Monthly Archives: August 2012

Notices, Staff

A tribute to Mlle Maurice

Inspired by a Paris street artist, Mademoiselle Maurice, the staff of the Annandale Campus Library recently designed, created, and installed a large origami wall art installation to welcome faculty, staff and students back for the fall semester. The 3’ x 12’ installation imitates the shape of an open book, and includes approximately 400 cranes, medallions, tulips, fans, and butterflies that were folded and then installed on a bare wall. The shapes were folded from the brightly colored paper of an old 2004 origami day-by-day calendar.  “

Here’s a detail of some of the many origami pieces that went into the project.

The final project:

Mademoiselle Maurice commented on the Library staff’s artwork: “I am very proud of your creation for your library and I hope that the students will be happy! Good job!”

Watch the video below to see the effort that our library staff members put into creating this piece of art.

Staff

Farewell Ida!

Ida is perhaps one of the most recognizable staff members at the Annandale campus library–in fact, she was recognized half a world away as a NOVA Library employee when she visited her home country of Nepal. Many people who visit our library often encounter Ida as she checks out books, laptops, and other materials to patrons. She helps patrons connect to the wireless network and troubleshoot other computer issues. Ida is always a great help to the library staff and students.

Sadly for us, today is Ida’s last day at the library. Ida has been working at the library since 2010 while earning her Associate’s degree in Information Technology. Now that Ida has finished her degree (yay!), she will be moving on to new adventures. Ida has been a wonderful addition to the library.  I’m sure that I speak for the rest of the Library and Learning and Technology Resources staff when I say we appreciate her services and she will be missed.

Technology

Open Office

If you don’t have Microsoft Office (MS Office) for any reason, Open Office is a great alternative to MS Office. Open Office is a free productivity suite that allows users to create and edit documents and other files. Like the productivity software giant, Open Office comes with a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet software (Calc), presentation software (Impress), and a database creator (Base). Some additional features include an illustration and design program (Draw) and a mathematical equation editor (Math).

Although Open Office comes with open-source file extensions (the most popular being .odt and .ods), the software is compatible with MS Office, which means that users can open and edit their files in the appropriate Open Office program. You can also create a file in Open Office and save it as an MS Office file. Saving a file as a PDF is also an option in Open Office Writer. Overall, Open Office is a great choice for budget-conscious people who want to have many of the features that MS Office provides.

Archives

From the Archives: 1980 Moscow Olympic Games

While we are all currently enjoying the 2012 London Olympic Games (go USA!) I came across this student newspaper on the 1980 Olympic Games. I was shocked at how different the atmosphere was back then and can’t really fathom the USA boycotting such a major event on the world stage today.  This is well before many of our current student populations time but it is still a great glimpse into what the politics were like back then from NOVA’s perspective.