LTR Newsletter available

Read all about what's new and exciting in Learning and Technology Resources in our Spring Newsletter.

(Alexandria LTR Dean Frances Villagran-Glover and OCL Supervisor Abid Mahmood at LT Cross-Campus Day in June)

(Vader is Coming!  Look Busy! Loudoun Librarian Dana Beltran and Alexandria LTR Associate Dean Matt Todd)

Welcome to Fall 2015!

The Alexandria Library Staff welcome all new and returning students to NOVA for Academic Year 2015-16!!

The Alexandria Library's mission is to promote student success in their academic endeavors.

The Library provides:

Assistance with research from professional research librarians

Free access to course textbooks and course materials

Study space for individual and group study

Assistance with citations (everyone's favorite!!)

50,000+  print books

Thousands of online articles and books

Over 200 electronic databases shared by Virginia's colleges and universities

National and international newspapers

Foreign language materials

Streaming video

Feature films

Popular reading (novels)

Instruction to classes across the curriculum

Kevin O'Hagan recognized

Library Specialist Kevin O'Hagan was acknowledged in NVCC History Professor Dr Jim Baer's new book,

Anarchist Immigrants in Spain and Argentna.HX925 B34x 2015

Thanks to Kevin for his outstanding efforts to supoprt faculty research through InterLibray Loan Services.

Faculty requiring research resources beyond the NOVA Libraries' collections can contact Kevin (kohagan@nvcc.edu) to arrange for free delivery of materials from any Library in the US.

Biological Clock

Are you an early bird or a night owl? How do your circadian rhythms impact your daily life?

Your faithful correspondent is not a morning person, so opening the Library at 8am was most definitely not a welcome experience.

But what makes us this way?

Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired. QP84.6 R6413 2012

"Early birds and night owls are born, not made. Sleep patterns may be the most obvious manifestation of the highly individualized biological clocks we inherit, but these clocks also regulate bodily functions from digestion to hormone levels to cognition. Living at odds with our internal timepieces, Till Roenneberg shows, can make us chronically sleep deprived and more likely to smoke, gain weight, feel depressed, fall ill, and fail geometry."

Turns out those who don't like mornings aren't just slackers and those who can't push through to midnight aren't just lame.  They are made that way.

Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing.  QP84.6 F67 2004b

"Why can’t teenagers get out of bed in the morning? How do bees tell the time? Why do some plants open and close their flowers at the same time each day? 

The authors tell us that biological clocks are embedded in our genes and reset at sunrise and sunset each day to link astronomical time with an organism’s internal time. They discuss how scientists are working out the clockwork mechanisms and what governs them, and they describe how organisms measure different intervals of time, how they are adapted to various cycles, and how light coordinates the time within to the external world."

above: NOT a morning person.

Construction

The project to relocate the Testing Center to the first floor and open a new Open Computer Lab (OCL) on the third floor has reached the stage that impacts the Library.  The upper level of the Library is currently closed and access to the Library Classroom (AA327) is limited.

The emergency door and surrounding wall were demolished.

A temporary "wall" now encloses the upper level of the Library near the Classroom and "Cornell Lounge".

A new door will provide access from the current Reading Lab to the corridor (formerly quiet carrel-study space in the Library).

Next?  construction of a new wall & emergency door on the upper level, finishing the entrance to the Reading Lab and carrying on with construction of a new OCL.