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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Texas Library Association

The Texas Library Association (TLA) just held its annual conference in Fort Worth, April 24-27.  Although the association was established in 1902, the first conference was not held until 1914, so 2013's conference was the 100th!

Today, TLA has over 7,600 members and is the largest state library association (with the largest state conference) in the country.  This is the first time the conference was held in Fort Worth since 1997.  It had grown so large that the conference had only been held in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas since then.

With the conference so close, most of the library staff was able to attend at least one day.  As I write this after the last conference day, I and my colleagues are exhausted but energized with ideas to improve Tarleton Libraries for our users.  Watch for future posts by other members of the LOL blog team on things we learned or saw at conference!

Subject Research Guides are here to help!

It's that time of the semester when papers will be due soon and team projects are in their final phases. Needless to say it can be a stressful part of the semester. If you're looking for resources in a specific area take a look at the subject research guides available through the Library's website. Each guide provides a list of the relevant databases, a subject-specific search box, and the call number ranges for physical materials within the subject. If you're interested in contacting the librarian who specializes in that subject their information is also made available on each page.

Don't forget, you could always use the Discovery @ Tarleton search to aid you in your research endeavors. (Tell us what you think of it by filling out the short survey, too!) Best of luck on the final few weeks of Spring 2013!

Tarleton Thursdays: Did You Know?

George Oliver Ferguson

George Ollie Ferguson was a lifelong Erath County resident.  He attended John Tarleton College from its opening in 1899 until 1901.  He received his BA from the University of Texas in 1907 and his masters from the University of Chicago in 1917.

G.O. Ferguson joined the Tarleton faculty in 1913 as professor of history and economics, and head of the economics and social science department.  He became associate dean and registrar in 1919.  Dean Ferguson retired in 1946, but continued teaching until 1950.  During his tenure he also taught Spanish, German and sociology.   Dean Ferguson, along with other faculty members, stuck it out at Tarleton through the thinnest of times.

Upon his retirement, Dean Ferguson was given the status of Associate Dean Emeritus.  In 1959 Tarleton built a new men’s dormitory and named it after Dean Ferguson – Ferguson Hall – which is still here today, the dorm closest to the library.  Dean Ferguson is shown above in his office in the administration building (now the Education building).

G.O. Ferguson died April 8, 1963 of a heart attack at his ranch sixteen miles southeast of Stephenville.  He was buried across the street in Stephenville West End Cemetery.  His family home was on Vanderbilt Street.  His widow Nona Laney Ferguson continued living in their home on Vanderbilt and caring for their rental duplex apartments next door.  Mrs. Ferguson was my first landlady when I moved to Stephenville in 1969.  She died in 1971.

Dean Ferguson’s sisters, Mett and Minn, were also long time educators.  Minn was on the Tarleton faculty as an instructor of piano and secretary of the Music department.  She graduated from John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1915 and from the New York School of Music and art in 1920.  Mett was a long time public school teacher in East Texas.  Mettie died in 1961 and Minn in 1972.  Both are buried in Stephenville West End Cemetery.

Dean Ferguson’s daughter and son in law, Mary and Jack Anderson, have been longtime members and supporters of the Dick Smith Library Friends and have helped with many book sales and programs.  Jack also served as president and as secretary treasurer of the Friends group.

Here’s to a family of great supporters of Tarleton and the Dick Smith Library!

Dick Smith Library Cross Timbers Historic Images.

JTAC, April 23, 1963.

Hip hop hurray

Did you know the library has 50  resources that cover hip hop and/or rap music? They approach the topic from political, historical and cultural perspectives and include print books, electronic books, and digital music.

Here are just a few. By the way, "General Stacks" is upstairs.

Life Changes in an Instant

Today is a very special day for me. On this day, 18 years ago I went from being a young wife to being a young mother. My life changed in an instant. This got me thinking about how things that happen in an instant can change our lives forever.

Earlier that week on April 19th, the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a car bomb. 168 people, including 19 children were killed in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

Then 4 years later that very same week was when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Colorado. 14 students and 1 teacher were killed.

In 2007, a male student shot and killed 32 students and wounded 15 others on the Virginia Tech campus.

In 2010, a BP oil drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana killed 11 people and dumped more than 13,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

And finally this year we had two tragic events happen within days of each other. The Boston Marathon bombings that claimed 3 lives and injured hundreds and the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that has taken an estimated 14 lives and injured hundreds as well.

All these people's lives were changed in an instant and each year I am blessed to be able to celebrate another birthday with my son.

 

Earth Day

Earth day is celebrated yearly on April 22.  Over 1 billion people from 192 countries all over the world will participate to help depict this year's theme Earth Day: The Face of Climate Change.

Do you try to lower your carbon footprint to help save the planet?  Is riding a bike your way of helping the climate? You can post a photo to tell your story about climate change and how you are helping.

There are all kinds of other ways you can get involved and join the movement.  To find out how,  check out the Earth Day Network website.

The Waco Siege

Today, we remember the Waco Siege at Mount Carmel Center in 1993. I still remember hearing about this on the news when I was younger, but I did not pay much attention to it at the time. I was only 9 years old and couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the news. Oh, how minds do change. I have since grown more interested and reliant on my news as is to be expected, but the Waco Siege still interests me if only because I don't remember much about it except that it was a cult following, there was a fire, and nobody survived. It's hard to imagine that so many people could be deceived by one person, but it happens time and time again throughout history and will continue to do so so long as people continue to give power to one individual without researching and checking the facts out on their own. Anyway, I thought it might interest you to know what kind of resources the Dick Smith Library has about the Waco Siege as well as cults in general and (while I'm at it) mind control. Here's what I found.

Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America by James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher
[ebook]








A New Understanding of Terrorism: Case Studies, Trajectories, and Lessons Learned by M.R. Haberfeld and Agostino Hassell
[ebook]










The New American Exceptionalism by Donald E. Pease
[general stacks]

Cults in America: A Reference Handbook by James R. Lewis
[ebook]

 Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control by Dominic Streatfeild
[general stacks]











TEDTalks: Diane Benscoter - How Cults Rewire the Brain from Films on Demand
[video]