Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Audiobooks!

Are you a commuter? Or, are you planning to take a long car trip sometime this summer? If so, check out the library’s collection of audiobooks!

This growing collection is located on the lower level of the library, in the Audiovisual Collection room just to the right as you come off the stairs or the elevator. Items check out for four weeks, and most are in CD format, although there are also books on cassette. We have some children’s audiobooks as well.

Come browse in person, or you can browse virtually following these steps:
1) Go to the library’s home page: http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/
2) Click on “Search the Catalog.”
3) Click on “Power Search.”
4) From the drop-down menu in the box next to the word “type:”, choose “Audiobook.”
5) Then click on the “Search” button, and you should get a list of over 400 audiobooks, with those published most recently listed first.

Suggestions for future purchases are always welcome – contact Special Services Librarian Amanda Pape at pape@tarleton.edu or at 254-968-9251.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

How Green Is the College?

How Green Is the College? Time the Showers - NYTimes.com: "How Green Is the College? Time the Showers" from the New York Times - Students doing their part to save the environment.

What can we do here?

Friday, May 16, 2008

Olympics Games



83 days until the Summer Olympics - What is your favorite sport? Are you going to watch?

Friday, May 2, 2008

Questions at Semester's End

When a semester ends, questions often appear on the horizon:
~ Is finishing my degree worth the time and expense?
~ Should I consider getting a masters degree?
~ Should I change my major before next semester?
~ When I finally graduate, will I be able to find a job?

Many resources are available to help you find answers to these questions:

  • Tarleton Libraries (254-968-9249) also offer helpful resources:
    -- Databases like Business Source Complete and Business & Company Resource Center let you find articles about specific companies and industries, industry and career trends, current events, legal news, and more.
    -- Legal databases like Lexis-Nexis Academic and Westlaw Campus let you look up court cases, business news, company financial reports, and industry reports.
    -- Current periodicals (in the databases and on the library shelves) can help you keep up with trends in your field, current research, job postings, conferences, etc.

  • The United States government also offers useful information:
    -- The Bureau of Labor Statistics offers the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which lets you learn about careers available in various fields, job descriptions and requirements, salary expectations, and job markets for each state.
Congratulations on finishing another semester! Remember that answers are sometimes just a mouse click or phone call away.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Study skills & stress management for exam week

With Final Exams coming up I wanted to share a great web site to help get everyone through!

Study Tips for Finals: Study skills & stress management for exam week- This site has really good information about the following topics and more.
  • Time management.
  • Schedule in study breaks. (With a link to 'Great Study Breaks')
  • Schedule in sleep.
  • Exercise.
  • Prioritize.
  • Form effective study groups. (With a link to 'Effective Study Groups')
  • Free your schedule.
  • Ask your professor for help.
  • Keep things in perspective.
The website even shows related articles about "How to Pull an All Nighter", "Multiple Choice Test Tips", and "How to take effective class notes".

Take a look...and GOOD LUCK with Finals Exams!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Living Green

Continuing the Earth Day theme, here are some books that will help you understand WHY it is so important to change our ways. Kermit the Frog has told us that it's not easy being green. These books inform us that it will be much worse if we choose NOT to be 'green'.

Porritt. Capitalism as if the world matters (HC79.E5 P667 2007 in the Dick Smith Library) and
Sachs. Common Wealth: Economics for a crowded planet.

Our real enemy is not a political one, but ourselves, because we ignore the perils of climate change. You may have heard of an ancient Pogo cartoon 'We have Met the Enemy and He Is Us'. We may have a little time to change the direction our world has taken. Check out what cities are doing:
Dallas
Chicago

AND, how 'bout them libraries? Green Libraries

As you become involved in building projects--your home, your place of employment, etc., think about your environmental footprint.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

April 22 is Earth Day! Honor the Day and Go Green!

Join billions of people worldwide who are honoring Earth Day 2008!

"Earth Day is a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions to accelerate environmental progress. Earth Day is a time to unite around new actions. Earth Day and every day is a time to act to protect our planet." (Taken from http://earth911.org/ )

Simple changes in your life like using "paper instead of plastic" the next time you grocery shop, throwing your aluminum cans in recycle bins found across campus, or walking to campus can help make every day Earth Day.

For more information on Earth Day and Going Green see the websites:
http://ww2.earthday.net/
http://www.thegreenguide.com/

Or, check these books out at the Dick Smith Library:

The state of the Earth : environmental challenges on the road to 2100. Conkin, Paul Keith. GE195.7 .C66 2007

An inconvenient truth : the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it. Gore, Albert. QC981.8.G56 G67 2006

Environmental politics : domestic and global dimensions. Switzer, Jacqueline Vaughn. GE170 .S95 2007

Friday, April 11, 2008

Graduation and your hood and tassel

Wow, it is almost graduation time again, and yes, the colors of your hood and tassel are significant! Even the design of the sleeves and the fabric are significant!
Click here to learn more

Monday, April 7, 2008

Bringing History to Life

Been watching the “John Adams” series on HBO lately? In LibraryThing, you can browse the libraries of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson (as well as many other famous folks), thanks to the I See Dead People['s Books] group. These Legacy Libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members or batch-imported from various libraries.

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier is a blog of transcripts of a young English soldier’s letters from the first World War, posted exactly 90 years after they were written. Be sure to check out the “Helpful Hints” in the left sidebar for the best way to catch up with earlier posts.

Shorpy.com is a photo blog about what life was like in the past, from the dawn of photography (in the 1860s) to the 1940s and 1950s. The site is named for Shorpy Higginbotham, inspired by photos of this 14-year-old Alabama coal miner in 1910. Visitors can make comments, and, by creating a free account, upload their own vintage photographs.

The Library of Congress recently posted a webcast about their Flickr project (the FAQ provides technical and other details). Approximately 50 images per week are posted on Flickr from the photo collections. Anyone can add notes (by outlining sections of the photos), comments, and tags to these historical photos. The Library of Congress has used this Flickr input data to change over 100 cataloging records so far.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Paper or Plastic?

Battle of the Bags offers an interesting, interactive exploration of the impact bagging choices have on the environment.

The slides and video/audio clips give information about the environmental impact (production, recycling, and disposal) of bagging choices, state laws, and the impact of consumers' choices.

Paper or plastic? The answer is more complex than it sounds.
Check it out!

Monday, March 31, 2008

New Books at the Dick Smith Library

Do you know you can check a monthly list of new books added to the library collection? Go to http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/newbooks.html for lists through February 2008. Some of the latest titles include:

The complete idiot's guide to learning Spanish
Making the team: a guide for managers
A guide to writing sociology papers
A woman for president: the story of Victoria Woodhull
"Ace" any test
Picasso: painting against time

Don't see the book you want? Remember that you can suggest book titles for the library to purchase at http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/purchase.html We will even let you know when the book is ready to check out!!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Colleges deliver basic skills of all kinds. Should agriculture be part of the mix?

Last month the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was officially opened. The seed vault was created as a global effort to protect the world's food source in the event of future natural or man-made disasters. The vault contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds from across the world.

“With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization,” said Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

In an article this month from the Chronicle of Higher Education, some are wondering "even if seeds survive climate change and mass extinction in a bombproof vault, will anyone remember how to cultivate them?"