March 2021 – Mary and Jeff Bell Library Blog

Laptop Checkout Kiosks

Post author:Risha Dulip
Post published:March 30, 2021
Post category:News @ Your Library Service for You Tech in the Library

The Mary and Jeff Bell Library introduced a new laptop checkout kiosk service this week for students, a project that has been in the works since August 2020. Spurring this initiative, the Bell Library recognized a need for this service due to COVID-19 protocols and the variety of instructional methods which further widened digital equity and inclusion. CASA’s Title V Project GRAD grant helped fund the laptops for the kiosks. The laptop checkout kiosk will help facilitate laptop circulation in the…

A Portal to Corpus Christi and Beyond

Post author:Phebe Raglin
Post published:March 26, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Service for You

An access point. A touch stone. A portal. This is what a library is; it’s a place of accessibility. When people come to a library, they expect to find a place where they can reach resources and multi-media that will allow them to learn, to educate, to create, to grow, to entertain, and to expand their imaginations. At the Mary and Jeff Bell Library, this is an ever evolving and continual process to improving accessibility. A huge part of this…

What do you miss?

Post author:Jennifer Anderson
Post published:March 23, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Library Randomness

Restrictions are starting to ease – for better or worse. Vaccines are on the rise – thank goodness! I don’t often focus on what I’m missing. I’m not really hoping for a “return to normal” I’m not sure I know what that would look like anymore. For some people it’s hanging out with a group of friends or attending big family gatherings – others miss movie theaters and the energy of live music. For the most part, I’ve been incredibly…

I-Create Student Worker Spotlight: Alex Esquivel

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:March 19, 2021
Post category:Behind the Scenes Hello, from the Staff We Made This

At I-Create, our student workers are immensely talented and creative. For this month’s spotlight, we would like to shine a light on one such student, Alex Esquivel. Alex hails from the small town of Eagle Lake, Texas. He began his education at a junior college, before catching word of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Upon reviewing the TAMU-CC fine arts program, Alex decided that the Island University was the institution for him. After he began attending TAMU-CC, Alex became drawn to…

March is Women’s History Month: Read some Popular Books by Women!

Post author:Alexa Hight
Post published:March 16, 2021
Post category:Books & More Today's Special

Hi all! Punk A** Book Jockey Alexa here to remind you that March is Women’s History Month! My favorite way to celebrate things, reading! Here are a few titles by some awesome women that I recommend checking out. Also, check out this guide on Women’s History: https://guides.library.tamucc.edu/womenshistory Afia Atakora: Conjure Women. “Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives…

Women’s History Month 2021

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:March 12, 2021
Post category:Things to Do Today's Special

It’s Women’s History Month (yay) and the first anniversary of the pandemic (not so yay). It’s truly one of those hard times where we’re asked to think about important contributions and struggles of the past, the harshness of the present, and the potential of the future. As a co-coordinator of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Minor here at TAMU-CC, creating a calendar of events has posed its own particular set of problems this March. After our last WHM was…

Stream of Consciousness: Pandemic Stress Edition

Post author:Joe Hernandez
Post published:March 9, 2021
Post category:Library Randomness Things to Do

It’s March again. As wild as it seems, the normal lives that we were living a year ago have been completely altered by the pandemic. Let’s be real here, it’s been rough. The beginning was exhausting. trying to keep up with all the constant changes regarding COVID regulations, what was considered safe one week, then finding out a few days later that things had changed. The worry of people hoarding food and the fear of not being able to find…

Indoor Gardening

Post author:Bell Library
Post published:March 5, 2021
Post category:Library Randomness Things to Do

I spoke about hobbies in the past, and how now more than ever it’s important to keep mental health a priority. Rather than list out a series of hobbies without providing insight about what the activity entails, I thought it’d be best to break each hobby down for you. Starting with my favorite… gardening! A lot of us are in that in-between stage in life where we aren’t completely dependent on our parents and probably don’t live with them either. For most…

Open Education Week 2021: Open Educational Resources in the Age of COVID

Post author:Lisa Louis
Post published:March 2, 2021
Post category:Books & More Library Hacks Service for You

I’ve been talking for a while on this blog about open education and how it can lower costs for students while at the same time bring new, invigorating practices to the classroom. But when the pandemic hit last year, open educational resources (OER) became a solution to a problem that was now more urgent than ever before. As a result of the pandemic, many students have been struggling financially. Access to physical books -- for example, reserves in the library which before the pandemic had been one strategy students could use to lower textbook costs -- were disrupted. Supply chains…