This month, we have a new employee to introduce to everyone. Julee Murphy has joined the User & Research Services team as Education Specialist, and we are so happy to have her on board! Julee came to us from the Early Childhood Development Center here on campus where she served as a librarian. Read on to learn a little more about Julee. Where are you from originally? I am a West Texan by birth but I have lived most of…
As the Director of User and Research Services at Bell Library, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some news from our team. First, the happy news! Alexa Hight, who is our Scholarly Communication and Copyright Librarian, was recently the winner of the Texas Digital Library (TDL) Service Award for her leadership of the OJS (Open Journal Systems) User Group. TDL uses Open Journal Systems software to allow faculty or staff of TDL member institutions to create open access…
The Pulitzer Prize winning books for 2021 were recently announced, and there are some great titles in the list. Here are the books that are already in the collection at Bell Library: Winner in Fiction: The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich (Harper) It’s hard to believe that two years ago Louise Erdrich thought she might never write again. A cache of her grandfather’s letters provided her the inspiration she needed to write her latest novel. The reviewer Joshua Grace, writing in The…
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…
Libraries like to celebrate the holidays, too! Here are some festive displays from libraries that incorporate books and evoke the holiday spirit.First, we have some pretty cool snowpeople shared in the thumbnail of this post! From left to right:Sonja Shulz, a high school librarian in Texas, built this great snowmanFrom Gina Sheridan’s blog, “I Work at a Public Library”Courtesy of Irwin Library at Butler University, here’s another snowman built on a base made of reams of paper and sporting a top hat…
Just in case you missed it, this is an election year! Although the pandemic has made voting, like everything else, more challenging, don’t let that keep you from casting your ballot! Every vote counts. This blog post will go over the details you need to know to make sure you are registered, make a plan for voting, and be prepared when you go to the polls. Want to know how to get started? In a video at the end of…
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…
There are many ways of dealing with stress. Exercise, distracting yourself with television or video games, eating your favorite ice cream, or snuggling with your pet are all good examples of coping mechanisms you may have used over the last few months as our world spun off its axis into this new reality that is the COVID-19 pandemic. For me, yarn crafts, specifically knitting and crochet, are not just my favorite hobbies but my go-to stressbusters. Sitting down to knit…
Over the years, open education – the use of free, openly-licensed educational materials and the teaching practices that have developed around them -- has continued to grow in impact and importance. Last February, OpenStax, a publisher of open textbooks based at Rice University, reported that free OpenStax textbooks had saved students $177 million dollars in 2018. In North Dakota, the state auditor’s office reported that a statewide OER initiative had resulted in savings of over $1 million for students. Also in 2018,…
Hopefully, if you’re reading this blog, you’re a fan of the Mary and Jeff Bell Library. Our library here at TAMU-CC is an important resource for your academic work. It’s also a great place to study, look at terrific art exhibits, hop on a computer and get those assignments done, or grab a print job on your way to class. But there’s another library that is also very important: our local public library. What’s public about a public library? It’s…