Bison Library Bytes - Suscc Library at Southern Union State Community College

Welcome to Southern Union Learning Resource Center's new blog! We have a lot of good things happening and we want to share them with you. We hope to keep you updated on new resources, events in all three libraries, new journal articles that you may have missed, and other “bytes” of information. Check back soon or subscribe to be notified of new posts!

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Recent Posts

Last Call!

A brand new batch of books have arrived in the Opelika library. One of the interesting books we received is Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen. This looks like a fascinating read about the American reporters who covered the events and leaders leading up to World War II. These reporters traveled the world, covering not just the European theater, but also the struggles in India that resulted in the Indian Independence Act of 1947. They interviewed some of the 20th century's most famous people (such as Gandi) and were themselves talked about by people such as Virginia Woolf. One published an article on secret Nazi funds that led to a press conference by an angry Goebbels. You'll have to come look at the book to find out who that reporter was. Last Call is on display in the Opelika library....

Article on Student Reading and AI

An article in the June 20th issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education caught my eye. It’s titled ”The Reading Struggle Meets AI.” The author begins by talking about the ongoing struggle to motivate students to complete course reading assignments and how students are using AI as a means to circumvent actually reading. There were two things that I found interesting about the article. The first is the student perspective on reading revealed through research at the University of Mississippi. The second is how faculty are adjusting to these challenges to reading and instruction. You can find this article in the June 20, 2025, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education in the Opelika library....

250 Years Young

If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of commemorative events occurring in the lead up to next year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There is a website specifically for Alabama (America250Alabama) that highlights events and shares educational resources (even some recipes) related to the semiquincentennial (not quite as catchy as “bicentennial” was way back in 1976).One of the anniversaries that we are highlighting in the library is the 250th birthday of the United States Army. The Army was established on June 14, 1775, by a resolution of the Continental Congress. The Army has web pages dedicated to this year’s celebration, including brief videos on some of the Army’s heroes such as SFC Alwyn Crendall Cashe, posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and PFC Roland Bragg, WWII paratrooper awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. In the Opelika LRC, we have a few books on display about the history of the Army and army related subjects. Additional resources are available at each SU library and online.To all of the Army veterans who work at or attend SUSCC, THANK YOU for your service!And HOOAH! Happy 250th Birthday to the U. S. Army! ...

Are Your Thoughts Your Thoughts?

Here’s a phrase I’m not sure I’ve heard before: “cognitive liberty.” We speak about other types of liberty often enough: freedom of speech and freedom of religion to name two. But what about “the right to self-determination over our brains and mental experiences” (Introduction, p. 8)? Before you think I’m going to tell you about a new science fiction novel we received (which I’m not), you should recognize that current advances in neurotechnology is making this a valid, indeed an urgent, concept for us to consider today. Nita A. Farahany’s 2023 book, The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology, discusses important questions such as the following pulled from the “Introduction”:Should we—or will we want to—directly track information gleaned from our own brains, or have that information filtered for us by a trusted intermediary instead, much as we count on medical doctors to make sense of an MRI or CT?… Does freedom of thought protect us from government tracking our brains and mental processes? (Introduction, pp. 7-8)The introduction alone is enough to make me wonder if we’re living in the stages leading up to some of our most popular dystopian stories. In fact, the author provides an example of an event reminiscent of The Minority Report. Neurotechnology is here to stay. In many ways it can provide needed assistance and improve lives. Farahany wants us to think about how it will change us, our society, and what we can do “to protect our freedom of thought and rumination, mental privacy, and self-determination over our brains and mental experiences” as the technology continues to advance (Introduction, p. 11). These are important concepts for each of us to consider in our increasingly connected world.The book is currently on the New Book display in the Opelika LRC. Come by and see some of the other interesting resources we’ve received! Farahany, N. A. (2023). The Battle for Your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology. St. Martin’s Press. [RC 343 .F37 2023]...

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