Monday, January 31, 2011

The 13th Amendment and the Abolition of Slavery

On January 31, 1865 the 13th amendment to the constitution, which formally abolished slavery in the United States was passed by the House. It had been previously been passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864. President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress on February 1, 1865, submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures for ratification. The required number of states had ratified the proposed amendment by December 6, 1865. To see the joint resolution with President Lincoln's signature visit this site: http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/

Wil Wheaton likes library!!!

Or for all the Star Trek fans out there Wesley Crusher! This is making the rounds on the internet. Very nice post about librarians. They don't get told thanks enough!

librarians are awesome - WWdN: In Exile

Thanks are especially nice when they come from a celebrity and are going viral on the net.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Check it out...

Looking for a book? Visit the Casual Reading Corner of the library. It is located in the Student Lounge past the Coffee Bar. It includes a variety of literary genres from suspense to romance -- and best of all... It's free! If you find a book you want to read, take it, enjoy it, and pass it on!

If you would like to donate items to the casual reading corner, just drop the books off at the circulation desk in the box provided. They will be placed in the CRC for others to enjoy. It's the gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?



Girls' Rifle Team
Will Be Organized

75 years ago..."At the beginning of the second semester a girls' rifle team will be organized by Major Curtis Meeks, member of the 36th Division of the Texas National Guard, and ace marksman who won numerous medals for his remarkable firing at Camp Perry, Ohio, last summer. All girls who desire to learn to shoot are urged to report for the team. Matches will be held between the boys' and girls' teams as well as various others. The .22 calibre U.S. Army rifle will be used in sitting, kneeling, prone and standing positions. Major Meeks presented each member a beautiful medal. He was an excellent teacher and gave the girls an excellent chance to learn the inside tricks and details of rifle shooting!" (J-TAC, January 18, 1936)

However, the 1936 Girls' Rifle Team was not the first one to be organized at Tarleton. The top photo shows the 1923 Tarleton Girls' Rifle Team. The Grassburrs show a girls rifle team from 1923-1929. Then there was a lapse from 1930-1935. The second photo shows the 1936 Tarleton Girls' Rifle Team. But the newly organized girls rifle team was short lived and was gone by the 1937 Grassburr!

So the photos above show the first and last Tarleton Girls' Rifle Team!

Grassburr, 1923.
Grassburr, 1936.
J-TAC, January 18, 1936.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Subject Research Guides!

They've been plugged on this blog before, but I'm going to plug them again: subject research guides.

Maybe you're supposed to find some journal articles and want to use the library's databases, but you don't have a clue which one to start with. Maybe you've tried Academic Search Complete (a great general database to start with, by the way), but it doesn't seem to have what you need for your newest assignment.

The library's A to Z database list can be a bit daunting if you're only familiar with a few of the databases (or none of them!). The library's subject research guides can help. Choose whatever subject in the list best matches the topic you're researching or the course you're doing research for, and you'll be brought to a page featuring (among other things) a list of the best databases to use. You'll still have to choose from a few different ones, but it's a much more focused choice.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Printing Tips

Ten Printing Tips to Save Paper and Toner:

1) Click Save, not Print! Many instructors will accept your work in digital form. Submit and share your work via email or media (cd, flash drive, sdram, etc. )

2) Use narrow margins on your assignments.  For example, the default on Microsoft Word is 1” on each side. You can change this to make margins as small as ½” on each side.

3) Use a font that uses less toner. A study at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay found that Century Gothic “uses 30% less ink than the most commonly used default font – Arial.”

4) When you create PowerPoints (or other visual aids), use a dark typeface on a light background, rather than the reverse.  This will use less toner if printed.

5) Use electronic handouts. Rather than print handouts for everyone in class, use Blackboard or Google Docs to distribute them electronically. You will save paper and ink toner, as well as give your classmates handouts they can update.

6) Print only what you need. If you don’t need all of a document, don’t print it all. If your professor posts class notes online, ask which notes should be printed and which ones can remain electronic.

7) Print selectively. If you want to print only part of a document or web page, highlight the part you’d like to print, and choose Selection.

8) Use duplex printing (both sides) Library printers automatically do this. Generally instructors will specify if they want assignments printed only on one side, and more and more are (hopefully!) going green too and accepting duplex printing.

9) Print PowerPoint class notes as handouts (2-9 slides per page) rather than slides (one slide per page). See these green printing tips for instructions on how to do this.

10) Be patient. After you click Print on campus lab computers, it can take up to 10 minutes for your job to be processed and received by the printer. Clicking Print again will NOT speed up your print job. It will slow the printer even more and waste paper.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

" Use of Coal Brings Back Past to JTAC
Gas Line is Repaired During Cold Snap"

75 years ago......Tarleton students coming back in January were greeted with broken gas lines...

"Wednesday morning time turned back for a day as heavy, black smoke puffed and rolled and tumbled from the tall, white smokestack of John Tarleton College, creating a long cylinder of black and recalling the days of long ago when coal furnished fuel for the huge boilers of the college. It is small wonder that the dense smoke pushed and climbed into the air when it is known that the huge furnaces in Tarleton's boiler room consume four tons of coal daily, a goodly portion of the black fuel which means work and more work for those energetic student boiler men who partially earn their way through school by keeping the furnaces roaring with fire!" (J-TAC, January 11, 1936)

A central heating plant costing $50,000 was built in 1920 containing two large boilers which heated all buildings on campus. The new smokestack, built in 1923 at a cost of $4,500, is shown in the photo above from the 1924 Grassburr. Utility tunnels held the steam pipes, water lines, and electric lines.

"Work being done on the gas lines necessitated the use of coal and gave the student keepers a small sample of the meaning of heat before the use of natural gas! The lines were repaired, the gas pressure rose to normal, and the black smoke soared lazily upward and disappeared into a blue sky, leaving behind the thin, wavy film which denotes the presence of a gas fire below!"

Welcome to the spring semester! Wow, just think about trying to stay warm before natural gas! We hope you often find your way to the library where it is comfortable and warm!

Grassburr, 1924.
Guthrie, Christopher E., John Tarleton and His Legacy, p.60.
J-TAC, January 11, 1936.
King, C. Richard, Golden Days of Purple & White, p.150.
Tarleton Traditions, p.29.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tokyo Rose Pardoned

On this day in 1977, President Gerald Ford pardons Tokyo Rose. Iva Ikoku Toguri was born in California in 1916, a firstgeneration American citizen of Japanese descent. Toguri was sent to Japan by her mother to care for an ill aunt, when she was stranded at the outbreak of World War II. With no passport Toguri was denied her request to return to the U.S. In 1943 she began radio accouncing for a propaganda program beamed at U.S. troops, she was one of 13 English speaking women announcers, known as Tokyo Rose. She was convicted of treason and served six years in a U.S. prison. Many years later, the truth of her circumstances during World War II came to light, and she was pardoned by President Gerald Ford.



http://www.answers.com/topic/tokyo-rose

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Top 10 Tuesday - 10 things to start the semester

Welcome back!  The first day of the semester and the library is already busy with students.  Here is a list of 10 things (some new!) the library has to offer to help make your semester a success. 
  • Library Catalog - with a new look and added functionality - bookmarks and permalinks
  • help with user names and passwords - in person at the library or try the online guide
  • Databases - over 170 online resources for research with links to full-texts articles available 24/7
  • iPhone app - you can do research right from your phone! 
  • Rosetta Stone - New! featuring 25 different languages (ask at the circulation desk)
  • AP Style guide - new resource from the Associated Press
  • Ask a Librarian! - we are here to help
  • LibX toolbar - direct access to the Tarleton Libraries resources when searching the web
  • Google Scholar - helps you find scholarly literature; the Tarleton library helps you access it!
  • Computers - the library has over 170 machines available. Now with card readers on the upper and lower floors of the library.
I hope everyone has a GREAT semester.  And please remember the library is here to help you!   The library is open 101 per week. The reference desk of the Library is staffed with professional librarians who provide personalized service to assist with learning and research needs. You may get help and ask questions in person at the library, by phone at 254-968-9249, by email, or via the web at http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/askaref.html