Mining Books to Map Emotions

A study has discovered peaks and valleys of emotion during the 20th century. "Were people happier in the 1950s than they are today? Or were they more frustrated, repressed and sad?"
asked National Public Radio (NPR) in early April when reporting about a study that examined the use of  "emotion" words in 20th century literature. According to NPR's Mining Books to Map Emotions Through a Century by Alix Spiegel, the study used a dataset from Google books. The high point of joy was found in the 1920's. The low point was in the early 1940's during WWII. The pattern can be seen in a chart from the study that was republished in the NPR story.

The study's authors discovered more than peaks and valleys.
"We find evidence for distinct historical periods of positive and negative moods, underlain by a general decrease in the use of emotion-related words through time. Finally, we show that, in books, American English has become decidedly more “emotional” than British English in the last half-century, as a part of a more general increase of the stylistic divergence between the two variants of English language."

To see and learn more, read the original article:
Acerbi A, Lampos V, Garnett P, Bentley RA (2013) The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59030. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059030

Letter from Birmingham Jail -50th Anniversary

Tuesday April 16, 2013 marks the 50th anniversary of the "Letter from Birmingham Jail" written by Martin Luther King in 1963.  The event sponsored by the Birmingham (Alabama) Public Library features readings of the letter taking place around the world. Please join those who will be doing the reading at DSU--at NOON in the Trojan Center Underground on Tuesday, April 16th.

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly effects all indirectly. 

 - Martin Luther King

Learn about "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the 50th anniversary event, and Martin Luther King, at Birmingham Public Library's 50th Anniversary website.

'Doctor Who' Explained in 25 GIFs

On Mashable, Amanda Wills says, "let's assume that you've never heard of a time-traveling alien in a blue telephone booth and have no idea what TARDIS stands for." Her solution is "'Doctor Who' Explained in 25 GIFs," a concise summary of the  show that began in 1963.

In case you haven't noticed, the Mundt Library's TARDIS continues to send librarians Mary Francis and Risë Smith to campus buildings so that you can get help from librarians with your research assignments on any topic and for any course. We also like to meet you in the Library or online via Ask-a-Librarian (chat, tweet, email -- choose your method for asking questions). Look for one of us with our blue Library Tardis' in Beadle, East Hall, Kennedy, Science Center, and the TC Spectrum Lounge. Our schedule is posted on Mondays in the DSU-Activities email.