March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

In 1966, the United Nations declared March 21^st as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in honour of those individuals killed in the March 21, 1960 Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa. In 2013, the United Nations is emphasizing the theme of “Racism and Sport” with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging the need “…to join forces to end racism, and sport can help reach this goal…let us recommit to ending racial discrimination and realizing our vision of justice, equality and freedom from fear for all.” On March 21, 2013, David Johnston, Canada’s Governor-General, invited his “fellow citizens to reaffirm their commitment to combating racism, whatever its form” . The Ontario Human Rights Commission celebrated this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by showcasing several videos on its website connected to the Living Rights Project, launched last year to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Ontario Human Rights Code in 2012. Here are those videos, also available through YouTube:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Consider this title concerning the Sharpeville Massacre, available for borrowing from Toronto Public Library’s collections:

 

Sharpeville: an apartheid massacre and its consequences / Tom Lodge, 2011.

Tom Lodge not only described the Sharpeville Massacre in detail but also emphasized its long-term ramifications, including the banning of the rival African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress, and the imprisonment of some and the exile of Black political leaders that helped to internationalize the struggle against the racist, apartheid regime in South Africa.  

 

On the issue of racism and sports, please consider the following title:

 

Race and sport in Canada: intersecting inequalities / Simon C. Darnell, Janelle Joseph, and Yuka Nakamura (eds.), 2012.

This anthology offered content combining the influence of race with other factors such as gender, sexuality, class, and ability within the realm of the Canadian sports scene with three broad but inter-related themes emerging: research approaches to the study of race and sport in Canada within an historical context; Canadian immigration with respect to the study of race and sport; and, the examination of race and sport beyond Canada.

Surfing for Success: Electronic Job Searching - What’s On at Albert Campbell

Frustrated by the tight, competitive job market? Then you might be interested in the following program offered at Albert Campbell District Branch, 496 Birchmount Road (just north of Danforth Road):

Surfing for Success: Electronic Job Searching

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (120 minutes)

Facilitated by Centennial College Job Connect, participants learn how to effectively use the internet for their job search and to access the hidden job market. Job search websites are identified, and participants explore career options, post their resume, create a profile and job alert, plus apply for jobs via e-mail.

For more information or to register, visit the branch in person or call 416-396-8890.

 

After you have attended the program, don’t forget to take advantage of career and job searching resources accessible through Toronto Public Library collections. Consider visiting Toronto Public Library’s Career and Job Search Help Blog for useful tips and suggested resources. Another option is to access Toronto Public Library’s Book and eBook collection for suggested titles on electronic job searching. Below are some examples:

 

The 2-hour job search: using technology to get the right job faster [1st ed.] / Steve Dalton, 2012. Book. Also available in eBook format.

 

100 conversations for career success: learn to network, cold call, and tweet your way to your dream job / Laura M. Labovich and Miriam Salpeter, 2012. Book.

 

How to find a job on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ [2nd ed.] / Brad Schepp and Debra Schepp, 2012. Book. Also available in eBook format.

 

Knock 'em dead 2013: the ultimate job search guide / Martin John Yate, 2012. Book.

 

 

The panic free job search: unleash the power of the Web and social networking to get hired / Paul Hill, 2012. Book.

 

Sams teach yourself LinkedIn in 10 minutes [3rd ed.] / Patrice-Anne Rutledge, 2012. Book. Also available in eBook format.

 

What color is your parachute? a practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers [2013 ed.] / Richard Nelson Bolles, 2013. eBook.

Women in Leadership Roles: Sheryl Sandberg’s Take

As International Women’s Day has finished for another year, there are many examples of women undertaking a leadership role in a variety of contexts such as business, education, government, and sports etc. An example from the business world would be Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Facebook. Ms. Sandberg has an impressive academic background with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University.

Sandberg began speaking about why the business world has too few female leaders in the upper echelons of companies at the TED Talk in 2010. The culmination of her efforts is the release of a new book on March 11-12, 2013 which will soon be available for Toronto Public Library customers.

 

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead / Sheryl Sandberg, 2013.   Place Hold

Sandberg uses a combination of anecdotes including her personal experiences, data-based evidence, and research to navigate through the mixed messages and bias relating to working women, their lives and opportunities to choose. She offers advice on how to negotiate, the importance of mentoring and how to identify possible mentors, and the ability to have a meaningful career while still maintaining a personal life. Self-advocacy and self-confidence are both important skills to possess. Sandberg thinks that women still have a long way to go in achieving a stronger place at the higher levels of companies (only 21 women are in charge of Fortune 500 companies, and pay equity is lagging) and organizations but has encouraged women to have big dreams, steer through obstacles, and achieve their goals.

 

See also: Audiobook, eBook, and Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled Patrons) formats.

 

Please let us know what you think of the book after you have read it. Thank you.

Salute to International Women’s Day! Selected Biographies and Memoirs of Women

On March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day and Canadians and the Government of Canada are no exception. Toronto Public Library offers customers the opportunity to borrow materials of interest on a wide variety of topics, including biographies and memoirs of different people. As the list of accomplished and interesting individuals is extensive, it is possible to offer only a selected list of titles at a given time.

 

Agnes Macphail: champion of the underdog / Rachel Wyatt, 2000.

The first women elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1921 and one of the first two women elected to the Ontario Legislature, Agnes Macphail championed women’s equality, equal pay for work of equal value, prison reform, pensions, peace, and workers’ rights.

 

 

Alva Myrdal: the passionate mind / Yvonne Hirdman, 2008.

Social scientist Myrdal helped to develop Sweden’s welfare state, fostered educational innovations, promoted human rights, served as Sweden’s first female ambassador, and became a strong proponent of nuclear disarmament for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982.

 

 

Extraordinary, ordinary people: a memoir of family / Condoleezza Rice, 2010.

The former National Security Advisor and former Secretary of State of the George W. Bush administration looked back at her grandparents, her Presbyterian minister father and her teacher mother who instilled in Condoleezza the importance of education, and her own life up to the year 2000.

Also available in Audiobook, eAudiobook, and eBook formats.

 

 

The golden cage: three brothers, three choices, one destiny / Shīrīn ʻIbādī (Shirin Ebadi), 2011.

The Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner, lawyer, judge, and human rights activist was raised in an egalitarian family in which she was treated as an equal with her brothers. Her story intertwined with that of her best friend Pari. Ebadi related how Pari’s three brothers followed three different paths (supporting the Shah, becoming an extremist, and serving in the military) that destroyed that family’s fabric. One cannot help but feel sympathy for Pari, her mother, and women in general in the context of the day.

 

 

A great restlessness: the life and politics of Dorise Nielsen / Faith Johnston, 2006.

Dorise Nielsen was the only woman elected to Canada’s House of Commons in the 1940 general election as an Unity candidate (read: Communist). As a single parent, her family life suffered as she embarked upon a political career but strived to be both a good mother and a good revolutionary. Facing marginalization within the Labour Progressive Party by younger male colleagues, Nielsen emigrated to the People’s Republic of China in 1957.

 

 

The lady and the peacock: the life of Aung San Suu Kyi / Peter Popham, 2011.

Aung San Suu Kyi has shown remarkable courage in defying a military junta that placed her under house arrest and that refused to recognize the win of her National League for Democracy party in general elections in Burma in 1990. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner endured separation from her family, made all the more painful by the death of her English-born husband in 1999.

Also available in Chinese language.

 

 

Letters to my daughters: a memoir / Fawzia Koofi, 2011. Also available in eBook format.

Afghanistani politician Fawzia Koofi recounted the recent history of Afghanistan and the challenges placed upon it and its people by the Mujahedeen and the Taliban. Her politician father was murdered by the Mujahedeen so her illiterate mother took the family away with Fawzia encountering danger just to attend school as a youngster. Now as a politician, she fights injustice towards women and other people at considerable risk to herself.

 

 

Lillian Gilbreth: redefining domesticity / Julie Des Jardins , 2013.

Lillian Gilbreth was able to excel as both a mother and as an industrial engineer (specializing in home economics and domestic management) in the early twentieth century. She collaborated with husband Frank Gilbreth to offer a more humane version of F.W. Taylor’s principles of scientific management.

 

 

Marie Curie and her daughters: the private lives of science’s first family / Shelley Emling, 2012.

Polish-born Marie Curie’s wins of both the Nobel Prizes in Physics (with husband Pierre) and Chemistry speak for themselves as indicators of an accomplished scientist. However, her daughters were also accomplished individuals with Irene also a Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry (whose work contributed to the development of the atomic bomb) and Eve, a well-regarded humanitarian and journalist.

 

My sister Rosalind Franklin / Jenifer Glynn, 2012.

The untimely death of Rosalind Franklin in 1958 prevented her from becoming a Nobel Prize laureate but her contribution of X-ray diffraction images led to the identification of DNA by Francis Crick and James D. Watson and should not be downplayed.

 

 

Nancy: the story of Lady Astor / Adrian Fort, 2013.

Read this 2013 biography of American-born Nancy Astor who became Great Britain’s first woman Member of Parliament who served for 25 years in the House of Commons. Being friends with isolationist Charles Lindbergh detracted from Lady Astor’s and her husband’s image.

 

 

No higher honor: a memoir of my years in Washington / Condoleezza Rice, 2011.

Dr. Rice, an expert in Russian and East European affairs, served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State under United States President George W. Bush. She offered an accounting of current affairs and foreign policy from her lens, including the events and aftermath of 9/11.

Also available in eBook, eAudiobook, and eAudiobook formats.

 

 

Persuasion / Arlene Dickinson, 2011.

One of the Dragons on CBC’s Dragons' Den, Arlene Dickinson, a successful businesswoman, also recounted her earlier days when things were not going as well.

 

 

Seduced by logic: Émilie du Châtelet, Mary Somerville, and the Newtonian revolution / Robyn Arianrhod, 2012.

Read this dual biography of two outstanding women of science, Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749) and Mary Somerville (1780-1872), who understood the importance of Isaac Newton’s theories on gravity and what they did to validate them.

 

 

Unbowed: a memoir / Wangari Maathai, 2006.

Academic, conservationist, and political activist Wangari Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize over her efforts to establish the Green Belt Movement first in Kenya and later across Africa as a means of encouraging reforestation and helping rural women by paying them to plant trees in their surroundings. She became a Member of Parliament and an assistant Minister of the Environment in Kenya.

 

 

The white rose of Stalingrad: the real-life adventure of Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak, the highest scoring female air ace of all time / Bill Yenne, 2013.

Women served in active combat roles in the Soviet armed forces during World War Two. Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak was no exception and became an air ace during the battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943. She became a heroine for the Soviet media for a time until she went missing in action on August 1, 1943 for which she became a non-person. Her purported remains were found in 1979 and she was rehabilitated by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s.

   
 
 

Women in power: the personalities and leadership styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher / Blema S. Steinberg, 2008.

The author used psychological leadership studies and conventional personality assessments to frame the study of leadership using the three examples of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

 

Please share your thoughts on biographies and/or memoirs that you found to be interesting with us on the Albert Campbell District Blog.

Six Degrees of Separation (Library Edition)

This week, Hollywood actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, who have been married for 25 years, discovered that they're actually related: they're ninth cousins once removed.

Now, if you think about it, this really shouldn't come as much of a surprise. You might even expect them to be more closely related. After all, thanks to the the trivia game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," we know that everyone in Hollywood is connected to Kevin Bacon by no more than six people.

For example: Joseph Gordon-Levitt is two degrees removed from Bacon because Gordon-Levitt was in Killshot with Mickey Rourke, who was in Diner with Bacon. In fact, according to Google, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are actually removed by just one degree (they were both in Lemon Sky).

The "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game is based on the concept of "six degrees of separation" which was first put foward by the writer Frigyes Karinthy and later popularized by the play by John Guare. The basic idea behind the theory is that any person in the world can be connected to any other person in the world by six or fewer relationships. The concept has captured the imagination of those who work in the field of network theory and you can see its influence in popular social networking sites like LinkedIn and in Kevin Bacon's own charitable association SixDegrees.org.

I thought it would be fun to try out the "six degrees of separation" theory using items from the library's collections and see if I could connect something from our shelves back to itself in six moves. As a starting point, I chose one of my favourite movies, Adaptation. Want to play along? Here goes... 

 

 

1. Adaptation is a feature film adapted by Charlie Kaufman from Susan Orlean's non-fiction book The Orchid Thief. 

 

2.  The Orchid Thief is based on Orlean's article "Orchid Fever" which was originally published in The New Yorker.

3. The very first cover of The New Yorker featured a cartoon illustration of a satirical character, a fictional monocle-wearing dandy named Eustace Tilley, who was created by humourist Corey Ford. Ford also famously parodied another fictional monocle-wearing dandy, a sleuth named Philo Vance, who was created by S.S. Van Dine.  

  

 

4. S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance appeared in several of the author's once highly popular crime novels and was referred to by Raymond Chandler as "probably the most asinine character in detective fiction."

 

 

5. Raymond Chandler's noir novel The Big Sleep was made into a film starring Humphrey Bogart, who also starred in the film Casablanca.

 

 

6. Casablanca is screened on the final day of a popular three-day workshop conducted by Robert McKee, writing instructor and author of Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, whose persona, book, and workshop all appear in the film...you guessed it: Adaptation!

 

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