Murray State University Libraries and Director Adam Murray

I’ve been looking into my alma mater recently.  I like to see that education and libraries are improving in this area, and MSU is making my day.  Adam Murray took over as director fairly recently at the Murray State Libraries.  He’s got praises from the ALA for his work.  He’s also got some great ideas and cares about how to reach the students and their information needs.  He gave an interview last year that was positive and informative.  He’s also spent time reaching out to local public libraries in order to build relationships and foster improved understanding. 

This is really awesome stuff.  I’m a library geek, so some of you may be shaking your heads at me right now.  It just seems rare to find passion in education and information literacy.  I think Murray State is on an upswing right now as far as these things go.  It’s an awesome time.

A Positive Note on Western Kentucky

I wanted to post something positive about my area and my alma mater, Murray State University.  After my Ben Stein post, I’m sure some readers are saying to themselves, “Why the hell doesn’t she just move?”  If my job hunt moves me out of the Western Kentucky area, so be it.  If it keeps me here, that’s ok too.  I’m not picky at this point, and Western KY isn’t a bad place.  There are some educational issues and critical thinking failings, but that happens everywhere.  

So, I thought I’d post some interesting links highlighting the area’s good points.  First up is one of my absolute favorite places, LBL.  That’s Land Between the Lakes to you non-locals.  The US Forest Service has authority over it now.  It’s a piece of land located between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.  I’ve lived on one or the other of those lakes throughout much of my life.  My father worked for the Ky State Park System while I was growing up, so I’m a park brat.  Most of our time was spent in Western Kentucky on the lakes.  My mother’s house overlooks the Kentucky Lake side of LBL, which makes for a lovely view.

LBL and the parks offer a lot of interesting educational and recreational opportunities.  I love hiking in LBL and fossil hunting (mostly crinoids and other Mississippian fossils).  My husband and I also spent most of our dates (many many moons ago) in LBL and go back as often as we can.  We’re planning on taking my mother fossil hunting when the weather warms up.  It’s also a great place to take your pets.

Land is also not outrageously priced in parts of Western Ky, so if we end up staying around here I plan on buying several acres and gardening to my heart’s content.  It is a decent area for gardening and fishing and sitting on your porch drinking a beer.  The humidity kills in the summer, but we don’t get the crazy winters the Northern states are experiencing at the moment (most of the time).      

We also have a couple skeptic groups popping up in Western KY (including one at Murray State University), which makes me a very happy monkey. 

Ben Stein at Murray State University in Kentucky

I know it’s been about a month since this happened, but I have to say something.  It’s been eating at me, and I can’t keep my mouth shut.  Ben Stein gave a lecture in early February at Murray State University.  I have two degrees from MSU, so this invitation for Stein to speak was disappointing.  Stein is the idiot who gave us this anti-science propaganda.  He likes to blame the Holocaust on science and scientists.  What’s funny is that Ben Stein kind of promoted science and math in the talk he gave at MSU.  And none of the advertising for his appearance mentions his rather screwy views.  I think Professor William Zingrone, a psychology prof at MSU, sums up what I was thinking in this article written for the MSU newspaper.

What really gets me is how Stein points out the lack of motivation students have in the present day United States.  My first thought on this topic is as follows:

How dare Ben Stein talk about motivation being a problem in students.  If anything he should be apologizing for it.  He denigrates scientists and other intellectuals, he condemns science as anti-human, he promotes falsehoods and lies and attempts to steal away the wonder from science-all the advances our species has made, the discoveries, the medical treatments, and more-and then, the bastard has the audacity to discuss motivation as a problem.  He’s one of the people creating that problem in students.  He should apologize for attempting to ruin American education.  I could go on, but, you know what?  I don’t want to waste any more time on this jerk.  So I’ll just sum up.

Ben Stein, Fuck You!