Autism Awareness Display at the Downtown Campus Library
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication. According to the Centers for Disease Control, autism affects an estimated 1 in 54 children in the United States today. From: autismspeaks.org
Autism isn’t a set of defined symptoms that collectively worsen as you move “up” the spectrum. In fact, one of the distinguishing features of autism is what the DSM-V calls an “uneven profile of abilities.” There’s a reason people like to say that “if you have met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” Every autistic person presents slightly differently.
That’s because autism isn’t one condition. It is a collection of related neurological conditions that are so intertwined and so impossible to pick apart that professionals have stopped trying.
This month the DTC Library put up a display on Black History Month based entirely on Google’s site that shows the most searched people in the past 15 years.
In honor of Black History Month, Google is celebrating the icons and moments that have been searched more than any others in the United States.
All the images and write-ups about the most searched people were found on this Google site. The books are available for checkout at all campus libraries. Enjoy the video below.
The Downtown Campus Library is commemorating 1969, 5 decades ago.
Parham Campus Library put up a 1969 display this summer, and the Downtown Campus is finally putting up a display before the year is over. We are also using the beautiful graphic that KC from PRC Library created. It is amazing how some things have changed based on actions taken in 1969 and how other things have not changed at all. Below are some examples.
January 2, The play “To be Young, Gifted & Black,” by Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) premiered in NYC.
February 24, The US Supreme Court in the Tinker vs. Des Moines School
District case ruled that students had the right to express opinions at odds
with the government.
March 25, John and Yoko Ono staged a bed-in for peace in Amsterdam.
May 25, “Midnight Cowboy” was released with an X rating and became the only X-rated film to win an Oscar.
June 3, The last episode of Star Trek aired on NBC (Turnabout Intruder).
June 22, In Cleveland the Cuyahoga River became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so much so that it “caught fire” at least 13 times, most famously on June 22, 1969, when it helped spur the American environmental movement with the Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency.
June 28, In the early hours 8 police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Police raided the bar because it had refused to pay an increase in bribery. This led to a clash in what came to be called The Stonewall Rebellion, an incident considered the birth of the gay rights movement. Some 400 to 1,000 patrons rioted against police for 3 days.
July 11, David Bowie (b.1947), British musician, released his single “Space Oddity,” supposedly in conjunction with the July 20 Apollo 11 moon landing.
July 18, A car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009), D-Mass., plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard. His passenger, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne, died. Kennedy did not report the accident until it was discovered 9 hours later.
July 20, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his legendary “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin made the first successful landing of a manned vehicle on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility when they touched down in Apollo 11.
July 25, A week after the Chappaquiddick accident that claimed the life
of Mary Jo Kopechne, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of
leaving the scene of an accident.
August 17, Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast at Pass Christian, MS., leaving 256 people killed in Louisiana and Mississippi. A widespread area of western and central Virginia received over 8 inches of rain from Camille’s remains, leading to significant flooding across the state. A total of 153 people lost their lives from blunt trauma sustained during mountain slides, related to the flash flooding, not drowning. More than 123 of these deaths, including 21 members of one family, the Huffmans, were in Nelson County where the number of deaths amounted to over one percent of the county’s population. Hurricane Camille caused more than $140 million of damage (1969 dollars) in Virginia. The book, Roar of the Heavens, available for checkout.
November 10, Sesame Street, a children’s show, premiered on the
National Education Television network (NET), which later became PBS.
November 13, Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew
accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged
viewers to lodge complaints.
November 20, A group of 80 Native Americans, all college students, seized Alcatraz Island in the name of “Indians of All Tribes.” The occupation lasted 19 months. They offered $24 in beads and cloth to buy the island, demanded an American Indian Univ., museum and cultural center, and listed reasons why the island was a suitable Indian reservation.
December 4, Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, was shot and killed while asleep in bed during a police raid on his home.
December 14, The Jackson 5 appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Michael Jackson was 11.
December 18, Britain’s Parliament abolished the death penalty for
murder.
In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (d.2004) wrote “On Death and
Dying.” The book helped to launch the hospice movement in the US.
In 1969, Marvel Comics introduced Falcon, the first African-American superhero, in an issue of its Captain America comics.
LGBTQ Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City. In June of 1969, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn staged an uprising to resist the police harassment and persecution to which LGBTQ Americans were commonly subjected. This uprising marked the beginning of a movement to outlaw discriminatory laws and practices against LGBTQ Americans.
Spectrum LGBTQ Spectrum at Reynolds Community College is a club that is open to all students. Its purpose is to create a safe and hospitable learning environment for everyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. The club is a social, educational, and advocacy group open to anyone who identifies as LGBTQ or Ally.
He gave three bags of gold to three girls to be used as their dowry, saving them from prostitution.
Nicholas and the three children:
In many paintings and manuscripts, St. Nicholas is often depicted standing next to a tub of three small children. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Saints, St. Nicholas is “said to have raised to life three boys, after they were murdered in a brine tub by a butcher.”
He saved three unjustly condemned men from death
And rescued three sailors near the coast of Turkey.
The Institution of Santa Clause:
Based upon his patronage of children, with the custom of giving them presents on his feast day.
Farmer, David Hugh. “Nicholas.” The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978. 385-86. Print.
Did you miss the New York Comic Con this year? Are you going to the Virginia Comic Con in Richmond at the end of October? Get help choosing your Fandom at the Library. We have DVDs of The Avengers, X-men, The Hobbit, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. along with many Anime DVDs. We also have books on Superheroes, Manga and Comics. Once you’ve found your Fandom, you can use this online book, 1000 incredible costume & cosplay ideas a showcase of creative characters, for Cosplay costume ideas.
Comic Con: Comic book convention Cosplay: Literally “Costume Play.” Dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book, or anime character). Fandom: The community that surrounds a TV show/movie/book etc. Fanfiction writers, artists, poets, and cosplayers are all members of that fandom. Fandoms often consist of message boards, livejournal communities, and people.
Get serious about series at the Downtown Campus Library
Missed an episode? Caught a TV series mid-season? Catch up on TV shows at the Library or binge-watch whole seasons with DVDs from the Library.
Some examples from the Downtown Library include Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, Dexter, Scandal, Downton Abbey and Breaking Bad. DVDs can be transferred between campuses so you can also watch series such as House of Cards, Outlander,Boardwalk Empire and Mad Men from the Parham Road and Goochland libraries.
One of the worst places for people with a hearing loss to work in is the library, because everyone whispers. I am one of those people.
In his thirties my father had the hearing of a fifty year old man. He slowly lost his hearing and became profoundly deaf in his 60s. He had to retire early because his hearing aids could not give him the hearing he needed for his job. I have also been losing my hearing over the years starting in my early 40s. I now have a hearing aid that is much better than his, but my hearing is still not perfect. I often have to ask people to repeat themselves and to face my way so I can read their lips.
Hearing loss can be very exasperating for the hard-of-hearing person and the people with whom he communicates. Family and friends get tired of repeating everything, and for the person with a hearing loss, it sounds like everyone is mumbling.
Young people today may have the option of cooler hearing aids (see below), but being hard of hearing is a permanent and frustrating state of being. Prevention is the best cure.
Wired for sound (Wired.com)Plugged in (studioblog.designaffairs.com)
The Downtown Library put up this display of movies that are inspired by real life.
We have documentaries like 49 Upwhich follows the lives of 14 children every 7 years to see their progression in life, This Is It, shows Michael Jackson preparing for his final concert, and The Invisible War investigates the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military.
Many movies are based on actual events, like Donnie Brasco,where Johnny Depp plays the FBI agent, Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the mafia of New York. Heavenly Creaturestells the true story of two teenage girls who became so close that they would do anything to keep from being separated by their parents. The Great Escapetells the story of World War II British and American flyers who attempted to escape from a maximum-security German prison camp.
Come to all three campus libraries and check out these movies and many many more.
