Thursday Find: Animated Christmas Classics

It was only a few weeks ago that I posted about YouTube’s collection of free, full length movies and highlighted a few of my favorites. Today we’re going back to YouTube to watch some animated Christmas movies!

There’s a decent selection of Christmas classics, though there’s no simple way to search for the free Christmas movies (browsing is required) but here’s a link to the list of free animated Christmas movies on YouTube. Here’s one to start you off, Christmas Classics Number 1, featuring everyone’s favorite reindeer.

Wednesday Find: Christmas Traditions

I love hearing about the different ways that people celebrate Christmas (my personal favorite is the Christmas Pickle) and so to learn more on the backgrounds of different Christmas traditions, I went to the one place that’s great for this kind of information and little else: Wikipedia. As it turns out, they have an entire category devoted to Christmas traditions.

The list is a bit heavy in American traditions as opposed to those of other countries, but there’s still quite a bit to learn. And who know’s maybe you can incorporate a thing or two into your celebrations this year! Have a favorite, unique Christmas tradition? Let me know about it!

 

Tuesday Find: The Commerce of Christmas

I imagine that a lot of people look at Christmas shopping the way I do; every year I say I’m going to rein in my spending a little bit, and every year it doesn’t happen. Just how much do people spend on Christmas? Here’s two infographics to help you put it in some perspective.

Monday Find: Santa Claus Guide

This year Christmas means a lot of Friday’s away from work, so to make up for the lack of a Friday Find last week and the fact that there will be no Friday Finds for the next two weeks, we’re celebrating Christmas all week at Brown Library by posting a daily Christmas related find.

Today we start with librarians getting excited about Santa Claus- The Santa Claus LibGuide from Loyola University Chicago. Containing everything you might need to know about Santa, regardless of your age, this guide puts all your Santa information in a single place. Find recipes for cookies to leave out for the man in red, learn about the apps for your smartphone to track Santa on Christmas Eve, learn about Santa sports, there’s even a section to learn about the dark side of Santa.

So head on over with your coffee and learn a little about the man who brought such happiness to so many childhoods.

Friday Finds: Books of the Year

Publishers are a smart group. They know they can’t have December release dates because then their books won’t end up on the “Best of 2011″ list and then they won’t end up under the Christmas tree. Luckily for me, these “best of” lists coming out now means I can pass them onto you before we head into Christmas break, because you’re all going to need suggestions of what to read over winter break, right?

So without further ado, here are some of “Best Books of 2011″ lists. Enjoy the selection!

10 Best Books of 2011 from the NYT (They also have a 100 Notable Books of the Year list if you need more suggestions)

Best Books 2011 from Publisher’s Weekly

Best Books of 2011 from NPR (really it’s more a list of lists of best books)

The Best Books of 2011 from Amazon

Books of the Year from The Guardian

2011 Readers’ Choice Awards from Goodreads

 

How well do you Google?

Google’s a great resource for finding basic information (because none of you are using it for your actual research, RIGHT?) but a lot of times, if you have an idea of what you’re looking for, it can be somewhat tough to find that one exact thing. This kind of scenario goes something like this:

I know I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about adopting the animals, I think it was actually about koalas, from the zoo for the summer but I can’t find it anywhere.

Well, there’s actually a way to make Google do a lot of the thinking; Google has a wealth of operators, which are essentially codes for getting Google to search your terms in a specific way, and the website Hack College has put together a well-designed infographic on how to make use of these operators.

Created by: HackCollege

This clearly should help you to become better Google users, but it still doesn’t let you search Google for your academic research. The infographic sums things up pretty well in the last section,  Further Research Tips- Mine Bibliographies, Don’t Cite Wikipedia and Use Your Library. And I’m of course going to add, as I always do: If you’re ever having trouble with your research or just finding any information, please, go speak with a librarian!

Friday Finds: ‘Tis the Season

Over at Brown Library we’re getting in gear for Christmas by decorating doors and planning the hours that we’ll be open during finals and the holidays. Today for our Friday Find we’ll be looking at old pictures of Christmas from one of my favorite photo and history blog Shorpy. Shorpy gathers most of its pictures from the Library of Congress, but also has user submissions and other great finds from all corners of the Internet. Today we’re focusing on:

Shorpy’s Christmas Image Gallery

This gallery is a blast from the past, letting you look into what Christmas was like around the country in many different time periods. What I like most about this gallery is that while there are plenty of professional or journalistic shots of Christmas from storefronts to simple winter settings, there are also a lot of family photos.

So if you’ve got a moment, take a look at the various Christmas photographs available in this gallery and get yourself into the Christmas mood. After all, there’s only 23 days left until Christmas is here!

Library Hours for Finals and the Holidays

Brown Library will be having special hours for finals week, to allow students additional time within the library to study and complete their end of semester assignments. These hours are:

Monday, December 5th – Thursday, December 8th: 7:45am- 11pm

Friday, December 9th: 7:45am-4:30pm (Normal hours resume.)

Additionally, the library will be closed for the holiday break. Thursday, December 22 will be the last day of 2011 the library will be open. The holiday schedule will be:

Thursday, December 22: 7:45am- 3pm

Friday, December 23- Monday, January 2: CLOSED

Tuesday, January 3: Normal hours resume.

If you have questions regarding the library and its hours of operation over the next month, please speak with a librarian.