Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

speare season" featuring Richard II, followed by both parts of Ilenrij IV and Henry V to both information on Elizabethan drama, English history ( as seen through the eves of the playright) and data on the deviees used by the author to appeal to his particular audiences. In such circumstances we would anticipate that the listening periods would elicit considerable discussion and cultivate considerable reading. Not the least important, particularly to libraries, is the traffic which such a series might encourage. Something New .... The name of Eleanor Steber is well known in musical circles. With her husband, Gordon Andrews, she has organized a new record company which plans to produce albums for school purposes. If you want more data about Stand Records, write to them at 105 West .5.5th Street, New York 19. Stand Records plan to produce a record a month. They are dealing in the area of current events, and are making their discs available to schools on a subscription basis. The first issue. Volume I Number 1, if typical of their product, augurs well. The subject matter is news. The commentator is Douglas Edwards, and he exhibits in the first recording a dispassionate and explanatory presentation which can make these recent events real and meaningful to young listeners. In the first recording he deals with one domestic matter, and one foreign problem. On the domestic scene Stand Records has chosen to report on President Kennedy's "State of the Union" message to Congress as delivered by the President in January. The recording summarizes the Presi dent's presentation and is illustrated with recorded excerpts from the message. The excerpts are carefully chosen to lend dramatic emphasis to various proposals put forward by the chief executive. Mr. Edwards rej)orts about key events and problems of the first year of the current administration, and the closing is a direct quotation from the president of his own appraisal ol this first year in office. The reverse recording deals with the subject of Berlin. Edwards traces the historical events leading up to the erection of the Berlin Wall, beginning with the closing of World War II. He emphasizes the disagreements and controversy which has surrounded this area. The recordings are carefully researched and presented with lucidity and clarity. They can be profitably used in junior and senior high school classes. Something Borrowed .... Spoken Word (New York) borrows from our national leaders to bring some desirable recordings into being. First, on January 20, 1961 John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered one of the briefest Inaugural Addresses of recent history. This has been faithfully recorded and is available for schools and libraries as documentation which cannot otherwise be had. This recording in the Footnotes to History series, "Inauguration Address of John Fitzgerald Kennedy" (Spoken Word SW1.30), is an excellent documentation of the changing administrations in the White House— documentation which goes back to 19.33, the first Roosevelt Inaugural — and is continuous from there. Schools and libraries constantly face the problem of making current history Comments and materials for review should be sent to the department editor—Max U. Bildersee, 36 Holmes Dale, Albany 3, N. Y. /ludio CARDAIOO® Record Reviews on Cards Box 1771— Albany 1. New York D Please enter_ .1 year subscription (s) to Audio CARDALOG, 400 cards — 10 issues — $25.00 D Please send us full information about Audio CARDALOG. Name Organization or School Address City and State live again, and these recordings are far more potent than the written word and newspaper accounts can ever be in accomplishing this desirable end. (Certainly this .series of recordings belongs in every library which deals with modern living. The 'flip' side of this record marks the end of an administration— featuring the Farewell Broadcast of Dwight David Eisenhower as it was offered to the nation on the 17th of January. In it General Eisenhower cautioned the nation to be vigilant against dangers to its liberties— dangers implicit in a vast military establishment and a permanent arms industiy unparalleled in peacetime. The retiring president also pointed to the vastness of the federal establishment and warned that "the prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment " was a real danger which we, as a nation, must understand and control. Spoken Word also offers, as a contribution to both history and education, "The Great Debates of the 1960 Presidential Campaign" (Spoken Word, SW A-26) in a three-record album devoted to the debates of Kennedy and Nixon on September 26, October 7 and October 13, 1960. This renewal of the great American custom of open political debating is thus preserved for tomorrow's scholars, ready for use by today's students. How better to summarize the basic issues of the most recent Presidential campaign that to have students hear these records? The subjects touched in these debates include farm problems, taxes, schools, politics, subversion, American prestige overseas, Cuba, Castro, espionage, problems in Asia, bigotry, labor and internal economic problems. These records can be used in a variety of ways in schools and libraries, as well as in homes, and their multiplication of value is limited only by the imaginative application of their content to immediate interests and needs. Something Blue .... Blue— for our regret that we cannot yet report fully on a magnificent album. Democracy In America (Spoken Word SW A-30 ) , designed to bring to life the America of the thirties— the eighteen-thirties! We have heard much but not all of it and can offer only this advice, but no critical appraisal .. . "Buv!" 272 Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — May, 1962