Friday, October 2, 2009

The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection

The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection was founded in 1966 by Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond who taught children's literature in the School of Library Science at the University of Southern Mississippi. The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection is now one of North America's leading research centers in children's literature with a strong emphasis on American and British children's literature. The collection includes original scripts and illustrations of over 1,200 authors and illustrators and more than 100,000 books dating as early as 1530. The collection highlights include but are not limited to: Ezra Jack Keats, African American Collection, Fairy Tales and Folk tales, Fables, Mississippi Authors, and more. The de Grummond Collection is held at the University of Southern Mississippi as part of the Special Collections.

The link to the Southern Miss de Grummond Children's Literature Collection is: http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/

Kudos to the Writing Center!

The University of Southern Mississippi's Writing Center offers free access for USM students to individualized assistance with writing assignments of all types in any course. Students can receive help at any level of the writing process whether that be brainstorming, outlining, thesis development, or proofreading development. The Writing Center is located on the first floor of Cook Library in Information Services.

I want to take an opportunity to share the experiences I have had with the Writing Center here on campus. I was recently assigned a 3-4 page paper in my World Literature course on a close reading analysis of a poem. I sought help from the Writing Center twice before the paper was due. During my first appointment, we brainstormed on ideas, constructed a rough thesis, and completed an outline. This was extremely helpful in establishing my argument. During my second appointment, we discussed how to do a close reading on a couple of passages in the poem. This helped me to compile evidence to support my argument.

I am happy to announce that I received an "A" on this first paper for the semester. I encourage all students to seek assistance at the Writing Center because it has helped me receive better grades, produce stronger papers, and enhance my writing skills across the board.

The link to USM's Writing Center: http://www.usm.edu/writingcenter/