Be sure to check library hours of operation during Final Exams April 30 - May 4  by clicking on the Hours link located in the top central section of the Auburn University Libraries homepage.  Special hours will be in place also for April 27-29 for classes ending and for Study/Reading days.  Intersession Hours including Commencements Hours will be in effect May 5 - 16.

The Auburn University Libraries will be phasing out the MyLibrary @ Auburn University website over the next several months with an ultimate goal of shutting down the website at the conclusion of Auburn University's 2018 Summer semester, August 4th, 2018. The following dates and information are tentative and subject to change at any time. More information regarding the shutdown will be forthcoming.

• • March 20: Website visitors will no longer be able to create new user accounts. All current user accounts will remain active and accessible. DEADLINE PASSED
  • May 8: Website becomes "read-only." Read-only mode means that current user accounts will remain active and accessible after the transition; however, users will no longer be able to make changes to their accounts, including content associated with their account (i.e., add or remove personal links). If you have not exported the links stored in your personal links area, please do so as soon as possible.

• August 4: Website will be shut down, and a splash page with information and links to recommended bookmark management resources will replace the current website's homepage.

Discover Auburn Lecture Series

Jocelyne Binet's Cycle de melodies:  Unearthing a Forgotten Song Cycle

Matt Hoch, Associate Professor of Voice, Department of Music, Auburn University

Date and Time:  Thursday, April 5 at 3 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives Department, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

Jocelyne Binet (1923-1968) was a French-Canadian composer and professor of composition at the Ecole de Musique Vincent d'Indy (1951-57) in Montreal and Laval University (1957-68) in Quebec City.  Although primarily remembered for her instrumental works, her 1955 Cycle de Melodies sur des Poemes de Paul Eluard was programmed in the same year by the French baritone Gerard Souzay in a performance that was most likely the world premiere.

Unfortunately, Binet's Cycle de Melodies was never published or recorded and the work was soon forgotten.

In the Fall of 2016, Matt Hoch discovered the original handwritten manuscript pages for the Cycle de Melodies and began reconstructing the score with the help of a professional engraver.  Binet's cycle enters the public domain in 2018, and the Cycle de Melodies will be published in this year by Classical Vocal Reprints.

Matt Hoch is the author of three books, including A Dictionary for the Modern Singer (2014), Welcome to the Church Music & The Hymnal 1982 (2015), and Voice Secrets:  100 Performance Strategies for the Advanced Singer (2016).  He is also the editor of the recently published So You Want to Sing Sacred Music (2017) and So You Want to Sing CCM (2018).   His articles have appeared in the Journal of Singing, Journal of Voice, Voice and Speech Review, Opera Journal, Choral Journal, Chorister, Classical Singer, and Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians.

Sponsored by Auburn University Libraries.

The Patience Essah Africana Studies Lecture Series Co-Sponsored with the Auburn University Libraries Presents

From the Congo to the Convict Lease:  Africa in Alabama Coal Mines

Dr. Jennifer Brooks, Associate Professor, Department of History, Auburn University

Date and Time:  Tuesday, March 20 at 3:30 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives Department, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

Alabama relied on convicts to build the New South.   Historians agree that African Americans constituted the overwhelming majority of persons imprisoned in this brutal labor system.  However, immigrants from around the world were not only imprisoned in New South Alabama, but were also leased to private mining and timber interests, including to the brother of former Alabama governor, B.B. Comer.  Dr. Brooks will explore how this exploitation of immigrants complicates our understanding of the new South as a binary story of black versus white.

Refreshments and conversation to follow Dr. Brooks's talk.

Be sure to consult the Library Hours link located in the upper right side of the Auburn University Libraries homepage to determine library hours of operation during the Spring Break period in effect Saturday, March 10 through Saturday, March 17 .  Normal hours resume on Sunday, March 19.

Discover Auburn Book Talk

The Pines:  Southern Forests

Chuck Hemard, Associate Professor, Auburn University Department of Art and Art History

Date and Time:  Wednesday, March 7 at 3 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives Department, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

The Pines is a photobook monograph that explores remnants of the old-growth longleaf pinelands across the southeastern United states.  Historically, this was once one of America's significant landscapes.

Chuck Hemard's photographs have been exhibited nationally and throughout the Southeast including the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta, Opal Gallery in Atlanta, The Light Factory in Charlotte, N.C. as well and a commissioned project with the Columbus Museum in Columbus, Ga.  his work is in public collections throughout the region including the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Miss.

Sponsored by Auburn University Libraries - reception and book signing to follow.

Patience Essah Africana Studies Lecture Series

Democracy Is Rooted in Accessible, Secure, and Fair Elections:  Looking Ahead to the 2018 Federal Election (An EAC Perspective)

Mr. Thomas Hicks, Vice Chairman, United States Election Assistance Commission

Date and Time:  Tuesday, February 27 at 3:30 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives Department, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

Thomas Hicks was nominated by President Barack H. Obama and confirmed by unanimous consent of the United States Senate in 2014 to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.  He has talked with Americans in every state about their voting experiences.  In addition, he has worked with state and local election officials across America to address critical election concerns.  In his previous role as Senior Elections Counsel and Minority Elections Counsel in the House of Representatives, Mr. Hicks addressed issues relating to campaign finance, election reform, contested elections and oversight of both the Election Assistance Commission and Federal Elections Commission.

Mr. Thomas Hicks received his J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law and his B.A. in Government from Clark University (Worcester, Mass.).  He also studied at the University of London (London, England) and law at the University of Adelaide (Adelaide, Australia).

Sponsored by the Africana Studies Program and Auburn University Libraries.

Discover Auburn Lecture

On Multilingualism

Dr. Iulia Pittman, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Auburn University

Date and Time:  Thursday, February 22 at 3 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives Department, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

Multilingualism in the world is the rule rather than the exception.   Are most people you know monolingual or multilingual?   Come to this lecture to find out more about what it is like to grow up speaking several languages and to raise children multilingually in a monolingual environment.  To what do the terms "folk bilingualism" and "elite bilingualism" refer?  Is "mixing" languages a sign that you don't speak either language well?

Speaking several languages often also means that you are comfortable in several different cultures.   What multilinguals know quite well is that language, culture, and identity go hand in hand.

Dr. Iulia Pittman grew up in a Romanian-Hungarian family in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Romania.  There, she attended a German school and later learned English as a foreign language.   She has worked as a certified translator and interpreter for Romanian, Hungarian, German, English, and Dutch.  In 2000, she moved to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Georgia.  She joined the Foreign Languages Department at Auburn University in 2006, where she has been teaching courses in German language, business, and linguistics.   Her current research focusses on family language policies, multilingual practices, and minority language maintenance.

Sponsored by Auburn University Libraries.

Academic Video Online (AVON)

A streaming video collection that provides access to documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs, field recordings, and raw footage licensed from selected producers and filmmakers.

Discover Auburn Talk

Getting Out of the Mud:  The Alabama Good Roads Movement and Highway Administration, 1898-1928

Dr. Marty Olliff, Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives, Troy University, Dothan

Date and Time:  Thursday, February 8 at 3 p.m.

Location:  Special Collections and Archives, Ground Floor, Ralph Brown Draughon Library

With the development of national markets in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americans began to regard the nation as a whole, rather than their state or region, as the most important political entity.  Many Alabamians wished to travel beyond their local communities in all seasons without getting stuck in the mud of rudimentary rutted dirt roads.   Dr. Olliff explores the history of the Good Roads Movement and how middle-class reformers in Alabama overcame obstacles to construct a road system that would accommodate economic growth in the twentieth century.

Sponsored by:  Auburn University Libraries.