O-Bon Festival, Japan (August 13-15, 2007)

O-bon (or Obon) is the Japanese "Festival of the Dead ... when the dead revisit the earth, according to Japanese Buddhist belief. Throughout Japan, in either July or August, depending on the area, religious rites and family reunions are held in memory of the dead." (Holidays, Festivals, and Celebrations of the World Dictionary)

In honor of O-bon, listen to some Japanese music or watch some Japanese movies. We have classic films by Akira Kurosawa, such as Rashomon where the nature of truth and subjective reality are probed in a series of flashbacks from four viewpoints of a man's murder and the rape of his wife by a bandit in 11th century Japan. Or try a more recent movie by Hirokazu Koreeda, like After Life, a fantasy in which the newly deceased find themselves in a way station somewhere between Heaven and Earth. With the help of dedicated caseworkers, each soul is given three days to choose one cherished memory from his or her life to relive for eternity.

If you're into anime, we have lots of great Japanese animation ranging from the Matrix-like Ghost in the Shell to Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haku), the moving story of two orphans during World War II, to the work of Academy Award-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki.

We also have a variety of movies set in Japan, including the French film Hiroshima Mon Amour, in which a Japanese architect and a French actress engage in a brief, intense affair in Hiroshima as they attempt to deal with their personal memories of World War II or Lost in Translation about the unusual friendship that springs up between a middle-aged actor and the wife of a photographer in a Tokyo hotel bar. For action and sword-fighting, try The Last Samurai or Zatoichi. If you're looking for laughs, check out Tom Selleck in Mr. Baseball.

Or use the Mega Media Finder to try some of our other media materials about Japan, including:

• Non-fiction videos


• Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire is a PBS program that looks at the role of the samurai, the shogun, and geishas in Tokugawa Japan.


• Yukio Mishima: Samurai Writer presents a portrait of the author as novelist, playwright, actor, and patriot of the extreme right, torn between Japanese tradition and westernization


• Our Hiroshima combines the eyewitness account of Setsuko Nakamuro Thurlow, a campaigner for peace who was 13 when the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, with rare archival footage taken before and after the bombing


• Toshiko Takaezu presents an introduction to the art and life of internationally-acclaimed potter Toshiko Takaezu, who creates work in the form of both functional and sculptural ceramics


• Schools of Thought: Teaching Children in America and Japan looks at efforts in both the United States and Japan to balance creativity and discipline in education.


• Three-dimensional artifacts, including kimonos and other clothing, dolls, musical instruments, an abacus, and a calligraphy set


• Pictures, including many of various Japanese matsuri or festivals

Or use the Fiction & Literature Media Finder and select by original language or setting to read some:

• Adult fiction originally in Japanese


• Adult fiction set in Japan


• Children's stories set in Japan


• Japanese folk tales


• Japanese drama, including noh and kabuki, or check out this DVD of The Lovers' Exile, the Bunraku Puppet Theatre of Japan's adaptation of the famous playwright Chikamatsu's Meido no Hikyaku (The Courier for Hell)

If your knowledge of kanji is better than mine, you might even want to try some literature in the original Japanese.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 17th anniversary (July 26, 2007)

The Columbia Encyclopedia says that the Americans with Disabilities Act is a "U.S. civil-rights law, enacted 1990, that forbids discrimination of various sorts against persons with physical or mental handicaps. Its primary emphasis is on enabling these persons to enter the job market and remain employed, but it also outlaws most physical barriers in public accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, and government services." For an overview, watch the short film Nobody is Burning Wheelchairs that explains what the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is, explores attitudes toward people with disabilities, and shows that disabled persons can make contributions in mainstream society.

For more understanding of the experiences of people with disabilities, watch a movie or read a novel featuring characters with disabilities. Use the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder or the Fiction & Literature Media Finder and select "people with disabilities" from the type of character pulldown menu.

Movies (including many biopics)

• The Miracle Worker dramatizes the story of the young Helen Keller, a blind, deaf, and mute girl who is isolated in her own world until Annie Sullivan, her teacher, leads her into awareness.


• My Left Foot relates the story of Christy Brown who, with his mother's help, realized his creative potential and overcame his cerebral palsy to become an internationally-renowned painter and writer.


• Ray profiles the life of the musician Ray Charles who became blind at age seven and whose mother insisted that he find his own way in life and not accept handouts.


• In the Japanese samurai movie Zatoichi, a nomadic, blind masseur and gambler wanders into a town and befriends a pair of geishas. Soon Zatoichi reveals that behind his humble facade, he is a master swordsman who can hold his own with criminals and gang members.

Novels range from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon to Dean Koontz' One Door Away from Heaven. We have children's fiction, too.

Other media materials about the ADA and the experiences of the disabled (select "disability studies" from the selected interdisciplinary studies pulldown menu on the Mega Media Finder) include:

Nonfiction videos

• The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People with Disabilities


• HBO's Without Pity: A Film about Abilities features a cross section of disabled Americans who live full, productive lives despite their disabilities. Narrated by Christopher Reeve.


• A Little History Worth Knowing traces the history of people with disabilities, including historical discrimination and the movement for civil rights for people with disabilities in the United States. Reviews stereotypes, media images, and the effect of today's technology on people's ability to work and live independently.


• Designing for Accessibility: An Overview of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design presents the requirements of the ADA standards for physical and communications accessibility in public buildings and commercial, state, and local government facilities by topic for architects and other.


• In the Land of the Deaf explores deaf life and culture in France and the growing controversy involving "curing" deafness. Includes portraits of a charismatic sign language teacher and a woman treated as mentally ill because her hearing problem was misdiagnosed.


• Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back is a documentary about a national disability arts community that explores disability as the experience of a politically disenfranchised constituency. Consists of interviews and clips of performance pieces from a variety of artistic formats including: performance art, fiction, poetry, stand-up comedy, drama, personal anecdotes, and scholarly research.


• Dancing from the Inside Out: Three Stories from AXIS Dance Troupe tells the stories of three dancers from the Axis Dance Troupe who became injured and what it means to them to be able to express themselves through dance with the use of wheelchairs.

Pictures

Software, including RSS: Ready, Set, Sign for learning American Sign Language (ASL).

Dolls and puppets with various disabilities to help children better understand and relate to people with disabilities

We also have many materials for the blind and visually-impaired (choose "materials for the blind and visually-impaired" under the specific materials menu on the Mega Media Finder), including audio-described videos (where onscreen action is narrated during gaps in the original dialog) and other materials, including games (such as Monopoly and scrabble), tactile maps, and Braille rulers and writing slates. For the deaf and hearing-impaired we have many videos with closed-captioning.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May 2007)

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, why not watch a movie about Asian or Pacific Islander Americans, such as ABCD, about two young Indian Americans who run up against their mother's plans for traditional, arranged marriages or Come See the Paradise, a love story set against the background of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II?

Or read some fiction about the Asian American experience, like Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club or Chang-rae Lee's Native Speaker about the emotional struggles of a young Korean American man in New York City. We have kids' books, too.

We also have non-fiction videos about Asian Americans. Watch the Bill Moyers' specials on Becoming American, the Chinese Experience or check out Journey of Honor to follow a group of Japanese American veterans from Hawaii and their families on a reunion trip to Italy in the spring of 2000. There are a couple of U.S. government-produced videos of films about the internment of Japanese Americans in the World War II Historical Film Collection. All the films in this collection are also available online via Ball State's Digital Media Repository.

Check out some of our pictures and posters of Asian Americans. Or maybe you'd be interested in a family of Asian American puppets, primary sources on The Asian-American Experience on CD-ROM, or a multicultural educational board game called The cultural bag! Asian American.

ANZAC Day, Australia + New Zealand (April 25, 2007)

"ANZAC Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day." (http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac/anzac_tradition.htm)

To honor ANZAC Day, why not watch a film from Australia, like Rabbit-Proof Fence, which tells how, in 1931, three half-Aboriginal children from Western Australia, who had been taken from their mothers, set out on an epic journey home, traveling 1,500 miles on foot with no food or water as they followed the fence that has been build across the nation to stem an over-population of rabbits. You might also like Breaker Morant, in which an Australian soldier in 1901 South Africa during the Boer War is ordered to oversee the execution of a prisoner who turns out to be a German missionary and is court-martialed for it. The Proposition is an Australian Western set in the outback of the 1880s, where an outlaw is presented with an impossible proposition by local law enforcement.

Or watch a movie from New Zealand, such as Whale Rider, the story of Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal Maori tribe, who believes she is destined to be the new chief. And don't forget to check out the work of the famous kiwi director Peter Jackson.

Kick back with some music from Australia and New Zealand. Waltzing Matilda is the quintessential Australian song. We also have the children's book and a claymation short in which a chorus of animated clay animals from the Australian bush sing the famous Australian folk song.

From the Mega Media Finder, check out some pictures of Australia (click on zoology under categories to the right of the results to find lots of pictures of animals, like koalas, platypuses, or kangaroos) or New Zealand. We also have a few 3-dimensional artifacts, like these Maori dolls and these boomerangs.

Learn more about Australia or New Zealand from some non-fiction videos, like Aboriginal Art: Past, Present and Future and Te Maori: A Celebration of the People and their Art.

Looking for something to read? We have children's stories and adult fiction set in Australia, as well as children's stories and adult fiction set in New Zealand. Why not try something by Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White? Or something by the well-known author Katherine Mansfield, who was born in New Zealand.

Astronomy Day (April 21, 2007)

Though e.e. cummings once said, "Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door; let's go" (One Times One), it's not that easy for most of us. Since we seem to be stuck here, why not learn a bit more about our universe? The Ball State University Planetarium is having the last of its Visitor's Guide to the Universe (For the Cosmically Challenged) sessions on Celestial Hotspots to Visit this Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21.

Or how about starting with some interesting resources from Ball State University Libraries?

• Models, Other 3-D Materials, and Kits


• Milky Way Galaxy Model


• Space Shuttle (model)


• Constellation Station: a Nova Science Game


• Puppet Playmates: Space Explorers


• Globes


• DVD & VHS (Features)


• Fritz Lang's 1929 silent film The Woman in the Moon: By Rocket to the Moon


• Star Trek


• Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey (directed by Stanley Kubrick) and 2010: The Year We Make Contact


• The Right Stuff, based on Tom Wolfe's novel about the U.S. astronauts and Project Mercury


• DVD & VHS (Documentary & Educational)


• The Standard Deviants' The Really Big World of Astronomy provides a light-hearted introduction


• Nova's The Elegant Universe


• Nova's Welcome to Mars and Mars: Dead or Alive document the missions of Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity


• Reach for the Stars is a talk by astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, at Ball State's UniverCity 2002


• Black Sky: The Race for Space follows Burt Rutan on his quest to build a personal spacecraft and capture the elusive X Prize


• Galileo: The Challenge of Reason shows the experiments of Galileo and dramatizes the conflict between his new scientific thinking and the authority of the Catholic church.


• Non-Fiction Audio


• Man in Space: The Story of the Journey: A Documentary is about the first American spaceflight, Alan Shepard's 15-minute, suborbital journey in a Mercury capsule on May 5, 1961.


• Storyteller Jim Weiss' Galileo and the Stargazers


• The audiobook of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (although you might rather get the book it you don't want to rewind a lot)


• Software


• Starry Night: Constellation Adventure, a CD-ROM that enables armchair stargazers to explore star clusters, constellations, planets, galaxies, and other astronomical phenomena in the night sky based on home location and time.


• Pictures & Posters



• Activity Cards

...and we even have telescopes available for check out for your next night of star-gazing!

PS Kevin at the Science-Health Science Library also has a nice post on his blog about some resources for would-be star-gazers.

National Poetry Month (April 2007)

April is National Poetry Month. As the Academy of American Poets notes, T.S. Eliot said, "April is the cruelest month" and with this recent weather I can believe it.

If you're interested in enjoying some poetry, you might try the Fiction & Literature Media Finder. You can combine checking the poetry box with various kinds of searches. For example, you can select original language of literature from the pull-down menu to find Spanish or ancient Greek poetry, as well as poems originally in Swahili or Welsh. If you'd like to read non-English poetry in the original, use the in original language list instead. Challenge yourself by reading some French poetry in French or German poetry in German.

You can also combine poetry with different genres to find things like war poetry (or choose World War I under time for poems about the Great War). Or try one of the great epic poems from Gilgamesh or the Iliad to Beowulf or the Mahabharata.

If you limit to youth under audience, you can find children's poetry in various genres, such as humorous poetry (including the inimitable Shel Silverstein).

To find poetry you can listen to, use the format limiter for audiobooks. From the Videos (All) Media Finder, you can find a few poetry readings on video--if you like the Beats, why not check out Allen Ginsberg? We also have a few film adaptations of poems.

Or just check poetry and type your favorite poet's name in the search box. A few I fancy include e. e. cummings, Rilke and the haiku poet Basho.

If you'd like to read poetry online, we also provide access to a selection of poetry via our subscription to LitFinder.

For media to help you learn more about poetry and poets, try the Mega Media Finder. Among other things, we have many videos, a few CD-ROMs, and a variety of pictures and posters.

Easter (April 8, 2007)

To prepare for Easter, listen to some passion music ("a musical setting of Jesus' sufferings and death as related by one of the four Evangelists"--The Harvard Dictionary of Music). You might like to try Johann Sebastian Bach's Matthäuspassion. The Software & Electronic Games Media Finder even turns up a CD-ROM that presents a complete performance of the Passion with interactive material on Bach, the work, and the performance. We also have Easter music and some other Holy Week music.

For a couple of films with very different perspectives on Christ's last days, try Mel Gibson's The Passion of Christ and Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis). We also have some art and literature that focuses on Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection (or check out all of our adult fiction about the life of Jesus, ranging from Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt to D.H. Lawrence's The Man Who Died)

For a look at the popular culture side of Easter, try the video Easter to get some background on festivities and traditions associated with Easter. And who can forget It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown? We also have a few Easter-related pictures (mostly Easter eggs) and a few children's stories about Easter, some, such as The Easter Bunny That Overslept, featuring the infamous Easter Bunny.

Find Stock Footage, Sound Effects, Production Music, and Clip Art

Do you need just the right image for your project? Looking for the perfect sound effect for your presentation? Ball State University Libraries can help...

If you're looking for clip art, we do have a selection of royalty-free images. These can be found by checking clip art on the Software & Electronic Games Media Finder and hitting find.

Wanting sound effects or production music? We have a large selection available from the Sounds & Sound Effects Media Finder. If you go to the Educational Resources Center counter on the lower level of Bracken and ask, they have a number of more detailed print guides to our sound effects and production music.

We even have a little bit of royalty-free stock footage for your productions. Some, such as VideoTraxx 1 from Digital Juice, are on DVD-ROM (searchable from the Software & Electronic Games Media Finder by checking video under clip art and media clips) and some are on VHS (searchable from the Videos (All) Media Finder by typing stock footage in the search box).

Pi Day, 3.141592... (March 14, 2007)

There aren't too many mathematical holidays, but March 14 is Pi Day. Bracken Library has lots of videos, software, pictures (including posters of multicultural geometry that range from ancient Egyptian methods of computing the area of a circle to patterns in American patchwork quilts), activity and flash cards, and teaching aids to help you brush up on your geometry. Or, to help a younger friend conquer math, use the Software & Electronic Games Media Finder to find math-related educational software for kids (choose children under audience and check math under selected subjects)

Personally, I like my pie sweeter and more concrete than the pi I dimly remember from math class. Although they won't satisfy your sweet tooth, the library does have pictures and plastic food models of pies. Use the Mega Media Finder and select food models under specific materials to find all of our food models, which are useful for teaching about nutrition and portion sizes.

From the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder, try Pi, Darren Aronofsky's bizarre movie about a mathematician flirting with insanity in his quest for the mathematical secret to the universe (or at least the stock market). You could follow this up with the intriguingly-titled video Is God a Number?: Maths That Mimic the Mind. Or, for another type of pie entirely, you may prefer to check out the American Pie movies.

International Women's Day (March 8, 2007) & Women's History Month

Celebrate International Women's Day by using media from the library to learn more about women's history and women in the world today. Check out videos, CD-ROMs, non-fiction audio, and pictures and posters about women. Or look into these Women's Week 2007 events here at Ball State during Women's History Month.

Why not browse for media on women and...

Art

Business and Economics

Dance and Theater

Education

Film and Television

History and Politics

Language, Literature and the Press

Music

Religion

Science

Sports

John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath

Muncie Civic Center is presenting Frank Galati's adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath on March 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, and 17.

Want to know more about Steinbeck? Did you know that University Libraries' Archives and Special Collections Research Center holds a large collection of Steinbeck-related material, including the Hayashi Steinbeck Collection and Archives? You can see much of our Steinbeck collection in our catalog.

If you want to brush up on The Grapes of Wrath, we have the book (in many languages!--not just French and German, but also Japanese and Czech) or we also have it in audio form. Or try some other fiction about migrant laborers, like John Grisham's Painted House, or fiction set during the Great Depression (mostly kids' books).

We also have the film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda. You might also enjoy these other films set during the Great Depression.

For background information, we have a few videos that discuss the dust bowl, including a video on how the U.S. government launched the U.S. Soil Conservation Service as a response to the devastation of the dust storms of the 1930s. You might also like Surviving the dust bowl, an episode of the TV program American Experience. To get a sense of what it was like back then, check out Documentary Photo Aids' pictures of the Dust Bowl era. We also have some videos on history and life during the Great Depression.

Introducing the Mega Media Finder

The new Mega Media Finder helps you search multiple types of media at once. Do you need props for a lesson plan or presentation or materials for hands-on, experiential learning? Find 3-d artifacts, such as toys, models, and clothing--yes, it's true; in addition to mooching from your roommates, you can also borrow clothes from the library :-) , multi-format kits, pictures and posters, activity and flash cards, software, spoken recordings, videos, and more with the Mega Media Finder.

Why not try it out? Find it on the Media Finder home page in the right-hand column under "Other." Let me know what you think or what could be improved by commenting below or contacting me (Kelley) at kmcgrath at bsu.edu.

Hinamatsuri, Doll Festival of Japan (March 3, 2007)

Hinamatsuri (or Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival or Girls' Day) is a traditional Japanese holiday when "people pray for the happiness and healthy growth of girls. Families with young daughters mark this day by setting up a display of dolls inside the house." (http://web-Japan.org/kidsweb/calendar/march/hinamatsuri.html)

To get you in the spirit, check out our varied collection of dolls, some Japanese, as well as dolls in African, Asian, European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, Native American, Pacific Islander, and U.S. costume.

We also have pictures of dolls, including Japanese dolls and Native American Kachina dolls.

You might like to celebrate with some videos that feature dolls, such as Sally, the rag doll in Tim Burton's The nightmare before Christmas, the nutcracker doll and Coppelía of ballet fame, and Barbie in the 12 dancing princesses. Balance that last one out with Barbie nation: an unauthorized tour. Or for a less literal take on dolls, try Ibsen's A doll's house or the French film Les poupées russes (Russian dolls) about an indecisive thirty-year-old looking for love.

The video Living treasures of Japan pays a visit to a maker of traditional dolls.

In kids' books, we have a number of stories featuring dolls (select youth under audience and check prose on the Fiction & Literature Media Finder)

National Eating Disorders Week (February 25-March 3, 2007)

The Ball State Counseling Center is offering a number of events for National Eating Disorders Week with the theme "Be Comfortable in Your Genes."

Check out these videos from the Videos (All) Media Finder to learn more about eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Some videos on body image, especially in women and girls, may also provide context. Try Killing us softly 3: advertising's image of women or Slim hopes: advertising and the obsession with thinness.

Black History Month (February 2007)

Celebrate Black History Month by using media from the library to learn more about the history of African Americans in the United States. Check out videos, CD-ROMs, non-fiction audio, and pictures and posters about African Americans.

For the kids you know, try children's stories about African Americans (use the Fiction & Literature Media Finder, select youth under audience, check prose and choose African Americans under types of characters). Check out titles like Deborah Hopkinson's Sweet Clara and the freedom quilt, Faith Ringgold's Tar beach or, for older readers, Walter Dean Myers' Monster or Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, not Buddy.

The Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder features many videos with African American characters. We have dramas about the historical experience of slavery in the U.S., ranging from Alex Haley's ground-breaking TV mini-series Roots to Steven Spielberg's film about the Amistad rebellion. Or try a film adaptation of African American literature, such as The color purple or A raisin in the sun. Or try one of Spike Lee's films, like Inside man or Malcolm X.

Why not browse for media on African Americans and...

Art

Business and Economics

Dance and Theater

Education

Film and Television

History and Politics

Language, Literature and the Press

Music

Religion

Sports

Women's Studies

Interested in local African American history? We have several videos on African Americans in Muncie. There are also many images in the Other Side of Middletown Photographs, a collection in the Digital Media Repository. The DMR also features back issues of The Muncie Times, Muncie's African American newspaper.

Snow! What's up with this weather?

The first fall of snow is not only an event, but it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?
--J.B. Priestley

Perhaps in a snow day with no classes?

Wondering about this wacky weather--surprisingly warm January and snowbound February? Check out some media resources at Bracken that can help you learn more about the weather and climate. Try these videos (from the Videos (All) Media Finder) or perhaps you're more interested in getting the scoop on global warming from Al Gore's An inconvenient truth or some of our other videos on climate change. We also have videos on all sorts of extreme weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes, storms, and floods (from Noah's flood to the fatal 1899 Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood to the 1993 flooding along the Mississippi).

For a more dramatic approach, try some disaster films from the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder (not all are weather-related, but we do have Twister and The day after tomorrow). Although not exactly in the disaster genre, The Wizard of Oz makes a great tornado film.

You may wish to use these CD-ROMs to learn more about weather (from the Software & Electronic Games Media Finder) or we even have meteorological instruments if you want to do your own investigating.

Check out these pictures and posters featuring weather and meteorology. Or here are some wintry scenes (From an upcoming Media Finder--stay tuned for details).

For entertaining the wee ones, try bundling up with some blankets, hot chocolate, and a good story. Search for snow or winter on the Fiction & Literature Media Finder (check youth under audience to narrow your search). You might like Ezra Jack Keats' Snowy day or Lois Ehlert's Snowballs or an illustrated version of Robert Frost's Stopping by woods on a snowy evening.

And if by chance, by the time you read this, the snow has melted, don't despair--just check out our snow globe to get back in the winter mood.

Presidents' Day (February 19, 2007)

Happy Presidents' Day!

If you've forgotten everything you learned in high school history class, why not refresh your memory of our nation's leaders by listening to some nonfiction audio about our presidents from the Audiobooks & Other Spoken Recordings Media Finder (check nonfiction and type 'presidents united states' in the search box). We have titles from ranging from Henry Wiencek's An imperfect god : George Washington, his slaves, and the creation of America and David McCullough's John Adams to Clinton's My life.

Use the Videos (All) Media Finder to find videos about the U.S. presidency, such as:

Mandate : the president and the people on the relationship between the presidency and public opinion

Understanding government, which explains the roles of the three branches of the U.S. government, including the executive branch.

If fictional presidents are more your cup of tea, try our West Wing DVDs. You can also find more political dramas about the U.S. government by searching the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder for united states politics. Try Schoolhouse Rock's America Rock for an entertaining introduction to our nation's government.

Interested in a specific president? Try these links for media related to selected U.S. leaders:

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Andrew Jackson

Abraham Lincoln

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt

Woodrow Wilson

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK)

Richard Nixon

Jimmy Carter

Ronald Reagan

George Bush

Bill Clinton

George W. Bush

Chinese New Year (February 18, 2007)

Happy Chinese New Year! Check out our Chinese New Year Celebration Box, as well as these videos to get ready for the Year of the Pig (or Boar).

Want to learn more about China or check out some Chinese films, literature, and music?

Use the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder to try some movies from China (select China/Hong Kong under origin) or movies set in China (select China under country in the setting section).

Find some Chinese literature to read by going to the Fiction & Literature Media Finder and selecting Chinese under original language of literature. Combine this with the prose, short stories, poetry, or plays checkboxes to narrow your search. To find Chinese folktales, it works better to choose China from the country list under setting and then check folklore & religious stories. Or find children's literature about China by choosing youth under audience and China from the countries under setting. Change to 10-39 p. under audience and check prose to narrow your focus to little kids' stories.

Why not listen to some Chinese music? From the World Music Finder, select China under country and limit to recordings under format. Or limit to criticism & history under format to find out more about Chinese music.

Check out our VHS and DVD videos on China from the Videorecordings (All) Media Finder. We have titles ranging from The art of architecture in China and Feng shui : environments for success and well-being to Management in Chinese cultures to The tank man, a documentary about a single, unarmed young man stood his ground before a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square and Zhang’s diner, a documentary about the challenges faced by a Chinese couple who illegally move from their rural hometown to Beijing.

If you get really ambitious, you can even check out our Chinese language instruction from the Software & Electronic Games or Audiobooks & Other Spoken Recordings Media Finders.

Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2007)

Looking to get in the mood for Valentine’s Day? Try some romantic comedies from the Movies & TV Programs (fiction video) Media Finder. Or check out some love poetry (check poetry and love & romance) or erotic poetry (check poetry and erotic) from the Fiction & Literature Media Finder. We also have romance novels and love stories (check prose and love & romance). For the younger set, we have children's literature about Valentine's Day--type Valentine's day into the search box and select youth under audience.

If you're ready to move your relationship to that next level, you may want to look into some wedding music (under topical music near the lower right corner) on our Non-Classical Music Media Finder.

A search for Valentine’s Day on the Videos (All) Media Finder gets you a few hits including a couple histories of Valentine’s Day and the classic Charlie Brown TV special.