Love is in the air.

Well, at least in the décor. It is estimated that one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine’s Day the second-largest card-selling holiday (after Christmas). But was Valentine’s Day really invented by the greeting card companies to take advantage of the love and/or friendship between two people?

Actually, Valentine’s Day was established at around 496 AD by Pope Gelasius I who named the holiday after a (some speculate several) Christian martyr named Valentine or Valentinus. No one really knows for sure who Valentine was or what he did but February was a month of romance long before the pope declared the 14^th the big day. Lupercalia, an ancient Roman fertility festival, was celebrated in mid-February.

The commercial holiday that we recognize today first began in Great Britain in the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common practice to exchange small gifts or handwritten poems on Valentine’s Day. Improvements in printing technology led to printed greeting cards in the late 1700s. By this time, the holiday had become popular in the United States. In the 1840s, Esther Howland (now known as the Mother of the Valentine) began selling the first mass-produced valentines in the country. Since then, a number of other countries in the world have created their own Valentine’s Day traditions. In Japan, it is customary for women to buy chocolates for men (usually co-workers). One month later, the men who received chocolates are expected to return the favor. In Norfolk, England “Jack” Valentine leaves treats for children on the back step of the house. In Finland and Estonia the holiday is more about celebrating friends rather than lovers.

How do you spend your Valentine’s Day? Some people use this opportunity to show their loved ones how much they care; others use it to show how much they’re willing to spend. Some people go out and have a romantic dinner; others go on a romantic weekend getaway. But if you’re like me, you prefer to spend the day relaxing at home without roses, heart-shaped boxes, and pink teddy bears. While I do intend to spend some quality time with my significant other, I plan on spending the greater part of the day the same way I spend every Sunday – cozily bundled up in blankets with a good read. Incidentally, the book I’ll be reading this Sunday is the seventh installment of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series – a series about love that transcends time.

But Erica, shouldn’t you be doing more on Valentine’s Day to show that special someone how much you care? Well, what can I say? At the risk of sounding ooey-gooey, I must say that I hardly feel the need for a big to-do this Sunday. After all, every day is Valentine’s Day in our home.

Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon
At a whopping 656 pages, Outlander may appear daunting at first but if you’re into adventure, historical fiction, and love stories, the time will fly.

https://rwsteen2.sfasu.edu/uhtbin/cgisirsi/0/0/0/5?searchdata1=9780440212560

Research Library Liaison - Erica Lopez

Email: z_lopezer@titan.sfasu.edu
Phone: (936) 468-6270
Office: 202j

Reading, Writing and RECON : Military Professional Reading Lists

Roughly stated RECON is a mission to obtain information about an adversary, or the characteristics of an area. Today military professionals must know more about their profession and the world they live in, than ever before. For many gathering this information includes books, both electronic and digital. All branches of the military have recommended and/or required reading lists. The Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) at Fort Leavenworth, has one of the better-maintained list of these lists on the web. Their page of Military Professional Reading Lists links to more than twenty-five different lists. However, between the five branches of the military, their schools, commands, and civilian government the number of lists is almost impossible to enumerate.

As part of Steen library's collection development efforts, librarians will often use tools such as bibliographies and professional reading lists when purchasing materials to support learning, instruction, and research at SFA. For Military Science, the library has made a specific effort to acquire all of the books on "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List." (2004, this list has been superseded by the U.S. Army Center for Military History Professional Reading List) In addition many other titles from other military reading lists are part of the library collection. In an effort to make locating the hundreds of titles available at Steen Library from several of these lists, I recently created a spreadsheet this information and posted it on the web. The page "Combined Military Professional Reading List" provides easy access to titles owned by the library from many different lists. Links to some of the official lists are on the "List of Lists" page of the spreadsheet. The library owns almost all the titles from "The U.S. Army Chief of Staff's Professional Reading List", as well as many or most of the titles found on other reading lists. Through inter-library loan any additional titles not currently owned by Steen Library are readily available to the SFA community.

If you would like to recommend a favorite title or list of titles for Steen Library, contact your reference librarian.

R. Philip Reynolds preynolds (AT) sfasu.edu rm. 202b 936.468.1453 Subjects - Computer Science, Military Science, Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, Geography, Kinesiology