Prepare for the Invasion! The Martians Have Landed and SPC is Reading All About It.

“A sudden chill came over me. There was a loud shriek from a woman behind. I half turned, keeping my eyes fixed upon the cylinder still, from which other tentacles were now projecting, and began pushing my way back from the edge of the pit. I saw astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me. I heard inarticulate exclamations on all sides. There was a general movement backwards. I saw the shopman struggling still on the edge of the pit. I found myself alone, and saw the people on the other side of the pit running off, Stent among them. I looked again at the cylinder, and ungovernable terror gripped me. I stood petrified and staring.” (Wells, p. 20)

Wells, H. G.. War of the Worlds. NY: Signet Classic, Penguin Group, 1986.

Online version of The War of the Worlds available at the link below:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36/36-h/36-h.htm

During the month of October all of St. Petersburg College will read The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells. Many activities related to the book and its themes will be held college wide, including an online discussion about the book on the Library’s Blog. Other activities include special programs at the Planetarium on the Gibbs Campus, Book Discussion Groups, special lectures and even a costume contest. Check on your campus to find information about activities related to SPC Reads War of the Worlds. Students, staff, faculty and community readers have the opportunity to participate in this online book discussion. Look for regular updates, discussion starters, and questions about The War of the Worlds. Copies of the book are available at your campus library…be a part of SPC Reads The War of the Worlds!

Google Blog Search!

Google is now offering a powerful way to search for blog content!

Try it at: http://blogsearch.google.com/

Book Review: The Historian

Another Dracula Book?
Elizabeth Kostova’s novel The Historian stays with its readers long after the last words of the novel are read as questions still remain about the price of immortality, who might want to achieve it, and the dangers of studying and researching evil deeds of the past. Elizabeth Kostova’s Dracula figure remains close to the historical view of Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, whose sobriquet, Dracula as son of Dracul ( Dragon) was given for his participation in the Order of the Dragon, an order created for Christian rulers fighting the Turks during the 1400’s. Vlad the Impaler was the Dracula on whom Bram Stoker based his undead (nosferatu) character.

Kostova’s Dracula is evil incarnate, a Devil, not a cape swishing seducing count/vampire as portrayed in some movies, and this Dracula seeks to seize certain unwary librarians or historians and infect them with his own undead properties. So why librarians and historians? That is one of the central questions of the book. Why choose academics whose main purpose is chronicling events of the past, researchers meticulously reconstructing the past? Kostova gives an interesting comment on these catalogers' fascination with man’s past.

The story begins with the finding of a book with a woodcut picture of Dracula and the symbol of the Order of the Dragon. The book is discovered by a sixteen year old girl living a sheltered life in Belgium with her father, and the book she finds is among her father’s things. The girl learns from her father, a diplomat, a remarkable tale about her parents and their pursuit of Dracula. As a young scholar, her father had “found” the book with the woodcut which sent him on a quest for the historical Dracula. During his journey, he meets a woman researcher, Helen, with direct lineage to Vlad the Impaler with whom he shares his quest for Dracula and her missing father, who was the young man’s friend and another finder of a book with the Dracula woodcut. The couple are led to Istanbul when searching for Dracula’s tomb and Helen’s father who has disappeared. In Istanbul, they meet a Turkish counterpart who is trying to stop the Impaler’s further seizure of souls for his squadron of undead minions.

Kostova’s style is slow-moving and descriptive of food, people, and local culture of the East European countries her characters visit. There is a sense that one is reading a novel from the 19th century. The descriptions are graphic but restrained, and the book is written in places like an historical account although the central mystery teases the reader onward. The Historian will take its place as a more philosophical and thought provoking tale of Dracula.

Great News! The Health Education Center introduces the Health Commons

The New Initiative Program (NIP), an academic support program for pre-health and health education students, is partnering with the Health Education Center Library to offer the Health Commons, a collaborative learning environment dedicated to promoting student achievement.
In the Health Commons, you will find everything you need for academic success:

~ 79 computers (53 pc's plus 26 laptops with wireless access to the internet)
~One-on-one tutoring
~ Review sessions
~ Conference rooms for group study
~ Books, journals, videos, DVD’s, and models
~ Help with finding full-text journal articles online
~ Computer assistance
~ Laptops for in-commons check-out
~ Wireless accessibility for personal laptops
~ Reference help – finding books and articles
~ Quiet Study Room with comfy furniture
~ Media viewing
~ Computer-assisted review
~ Access to student information on ANGEL
~ Health Career Resource Center
~ And much more!

The HEALTH COMMONS is your one-stop resource for academic success!

For more information, call (727) 341-3604 or (727) 341-3724.
Or stop by and visit us in Rooms 191 and 199 .

Articles and search results transmitted via speech technology...

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that any netizen can edit, is now including spoken articles. The articles are coded in the .ogg audio format and can be played in a variety of media players. There are several articles, ranging from the Dilbert Principle to DNA Repair, available for anyone to hear at Wikipedia's Spoken Articles web page.

Speegle will conduct a web search that is similar to Google’s search interface, but Speegle will read the URL, title, and/or description to you in a computer-generated voice. Give it a try at: http://www.speegle.co.uk/!

For many years, futurists have said that humans will speak to machines and that they will understand us. Although voice recognition software and artificially intelligent “avatars” are improving communication between humans and machines, it appears that machines are “more comfortable” talking to us. Regardless, improved speech technologies are a step in the right direction, especially when these tools can aid people with certain disabilities.

--- Chad Mairn, Librarian, Clearwater campus.

Clearwater campus library promotes reading with the help of food and music!

We librarians always want to promote reading and constantly look for ways to get more students to use our excellent book resources – including the many current titles we buy to support our curriculum. One of our Clearwater librarians, Pat Barbier, was chatting with Professor Eleanor Vassel over the summer about our frustration when great resources are sometimes not fully utilized. Eleanor pondered the issue and came up with a traditional, yet innovative, first essay assignment for one of her Composition 2 classes.
We prepared a list of 60 or so new non-fiction titles in a wide variety of subject areas. Students visited our multi-purpose room and looked them over to find an area of interest. From there, each selected a book for checkout and will skim the book, and choose three chapters for more in-depth analysis, focusing on how each contributes to the whole. Hopefully, they’ll exhibit skills learned in Comp 1 and start applying those analytical skills that are a focus of Comp 2.
While we’ll never have Barnes & Noble ambience, several librarians contributed snacks, and we had a selection of contemporary music playing (Coldplay, Dave Matthews, Black Eyed Peas).

Stay tuned and we’ll try to publish a couple of the final products.

SPC Library Online

ELECTRONIC RESEARCH -
Puzzled by the many research options available to college students? Don't have a clue about how to start that required paper? LIS 1002, Electronic Research Strategies, is the course for you! Get some help and earn 1 hour of college credit. LIS 1002, taught by SPC librarians, familiarizes students with academic research.
This semester's online section is full, but we have Saturday classes available both on St. Pete and on Clearwater Campus!
SP/G: LIS 1002-4018, meets on 9/17 and 9/24
Clearwater: LIS 1002-1295 meets on 10/1 and 10/8
Sign up now!

Tampa Bay Library Consortium to offer downloadable audio books.

The City & State section of the St. Petersburg Times published an article today announcing that the Tampa Bay Library Consortium is beginning to offer downloadable audio books to anyone with access to a computer and a public library card. 299 books, ranging from Kentucky Heat by Fern Michaels to The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria, are now available to download to either an MP3 player or to a compact disc. Click here to see a list of available books. Although not every member of the library consortium are participating at this time, more libraries will start offering this service very soon. Please visit http://digitalbooks.tblc.org for additional information regarding the digital book project. We will let you know as soon as St. Petersburg College M.M. Bennett libraries decide to participate. Stay tuned!

-- Chad Mairn, Librarian, Clearwater campus --