You can’t judge a book by its cover … or can you?

Visitors to LSU Special Collections’ new mini exhibit, “A Brief History of European Bookbinding from the Middle Ages to 1900,” will have a chance to ponder that question. In the days before mass-produced publishers’ bindings, books were often bought with no covers on them at all, leaving their owners to have them bound as they saw fit. The result was a wide and colorful range of binding styles that varied from time to time and place to place. The exhibit also introduces visitors to some of the work and materials that go into binding a book. Did you know, for example, that scraps of medieval manuscripts are often “hidden” in the bindings of later books? Have you ever wondered how marbled paper is made? Did you know that there are books bound in ivory, velvet, and even Scottish tartan?

Come and find out more about these and other fascinating aspects of the history of the book. The new exhibit will be on display in the Hill Memorial Library lecture hall from May 9 through June 30.

When Middleton Library opens at noon on May 4th, it will stay open continuously until 2:00 a.m. on May 10.  The reference room, lobby, and room 126 are the only areas remaining open after regular hours; all other floors will be locked to the public.  Campus police will make random walk throughs of Middleton during late hours during exam week.

You are invited to stop by the Middleton Library reference room during finals for complimentary coffee. The coffee will be available May 5 - 9 from 10 am until 4 pm.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things”
Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Student Government will host free science and math tutoring sessions in Middleton Library, May 5-7. The tutoring sessions will take place in room 241 from 7 p.m. until midnight.

Student Government will also distribute free blue books and scantrons and provide free snacks at the sessions.

Take a book! Leave a book! The book exchange shelf, near the entrance of the Middleton Library reference room, offers free popular reading material. No checkout is required. For more information or to make donations, contact Mitch Fontenot at mfonten@lsu.edu or 578-7374.

It’s tax time again, and LSU’s Middleton Library has schedules and forms to help you with your filing. Paper copies of schedules and forms are available on a display rack at the entrance to the Reference Room on the main floor. More copies are available in the Government Documents/ Microforms Department in the basement, Room 53. If you have trouble locating these display areas, please ask library staff for assistance

Should you want electronic information, the two links below can help you connect to either the IRS or the Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR). The first web address will also provide further linkage to other states’ tax information.

http://www.lib.lsu.edu/govdocs/taxes.html

http://www.rev.state.la.us/sections/taxforms/default.aspx

Elissa S. Plank, Student/Circulation Supervisor in Middleton’s Government Documents and Microforms Department, is this year’s winner of the Louisiana Library Association’s (LLA) Lucy B. Foote Award. The award goes to an LLA member who works with library special collections and who has “made an outstanding contribution to the library profession.”

Ms. Foote, for whom the award is named, was during her lifetime (1893-1973) a Louisiana special collections librarian, a documents librarian, a head of cataloging at LSU, and compiler of the “Official Publications of the State of Louisiana, 1803-1934.”

Congratulations, Elissa!

There are two books about Moodle on three-day reserve for faculty at the Libraries Circulation Desk:

LB1028.3 .R543 2006
Moodle : E-learning Course Development : A Complete Guide to Successful Learning Using Moodle
Rice, William H.

LB1028.68 .R535 2007
Moodle Teaching Techniques : Creative Ways to Use Moodle for Constructing Online Learning Solutions
Rice, William H.

In addition, the Libraries’ subscription to the Safari e-book database includes books about Moodle http://www.lib.lsu.edu/databases/descriptions/safari.html (search on Moodle).

Noted oral historian Donald Ritchie will speak on Friday, February 15th, at noon in Hill Memorial Library’s lecture hall, in conjuntion with the LSU Libraries’ exhibition, “Have You Heard? The Past in First Person from the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History.” Those attending are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. Beverages will be provided. The exhibition and talk are free and the public is invited.

Ritchie is Associate Historian in the United States Senate Historical Office, where he conducts an oral history program. A former president of the Oral History Association, he has served on the council of the American Historical Association, and chaired the Organizaon of American Historians’ committee on research and access to historical documention. Ritchie is a frequent commentator on C-SPAN and NPR. He has authored seven books, including Press Gallery: Congress and the Washington Correspondents (1991), winner of the Richard W. Leopold Prize, Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps (2005), and Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932 (2007). Ritchie’s Doing Oral History, first published in 1995, is a leading source book on the theory, methods, and practice of oral history. A second, expanded edition was issued in 2003.

Ritchie’s talk is sponsored by the LSU Libraries in conjunction with “Have You Heard,” an exhibition featuring oral history interviews collected by the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History. Topics include LSU history, World War II, the Houma Indians, Hurricanes Betsy and Katrina, the Flood of 1927, folklife in the Atchafalaya and Louisiana politics.

Hill Memorial Library Lecture Hall

At 12 Noon, Friday, February 15, 2008

LSU Libraries will host a patent workshop on Saturday, February 16, in conjunction with the LSU Small Business Development Center. The session will be held in Himes Hall Room 129 from 10:30-12:30. It will begin with a presentation by Patent & Trademark Librarian Alexis Carrasquel, focusing on general information and the initial search process. The second presentation will be given by local Intellectual Property attorney John Edel. He will discuss the application process and hold a Q & A session. The workshop is free and open to the public. Preregistration is required and can be done online at: http://www.lsbdc.org/workshop.aspx?ekey=2280003 or by calling 578-4680.