August 2008

One Campus One Book

“My principal said it was cool of me to take my sister to prom.” – Sheer Dominance

Maybe you relate to the author of this quote, maybe you don’t. Either way, you will find something to connect with in the book Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers. Whether you read one or all twenty-nine essays, you will be sure to find something to interest, entertain, shock, or impact you.

This book is the library’s selection for One Campus One Book - Fall 2008. In order to promote discussion and join a campus wide community of readers, Dakota State University's Karl E. Mundt Library will be holding this reading event. Through the mass reading of a single text, we are able to cross the boundaries of the classroom and evolve into a campus focused on thinking, talking, learning, and sharing.

Copies of the book are available at the library. Visit 1CampusOneBook for info, reviews, pictures, etc.

creepy-peepy

You, too, can find out what "creepy-peepy" -- also known as a "walkie-lookie" -- means by searching the online Oxford English Dictionary. The "wow" factor of the Oxford English Dictionary is that it provides quotations that demonstrate a word's first known use in the English language and its use through time. To find the definition and history of a word,

• use the Database Quicklinks menu in the upper right corner of the Library home page
• select Oxford English Dictionary
• on the right side of the screen, click on "Enter OED online"
• use the search box to search for the word

According to the O-E-D (O-E-D is the shortened version of the dictionary's title used by those in-the-know), "creepy-peepy" is first found in Life magazine in July 1952. Quotations from the article in Life, from a 1976 issue of the Edwardsville (Illinois) Intelligencer, and from a 1998 article in the Evening Standard demonstrate the meaning and use of creepy-peepy.

Here's what you'll find in the O-E-D:

creepy-peepy

A portable television camera used for close-up shots on location. Cf. PEEPIE-CREEPIE n.

1952 Life 21 July 18 The walkie-lookie (a new NBC hand camera which was promptly dubbed a creepie-peepie) did for the visual audience what the roving candid microphone had done for radio listeners. 1976 Edwardsville (Illinois) Intelligencer 19 July 4/5 How is CBS..going to get its creepy peepy right into that smoke-filled room where the deal is being made? 1998 Evening Standard (Nexis) 2 July 28 Posing as a martyr to the Truth as he carries his creepy-peepy camera on his shoulder.

The O-E-D also has a Word of the Day link (with an RSS feed so that you can get your daily word) as well as a link to "Lost for Words? Get an entry" where the O-E-D will send you to random words just such as "creepy-peepy".

Enjoy!