FINALLY

Thank you Fondren library, for another year of providing shelter to poor college students in need of a home away from home.

A Podcast on High School Libraries

We all have some idea of what a college library is like. So to better understand the somewhat sad state of our educational system, I sat down with a high school student to talk about the taboo subject of libraries.

My YouTribute to the only rock band in Fondren's Music Catalog

This is my way of saluting Radiohead and all their greatness. (Oh, and did I mention that they're the only rock band in Fondren's great music collection?)

Yet another reason from why Radiohead may be the best band in the world

The other day I was picking through the neglected online CD catalog at Fondren for some good music when I came across music by a little British band you might have heard of called Radiohead. From what I can tell, Radiohead’s albums are the only rock ‘n roll albums (if you can call them that) in Fondren’s catalog (a subject search did not show any CD results). Fondren has every album of theirs (including their not-so-extraordinary debut Pablo Honey).

To be honest, Radiohead makes really great study music. Studies have shown that music with lyrics isn’t as conducive to studying as music without lyrics (e.g. classical and jazz music). But Radiohead gives the best of both worlds, combining a classical and jazz influence into foot-tapping, head-bobbing rockers with ambient, ethereal, electronic, instrumentals.

And I will confess, I’ve never been a huge fan of Thom’s lyrics. Having been a fan for years, I’m rather ashamed to admit that though I can recognize all of Radiohead’s music by ear, I don’t even know the titles of half of their songs. The names are just too weird. But that’s okay. Radiohead has always been a band first, a group of punk lyricists second.

If you disagree with me and think that Thom Yorke and his motley crue are a bunch of weirdos—well, all I gotta say to you is that one of the best music schools in the nation believes that Radiohead is the only rock’n roll band good enough to grace its music shelves.

The top 10 films at Fondren

There are plenty of great DVDs at Fondren. Here are my top ten:

1-Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW --I first saw the Redux version; it seemed so fresh though it was 30 years old, and it still such a relevant film.

2-Herzog's AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD ---it inspired the above film. Herzog is my favorite director still working

3- Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY-- his films can't help but make me relive the joy of childhood.

4- Ford's THE SEARCHERS-- probably the film that turned me from a Western-hater to a Western-lover.

5- Welle's CITIZEN KANE-- it really amazes me that Welles was only 26 when he made this terribly mature film.

6- Forman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST -- this is probably among the funniest films I have seen. It convinced me that a film didn't have to be recent to be humorous.

7- Chaplin's THE GOLD RUSH-- the first Chaplin film I ever saw (I was 6 years old). Even then, I knew it was great.

8- Ray's PATHER PANCHALI -- Satyajit Ray is one of film's few Renaissance men.

9- Kaufman's SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK --somewhat critically maligned, but it takes a couple viewings to truly "get."

10- Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI --the only 3-hour film I have managed to watch in one sitting, without a single yawn.

You can’t always get what you want

The most annoying thing for me is coming to the library sometimes just to pick up that one CD, DVD, or book, only to find that someone has already checked it out in the 10 minutes it took you to walk over to Fondren from your dorm room.

Lesson learned: don’t be afraid to reserve materials in the future. It doesn’t cost anything, and it takes just a minute of your time at most (that is, unless, you have absolutely no idea how to navigate Fondren’s catalog, which is neither the smartest nor the most user-friendly library catalog I have used. For more on this see my previous post).

And just FYI, for those who’ve never actually checked out anything from Fondren, be sure to keep in mind that you need to open an account with the library in order to be able to reserve and renew stuff online.

And when you do get an account, don’t forget to renew stuff on time. What really bugs me about the Fondren reminder system is that it only reminds you to renew an item two days before it is due, rather than the day it is due.

And because, like many on the Rice campus, I am a do-it-at-the-last minute person, this has resulted in me having to make several late-night trips to the library to return an item because I forgot to renew it the day it was due.

Well, at least I enjoy midnight runs. 

5 minutes could save you 50 dollars or more on textbooks

Let me tell you the story of a now-enlightened college student, whom I shall call “Joseph.” The first semester of Joseph’s freshman year at Rice, he naively decided to take a 400-level course (which shall remain unnamed), which required the purchase of approximately 100 dollars worth of “required” textbooks. But just before he emptied my wallet at the bookstore, he happened to remember something his professor had said about “course reserves” at Fondren.

He soon found out that these mysterious course reserves were a set of items which one can only check out for a certain period of time because they have been “reserved” by a professor for the use of students in that particular class. All he had to do was go to the circulation desk with the call number of his item (book, CD, DVD, or whatever), and one of the librarians would retrieve your item(s) for you.

And so, Joseph used the course reserves to check out his required textbook once a week to do the required readings, and his wallet lived happily ever.

The same thing happened to Joseph this past fall semester in an English class. While Joseph watched as the rest of the noobs in his class wasted precious moolah on the “required” textbooks, Joseph simply went to Fondren the day before class to do the reading for class the next day.

Okay, that’s enough of that. In case you didn’t realize, the “Joseph” in that story was me. So I have first-hand experience (not third-person experience as the story might suggest) benefitting from Fondren’s course reserves.

Besides having to physically go to Fondren, the only catch is that you usually can’t leave Fondren with the item. Also, you have to go up to the circulation desk every 2 hours to renew the item if you need it for a longer period of time than that (however, you may be able to convince the librarians to extend your check-out period, if, for example, the item is a 3-hour movie).

So do yourself a favor and check out the Fondren course reserves site here.

Note that you can search by instructor, course number (e.g. PHIL 342, CHEM 212, etc.), or course name (e.g. Physical Chemistry for Biosciences, Organic Chemistry, etc.).

The course reserves don’t have the textbooks for every Rice University course, but it’s definitely worth looking at, especially during the first week of classes, so you can determine your budget for that semester. All I’m asking in return is that you send me a mere 10% of what you save on textbooks from now on.

I accept cash or check.