Why isn't Labor Day on May 1st?

"For many workers around the world, May Day... is dedicated to to the interests of the laborer. It is observed in practically every advanced industrial country except the United States, and is a public holiday in several countries in Western Europe." -- The American Book of Days REF GT4803 D6 2000

So why do Americans celebrate Labor Day in September? The Folklore of American Holidays (REF GT4803 F65 1999) suggests that Labor Day in September makes a nice book-end to Memorial Day in May -- the opening and closing of the season.

Actually, the Knights of Labor suggested that Labor Day be observed on the first Monday in September as far back as 1882.

However, in 1890 the Second International (socialist congress) decreed that "There shall be organized a great international demonstration at a fixed date, so that on the agreed day, in every country, and in every town, the workers shall call upon the state for legal reduction in the working day to eight hours...In view of the fact that a similar demonstration has been decided by the American Federation of Labor for the First of May 1890...this date is adopted for the international deomnstration."

"Countries with socialist or communist forms of government still celebrate May 1 with speeches and displays of military strength. The May Day Parade in Moscow's Red Square is one of the better known examples [see above]." -- Holiday Symbols and Customs REF GT3930 T48 2003

So why doesn't the US celebrate Labor Day on May 1st?

The American Book of Days suggests "The communist and socialist overtones of the event [May Day], in addition to the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, have prevented May Day from being officially recognized as a labor holiday in the United States or from gaining popular acceptance in that regard."

To find out more about our holidays and where they came from, visit the Reference Section of the Library.

NOVA Libraries storm the Blogsphere

Welcome Woodbridge Campus Library to the Blogsphere:

http://woodbridgelibrary.blogspot.com/

And visit the Loudoun Campus Library's blog:

http://loudounlibrary.blogspot.com/


If you're in the mood for blogging, don't miss the Alexandria Campus blogs!

Computers, computers and MORE computers

Are you looking for a computer on campus?

The Library has 50 networked computers available. Where are they? In addition to the computers in the main part of the Library, you will find MORE computers in CyberSpace and even more behind the stairs.

Are all the Library computers in use? If you have a lap-top, you can use free Wi Fi in the Library (just as at the Reference or Circulation desk for directions on how to configure your computer to interact with the College's security system. Or visit the IT Help Desk Page).

There are also carrels on the upper level of the Library with network cables -- just plug in!

There are additional network jacks around the perimeter of the Library (near the windows) where you can plug in. Ask at the Circulation Desk if you need to borrow a network cord.

Where else can you find computers on campus? The main computer lab (The Open Computer Center, or OCC) on campus is located in Room 155, on the lower level of the Bisdorf Building, past the cafeteria. The OCC has many additional computers as well as technical assistance.

Need help with research? Come into the Library! Our computers are set up primarily for research purposes, and will provide access to the Library Catalog, articles and e-books. Although the Library computers support many applications, including email, MicroSoft Office, and web browsing, they are designed primarily for research and may not support every application you may need. Because the library computers are accessible to the public as well as students, we also have a good bit of computer-security in place.

Remember when using the Library computers that they are publicly-accessible research workstations. Save your work often! Once it's gone, there's no way to retrieve a document from a public computer!

Need technical help? The Library staff are here to help you conduct research. While we try to help with MS Office, internet and registration questions, you may need to visit another campus office to find specific kinds of computer assistance:

Need help with MS Office or other software applications? Visit the OCC in Room 155. OCC staff are welcoming and helpful, technically proficient in a wide-range of software applications and even speak many different languages!

Need help with registration? To get help applying to the College, registering for classes, adding, dropping, or swapping classes, visit the Student Services Center in Bisdorf room 229.

Need help with financial aid? For help applying for financial aid, visit the Financial Aid office in Bisdorf Room 232 (next door to the Counseling Office).

If you need assistance using the Library, conducting research, finding sources for your classes, tracking down a text-book, or citing sources, stop by the Library today!

Reserves

Is your text book in the Library? It might be! Many instructors place text books on Reserve in the Library. Reserve books are held aside for limited use (usually for use in the Library only, or to be checked out for a limited amount of time like overnight).

Reserve books are located behind the Circulation Desk, just inside the front doors. Ask if your text books are on Reserve. If they are not, you can ask your instructor to place a copy of the text book on Reserve.

Where do Reserve books come from? Most of them come from the faculty members, who place materials on Reserve that support their classes. Some Reserve books are purchased by the Library in response to high demand.

Who decides if Reserve books can be checked out? The faculty. Individual professors decide whether Reserve items can be checked out, and if so for how long. Some Reserve books are the personal property of the faculty. Library staff comply with faculty wishes for Reserves.

Why do Reserve items have so many restrictions? Because so many students need to use them! The Reserve policies are in place to make items accessible to as many students as possible. Remember, however badly you need a Reserve book, there are many many other students who need it just as badly. Please be considerate of other students' needs when using Reserve Books. Return them on time and do not remove them from the Library.

What if Reserve books are returned late? In most cases a fine of $1 per day applies. A hold will also be placed on the student record of anyone not returning a Reserve book, which will block student registration, grades or transcripts until Reserve materials are returned.

Taking a placement test? The preparation book for the placement test, Chart Your Success on the Compass is on Reserve for students to check out for one week. Although the Library owns 50 copies of the Compass book, there are hundreds of students needing to take the placement test who want to use it. The Compass books are in almost constant circulation, especially around the beginning of the semester. If one is not available, check back often.

What happened to the Solution Manuals for the Calculus text? The Math Department faculty removed them. Sorry!

Don't see a book on Reserve you think we should have? Let us know!!

Have a great semester.

Welcome to the Arlington Center Library!

The Arlington Center Library is open for business!! The Arlington Center Library will be open from the late morning through early evening during the week as well as partial days on Saturdays. Students will find reserve materials, networked computer workstations, research assistance, and a small but growing collection of books and videos.

The new Coordinator of Library Services at Arlinton is David Anderson.



Above: The first EVER check-out at the Arlington Center Library! [left, Arlington Center Student Bassem Nammari. Right, Coordinator of Library Services David Anderson]

Visit the Arlington Center Library today!

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back to Fall Term 2007!

If you are returning to NOVA, make sure you stop by the Library and check out the changes over the summer.

If you are new to NOVA, WELCOME! We'd like YOU to stop by the Library TODAY and find out about our resources and services, some of which include:

• over 60,000 books and videos
• over 200 article databases (FREE articles online!)
• free Wi-Fi in the library
• wired carrels to plug in your laptop
• 50 networked computer workstations with access to Library resources, MicroSoft Office, email, printing and more
• help with research -- there's more to it than Google!
• help with Google -- ok, if you must, did you know you there's more to Google than the basic search page?
• tour the library -- 15-minute MINI tours are offered every day in the first two weeks of classes
• Feature Films: check out our growing collection of classic, contemporary and international DVDs
• Popular Reading: need a break from Calculus Homework? Visit our ever-changing collection of best-sellers and other popular fiction and non-fiction titles on the upper level
• Need a place to relax? We have sofas and a wide selection of magazines upstairs
• Need a place to study? Hint: it's quiet on the upper level of the library and there's a great view!
• Need a place to study with a group? Find our Group Study Room behind CyberSpace
• What's CyperSpace? 24 networked computers with printing

Please be courteous to other library users: silence your cell phones.

What have we been up to all summer?

While many of NOVA's students and faculty head to the beach (or more exotic locales!) for the summer, YOUR Alexandria Campus Librarians have been busy getting the Library ready for Autumn Term '07.

Just some of the new and improved features you might notice in the Library:

You'll find five NEW stand-up computer workstations behind the stairs. These are full-service, networked computers to access the Library Catalog, online resources and article databases, email, MicroSoft Office products and more. Designed for quick searching and greater access.

Have a laptop?

These new wired carrels are each equipped with a network cable ready to plug into your laptop. No configuration needed -- just sit down, plug in, and work or surf online. There are 22 of these wired carrells (extra roomy to accomodate laptops, books, & notebooks) on the upper level of the Library.

What do Librarians get up to in the summer? Housecleaning! We checked all our books to make sure they are in the right place, and did lots and lots of dusting.

Alexandria Campus Librarians also carefully reviewed and evaluated the Reference Collection over the summer, and we withdrew out-of-date and redundant materials, creating some much-needed space in the Library (see above). Be sure to check out the Library's online reference collection as well as our streamlined print collection (located behind the reference desk).

We also shifted our reference collection to make better use of our space:

Come and check out all the new and improved features of YOUR Alexandria Campus Library!

Baby it's HOT outside!

Summer is almost over, but there is plenty of time for some relaxing summer reading.

Check out YOUR Library's collection of Popular Reading -- whether you're beating the heat at the beach or by the pool or even inside YOUR nice air-conditioned library, don't miss these and many many other great titles:

Abrams. The Lost Diary of Don Juan

Boling, Drew. Tower of Shadows

Demille, Nelson. Wild Fire

Hiassen, Carl. Nature Girl

Rapp, Emily. Poster Child, A Memoir

Zinni, Tony. Battle for Peace

The Library receives new popular titles every month, so be sure to check back often!

Librarians have KNEES!

July 9 - 13 the Alexandria Campus Library beat the heat with our first ever SHORTS week:

Check out those gams:

Yes, it is possible to wear a blazer with shorts:

Watch us Grow

Phase III continues to rise at one end of the Bisdorf Building. For a unique view of the construction, come to the Library and have a look out of the east windows:

Check out the progress of Phase III on the Watch Us Grow Blog.

Wired carrels new in YOUR Library

Alexandria Campus Library is pleased to announce the installation of new WIRED carrels on the upper level.


Just bring your laptop, plug in, and you're wired directly to the College's network!

Wireless service is also available throughout the Library.

Kevin O'Hagan acknowledged in new book

Library Specialist Kevin O'Hagan appears in the acknowledgments of Richard Fafara's new book Malebranche Moment: Selections from the Letters of Etienne Gilson & Henri Gouhier (1920 - 1936). Fafara teaches philosophy at the Alexandria Campus. The acknowledgments read, in part:

"I wish to acknowledge the following individuals for their generous
and prompt assistance with my requests for archival, research, and
biographical materials: the late Fr. Frederick Black, C.S.B., archivist of
St. Michael's College and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
at the University of Toronto, and Ms. Evelyn Collins, his successor;
Mrs. Judith McManus, Reference Librarian, Georgetown University;
Mr. Kevin O'Hagan, Library Assistant, Northern Virginia Community
College; and Professors André Motte and Paul Gochet, University of
Liège, and Mathieu Marion, University of Quebec at Montreal."

Kevin O'Hagan is responsible for Reserves and InterLibrary Loan at the Alexandria Campus Library. Supporting faculty research is part of the Library's mission. To find out more inforation on InterLibrary Loan services, contact Kevin O'Hagan.

11.00 pm

Open Early, Open Late!!

Once again this semester the Alexandria Campus Library observed extended hours for the last week of classes and final exams. The library opened half an hour early every morning at 8am and closed an hour later every evening at 11pm.

[l-r: Anne Anderson, Kevin O'Hagan & Brandee Worsham are up late!]

Extended Library hours have become a popular Alexandria tradition. Over 300 students took advantage of the early openings and late closings, using the Library before 8.30am or after 10pm. In keeping with tradition, the Library also provided a late night study break consisting of cookies, pretzels, iced tea & lemonade.

Extended hours are made possible through the voluntary participation of Library staff who commit to arriving early, staying late or picking up extra desk shifts during the day to allow the Library to be be open for students preparing final papers & projects and studying for exams.

The Library staff wish all NOVA students good luck in their exams!

USB Drives Now Automatically Detected

Good News for users of USB/ Flash/ Thumbstick drives -- thumbstick drives are now automatically detected by the computers in Cyberspace.

Users of these portable drives may now plug them into the port on the computer monitor and the drive will be automatically detected. Previously users were required to follow a multi-step configuration process each time they needed to use a USB thumstick drive.

Thanks to Technology Librarian Bruce Carroll & Information Technology Services staff for bringing about this welcome change. Happy Computing!

Those Were The Days...

3745. (September 2003) I remember when the index file was in drawers.
We answered: We remember when the card catalog was in drawers, too. All those cards were great for browsing. While we’ve had to bid farewell to those lovely wooden drawers, the computer version of the Library catalog allows for additional ways to search (for example, you can now find out if we have a book if you only remember the author’s first name and a word or two of the title) and also allows people to search the collections of the other 5 campus libraries, to search from off-campus, and to tell if books are checked in or not! The computerized Library catalog may be able to do more than for more people, but I think it will never feel the same as the old card catalog in drawers. We still have a few cards around from the Alexandria Campus Library’s old shelf list (back when we were called the Eastern campus!).
[old card catalog drawers are very desirable at auctions nowadays. We know a librarian who keeps candles in an old card catalog at home!]


That concludes our tour through the archives of the Library Suggestion Book. We hope you've enjoyed this historical look back at this 30-year conversation between Library users and Library staff. The conversation continues! Visit the Library today to leave a comment in the Suggestion Book, or click on the comment feature in this blog!

Cleaning Up in the Suggestion Book Archives

3733 Do you guys clean this place? It is 6.13 on a Thursday night. I just finished
cleaning a dirty terminal from pink goo and disposing of 3 coke and water bottles
Congrats on doing an overall good job, but please clean the tables, computers,
floors &tc.

We answered: Thank you for helping keep the Library clean – I shudder to think what the pink goo might have been! We like to have the Library looking neat and clean, and do what we can to maintain good order throughout the day. One of our Library specialists has even taken it on herself to deal with some of the trickier messes liked graffiti and gum!
[Please note that the cleaning crew do not routinely clear off desks, wipe down tables, or throw away litter left in the Library. This falls to the Library staff to attend to when there is time, usually at the end of the day. Considering that over 60,000 visits are made to the Library every semester, this is a daunting task. Moral of the story: please clean up after yourself in the Library!]

Hello from VLA Region V

The Region V committee of the Virginia Library Association held a meeting at Centreville Regional Library to present and discuss concepts related to Library 2.0, or using social software applications like blogs, wikis, flickr, YouTube and mashups to create collaborative online library services. Alexandria Campus Librarian Matt Todd gave a presentation titles "Who Let The Blogs Out: What is a blog, why would I want one and where do I get one?"

Matt also moderated a panel discussion on Library 2.0 initiatives.

Visit the other LRS and Alexandria Campus Blogs:

Learning Resource Services: http://alexandrialrs.blogspot.com/
Learning Labs: http://alexandrialearninglabs.blogspot.com
Open COmputer Center: http://occ-alex.blogspot.com/2006/11/introduction.html
FIND: http://findnova.blogspot.com/
Watch us grow! http://alexandriaphasethree.blogspot.com/ (development of Phase III).

[left-to-right: Karim Khan, Region V Chair; Adriana Puckett, Rappahannock Regional Library; Matt Todd, NOVA; Samantha Thomason, RRL; Chris Glover, RRL; Cindy Timmerman, Loudon County Public Library; Charlie Makela, Arlington Public Schools]

Excerpts from the Suggestion Book Archives

Ralph Nader and Not-So-Hot Topics:

3650. I have a serious problem. Every time I go to DC I get lost or end up wasting hours of my life that I could be using for having a meaningful relationship. I guess the point of this: why don’t you carry Ralph Nader’s new book. Is there a vast conspiracy for the ideals of logic to be blocked from the common man’s thought? Yours forever, lost on DC.
We answered: Because of the budget crisis Virginia is currently experiencing, the Library has NO book budget and has been unable to purchase ANY materials.
[2007 - we think this refers to Ralph Nader’s 2002 book Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender which the Library DID eventually purchase when the budget crisis was resolved. The book is located at E889 N33 2002]
3653. I really don’t think “Child Abuse” is a Hot Topic???
We answered: Some of our Hot Topics selections are light-hearted, such as the one we did on holidays, while others are more serious. Child abuse clearly falls in the later category, and was selected as a Hot Topic because of recent new reports about the abuse of children by priests. It’s not a pleasant topic, but since it was a topic frequently in the news these past few weeks, we pulled out related books for anyone doing research on the topic or who might want more information.
[for an overview of recent and not-so-recent Hot Topics all the way back to 2003, visit our Hot Topics page: http://www.nvcc.edu/alexandria/Library/hottopics/index.htm]

More woes from the Suggestion Book Archives

Shoes seemed to be a big concern for Suggestion Book correspondents in the 1990s:

3441. The magazine reading area is for reading and quiet relaxation. I find it rude and unacceptable to see students with their shoes/ boots on, lounging or sleeping on the couches.
We answered: We agree that people should not use this area to sleep. If the person is taking up needed space – or snoring loudly and disturbing others – contact a librarian and he/she will speak to the person.
[at least these folks have their shoes ON! And people still sleep in the magazine area]

3518. ( February 1998) I would like to know why the carpet in the Library is so old that I was about to choke from the smell.
We answered: Believe it or not, the carpeting was cleaned during Christmas break and is not as old as it looks – it was installed 5-6 years ago.
[New carpet was installed in the Library in 1999. We don’t think it smells]

["Midnight plum" -- the new library carpet from 1999]

And then there are the rest...

...some excerpts from the Suggestion Book archives are just a little bizarre. Like these concerns about shoes.

3429. I really appreciate the labor that the Library staff does. But there is only one thing I would like you to consider: I don’t think it is appropriate to take the shoes off and put feet on the table while in the Library. It is really unpleasant to smell things that you don’t want to smell in the Library!!!!

3557. You should have a rule against people taking their stinky shoes off. My nose will never be the same!
We Answered: To be truthful, the Library staff has not been aware of the problem you describe. If we observe (or smell) the behavior we’ll speak to the offenders.