The DNL Report

Blogging, social bookmarking, folksonomies, collaborative document creation and editing! In this one-hour session, Library presenters Curtis Ferree, Jackie Kremer, Peter Morris, and Leslie Porter will discuss:

• Web 2.0
• Blogs
• RSS
• del.icio.us
• Google Docs & Spreadsheets

We'll give an overview of the fascinating technologies our students are using in their own lives, and discuss how faculty might consider using them in their teaching. Attendees will be given the opportunity to sign up for a hands-on personal appointment on a particular product of their choice to be held at a later date.

What is anime? In Japan, anime means any animated film. And anime is big business! Japanesse anime films and related sales are a $10 billion industry. The highest grossing film in Japanese box-office history (more than $234 million),is Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away. We own Spirited Away and many other Japanese animation films. See a list of anime you can borrow. How is anime different from manga? In Japan, manga is any printed cartoon. In the United States, sales of Japanese manga reached $125 million in 2004 in the United States. That's up from $55 million in 2002. Manga is the top-selling form of graphic novels. To learn more, read Anime Explosion!: the What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation by Drazen, Patrick (call number NC1766.J3 D73 2003). American Animation and Graphic Novels The United States has been the leader in film animation for close to 100 years. Mickey Mouse's appearance in Steamboat Willie in 1928 followed by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, established Disney Studios as the dominant leader. The field of innovative animators has widened now to include Pixar and Dreamworks, as well as television animation studios. Would it surprise you to know that the third highest grossing film of any kind of all time is DreamWorks' 2004 Shrek 2 which grossed $436.4 million. We own Shrek 2 and many other award winning animation films in our collection. See a list of animated films you can borrow. A graphic novel is a comic presented in the form of a novel. The graphic novels market has exploded! According to ICv2.com, a trade news website, the market has more than tripled over the last four years, rising from about $75 million in 2001 to $245 million last year. See a list of graphic novels you can borrow. 

Please stop by the DiMenna-Nyselius Library to see the April-May 2007 exhibit highlighting the library's own collection of Japenese animation and manga, as well as American film animation, comics and graphic novels.   To see a slideshow of the exhibit To see pictures and leave comments

Special thanks go to students Dwight Tejano for lending his beautiful Japanese movie scrolls, to Matt Sylvia for sharing his animation figures and to Stephanie Stadig for arranging the exhibit so artfully.

Also thank you to Mike Fischetti for book recommendations

Reminder: The Library exhibit space is available to the University at large. If you are interested in creating an exhibit for the Library, please call (203) 254-4000 ext. 2587 or e-mail Jackie Kremer.

The library is pleased to announce the recent addition of these two new databases: NewspaperDirect PressDisplay Offers full-color page images of newspapers from all around the world in English and foreign languages. It is current, providing today's papers, and it provides the entire paper, including ads. Also offers the ability to listen to and translate selected articles, subscribe to an RSS feed, and blog about what you read. LegalTrac Students, faculty and legal researchers will all find the legal publications they need in LegalTrac. Drawing on a wide variety of the most highly regarded legal publications, LegalTrac provides indexing for more than 1,400 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals. Each title included in LegalTrac is selected on the basis of criteria provided by a special advisory committee of the American Association of Law Libraries. LegalTrac also contains law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business and general interest titles. Both of these databases are accessible from on or off campus at DiMenna-Nyselius Library Databases page.