Odum Library Blog

Focus on the environment this week with a neighborhood cleanup as well as the celebration of Earth Day. On Saturday, April 25, 2015, come volunteer for the Great American Cleanup, sponsored by Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful, the City of Valdosta, and Lowndes County. Help clean up our area by contacting Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful at 229-671-3698 to participate.

Earth Day 2015 falls on Wednesday, April 22, 2015. Many government resources for celebration and education this Earth Day are available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There you’ll find tips for everyday environmental awareness and conservation in the EPA’s efforts for people to make Earth Day, Every Day.

President Obama is visiting the Everglades National Park this week to focus on climate change and conservation of natural resources and to invite you to submit photos of places you’d most like to protect.

More opportunities for research and information about Earth Day and the environment are available through the Library of Congress’s Earth Day Resources page.

Within the state of Georgia, you’ll find more Earth Day information from the Georgia Forestry Commission. However you decide to help the environment this week, also make it an opportunity to learn more about conserving our natural resources.

The Library’s GIL-Find Catalog, Voyager system and all other interrupted services such as Course Reserves, My Library account login and the Equipment Booking Online Form have all been restored.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result of this service outage and thank you for your patience.

Valdosta State University’s Odum Library will celebrate International TableTop Day from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 11.

Students, staff, and faculty, as well as the public gaming community, are invited to visit the library to both play and discover new board games, card games, dice games, and more. Many of these games are part of the Tabletop Games Collection at the library.

Children and adults of all ages are welcome and encouraged to bring their favorite games to share with others in attendance.

Pizza and drinks will be served.

Designed to strengthen bonds with family and friends, International TableTop Day activities are coordinated locally by the Odum Library Tabletop Games Committee in conjunction with Valdosta-area partner The Geek Society.

This is the university’s third year celebrating International Tabletop Day.

TableTop Day 2014 was celebrated in 80 countries, over all seven continents, and boasted more than 3,000 events, like the one hosted by VSU’s Odum Library.

Contact Jonathan Klotz in the Odum Library at jrklotz@valdosta.edu to learn more.

ALA’s National Library Week Graphic 2015

Did you know there is a National Library Week? National Library Week is a national observance, sponsored by the American Library Association, which was started in 1958. Each year libraries across the country observe National Library Week with special events unique to each individual library. Here at VSU, Odum Library, in conjunction with the Dewer College of Education and Human Services, sponsors an event called Read Fest. Read Fest is an annual event organized to promote the importance and fun of reading to local Pre-Kindergarten Students.

This year’s Read Fest Event will be the biggest ever with about 300 Pre-Kindergarten students attending. The front lawn, in front of West Hall, will be transformed into several stations for the Pre-K students. The stations will include interactive puppet shows, book reading, arts and crafts, hula hoops and jump ropes, and a special visit from the famous Chick-fil-A cow! For more information about Read Fest and how you may be able to help, contact Brett Williams at bawillia@valdosta.edu.

Be sure to stop by the library next week to thank a library worker. Tuesday, April 14, is National Library Workers Day. The librarians, staff, and student assistants in all of the areas in the library work hard to make sure the library is open, clean, organized, and comfortable so you can enjoy your time here. While the faces you see at the Circulation desks, Reference desks, Media Services department, and Archives department may be who come to mind when you think of library workers, there are many more faces behind the scenes that help keep the library going.

So next week be sure to not only thank the people working with the public services, but remember everyone working hard behind the scenes to provide access to the information you need. If you would like to recognize a library worker, you can nominate that person as a stellar library worker. To nominate a library worker fill in the National Library Workers Day: Submit a Star form.

Here at Odum Library, we can’t help you prepare your taxes, but we can at least help you obtain the information you need.

Odum Library has copies of 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ forms, available in the kiosk near the Reference Desk on the second floor of Odum Library. Other forms, schedules, and instructions are not available this year in print at our library, so the best source will be the forms and publications sites listed below.

Federal forms are available at these links from irs.gov:

• The IRS’s Forms and Publications page offers links to the most popular forms, which are also available in accessible versions.  A link to the entire list of forms is available at the bottom of the forms page.

• Need instructions and tax tables?  Both are also available on the Forms and Publications page.

Georgia forms are not available in print from libraries this year.  The state does have a site, the Georgia Tax Center, where you can create an account for dealing with your state tax issues this year.

• The most popular forms and instructions, including the most often used Form 500 Individual Tax Reform booklet, are available from the Georgia Department of Revenue web site.

• If you prefer, you can request State of Georgia tax forms by calling the forms order line at 1-877-423-6711, option #2, then option #6.

In addition, tax forms from all 50 states are available courtesy of the Federation of Tax Administrators.

Happy Spring!