Celebrating 175 Years of African American Heritage at Oberlin College

Welcome alumni and guests for the Oberlin Alumni Association of African Ancestry (OA4) reunion during the weekend of October 8-10.

The College Archives has created an exhibit featuring photos and documents to celebrate the reunion and commemorate 175 years of African American Heritage at Oberlin College.

The exhibit will be on display on the main level of Mudd Center, October 4-11.

Big Read Kickoff at First Church due to weather forecast

Oberlin College and community are reading Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 in the Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, see http://www.oberlinbigread.org

Big Read Kickoff & Bonfire

***UPDATE*** Big Read Kickoff will be at Fellowship Hall, The First Church, Corner of Main and Lorain Streets, due to forecast of cold and rainy weather

When: Saturday, Oct 2, 4:00pm
Where: Tappan Square Bonfire Circle (near Oberlin Bookstore)
What: Short readings from Fahrenheit 451 by President Krislov, Oberlin City Manager Eric Norenberg, and Oberlin City Schools Superintendent Geoffrey Andrews; Remarks by Molly Raphael (OC '67), President-Elect of the American Library Association; Everyone is invited to create a facsimile of a book which will be symbolically burned in the bonfire to dramatize the effects of book-burning, suppression of information and the silencing of intellectual discourse. No real books will be burned.

Free copies of Fahrenheit 451 will be given away at the event to the first 125 people who want to read it.

Rain Location: Fellowship Hall, The First Church, Corner of Main and Lorain Streets

Pssst....have you heard about the iPads?

iPads are elegantly designed, endlessly entertaining devices for browsing the web, reading ebooks and course assignments, playing games, watching videos, and doing anything as long as "they have an app" for it.

In the Main Library, we have 15 iPads devoted to student use. Read more about iPads here; read more about the library's loaner service here.

Three Civil Rights Events

"Civil Rights: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories,” a presentation by Rick Bowers. Wednesday, September 15, 7:15 p.m., Heiser Auditorium, Kendal at Oberlin.

Rick Bowers, author of Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried To Destroy the Civil Rights Movement, is Director of Creative Initiatives at AARP, where he has worked with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Library of Congress as Director of "Voices of Civil Rights," a multimedia project that gathered thousands of first-hand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement to form the world's largest archive of testimonials from that era. The resulting History Channel documentary won both Emmy and Peabody awards and the website Voices of Civil Rights won the prestigious Webby Award. His research documents the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which spied on civil rights workers and worked to suppress the Civil Rights Movement.

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"In the Face of Adversity: Oberlinians, Civil Rights, and State Spying in the 1960s,” a panel with Charles Butts, Delbert Spurlock, and Rick Bowers. Thursday, September 16, 4:30 p.m., Moffett Auditorium (Mudd 050), Mudd Center.

Oberlin native Charles Butts left Oberlin College in 1961 to join the Civil Rights Movement. He worked as community organizer in rural Tennessee to provide housing for African Americans who were evicted from their land when they registered to vote. From 1962 to 1964 he edited the Mississippi Free Press in Jackson, Mississippi. He was spied upon and investigated by the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission.

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"Oberlinians, Civil Rights and the Spies of Mississippi," a panel with Charles Butts, Delbert Spurlock, and Rick Bowers. Thursday, September 16, 7:30 p.m., Oberlin Public Library meeting room.

Delbert Spurlock, Oberlinian and a member of the Oberlin College Class of 1963, also went to Mississippi to work for civil rights. He participated in the Freedom Rides and worked as a reporter for the Mississippi Free Press.

Main Library carrel sign-up begins Saturday, September 18

Study carrels....you know, those cozy nooks where you can store materials you've checked out from the library and study in peace. You can have one of those assigned to you for the semester! Just bring your OCID to the circulation desk in the Main Library, starting on Saturday, September 18, and get yourself settled. All the carrels are numbered, so please scope out the ones you like in advance and make a note of the numbers. If someone got to your favorite first, you may have to accept a alternate. We allow up to 2 people to be assigned to each carrel, so you might have to share. See all the details here.

Save the date -- Sept 12th

Azariah's Cafe will open for business on Sunday, September 12th ... load up on those Obie$$!

New in the Commons -- BizHub Printer

In order to accommodate the volume of printing the Academic Commons we're experimenting with a high capacity BizHub printer.

It's the default printer for the computers in the Commons, and it is set to automatically print on both sides. Duplexing has never been easier!