Over 50 students participated in the contest, celebrating President Obama's Proclamation naming October National Information Literacy Month. The questions, and their answers, are posted below:

QUESTION #1
Yano, Christine R. "Wink on Pink: Interpreting Japanese Cute as It Grabs the Global Headlines." The Journal of Asian Studies 68.3 (2009): 681-688.

IN which month was this issue of the Journal of Asian Studies published? August

IN the first sentence, Yano refers to a ‘mockumentary’: what is the title of that ‘mockumentary’ and when was it published? Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook, 2007

QUESTION #2
What is the first line of the article "Tender is the Night and History" by Robert Wexelblatt, published in the Fall 1990 issue of Essays in Literature? “Tender is the Night is thoroughly dipped in Fitzgerald’s historical imagination, and a peculiar imagination it is.”

QUESTION #3
The U.S. presidential election of 1860 had the second-highest voter turnout of all presidential elections.  What percentage of voters cast their ballots in the 1860 presidential election? 81.2%

Which presidential election (also in the 19th century) had the highest percentage of voter turnout?  1876 Hayes/Tilden

In the 1860 election, Pennsylvania's electoral votes went to Abraham Lincoln. 

What percentage of Pennsylvania's voters cast their ballot for Lincoln?  56%

And now, for the hard part--what percentage of Pennsylvania's voters turned out to vote (for any candidate) in the 1860 presidential election?  78.4%

*Hint: You may want to consult Tripod to find a source for United States historical statistics to answer these questions (particularly the last one).

QUESTION #4
While on her way to Biology 1 in the Science Center, a student was startled by a very large bird, resembling Woody Woodpecker, which flew out of the cherry tree in front of the Martin Building. Luckily, her Bio 1 professor is a bird specialist!  The professor suggested that all of the students keep an eye out for the bird, and, for bonus points, she encouraged the students to look up information about this bird, which is a pileated woodpecker. Using Tripod, find a source on birds of North America and look up information on the Pileated Woodpecker. Record what their major food source is.
Carpenter ants and woodboring beetle larvae

QUESTION #5
Word has gotten around to your extended family that you are a musician. Your Aunt is organizing cousin Sue’s wedding and she needs your help. She says to you, “Honey, when I was at my best friend’s daughter’s wedding last year, there was a singer who sang a tune by someone named Bach and I think it was about sheep. The prettiest little tune! Do you know the one I mean? Can you find me a CD with this song? I want to play it for Susie."

Title of CD in Swarthmore’s Collection: Stokowski’s Symphonic Bach
Library Location and Call Number: Underhill, CD 4496

 In addition to The New Yorker, Saunders’ work regularly appears in Harper’s , McSweeney’s, and GQ.

His short story collection, In Persuasion Nation, was a finalist for the 2007 The Story Prize. His other books and collections include CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia, and The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip.

His latest book, 2007’s The Braindead Megaphone, was called “a Mark Twain-syle shot in the arm for Americans, an antidote to the dumbing-down virus plaguing our country,” by Vanity Fair.

Want to take a look at the last page?  It's available here!

And for access to more information resources for Middle Eastern Studies, see the library's Subject Portal page on the subject!

Marilyn Nelson
Thursday, Oct. 29
7:30 p.m., Ely Room, Wyndham

Poet, translator, and three-time National Book Award finalist Marilyn Nelson is the author of twelve books, including The Homeplace, The Fields Of Praise: New And Selected Poems, Carver: A Life In Poems (a Newbery Honor Book), Fortune’s Bones, A Wreath For Emmett Till, and The Cachoiera Tales And Other Poems (finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award).

Poet Joyce S. Brown writes, “She is moral, loving, visionary … Reading her work is as much a lesson in history and in human nature as it is a lesson in poetry.”

This reading is made possible by the Jane Flanders Fund and the Marianne Moore Fund for the Study of Poetry.

Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday will be celebrated in McCabe Library with a reading of some of his grimmest, gloomiest and most gruesome tales on Wednesday, October 28th at 10pm.

Ikebana is a formal style of flower arrangement art dating back to medieval Japan.  The Sogetsu school emerged in the 20th century and incorporates modern style elements.  For this special campus exhibit, designs will focus on incorporating Trifoliate Orange (aka Hardy Orange) in the arrangements.  The displays will be of interest to students of Japanese art and culture. 

The exhibit is open to the public during regular library hours. See http://www.haverford.edu/library/  for library hours and contact hmckay@haverford.edu for more information.

The Creative Writing Program’s Reading Series is free and open to the public.

Named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next New Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most exciting and acclaimed playwrights in American drama today. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for the Broadway hit Topdog/Underdog and is a MacArthur “genius” award recipient.

In addition to Topdog/Underdog, Parks’ plays include In the Blood, Venus (a 1996 OBIE Award winner), The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom (the 1990 OBIE Award winner for Best New American Play), and The America Play.

Parks’ screenplays include Girl 6 and The Great Debaters. Her first novel is Getting Mother’s Body, and she has also written a musical, Ray Charles Live!

Be sure to bring them back on time, or else you will accrue penalty points which may have an effect on your privileges to borrow reserve items overnight.

The ensemble, Melody of China is coming to Swarthmore College on Friday, October 23rd to give a lecture demonstration and performance in Lang Concert Hall.  Want to check 'em out beforehand?  You can hear their work on this recording from Swarthmore's Underhill Library. 

Bryn Mawr: Go to the Library home page and click Off Campus Access under the menu at left. After logging in with your email account, you'll be brought to the Library's front page, from which you can navigate to the resources you need.

Haverford: Current Haverford faculty, students and staff may request an Off Campus VPN login account. With this account and the VPN client installed on your computer, you can access the Library's thousands of online journals and databases from anywhere in the world. Go to VPN at Haverford for more information about downloading the software and requesting an account.

Swarthmore: Click the Off Campus Access link on Tripod on the Library's web page, or just click here and enter your network username and password.