Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Thousands of pictures worth millions of words




There are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them. 

--Diane Arbus, 1972

From the first horses scrawled roughly on cave walls to the latest Pixar film in 3-D, no art form in history has experienced as rapid an ascent -- or such astonishing evolution -- as photography. Through it all, it has remained a vital tool for self-reflection and a compelling product of human creativity. Silent and omnipresent, photography plays a role in all of our lives, every single day -- many times a day -- and yet never loses its inherent power to teach, delight, comfort, or overwhelm us.

Over the past few months, we at Piedmont College Libraries have been working hard to grow our collection of fine art photography monographs, nearly doubling the number of volumes in Class TR (which is where you'll find them, on the last row of the 4th floor of the Arrendale Library). From a small selection of books dealing mostly in black-and-white fashion and landscape photography from the mid-1900s, our collection has expanded to include the groundbreaking color work of pioneers like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, the highly-stylized pop art of David LaChapelle and Gregory Crewdson, and the poignant social critique of Joel Sternfeld and Martin Parr. We've also gone back in time and acquired several masterpieces of the genre that had never sat on our shelves -- peerless classics like Robert Frank's The Americans, Bernd and Hilla Becher's Industrial Landscapes, Stephen Shore's Uncommon Places, Richard Avedon's Performance, William Eggleston's Guide, and Walker Evans' American Photographs. No photography collection is complete without these touchstones, and now they're available to you at the Piedmont College Library.


This project is ongoing. We've already purchased many significant new works, such as Richard Misrach's Petrochemical America -- which inspired the striking visual style of the hit HBO drama True Detective -- and Robert Polidori's After the Flood, which covers the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster...and we will continue to collect these important cultural and artistic documents. You can browse the newest additions by clicking here. As always, we love requests, so please -- if you don't see your favorite photographer in the stacks, let us hear about it!

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

AAUP Opposes Trigger Warnings

A subcommittee of the American Association of University Professors has drafted and approved a statement opposing the use of trigger warnings in the classroom. The document supports academic freedom and takes the following position:
The presumption that students need to be protected rather than challenged in a classroom is at once infantilizing and anti-intellectual. It makes comfort a higher priority than intellectual engagement and--as the Oberlin list demonstrates--it singles out politically controversial topics like sex, race, class, capitalism, and colonialism for attention. 
Indeed, if such topics are associated with triggers, correctly or not, they are likely to be marginalized if not avoided altogether by faculty who fear complaints for offending or discomforting some of their students. Although all faculty are affected by potential charges of this kind, non-tenured and contingent faculty are particularly at risk. In this way the demand for trigger warnings creates a repressive, “chilly climate” for critical thinking in the classroom.
Read the complete "On Trigger Warnings" (August 2014).

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Tug of the Past, Lure of the Future

Sociologist Allison Hurst helped launch the Association of Working Class Academics with a membership composed of "faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, staff, and administrators from working- or poverty-class backgrounds."

Among other research, Hurst has published an engaging study of working-class students and describes the many challenges they face in the realm of higher education:
Limited expectations, unfamiliarity with the college application process, transportation troubles (to tests, to campuses, to interviews), the perceived "treachery” of moving away from friends and family, the exorbitant cost of college and the necessity to work and take on unmanageable debt--all of these factors play a role in the decision to go to college. A few working-class students are either fortunate enough to find mentors who will help guide them through this process or are perseverant enough to make a way for themselves. 
It is crucial to understand, while applying to college is rarely easy, it is much more difficult for some, so much so that many working-class undergraduates feel they have “made it” simply by entering college. . . . [T]oo often there is a “myth of classlessness” operating on our campuses, that by the fact that all are here all are similar. This could not be farther from the truth.
Read more from College and the Working Class: What It Takes to Make It (2012).

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

We Were All Freshmen Once

Julie Wollman, president of Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, enrolled in a spring music class with a group of undergraduates. Her experience helped to connect (and reconnect) her with many of the challenges and concerns that new college students bear:
"I’m really nervous about going to the second class, afraid I’ll be the only one who isn’t any good. I’m not taking it for credit or a grade, but the thought actually crosses my mind that I should skip class; after all, I can offer a good excuse. I am shocked to realize that, 36 years after I started my freshman year of college, being in a simple but challenging class well out of my comfort zone, I am again looking for excuses to miss class. So I go, despite my fear. Before class, waiting for the professor to arrive, I chat with my classmates about how hard it is to breathe right and make a sound come out and I feel less alone in my incompetence."
Read the rest of "Becoming a Freshman, Again" at InsideHigherEducation.com.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Libraries Are Not a Netflix for Books

Part of a commentary by librarian Kelly Jensen:
"It is not the goal of the library to make money. Nor is it the goal of the library to create levels of service so that those who can afford to indulge will receive more while those who can’t, don’t. Instead, libraries work to ensure their services reach as many facets of their community as possible. Libraries want to offer what they can to those who have nothing and those who maybe have everything."
Read the rest at BookRiot.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Why Students Need Librarians

"We recognize knowledge in action when we see it done effectively, but too many professors don’t teach this fundamental skill systematically and progressively as part of an academic program. . . . [F]rom community colleges to the Ivy League, a significant learning gap is widening. Librarians, trained in both digital and print research techniques, are in the best position to step into the breach. But that will require more support for library services at a time when budgets are under siege. And it will take an administrative commitment to ensure that training is incorporated comprehensively throughout the curricula."

Read the rest of "At Sea in a Deluge of Data" (Chronicle.com, July 7, 2014).

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Free eBooks from Routledge




According to the website Open Culture ("the best free cultural and educational media on the web"), scholarly publisher Routledge is making 6,000 ebooks available for free during the month of June, including "lots of works focused on Economics, Finance and Business; Politics and International Relations; and Philosophy and Cultural Studies."

The giveaway is fast winding down, so take a look today!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Earth Day 2014: Farm to Table




On Tuesday, April 22nd, the Athens Campus will host an event called "Farm to Table" in celebration of Earth Day. A free lunch is included for everyone who attends!

The following books--compiled for this event--are available from our libraries in print and digital editions.

Click here for a PDF handout of the list, which also links to our catalog.

Contact us for other recommended readings and resources!



Paul B. Thompson
University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Anne Becher and Joseph Richey
Grey House Pub., 2008

Michelle Obama
Crown Publishers, 2012

Jonathan Bloom
Da Capo Press, 2010

Tracie McMillan
Scribner, 2012

Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver
HarperPerennial, 2008

Warren J. Belasco
Cornell University Press, 2007

Gene Logsdon
Pantheon Books, 1994

Gabrielle Hamilton
Random House, 2011

Paula Dutko, Michele Ver Ploeg, and Tracey Farrigan
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 2012

Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture
Wes Jackson
Counterpoint, 2011

A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural
Wendell Berry
Counterpoint, 2012

Frederick Kirschenmann
University Press of Kentucky, 2010

Alison Hope Alkon and Julian Agyeman, eds.
MIT Press, 2011

R. Ford Denison
Princeton University Press, 2012

Jonathan Safran Foer
Little, Brown and Co., 2009

Carl A. Zimring and William L. Rathje, eds.
SAGE, 2012

Robin Morris Collin and Robert William Collin
Greenwood Press, 2010

Julia Rothman
Storey Pub., 2011

Eric Schlosser
Perennial, 2002

Peter Bellwood
Blackwell, 2005

Justin Kastner
Praeger, 2011

Geoffrey Lawrence, Kristen Lyons, and Tabatha Wallington

Gary H. Holthaus
University Press of Kentucky, 2006

Edward O. Wilson
Vintage Books, 2003

Leslie A. Duram
University of Nebraska Press, 2005

David Farrell, ed.
Nottingham University Press, 2010

Huey D. Johnson
University of Nebraska Press, 2008

Greening the Academy: Ecopedagogy Through the Liberal Arts
Samuel Day Fassbinder, Anthony J. Nocella, and Richard Kahn, eds.
Sense Publishers, 2012

Jennifer Jensen Wallach
Rowman & Littlefield, 2013

Alison Blay-Palmer, ed.
Ashgate, 2010

Ann Vileisis
Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2008

Robert Albritton
Pluto Press, 2009

Locavore Adventures: One Chef's Slow Food Journey
Jim Weaver
Rutgers University Press, 2012

Leslie A. Pray
National Academies Press, 2009

Kathleen Dean Moore and Michael P. Nelson, eds.
Foreword by Desmond Tutu
Trinity University Press, 2010

Richard Louv
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2012

Hugh Acheson
Clarkson Potter, 2011

Michael Pollan
Penguin Press, 2006

Shannon Elizabeth Bell
University of Illinois Press, 2013

Lynn A. Nelson
University of Georgia Press, 2007

David M. Kaplan, ed.
University of California Press, 2012

Neil Goodwin and Judy Crichton, producers
PBS Video, 1993

Matthew Reed
Earthscan, 2010

Lucy Knisley
First Second, 2013

C. Clare Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyon, eds.
University of Nebraska Press, 2007

Aldo Leopold; Curt Meine, ed.
Library of America, 2013
Noreen Olson; foreword by Will Ferguson
D & M Publishers, 2012

Melinda Joy Miller
Process, 2013

Stan Cox
Pluto Press, 2008

Bob Flowerdew
Skyhorse Pub., 2012

Edward Lee
Artisan, 2013

R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison, eds.
Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012

David DiBenedetto and the Editors of Garden & Gun
HarperWave, 2013

Rob Cross and Roger Spencer
CSIRO, 2009

David C. Deardoff
Timber Press, 2011

The World Without Us
Alan Weisman
Thomas Dunne Books, 2007

Henry David Thoreau
Library of America, 1985

* image of Winona LaDuke from the White Earth Land Recovery Project; the quote is from her TEDxTC talk, "Seeds of our Ancestors, Seeds of Life" (June 2011), available on YouTube

Friday, March 14, 2014

Women's History Month 2014




The following books are available from our library collections in digital or print editions.

Click here for a PDF handout of the list, which links to our catalog.

Contact us for other recommended readings and resources!


U.S. Department of State, 2010

Sanford Schwartz, ed.
Library of America, 2011

Allen F. Davis
Ivan Dee, 2000

Deborah Gray White
Norton, 1985

Battleground: Women, Gender, and Sexuality 
Amy Lind and Stephanie Brzuzy, eds.
Greenwood Press, 2008

Janet Floyd
Rodopi, 2010

Sylvia Plath
Bantam, 1972

Joyce Carol Oates
Plume, 1992

Dale M. Bauer, ed.
Cambridge University Press, 2012

Cathleen Miller
University of Nebraska Press, 2013

Jacqueline L. Castledine
University of Illinois Press, 2012

Babette Faehmel
Rutgers University Press, 2012

Debra Bergoffen, ed.
Routledge, 2011

Frank Thames and Margaret S. Williams
NYU Press, 2013

Danelle Moon
Greenwood, 2011

George R. R. Martin, ed.
Tor, 2013

Susan Pedersen
Yale University Press, 2004

Penny A. Pasque and Shelley Errington Nicholson, eds.
Stylus Publishing, 2011

Rosemary Skinner Keller and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds.
Indiana University Press, 2006

Helen Rappaport
ABC-CLIO, 2012

Victoria Boynton and Jo Malin, eds.
Greenwood Press, 2005

Hanna Rosin
Riverhead Books, 2012

Susan Sontag
The Library of America, 2013

Tiffany K. Wayne
Greenwood, 2011

Jane Pilcher
SAGE/Credo Reference, 2012

Megan Seely
New York University Press, 2007

Robin Jarvis Brownlie and Valerie J. Korinek, eds.
University of Manitoba Press, 2012

Susan Thistle
University of California Press, 2006

Laura Sjoberg
Praeger Security International, 2010

Hillary L. Chute
Columbia University Press, 2010

Gill Plain and Susan Sellers, eds.
Cambridge University Press, 2007

Ronald C. Meyer and Kayann Short, producers
Ambrose Video Publishing, 2006

Merle Hoffman
Feminist Press at CUNY, 2012

Norma Smith
Montana Historical Society Press, 2002

Valerie Jarrett and Christina Tchen
The White House Council on Women and Girls, 2012

Connie Field, producer
Direct Cinema Ltd., 1999

Juliana Baggott
Southern Illinois University Press, 2006

Brigitte Bailey
University of New Hampshire Press, 2013

Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie
Greenwood Press, 2004

Heide Goettner-Abendroth
Peter Lang, 2012

Rebecca Jo Plant
University of Chicago Press, 2010

Michael Montlack, ed.
Terrace Books, 2009

Marjorie Julian Spruill
Oxford University Press, 1993

Nancy A. Hewitt, ed.
Rutgers University Press, 2010

Willa Cather
Floating Press, 2009

Nona Willis Aronowitz, ed.
University of Minnesota Press, 2011

Maggy Hendry, ed.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
Alisha R. Knight
University of Tennessee Press, 2012

Nicolas Lampert
The New Press, 2013

Emily Dickinson
Floating Press, 2009

Honor Moore, ed.
Library of America, 2009

Nadine Cohodas
University of North Carolina Press, 2002

Jayne Wark
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006

Wilma Mankiller, et al.
Houghton Mifflin, 2012

Janet Abbate
MIT Press, 2012

Melissa Atkins Wardy
Chicago Review Press, 2014

Carlos A. Ball
New York University Press, 2012

Judith Wellman
University of Illinois Press, 2004

Dyan Zaslowsky
University of Georgia Press, 2009

Carrie Brown
Northeastern University Press, 2002

Ann Carey McFeatters
University of New Mexico Press, 2005

James Joy
State University of New York Press, 2013

Ann D. Gordon, ed.
Rutgers University Press, 1997

Louise Erdrich
Harper, 2010

Lillian Eugenia Smith
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992

Stephanie Coontz
Basic Books, 2011

Sandra Stanley Holton
Routledge, 1996

Susan Minot
Knopf, 2014

Ann Braude, ed.
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004

Joan Didion
Knopf, 2006

Barbara Sicherman
University of North Carolina Press, 2010

Peter Bagge
Drawn & Quarterly, 2013

Sheryl J. Grana
Rowman & Littlefield, 2010

Rosemarie Skaine
ABC-CLIO, 2011

Dorothy A. Mays
ABC-CLIO, 2004

Karin Klenke
Emerald Publishing Group, 2011
Laura Woodworth-Ney
ABC-CLIO, 2008

Julie C. Dunbar
Routledge, 2011

Bernie D. Jones
NYU Press, 2012

Leigh Ann Whaley
ABC-CLIO, 2012

Christa DeLuzio, ed.
ABC-CLIO, 2010

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp and Kathryn Lofton, eds.
Oxford University Press, 2010

Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Floating Press, 2009 (orig. pub. 1892)

Lilly J. Goren
University Press of Kentucky, 2009

 *  cover image from BrainGuidance.com