Monday, March 27, 2006

American Memory Workshop at SWOSU on April 4


Steve Beleu from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries will conduct a free workshop in the Al Harris Library on April 4, 2006 in the Instruction Room on 2nd floor. The morning session will be from 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM. The class will teach you how to access data from the Census Bureau's American Factfinder and American Community Survey web pages. You will also learn about the Census Bureau's homepage and School District Demographics web page. The focus will be on data and maps which feature Oklahoma.

The afternoon workshop (1:00- 4:00 PM - same day) will cover the American Memory website provided by the Library of Congress. The afternoon session will explain three of the most popular sites: Native Americans, Literature, & Music. These will be two very interesting workshops. You don't have to sign up or reserve a computer, but you need to show up early for each session to ensure a place. The photographs in American Memory are truly amazing and unforgettable. There are also thousands of copies of sheet music available free from this website - if you know where to look! If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact Dale Evans at 774-7069.

Click on title above to link to American Memory website.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Books That Changed Your World Exhibit

Have you seen the new exhibit, Books That Have Changed Your World, at the Al Harris Library? The purpose of the exhibit is to celebrate National Library Week which is April 2-8 and to focus attention upon the important role that books have played in the lives of SWOSU faculty. Come and discover what books your faculty have been reading and how these books have influenced them and changed their worlds!

Thursday, March 09, 2006

USATODAY.com - What you say online could haunt you

"As more and more students turn to websites such as Facebook and MySpace to chronicle their lives and socialize with friends, they also are learning that their words and pictures are reaching way beyond the peers for whom they were intended."

See how universities, employers, students, and law enforcement officials view Facebook, MySpace, LiveJournal, and other social networking sites via this article from USA Today.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Building the Bombs - A History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex


You will truly be amazed by this Government Documents book (E 1.2:B 86/9/2005) which spells out all the interlocking steps which lead to the creation of the nuclear bomb. It began with Albert Einsteins' theory of relativity, but scientific contributions were made by many others including Ernest Rutherford (first artificial transmutation of an element by bombarding with alpha particles) and Niels Bohr (quantum physics creator who showed that electrons exist in discrete chemical levels.) The contributions of our military leaders are also given along with the history of Los Alamos and White Sands, New Mexico.
This book also shows how the Germans in World War II were simultaneously working on nuclear weapons. If the Allied forces hadn't destroyed German supplies of Heavy Water in Vemork (Norway), the Germans might have developed the bomb before the U.S.)

The work of Klaus Fuchs and Ted Hall (spies working in Los Alamos who supplied nuclear secrets to the Soviets) is carefully detailed as well as others such as Harry Gold, David Greenglass, and the Rosenbergs.

Photographs of everything from the Little Boy bomb to the Stealth bomber are in this concise little book.