Kelly Hand

Decorate A Pumpkin

Pumpkins / By /

It’s time to get creative! It’s almost time for the Library’s annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest. Individuals or groups of students, faculty, and staff are invited to decorate a pumpkin and help the Library’s pumpkin patch grow.

Pumpkins can be real or artificial, but no carving is allowed.

Donate your decorated pumpkin to the contest by dropping it off at the Library starting Oct. 20th.

You can also participate in the contest by voting for your favorite decorated pumpkin in the Library from Oct 20th to Oct. 26th.

Votes are 25 cents or 5 for $1. (Cash only please)

Donated pumpkins will be available for purchase for $20. (Cash only please)

Check the Pumpkin Contest webpage daily during the contest to view all the entries and see which pumpkins are leading the vote.

The pumpkins with the most votes will be awarded trophies. Winners will be announced on the Pumpkin Contest webpage on Oct. 27th.

All proceeds go to the Moraine Valley Library Student Scholarship fund.

Questions: Contact Sue Yach at yach@morainevalley.edu or 708-974-5297, or Kelly Hand at handk3@morainevalley.edu

Celebrate National Library Week

About Our Library / By /

This week is National Library Week, a whole week of celebrating libraries. Drop in and see us. We’ll have a pop-up library at lunchtime on Monday showing off some of our favorite items. You can also join the fun all week long with our “Hue-Mongous” coloring event.

Libraries are great places to learn, relax, socialize, and work. They’re pretty interesting places too. Please enjoy a few fun facts about libraries.

*The largest library in the world is the Library of Congress. It has about 168 million items and 838 miles of bookshelves.

*Librarians used to have to learn a special writing system called Library Hand.

*A library in Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec sits atop the US/Canada border. A line runs right through the building where you can walk back and forth between the countries, no passport required.

*There are far more libraries in the US than there are McDonald’s.

*Attendance at library programs exceeds attendance at MLB, NFL, and NBA games combined.

*Some libraries lend some pretty surprising things like neckties, cake pans, fishing rods, tools, taxidermy, and seeds. You might be wondering how you can “borrow” seeds. You have to promise the replenish them when your crop comes in.

*There are some very specialized libraries such as a library of magic in New York City and a library of smells in Versailles, France.

*The facade of the Kansas City Public looks like giant books.

*Isaac Asimov published books in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System.

*Harvard Library has at least one book bound in human skin.

*And finally, the book that holds the record for the most stolen library book is …wait for it…The Guinness Book of World Records.

2023 Moraine Valley Authors

Authors / By /

The MVCC Library is thrilled to present this year’s display of the published works of Moraine Valley faculty and staff. We received what may be a record number of submissions from all over campus. The creative works include books, articles, conference presentations, poetry, songs, stories, graphic design, photography, interview recordings, and illustrations published anytime in 2022. Please click on the image below to see the display. (It may take a few moments to load.) We hope you enjoy reading through these accomplishments as much as we enjoyed putting this display together for you. Congratulations to all the Moraine Valley Authors!

Spring 2023 Authors Display

Crowded Skies

In the Collection, In the Headlines / By /

Recently the US government has been shooting down some high-flying, unknown objects. The first object was recovered and can be studied for identification. The searches for the other three objects have been abandoned due to weather and terrain, eliminating the possibility of identifying the purposes and origins of the objects. As it turns out, chances are pretty good that the most recent objects were legitimate research balloons. There are thousands of balloons in the sky right now. The US National Weather Service alone launches around 60,000 balloons per year. NASA uses balloons to study the atmosphere. Many other research organizations launch high-flying balloons all over the world as well.

Below you’ll find a glimpse of a graphic the New York Times recently published that gives an idea of the sizes and altitudes of various objects in the skies. You can view the full size graphic on the New York Times website. Spy Balloons. U.F.O.s. What Else Is Up There? And the New York Times article, A Rising Awareness That Balloons Are Everywhere In Our Skies gives more information about the numbers and various types of balloons being used.

If you haven’t yet signed up for your free subscription to the New York Times, you can do that right here, using your MVCC email address. To find out more about meteorology and how all these balloons might be being used, check out these books from the library collection.

Is This The Last Time We Fall Back?

In the Collection, In the Headlines / By /

At 2am this coming Sunday morning we fall back one hour as Daylight Saving Time comes to an end once again. Is this the last time? It’s possible, but probably not.

If there’s one thing that most Americans seem to be in agreement about, it’s that they don’t want to change clocks twice per year. Both physical and mental health suffer as our bodies adjust. There is a difference of opinion though on whether we should stick with DST all the time, or use Standard Time all of the time. There are compelling arguments on both sides. Many businesses see increased profits with more daylight in the evening. There is also evidence of a decrease in accidents and crime. Sleep experts, on the other hand, tell us that our bodies are at their best when the sun is highest in the sky at midday. This is more in line with Standard Time. So, while a majority would like to stop changing clocks, we can’t agree on which system to make permanent.

In March of this year, the US Senate picked a side and unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which is set to take effect in November of 2023 and make Daylight Saving Time permanent. This means that we would spring forward in March of 2023 and then just stay on that time, never having to switch back and forth again. In order for this to happen, the US House must also pass the act before it gets sent to the White House for signing. The act is stuck for now, with the House of Representatives not taking any action on the measure. So this could be the last time we fall back, but only time will tell.

Find out more about the history of timekeeping with these books from the library collection.

What To Read — After Class

About Our Library, In the Collection, Readers' Advisory / By /

Do you ever find yourself looking for something good to read that is not related to your studies, but just for fun? Check out the After Class collection in the library. The After Class collection is located on the main level, in the lounge area at the front of the library. Here you’ll find a mixture of current fiction and non-fiction books, many of them bestsellers. It’s a great place to browse when you’re just looking for something entertaining to read. Relax with your book in the library, or check it out with your MVCC ID card. A few titles from the current collection are shown above. To find out more about these titles, or to see all the books in the collection click here.

The Number 1 Way to Fight Climate Change

One Book: All We Can Save / By /

We’ve been talking about climate change a lot this year, as we highlight issues from this year’s One Book One College selection All We Can Save. It’s a book that addresses the seriousness of our situation, but it’s also a book of inspiration. There are many people, from all walks of life, doing great work toward tackling the problem.

For those of us that are encouraged to act, we’ve learned about various things that we can do. We can make green energy choices in our homes and modes of transportation. We can make climate friendly food choices. We can buy less stuff. We can plant trees, or tackle something like my latest project, which is building a butterfly garden in my backyard.

All of these things are vitally important. But in all honesty, they are not enough. The problem is so much bigger than what we as individuals can do. The problem of climate change is systemic and the real change that needs to happen is at the government and corporate level. This means that the number one thing that we can do to fight climate change is to apply pressure, and not let leaders look away from the problem. With our actions, our dollars, or our votes we can support the groups that are doing this kind of work, like the authors featured in All We Can Save.

“It is time to stop focusing on what government can do and start recognizing the critical role we all play in making government do its job.” Gina McCarthy, “Public Service for Public Health“, All We Can Save

Here are a couple of great discussions about the need to keep talking about climate change to help bring about the systemic change that we need.

New York Times Podcast

Got Climate Doom? Here’s What You Can Do To Actually Make a Difference

TEDTalk

Here are a number of organizations that are doing this work.

Sunrise Movement 

350.org

Environmental Voter Project

Drawdown

Climate Power

Fridays for Future

Evergreen Action

Earthday.org

Sierra Club Beyond Coal

Greenpeace

And to leave you with a just a bit more inspiration from Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sean Paul and many, many more artists–Love Song to the Earth.

Moraine Valley Authors’ Display

Authors / By /

Each year the MVCC Library is pleased to display the published works of Moraine Valley Community College faculty and staff. Please enjoy this virtual display of all of the hard work and creativity of this year’s participants. Featured are works produced anytime during 2021 including articles, books, conference presentations, music, poetry, and short stories. We are delighted to showcase all of this amazing work!

Beyond Academic Search Complete

E-Resources / By /

The MVCC Library databases are a tremendous resource. They provide free access to thousands of magazines, newspapers, academic journals, reference materials, and even videos that are not available through Google or other search engines. Academic Search Complete is often a go-to database for library users. It’s the one that is being searched if you use the Articles search box on the library homepage.

Academic Search Complete is pretty great and it covers all subject areas. But sometimes when searching, it can be helpful to use a more specialized database. This is where the All Databases page on the library website comes in handy. Here you will find an A to Z list of all of the library’s ~100 databases. You’ll also be able to use the subject groupings of databases.

So, if you’re researching currents events, or sports information, or films, you may want to use the News databases. This way you’ll be searching only newspapers. If you’re looking into something like management practices at McDonalds, you could go into the Business grouping and select Business Source Premier. Or if you’re working on a feasibility study or a business plan, Reference Solutions is going to give lots of information about potential competitors and clients. The blurbs for these databases help you choose the best one for your research need.

By now you might be thinking that this is getting a little complicated. There are so many different databases, you must need to be an expert to know how to search them all. Not at all. Business Source Premier for example, works just like Academic Search Complete, as do many of the library’s databases. Plus, to help you get started using various databases, librarians have created help guides for many of the library’s databases. Just look for the link at the end of the database description.

Are you interested in a database guide that we haven’t created yet? Let us know and we’ll make one!

Ask a Librarian

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