Odum Library Blog

For you zombie-philes we have the first four collected volumes of Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel series The Walking Dead.

Here you can watch a 2008 video of Kirkman talking about creating and reading comic books, and the state of the industry.

“I’m still reading comics, comics are better than television and movies, and the more people that knew that, the better off they’d be.” –Robert Kirkman

We’ve added new titles to our POPULAR shelves, including

Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom,

Nancy Grace’s Death on the D-List,

Terry McMillan’s Getting to Happy, and

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris.

Popular books are located on the 2nd floor next to Copier Room #2621.

It’s time to fall back again!  Daylight saving time ends Sunday morning at 2AM.  Remember to turn your clocks back an hour before you go to sleep tonight.

Why should you care?  Well, you get to sleep an extra hour!  Also, you probably don’t want to show up an hour early for any obligations you have Sunday, or for that first class of the day Monday morning.

Is your clock right?  Check the Official U.S. Time to be sure.

Would you like to learn more about the history of daylight saving time and the controvery that surrounds it?  Check out Spring Forward: the annual madness of daylight saving.  We have a copy available on the 3rd floor: HN49.D3 D69 2005

If you just want general information about daylight saving time, why not check the encyclopedia?  You can access many encyclopedias, including Encyclopædia Britannica, online through GALILEO.  Simply click on GALILEO > Resources by Type > Encyclopedias.

“Salvador Dalí: The Persistence of Memory, oil on canvas, 243×333 mm, 1931 (New York, Museum of Modern Art); © 2007 Salvador Dalí, Gala–Salvador Dalí Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, photo © Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 6 Nov. 2010 <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/img/grove/art/F017252>.

Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on November 19, 1863. Here you can see an amazing animation of the Gettysburg Address.

Odum Library of course has books about Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address including November: Lincoln’s Elegy at Gettysburg (an ebook) and Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words that Remade America.

We also have facsimiles of handwritten drafts of the Gettysburg Address.

Take a look at Vtext, Valdosta State University’s open access institutional repository.

A previous blog post covered what Vtext is, how it works, why you should use it, and who to contact for more information.

A lot of material has been added to Vtext.  To view our repository and look around at some of the items we have added, go here: http://vtext.valdosta.edu.

You can browse or search the contents.

Here are a few sample collections that show what we have available on Vtext.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations – This collection houses theses and dissertations that VSU Graduate Students have written.

MLIS Faculty Research and Teaching Materials – This collection houses the  research and teaching materials that have been created by our institution’s Library and Information Science faculty.

The Pine Branch: A Student Publication – This collection contains issues of a literary magazine that was published in the early days of Valdosta State University

So the race has started and we would just like to wish everyone a happy Election Day. If you haven’t voted yet, it is encouraged that you go out there and cast your ballot. Remember, every vote counts! For some useful information about voting, be sure to check out this GALILEO Election Day link for everything from your local polling location, to the history of elections.

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.