Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

Dance and Pageant will be High Spots in Centennial Celebration!

March is Texas History Month, and yesterday was Texas Independence Day, as well as Sam Houston's birthday. The Texas Centennial Celebration was in 1936 and Tarleton celebrated right along with the rest of the state.

The March 7, 1936 J-TAC stated that the Texas flag would be flown during the centennial year. The flag began floating in the breeze March 2, 1936, the opening day of the Texas Centennial celebration. Other activities included a Centennial dance, shown in the photo above, with a replica of the Alamo in the background and the dancers in costume. On Friday of that week, the Texas flag was flown at half-staff in memory of the Alamo.

Instead of the 1936 May Fete, a Centennial pageant was held. Texas history from the early settlements to the present day were presented by all the students of the college. "Texas Under Six Flags" was the theme for the May Fete. Miss May Jones was chairman of the program committee. There were six episodes: Texas under France, Texas under Spain, and Texas under Mexico, Texas as a Republic, Texas during the Confederacy, and Texas as a part of the United States.

Statewide, the yellowed "Charter of Empire" was taken from the Capitol to Washington-on-the-Brazos by a special detail of Texas Rangers. Governor Allred formally opened the Centennial which was followed by a parade from Brenham to old Washington-on-the-Brazos where descendants of the 59 signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence took part in a portrayal of the signing of the original document. After that the party went to Huntsville where General Sam Houston first cried "Remember the Alamo." Then they went to San Antonio to take part in the celebration at the blood-stained Alamo.

What a great Texas Celebration, both by Tarleton and the state! Maybe some of your spring break travels will include some Texas history spots, being that it is Texas History Month!

Grassburr, 1936.

J-TAC, March 7, 1936.

Year of the Rabbit

That's right! DSL is celebrating the Chinese Year of the Rabbit!

Due to a rather hectic February, we didn't get to hand out our New Year's gift to you. Dr. Cara Pollard's Music in China Brown Bag Lunch seemed to be an ideal time to catch up.

Stop by the Dick Smith Library lobby and find out your fortune! They're going fast!

Top Ten Tuesday - Top 9 Uses for Gesture-based Computing

1. Sign Language Recognition
   
2. Assistive Robotics
   
3. Control Through Facial Gestures
   
4. Immersive Game Technology
   
5. Remote Control
   
6. Directional indication through pointing
   
7. Alternative Computer Interfaces
   
8. Virtual controllers
   
9. Affective computing
   

Information pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture_recognition

Gesture-based computing is a way for a human to interact with a computer without actually being connected with wires and such. Input devices such as a mouse, keyboard and touch screens will become obsolete. Some of the uses of gesture-based computing are sign language recognition, assistive robotics, control through facial gestures, immersive game technology, and remote controls.

For more information, check out some of the articles in our databases:

Hands on with the next generation of computer interfaces

Active vision techniques for visually mediated interaction

100 years overdue

A Massachusetts library agreed to waive fines for a book a man says he discovered in his deceased mother's things that was nearly 100 years overdue. Stanley Dudek, 75, of Mansfield said the book, "Facts I Ought to Know about the Government of My Country," was 99 years, seven months and 12 days overdue when he returned it to the New Bedford Library. Dudek said he believes the book, which bore a May 2, 1910, due date, was checked out by someone else and loaned to his mother when she moved to the United States from Poland at the age of 14. The Mansfield man said he worried the library's old penny-a-day late fee system would have caused a fine of more than $360.00 at the time of the book's return, but surprised library staffers waived the fee and said the book, now a historical artifact, is headed for a special collection.
Library officials said the book was apparently first checked out in 1906.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/12/16/Library-book-nearly-100-years-overdue/UPI-36764260985644/

Create your own QR code

QR codes are codes scanned with smart phone apps. They direct users to specific web pages or online promotions.

To create your own QR code:

1. Highlight, right click and copy the URL of the desired page(Ex: "http://www.tarleton.edu/library").

2. Go to Google.com. Type in "goo.gl" in the white URL box and you should get this screen:


3. Right click your mouse and paste your link into the box. Click "Shorten."


4. In the results section of the screen, click Details.


5. Your QR code should now be visible.



6. Take a screen shot of the QR code (instructions here) and save the image to a flash drive or your T: drive.


7. Now you can either print out the code on a piece of paper, or post it somewhere online for your friends to use. Be sure to test it out before you do so.

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

"First Women's Dean Writes of Two Exes"

The February 15, 1936 J-TAC states that a letter had been received from Mrs. Lily Pearl Chamberlin, a member of the first faculty in the old John Tarleton College, and the first Dean of Women, stating the whereabouts of a couple of Tarleton's former students.

While reading the February 1936 issue of Reader's Digest, Mrs. Chamberlin noticed mention of Dr. Michael Shadid, from Syria, who established in Elk City, Oklahoma, the only consumer owned and controlled hospital in the United States. He was a student at Tarleton in 1901-02. Mr. Shadid was highly pleased with the instruction received at Tarleton and the kindness received from the citizens.

Mrs. Chamberlin also wrote of another former Tarleton student, Doyle D. Jackson, an Erath county boy in the class of 1918, who was on the faculty of Texas Tech. He told Mrs. Chamberlin that it was at Tarleton that he caught the vision and became inspired with a burning desire to do something really worthwhile in the educational world.

Not only was Mrs. Chamberlin a member of Tarleton's first faculty, and the first Dean of Women, she also started the Home Economics Department at Tarleton. The first classes were held in the fall of 1915 with 18 enrolled in her foods class and 24 enrolled in her sewing class. The home economics department's motto was "we live to love and serve."

Check out the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Sciences sewing display in the library foyer. Lily Pearl also stated in her letter that there is a lot of satisfaction in thinking of the thousands of students whose lives have been made better and stronger and happier by their attendance at Tarleton.

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Free Things You Can Do in the Library!

Free is good, especially when you are a full time college student! Here are just ten of the several free things you can do in the Dick Smith Library.

1. Use the Wi-Fi or one of the public computers or check out a laptop.
2. Reserve, enjoy and return books, CDs, DVDs
3. Get individual help from the ultimate search engine — a librarian.
4. Study in a quiet place
5. Update your Facebook page.
6. Find out information about Stephenville or Tarleton.
7. Reserve a meeting room for your nonprofit group.
8. Cool off in air-conditioned comfort on a hot day.
9. Access trusted online source material and databases for research.
10. Pick up materials 7 days a week, after work and on weekends

Nixon Visits China

Besides today being Presidents' Day on this date in 1972 President Richard Nixon visited China ending twenty-five years of isolation between the People's Republic of China and the United States. Nixon's visit led to the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979. For more information on Nixon's visit to China click on the China link at: http://www.nixonlibrary.gov

New database! All about entertainment!

We have a new resource on the databases page!  BIR Entertainment provides information on 450,000 music and 200,000 video titles.  It is really different from any of the other databases we have.

Using BIR, you can find music or videos featuring your favorite artist or performer, or your favorite type of music! You can even view album covers and awards. Here is the cover of Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison

Give this new resource a try!

Top Ten Tuesday: Birthday Best Sellers

BibliOz.com has a "Birthday Best Sellers" search engine that allows you to see the New York Times best sellers for the week of a specific date, such as your birthday.

For this Top Ten Tuesday, I thought I'd try the search engine out. The University's library was given its own building in 1956. The week of February 15, 1956, the top ten NYT best selling fiction books were:

1. Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
2. Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk
3. Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara
4. Cash McCall by Cameron Hawley
5. Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
6. Island in the Sun by Alec Waugh
7. Boon Island by Kenneth Roberts
8. H.M.S. Ulysses by Alistair MacLean
9. An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden
10. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson

Try it out with your birthday, or whatever other date you like, and see how many of the books listed are ones you've read! For the record, I haven't read a single one of the above books, and I also haven't read any of the books published the week of my birthday. Maybe I need to turn my "birthday best sellers" into a personal reading project one of these days.

Happy Valentine's and Library Lovers Day!

photo by Tracy Holtman

Every year since 2001, the Library has celebrated Valentine's Day as Library Lovers Day. We invite you to visit the Library and show your support.  Come get your Library Lover button and some candy!  Help advocate for funding for Texas libraries by filling out this brief online survey today.

HAPPY LIBRARY LOVERS DAY!

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

75 years ago...

"Television to be Demonstrated Here Monday Night

Actual Sight and Sound Program to be Given by Television Hookup!"

The February 9, 1936 J-TAC stated that a special television program, sponsored by the Architects Club, shown in the photo above, was presented in the college auditorium. Complete broadcasting and receiving equipment was set up on the stage and sound broadcasting at its present commercial state was shown. The demonstration used $10, 000 worth of equipment.

The J-TAC article explained that "through television a moving picture is presented by radio or by other means, and persons miles away may be both seen and heard as if they were present." After the demonstration anyone desiring to stay and inspect, study, or ask questions about the television apparatus was welcome. The equipment used in the demonstration was the same that was to be used during the 1936 Fat Stock Show and the Texas Centennial.

Wow! Tarleton's first experience with television! The program was expected to be unusual, highly educational, different, and entertaining. I bet those students are in awe of the technological advances we have today!

Want to learn more about Tarleton?

Information about Tarleton State University (its past and present) is readily available.

• Enrollment Information:
• Provided by the Office of Institutional Research(formerly OPEIR).
• Go to Office of Institutional Research.
• Click the Texan Facts icon.
• Login with your NTNET username & password.
• Choose information categories: enrollment numbers, faculty/student ratios, demographics, location, and much more.
  
• Historical (1917-2010) enrollment information.
  
  • Provided by Registrar Administrative Services Coordinator.
  • Available at the library's Reference/Information Desk or use our Ask a Librarian email reference service.
    
• Tarleton Budget Books:
• Current year's operating budget (not the salary schedule).
• Go to Texas A&M University System Budgets page.
• Click "Board Approved Operating Budgets by Member" link.
• Select appropriate fiscal year.
• Click Tarleton State University in list of institutions.
  
• Printed Tarleton operating and salary budgets.
  
  • Call number LD5271.T35 A175
  • Current budget is in Library Reserves at the Circulation Desk & is available for 2 hours in-house checkout.
  • 1951 through last year is in Limited & Local History Collection (library lower level).
    
• Tarleton History, News, People and Traditions:
• Cross Timbers Historical Images Project (linked on library's homepage).
  -- Offers historical images and narrative descriptions of Tarleton and surrounding communities. Sources are cited to facilitate further research.
• Use Search features.
• Browse collections.
  -- Click "Collections" link.
  -- Choose desired collection.
  -- Browse narratives.
  
• Grassburr yearbooks
  -- Call number LD5271.T35G7
  -- Limited Collection houses the most complete set. In-house use only.
  -- Curriculum Collection (lower level) yearbooks can be checked out.
  
• J-TAC student newspaper
  -- digitized access via at UNT's Portal to Texas History
  
  • Enter JTAC in the search box.
  • Use Advanced Search to narrow search by time period, etc.
  • Go to direct link to J-TACs at UNT Portal to Texas History
  -- on microfilm in Periodicals (library's main level)
  
• John Tarleton and his legacy: The history of Tarleton State University, 1899-1999 by Dr. Chris Guthrie
  -- Call number LD5271.T35 G88 1999
  -- 2 copies in Stacks (upper level), 1 copy in Limited (lower level)
  
• John Tarleton College story: The golden days of purple & white by C. Richard King
  -- Call number LD 5271 T33 K55 1998
  -- 1 copy in Stacks, 1 in Limited, 1 in Killeen
  
• John Tarleton's Dream
  -- From the Tradition, Pride & Spirit - Tarleton's Legacy page
  
• Purple Book
  -- Explains Tarleton traditions, legends, and landmarks.
  
• Tarleton Traditions
  -- Offers links to campus organizations information, the Purple Book, etc.
  
• Tarleton Thursday posts on Library Online Lounge blog.
  -- Weekly posts about Tarleton's history: events, people, and campus life.

Top Ten Tuesday: 2010 Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries

1. Academic library collection growth is driven by patron demand and will include new resource types.
2. Budget challenges will continue and libraries will evolve as a result.
3. Changes in higher education will require that librarians possess diverse skill sets.
4. Demands for accountability and assessment will increase.
5. Digitization of unique library collections will increase and require a larger share of resources.
6. Explosive growth of mobile devices and applications will drive new services.
7. Increased collaboration will expand the role of the library within the institution and beyond.
8. Libraries will continue to lead efforts to develop scholarly communication and intellectual property services.
9. Technology will continue to change services and required skills.
10. The definition of the library will change as physical space is re-purposed and virtual space expands.

http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/6/286.full