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Homework Help: Art, Music, and Literature.

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Need a little help finding what you’re looking for? The Robins AFB Library would like to provide you with a few resources suitable for students of all ages to help you get started.

Here are some links, resources, and interesting sites pertaining to the Arts…

The U. S. Copyright Office – The rules, forms, and instructions for how to file for a copyright. And a database you can search for registered copyrights.

The Copyright Primer – An interactive tutorial that serves as a nice introduction to the issues and laws concerning copyright ownership and the uses of information.

When Works Pass Into The Public Domain – A handy cheat sheet provided by the University of North Carolina to help determine if a work has passed into the public domain.

Copyright Terms and the Public Domain – Just as it says, an extremely comprehensive chart for understanding when a work will pass into the public domain, including a timeline and terminology.

Art:

Artcyclopedia – Users can search database by artist, artwork, movement, medium, or nationality to find information about that work of art as well biography and news about the artist.

ArtLex Art Dictionary – Featuring over 3,600 terms and their definitions used in discussing/reviewing art/visual culture, as well as thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, quotations, and references.

The Artist’s Toolkit – Providing the basic concepts of art appreciation and creating art.

The Smithsonian Institute – The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and nine research facilities.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Established in 1870, the Met has over 2 million works of art from all over the globe, from ancient times to modern, in its permanent collection, and almost 7,000 of them can be viewed online.

The Museum of Modern Art – MoMA offers an unparalleled overview of modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, as well as drawings, paintings, photography, sculpture, film, electronic media, as well as papers and files on individual artists.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts – The website for the only museum in the world exclusively dedicated to recognizing the contributions of female artists.

Arts Edge – A free digital resource to help teaching and learning about the arts, as well as offering materials that help to creatively use technology as a way to integrate the arts into other academic fields. Provided by the Kennedy Center.

Film & Television:

The Internet Movie Database – The IMDB is one of the greatest resources available online. You can search for movies and TV shows by title, cast/crew and character information. A great spot for determining all the above information plus runtime, genre, cast overview, year of release, plot overview. Also provides links to user and professional critic reviews, among many other cool features.

Rotten Tomatoes – A top resource for keeping track of information about movie and DVD releases, and finding dependable critical reviews from the nation’s top print and online film critics.

Teen Movie Critic – Reviews of films for teens written by teens.

Backstage – a great online resource for actors, providing insides, advice, and casting news.

The Oscars – The homepage for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Motion picture/film lessons and resources – A very comprehensive set of links, provided by the Media Literacy Clearinghouse.

TV.com – Providing recaps, episode guides, cast bios, and schedule listings for your favorite shows.

The Movie Spoiler – Called “the most fun you can have at the movies without being there.” Provides detailed synopsizes of films.

Television Without Pity – Extremely humorous and snarky recaps, spoilers, and message boards centered around your favorite shows.

Hulu – Speaking of your favorite shows, never miss an episode and watch in streaming video. Some content free, with time limits, and partially subscription-based.

Memory Alpha – An extremely detailed and comprehensive wiki for all things Star Trek.

The Movie Cliches List – A humorous list of stereotypes and flaws in logic constantly recurring in movies.

Performing Arts:

Performing Arts Encyclopedia – A guide to the music, theater, and dance resources, collections, and exhibitions available through the Library Of Congress.

The Monologue Archive – A nice collection of monologues from many famous playwrights, as well as a very hand set of theatrical and dramatic links.

The Costume Page – Extensive online resources dealing with the art and history of costuming for live dramatic theater, dance performances, opera, sports, as well as film and television.

NPR’s Performing Arts page – A nice collection of links to stories and interviews dealing with actors, dramatists, and the theater, as well as audio archives for stories about the performing arts on National Public Radio.

The Internet Broadway Database – Similar to the IMDB, but an archive of Broadway theater information, providing interesting facts and statistics about different productions.

Dramatist Play Service – A subscription database that lets users search and browse plays by their title and author, buy books, and purchase rights. Represents both new and established playwrights.

Warner Robins Little Theatre – Local community theater house/company who has been entertaining central Georgia for almost 50 years.

The Perry Players Community Theatre – Located in beautiful downtown Perry, this community theater house/company has been providing high quality entertainment and cultural activies for the past 30 years.

National Forensic League – The NFL promotes debate, oratory, and public speaking for high school and middle school students as a means of helping them to become effective communicators and ethical individuals and to develop strong critical thinking.

Music:

Pandora – Create an online streaming radio station based on songs, genres, eras, or artists. Completely free and also available as an app.

Last.fm – Free streaming radio and also lets you effortlessly track what you listen to from any player or device and recommends more music and artists to you based on your taste.

8 Tracks – Create your own streaming radio station or playlist, share with your friends, or listen to station and playlists from users from around the world.

Playlist.com – Listen to songs, build a playlist, and share with your friends around the world via all of your favorite social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, etc.

Art of the Mix – Devoted to the art form that is making a good mix tape or CD. Read thousands of others’ track lists and share your own.

The Public Domain Information Project – Information on and searchable database for songs and music in the public domain.

All Music Guide – A comprehensive listing of music information, and great for finding any song, artist, album, or genre.

Ultimate band list – As advertised, you can probably find information on any band or group here.

Song Facts – Search by artist, song title, or genre, and find fascinating music trivia, song meanings, behind the scenes info, and lyrics.

Song Meanings – Lyrics to your favorite songs, as well community provided stories about what they mean to others, and allowing you to share what a particular song means to you.

Lyrics World – Search for the lyrics from your favorite songs, provided in an alphabetical list.

The Archive of Misheard Lyrics – Check out common and commonly hilarious misconceptions in song lyrics.

From The Top – Offering education events as well as a showcase of America’s best young musicians. Also a show on both NPR and PBS.

All About Jazz – A very informative advocacy website for Jazz enthusiasts, dedicated to raising awareness of jazz music as well as defining it, and providing reviews and history of jazz artists.

Music Theory – An interactive website that provides less, exercises, and tools for learning musical theory.

Pollstar – A nice resource for tracking touring information and concert reviews for your favorite bands and artists.

Billboard – The online site for Billboard magazine, which provides daily music news, reviews, and chart reports, as well as much more.

Rolling Stone – The online site for Rolling Stone magazine, which offers primarily features and reviews of music, as well as covering subjects such as film, television, and politics.

Literature:

The Hub – A blog from YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, a part of the American Library Association (ALA). “Your connection to Teen Reads.”

The Newbery Medal homepage – Information and a list of winners for the annual John Newbery Medal, which recognizes distinguished contributions to American literature for children and young adults.

Bartelby – The online literature project offers classic works of fiction and poetry, along with verses and references, for free.

Project Gutenberg – Providing over 38,000 classic works of literature as free ebooks, available for download for just about every device, or readable online.

Spark Notes – Providing study guides and plot summaries to classic works of fiction, as well as resources to help study for tests and prepare for college.

60 Second Recap – An educational video project providing short, interesting video summaries of classic literature titles as well as contemporary titles.

Shmoop – Offering literature learning guides and teach resources, and showing students how writing and learning and more relevant than ever in the digital age.

Free Book Notes – A search engine for literary study guides, pulling from Cliffs Notes, Spark Notes, BookRags, and Wiki summaries, and many others.

Book-A-Minute Classics – A very cool, very fun site that summarizes large works of literature into just a few sentences.

The Shakespeare Web – News and reviews of the Bard and productions of his work.

Shakespearean Insult Generator – Randomly returns insults from the Bard’s works. Fun for you, your friends, and your teachers.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare – An online catalog of all of Shakespeare’s plays and poetry, free to read online.

The Jane Austen info page – Contains a hypertext version of Pride And Prejudice, as well as excerpts from Austen’s other novels as well as literary criticism.

The Jack London online collection – A nice resource featuring the novels, short stories, and letters of the famous author, as well as images, bibliographies, and literary criticism.

Literary Criticism resources – Provided by the Internet Public Library, this is an extensive and wide ranging collection of links to critical and biographical websites about authors and their works

Encylopedia Mythica – A searchable database of detailed information about gods and goddesses from both ancient and some modern religions.

Poetry 180 – A poem a day (for the 180 days of a school year) for American high schools, provided by the Library of Congress.

No Flying, No Tights – A nice blog providing reviews for comic books, graphic novels, anime, and manga.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund – The CBLDF is an organization designed to protect the First Amendment rights of creators of comic books and graphic novels, as well as their publishers and retailers.

Favorite Teen Angst books – Celebrating and reviewing books about teenage angst and personal discovery.

YA books in series and sequels – A nice searchable database that helps you keep track of the books in your favorite series.

Rutgers – A vast collection of literary resources from around the internet, provided by Rutgers University.

Geek The Library – A library advocacy site presented by OCLC, the Online Computer Library Center.

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Blogs and websites by authors:

Laurie Halse Anderson.

Jay Asher.

Holly Black.

Libba Bray.

Meg Cabot.

Rachel Cohn.

Melissa De La Cruz.

Sarah Dessen.

Neil Gaiman.

John Green.

Brent Hartinger.

John Hodgman.

Maureen Johnson.

Justine Larbalestier.

David Leviathan.

Carolyn Mackler.

Jaclyn Moriarty.

Daniel Nayeri.

James Patterson.

J. K. Rowling.

Sara Shepard.

Ned Vizzini.

Scott Westerfeld.

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Are we missing something? Please let us know!

For other subjects and resources please see our main Homework Help page.

Author quotes: Discrimination, discovery, and freedom.

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As I said last week, when you’ve set out to share great quotes from wonderful authors with the world, then it’s nice to be doing so from a library, where there is never a shortage of such unique and talented voices, with such wisdom to share. And today I didn’t want to limit myself to just one voice, so today we are going to hear from three of American literature’s finest…

First we have a nice perspective from one of the writers at the center of the Harlem Renaissance:

“Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It is beyond me.”

-Zora Neale Hurston, from “How It Feels To Be Colored Me,” an essay which appeared in The World Tomorrow in May, 1928.

Next we have a quote from a novel that not only changed what people could expect from an African American protagonist, but also from an African American novelist:

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.”

-Ralph Ellison, from his famous 1952 novel, Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953.

Our last quote for today comes from a writer who only wrote one novel in her lifetime, but it was an amazing novel:

“I think there’s just one kind of folks: folks.”

-Harper Lee, from her famous novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, 1960. Lee is, of course, pictured above, with her friend, Truman Capote, her childhood schoolmate, neighbor, and best friend.

Elsewhere on the internet:

It’s important to note that both Invisible Man and To Kill A Mockingbird are on The Modern Library’s list of 100 Best Novels, a nice list of the best novels written in the English language in the twentieth century.

It’s also important to note that Invisible Man, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Their Eyes Were Watching God are all on Time magazine’s list of the 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

The New York Times’ review of Invisible Man.

Saul Bellow’s review of Invisible Man.

A podcast about Ralph Ellison, and how his works are still being taught today, from Voices Of America.

An interview with Ralph Ellison in The Paris Review.

To Kill A Mockingbird: A historical perspective.

Harper Lee was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

To Kill A Mockingbird was named the UK’s most beloved book last year.

The mystery of Harper Lee.

Harper Lee made a rare written appearance in 2006, writing an open letter to Oprah Winfrey in O magazine.

The official website of Zora Neale Hurston.

Study guides for Their Eyes Were Watching God at both Grade Saver and Shmoop.

An interview with Zora Neale Hurston about her research into actual zombies in Haiti.

An in depth biography of Zora Neale Hurston from Gale.

At the library we have quite a few books both by Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Harper Lee, and about them. To Kill A Mockingbird and Their Eyes Were Watching God are always popular, partially because students get assignments involving them every year, so I’m glad that we have those books, as well as quite a few volumes of literary criticism about their authors, but I wish more people would come in asking about Ralph Ellison. Either way, there’s a reason that all three of these authors and their works are considered classics and I hope you’ll come and check them out.

New and Featured Books for 01/27/2012:

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It’s a brand new year! So come and check out these and some of the other new books and materials (or at least new to us) added to our library collection…

FICTION:

Chew, vol. 1: Taster’s Choice by John Layman and illustrated by Rob Guillory

Machine Man by Max Barry

Hark! A Vagrant, writen and illustrated by Kate Beaton

If I had only one word to describe this book it would be simply: “Brilliant.” If you allowed me a second word I’d also add: “Fun!” Kate Beaton’s webcomic is one of my favorite spots to check out on the internet and this collection of some of her strips was easily one of my own personal most highly anticipated books of last year. I would highly recommend that you check out this gloriously fun spin of history and literature. For example:

The Hunter by John T. Lescroart

American Fantastic Tales: Terror And The Uncanny From Poe To The Pulps, edited by Peter Straub

and

American Fantastic Tales: Terror And The Uncanny From The 1940s To Now, edited by Peter Straub

This is a very exciting looking two volume set featuring amazing short fiction from authors like Kate Chopin, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, Willa Cather, Truman Capote, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, Michael Chabon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Ray Bradbury, Vladimir Nabokov, and Edith Wharton, amongst many others. Perfect for the dark and stormy night that any lover of American fiction craves.

The Jaguar by T. Jefferson Parker

Love In A Nutshell by Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Believing The Lie by Elizabeth George

Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell

NON-FICTION:

Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age Of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses & Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting The Rules by Pamela Haag

I Know Who You Are And I Saw What You Did: Social Networks And The Death Of Privacy by Lori Andrews

Your personal information is violated constantly and the law can’t seem to keep up with the changing demands and capabilities of new technology, all of which makes this a fascinating read about the way our “IRL” selves and our digital selves can be harmed by one another, and usually without us knowing it.

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View Of The Search For God by Carl Sagan

The Roots Of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, And The Battle For The Soul Of The Republican Party by Michael Bowen

Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story Of A Financial Legend by Mitchell Zuckoff

Bottom Of The 33rd: Hope, Redemption, And Baseball’s Longest Game by Dan Barry

The Amazing Story Of Quantum Mechanics: A Math-Free Exploration Of The Science That Made Our World by James Kakalios

A book about something so awesome that’s written for the rest of us. How could you pass this up? Definitely worth a look if the subject interests you but you could do without all that intimidating math nonsense. Plus, it’s got the word “Amazing” in the title and a really cool cover, right?

Kennedy v. Nixon: The Presidential Election Of 1960 by Edmund F. Kallina Jr.

Our Fathers, Ourselves: Daughters, Fathers, And The Changing American Family by Peggy Drexler

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Please note that books could be checked out between the time they end up on the blog and when you come to check them out. If you don’t see the items you’re looking for then please come up to the front desk and we’ll put your name on the reserve list for when the item returns.

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Previous New/Featured books:

12/27/11.

12/23/11.

12/19/11.

12/17/11.

12/16/11.

12/15/11.