Southwest Book Awards Announced
Date: January 20, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The Border Regional Library Association is pleased to announce the forty-first annual Southwest Book Awards. Since 1971, the awards have been presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year in any genre (e.g. fiction, nonfiction or reference) and directed toward any audience (scholarly, popular or children’s). Original video and audio materials are also considered.
The winners of the forty-first annual Southwest Book 
Awards are:
- Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary – Paintings and Works on Paper by Susie Kalil (TAMU Press, 2011).
- La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City by Lydia R. Otero (University of Arizona Press, 2011).
- The Jar of Severed Hands: The Spanish Deportation of Apache Prisoners of War, 1770 – 1810 by Mark Santiago (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).
- Randy Lopez Goes Home by Rudolfo Anaya (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).
- El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin edited by Molly Molloy and Charles Bowden (Nation Books, 2011).
- Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity by Glen Sample Ely (Texas Tech University Press, 2011).
- Wild Horses of the West: History and Politics of America’s Mustangs by J. Edward de Steiguer (University of Arizona Press, 2011).
- Working the Line by David Taylor (Radius Books, 2010).
Eligibility for this year’s Southwest Book Awards was based on five criteria:
- About the Southwest, defined as West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico.
- Appearing in book or non-print format for the first time.
- Published between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011.
- Of high quality, both in the context of the current year’s entries and in the existing body of Southwestern literature.
- Books which reflect and interpret the Southwest. A scholarly work must make a well documented contribution to scholarship in some aspect of Southwestern history or culture. Other nonfiction works should make reliable information accessible to the general reader. Poetry and fiction must reflect Southwestern culture and/or be set in the southwest.
The Southwest Book Awards, as well as awards for Librarian of the Year and Library Staff Person of the Year, will be presented at the Border Regional Library Association Awards Banquet being held at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing on Saturday, February 25, 2012, beginning at 6 p.m. The cost is $30 and reservations must be made and paid for by Monday, February 20. The public is welcome.
The Border Regional Library Association (BRLA) is an organization founded in 1966 for the promotion of library service and librarianship in the El Paso/Las Cruces/Juárez region. Current membership includes over one hundred librarians, paraprofessionals, media specialists and library friends and trustees from all types of libraries in the tri-state area of Trans-Pecos Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua.
Librarians and information specialists find that the organization provides a forum for local issues, which impact the future of all types of libraries in the region. BRLA also serves as a support group to promote libraries as important educational and cultural institutions, which have a direct impact on communities and democratic action. Annual dues are low in cost but high in rewarding returns. BRLA welcomes and encourages membership and involvement.
For more information please contact John Sandstrom, the Acquisitions Librarian at the New Mexico State University Library, at (575) 646-8093 or jsand713@nmsu.edu.
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Take a Tour at the NMSU Library
Date: January 18, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
Do you know where to go for help with a research paper? Or how to get books from libraries all over the world? Or where to browse DVDs, CDs, and current magazines?
Students Tour the Library
According to NMSU Library Reference Assistant Wendy Simpson, the Library is a complex place, and many people do not know about the many useful resources that are available.
Students, faculty and staff are invited to join the Library staff for a forty-minute tour of both NMSU Library buildings. It is not necessary to sign up in advance. In addition to seeing highlights of services and collections, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Tours will begin at the Information Desk at Zuhl Library on the following dates and times:
- Wednesday, February 1 11:30 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.
- Wednesday, February 1 12:30 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.
- Thursday, February 2 11:00 a.m. to 11:40 a.m.
- Monday, February 6 10:30 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.
- Tuesday, February 7 1:00 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
- Thursday, February 9 3:00 p.m. to 3:40 p.m.
- Friday, February 10 9:30 a.m. to 10:10 a.m.
Individual tours can also be arranged. Students can get a certificate of attendance that instructors may count toward extra credit.
For more information, contact Simpson at (575) 646-4129, the Information Desk at (575) 646-5792 or visit http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/tours.shtml.
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Molloy Book Wins Southwest Book Award
Date: January 6, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The book El Sicario: The Autobiography of a Mexican Assassin, co-edited by New Mexico State University librarian Molly Molloy and journalist Charles Bowden, has been selected to receive a Southwest Book Award, sponsored by the Border Regional Library Association (BRLA). Since 1971, the awards have been presented in recognition of outstanding books about the Southwest published each year in any genre.
Border Regional Library Association
The book is based on interviews with a hit man who kidnapped, tortured and murdered people for the Mexican drug industry for twenty years. El Sicario tells his story as a cautionary tale. Now a fugitive, he does not ask society to forgive him, but feels that he must do what he can do earn God’s forgiveness.
Bowden first encountered El Sicario while writing his book Murder City (Nation Books, 2010). As trust between the men developed, Bowden bore witness to El Sicario’s unfolding confession in an article in Harper’s Magazine, followed by an award-winning film, El Sicario Room 164 by Gianfranco Rosi, that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Molloy, the NMSU Library’s Latin American and Border Studies Librarian, translated the interviews and was instrumental in turning the transcripts into the book El Sicario (Nation Books, 2011). The book is available at the NMSU Library, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.
Molloy is known for her work with the online Frontera List at http://groups.google.com/group/frontera-list/topics. In the absence of an official count, she has taken on the task of keeping and reporting statistics obtained from newspaper reports on the daily and cumulative count of the murders in Mexico’s deadliest city, Ciudad Juárez.
Books eligible for the Southwest Book Awards must reflect and interpret the Southwest, defined as West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and northern Mexico. They must appear in book or non-print format for the first time, and must be of high quality, both in the context of the current year’s entries and in the existing body of Southwestern literature. A scholarly work must make a well-documented contribution to scholarship in some aspect of Southwestern history or culture. Other nonfiction works should make reliable information accessible to the general reader. Poetry and fiction must reflect Southwestern culture and/or be set in the southwest.
A full list of 2011 Southwest Book Awards is available at http://brla.info/swba11.shtml. The awards will be presented at the Border Regional Library Association Awards Banquet on Saturday, February 25, in El Paso. The public is welcome. Banquet information and registration forms are available at http://brla.info/banquetreg.htm. Please make reservations by Monday, February 20.
For more information, contact Molloy at (575) 646-6931.
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Researcher Molly Molloy to Present Program on Censorship
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
The New Mexico State University Library announces the second program in a Speakers Series on Censorship that is running throughout October.
Molly Molloy
NMSU researcher and Latin American & Border Studies Librarian Molly Molloy will discuss “The Shifting Realities of Mexico’s ‘Drug War’ Death Toll: Will We Ever Know How Many Have Died?” The presentation will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday, October 10, on the fourth floor of NMSU’s Branson Library.
Also featured in the series are El Paso poet and publisher Bobby Byrd on October 17 and author Alex Sanchez on October 24.
The series of presentations continues the celebration of Banned Books Week, an annual national event sponsored by the Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. Banned Books Week stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.
For more information, visit http://lib.nmsu.edu or contact Ingrid Schneider at (575) 646-4707 or ingschne@lib.nmsu.edu.
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October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month
Date: September 29, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. In today’s digital world, people who are information literate know how to find, access and critically evaluate information to improve their health, their environment, their education and their workplace performance.
Having that skill set empowers them to interpret and make informed decisions about their lives, taking more responsibility for their own individual welfare and that of the nation.
As a result, the National Forum for Information Literacy recognizes information literacy as a key 21st century skill set required for successful educational and workforce preparation. Information literacy empowers learners and workers to become informed decision makers by utilizing diverse methods and strategies to find, evaluate, assess and use effectively information from a variety of sources. These are the lifelong learning skills needed by all people to live responsibly and work efficiently in today’s information society.
Read more about National Information Literacy Month at http://infolit.org/national-information-literacy-awareness-month/.
The NMSU Library works to build information literacy skills at the local level. Visit http://lib.nmsu.edu/depts/reference/instruction.shtml to learn more about the Library Instruction Program, including the Library’s Lib 311 Information Literacy for-credit course. For more information, contact Instruction Coordinator Theresa Westbrock at (575) 646-3079.
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