Friday, October 26, 2007

Happy Halloween!


Think about this while you're carving your Halloween jack-o-lantern: the U.S. produced 1 billion (that's with a "b") pounds of pumpkins in 2006. And that's just the total of the major pumpkin-producing states. Which, in case you're curious, are Illinois (#1), California, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The value of all this yummy, scary, orange stuff? $101 million, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

And speaking of Halloween, don't forget about Boo Bash, on Tuesday, October 30, 2007 , starting at 5:30 pm. The Blume Library is happy to be one of the trick-or-treating stops for the Boo Bash kids.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Learning about Darfur

Darfur image from International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
This fall, St. Mary's students, faculty, and staff have been exploring the issues surrounding the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.

In September 2007, Caesar Ricci and Victoria Smith from the San Antonio Interfaith Darfur Coalition presented their experiences working in the Darfur refugee camps in Chad. They discussed the causes of the Darfur crisis, talked about the refugees’ ongoing health and social problems, and encourage listeners to take action to stop the genocide. The Blume Library hosted an exhibit of Ricci and Smith’s photographs which they took during their visits to the camps.

Next week, the Fall 2007 President’s Peace Commission program will focus on the crisis in Darfur. The PPC program, “Genocide in Darfur: Responding to Their Cries”, will be held from Monday, Oct. 22nd to Thursday, Oct. 25th in the University Center. Speakers from campus and beyond will continue the dialogue about the situation in Darfur and talk about what we can do to help.

But, what if you want more information about the situation in Darfur? The library’s research collection is the place to look. You can find hundreds of articles on Darfur by searching Academic Search Complete. You can also find online government documents and e-books on Darfur in the library’s online catalog. If you need more information, get in touch with a librarian.

To change a problem you must understand the problem. Use the library's research collections to become knowledgeable about the Darfur crisis. And, of course, take advantage of the upcoming PPC program to discuss your questions and thoughts about Darfur.

(image from the International Emergency and Refugee Health Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; linked at http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ierh/images/Darfur_sm.jpg)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Entertaining new government blog


I know, using the words "entertaining" and "government" in the same sentence may make you doubt my sanity. But this new blog from the folks at USA.gov really is fun to read. Plus you can learn about some useful and interesting websites that YOUR tax dollars are already paying for.

For example, September 27's post tells you where to find all kinds of (usually) copyright-free images on government websites. Other recent posts deal with saving energy, saving money, eating right, and preserving classic sound recordings.

Governments always get a lot of bad press, but here they seem to have done something right!