CENSUS DATA ATLAS

Interested in census data? Visit the Government Documents department on the second floor of the University Library! We have recently acquired the Census Atlas of the United States: Census 2000 Special Reports, which enhances the data with colorful visual images. If you do not have time to come by the library, you can still view the book online: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS92179.

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY SUED BY PUBLISHERS

This is an important item for everyone involved in using electronic versions of copyrighted materials for their courses. Articles in The New York Times and The Chronicle of Higher Education discuss a lawsuit brought by publishers against Georgia State University. The lawsuit is directed at the university's creation and distribution of coursepacks.

JARED DIAMOND, AUTHOR OF GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL, TO SPEAK ON EARTH DAY

Dr. Jared Diamond, author of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel, will be the keynote speaker at the Alabama Environmental Education Consortium (ALEEC) Earth Day conference at Samford University Saturday, April 19.

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) professor will speak on lessons from the environmental collapse of societies. He wrote about this in his 2005 book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.

A prolific writer who speaks 12 languages, Diamond is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards for his books and scholarship. He has written on fields as diverse as molecular biology, linguistics, physiology, genetics, archeology and history.

The ALEEC conference-hosted by the Vulcan Materials Center for Environmental Stewardship and Education-is free and open to the public, beginning at 9 a.m. in Samford's Wright Center. Diamond will sign copies of his books at the close of the conference, as will two other authors also on the program.

Of special note: The library owns the DVD Guns Germs and Steel, a National Geographic production based on the book. It is on reserve at the University Library circulation desk.