Reading and writing are a huge part of being a college student. Essays, research papers and exams require students to think critically and put those thoughts into words. Many written assignments necessitate citations, with which students demonstrate that they have consulted sources and synthesized the information they discover with their own thoughts into a cogent analysis with original conclusions. The library is here to help! Continue Reading →

Interested in old films and film clips? Interested in free creative commons licensed film clips available for reuse in your own projects?

Check out the Prelinger Archives through archive.org, which contains ephemeral films from advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur sources.

Want to see Burt the turtle teach you how to duck and cover in case of an atomic bomb (through a very catchy tune)? How about a cat video from 1947? Wish you could see the importance of springs in daily life? And so much more!

Librarian PSA: Consider the historical context of the videos before judging the accuracy of the information.

Interested in reading more about the Prelinger Archives and this collection of videos? Check out this article from Open Culture.

Did you know that Durham Tech students, faculty and staff can use Statistical Abstracts of the United States online? You might be familiar with the book version, which is published annually. Now, you can access the same information online via NC LIVE. Continue Reading →

Every year, millions of people in the United States contract influenza (“the flu”). Hundreds of thousands of people are hospitalized for the flu each year and thousands die from it. You can help prevent the spread of this virus–and protect yourself from it–by getting a flu vaccine every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that all people aged six months and older need to get the vaccine. Continue Reading →

Life can be unorganized, and with all the digital options out there, choosing productivity and other helpful “life” apps can almost be an additional burden.

In order to help narrow down a huge playing field, the library asked Durham Tech faculty and staff what their favorite productivity apps are for managing their time and life.

Some almost across-the-board similarities were an ability to sync between devices and between platforms.  Cloud-based storage and collaboration was also key.

Calendar applications were at the top of everyone’s list:

• Google calendar is a favorite, especially when synced to other calendar applications, including Apple’s calendar app.  Don’t have a Gmail address?  Students can login using their Durham Tech email address, and you can also use non-Gmail email addresses to create accounts for Google applications.
• The college uses Outlook for email, so using the Outlook calendar is a great way to connect and share your work schedule with other Durham Tech employees and others using Outlook.
• Like them all?  Use gsyncit to meld all your calendars together into one tidy schedule.  It can also import information from Evernote and Dropbox (more on those in a minute).
• Need to be able to have people schedule time with you?  Youcanbook.me allows people to schedule appointments with you during set periods of time (office hours, anyone?) and syncing with your Google or iCloud calendar.

Followed by task organizers and checklists.  The key here seems to be to find the app that fits your mental model:

• Wunderlist allows collaborative lists among other features such as reminders, due dates, tagging, and other ways to organize tasks and items.  Bonus: This app syncs across multiple devices and platforms. [NOTE: Wunderlist was shut down in 2020.]
• A visually pretty (oh, the colors!) and simple app, Clear allows you to create managed lists as well, including helpful reminders and the like.  Mac stuff only here, though.
• Visually, a much simpler application, Workflowy allows deeply nested lists and tasks for bigger and smaller projects alike.  Also allows for reminds, due dates, etc.

Cloud-based storage for notes and such:

• One Note is a (free) Microsoft product allows you to keep notes, photos, documents, and many other things easily accessible on all your devices using “the cloud”
• Share, collaborate, organize, and sync to all your devices with Evernote, an app that allows you to “collect” items from across multiple medias in addition to taking notes, uploading documents, and much more.
• Dropbox allows you to sync folders on your computer to the cloud both for storage and safety, creating a digital back-up or a place to virtually share and collaborate on documents.

Assorted digital tools for making life run a little more smoothly:

• Need to remember to text your best friend “Happy Birthday”?  Need to text someone tomorrow afternoon, but afraid you’ll forget by the end of today?  These are just some of the helpful things FutureText can help you out with, in addition to functioning as a reminder app.
• Need a scanner but aren’t near one of the Durham Tech campus libraries?  Check out CamScanner, an app that allows your phone to scan images and translate them into pdfs.  (Great for forms needing to be turned in and late assignments needing immediate submission.)
• Managing your money is stressful.  Mint wants to help.  See how your spending divides up and create financial plans and budgets here.
• Been working at your computer all day managing your calendar and other tasks?  Don’t forget good old activity trackers like the Nike + Running app.  How much did you move today?
• [Edited to add] Need some digital self control when you have to do computer work or research on the internet , but need to stay away from certain sites or programs?  Check out this list of website blockers to force you into productivity compliance.

What’s your favorite app to organize your schedule and/or your life?  Share with the library in the comments or shoot us an email at library at durhamtech.edu.

Thanks to all the Durham Tech faculty and staff that participated!

All images from The Noun Project and via Wikimedia Commons.

Welcome back from Summer vacation. While you were gone the library has added a lot of DVDs to our circulating collection. All of them are available for check out a week at a time. The slideshow below is only a taste of what is available. Take a look at our DVD LibGuides (organized alphabetically and by genre) to see everything!

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