Poetry Month: Book Spine Poetry Photo Contest

Post by: Shatford Library Student Association

National Poetry Month is coming up and what better way to celebrate than with a Book Spine Poem Contest?

What is Book Spine Poetry, you ask? This!-

Photo from here.

Since we, the Shatford Library Student Association, think this is a fun way to celebrate we are hosting a contest. Make your own spine poetry and send us a picture of it! You could even get a nice prize for it. ;-)

ONE photo per participant. Please submit your book spine poem photo to ICC.PCCSLSA@gmail.com. Also, please label the email "Book Spine Poem Photo Contest" and have your name in the email along with the attached picture.

Rules:

1. You may use a maximum of 6 books and a minimum of 3.
2. Use only the titles of the books, please.
3. No vulgarity! This is a public, school event so keep it classy. Thanks.
4. You may use books from home, the public library, Shatford library, you name it!
5. If you use books from your library please take a pencil and paper with you to write down titles that stand out – you can go back to them later and you'd be saving the staff and the other patrons a lot of trouble.

DEADLINE: April 12, 2013.

Four finalists will be picked for you, yes- you, to vote on. First place winner will receive a Starbucks Gift Card, a Vroman's Gift Card, and a cool notebook! Runner up will receive a Starbucks Gift Card.

Have fun and be creative! If you have any more questions please feel free to post comment. We look forward to seeing your entries!

Shatford Library Student Association

Hello! We are proud to announce that there is a new club here at Pasadena City College... the Shatford Library Student Association! Here is a little run-down of our club:

The purpose of the club shall be to foster interest in libraries, information science, and information technologies as viable career choices. Working as a liaison between the Shatford Library and the students at Pasadena City College, the club hopes to raise awareness of Shatford library services and promote the role of libraries in society. Members will be encouraged to take part in various activities such as networking with professionals, professional workshops, visits to various libraries, and guest speakers.

So, basically, it is a club to promote our college's library and to have fun by taking part in library and school related events.

Introductions!

President/ICC Alternate
Name: Élan Delgadillo

Club Expectations:  I want to build a strong social network among librarians, aspiring librarians, and library enthusiasts. I want to share the joys and journeys every library has to offer with the world, or at least with the students and staff of PCC (baby steps).

Hobbies: Writing (Poetry, Screenplays, and Prose) and Reading just about anything.

Favorite Books: 
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederic Engels
Candide by Voltaire
The Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy

Vice President/ICC Representative
Name: Abrany Morales

Club Expectations: From this club I hope to bring awareness to more students about the importance of environment that the library can provide and the resources that it offers to help throughout their careers.

Hobbies: Reading, painting, playing piano, blogging, and going to the movies!

Favorite Books: 
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
The Husband by Dean Koontz
No Exit by Jean Paul Sarte
The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Secretary/Webmaster
Name: Kiri Lahey

Club Expectations: I want to connect with others who share the same views as me on libraries, have fun doing library related events, gain experience and connections through volunteering, and help promote our school's library.
Hobbies: Hiking, camping, Postcrossing, crafting, screen printing, playing video games, and reading, of course.
Favorite Books: 
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy by Clare B. Dunkle
Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera
Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa
Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto

Treasurer/Outreach Coordinator
Name: Carla Perez Zuehls

Club Expectations: I want everyone to have fun.  I want to have people gain knowledge about libraries that they didn't have before; I also want people involved in the library programs to gather information about new exciting things, volunteer opportunities, and also feel confident in themselves after going through some of the workshops that we will be offering. I look forward to this opportunity to get to know everyone.

Hobbies: reading, exploring new places, going to movies, being with friends and family, taking long walks by myself, and exploring

Favorite Books:
Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling  (love, love this series!!!! I can reread this series over and over)
To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee (classic, and such a great story about love, family and redemption)
Angelology by Danielle Trussoni (interesting story about angels)
Divergent series by Veronica Roth (interesting YA dystopian series.. exciting)
Body Finder series by Kimberly Derting (spooky YA series)
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline Engle (classic children's book, but yet I can reread any given time)
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (just a great book)

If you need any more information you can check out our Facebook page. Our next meeting is Monday, April 1st from 5:30pm-6:30pm in LL-311. Hope to see you there!

RSS Reader Alternatives for Library Students

I think most people are starting to allow the weeping to cease. For days now people have been in a ruckus about the closing of Google Reader.

Google Reader allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed so that you could have the web site or blog delivered to the reader instead of you remembering to go to the site. It is one of the ways people keep up with a specific block of interest. There are users that have thousands of links to web sites in their readers.

I will tell you as an information junkie this hit hard. Yes, I have bookmarks but using Google Reader helps me to to stay on top of the sites that I need to visit on a daily or weekly basis. I keep my RSS subscriptions private. I love sharing a good link on Twitter but you don't need to know every web site and blog I visit. I have this thing about privacy. I'm in favor of it.

Mind you, I'm not ashamed of my links. You should visit Too Busy Thinking About Comics but there are some places that you might not want a potential future employer to know that.

Wait, this is a library blog and if your future library doesn't understand about comic books and graphic novels then you don't necessarily want to work for them anyway.

I digress.

When news broke of Google's decision to close the site July 1, 2013 there was much grieving and gnashing of the teeth.  Out of misery comes opportunity. There are replacement RSS readers ready to welcome you but first you gotta get your feeds out of Google Reader.




Nick Barber from IDG Network News and Tech Tips has a video on how to extract your feeds from Google Reader.

After you get them extracted then what?

Well, you have options. But before you begin you will need to do some research. Many of the RSS readers use Google Reader as a back end synchronization support. Without Google Reader the software either has to create a new back end of support or it ain't gonna work after July 1st.

You will need to make sure there is independent support for your feeds.

Clouds, Web and Social Media Based Readers

There is something to be said for web based RSS readers. You can use them with smartphone and tablets, you have universal access no matter where you go and for those that are truly social media beings of habit you can share them with your connections.

Feedly works with both Firefox and Chrome browsers. When it senses that a web page or blog has a feed link it will allow you to add that page as a feed. Feedly then displays the pages in a visual magazine like format. Feedly is also available for Android and iOS devices.  Feedly has a number of sharing options with all of the major social media outlets.

Flipboard is very popular and allows you to connect and share your finds and subscription with your social networks.

Pulse is another visual reader that works on the desktop, Apple iOS and Andriod platforms. In addition to added RSS feeds you can pull content from their catalog. You also can sync your feeds across other devices.

Desktop RSS Readers

I have been testing out Feedreader. So far so good. It is easy to add the subscription feed links. I like that I can quickly spot what is incoming. I like that I can type in a search term to see if it pops up in any of my feeds.  I can minimize it and have pop-up show me incoming or shut it down when I need to get work done. There is a version for on-line use as well.

RSSOwl is a Java based reader. Java is a programing language that may or may not be installed on your system. It has an e-mail like interface that you might like.

The e-mail client Thunderbird has a very good RSS reader function. I know because I also use that as an additional reader software. For RSS only I don't think it would be worth it to install but should you happen to need an alternative e-mail program and RSS reader this is a keeper.

Other reader choices are:

• Newsblur
• ReaderApp (Apple iOS)
• RSS Checker for Opera browsers
• The Old Reader
• Tiny Tiny RSS

Please remember to check if the RSS software or App uses Google Reader as a back end synchronize.

Which is why I can't recommend FeedDemon because it is shutting down. It will work after July 1 if you disable the Google synchronization but it will no longer be supported.