Do you ever see something so different or complicated that you just have to pause and think, “What am I looking at here?” I think library records can look like that sometimes, so I’m going to use this post to clear up what we’re seeing when we do a search in the library’s Quick Search tool. You can access the library’s Quick Search from the Bell Library homepage. Type whatever you’re interested in (monkeys, lime beans, emo kid hair culture, etc.)…
This pandemic has been hard on us parents. I’m not going to lie, between working from home and trying to take care of three little boys, I’ve DEFINITELY leaned hard into Netflix and Disney+; and the combined $20 a month is WAY cheaper than a babysitter. The boys are entertained (for a few mins at least) and I can get a few emails answered. Everyone’s a winner. However, recently the unthinkable happened. My kids watched all of Netflix. No more…
You’ve made it to the 3rd week of Fall 2020, bravo!! I really mean it. Congratulations to you, whether you’re a student, faculty, or staff!! Since March we’ve been living in a world that can simply be described as: 2020. That’s right! This year has been so crazy that if Godzilla popped up somewhere the phrase, “that’s 2020 for you” is an accurate remark. With our 2020 bingo cards to our monthly reaction memes, it has been a rollercoaster to say…
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…
“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…
Hey, classical music lovers… Did you know that the Mary and Jeff Bell Library provides access to a database of over 150,000 albums? That’s right, Naxos Music Library (NML) has a huge catalog of (primarily) classical streaming music, and it’s freely available to all TAMU-CC students, faculty, and staff. There are several ways you can select something to listen to. You can search for a specific work, of course. Or you can click the “People” link from the menu on the left…
“Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” – 2016 Headline During the 2016 Presidential campaigns, this headline gathered approximately 960,000 Facebook engagements1. Of course, it wasn’t the only “fake news” headline or story making rounds through social media, private messages, and even legit news sources during this time. While the idea of fake news – or misinformation/disinformation – isn’t anything new (for example, during the election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson was reported to be dead – for the record, Jefferson…
We’re all adjusting to some changes right now, and just like you (probably), the library is working from home now! This means we’ve had to adapt our services a bit. We’re buying more ebooks, we’re responding to chats, phone calls, and email reference questions from our homes, and finally, we’ve taken our instruction online! We’re really missing our students these days, and not getting to see you all in the library is honestly a bummer. But just because we can’t…
Spring 2020 and the threat of COVID19 have us all holed up in our homes self isolating and social distancing. I thought this would be a great time to tell you all about one of our library databases called Kanopy. Kanopy is a streaming video database similar to Netflix. While there are academic videos in Kanopy, there is also a wealth of feature length movies and documentaries. You can even load the Kanopy app on your smart TV, log into…
Research means a lot of things to a lot of people. If we’re talking primary research, we’re referring to someone who’s conducted a study, observed the results, and drawn a conclusion. If we’re talking about secondary research then we’re usually referring to when a researcher searched for a bunch of research and information sources and created something new with all of that information, like a literature review, systematic review, or a book. We do research all the time, even if…