You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers: Bell Library’s COVID Guide

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…

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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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Overcoming: COVID Ain’t Slowing Us Down

The Library, along with everyone else, found itself in new waters this past March when a pandemic came to our door. Stay at Home orders and a regard for everyone’s safety necessitated moving the classroom—along with all accompanying learning and academic support—online to ensure social distancing. We all hoped that this then new reality would be short-lived, yet it continues to evolve and change at a feverish pace. While going back to a pre-pandemic reality seems a distant dream, we strive, along…

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I-Create Lab Now Taking Reservations

On June 22, 2020, the Mary and Jeff Bell Library will be reopening to students, staff, and faculty with limited services. The I-Create Lab will also be open with some changes meant to keep everyone safe during these uncertain times. The I-Create Lab will be switching to a reservation-based system for the use of all equipment and study rooms to follow social distancing practices effectively. All reservations must be made at least 24 hours in advance through our online reservation…

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I-Create Lab Working to Supply Face Shields

Within the last two months, a lot has changed around the university and the world. Despite the changes, the I-Create MakerSpace Supervisors and Library Staff are hard at work to make a difference for those in need during this Pandemic. Sylvia Sanchez, MakerSpace Coordinator, and David Jones, MakerSpace Technician, have been spending their time, along with volunteers and library staff, at the closed I-Create Lab to utilize one of the labs' favorite pieces of equipment, the laser cutter. The laser…

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COVID 19 Archiving Project at Mary and Jeff Bell Library

When the illness first began, we read about it on news sites and watched shows talk about the COVID-19 virus affecting China in horrendous ways. But we did not quite gather that it was zooming towards us and the rest of the world at breakneck speeds.  Then it was here, and life changed within a few days. We were confined to our homes except for a few essential employees. The grocery stores were wiped clean of paper and canned goods,…

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Updates and Changes to Library Resources and Services

As we transform our spring courses to online delivery, some changes will need to take place to help us successfully navigate the rest of this semester. We are following University guidelines and changing some of our resources and services to offer students, faculty, and staff find the help that they need in the transition. For the health and safety of the Island community we have made the following changes: At this time, the library will remain open Monday – Thursday…

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Open Education Week 2020 – Getting Involved!

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,…

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The Success of the Open Access Publication Fund

The TAMU-CC Open Access Publication Fund was started as a way to support TAMU-CC Faculty and Researchers publish Open Access. (You may have seen Open Access mentioned recently in the news about the Coronavirus.) I mentioned this Fund in a blog post back in October, during Open Access Week. Now I’d like to tell you all a little bit more about the fund and the research the Bell Library has been able to support and help publish over the past few months. The goals of…

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A Better You, One Video Game at a Time!

"Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!" - Super Mario Bros. Ohhhh Toadstool, you innocent yet still somewhat annoying bit of fungus you. While your pile up acrobatics were impressive, your "princess is in another castle" comments were frustrating. If you haven't figured it out yet, we're talking video games this post. While I would never claim to be the best, I have been a fan of video games since I could hold that rectangular Nintendo controller…

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