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People seem to love this Mockingjay business

It’s time to scream like a Twilight fan in 2007: Mockingjay, The third book from the Hunger Games series has arrived on the JCCC shelf… AND IT IS GONE! But on the bright side, we currently have only 3 (count’em! 3!) holds on the book including the lucky patron who’s going to get it first. Our fabulous friends at Johnson County Library have a good amount of copies, but also have 441 people on the wait-list according to my extensive Outstanding Holds list with them.

This Hunger Games business is the story of a future North America that has turned into an epic police state which frequently forces a random member from each poor area to compete in a to-the-death “reality TV” show. It focuses on one particular girl, Katniss, one of the most popular competitors in the history of “The Hunger Games.” People are going absolutely nuts for this series, so you might as well check it out.

Engineers make money, and you could be one

If you’d like to know what it takes to become an engineer, then there may be no better starting point than someone like Dean Millar. Not only is he an industry expert, but he is also a professor who wants to see students succeed. His book, Ready for Takeoff! : A Winning Process for Launching Your Engineering Career is a great guide for future engineers. It approaches the things you’d think it would like classes and career paths, and also tackles things like attitude, teamwork, and other general workplace habits. It’s a great book for anyone who wants or might just be interested in life as an engineer.

Watch a P.O.W. escape in the Book of the Day

Dieter Dengler was shot down over Vietnam while flying for the Navy in the 1960s. After being tortured and held captive, he would lead a group of fellow POWs on one of the most famous escapes documented. Hero found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War is one of the most recent tellings of his escape, this time through a collection of interviews with family, friends, and fellow soldiers as well as with government declassified documents.

It’s about digital pictures, so there’s a cat on the cover

One piece of advice my dad always gave me was to keep backin’ up backin’ up backin’ up my computer’s hard drive. This was a good idea, because the project laptop that holds all of our digital images just got fried.

We never did anything unorthadox, but if you’ve got a digital camera and you’re looking to goof around (because expensive toys are still toys), today’s book is a place to start. Digital Photo Madness by Thom Gaines promises 50 things you can do to have fun with the pictures you capture. Might as well.

After all, the Internet needs more cats.

Need a topic for your paper? Check out Opposing Viewpoints

Do you have an argumentative paper, or you need a current topic to tackle for an assignment? One series of books we have, Opposing Viewpoints, was made just for that.

Today’s Book of the Day, Homeschooling: Opposing Viewpoints, edited by Noah Berlatsky, is a collection of scholarly articles and news sources portraying both those in favor and those against homeschooling. This is how all of the books are set up, and also how the companion database is portrayed (must have campus login for database). The books are on the shelves, just do a title search for “Opposing Viewpoints” in our catalog (or click here and I’ll do it for you. We’re cool like that). If you’ve never checked out the series before, I highly recommend it. It’s a great place to get started for a lot of different assignments you’ll get across different classes.

Race & Our Neighbors to the South

While Afro-Mexican may not be the most common term, there have been communities in Mexico with populations of African descent since North America was colonised. This book, Black Mexico: Race and Society from Colonial to Modern Times by Ben Vinson III and Matthew Restall, collects many documents and interviews to create a series of chapters illustrating first-hand accounts across the timeline of this particular aspect of race in Mexican culture has changed and existed. It’s an interesting look into the perceptions of ethnicity and racial identity.

The Mobile Web: Design It While It’s Still Free

So on the issue of Net Neutrality, corporations like Google have been trying to argue that using your 3G or 4G or super-secretG mobile device should be tiered and priced separately. A lot of people have made a good argument for why this is a bad idea, but for the moment, people using mobile devices are only limited by their data plan and how well Web designers program for these platforms.

Enter Programming the Mobile Web by Maximiliano Firtman. If you have a standard website and need to make it accessible for iPhones and Androids, or if you’re out to design browser-based web applications, these cross-platform tips, techniques, and standards are essential for your ability to reach the widest audience possible. If you’re taking any sort of website design classes, check this book out.

Watch the Record Industry Die

When an entire industry refuses to adapt to technology and greed pushes artistry into the backseat, you can end up with the cautionary tale of the record industry. In Steve Knopper’s Appetite for Self-Destruction, the author traces the creation of CDs, digital music distribution, and the iTunes model. Read how downloading didn’t kill the record industry as much as poor decisions made by company executives did.

It’s Not Bieber Fever. It’s Malaria

Despite the news today that slowing down Justin Bieber makes him tolerable to the ambient art-rock crowd, the only fever we’re here to talk about is malaria. Did you know it’ll impair over 300 million people this year, and as a whole, society’s reaction will likely be minimal? Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah talks about how this super virus has plagued humanity since forever ago, and why it remains so fascinating and resilient.

See You Wednesday, JCCC Students!

Wednesday marks the beginning of the fall semester, so here are some helpful reminders.

Parking here gets absolutely awful, so show up early. Even if your parking spot is still rubbish, you’ll at least make it to class on time.
Don’t let the Fall in Fall Semester fool you! It may still get unbearably hot out, which sometimes makes the AC super cold. I’d advise bringing something to pull over in case you get stuck in an ice box of a classroom.
The computers in the library have been known to get filled up quickly BUT! we have wi-fi access. If you have a laptop or iPad, it is advised to bring it.
Be nice to your professors. I heard from one that they can get nervous on the first day, too.

It’s just two days away, folks! We look forward to seeing you in the library!