Today, January 18, thousands of Internet websites are taking part in a “blackout” to protest two anti-piracy bills that are currenly being discussed in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. By removing content from their website or brandishing their website with a black box, companies and organizations such as Google, WordPress, American Library Association, Firefox and Flickr, are demonstrating the potential impact of the bills.

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is up for debate in the House of Representatives and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) is being considered by the Senate. The proposed legislation is designed to tackle online piracy but many opponets say it threatens free speech and would give the government sweeping censorship abilities, similar to those used in China, Iran and Syria. According to Mozilla, “Your favorite websites, both inside and outside the US, could be blocked based on a single infringement claim, without any due process of law.”

The White House issued a statement earlier this week saying they “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

If you feel strongly about this issue (pro or con), you may wish to contact your Representative or Senator to voice your opinion.

With the Spring Term upon us, we know there are some basic questions you might have about the library. Hopefully we will answer them here.

What are the library hours? We are open Monday – Thursday 7:45 AM – 10:00 PM; Friday 7:45 AM – 5:00 PM and Saturday & Sunday 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM.

Does the library have my textbook? Probably not. We do not purchase textbooks for all the courses. We can’t keep up and our budget can’t either. If your professor is not using an actual textbook there is a possibility we have a single copy, or even an older edition – but the chance is small. If the bookstore is out of your textbook, mention it to your instructor.

What do I need to use the computers? And where are they? To use the computers in the library, you need to bring your library card. For VC students, your library card is your student ID (and we issue them in the library). For UHV students, your library card is your JAG card. Before you start using the computers, you have to stop by the check out desk on the first floor to establish your library account or have it updated. The library has 36 computers on the first floor for anyone to use and 8 computers on the second floor only for students. You can use the computers anytime the library is open.

Does the library have wireless internet? Yes, you can bring your laptop or other portable device and access the wireless internet. You will need to access it using your VC or UHV computer account.

How much time do I get on the computers? Students have unlimited use of the computers. Every time you login, you will have 2 hours. You can self-extend your session for another hour. Students can have as many sessions in a day as they need.

Can I access by student drive? No. You will not be able to access your Victoria College student drive. UHV does not have individual student network drives. You need to bring a flash drive (aka thumb drive, USB stick, etc) to save your work or you save your work to the desktop and email it to yourself. Our computers are “hard locked” so when you log off, the computer returns to its original state. Any document you saved to the desktop will be erased.

Am I able to print in the library? If so, how much does it cost? Yes, you can print in the library. The cost is 5 cents per page for students for black and white printouts. Color printouts cost 25 cents per page for students. You can pick up your printouts at the check out desk on the first or second floor. We also have a photocopy machine that charges 10 cents per page.  You do not need to bring paper.

Do you have study rooms available? We have 6 study rooms available for students to use. Reservations can be made up to 48 hours in advance by calling 361-570-4199. More information about each study room is available through the library website. See http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu/libraryinfo/groupstudy.htm.

Can the librarians help me with my research assignments? YES! The librarians are here to help you be a successful student. If you need help with your research assignment, you can always Ask A Librarian. We can help you via email, over the phone, using online chat or in person. We will teach you how to use the library resources so you find the information you need. You can also check out our library workshop schedule to learn about free workshops offered during the semester.

If you have any additional questions please email askalibrarian@uhv.edu or askalibrarian@victoriacollege.edu. Otherwise, you can call 361-570-4166, use our online chat or stop by the library during our hours of operation.

For many people, the year will start out well  but they will quickly fall back into their old habits and give up on positive life changes. Change, however, requires hard work and determination and the VC/UHV Library has some resources that can help.

If your New Year’s resolution is to lose weight or exercise more, check out one of these books:

• The No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy and Live Longer by Harvey Simon
• Mayo Clinic Fitness for Everybody
• Leslie Sansone’s Eat Smart, Walk Strong: The Secrets to Effortless Weight Loss by Leslie Sansone
• Mayo Clinic on Healthy Weight
• Super Fitness for Sports, Conditioning and Health by Thomas Fahey
• The Abs Diet Get Fit, Stay Fit Plan: The Exercise Program to Flatten Your Belly, Reshape Your Body and Give you Abs for Life by David Zinczenko

If your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthy, try one of these books:

• Low-Calorie Cookbook: More than 200 Delicious Recipes for Healthy Eating
• The New American Heart Association Cookbook
• Healthy Heart Cookbook
• American Heart Association Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol Cookbook: Heart-Healthy, Easy-To-Make Recipes that Taste Great
• The Healthy College Cookbook: Quick, Cheap, Easy by Alexandra Nimetz (e-book)

If your New Year’s resolution is to follow a budget, try one of these books:

• Be Thrifty: How to Live Better with Less
• 10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget
• Suddenly Frugal: How to Live Happier & Healthier for Less by Leah Ingram
• Don’t Spend Your Raise: And 59 Other Money Rules You Can’t Afford to Break by Dara Duguay (e-book)

If your New Year’s Resolution involves living simple, check out one of these books:

• Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich by Duane Elgin
• Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living by Tsh Oxenreider
• The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living by Janet Luhrs
• The Lilypad List: 7 Steps to the Simple Life by Marian Van Eyk McCain

If your New Year’s resolution is to have more “me” time, try reading one of these books:

• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

This is just a small selection of the books we have available on these topics, and many more, to help you achieve your New Year’s resolution. Just Ask A Librarian and we’ll help you find the book you want.

The VC/UHV Library will be open the following hours for the remainder of December and beginning of January:

December 12-14  –  7:45 am-10:00 pm

December 15   -  7:45 am-6:00 pm

December 16  -  7:45am-11:00 am and 1:00pm-5:00pm (The Library will be closed from 11am-1pm for an employee holiday luncheon)

December 17-18  -  Closed

December 19-20  -  8:00am-5:00pm

December 21-January 1 – Closed

January 2-6  -  8:00am-5:00pm

January 7-8  -  Closed

January 9-13  -  8:00am-5:00pm

January 14-16  -  Closed

Now that class is over and you have plenty of time to ready for fun, check out one of these great new books:

•  Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
•  The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan
•  The Wee Free Men: The Beginning by Terry Pratchet
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Sanctus by Simon Toyne
• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Don’t forget about our audio books on CD in the Media Center for those long drives to visit family and friends. We want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

You can view a short film on Pearl Harbor on YouTube as part of the U.S. Navy Heritage Mini-Series. The Naval History & Heritage Command, the official history program of the Department of the Navy, has photographs, a digital artifact gallery, oral histories from survivors of the attack and official action reports available on the Pearl Harbor Raid 7 December 1941 website.

Before dawn on December 7, 1941, the Japanese fleet approached undetected to a point slightly more than 200 miles north of Oahu. At 6:00 am, the six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. At 7:00 am, an operator of an Army radar station at Opana spotted the approaching first wave of the attack. Unfortunately, the officers who received the reports did not consider them significant enough to take action. As a result, the Japanese achieved complete surprise when they hit the ships and military installations at Pearl Harbor shortly before 8:00 am. They attacked Navy air bases, Marine airfields and Army Air Corps fields at the same time they hit the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor to destroy American planes before they could take off and stop the Japanese.

The second wave of the attack began shortly after 8:30 am when 170 Japanese planes appeared in the harbor. The second wave continued to attack ships and airfields.

When the attack ended just before 10:00 am, the American forces station at Pearl Harbor suffered devastating losses. Twenty-one ships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged, 188 aircraft were lost and 159 aircraft damaged. In comparison, the Japanese lost twenty-nine planes. A fact sheet with detailed information on American losses is available from the U.S. Navy Museum.

On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress. President Roosevelt opened the speech with the famous words, “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” To end the speech, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and it passed within an hour. You can view a video of the speech by clicking here.

Every year on December 7, we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor. America honors the sacrifices of our service men and women who lost their lives on that fateful day.

Monday, December 19 from 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm

The free online session will be led by Amanda Breu, Foundation Center Cooperating Collection Supervisor at the Victoria College/University of Houston-Victoria Library. Ms. Breu will provide an overview of finding funders, such as foundations, corporations and grantmaking public charities, for your non-profit organization with the Foundation Center’s comprehensive funding research tool, the Foundation Directory Online Professional. This top-tier searchable database provides information on more than 100,000 grantmakers and more than 2 million grant records.

The free workshop will be held in an online meeting room at http://breeze.uhv.edu/findingfunders/. Simply click on the link and request to “Enter as a Guest” to access the workshop from any computer with Internet access. The meeting room will open 15 minutes prior to the workshop start time.

Inquiries regarding the free workshop should be directed to Amanda Breu at 361-570-4169 or breua@uhv.edu.

What is Food for Fines? The Library will waive overdue fines and fees. Simply return the overdue library materials and make a donation of nonperishable food items (one item=$1).* We will donate all collected food to the Food Bank.

Where can I take advantage of this offer? You can drop off your overdue item(s) and nonperishable food donation(s) at the 1st Floor Service Desk or the 2nd Floor Service Desk.

*Library item(s) must be returned or replacement cost paid. Waiver is for late fines and/or lost fines only. Preferred donation is one item per dollar owed. Contact Greg Garcia, Circulation Supervisor, at 361-570-4162 for more information.

The editor, Dave Ticen, reviewed the Gale Virtual Reference Library. The GVRL is a “one stop shop” for reference material.

Our featured website is The Dead Sea Scrolls Online which is a collaboration project between the National Museum of Israel and Google to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls online. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence and this website exhibits the incredible power the Internet can bring to research.

The VC/UHV Library also added new databases – Education in Video, RAND Texas, and Library Press Display. Education in Video contains over 100 videos of teaching demonstrations, lectures, documentaries and footage of teacher-student interaction. RAND Texas is a statistical databases in business & economics, community, education, energy & the environment, government finance, heath & socioeconomic and demographic. Library Press Display allows users to read over 1,700 newspapers from 92 countries in 48 different languages.

You can read the newsletter by clicking here or clicking on the image of the newsletter.

The University Branch of the Fort Bend County Library System will have its grand opening on Thursday evening, November 10.

INTERIM LIBRARY SERVICES
(beginning now and continuing until University Branch grand opening, November 10, 6:00 PM).  If you need materials shipped to you from our collection or via interlibrary loan, we should be able to provide this by courier. Please check with the VC/UHV Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department.

UNIVERSITY BRANCH INFORMATION (after the grand opening on November 10)

University Branch hours:

Monday  12:00-9:00

Tuesday  10:00-9:00

Wednesday  10:00-6:00

Thursday  10:00-9:00

Friday  12:00-5:00

Saturday  10:00-5:00

Sunday   Closed

Please note that county offices, including all FBCL libraries, are closed for Veteran’s Day on Friday, November 11.

Library Cards:  UHV students will need to get a Fort Bend County Library Card.  This will allow you to check out materials and use their computers.  There is an online application for library cards:  (http://catalog.fortbend.lib.tx.us/polaris/patronaccount/selfregister.aspx?ctx=1).
However, until University Branch opens, you will not be able to select “University Branch” as your home library.

Interlibrary Loan 

University Branch will handle ILL requests for students just like they do for their public library patrons (or, as in the past, you may contact the VC/UHV Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department).

Reserve Materials

University Branch will have a location for reserve materials (for those materials that cannot be provided through electronic reserve).   When the branch opens, we should be able to provide more specific information on this.

FINAL NOTES

All of the above procedures are tentative.  If after University Branch opens, we find that something doesn’t work, we’ll fix it.

Remember that the databases available through public libraries probably will not have specialized resources in your discipline.  You should plan to continue using the subscription online resources available through the VC/UHV Library (http://vcuhvlibrary.uhv.edu).

And, as always, if you need assistance from us, please contact us.  We’ll always be glad to help you.

Since the platform change, we received notice from library patrons about the inability to properly view the full text PDF book. We discovered the challenges to view the full text without issue are related to settings in Adobe Reader, the free software that allows PDF files to be viewed online.

The VC/UHV Library created a guide with steps on how to adjust the settings in Adobe Reader. The new guide is found here: http://libguides.uhv.edu/adobereader.

If you have any questions about our eBook Collection or using any of the VC/UHV Library resources, please Ask A Librarian.