by Christian Boyles
Pack your bag, find your travel charger, get an electricity converter and buy some foreign currency, because the Summer is the perfect time to explore the world. Your UCBA library has you covered Continue reading
Tag Archives: bychristianboyles
April Book of the Month
by Christian Boyles
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
HD6280 .B77 2017
About the book
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the National Forest campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool, made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short Continue reading
March Book of the Month
by Christian Boyles
March 2018
Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives
K3243 .G55 2017
About the Book
In 1991, Anita Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’s Senate confirmation hearing brought the problem of sexual harassment to a public audience. Although widely believed by women, Hill was defamed by conservatives and Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. The tainting of Hill and her testimony is part of a larger social history in which women find themselves caught up in a system that refuses to believe what they say. Hill’s experience shows how a tainted witness is not who someone is, but what someone can become. Tainted Witness examines how gender, race, and doubt stick to women witnesses as their testimony circulates in search of an adequate witness. Judgment falls unequally upon women who bear witness, as well-known conflicts about testimonial authority in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries reveal. Women’s testimonial accounts demonstrate both the symbolic potency of women’s bodies and speech in the public sphere and the relative lack of institutional security and control to which they can lay claim. Each testimonial act follows in the wake of a long and invidious association of race and gender with lying that can be found to this day within legal courts and everyday practices of judgment, defining these locations as willfully unknowing and hostile to complex accounts of harm. Bringing together feminist, literary, and legal frameworks, Leigh Gilmore provides provocative readings of what happens when women’s testimony is discredited. She demonstrates how testimony crosses jurisdictions, publics, and the unsteady line between truth and fiction in search of justice.
Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.
Wrongful Convictions of Women: When Innocence Isn’t Enough KF9756 .F74 2016 : Marvin Free and Mitch Ruesink reveal the distinctive role that gender dynamics so often play in the miscarriage of justice. Examining more than 160 cases involving such charges as homicide, child abuse, and drug-related offenses, the authors explore systemic failures in both policing and prosecution. They also highlight the intersecting roles of gender and race. Demonstrating how women encounter circumstances that are qualitatively different than those of men, the authors illuminate unique challenges facing women in the criminal justice system.
Equality on trial: gender and rights in the modern American workplace (ebook): Synthesizing the histories of work, social movements, and civil rights in the postwar United States, Equality on Trial recovers the range of protagonists whose struggles forged the contemporary meanings of feminism, fairness, and labor rights.
Sisters of ’77 (DVD) HQ1403.N34 S67 2005: chronicles the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas, which took place November 18-21, 1977. The goal of the National Women’s Conference was to end discrimination against women and promote their equal rights. The conference was sponsored by President Gerald Ford’s Executive Order 11832 and federally funded through HR 9924. It brought together over 20,000 women and men from around the United States.
Sisters of ’77 provides a look at a pivotal weekend that changed the course of history and the lives of the women who attended. The film incorporates rare archival footage and interviews of leaders relating this history to the present. Former first ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter were notable conference participants, and many influential women leaders attended, including Bella Abzug, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, Ann Richards, Coretta Scott King, Billie Jean King, and Barbara Jordan.[3] The attendees included a wide range of women, such as Republicans, Democrats, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinas, Native American, pro-choice, pro-life, straight, gay, liberal and conservative women.
Faculty Publications on Display in the UCBA Library
By: Christian Boyles and Lauren Wahman
Books (print and electronic) written or edited by UCBA faculty
The UCBA Library’s display for the month of March features a selection of books and journal articles written by UCBA faculty. It includes works of poetry, the history of UCBA, technology’s impact on teaching and learning, and how Glee influenced pop culture and social issues. The display can be found at the entrance of the library and on the reference shelf near the print station. The displays will be available through March 31st.
Journal articles, from a range of disciplines, written by UCBA faculty
From the Desk of…Christian Boyles
Christian Boyles, Collection Services Manager, UCBA Library.
Welcome to my desk, I hope you like it. Up until a few months ago, my space was pretty barren. That all changed when a co-worker told me that I “needed more $h!t in my area.” I hope I rose to the occasion.
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- Here is the magical entrance to my office wonderland.
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- I handle a lot of books, so there are always carts stack up in my space. Thankfully, Egon Schiele’s self portrait watches over them all. Also, that is a super forced smile.
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- “I was told by the photographer that this is her view when she passes by my office. I am quite tall.” -Christian Boyles, February 2018.
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- Who says Christmas lights are just for the holiday season? Not me. They make me happy all year long.
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- My area is well protected with this handy catapult/pencil sharpener I picked up in Battle, England.
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- I’m a graduate and former employee of Xavier and the Blue Blob was 3-D printed for me on my last day there. That said, when it comes to the Crosstown shootout, I am and always have been a Bearcat.
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- This is an owl. It keeps birds away from my desk.
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- Here’s a stack of old books and other stuff. The one on top is a UC yearbook from 1940 and below it is a book of various websites that we used to find stuff before Google was a thing.
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- That’s my computer and super stylish standing desk. I also can not function without loads of Post-It notes.
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- That’s my standing desk and, yes, it is made out of a super classy combination of cardboard boxes and old oversized books. What it lacks in aesthetic qualities, it more than makes up with its function.
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- It’s kinda hard to see but those are photos I’ve taken on my travels. My eye tends to be attrached to geometric patterns and those are some of my favorite.
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- This is my wall of postcards, weird stuff I’ve cut out of magazines, a photo of me on a horse, and stupid inside jokes.
The UCBA Library’s Book of the Month
by Christian Boyles
February 2018
A History of the United States in Five Crashes
HB3722 .N39 2017
About the Book
In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history, Scott Nations, a longtime trader, financial engineer, and CNBC contributor, takes us on a journey through the five significant stock market crashes in the past century to reveal how they defined the United States today.
The stories behind the great crashes are filled with drama, human foibles, and heroic rescues. Taken together they tell the larger story of a nation reaching enormous heights of financial power while experiencing precipitous dips that alter and reset a market where millions of Americans invest their savings, and on which they depend for their futures. Scott Nations vividly shows how each of these major crashes played a role in America’s political and cultural fabric, each providing painful lessons that have strengthened us and helped us to build the nation we know today.
A History of the United States in Five Crashes clearly and compellingly illustrates the connections between these major financial collapses and examines the solid, clear-cut lessons they offer for preventing the next one.
Is it checked out? Don’t worry about it. Here are some other titles on the subject.
Inside Job
(DVD) HB3722 .I57 2011: Provides an analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost of over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.
Booms and Busts: an encyclopedia of economic history from Tulipmania of the 1630s to the global financial crisis of the 21st century. (ebook): This authoritative set explores three centuries of good times and hard times in major economies throughout the world. More than 400 signed articles cover events from Tulipmania during the 1630s to the U.S. federal stimulus package of 2009, and introduce readers to underlying concepts, recurring themes, major institutions, and notable figures. Written in a clear, accessible style, “Booms and Busts” provides vital insight and perspective for students, teachers, librarians, and the general public – anyone interested in understanding the historical precedents, causes, and effects of the global economic crisis.
After the music stopped: the financial crisis, the response, and the work ahead. HB3717 2008 .B55 2013: Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history–books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, takes the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do from here–mired as we still are in its wreckage. Blinder shows how the U.S. financial system, grown far too complex for its own good–and too unregulated for the public good–experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. When America’s financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. It took the crisis for the world to discover, to its horror, just how truly interconnected–and fragile–the global financial system is. Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.
Bookish Travels
by Christian Boyles, Michelle McKinney and Kellie Tilton
UCBA Library staff and faculty, Christian Boyles (Collections Services Manager), Michelle McKinney (Reference and Web Services Librarian) and Kellie Tilton (Instructional Technologies Librarian) hit the road and visited a few bookish places over the holiday season. Click on the images to get a better view of the photos.
Christian Boyles / Washington DC / Library of Congress: In December, the missus and I went to DC for her birthday. Along with visiting many great Smithsonian museums, walking a gazillion miles, seeing grand architecture, priceless works of art and ephemera and the new Star Wars film, we went to the Library of Congress. For someone who has worked in libraries for a gazillion years, going there felt like what going to the Vatican must feel like to a Catholic.
The building itself is an amazing and imposing structure designed in the Beaux-Arts style with a bonkers fountain out front featuring the Roman god Neptune, some sea monsters and a bunch of naked people riding what I guess are horse snakes. What that has to do with literature and the centralized housing of knowledge was lost on me. Inside is no less impressive. Walking in, I was legitimately awestruck by the LOC’s grandeur. Imagine if St. Peter’s Cathedral and some enlightenment era French king’s home had a baby and you’re still nowhere close to how awesome it is. Probably the crown jewel of the place is the reading room. Housed under a dome, it is a masterpiece of archetecture featuring arched stained glass windows, semetrical study carrells, Corinthian columns, and statues of some of the great minds in religion, poetry, commerce, philosophy, etc. Just looking in on that, I’m pretty sure I felt my IQ nudge up a couple points. Throughout the building, there were displays of ancient manuscripts going back hundreds and thousands of years.
Unfortunately, we were running short on time, so we couldn’t take the tour. But, we did manage to check out a very cool exhibit on the American experience of World War 1. In a perfect world, I would have spent a day, if not more, discovering all the cool features and offerings. Insider tip: if you’re in DC and are having a sugar crash, the LOC’s vending machines are very comprehensive and cheap.
Michelle McKinney / Louisville, KY / Wild Fig Coffee & Books: In early January, I treated my husband to a quick trip to Lexington for his birthday. Before heading back home, I discovered a bookstore just down the street from where we were having breakfast. Wild Fig Coffee & Books is located near UK’s campus and is owned by award-winning author, Crystal Wilkinson. The independent bookstore has an eclectic selection of new and old books, including a wide range of graphic novels. Wild Fig also carries a variety of bookish and feminist gifts such as mugs, socks and greeting cards. The coffee is pretty tasty too!
Kellie Tilton: On Christmas Day, 2017, a friend from college and I hopped the pond to begin an epic two week, three country excursion that was kick started because we snagged tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II in the West End. With our tickets falling in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we decided to make the most of the time frame.
We spent a handful of days in London – mostly in pursuit in all the Harry Potter-related attractions London had to offer – then it was up to Edinburgh, Scotland to bring in the New Year with their Hogmanay celebrations. We made a quick trip across the Channel via the Chunnel to have a gandar at Paris (and basically eat a million croissants) before landing back in London to spend one more weekend catching the things we missed the first time.
Highlights of this adventure include, but are not limited to, The Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour, The British Library (and it’s History of Magic exhibition in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone publishing), the play (obviously), Hogmanay, Kensington Palace, and the Paris Catacombs. I brought back four new editions for my Harry Potter in Translation Collection. It just goes to show, your literary loves will provide ample reasons to travel the world!
On Display at UCBA Library: Native American Heritage Month
by Christian Boyles
This commemorative month aims to provide a platform for Native Americans in the United States of America to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life. This gives Native people the opportunity to express to their community, both city, county and state officials their concerns and solutions for building bridges of understanding and friendship in their local area. Your UCBA library is sharing a selection of our titles relating to many aspects of Native American life. The display will be available until December 8th and can also be browsed online on the Library Displays at UCBA guide. Special thanks to our student employee, Haiden Reno, for putting the display together.
Browse New UCBA Titles Online
The New Titles at Your UCBA Library online guide lists newly acquired books and media by subject. Select titles are highlighted on the homepage along with the ability to search for other titles in the UC Libraries system. Many of the new titles can also be found on the new book cart located next to the front desk in the library.
