated to Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 over the summer. Now there have been some growing pains with the new system, so if you are looking for a quick reference on how to use these new systems, check out some of these eBbooks available through RaiderSearch.

• Windows 7 desktop support and administration: real world skills for MCITP certification and beyond by Darril Gibson
• Maran illustrated Windows 7 guided tour by Ruth Maran
• Maran illustrated Windows 7by Ruth Maran
• MCTS: Microsoft Windows 7 configuration study guide (70-680) by William Panek
• Microsoft Office Word 2010 QuickSteps by Marty Matthews
• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2010 By Carole Matthews

To access the eBooks from campus, log onto any student computer (or the campus wi-fi), click on the links above or search for the titles in RaiderSearch. Select the title and click on VIEW THIS BOOK. This will open it up in eBrary, inside your browser, and does not require any additional software install

Check out other interesting e-books and let us know any great recommendations.

Learn a new language!

By Marcia Lee
Library Serials Specialist

Being able to speak more than one language is becoming more and more vital in today’s society. Not only does being bilingual or trilingual make you more marketable as a professional, but it really enables you to become a voice of people who may not otherwise be heard. Language barriers are increasingly more common, with immigrants from all over the world arriving everyday to the our country and to our own city of Grand Rapids.

GRCC is now offering Chinese language courses, specifically teaching on the Mandarin dialect. GRCC’s new Mandarin language courses (CHI 101 & 102) are the newest additions to the language offerings here at our college, others include: American Sign Language, Arabic, German, Spanish, & French.

It may be too late to sign up for one of these courses this semester, but definitely consider taking one in 2012!

Once enrolled, look to your GRCC Library for help with studying & class projects. Our library offers a variety of Chinese dictionaries & books related to the Chinese language & culture that will help you succeed in these courses. Come and get a head start by checking them out today! CLICK HERE to find print and online literature & database resources for Chinese! And, remember A SMILE KNOWS NO LANGUAGE BARRIER!

Chinese Proverb:

“A book tightly shut, is but a block of paper.”