News, Events, & Updates

Tim Tebow
University of Florida Gators Football Team Quarterback
Winner of the 2007 Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award,
Davey O’Brien Award and the James E. Sullivan Award

“One of the books I’ve read recently that I really liked was Tony Dungy’s book called “Quiet Strength.” My favorite would have to be “Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. Both of these books really do a great job helping you keep your priorities in order. It is important for each person to sit down and be honest about making priorities and be true to themselves.”

2008-2009 University of Florida
Student Government Officers

Yooni Yi, vice president
Kevin Reilly, president
Paul Drayton, treasurer

See the new issue of Library News for UF Faculty, Volume 19, No. 1, Fall August) 2008.

The Library Virtual Worlds Group will be hosting a virtual lecture by Paul Fishwick, professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida, on Friday, September 12, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Prof. Fishwick will lead a discussion on the role of libraries in virtual worlds as well as providing a tour of his recent work in Second China. Pre-lecture questions posed by Prof. Fishwick will be posted on the Virtual Worlds Group wiki by September 8.

Come join the lecture in Second Life at (Cybrary City, 97 x 15 x 24; slurl), or in Library West, room 212 for a live simulcast. Questions about the event may be directed to Laura Jordan, laujord@uflib.ufl.edu .

Prof. Fishwick received his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University, Master of Science degree in applied science from the College of William and Mary, and Ph.D. in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. He is a Fellow of the Society for Computer Simulation (SCS) and a Senior Member of the IEEE. He has extensive experience working with games and simulations for learning and cognition.

The George A. Smathers Libraries will host the Digital Literacy Contest, a competition that tests Internet literacy and cognitive agility, on Wednesday, September 17 in Library West. Two back-to-back competitions begin at 11:00 a.m. Contestants will be given 30 minutes, 50 questions and Internet access. Correct answers earn points and incorrect answers are penalized. The highest score wins the competition and winners are awarded cash prizes.

The contest is free and open to all UF students, faculty, staff and community members. Following the competitions the libraries will host a discussion on digital information literacy. Free pizza and drinks will be provided.

The Digital Literacy Contest was created in 2007 by then Purdue University student Daniel Poynter. It has since grown to other universities across the nation including Brown University and Indiana University.

“This is the first competition in which people wield the Internet as a cognitive prosthetic, said Poynter. It’s a high speed battle of Internet-enabled intelligence. It has three main objectives: to identify people who thrive in information overload; to disseminate their insights; and to create a discussion about what it means to be digitally literate.”

“Our age is both unprecedented and pivotal,” Poynter said. “Unparalleled global access to information is accelerating technological and social change. Making sense of our increasingly complex world depends upon becoming better information filters through the help of libraries. This competition is one way to ease ourselves into this exciting future.”

To enter the competition, enter online at http://www.DigitalLiteracyContest.org . Early registration is encouraged as space is limited. For more information contact Michele Crump at mcrump@uflib.ufl.edu or (352) 273-2505.

Pop-up, Spin, Pull, Fold: Toy Books from the Baldwin Library is an exhibition featuring pop-up and movable books from the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. The exhibition will run from September 2 through October 31, 2008, in the second floor exhibit gallery in Smathers Library East. The exhibition will be a chronological display of children’s books which foster an interactive experience between the reader and the book. The earliest item on display is a geography book published in 1789 “for youth at school” that contains a vovelle, a moveable chart that appeared in early science books. The rest of the exhibition displays examples of continually refined techniques of mechanical movement up through the complex pop-up books of current paper engineers such as Robert Sabuda.

A presentation and reception in conjunction with the exhibit will take place on October 2, 2008, in Smathers Library East, which will include a talk at 1:30 pm in Room 1A by paper engineer, Kyle Olmon, entitled, “How to Build a Castle: Contemporary Pop-up Book Production with a Look at the Past.” Olmon has worked in the art studio of Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, and was the paper engineer for Castle: Medieval Days and Knights, a pop-up book published in 2006 by Orchard Books. This presentation will be followed by a reception in the exhibit area, providing an opportunity to view the exhibition.

At 1:00 pm, preceding the Olmon presentation, there will be the special dedication ceremony for a marker designating the Baldwin Library as an historical campus site. This ceremony will take place in the courtyard to the west of Smathers Library. The UF Alumni Association is sponsoring the markers throughout campus with the intention of providing returning alumni the opportunity to take a “walking tour” of the various historical markers. With the project, the Alumni Association hopes to highlight and publicize the research that is accomplished on campus and draw attention to the rich resources that are available to both students and alumni. The 103,000 volume Baldwin Library, one of the largest collections of historical English language children’s books in the world, is cited for the depth of its collection and for pioneering and supporting the study of children’s literature as an academic discipline.

Library orientations will be held in Library West, Room 212 at the following times:

September 30th, 10:00a - 11:00a
October 2nd, 11:00a - 12:00p
October 7th, 1:00a - 2:00p
October 8th, 3:00p - 4:00p
October 15th, 11:00p - 12:00p
October 16th, 2:00p - 3:00p
October 21st, 3:00p - 4:00p
October 22nd, 11:00a - 12:00p
October 29th, 1:00p - 2:00p
October 30 2:00p - 3:00p

Interested in learning how to compose footnotes, in-text citations, and bibliographies for your papers in correct bibliographic style? Better still, interested in learning an easy application that does the work of forming footnotes, in-text citations, and bibliographies for you? No longer do you need to consult complicated citation style manuals (Turabian, APA, MLA, etc.) every time you write a paper. With Refworks you can export search results from the library’s subscription databases, store and organize them on the internet in your personal folders, and add them to your papers in correct bibliographic form—all with the push of a button. Come to one of the library’s introductory Refworks workshops to find out how.

Library West

Sessions will be held in Room 211. For more information, contact Blake Landor (273-2644 email: landor@ufl.edu)

Sept 15:10-11:30 a.m.
Sept 25: 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Oct 14: 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Oct 29: 10-11:30 a.m.
Nov 14: 11-12:30 p.m.
Dec 16: 2:30-4:00 p.m

Education Library

Sessions held at the Education Library in Norman Hall will emphasize education-related resources. For more information, contact Marilyn Ochoa (273-2627 or mnochoa@ufl.edu).

Introduction to RefWorks

Wednesday, October 15: 12-1 PM
Thursday, November 13: 12-1 PM

Using RefWorks Write-N-Cite and RefGrab-It

Wednesday, October 22: 12-1PM
Thursday, November 20: 12-1PM

The Library Tech Expo, hosted by the InfoCommons @ West, will take place on Wednesday, August 27, from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. in the InfoCommons @ West on the third floor of Library West. Various tech trends offered by the UF’s George A. Smathers Libraries, including Bioactive (a library video game), InfoZombies and other library YouTube videos, RefWorks, Ask-a-Librarian and much more will be showcased. Guitar Hero will also be available during this time for students to play while viewing the new tech trends. The TechExpo is free and open to all and snacks will be provided.

Due to construction, the Map & Imagery Library is temporarily relocating its collection and staff. The Map & Imagery Library collection will be available and reference assistance will continue before, during, and after the move. The construction is predicted to last through most of the Fall Semester.

Reference assistance for the Map & Imagery collection will now be given from the Documents Reference Desk on the 1st floor of the Marston Science Library. Staff from the Map & Imagery Library will be available during the normal Map & Imagery Library hours, Monday - Thursday 8:30 - 7:00, Friday 8:30 - 5:00, and Sunday 10:00 - 7:00.

Class sessions to introduce classes to the Map & Imagery Library can still be arranged with the Map Librarian, Carol McAuliffe. Two weeks notice should be given so that suitable arrangements can be made.

More information and details.