New Director of Library Services

The Stanny Library System is pleased to announce the appointment of Kristy Bariola as the new Director of Library Services.  Kristy was appointed after the death of Lawrence Kenneth in December.  Kristy has worked the past three and a half years at the libraries on the Moorhead and Greenwood campuses as Techology Services Coordinator and  Assistant Director of Library Services.

Before coming to MDCC, Kristy was a Media Specialist at both East Elementary and Amanda Elzy Elementary Schools in Greenwood where she specialized in implementing several software programs, including the Follett and Accelerated Reader programs.  She was also the Site Coordinator for the GEAR UP MS Grant and Design Coach for America's Choice Education Program.  Other duties included Staff Develpoment Coordinator and School Test Coordinator, along with collaborating with faculty on class assignments and special projects.  She was awarded the Teacher of Year at East Elementary twice.

Kristy began her career as a fifth grade teacher at East Elementary School, where she attended elementary school.

Since coming to MDCC, Kristy has been a part of the Mississippi Community College Leadership Academy and the Mid South Community College Fellowship Program, along with serving on several committees on campus.

Kristy says she is looking forward to working with the faculty and staff of MDCC and wants to expand the services of the library to all who want to take advantage of the resources the Stanny Sanders Library System offers.  She is especially interested in helping online students become aware of the reasources available to them to enhance their online study.

In Memory of Lawrence Kenneth

As you know, Lawrence Kenneth, Director of Library Services, passed away on December 30, 2009.  His funeral service was on Monday, January 4th.  As part of that service, Dr. Bailey, President of MDCC, gave the eulogy.  His comments were so spot on about Lawrence that many of us were laughing, making a sad day, a day to remember Mr. K and his love for MDCC.

Dr. Bailey's words follow:

Eulogy

for

Lawrence A. Kenneth, III

May 16, 1947 - December 30, 2009

Given by:

Larry G. Bailey

Monday, January 4, 2010

Good morning,

To Bonnie, Scott, Marsha, and other members of the Kenneth family; the Mississippi Delta Community College Family; and friends, we are here to celebrate the life of a true Trojan and a special man who was a friend to all of us.

Lawrence loved and was proud of his family. He often talked about his son, Scott; step daughters; step grandchildren, Mary Ashley and James; Bonnie; and Marsha. He also loved his extended family from MDCC.

Lawrence spent over four decades at MDCC where he was the Director of Media Services for many years before becoming the Director of Library Services for the Stanny Sanders Library. He served with four presidents during his career –Dr. James T. Hall, Dr. David Powe, Dr. Bobby Garvin, and Dr. Larry Bailey. He also worked very closely with and learned from the former Director of Library Services, the late Beverly Browning Nobile.

He was proud of his college where he began his education and his career. His college was also proud of him by recognizing him with pins for 20, 25, and 30 years of service, the 2007 Humanities Award for MDCC given by the Mississippi Humanities Council for his outstanding contributions to the field of art, and the 2009 Trojan Spirit Award, the highest recognition given by the MDCC Alumni Association for outstanding service to the College by a faculty/staff member.

I first came to know about Lawrence in 1990, when Gail came to work at the College. She kept coming home talking about this man with two first names that was so helpful and really made her transition to the College so much easier as he did for many of us in attendance today. Gail and Lawrence have maintained a very special relationship and friendship since those early years.

Lawrence was an individual that loved life and a job that he considered a very important part of his life. His job allowed him to express himself through his artistic talents of photography, painting, and craftsmanship.

His attitude was one of service to the faculty, staff, and student to meet whatever needs arose. Lawrence always wanted to remain behind the scenes with no recognition, but in reality he and his staff were the individuals that often made events happen.

Lawrence was wise and often shared his wisdom with members of the staff and students. He was a teacher without realizing that he had that role. He took hundreds of thousands of pictures during his career and he often shared his skills with others. His knowledge of technology was amazing. He would come in talking about new innovations that he was implementing in the Library before I had ever heard of them, such as pod casting, e-books, etc.

Lawrence’s skills in photography helped provide the pictorial documentation of MDCC in the yearbooks, newspapers, an even the books recording the history of the community/junior college system in Mississippi from the early 1990’s until 2002. He was recognized in numerous shows at Cottonlandia, MDCC, and others for his paintings and photography of scenes of his beloved Delta farm and his family.

The thing that everyone noticed about Lawrence when they met him was that he was real and genuine. He wanted students to enjoy their experiences at MDCC as he did as a student. He wanted faculty and staff to enjoy working at the College as much as he did.

Lawrence wanted to please others and wanted the Library to be an inviting place. He worked hard to make it an inviting place for all.

Lawrence was one of the brightest and most intelligent people that I have ever known. He was a great listener and problem solver. He was what I always called a “man with the plan”. When I was struggling as a Dean to decide where to move all the faculty and staff in Horton so that the building could be remodeled, he already had a plan to move everyone into the Library including teachers teaching in the open parts of the Library, the entire nursing department into the conference rooms, and the nursing lab into his studio. When it came time for the Center of Learning to be established, he again stepped up and already had a plan to make the Center a part of the Library and he welcomed the staff to the Library family.

Lawrence was also one of the most organized individuals that I have ever known with his small calendar book he kept in his front pocket. Everything was always done ahead of time and to the specifications of whoever requested his assistance. Someone needing his help did not have to ask but once and for annual events one did not have to ask at all – he already had the event on his calendar.

Lawrence loved to eat also. The cafeteria knew when it was time to serve lunch because at 11:30 a.m. every day, Lawrence was there.

Everything with Lawrence was fast pace. He would get so busy that one would look at him and notice that his shirt tail would be out. I often wondered if he took time to tuck it in. When his shirt tail was out was when one knew he was busy and that he was on a mission. Bonnie told me during a recent visit that when she would ask him to tuck his shirt in, he would turn around and say “yes, Dr. Bailey”.

Lawrence also loved challenges and would tackle them with all he had. Such as establishing libraries at three off-campus sites, establishing the video-conferencing network with the state for MDCC, taking on the responsibility of making ID pictures for all MDCC students, and even finding a way to have a sound system and podium on a cotton trailer in the middle of a cotton field for the ground breaking ceremony for the Greenville Higher Education Center.

I could talk to Lawrence about any challenge and he would give it his all to meet the challenge. No matter what though, he took on whatever he was asked with a smile. He really enjoyed being around people, laughing and smiling. He had a great wit and sense of humor. He was caring and committed with charm and grace of a southern gentleman.

He spent 40 years of his life devoted to the education and service of people he loved in a region that the loved – the Mississippi Delta. Today, Lawrence is wearing his MDCC ID tag.

Lawrence was a true Christian that loved his family, his church, and his college. Today, yes we mourn the loss of him on earth, but we celebrate the life of a true Trojan and his after life with our Lord and Savior. He was ready to meet our Lord as was evidenced by his recent baptism, which he and his family were so gracious to share with Gail and me.

On a personal note, Lawrence, thank you for being such a wonderful coworker, but most of all thank you for being such a great friend and mentor for me and all of us present today. Thank you so much for taking me as a young Dean under your wing and for making my career at MDCC so much easier, as you did for so many.

We will definitely miss you. May God bless you until we meet again.

Holiday Bazaar

The Stanny Sanders Library on the Moorhead Ccampus held its annual Holiday Bazaar on December 2.  A number of students and faculty satisfied their hunger and purchased Christmas gifts to get the season off to a start.

Suzanne McDuffie sells her homemade candy, and all the proceeds went to help a student who was the victim of a car wreck.

Pat Ellis of the bookstore decides what wonderful  goodie she wants to purchase from the Student Christian Center.

MDCC student, Jermaine Townsend, displays his art work.

Sandra Moore waits to sell her beauty wares.

Linda Waldrup displays her creative handiwork.

Jack Catlette appeals to our nostalgia with his beautiful photography.

Library workstudy, Michael Williams, helps man the Dental Hygiene table.

Ready for Checkout

The following purchases are ready to be checked out:

DVDs
Hope Floats
Carolina Moon
Hancock
Freedom
Wanted
Days of Thunder
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Gridiron Gang
Bride Wars
The Happening
The Bucket List
Changeling

Books
The American Plague by Molly Crosby In a summer of panic and death in 1878, more than half the population of Memphis, Tenn., fled the raging yellow fever epidemic, which finally waned when cooler weather set in. The disease had been transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which came in swarms on ships from the Caribbean or West Africa. This account has a narrower scope than James Dickerson's recent Yellow Fever, focusing on the Memphis tragedy, but journalist Crosby offers a forceful narrative of a disease's ravages and the quest to find its cause and cure. Crosby is particularly good at evoking the horrific conditions in Memphis, "a city of corpses" and rife with illness characterized by high fever, black vomit and hemorrhaging, treated by primitive methods. Crosby also relates arresting tales of heroism, such as how two nuns returned to the quarantined city from a vacation to nurse the victims. The author profiles scientists, some of whom died in their fight to identify the cause of this deadly disease. She also describes more recent outbreaks in Africa: yellow fever is making a frightening comeback despite the existence of a vaccine.
from Publisher's Weekly

The Devil's Punch Bowl by Greg Isles  From New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles comes his most electrifying thriller yet. The Devil's Punchbowl reveals a world of depravity, sex, violence, and the corruption of a Southern town. As a prosecuting attorney in Houston, Penn Cage sent hardened killers to death row. But it is as mayor of his hometown — Natchez, Mississippi — that Penn will face his most dangerous threat. Urged by old friends to try to restore this fading jewel of the Old South, Penn has ridden into office on a tide of support for change. But in its quest for new jobs and fresh money, Natchez, like other Mississippi towns, has turned to casino gambling, and now five fantastical steamboats float on the river beside the old slave market at Natchez like props from Gone With the Wind. But one boat isn't like the others. Rumor has it that the Magnolia Queen has found a way to pull the big players from Las Vegas to its Mississippi backwater. And with them — on sleek private jets that slip in and out of town like whispers in the night — come pro football players, rap stars, and international gamblers, all sharing an unquenchable taste for one thing: blood sport — and the dark vices that go with it. When a childhood friend of Penn's who brings him evidence of these crimes is brutally murdered, the full weight of Penn's failure to protect his city hits home. So begins his quest to find the men responsible. But it's a hunt he begins alone, for the local authorities have been corrupted by the money and power of his hidden enemy. With his family's lives at stake, Penn realizes his only allies in his one-man war are those bound to him by blood or honor.
from Barnes & Noble

The Help by Kathryn Stockett  If you've enjoyed the southern charm of Fannie Flagg or The Secret Life of Bees, you'll find The Help a delight. Miss Eugenia Phelan ("Skeeter" to her friends) is a young woman of privilege who enjoys her fellow Junior Leaguers but sometimes finds their ways at odds with her own principles. She plays the part of her station in 1960s Mississippi but can't help feeling dissatisfied with keeping house and acting as recording secretary at league meetings, and yearns for something more. Minny, Miss Celia, Aibileen, and Yule May are maids employed by Skeeter's friends. Each woman cooks, cleans, and cares for her boss's children, suffering slights and insults silently and sharing household secrets only among themselves. In the wake of the Junior League push to create separate bathrooms for the domestic help within private homes, Skeeter contacts a New York book editor with an idea. Soon she's conducting clandestine meetings with "the help" to capture their stories for publication. It is a daring and foolhardy plan, one certain to endanger not only the positions but the lives of the very women whose stories she transcribes -- as well as her own.   from Barnes & Noble

The Most They Ever Had by Rick Bragg  In spring 2001, a community of people in the Appalachian foothills has come to the edge of all they had ever been.  Now, they stood looking down, bitter, angry, afraid.  Across the South, padlocks and logging chains bound the doors of silent mills, and it seemed a miracle to blue-collar people in Jacksonville Alabama, that their mill still bit, shook, and roared.  The century-old hardwood floors still trembled under whirling steel, and people worked on, in a mist of white air.  The mill had become almost a living thing, rewarding the hard-working and careful with the best payday they ever had, but punishing the careless and clumsy, taking a finger, a hand, and more.  from book jacket

High Cotton : Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta by Gerard Helferich The rich, flat topsoil of the Mississippi Delta has seen both astonishing economic production and some of the most tragic history in our nation's past. It is, in Richard Ford's apt phrase, "the South's South." Contested ground since European explorers first set foot there three centuries ago, it turned out to have the ideal climate for growing cotton, a crop that seemed destined to a marginal role in America's economy until technology and politics combined to make it one of the driving forces behind our bloodiest war. Its legacy echoed in the racial divide of the century that followed. Against this historical backdrop, Gerard Helferich traces the life of a modern cotton farmer, exploring the traditions of growing cotton that have endured since ancient times-and the current forces that threaten to drive small farmers from the land. High Cotton spends a year with small-time farmer Zack Killebrew and his family, recording the annual cycle of planting, cultivation, and harvest, as Zack teeters between the promise of a six-figure payoff and the ever-present peril of financial ruin. Combining an engaging personal narrative, a strong sense of time and place, and a McPheelike attention to process, High Cotton is a story with deep roots in American history.   from Barnes & Noble

Books on Tape
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg
Between Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson
Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

Dalby Visits Moohread Campus

Mississippi writer Robert Dalby visited the Moorhead campus this past Wednesday in conjunction with the Author Series sponsored each semester by the Stanny Sanders Library.  Dalby is the author of the Piggly Wiggly series of books centered in the town of Second Creek, Mississippi, and which involve a group of older ladies known as the Nitwits.  The books have the charm that exposes the odd and eccentric southern characters that we all know and love or even with which we put up in our small towns across the delta.

During the morning session, Dalby spoke to students in several of the English classes and answered questions.

Below is a quick photo opt with Dalby.  Left is Audrey Beach, coordinator of the Author Series, Dalby, Elizabeth Vance, a student from Greenville, and Mary Ruth Brindley, English Instructor.

After the program Dalby offers advice to Elizabeth, who is an aspiring young writer.

During the afternoon session, Dalby spoke to the public and also signed books as part of a reception honoring the writer.  A treat of the afternoon was the attendance of Hambone, a well-know fixture of the Piggly Wiggly store in Indianola.  He worked at the store from the early 1950s until the store closed in 1999.  When he heard that a writer about a Piggly Wiggly store was going to be on campus, Hambone talked Enterprise-Tocsin publisher, Wayne Parham,  into bringing him to the event.

Below Hambone talks with Dalby.

Dalby signs a book for Mary Ann Brocato.

Signe Adams talks with Dalby during the reception.

Author of Dancing at the Piggly Wiggly to Visit Moorhead Campus Oct. 28

Mississippi author Robert Dalby is coming to speak at Mississippi Delta Community College on Wednesday, October 28, at the invitation of the Stanny Sanders Library. Dalby, a native of Natchez, currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Dalby was born into a large, extended Southern family, consisting of nearly two-dozen first cousins, two uncles, four aunts, two sets of grandparents and any number of ‘further-removed’ among the cousinly. Dalby grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, and obtained a B.A. at the University of the South (Sewanee).

His previous novels, Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly and Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly grew out of his own fascination with the eccentricities of the small-town South he grew up with and loved. As a native and resident of Natchez, Mississippi during his formative years, Dalby learned to expect eccentricity and quirky behavior as par for the course – he often only had to look as far as his own family and friends for inspiration.

A Piggly Wiggly Wedding, the third novel by Robert Dalby, was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on August 6, 2009. Readers were introduced to Second Creek, Mississippi in Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly and Kissing Babies at the Piggly Wiggly, which was awarded the Best Fiction of 2008 by the Mississippi Library Association. Small-town living is always an adventure in Second Creek, where life is full of second chances, quirky neighbors and the odd – and oddly funny – events that bring people together.

Dalby will be speaking to students during the 10:50 class period.  Instructors are encouraged to bring their students.  Also, Dalby will be speaking to the public at 2:00 p.m. He will be signing his new book, and the public is cordially invited to attend. The library will host a reception afterwards. Turn Row Books of Greenwood will be on campus to sell copies of Dalby's three books.

For more information on Dalby go to http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/robert-dalby.html

For details regarding Dalby’s visit to MDCC contact: Audrey Beach, 662-246-6235. Email: abeach@msdelta.edu

New Purchases

Over the summer we received and processed new purchases. Here are few:

DVDs
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
All the King's Men
Seven Pounds
Wanted
Slumdog Millionaire
Fireproof
The Secret Life of Bees

BOOKS
Dr. Mary's Monkey by Edward Haslam. The 1964 murder of a nationally known cancer researcher sets the stage for this gripping exposé of medical professionals enmeshed in covert government operations over the course of three decades. Following a trail of police records, FBI files, cancer statistics, and medical journals, this revealing book presents evidence of a web of medical secret-keeping that began with the handling of evidence in the JFK assassination and continued apace, sweeping doctors into cover-ups of cancer outbreaks, contaminated polio vaccine, the arrival of the AIDS virus, and biological weapon research using infected monkeys.

Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer. Isabella Swan's move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balance precariously on the point of a knife -- between desire and danger.

Anatomy of a Job Search by Jeanna Bozell. Anatomy of a Job Search provides the absolutely essential information you need to find - and land - the most rewarding jobs in nursing. Whether you're a nursing student looking for your first job or a veteran nurse planning career advancement, this book will take you step-by-step through the job search.

Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. Over the past five years, the United States has provided nearly fifty billion dollars for the relief and reconstruction of Iraq. This unprecedented rebuilding program, implemented after the March 2003 invasion, was developed to restore Iraq’s essential services, build Iraq’s security forces, create a market-based economy, and establish a democratic government—all in pursuit of U.S. interests in a stable and free Iraq. Did the U.S. rebuilding program achieve its objectives? Was the money provided well-spent or wasted? What lessons have we learned from the experience?

Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark. It's been ten years since twenty-one-year-old Charles "Mack" MacKenzie, Jr. went missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already enrolled in Duke University Law School, he walked out of his room in Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his roommates and has never been seen again. However, he makes one ritual phone call to his mother every year, on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, and hangs up. Even the death of his father on 9/11 does not bring him home. Mack's sister Carolyn, now twenty six, is a law school graduate applying to work as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies: her brother's inexplicable disappearance and the loss of her father. Realizing that neither she nor her mother will ever get on with their lives without some answers, she sets out to discover what happened to Mack, and why he finds it necessary to hide from them.

BOOKS-ON-TAPE
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann Marie McDonald
Instant Immersion Spanish
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. Lee