App of the Month...iRecycle

It seems like everywhere you look businesses, schools, etc are trying to be more environmentally conscious. Even Cumberland is trying to improve its carbon footprint by placing recycle bins throughout campus. However, if you do not live on campus it can sometimes be difficult to find places to recycle. This installment of "App of the Month" helps with finding different recycling locations (wherever you are, and whatever you have to recycle!) with iRecycle!

Let's say you are wanting to find out where you can recycle all of the cereal boxes that you have collected over the semester.  To get started when you open the app your screen will look like this:

You will notice that the next screen has quite a few options available. It has everything from cars to hazardous materials to everyday household items available as options to recycle. Since cereal boxes are paper - that's what we will select.

The next page shows all of the paper categories that are available for recycling.  They are arranged alphabetically to make it easy to find.  Cereal boxes are near the top of this list (if you do not see exactly the item you are looking for, you can click a similar item).

This app will then find any location around you that allows for recycling of the item (or items!) that you are wanting to recycle.  It will show the location closest to you.

Once you select the location that is closest to you, the screen will show you a lot of information about the recycling place.  It will show their address (which is really important!), phone number, hours of operation, if there are any restrictions, etc.

This app is also great for finding articles that deal with recycling, diy crafts, etc.

If you aren't convinced that recycling paper or cereal boxes makes a difference, read some of these facts (from www.recycling-revolution.com): 

	Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees.
	If all our newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year!
	If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25,000,000 trees a year.
	If you had a 15-year-old tree and made it into paper grocery bags, you'd get about 700 of them. A busy supermarket could use all of them in under an hour! This means in one year, one supermarket can go through over 6 million paper bags! Imagine how many supermarkets there are just in the United States!!!
	The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood, and other products made from trees. This amounts to about 2,000,000,000 trees per year!
	The amount of wood and paper we throw away each year is enough to heat 50,000,000 homes for 20 years.
	Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the U.S.
	Americans use 85,000,000 tons of paper a year; about 680 pounds per person.
	The average household throws away 13,000 separate pieces of paper each year. Most is packaging and junk mail.
	In 1993, U.S. paper recovery saved more than 90,000,000 cubic yards of landfill space.
	Each ton (2000 pounds) of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. This represents a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings, and 60 pounds less of air pollution!
	The 17 trees saved (above) can absorb a total of 250 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air each year. Burning that same ton of paper would create 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide.
	The construction costs of a paper mill designed to use waste paper is 50 to 80% less than the cost of a mill using new pulp.

 There are tons of places to recycle just in the Cumberland University area, so imagine the possibilities of recycling while you are away from home.   Hopefully this app of the month helps you become more aware about how easy it is to recycle and what a difference you can make by recycling!

Cumberland University’s Vise Library hosts Cella Neapolitan art exhibit

Cumberland University’s Vise Library is hosting a mixed media exhibit, “Words & Pictures,” by award-winning artist Cella Neapolitan from March 1 to April 30.

A nationally recognized photographer and mixed media artist, Neapolitan combines photography, collage, and writing to create genre-defying works exploring themes ranging from the power of negative space to the hidden stories behind antique postcards.

Featuring more than 20 works of photography, collage, and mixed media, “Words & Pictures: An Exhibit in Three Parts” will include pieces from Neapolitan’s “Labyrinth,” “StoryBoard,” and “Dive-ins” series.  From Rothko-inspired photographs of horizons to collages of art fabrics, objects, and postcards, the diverse works explore the artistic synergy of text and photography in mixed media.

“A picture may not be worth a thousand words. However, each medium holds power that, when combined, sparks new circuitry,” says Neapolitan. “That’s my hope: that these Words & Pictures will ignite a new way of seeing, thinking, feeling, wondering.”

A Cookeville-based artist, Neapolitan has shown works in nearly 200 exhibits around the world. Her photographs have won awards from Canon, Kodak, and USA Today, and her “porTRAITS” series has appeared in Art-o-mat machines at institutions such as the Smithsonian and TPAC.

In 2007, the Tennessee Arts Commission named Neapolitan to the Southern Arts Federation. She was also selected as Cookeville’s Artist of the Year in 2002 and won Nashville’s Artrageous Jury Prize in 2009. Neapolitan’s work can be seen in her Cookeville gallery misCELLAnea or online at http://www.cellaneapolitan.com/.

The “Words & Pictures” exhibit is free and open to the public. Vise Library is open 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, and 2 to 10 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, contact Vise Library at (615) 547-1299or library@cumberland.edu.

It's survey time!

Vise Library is assessing its resources and services and needs your help!  You can contribute to a better understanding of what our campus thinks about its library services by participating in a very important electronic survey called LibQUAL.  It should only take five minutes of your time and your response will be greatly appreciated.  You can also register to win a digital camera or an iTunes gift card.

Here is the link to the survey:  Click Here!

The survey will go through March 12. Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey so far!

Oscar nominees that are based on books

The 2012 Oscar Nominees list was recently announced, and many of the nominated movies were actually books first! The list of nominees (for major categories) is below. Any title in bold is one that is based on a book that the Vise Library has a copy of. If you want to check out any of the titles we have, come see us! Titles that are italicized are based on books, but the library does not own them. If you want to borrow those titles from another library, fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form. 

Best Picture: 

• "War Horse" (Ashli says: "Great story about how war affects everyone in different ways.") 
• "The Artist"
• "Moneyball" (Ashli says: "Even if you don't like baseball you'll enjoy this story about going against the grain!")
• "The Descendants" (None of us have read this one, but one review calls it "an audaciously comic debut novel")
• "The Tree of Life"
• "Midnight in Paris"
• "The Help"  (Amber says: "This book is great! Highly recommended")
• " Hugo"  (Amber says: "This 2008 Caldecott Award winner may look daunting at 533 pages but is beautifully illustrated")
• "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close " (Amber says: "A tearjerker but worth reading")

Best Actress: 

• Glenn Close, "Albert Nobbs" (Based on a short story by Irish novelist, George Moore)
• Viola Davis, "The Help"
• Rooney Mara, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (Jenny says: "Intense and violent, but it will be difficult for fans of crime fiction to put down")
• Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
• Michelle Williams, "My Week With Marilyn" (Based on two books by Colin Clark)

Best Actor:

• Demian Bichir, "A Better Life" (Based on the screenplay "The Gardener," which was based on a story by Roger Simon)
• George Clooney, "The Descendants"
• Jean Dujardin, "The Artist"
• Gary Oldman, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (None of us have read this one, but fans of espionage novels may enjoy it)
• Brad Pitt, "Moneyball" 

Best Supporting Actress: 

• Berenice Bejo, "The Artist"
• Jessica Chastain, "The Help"
• Melissa McCarthy, "Bridesmaids"
• Octavia Spencer, "The Help"
• Janet McTeer, "Albert Nobbs"

Best Supporting Actor: 

• Kenneth Branagh, "My Week With Marilyn"
• Jonah Hill, "Moneyball"
• Nick Nolte, "Warrior"
• Christopher Plummer, "Beginners"
• Max von Sydow, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Best Director: 

• Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
• Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"
• Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"
• Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
• Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"

App of the Month - Easybib

Since all incoming freshmen receive iPads at Cumberland University, the library has been looking for apps that can be helpful (and some fun) to students in their everyday (college) lives.  Whatever your major is, you can count on a couple of things: studying and writing papers!  There is no way you can bypass these and have a successful (and passing) college career.

This month the library is focusing on the writing papers aspect of college.  No, the library is not going to write your paper for you, so don't even ask!  But what we can show you is an app that helps with works cited in papers. The app that the Vise Library recommends is Easybib.  It helps with any format that you need citations for, whether it is APA, MLA, or Chicago format.   Plus it's free, which is always exciting when you are in college!

Easybib has a search feature where you can search for a particular book you are looking to cite. Easybib also has a scan feature as well.  Say for instance you are in the Vise Library and see a book that is useful to a paper you are writing, just grab your iPad (or other iPod) device and scan the barcode on the back of the book!  It's that easy!  

The picture below shows the search feature:

Here is a picture of the the actual citation after selecting the book.  As you can see this citation has been selected for MLA format.

Another great feature Easybib has is an email citation button.  If you don't have your paper in front of you just click the "email citation" button (which you can see in the previous picture in the bottom right hand corner).  Once you do that an email is generated with the citation and you can select who you want to send the email to.  

Here is showing the email citation feature after clicking the button :

If you do not have a device that allows you to get this app don't sweat it!  You can simply go to

www.easybib.com and use all of their great features on their website! The Easybib website also helps with citing not only books, but also journals, newspapers, websites, etc.  

Hopefully this app helps to take off some of the stress for Cumberland students when it comes to citing papers.  Check back next month for another recommendation!

New info about the I.T. Helpdesk

The I.T. Helpdesk is no longer located in the library. The information below is from Tony Dedman, Director of the I.T. department and explains some of the changes that have been made.

I.T. HELPDESK

1. New Location:   I.T. Office in Labry Hall, Basement Level, Room LH-003

2. Hours of operation:
Monday through Thursday: 8:30am-12pm
  All other times are by appointment only.

3. Equipment Drop-off:  To drop off a Cumberland-owned or provided laptop (No personal equipment), coordinate with the Helpdesk during the days & times above.

4. All Other Requests:  The I.T. request system should be used for all technical requests as much as possible.  You may access the I.T. request system from www.cumberland.edu/eportal.html  If you have never used the request system be sure to click on "Directions: on how to submit an I.T. request are found here (Be sure to read all the way through for the password).

5. Phone Messages during or after hours:   You may also call 547-1240 at any time and leave a detailed message.  We also ask that phone messages be followed up with a Technology Request  to ensure accurate details and contact information.

Check It Out...at the Vise Library: The Leftovers

What if one day, completely out of the blue, thousands of people worldwide just disappeared? How would you react? What would happen to your family and society in the coming days, months, and years?

It sounds like a story from the mind of Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind series, but Tom Perrotta's novel The Leftovers differs in that it envisions a secular Rapture--or, as characters in his novel call it, "The Sudden Departure"--in which people all over the world, including Jews, Muslims, atheists, Christians, sinners, and saints alike, disappear at the same time. With no scientific or religious explanations to fall back on, the characters in The Leftovers must deal with the Sudden Departure in their own unique ways.


Perrotta's novel follows the Garvey family in the wake of this upheaval. Kevin Garvey, the mayor of Mapleton, a small town where the novel is set, tries to put the terrifying event behind him and move on with life. His wife, Laurie, finds herself sucked into a strange cult, the Guilty Remnant, who take a vow of silence and wear all white clothing. Tom, the Garvey's college-age son, begins to follow a man who calls himself "Holy Wayne" and believes he can heal people by hugging them. Daughter Jill simply starts acting out in ways a typical teen girl would: drinking, partying, and cutting class. The Garvey's, and those close to them, find themselves awash in chaos and confusion in the post-Sudden Departure world, yet they are still able to connect to others and find love and hope, even in the most bizarre circumstances.

The Leftovers is both funny and dark, satirical and gentle. Perrotta is a master at revealing the hidden desires and fears among the most average, mundane people. His characters are deep and multidimensional, and he lets no one off the hook. In The Leftovers and in his previous work, Perrotta has satirized religion, politics, suburbia, and higher education among other things. His novels are often hilariously funny, but also have a knack for making the reader wince with familiarity. He holds up a mirror to American society and we get to see it all: the good, the bad, and the just plain weird.