Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Service Desks in the Learning Commons

Those of you who are returning students, faculty, and staff know that the main floor of the library looks completely different!  Here is a (modified) color-coded map we prepared for Transition Week activities with the incoming freshman, with icons indicating the various services:

The Library Learning Commons has four main service desks. Here is some detail about the hours, services provided, and contact information for each:

Keep in mind:  the Reference desk can assist you with most services, especially when other service desks are closed.

Here are what some of the other icons on the map mean:

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

College Success!

The campus is live with students making their way to classes, dorms, meals, and of course the library!   We hope everyone has a great semester!   The library wants to help.  Did you know the library has books about how to be successful in college?  That we have an entire Pinterest board devoted to links that will help make the most of your college experience?   Take a look!    http://www.pinterest.com/tarletonlib/college-success/

 If we can can help let us know. You can Ask A Librarian or call (254) 968-9249 to talk to a Librarian.

Friday, August 22, 2014

1984

On August 23, 1984, I was born. I can't believe that I'll be thirty soon. I'll be celebrating in truly age appropriate style: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pizza party at Cici's. I began to wonder what was going on at Tarleton 30 years ago. We have so many traditions. I wanted to see what has and hasn't stuck around and if any neat things happened.

The '84 Grassburr has activities from the '83-'84 school year. Looks like homecoming week had a lot of the same activities: bonfire, parade, football, queen and plenty of Poo antics. The '85 Grassburr has activities from the '84-'85 school year. A lot of cool things happened in the Fall of 1984. The GoGo's gave a concert. It would be awesome to have a big named talent on campus to give a concert! Tarleton beat Sul Ross 37-14 at the homecoming game. 

I'm looking forward to another thirty years and can't wait to see what Tarleton will be doing then, too. #TarletonRocks #Purple Pride #Turning30

If you need assistance, email reference@tarleton.edu or call 254-968-9249

Friday, August 15, 2014

Word Games: Rules I Learnt

The...set of rules was written by Frank L. Visco and originally published in the June 1986 issue of Writers' digest.  http://www.plainlanguage.gov/examples/humor/writegood.cfm

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Be more or less specific.
15. Understatement is always best.
16. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement
17. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
18. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
19. The passive voice is to be avoided.
20. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
21. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
22. Who needs rhetorical questions?

One rule removed for profanity by Lisa Blackwell (July 2014)

Thursday, August 7, 2014

New Audiobooks

Here, in no particular order, are some new audiobooks recently acquired by the Dick Smith Library. Many of these won Audies or other prestigious awards. You can find them on the lower level of the Dick Smith Library in the Audiovisual Collection.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, call number AV-Audio PR6063 .A438 W65 2009, was the 2009 winner of the Man Booker Prize for "the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland." It also won the 2010 Audie Award for Literary Fiction. It's a novelization of the life of Thomas Cromwell, chief minister to Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540.


Wolf Hall is first in a trilogy and was followed by Bring Up The Bodies, call number AV-Audio PR6063 .A438 B75 2012. Mantel tells the well-known story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn from Cromwell's viewpoint. This book also won the Man Booker Prize, in 2012.  The third book in the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, is expected to be published in 2015.


Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Shecter, call number AV-Audio PZ7 .S53822 CLE 2011, is a well-written young adult novel (that will also appeal to adults who like historical fiction) about the only daughter of the famous queen Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius, Cleopatra Selene II.


The Round House, call number AV-Audio PS3555 .R42 R68 2012, won the 2012 National Book Award for Fiction. It highlights a major issue in Native American tribal law - the "difficulty of prosecuting crimes of sexual violence on reservations," according to author Louise Erdrich, who is Native American herself.


A Good American, call number AV-Audio PR6107 .E53 G66 2012, is historical fiction written in memoir style. The fictional memoir is by James Meisenheimer, and he's telling his family's story. His grandparents, Frederick and Jette, immigrated from Hanover, Germany, in 1904, and due to a series of mishaps, wound up in (fictional) Beatrice, Missouri, on the Missouri River. They settle down there, have a family, run a bar. But life - and historical events - intervene.  This debut novel is by Alex George, himself an immigrant from England.


Set in Texas in late 1899, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, call number AV-Audio PZ7 .K296184 EVO 2009B, was a Newbery (for the "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children") Honor Book in 2010. This historical fiction about a young girl interested in science was written by another debut author, Jacqueline Kelly.  The audiobook was also a 2011 finalist for the Children Ages 8-12 Audie.


The One and Only Ivan, call number AV-Audio PZ7 .A6483 ON 2013, is based on a real animal - the infamous "Ivan the Shopping Mall Gorilla," who spent 27 years alone in a small cage in a shopping mall in Tacoma, Washington. This fantasy won the 2013 Newbery Medal and was written by Katherine Applegate.


Another fantasy, The Graveyard Book, written and read by Neil Gaiman, call number AV-Audio PZ7 .G1273 GR 2008B, was the Newbery Medalist in 2009. That year it also won the Audie Award for Children Ages 8-12 and was named the Audiobook of the Year.


Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, call number AV-Audio D805 .J3 Z364 2010B, is the inspiring true story of Louis Zamperini, Olympic athlete and World War II hero, who spent 47 days on a raft in the Pacific and over two years in a Japanese prison after his plane crashed.

Check out our Pinterest board on audiobooks for more ideas!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

July New Books

Each month the Dick Smith Library adds new books to its shelves. The books range from several topics which typically align with Tarleton State University's curriculum. 

Here's a look at a few new books that hit our shelves last month, July:


Book Cover from Amazon.com


Latinos and American Popular Culture  Patricia M. Montilla, editor.

General Stacks: E184.S75 L3674 2013










Book Cover from Amazon.com



A Will to Believe : 
Shakespeare and Religion 

David Scott Kastan

General Stacks: PR3011 .K37 2014






Book Cover from Amazon.com




Open Standards and the Digital Age : History, Ideology, and Networks

Andrew L. Russell

General Stacks: T59.2.U6 R87 2014







Book Cover from Amazon.com


Masterpieces : Early Medieval Art 

Sonja Marzinzik

General Stacks:

 N5964.G7 M37 2013





If you're interested in these books and would like to know about other books/e-books/audio books/etc.  that we've recently added, check out our New Books and Resources page. 

Also, if you need assistance in finding these books on the shelf and checking them out contact 
the Reference Desk located in the Library Learning Commons:
(254)968-9249

Monday, August 4, 2014

COWABUNGA, DUDE!

I grew up with the Ninja Turtles. Every Saturday morning, I would be glued to the television in anticipation of watching the TMNT and Captain Planet. I have all of the Jim Henson movies from the 90s and I can never pass up the opportunity to include the Ninja Turtles at an event or special occasion. This year, I'll be having a TMNT themed 30th birthday party. Why not? You only live once and you might as well enjoy it. I'm a huge Donatello fan. He's the nerdy one, of course. So what do the TMNT have to do with the library you may be asking yourself?

Well, a new TMNT movie will be coming out soon. I'm kind of on the fence about it because it doesn't follow the original story line from the comics/movies. I will go watch the movie just to see what it is all about. I found that using the library's Discovery@Tarleton, you can find journal, magazine, and newspaper articles on the TMNT. Most of the articles are from the mid to late 90s, but there are a few recent ones that critique the new film or give insight to the new film and its characters. It is interesting to see how the Ninja Turtles from the 90s were used to discuss war and character portrayals. I'd love to know what you all think about the Ninja Turtles, new and old. The new movie releases on Friday, August 8th.

http://thesixersense.com/2014/07/16/sixers-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-extended-tv-spot-banner.html