Reflection

When I first read over the syllabus for the class, I thought to myself that this would be a class my kids would enjoy and they would reap most of the benefits. Boy, was I wrong!! While they did really enjoy most of places we visited, I saw and learned so much more than I could have ever read about in a book or online! I really am still amazed. I did enjoy going to to the cemetery and the museums, but I gained so much more from the impromptu visits to the library science collection in the State Library and the Legislative Reference Library in the State Capitol. The information that I can take and use in my own life from the library science collection is priceless. And the knowledge of what goes on in a type of library that I will most likely never use in my practices is still valuable. I am still very impressed with the clipping service that learned about and I'm sure it is not novel to any one else but me!! Wow! Having to choose sights to go visit saddened me in a way, though. I live an hour from Austin and yet there is soooooo much that I have never gone to see. I could probably spend a month or two in that city alone and still not see and experience all there is. I really would have loved to get over to Houston to do some sight seeing there, but time did not allow for it. Everytime my husband and I think about vacations, we always think of places outside of Texas. This class has made me realize that we do not have to go far to have some great and even educational experiences with our children. We definitely need to keep that in mind as it would save a lot of money and we would all have just as much fun as going almost anywhere else! Thanks, Dr. Bell, for keeping us in the state of Texas and "forcing" us to take a good look in our own backyard and to realize what a valuable, educational resource we have so close to home! :)

Temple Public Library

This library is located about 15 minutes from my home. We go once every few months now but when my kids were smaller, we would go every Wednesday for story time. Over the last two years, they have been doing some major reconstruction downstairs in the children's area. Our last visit was in March and they were still working. It was a nice surprise to go today and see everything finished. I LOVE it!! It has really changed and for the better, waaaayyyyy better! During the summer, they have a summer reading program. On Thursdays each week, they have a performer come to encourage summer attendance in the library. So, we got there just in time to see the magician do his stuff. He was quite amusing, he tricks were average, but he really did a great job promoting the library and reading.

There were probably 150-200 kids there and hopefully each one of them went down and checked out some books - I know we waited in the check-out line for a good 10 minutes and we were waited quite a while looking for books before we even entered the line! After the magician finished his act, we headed downstairs to check out some books and look around at the newly renovated children's library. It was beautiful! When you walk in, the circulation desk is immediately on your right. On your left is the periodical rack where about 120 subscriptions sat. These subscriptions were for all ages, not just children.

Continue walking forwards just a bit - on your left was a leisure area for anyone. There were many comfy looking chairs, a coffee pot, a sink, two bathrooms, and outside access with tables and chairs out there, too. This is brand new and a great addition to the library!!

Next to the leisure area a little further into the library, there is a teen/YA area. There were several shelves of books, ten computers that kids could access the internet from, two computer for looking books up in the catalog, and a few comfy chairs. While I think this is a great idea, to give the teens as space of their own, I am wondering which books get placed in this section vs. the fiction section. My son wanted to check out The Lightning Thief, but we weren't sure if we should look in the fiction section or in the Teen/YA section. Turns out that it had already been checked out, but we did find The Last Olympian, also by Rick Riordin, in the teen section. I wonder if another copy would have been found in the fiction section. We found multiple copies of Treasure Island in the fiction section and I would consider that to be a YA book. That would be a good question for the librarian (whom I didn't get a chance to talk to considering the amount of people present today). Outside of the teen section was a long row of children's computer to access the internet. On all computers, there is a one hour time limit in which you need to sign up for at the children's reference desk, which is in the center of the downstairs.



Behind the reference desk was the easy fiction area where all of the picture books are located. There is also the AV section where there were multiple videos and audiobooks.



The rest of the downstairs was devoted to another leisure section, the shelves of fiction and non-fiction books.
Upstairs there are more computers for both research and online catalogs, fiction, non-fiction and reference materials for adults. I have spent quite a few hours in the reference department of this library for a few other classes. I didn't go upstairs today but for just a brief moment to see if any renovations had been made. There was nothing new up there, but there are several leisure areas in the midst of all those books! I think this public library is the perfect size. It seem large to me - about 6 times the size of my local library and yet I don't get lost! :)

Mayborn Planetarium - Killeen, Texas

After exchanging emails and texts from Christen Manuel, we agreed to meet today at the Mayborn Planetarium. She is the Education & Outreach Coordinator for the planetarium and I got in touch with her after finding out my best friend is a friend of hers! :) The first thing we did was go to her office and I explained a little of what I was looking for. She spoke highly of three apps that she has on her iPhone and showed me a little how they work. She has gone to a few schools and demonstrated these apps on the few iPads that the school had for classroom use. The apps are free and look like great resources to use when doing a study of planets and the solar system. I have an iPhone, but not an iPad. I'm going to try to figure out how to incorporate these apps into my multimedia project. The names of the apps are Plates, Skyview Free, and NASA APOD. She gave me some handouts that she gives to teachers who bring their students there for field trips. Also, she explained a few examples of lessons that could be brought back to the classroom. Next, she took us on a tour of the facility. There isn't much to it other than the dome, but we did get to see a few neat things. First, in the lobby is the original starball they used in the dome. This is what the use to project the stars onto the dome's ceiling. This particular starball has the capability to project the 700 closest stars. That sounds like a lot of stars!! Then, she took us into the dome where the newer starball resides. This starball will project 1800 of the closest stars onto the dome's ceiling!! Also, it has the ability to take you to any date in the past or in the present and show you what the stars looked like on that night. If you wanted to see the night's stars in Paris, France 10,000 years ago, that's possible!! That's amazing! Christen then took us into the booth where they are able to control the starball and where they sit when doing shows. All of the controls looked complicated to me! After seeing the workings of the dome, we went into the only exhibit room they have. She showed us the Uniview which was set up there. They have another, much larger Uniview in the dome to check out the different planets during some shoes. It looks like a gaming console, but it's there to be able to move around and view the moon, Mars, and the solar system from a bunch of different angles. She said that the Uniview in the dome can view all of the planets, but they limit it to three in the exhibit room to help avoid problems with the system since it can get tricky to navigate. She told me that they have just been given more space so hopefully soon they'll have more exhibits to go along with the visit to the dome. The other exhibit in the room was a rock and bone collection that was on loan from a geology professor from Central Texas College. We moved back into the dome and took a seat for a matinee showing of The Little Star That Could. It was a cute show intended for lower grades about a star being born and looking for some planets so that it could be special. We learned about the different colors of stars. Turns out this star was our sun and then facts about our planets were discussed. I picked up some new facts that I hadn't heard before. There are about 10 different movies, so it's likely when you go back you won't get a repeat performance. I really enjoyed our trip to the planetarium and Christen was so good to us!

Floor in the lobby

Original Star Ball

Current Star Ball in the dome

Controls for the dome

Uniview - Christen showing us how it works

More Uniview

The Bob Bullock Museum - Texas State History Museum

When researching different spots around Austin to visit, this museum kept coming up. Sadly I had never heard of it before this class. I did know that there was an IMAX theater in Austin, but had no idea that it was part of this museum. I purposely kept the IMAX theatre from my kids because I really thought that’s all I would hear about until it was time to go. When we got there, we got a nice surprise – the exhibits were free that day! So, we took a vote on which movie we all wanted to see. I’ve heard good things about the Texas Spirit Theater, but everyone voted to go see Born to be Wild, which was showing in the IMAX theatre. We started on the first floor all together looking at the shipwreck off the coast of Texas – we got to see a human skeleton which amazed my kids. They didn’t believe they were real bones at first! Then we moved to La Belle, the French colonization of Texas by La Salle. Next, we visited the First Encounter, which was the Native American exhibit. There was a cool tipi set up with a video about the Native Americans that occupied Central Texas. Upstairs, on the second floor, there were several things that caught my attention in some way or another. First, there was a small mention that pertained to a library. Apparently some women of the Dallas Shakespeare Club established the reading room in Dallas' Carnegie Library in 1903. Also, in 1929, women in Beaumont organized a traveling bookmobile for Tyrell Public Library. It was the first in Texas and one of the first in the nation. The next thing I found fascinating was learning about the secession of Texas and Texas becoming a state. I think I mentioned already in a previous post that I didn’t learn much in my Texas history class, so it was almost like reading all of this information for the first time. Of course I knew about it, but not to the extent that the museum information provided. This floor was by far my favorite! It was time for the movie, so we headed into the theater. This film was in 3D, so between the huge screen and the 3D effect, we all thought it was amazing. The story was nice, too. It was about two women in different parts of the world and their cause to care for orphaned animals. One took in the baby elephants whose mothers had been killed by poachers. The other took in orangutans who lost their mothers when the loggers would come in and tear down their homes. They raised the animals until they were fit to go back into the wild. We all enjoyed it! Now we had the third floor left to explore. I have to admit that by then we all had lost some steam and did not devote as much time to this floor. We did look at the trainer aircraft and talk about the differences between that plane and the commercial planes that we fly on. We flew by the oil exhibits and the ranching exhibits didn't hold our attention, either. We walked downstairs to see the timeline on the computer monitors that we had missed on the second floor. I pulled up JFK and we watched to snippet about his assassination. We got to see the front page of the Dallas paper the day after his death. Although I wasn't alive, having been through a nation in shock after recent events, I can imagine to a degree how people felt in the days following this. However, when discussing it with my children and to watch it have no effect on them at all seemed so strange. I guess I should be thankful that they do not yet know what tragedy is or feels like. That will come all too soon. We decided that we were done for the day and headed toward to the exit. My kids begged to stop by the gift shop on the way out. I said that was ok, but I sure wasn't in the mood to hear, "I need this. Please, may I have it. Will you buy this for me?" I told them they had 5 minutes as I prepared for the relentless pleading for souvenirs. At that moment, the fire alarm went off and we were forced to evacuate! I'm not sure the reason for the alarm, and I hope that everyone there was unharmed, but I had never been so pleased to hear a fire alarm!

Keuhne Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy Library - University of Texas

When we arrived, I noticed how small it was. I guess my expectations of a University library exceeded the size it actually was. It was cold and sterile, not welcoming at all. Based on my research online, I knew that it was an individual library rather than merely an extension of a larger library. The librarian behind the circulation desk was “busy” on the computer and when I approached her she immediately asked if I needed a bathroom – I guess she doesn’t get many families passing through. When I explained why I was there, she explained briefly that the library only contains books on physics, mathematics, and astronomy. I tried asking her a few other questions, but it was evident she had no interest in talking with me. I did ask her if she would mind if I took some pictures in which she happily replied that she didn’t have any problem with that. She seemed relieved to watch me walk away from the circulation desk. The first thing I noticed that there were individual pictures of planets taped to the top of the shelves that looked like they had been there since the 70s. My husband, being a physics teacher at the secondary level, swarmed to the bookshelves scouring through as many physics books as he could get his hands on. He pointed out that there was a section specifically for physics textbooks. Although the library was small, it was two stories. The first story was devoted to journals and the second floor housed the books. Most libraries have atlases sitting out somewhere, I’ve noticed. This library was no exception, although the atlases were made up of star charts rather than maps. There didn’t appear to be anything new in terms of technology. There were about 9 computers, a scanning station, and two copy machines. Only two people occupied the library while we were there. For the last 10 minutes, we were upstairs with a big book looking at the different galaxies and planets. The kids got a real kick out of that. I do wish that we had gone to a bigger library on campus, but I was really trying to appease my husband by taking him to the designated physics library!

Austin Museum of Art

I had never been to this particular museum before. I had been to their website before we got there, but to be perfectly honest, I had been to many museum's websites, so I couldn't quite remember which art museum this was. When my husband was in college years and years ago, he took an art appreciation class and we went on many field trips to different art museums. Of course we lived near Boston at the time, so we went to the Boston Museum of Art, the Guggenheim in NYC and a couple in Washington DC. It has been that long since I've been to an art museum, so when we reached the Austin Museum of Art (which I primarily picked based on location), I was shocked that it was such a small building nestled within other buildings. Then, I was even more surprised when we entered the building and saw just how small it really was. But, they say that big things come in small packages. I went in with a very open mind. The first thing we found was the children's area so that the kids would have something to do while we milled around the museum. There was an art area, a book area, and then an area where you could design your own chair or couch to make it comfortable to you. I thought this was ironic since the visiting exhibition at the museum was Good Design: Stories from herman miller. In this collection, we saw different designs of chairs, offices, graphic design, and modern furniture. My son spent a good thirty minutes deciding which pillows would go where to make the ultimate comfy chair! There were four case studies that were exhibited in the design collection. Case study #1 was about the design of a good, ergonomic chair. There were some plans to view, videos to watch showing people trying out the mock designs of the chair, and then the final product. This was the only case study that was somewhat interactive in that you could sit out and try out the chair. After sitting in the chair, there was a whiteboard that contained a survey in which you could take part. Case study #2 involved the design of office floorplans. This was especially interesting to me since I had just finished my ideal library floorplan and I understood and appreciated what it took to make everything fit in the space provided. The case study showed how Herman Miller's Action Office changed and improved upon an office with updating to storage, colors, organization and landscape. Case study #3 showed graphic design and how their products were marketed and advertised. This was mostly done through videos telling stories about the many graphic designers that helped out during the process. Finally, case #4 was the design of modern furniture. Furniture took on a new look following the Depression, so this was a showcase of Herman Miller's reinvention of home furniture. Most of these new styles took on a simple yet functional, space-saving designs. I have to admit that I was not a big fan of many of the designs. They were too "modern" for me.
The rest of the museum was occupied with art that appeared to be mostly donated by the artists. There were a few pieces by famous artists, such as Andy Warhol. All of the pieces were what I would consider to have a modern flair and were not necessarily my style. There were a few pieces of glass that I really enjoyed, though. My husband, though, enjoyed the museum thoroughly and commented that he would have spent a lot more time there if we had not been with him!

Library Science Collection at the Texas State Library and Archives Commission

What a find!!! When we were leaving the capitol building and heading back towards the parking garage. We noticed the Texas State Library and Archives Commission. There was no way we could walk past it without going inside! So, we went in and were greeted by a super nice receptionist. I told her who I was and why I was there. She immediately told me that I needed to go up to the 4th floor to the library science collection. I wasn't sure what to expect. When we got to the room that held this collection, I wasn't real sure what I was looking for. Then I saw Christina Manz. I told her why I was there and she grew a large smile. She explained that this was essentially the librarian's library. They are a resource for professional materials and information to help develop, maintain, and grow libraries. This collection is also a perfect resource for library science students. Christina mentioned that any time we needed information and/or help with anything to call her and she can gather information and send it to us. In addition to the shelves and shelves of books, they provide continuing education opportunities for librarians. They have DVDs, webcasts, and live satellite teleconferences that librarians can obtain and use for staff development or CE credits. There are online courses addressing advocacy, public relations, fundraising, e-referencing services, youth programs, and more being offered through the Texas State Library. Also available are webinars on various topics. This is definitely a resource that needs to be shared with prospective librarians! The website for services for librarians is www.tsl.state.tx.us/librarians
Also, the phone number for Christina is 800-252-9386. What a gem!!

Legislative Reference Library

The Legislative Reference Library is in the Texas State Capitol building. I did not realize it was there until we were looking down from the 4th floor and we all spotted something that looked like a library. We had no choice but to go check it out. I had no idea (most likely because I never gave it any thought) that something like this existed. I met Nancy Watson, a librarian in the Legislative Reference Library, and she filled me in on the highlights of this library. She said that primarily they are there for legislators - they will call (she said they rarely come in, but sometimes they will) and give them topics they need researched. The librarians will do the research and send the information to them. Many of the librarians on staff there will go sit in the sessions and record what is discussed and voted. Nancy then took me over to the clipping table. A big part of this library is the clipping service. It started in the early 1900s. Articles out of newspapers that were relevant to any legislation topic would be clipped and taped to a sheet of paper. These papers were all transferred into a database in the 70s and have all been recently digitized. Now, people come in around 4:30 in the morning and scour the newspapers for any information. They are xeroxed and then categorized and put out for research by the time the doors open. On the table there is an area for the current day's clippings. On the rest of the table are the recent clippings - from the day or week prior. I was astounded by this. I asked what kind of background most of the librarians who work there had. She told me that many came from law libraries, but that isn't a requirement to work there. I looked around to take note of what else the library held. A lot of the library was devoted to research areas with tables for independent reading and research. There were only about six computers. There were many, many shelves that held legal codes, court cases, court records, regulations - and not only for the state of Texas but for other states, too. I was so glad to have found this library because as I mentioned before, I never even thought about this type of library let alone the many facets it serves.

An example of how they used to clip articles for research

How they do it today

This table holds are the current clippings

Shelves of information for legislative research

Texas State Capitol

Our next stop was the state Capitol. I hadn't been there since elementary school and certainly couldn't remember much, so I was fairly excited about getting to experience it with my kids. Lauren was a little too young, I think, to really understand much about it, but Ethan gained some valuable information. It was surprising to me, again, to see all that green in front of the capitol building. We spent almost $200 last month watering our small lawn, so I can only imagine how much the water bill was there!! Entering the building was like going to airport with all of the security. However, once we got through the security checkpoint, we quickly spotted a tour that was about to begin. Our tour guide, Byron, was an enthusiastic character who spouted off information and answered questions as if he were an expert on the building and what goes on inside. He told us that the Texas capitol building is 14 feet taller than the one in Washington DC, but that it wasn't the tallest - we were all disappointed to hear that not EVERYTHING in Texas is bigger! : ) The capitol building in Baton Rouge is taller than ours. When you look up once in the rotunda, it is breathtaking - this is the only thing I do remember from my trip way long ago. I did not, however, remember the star at the very top. It looks so small so I was surprised to find out that it is actually 8 feet across! On the floor in the rotunda there are the six flags of Texas - French, Mexico, Republic of Texas, American, and the Confederate Seal. There are four floors in which you can see in the rotunda. On the walls of all four floors are pictures of past governors. They are in chronological order and begin on floor 4 winding down all the way to floor one. George W. Bush, being the last governor before our current one, is the picture hanging in the last spot on the wall. Byron told us that one Rick Perry's term is over, his picture will be moved into the spot currently filled by GWB and then all of the pictures will move one spot to the left. Byron made the joke that it will be the only time GWB moves to left - lol! We then took the elevator up to the second floor where the senate meets. Byron described the room, the tables, and the technology upgrades over the years (phones added to the desks, microphones on the desk). One of the first details that I noticed was the chandeliers. Each one was a circle with a star in the middle and on each point of the star was a letter that when put together spelled Texas. He explained the three rules in which one has to follow to be able to speak during session. The first one was that you had to be standing - not leaning or sitting - in hopes of being quick. Next, the speaker had to stay on topic, not repeat himself and not read from text - had to be improv. Lastly, the speaker could not take a break for any reason. The longest recorded filibuster went on for 43 hours, though I forget who made it. He mentioned that all sessions are open to the public and that the only closed sessions involved discussions of impeachment. We then walked over to the representatives house. He discussed the differences between the two houses and the differences between the furniture. One thing obviously noticeable was the electronic voting on each desk. Texas was the first state to move over to electronic voting in 1923. Our tour concluded, so I looked at the pictures of all the representatives in the last few years. From our county, Dianne White-Delisi was our previous rep. When I told my son that I knew her because I went to school with her son and she drove carpool, he told me that I was lucky I knew famous people (I have a few other "celebrity" friends)! The current rep. from our county owns a restaurant where I used to wait tables - he was my boss. I refrained from telling that to my son - I'll save that tidbit for when I feel I'm losing my important status with him! ; ) Once again, my son got out his notepad and took notes during the tour. I hope one day he has the opportunity to share his notes with classmates.

Taking notes

Looking up in the rotunda

Senate

House

The chandeliers in both the Senate and the House

Texas State Cemetery

This is our first planned stop of the day. Since the heat has been sooooo bad, I decided to do this outside tour before the temperature climbs past 100 degrees! Since we were unable to reserve a tour guide based on the size of our party, we are given handheld devices that you can punch a code in to hear about the person buried. When we went outside to begin our own tour, I was amazed at how green everything was despite the heat. It was beautifully landscaped and very pristine. The next thing I noticed was State Highway 165, the smallest state highway in Texas. This road runs right through the center of Texas and is marked with the Texas flag every few feet on either side of the road. We took a right and headed towards Republic Hill, where most of the famous people that we had heard about were buried. My son could hardly wait to find the burial site of Stephen F. Austin. I was amazed when he asked if Moses Austin was buried here, too. I asked him who Moses was (even though I knew the answer) and he replied, "Mom, that's Stephen's dad!" Along the way, we stopped at Willie Wells grave to listen about him since baseball is big in my house. Then, we saw (although, honestly, weren't too impressed with) Tom Landry's grave. We listened about Robert "Three Legged Willie" Williamson to find out what his third leg was. Turns out his knee was frozen, so he attached a piece of wood to it to use as another leg. My son couldn't contain his excitement to see SFA any longer, so we skipped over to his monument that sits in the middle of Republic Hill. We listened to his audio blurb and my son just stood there staring for several minutes. I'm not sure what kept him deep in thought, but I wasn't about to disturb it! The next burial sites we looked specifically for were those of Ma and Pa Ferguson. We took a special interest in these two since they are from Belton (or nearby), where we currently reside. It was very interesting to learn about them. I didn't know much, so it was neat to hear about Miriam running for governor since her husband, James, couldn't after being impeached. It was pretty cool discussing with my daughter that she was the first woman governor of Texas. I then sought out to find the site of Ann Richards. When I found it, it was interesting to note that her tombstone (if that's what you can call it) was very different than any other. I'm not sure if it was marble or granite, but not only did the material seem different, it was shaped completely different, too. At the bottom, there was a button someone had placed on it that said 'Hilary 2012.' Loved it! : ) We took special note of a few others and talked about them, but I was interested in heading over to the September 11th Memorial Section. We found it - there was a timeline of events from the first tower being hit to the speech that GWB gave that night at 8:30. Along with the timeline was a couple of pieces from one of the towers. My kids asked me why they looked mangled, so we had a talk about that, too. My son was 3 months old at the time, so they have no clue other than what they've been told in school. It was a somber few moments. After we left the memorial, the heat was getting the best of us, so we headed back to building to turn in our audio wands and went to view the things in the gallery. It was interesting to see the bat and ball glove of Willie Wells. Apparently he kept rocks in his glove so that when other players would run to second, he would tag them with the intention of hurting them. We also got a chance to talk about Old Yeller since Fred Gibson, the author, is also buried there. There was a video in the gallery that explained the requirements to be buried in the cemetery. This visit was meaningful for all of us, but what I especially loved was the spirit of learning my two children shared. They each asked to borrow some paper that I had brought to take notes. Ethan took down notes and thoughts when he found SFA's burial site. And, after talking extensively about Miriam Ferguson, Lauren decided that she wanted to do "research" also and copied the words from the headstone onto some paper. She found another headstone to copy for good measure. It was priceless! This was a favorite memory of mine!

State Highway 165

Cemetery Library

Pa & Ma Ferguson


Stephen F. Austin's grave

September 11 Memorial