Angela Davis Speaking at Vassar on Wednesday, Sept. 16 – Read all about it!

As many of you have heard, Angela Davis will be speaking at Vassar on September 16th to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Women’s Studies Program at the college.  We here in the library are looking forward to Davis’ return to Vassar, and are taking this opportunity to read about her life and her work.  Looking at the library’s resources on Angela Davis is an excellent example of the broad range of books, primary sources, films and journal articles that you can find here.

angela-davis-political-biographyOn the shelves in the Main Library, you’ll find “A Political Biography of Angela Davis,” a pamphlet that was published by the New York Committee to Free Angela Davis in January, 1971, as Davis was awaiting trial.  If you’d like to dig deeper into the primary sources available about Davis’ trial, you’ll find a selection of documents related to the campaign to free Angela Davis in the database, “Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000.”  You can read Davis’ early work, such as her essay, “Reflections on the Black Woman’s Role in the Community of Slaves,” originally published in the journal, The Black Scholar in 1971, or the autobiography she published in 1975 (in print or online).  Or you could read a collection of her more recent speeches and essays, The Meaning of Freedom (excerpted here) or a collection of interviews with Davis, Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons and Torture, published in 2005.

You could also learn more about Angela Davis’ background by reading her contribution to the book, Falling in Love with Wisdom: American Philosophers Talk About their Calling or by reading about the formative years she spent in France, recounted in Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag and Angela Davis by Alice Kaplan.

Perhaps you’d like to watch a Angela davis combodocumentary film or two?  Invite some friends to watch Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2013) or Black Power Mixtape (2011).

 

However you prepare, we hope to see you at the Chapel on Wednesday, September 16th at 5:30.

Group reading: Guantánamo Diary (September 3)

Cover to Guantánamo Diary

Cover to Guantánamo Diary

The Libraries are proud to sponsor and host a set of group reading sessions on this year’s Freshman Common Reading text.

GROUP READING: “Guantánamo Diary” (9/3)

Location: Thompson Memorial Library (various locations within the building)

Time: 8:00pm

Please note: this event is restricted to members of the Vassar community.

Author Mohamedou Ould Slahi

Author Mohamedou Ould Slahi

Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary was the Freshman Common Reading this year. This event is designed to give everyone on the Vassar campus, including many who have not read the book, an opportunity to hear Slahi’s powerful voice and to gain an understanding of his experiences, through readings of key passages from the book. Readers include students, administrators, and faculty.

Note: The readings will take place in several locations in the library; directions will be available in the lobby.

Editor Larry Siems

Editor Larry Siems

Related resource: a research guide is available at http://libguides.vassar.edu/commonreading2015, containing recommended resources such as books, articles, films, and documents.

Reunion 2015

Using the card catalog , ca 1975

Using the card catalog , ca 1975

We’re so excited to welcome back our alums this weekend. There are so many fabulous events planned it will be hard to choose among them, but don’t forget to stop by the Library! Come in and visit with the Lady Cornaro, sit in your favorite study spot, and see all the changes that have happened since you left.

To get revved up for the festivities, view our Facebook gallery to see if your class can party like its 1925!

Georgius Everhardus Rumphius, D‘Amboinsche Rariteitkamer, 1705

Georgius Everhardus Rumphius, D‘Amboinsche Rariteitkamer, 1705

ADOPT A BOOK – CONSERVING TREASURES IN THE VASSAR LIBRARY
Friday, June 12, 3-4, Main Library, Special Collections

Presentation by Ron Patkus, Head of Special Collections and Adjunct Associate Professor of History, on the Adopt-a-Book Program, which provides conservation treatment for fragile and damaged items in the Archives and Special Collections Library. Come to see some of our ailing treasures and hear more about how we plan to preserve them for Vassar’s current and future scholars.

GENERAL HOURS

Thompson Memorial Library / Archives & Special Collections

libcomp combo

Library computing – yesterday and today!

Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon

Art Library

art lib combo - Copy

Art library, pre- and post-renovations

Friday, 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
Saturday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday, 9:00 am – 12 noon

Music Library

Music combo shorter

Music Library, including new classroom (right)

Friday, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Saturday, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
CLOSED on Sunday