The Association for the Study of Connecticut History (ASCH), the Connecticut State Library, the Connecticut Militia Heritage Committee, and Manchester Community College will offer a conference about “Connecticut At War” on Friday, Nov. 13 & Saturday, Nov. 14. Speakers from various organizations will be featured and will discuss the different experiences of Connecticut people with wars spanning more than 350 years.

The conference begins on Friday, Nov. 13 at 11:30 a.m. at the Connecticut State Library, 231 Capitol Avenue in Hartford with an opening program featuring Tom Callinan, Connecticut’s “1st Official State Troubadour,” and Kevin Johnson, with his moving portrayal of a former slave, “Jordan Freeman: The Fight to Set a People Free.” The program continues with a presentation from keynote speaker David Corrigan, from the Museum of Connecticut History on the 100th anniversary of the Governor William A. O’Neill State Armory.

Tours of the Colt Collection at the Museum of Connecticut History and the Civil War monuments on the Capitol grounds will also be provided. A plenary session on the Connecticut National Guard and Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom will also be featured, concluding with a reception at the Officers’ Club of Connecticut.

On Saturday, Nov. 14, the program begins at 8:45 a.m. at Manchester Community College with a welcome from Dr. Gena Glickman, president of MCC, and Dr. Guocun Yang, president of ASCH and professor of history at MCC. The program will continue with a presentation from keynote speaker Col. Richard Welch, Connecticut Army National Guard, on “Advising the Afghan National Army.” Researchers will discuss a variety of war-related topics from the 17th to the 21st centuries. Concurrent sessions include 17th century warfare, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and the 21st century conflicts.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided by the MCC Hospitality Industry Association. Friday registration fees; $15; Saturday registration fees for members of ASCH, CMHC and CSL, and employees of MCC, $40; Saturday non-member $45; Saturday students, $30.

For more information on the ASCH conference or to register, contact Professor Guocun Yang at 860-512-2782 or gyang@mcc.commnet.edu. To view the entire schedule of events, visit www.mcc.commnet.edu/events.

The Connecticut State Library will be closed on Wednesday, November 11, for the Veterans Day holiday. Regular hours will resume on Thursday, November 12.

The Connecticut State Library is pleased to announce the availability of approximately $125,000 in Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding for grants in seven categories. Program grant awards will range between $3,000 and $25,000. See the LSTA page for applications, deadline, workshop information, program categories, and application guidelines. LSTA funds are provided through the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute’s mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas.

Connecticut Legislative Histories-Landmark Series.

“An Act Concerning Lethal Injection, Proportionality Review of Death Sentences and Murder of a Child”

“An Act Concerning Product Liability Actions”

“An Act Concerning Revision and Codification of the Substantive Criminal Law” a/k/a “The Penal Code”

“An Act Concerning the Death Penalty” 1973

An Act Concerning the Death Penalty” 1995

CONSULS, the State Library catalog will be unavailable due to emergency maintenance for approximately 3 hours beginning at 5 pm, Friday Oct. 23rd.  Sorry for any inconvenience.

Due to recent budget holdbacks, the State Library does not have sufficient funds to support all the iCONN databases that are currently being offered.  As a result, effective November 1, we will be discontinuing all ProQuest newspapers except the Hartford Courant and the Historical Hartford Courant.  These two newspapers are the most heavily used newspapers in iCONN.

All libraries will continue to have access to the New York Times (1985 – present), Christian Science Monitor (1996 – present), and London Times (7/1985 – present) through Gale.  In addition, academic libraries will continue to have access to the Wall Street Journal through ABI Inform.  Access to the Boston Globe was previously eliminated due to budget cuts.

On November 1, the Newspaper link on the new iCONN start page will go to a Web page that will present individual links to all newspapers that will continue to be available through iCONN.

We regret having to discontinue access to these resources but the current budget situation makes it necessary.

As of November 1st, Connecticut residents will have access to:

Christian Science Monitor (Gale) (1996 – )*
Hartford Courant (ProQuest) (1992 – )
Hartford Courant Historical (ProQuest) (1764-1922)
London Times (Gale) (1985 – )*
New York Times (Gale) (1985 – )*

* All of this content is also integrated into the federated search.

In addition to the above, academic libraries will continue to have access to the Wall Street Journal because it is part of ABI Inform, which we license separately for academic libraries.

A step to open and transparent government: text of Federal Register converted to XML to provide much easier searching.
http://tinyurl.com/ydaups5

For more information visit http://www.cslib.org/archives/archivesmonth.htm

Twenty people were accused of witchcraft in Connecticut during the seventeenth century, thirteen in the Hartford witchcraft outbreak of 1662-1663 and seven during the Fairfield outbreak of 1692-1693. Seven of those were tried and four were executed. The Samuel Wyllys Papers at the Connecticut State Library contains documents from these trials. The Matthew Grant Diary established the identity of the first person executed as a witch in New England. During the month of October, the Connecticut State Library will be posting lines from these documents on Twitter. You can follow us at http://twitter.com/LibraryofCt or find us using #CTwitch.

All Connecticut State Library facilities will be closed on Saturday, October 10 & Monday, October 12, 2009 for the Columbus Day holiday. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, October 13.