Odum Library Blog

This Halloween you can enjoy a lovely 360-degree online tour of the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise in Paris, the final resting place of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Max Ernst and many more.

For some students, noise can be a major distraction when they’re trying to study.  A little bit of white noise helps others focus.  There is no right or wrong way to study, and you should do whatever works best for you.

We want to make sure everyone has the kind of environment they need so they can focus, which is why we have designated quiet zones in certain parts of the library.  Please refer to our maps to find these areas.

How do you like to study?  Are you happy with the noise level in the library?  We are always trying to make Odum Library a better place for you to do research, so let us know!

If you need another credit hour for next semester, why not sign up for LIBS 1000?  It’s called Introduction to Library Resources, and it’s an online class designed to familiarize you with doing college-level research.  You’ll learn how to find the information you need to write your papers, how to know if you should trust what you read on the web, and much more.  The CRN is 22536.  If you have any questions about the class, send an email to ghwilliams@valdosta.edu

There’s a headset in development that calibrates to human brainwaves, allowing one to manipulate images on a computer screen, just by thinking about them.

Emotiv Systems president Tan Le demonstrates it for a live audience at A Headset that Reads Your Brainwaves (if you’re impatient to see it work, forward about 5 minutes into the clip).

Photograph by Justin Stephens

Read an article here about Emotiv, the company that created the headset.

Put this number in your phone! 229.234.1947

People are raving about our new service that lets you text message your question to Odum. It’s a great way to find the information you need when you aren’t at a computer or you’re in a hurry. Maybe you just want to know if the library is open before you walk over here. In any case, keep the questions coming! Send them to 229.234.1947

Aren’t you curious about what happens when you send us a late night text?  We thought so!

When you text us any time, day or night, your question goes to the Reference Librarians.  We will text you right back during our normal hours.  Even though Reference Librarians live to help our students, we don’t live at the library.  When we open up the Reference Desk in the morning  we get to read and answer all of the text messages you sent us overnight.  On weekdays, that means you might get a return text from a Librarian at 8AM!  We don’t want to wake you up, but we do want to get you the information you need as quickly as we can.  If you don’t plan on being up that early you might want to put your phone on silent.

To find out what hours the Reference Desk is open or to send us a chat, email, or text question, go to http://www.valdosta.edu/library/ask.php

Odum Library is proud to support International Open Access Week, which takes place from October 18th-24th! 

What is Open Access? Here’s a video from SPARC, one of the biggest names in Open Access advocacy:

Open Access 101, from SPARC from Karen Rustad on Vimeo.

Basically, Open Access is a new way of publishing that makes scholarly information available to everyone.  While it isn’t always free to publish this information, the charge isn’t put on the reader, therefore empowering everyone with access to great information.

Here are a few great examples of Open Access in action!

Directory of Open Access Journals : This is a huge database of open-access journals from around the world.  In order to be included, these journals need to be edited or peer-reviewed.

ArXiv : ArXiv is a place to find the newest open-access papers in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics. 

Public Library of Science : Public Library of Science is an open-access publisher of seven peer-reviewed scientific and medical journals.

What do you have to say about Open Access?  Leave us a comment!

This weekend is the beginning of Fall Break, and we know you’ve earned it. Unfortunately, it’s pretty likely that you have a paper or two you need to start working on. Lucky for you, Odum Library is open normal hours this weekend!

Saturday: 9am-9pm
Sunday: 12pm-2am
Monday: 7:45am-2am
Tuesday: 7:45am-2am

The reference desk will be closed on Saturday and Sunday. If you need help with your research, you can always email the reference librarians for help. They get to take the weekend off, too, so you can expect a reply on Monday. You can submit an email question from the Live Chat page: http://www.valdosta.edu/library/ask.php

Have a great break!

The librarians at Odum do a lot of teaching.  You may have come to the library with one of your classes to learn how to find journal articles for a research paper.  We also teach one-on-one at the reference desk when you ask us how to find or use information.

If we left the programming up to you, what would you want us to teach? How to protect your privacy on Facebook? How to create a podcast? How to find books about vampires and zombies in the library’s catalog? Let us know!

South entrance of Odum Library, 10/07/2010

We hope you’re enjoying the beautiful October weather here at VSU.  It can be hard to study outside, though, so why not come study in Odum Library?  We have plenty of seating on the second and third floors surrounding our atrium, where you’ll have nice views of the outdoors.