New Display in Library reflect's University's Past

The Library has put together a display of celebrating the University's past. Included in the display is a copy of the first annual edition of the yearbook, the Holliso (name means book in Choctaw) in 1911, a course of study booklet from 1914, a student handbook from 1929-1930, a picture of the student body taken in front of the Morrison building in July 1917, a copy of the Southeastern newspsper, dated November 27, 1922, and another issue of the same newspaper, dated May 5, 1926, which shows an aerial view of the campus at that time (the library building was not even there yet), and other pictures from early Southeastern history.




The display is located in Henry's. So why don't you come over to the library and see and feel a little of Southeastern's past!

Today's Website: Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts

Today we will look at Alex. This is a database collection of about 14,000 "Classic public domain texts in English which covers American and English literature as well as western philosophy. By public domain is meant those works that the copyright has expired, which are those works publised 75+ years ago, or before 1924. So recent authors will not be included.

History Government Websites

The web sites below are located on the History Subject Guide of the Government Documents home page. The web address for the History Subject Guide is http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/historygov.html.


Next month is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. In honor of this great president, the Library of Congress has a web site called Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide. The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Abraham Lincoln, including the complete Abraham Lincoln Papers from the Manuscript Division. This resource guide compiles links to digital materials related to Lincoln such as manuscripts, letters, government documents, and images that are available throughout the Library of Congress web site. In addition, it provides links to external web sites focusing on Lincoln and a bibliography containing selected works for both general and younger readers. The web address is http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/lincoln/.


Since 1917, when Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman to serve in Congress, a total of 259 women have served as U.S. Representatives or Senators. This Web site, based on the book Women in Congress, 1917-2006 (Y1.1/2:SERIAL 14903), contains biographical profiles of former women who were Members of Congress, links to information about current women Members, essays on the institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of Congresswomen, and images of each woman Member, including rare photos. The web address is http://womenincongress.house.gov/.


Since 1870, when Senator Hiram Revels of Mississippi and Representative Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first African Americans to serve in Congress, a total of 125 African Americans have served as U.S. Representatives of Senators. This web site, based on the book
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007 (Y 1.1/2:SERIAL 14904), contains biographical profiles of former African-American Members of Congress, links to information about current black members, essays on institutional and national events that shaped successive generations of African Americans in Congress, and images of each individual member, supplemented by other historical photos. The web address is http://baic.house.gov/.

Oklahoma Weather Government Websites

The Government Documents web page at http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/govdoc%20home.html has been updated with these additional websites. The links below are located on the Oklahoma & State section of the web page.

Oklahoma Mesonet is a website that has up to date weather information for the state of Oklahoma. You can find out the current conditions (i.e. temperature, wind, and wind gusts). This information is updated every five to ten minutes. You can also find out the amount of rainfall an area has received as far back as 1994. The web address is http://www.mesonet.org.

Agweather is another Oklahoma weather website. It has similar information as the Oklahoma Mesonet website does. You can also find the forecast for a specific area and climate data. The web address is http://agweather.mesonet.org/.

Earthstorm is an educational website for teachers and students. The web address is http://earthstorm.mesonet.org/.

SIP, which stand for Simple Irrigation Plan, is a website about watering. The web address is http://sip.mesonet.org/.

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was a great American who deserves to have a national holiday in commeration of his birth and life. He was actually born on January 15, 1929. If he were alive today, he would be eighty years old. The library has many items to offer about his life and writings.

• 323.1196073 B73A  At Canaan's edge : America in the King years, 1965-68New York : Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2007.



• Y 1.2 RP:C95.S2/182  Investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. : hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, second session 
  United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations. Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1979-



• 323.092 K53BR   Martin Luther King, Jr. : a biography Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2006.



• 323.092 K53J   King : the photobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr   New York : Viking Studio, 2000.

Today's Website: CQ Researcher

Hi to all the Southeastern community. Today is the day before the start of another semester. This is a good day to talk about CQ Researcher. As the name indicates, this site contains the results of research done by the staff of CQ Press, who publishes many items on politics and the U.S. political system. The researchers at CQ Press do research on topics of current or national interest and then publish a report about them. There is one report published each week, and each weekly topic is different from the previous one. Some of the recent reports were: Limiting Lawsuits, Mexico's Drug War, Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, Declining Birthrates, The National Debt, Juvenile Justice, Gun Rights Debates. CQ Press has been publishing these weekly reports for many years, and all of the reports are in this online database. You can search by topic, by date, and in advanced search you can also search by section of each report. You can even suggest a topic if you have one that interests you. Here is what the website says about where the editors come up with report ideas. "CQ Researcher's editors and staff writers monitor current events through a wide range of media outlets and professional journals while also tracking broad trends across a variety of fields, including civil liberties and criminal justice, social policy, health, foreign policy, education, and the environment. In addition, readers—students as well as librarians and teachers—often provide helpful suggestions for report topics."
This is a great place to begin to do research on many controversial topics.
CQ Researcher is located on the electronic resources page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm. Once on this page, you simply scroll down until you get to Current Issues Resources. The third link under this heading is to CQ Researcher. You can also go to CQ Researcher from home by accessing the Proxy server on the main page http://www.se.edu/lib/.

Today's Site: STATS

Today we will look at STATS, the website that takes a critical look at the statistics that we hear in the media every day. Here is what the main page of STATS says: "Numbers describe our world. Statistics shape our politics and policies. But can they always be trusted? STATS mission is to examine how numbers are distorted and the statistics misunderstood in the media and society." STATS is a nonprofit organation affilated with George Mason University in Virginia.

STATS is located on the Library's Website on the Electronic Resources page, at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm
Just scroll down the page until you come to Current Issues Resources. The link to STATS is towards the bottom of the list.

Today's Website: Polling Report.com

Hi Today's website is Polling Report.com. This website says that it is "an independent, non-partisan resource on trends in American public opinion." It contains the latest polls on the major issues of the day, such as: abortion, disasters, energy, environment, gun laws, health policy, immigration, same-sex marriage, social security, stem cell research, national security, and of course, politics. Polling Report is located on the Library's Electronic Resources webpage, at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm. When you get to this page, simply go down to the Current Issues Resources heading, and the links under this heading are arranged alphabetically by title.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Today I will talk about the Pew Research Center. Here is some information about the Center from the About page on the website:

"The Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. We are best known for regular national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and for our polling that charts trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes. Formerly, the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press (1990-1995), we are now sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts and are one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

"The Center's purpose is to serve as a forum for ideas on the media and public policy through public opinion research. In this role it serves as an important information resource for political leaders, journalists, scholars, and public interest organizations. All of our current survey results are made available free of charge."

"The research program includes five principal areas of investigation:

• The People & The Press - explores public attitudes about the credibility, social value and salience of the news media.


• The People, The Press & Politics - features a typology which divides the American electorate into distinct voting groups and identifies the basic values and attitudes that animate political behavior.


• The News Interest Index - measures on a regular basis how closely the public follows the major news stories and links this to views about politics and policy issues.


• America's Place in the World - a series of in-depth surveys and analyses of the public and opinion leaders on international policy in the post-Cold War era.


• Media Use - major surveys that measure the public's use of, and attitudes toward, the Internet and traditional news outlets.

"

Open CRS

The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library has hundreds of links to many useful web sites on its webpage. Today one of those web sites will be discussed, called Open CRS. Here is some information about the Open CRS website taken from the about page on the website:

"American taxpayers spend over $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."

"CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report. A number of libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible. Open CRS is a centralized utility that brings together these collections to search."

"Unfortunately, there is no systematic way to obtain all CRS reports. Because of this, not all reports appear on the Open CRS web site. CDT believes that it would be far preferable for Congress to make available to the public all CRS Reports."

The link to the Open CRS website is on the Library's Electronic Resources Page under the topic of Current Issues Resources Just go to the Electronic Resources Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm and scroll down until you see the Current Issues Resources heading.

Valkyrie

It was July 20, 1944. The location was somewhere in East Germany. Adolf Hitler and his top generals are discussing the war in a secret location. Suddenly a bomb goes off in the building.

The war was going badly for Nazi Germany. The Russians were pressing in from the east, while the Americans, French and British were coming from the west. The handwriting was on the wall. Defeat was certain. Adolf Hitler, who began the war in 1939, was determined to fight on until the end. An that end meant burned and bombed out cities, a destroyed economy, many millions killed or wounded. However, there were some German leaders who wanted a different end to the one mentioned above. They thought that if they could only kill the leader of their nation, that they could negotiate a peace with the Allies and save Germany from utter destruction. So they determined to kill Hitler, and on July 20, 1944, they almost succeded. The name of the plan was Valkyrie. This is the name of a motion picture also that is currently playing in theaters. It brings to mind the valiant efforts of Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and others to free their country of a tyrant.