Congratulations UB Graduates!

In honor of commencement season, and more importantly, our own UB graduation ceremonies this week, take a peek at some performances of the traditional Graduation march "Pomp and Circumstance"


Congratulations Graduates. March on!

What Do the CEO of Twitter, Conan O'Brian, and David Foster Wallace Have in Common?

Nothing really. At least nothing substantial on the surface. Some might say the title then is just a ploy to get people to click on the link, pandering to the instinct in all of us to read about all things celebrity. But I guess you could say most titles are ploys, at least most good ones. They grab at you and tickle your curiosity in just a few words, words that may have some sliver of deceit in them. Yet that doesn't make them lies. And I submit that this title is no lie either (or you will forgive me the excess). There is something that the three men listed in the title have in common: they have all given truly excellent commencement speeches.

At a time when many UB students are planning their graduation parties and beginning down that nervously hopeful path that leads to the rest of their lives, I figured that I might help alleviate some of that nervousness by directing your attention to some of the most inspiring, funny, and reassuring commencement speeches on YouTube.

University of Michigan: Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter


Dartmouth College: Conan O'Brien

Langsdale Library Panel Showcases Variety of Alumni Authors

Taken from the current issue of the UB Post

By Heather Cobun

Alumni authors from a range of disciplines gathered at Langsdale Library on April 4th  for a reception and panel discussion of their trade. The authors and various attendees came together to share experiences as writers, editors and publishers.

“They all come from different backgrounds,” said Natalie Burclaff, chair of the Langsdale Library marketing committee. The panelists included a poet, an author and publisher, a book and literary magazine publisher and a sociologist. “They all have really unique publishing experiences,” Burclaff said.

An event bringing together alumni authors was held in 2010, according to Burclaff, but there was less emphasis on community and discussion. Starting from scratch, she and the Langsdale staff worked with the Creative Writing and Publishing Arts graduate program and the Office of Alumni Relations to contact as many alumni authors as possible and invite them to the event. Burclaff said the committee spoke with more than 20 authors and 13 attended the April reception and panel. “I’m hoping we can build on that list of authors and be in constant contact,” she said.

Assessment in Action at Langsdale

The University of Baltimore has been selected as one of 75 institutions to participate in the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) program Assessment in Action: Academic Libraries and Student Success.  The schools selected to participate in the program represent all types of institutions of higher education and come from 29 states and 3 Canadian provinces. UB’s campus team, led by Langsdale librarians, will develop a project to assess the impact of the University's information literacy education on student success.  UB will be engaged in planning for, collecting and analyzing assessment data as part of this program for 14-months. 

Our campus team includes:

Catherine Johnson

Natalie Burclaff

Mike Kiel

John Goshert

Beverly Schneller

Paul Walsh

Learn more about the Assessment in Action program here: http://www.ala.org/acrl/AiA

Get Some Rest … and then Get Back to Work

via Flicker (schani)

The most important thing for most college students is sleep. Of course, there are your grades, work, and final exams, but, I feel the most important thing is sleep. So please take my advice: SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP. The majority of college students suffer from sleep deprivation. As a college student, I understand it’s really hard to get 8 full hours of sleep every night, especially around this time with exams.

Once exams are over, relax… and then, check to see if you have a work-study award. Langsdale is looking for students that have work-study awards to work in its circulation department next semester. You can check your award status in “My Student Center” in myUB. Click “View Financial Aid” and if you have work-study, you can apply to Langsdale Library. I’m currently a worker at Langsdale and the experience is amazing.

Concluding remarks: Sleep and relax during finals. Study hard but don’t overwork yourself. After exams, apply to Langsdale and get your work on!

Free Coffee, Game Night, and a Publications Showcase at Langsdale

May is a busy month around campus as student are finishing up classes and preparing for final exam week.

At the end of the semester students are like:

So, Langsdale Library is giving the tired, stressed-out, "can't-wait-for-the-semester-to-end" students some extra energy. Stop by the first floor for free lemonade and coffee from 8:30am to 6pm, Monday, May 6 through Thursday, May 9.

One cup of coffee or lemonade, and you'll be alert like:

The Research Paper that Grew Legs and Destroyed Cities

There really are only a few things that I believe myself truly, unabashedly, and unapologetically good at. And right at the top of that short list is procrastination. It's a gift, I don't mind saying. Since college, though, I've learned to temper said gift to some small degree. I set schedules with alarms that blare annoying, piercing sounds, or program them to play some song that I utterly despise (at the moment it's "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi; I started this because I used to set my clock radio to NPR and then just lie in bed on the weekends listening to the news or Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, sometimes for hours when I should have been at work). At times, I lock myself in my office through the early morning hours, and periodically on the weekends. I set my phone to vibrate and make sure to leave it on a different floor of the house so as not to be distracted by friends calling and luring me to this oh-so-cool thing that I already knew about and hadn't had the slightest inclination to join, but now that I am about to sit down and work, well, that sounds like a great idea. That last one might have more to do with with nerves or anxiety, than procrastination (the effect is the same though). After all, you can't fail at something that you haven't started. But boy, when I was in college did I truly have a penchant to procrastination. I once wrote an 8-page paper given to me at the beginning of the semester an hour before class. I don't remember the grade I got on that one, but I do remember walking to class reading it and turning red over the many, many typos and terrible constructions contained therein.

I know I'm not alone in this fact. If I were to take a poll of undergraduate students and ask, "How long does it take you to start an assignment with a deadline a month away?" I'm pretty sure I'd get a response of at least 75% answering three weeks. But that is slight consolation. The great men and women of arts and letters and science, what did they do? How did they circumvent the universal desire to watch a half-a-day's worth of infomercial GIFs? Well, as it turns out, they may not have had the fortitude and robotic determination that you may have thought.

So, for this time of year when many of you are beginning to have nightmares of unfinished term papers growing legs and a lust for destroying cities, I figured I'd give you some advice, and show that there is some hope.Well, maybe I shouldn't be the one to give you advice (see everything above). Maybe I'll let someone with credentials and accomplishments speak for me. Here is a link to a series on how many artists and writers and scientists got done all they great work that they did.

Hope that helps.