Fall 2011 Speaker @ the Center Line Up of Author Talks

The South Carolina State Library’s Center for the Book, in cooperation with USC Press, is pleased to announce its fall 2011 author line up.  The Speaker @ the Center program will hold free lunchtime author talks on the following dates:

Thursday, August 25 – Philip G. Grose, Looking for Utopia: The Life and Times of John C. West. The first biography of this visionary South Carolina governor and stalwart ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Thursday, September 8 – Robert M. Weir, Captured at Kings Mountain: The Diary of Uzal Johnson, a Loyalist Surgeon. A Loyalist perspective on social, medical, and military aspects of the American Revolution.

Tuesday, October 25 – Tara Mitchell Mielnik, New Deal, New Landscape: The Civilian Conservation Corps and South Carolina’s State Parks. A history of the New Deal program that led to the creation of South Carolina’s first sixteen state parks.

Thursday, November 3 – Allen H. Stokes, The Kohn-Hennig Library: A Catalog. A guide to a monumental collection of South Caroliniana and a tribute to its devoted collectors.

Thursday, December 8 – Walter Edgar, South Carolina in the Modern Age. A nuanced view of the Palmetto State in the twentieth century as written by the state’s leading historian.

Books will be available for purchase and autographing. All programs will take place from noon to 1pm in the Administration Building at the SC State Library located at 1430 Senate St., Columbia. Speaker @ the Center is FREE and open to the public. Bring your lunch and enjoy learning more about South Carolina.

The South Carolina Center for the Book is the South Carolina Affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book and is a cooperative project of the South Carolina State Library, the University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science, and The Humanities Council^SC.

Equity of Access to Information: A Comparative Exploration of Library Accessibility and Information Access from Differently-Able Patrons’ Perspectives

Clayton Copeland is a doctoral candidate in the School of Library & Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Samantha Hastings is the chair of her dissertation committee.

Ms. Clayton’s research, Equity of Access to Information: A Comparative Exploration of Library Accessibility and Information Access from Differently-Able Patrons’ Perspectives, focuses on the perceptions of differently-able public library users compared to typically-able library users on matters of equity of information access. The purpose of this study is to explore patron experiences and complete a comparative analysis of information access, library services, and accessibility in our nation’s information centers. Participants may be either differently-able (identify as having a disability) or typically-able (identify as not having a disability). The study will analyze participants’  “lived experiences” in libraries to illuminate the realities of library accessibility and access to information.

Ms. Clayton has developed a survey. Click here to take the survey. If you have any questions, you can email them or call 803-351-8095.

Participation in this study is completely voluntary. You may decide not to participate in the study at any time or may elect to not answer specific questions posed to you. Additionally, you may be assured that, to every extent possible, your participation is confidential.

Contact information:

Ms. Clayton A. Copeland

School of Library and Information Science

University of South Carolina

1501 Greene Street (Davis College)

Columbia, SC 29208