Presidential Trivia

Can you name the first (and only) president who was sworn in by a woman? Or the first to be sworn in while wearing long pants?

If you can answer these questions, come take a crack at our Presidential Trivia Contest. Now through February 16, 2009, pick up a sheet of questions at the Research Assistance/Information Desk. The person with the highest score will win a $25 gift certificate to the bookstore.

Answer sheets are due at the Research Assistance/Information Desk by 11pm on Monday, February 16. (why that particular day? You tell us!) Should there be a tie, the winner will be chosen at random from the high scorers. This contest is open to current students at Loyola or Notre Dame.

FREE Film Screening: Brick

Join us for a free screening of "Brick," winner of a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Films are open to students, faculty and staff of Loyola College and College of Notre Dame.

Thursday, October 30 at 7pm*
Sunday, November 2 at 6pm
LNDL Auditorium (Lower Level)

*On Thursday, enjoy FREE soda and popcorn, courtesy of Loyola's Student Activities office.

Hardboiled '30s detective fiction invades a SoCal high school with moderately tasty results in "Brick." At its core, writer-director Rian Johnson's first feature is a stunt, putting Dashiell Hammett-like tough-guy vernacular into the mouths of contempo teens. But the story, while derivative, isn't half bad, and the picture gains in finesse and confidence to the point where Johnson more or less pulls off his peril-fraught exercise. Distinctive lingo provides a talking point, and youthful cast creates possibilities for some theatrical payoff.

--McCarthy, Todd. "Brick." Variety, February 7, 2005.

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lukas Haas. View a trailer on IMDB.

Getting & Staying Organized

Not a morning person? Constantly losing track of due dates and assignments? We've rounded up several different websites and applications that can help you keep yourself organized in class, and in life. We haven't tried all of these, but thought that you might find some of them helpful. Enjoy!

• Alarm clocks for irregular schedules - You can set one of these alarm clocks to wake you up at a different time every day. Windows users can try College Alarm Clock; Mac users can check out Alarm Clock 2.
• Compact Academic Calendar - Track long-term projects and more with this spreadsheet.
  
• Don't have Excel to check out that calendar? Consider downloading OpenOffice for the PC, or NeoOffice for the Mac. These programs contain all the applications you'd find in Microsoft Word (word processing, spreadsheets, slideshows, etc.) but without the cost.
• StudyRails - An application to help you manage your study time and assignments. (This one costs $5 a month.) The link will take you to a screenshot tour on Lifehacker, a blog that posts tips and tricks for organizing your life.
  
• Online to-do lists - Remember the Milk is a great online to-do list application. The Hack College blog posted about it recently, and gave some tips on how you can use it as a student. Check it out: Be an Organized Student with Remember the Milk.
• Registering for Classes - Hack College also has a great post on how to figure out which classes to register for.
• Back to School Power Tools - Lastly, Lifehacker posted a roundup of software that can help with taking notes, keeping track of your schedule, and more.

Open House Program

Full programs with locations will be available at the library on Friday.

Loyola/Notre Dame Library Community Open House
Friday, September 12
11:00 am - 6:00 pm

Ongoing:

• Archives & Special Collections and the Digital Media Lab will be open all day.
  
• Raffle winners will be pulled at noon, 2pm and 4pm. Win some Loyola or Notre Dame swag!
  
• An exhibit of photos of LNDL through the years.

Programming:

• 11:00: A reading from Tolkien by Sue Abromaitis, Loyola Professor of English
  
• 11:30: A discussion with artists Kevin Raines of Notre Dame and Mary Beth Akre of Loyola
• 12:00: Behind-the-scenes tour with Senior Cataloging Assistant Polly Connor
• 12:30: Demo: Photosharing with Flickr, presented by Public Relations & Instruction Librarian Alison Cody
• 1:00: Lunchtime Literary Trivia
• 2:00: “The Future of Libraries,” a talk by Library Director John McGinty
• 2:30: Behind-the-scenes tour with Public Relations & Instruction Librarian Alison Cody
• 3:00: A performance by Notre Dame’s Concert Choir
• 3:30: Demo: Quick & Easy Course Pages, presented by Instruction Librarian John Breitmeyer
• 4:30: Demo: Library Thing, presented by Instruction Librarian Julie Nanavati
• 5:15: Behind-the-scenes tour with Head of Research & Instruction Joanne Hélouvry

Fall Film Series

Do you like movies? We do! And we want to take advantage of our new auditorium this semester by having a film series. We're looking for suggestions for films we might show, and also for students who are interested in helping to whittle down the ideas and get the word out. Anything and everything is fair game, from recent indie films to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" to your favorite foreign film.

If you have films to suggest, or if you're interested in helping us put this together, please leave a comment or contact librarian Alison Cody:

acody3@loyola.edu
acody@ndm.edu
AIM: akcatlndl

Community Open House

Come celebrate our beautifully renovated library!

The construction is completed and we're bigger and better than ever! To celebrate, we're hosting a Community Open House on Friday, September 12. Festivities will start at 11am, and wrap up in the early evening. We're still finalizing the program for the day, but wanted to give you a taste of what's in the works:

• We're lining up a performance by Notre Dame's Concert Choir.
• We'll be running a few drop-in library tours.
• Artists Mary Beth Akre of Loyola and Kevin Raines of Notre Dame will be on hand to discuss the paintings they're creating for us, and to show off their progress so far.
• The Research & Instruction Department will present a couple of quickie workshops on social networking software, including Library Thing and Flickr.
• We'll be running a quiz game and raffle, and of course there will be food and drink.
• Library Director John McGinty will be giving a talk on the future of libraries.
• And we'll be adding a few more events as well!

As the date draws closer, we'll finalize the program and make sure it gets online. We hope that you'll be able to stop by at some point in the day, and join us as we celebrate our wonderful new spaces.

Are you a fan?

Are you a fan of the library now that the renovations are all but finished? Were you a fan of the library even in the midst of the construction? Find us on Facebook and let us know!