Snow in San Marcos!

Taken earlier today in San Marcos!

JK... It's from the 1930s! But it may as well have been taken today!

Visit our San Marcos Daily Records Photographic Negatives Collection to see more...

 

Celebrate Open Access Week!

Open Access Week is being celebrated from October 23 - 29 this year!
Learn more here: www.openaccessweek.org

Alkek Library has an Open Educational Resources (OER) Guide to help you learn more about and navigate OER in your subject area. Your Subject Librarians can help you learn more.

Related (and exciting) news about Open Access Week: Stephen Hawking's thesis has been made available on Cambridge University's website (and so many people wanted to download it, they crashed the site!)

Open Access is pretty awesome. Take some time to learn more about it!

via GIPHY

Take the Film Talks Quiz!

Free Movies, Expert-Led Discussion, and PRIZES!

Have you heard about 'Film Talks' at Alkek?

Watching a blank screen by Kenneth Lu, used under CC BY 2.0 / Text added to original and image cropped

Our new series, Film Talks, starts this month, with our kick-off event:
The Great Dictator showing on Sept 20th from 2-5pm in Alkek 105/106.
Join the Film Talks Facebook group to RSVP, share, and follow future events.

Event Details:

• Film starts at 2pm, with an introduction by Dr. Louie Valencia from the History Department.
• Dr. Valencia will lead a discussion following the film
• PRIZES will be given away in a social media contest, thanks to Kanopy Streaming database! Details to enter giveaway will be given out at the event.

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Prizes include:

Roku Streaming Stick
Cnet editors' choice 2016

Kanopy lined notebook, with elastic closure and ribbon bookmark

For more information about Film Talks please visit the library guide: bit.ly/alkekfilmtalks

Fall 2017 Film Talks Line-up

"Only Boring People Get Bored."

When I was a little kid, and spent time with my Grandmother ("Mema"), I used to say, "Mema, I'm boooorrreeed." She let me know real quick, "Elizabeth, only boring people get bored."

Harsh words for a 7 year old? Maybe. But she had a point.

Here at Alkek Library, we've gone above and beyond with planning events to keep you from the dreaded boredom that sneaks in from time to time.

via GIPHY

Or maybe you never get bored, but you've got a big assignment in the back of your brain, and you wish you had some way to procrastinate just a bit more...?

(Am I the only one who gets motivated to clean out my entire closet as soon as I have something I *really* need to do?)

Without further ado, here are some of the fine happenings coming up soon at Alkek Library:

September 11 - Maker Day

  

 EVERY MONDAY - Monday Movie Night

September 20 - November 2 - Film Talks

Join the Film Talks facebook group

 

 September 7 - April 19 - Visiting Writers' Readings

September 25 - 29 - Banned Books Week 
Sign up to read

September 27 - Lunch Poems

September 27 - Game Night

but wait there's more...

All Alkek Library Events

@alkeklibrary on fb

All Wittliff Events

Welcome #txst21 Bobcats! Hit the ground running with mad research skills!

So... you're all moved into your dorm? Found a few friends while getting lost on campus? Made it through the tropical storm in one piece?

Now what? Go to class, and get started on your homework, right? But where do you go to find credible information for your assignments?
Google? Wikipedia? Google Scholar?

Jon "Snowitall" with some great advice on Game on Thrones (image source @EmilySluder)

Alkek Library has ah-mazing resources - if you haven't explored the databases and catalog, you're missing out!

Research can be challenging, but the Librarians at Alkek are here to help! Sign up for my upcoming workshop - Scholarly Research - Literary Topics - and learn to do research about film, fiction, poetry, drama, etc..

The Search for Justice

The Common Experience at Texas State University is a yearlong initiative designed to cultivate a common intellectual conversation on a theme, enhancing student participation and fostering a sense of community throughout the campus and beyond.

 
The 2016-2017 Common Experience is: “The Search for Justice:Our Response to Crime in the 21st Century”

In light of recent events in Charlottesville,Virginia, I would like to highlight some selected resources available through Alkek Library.

It can be increasingly difficult to find reliable and trustworthy sources of information. The Subject Librarians at Alkek are here to help.

Note to TXST students: The following resources are available through our library's web site. You may need to enter your university login to access the information.

Credo Reference - Over 600 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries (English and foreign language), thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific reference books

• Example:  Full Text articles from the Encyclopedia of Race and Racism

• You can also search images in Credo Reference

Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963. A crowd of marchers at Union Station prepares for the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King's famous “I Have a Dream” speech would make this march one of the most important demonstrations in the nation's history. © FLIP SCHULKE/CORBIS.

The American Mosaic: The African American Experience - African American history & culture from its African origins to the present day. Contains over 8,000 primary documents, including slave narratives, speeches, court cases, quotations, advertisements, statistics, 1,500 photographs, maps, and other images.

• Example: Reference articles about Black Lives Matter

• You can view photographs, timelines, biographies, court documents, and more on your research topic.

Desiree Griffiths, 31, of Miami, holds up a sign saying "Black Lives Matter", with the names of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, two black men recently killed by police, during a protest Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Miami. People are protesting nationwide against recent decisions not to prosecute white police officers involved in the killing of black men

Academic Video Online: Premium - Comprehensive video collection covering American History, Area Studies, Art & Architecture, Asian Film, Black Studies, Business & Economics, Counseling & Therapy, Criminal Justice & Public Safety, Current Affairs, and more...

• Example: NaziAmerica: A Secret History 



This documentary, produced by Greg DeHart, discusses Nazis in America.

Alt-Press Watch - Multi-subject. Showcases unique, independent voices from many respected and cited grassroots newspapers, magazines, and journals.

• Example: Search starting page for Alt-Press Watch - filter by publication date, source, subject, location, and more...

Search Results for "Black Lives Matter" in Alt-Press Watch database

AP Images - Current and historical photographs, audio clips, & news from the Associated Press.

• Example: Search for images from the Civil Rights Movement and filter by event

Filter by events on the AP Images database

The top of the Washington Monument and part of a U.S. flag are reflected in the sunglasses of Austin Clinton Brown, 9, of Gainesville, Ga., as he poses at the Capitol where he joins others in the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. (AP Photo)

Web of Science - Comprehensive citation index covering the leading scholarly literature around the world.

• Example: Search for an article on your topic, see how how many times that article was cited, and set up a citation alert for continued research

Article record in Web of Science, with citation information on the right side

• Pro-tip: If an article is not available in full-text through Texas State, check Google Scholar to see if that article has been made openly available by the author.

Article available through Harvard Business School

Explore our full list of databases here.

What if you're looking for more general information or a book on your topic?

Alkek Library also has thousands of ebooks on the subject of Racism.
If print books are more your thing, check out our print resources here.
And don't forget to browse our streaming media collection.

 

What about using Google to search for your topic?

Of course, sometimes you'll be looking for a web resource instead of an academic database. In those cases, you can use Google's "search tricks" to search for .org and .edu web sites. Simply search for your topic, and add "site:org" after.

• Example: Black Lives Matter site:org

• That will limit your search results to organization's web sites, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center or NPR.