News -

MILLS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD

The Oral History Association recently awarded the Elizabeth B. Mason Project award to Mills College and Friends of Negro Spirituals for the best small project in 2008. The prize winning project, Negro Spirituals Heritage Keepers, is a video documentation of ten men and women living in Oakland who are engaged in the music as performers, arrangers, educators, or cultural historians.

The Oakland Living History Program partnered with the Friends of Negro Spirituals to train interviewers, and to archive and catalog ten video interviews. Interviews are transcribed and now available to check out at the library to anyone with a Mills College library card. To find the oral histories, go to Minerva, http://library.mills.edu/, and type "Friends of Negro Spirituals" into the search box.

Interviewees include:

William "Bill" Bell, jazz pianist and the conductor of the Oakland Bay Area Community Chorus;
Lyvonne Chrisman, vice-president and co-founder of the Friends of Negro Spirituals;
Marcella Conley, retired college professor;
Helen Dilworth, professional soprano and music professor at San Francisco City College;
Doug Edwards, jazz programmer and producer, radio station KPFA;
Sam Edwards, president and co-founder of Friends of Negro Spirituals;
Jacqueline Hairston, pianist and composer;
Autris Paige, baritone singer and professional narrator;
Linda Tillery, cultural historian and artistic director of the Linda Tillery Cultural Heritage Choir;
Cleophas Williams, retired ILWU president; and his wife Sadie Williams.

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Past events

LUNCHTIME SEMINARS ON ORAL HISTORY

You are invited to a series of informal seminars on oral history the first two Tuesdays in March. Sessions are related but also independent. Bring your lunch and come to one or both. We will play examples from the Mills oral history collection, and have an opportunity to ask questions.

MARCH 3, 2009- INTRODUCTION TO ORAL HISTORY
WHEN: 12:15 -1:00 P.M.
WHERE: LIBRARY SEMINAR ROOM, 2ND FLOOR
This session will introduce oral history as an academic practice. It will give a brief history of the field, describe how oral history differs from other interviewing practices, describe the steps in developing an oral history, and offer ten best practices.

MARCH 10, 2009- INTERVIEW TECHNIQUES
WHEN: 12:15-1:00 P.M.
WHERE: LIBRARY SEMINAR ROOM, 2ND FLOOR
This session will focus on good interview techniques that can be applied to a variety of fields.

Presenter: Nancy MacKay, Mills College librarian and oral historian. For more information contact Nancy at mackay@mills.edu

Ebrary Update

Ebrary, a collection of over 30,000 electronic books, is now available in the library online catalog, Minerva. Now you can simultaneously search for printed books and e-books at the same time using keyword, author and title. In addition, ebrary is also still available as its own unique collection on the Library's databases webpage..

Classical Music at the Library

Start out the semester with opera and other classical music, thanks to a generous donation of CDs from the estate of James Q. Biggs. Browse through the newest acquisitions, located on the new CD truck in the reference area of the library A complete list of CDs from the Biggs gift is available from the library catalog. 

Ebrary

The Library is pleased to announce a new subscription for ebrary. Ebrary Academic Complete is a database of 38,000 electronic books in all subject areas. Most titles were published within the past 10 years. Initial response to ebrary has been very positive among faculty and students who used in during September. Ebrary is found on the Library's database page.

To use ebrary successfully you must download the Java reader which is available on the front page of the site.
Off-campus users please note that the College has just upgraded the EZProxy software to allow full functionality of the database. Please let Alma Garcia (almag at mills.edu) know if you experience difficulties using ebrary outside the campus. Please also be aware that cookies must enabled. Check the system requirements.

Featured Lists

Take a moment to browse the Library's FEATURED LISTS webpage.

The following lists are currently available:

Selected New Books added to the Library collection
Spanish Language Videos
Latest issues of Shhh! the Library Newsletter
List of selected oral histories available at Mills
List of Mills theses sorted by author
List of dance videos sorted by title
List of circulating DVD and video titles
List of music CDs sorted by title and artist
List of LP records sorted by title
New lists may be added periodically so be sure to check back!

Posted every month, Shhh! will have book reviews, highlights of new materials added to the collection, profiles of authors, and … the Miss Nomer column. 
Past issues of Shhh!