Jazz Appreciation Month 2014

April 2002 was the first Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) celebrated. In 2003, Congress passed Public Law 108-72 (SEC. 6) to commend the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History for establishing April as Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) and honoring "jazz as one of the greatest cultural exports of the United States."  Since then, governors of several states have issued annual proclamations declaring April to be Jazz Appreciation Month in their states. 


Similarly, the United States Council of Mayors, at their 81st Annual Meeting in June 2013, joined other organizations in resolving to celebrate the month of April as Jazz Appreciation Month and to designate April 30, 2014 as International Jazz Day.

In honor of this annual event, Library Services has dedicated a page of the Music Subject Guide to jazz. Click on the Jazz tab
--to link to videos from the Films on Demand streaming media collection
--to access a selection of print and e-book titles in ACC libraries 
--to explore links to resources.

Not a jazz fan?  Resources on the Jazz page may encourage you learn more about the art form the Smithsonian National Museum of American History has tagged, "Born in America. Enjoyed worldwide." Its importance as an American institution led the U.S. Postal Service to issue a Jazz Appreciation Forever Stamp in 2011. Learn more about Paul Rogers and the stamp design.

The Music Subject Guide can be found at: http://researchguides.austincc.edu/music

Take a look at the Jazz page and let us know what you think. 

Poetry

Poetry

April is quickly approaching, and that means National Poetry Month!

It is time to come out of hibernation and experience new beginnings as Spring emerges. ACC's rich databases contain all you need to begin your exploration of poetry.

Spring, the sweet spring

                                                                          BY THOMAS NASHE

Spring, the sweet spring, is the year’s pleasant king,

Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,

Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The palm and may make country houses gay,

Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,

And we hear aye birds tune this merry lay:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to-witta-woo!

The fields breathe sweet, the daisies kiss our feet,

Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,

In every street these tunes our ears do greet:

      Cuckoo, jug-jug, pu-we, to witta-woo!

            Spring, the sweet spring!

Find books filled with poems...

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Find books on how to write poetry...

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Need to do more than just read or write for pleasure? Visit one of our databases...

Twentieth-Century American Poetry 

This unparalleled collection includes 50,000 poems drawn from 750 volumes by over 300 poets, including Adrienne Rich, Andrei Codrescu, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, Wallace Stevens, Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Cathy Song.

Twentieth-Century English Poetry

A collection of more than 600 volumes of poetry by 283 poets from 1900 to the present day, including W.B. Yeats, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred Owen, Thom Gunn, Fleur Adcock, Paul Muldoon, Tony Harrison, Benjamin Zephaniah and Carol Ann Duffy, and incorporating the poets in The Faber Poetry Library.

Bloom's Literature

This resource contains more than 20,000 critical essays from over 500 literary journals and 2,300 scholarly and critical books, including 700 titles published byBloom's Literary Criticism andFacts On File. Also included in the database are more than 13,000 biographies, 45,000 character entries, 5,000 synopses of literary works and hundreds of images and videos.

Gale Literary Databases

This database allows you to key in the poet's name, title of work, birth year, death year, nationality, or subject/genre to search for information.

This and so much more is available at your fingertips (using your ACC eID). If you have questions or would like a librarian to assist you, please use the live chat function or visit one of the ACC libraries near you. Contact information can be found on the ACC Library home page.