Google and Microsoft "Book Search"

Add Microsoft to the list of those providing access to scanned books. As with the earlier release of "Google Book Search", the "Microsoft Live Book Search" allows complete viewing only for out-of-copyright titles. This beta release claims to contain "tens of thousands" of books. Links to both services, as well as many other online book collections, such as the venerable Project Gutenburg, and the fine directory of online book collections - the Online Books Page at the Univ. of Pennsylvania - are on the library's E-Books page.

Iraq Study Group Report

An online version of the Iraq Study Group report has been posted. Find it at: http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps76748/iraq_study_group_report.pdf
This is a report of a bi-partisan committee.

Children's Book Week

This week is Children's Book Week, which has been celebrated the week before Thanksgiving in schools in libraries for more than 80 years.

In honor of Children's Book Week, may I suggest a few of my favorites?

• The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, in Crumb Library at Juv. PZ 8.J98 PH
• The Little House books, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, in Crumb Library at Juv. PZ7.W6461 Li2
• The His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman, in Crumb Library at Juv. PZ7.P968 Go 1996
• Click Clack Moo, by Doreen Cronin, in Crumb Library at Juv. PZ7.C88135 Cl 2000

You can search for your favorite kids' books easily in BearCat by choosing "Juvenile" in the drop-down "Change Collection" box. (No boring grown-up book results in those searches!)

Click here for more information on the history of Children's Book Week, where they say,

"Book Week brings us together to talk about books and reading and, out of our knowledge and love of books, to put the cause of children's reading squarely before the whole community and, community by community, across the whole nation. For a great nation is a reading nation."

Enjoy!

Information for voters

There's more than enough talk about the upcoming election, but do you have enough good information on the candidates? One of the best non-partisan resources for easy-to-find facts is Project Vote Smart. Voting records for each incumbent are provided. Additionally, public statements have been gathered for incumbents and for many of their challengers. the amount of data that has been gathered by this dedicated organization is quite amazing.

Another good source for election information is the Election 2006 website at the University of Michigan.

BearCat Enhancement: Cover Art, Summaries and more!

Check out our new, improved BearCat! We recently enhanced our on-line catalog to include the cover art of books. When you display the Full Record in BearCat, you will find that the cover art is hyperlinked. Click on the cover image to display Table of Contents, Summaries, Excerpts and Reviews. You may need to change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows to use this new service.

Here are a few examples:

Multiracial America : a resource guide on the history and literature of interracial issues

Illicit : how smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy / by Moisés Naím

Americans in Paris, 1860-1900 / by Kathleen Adler

Mozart : the early years, 1756-1781 / Stanley Sadie

If you need assistance with this new service, contact the Reference Desk.

10 million krona, and the world knows his name

Orhan Pamuk is a lucky man -- today it was announced that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, receiving 10 million Swedish krona and the recognition of the literary world. Nobelprize.org's "two minute review" of Mr. Pamuk's work is a great summary of why he has been named a Nobel Laureate.

The Wikipedia entry on Mr. Pamuk has a good bibliography of which of his works have been translated into English, as well as an in-depth account of the major events and controversies of his life. The New Yorker has a copy of a letter Pamuk wrote in regards to the biggest of those controversies, his Turkish trial over freedom of speech issues. The Guardian has a nice site on Pamuk, and my favorite site found as I researched this is the site on how to pronounce his name.

The College Libraries have two of his books, translated into English -- Snow and Istanbul: Memories and the City. Today I ordered the English translations of the rest of Pamuk's works, so if you're interested in this Nobel Laureate, check Bearcat in a few weeks to find the call numbers.

Enjoy!

New primary source databases

Have you ever wondered what women's lives were like in Ireland in the 1700's?
How about the daily life and concerns of a Civil War soldier?
Or what it was like to explore the Hudson River with Hudson himself?

Now you can find out -- the College Libraries have subscribed to a collection of databases called The Street, which contains a bunch of really fascinating primary source documents in several categories -- there's a database of British and Irish Women's Letters, one on Civil War Letters and Diaries, a collection of documents regarding Early Encounters in North America, and more -- check out the collections on our Alexander Street Press page.

If you're looking for other primary source material online, start with our History Research portal page, which has links to tons of reliable online sites and library resources to help you with your work.

Bregman Book Discussion Tues. Sept. 19th

Bregman Book Discussion
Tuesday, September 19, 2006 4:00 — 5:30 pm
Crumb Library Lobby

A discussion of : Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

Integrating historical documents and photographs with fictional narrative, the author presents a unique portrait of one of America’s most famous outlaws.

Led by panelists:
M.J. Heisey, History
Donald McNutt, English & Communication
Danny Smith, Honors Student
Katie Wrobel, Honors Student

New Performing Arts database

Just added to the resources available through the library - the International Index to the Performing Arts.
This will be the most comprehensive search tool available for locating articles in dance, drama, musical theater, and opera. Linking to available online journal content via our SFX services should be available soon. While coverage of most journals is for recent years only, a few journals are indexed back many decades.

Doing education research?

We know that a lot of our students use the libraries looking for information about education, and we're always trying to make sure we have the best possible resources to help you. So, in that spirit, we've made some changes you'll want to know about for this year!

• New ERIC interface: We've changed from the FirstSearch interface that we had used for years and years to a new interface provided by EBSCO. It's the same ERIC you've always used, just in a shiny new package. (We recommend that everyone use the EBSCO version -- we think it's the best one -- but if you like having choices, your options are here.)
  
• New EBSCO education products: We are also offering two great Education-specific full-text databases from EBSCO -- the Professional Development Collection and Education Research Complete. (HINT: To search all the EBSCO education databases in one easy search, click on the blue tab that says "Choose Databases" at the top of the EBSCO search screen, and choose the ones you'd like to use.)
  
• New Education Subject Page: We've reorganized the subject page for Education resources -- http://www.potsdam.edu/library/home/Subjects/Education.php -- so that all the best resources for education projects are in one place. You'll find links for searching for children's books, links to some of our online encyclopedias, links to New York State Curriculum Standards, and much more.

We hope these changes make it easier for you to find the information you need when you're working on education projects and research -- let us know what you think of them by commenting here, sending us an email, or chatting via IM with a librarian at the reference desk. (And, of course, you can always stop by to say hi -- we're at the reference desk in Crumb from 9:30 am to 9 pm.)

Library Expo, Thursday!

On Thursday, August 31, from 3-6 pm, the College Libraries will be hosting a
Library Expo
in the lobby of Crumb Library.

The Expo is designed to introduce new students to the libraries and what we have to offer, from Reference help to computing services to the fantastic Minerva's cafe. The Libraries have coordinated with the Residence Life staff to ensure that our first-year students are coming to the Expo, anyone interested in learning more about services in the libraries is welcome to stop by!

Discussing education: the first Bregman of 06-07

Please join us for our first Bregman Book Discussion of the year!

Tuesday, September 5, at 4 pm, in Crumb Library lobby:
Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, by Lisa Delpit.

Drawing on her own teaching experience, the author illuminates the challenges of creating an effective learning environment for all children.

Our panelists will speak briefly on their thoughts about the book, followed by discussion with the audience. You need not have read the book -- some of the most interesting questions come from people new to the topics we're talking about.

Also... refreshments will be served...

Hope to see you on Tuesday!

New for fall 2006

Recent additions to the resources available through the library web site include, in addition to the Oxford English Dictionary added in early summer, the set of 100+ volumes in Oxford Reference Online. These are concise reference works on broad subject areas - especially good for explanations of terms, persons, events, etc.

A review of the SUNYConnect system-wide resources has resulted in a substitution of the Academic Search Premier collection of e-journals for the InfoTrac Expanded Academic we had previously. While there are some differences in exact content, the scope and depth of the new resource is very similar to what you may have become accustomed to.

The Alexander Street Press collection of documents will be of interest to people in several disciplines. These are mainly primary source documents.

Some fairly minor changes to the library web site for this fall foreshadow a major re-design of our homepage expected before the start of the spring semester.

Crumb reopens August 21

Crumb library will be reopening on August 21, at 7:45 am, and we're all working hard to be sure that we're ready. What do you think? Will we make it? Stop by on Monday and take a look!

The Oxford English Dictionary

The largest and most authoritative dictionary of the English language, The Oxford English Dictionary (fondly known as the OED), is now available online to the SUNY Potsdam community. Unrivaled as a source for etymology, historical usage, and quotations, as well as definitions.

Links to this resource are found on the Reference Sources / Dictionaries page; and on the English subject page.

Or use this direct link to - The Oxford English Dictionary

Catalog software upgrade

The library just upgraded the software for our catalog. While most of the changes are behind the scenes, we are still checking to make sure that all our data transitioned smoothly. You may see some very minor changes (i.e. the space for a due date, formerly blank if the item was not checked out, now says "available"). Please let us know if you see anything unusual or encounter any unexpected problems. Thank you.

NEW: Lexis-Nexis Academic

The College Libraries have recently added Lexis-Nexis to the repetoire of resources available to campus users. Lexis-Nexis is a great resource for finding recent news stories, business information, doing legal research, and finding facts, statistics, and polling data. Give it a try; it's linked on our Finding Articles page under "L", and also in the sections for doing research in Newspapers, Business Administration, Current Events, Law, and Politics.

If you have any questions about using Lexis-Nexis, you can always ask a Reference Librarian -- in person, by phone, by email, or over IM.

Libraries laptop update

When we started circulating laptops, we knew they'd be popular. But they've been really popular. Really really popular. They've gotten used so much this year that they're wearing out faster than we can keep them repaired. Over the next week or so, you may find that there aren't as many laptops available as there used to be, and we apologize for that.

BUT! We have new laptops arriving very, very soon to replace the old ones. So coming in the next week or so, we'll have brand new computers for you to check out at the circulation desk, at both Crumb and Crane libraries. We hope these new computers will work even better than the old ones -- and we know they're definitely lighter than the old ones.

So, we're sorry for the temporary inconvenience, but we're just about to make things even better. Hang in there!

Research Consultations - Great one-on-one library help

Did you know you can get a one-on-one appointment with a librarian, to help you with your research?

We're always available to help you when we're at the reference desk, of course. But if you're working on a special project, or you're really stumped on how to get started, you can use our Consultations service, too.

How's it work? Easy: You tell us what you need to research, we'll do a bit of work figuring out the best resources for you to use, and then we'll meet with you to show you what we've learned. It's a great system -- we get a chance to prepare some information, and you'll get a focused, personal session dedicated to your project!

So send us an email, using our Consultation Registration form, the next time you need a hand with a big research project. We're glad to help!

Bregman Book Discussion Series

Tuesdays at 4:00 p.m. in the Crumb Library Lobby: come listen or join in the book discussion series. This semester the schedule is as follows:

• February 7: Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket. by Brian Halwell
• February 14: Reading Lolita in Tehran: a Memoir in Books. by Azar Nafisi
• February 28: Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats are Hijacking the Global Economy. by Moises Naim
• March 7: The Gate to Women's Country. by Sheri Tepper (science fiction)

Refreshments are served.

Tax Forms in the library

Even though lots of people wait until the very last minute to do their taxes, you can always start early...

To help you do that, we have New York State tax forms in the lobby of Crumb Library. Stop by and pick up what you need. We don't have the federal tax forms, though -- you can find all of your federal tax forms and instructions at http://www.irs.gov. If you prefer online forms, the New York State Department of Taxation also has the forms online, at http://www.tax.state.ny.us/.

And, if you want to, the IRS site also offers you help on how to file your taxes online. Online filing = faster refund = good news.

Happy filing!

New semester, new stuff

Welcome back! Here's a quick recap of changes in the College Libraries this semester, because while you were gone, we were busy.

• Slightly longer loan periods for circulating laptops, and the ability to renew--from your laptop!
• Two new databases: Project MUSE, and the American Chemical Society Journal Search.
  New (and more!) computers in the Crumb Library reference area (coming soon), and a (slightly) different location for the printer.
• Circulating laptops and wireless access to the network in Crane Library (coming soon!).

We'll post more information about these changes as they happen, so check back for more information. If you have any questions, contact us anytime.