Author: Amy

Interlibrary Loan Supervisor/Asst. Manager of Access Services @ Bentley University Library

Together at Last: Batman and Maus!

Amy

Over the summer, we used our interdepartmental superpowers to create the Bentley Library’s first-ever Graphic Novel section. At long last, our graphic novels and comic book collections are all together! Batman and Maus used to be located on different floors of the library. No longer shall they be separated.*

Why do we have a graphic novel section? Well, that’s because comic books and graphic novels are awesome! They are often a gateway to literature. Some folks just aren’t that into reading books, but graphic novels can change that.

Bentley Alumna Jamie Carrillo (2012) had this to say when she heard about our new Graphic Novel section: “I am very jealous of this comic book/graphic novel section Bentley has now. I actually started reading them after a display in the library. I picked up Blankets and liked it; then read Black Hole and was hooked. I’ve never been much of a reader so graphic novels work well for me.”

In the past two years, three Bentley classes have used graphic novels as required reading. Our aim is to create a serendipitous browsing experience for students taking these classes, as well as the professors teaching them.

We hope that the Bentley community will benefit from this consolidation. If you’re checking out Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (now an award-winning musical), maybe Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey  or Hellboy might strike your fancy.

If you’re confused by the terms “graphic novel” and “comic books” here’s a quick explanation: Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is a graphic novel. It was published as one opus, not in single issues and then collected into one book. Graphic doesn’t mean violent and novel doesn’t necessarily mean fiction. The term “graphic novel” roughly means a story told through illustrations and words.

The Graphic Novel section also includes comic book collections of issues of Sandman, Amazing Spider-Man, and many more. Those are serialized collections of comic books. We also have manga like Ranma ½  in our Graphic Novel section, but that’s a whole other kit and caboodle. We went with Graphic Novel section because Graphic Novel, Comic Books, and Manga section was wicked long.

Our new graphic novel section! I'm pretty excited about it. Photo by Kristen Richards
Our new graphic novel section! I’m pretty excited about it. Photo by Kristen Richards

Our Graphic Novel section is located on the upper level of the library, at the end of the Oversize section. If you are browsing our catalog, you will see that the location for most of our graphic novels is Oversize. That doesn’t mean that the books are necessarily big, it’s just the location where they are shelved.

New and popular graphic novels, like the latest comic book collections of The Walking Dead, will continue to be shelved in the Popular Reading section. Online, you can browse a selection of these titles on Pinterest. We hope that you like this new section!

*This is a pilot program. It is possible that they will be separated again if it is not a success.

Read at Your Own Risk!

Amy

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” – Stephen Chbosky, author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Each year, libraries and bookstores around the country celebrate our freedom to read during Banned Books Week. Since the first Banned Books Week in 1982, the American Library Association reports that over 11,000 books have been challenged or banned in the United States.

A challenge is when a person or group tries to “remove or restrict” a book from a library or school. Banning is when that item is removed completely from a library or school.

J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume, and Stephen Chbosky are among the authors whose works have been banned or challenged in the United States. As recently as last year, there were over 300 challenges reported to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

BBW15_MiniPoster_11x17poster_layers_original

The individuals or groups challenging these books have wanted them banned for a myriad of reasons. Anti-family (Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples), “depictions of bullying” (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie), and “controversial issues” (The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison) are just the tip of the iceberg. All three of these works were among the top ten most challenged titles of 2014 and are part of our “Read at Your Own Risk!” display.

Celebrate your freedom to read by checking out one of these books, on display in the library through October 5. During Banned Books Week, being held September 27 – October 3, stop by the Library Services desk to get a free Banned Books Week bookmark (while supplies last). And don’t forget search our Overdrive collection for downloadable challenged eBooks like The Hunger Games, Freakonomics, and Looking for Alaska.

Display co-produced by Amy Galante and Kristen Richards from Library Services. Kristen’s favorite controversial book is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Amy is partial to Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more scandalous literary picks from the Bentley community. 

Library Dedications in Appreciation to Class of 2015 Graduates

Amy

They work at the Library as early as 7:30 a.m. and as late as 2:00 a.m. During finals, they’re even here between 2 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Filling printers with paper, processing new books, and assisting library users are just a few of their responsibilities. Who are these people? They are your fellow Falcons who work at the Bentley Library.

As a small token of thanks, we ask our seniors to select a book or film, which is then affixed with a bookplate in their name.

This year, dedications have been made on behalf of these Class of 2015 graduates:

Matt Glynn (Class of 2017) gives the thumbs up for graduating senior Hazel Lopez
Matt Glynn (Class of 2017) gives the thumbs up for graduating senior Hazel Lopez

Fiona Deng

Tara Giarolo

Jannie Huey

Gabrielle Katz

Victoria Kharajian

Kimberly Lemieux

Cassandra Larocque

Hazel Lopez

Melissa Peña

Samantha Rodriguez-Cabral

Brandi Segala 

Jennifer Ventura

Stop by the New Books area of the library to view a display of their selections, or visit the Library Student Employee Dedication Pinterest board to view photos of the dedications.

On behalf of the entire Library staff, we thank you for all of your hard work and commitment. Best of luck and congratulations!

On Display: Young Adult Literature

Amy

This month’s display is a collection of bildungsromans. That’s the original term for the young adult novel. Classically, young adult literature features a coming-of-age tale such as Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables or Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

Nowadays, the term young adult has morphed to become known as reading-age group. Folks often use “young adult” to mean fiction for teens. Sometimes, when adults read a young adult book, such as Harry Potter, they may face ridicule from their friends, colleagues, family, and even strangers! If that happens to you, now you can explain that young adult is not a dirty word.

If you are reading Louisa May Alcott or John Green, remember that they have the same DNA. Young Jo March and Hazel Grace Lancaster are cut from the same cloth.  Jane Austen, Cameron Crowe (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and Bret Easton Ellis (Less Than Zero) all capture the sense of what was like for teens during specific time periods and in different regions.

I hope that this display creates a discussion about the evolution of the young adult novel. Let us know what you think about the bildungsroman on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

A selection of young adult books and audiobooks will be on display in the library through April 13, 2015. You may also browse our young adult eBook collection through Overdrive. Below are instructions on how to locate them in Overdrive.

1. Click on All Fiction
1. Click on All Fiction
1. Click on Subject
2. Click to expand Subject
3. Click on
3. Click on Young Adult Fiction

 

Out with the Old, in with the New

Amy

On Friday, December 17, 2014 all ILLiad (interlibrary loan) transaction records prior to January 1, 2009 will be deleted as part of planned maintenance. You can view your past requests by logging into your ILLiad account.

Login to your ILLiad account to view your past requests
Login to your ILLiad account to view your past requests

If you would like a list of your past ILLiad requests, please contact us at interlibloan@Bentley.edu or 781-891-2301. You may also stop by the Library Services desk and ask to speak to Amy or Kristen. We can export your transaction history from ILLiad into Excel. The deadline to request records is Monday, December 15, 2014.

When we perform maintenance on Friday, December 17, ILLiad might run slowly, or not at all. Updates will be posted on the library’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.

If you haven’t used interlibrary loan before, check out our page for information on this free service offered to current Bentley students, faculty, and staff. We are proud to share library materials around the globe.

Flat Stanley with a map of some of the libraries that we've shared resources with!
Flat Stanley with a map of some of the libraries that we’ve shared resources with!

Scan on Demand Turns 1!

Amy

Bentley’s Scan on Demand is celebrating its first birthday! What is this Scan on Demand, you say? It’s a free service offered to obtain digital scans of articles and book chapters from the Bentley Library’s print collection.

Scan on Demand is available to current Faculty and registrar-approved Online Learners. If you already use our Interlibrary Loan service, then you’re already registered for Scan on Demand. We use ILLiad to process both Interlibrary Loan and Scan on Demand requests.

You can login to your ILLiad account from either our Scan on Demand or Interlibrary Loan pages. Once you’ve logged in to ILLiad, select “Scan on Demand” from under the “Place a New Request” options.

Scan on Demand in the ILLiad Menu
Scan on Demand in the ILLiad Menu

Submit your request and remember that the more information that you provide, the faster you’ll get what you need. Within 2 to 3 days, you will receive an email from interlibraryloan@bentley.edu notifying you that your request is available to download from your ILLiad account. The scans are in PDF format and must be downloaded within 30 days of receipt.

THE FINE PRINT: Faculty members, please keep in mind that Scan on Demand is intended for the scanning of material for use in personal research. This service does not extend to material intended to be posted on Blackboard for student use. Such requests are considered e-reserves and should be submitted in person at the Library Services Desk or via the online request form.

MORE FINE PRINT: A maximum of five requests per day will be processed. Staff will process the first five requests in your queue. Volume permitting, we will process additional requests. So, please prioritize your requests by submitting the articles your need the most first. If you are requesting more than one chapter from a book, you must place a separate request for each chapter. We adhere to the University’s Copyright guidelines.

If you have any questions, please contact us at interlibloan@bentley.edu or 781-891-2301. Or, if you’re in the Library, stop by the Library Services desk and ask to chat with Amy Galante or Kristen Richards.

On Display: Graphic Novels and Comic Books

Amy

Plus: Movies and TV Shows They’ve Inspired!

This display is brought to you by Craig Lordan ’93. When we were kids, my older brother and future Bentley graduate spent many hours reading comic books and drawing his own comic book characters. It was the dark ages, and we lived in the suburbs, so Craig got his comic books through mail order.

At some point, I started saving my allowance to buy my own comic books. Initially, all I wanted was Disney comic books, but I finally graduated to George Perez’s Wonder Woman. The year was 1987 and DC had “rebooted” the Wonder Woman series. I was hooked.

Since then, comic books have graduated to pop culture’s mainstream. Geek culture destination San Diego Comic-Con International has seen its attendance numbers rise to 130,000 for its annual event. Comic books are no longer the exclusive realm of the fanboy and fangirl.

Groundbreaking works such as Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, give readers a glimpse into what life was like during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical opus American Splendor was made into a movie starring Paul Giamatti. The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek Tiwary, Andrew Robinson and Kyle Baker, was a New York Times best seller and has been nominated for two 2014 Eisner Awards.

fifth beatle true blood Persepolis index

Comic books and graphic novels are being adapted into films and television shows with unprecedented alacrity and success. Hellboy, 300, Ghost World, The Avengers, and many more have made the jump to the big screen.

On the small screen, DC has Arrow (CW) and Marvel has Agent Coulson and his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC). Meanwhile, AMC brings viewers into an actual comic book store on the reality series Comic Book Men. Also on AMC, there are zombies galore on The Walking Dead and The Talking Dead. Yes-there’s a talk show about a television show based on a comic book!

Conversely, some TV shows are resurrected in comic books. True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files are just a few of the shows that have found a second life in the pages of comics.

The Bentley Library has a wonderful and growing collection of these books and DVDs. Come in and check out the display in person, or browse online at Pinterest.

Photos by Amy Galante
Top row (L-R): Avengers director Joss Whedon, artists/writers Liam Sharp and Dave Gibbons, actor Steven Yeun and writer Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), Amy Galante and writer/artist Daniel Clowes. Bottom row (L-R): Arrow panel at New York Comic-Con, Steven Yeun and a fan, artist Dave McKean. Photos by Amy Galante

 

Amy Galante is the Interlibrary Loan Supervisor/Assistant Manager of Library Services. She uses her geek culture knowledge for the good of humankind as a freelance writer for Examiner.com, Library Journal, CBS Local, and more. Her favorite comic books include Dazzler, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fray, DMZ, and pretty much anything by Neil Gaiman, Gail Simone, and Brian K. Vaughan.