Time To Vote

November 6, 2012 is Election Day.  Oregon ballots have been mailed (October 19-23) and, if you are a registered voter, you should have your ballot.





Leading up to the election you might enjoy checking out Nate Silver's political blog at the New York Times, Five Thirty Eight for a discussion of national trends, poll results, electoral college predictions, and historical context of the national campaigns and elections.

Check out Open Secrets to learn about some of the donors, political action committees, outside spenders, and industries supporting national and state candidates.  Who's funding Art Robinson?  Peter DeFazio?

The League of Women Voters of Oregon provide lots of information on Oregon elections, ballot measures, candidates, money in politics, and more.  Click on the Education tab to find their voters' guide for overviews and analysis of issues in the upcoming state and national elections.

The Oregonian newspaper should have election results for the state and nation once election night arrives and precincts start reporting.

Douglas County Election results will be posted by the Douglas County Clerk's Office on their website, usually updated several times throughout election night.

The UCC Library recently added new books about food, agriculture, nutrition and more, just in time for the Umpqua Valley Food Day! Take a look at our Food Day Reading List for books and DVDs about farming, eating, cooking and food policy. There are dozens to choose from!

Then, come celebrate the abundance of Douglas County at the Umpqua Valley Food Day! There will be a potluck, seed swap, and an information session presented by local farmers, producers and processors. Food Day will be at the Lookingglass Grange at 7426 Lookingglass Rd. in Roseburg from 5:30 to 8 on Wednesday, October 24. See below for more details.

Umpqua Valley Food Day details:
1. Potluck Dinner: We’ll begin eating at 6 p.m. so make sure you come in time to have your dish on the table for everyone to enjoy! Don’t forget a serving utensil! Bring your own cups, dishes and utensils if you’re able. There will be some disposable extras on hand. There will be a sink available for washing dishes before taking them home.
2. Seed Swap: A seed swap is a way to exchange seeds and gardening information. You can participate whether you’re a home gardener with a few flower seeds or a farmer with bulk seed leftovers. The seed swap will be informal and ongoing throughout the evening. There will be tables designated for swapping seeds and gardening or farming knowledge.
3. Local farmers, producers and processors will share briefly about their businesses, what products and services they have available, and how and when customers can best access them.

Hope to see you there! Learn more about Food Day and RSVP to this event at http://www.foodday.org/16454/umpqua_valley_food_day.

You can contact Laura Stroud with questions or an RSVP at lstroud@nwumpqua.org or (514) 643-3931.
Can’t make it? You can still participate in Food Day! Food Day is a nationwide celebration with events happening in all 50 states. Here are some ways to celebrate on your own:

Try buying a fruit or vegetable you’ve never eaten before from a Farmers Market near you. Ask the farmer for their suggestions about how to cook it.

Tell your kids about what your favorite home-cooked meal was when you were a kid. Ask them why their favorite meal is their favorite. Is it something you can make with food produced in Douglas County?

Read a book from our reading list!

Learn about hunger in our community. Did you know that according to the USDA about 13.6 percent of households in Oregon suffered food insecurity in 2009-2011? Visit http://oregonhunger.org/ for more information and ways to help. 

Thank you, Laura Stroud, for guest blogging!

Catching Up On Fall

Welcome to UCC, or for many of you, welcome back! The Library has been busy this summer, changing things around and adding services to help you be successful this fall. Here are a few of the newest things we have to offer:

More space! More quiet area study space!

We hear you on wanting more study areas! We’ve removed some of the shelves in the “Stacks” area on the east side of the library to give you more room to study.  The book stacks are a “Quiet Study” area, so no talking, cell phone conversations, music or video audio here, please. We’ve moved seating around in the main reading room to give you more social / group study space, too. Talking is allowed out in the reading room-- go, go study group!

New ways to ask us for research help-- chat reference online and text reference!

It's not always possible to stop by the library in-person. Now you can send us a question by text message via your cell phone. Send "uccLib" to 66749, then your question. If you save this number in your phone as a contact, you can send us questions directly in the future! We have chat reference available too. Just look for the green "Ask a Question" button on the right of every class LibGuide from the library.

eBooks available in all the places you are.
  
We added over 70,000 EBSCO eBooks to our collection this Spring, and you can find these titles through our catalog online.  You can get these from home or off-campus with the EBSCOhost username & password. If you need a copy of our off-campus access usernames & passwords, please contact us (lots of ways to do that above)! If your class is online through ANGEL / UCCOnline, the full list is available under the "Resources" tab.

Summer Hours

It's summertime! While the living might be easy, the hours are also changing at the UCC Library. Here are all the details--

• Starting June 16, 2012, the library will be closed Friday - Sunday through Sunday, September 2nd. 

• Break week: June 18 - 24, 2012-- Open 8 am - 4 pm

•  Summer Sessions: June 25 - August 30, 2012-- Open 7:30 am - 8 pm

• Closed: Wednesday, July 4th for Independence Day

Have a fantastic summer!

Where Art Meets Literature?

As part of Basic Design III: Three-dimensional Design, instructor Renee Couture has her students choose a book and alter it. They had to choose one particular alteration method (tear, cut, etc). Then they had to redesign the book and base the sculpture on the book's topic.  Many found their book of choice at the library book sale. 

The following pictures are from the student art show in the Art Gallery in the Whipple Fine Arts Gallery currently on display through next week until the artists' reception on June 7, 2012, at 5 p.m.

Walking counter-clockwise around the room, you'll first see Justin Dyer's "Dino" come alive:

Lillian Garcia created "Heresy" and needed a stack of books to create an ominous pit and lots more:

 Nolen Heisler's Last of the Giants rises up:

And here is "Phobetor" by Leeah Whittier, taking wing from a book about endangered species.

Feeling inspired?  More raw materials are available at the library booksale.  You'll have to supply the imagination and talent.

Book collection shrinks and expands

You may have noticed the book collection getting smaller.  The library staff has been focused on removing old and unused and outdated materials over the last 2 years or so.  Classics like the 1957 Agricultural Yearbook were just taking up space. Up to date appraisals of U.S. relations with Egypt written in 1972, just weren't getting checked out.  Old medical and legal information had to go.  The print collection has been downsized to about 25,000 book titles.

Meanwhile, we just subscribed to a new database from EBSCO publishing, eBook Academic Collection.  The database includes thousands (EBSCO says around 70,000)  of full text books. Give it a try; give us feedback.  Since the database contains over twice as many books as our print collection, you might want to start your book search here, rather than the library catalog of print books.  When you click on "Academic Search Premier" on the library homepage, you'll end up at a search screen ready to search BOTH journals and complete eBooks.  If you prefer, you can search the eBook collection by itself by clicking on "eBooks" from the subject list of databases, then choosing the "eBook Academic Collection".

 Can't decide where to start?  Ask the library staff for help.

 Here's a random sample of some of the subjects covered in the eBook collection.  Looking for information about other countries? This title about contemporary Cuba was published in 2010.

The collection includes the complete text of books on social issues. . .

 

 and "hot" topics in the news.

 

The range of topics is huge.  Research subjects relevant to your course work, find a book, and read it online wherever you are.  And don't forget the print stuff--it could still be helpful, too! 

The Secret Underworld of the Library

In the nearly 50 years of the UCC Library's existence it is believed that only two intrepid students have had the vision and will to explore where all others have feared to tread: underneath the library tables. In late 2011 the explorers carefully planned their expedition and returned with photographic evidence of their findings.

For these two women, Leigh Batson and her trusted assistant, Miriam Gilman, the journey was all in a day's work. But for the faint of heart: be forewarned.

To begin our tour of the sordid underbelly of the library, let's take a look at a typical gum stalactite clinging just above your knees:

Although some specimens roost in relative solitude, other chewers prefer to add to a stomach churning, high density, "gum cluster".  This one has a rare blue foil accessory, attempting to blend in among the gum formation.

Not all gum deposits are so large or so obvious.  It is only with thorough scrutiny of their habitat that the rare "table leg ledge dweller" gob of gum can be discovered:













Let's step back and take a look at a "gum clusteration", seen accumulating in this fine landscape view.















Although not yet a scientific certainty, there is evidence that chewed gum does engage in reproduction.  Witness the couple to the left of this photo:



















 Miriam, in the throes of expeditionary fervor and clearly in fear for her life, is seen taking precautions to avoid attaching her hair to the underside of a table.












And finally, here is Leigh, combing through gum identification guides and mapping out her next research and photography projects.