The 2007-2008 academic year schedule for the Friends of the UNCG Libraries' popular Book Discussion Series has been announced. UNCG faculty members lead most discussions, which are free and open to the public but are limited to 35 participants. Preference is given to Friends of the Library members who pre-register. All programs are held in the Hodges Reading Room on the second floor of Jackson Library.The Friends of the Libraries Book Discussion Group will be hosting four readings during this academic year:
Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 After This by Alice McDermott
Monday, Jan. 28, 2007 Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
Monday, March 31, 2008 Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
- Looking at the American Presidency Series aims to engage students, faculty, and the community in examining the presidency during the current election cycle -- not just with sound bites and commercials, but with thoughtful and civil discourse on what the office of the president has meant historically and how it functions today. The series features renowned authors, political scientists and historians from across the country. All events are free and open to the public. Please visit the series website for more information.
- Veteran Prize-winning journalist Gene Roberts will be the featured speaker at the Friends of the UNCG Libraries Annual Dinner on Wednesday, April 16, 2008. Robert is the co-author of The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle, and The Awakening of a Nation, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History. The evening will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by a seated dinner. The program will begin at 8 p.m. Tickets for the dinner and the program are now on sale from the UNCG Box Office by calling 336-334-4849. Table sponsorships are also available by calling Linda Burr, Director of Development, at 336-256-0184.
- Author Jill McCorkle will be present for the Friends of the Library annual dinner Tuesday, April 3, 2007 at 6 p.m. Cone Ballroom, Elliott University Center. Admission charged; tickets go on sale in January from the UNCG Box Office, 336-334-4849.
- Author Ron Rash to Read From The World Made Straight: Ron Rash, prize-winning author and professor of Appalachian Studies at Western Carolina University, will read from his work in a special appearance at UNCG on Tuesday, February 20 at 7 p.m. in the Claxton Room of the Elliott University Center. Rash’s visit is made possible through collaboration between the University Libraries, the Historical Book Club, the Friends of the UNCG Libraries, and the MFA Writing Program. Rash grew up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and graduated from Gardner-Webb College and Clemson University. In 2001 he won the Novella Festival Novel Award and in 2002 was awarded Foreword Magazine’s Gold Medal in Literary Fiction for his novel One Foot in Eden. The novel was named Appalachian Book of the Year. His In 2005 his novel Saints at the River was named Fiction Book of the Year by both the Southern Book Critics Circle and the Southeastern Booksellers Association. In 2005 he also won an O. Henry award for his story “Speckled Trout.” His poetry and fiction have appeared in over one hundred journals, magazines, and anthologies.
- Looking at Jazz, America's Art Form: The Music Library, the UNCG Jazz Studies Program, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum are sponsoring a series of programs based on the documentary film series "Looking at Jazz, America's Art Form." Each program will include a screening of a film in the series, as well as a discussion and performance by students and faculty in the Jazz Studies program. All programs are free and open to the public. The series is supported with a grant from the American Library Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Video Resources and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
- An Afternoon with Paul Laurence Dunbar: Mitch Capel will perform as Paul Laurence Dunbar during the opening of our exhibit celebrating Dunbar's legacy on Wednesday, February 7. The performance will start at 4 p.m. in the Cone Ballroom C of the Elliott University Center. We will exhibit Richard Levy's Dunbar Collection through March 7 in the Hodges Reading Room of the Jackson Library. The event is co-sponsored with the Center for Creative Writing in the Arts and is free and open to the public.
- Exhibit: "Luther Hodges: The International Legacy of a North Carolina Statesman." Hodges Reading Room and Second Floor Lobby, Jackson Library, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. Free and open to the public. September 13, 2006—December 1, 2006
- The Book Lover's Road Show with Jack Walsdorf
- The most recent Friends of the UNCG Libraries Dinner with Leonard Pitts, Jr.
- Annual Meeting Speakers, 1959-: The Friends of the UNCG Libraries has invited prominent speakers to campus since 1959 to address the members and guests
at an annual dinner
- Friends of the Library Book Discussion Group
- Literary Landmark Award from Friends of Libraries USA
- Millionth Volume for UNCG: UNCG acquired a first edition of William Blake's Illustrations of the Book
of Job as the one-millionth volume
for its Library. The book was formally presented to the University as part of
the Founder's Day ceremonies on October 1, 2001.
Schedule of Events
William Blake Dreamer
of Dreams Exhibit
Donors
Background information about the Millionth Volume (PDF)
- Great Books by Great Women: In 1999, Jackson Library initiated a series
of programs highlighting the work of great women authors, and produced a list
of 50 such works selected by a committee of the Library faculty and staff
from nominations submitted from faculty, students, Friends members and the
general community.
1999
- List of Fifty Great Books by Great Women
2000 - Why Do Women Love Little Women?
2001 - A Celebration of Emily Dickinson
2002 - Toni Morrison and the American Myth
Other Recent Programs
Friends of the UNCG Libraries sponsors other programs for the benefit of its members, the
University and Piedmont Triad community. Among these have been:
Documentary Film: Beyond
the Wall, with discussion following with filmmaker Dr. Gorham Kindem Tuesday,
September 27, 2005
Reading by Michael
Parker, September 21, 2005
An Evening with Margaret
Maron, Monday, September 19, 2005
Poetry reading in honor of Evalyn Pierpoint Gill, March 5, 2005, Cone Ballroom,
Elliott University Center
Reception marking the exhibit, North Carolina Writers: a Photographer's
Odyssey featuring the photographs of Jan Hensley, February 10, 2005
John May, author of Poe & Fanny, August 25, 2004 (PDF)
Burke Davis, member of the North Carolina Literary
Hall of Fame, March 23, 2004 (PDF)
Allen Trelease, author of Making North Carolina
Literate: The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, From Normal
School to Metropolitan University, February 9, 2004
The Polish Experience During
World War II, September 12, 2001
Ned Cline, author of Adding Value,
the Joseph M. Bryan Story, December 6, 2000
