May is National Pet Month! A time to celebrate our four-legged friends and furry companions! Our digital book display this month features titles that honor pets of all kinds and the wonderful impact they have in our daily lives. With this, we are also celebrating the pets of our library staff! Be sure to check out our digital pet gallery below.
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By Priscilla Hunt
First proclaimed by President George W. Bush in 2006, May is known for its commemoration of Jewish American Heritage. Since then, presidents have issued a proclamation each year commemorating the month. Read Joe Biden’s 2022 Proclamation here.
As we commemorate this month, I often reflect on my first experiences with Jewish culture and traditions through my education at Florida State University. While pursuing a minor in Religion, I was lucky enough to take a course titled “Jewish Tradition” which provided me an introduction to the history and culture of Judaism. Dr. Kavka soon became one of my favorite professors that semester and while I loved everything I learned, “Tikkun Olam” is one concept that I appreciated the most and has stuck with me through the years.
(more…)We have a ton of new arrivals just in time for you to pop in and check them out for Spring Break!
We’ve received everything for your spring break reading fancy, from Science fiction to fantasy, romance to true crime, and history to literary fiction. Swing by the Pop Lit section by Starbucks on the first floor of Strozier Library and find your next favorite read for that trip to the beach.
Don’t see something you’d hoped in our Pop Lit section?? Email us your purchase recommendations!!
lib-poplit@fsu.edu
Scroll to peruse all the Popular Literature Committee’s “Tattoo Tuesday” posts for the month of March, 2022.
For Love Data Week 2022, we are highlighting our FSU STEM Libraries Data Fellows! These posts, written by the fellows themselves, tell their stories of how they became interested in data-related work and their experience as a data fellow to this point. Today’s post is contributed by Diego Bustamante.
Prior to my role as a Data Fellow, my idea of what data is was defined by my previous work with quantitative data collected from laboratory experiments. For example, when I worked as a Research Assistant I recorded quantitative data for chemistry experiments, like mass, temperature, volume, etc. I then conducted statistical analysis on the data in order to draw conclusions from each experiment. I personally enjoy collecting and analyzing data, especially because it can lead to many scientific and technological advancements!
While searching for jobs in FSU’s NoleNetwork in summer 2021, one job title that immediately caught my attention was “FSU STEM Libraries Data Fellow.” The job description was unique amongst other jobs offered on campus. As a data fellow, I was offered the opportunity to develop several professional skills in data reference, co-hosting programming language workshops, writing and publishing blog posts, and many more. I felt like it was a great opportunity and a good fit with my previous experience and skills, and so I decided to apply. Thankfully, I was selected as one of the inaugural data fellows, leading to a journey of professional and personal development that has thus far surpassed my initial expectations.
One of my first tasks in the program was meeting with different librarians at FSU Libraries. In these meetings I was able to learn about different methods and applications for data analysis in a variety of disciplines. For example, I learned that the Digital Humanities Librarian uses a text-mining software to find specific words from books published in the 1800s. She used the data drawn from the software to analyze certain traits of the story by counting the amount of times a character participates in an interaction of this type. This experience helped me realize that qualitative data sets can be used to draw similar conclusions about a study as quantitative data.
Another concept that I have become familiar with while working as a Data Fellow is open data. We discussed this concept during a workshop where we talked about the potential benefits of making research data openly accessible to the wider research community. Initially, I was hesitant regarding the concept of open data, because I saw academic research as a “race” to find a solution to a given problem. However, further discussion of how researchers are compensated for sharing their data made me realize that it is possible to benefit from open data on a personal and global level.
Currently, I am still learning about the many different types of data, its definitions, applications, and its importance. I am also working on developing an open source Canvas module on MATLAB where I explain the basics of the math based programming language in a student friendly manner. I look forward to sharing more about this work in the future!
February is short but mighty; filled with celebrations, heart-filled valentines and sweets. So, let’s go all in with the love fest. Here are some romantic book recommendations from the FSU Libraries Popular Literature Collection in Strozier.
MODERN LOVE (Call Number F RAI)
Alisha Rai’s Modern Love series combines good ol’ fashioned attraction with a modern twist featuring a diverse cast of characters in this delightful trio.
The Right Swipe kicks off the series. App developer Rhiannon Hunter focuses on the success of her dating app yet in a twist of irony neglects her own love life with a cynical view. Allowing herself only the occasional hookup, her app’s latest match leads to a steamy encounter with a surprisingly handsome yet sweet hunk who seemingly ghosts her. Yet there’s more to the story than meets the app.
Girl Gone Viral continues the series and features Rhiannon’s friend and roommate who’s a former model turned investor that ends up on the wrong end of a live-tweeted #meetcute moment that’s suddenly gone viral. But it shows you can’t always believe what you see online. Not only is Katrina King mortified at her hard-fought anonymity being shattered but the innocent convo with the stranger at the coffee shop isn’t the love connection the world thinks it is. Kat’s not into #CafeBae but the bodyguard who has been by her side for years.
First Comes Like puts a new spin on the age-old mistake identity trope. Beauty influencer Jia Ahmed is more focused on expanding her brand which will bring her the cadre she needs to prove herself to her family who doesn’t understand internet success. Still when a Bollywood star slides into her DMs, Jia gets caught in a web of love and catfishing. After an embarrassing accusatory meltdown, most guys would walk away but Dev Dixit can’t get Jia out of his mind. Besides, a showmance might be what the boost they both need for their careers. But what happens with a faux relationship when things get real?
Here are some other recommendations for romantic reads that all heart:
JUST JULIET (Call Number F REA)
Charlotte Reagan’s Just Juliet is coming-of-age story about a teen whose comfortable life is about to get shaken up when a new girl moves in next door. Lena has a sweet life. Her boyfriend plays football and her best friend is a cheerleader which means high school life has been pretty plum. Juliet’s arrival brings new feelings, friends and adventures that makes Lena reevaluate her life and her future.
I <3 THE EARL (Call Number F LIN)
If you don’t have time, I Love the Earl is a perfect pick for a quick read. It’s still pretty swoonworthy despite being a novella prequel for Caroline Linden’s The Truth About the Duke series. The sister of the aforementioned duke is a plain yet witty woman, preparing to embrace spinsterhood as she grows closer to 30. Then her brother, who recently inherited the Dukedom of Durham, makes her the eligible heiress in the Ton by settling a massive dowry on her. Still, Margaret has no desire to give her heart or hand to a fortune hunter; yet penniless Rhys, Earl of Dowling finds he wants more than her fortune. He wants her love.
You can pick up these recommended romance reads in The Pop Lit Collection, which is next to the Strozier Starbucks Café on the main floor. Go to the fiction section and look for the call number (a code which helps find the book location) on the spine of the book. You can also get each book through in-library or curbside request.
Written by Shaundra Lee.
Have romance suggestions? Email lib-poplit@fsu.edu
By: Dr. Nick Ruhs
INTRODUCTION
It’s once again time for Love Data Week! LDW is a yearly, international outreach event taking place the week of Valentine’s Day (February 14-18 this year). The week is focused on promoting good data stewardship and best practices around working with and interpreting data. LDW was started in 2015 and is currently celebrated by academic libraries and data organizations around the world. While every institution celebrates in their own way, common activities include data workshops, social media outreach, and more!
Each year, a theme is chosen around which organizations can theme their Love Data Week activities. For 2022, the theme is “Data is for everyone.” This year, we are shining a light on the “people-side” of data, and on how different folks use and interact with data. Data often means something different to everyone, and how someone interacts with data varies based on their chosen discipline, research project, life experiences, and their own beliefs and values. There are also often inherent biases that exist in data collection, analysis, and interpretation, which can affect one’s own impression of a dataset. Despite these differences, the ability to critically evaluate data and interact with it is a universal skill that is crucial for everyone.
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By: Diego Bustamante and William-Elijah Clark
INTRODUCTION
As technology continues to evolve, the infrastructure needed to run this technology gets more and more sophisticated. Processes and tasks carried out by personal computers, smartphones, and appliances are increasingly automated and run with minimal input from the user. This is made possible through code that is developed with one or more computer programming languages. However, with the increase in the quantity of software and programming applications, the demand for programmers and the number of languages they are required to learn has increased. Furthermore, many employers now require skills in data analysis and computer programming as prerequisites for job applications. In this blog post, we will discuss the most in demand languages in the market and give a brief explanation of each. (Grand Canyon University 2020; Jiidee 2020; Meinke 2020; University of California – Berkeley, n.d.)
(more…)Scroll to peruse all Tattoo Tuesday posts posted in the month of February, 2022.
Scroll to peruse all Tattoo Tuesday book recommendations posted in the month of January, 2022.
With apologies to the tattoo’s owner, we cannot supply a book about dolphins – our Popular Literature catalog is evidently lacking in that department – but this week’s selection is written by someone who loves dragons as much as you love dolphins. We hope that this sense of passion for the extraordinary and inquisitiveness in the ordinary is conveyed in A Natural History of Dragons: a Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan, and that this selection piques your interest. To learn more about this title, visit it on the FSU catalog here: https://fsu-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_FSU/pag4dr/alma990352349780306576.
