Alkek Library News

Halloween with Children's Literature!

Halloween is not only about costumes and candy, share books about Halloween with your family or classrooms!  The 6th Floor New Books Exhibit area has books about Halloween and Day of the Dead available for checkout. The History Channel Halloween page also has some great clips about Halloween.

 

 

Back to School Book Exhibit, 6th Floor

The beginning of school is fast approaching and the Alkek Library has many books for teachers and parents.  The NEW exhibit on 6th Floor of the Library by the Juvenile Collection offers some fun books for kids about teachers, first day of school, homework - including many classics like If You Take a Mouse to School and David Goes to School.  Parents will also find lots of resources for teaching reading at home as well as children's books meant to be read together, like You Read to Me & I'll Read To You.

NEW Streaming Media Database: Films on Demand

Alkek Library is excited to share the news about adding Films on Demand a streaming media database. Video collections include Career & Job Search, Technical Education, Guidance & Counseling, Family & Consumer Science and a growing collection of individually selected titles in various fields. Many titles are purchased and some are available via the subscription to the database for 3 years when at that time we wil review the most heavily viewed videos to determine whether or not to purchase.

At this time there are over 160 purchased titles that can be found by searching the catalog. Here is the list.

Facuclty & Departments can help the library develop a strong streaming media collection by submitting requests for more titles at the selection site:  http://films.com/digitallanding.aspx. The search interface allows you to limit to streaming media type. Submit new titles by using the Collection Development order request form.

You can also Create personal login to save favorite video segments or playlists with custom URLs for use in lesson plans or TRACS. See the User Documentation for more information.

Films dealing with the following subjects are included in the database:

• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Area Studies
• Art & Architecture
• Communication
• Criminal Justice
• Education
• English & Language Arts
• Geography
• History
• Music
• Philosophy & Religion
• Political Science
• American Government
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Social Work
• Women's Studies
• World Languages

Resources for Summer Reading

The widget below has been added to the Juvenile research guide:
http://www.library.txstate.edu/help/research-guides/juvenile-literature.html

 

Teacher Book Wizard – search by keyword (Quick Search) or for more books like those a child already shows an interest in (BookAlike):

http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do

 

  

The Leveled Search here will allow you to type in a keyword, like “oceans”, and activate filters for grade level, interest level, language, book type, reading level, etc.

The Alkek Library also offers the Children's Literature Comprehensive Database that allows for searching for books by various criteria, much like the Scholasitic Leveled Search above.

 
Search the Alkek Library Catalog to see if our Juvenile Collection has any titles you find in the resources above.  The Juvenile Collection can be browsed on the 6th floor of the Library.

 

FREE K-12 Language Arts Textbooks!

The Alkek Library has received another shipment of the K-12 textbooks from Region 13 that includes the material recently adopted for Language Arts.  The collection includes more than what we maintain as part of the TCMC Collection housed on the 4^th floor of the Library in

Government Information.  Extra material includes duplicate student and teacher editions, manipulatives, ancillary material, children’s literature, and consumables.  As we began to unpack and inventory the collection we have set out all extra material in front of the Government Information Service Desk for library patrons to come and take whatever they’d like, on a first come-first served basis.  The only material we will be adding to the TCMC area will be Teacher Editions and, in some cases, teacher ancillary material and student editions. 

 

Download 2010_Language_Arts_List 

San Marcos Scholastic Book Sale This Week!

Scholastic Book Publishers will be holding a Book Sale at the Hill Country Event Center, located at the corner of Centerpoint Road & Hunter Road, on Wednesday May 12 -Friday May 14, 2010 and is open to the public.

Book Sale Hours

• Wednesday, 8:00am-10:00pm
• Thursday, 8:00am-10:00pm
• Friday, 8:00am-6:00pm

This would be a great opportunity to get some great deals on Scholastic books.

The publisher is also making an opportunity available for volunteers to earn FREE BOOKS!  Volunteers work a minimum of 4 hours each shift and earn $10/hour in free books.  Anyone interested can call their office at 210.599.8404 and ask for Julie.

Download Scholastic-Book-Fair-San-Marcos-flyer

Scholastic Book Sale Coming to San Marcos

Scholastic Book Publishers will be holding a Book Sale at the Hill Country Event Center, located at the corner of Centerpoint Road & Hunter Road, on Wednesday May 12 -Friday May 14, 2010 and is open to the public.

Book Sale Hours

• Wednesday, 8:00am-10:00pm
• Thursday, 8:00am-10:00pm
• Friday, 8:00am-6:00pm

This would be a great opportunity to get some great deals on Scholastic books.

The publisher is also making an opportunity available for volunteers to earn FREE BOOKS!  Volunteers work a minimum of 4 hours each shift and earn $10/hour in free books.  Anyone interested can call their office at 210.599.8404 and ask for Julie.

Download Scholastic Book Fair San Marcos Flyer

Die-Cut Machine Now Available!

The Alkek Library now has a die-cut machine available for library patrons to use during library hours!  The machine and die-cuts are housed on the 4th floor in the Government Information area.  Patrons must bring in their own paper to use with the machine.  The image below represents the MARK IV die-cut machine and all die-cut designs currently available.

Our Collection has books from AccuCut that provide creative uses for die-cut designs:

Author: Haven, Elaine. 
Title: 100 great game ideas for the classroom using AccuCut dies.
Call No:  LB1029 .G3 H38 2004, Government Information, Reference Desk, Floor 4
URL: http://catalog.library.txstate.edu/record=b1762296

Author: Haven, Elaine. 
Title: 100 great literacy ideas for the classroom using the AccuCut dies.
Call No: LB1573 .H3174 2004, Government Information, Reference Desk, Floor 4 
URL: http://catalog.library.txstate.edu/record=b1762297

Author: Haven, Elaine.
Title: 100 great math ideas using AccuCut dies.
Call No: QA19 .C45 H38 2003, Government Information, Reference Desk, Floor 4 
URL: http://catalog.library.txstate.edu/record=b1762298

Author: Bauer, Karen. 
Title: Alternatives to worksheets.
Call No:  LB1537 .B3847 1992, Government Information, Reference Desk, Floor 4  
URL: http://catalog.library.txstate.edu/record=b1762301

Author: Bauer, Karen. 
Title: More alternatives to worksheets.
Call No:  LB1537 .H53 1994, Government Information, Reference Desk, Floor 4  
URL: http://catalog.library.txstate.edu/record=b1762299

Need a Lesson Plan or Classroom Activity?

Thinkfinity.org, the merger of Verizon's MarcoPolo and the Thinkfinity Literacy Network, is a free, comprehensive digital learning platform that includes resources for the classroom, professional development opportunities, and access to national and state education networks. For more information about Thinkfinity click here.

National content partners include:

• International Reading Association
• National Center for Family Literacy
• National Council on Economic Education
• National Council of Teachers of English
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• National Endowment for the Humanities
• National Geographic Society
• ProLiteracy Worldwide
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Thinkfinity.org is arranged so the educator, student or parent can easily access resources tailored to their needs. The search engine will search by keyword with choices to limit by subjects including arts, science, social studies, and more. You can also limit to resource type including lessons, interactives, assessment, worksheets, plus others. Grade limits range from K-Higher Ed. and Vocational Education. The user can also limit by content partner.

Thinkfinity.org also includes an Afterschool section with interactive games and activities.
The goal of Thinkfinity is to use emerging technologies and communication tools to provide free, universal access to all of Thinkfinity.org's learning opportunities.

Chronicle of Higher Education: Full of Information

We now subscribe to the online web site of the Chronicle of Higher Education!

Find out What Books They're Reading on College Campuses, athlete recruiting, and research on the breadth of citations, among other information about students and faculty in higher education nationwide.