The last time I remember formally celebrating Flag Day was in 1997 with my fifth grade class. Since then, it has been a day that has snuck by year after year; barely standing out from just an average Monday. This year, since I sit in front of a computer for 9 hours a day anyways, I decided to look into what Flag Day is all about, aside from a flag ceremony or red, white and blue cupcakes.  Since I am assuming most of you have had a  similar experience with Flag Day throughout your post elementary school days, I figured I would share some of my new found facts with you.

• Flag Day commemorates the adaptation of the Flag by the United States in 1777 by the Second Continental Congress (but you already knew that, right?)
• In 1916, Woodrow Wilson issued June 14th as Flag Day
• In 1949, National Flag Day was established as an Act of Congress
• Flag Day is not an official federal holiday, but on June 14th, 1937 Pennsylvania became the first and only state to declare the day a state holiday

Are your colleges and universities doing anything to commemorate Flag Day today?

Do you get bombarded with mundane questions on a daily basis such as “Who was the guy who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?” and “What was the address to that restaurant again?” Here is a website that will allow you to passive aggressively clue in your friends, family and coworkers about this thing called the internet where a sea of information exists; in the nicest way possible, of course.

Let me Google that for you, http://lmgtfy.com/ is a fan favorite around our office and we hope you enjoying using it as much as we do! Oh, the power of Google.

In May, we announced the winner of the “ValoreBooks.com Presents: Hear the Music, See the Money,” Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival ticket giveaway. Well, the festival is finally here, and our winner, Loyola New Orleans junior Olivia Taylor was kind enough to send us a picture right before she departed for her journey! We hope you have the time of your life, Olivia! We can’t wait to hear all about Bonnaroo! Bonnaroo takes place this weekend, July 10th-13th in Manchester, TN.

Shortly, we will be posting video from the festival. Bonnaroo fans who were unable to attend this year, stay tuned!

Here at ValoreBooks.com we love saving you money by offering really cheap textbooks, up to 90% off the book’s list price, but you already knew that.  This summer, we are going to be launching a new contest, where the winner will be awarded free textbooks for the fall semester or quarter! That’s right, free! Start prepping your creative side and be prepared to show us why you deserve free books! Originality will be rewarded. Please stay tuned-we will be announcing the official contest rules soon!



On April 20th, an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing eleven people and began to threaten marine life and many southern states due to the massive oil spill. Ever since, the story has dominated the headlines; most recently, the handling of the crisis by BP executives and the US government. Despite the administrative handling of the crisis, the issue at hand is the ecological disaster affecting areas surrounding the oil spill.

One group of students at Tulane University have created an oil spill crisis map using open source software.  The students partnered with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) and Radical Designs to create the map, which uses information from texts, tweets, e-mails and online submissions that people send in to the website in order to plot the effects of the oil spill. The eyewitness reports include a description and location information, such as address, city and state and zip-codes. Photos and video also can be uploaded.

Real time testimony directly from the public is one way to see just how many areas are being affected by the oil spill. We think it’s pretty neat to be able to use new media such as Twitter to track something so important as a region’s livelihood.   What are your thoughts on the Oil Spill Crisis Map?