Banned Book Week

Melissa Hubbard, the main organizer of Morris Library's Banned Book Reading and her co-conspirator, Megan Lotts, had the misfortune of choosing the afternoon of Thursday, September 29 for the event. I call this a misfortune because they may lose some people to the Chancellor's State of the University Address. They scheduled and announced the reading before the address had been announced.

I will be one of the readers. The book that I have selected is one that a patron called the "naughty book" when I helped him access it in the library. One librarian told me that she considered reading from it but didn't "have the balls" to do it.

Are you intrigued yet? If so, come to the reading in the library rotunda next Thursday afternoon from 12:35 to 3:00. Students from a University 101 section will read from banned books from 12:35 to 1:50, and other people will be reading from 1:50 to 3:00. If you would like to read a selection yourself, contact Melissa Hubbard at mhubbard@lib.siu.edu.

Open Access Week

Open Access Day expanded to Open Access Week this year. The big news in Open Access this year is the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA, which unfortunately sounds like FERPA). FRPAA is still in committee in the Senate. If enacted, it would require researchers receiving grants from the major federal funding sources to supply their manuscripts that have been accepted for publiction to the funding agency and would require free, online access to the manuscripts six months after publication. Similar requirements already apply to NIH grantees, but FRPAA would expand the requirements to include NSF, DOE, DOD, HHS, and NASA grantees, among others. Chief academic officers at many universities, including SIUC have expressed their support for FRPAA.

The other local news regarding Open Access is that there will be a forum on open access in Morris Library's auditorium at 3 PM on Thursday, November 19. The working title for the event is "Tollway or freeway: Which road leads to your research?" David Shulenberger will give a keynote presentation, followed by a panel of SIUC faculty discussing their experiences with open access.

Outstanding Teacher Lecture Oct. 26 at 3:30 PM

The Outstanding Teacher Lecture has been rescheduled. It will be held on Monday, Oct. 26 from 3:30 - 4:30 PM in the library's auditorium, followed by a reception. Kim Harris will present "What Works at Work: Six Lessons for the Classroom."

UPDATED: Outstanding Teacher and Outstading Scholar Lectures Coming Soon

The auditorium in Morris Library will be busy on Sept. 28 and 29.

On Sept. 28, the inaugural (and I hope annual) university outstanding teacher lecture will be held in the auditorium at 3:30 PM. This event has been postponed due to illness. New date TBA is Oct. 26.

On Sept. 29, the annual university outstanding scholar lecture will be held in the auditorium at 3:00 PM.

These events are a chance learn from and congratulate the university's 2009 outstanding teacher, Kim Harris and the university's 2009 outstanding scholar, Carl Faingold.