Thursday, June 28, 2012


A Message from Cox’s –
Welcome to Stephenville
We Invite Your Patronage!
That’s what the Cox’s ad in the Sept 14, 1963 JTAC stated!  Cox’s was a department store on the west side of the square for many years where many Tarleton folks would have shopped!
R.E. Cox was born about 1879 in Cox’s Bend in Somervell County.  He opened the drug store shown above on the square in Stephenville July 4, 1907.  In 1914 he opened the very first Cox’s department store in the same building where he had operated the drug store.  Cox’s became a chain with stores opening in Waco in 1922, Marlin 1925, and the big Cox’s in Fort Worth in 1933!....and it all began in Stephenville! The Cox’s store here stayed in business into the 1970s.  The building shown above currently houses the Northcutt law offices.

One interesting thing about the Cox’s in Stephenville was the way the customers paid for their purchases.  The office was upstairs.  A central checkout counter was downstairs in the center of the store.  A cable connected the office with the counter.  A container for the money was attached which could be sent upstairs for processing, making a humming sound as it went!  The customer’s receipt and change was then sent back down to the counter.  No money was kept downstairs! 

In the early 1980s the Fort Worth stores joined with Stripling’s to form Stripling & Cox, making the store last another 25 years!  We all remember well the Stripling & Cox building on Camp Bowie!  The store closed in 2007 and was demolished January 19, 2009!

Happy July 4th!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Just Desserts or Just STRESSED!

You can eat your desserts and de-stress at the Library!
"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." -Jennifer Yane

Have you ever felt like you can't manage your time or stress? No fear, there's a solution to the problem. You can follow a few of these tips to begin reducing your stress and  having more "ME" time:
  • Use a Calendar/Planner
  • Plan Ahead
  • Allow for Flexibility
  • Say NO! -Your goals come first.
  • Don't skip class; it only causes more stress!
  • SLEEP
  • Schedule time to RELAX
The best way to reduce your stress, is to LAUGH! Laughter has several health benefits and the best part is it's FREE! Get your friends to laugh with you! Nothing is more fun than relaxing and taking a few moments with your friends to have a good time. Also, take advantage of the great study rooms and study carrels the Library has to offer. There are also many books, in the library, on how to manage your stress and your time.

"There cannot be a stressful crisis next week. My schedule is already full." -Henry Kissinger

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Japanese Anime

Did you know that the library now has a few Japanese anime movies in its collection? This list is a little more than 10 items long, but I wanted to include them all.
  • Roujin Z - In this sci-fi comedy, an elderly invalid is forced to take part in an experiment designed to replace human nurses with machines.
  • Ghost in the Shell - A cyberpunk classic. It's set in a future where few people lack cyber enhancements of some sort. An elite assault team tries to track down a hacker responsible for "ghost-hacking" several people's minds.
  • Grave of the Fireflies - An adaptation of Akiyuki Nosaka's semi-autobiographical novel. Two children try to survive in the the aftermath of a World War II bombing that destroyed their home and killed their mother.
  • Perfect Blue - A psychological thriller about a pop star who quits her singing career in order to become an actress, only to be stalked by one of her fans.
  • Princess Mononoke - A historical fantasy that starts with a young man defending his village from a giant boar-demon. Although the young man is able to kill the boar, one of his arms is cursed in the process, and he must journey to find a way to remove the curse.
  • Spirited Away - While on their way to their new home, 10-year-old Chihiro and her family end up at a bathhouse intended for spirits. After Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs, Chihiro works at the bathhouse and looks for a way to save them.
  • Millennium Actress - A filmmaker interviews a reclusive former actress about her life and her career. Fantasy and reality mix, as happens in many of director Satoshi Kon's films.
  • R.O.D. (Read or Die) - An action movie starring a special agent working for the British Library Special Operations Division. Bibliophile Yomiko Readman has the ability to manipulate paper into any object she can imagine. She and a couple other agents work together to stop reincarnated historical figures from controlling the world.
  • Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence - Another cyberpunk thriller. Batou, a heavily cyborged police officer, works with his mostly human partner to investigate a series of murders.
  • The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - A girl discovers she has the ability to move backwards through time. While she has fun with this ability at first, she eventually realizes that changing the past can have serious consequences on those around her.
  • Tokyo Godfathers - Three homeless people find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve and try to locate its parents.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Streaming Video Trial Databases

The Dick Smith Library currently has a rather large audiovisual collection downstairs.  However, we expect it will be shrinking in the future, as the university discontinues classroom support for out-of-date formats, and the equipment to use them becomes less available and harder to maintain.

Therefore, the library is conducting trials of four streaming video databases we're considering acquiring, and we'd appreciate your input!  Please take a look at:

Alexander Street Press Academic Video Online with 13,000 videos and expectation of 20,000 videos by end of 2013.
Ambrose Video with 1,200 video clips and full programs.
NBC Learn includes 13,000 news stories from NBC news archives.
Films on Demand with 8,000 videos and 99,000 video clips, including the Master Academic Collection, Career & Technical Education Collection, and Archival Films & Newsreels Collection.

Trial databases are available for a short time only. With the exception of the Films on Demand trial, access is limited to those using a Tarleton IP address (in other words, you can't access the trials from home).  Feedback on the usefulness of any database is appreciated.  Leave a comment below, contact Tracy Holtman, Systems Librarian, at 254-968-9466, or email at libsystems@tarleton.edu if you have questions or input concerning these databases.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Summertime family fun on a budget


Summertime for many of us means trying to find activities to do with our families. This can become very expensive and then puts additional pressure and tension on families.

I have found several activities through the Texas Parks & Wildlife website. They have a search box on their site to help you find the right camping, hiking, biking, etc activity that suits your needs.

Here are several places that are super kid and budget friendly:

·         Dinosaur Valley Park located in Glen Rose, TX


·         Big Bend Ranch in Presidio, TX


·         Cleburne State Park in Cleburne, TX


·         Meridian State Park in Meridian, TX


·         Lake Mineral Wells in Mineral Wells, TX


·         Bastrop State Park in Bastrop, TX


·         Brazos Bend State Park in Needville, TX


There are many, many more parks on their main website (http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/). They also list any kind of warnings (fire burn ban or water rationing) on each individual parks site. You can make reservations; see pictures, view maps, etc. from this site.

So get out, move around and have some family fun without breaking the bank!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Prezi: Tips & Guides for Great Presentations

Have you noticed that other people really do want to hear about things you know?  Or, that more classes and groups want their members to give presentations and share information?  If so, it can be reassuring to know that user-friendly tools are available that make creating presentations easier.

One tool that's often used to create presentations is Prezi, an online zooming presentation tool.  Since I'd been thinking about a couple of presentations that I could use Prezi to create, I started looking for some useful instructions to reduce my learning curve.

Here's a short list of the tips I found:
Using these tips, I think I'll finally be able to create those presentations I've been thinking about.  How about you? 

FYI: The library has a practice presentation room on the lower level.  It can be reserved at the Circulation desk.  Learn more from this previous L@L blog post.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Juneteenth-Emancipation Day

Today in 1865 Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, which read in part, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free." This was the first news of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was issued on January 1, 1863 to reach Texas. The approximately 250,00 slaves learned of their freedom over the next few months as plantation owners informed their bondsmen of the news. 

The first Juneteenth celebrations were political functions used to educate freed African American about their voting rights. Shortly they came to become festivities throughout the state, organized by official Juneteenth committees in some parts of the state. In Austin Juneteenth was first celebrated in 1867 organized by the Freedmen's Bureau, by 1872 it was listed on the calendar of public events. These celebrations often are a time of family reunions and the family history during slavery and since are recalled. While originally an event only found in Texas as families have moved to other states the Juneteenth celebrations have traveled with them.

To see the Emancipation Proclamation and learn more about it visit:

To learn more about Juneteenth visit the Handbook of Texas Online at: 

Monday, June 18, 2012

Wish you could work from home this summer?

There are just some days that I just want to stay at home and work in my pajamas... rainy days, cold days or just about any summer day! Well if you think working at home is for you check out this article.

Best Paying Work-from-home jobs

Friday, June 15, 2012

Tarleton and Tarrant County College Sign Agreement

On June 12, 2012, Tarleton State University and Tarrant County College signed an agreement that will enhance the relationship between the two institutions.   The ceremony was held at the TCC Trinity River East Campus, a facility situated on the banks of the Trinity River, which offers a beautiful view of north Fort Worth and the river itself.  Purple and white balloons danced in the wind as they marked parking spaces  for visitors from Tarleton.  Numerous attendees from both TCC and Tarleton enjoyed a brief ceremony which began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.  



The ceremony culminated with the signing of the mutual agreement by Tarleton’s President, Dr. Dottavio, and TCC’s Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, David Wells.


TCC’s mascot, Toro, and Tarleton’s mascot, The Texan Rider, also shook hands.


Students will be able to take advantage of dual enrollment.  Credits will transfer more easily from TCC to Tarleton in order for students to fulfill degree requirements.  Tarleton currently offers the lowest cost tuition in the Metroplex which will be a real advantage for students who want to further their TCC education by earning a bachelor’s degree at any of Tarleton’s campuses.  The Southwest Metroplex campus offers degrees in business, accounting, education, criminal justice, social work, psychology, engineering and industrial management, and computer systems.  Nursing degrees will be added through classes offered at TCC.  

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Today is June 14 - Flag Day!

Flag Day has a long history beginning in 1885 with a teacher and students in Fredonia, Wisconsin.  For many years afterward other schools followed suit by planning Flag Day festivities.  Then on May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially established Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777.  Flag Day was celebrated for years but it wasn't until August 3, 1949 that President Harry Truman signed an act of Congress designating June 14th as National Flag Day.  Our nation's flag always proudly flies over campus daily.

Another flag was presented to Tarleton in 1942 by the Tarleton Owls social club - Tarleton's Service Flag shown above.  The August 29, 1944 JTAC gives a history of the Tarleton Service Flag.  At the Owls dinner in 1942 Dean Davis asked the club to make a service flag and present it to the college.

Miss May Jones, Owls sponsor, designed the flag shown above and the girls helped make it.  One big blue star represented all Tarleton boys in service.  The emblems in each corner represented the different branches of the service - the Air Corps, the Army, Navy, and Marines.  A gold star represented each Tarleton student killed in action.  The large white background was bordered with red and fringed with gold.
 
On Parent's Day in 1942 at the morning service, the Owls presented the flag to the college.  It was one of the most impressive Parent's Day programs ever held and there were at least 800 attendees.  Flags of all nations hung at the rear of the auditorium, with our nation's colors on one wing of the front, and the Owls Service Flag on the other wing.  Governor Coke Stevenson was the guest of honor and gave a stirring speech urging students to stay in college and pursue their work as normally as possible during the war.

The Parent's Day program, and the service flag was a highlight because of the realization of the number of Tarleton students in the service to our country.  At that time the service flag had six gold stars in a circle at the bottom.  By August 1944 the number of gold stars representing Tarleton students killed in action had grown to 66, plus one representing Tarleton faculty member, Col. James D. Bender who also was killed in action.

The Tarleton Service Flag was used in the 1999 Tarleton Centennial display in the Fine Arts Gallery and is a wonderful Tarleton archive item.

Happy Flag Day!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Tips for Fighting "Zombie-Mode"


With the summer semester starting, I’m sure many of you are already feeling tired and overwhelmed between classes and all of your other summer activities. As I start my internship (on top of working full-time), I know that it will be vital for me to stay energized. 

Lifehacker offers 10 tips that can help you stay energized to keep you from “zombie-mode”.




Here are the 10 things that Lifehacker recommends:

Make your own energy products.

Listen to brain-stretching music.

Deal with job burnout.

Schedule around your energy peaks.

Get outside—even if it's cloudy.

Crank out some morning exercises.

Eat the right nutrition mix.

Put your senses to work.

Switch from venti to smaller caffeine doses.

Master the power nap.



If you’re interested in reading the full article, you can check it out here.

Also, check out resources that the Dick Smith Library has to offer for extra ammunition in your fight against "zombie-mode". 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Ray Bradbury

Photo by Alan Light, via Wikimedia Commons.
Science fiction author Ray Bradbury passed away on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.  Some of his better known works include the novel Fahrenheit 451, about a society that burns books, and a short story collection called I Sing The Body Electric!

His obituary in The New York Times sums up his impact elegantly and concisely: "Ray Bradbury was a master of science fiction whose lyrical evocations of the future reflected both the optimism and the anxieties of his own postwar America...By many estimations Mr. Bradbury was the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream. His name would appear near the top of any list of major science-fiction writers of the 20th century."

You can read the full obituary here.




Friday, June 8, 2012

Scantrons, and Pencils, and Post-its, OH MY!

Have you ever been in a hurry to get to class and realize you forgot a blue book or a scantron for your test that day? Well now you don't have to worry about rushing to the Campus Store and being late to class! For your convenience, the Dick Smith Library now hosts a supplies vending machine in the student lounge. You can purchase such items as scantrons, pencils and pens, blue books, flash-drives and even book tabs. There are varying costs to each item and the machine accepts cash.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Printing and Copying at the Library

Effective June 1, 2012, a university student printing policy went into effect that will reduce excessive printing in the library and campus computer labs. The decision to implement this policy was made very carefully in order to be an environmentally friendly institution and to live within budget constraints. This "pay-as-you-print" initiative is the best option for Tarleton. This page (http://www.tarleton.edu/savepaper/) offers a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) concerning the new student printing policy.

Recently, the following was added to aid students in the transition and help cover accidental printing mistakes, particularly at the beginning of the semester:
  • Each student will be allocated a credit of $5.00 per semester (fall, spring and summer).
  • Allocations do not roll over from semester to semester.
  • Any remaining funds are cleared at the end of each semester and a new $5 credit is set.
  • Allocations are not created for mini-mesters and other derivatives of the fall, spring and summer semesters. However, remaining balances are available during the interim until the start of the next long or summer semester.
The Dick Smith Library and the library in the Hickman building have both reduced the costs of the black-and-white photocopy machines to $0.05 per page.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012