Library Open House at Your Campus!

Library Events, Mid-Valley Campus, Movies, NAH Campus, Pecan Campus, Previous Events, Starr County Campus, Technology Campus

Library Week is that time of the year when we stop and appreciate what libraries and librarians have contributed to our schools and communities. And South Texas College will celebrate Library Week with a number of activities at all five of its campuses.

Celebrated nation wide, this year’s theme is “Communities Thrive @ Your Library.”  In tough economic times, libraries give free access to books, DVDs, computers, and research assistance.  Go by one of your campus libraries to enjoy what they have to offer.  Please e-mail Esther Garcia for more details: egarcia10@southtexascollege.edu.

Library Open Houses 2010
Date Campus Library Details Contact Person
4/12 NAHC Open House 10 am – 2 pm
  • Book Talk  on Valley authors*
  • Drafting demonstration
  • Presentation by Rey Anzaldua on Hospital Security
  • Art Gallery Tours
  • Snacks, Drinks, Cake
 James Phillips 872-3189
4/13 Starr Campus Open House 11 am – 2 pm
  • Kayak exhibit
  • Zavotash dancers
  • Talk given by Local Historian
  • Possible trolley ride
  • Door Prizes
  • Food, Snacks, Drinks
 Thelma Garza 488- 5820
4/14 MidValley Campus Open House10 am – 2 pm
  • Information Fair
  • Music
  • Art Gallery Tours
  • Movie showing New Moon
  • Snacks and Drinks
 Jessica Cruz 447-6663
4/15 Pecan Campus Open House 11 am – 2 pm
  • Information Fair
  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Meet Miss RGV
  • Music
  • Movie showing New Moon
  • Snacks, Popcorn, Drinks, Cake
 Esther Garcia 872-6485
4/19 Tech Campus Open House 10 am – 2 pm
  • Folkloric Dancers
  • Paramedic Visit with Ambulence, Stretcher, and Dummy
  • Book Talk  on Valley authors*
  • Art Gallery Tours
  • Snacks, Drinks, Cake
 James Phillips 872-6120

*Book Talk on Valley authors will be given by librarian James Phillips, and he will discuss authors Americo Paredes, Rolando Hinojosa Smith, Gloria Anzaldua, and T.R. Fehrenbach.

Staff Pick: The Next 100 Years

Book Reviews, Our Collections

libblog-BookReview5Friedman, George.  The Next 100 Years: a Forecast for the 21st Century.  New York: Doubleday, 2009.

If you have an interest in politics, international relations, or predictions of futuristic technology then this is the book for you.  Using his knowledge of historical trends and political forecasting Friedman predicts how international relations will unfold over the next century.  The author has a PhD in political science from Cornell University and he is the founder of STRATFOR a private intelligence firm.

Friedman claims that the current economic downturn will not last long and that soon the United States will be back on top and will be the dominant superpower for the next 100 years.  This book predicts that Russia and China will collapse in the next 20 or 30 years from internal divisions and pressure from their neighbors.  By 2050 Japan and Turkey will be the world’s new major powers.  They will form an alliance to rival the United States which will lead to World War III.  However, the US will triumph in that future war.  By 2100 Mexico will be the new rising power that will challenge the USA.  How does the author come to these conclusions?  You’ll have to read the book to find out!  (Click here to check for availability.)

Contributed by Joshua Wallace, Reference Librarian at the Pecan Campus

Staff Pick: Boys Will Be Boys

Book Reviews, Our Collections

libblog-BookReview4Pearlman, J. (2008). Boys will be boys: The glory days and party nights of the Dallas Cowboys dynasty. New York: HarperCollins.

Any Football fan will remember the dominance the early 1990’s Dallas Cowboys Team had in the National Football League.  I remember seeing the games and enjoying my favorite team beat teams like the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.  It was no surprise that the book Boys will be Boys by Jeff Pearlman about the Cowboys caught my attention.

Surprisingly some of the key players for the Cowboy’s Dynasty Team are living in shacks and working assembling line jobs to make ends meet.  Players like Michael Irvin, Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman are financially stable.  These three superstars have endorsement deals and work as football analyst for FOX, ESPN, and the N.F.L Network.  Other players were able to save money and make wise financial investments.

This book gives the reader an inside look at how fortunes were made and lost in the National Football League.   If you are a football fan and especially a Dallas Cowboys fan, you must take the time to read this Book.  (Click here to check for availability)

Contributed by Jesus Resendez, Library Specialist at the Mid-Valley Campus.

Screening of Iron Jawed Angels at MidValley Campus Library

Library Events, Mid-Valley Campus, Movies, Previous Events

libevents-Movies1 To celebrate Women’s History Month, the Mid-Valley STC Library will be showing Iron Jawed Angels, a 2004 film about the women’s suffrage movement during the 1910s. This movie follows activists, Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor), as they fought tirelessly for a woman’s right to be counted.  Returning to the United States from England, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns learned that their ideas about women and voting were too radical for even the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In response, they created the National Woman’s Party, a group that takes drastic measures to ensure women’s rights. Taking the women’s suffrage movement by storm, Paul and Burns put their freedom on the line as they boldly take action.

In a time when it is easy to take the right to vote for granted, this film reminds us that women once had to fight and suffer to step into the voting booth. One hundred years ago women were denied the privilege of expressing their opinions about our government, but because Alice Paul and Lucy Burns (and a number of other brave women such as Susan B. Anthony) refused to be content with their lives as non-voting citizens, we are all able to be counted equally.

Iron Jawed Angels will be showing Wednesday, March 10, 2010 beginning at 10 am at the STC Mid-Valley Library.  It will also be showing Thursday, March 11 at 12:00 pm at the Pecan Campus Library.

Contributed by Jessica Cruz, Library Specialist at the Mid-Valley Campus.

Heart Health Month Display

Book Displays, Our Collections, Technology Campus

This February is Heart Health Month.  Celebrate by getting a recipe or information from one of our many books.

Magazines/Journals
Stroke
Circulation Research
Books
Your heart : an owner’s guide
Platillos Latinos, sabrosos y saludables = Delicious heart-healthy Latino recipes
Bypass: a healthy heart without surgery
Women and Heart Disease: What You Can Do to Stop the Number One Killer of American Women

And if you are near the Tech Campus Library, check out this display:

libblog-BookDisplay6

Contributed by Sara Martinez from the Pecan Campus Library and Sheila McGee from the Tech Campus Library.

Staff Pick: Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados

Book Reviews, Our Collections

libblog-BookReview2Richardson, Chad. Batos, Bolillos, Pochos, and Pelados: Class and Culture on the South Texas Border. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999.

This easy-to-read and interesting book offers an excellent introduction to life in the Rio Grande Valley.  Using touching personal stories and statistical data gathered from numerous interviews and surveys; the author paints a detailed picture of society in Deep South Texas.  Topics such as the experiences of migrant workers, life in the colonias, Winter Texans, the history of Anglo-Hispanic relations in the Valley, and much more are covered.   Whether you’re a newcomer to the Valley (like me) or you’re a life-long Valley native I think you’ll find this to be an enjoyable and valuable read, that will enhance your understanding of this unique region.

Click here to check availability.

Contributed by Joshua Wallace, Reference Librarian at the Pecan Campus

Books at the Movies

Book Displays, Our Collections, Pecan Campus

Check out these books that have been made into movies very recently.

On PBS’s Masterpiece Theater you can watch Jane Austen’s Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion this Spring.  They will also be showing a suspenseful adaptation of The Thirty-Nine Steps, previously adapted by Alfred Hitchcock as well as a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank in April.

At the movies you can watch the literary hero Sherlock Holmes, and rent Amelia partly based on S. Butler’s East to the Dawn: the life of Amelia Earhart as well as the epicurean hit Julie and Julia taken from such books as Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia as well as Julia Child’s My Life in France.

libblog-BookDisplay1

Contributed by Esther Garcia, Library Specialist at the Pecan Campus

Gabriel Salazar

Visions of the Rio Grande Valley

Library Art Gallery, Pecan Campus, Previous Exhibits

Gabriel Salazar

Gabriel Salazar is a self-taught artist who has been painting for 30 years. A Rio Grande Valley native, his inspiration is his home environment. Now he has an entire collection of Valley-inspired art and is sharing it with the students of South Texas College

“Visions of the Rio Grande Valley,” featuring oil on canvas paintings by Salazar will be on exhibit at the college’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery from Thursday, Feb. 4 through March 27. An opening reception will take place Thursday, Feb. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the gallery located in Bldg. F at 3201 W. Pecan Blvd. in McAllen. Admission is free and open to the public.

“Once I have an idea, I place myself in it, as if I’m there,” said Salazar. “I imagine it, a landscape situation, and I live what I paint.”

Salazar knows and envisions what he wants in his paintings and changes things as he works along the way. He is inspired by the beauty of the Valley and paints what the Valley “used to be” and, in some areas, still is, including open fields and orchards with blue valley skies.

“Salazar’s mastery of depth and perspective within his paintings are amazingly displayed in this exhibition,” said Sofia K. Vestweber, STC’s Library Art Gallery Program associate. “His paintings are incredibly detailed and rich with nostalgia for rural valley landscapes.”

South Texas College’s Library Art Gallery Program exhibits regional, national and international artwork, explores new visions and theories of creativity, and introduces innovative artistic expressions to the South Texas region.

For more information contact 956- 872-3488 or visit http://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryartgallery.