May is Mental Health Awareness Month
The Moraine Valley Library has a large selection of mental health related resources. I have curated a small selection of books and e-books into a Mental Health Awareness virtual display.
Check Out Our Newest Kids Books!
If you are an education student, parent, or just like to read kids books, we are continuing to build our children’s and young adult literature collections. Currently, these, and others, are on display in the New Arrivals section, in the lounge near the library entrance. In a couple weeks, they will be moved downstairs to the juvenile (JUV) and young adult (PZ7) sections of the library where we have a nice selection to choose from. If you need help finding them, please Ask a Librarian for help.
Voting Help: Voting for Judicial Candidates
Often people skip the judicial candidates on the ballot because they have no idea who to vote for. It is much easier to research other types of candidates. How does the average citizen know which judicial candidates are qualified for the job? If you live in Cook County, the Vote for Judges website makes it easy. The Alliance of Bar Associations has compiled the ratings of 12 different Bar Associations into an easy to read chart in which the candidates are rated on their qualifications and whether each association recommends them or not. You can get to the chart from the Vote for Judges page — scroll down below “November 2022 Retention Election Evaluations” and click on the link for the PDF. (See screenshot below to see where to click – I highlighted the link in yellow.)
If you live in Dupage County, you can go to the Dupage County Bar Association Judicial Candidate ratings or to the Illinois Bar Association’s Judicial Candidates for Dupage County. If you live in Will County, I was only able to find compiles ratings from the Illinois Bar Association’s Judicial Candidate ratings for Will County.
If you need help researching any other candidates, please Ask a Librarian.
Zotero Research Assistant
Chances are you have at least one research assignment to do this semester. Have you ever wished there was a tool to help keep all your research together? Well, there is, and it’s called Zotero. Not only will Zotero save all your sources together in one place, but it can also connect to Microsoft Word and Google Docs to create citations and bibliographies for you. Best of all, it’s free and easy to use! For more information and instructions on how to use it, you can go to our Zotero Research Guide.
Finals Week in the Library
With finals starting tomorrow, I wanted to wish you all good luck and remind you that the library is here to help.
Do you need a quiet place to study? The library is the perfect place for that. We have many different spaces to study in including a small silent study area on the first floor of the library (which is pretty quiet to begin with). If you prefer to study with a group, you can book one of our study rooms for up to 4 people. You can also book a virtual study room.
Do you need to review your textbook? We have many of the books used on campus; search the library textbook collection to see if we have what you need. Most check out for 3 hours.
Do you need help researching for your final paper? You can ask for help at the library information desk, or you can call, email, text, or chat with us on the Ask a Librarian page. Do you need help citing sources? The librarians can help you with that too, or you can use our citing sources guide.
Do you need to print a paper? The library has black and white printers (10-15 cents a page) and a color printer (50 cents a page). We also have a scanner if you need it.
Do you need to know when your finals are? You can check the final exam schedule.
When in doubt, Ask a Librarian!
Kid’s Books in the Library
Do you have kids? Are you taking a children’s literature course? Or do you just like reading children’s or young adult books? In any case, did you know that the library has a children’s book collection? It is a small, but growing section in the lower level of the library near the men’s bathroom. The best way to browse titles virtually is to do a search for “juvenile” in the library catalog. Once you get results, use the menu on the left to refine by the location “juvenile”.
Do you prefer electronic books? We have access to children’s e-books as well. The best way to find the children’s e-books is to start at the library catalog. Search for “juvenile”. Once you get results, then use the menu on the left to refine by “juvenile fiction” and/or “juvenile nonfiction” and then under “format” choose “Ebooks” (see screenshot below).
Play a Fake News Game
Misinformation and disinformation are readily found in your social media feeds. In this game, you will play the part of a producer of fake news trying to earn badges to become the “Master of Disinformation”. As you learn how to deceive your followers, this game will teach you the techniques used by influencers to deceived and misinform. The goal is to learn to identify these techniques so that in the future, you don’t repost misleading, incomplete, or just plain fake news. The Bad News Game.
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?
If you have children, chances are they have no school tomorrow (October 11th) due to Columbus Day. If they go to Chicago Public Schools, it’s due to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. (Moraine Valley is NOT closed tomorrow.) So which is it, Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day? According to an NBC5 article entitled What to Know about Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day in Illinois, in 2017, Illinois designated the last Monday of September as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However on Friday, President Biden made a proclamation that October 11th will officially be known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
If you are interested in learning more about Indigenous Peoples’, the Moraine Valley Library has you covered. We have many books and videos about Indigenous Peoples’. We have many databases that might be useful for finding articles or videos about Indigenous Peoples. Here are the search results from our Academic Search Complete database on Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.
When in doubt, the librarians are always happy to help. Just be sure to Ask a Librarian.
Photo credits: “National Indigenous People’s Day Celebration” by danna § curious tangles is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Wildfires can make their own weather!?!
After I finished my library degree, I had the privilege of living in southern Oregon for three of the most adventurous years of my life. Back then, wildfires were frequent, but they rarely turned into the monsters they can be today. Recently, the largest fire in Oregon, the Bootleg Fire, was said to be creating it’s own weather – it even spawned a firenado! This fascinating article by Wired magazine entitled Oh Good, Now there is an Outbreak of Wildfire Thunderclouds, will explain how they do that and what they mean for climate future. For more resources about wildfires, pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or other environmental research questions, please Ask a Librarian for help.
