Website of the Week

The Secret Annex Online: Discover Anne Frank's hiding space -
 http://www.annefrank.org/en/Subsites/Home/

This is of course an intriguing and well documented piece of history. Somehow I have yet to read Anne Frank's diary, but I stumbled upon this site and now I'm sure I'll get to the diary soon.

This website is a very nice virtual tool. Here are some of the features and highlights.

• Navigate through a virtual 3D model of the actual hiding space and listen to details about the rooms and items found in the rooms. Look for icons for additional details and easy navigation around the secret annex. 
• View a 3D layout of the house and the dimensions of the rooms. Navigate directly to rooms of interest. It's almost unbelievable that these people spent 2 years in this space! 
• View pictures and short bios of the occupants and helpers. 
• Watch a series of short videos about the eventual arrests, the fate of the people involved, Otto Frank's return after the war, etc. Very interesting! 

Review by Nate Martin, SWC Librarian

Last Chance to Win a Free Book!

Vote for College Book 2013

Last day to vote is Thursday, November 15, 2012.

Faculty, staff, and students can vote for the College Book to be used on campus in spring semester. Four entries will be selected at random to receive a free copy of the winning book.

Send an email with your selection to Diane Gustafson (dgustafson@swccd.edu). Students: Please send your complete name and SWC ID #, along with the title of the book you select.

Vote for one of the following four finalists: 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama.  Review from Amazon

Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel by Jeannette Walls

For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Walls, whose mega-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, recalled her own upbringing, writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another. Having been educated in fits and starts because of her parents' penury, Lily becomes a teacher at age 15 in a remote frontier town she reaches after a solo 28-day ride. Marriage to a bigamist almost saps her spirit, but later she weds a rancher with whom she shares two children and a strain of plucky resilience. (They sell bootleg liquor during Prohibition, hiding the bottles under a baby's crib.) Lily is a spirited heroine, fiercely outspoken against hypocrisy and prejudice, a rodeo rider and fearless breaker of horses, and a ruthless poker player. Assailed by flash floods, tornados and droughts, Lily never gets far from hardscrabble drudgery in several states—New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois—but hers is one of those heartwarming stories about indomitable women that will always find an audience. Review from Amazon

 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal." So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic. Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Review from Amazon

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

In 1937 Shanghai—the Paris of Asia—twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree—until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America. Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. Along the way they make terrible sacrifices, face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are—Shanghai girls. Review from Amazon

Questions? Call Diane Gustafson 482-6433 or email her at dgustafson@swccd.edu

Website of the Week

Project Vote Smart - http://votesmart.org/

We are continually attempting to become Critical Thinkers, to look at issues from both to make informed decisions.  This naturally, to me anyway, would include a critical examination of candidates for political office.  John Stuart Mill in his essay, On Liberty, made the very point when he said that to be a contributing citizen one must know both sides of issues and be able to argue them either way at a moment’s notice (paraphrased).  Would we expect any less than an informed vote from an informed voter?

From the site, Project Vote Smart:

“In a very real sense, the need for Project Vote Smart was born during the Constitutional Convention. Concerned that unbridled power would corrupt, that ‘factions’ might deform their vision and turn it to serve selfish interests, and that an informed people was essential to success, the founders adopted a number of administrative protections, chief amongst them a system of checks and balances and the Bill of Rights.   Had they been able to witness the great fortune of their design, our founders would be pleased. However, had they also been able to witness the future ability of 'factions' to torture truth and undermine the purpose of their creation by effectively frustrating the people's ability to be informed, they clearly would have created Project Vote Smart or something very much like it.

What we eventually decided upon remains the heart of Project Vote Smart today. We would acquire from every candidate, with or without their cooperation, a detailed application of employment -- the same kind of information, in the same categories that an employer would insist upon from one applying for any job. We asked ourselves: what does an employer need to know in order to hire prudently?"

 Review by Ron Vess, SWC Librarian

Oct 22 - Deadline to Register to Vote

Californians may now register to vote online - www.registertovote.ca.gov. If you plan to vote in the upcoming November election, you must register to vote by midnight, October 22, 2012.

Paper copies of the voter registration form may be found at the Library and Admissions.

The California Secretary of State publishes the official voter information guide, http://voterguide.sos.ca.gov/propositions/.

Have a question? Ask a librarian!

Guest Writers Event: Ella deCastro Baron

Southwestern College Guest Writers Series
Ella deCastro Baron, author of Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment, Sunbelt, 2009.

Date: Thursday, October 18

Time: 11 am - 12 pm

Location: Room L238

Southwestern College welcomes Ella deCastro Baron for our second Guest Writers Series event honoring Filipino American History Month.

Ella deCastro Baron, a first generation Filipina American, will present her memoir­—Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment. Please join us for a lively reading and discussion with the author.

A special thank you to Henry Aronson for organizing this wonderful event. All Guest Writers Series events are free and open to the public.

Taking an Online Class?

Join us for a free, one-hour orientation!

Main Campus, Room L-244 

Thursday, October 18, 5:30 p.m.

Friday, October 19, 1 p.m.

Saturday, October 20 11 a.m.

Topics covered:

• What you need to know about being an online student
• Introduction to Blackboard - SWC's course management system
• How to log in and navigate your course
• How to get help
• Hands-on time to practice

No need to sign up, just be on time. See you there!

Have a question? Ask a librarian!

Primary Sources Workshop on Tuesday

What are primary sources and how can you find them?

Tuesday, October 16, 1 - 2 p.m, Room L-244

Free, one-hour workshop

Can't make it this Tuesday? Another workshop will be offered on Tuesday, October 23, 1 - 2 p.m., Room L-244.

Have a question? Ask a librarian!

Proposition 30 Forum

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Student Union Patio

11 am - 12 pm

Proposition 30 Forum

Speakers:

• Supporting Prop. 30: Bill Freeman, president of the San Diego County Education Association
• Opposing Prop. 30: Adam Summers, senior policy analyst for Reason Foundation

Posing questions to each side:

• Kyla Calvert, education report, KPBS
• Michael Smolens, local government and politics editor, UT San Diego

Moderator: Phil Saenz, Professor of Political Science, Southwestern College

Filipino-American History Month

October is Filipino-American History Month

The 111th Congress of the United States proclaimed October as Filipino-American History Month in 2009. The month is dedicated to learning about the accomplishments of Filipino-Americans.

The 2009 House resolution noted that the earliest documented history of Filipino presence in the United States was October 18, 1587 in Morro Bay, California. Today, the Filipino-American community is the second largest Asian American group in the United States, and California is home to over half of the Filipino population in the United States.

The SWC Library has many books and articles about Filipino-American history. Ask a librarian to find out more!

Filipino-American History Month - Useful Links
Philippine American Cultural Foundation
Filipino American National Historical Society 
San Diego State University: Filipino-American History Month 2012
Filipino American National Historical Society - San Diego Chapter Facebook Page

Check it Out

Latinas in the Workplace: An Emerging Leadership Force by Esther Elena López-Mulnix. Stylus Publishers, 2011. New Book Shelf: HD6057.5.U5 L67 2011. Available for 4 week check out with SWC photo ID card.

"Latinas in the Workplace highlights the stories of eight exceptional women.

Even though each took a different route to success, these women share an overarching, almost implicit, understanding of what they aspired to: the freedom to choose where and how to invest time and energy, to establish professional and personal balance, and enjoy the luxury of defining that balance.

The eight Latinas showcased in this book – a foundation president, two business CEOs, a doctor, a former college president, a teacher and author, and two school superintendents – grew up with a determination to get educated that was fostered by parents and grandparents. All of them hold advanced degrees. Engrained in each of them is a sense of honor, the need to treat others with respect, and an inner strength—qualities nurtured by family members.

While each had to contend with negative forces, whether from within or outside their culture, and drew strength from the experience, they also acknowledge that being able to navigate two cultures, and being bilingual, has given them a unique perspective and two distinct ways of dealing with people.

Although Latinos constitute one of the fastest growing segments of our population, these Latina leaders represent a relatively small percentage of women in leadership in the United States. They hope that their stories inspire not only their contemporaries but the next generation of Latinas as well.

The women profiled in this book are:

• Sarita Brown, President, Excelencia in Education
• Tina Cordova, President, Queston Construction
• Sally Garza Fernandez, President, Fernandez Group
• Carmella Franco, Superintendent, Woodland California School District
• Christine Johnson, former President, Community College of Denver
• Thelma López-Lira, M.D.
• Darline Robles, Executive Officer for the Los Angeles County Office of Education
• Beatriz Salcedo-Strumpf, Author and Instructor at the State University of New York in Oswego"

Review from publisher

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Website of the Week

Open Culture (www.openculture.com) is a great resource for anybody who likes free "stuff."

The About Us page says that Open Culture is “high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community.” It was started by a director and Associate Dean of Stanford’s Continuing Studies Program and others. They collected hundreds of links from the web that offers free resources. These resources are audio books, online courses, movies, language lessons, ebooks or textbooks.

The organization of the site also provides us with a list of the “Essentials” which are additional topics of films and videos. For easy browsing, there is a “Categories” list and also a search box for the Archives, which are blog entries.

For me that most interesting part of this website was the movies section. The site gathered about 500 free movies which are searchable or one can browse the list. Most of the movies on the list are made before the 1960s, short films or European films with subtitles; however, there is a large selection of horror movies, Westerns, silent films, documentaries and animation, as well.

Here are some great titles:

• The Blue Angel – Free – The Weimar classic that made Marlene Dietrich an international star. (1930)
• The Dead - Free – James Joyce’s brilliant short story adapted by John Huston, his last film. (1981)
• The Little Shop of Horrors – Free – Directed by Roger Corman with Jack Nicholson. (1960)
• Visioneers - Free - A dark comedy directed by Jared Drake, starring comedian Zach Galifianakis and Judy Greer. (2008)

And although the movies are mainly for entertainment, the free courses, language lessons, great science videos and the life changing books list, among others can be a great resource for both students and instructors.

Review by Erika Prange, SWC Librarian

Vote for College Book 2013

Faculty, staff, and students can vote for the College Book to be used on campus in spring semester. Four entries will be selected at random to receive a free copy of the winning book.

Last day to vote is Monday, October 29, 2012. 

Send an email with your selection to Diane Gustafson (dgustafson@swccd.edu). Students: Please send, along with the title of the book you select, your complete name and SWC ID#.

Vote for one of the following four finalists: 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

If you've ever wondered what your dog is thinking, Stein's third novel offers an answer. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny's old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. Enzo is a reliable companion and a likable enough narrator, though the string of Denny's bad luck stories strains believability. Much like Denny, however, Stein is able to salvage some dignity from the over-the-top drama.  Review from Amazon

Half Broke Horses: A True Life Novel by Jeannette Walls

For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Walls, whose mega-selling memoir, The Glass Castle, recalled her own upbringing, writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another. Having been educated in fits and starts because of her parents' penury, Lily becomes a teacher at age 15 in a remote frontier town she reaches after a solo 28-day ride. Marriage to a bigamist almost saps her spirit, but later she weds a rancher with whom she shares two children and a strain of plucky resilience. (They sell bootleg liquor during Prohibition, hiding the bottles under a baby's crib.) Lily is a spirited heroine, fiercely outspoken against hypocrisy and prejudice, a rodeo rider and fearless breaker of horses, and a ruthless poker player. Assailed by flash floods, tornados and droughts, Lily never gets far from hardscrabble drudgery in several states—New Mexico, Arizona, Illinois—but hers is one of those heartwarming stories about indomitable women that will always find an audience. Review from Amazon

 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license...records my first name simply as Cal." So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of l967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic. Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Review from Amazon

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

In 1937 Shanghai—the Paris of Asia—twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree—until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth. To repay his debts, he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, from the Chinese countryside to the shores of America. Though inseparable best friends, the sisters also harbor petty jealousies and rivalries. Along the way they make terrible sacrifices, face impossible choices, and confront a devastating, life-changing secret, but through it all the two heroines of this astounding new novel hold fast to who they are—Shanghai girls. Review from Amazon

Questions? Call Diane Gustafson 482-6433 or email her at dgustafson@swccd.edu

Guest Writers Event: Filipinos in San Diego

Southwestern College Guest Writers Series
Judy Padacsil and Felix Tuyay, co-authors of Filipinos in San Diego, Arcadia, 2010.

Date: Tuesday, October 9 

Time: 11 am - 12 pm

Location: Room 214

Judy Patacsil is a second-generation Filipina American born in San Diego to pioneering immigrant parents. She is a Counselor/Professor at San Diego Miramar College. At Miramar College she initiated Filipino Studies and Filipino Language courses to serve the large Filipino community of San Diego. She is a professor of Filipino Studies and Psy-chology and also is a licensed psychotherapist who leads Mental Health Services at Miramar College.

Professor Felix Tuyay has taught Asian American Studies and Filipino American History for over 30 years. The San Diego chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) is an active community organization. The mission of FANHS is to promote understanding, edu-cation, enlightenment, appreciation, and enrichment through the identification, gathering, preservation, and dis-semination of the history and culture of Filipino Americans in the United States.

Primary Sources Workshop on Friday

We are offering a free, one-hour workshop on primary sources this Friday, in Room L-244.

What are primary sources and how can you find them?

Friday, October 5, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Can't make it on Friday? The primary sources workshop will also be offered on two additional dates in October:

Tuesday, October 16, 1 - 2 p.m., Room L-244
Tuesday, October 23, 1 - 2 p.m., Room L-244

Have a question? Ask a librarian!

Website of the Week

“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community … to develop Web standards.”

I recently learned that W3C is also responsible for an educational website http://www.w3schools.com/ which provides free tutorials to teach people how to construct websites.  Not only can you learn such skills as HTML, XML, SQL, and JavaScript, they provide a free “try it yourself” web editor on which you can practice your skills.  You can even become certified in various website construction skills as HTML or CSS, via the W3C’s online certificate program, recommended by such respected universities as the University of Iowa.

As a reference librarian, I was especially interested to note they have statistics which can be difficult to find elsewhere.  For instance, on the W3 schools web browser page, http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp, they provide statistics of which web browsers are being used the most frequently, broken down by year, month, and browser.  Take a look! I was fascinated to see that as of August 2012, Firefox and Chrome are winning the browser wars, with IE Explorer being used less than 17% of the time!

Review by Ann Willard, SWC Librarian

What is Proposition 30?

Southwestern College issued a fact sheet and news update about Proposition 30, one of several propositions that California voters will consider in November's election.

via aprilzosia on Flickr

What is Proposition 30?
About Proposition 30, Southwestern College

Proposition 30: Official Title and Summary, California Secretary of State

Supporters
Yes on Proposition 30

Opponents
Stop Proposition 30

Want to know more? Ask a librarian!