DVDs Ready for Viewing

Several new DVDs have been cataloged and are ready to be checked out.

Angels Fall
Australia
Follow the Stars Home
Doubt
Faith Like Potatoes
The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Mamma Mia
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Daniel's Daughter
Angels & Demons
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Obsession
Of Mice and Men
Virginia Woolf, Novelist
Thomas Hardy
James Joyce
The Day the Towers Fell
The Tuskegee Airmen

New Titles

These are just a few of our new titles. Come over to the library and check them out. The synopsis for each book is from Barnes and Noble.

The Supremes Greatest Hits: The 37 Supreme Court Cases That Most Directly Affect Your Life by Michael G. Trachtman--Does the government have the right to seize your house in order to build a shopping mall? Can it determine what you can do to your own body? How far can it go in regulating your use of the Internet? The answers to those questions come from the Supreme Court—and its rulings have shaped American life, justice, and culture. Here are 37 of the most significant issues the Court has grappled with—from equal rights to privacy rights, from the limits of speech to the boundaries between church and state. Many of these cases read like thrillers…right down to their cliff-hanging endings.

The Fibromyalgia Controversy by Michael C. Hall--As many as fifteen million American women, or 5 percent of the adult female population in the US, suffer from the disabling medical condition known as fibromyalgia. If one takes into account husbands, partners, children, and other close relatives, the proportion of the American population directly or indirectly affected by fibromyalgia could be as high as 10 percent, or thirty million persons. Nonetheless, the medical community is divided over the reality of this condition. One side argues, sometimes heatedly, that the patients are masquerading - pretending a disability they know they do not have. The other side counters, with equal passion, that fibromyalgia sufferers are abused by a society that fails to give them the support they deserve while painfully suffering from this severely debilitating illness. Without taking sides, Dr. M. Clement Hall presents six fictional, though factually based, case studies of typical patients from differing socioeconomic backgrounds and describes the varying investigations, diagnoses, and treatments they have undergone. Each of these case studies represents a composite of many years of clinical practice rather than one specific patient. Collectively, they cover the range of experiences fibromyalgia patients are likely to have encountered. By taking this unique approach, Dr. Hall presents an objective overview of the fibromyalgia situation today in North America. Patients, family members, and physicians will see themselves reflected in the descriptions and will gain a broader understanding of this challenging illness.

This Day in Civil Rights History by Randall Williams--This Day in Civil Rights History, by renowned civil-rights activist Randall Williams, is a day-by-day survey of the people, places, and events that impacted the civil rights movement and shaped the future of the United States. Flip to any date and you’ll find fascinating, informative facts and anecdotes:

February 1, 1960 — Four African-American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, entered the local Woolworth’s department store, sat down at the lunch counter, and demanded to be served. This courageous act launched the student sit-in movement throughout the region.
March 2, 1955 — Nine months before the historic arrest of Rosa Parks, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested for violating the segregation laws on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus.
September 30, 1962 — James Meredith became the first African-American student allowed to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
November 4, 1960 — The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Gomillion v. Lightfoot, establishing an important precedent in the voting rights of African-American citizens.

$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline will Change Our Lives for the Better by Christopher Steiner--Imagine an everyday world in which the price of gasoline (and oil) continues to go up, and up, and up. Think about the immediate impact that would have on our lives.Of course, everybody already knows how about gasoline has affected our driving habits. People can't wait to junk their gas-guzzling SUVs for a new Prius. But there are more, not-so-obvious changes on the horizon that Chris Steiner tracks brilliantly in this provocative work.Consider the following societal changes: people who own homes in far-off suburbs will soon realize that there's no longer any market for their houses (reason: nobody wants to live too far away because it's too expensive to commute to work). Telecommuting will begin to expand rapidly. Trains will become the mode of national transportation (as it used to be) as the price of flying becomes prohibitive. Families will begin to migrate southward as the price of heating northern homes in the winter is too pricey. Cheap everyday items that are comprised of plastic will go away because of the rising price to produce them (plastic is derived from oil). And this is just the beginning of a huge and overwhelming domino effect that our way of life will undergo in the years to come.

The Morehouse Mystique byJohn Eves--More than just an institutional biography, this story of Morehouse College discusses how the all-male African American school in Atlanta continues to build its legacy as an institution that develops its students into successful men of the highest caliber. Though Morehouse offers its students an excellent liberal arts education in an environment that is conducive to academic, social, and spiritual growth, the book posits that it has something more to explain its extraordinary success rate. The analysis of this quality—deemed “the Morehouse Mystique”—includes an appraisal of the challenges of being black and male in America and examines the college’s astute approach to leadership development, which has produced such famed alumni as Martin Luther King Jr., and Spike Lee. By carefully dissecting the way that Morehouse nurtures its students, the discussion maintains that other institutions, and by extension American society, can take better strides toward helping black men reach their full potential.

A Return to Values by Bob Beauprez-- Acknowledging that the Republican Party's compass is askew, former congressman Bob Beauprez makes the case for the GOP to return to its founding values and principles. Analyzing the successes, failures, and lost opportunities of the Republican-controlled Congress and White House, Beauprez indentifies several crumbling foundations that led to the election defeats in 2006-including his own. He explains his own guiding principles by drawing upon his real-world experience to examine why he became both a conservative and a Republican, reaching the conclusion that trust from voters must be earned through substantive action, not bought by empty political rhetoric.

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.