Border Studies Exhibit

May 13 - June 3, 2008
L200

This contemporary exhibit brings the history, people, and daily events of the Texas-Mexico border to life. Delving first into the geography and natural border of the Rio Grande through a series of historical maps, the exhibit documents the overwhelming movement of the border to the West and South. Beautiful photographs of the canyons, the Rio Grande River, and natural passes portray the terrain. The Rio Grande River also known as the Rio Bravo is the longest river in North America covering more than 1,896 miles. Stunning photographs show the Rio Grande at El Paso / Juarez and further south at the Big Bend. The last hand-pulled ferry, the International Ferry at Los Ebanos, is highlighted to show the ongoing migration of people going and coming between Mexico and the United States.

The exhibit reflects the variety of people on both sides of the border going about their daily activities and the shared influences of both cultures. Photographs reveal the international flavor of the Texas-Mexico Border by documenting the legal workers crossing over to work on both sides. Farm workers and fruit pickers migrate daily to work as do thousands of others. The Border is a constant flow of humanity either on foot, by car, by bus, by truck, or crossing via ferry boat.

A small part of the exhibit is dedicated to Border Controls set up to monitor continuous illegal immigration through the maze of territory from El Paso / Juarez to Brownsville / Matamoros. Covering such a tremendous amount of land and river requires a variety of resources such as the use of helicopters, jeeps, boats, and horseback. The Border Patrol have an ongoing duty to examine vehicles, question people, check documents, and search for illegal drugs and contraband.

The most important aspect of the exhibit is the study of the various groups sharing the Border. Oscan J. Martinez in his essay, Human Interaction in the Trans-Mexico Borderlands, divides the Border people into two major groups: the National Borderlanders and the Transnational Borderlanders. He explains that the length of residence in the borderland, ties with interior areas, occupation, sources of income, level of education, family networks, and social relationships usually determine whether one is a National or Transnational Borderlander. National Borderlanders tend to remain unaffected by the factors inherent in the Borderlands. They are unicultural and unable or unwilling to mix with other cultures. Transnational Borderlanders accept, synthesize, and value the environment of the Borderland. They are multicultural in their outlook and forthright in promoting a blending of cultural identities. The ambiente fronterizo are those who share the Border and value its unique qualities. They have combined cultural, religious, ethnic, and traditional ideas overcoming inherent prejudices and racial issues.

A unique look at the people and places of the Texas-Mexico border, Border Studies is a thought-provoking, educational, and worthwhile experience.

Hot Summer… Cool Jobs!

Looking for a job can be frustrating, time-consuming, and downright tiring. Who knows where to start? Let the Eastfield College Library help you get started in your job search today!

 

                                                                    cooljobscool jobs

  Cool jobs for college: A guide to the part-time jobs you never knew existed by David A. Stafford (call # HD 6276.52 .U5 S73 2007) This work covers everything you need to know about finding a cool job while in college. Topics include: the job hunt, summer jobs, part time jobs, and resumes. 

 

                                          internet job search

  Guide to internet job searching 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 by Margaret Dikel, Frances Roehm, and VGM Career Books. (call # HF5382.7 R557 2004 and HF 5382.7 .G85  2006/2007) This source is an excellent guide that provides website addresses, company information, and details about searching for a job on the Internet. Other topics include resumes, lifelong career planning, and online job banks. 

Additional books available at the Eastfield Library:

Getting that job in Hollywood                                        PN 1995.9 P75 B7 2008

Resumes for college students and recent graduates         HF5383 R434 1998

Teenagers preparing for the real world                           HF5381 F68 1999

 

Be sure to check out these websites too!

Summer Jobs   

Cool Works Jobs

Dallas Morning News Employment Ads

 

Eastfield College Career Services

Career Services is located at Eastfield College in C215 and provides unique help for students in career planning, job searching, and  placement.

 

FREE Newspapers abound!

Newspapers bring the world a wealth of information. From opinion to facts, newspapers expose the good, great, bad, and awful events of the world. Today, papers are printed and can be easily accessed online, too. Historical and current content is available at the touch of a few keys through the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Morning News Archive (1855-1977). With free access to the Dallas Morning News database it is easy to browse recent and past newspapers, search for specific items of interest, or take a trip in history.

What’s the buzz?

Dallas Morning News 

* Current local and national news from 1984 to present.
* Search by keyword, date, author, newspaper section, caption, or source.
* Includes all sections such as news, metro, business, notices, sports, editorials, and guidelive.

 Dallas Morning News Archive

* Historical news 1855-1977
*Search by keyword, date, or by topic or year groupings, IE. 1900-1910.
*Includes articles, marriage, birth, death notices, and classified ads.

Access both newspaper databases through the DCCCD online databases away from school or on campus. It’s easy and FREE to students, faculty, and staff!

Black Art: Ancestral Legacy through February 23

The exhibit, Black Art: Ancestral Legacy, is a profound examination of the influence of African heritage on the works of African American artists throughout history.  The photo-and-text exhibit introduces the culture and traditions of Africa transmuted to the artistic realm of African American music, art, dance, and festivals. 

     The Legacy reveals African beliefs and traditions that have lasted through     the insidious period of slavery to the present time.  Philosopher and writer Alain Locke states that the “deep-seated aesthetic endowment” of African culture was evident through the artistic production of masks, portrait busts, staff carvings, and other sculpture models. 

     Private Visions encompasses the role of the “seer” on African American art.  People who were able to see beyond the physical, who were spiritual and visionary, were held in high regard.  Gris gris, amulets, and other protective items were often incorporated into art.  Animals, plants, trees, and forces of nature became the subject of paintings, sculpture pieces, and drawings. 

     Reclamation takes the participant from the 1930s and the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance through World War II and into the 1960s.  During the Harlem Renaissance, African American artists began acknowledging the influence of Africa.  A gradual awareness of all things African became the inspiration for artists.  After World War II, artists began concentrating on the “Motherland” and incorporated the heritage and traditions of Africa into their art.  In the 1960s art became the vehicle for social change while continuing to reflect the spiritualism of Africa.

     Festivals and Rituals echo African traditions in music, dance, drama, art, and writing.  Such festivals as Kwanzaa, Mardi Gras, and Junkanoo are public rituals reflecting the powerful influence of African culture. 

      Black Art: Ancestral Legacy, on loan from Humanities Texas and made possible through a grant from Humanities Texas and SPAR (Student Programs & Resources), is on exhibit at Eastfield College Library, L200, through February 23.    

Spotlight on the Reference Collection: The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

This week , the Eastfield Library is holding a poetry reading. It happens on Wednesday from 11:30-1 and 5:30-7. Be there and share the love with your fellow Eastfielders.

The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poeticsis available here at the Eastfield Library to help you know more about poetry from the context of reading and writing it.

According to the Booklist review…

Students, scholars, and librarians will welcome this third edition of what has become the standard source for information on the history and criticism of poetry and poetic technique and theory. First published in 1965 as the Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, the work was reissued in 1974 with an 84-page supplement as The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics and again in 1993.

Among the approximately 380 international scholars who contributed to this first major revision of the encyclopedia are such eminent figures as M. H. Abrams, Cleanth Brooks, Alastair Fowler, and Elaine Showalter. The editors note that all entries have been revised to some degree and that more than 90 percent have received extensive revision. Moreover, of the 951 entries, 162 are new to this edition.

Varying in length from a paragraph to approximately 20,000 words, the alphabetically arranged entries reflect the significant changes in literary criticism and the increased awareness of non-western cultures that have developed during the past two decades. Many of the new entries are devoted to contemporary literary theories and schools of criticism (e.g., Deconstruction, Feminist Poetics, Intertextuality, Reader-Response Criticism), while others expand the coverage of poetries of specific nationalities or ethnic groups (e.g., Chicano [Mexican-American] Poetry, Hispano-Arabic Poetry, Inuit Poetry). In addition, a number of the new articles treat types of poetry and poetic devices and techniques (e.g., Alcaic, Found Poem, Love Poetry, Political Verse). Some articles from the previous edition have been assimilated into broader entries, and others (Censorship, Neo-Thomism and Poetry, Verbless Poetry) appear to have been dropped altogether. Continuing the policy established in the first edition, individual poets and poems are not accorded entries.

In most cases, the number of bibliographic references that appear at the end of each entry has been substantially expanded, with many references citing publications as recent as 1991. In addition, the system of cross-references is much more extensive, and the editors have further improved access to the entries by adding a table of contents, which includes all article headers and see references.

The extent to which this volume has been revised is impressive, but it is not without flaws. The extremely small typeface will create difficulties for some users, and the space-saving practice of abbreviating approximately 80 general terms as well as the headword when it appears within the body of the entry may be confusing to the general reader. Furthermore, the lack of an index continues to detract from the encyclopedia’s considerable value. None of these concerns, however, diminishes the excellence and authority of the articles themselves, and this impressive compendium continues to be an essential source for academic and large public libraries.

What is some information I can find in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics?

The development of poetry in Puerto Rico began with the Taino Indians.

Sentimentality is “poetic indulgence in the exhibition of pathetic emotions for their own sake.” p. 1145

The tachtigers were a group of Dutch poets in the 1880s who advocated of individualism, aestheticism, realism. 1264

 It also gives an examples of poetry as well. Here is an example of oxymoron in poetry ‘O heavy lightness! /serious vanity!’ from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. 873

How do I cite it in my bibliography?

MLA

"Dutch Poetry." The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.
	Ed. Alex Preminger and T. V. F. Brogan. 3rd ed. Princeton:
	Princeton University Press, 1993. 1264.

APA

Preminger, A., & Brogan, T. V. F. (Eds.). (1993). Dutch Poetry.
	In The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
	(3rd ed., p. 1264). Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press.

How do I write the in-text citations?

MLA

The tachtigers were a group of Dutch poets in the 1880s who advocated of individualism, aestheticism, realism(”Dutch Poetry” 1264).

APA

The tachtigers were a group of Dutch poets in the 1880s who advocated of individualism, aestheticism, realism(”Dutch Poetry”, 1994, p. 1264).

Spotlight on the Reference Collection: Schorlarships, Grants and Prizes

The Eastfield Library is interested in helping students find the help they need to remain in college and be able to focus on their classes.  Peterson’s Scholarships, Grants, and Prizes is book that contains information to help students on a financial level.

 Scholarships, Grants and Prizes 2007 (Peterson's Scholarships, Grants & Prizes)

According to the publisher:

The biggest and best scholarship guide available. These days, who doesn’t need help paying for college? This unparalleled guide to privately-funded scholarships is the very best resource on the market. Jam packed with more than 1.8 million awards worth over $8 billion, there’s money waiting for every student.

Features and benefits include: - Access to more scholarships and awards than any other guide - Millions of awards and prizes based on a wide range of unique criteria - Complete eligibility requirements and application deadlines

Some possible funding sources from the book:

American Association for Health Education William M. Kane Scholarship on page 219

Scholarship
This award is a $1,000 scholarship awarded annually to an undergraduate health education major at an accredited college/university in the United States or a U.S. territory. Application materials must be received by November 15. The recipient will be notified in December.

Eligibility
The award is open to any student officially recognized as an undergraduate health education major at an accredited college/university in the United States or a U.S. territory. To be eligible, the applicant must be currently enrolled full-time at a college or university for both the fall and spring semesters of the academic year during which the student is applying. The student must have sophomore, junior, or senior status at the time of application.
Applicants must have a minimum, current overall grade point average of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale at the AAHE application deadline, which is November 15.Prior AAHE undergraduate award recipients may not apply.

Application Procedures
The completed application form must be received by November 15 of each year. All application materials must be submitted simultaneously. Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed.
Application must include the student’s essay (see application form) that addresses what the student hopes to accomplish as a health educator in training and in the future. The essay should include the attributes and aspirations brought to the field of health education. This essay must be typed, double-spaced, and approximately 400–450 words in length.

Download Bill Kane Scholarship Application
Click here to download an application for the Bill Kane Scholarship in a PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print this material. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat, click here to download a free version of the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Myrtle and Earl Walker Scholarship Fund on page 275

  • Scholarship applicants must be full-time undergraduate students enrolled in a degree program in manufacturing engineering or technology in the United States or Canada.
  • Scholarship applicants must have completed a minimum of 15 college credit hours or one semester and be seeking a career in manufacturing engineering or technology.
  • Scholarship applicants must possess an overall minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
  • The scholarship can be used only as a credit toward books, fees, or tuition.
  • Click here to apply for this scholarship.

Other sources of financial aid information available online:

Finaid: The SmartStudent Guide to Financial Aid http://www.finaid.org/

Financial Aid Resource Publications. http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/student_guide/index.html

Fastweb http://www.fastweb.com/

Spotlight on the Reference Collection: Historical Statistics of the United States

Many of you many not be aware of the wonderous books available in the Reference Collection here at Eastfield.  The Historical Statistics of the United States is a helpful resource that gives statistical information from the U.S. covering the years between 1610 and 2000. There are 5 volumes:

Volume 1: Population

Volume 2: Work and Welfare

Volume 3: Economic Structure and Performance

Volume 4: Economic Sectors

Volume 5: Governance and International Relations

According to the Publisher,

jacket

The last edition of the Historical Statistics of the United States was published by the Census Bureau in 1975. When the Census Bureau decided in the early 1990’s that it would not publish a new edition of Historical Statistics, a team of renowned social scientists came together with Cambridge University Press to create a new edition. More than 200 of the nation’s leading economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and other scholars contributed to the Millennial Edition of Historical Statistics. This new edition adds thirty years of data and contains coverage of topics that received little or no coverage in the 1975 edition: American Indians, slavery, poverty, race, and ethnicity. The most recent scholarship has been brought to bear in every table.

What sort of information can you find in the Historical Statistics of the United States?

  • In 1870, 1.96 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school while in 1997, 69.72 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school.
  • In 1946, the average hospital stay was 24 day while in 1995 the average hospital stay was 7.5.
  • In 1973, the average home price was $30,900 while in 1999, it was $151,300.
  • In 1936, the average car travelled 8,844 miles  while in 1995 the average car travelled 11,802 miles
  • In 1949, $58, 000, 000 was spent on television while in 1998, $47, 474, 000, 000 was spent.
  • The average temperature in 1795 in Albany, Connecticut was 50 degrees while in 1998 it was 51.
  • In 1920, 96 percent of corporations had profits while in 1932, 39 percent of corporations had profits.
  • In 1925, 88,231 men were sentences to a prison while 3,438 women were sentenced.
  • The number of slaves imported into Virginia and Maryland grew from 4,512 between 1698 and 1704 to 13,610 between 1704 and 1718.
  • 44 Korean immigrants came to America in 1948 whereas in 1987 35,397 Koreans immigrated to the United States.

How do you cite Historical Statistics of the United States in MLA or APA format?

In text citations should proceed as follows for MLA:

In 1870, 1.96 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school while in 1997, 69.72 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school (Goldin 2:421-422).

In text citations should proceed as follows for APA:

In 1870, 1.96 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school while in 1997, 69.72 percent of 17 year old students graduated from high school (Goldin, 2006, p. 2:421-422).

Bibliographic citations should proceed as follows for MLA:

Goldin, Claudia. “Public and Private High School Graduates,
              by Sex as a Percentage of All 17-year-olds.” Historical
              Statistics of the United States. Ed. Susan B Carter, et al.
              Millennial ed. Vol. 2. New York: Cambridge, 2006. 421-422.

Bibliographic citations should proceed as follows for APA:

Goldin, C. (2006). Public and private high school graduates, by sex as a
              percentage of all 17-year-olds. In S. B. Carter, S. S. Gartner, M. R.
              Haines, A. L. Olmstead, R. Sutch, & G. Wright (Eds.), Historical statistics
              of the United States (Millennial ed., Vol. 2, pp. 421-422). New York:
              Cambridge.

Ready to Check Out Some New Books in the Library?

Here are some new books you may want to check out:

Caught in the Web: Inside the Police Hunt to Resce Children from Online Predators by Julian Sher

Award-winning journalist Julian Sher goes behind the headlines about child pornography to describe how police officers, prosecutors, and high-tech analysts are fighting back against a tide of abuse to save victims.

Granted extraordinary access by law enforcement agencies worldwide, Sher talks with FBI investigators, Department of Homeland Security, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Interpol, New Scotland Yard, and sex crimes units in Canada and Australia.

Drawing on candid jailhouse interviews in penitentiaries, court Confessions, and hidden blogs, Sher exposes the dark underbelly of the Web to reveal how predators isolate and groom their victims; how they use secret Internet chat rooms to swap images of abuse and security tips and tricks to foil the police; and how shady entrepreneurs make millions from the trade of child exploitation material.
In riveting detail, we see how clue-by-clue, and image-by-image, investigators use CSI-type techniques and old-fashioned hard detective work to track down the predators. From Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond to a global child protection center in London, England, a new generation of computer technology is being developed to make the web safer for children.

Included are the latest tips and resources for parents, children, and teens wanting to ensure safety online.

-From the Publisher

The Body has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help you do (Almost) Everything Better by Sandra and Matthew Blakeslee

In this compelling, cutting-edge book, two generations of science writers explore the exciting science of “body maps” in the brain–and how startling new discoveries about the mind-body connection can change and improve our lives. Why do you still feel fat after losing weight? What makes video games so addictive? How can “practicing” your favorite sport in your imagination improve your game? The answers can be found in body maps.

Just as road maps represent interconnections across the landscape, your many body maps represent all aspects of your bodily self, inside and out. In concert, they create your physical and emotional awareness and your sense of being a whole, feeling self in a larger social world.

Moreover, your body maps are profoundly elastic. Your self doesn’t begin and end with your physical body but extends into the space around you. This space morphs every time you put on or take off clothes, ride a bike, or wield a tool. When you drive a car, your personal body space grows to envelop it. When you play a video game, your body maps automatically track and emulate the actions of your character onscreen. When you watch a scary movie, your body maps put dread in your stomach and send chills down your spine. If your body maps fall out of sync, you may have an out-of-body experience or see auras around other people.

Filled with illustrations, wonderful anecdotes, and even parlor tricks that you can use to reconfigure your body sense, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own will change the way you think–about the way you think.

-From the Publisher

A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care  by Arnold Relman

A world-renowned physician traces the rise of the medical-industrial complex that has made a disaster of our healthcare system–and tells us incisively what we need to do to change it.

The U.S. healthcare system is failing. It is run like a business, increasingly focused on generating income for insurers and providers rather than providing care for patients. It is supported by investors and private markets seeking to grow revenue and resist regulation, thus contributing to higher costs and lessened public accountability. Meanwhile, forty-six million Americans are without insurance. Health care expenditures are rising at a rate of 7 percent a year, three times the rate of inflation.

Dr. Arnold Relman is one of the most respected physicians and healthcare advocates in our country. This book, based on sixty years’ experience in medicine, is a clarion call not just to politicans and patients but to the medical profession to evolve a new structure for healthcare, based on voluntary private contracts between individuals and not-for-profit, multi-specialty groups of physicians. Physicians would be paid mainly by salaries and would submit no bills for their services. All health care facilities would be not-for-profit. The savings from reduced administrative overhead and the elimination of billing fraud would be enormous. Healthcare may be our greatest national problem, but the provocative, sensible arguments in this book will provide a catalyst for change.

-From the Publisher

Eastfield College Library (L200) presents “El Greco of Toledo,” a Humanities Texas exhibit, January 14 – February 2.

This exhibit incorporates the beauty of El Greco’s art, the definitive portrait of Toledo, and the historical significance of the time period. Born in Crete but living and working in Spain, El Greco is the premier representative of the Spanish school of painting during the late sixteenth and early seventeen centuries. Traveling between Venice, Siena, Florence, Rome, and finally to Toledo, El Greco was most influenced by Tintoretto and Michelangelo. From his early training as an icon painter in Crete, he retained the spiritual characterization of icons in his later works.  Known for his elongated figures and odd mixtures of pigments, El Greco’s style is a strange marriage of Byzantine and Renaissance art with leanings towards Mannerism.

Based on the international exhibit with cooperation from the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and Humanities Texas, the photographic display demonstrates the compassion and respect evident by El Greco’s interpretation of religious subjects. A small but significant collection of photos and text, El Greco of Toledo will enlighten all audiences.

The project was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and Eastfield College Student Programs & Resources.

For more information, call 972-860-7168 or visit www.eastfieldcollege.com. This event is free to attend.

Fall/ Spring Hours:
Monday – Thursday 7:30 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Friday                         7:30 a.m. –   4:30 p.m.

Saturday                    9:00 a.m. –   2:00 p.m.

Who was William Shakespeare?

The Spring semester is about to start here at Eastfield College and many students will be taking literature classes. William Shakespeare is one of the most studied authors of the English language whose work is required reading in many classes at many schools.  To help you understand him more, I’ve found some biographical information.

Image:William Shakespeare.jpg

  • He was baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England.

  • He died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon.

According to Encycopedia Britannica, Shakespeare, also spelled  Shakspere , was called the Bard of Avon  or  Swan of Avon.  Though William Shakespeare is recognized as one of literature’s greatest influences, very little is actually known about him. What we do know about his life comes from registrar records, court records, wills, marriage certificates and his tombstone. Anecdotes and criticisms by his rivals also speak of the famous playwright and suggest that he was indeed a playwright, poet and an actor.

“William Shakespeare was born to John Shakespeare and mother Mary Arden some time in late April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. There is no record of his birth, but his baptism was recorded by the church, thus his birthday is assumed to be the 23 of April. His father was a prominent and prosperous alderman in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, and was later granted a coat of arms by the College of Heralds. All that is known of Shakespeare’s youth is that he presumably attended the Stratford Grammar School, and did not proceed to Oxford or Cambridge. The next record we have of him is his marriage to Anne Hathaway in 1582. The next year she bore a daughter for him, Susanna, followed by the twins Judith and Hamnet two years later. Seven years later Shakespeare is recognized as an actor, poet and playwright, when a rival playwright, Robert Greene, refers to him as ‘an upstart crow’ in A Groatsworth of Wit.

A few years later he joined up with one of the most successful acting troupe’s in London: The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. When, in 1599, the troupe lost the lease of the theatre where they performed, (appropriately called The Theatre) they were wealthy enough to build their own theatre across the Thames, south of London, which they called ‘The Globe.’ The new theatre opened in July of 1599, built from the timbers of The Theatre, with the motto “Totus mundus agit histrionem” (A whole world of players) When James I came to the throne (1603) the troupe was designated by the new king as the King’s Men (or King’s Company). The Letters Patent of the company specifically charged Shakespeare and eight others ‘freely to use and exercise the art and faculty of playing Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Inerludes, Morals, Pastorals, stage plays … as well for recreation of our loving subjects as for our solace and pleasure.’ Shakespeare entertained the king and the people for another ten years until June 19, 1613, when a canon fired from the roof of the theatre for a gala performance of Henry VIII set fire to the thatch roof and burned the theatre to the ground. The audience ignored the smoke from the roof at first, being to absorbed in the play, until the flames caught the walls and the fabric of the curtains. Amazingly there were no casualties, and the next spring the company had the theatre ‘new builded in a far fairer manner than before.’

Although Shakespeare invested in the rebuilding, he retired from the stage to the Great House of New Place in Statford that he had purchased in 1597, and some considerable land holdings ,where he continued to write until his death in 1616 on the day of his 52nd birthday.”

-from Absolute Shakespeare

Library Books About William Shakespeare:

Online William Shakespeare Resources: 

    Here is a link to some interesting facts about Shakespeare.
    Here is a link to the Encyclopedia Britannica article.
    This is a biography from Absolute Shakespeare.
    The Shakespeare Timeline from Palomar College