The Return of 2:00 AM....

From Library Director Phil Tramdack: The library will return to the late night schedule of opening until 2:00 AM Sunday through Thursday beginning this Wednesday, November 1. Interim staffing is in place, and the students who will be on duty have been contacted and are ready to start. Student leaders have made clear to us that this is an important service and we are doing everything possible to bring back the late night hours for the remainder of the semester.

Library Encounters...

Gary Scott Smith will be speaking in the Special Collections room of the Library on October 31 at 2:30 pm about his recently published book, Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush, (Oxford University Press). Smith's book focuses on eleven presidents and the role religion has played in their policy-making. The Oxford web site
describes the book as a series of "compelling portraits of the religious lives and presidencies of eleven chief executives for whom religion was particularly important." Dr. Smith's book has received favorable reviews from such notable historians as David L. Holmes, George Marsden, and Mark A. Noll.

Gary Scott Smith is the Chair of the History Department and Coordinator of the Humanities Core at Grove City College. He is the author or editor of six previous books and the 2001 Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Pennsylvania Professor of the Year.

Light refreshments will be served. Library Encounters are open to the public.

Hmmmm.....

Library Director Phil Tramdack sent me this cartoon. Anyone think there is a message here?

New Trial Database: Bibliography of Asian Studies...

A trial of the online version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS), 1971 to present, is now available through the Bailey Library web site. It is an index of western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia with a focus on humanities and the social sciences. Since 1991 coverage has been limited to most important 100 journals in Asian Studies. For more information see http://www.aasianst.org/bassub.htm. To use BAS, go to the Library's trial databases page, and follow the login instructions. The trial ends Tuesday, October 31, 2006.

To comment on this database, contact your department's

When the Frost in on the Punkin*...

Read about the 3,000 lb. cheesecake.... World's largest pumpkins and pies from NPR...
Awesome 3-D pumpkin carving tutorial.... and alternative pumpkin carving pdfs....
30 ways to eat a pumpkin....
Pumpkins fight cancer...

Or if you are feeling a little more gruesome...

Ready to munch out on tombstone cake and gingerbread corpses? or some other "hallow-eating"?
Download free spooky songs and sounds...
Make your own zombie costume... from the 365Halloween blog
Get more costume ideas from Costumzee...
Party... or party with Martha Stewart...
UPDATE: A collection of Scary Stories, ebooks from Google Book Search
UPDATE: All about the Google... use Google maps to track zombies in your area.

and if you are really ghoulish...

The top earning dead celebrities....

*A poem by James Whitcomb Riley....

Tired of Political Ads?

You can discover the truth about the voting records of current office holders. A number of web sites can help. Both the US Senate and the House have homegrown sites that allow you to find information about their members' votes. Another helpful site is C-Span's Congressional Vote Search, which allows you to search for either a particular issue or the voting record of a member of congress who interests you. Two other sites are the Washington Post's The U.S. Congress Votes and Washington Votes.

Noted Children's Author Coming to Campus...

Joseph Bruchac, described as possibly "the best known of Native American storytellers," will be performing on Wednesday evening, October 25 at 7:00 pm in the Alumni House. His books will be available for sale at that time and he will be available for signing following the performance. Please contact Melba Tomeo to make a reservation. Dr. Bruchac will also be performing in the University Union on Thursday for nearly 700 fourth and fifth graders from the Sharon, Pine Richland, and Slippery Rock school districts. This event is being sponsored by the SRU Professional Development School network via the TQE-R grant administered by Dr. Claudia Balach. Librarians from the PDS network planned the event. Special thanks to Beth Thompson from the Bookstore for handling the sales! The Instructional Materials Center also has many of Bruchac's works available for loan. Come join us if you can!

Recently Read: Bowman's Store: A Journey to Myself, an autobiographical account of Dr. Bruchac's childhood and a loving tribute to his grandparents. The book gives a unflinching account of a hidden Abenaki heritage, problems with bullies, difficult family relationships, and the spirit that overcomes.

UPDATE: Here's what approximately 500 4th and 5th graders look like, waiting for the program to begin. Dr. Bruchac did a wonderful job and I believe everyone really enjoyed the event and took a good story away with them.

Database spotlight: ARTstor

With almost 500,000 images, ARTstor has something for every discipline. Art, Anthropology, History, Theatre, Communications, Education... you name it, you'll find images to support and supplement your research. Or just browse for fun! The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum are just a few of the institutions making high quality images available for educational use in ARTstor. ARTstor is available off campus with a valid user ID from the Library's A-Z list of databases.

Searching for Ms. Right (Answers) ...

Search Engine Watch is in the process of some in-depth analysis of some of the "ready reference" or special information categories now appearing in internet search results. So far, they have analyzed Microsoft's Instant Answers and Ask's Smart Answers. In the case of Ask, the information linked at the top of the result page is drawn from sources like the World Fact Book, Wikipedia, The American Heritage Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, etc. IMHO, this is one of the things the internet does very well... provide a quick definition, statistic, or explanation... provided the sources are credible.

Apparently amazon has entered the answer business... Askville is in beta.

And then there's this... Ms. Dewey, the saucy search engine librarian. Who knew information was so glamorous?

Polls and Pundits

For anyone with even a passing interest in politics, the Washington Post has compiled a fascinating guide to public opinion data available online. Their Data Directory provides links to major national and state polls and academic and non-profit data archives. It's a great place to quickly access that poll you hear referenced on the nightly news!

Google Scholar and Bailey Library: A Force to be Reckoned with

Google Scholar, which provides a search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, has established a program called “Library Links.” “Library Links” allows libraries to offer patrons direct access to available full-text journals via the Google Scholar page. SRU’s very own Bailey Library is now part of this program. For anyone using Google Scholar on campus, the SRU links will automatically appear, due to IP authentication. For those off campus, there are simple directions.

• Go to http://scholar.google.com/scholar_preferences?hl=en&lr=&output=search
• Scroll down to the box beside “Library Links”
• In that box, search for Slippery Rock University. SRU should now be listed.
• Check the box next to Slippery Rock University (Full-Text @ SRU)
• Scroll down to the bottom and click on “save preferences”

What you will see and what it means…

Full-Text @ SRU link, which appears immediately after the article title – Bailey Library has full-text access to this article through one if its paid databases. Click on this link and you will be taken to the article.

Resources @ SRU link, which appears with other links directly below the article information – Bailey Library doesn’t have full-text through a paid database, but they might have it in print or they can get it for you through interlibrary loan. This link allows you to search the catalog and/or fill out an interlibrary loan form.

No matter how we get you there… We get you there!

Can’t you feel the love?

Marjorie Stephenson Scholarship Winners....

Today was the Marjorie Stephenson Scholarship tea. Marjorie Stephenson was a librarian at Slippery Rock from 1971 to 1978 and made provision in her will for undergraduate scholarships for African American library science students. Since Slippery Rock no longer has a library science program, scholarships are awarded to students in disciplines reflecting Miss Stephenson's interests. This year's excellent group of recipients are (left to right): Matt Kwiatkowski, Alyssa Papay, Brittany Littlejohn, Shawnette Patterson, Chan Aye, and Kandice Lindsey. Not pictured: Boryana Milcheva. Congratulations and best wishes to the winners!

Friday Facts and Things to Do...

Turkish author Orhan Pamuk wins the Nobel Prize for literature, after being charged by his government with "insulting Turkishness" ...
Kiran Desai becomes the youngest winner ever of the Man Booker Prize...
T.O. set to publish his first work, Little T Learns to Share...
State Library's Rare Book room makes technological news...

Visit Central Park this Sunday for the second annual Great Read in the Park...
Visit the Virtual Instrument Museum to see (and hear) more about musical instruments from around the world....

LEAF RIDE!!!! The Fall Color Hotline....

Photo by CTD2005, via yotophoto and flickr

Database Spotlight....

So many databases, so little time.... This past week, I had occasion to help a student use Biography Resource Center, a dandy database that contains a bounty of information about 335,000 people in various fields and occupations. From J-Lo to Johann Sebastian Bach, you will find narrative biographies, thumbnail sketches, articles from popular magazines, and websites on your subject. The search interface is very user friendly and a helpful feature is the ability to look up individuals by occupation, ethnicity, dates of birth and death, and gender. This guide to who is who is available, along with many other helpful databases, from our Databases A-Z page. Ask a reference librarian for additional assistance!

Today's Biography spotlight was Tina Fey, a huge favorite of mine!

Free For All...

Search for video podcasts of news programs...
A new citation maker for books, just enter the ISBN*....
October is International Book Fair month and World eBook is offering over 40,000 free etitles for reading and downloading...
Free mini-language lessons from BBC Quick Fix....



*ISBN means International Standard Book Number

Asking for Directions...

In honor of Cristoforo Columbo, we offer the following directional sites....
Google Maps
Mapquest
Yahoo! Driving Directions
Rand McNally Driving Directions
Windows Live Local
AAA Internet Triptik
Map Nation

Fast Facts About Columbus Day, via Resource Shelf

The Terrible Twos....

Tomorrow, October 7th, is our second blogoversary! Read our original posts here...

We could get a band.... like Harry and the Potters or Draco and the Malfoys!

or wear our special librarian outfits....

And top off the celebrations with some medieval manuscript cake!

Instead, we will reflect quietly on the future direction of libraries....

New Database...

Environmental Issues & Policy Indexis now available through the Bailey Library web site. It offers cover-to-cover indexing and detailed abstracts for well over 1,000 international journals, with ongoing coverage for over 500 titles, providing a global perspective on important issues including agriculture, ecosystem ecology, energy, natural resources, marine & freshwater science, geography, pollution & waste management, environmental technology, environmental law, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and more. Environmental Issues & Policy Index features an in-depth thesaurus, as well as author profiles for 3,000 authors in the discipline. It is on the EBSCO platform.

The database can be found in the alphabetical listing of databases on the library web site or through your department portal at http://academics.sru.edu/library/resources/.