Friday, May 10, 2013

Tornadoes

Yep, it's that time of year again...the dreaded tornado weather. Are you ready for it? If not, the Library has some resources that might interest you.

First, here's a guide for general information on emergency planning and recovery from natural disasters: Are You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Then, I found this video that I thought was pretty interesting about a team of scientists trying a different approach to obtaining more information about tornadoes that might help provide faster warnings for people: Inside the Tornado available from Films on Demand.


There are also several electronic resources available on the subject, such as:
Tips for Parenting on Media Coverage of the Tornadoes
Right After a Tornado
Disaster response staff officer's handbook
The Corpus Christi, Texas tornadoes of October 24, 2002
Texas Twisters

I found some regular reading materials as well.
The million death quake : the science of predicting Earth's deadliest natural disaster
The unthinkable : who survives when disaster strikes--and why
Eyewitness hurricane & tornado
Night of the twisters
Tornadoes over Texas; a study of Waco and San Angelo in disaster

And more available from the Dick Smith Library.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?




It’s Graduation Time!


In my blog posts on May 13, 2010, and September 13, 2012, I wrote about the 1962-63 school year being a significant one in Tarleton’s history.  The May 26, 1963 graduates were in the first class to receive degrees in over fifty years!


The 1903 class pictured above was the first John Tarleton graduating class.  The last graduating class for John Tarleton College was in 1908  -  until Tarleton became a four year institution in 1959 and conferred the first degrees in May 1963.


The first graduates in 1903 were (left to right) William M. Bowman,  Monnett Chambers, Walter Powell, William Bryant Williams, and Pearle Mulloy front and center.  Mr. Bowman and Mr. Williams attended the 1963 graduation ceremonies as shown above.  Also attending the 1963 ceremony was long time educator and retired Tarleton faculty member Charles Hale, who is standing in the photo above behind Mr. Bowman and Mr. Williams.  My November 19, 2009 blog was about Charlie Hale.


The 1963 Tarleton graduation was held in front of the library.  Degrees were awarded to 29 men and women.  In addition, 27 certificates of completion were awarded for two year special and pre-professional programs.  The first degree was awarded to Pete Stanford as shown in the photo above.


“Tonight’s ceremony was a culmination of the dream of a West Texas pioneer, John Tarleton!  The school that started in 1899 with a single building has developed into a college with some 25 buildings, with a more than 96 acres campus, and 725 acres of farm land for agricultural research.  In the last 5 years, 5 of the buildings were completed or begun  – the library, student health center, a men and a women’s dorm, and the groundbreaking for a new student center was held March 12, 1963."


Among the 1963 graduates was honor graduate Leveta Hord, history major from Stephenville, who also at one time worked in the library, and Rodney Davis, the first Tarleton ROTC student to enter the army upon graduation, and who for a time later worked in Tarleton’s Financial Aid department.


Tarleton’s Community of Inquiring Minds
have
Come a Long Way!!

Congratulations upon Completing Finals!

Have a Wonderful Summer!!

Cross Timbers Historic Images Project.
Dallas Morning News, May 26, 1963.
Grassburr, 1963.
JTAC, May 14, 1963.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Thoughts, Words, Actions, Character, Destiny

Watch your thoughts,
They become words.
Watch your words,
They become actions.
Watch your actions,
They become character.
Watch your character,
For it becomes your destiny.
-sometimes attributed to Frank Outlaw, late President of the Bi-Lo grocery stores

I love this quote, for many reasons. Recently, I was at the Texas Library Association conference held in Fort Worth.  One of the sessions that I attended was on "Building Your Ethical Toolkit".  While sitting through the session, the words of Frank Outlaw came to mind as being appropriate for remembering when considering my ethical viewpoint.  I keep this quote on my refrigerator as a daily reminder.


Monday, May 6, 2013

Chronicling America « Library of Congress

If you've ever been curious about what was happening in the news, say 100 years ago or earlier, check out Chronicling America via the Library of Congress.

Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.

Friday, May 3, 2013

National Digital Public Library Launched

The National Digital Public Library was launched April 18th. It is a project to make available the holdings of America's archive, research libraries, and museums. The library serves as a portal to the digital collections of several libraries. Among the hubs are Harvard, University of Virginia, David Rumsey Map Collection, National Archives and Records Administration, the New York Public Library, and the Smithsonian to name a few. Items included in the library are maps, photographs, medieval manuscripts, Latin American pamphlets, over 3,000 daguerreotypes, and 420 trial narratives involving marriage and sexuality. In the coming months items on music, zoology, cartography, and colonial history will be added. Currently the library has between two and three million items. The Digital library is searchable by date, place, exhibition, or bu using a search box. When you receive your search results it indicates which collection they are from and how many items each repository has on you r subject. To visit the National Digital public Library visit: http://dp.la/ for an article about the library see: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/25/national-digital-public-library-launched/?page=1

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Tarleton Thursdays: Did you know?

As you know from a previous blog post done in January, the library has several outlets of social media. We have a Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest, and Flickr, to name a few. You can find out when the library's upcoming events, hours, and resources that are available.

Did you know that we've had a Facebook page and Twitter since 2009, Flickr since 2007 and we just added Pinterest a few months ago. Makes you wonder how the library managed without social media before!



Tarleton Libraries Joined Facebook on October 16, 2009
@TarletonLib also began in 2009

Have any of our social media outlets ever helped you out? Let us know how we can better help you with your academic needs. As always, feel free to comment, like us, tweet or email us!
 
Call (254) 968-9249 or Email reference@tarleton.edu for help.
We love to help.








Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The DSL Wants YOU to Take a Suvery




Are you a library user?

Have you used our Discovery @ Tarleton service which allows you to search the library's online catalog and 85% of our academic databases simultaneously?

If so, we're looking for a few more people to take our survey and provide feedback on Discovery @ Tarleton.

Help us help you by telling us your thoughts.

The survey is anonymous so please give us your honest opinions on this library service.