TAMUCC Joins the Texas Library Coalition for United Action!

I am excited to share with the Island Community that Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi recently joined forces with 26 other universities from across Texas to form the Texas Library Coalition for United Action (TLCUA). Unified fronts such as this provide greater leverage when negotiating with publishers who often hold all of the cards. Similar to action taken by the University of California System and MIT, Texas as a state is acting together to push back against unsustainable business models that…

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Save Time & Money with Meal Prep

As a graduate student, budgeting is a huge part of my daily routine. From shopping online for the cheapest textbooks, to buying clothes from secondhand stores. One of the ways I help stretch my money and eat reasonably well is through meal prepping. Meal prepping is a great way to resist the temptation of eating out. Here are a few tips and thoughts I have gained over the last two years of meal prepping. What and How-to Meal Prep So,…

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Popular Reading: Pop Open a Book!

Hey, y’all! Punk a** book jockey here, writing today to talk to you about our Popular Reading Collection! Back at the end of 2017, a friend of mine and I decided that we would challenge ourselves in 2018 by reading books mostly by women, specifically women of color. We did not originate this idea. I cannot remember where we found this idea, and now, there are various of blogs and lists of books supporting this idea. One reason to read books by people who don’t look like…

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What’s on Emily’s Bookshelf?

If you’re watching the news or any live tv show, you’ve probably noticed that folks like to have a bookshelf in their background. It makes them look cultured, literate, or sometimes downright scary (C’mon Betsy, what’s going on over there?). Some folks on twitter and in the New York Times have taken up sleuthing through the images to see if they can identify any of the books and thus learn glean a fuller picture of the books’ owners. Since I was at my…

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WWII: A Most Dangerous Flight

Going back in time to the very beginning of combat service in 1943, Arturo P. Martinez and his flight crew arrived at their home base in Gioia, Italy. They received a warm welcome by the Squadron Commander on the first day. The Commander gave the new flight crew a pep talk. He reassured them that combat missions were not too bad, at least not as dangerous as soldiers in foxholes. The next day, Arturo’s crew was split up, and they…

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How to Study Better at Home

For most of us, the library was a place to “get it done.” It created an environment for the sole purpose to improve studying and it had resources in one convenient place to do so. For me, these past few weeks transitioning to online learning have been difficult. So, I listed a few tips that have helped me adjust and may help you all as well. CLEAN YOUR ROOM I cannot stress this step enough. Studying at home means you’re…

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What I’ve Been Reading During Quarantine

Like everyone else, I’ve found myself spending a lot more time at home and although I’ve partaken in zoom birthday parties, Netflix binging, etc., I’ve also tried to spend time away from screens, especially since all meetings now take place via a computer screen. I have by no means broke any records of books read, but I’ve read some good things from the Library’s Popular Reading Collection: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. This book is the second in a…

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The Truth is Out There: #FactCheckFriday Taking Down Misinformation One “Fact” at a Time

“A cabal of doctors is hiding the cure for cancer, berries are more effective than vaccines, and eating instant noodles can kill you: These are some of the claims from the internet's most viral fake health news in 2019.” This is how an article by Brandy Zadrozny for NBC News began. The article, released in December 2019, discusses the prevalence of misinformation. Through the library blog, I’ve previously discussed society’s misinformation woes and shared the Media Bias chart with you in my…

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Creating a Conference: From Idea to Reality

Ideas can be unpredictable. You never know where they might lead. This is the story of how an idea became a conference, and how the simple question “Why not?” set off a chain of events that, nine months later, has brought the libraries of the Texas A&M University System closer together and set the stage for future collaborations. TAMU-CC belongs to a large university system which includes 11 universities and eight state agencies. Each of those universities has at least…

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Food and Memories

One of the first memories I have is of food. I remember my birthday cake, my mom made it for me, it was yellow cake and had a really sweet peanut butter frosting. This memory is not much of a memory but every year that is the cake I wish I had. Food memories might seem basic, everyone eats. This is true, food is a part of our daily life so in some ways it is very mundane. Food is…

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