Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

Learn a Language with the BBC

In my role as the librarian for Foreign Languages and Literatures, I get questions all the time from people who are looking for materials to help them learn a foreign language. So I’m always on the lookout for free online resources to which I can direct people. One that has just come to my attention is the BBC’s Languages site. This site offers a wealth of free language lessons and tools, for a variety of languages. You can watch videos, see vocabulary lists, subscribe to phrase-a-day RSS feeds, sign up for email tips, and more. It seems to have the most content for French, German, Italian, and Spanish, but there are 40 languages for which they at least offer lists of useful phrases. So, if you want to do some language prep for your study abroad trip or your international co-op (or spring break!), you may want to see what the BBC has to offer you. You can also check out my subject guide for Foreign Languages & Literatures for other helpful language links. And buena suerte / bonne chance / viel Glück / good luck with your language study!

Linguistics Film Screening at MIT, 11/17/11

I just found out about a very cool event: this Thursday, 11/17/11, at MIT at 7pm, there will be a screening of the documentary film We Still Live Here – As Nutayunean. This film is about the efforts of the Wampanoag Indian Tribe of Massachusetts to revive their language after the death of the last native speaker. A copy has been purchased for Snell Library and is on reserve, so you can view it on your own at any time, but the screening at MIT will also feature a question-and-answer session afterward with the filmmaker and several linguists who have worked with the tribe on the language reclamation project. See this MIT calendar listing for more information. The film will also air on the PBS program Independent Lens in the near future. Check your local listings for airtimes.

Extra! Extra! Read all about Library Press Display!

Library Press Display is a great but little-known resource available through Snell Library. If you are looking for international or U.S. newspapers, Library Press Display is a convenient and easy to navigate tool that has a large collection of world newspapers from the past 60 days. The Library Press Display home screen shows the last 7 days of important world news and events. This resource has tabs that allow you to search or browse newspapers by country, by language, or alphabetically. For most papers there are two ways to read each paper: you can click on the heading and an easy to read digital version of the article will appear, or you can choose to zoom in on the actual pages of the paper and read the articles as you would if you had the paper copy of the newspaper in your hands.  For international users who prefer to navigate Library Press Display in their first language, the display can be switched to Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Traditional Chinese. The language can be switched on the labels, tabs, and buttons. Don’t forget, Snell Library also has several other news and newspaper resources available! For general news try Access World News. For other newspapers, including historical newspapers, check out Snell Library’s newspaper resources page.

Miss Representation, film airing tonight (10/20/11)

A powerful film about women will be televised on the OWN network at 9pm tonight. The film Miss Representation “explores women’s under-representation in positions of power by challenging their limited and often disparaging portrayals in the media,” according to the description from the OWN Documentary Club web site. Appearing in the film are such notables as Condoleezza Rice, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson, and Gloria Steinem. See a preview: Miss Representation trailer If you miss the broadcast, Miss Representation is also available at Snell Library (currently checked out, but you can “place a hold” and be notified when it becomes available).

Fall author lineup has something for everyone

I’ve just received the lineup of authors coming to Snell Library this fall to speak about their books.  It arrived in my email and my snail mail on the same day, which seemed fortuitous somehow.  Of course the first thing I did was scan to see if I had read any of the books (nope, not yet) or even heard of any of the authors (yes!). What struck me as I examined the list was the terrific variety we have to offer.  Whether you’re interested in history, women’s studies, sports, journalism, marketing, politics, law, or just a few good fiction reads, there’s an author coming to speak at Snell that you’ll be interested in hearing from! Independence book cover The season opens with John Ferling’s Independence: The Stuggle to Set America Free on 9/14 (you can never read enough about the Declaration of Independence, right?) followed by Peter F. Stevens on 9/21, reading from The Twilight Riders: The Last Charge of the 26th Cavalry, another history book, this one about World War II. Lou Imbriano, former Chief Marketing Officer for the New England Patriots, talks about his new book Winning the Customer, which covers revenue-building marketing strategies from a top NFL CMO on 9/22.  And Martin Henn will present Under the Color of Law about counterterrorism law and policy on 10/19, a timely topic in this 10th anniversary year of the Al-Qa’ida attacks. Braver headshotInterested in fiction? If so, meet Gary Braver, who reads from his new suspense novel, Tunnel Vision, on 10/26. This novel has won advance praise from none other than Ray Bradbury! Braver may be better known to you as Gary Goshgarian, longtime professor of English at Northeastern. Read more about why he writes under a pen name here.   Cohn book cover There’s a trifecta of authors coming to discuss the role and status of women this fall: Joumana Haddad, author of I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman comes to Snell on 10/20, sports journalist Linda Cohn, author of Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking into the Boys Club on 10/22, and Dr. Emily Fox Kales, author of Body Shots: Hollywood and the Culture of Eating Disorders on 11/16. Vega Capping off the season is a very special event: An Evening with Al Vega (11/17), hosted by acclaimed WGBH music announcer Ron Della Chiesa and Leonard Brown of Northeastern’s Department of African American Studies and Music. Jazz pianist Al Vega, who attended Northeastern in the 1940s, will perform with his trio, and Prof. Brown will present his book about Vega, Boston’s Jazz Legend: the Al Vega Story.  This event is open to Northeastern University faculty, staff and students. Join your friends and colleagues in meeting Snell’s visiting authors this fall!