As always seems the case, the Libraries are ratcheting up the post-Spring Break calendar with a slew of events.

After a brief hiatus, this week sees the return of the wildly popular Science Study Breaks series hosted by the Life Science Library. I won’t bother going into the background of this pop culture meets science program, but you can read about it in our most recent issue of the Libraries Newsletter.

At any rate, this first SSB of 2010 features Computer Science and Neuroscience faculty Dr. Risto Miikkulainen discussing “Machines Gone Wild” using Mr. Data from TNG and HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey as foils for discussion. The program gets underway at 6:30pm, Wednesday, March 24 in Wheeler Lecture Hall (4.102) in Robert Lee Moore Hall.

Also later this week, an exhibit of photos featuring post-modern dance maven Deborah Hay gets an opening reception at the Fine Arts Library. Twenty images taken by Texas photographer Phyllis Liedeker Finley during Hay’s time in Austin will be on view in the FAL through April 8, when the Center for Women’s & Gender Studies will be hosting a symposium on Hay’s life and work.

The opening reception is co-hosted by the FAL and CWGS and takes place Friday, March 26 at 5pm. RSVP to Eve McQuade at emcquade@austin.utexas.edu or call 512-495-4363 if you’d like to attend.

Expect more event coverage in the coming weeks as we gear up for the David O. Nilsson Lecture (April 1, this Fifth Annual program features Robert Faires in an excerpted reprise of his fabulous one-man Henry V), the Benson‘s ¡A Viva Voz! (April 8, with Austin’s self-professed coconut rockers Ocote Soul Sounds), the Libraries’ contribution to Research Week, our annual Library Fair (April 14, PCL plaza), and a not-to-be-missed opening of photographs and ephemera from the world travels of Colonel L.B. Roberts donated by Friend of the Libraries Jan Roberts (May 7, FAL).