Exams End, Intersession Begins

Alexandria Campus Library concluded 2 weeks of Extended Hours on Friday 16 December 2016.

During that time, 93 students were served before 8.30am and 406 students used the Library after 10pm.  A total of 499 students were served this semester during times the Library normally would be closed.

Thanks to the Office of Student Life, vast quantities of snacks and soft drinks were consumed, with coffee and hot cocoa provided by the Library:

Late night snacks for study break continued a tradition dating back to 2005:

NEWS OF NOTE:

During intersession (no classes) the Library is open 8.30am - 5.00pm.

The College will be CLOSED from December 23 - January 2.

Spring Semester classes begin January 9th.

While a construction project takes place upstairs (stay tuned!!!) the upper level of the Library will be closed.

Destress 4 Success

The student de-stress club sponsored several activities in the Library during the last week of classes and final exams.  In addition to a very well-received hot chocolate bar, we had:

LEGO!!!

Origami!!

Coloring!

Puzzles!!

Plus, of course, late night study-break snacks (thanks to Student Life for the snacks!).

The Great ART Invasion

Students in Professor Gardner's ART 131 classes installed their work throughout the campus at the end of the Fall Semester.

The Library was pleased and proud to host the following pieces:

Weighted Grade:

Beauty and Strength:

Twisted With Envy:

Strep Throat:

To read a good book on the subject, check out:

Art and the Power of Placement.  N4395 N49 2005

Installation Art: A Critical History N6494 I56 B57 2005b

Themes in Contemporary Art.  N6494 P66 T48 2004

EXTENDED HOURS are HERE

During the Final Week of Classes and Final Exams the Library provides EXTRA TIME for studying.

From December 5th - December 16th the Library will open a half-our early and close an hour late to support final papers, projects and exams.

Monday - Thursday:  8.00am - 11.00pm

Friday: 8.00am - 6.00pm

Saturday Noon - 4.00pm

Study Break SNACKS will be served around 10.00pm.

Why not join us?

Election Fatigue?

Need something fun for post-election?  Why not check out a fun film?

Fawlty Towers

Doctor Who

Kal Ho Na Ho

Star Wars: A New Hope

Torchwood

Sholay

Clueless

Austenland

Party Girl

James Bond (any one will do!)

Back to the Future

Loony Tunes

Flight of the Condors

Hope and Glory

Remember Remember

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Gunpowder Treason and Plot

I know of no Reason

Why Gunpowder Treason

Ever should be Forgot!

Guy Fawkes Day falls on the Fifth of November, also known as Bonfire Night:

If all this talk of blowing up Parliament (and so close to US Election Day!) has you in a revolutionary mood, check out:

Apthedker, Herbert.  The Nature of Democracy, Freedom and Revolution.  JC585 A6

Arendt, Hannah.  On Revolution.  JC491 A68 1965

DeFronzo, James.  Revolutionary Movements in World History.  REF D295 R49 2006

Sidbury, James.  Ploughshares into Swords: Race, Rebellion and Identity in Gabriel's Virginia 1730-1810.  F234 R59 N477 1997

Playoff!

The Washington Nationals head for Game 5 of the MLB playoffs.

Read up on our national pastime:


The Grind:  Inside Baseball's Endless Season.  GV863 A1 S945 2015

National Pastime:Sports, Politics, and the Return of Baseball to Washington DC. GV863 W18 S87 2006

A people's History of Baseball.  GV863 A1 N368 2012

Midterm Madness!

Well, maybe more Midterm Mild Madcap

As midterm exams visit the campus the Academic Success Center partnered with the Library to offer LATE NIGHT WRITING (help).

Students working on midterm papers and projects are able to meet with a writing tutor from 7.30-10pm on a walk-in basis.

Willi and the Smiths

It's not quite Manchester but it's Mancunian weather so Willi the Library fish is reading up on the Smiths:

You can too:

Inside the Smiths  DVD ML421 S614 I575x 2007

Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance.  ML421 S614 R58 1993

Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of the Smiths.  ML421 S614 G64 2009

The Smiths: The Songs That Saved Your Life.  ML421  S614 G65x 2009

We have limes!

Library staff have been undertaking horticultural adventures, and we now have limes:

They might be the right size for a gin& tonic for a Minifig:

Or to inspire some light reading:

 SB355 .E42 2012 

Textbooks

Textbooks are expensive!

 

College students don't have lots of money.

YOUR campus Library is here to help!  Did you know the Library has copies of most course textbooks and other course materials, available for students to use FOR FREE???

The Alexandria campus actively seeks out copies of course textbooks which are held on reserve.

Reserves are course materials, usually textbooks, provided for student use.  Because of the high demand for these items, most course reserves cannot be removed in the Library, and most are on a 2-hour loan to give as many students as possible a chance to use them.  Reserves are also the only Library materials that carry fines -- overdue course reserves accrue fines of $4/ hour.

To use course reserves, you will need a valid NOVAcard.  Although most reserve materials are designated for Library Use Only, students may, for their own use, make photocopies, scans, or take pictures with mobile devices.

Ask if the Library has your textbooks!

Welcome to Fall 2016

To our returning students, Welcome Back!!  To our new students, Welcome to the Alexandria Campus Library!

Your Library staff have been busy over the summer preparing for the start of a new academic year.

Check out our expanded Legal Studies Collection:

When not in use for LGL instruction, this space is available for group study.

More study space is available behind the stacks (bookshelves).  In response to student requests, we've added more seating:

This area is reserved for quiet study.

The Library receives new materials throughout the year and summer is no exception.

Come and see the many exciting new additions to our book and video collections:

Assistive Technology Across the Campus

On Tuesday 26 July Alexandria LTR in conjunction with the Office of Disability Services hosted a hand-on workshop to introduce the campus community to assistive technologies and best practices for students in need of accommodations.

Paul Chapman (Collection Development Librarian and Disability Services Liaison) hosted the show:

29 campus and college stakeholders attended.

When online resources were not online

Throwback Thursday:  Data Storage

Before the Cloud, before remote servers, before log-in authentication, the beginning of all digital data storage was the Floppy Disc.  These allowed data to be digitized and stored and retrieved via PC. Many digital library resources initially relied on series of floppy discs, usually run on or loaded on a dedicated computer or sometimes kiosk.

These are 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 discs that supported the Library's Subscription to Westlaw, which supported the College's Legal Studies programs.  These discs would be dispatched to the Library in the mail and made available to eligible students in the Library on a dedicated computer.  Additional discs would be send periodically with updates.

The 5 1/4 inch disc was introduced in 1976 to replace the even larger 8 inch floppy.  The original discs (circular magnetic storage mediums) did not have the plastic sleeve seen here, but dust and dirt impaired performance.

Game-boys of a certain age will remember the first computer games were also delivered in this format (like Zork).

In 1980, the 3 1/2  was introduced to address durability problems with the 5 1/4 disc, including insoluble problems with dirt.  

And the rest of the story?  

"By the early 1990s, the increasing size of software meant that many programs were distributed on sets of floppies. Toward the end of the 1990s, software distribution gradually switched to CD-ROM, and higher-density backup formats were introduced (e.g. the Iomega Zip disk). With the arrival of mass Internet access, cheap Ethernet and USB keys, the floppy was no longer necessary for data transfer either, and the floppy disk was essentially superseded."

The Library's online resources for legal research (and all other research) is now available completely online, accessible from on- or off-campus, 24-7-325.  

The Library in Bloom (or Selfie Sticks in Action)

YOUR Alexandria Campus Library is home to a beautiful collection of plants. One of the star members of YOUR Library garden is a two story tall(!) flowering cactus (cereus peruvianus) that has been in the library longer than any current staff or faculty member. Librarian Anne Anderson and Reference Specialist Melanie Medina set off to capture one of the beautiful blooms that popped up on YOUR giant cereus peruvianus. The task was a tricky one - the cactus is over 35 feet tall; both blooms were above the second floor railing; and, both blooms were wedged between the cactus and the window. YOUR Library staff is here to help you find and use all of the appropriate tools to solve any of your academic problems, and this task was no different. First, we set out in search of a selfie stick.

Just like research, the adventure did not go exactly as planned...

Anne and Melanie figured out the selfie stick!
They don't teach you this in library school.

Even with some support from Melanie,
our cereus peruvianus could not master the selfie.

What we really wanted to show you, was that once per year, YOUR cereus peruvianus sports one or two beautiful blooms that look like this:

Whether you just inherited your first houseplant, you want to understand how plants grow, or you want to see beautiful illustrations of unusual flowers, YOUR library has lots of great titles to help you discover all that plants have to offer.

SB419 .M314 2015

QK711.2 .C425 201

QK98.3 .N48x 2014

Want to learn more about plant life cycles, anatomy, morphology, taxonomy, and evolution? Enroll in Biology 110 General Botany (4 cr.) on the Alexandria Campus in the spring!

National Donut Day

FREE donuts and coffee in the Library today in honor of National Donut Day:

The Salvation Army started National Donut Day during the Great Depression as a way to raise funds and bring awareness to The Salvation Army’s social service programs.

National Donut Day commemorates the “donut lassies,” female Salvation Army volunteers who provided writing supplies, stamps, clothes-mending and home-cooked meals, and of course, donuts, for soldiers on the front lines.

Approximately 250 Salvation Army volunteers provided assistance to American soldiers in France starting in 1917 during WWI.

With limited resources, these treats were fried, only seven at a time. The Salvation Army’s Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance cleverly thought of frying donuts in soldiers’ helmets.

Congratulations to Paul Chapman and Jane Maddan!

*Student Organization Co-Advisors of the Year*

Paul Chapman and Jane Madden

Though the De-Stress for Success Club is only one year young, the club already stands out offering a variety of events to support the Alexandria Campus throughout the academic year. YOUR Alexandria Campus Collection Development Librarian, Paul Chapman, and YOUR Circulation Services Supervisor, Jane Maddan, were honored as 2015-2016 Student Organization Co-Advisors of the Year.

Congratulations Paul and Jane!

Planting the Grass, the reboot

After our successful experiment growing wild celery in the Library in 2015, Library staff leapt into action again to Save the Bay, participating in a second round of Grasses for the Masses.

You can help restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia's rivers by participating in CBF's Grasses for the Masses program.

Participants in the program grow wild celery (Vallisneria americana), a type of underwater grass, in a simple grow-out system in their homes for 10-12 weeks. After 10-12 weeks of grow-out, participants will gather to plant their grasses in select local rivers to bolster grass populations and help restore the Bay.

Library Specialist and Grass Maven Michelle Jerney-Davis tended the Library grass in a large black plastic tub in the reading room (main maintenance was algae removal and maintaining appropriate water levels and temperature.  Apparently the grass likes to be warm) and then traveled to the Potomac River to transplant our crop:

Michelle had some special assistants:

New home for the Library grass:

Harry Potter

 

 

In 1997, British author J. K. Rowling introduced the world to Harry Potter and a literary phenomenon was born. Millions of readers have followed Harry to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he discovers his heritage, encounters new plants and animals, and perfects his magical abilities. Although a fantasy story, the magic in the Harry Potter books is partially based on Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science, including alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy. Incorporating the work of several 15th- and 16th-century thinkers, the seven-part series examines important ethical topics such as the desire for knowledge, the effects of prejudice, and the responsibility that comes with power. This exhibition, using materials from the National Library of Medicine, explores Harry Potter's world and its roots in Renaissance magic, science, and medicine.

 

The boy wizard visited NOVA, navigating the broomstick to the Medical Education Campus, the Woodbridge Campus, and so on to Alexandria, where he was received with raptures by the resident Potter-heads.

(yes, the items pictured above were indeed donated from the personal collections of Library staff).

Or, get your learning outcomes on and take ENG245 with Professor Mike Amey:


ENG 245 - Major English Writers

3.00 cr

Sixteen Week - Regular Academic Session

 

12783

001A

MW  

2:00PM - 3:15PM

AA-0255

Alexandria

Michael Amey

This course uses J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels in conjunction with literary theory and cultural criticism to explore issues of race, class, gender and power.