Odum Library Blog

Avoid Catastrophe!!!  Save Your Work Frequently!
As the semester gets under way, it’s good to remember that computers sometimes freeze up, crash, lose power or experience other problems that may cause you to lose your unsaved work.

You can save to a memory stick, a CD-R or a floppy disk. Another tip is to email your work to yourself as an attachment. Note: You can buy a CD-R (with jewel case) for $1.00 or a floppy disk for 25 cents at the Library’s Circulation Desk.

Don’t lose all your hard work — remember to SAVE frequently! Make it a habit!

Tags: Technology Tips by Cliff Landis
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Buck O’Neil, the first African American to coach Major League Baseball, is profiled in The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America. Neat Stuff also recommends Arlene Howard’s Elston and Me: the Story of the First Black Yankee, an ebook available to read online through our catalog. If you’d like to look through our Reference books on African Americans in baseball, just Ask a Librarian.

Tags: Neat Stuff by Cliff Landis
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The Einsatzgruppen: They were a twentieth century horror, formed by the Himmler and the SS in Germany, and responsible for killing over 1.3 million Jews between 1941-1945. They were the ones responsible for the shootings and mass graves, rather than the death camps. Twenty four high ranking members of the Einsatzgruppen were tried during the Nuremberg trials. The VSU Archives and Special Collections has a rare 20 volume collection of the Einsatzgruppen trial record and transcripts. These volumes are one of a few copies that were used by the judges of those trials. Dr. L. Schmier and Dr. J. Dunn recently had the Holocaust History class use these as the basis of plays. Come and see a part of history in the Archives.

For more on the Einsatzgruppen, you can also read the online book Masters of death: the SS-Einsatzgruppen and the invention of the Holocaust.

Tags: Archives & Special Collections by Cliff Landis
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We’re reading philosopher Jerome Neu’s A Tear Is an Intellectual Thing: the Meanings of Emotion online in its ebrary version. We were surprised to find we have books about crying: Tom Lutz’s Crying: the Natural and Cultural History of Tears– and an acclaimed collection of essays about crying in various religious traditions called Holy Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination. For children, I Am Not a Crybaby explains that sometimes it’s natural to cry.

Tags: Neat Stuff by Cliff Landis
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Do you need to convert your PowerPoint Presentations for the Web?  Media Services now provides VSU with access to a PowerPoint-to-Web converter that significantly reduces file size and maintains the fidelity of the original PowerPoint presentation.  Please visit our site to learn more about this new software – Impatica4PPT

Tags: Media Center, Technology Tips by Cliff Landis
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Odum Library has over 200 computers available for use by VSU students, staff and faculty. The GALILEO password is required to log into the library computer lab workstations as purchased from Student Technology fee funding, including those in the Internet Café. GALILEO Password Discovery workstations have been conveniently positioned on each library floor to facilitate access to the GALILEO password. Library visitors in need of a computer are directed to the four workstations behind the 2nd floor Reference service point or the 2nd floor bank. If you need help, just Ask A Librarian!

Tags: Technology Tips by Cliff Landis
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We have two new books about autism in our BROWSE collection. Actress Jenny McCarthy’s Louder than Words: a Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism has caught some criticism for McCarthy’s claims that she healed her son’s autism by changing his diet. In Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s, John Elder Robison tells what it was like to grow up with Asperger’s Syndrome (a mild form of autism) before anyone knew what it was; doctors only began diagnosing it in the early 1990s. If you want to learn more about Asperger’s or autism, just Ask a Librarian.

Tags: Neat Stuff by Cliff Landis
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Visit the Library’s website and try out the Anywhere Access link the next time you need GALILEO from off-campus whether at home or elsewhere, even Timbuktu. Your Anywhere Access user name and password are the same as the login for BlazeNet and WebCT Vista, that already have a quick GALILEO link. Of course, all enrolled VSU students, faculty, and staff still have immediate access to the current GALILEO password from Odum Library’s GIL Catalog. So that’s four ways to reach GALILEO when away from campus:

1. Anywhere Access
2. BlazeNet
3. WebCT Vista
4. via the GALILEO Password available from the GIL Catalog

Tags: Technology Tips by Cliff Landis
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VSU students can recommend books for Odum Library to add to its collections! Sometimes in all the excitement we don’t realize we’ve overlooked a classic or popular title. As with all things, requests are subject to budget constraints, but we do keep your recommendations on file and refer to them when there’s money to spend. So don’t be shy! To recommend a book simply complete and submit this form online. (http://www.valdosta.edu/library/forms/purchase.php) Scientists have found the gene for shyness. They would have found it years ago, but it was hiding behind a couple of other genes. –Jonathan Katz