The Special Collections department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery at UMBC is pleased to be celebrating our Second Annual American Archives Month! Using UMBC's 45th anniversary as our starting point, we've put together several exhibits and resources for interested students, staff, and alumni to learn more about the past 45 years at UMBC:

• Exhibit installation on the 1st floor (Coming soon!): Stop by the 7th floor of Albin O. Kuhn Library and view an exhibit from the University Archives, "In the Archives: UMBC at 45." The exhibit will highlight the many types of materials collected by the University Archives as well as the varied groups, events, and stories documented within the materials. This exhibit will be installed on October 12, the first day of Homecoming.
• UMBC: An Evolution: Reprinted with permission from The Retriever Weekly, this ten part essay series documents the planning, development, and controversies of UMBC from 1955 to 1981. Originally written for UMBC's 15th anniversary in 1981, this student essay series reveals important historical facts about the establishment of our campus. It is also a great example of student research - something that has continued to be a key aspect of UMBC students' academic life.
• Book display: UMBC history is taking over the Reference department's monthly book display! This month you can browse (and check out) faculty publications from the early years of campus (circa 1965-1970) and current faculty publications (circa 2009-2011). The full list of books available is listed online. You can also browse all of UMBC's faculty/staff publication holdings through the Library catalog; using the UMBC-only catalog search, select "UMBC Faculty/Staff Publications" from the named collections drop-down menu.

We think this photo is painfully relevant to today’s young students and college graduates. Some people are protesting this kind of dispare: the movement to Occupy Wall Street.

Until recently, the protests of Occupy Wall Street has received sporadic news coverage since the they started on September 14th. Protesters blame a corporate media black out, though they have gotten some attention from internet news sources and social media.

Despite it’s member’s dedication, the Occupy-Wall-Streeters don’t seem to have a focused agenda.

(Whoops. Thats usually something you come up with in the pre-protest meeting.)

“Now that we’ve broken through its up to the people to decide where to take it and what demands to make,” said Vlad Teichberg a film maker who’s been documenting the protest.

It seems the people occupying Wall Street are true life rebels without a cause. They started off with broad list of complaints but have now honed them down to a slightly less broad list of complaints.

In their defense, the protests are slowly developing a cogent argument. They contend  the protesters, most Americans, and probably everyone reading this post are all part of the 99% (the remaining 1% being the rich elite). Their website We Are The 99 depicts people from all over the country voicing their frustrations.

As they put it:

“We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.”

While this is a lofty, and some would say noble, cause Occupy Wall Street and We Are The 99 still don’t have a pragmatic solution.

Does this hurt their credibility, or could some real action come of this?

courtesy of NYTimes.com

Homecomming Queen and champion field goal kicker? That kicks ass.

Say it aint so, Reagan would have endorsed ‘the Buffet rule’

Not how it’s supposed to work; contraception used in Africa may double risk of H.I.V