Odum Library Blog

If you’ve been to our Library Help page lately, you have probably noticed quite a difference.  You may be wondering why the heck it looks so different.  I won’t get into too many details – this is a blog, after all – but here’s the lowdown:

We want any library patron who clicks on “Library Help” on the Main Menu in the Library Homepage to get a page that helps them out immediately after they clicked on the link.  In the past, most of the helpful pages were within another page with the lengthy title “How to Research, Evaluate Sources, and Cite,” which you would have to click on after you clicked on “Library Help.”  The new Library Help merges that page with the past Library Help page, and it organizes all of our content into categories that make sense in a college research setting.  First, there’s all the general library stuff – how to use the catalog, what’s up with Interlibrary Loan, etc.  It’s all research from there – planning your searches, searching for articles, evaluating the sources you find, and then citing those sources in whatever style you’re using.

You’ll also see that we have moved our content into the world of streaming video!   You’re going to see many more VSU Reference Librarian-made video tutorials, covering different aspects of the research process, how to use certain databases, and how to use aspects of the Library Homepage very soon.  Some of these are already up, including What is a Scholarly Database? and News Resources.

We hope you enjoy the new Library Help page – please let us know if you have anything you’d like to see in Library Help!

It’s finals week: does it seem as though school is lasting forever?

The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data on educational attainment, or “the highest level of education an individual has completed.”

A recent press release on Educational Attainment in the United States, 2010,  indicates that more working women, aged 25 and above, have completed at least the bachelor’s degree (37% to 35% of working men), whereas among all adults 25 and older, 30.3% of men, in contrast to 29.6% of women, have completed the bachelor’s degree equivalent.

Find out more about this and other Census data on educational attainment by age, race, or gender,  at tables available through Educational Attainment in the United States, 2010. For assistance using these tables or finding other government information, don’t hesitate to contact VSU’s Government Information Librarian at 229.245.3748, or the Reference Department’s Ask Us text or chat service.

If you’re graduating this weekend (or reaching any new level of educational attainment), CONGRATULATIONS!

Click to see a list of books about Al Qaeda and the War on Terror you can check out from the library.

See images at “Newspaper Front Pages Capture Elation, Relief that Osama Bin Laden Was Captured, Killed” (Poynter.org).

Read Osama Bin Laden’s obituary in the New York Times.

Watch Fox News videos here, including reactions from 9/11 family members and details on the Navy Seal team that killed Bin Laden.

Read “The Long Hunt for Osama Bin Laden” from BBC News.

Read John Dickerson’s “Mission Accomplished: How Obama’s Focused, Hands-On Pursuit of Osama Bin Laden Paid Off” at Slate.com.

Ask Us (text or chat) if you’re looking for news sources today (or anything else).

Click here to read an article about a Vodou doll that “wrecked havoc” at the University of Miami.

Click here to see a short list of books about Voodooism available here in Odum Library.

Click here to read and hear “Living Vodou,” a 2010 Speaking of Faith episode from American Public Media.

Did you know that Odum Library has over 20 group study rooms available on the first and third floors of the library? You no longer have to check these rooms out- instead, they’re unlocked and available to the first taker. Unlike the great Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, you don’t have to stake your claim. Just find a room and hit the books.

We can’t guarantee that the study rooms will always be quiet. Sometimes groups need a place to get together to discuss a project or presentation. Maybe you’d like to quiz your friends about the differences between certain philosopohers’ theories. Whatever the topic, study rooms are a great place for you to get together with a group and talk it out. Even if you don’t need to hold a discussion, maybe you’d like to get together with your friends to study quietly together. If you’d rather be Tweeting than reading your textbook, studying in a group is a great way to stay focused. At least you know that your best pals aren’t out shopping or checking their Facebook, either.

Finals are almost here and the end is in sight. Keep studying- you’ll be glad you did!

The April 29 wedding of Catherine Middleton to Prince William of Wales affords us an opportunity to look back on other royal marriages~~ the good, the bad and the ugly (link from the Internet Public Library).

Ask us if you’re interested in books about the Royals (or anything else of course, just ask!)~~ for example

Henry VIII’s consort Anne Boleyn

Matilda of Flanders (consort to William the Conqueror)

Eleanor of Aquitaine and other Medieval queens

Maria Fitzherbert (George IV stabbed himself when she refused his proposal of marriage)

Diana, Princess of Wales

Edward, Duke of Windor (the one who abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, a commoner, who thus became Wallis Warfield Windsor)

Victoria and Albert

Victoria and Albert

Read Alouds

Read Alouds

Puppet Shows

Puppet Show / Read Aloud

Hula Hooping / Jump Roping

Temporary Tattoos

Appearance from the Chik-Fil-A Cow

Students enjoying a break and some ice cream

Coloring

Special thanks to Dr. Colette Drouillard from the Master of Library and Information Science Department for taking these pictures.

Which do you fear more, taxes or snakes?

Monday, April 18, 2011, marks the deadline for filing 2010 federal taxes, thanks to a District of Columbia holiday, but you still need to file for state taxes by Friday, April 15. Find links to commonly requested forms and federal publications at 1040 Central.  For the convenience of filing your tax returns electronically, visit the IRS information for e-file page.

We have paper copies of common federal forms and Georgia tax form booklets here at Odum Library, in the Reference area on the second floor.  To find online Georgia state income tax forms and guidance, go to the Georgia Department of Revenue site.  Tax publications from other states are available through this interactive map provided by the Federation of Tax Administrators.

If you’ve already filed your taxes, prepare for spring by learning more about our most misunderstood wildlife: snakes!  Visit our display of books and actual snakes (preserved in jars) from the personal collection of Dr. H. Bernard and Elizabeth Bechtel, on the library’s first floor, down the stairs from the main Circulation desk. Read more about the Bechtels’ recent herpetology book collection donation through our April 1 blog entry, Snakes!

Brown Tree Snake

We also have state and federal government information about snakes. Enjoy this Snake Fact Sheet from the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources, Wildlife Resources Division.  Fort Stewart, near Hinesville, Georgia, has prepared a nonvenomous snake guide—including pictures! —for South Georgia.  Is It a Water Moccasin? helps Georgians answer this all-important question. For more information about tax forms, snakes, or print versions of these and other documents, just ask us at the Odum Library Reference Desk!

Odum Library has received a large collection of books about snakes, frogs, and turtles from Dr. H. Bernard and Elizabeth Bechtel.

Click here to see the Bechtel herpetology collection in GIL-Find.

Check out our display of books and actual snakes (preserved in jars) from the Bechtel’s personal collection, on the library’s first floor, down the stairs from the main Circulation desk.

At 10:30am, the power will be out in both sides of Odum Library. We wish this was an April Fool’s joke, but it really isn’t. Be sure to save any files to your Documents folder, or email them to yourself.

Thanks a bunch,
Odum Reference