Learning Technology--Medieval Style

Actually the codex was invented in the late first century by the Romans according to the Wikipedia [I'm so ashamed--Middlebury College would flunk me, I'm sure]. Check out this YouTube video illustrating the training issues that accompanied this incredible "new" technology.
Hope you read and enjoyed at least one book during National Library Week. If not, now's the time to make your summer reading list.

InfoTubey Library Awards

In honor of Natl. Library Week check out some of the best library videos on YouTube. Esp. check out the William's College history of 'short pencils.' There exists, albeit not easy to find, some great library humor. Hope there will be a second annual award and wish we could enter the contest. Anybody got an idea? I have the camera and iMovie, just need someone's fertile imagination--mine's suffering from year-end drought. js

Hot Docs for Natl Library Week

Vickey Baggott, goverment documents librarian, has a new Hot Docs at USA featuring a little light reading newly arrived from the Government Printing Office for National Library Week.

Excellence in Librarianship Award to Vicki Tate

Yesterday, at the start of National Library Week, Vicki Tate received the Excellence in Librarianship from the Dean, Richard Wood.

Vicki is the Head of Government Documents and Serials and will, this year, be the Chair of the University's Faculty Senate. She is active in a number of organizations, moderates a document listserv, is serving on several search committees, adeptly handled recent flood damage in her department. Vicki is also known as the queen of the spreadsheet organizational method, an indoor gardener extraordinaire, and the person to see if you need a kitty cat in your life.

Urban Legend Fells Another Librarian!

On Wednesday of last week I posted a "fact" I got from a weird-facts webpage. It seems that I have been misled, hoodwinked and bamboozled. Always check your facts! A person, who-must-be-obeyed, but who shall remain nameless, found the truth on the VERY useful Urban Legend website. "The number of the horse's feet taken up from the ground has nothing to do with any attribute of the person depicted and everything to do with the skill of the sculptor and his ability to overcome nearly insurmountable problems in solid geometry, stress of materials, and other aspects of civil engineering..." From an unnamed webposting.

National Library Week-April 15-21

Hum That Tune

Got a song in your head? Can't figure out what it's called? Know some of the words, but need the rest for your next shower performance? Try this website--Midomi. Sing, hum or whistle a few bars into your computer microphone and, if you can carry just a bit of the tune, you should get back the info on the song, it's words, and the ability to download it for 99¢. Obviously this is not easy for technology and won't always work, but what the heck, maybe your roommate will even spring for the buck to get you past your made-up lyrics. I got this from MaryLaine Block's weekly email.

Weird Stuff

Can you read this page? http://www.funny-potato.com/read-this.html

And Weird Trivia found on the web.

Did you know:
If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
I got this from a webpage I can't find anymore or I would cite it.

Writing Outreach--On Finding Literary Criticism: Articles

On Thursday,
3:30-4:30,
Room 305,
in the Library,
I will be offering a workshop on how to find literary criticism for your literature termpapers. If you are in EH 101 or 102 you can come and ask questions about your papers too. Here's the webpage I am working on to be ready by Thursday at 3:30. js

Global Warming--What You Can Do

Did you know that our ethanol might have been some starving individual's possible meal. If our corn goes to our fuel, what's going to happen to the corn that we ship to countries who can't feed their population? Sorry--I never thought of that before. Maybe ethanol is not the answer. Marylaine Block's email today links to a Time magazine article about things we can do and maybe should think about a little more.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/environment/

Easy Reading in the Library

Vicki Tate just sent this announcement over from the periodical collection on 2 South. Yeah! Now I can drool on the Library's Gourmet magazine instead of waiting for my twice annual dentist visits. And since I have never ever been able to throw away my Wired magazine, maybe I can just give up my subscription and save my storage area for more important stuff.


by Vicki Tate
"One area that the library has been previously unable to meet the demand from our patrons is for general, pleasure-reading magazines. This has now changed due to recent gifts from two local businesses. We are now able to provide such materials to our patrons. Through a gift subscription service from EBSCO, a periodical vendor, 17 popular magazines on a variety of subjects will be available. EBSCO provided us with an initial list of 100 possible magazine titles. The final selection was based on trying to provide a variety of reading options we thought would be of interest to our students, faculty and staff. The magazines are sponsored and paid for by Farmers Insurance and by Domino’s Pizza, two local businesses located near the University on Old Shell Road. We will keep the 6 latest issues from each title, with the most current issue displayed on magazine racks next to the service desk in the current periodicals area on 2nd Floor South. These new magazines are: Christianity Today, Cycle World, ESPN Magazine, Four Wheeler, Glamour, Golf Digest, Gourmet, GQ, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Latina, Modern Bride, Road & Track, Self, Spin, Vibe and Wired.

In addition to these gift subscriptions, the library has received other gift titles, including American Legacy: The Magazine of African-American History & Culture, and the newspapers Muslim Journal and People’s Daily.
If you are interested in providing a gift subscription, please contact Vicki Tate (460-7024). Acceptance of any title is based on selection criteria and other factors.

So when you want to take a break from your academic pursuits, stop by the current periodicals area on second floor, and check out our new magazines."

The Ultimate Reub Goldberg or What Some Undergrads Do on the Weekend

http://www.baynhamtyers.com/index.html?http://www.baynhamtyers.com/Services/Business_Image/image_viral_frameset.html?http://www.baynhamtyers.com/contraptionII.html

First Person and Historical Photos

There are lots of places to share photos on the web. Flikr is probably the most famous. But this one is kind of intriquing. MSNBC puts out a call for photos of certain things and stories that are of interest. The station might use your photo and story on the air. Got a great Spring Break picture? That seems to be on the call list, as are motorcycle pictures, Will Smith look-alike photos and quirky American landmarks and people.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16712587/ I haven't tried sending a picture yet, so I don't know what is involved.

Here's another photo site. This one has pictures from 100 or so years ago. Ran across one taken in Mobile about the turn of the century. Also links to other sites that have photos and ads from previous eras. http://www.shorpy.com/

Both of thse are from the latest Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff.

And here's one for you to post that photo of you taken on the day when your hair is perfect, your clothes are clean and you look like a Gap, Target or iTunes ad. It's called Looking Real Good and is for regular people (which seems to mean the under 35, fairly techy crowd). Where else can you do this and be one of the cool people. http://lookingrealgood.com/

Running the Numbers--Visual Statistics

Something to think about this weekend. Maybe one less can and grocery bag would help the planet.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=

Facebook and AIM Experiment

OK, I don't know if anyone cares but I'm sending out an invitation to you to try reaching me for Chat. See the graphic for my AIM name. And you can also get to me at Facebook as J Sauer or the I Love the USA Library group[which has a total of 2 members right now]. This experiment may not last long, either because of apathetic response or overwork, but I thought I'd try it near the end of the semester just to see what happens. I'll try to be online when I'm in the Library and not teaching or at the Ref desk. Got a question about your research? Try it here.

Our Veterans and a Watchdog

No matter what you think about the war, you know that those women and men who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with physical and psychological injuries deserve the best we can give them. Here's a watchdog website that is trying to ensure they get the best. http://vawatchdog.org/

Sundays New York Times Magazine section has a cover story on the women in the war that is well worth reading too. Go to LexisNexis>General News>Major Papers and do a search using women's war as your search term.

And I just donated a documentary DVD I saw in NY last summer called "The War Tapes" to the Instructional Media Center. Three soldiers in their own words and with their own videos. A primary document, a case study and a fascinating view directly from Iraq. X-Rated language. Check it out. js

I'm back from a Spring Break filled with difficult decisions based on cost/aesthetic analyses with mostly "cost" winning. If you are interested see: http://homepage.mac.com/jan.sauer/PhotoAlbum3.html js

With no cost to you, check out both the Art/Literature student's and the fine arts faculty's aesthetic decisions on the 3rd floor of the Library. I got this announcement from the Dean this morning:

"The Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition features artwork in a wide range of materials and disciplines including painting, printmaking, graphic design, ceramics, sculpture, drawing and photography on the third floor. This show extends through the end of the semester to May 10th.

"Poets & Artists" display. The students in Claire Evangelista's drawing class respond through art and photography to the poems written by students in Dr. Sue Walker's poetry class. Over thirty poems will be paired with as many framed photographs, sketches or drawings in eight display cases and walls on the third floor of the University Library. This student show marks the first, interdisciplinary project at USA between the two departments. The show runs concurrently with the visual art faculty exhibition and extends through the end of the semester to May 10th.

Helen Keller Art Show of Alabama. This show on the first floor of the University Library displays prize winning entries of visually impaired students of all ages in Alabama public, private, home and residential schools. It is the 24th annual statewide contest supported by the Helen Keller Birthplace Foundation, the Alabama Federation of the Council for Exceptional Children, and University of Alabama at Birmingham's Vision Research Center, and schools of Optometry and Education. It will be on display through April 15th."

So you don't forget about the Library over Spring Break

The best Library videos: http://libraryvideos.blogspot.com/

Spring Break Hours:

March 10 (Saturday) Open 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.
March 11 (Sunday) Spring Break CLOSED
March 12 - 16 (Monday - Friday) Spring Break 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
March 17 (Saturday) Spring Break CLOSED
March 18 (Sunday) Open 1:00 P.M. - 11:00 P.M.

Through the Eye of Katrina

The History Dept. is sponsoring a conference this week entitled: Through the Eye of Katrina. Vickey Baggott, government documents librarian, has created a list of documents relevant to the topic. Here's a link to her webpage. Thanks Vickey.

Outreach-Books 3:30 today in the Auditorium & Art Show

3:30 today in the Library's Auditorium you might want to find out about multiple ways of finding books for your research projects: the SOUTHcat catalog, of course, but also WorldCat.org; Google Books; Online Books Page and many others. Hey, I know that journal and magazine are sooo easy to get to through our databases (and I'll talk about those in April) but books are still one of the most useful and efficient ways of deriving information and knowledge in this handy, compact, beautiful little package.

I also just got this email from the Dean's Office so after the Outreach, head to the third floor gallery and check out your faculty member's art works:
"2007 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition

The Visual Arts Faculty of the University of South Alabama will present the 2007 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition. The exhibit features artwork in a wide range of materials and disciplines including painting, printmaking, graphic design, ceramics, sculpture, drawing and photography. Also, Poets & Artists, a collaboration of emerging artists and poets from the Creative Writing and the Visual Arts Departments will be presented. The exhibit will be on display in the University Library Third Floor Gallery from March 1 - May 11. The public is invited to attend the opening reception Friday, March 23, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM.

The 2007 Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition artists include: Jeremy Colbert, Claire Evangelista, Diane Gibbs, Matthew Johnson, Marvin Kendrick, David McCann, Catherine McLeod, Phillipe Oszuscik, Walter Simon, Larry B. Simpson, Benjamin J. Shamback, Margarita Skiadas, Rachel Wright, Tony Wright and Kyeong-Won Youn.

For more information, contact Ben Shamback at (251) 261-1448 or email at bshambac@jaguar2.usouthal.edu."