Feb. 27 is Pokemon Day, commemorating the original Japanese release of Pokemon Red and Green. Today only, stop by the library for some special surprises.
The library now offers a selection of board games and a weekly Tabletop Tuesday.
The winners of the 2023 Second Life for Books are recognized for their recycled book creations, selected by voters. The theme for this year’s book art was book bans.
The 1st place artist is Usman Khan, whose piece Freedom, Imprisonment: It’s all an Illusion speaks to the influences experienced by LGBTQ+ students as they search for their place in the world.
The 2nd place art is titled The Hunger Games for the 2014 banned book by the same title. Art student Luna Chavez won 3rd place for Not All Boys Are Blue.
2023 was the year of robots, and we had everything from the friendly to the threatening to the bizarre. However, there can be only one grand prize winner, and this year's was...
First Place
Cogsworth Mickey Gearspark by Financial Aid
Runners Up
2nd place: Rosie the Robot by Division 1
3rd place: "You sly dog, you got me monologuing." by the Assistive Technology Lab
If you didn't get a chance to see everything on display, you can view photos for this year and all previous years of pumpkin entries on our Flickr.
It's the unofficial day of celebrating sci-fi (and Isaac Asimov's birthday, for that matter). Hop on over to our guide to get a run-down on the history of the genre + a representative but non-exhaustive set of title recommendations, all available for free through the public domain or the library.
Once Upon a Pumpkin 2020 Winner:
- See all the entries for this year and previous in our Flickr collection.
Bare Bones Scary Story Contest Winner:
From John Powell, who helped organize the trip in coordination with Student Life:
The trip to the Buffalo Soldiers Museum on February 8th, went very well. We had 12 students attending the trip, they were very excited to learn about the museum. When we arrived we viewed a film about the background history and achievements of the Buffalo Soldiers. Mention was made of their contributions during the Civil War, Westward Expansion, World Wars I & II, up to the Persian Gulf. After the film, Melissa Waddy-Thibodeaux entered the room singing and performed as Harriett Tubman. They students later confessed that they were touched emotionally, by her performance, and they learned that there was an entire network of people from all walks of life, colors, and backgrounds who helped in the Underground Railroad. Harriett made them promise to help both old and young to read, and to serve them going forward. Sarah also reminded them of their promise later, when she told them that she would be asking for their help later on in the semester, to conduct outreach and service in facilities that cater to the young as well as the old.
After Melissa’s performance, our guide then started the tour of the museum. He was very well informed , took many questions, and also used his sense of humor to bring out the background of some of the events and artifacts on display. He described the early toaster, hair combs and curlers, flat iron, and other artifacts as examples of early technology. He also pointed out the role of the Chaplain in the Armed Services, and how it evolved from the need directly during and after Slavery to teach recruits how to read, in order to better function in the Army. He also introduced the students to the historical events concerning the dismantling of Camp Logan, formerly located in Herman Memorial Park, including the largest Court Martial trial in the history of the Armed Services. The students expressed amazement that they had never heard of the event, as well as many of the other history that they had seen that day. They spoke of the need to find out more and share what they had learned. We encouraged them to do that.
After we left the museum, we went to lunch at This Is It, a Soul Food restaurant nearby. The students really liked the menu and enjoyed the food. All in all, I would say that it was a very successful trip and that we should strive to make it a Black History Month tradition!
For Roar Week Spring 2019, the SLRC meet-and-greet event kicked off ConnectUP -- an identity map for our students.
We created a 6'x4' board covered with 30 randomly-placed posts, each of which is labeled with traits with "born in Houston" or "gamer" or "lives with family." Students take a piece of string and start wrapping it from post to post to choose those that describe who they are.
The result is an identity map showing where our students overlap and where they may be unique.
This identity map was inspired by Project I-Dentify at Ferris State University's Ferris Library for Information, Technology and Education (FLITE), itself inspired by the Unity Project interactive public art.
The board stayed on display for students to add strings from January 17 through January 25, 2019. When the board is complete, it will be hung on a wall in the SLRC to display. After a couple years, the strings will be removed and new project will begin.