Today, January 20th 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. If you missed the swearing in, you can see it on YouTube: 
You can read the text of his inauguration speech online also.
His team is not wasting time. Check out the White House web site, for example. You can read the blog and sign up for emailed updates about major decisions. Weekly videos are planned (for Saturday mornings). Under “About the White House” you can select “Presidents” and get to the official brief biography of President Obama.
The University Library has a couple of books by Obama if you’d like to get to know him a bit better: The audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream (2nd-floor Browsing Books E901.1.O23 A3 2006) and Dreams from my father: a story of race and inheritance (2nd-floor Browsing Books E185.97.O23 A3 2004).
Addendum:
You can read the text of Elizabeth Alexander’s reading at the Inauguration, or see the video at YouTube:
Capitol Men:
The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives
of the First Black Congressmen
By Philip Dray
E668 .D76 2008
New Book Island, 2nd floor
Yes, today is one historic day. Barack Obama, the first African-American president has taken the oath and now holds the highest office in the nation. To commemorate the occasion, I conveniently stumbled upon this week’s featured title about some other famous first politicians.
Dray, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, resurrects history that is often left out of the textbooks and therefore not common knowledge – the story of the first African-Americans elected to Congress. Though many of you have seen the portrait of the seven of the first sixteen men (featured on the book’s cover), you may not have known it. The author takes the reader back to the period just after the Civil War, where the nation had the task of putting a broken country back together again, a time where black and white didn’t describe the picture on the television screen. These newly-minted lawmakers, hailing from diverse backgrounds themselves, faced outright discrimination and humiliation during their terms as politicians and faded away as the Reconstruction came to a painful close. The book serves to give these men their rightful place in the chronicles of the era.
Where do you fall on the political scale from extreme libertarian to extreme authoritarian, factoring in both economic and social leanings? if you aren’t sure, there is a web-based test for you at politicalcompass.org. Respond agree, strongly agree, disagree or strongly disagree to a series of social and political propositions, and then see where you fall on the Political Compass.
You can also see where the Senators from the 50 states fall on the compass, and where political parties in other countries fall.
The site provides a reading list for those of us who are interested in learning more about influential thinkers from the four quadrants of the compass (Libertarian Left, Libertarian Right, Authoritarian Left, Authoritarian Right). Search the Library Catalog to see which titles are available here.
Finally, if you’re really set on fire, your University Library has yet more materials to learn about libertarianism, authoritarianism, or political parties in other countries. Search the Library Catalog to find titles such as Radicals for capitalism: a freewheeling history of the modern American libertarian movement, Parties, politics, and democracy in the new Southern Europe or Authoritarian legacies and democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe. Ask a librarian for assistance in finding materials.
The Story of French:
By Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow
PC2075 .N33 2006
New Book Island, 2nd floor
I think that it’s pretty safe to say that all of us have taken a language class, whether it was a couple years in high school or a college major/minor. The focus of those classes is on the actual communication of the language, not the development of the language over time. This week’s featured book takes you on the journey through time with one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn, française.
Nadeau and Barlow, French-Canadian journalists, set out to investigate how the French language gained its influence in the world and retained it in the rise of English as the lingua franca of the world. The book documents their beloved language’s origins to its spread and later adaptation across the world. They also explore the present state of the language, one of only four that are official languages in over twenty countries, as well as its future. It’s an interesting read for those interested in how a language evolves into one of the most complex and respected in the world.
The financial and economic meltdown of the past year has caused many to reassess their financial health. If you set a goal to start saving money and/or spending your income more wisely (I know I did), there are plenty of ideas out there. One of the more visible personal finance advice-givers, Suze Orman, has a new book out, aptly titled 2009 Action Plan. You can download the entire book for FREE from Oprah’s website until this Thursday (January 15).
You can also get Orman’s last book, Road to Wealth, here in the Library, or her other books from other UW libraries through Universal Borrowing.
Thanks to Patty for the link!
Special Collections in the Library includes historical Sears and JCPenney catalogs. We are looking for Sears or JCPenney catalogs from 1994-2008. Some older years are needed as well, so if you have catalogs older than 1994, please call and check with the staff to see if they are needed. We promise that the catalogs you donate will have a good home! Thank you.
Special Collections
phone (262) 472-5520 or email archives@uww.edu
I saw the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” over the holidays. I enjoyed it, but it was long, and the premise required significant suspension of disbelief (I mean, how would it be physically possible to grow younger?!). But I enjoyed it enough that I hope to read the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story upon which it is based, which is available in a book called The short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald: a new collection (3rd-floor Main Collection, PS3511 .I9 A6 1989).
When I first saw this movie advertized I thought it was based on a 2004 novel by Andrew Sean Greer called The confessions of Max Tivoli. I was very impressed with this book because I thought it had a fresh, unique idea about someone born aged and growing younger… and how often do you read something with a storyline that isn’t just a variation on a theme? Well, of course I was much less impressed when I learned the Button movie was based on an older story with the same idea! But the novel was a very good read anyway, and while we don’t have it at UW-Whitewater, UWW students and staff can borrow it from another UW library by using the free Universal Borrowing service.
The Library’s hours for Winterim are:
- M-W 7am – 6pm
- Th-F 7am – 4:30pm
- Sat 1pm – 5pm
- Sun noon-6pm
Winterim ends on Friday, January 16th. The Library will be closed on January 17-19 (Saturday-Monday).
Regular spring semester hours start on Tuesday, January 20th (first day of spring semester).
