Scheduled Classes for Computers

11 a.m.  -  1:30 p.m. Reserved-Ms.Delong
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description:
Ms. Dina Delong COM121 (21) Using ProQuest database  presented  by Ms. Kim Stahler.

3 :15 p.m.  - 4: 15 p.m.Reserved - Ms.Grenne
Where : Yocum Instruction Area
Description:
Ms. Jodi Greene HIS135 (15) No instruction, reserve computer area.

10 Common Grammar Mistakes Even Smart People Make

By Christina Desmarais | Inc – Fri, Jun 27, 2014 2:52 PM EDT

How well you use words can make a lasting impression on people. Wield those words skillfully and people may perceive you in any number of positive lights--as intelligent, poised, persuasive, funny, to name a few. But even one little grammatical slip can have the opposite effect.

It's a topic that worries lots of people. Inc. columnist Jeff Haden recently pointed out 30 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Bad, which readers shared more than 75,000 times on social networks. Here are 10 more to add to the list.

Irregardless and unthaw
These are not words. "Regardless" and "thaw" are sufficient and don't need any senseless prefixes mucking them up.

Bring and take
When using these words as commands think in terms of direction. People bring things toward you and take things away from you. Correct examples: "Please bring your report to my office;" and "Please take this report to the receptionist."

Alot and a lot
Fortunately spellcheck catches this one most of the time, but know this: If you're trying to say you have an abundance of something there should be a space in "a lot."

I, me, and myself
The question of how to refer to yourself along with other people is commonly misunderstood. Most people know to say the other person's name first when it happens at the beginning of the sentence; "Mark and I went to the meeting." But when this same phrase happens at the end of a sentence people get confused, often thinking the same usage of "I" is appropriate, which it isn't.
Instead, it should be "The CEO met with Mark and me." The easy way to remember this one is to imagine removing the other person's name. It would sound weird to say "The CEO met with I," right?
As for "myself," only use it if "me" or "I" would sound awkward in its place, such as "I kept the secret to myself." Saying "Mark and myself will attend the meeting" only makes a speaker look silly when a simple "I" would have sufficed.

Impact, affect, and effect
Using "impact" as a verb has become so ubiquitous I've pretty much given up on this one, but if you want to say things like "The cutbacks greatly impacted the bottom line" know that the grammar geeks of the world may cringe. Why? Because "affected" is what you really mean and once upon a time "impact" was used strictly as a noun. Maybe you've never mastered the difference between "affect" and "effect" and use "impact" just to be safe. If that's you, it's time to understand these words now. "Affect" is a verb that means to do something that causes an "effect," which is noun. Just think of the "a" in "affect" also is used in "action," which is what verbs do.

Loose and lose
The first one means your dog escaped his kennel, your change is clinking in your pocket, or your clothes are too big. "Lose" is what happened to you when you can't find your keys, you have to settle a bet, or were beat in a game.

Overuse of apostrophes
Apostrophes indicate one of two things: Possession or letters missing, as in "Sara's iPad" and "it's" for "it is" (second "i" missing). They don't belong on plurals. When you have more than one of something there's no need to add an apostrophe. Same thing with your last name. If you want to refer to your family but don't want to list everyone's first name write "The Johnsons" not "The Johnson's." Years also shouldn't have apostrophes. For example, "1980s" is correct but "1980's" is not.

Principle and principal
These words are easily confused. One definition for "principle" is "a moral rule or belief that helps you know what is right and wrong and that influences your actions," according to Merriam-Webster.com. As for "principal" think of the person who presides over a school--someone who's first in rank. Here's a trick for keeping the two straight: The "a" in principal is first in the alphabet, just like a principal is someone who's first in rank.

Lay and lie
Generally, if you can replace the word in question with some variant of "put" or "place," use "lay." If not, use "lie." So, it should be "I need to lie down" and "He laid his keys on the table." "Lying down" gets confusing when you're talking about doing it in the past, however. For example, it should be "Mark lay on the bed after coming home from work yesterday." Take heart, even Grammar Girl has a hard time with this one. Check out her advice for navigating this minefield.(http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/lay-versus-lie)

Borrow and lend
Some people incorrectly use the word borrow instead of lend. It would be wrong to say "He borrowed me his car for the afternoon" or "Can you borrow me a dollar?" The correct way: "He lent me his car" or even "He loaned me his car," although be warned that some grammar snobs take issue with using loan as a verb.
Someone doesn't borrow something to someone, but from someone, as in "I borrowed her calculator." Likewise, lending is something only a giver does. Just remember, the person doing the giving lends and the person receiving something borrows it.

https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/10-common-grammar-mistakes-even-smart-people-make-174819423.html

Word of the Day,

wildling
 \ WAHYLD-ling \, noun;  
1.a wild plant, flower, or animal.

Quotes:
It is well to remember that when a fruit tree has its vital power weakened and the necessities of culture results in this, the tree is much more liable to disease, than when it is as healthy as a wildling  in a place where the art of the fruit grower has never been called into play.
-- Edited by Thomas Meehan, "The Gardener's Monthly and Horticulturist," 1879

This little wildling  that looked like a hill pony made the fastest horse Albrin had bred seem a plodding workhorse in comparison.
-- Patricia Briggs, "The Hob's Bargain," 2001

Origin:
Wildling  joins the word wild , "living in a state of nature," with -ling , an Old English suffix meaning "a person or thing concerned with." It entered English in the mid-1800s.

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

clement
 \ KLEM-uhnt \,adjective;  
1.mild or merciful in disposition or character; lenient; compassionate: A clement judge reduced his sentence .
2.(of the weather) mild or temperate; pleasant.

Quotes:
Truly men say of Titus that he is clement  and merciful, and therein differs much from Vespasian his father, and the clemency which he showed to the people of Gischala and other places which he has taken proves that is so…
-- G. A. Henty, "For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem," 1888

"Yet I am a clement  man, Francesco, and sorely though that dog has wronged me by his silence, I thank Heaven for the grace to say—God rest his vile soul!"
-- Rafael Sabatini, "Love-At-Arms," 1907

Origin:
Clement  came to English in the mid-1400s from the Latin word meaning "gentle, merciful."

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

peckish
 \ PEK-ish \, adjective;  
1.Chiefly British Informal . somewhat hungry: By noon we were feeling a bit peckish .
2.Chiefly British Informal . rather irritable: He's always a bit peckish after his nap .

Quotes:
"I say, uncle, is this all the grub great swells have? I'm awfully peckish !" "That's early tea, my boy," was the answer, with a smile.
-- Charlotte Mary Yonge, "That Stick," 1892

"...It has made me feel a bit peckish , a pull like that on an empty stomach; it must be close on twelve o'clock. What do you say, are you beginning to feel that it is lunch time?"
-- George Moore, "Spring Days," 1888

Origin:
Though the origins of peckish  are unknown, this term may share its roots with the term pick . This term came to English in the early 1700s.

Daily Writing Tips

*18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style
By Carmel Lobello

Just like facts and flies, English words have life-spans. Some are thousands of years old, from before English officially existed, others change, or are replaced or get ditched entirely.

Here are 18 uncommon or obsolete words that we think may have died early. We found them in two places: a book called “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk, and on a blog called Obsolete Word of The Day that’s been out of service since 2010. Both are fantastic— you should check them out.

Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Pussyvan: A flurry, temper — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Wonder-wench: A sweetheart — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Lunting: Walking while smoking a pipe — John Mactaggart’s “Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia,” 1824.

California widow: A married woman whose husband is away from her for any extended period — John Farmer’s “Americanisms Old and New”, 1889.

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them – www.ObsoleteWord.Blogspot.com.

Jirble: To pour out (a liquid) with an unsteady hand: as, he jirbles out a dram — www.Wordnik.com.

Curglaff: The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water — John Jamieson’s Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808.

Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Tyromancy: Divining by the coagulation of cheese — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Beef-witted: Having an inactive brain, thought to be from eating too much beef. — John Phin’s “Shakespeare Cyclopaedia and Glossary”, 1902.

Queerplungers: Cheats who throw themselves into the water in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each, and the supposed drowned person, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, is also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket. — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk.

Englishable: That which may be rendered into English — John Ogilvie’s “Comprehensive English Dictionary”, 1865.

Resistentialism: The seemingly spiteful behavior shown by inanimate objects — www.ObsoleteWord.Blogspot.com.

Bookwright: A writer of books; an author; a term of slight contempt — Daniel Lyons’s “Dictionary of the English Language”, 1897.

Soda-squirt: One who works at a soda fountain in New Mexico — Elsie Warnock’s “Dialect Speech in California and New Mexico”, 1919.

With squirrel: Pregnant — Vance Randolph’s “Down in the Holler: A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech”, 1953.

Zafty: A person very easily imposed upon — Maj. B. Lowsley’s “A Glossary of Berkshire Words and Phrases”, 1888.

*http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/195348/18-obsolete-words-which-should-have-never-gone-out-of-style/

Word of the Day

garboil
 \ GAHR-boil \,
noun;  
1.Archaic. confusion.

Quotes:
I am at your pleasure; dispose of me as you will without further garboil .
-- William T. Vollmann, "Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith," 2001

"...I wouldn't mind if she weren't a prominent person of the kind that's always in some sort of garboil . That would mean more trouble, sooner or later…"
-- L. Sprague de Camp, "The Gnarly Man," 1939

Origin:
Garboil  hails from the Old Italian garbuglio . It entered English in the mid-1500s.

Dictionary.com

A Bibliophile's List of Book Words

Abibliophobia - fear of being without books

Bibliographe - a person who writes about books

Bibliobibuli - someone who read too much

Bibliotapbe - a person who hides books

Biblioclasts - people who rip the pages from books

Biblioriptos - someone who throws books

Bibliognoste - a person learned in the minute details of a book's publication like colophons, editions, dates and place printed, and who printed it.

Bibliomane - an indiscriminate accumulator of books.

Bibliolestes - a book-thief

Bibliophtbor - a book ravager or destroyer

Bibliopbage - someone who eats books

Bibliophobia - fear of books

Graphophobia - fear of writing or handwriting

Librocubicularist - someone who reads in bed

Logophobia - fear of words

Metrophobia - fear of poetry

Papyrophobia - fear of paper

Scriptophobia - Fear of writing in public

Sesquipedalophobia- Fear of long words

Verbophobia - Fear of words

sources: http://phobialist.com/ and thebookden.com

Day in History Related Books, DVD in the Yocum Collection

Books
The good earth /
Buck, Pearl S.
Call number:PS3503.U198 G66 1992

The people of Japan,
Buck, Pearl S.
Call number: DS821 .B77

Pearl S. Buck,
Doyle, Paul A.
Call number:PS3503.U198 Z64

Pearl of China :
a novel
Min, Anchee,
PS3563.I4614 P43 2010

DVD

The good earth
Thalberg, Irving G.,, Jennings, Talbot., Franklin, Sidney A.,, Slesinger, Tess,, West, Claudine,, Muni, Paul,, Rainer, Luise,, Connolly, Walter,, Stothart, Herbert,, Buck, Pearl S., Warner Home Video (Firm)
A young farmer named Wang Lung marries a selfless, loyal slave girl, O-Lan. Wang is initially devoted to the land and rises to prosperity…
Film - Drama

Pediatrics Group to Recommend Reading Aloud to Children From Birth

Dr. Leora Mogilner, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital,
gave a book to Kaylee Smith, 9 months, and guidance to her mother,
Tameka Griffiths, 33. Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

By MOTOKO RICHJUNE 24, 2014

In between dispensing advice on breast-feeding and immunizations, doctors will tell parents to read aloud to their infants from birth, under a new policy that the American Academy of Pediatrics will announce on Tuesday.

With the increased recognition that an important part of brain development occurs within the first three years of a child’s life, and that reading to children enhances vocabulary and other important communication skills, the group, which represents 62,000 pediatricians across the country, is asking its members to become powerful advocates for reading aloud, every time a baby visits the doctor.

“It should be there each time we touch bases with children,” said Dr. Pamela High, who wrote the new policy. It recommends that doctors tell parents they should be “reading together as a daily fun family activity” from infancy.

This is the first time the academy — which has issued recommendations on how long mothers should nurse their babies and advises parents to keep children away from screens until they are at least 2 — has officially weighed in on early literacy education.

While highly educated, ambitious parents who are already reading poetry and playing Mozart to their children in utero may not need this advice, research shows that many parents do not read to their children as often as researchers and educators think is crucial to the development of pre-literacy skills that help children succeed once they get to school.

Reading, as well as talking and singing, is viewed as important in increasing the number of words that children hear in the earliest years of their lives. Nearly two decades ago, an oft-cited study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than have those of less educated, low-income parents, giving the children who have heard more words a distinct advantage in school. New research shows that these gaps emerge as early as 18 months.

According to a federal government survey of children’s health, 60 percent of American children from families with incomes at least 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold — $95,400 for a family of four — are read to daily from birth to 5 years of age, compared with around a third of children from families living below the poverty line, $23,850 for a family of four.

With parents of all income levels increasingly handing smartphones and tablets to babies, who learn how to swipe before they can turn a page, reading aloud may be fading into the background.

“The reality of today’s world is that we’re competing with portable digital media,” said Dr. Alanna Levine, a pediatrician in Orangeburg, N.Y. “So you really want to arm parents with tools and rationale behind it about why it’s important to stick to the basics of things like books.”

The pediatricians’ group hopes that by encouraging parents to read often and early, they may help reduce academic disparities between wealthier and low-income children as well as between racial groups. “If we can get that first 1,000 days of life right,” said Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, “we’re really going to save a lot of trouble later on and have to do far less remediation.”

Dr. Navsaria is the medical director of the Wisconsin chapter of Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit literacy group that enlists about 20,000 pediatricians nationwide to give out books to low-income families. The group is working with Too Small to Fail, a joint effort between the nonprofit Next Generation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation that is aimed at closing the word gap.

At the annual Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver on Tuesday, Hillary Rodham Clinton will announce that Scholastic, the children’s book publisher, will donate 500,000 books to Reach Out and Read. Too Small to Fail is also developing materials to distribute to members of the American Academy of Pediatrics to help them emphasize the read-aloud message to parents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/24/us/pediatrics-group-to-recommend-reading-aloud-to-children-from-birth.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

Scheduled Classes for Computers

8 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Reserved—Ms Wagner
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms Wagner COM121 (20) Using ProQuest databases presented by Ms. Brenna Corbit.

Related works in the Yocum Library -Day in History

Book in the Yocum Library related to day in history:

Archaeology, history, and Custer's last battle : the Little Big Horn reexamined / by Richard Allan Fox, Jr. ; foreword by W. Raymond Wood.

General Collection E83.876 .F6 1993

The Library of Congress - Gay Pride Month

June 25

Film Screening: All the Way through Evening & Conversation with Pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe (Pickford Theater; LM-302, 12pm)
James Madison Memorial Building, Third Floor, Pickford Theater, Independence Avenue, between 1st and 2nd Streets, Washington, DC.

Every year, exuberant “70-something” East Village concert pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe performs a breathtaking concert of works by her friends, all composers, who were lost to the silent killer of New York City.

The award winning musical documentary All the Way through Evening chronicles the era when the HIV/AIDS pandemic swept through a downtown arts community and ravaged the world. Accompanied by the moving music written by those departed, the film recalls this tragedy with candid interviews from friends, family and the lovers that survived it.

Directed by Australian Rohan Spong, this engaging and poignant documentary charts Mimi's struggle as she prepares for the concert, and is a true testament to the strength of friendship and the power of music. Presented by LC-GLOBE.

http://www.loc.gov/lgbt/events.html

Library Humor

Word of the Day

droke
 \ drohk \  , noun;  
1.Canadian (chiefly Atlantic Provinces and Northwest Territories) . a valley with steeply sloping sides.

Quotes:
No one was privy to the goings-on at the house in the droke , though there was plenty of speculation about the rituals being performed to rid Mrs. Gallery of the cross her husband had become.
-- Michael Crummey, "Galore," 2009

We had a boil-up in a droke —a sheltered bunch of trees. We walked for another hour. At the edge of a frozen bog they pointed to a grey-and-white caribou stag.
-- Michael Winter, "The Big Why," 2004

Origin:
Droke  is a Canadian dialectic term that has been used since the late 1700s.

Dictionary.com

The Key to Understanding Family Relationships

One of most common issues in genealogy is to understand the relationship between two people in a family. For example, most people are familiar with the concept of a sibling (brother or sister) and a cousin, but what exactly is a second cousin twice removed?

In this article, we will answer this question by providing a method to determine the relationship between any two people in a family tree. We also include a convenient relationship chart that you can print out and keep for your records.

In most cultures, extended family members interact with each other. For example, guests at a wedding are often distant relatives of the bride or groom. Similarly, witnesses on a marriage license are also often distant relatives. These are the kinds of records people come across when tracing their ancestors. Knowledge of how people are related to each other can provide useful clues when looking at such records.

The easiest way to determine how two people are related to each other is to use what is formally known as a canon law relationship chart, but what is more commonly referred to as a Family Tree Relationship Chart. GenealogyInTime Magazine has created one below for your use.

- See more at: http://www.genealogyintime.com/articles/the-key-to-understanding-family-relationships-page1.html#sthash.6tUDxmE8.dpuf

Scheduled Classes for Computers

8 a.m. - 9 a.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM131(12) Using literature databases/resources presented by Ms. Kim Stahler.

9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM131 (12) NO INSTRUCTION, reserve 12 computers

11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM131(12) Using literature databases/resources presented by Ms. Kim Stahler.

12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM131 (12) NO INSTRUCTION, reserve 12 computers

Word of the Day

arsy-varsy
 \ AHR-see-VAHR-see \  , adjective;  
1.Informal . wrong end foremost; completely backward: an arsy-varsy way of doing things .
adverb:
1.Informal . in a backward or thoroughly mixed-up fashion: The papers are all filed arsy-varsy .

Quotes:
Lucas left her to press Lestrade, who was awkwardly composing a narrative in which he was a marginal figure, brought in arsy-varsy . He found the old guide waiting impatiently, in fear that his clientele would evaporate amid disorder.
-- Robert Stone, Damascus Gate , 1998

...a gob, a prayer, a lesson, a little of each, a prayer got by rote in case of emergency before the soul resigns and bubbling up all arsy-varsy  in the old mouth bereft of words, in the old head done with listening, there I am old, it doesn't take long...
-- Samuel Beckett, Stories and Texts for Nothing , 1967

Origin:
This term first came to English in the 1530s. It is probably an alteration of the Latin vice versa  with arse  substituted to make a facetious rhyming compound.

Dictionary.com

Daily Writing Tips

Comment Etiquette
by Maeve Maddox

Paul Krugman, in his capacity of Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, recently felt the need to remind his readers to stay on topic when commenting on his posts.

The admonition to stay on topic is found in every article on the subject of web comment etiquette.

etiquette: the customary code of polite behavior in society; good manners.

“Stay on topic” is one of the five basic rules offered by the editors at WordPress.com:
1. Be specific.
2. Don’t leave a link.
3. Stay on topic.
4. Be nice.
5. Keep it brief.

In Online Community Management for Dummies, Deborah Ng offers a longer list of rules; “stay on topic” is in there, as are these two useful recommendations:
Practice respectful disagreement, not personal attacks.
Be brief and don’t turn every comment into your own personal blog post.

In her article “Are You a Blog Hog?”, blogging coach Molly Greene gives this definition of a “blog hog”:
You might be a blog hog if you hijack someone else’s blog and use your comment to toot your own horn, discuss your accomplishments ad infinitum without being asked, hog the thread, dominate the conversation vs. join it, or take it upon yourself to jump in and reply to every question or comment other visitors make.

She follows this definition with specific remedies for bloghogitis. Two of her recommendations are to tailor comment length to the type of post being responded to, and to avoid turning the comment into a lengthy rewrite of what the author of the blog has already written.

Although the term “blog hog” isn’t used, Leigh Alexander seems to be describing one in an article about the kinds of comment people leave:
The Person Who Wants To Talk About Something Else Entirely. This individual typically devotes several paragraphs to a personal anecdote tangentially related to a sentence or two in the article. They seem oblivious to the fact that they are spiraling off into their own universe.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/comment-etiquette/

Word of the Day

epithalamion
 \ ep-uh-thuh-LEY-mee-on, -uhn \  , noun;  
1.a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.

Quotes:
'I hope you'll be very happy,' and I must make do with his whisky-laced epithalamion  for the only person we invite to our hasty register-office wedding is Marjorie Morrison and we have to borrow a witness from the previous wedding.
-- Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum , 1995

Up and down and round the bells swung, they nodded, they brimmed with joyous sound, the bronze tongues struck the bronze palates, and all these mouths trembled, now one, now another, high and low, all different, but making a single splendour of sound, an epithalamion .
-- George Mackay Brown, Magnus , 1973

Origin:
Epithalamion  comes from the Greek epi- + thalamos  meaning "at, upon" + "bridal chamber." It entered English in the late 1500s.

Dictionary.com

Summer Solstice: Longest Day of the Year

By: Jolie Lee
The summer solstice is Saturday at 6:51 a.m. EDT — the moment the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer, an imaginary line north of the equator.

This is the first day of astronomical summer and also the longest day of the year for people in the Northern Hemisphere. Washington, D.C., for example, will have nearly 15 hours of daylight.

So what's actually happening in space?

The Earth rotates around the sun, always tilted on its axis at a 23.5-degree angle.

Because of this tilt, the latitudes of 23.5 degrees north and 23.5 degrees south are important. The line at this latitude above the equator is called the Tropic of Cancer, and below the equator it's called the Tropic of Capricorn.

On Saturday morning, the Earth will be positioned so that the sun shines directly on the Tropic of Cancer, which crosses countries such as Mexico, China and India.

Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun on Saturday, so people there will experience the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.

The opposite happens in December: The sun shines directly on the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Southern Hemisphere experiences its summer solstice, while the Northern Hemisphere experiences its winter solstice.

The word "solstice" comes from the Latin words for sun and to stand still. On Saturday, the sun will appear to stay at the same height in the sky, as in the days before and after the solstice.

The biggest misconception about the summer solstice: People think the Earth is closer to the sun.

"We're not actually closer to the sun," C. Alex Young, associate director for science in the heliophysics division at NASA, said in an interview with USA TODAY Network.

The solstices aren't a result of the distance from the sun but the Earth's axis tilting toward or away from the sun, he said.

Because of this tilt, we have seasons. In June, the Northern Hemisphere receives more energy, which is absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere and then "re-radiated over time," so we have summer, Young said.

"If Earth was just straight up and down, there would never be a winter or summer. It would be the same in the north and south," he said.

Follow @JolieLeeDC on Twitter

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/06/20/summer-solstice-explained-sun-earth/10887737/

Word of the Day

agrarian
 \ uh-GRAIR-ee-uhn \,adjective;  
1.rural; agricultural.
2.relating to land, land tenure, or the division of landed property: agrarian laws .
3.pertaining to the advancement of agricultural groups: an agrarian movement .
4.composed of or pertaining to farmers: an agrarian co-op .
5.growing in fields; wild: an agrarian plant .
noun:
1.a person who favors the equal division of landed property and the advancement of agricultural groups.

Quotes:
"...Ships cost three times what they once did because wages rise and tools grow dearer. We're at the start of an industrial age. Industry will eventually lower costs, but not yet." "And, the South is still agrarian ." "It will always be agrarian "...
-- Eugenia Price, "Savannah," 1983

It is not surprising, therefore, that President Washington, whose viewpoint was neither strictly agrarian  nor entirely commercial and who strove to steer a middle course between the two, accepted the financial ideas of his gifted Secretary of the Treasury.
-- Samuel K. Padover,"Jefferson," 1952

Origin:
Agrarian  entered English in the late 1500s. It finds it roots in the Latin term ager  meaning "field."

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

flak   \ flak \, noun;  
1.criticism; hostile reaction; abuse: Such an unpopular decision is bound to draw a lot of flak from the press.
2.antiaircraft fire, especially as experienced by the crews of combat airplanes at which the fire is directed.

Quotes:
…even on days when he was hit by flak , he would wind up his journal entries with a note about how well (or how poorly) he drove his F-4 back down onto the carrier, and often with a playful tone...
-- Tom Wolfe, Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine , 1976

A few miles ahead, John spotted several cushiony puffs of flak  below the formation. He didn't worry about the flak  he could see, though. It was the flak  he couldn't see that was the killer.
-- Fran Baker, "Once a Warrior," 1998

Origin:
This term dates from the 1930s and comes from the German Fl(ieger) a(bwehr) k(anone) . This translates to "aircraft defense gun."

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

meta
 \ MET-uh \,
adjective;  
1.pertaining to or noting a story, conversation, character, etc., that consciously references or comments upon its own subject or features, often in the form of parody: A movie about making movie is just so meta—especially when the actors criticize the acting .
2.pertaining to or noting an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary, especially one that consciously references something of its own type.

noun:
1.a consciously and playfully self-referential story, conversation, etc.: That dialogue was an example meta at its best .
2.an abstract, high-level analysis or commentary: writing a meta to explain the character’s motivation .

verb:
1.to analyze or comment on something in a meta way: I spend more time metaing about the show than actually watching it.

Quotes:
This is all meant to be very meta . In one arc, the Doom Patrol is able to stop an imaginary world from taking over the real world when the team finds a black book that tells the story of a black book about an imaginary world taking over the real world.
-- Noah Berlatsky, "Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol: The Craziest Superhero Story Ever Told," The Atlantic , 2014

The meta  craze in criticism soon reached a point of parody about self-conscious parody.
-- William Safire, "What's the Meta?" The New York Times Magazine , 2005

Origin:
Meta  can be traced to the Greek preposition of the same spelling meaning "with," "after," "between." It entered English in the late 1800s in the context of chemistry.

Dictionary.com

Summer Beach Reads

Games of Thrones and The Reading Museum

If you are reading the novels in George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series or watching the TV series of "Game of Thrones" the Reading Public Museums collection of Arms and Armor will interest you.
The collection has crossbows, battle axes, swords, armor and many other items that will have you visualizing Joffrey with the crossbow, Arya Stark with Needle or Brienne of Tarth handling a two handed sword.

The Yocum Library and Berks County Public Libraries have free admission passes to the museum. Check the library online catalog or call your library for available passes.
The Yocum Library has the paperback collection of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire"  and HBO DVD series "Game of Thrones" Season 1 and Season  2.

Arms and Armor reflect, in material and design, the advancing technology of man, the great migrations of peoples and the clashes of civilizations. Weapons are among the most commonly found objects surviving from the past: Arms in graves and hoards of armor and weaponry in hallowed spots. Some of the weapons and pieces of protective armor in the Museum's collection were used in real battles; others were used in ceremonies. There is even armor for children and for horses.

Until the 19th century, the meeting of armies had the quality of a spectacle. The display of arms was intended to inspire fear and serve as an index of power. In the pre-Christian era, weapons were assigned a magical, religious power that did not completely disappear in the Christian west.

"Battle axes were among the most widely used medieval weapons. Of all sizes, they were light weapons intended to be thrown, or in the case of heavy pole-axes, swung by both hands." ...

"The arbalest, or crossbow, was a popular Medieval and early Renaissance hand projectile weapon. It appeared in southern Europe during the 12th century replacing the conventional bow, which could not send an arrow through chain mail."...

..."The most common type of body armor worn by European nobles during the period from the 10th to the 13th century was chain or mesh mail. Usually a tunic or a padded garment was worn under the mail to protect the wearer from burning hot or icy cold metal."

To reads the full details of the Arms and Armor Collection go to,

http://www.readingpublicmuseum.org/museum/galleries/first_floor/armor.php

Word of the Day

transfigure
 \ trans-FIG-yer or, esp. British, -FIG-er \  , verb;  
1.to change in outward form or appearance; transform.
2.to change so as to glorify or exalt.

Quotes:
The uprolled clouds and the colors of morning and evening will transfigure  maples and alders.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature," 1836

If ever he tries to transfigure  a woman, he will not transfigure  her as cruelly as Picasso does, bending and twisting her body like metal in a fiery furnace. Writers are not like painters anyway: they are more dogged, more subtle.
-- J. M. Coetzee, "Youth: Scenes from a Provincial Life II," 2002

Origin:
Transfigure  came to English in the 14th century from the Latin trānsfigūrāre  meaning "to change in shape."

Dictionary.com

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

June 18: Library of Congress

LGBT Rare Book Open House (Rosenwald Room, LJ-205, 3-4:30pm)

Please join us for an exclusive exhibit of recently-acquired LGBT materials in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, including materials supported by LC-GLOBE’s LGBT Rare Book Fund. Free reception to follow. Presented by LC-GLOBE and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Scheduled Classes for Computers

12:15 p.m.  - 1:30 p.m. Reserved  - Mrs. Moyer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Moyer  ORI102 (15) Intro to Library PowerPoint presented by Ms. Kim Stahler.

Word of the Day

gallinipper
 \ GAL-uh-nip-er \, noun;  
1.Informal . any of various insects that sting or bite, especially a large American mosquito, Psorophora ciliata .

Quotes:
"Deacon my calf! There's that gallinipper  of a prophet. Hey, you and God trading chin music these days, or did you go and get slewed again?"
-- Vardis Fisher, "Children of God," 1939

Gallinippers  can grow to the size a quarter and have painful stings, which can feel "like you're being stabbed," Anthony Pelaez of Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry told Fox Orlando earlier this year.
-- Douglas Main, "Meet the Gallinappers: Huge Mosquitoes Spotted in Florida," Live Science , 2013

Origin:
Gallinipper  came to English in the late 1600s. Though its origins are uncertain, the second element of the word likely comes from the term nipper , which has referred to an animal that bites since the 1530s.

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

beget
 \ bih-GET \, verb;  
1.(especially of a male parent) to procreate or generate (offspring).
2.to cause; produce as an effect: a belief that power begets power.

Quotes:
...all miserable events do naturally beget  their like.
-- Herman Melville, "Moby-Dick," 1851

...it is not words that beget  new things, it is feeling.
-- D. H. Lawrence, "Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation," 1930

Origin:
The term beget  has been around in English since before 1000s. It is a cognate with the Old High German bigezzan.

Dictionary.com

Happy Father's Day

Word of the Day

gloze
 \ glohz \, verb;  
1.to explain away; extenuate; gloss over (usually followed by over ).
2.Archaic . to make glosses; comment.
noun:
1.Archaic . flattery or deceit.
2.Obsolete . a specious show.

Quotes:
"He has found the meaning. / But I will gloze  with him."
-- William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre , 1608

A claim thus livingly acknowledged is acknowledged with a solidity and fullness which no thought of an "ideal" backing can render more complete; while if, on the other hand, the heart's response is withheld, the stubborn phenomenon is there of an impotence in claims which the universe embodies, which no talk about an eternal nature of things can gloze  over or dispel.
-- William James, The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life, 1891

Origin:
Gloze  came to English in the 1200s and finds its roots in the Medieval Latin glossāre .

Dictionary.com

Friday the 13th

Word of the Day

foray
 \ FAWR-ey, FOR-ey \,noun;  
1.a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder: Vikings made a foray on the port .
2.a quick, sudden attack: The defenders made a foray outside the walls .
3.an initial venture: a successful foray into politics .
verb:
1.to make a raid; pillage; maraud.
2.to invade or make one's way, as for profit or adventure: foreign industries foraying into U.S. markets .
3.to ravage in search of plunder; pillage.

Quotes:
Having the true baronial spirit of the good old feudal times, they are apt now and then to issue forth from their castles on a foray , and lay the plebeian fields of the neighboring country under contribution…
-- Washington Irving, "Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists," 1821

Peter Sissen took out his penlight and made a shallow foray  into the dining room, coming back to say, “One of them is still downstairs…"
-- Jeffrey Eugenides, "The Virgin Suicides," 1993

Origin:
Foray  entered English in the late 14th century.It shares its roots with the term forage.

Dictionary.com

Daily Writing Tips - Gossip

Gossip
by Maeve Maddox

*When I came across a reference to a “birthing chair” in a historical novel by Barbara Youree, I wanted to know more about it, so I did a Web search and found this:
Today, the idea of giving birth while sitting upright in a wooden chair may seem torturous.  But long before delivery rooms, stirrups, forceps and foetal monitors, a woman gave birth at home in a chair with the aid of her midwife and other female friends, relatives and neighbours. These women were known as the ‘gossips’, for they spread the word to all the women in the community when another went into labour.

What distracted my attention from the birthing chair was the explanation of the word gossips. The modern definition of “a gossip” is a person who spreads information about other people, but that is a later development of the word gossip. The “gossips” who helped a friend give birth in the old days got their name another way.

The noun gossip comes from Old English godsibb, “godparent.” The element sib means “kinsman, relation by blood.” The word survives in modern English sibling, “each of two or more children of a common parent or parents.” The word sib itself survives in Scottish dialect, as in the proverb, “All Stuarts are not sib,” (i.e., “just because you have the same name as someone famous doesn’t mean that you’re related.”)

Nowadays children who are baptized ordinarily have only two godparents, but in earlier times a child might have several. Joan of Arc, for example, had at least eight. And even in this century, Prince George of Cambridge has been provided with seven.

In time the noun gossip expanded to mean any close friend, man or woman, but especially the women present to help at a birth. Any activity that involves waiting for something to happen is going to call forth plenty of idle talk, so it wasn’t much of a leap for gossip to take on its present meaning.

From the noun comes the verb to gossip, “to tell tales or spread rumors.”

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/gossip/

Vegan Lifestyle Talk

The Yocum Library Reference Librarian Kim Stahler, will give a vegan lifestyle talk Thursday, June 12, 5:30 p.m., at the Spring Township Library.

"People think of veganism as hard to do, but it is one of the easiest ways to have a positive impact on the world, three times a day", said Kim Stahler.



Please share if you know any interested groups!

Word of the Day

prevaricator
 \ pri-VAR-i-key-ter \, noun;  
1.a person who speaks falsely; liar.
2.a person who speaks so as to avoid the precise truth; quibbler; equivocator.

Quotes:
Add to this general observation, the particular circumstance that in simple spirits, the remorse caused by committing some evil act often becomes confused with ancestral fears of every kind, and the result will be that the punishment of the prevaricator  ends up being, without mercy or pity, twice what he deserved.
-- José Saramago, "Blindness," 1995

"Whose words are now false? You twist-tongued prevaricator , did I not see with these very eyes that man you speak of save you from those three peasants—”
-- Rebecca Reisert, "The Third Witch," 2001

Origin:
Prevaricator  came to English in the mid-1500s from the Latin praevāricātor  meaning "unfaithful advocate."

Dictionary.com

Word of the Day

strident
 \ STRAHYD-nt \,
adjective;  
1.making or having a harsh sound; grating; creaking: strident insects; strident hinges .
2.having a shrill, irritating quality or character: a strident tone in his writings .
3.Linguistics . (in distinctive feature analysis) characterized acoustically by noise of relatively high intensity, as sibilants, labiodental and uvular fricatives, and most affricates.

Quotes:
Only the parasites seemed to live there in a sinuous rush upwards into the air and sunshine, feeding on the dead and the dying alike, and crowning their victims with pink and blue flowers that gleamed amongst the boughs, incongruous and cruel, like a strident  and mocking note in the solemn harmony of the doomed trees.
-- Joseph Conrad, Almayer's Folly , 1895

Malka's voice became more strident  than ever. She had been anxious to make a species of vicarious reparation to her first husband, and the failure of Milly to acquiesce in the arrangement was a source of real vexation.
-- Israel Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People , 1892

Origin:
Strident  entered English in the mid-1600s from the Latin strīdēre  meaning "to make a harsh noise."

Dictionary.com

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month - June 10

Event - Library of Congress, Washington, DC

LC-GLOBE Founders Panel & 20th Anniversary Celebration (Law Library Multimedia Room, LM-240, 12 p.m.) 20 years ago, a brave group of employees came together to found the first LGBT organization at the Library of Congress.

Join us for a panel discussion featuring four founding members of LC- GLOBE as we explore its founding in 1994, its evolution through the years, and its future. Presented by LC-GLOBE in association with the Office of Opportunity, Inclusiveness, and Compliance.

Beacon Conference

Reading Area Community College at the Beacon Conference had four finalists in three academic categories. RACC won all three. In the photograph: Cherylanne McGuire, finalist; Dr. Chris Costello, mentor, Rachel Lee, psychology; Janelle Zimmerman, philosophy and theology; John Lawlor, mentor; Sheila Frees, history. Students received a certificate, their papers will be published in the conference proceedings, and 100 dollars cash award. Dr, David Brant, mentor, is not on the photograph. Dr. Donna Singleton facilitated all aspects of RACC participation and deserves special recognition. Congratulations to all. — at SUNY Ulster Community College.

Word of the Day

prate
 \ preyt \verb;  
1.to talk excessively and pointlessly; babble: They prated on until I was ready to scream.
2.to utter in empty or foolish talk: to prate absurdities with the greatest seriousness .
noun:
1.act of prating.
2.empty or foolish talk.

Quotes:
"...What is prudence but avarice? What is generosity but a deceit? And yet men prate  of themselves as if they were deities."
-- Anonymous, "Herbert Wendall: A Tale of the Revolution," 1835

The stones of Cambridge no longer prate  of thy whereabout! Death hath removed thee,—may it not be to that bourne where alone thy oaths can be outdone!
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, "Pelham: or, Adventures of a Gentleman," 1828

Origin:
Prate  finds its roots in the Middle Dutch praeten  meaning "to speak." It came to English during the time when Middle English was spoken.

Dictionary.com

RACC Calendar

Summer 2 – Eight-Week Session
Classes Begin Monday, June 9
Classes End Thursday, July 31
Grades Due Tuesday, August 5
No Classes
 Friday, July 4 ~ Fourth of July—College Closed

Summer 3 – Five-Week Session
Classes Begin Monday, June 30
Classes End Thursday, July 31
Grades Due Tuesday, August 5
No Classes
 Friday, July 4 ~ Fourth of July

Word of the Day

crapulous
 \ KRAP-yuh-luhs \,
adjective;  
1.given to or characterized by gross excess in drinking or eating.
2.suffering from or due to such excess.

Quotes:
Hastily running across the court to his own rooms, he groped his way—giddy and crapulous —up the dark and narrow staircase, and, after some fumbling with his key, opened the door.
-- Frederic W. Farrar, "Julian Home: A Tale of College Life," 1866

They asked what she did in London and she explained how she helped run an arts festival, and it sounded fey and crapulous . So she told the story of the drunken newsreader they'd booked the previous year…
-- Mark Haddon," A Spot of Bother," 2006

Origin:
Crapulous  came to English in the mid-1500s from the Late Latin crāpulōsus.

Dictionary.com

New DVDs to the Yocum Library Collection

Secrets of the Vatican
Moms Mabley
Romeo and Juliet
Still Mine
World's End
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Vampire Academy
3 Days to Kill
Gimme Shelter
Robocop
Jack Irish s.2
New Tricks s.10

Word of the Day

peregrine
 \ PER-i-grin, -green, -grahyn \,
noun;  
1.foreign; alien; coming from abroad.
2.wandering, traveling, or migrating.
noun:
1.peregrine falcon.

Quotes:
…an unmeasurable Profundity of Knowledge in the most peregrine  and sublime Disciples…
-- Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux, The Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Vol. 2 , 1864

"Salisbury Cathedral really is the ancestral home of the 'urban' peregrine , with records dating from the mid 1800s," he said.
-- "Salisbury Cathedral spire peregrine falcon chicks hatch," BBC , 2014

Origin:
Peregrine  entered English in the late 1300s from the Latin peregrē  literally meaning "beyond the borders of the field."

Dictionary.com

New - Associates of Arts in Creative Writing

At the last Faculty Senate meeting, a new program was approved—the Associates of Arts in Creative Writing. Prerequisites: The COM 110 has prerequisites of COM 050/051 or ESL 051 and COM 061 or ESL 060. The COM 219 has a prerequisite of COM 218. COM 218, which is already in the catalogue, has a prerequisite of COM 121/122.

June 6, 2014, the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

June 6, 2014, the 70th Anniversary
of the Normandy Invasion.

The Yocum Library has numerous books and movies on the history of WWII.
I would like to recommend "The Longest Day" movie for you to get an idea of what went on during the invasion of the Normandy coast of France on June 6, 1944.
I visited Normandy beaches twice. Once on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day. I visited the town of Saint Mere Eglise and can picture the scenes from the movie in the town and on the beach. (Kathy Nye-Editor)

*The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, the US, Britain, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day. The longest day." Written by Michael Daly.
The Longest Day [videorecording] / British exterior episodes directed by Ken Annakin ; American exterior episodes directed by Andrew Marton ; German episodes directed by Bernhard Wicki ; produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.

Stats and cast information can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/

*http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/plotsummary

Icons of British Sculpture - Now through August 10, 2014

Photo: Henry Moore (British, 1898-1986),
Draped Reclining Figure, Knee, c. 1981, 6 x 8 x 5 inches,
Private Collection

Reading Public Museum - Free museum Admission Pass is available at the online catalog to reserve a pass or in The Yocum Library at the Service desk.
Check a pass out for 1 week.- Admits 2 adults and 4 children or 6 RACC students.

Icons of British Sculpture Featured in New Exhibition

We're pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition, Icons of British Sculpture, on display Saturday, March 29 through Sunday August 10, 2014 in our Cohen Modern and Contemporary Gallery on the Second Floor.

This engaging exhibition features works from some of the twentieth century’s most well known British sculptors including: Henry Moore (1898 – 1986), Barbara Hepworth (1903 – 1975), Lynn Chadwick (1914 – 2003), Kenneth Armitage (1916 – 2002), Anthony Caro (1924 – 2013), and Barry Flanagan (1941 – 2009). Mostly small scale works, including a group of maquettes or studies for much larger compositions, will be examined. These small works reveal how many of these artists expressed their initial sculptural ideas. Additional works on paper by several of the artists will also be included in the show. Nearly 25 works on loan from private collectors will be on view.

Word of the Day

onomasticon
 \ on-uh-MAS-ti-kon, -kuhn \,
noun;  
1.a list or collection of proper names.
2.a list or collection of specialized terms, as those used in a particular field or subject area.

Quotes:
A quick look at any onomasticon  shows how many more Greek names begin with alpha than with any other letter.
-- Edited by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes, Elizabeth Kosmetatou and Manuel Baumbach, Labored in Papyrus Leaves: Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus , 2004

We bring this up because today happens to be the 162nd birthday of Mr. Roget’s compendium of synonyms. Yes, on this date in 1852, the first edition of Peter Roget’s onomasticon  was published.
-- Greg Mandel, "Tuesday's Edge: Have you seen today's Butt?" The Oregonian , 2014

Origin:
Onomasticon  entered English in the early 1700s from the Greek onomastikòn  meaning "vocabulary arranged by subjects."

Dictionary.com

New - Associates of Arts in Creative Writing

At the last Faculty Senate meeting, a new program was approved—the Associates of Arts in Creative Writing. Prerequisites: The COM 110 has prerequisites of COM 050/051 or ESL 051 and COM 061 or ESL 060. The COM 219 has a prerequisite of COM 218. COM 218, which is already in the catalogue, has a prerequisite of COM 121/122.

New - Associates of Arts in Creative Writing

At the last Faculty Senate meeting, a new program was approved—the Associates of Arts in Creative Writing. Prerequisites: The COM 110 has prerequisites of COM 050/051 or ESL 051 and COM 061 or ESL 060. The COM 219 has a prerequisite of COM 218. COM 218, which is already in the catalogue, has a prerequisite of COM 121/122.

Word of the Day

sparge
 \ spahrj \,
verb;  
1.to scatter or sprinkle.
noun:
1.a sprinkling.

Quotes:
Technically, to sparge  is to spray or sprinkle hot water over the grain bed. The terms “lauter” and “ sparge ” are often used interchangeably by homebrewers.
-- Amelia Slayton Loftus, "Sustainable Homebrewing," 2014

It is preferable to start sparging  when the first ten barrels of wort are in copper, at the rate of one-half to three-quarters of a barrel per quarter of malt...
-- Sir Thomas Edward Thorpe, "A Dictionary of Applied Chemistry," 1890

Origin:
Sparge  comes from the Latin spargere  meaning "to sprinkle, scatter." It entered English in the mid-1500s.

Dictionary.com

2014 Commencement

Reading Area Community College 
2014 Commencement
Running time: 1:29

 http://player.piksel.com/p/fxyuo9f4

National Rivers Month

Schuylkill River Celebration Highlights ‘Pa. Rivers Month’ Activities

Harrisburg – Plans for fun on the Schuylkill River -- from canoes and kayaks slicing though headwaters to leisurely tube floats in urban environs -- is expected to draw hundreds of paddlers, campers and other outdoors enthusiasts to a rebounding waterway named River of the Year for 2014.

“When a state designates a waterway for this honor, it also is saluting the communities, conservation groups and individual citizens all working for its improvement,” said Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Ellen Ferretti. “They watched renovation replace retreat; embraced water-based hiking, biking and rail trails; and sought solutions to economies no longer supported by mills and factories.”

A variety of on-water, shoreline and off-shore activities are planned June 7-13 along the Schuylkill as a paddling sojourn takes participants from river’s headwaters in Schuylkill County into the Philadelphia city limits. That celebration is among at least a dozen planned on rivers and streams across the state during Pennsylvania Rivers Month.

“Promoting awareness of how these waterways have rebounded and their continuing conservation needs is the major goal of this month-long observance,” Ferretti said. “There is a vital connection among the rivers and streams and area residents and visitors, and these sojourn and other activities planned by river advocates strengthens those bonds.”

In support of that goal, Governor Tom Corbett has proclaimed June as Rivers Month in Pennsylvania, the secretary noted. Highlighting the recreational and economic value of waterways, planned sojourns include:

“Stony-Kiski-Conemaugh rivers, beginning June 5; Perkiomen Creek, June 7; Lehigh River June 20; French Creek, June 21; Delaware River, June 22; Endless Mountains Heritage, June 26; Invisible River, July 7; Rising Nation River Journey, Aug. 1; West Branch, Susquehanna, Aug. 13; Ohiopyle Over The Falls, Aug.16; and Brodhead, Sept. 20.

For complete activity listings and details on other upcoming sojourns across the state, visit www.pawatersheds.org. The Schuylkill and other sojourn programs are coordinated by the Pa. Organization of Waterways and Rivers in partnership with DCNR, as well as dozens of local organizations.

Statewide annual paddling events encompass more than 500 river miles, span more than 50 on-the-water days, and engage more than 4,000 participants.

Since 1983, the River of the Year has been featured on posters sent to watershed organizations, local municipalities and interested individuals throughout the state to encourage a focus on Pennsylvania's waterways.

To learn more about DCNR’s Rivers Program, visit http://dcnr.state.pa.us/brc/conservation/rivers/index.htm.

http://www.pa.gov/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?agency=PAGovNews&item=15675#.U4z8l6hdUyE

Free Magazines Online - Zinio Digital Magazine

Berks County Public Libraries  (BCPL) and RACC have chosen for the Zinio digital magazine platform.  RACC’s titles are now included on the platform

http://www.berks.lib.pa.us/sco/research/index.php?id=htm&page=zinio

http://www.rbdigital.com/berkscountypa/service/zinio/landing?

When you arrive you can create an account by using you Reading Public Library card numbers.  After you sign in you can look at the list of genre or type the name of the magazine you are interested in.

To checkout a magazine to your Zinio account, simply click on the magazine of your choice.

Word of the Day

embroil
 \ em-BROIL \,
verb;  
1.to bring into discord or conflict; involve in contention or strife.
2.to throw into confusion; complicate.

Quotes:
Did he wish to embroil  himself in the troubles of Miss Lemon's sister and the passions and grievances of a polyglot hostel?
-- Agatha Christie, "Hickory Dickory Dock," 1955

I determined not to be stirred by your presence or by the passing through of those who, like you, would embroil  me.
-- Rebecca Stott, "Ghostwalk," 2007

Origin:
Embroil  entered English at the turn of the 17th century and comes from the Middle French embrouiller .

Dictionary.com

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

Oscar Wilde

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month
Sunday, June 1, 12 a.m. – Tuesday, July 1, 12 a.m.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month (LGBT Pride Month) is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. In the United States the last Sunday in June was initially celebrated as “Gay Pride Day,” but the actual day was flexible.

In major cities across the nation the “day” soon grew to encompass a month-long series of events. Today, celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, and LGBT Pride Month events attract millions of participants around the world. Memorials are held during this month for those members of the community who have been lost to hate crimes or HIV/AIDS.

The purpose of the commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.

In 1994, a coalition of education-based organizations in the United States designated October as LGBT History Month. In 1995, a resolution passed by the General Assembly of the National Education Association included LGBT History Month within a list of commemorative months.

LGBT History Month is also celebrated with annual month-long observances of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, along with the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. National Coming Out Day (October 11), as well as the first “March on Washington” in 1979, are commemorated in the LGBT community during LGBT History Month.

Executive and Legislative Documents
The Law Library of Congress has compiled guides to commemorative observations, including a comprehensive inventory of the Public Laws, Presidential Proclamations and congressional resolutions related to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month Pride.

Library of Congress Event- June 3
LGBT Poetry Celebration (LJ-119, 12pm) This inaugural event will feature readings by established and emerging gay and lesbian poets Joan Larkin, Kamilah Aisha Moon, D. A. Powell, and Dan Vera, as well as featuring a display of the Library's rare LGBT materials. Book sales and a signing will follow. Presented by the Library of Congress Poetry & Literature Center in partnership with Capital Pride. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections Division.

http://www.loc.gov/lgbt/about.html

Photo: LC-USZ62-2883

New - Associates of Arts in Creative Writing.

At the last Faculty Senate meeting, a new program was approved—the Associates of Arts in Creative Writing. Prerequisites: The COM 110 has prerequisites of COM 050/051 or ESL 051 and COM 061 or ESL 060.  The COM 219 has a prerequisite of COM 218.  COM 218, which is already in the catalogue, has a prerequisite of COM 121/122.

Word of the Day

gnomist
 \ NOH-mist \,
noun;  
1.a writer of aphorisms.

Quotes:
In casting mere shadows on the dial, the gnomist  as gnomom will conceal more truth than he reveals. His aphorisms may be subtly off-key…
-- W. David Shaw, Babel and the Ivory Tower: The Scholar in the Age of Science , 2005

He was one of the Gnomists  or seven sages of Greece, and the most eminent of his countrymen.
-- Reverend David Blair, Outlines of Chronology, Ancient and Modern: Being an Introduction to the Study of History , 1865

Origin:
The term gnomist  entered English in the late 1800s. It finds its roots in the Greek gnṓmē  meaning "thought, opinion, intelligence."

Dictionary.com

New DVDs to the Yocum Library Collection

Call the Midwife s.3
Covert Affairs s.4
Awful Nice
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Vampire Academy
3 Days to Kill
Gimme Shelter
Robocop
Jack Irish s.2
New Tricks s.10

Word of the Day

braggart
 \ BRAG-ert \  , noun;  
1.a person who does a lot of bragging.
adjective:
1.bragging; boastful.

Quotes:
The sculptors of those days had stocks of such funereal emblems in hand; as you may see still on the walls of St. Paul's, which are covered with hundreds of these braggart  heathen allegories.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray, "Vanity Fair," 1848

"But there are ways to prevent thee, young braggart ," returned the esquire. "And there is a power," replied the youth, "to avenge the cause of wronged innocence."
-- Francis Lathom, "The Castle of Ollada," 1795

Origin:
Braggart  entered English in the 1500s. It finds its roots in the French term braguer  meaning "to brag."

Dictionary.com

The Yocum Library Online Databases

Today a library can be open 24/7 for its patrons by accessing library resources online through the Internet. These online sources are available to patrons of libraries that subscribe to them.

To access these online resources, patrons must have their library's passwords. Members of the RACC community can find the current database passwords in ANGEL under the "Resources" tab.

The CUFTS tool created by Simon Fraser University helps you locate the database that includes a specific journal.

http://racc.edu/Yocum/onlineDatabases/default.aspx

Online Databases
A to Z Databases
All Subjects
Art, Music, and Media
Diversity
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Health and Science
History
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Attention Art Lovers

Allentown Art Museum to offer free admission for summer
By Jodi Duckett, Of The Morning Call

As the Allentown Art Museum gets ready to open one of the biggest exhibits in its history, it is also making one of the biggest policy changes in its history — free admission for the summer.

From June 8 to Sept. 7 — the run of "Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Paintings from Glasgow Museums" — everyone will be able to visit the museum free of charge.

"There has been a real interest across the country to ensure the museum is accessible to all audiences," said museum President David Mickenberg. "Admission is at times an impediment to participation."

To offset the lost income, the museum received a grant from the Society of the Arts — SOTA — the women's organization that has supported the museum for 50 years by serving as volunteers and by purchasing art. "It covers most of the historical income that we've gotten here over the summer. We couldn't have opened up free of charge without SOTA's grant," Mickenberg said.


Mickenberg declined to say the amount of the grant, but said, "Numbers divert attention from the true story — that SOTA has provided an exceptional gift."

The free admission — a savings of $12, adults, and $10 students and seniors — means access for everyone to the permanent collection, special summer exhibits and events and activities for adults and children that complement the exhibits.

"Heaven and Earth" features 40 paintings by some of the greatest names in Italian art, including Botticelli, Bellini and Titian. Allentown is the only East Coast stop for the exhibit. Also opening at the museum for the summer is "Francisco Goya — Los Caprichos," a series of 80 groundbreaking etchings analyzing the human condition during a time of repression in Spain.

To encourage accessibility, those exhibits will have all their text available in Spanish as well as English. And the museum is doing outreach to radio stations, publications and organizations that serve the Spanish-speaking community.

Mickenberg said additional benefits will be given to museum members who may have joined to get free admission. Those benefits will include increased benefits in the gift shop and cafe and exclusive activities.

Mickenberg said free summer admission is not an original idea; museums such as the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts and the Dallas Museum of Art have instituted free admission. The number of their visitors increased dramatically, he said.

In addition to increasing accessibility, Mickenberg said the museum sees free admission as "a great way to kick off our 80th anniversary year. It's an opportunity for us to say thank you to the community for encouragement, support and participation."

Mickenberg, who has been at the museum for seven months, said the museum also hopes that free admission will enable it to gather more information from the public about how they feel about the museum — "how we're doing our job, what they'd like to see" — so it can tailor programs to public needs and desires and increase the profile and popularity of the museum.

"For us this is an exploration, experimentation," he said. "Our desire is to communicate to everybody that this is welcoming to all."

jodi.duckett@mcall.com
610-820-6704

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-art-museum-free-summer-admission-20140530,0,5017402.story

Allentown Art Museum
31 North 5th Street, Allentown, PA 18101, USA

Word of the Day

xyst
 \ zist \,
noun;  
1.(in an ancient Roman villa) a garden walk planted with trees.
2.(in ancient Greek and Roman architecture) a covered portico, as a promenade.

Quotes:
The ordinary length of a xyst  was a stadium, and, as this bridge was at the southern end of the Xyst, the first wall which passed along the northern end of it must have been about 600 feet to the north of the bridge…
-- Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity: Volume 44 , 1873

Paganism never troubled itself to be angry with mere philosophers who aired their elegant doubts in the shady xystus .
-- F.W. Farrar, "The Victories of Christianity," The Witness of History to Christ , 1870

Origin:
Xyst  comes from the Greek xystós  meaning "a covered colonnade," a space that was used for athletic exercises in ancient Greece. It entered English in the mid-1600s.

Dictionary.com