Database of the Week

Stay tuned for continuing updates on the Library's online resources you can use from anywhere:

Database Review

PrepStep

PrepStep is a very unique database. It can be used to prepare for entering into college, advancing your career, increasing your computer skills and so much more. Users do need to log-in in order to fully use the service, but you can use any e-mail to do this. The range of services that are covered is quite remarkable. Students attending the Medical Education campus can use it to practice for the ATI Teas Exam and students enrolled in JumpStart may utilize it to learn about a career as they begin their college education. Overall, it is a resource that can be used in various stages of your education.

Readings in the Time of Virus

Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Love in the the Time of Cholera.

The International Bestseller and modern literary classic by Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

National Library Week

National Library Week (April 19 - 25, 2020) is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation's libraries and library workers and to promote library use and support. From free access to books and online resources for families to library business centers that help support entrepreneurship and retraining, libraries offer opportunity to all. The theme for National Library Week 2020 is " Find Your Place at the Library," and Olympic medalists Maia and Alex Shibutani will serve as 2020 National Library Week Honorary Chairs. 

As the impact of the COVID-19 crisis continues to evolve and change the work of libraries and library workers, libraries are proving resourceful and resilient, serving as a rich pipeline for content, delivering access to ebooks, movies, music, video games, virtual storytimes and activities, and so much more.

Just as libraries are pivoting in response to the current situation, the ALA is changing the focus of its annual National Library Week celebration, which will be held April 19-25, 2020. The theme for National Library Week (NLW) 2020, “Find your place at the library,” was chosen before the emergence of the global pandemic. To acknowledge our altered landscape, ALA flipped the script a bit on the theme. “Find the library at your place” highlights how libraries are offering virtual services and digital content their communities need now more than ever.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and observed in libraries across the country each April. All types of libraries - school, public, academic and special - participate.

The Library Fish

More updates from Willie and Roger!

Willie's Words; Roger's Renditions

Roger: "Did you know that I am not from China despite my name-Chinese Algae Eater?  I live in mountain lakes and streams in a large part of Thailand and some areas of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Borneo!"

Willie: "Did you know I can recognize faces?  I know who takes care of and feeds me and who works in the library!!  If I don't recognize you, I might not swim up or acknowledge you."

Readings in the time of coronavirus

Camus, Albert.  The Plague.

A haunting tale of human resilience and hope in the face of unrelieved horror, Albert Camus' iconic novel about an epidemic ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. 

The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Rieux, resist the terror.

An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a timeless story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.

Hear more about The Plague on School of Life's Youtube channel.

The Library Fish

While most of the Library faculty and staff are working remotely, our most beloved staff members are still holding down the fort at the Alexandria Campus Library:

Willie and Roger, the Library Fish!

Willie's Words; Roger's Renditions

Roger: "Did you know I am an extreme introvert?  I love being by myself and will be aggressive towards my own species if it's two or more of us in the same neighborhood."

Willie: "Did you know I will eat any fish that will fit in my mouth?  If you are smaller than me, stay away-one day you will be there, the next day-probably not!!"

Stay tuned for more updates from the Library Fish!

Readings in the time of Covid

Decameron

In the early summer of the year 1348, as a terrible plague ravages the city, ten charming young Florentines take refuge in country villas to tell each other stories - a hundred stories of love, adventure and surprising twists of fortune which later inspired Chaucer, Keats and Shakespeare. While Dante is a stern moralist, Boccaccio has little time for chastity, pokes fun at crafty, hypocritical clerics and celebrates the power of passion to overcome obstacles and social divisions. Like the Divine Comedy, the Decameron is a towering monument of medieval pre-Renaissance literature, and incorporates certain important elements that are not at once apparent to today's readers.

Read the Decameron free on line here!