BEYOND BOOKS

Students benefit as Hamilton Library renovation blends old and new

The University of Hawaii Hamilton Library is coming into the digital age while also blending in touches of nostalgia.

As part of an ongoing face lift, the library now offers two new Presentation Rooms for students to use in its Science & Technology tower's Commons Area. The rooms have a computer (with PowerPoint), an LCD projector and a table with chairs, and can be reserved with a valid UH-Manoa ID. The first of its kind on campus, the rooms allow students to rehearse a presentation before actually giving it. Students also can bring their own equipment to videotape their presentation and critique it for improvements.

Contrasting the high-tech of it all is a low-tech, hand-done piece of art that's been installed at the SciTech Commons entrance. The colorful tapa by Samoa artist Mary Pritchard, donated by Joan Griffis, is called a siapo mamanu because it was done in freehand.

“;It has been a treasured possession and one I am delighted will become a part of the art collection at the University of Hawaii,”; said Griffis.

OVERLOOKED

Kalawao County gets no respect

President Barack Obama explained last week that the “;Louisiana Purchase”; component of the health care reform bill, intended to address benefits in response to Hurricane Katrina, would have come into play after the 2006 earthquake that hit Hawaii.

Not quite, says Jason Linkins of Huffington Post. The bill says the benefits are triggered by a disaster present in “;every county or parish in the state.”; But Gov. Linda Lingle declared the disaster only in Honolulu, Kauai, Maui and Hawaii counties.

Linkins points out that she did not include Kalawao County, the Kalaupapa home of Hansen's disease patients on Molokai, which was made a county of its own in 1905.