Category Archives: Cecil

November in the LLC

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In support of Intercultural Awareness Month at the College this month, the LLC is taking you around the world.

First, if you’re not already following us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter) this month is a good time to start, as we’ll be celebrating our fourth annual Dinovember all month long. The LLC’s dinosaurs will use titles from the collection to cross the globe and highlight international authors, usually while making puns and wearing costumes.

If you’re a film fan, Nassau Center has a treat for you this month: World of Horrors, an international film series that explores horror films from around the world. The series is hosted by Professors Ranjan Chhibber (Humanities/Film Studies) and Shep Shepard (Communications/Film Studies), and features three films. On November 7, Dr. Chhibber will host a showing of the Japanese film Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, with a prefatory talk on the dark side of Asian film. On November 13, Dr. Chhibber and Dr. Shepard will host a showing of the Canadian film Videodrome, directed by David Cronenberg. Dr. Chhibber will discuss the importance of Canadian mise-en-scene in Cronenberg’s film; Dr. Shepard will address how the film imagines the reciprocal relation between culture and identity. For our last film on November 27, Dr. Shepard will host a showing of the recent American hit It Follows and discuss the film as an allegory for depression. All showings will take place at 6 p.m. in the David Yulee Room (A114) of FSCJ’s Nassau Center. Please note: Viewer discretion is advised. These films are for mature audiences and may contain scenes that some viewers may find disturbing.

 

If you’re an anglophile, a Bard groupie, or just a fan of iambic pentameter, we’ve also got you covered. To kick off the South Campus LLC’s presentation of Shakespeare and the Four Humors, an exhibition developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Dr. Laura Jeffries will discuss instances in Shakespeare’s work where he made use of the theory to help sketch characters. This opening event will take place Tuesday, 11/14 from 1:30-2:30 p.m in G306. The exhibit will run in the South Campus LLC (G300) from 11/13-12/2. Additionally, faculty may schedule class sessions in the LLC’s Shakespearean Escape Room during the run of the exhibit on Monday-Thursday from 12-4 p.m. or Friday from 9-1 p.m. by calling 646-2174.

Intercultural Awareness Month will close out with a bang at Deerwood Center, with an extra-special version of Tutor Tuesday featuring Tea & Tongue Twisters (all day) and a resume workshop (12:15-1:00 p.m.) in the Foreign Language Lab on November 28th. Can’t make it Tuesday? Don’t worry – you can still join us and Professors Arias Suarez and  Eva Solano on Thursday, November 30th from 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. for Chitchat/Tertulia, an opportunity to find an international pen pal and get to know speakers of different languages in your community.

Finally, if you’re worn out by the semester and the LLC’s whirlwind of activity, you can visit your campus LLC for Stress Relief Week from November 27-December 1. We’ll have refreshments, coloring books, and other relaxing activities. From 1-2 p.m. on November 28 at Cecil Center, Certified Shamatha Meditation Instructor Michael Turnquist will offer a stress relief workshop focusing on the practice of Tranquility Meditation, an ancient meditation method practiced originally throughout India and Central Asia. This meditation practice is designed to create a state of peace, without creating an altered state of consciousness nor a state of mental chloroform. It is principally designed to bring awareness into the present moment and does not require the practitioner to accept or reject any specific philosophical belief. Currently practiced in the United States by well over 300,000 practitioners, this meditation technique calms the mind while, co-emergently, creating a clear state of awareness. This practice is an excellent stress reliever and effective in focusing the mind, allowing the individual to focus one-pointedly on any topic. A great method for help with school work and on- the- job activities! As a bonus: tea and cookies will also be served.

That’s it for November. Until next month, we’ll see you in the stacks!

 

October in the LLC

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Prepare for scares this month in the LLC as we celebrate the horrors of Halloween at several different campuses.

This year we’re kicking off our first ever Gamerween with dueling Halloween events at Deerwood and South Campus. At 2:30 p.m. at Deerwood’s Gamerween on 10/31, science tutor Lisa Lavado will host a brief discussion of the brain’s ghoulish glitches – including Walking Corpse Syndrome – before a tabletop gaming session of Pandemic.

If you prefer your tales of the undead more ghostly than ghoulish, Professor Tim Gilmore will be at South Campus’s Gamerween beginning at 3:30 p.m. the same day with stories of Jacksonville’s spooky history before a tabletop gaming session of Betrayal at House on the Hill.

If ghouls and ghosts don’t scare you but you shudder at the thought of a misplaced modifier, check out Downtown’s grammar-horror–themed escape room, which they’ll be running from October 30-31 to celebrate Grammarween. Faculty can book appointments for their classes throughout both days except from 3-5 p.m. when the room will have general admission for students.

If scares aren’t your thing, you can join us at Cecil Center for Fall Fest on October 26 from 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. and enjoy games, food, and live music from LLC Manager Michael Turnquist and his partner-in-jive Al Murr.

Once you’ve had your fill of Fest-ing and Halloween horrors, be sure to join us on November 1 for the 10th anniversary of the LLC’s Living Library Lecture Series, which you may know better under its previous name Something to Talk About. This year we’re hosting Bosom Buddies founder/facilitator Bobbi Cordova-Hanks as she speaks on Communicating Across Cultures.

We hope you’ll join us at one (or all!) of our events this month, but until next time – we’ll see you in the stacks!

August in the LLC

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Just like you, the LLC spends August gearing up for the Fall term – and then in a whirlwind of activity, as we celebrate Welcome Week with a smorgasbord of activities.

First, Monday through Thursday all day students can visit each campus LLC to pick up their Passport to Success and take a tour of our services and resources. Once they’ve had every stop on their passport stamped by an LLC staff member, they can turn in their Passport to enters student into a drawing for a graphic novel or manga collection. Here’s what we’re drawing for at each campus:

Cecil Center: Legend of Zelda Box Set

Deerwood Center: Sandman

Downtown Campus: Ms. Marvel Omnibus Vol 1

Kent Campus: The Dark Tower

Nassau Center: Scott Pilgrim Precious Little Box Set

North Campus: Locke and Key

South Campus: Saga

As a bonus, students who complete the activity Monday 8/28 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. can Spin to Win when they hand in their Passport and pick up a cool pair of shades or a frisbee.

Photogenic students can double their chances of winning a graphic novel by taking a selfie at our photobooths Monday through Thursday and posting it to either Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #FSCJLLC and then following our new Instagram account. We’ll repost or regram our favorite photos.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, we’ll also have tables up with information on LLC services and resources, including our anatomical models (plastic, not people), which you can try your hand at disassembling and reassembling. Thursday we’ll have a table all day where students can practice paper crafts. And we haven’t even mentioned our musical interludes: Jazz it Up, featuring jazz guitar performances from Michael Turnquist and Al Murr at Kent Monday, 8/28 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and Cano on Piano from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Deerwood on Tuesday, 8/29.

Whew. We did mention it was a whirlwind.

In the calm before that storm of activity, we’re taking some time to reflect on some of the people we’re proud of in the LLCs:

Dr. Kathleen Ciez-Volz, Associate Provost of Curriculum and Instruction, was selected for the Administrative and Professional Collaborative Exceptional Service and Initiative Award.

Tom Messner, Executive Dean of the Library and Learning Commons, was elected to serve as the 2017-18 Chair-Elect for the Members Council on Library Services (MCLS) of the Florida Academic Libraries Services Cooperative (FALSC).

Youlanda Henry, the Director of Tutoring Services, was elected to serve as the Vice-President of the Florida College Learning Center Association (FCLCA) for the 2017-2018 academic year.  She will serve as President for 2018-2019 academic year.

Susan Mythen, South Campus Librarian, was named the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Member of the Week in April 2017.

Esteban Cano, Deerwood Center Academic Tutor for Spanish, received a Career Employees’ Council Recognition of Excellence Award.

We’re also celebrating some new faces who joined us over the summer. The Nassau Center LLC welcomed new Library Assistant I  Miranda Minton (pictured below), who came to them from the Deerwood Assessment and Certification Center where she’d been working as a Test Proctor, as well as peer math and writing tutor Kelly Kaiser. North Campus welcomed math tutor Richfield Quist, nursing tutor Christina Jacques, and computer support representative Thomas Elledge. Downtown welcomed new writing tutor Melody Gamber. Deerwood Center and South Campus welcomed some part time librarians:  Amber Mottram (DWC), Alex Goodman (STH), and Kristin Davis (STH).

Though it may seem like we’re already full up on fun, rest assured we’ve got much more planned for September. But until next month, we’ll see you in the stacks!

March in the Library and Learning Commons

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There’s a lot to celebrate in March, and we’re not just talking about Spring Break. (Though that, too.)

First, in honor of Women’s History Month, the Downtown Campus LLC is hosting Make Margaret Atwood Great Again: Why The Handmaid’s Tale Remains So Relevant 30 Years Later. Over three decades after its publication, Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale still looms large in the popular consciousness. At the Women’s March in January, signs bearing Handmaid-related slogans popped up, and a new television adaptation is due to premiere soon on Hulu. Professor Audrey Antee hosts an event that discusses the literary and historical context of the novel and features a presentation by Professor Jennifer Chase on her experiences at the Women’s March and a debate of the novel’s issues by FSCJ’s Politics and Rational Discourse Club.

Throughout the month, you can also stop by the Deerwood Campus LLC to check out their timeline of women’s marches from the Suffrage Parade to the Women’s March on Washington this past January. While supplies last, patrons can also create their own signs with markers and posters provided by the LLC.  Finally, we’ll be highlighting women’s history and women’s issues on our Facebook page, including interviews with famous female authors and civil rights activists.

March is also the month we celebrate Pi Day, and several of the campuses will be hosting games and activities in their Learning Commons to ring in 3/14. There will be pie available at South Campus and Cecil (who will also have cookies, pizzas, and other food that has a circumference), as well as games and puzzles. Downtown Campus will be making Pi Day a two day affair (3/14-3/15), largely because their plan to have students use post-it notes to recreate the infinite string of numbers of Pi to wrap around the Learning Commons might take a while. Aside from the notes, there will be additional games and prizes.

Finally, Kent Campus is getting a head start on April by launching their Just Imagine poetry contest. Students may submit poems to the contest until April 1st, and winners will be announced at a poetry reading at South Campus April 12th. There’s an open forum and discussion group to help workshop student poetry at Kent on March 14th at 5pm in room E104.

If you love what we’re doing in March, just wait until you see what we’ve got planned for National Poetry Month in April. Keep an eye on your monthly newsletter and the LLC Facebook page for updates.

Until next month, we’ll see you in the stacks!