Bill Hayes
Tuesday                                                                                                                        November 3, 2009
3:00-4:15

Writing Your Way Through the Library
Today we visited the Writing Center to learn what services they provide for Gonzaga students. The main purpose of the Writing Center is to help students with questions regarding various writing assignments. You can come to the Writing Center at any stage of the writing process, whether you need help brainstorming, revising a conclusion, or getting a second opinion on a final draft. The tutors are students at Gonzaga, ranging from freshman to seniors with a variety of majors. Therefore, they are able to assist students with every subject. The Writing Center is open from 9AM-7PM Monday through Thursday, 9AM-3PM Friday, closed on Saturday, and open from 5PM-10PM on Sunday. Each session is about 20-30 minutes long and fresh coffee is always provided. If you have more questions, you can visit the Writing Center in the Foley Library or call them at 509-313-6717.
Our next stop was the Reference Desk on the main floor of Foley Library where we learned how to reserve a study room online. The study rooms are located on the second floor of the Foley Library on either side. While most rooms are accessible without a key, the four rooms you reserve online require a key. Here are the steps to reserve one of those four rooms:
1. Go to the Gonzaga home page
2. Click on the Library link
3. Click on Library catalog
4. Click on Reserve a room
5. View the list to see what is available
6. Make a request by entering your student ID and last name
7. Visit the circulation desk to get the key
Once you receive your key at the Circulation Desk, you can also check out a computer. Simply ask the person at the desk, and they will provide you with your key and computer. Each room and computer are available for 2-3 hours and can be reserved up to a week in advance.
We encourage everyone to take advantage of these resources in Gonzaga’s Foley Center Library.

Social Justice Issues Addressed in the Library

This article discussed the Nazi’s quest to “cleanse” libraries and universities of any view that was against the ideals of the Nazi party.

                We live in a society where the media presents us with superficial ideas that are bias and incomplete.  In order for an individual to find what is really happening in the world, they need to go on their own and exercise their right to search through the library to gain information about what’s going on around them that the media conveniently fails to mention. The Nazi’s attempted to take this away from their citizens, but it is something that we as Americans have a chance to do and should take the opportunity to do so.

Click here for full text and a link to the Smithsonian website.

On May 10, 1933, in a symbolic act of ominous significance, the students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of “un-German” books, presaging an era of state censorship and control of culture. That night, in most university towns, right-wing students marched in torchlight parades “against the un-German spirit.” Rituals scripted for the event called for high Nazi officials, professors, university rectors, and student leaders to address the participants and spectators. At the meeting places, students threw the pillaged and unwanted books into the bonfires with great joyous ceremony, band-playing, parades, songs and “fire oaths”.

“German men and women! The age of arrogant Jewish intellectualism is now at an end! . . . You are doing the right thing at this midnight hour—to consign to the flames the unclean spirit of the past. This is a great, powerful, and symbolic act. . . . Out of these ashes the phoenix of a new age will arise. . . . Oh Century! Oh Science! It is a joy to be alive!” Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and and Propaganda, speaking at the Berlin book burning, May 10, 1933

“Class Dismissed” 

This is a video that discusses the blurring of class lines.

Youtube link.