Celebrating International Education Week with New Online Guides

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. The University of Cincinnati participates in this joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education aimed at preparing Americans for a global environment and attracting future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

This year UC Libraries celebrates IEW with two new online guides.

bookThe idea of the Guide Reading Around the World at UC Libraries came from UC International. It is based on the list A Year of Reading Around the World compiled by Ann Morgan, a freelance writer who challenged herself to read a work from each of the countries of the world in the year of London Olympics. Her year of reading resulted in the book published in the United States under the title The World Between Two Covers.

Like the original list, the Guide features books in the English translation to maximize the number of people who can read them. We have modified the list to include titles available at UC Libraries or through OhioLINK. Working on the Guide motivated us to review and expand our collection of titles by authors from various countries. We hope that the Guide will grow thanks to your suggestions.

We’ll be rotating the titles for the UC community to learn more about the literatures of various countries. Please suggest your favorite international titles.

We would like to feature a book from a different country every month. The current featured title is Zinky boys : Soviet voices from the Afghanistan war zinky boysDS371.2 .A4513 1992.

The book’s author, Svetlana Aleksievich, is a Belarusian investigative journalist and non-fiction prose writer, writing in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”. She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award.

The book’s title refers to the young people killed during the war in Afghanistan. Their bodies were shipped home in zink coffins. Read the review in The London Review of Books.

Please suggest a book to be featured in the future. It would be great if with your suggestion you included a brief personal essay on why the book/author is special to you.or important for understanding a country or culture.

bearcatglobeThe Guide Study Abroad: Library Resources is intended for students, parents, and advisors. The resources listed in the Guide will help prepare for the trip, make the most of the study abroad experience, and make an adjustment upon return. The Guide provides easy access to library resources and reference assistance anywhere anytime.

 

 

By Olga Hart