University Park, PA -- A community and University partnership—Schlow Memorial Library and the Social Sciences Library, within Penn State's University Libraries—will bring a free film and discussion series called "Presidents, Politics, and Power: American Presidents Who Shaped the 20th Century" to the Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library, 7:00–9:00 p.m., Mondays, March 11 through April 22.

William Bianco, associate professor of political science at Penn State, and Anthony R. Bichel, political scientist and academic technology consultant, will lead each evening's discussion and provide reading lists. Through documentary films and text, these local scholars will engage the public in a study of six strong presidential leaders, including Theodore Roosevelt on March 11, Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 18, Harry S. Truman on April 1, Lyndon Johnson on April 8, Richard M. Nixon on April 15, and Ronald Reagan on April 22.

The series will give members of the State College community the opportunity to be involved in a classroom-type presentation and its inherent benefits, but without registration charges, tests, or mandatory homework. Bianco and Bichel will augment the discussion with their broad backgrounds.

Bianco is the author of Trust: Representatives and Constituents as well as numerous other articles and books. Before arriving at Penn State in 1996, he was a faculty member at Duke University and Stanford University. He has also served as a consultant to the U. S. Department of Energy and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, as well as several candidates for office.

Bichel has a master's degree in history from Valdosta State University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He has taught courses in Georgia, Hawaii, Virginia, Texas, and Pennsylvania related to U.S. politics and history. He is an editor of the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Asia as well as numerous other publications.

Nationwide, twenty pilot libraries have been selected to participate in this project, which has been organized by National Video Resources (NVR) in partnership with the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office. The project, funded by the National Endwoment for the Humanities (NEH) and locally by Schlow Memorial Library and the University Libraries, aims to encourage the use of the library collections.

For more information: www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/docs/presidents/ or 814-865-4861.