Odum Library Blog

The library will close at 12:00 midnight on Sunday, January 19, and will reopen at 8:00 am on Tuesday, January 21, in observation of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Various ways to spend the MLK Day holiday include observing a day of service, attending celebrations, and visiting sites associated with the life of Dr. King.

MLKDay.gov offers information about service opportunities available for the MLK Day of Service on January 20, 2014, and toolkits for setting up your own service opportunities.

Valdosta-area events for Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, include:

• 3:00 pm, January 19, a commemoration program will be held at St. Paul A.M.E. Church, 419 S. Ashley St., with keynote speaker Elder Elizabeth Brown Yates, presiding elder of the Alachua Central District.

• 11:00 am. January 20, a youth program will be held at Mathis City Auditorium, 2300 N. Ashley St., with keynote speakers Nasier A. Vazquez and Valious Smith. A luncheon to follow.  (Source:  Valdosta Daily Times)

If you’re in the Atlanta area, you might wish to visit the National Park Service’s Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, featuring his birth and burial sites.

However you observe the MLK Day Holiday, we’ll be ready for you when the library reopens on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am.

As south Georgia prepares for a sharp drop in temperatures this week, take a look at these government resources with information about cold weather issues:

• The City of Valdosta offers tips to prevent your pipes from freezing.
• Ready.gov has pages for making sure you are ready for winter storms and extreme cold and have an emergency plan in place.
• A guide to promote personal health and safety is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• If it’s been a while since you used your fireplace–or even if you’ve used it recently–be sure to check out this safety advice for winter fires, available from USA.gov.
• Latest weather reports from across the nation are available from Weather.gov, provided by the National Weather Service.

Be sure you stay warm and follow these safety and energy-saving tips for weathering this cold spell.

Odum Library’s collections include books about the seasons and holidays!  Whether you want books on Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, or other holidays or seasons, you can find samples of our collection of books, recordings, and DVDs featuring holiday themes on exhibit in the library’s first floor display cases.

Luckily for library visitors, Odum Library is currently open regular hours:

Sunday 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.m.

Monday – Thursday 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.

Friday 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Saturday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

That means you can come to the library day and night until  3:00 p.m., Friday, December 20, 2013. The library will be closed Saturday, December 21, 2013, through Wednesday, January 1, 2014.  We reopen at 8:00 a.m. Thursday, January 2, 2014, when regular library hours resume.

Come see us and enjoy our first floor holiday exhibit (all items on display are available for checkout–just ask at the second floor Circulation Desk), plus take a look at our popular books, movies, games, and other materials you can take home for the holidays!

December 10^th is the date the United Nations observes Human Rights Day, commemorating the 1948 UN adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In this document the international organization recognizes “the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family [as] the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

More information on the history of Human Rights Day and Week, December 10^th-17^th, is available through the Law Library of Congress.  Online documents relating to Human Rights Day include:

•  Proclamation 2866, in which President Harry S. Truman proclaimed Human Rights day in 1949;
• a worldwide collection of UDHR materials collected by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights;
• current fact sheets about global issues such as the rights to water, health, adequate housing, food, and expression.

Humanrights.gov  is the official site for the U.S. government’s information about human rights. Here you can read recent news and reports about issues such as disability, freedom of expression and of religious observance, LGBT, labor, and other political, civic, and cultural rights. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor provides further access to information on the U.S. mission to spread democracy and respect for human rights worldwide.

Odum Library’s Government Documents collection can provide you with treaties, reports, hearings, and more material, both online and in print, about human rights issues in the United States and the world.  Just contact the Government Documents Librarian at 229-245-3748 or ecrogers@valdosta.edu, or stop by the Reference Desk for more assistance. Odum Library is a selective Federal Depository Library to which public access is guaranteed by public law.

Now that the end of the semester fast approaches, it’s good to keep in mind the many non-academic pleasantries of the season.  Odum Library observes special hours for the November holiday break, and the U.S. government offers a number of tips for enjoying the autumn season and holidays.

We’re marking the 150th anniversary of official thanksgiving celebrations, as President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving in 1863.  Read facts about the November 28th, 2013, holiday and other fall activities courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau, National Museum of the American Indian, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

November is Native American Heritage month, for which a host of resources are available from the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, Smithsonian Institution, and National Park Service. The Library of Congress offers the site Willing to Serve: American Indians from the Veterans History Project.

Find classic as well as unusual but healthy holiday recipes and tips for roasting a turkey and feeding a crowd.

Finally, if your plans take you traveling beyond Valdosta, be sure to check out national traffic and road closure information, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Artist and collector Andrew Tatler-Burgess studied art in Holland at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, and has worked as a professional artist for over two decades. He now resides in Pelham, Georgia. Several of his paintings are now on display on Odum Library’s 2nd floor gallery.

Using oils and acrylic, Tatler-Burgess captures his subjects in vivid colors and light. The 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha inspired his personal favorite piece, The Geisha. “Her stoic façade projects intimacy to her client and hides her true emotions.”

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Working under the pen-name “Wallen,” Tatler-Burgess has also painted the out-of-the-way locales and waterways of the Florida countryside.

Odum Library Archives and Special Collections houses many rare antique books, maps, art, Chinese ceramics, and medieval illuminated manuscripts– including pieces dating back to the middle of the 15th century– which were once part of Tatler-Burgess’ extensive personal collection.

The Library of Congress buildings, events, etc., are still closed because of the federal government shutdown. Now, however, the Library of Congress web site at loc.gov is available.

Other than legislative updates, new information is not being added to the site, but you can now reach the LOC subject authorities, online catalog, and digital collections such as American Memory.

In observance of Constitution Week, Valdosta State University is at the center of educational programing about the U.S. Constitution:

Odum Library hosts a  Constitution Day exhibit in the library’s 1st floor display cases, featuring books and media about the Constitution from Odum’s collections. More information about the Constitution is available through this online exhibit about the Constitution.

Tuesday, September 17th, 11:30am-1:30pm, “Cookies and the Constitution” at the north side of Palms Quad near Langdale Hall. Public reading of the Constitution by volunteers, free pocket Constitutions and cookies, and Constitutional Jeopardy, a trivia game about the history of the Constitution.
Tuesday, September 24th, 7:00-9:30pm, in the University Center Theatre.  Student Presentation Forum:  “The Constitution, the Continued Democratic Voting Challenge, and the Rise of a New Jim Crow Order,” featuring Departments of Political Science and History student presentations on various cases and background history on the struggle for democratic voting and the role played by the Supreme Court, Congress, and state legislatures.

Thursday, September 26th, 7:00-9:30pm, in the University Center Theatre. Faculty Roundtable Talk:  “Regulation or Suppression: Before and After Shelby County Alabama v. Holder,” featuring Departments of Political Science and History faculty presentations and discussion of various topics revolving around the history, impact, and fallout of the Supreme Court’sruling on the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder.

Sponsors of these events include the Office of the President, the Student Government Association, Odum Library, Academic Affairs, and the Departments of Political Science, History, and Social Work.

Welcome to Valdosta State University! Welcome to Odum Library!

Need community information on utilities, schools, and other necessities?  Visit the City of Valdosta page for Residents.

The Lowndes County, Georgia, web site also offers a page of links for visitors and newcomers.

Check out local and area news via the Valdosta Daily Times web site. Odum Library also gets the Times in print every day; you’ll find recent issues on display at the first floor library, south side, in the Current Periodicals. We also have more than 100 years of back issues on microfilm–just ask us through our chat, email, phone, or text services!

Are you living in a dorm or cooking on your own for the first time?  Consult the USDA’s Food Safety Tips for College Students.

Find out more about the area through the newcomers’ Greeting Service, which creates the FYi* South Georgia Guide, now available for 2013.

Odum Library has a lot of books on local history (many located within the VSU Archives and Special Collections), maps of the area, and friendly people. Come see what’s up at Odum Library!

Traveling around Georgia this summer?  You can pick up the free Georgia Travel Guide, Guide to Georgia’s State Parks and Historic Sites, and maps of Georgia in print in the government documents exhibit area, near the Reference Desk on the second floor of Odum Library. Can’t come by the library?  Take a look at the travel guide, state parks information, and 2013 hunting and fishing guides online.

You might enjoy having a Georgia State Parks Pass that allows you to visit any state park. There you can see the rare birds of Georgia and visit Georgia’s coast, made up of both salt and fresh water, with 368,484 acres of salt marsh and 432,660 acres of freshwater wetlands. The Georgia Land Conservation Program describes ways that landowners and other citizens can help conserve Georgia’s coast, wetlands, and other green spaces.

What else is there to do in Georgia? You can observe the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War in Georgia, including this walking tour of historical sites at St. Simons Island, and view other historical attractions featuring Civil War information.

  Nearby Jekyll Island hosts the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, along with great beaches and ocean views. Is your Georgia beach safe for swimming?  Check the Beach Swimming Advisory, courtesy of the Coastal Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Can you eat the fish you catch? Yes, says the Wildlife Resources Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, but be sure to consult these guidelines.

You can find more summertime events, book a room, or otherwise plan your trip at ExploreGeorgia.org. Enjoy your summer, and remember that you can visit us at VSU’s Odum Library, too!