Celebrate Harry Potter's birthday with library resources! (Hermione would approve.)

It's July 31, a.k.a. Harry Potter's 34th birthday!

Choa, Lesley. Harry Potter Cake. 2011. Flickr. Yahoo. 29 July 2014.

The Holman Library can help fans and fans-to-be celebrate Harry's big day.

Find the book series in English and Spanish (click on the covers for links to the catalog):

       

Watch the movie adaptations in our DVD collection (click on the covers for links to the catalog):

   

Use the library databases to find literary criticism for your Harry Potter-themed English Lit paper:

• Harry Potter in Academic Search Complete
• Harry Potter in Artemis Literary Sources
• Harry Potter in JSTOR

BONUS: Brush up on your trivia knowledge and browse the fan-generated, online Harry Potter Wiki for character profiles, important objects and locations, and spells too.

Book and DVD cover images from Amazon.com.

Test Anxiety?

Anxious about the COMPASS test? The SATs? The ACTs? Don’t worry, help is available! Check out the Essential Skills Collection at Holman Library for books on:

• Study Skills
• GED
• ACT
• SAT
• COMPASS
• Math/English/Writing skills

Or try our online Testing & Education Resource Center for over 300 practice tests and courses for most standardized test as well as dozens of ebooks containing valuable study material and practice tests. Testing resources available through the Testing & Education Resource Center include:

High School Tools - GED

College Prep - ACT, SAT

Career Tools - Automotive, law enforcement, military, medical/nursing, teaching, social work and more!

International Tools - TOEFL, citizenship       

Curious About the Construction on Campus?

Ground was broken on the new Student Life Center last fall and the work is still, steadily, in progress!

 Fenced off from the main walkways on campus, bulldozers, excavators, and an array of construction equipment can be seen.

 

Even though the building isn't expected to be completed and in use until fall of 2015, for anyone who has been around GRCC for a while, there is an air of expectation for what is to come!

Over the last 20 years there have been a variety of remodeling, improvement, and maintenance efforts all across campus. Hidden among the trees, the campus is being expanded, updated, and spruced up as new students and new programs are welcomed!

Intended to replace many of the services currently housed in the Lindbloom Student Center, the new 61,000 Square-foot Student Life Center, which was funded both by students and the college, will be home to a larger bookstore, food services and dining areas, student government, athletics, and much more! To learn more about the new building, click on one of these links: 

• Read about the progress of the construction

• View images of the projected plans

July 14th is Bastille Day!

Happy Bastille Day (or La Fête Nationale as it's called in French-speaking countries). Did you know that the French-speaking town of Kaplan, Louisiana, where most of the inhabitants are descended from French Canadians (Acadians), claims to hold the only community-wide celebration of Bastille Day in the United States? Find out more about Bastille Day from Credo Reference.

Learn more about Bastille Day and other international holidays using the Encyclopedia of Holidays & Celebrations (available in the Reference Collection):

Explore French culture and society using CultureGrams (a database covering cultural information, statistics and more for nearly 200 country and all states in the US).

Discover the history of Bastille Day using the database World History in Context.

Watch streaming videos of Bastille Day celebrations available from Films on Demand.

h0w $trOng !s y0ur P@ssWoRd

How strong is your password for your email? How about your password for Canvas? For Facebook?

In her TED Talk, "What's wrong with your pa$$w0rd?", security researcher Lorrie Faith Cranor from Carnegie Mellon University discusses her studies of thousands of passwords--done without compromising anyone's security and privacy--and the common mistakes that we make when creating passwords.


Cranor has several observations and tips for creating stronger passwords and for remembering them too. What do you think?

If you're looking for a video source for your research, TED Talks, like the one above, provides free access to lectures--usually 18 minutes or less--on various topics by experts (e.g. science speakers are required to share only what can be supported by peer-reviewed research). For more helping videos in the library and on the web, check out the Research Guide: Audio and Video, which gives plenty of starting points for finding documentaries, lectures, and film archives.

And, speaking of passwords, if you're having problems with accessing your Green River CC student email, a librarian can help with that!

Looking for something to do over the summer?

Why not try learning a new language!

 

There are many benefits to learning how to speak, read, and write other languages.

 (click on this info graphic to learn more)

 

One of the privileges of being a student here at GRCC is having access to many wonderful databases - including Rosetta Stone.
 
 
 
 
By logging in with your student information, you can access this interactive, computer-assisted language learning software. Listen, read, and practice, and explore any of the following languages:
  
 
 

Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin Am.), Arabic, Dutch, Filipino (Tagalog), Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russia, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

 

If English is not your first language, Rosetta Stone is also a great source for listening and learning English. Still want to learn more? Check out this research guide for access to other great language learning resources:

 

ESOL - English for Speakers of Other Languages 

The Library Bill of Rights Celebrates 75 Years

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Library Bill of Rights. This is a document created in 1939 by the American Library Association that expresses the rights of library users to intellectual freedom and access to information.

Since 1939, the Library Bill of Rights has gone through 6 major revisions and to this day is the library profession's standard for preserving intellectual freedom.

Below is the text of the Library Bill of Rights. We encourage you to read through this text and celebrate with us your ability to access the many balanced library collections across the United States!

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

 

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

 

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

 

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

 

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

 

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

 

VI. Libraries that make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

 

Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996.